"
Or Phaedra, in _Seneca_:
----"Furor cogit sequi
Pejora: vadit animus in praeceps sciens,
Remeatque, frustra sana consilia appetens.
Sic cum gravatam navita adversa ratem
Propellit unda, cedit in vanum labor,
Et victa prono puppis aufertur vado."
The complaints of all are alike; they lament that they make attempts to
resist their passion, but find it not to be resisted; that they are obliged
at last to yield themselves entirely to it, and to feel their whole
thoughts, as it were, swallowed up by it.
Such being the way in which Shakspeare represents Helena, and such the
sentiments which he puts into her mouth, it seems evident that the
interpretation of _captious_ in the sense of _absorbent_ is better adapted
to the passage than the explanation of it in the sense of _fallacious_.
"I know I love in vain, and strive against hope; yet into this
_insatiable_ and _unretaining_ sieve I still pour in the waters of my
love, and fail not to lose still."
I said that the sense of _fallacious_ seemed to be too refined and
recondite. To believe that Shakspeare borrowed his _captious_ in this
sense, from the Latin _captiosus_, we must suppose that he was well
acquainted with the exact sense of the Latin word; a supposition which, in
regard to a man who had _small Latin_, we can scarcely be justified in
entertaining.
Pages:
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86