Chapter XVI: Act III: SCENE I.--KING ARTHUR'S Palace

_Ghost_[163] (_solus_). Hail! ye black horrors of midnight's midnoon!

Ye fairies, goblins, bats, and screech-owls, hail!
And, oh! ye mortal watchmen, whose hoarse throats
Th' immortal ghosts dread croakings counterfeit,
All hail!--Ye dancing phantoms, who, by day,
Are some condemn'd to fast, some feast in fire,
Now play in churchyards, skipping o'er the graves,
To the loud music of the silent bell,[164]
All hail!

SCENE II.

KING, GHOST.

_King_. What noise is this? What villain dares,
At this dread hour, with feet and voice profane,
Disturb our royal walls?

_Ghost_. One who defies
Thy empty power to hurt him; one who dares[165]
Walk in thy bedchamber.

_King_. Presumptuous slave!
Thou diest.

_Ghost_. Threaten others with that word:
I am a ghost, and am already dead.[166]

_King_. Ye stars! 'tis well. Were thy last hour to come,
This moment had been it; yet by thy shroud[167]
I'll pull thee backward, squeeze thee to a bladder,
Till thou dost groan thy nothingness away.
Thou fly'st! 'Tis well. [GHOST _retires_.
I thought what was the courage of a ghost![168]
Yet, dare not, on thy life--Why say I that,
Since life thou hast not?--Dare not walk again
Within these walls, on pain of the Red Sea.
For, if henceforth I ever find thee here,
As sure, sure as a gun, I'll have thee laid----

_Ghost._ Were the Red Sea a sea of Hollands gin,
The liquor (when alive) whose very smell
I did detest, did loathe--yet, for the sake
Of Thomas Thumb, I would be laid therein.

_King._ Ha! said you?

_Ghost._ Yes, my liege, I said Tom Thumb,
Whose father's ghost I am--once not unknown
To mighty Arthur. But, I see, 'tis true,
The dearest friend, when dead, we all forget.

_King._ 'Tis he--it is the honest Gaffer Thumb.
Oh! let me press thee in my eager arms,
Thou best of ghosts! thou something more than ghost!

_Ghost._ Would I were something more, that we again
Might feel each other in the warm embrace.
But now I have th' advantage of my king,
For I feel thee, whilst thou dost not feel me.[169]

_King._ But say, thou dearest air,[170] oh! say what dread,
Important business sends thee back to earth?

_Ghost._ Oh! then prepare to hear--which but to hear
Is full enough to send thy spirit hence.
Thy subjects up in arms, by Grizzle led,
Will, ere the rosy-finger'd morn shall ope
The shutters of the sky, before the gate
Of this thy royal palace, swarming spread.
So have I seen the bees in clusters swarm,[171]
So have I seen the stars in frosty nights,
So have I seen the sand in windy days,
So have I seen the ghosts on Pluto's shore,
So have I seen the flowers in spring arise,
So have I seen the leaves in autumn fall,
So have I seen the fruits in summer smile,
So have I seen the snow in winter frown.

_King._ D--n all thou hast seen!--dost thou, beneath the shape
Of Gaffer Thumb, come hither to abuse me
With similes, to keep me on the rack?
Hence--or, by all the torments of thy hell,
I'll run thee through the body, though thou'st none.[172]

_Ghost._ Arthur, beware! I must this moment hence,
Not frighted by your voice, but by the cocks!
Arthur, beware, beware, beware, beware!
Strive to avert thy yet impending fate;
For, if thou'rt kill'd to-day,
To-morrow all thy care will come too late.

SCENE III.

KING, _solus_.

_King._ Oh! stay, and leave me not uncertain thus!
And, whilst thou tellest me what's like my fate,
Oh! teach me how I may avert it too!
Curs'd be the man who first a simile made!
Curs'd ev'ry bard who writes--So have I seen!
Those whose comparisons are just and true,
And those who liken things not like at all.
The devil is happy that the whole creation
Can furnish out no simile to his fortune.

SCENE IV.

KING, QUEEN.

_Queen._ What is the cause, my Arthur, that you steal
Thus silently from Dollallolla's breast?
Why dost thou leave me in the dark alone,[173]
When well thou know'st I am afraid of sprites?

_King._ Oh, Dollallolla! do not blame my love!
I hoped the fumes of last night's punch had laid
Thy lovely eyelids fast; but, oh! I find
There is no power in drams to quiet wives;
Each morn, as the returning sun, they wake,
And shine upon their husbands.

