'To consider thus' may be 'to consider too
curiously'; but still we think that the actual truth of the
particular events, in proportion as we are conscious of it, is a
drawback on the pleasure as well as the dignity of tragedy.
KING JOHN has all the beauties of language and all the richness of
the imagination to relieve the painfulness of the subject. The
character of King John himself is kept pretty much in the
background; it is only marked in by comparatively slight
indications. The crimes he is tempted to commit are such as are
thrust upon him rather by circumstances and opportunity than of his
own seeking: he is here represented as more cowardly than cruel, and
as more contemptible than odious. The play embraces only a part of
his history. There are however few characters on the stage that
excite more disgust and loathing. He has no intellectual grandeur or
strength of character to shield him from the indignation which his
immediate conduct provokes: he stands naked and defenceless, in that
respect, to the worst we can think of him: and besides, we are
impelled to put the very worst construction on his meanness and
cruelty by the tender picture of the beauty and helplessness of the
object of it, as well as by the frantic and heart-rending pleadings
of maternal despair. We do not forgive him the death of Arthur
because he had too late revoked his doom and tried to prevent it,
and perhaps because he has himself repented of his black design, our
MORAL SENSE gains courage to hate him the more for it.
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