Therefore to be possessed with double pomp,
To guard a title that was rich before;
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, to add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper light
To seek the beauteous eye of heav'n to garnish:
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL
This is justly considered as one of the most delightful of
Shakespeare's comedies. It is full of sweetness and pleasantry. It
is perhaps too good-natured for comedy. It has little satire, and no
spleen. It aims at the ludicrous rather than the ridiculous. It
makes us laugh at the follies of mankind, not despise them, and
still less bear any ill-will towards them. Shakespeare's comic
genius resembles the bee rather in its power of extracting sweets
from weeds or poisons, than in leaving a sting behind it. He gives
die most amusing exaggeration of the prevailing foibles of his
characters, but in a way that they themselves, instead of being
offended at, would almost join in to humour; he rather contrives
opportunities for them to show themselves off in the happiest
lights, than renders them contemptible in the perverse construction
of the wit or malice of others.--There is a certain stage of society
in which people become conscious of their peculiarities and
absurdities, affect to disguise what they are, and set up
pretensions to what they are not.
Pages:
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273