Dr. Johnson is
of opinion that Shakespeare was generally inattentive to the winding
up of his plots. We think the contrary is true; and we might cite in
proof of this remark not only the present play, but the conclusion
of LEAR, of ROMEO AND JULIET, of MACBETH, of OTHELLO, even of
HAMLET, and of other plays of less moment, in which the last act is
crowded with decisive events brought about by natural and striking
means.
The pathos in CYMBELINE is not violent or tragical, but of the most
pleasing and amiable kind. A certain tender gloom o'erspreads the
whole. Posthumus is the ostensible hero of the piece, but its
greatest charm is the character of Imogen. Posthumus is only
interesting from the interest she takes in him, and she is only
interesting herself from her tenderness and constancy to her
husband. It is the peculiar characteristic of Shakespeare's
heroines, that they seem to exist only in their attachment to
others. They are pure abstractions of the affections. We think as
little of their persons as they do themselves, because we are let
into the secrets of their hearts, which are more important. We are
too much interested in their affairs to stop to look at their faces,
except by stealth and at intervals. No one ever hit the true
perfection of the female character, the sense of weakness leaning on
the strength of its affections for support, so well as Shakespeare--
no one ever so well painted natural tenderness free from affectation
and disguise--no one else ever so well showed how delicacy and
timidity, when driven to extremity, grow romantic and extravagant;
for the romance of his heroines (in which they abound) is only an
excess of the habitual prejudices of their sex, scrupulous of being
false to their vows, truant to their affections, and taught by the
force of feeling when to forgo the forms of propriety for the
essence of it.
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