They know not why they shine, more than this Taper, Give me a spirit that on life's rough sea He goes before them, and commands them all, Vile Natures in High Places. That under little Saints foolish Statuaries, 40 suppose great bases, Make less (to sense) the saints: and so, where fortune Innocence the Harmony of the Faculties. Innocence, the sacred amulet 'Gainst all the poisons of infirmity, No thought 'gainst thought; nor, (as 'twere in the confines 40 Put under. Of Of wishing and repenting) doth possess BYRON'S TRAGEDY. BY GEO. CHAPMAN. King Henry the Fourth of France blesses the young Dauphin. My royal blessing, and the King of Heaven, Who, when this State ran like a turbulent sea, Their wraths and envies (like so many winds) The The very beasts knew the alarum bell, Thee, and thy kingdoms, govern'd after me; (He fighting for the land, and bringing home But he his Father twenty times exceeds. What we have, we slight; what we want, we think as a man, match'd with a lovely wife, So all men else do, what they have, transplant; a Traitor. O thou that governst the keen swords of Kings, Deep Deep consultation in the highest King:. The soul's eye, sharpen'd with that sacred light Must only give that judgment. O how much But humour and their lusts; for which alone 41 The Selections which I have made from this Poet are sufficient to give an idea of that "full and heightened style" which Webster makes characteristic of Chapman. Of all the English Play-writers, Chapman perhaps approaches nearest to Shakspeare in the descriptive and didactic, in passages which are less purely dramatic. Dramatic Imitation was not his talent. He could not go out of himself, as Shakspeare could shift at pleasure, to inform and animate other existences, but in himself he had an eye to perceive and a soul to embrace all forms. He would have made a great Epic Poet, if indeed he has not abundantly shewn himself to be one; for his Homer is not so properly a Translation as the Stories of Achilles and Ulysses re-written. The earnestness and passion which he has put into every part of these poems would be incredible to a reader of mere modern translations. His almost Greekzeal for the honor of his heroes is only paralleled by that fierce spirit of Hebrew bigotry, with which Milton, as if personating one of the Zealots of the old law, clothed himself when he sate down to paint the acts of Sampson against the Uncircumcised. The great obstacle to Chapman's Translations being read is their unconquerable quaintness. He pours out in the same breath the most just and natural and the most violent and forced expressions. He seems to grasp whatever words come first to hand during the impetus of inspiration, as if all other must be inadequate to the divine meaning. But passion A CHALLENGE FOR BEAUTY. BY THOMAS HEYWOOD. Petrocella a fair Spanish Lady loves Montferrers an English Sea Captain, who is Captive to Valladaura a noble Spaniard.-Valladaura loves the Lady; and employs Montferrers to be the Messenger of his Love to her. Mont. Yes, I proclaim 't; I that was once mine own, Am now become his creature. Pet. I perceive, Your coming is to make me think you noble. Would you persuade me deem your friend a God? Captive (the all in all in Poetry) is every where present, raising the low, dignifying the mean, and putting sense into the absurd. He makes his readers glow, weep, tremble, take any affection which he pleases, be moved by words or in spite of them, be disgusted and overcome their disgust. I have often thought that the vulgar misconception of Shakspeare, as of a wild irregular genius" in whom great faults are compensated by great beauties," would be really true, applied to Chapman. But there is no scale by which to balance such disproportionate subjects as the faults and beauties of a great genius. To set off the former with any fairness against the latter, the pain which they give us should be in some proportion to the pleasure which we receive from the other. As these transport us to the highest heaven, those should steep us in agonies infernal. |