The charge brought
against modern philosophy as inimical to loyalty is unjust because
it might as well be brought lover of kings. We have often wondered
that Henry VIII as he is drawn by Shakespeare, and as we have seen
him represented in all the bloated deformity of mind and person, is
not hooted from the English stage.
KING JOHN
KING JOHN is the last of the historical plays we shall have to speak
of; and we are not sorry that it is. If we are to indulge our
imaginations, we had rather do it upon an imaginary theme; if we are
to find subjects for the exercise of our pity and terror, we prefer
seeking them in fictitious danger and fictitious distress. It gives
a SORENESS to our feelings of indignation or sympathy, when we know
that in tracing the progress of sufferings and crimes we are
treading upon real ground, and recollect that the poet's 'dream'
DENOTED A FOREGONE CONCLUSION--irrevocable ills, not conjured up by
fancy, but placed beyond the reach of poetical justice. That the
treachery of King John, the death of Arthur, the grief of Constance,
had a real truth in history, sharpens the sense of pain, while it
hangs a leaden weight on the heart and the imagination. Something
whispers us that we have no right to make a mock of calamities like
these, or to turn the truth of things into the puppet and plaything
of our fancies.
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