NOTES ON ROMEO AND JULIET.
Yet the plays upon words, and sports of fancy in the will, consequently, in highly—favoured natures, express lighter dialogue, were but a picture of the more ambi- themselves in an ingenuous and figurative manner." tious and courtly style of conversation of those who Mr. Hallam has justly remarked upon the increased ~ aspired to the praise of refined elegance in the Poet’s interest given to the action by the Poet’s adherence to age, while the extravagance of metaphor and of lan- the unity of time, but he has not observed that the pe- guage may well be excused if not deiended for the ef- culiarities which he notices as faults, (and, separately fect it produces in harmonizing with the general tone considered, they may be so,) arise from and powerfully of a tale of romantic passion, and conducing to the conduce to the poetic unity of feeling to which this grand effect as a whole, however open to criticism it drama owes so much of its eff`ect. On this point, Co- may be when examined critically in detail. Such leridge thus incidentally remarks :— seems to be the impression made upon Coleridge, Haz- “ That law of unity, which has its·foundations, not litt, Mrs. J ameson, and Schlegel. Other names might in the factitious necessity of custom, but in nature it- be added. self, the unity of feeling, is everywhere and at all times “ This highly figurative and antithetical exuberance observed by Shakespeare in his plays. Read Romno of language appears natural, however critics may argue AND JUL11:·r;—all is youth and spring;--youth with against its taste or propriety. 'I`he warmth and viva- its follies, its virtues, its precipitancies;—-spring, with city of J uliet’s fancy, which plays like a light over its odours, its flowers, and its transiency; it is one aud every part of her character-—which animates every line the same feeling that commences, goes through, and she utters—which kindles every thought into a picture, ends the play. The old men, the Capulets and the and clothes her emotions in visible imzages, would natu— Montagues, are not common old men; they have an rally, under strong and unusual excitement, and in the eagerness, a heartiness, a vehemence, the effect of conflict of opposing sentiments, run into some extrava- spring : with Romeo, his change of passion, his sudden gance of diction."—Mns. JAMESON. • · · marriage, and his rash death, are all the effects of “ The censure," says Schlegel, “OI'lglI1BiCS 1n a fan- youth ;-—Wh1le, 1n Juliet, love has all that xs tender ciless way of thinking, to which every thing appears and melancholy in the nightingale, all that is volup- unnatural that does not suit its tame insipidity. Hence tuous in the rose, with whatever is sweet in the fresh- an idea has been formed of simple and natural pathos, ness of spring; but it ends with a long deep sigh, like which consists of exclamations destitute of imagery, the last breeze of the Italian evening. This unity of and nowise elevated above every-day life; but ener- feeling and character pervades every drama of Shake- getic passions electrify the whole mental powers, and speare."
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