4. That the circumstance which balances the pleasure against the
pain in tragedy is, that in proportion to the greatness of the evil,
is our sense and desire of the opposite good excited; and that our
sympathy with actual suffering is lost in the strong impulse given
to our natural affections, and carried away with the swell-ing tide
of passion, that gushes from and relieves the heart.
RICHARD II
RICHARD II is a play little known compared with RICHARD III, which
last is a play that every unfledged candidate for theatrical fame
chooses to strut and fret his hour upon the stage in; yet we confess
that we prefer the nature and feeling of the one to the noise and
bustle of the other; at least, as we are so often forced to see it
acted. In RICHARD II the weakness of the king leaves us leisure to
take a greater interest in the misfortunes of the man. 'After the
first act, in which the arbitrariness of his behaviour only proves
his want of resolution, we see him staggering under the unlooked-for
blows of fortune, bewailing his loss of kingly power; not preventing
it, sinking under the aspiring genius of Bolingbroke, his authority
trampled on, his hopes failing him, and his pride crushed and broken
down under insults and injuries, which his own misconduct had
provoked, but which he has not courage or manliness to resent.
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