Where all is left to the
imagination (as is the case in reading) every circumstance, near or
remote, has an equal chance of being kept in mind, and tells
according to the mixed impression of all that has been suggested.
But the imagination cannot sufficiently qualify the actual
impressions of the senses. Any offence given to the eye is not to be
got rid of by explanation. Thus Bottom's head in the play is a
fantastic illusion, produced by magic spells: on the stage, it is an
ass's head, and nothing more; certainly a very strange costume for a
gentleman to appear in. Fancy cannot be embodied any more than a
simile can be painted; and it is as idle to attempt it as to
personate Wall or Moonshine. Fairies are not incredible, but fairies
six feet high are so. Monsters are not shocking, if they are seen at
a proper distance. When ghosts appear at midday, when apparitions
stalk along Cheapside, then may the MIDSUMMER'S NIGHT DREAM be
represented without injury at Covent Garden or at Drury Lane. The
boards of a theatre and the regions of fancy are not the same thing.
ROMEO AND JULIET
ROMEO AND JULIET is the only tragedy which Shakespeare has written
entirely on a love-story. It is supposed to have been his first
play, and it deserves to stand in that proud rank. There is the
buoyant spirit of youth in every line, in the rapturous intoxication
of hope, and in the bitterness of despair.
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