We
can more easily decide between Shakespeare and any other author,
than between him and himself.--Shall we quote any more passages to
show his genius or the beauty of ROMEO AND JULIET? At that rate, we
might quote the whole. The late Mr. Sheridan, on being shown a
volume of the Beauties of Shakespeare, very properly asked--'But
where are the other eleven?' The character of Mercutio in this play
is one of the most mercurial and spirited of the productions of
Shakespeare's comic muse.
LEAR
We wish that we could pass this play over, and say nothing about it.
All that we can say must fall far short of the subject; or even of
what we ourselves conceive of it. To attempt to give a description
of the play itself or of its effect upon the mind, is mere
impertinence: yet we must say something.--It is then the best of all
Shakespeare's plays, for it is the one in which he was the most in
earnest. He was here fairly caught in the web of his own
imagination. The passion which he has taken as his subject is that
which strikes its root deepest into the human heart; of which the
bond is the hardest to be unloosed; and the cancelling and tearing
to pieces of which gives the greatest revulsion to the frame. This
depth of nature, this force of passion, this tug and war of the
elements of our being, this firm faith in filial piety, and the
giddy anarchy and whirling tumult of the thoughts at finding this
prop failing it, the contrast between the fixed, immoveable basis of
natural affection, and the rapid, irregular starts of imagination,
suddenly wrenched from all its accustomed holds and resting-places
in the soul, this is what Shakespeare has given, and what nobody
else but he could give.
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