" Of all poets, perhaps, he alone
has pourtrayed the mental diseases,--melancholy, delirium, lunacy,--
with such inexpressible, and, in every respect, definite truth, that
the physician may enrich his observations from them in the same
manner as from real cases.
'And yet Johnson has objected to Shakespeare, that his pathos is not
always natural and free from affectation. There are, it is true,
passages, though, comparatively speaking, very few, where his poetry
exceeds the bounds of true dialogue, where a too soaring
imagination, a too luxuriant wit, rendered the complete dramatic
forgetfulness of himself impossible. With this exception, the
censure originates only in a fanciless way of thinking, to which
everything appears unnatural that does not suit its own tame
insipidity. Hence, an idea has been formed of simple and natural
pathos, which consists in exclamations destitute of imagery, and
nowise elevated above every-day life. But energetical passions
electrify the whole of the mental powers, and will, consequently, in
highly favoured natures, express themselves in an ingenious and
figurative manner. It has been often remarked, that indignation
gives wit; and, as despair occasionally breaks out into laughter, it
may sometimes also give vent to itself in antithetical comparisons.
'Besides, the rights of the poetical form have not been duly
weighed.
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