_Queen._ Think, oh, think!
What a surprise it must be to the sun,
Rising, to find the vanish'd world away.
What less can be the wretched wife's surprise
When, stretching out her arms to fold thee fast,
She found her useless bolster in her arms.
Think, think, on that.--Oh! think, think well on that![174]
I do remember also to have read
In Dryden's Ovid's Metamorphoses,[175]
That Jove in form inanimate did lie
With beauteous Danaë: and, trust me, love,
I fear'd the bolster might have been a Jove.[176]

_King._ Come to my arms, most virtuous of thy sex!
Oh, Dollallolla! were all wives like thee,
So many husbands never had worn horns.
Should Huncamunca of thy worth partake,
Tom Thumb indeed were blest.--Oh, fatal name
For didst thou know one quarter what I know,
Then wouldst thou know--alas! what thou wouldst know!

_Queen._ What can I gather hence? Why dost thou speak
Like men who carry rareeshows about?
"Now you shall see, gentlemen, what you shall see."
O, tell me more, or thou hast told too much.

SCENE V.

KING, QUEEN, NOODLE.

_Nood._ Long life attend your majesties serene,
Great Arthur, king, and Dollallolla, queen!
Lord Grizzle, with a bold rebellious crowd,
Advances to the palace, threat'ning loud,
Unless the princess be deliver'd straight,
And the victorious Thumb, without his pate,
They are resolv'd to batter down the gate.

SCENE VI.

KING, QUEEN, HUNCAMUNCA, NOODLE.

_King._ See where the princess comes! Where is Tom Thumb?

_Hunc._ Oh! sir, about an hour and half ago
He sallied out t' encounter with the foe,
And swore, unless his fate had him misled,
From Grizzle's shoulders to cut off his head,
And serve't up with your chocolate in bed.

_King._ 'Tis well, I found one devil told us both.
Come, Dollallolla, Huncamunca, come;
Within we'll wait for the victorious Thumb:
In peace and safety we secure may stay,
While to his arm we trust the bloody fray;
Though men and giants should conspire with gods,
He is alone equal to all these odds.[177]

_Queen._ He is, indeed, a helmet to us all;[178]
While he supports we need not fear to fall;
His arm despatches all things to our wish,
And serves up ev'ry foe's head in a dish.
Void is the mistress of the house of care,
While the good cook presents the bill of fare;
Whether the cod, that northern king of fish,
Or duck, or goose, or pig, adorn the dish,
No fears the number of her guests afford,
But at her hour she sees the dinner on the board.

SCENE VII.--_Plain._

GRIZZLE, FOODLE, REBELS.

_Griz._ Thus far our arms with victory are crown'd;
For, though we have not fought, yet we have found
No enemy to fight withal.[179]

_Food._ Yet I,
Methinks, would willingly avoid this day,
This first of April to engage our foes.[180]

_Griz._ This day, of all the days of the year, I'd choose,
For on this day my grandmother was born.
Gods! I will make Tom Thumb an April-fool;
Will teach his wit an errand it ne'er knew,[181]
And send it post to the Elysian shades.

_Food._ I'm glad to find our army is so stout,
Nor does it move my wonder less than joy.

_Griz._ What friends we have, and how we came so strong,[182]
I'll softly tell you as we march along.

SCENE VIII.--_Thunder and Lightning._

TOM THUMB, GLUMDALCA, _cum suis._

_Thumb._ Oh, Noodle! hast thou seen a day like this?
The unborn thunder rumbles o'er our heads,[183]
As if the gods meant to unhinge the world,[184]
And heaven and earth in wild confusion hurl;
Yet will I boldly tread the tott'ring ball.

_Merl._ Tom Thumb!

_Thumb._ What voice is this I hear?

_Merl._ Tom Thumb!

_Thumb._ Again it calls.

_Merl._ Tom Thumb!

_Glum._ It calls again.

_Thumb._ Appear, whoe'er thou art; I fear thee not.

_Merl._ Thou hast no cause to fear--I am thy friend,
Merlin by name, a conjuror by trade,
And to my art thou dost thy being owe.

_Thumb._ How?

_Merl._ Hear, then, the mystic getting of Tom Thumb.

His father was a ploughman plain,
His mother milk'd the cow;
And yet the way to get a son
This couple knew not how,
Until such time the good old man
To learned Merlin goes,
And there to him, in great distress,
In secret manner shows
How in his heart he wish'd to have
A child, in time to come,
To be his heir, though it may be
No bigger than his thumb:
Of which old Merlin was foretold
That he his wish should have;
And so a son of stature small
The charmer to him gave.[185]

Thou'st heard the past--look up and see the future.

_Thumb._ Lost in amazement's gulf, my senses sink;[186]
See there, Glumdalca, see another me![187]

_Glum._ O, sight of horror! see, you are devour'd
By the expanded jaws of a red cow.

_Merl._ Let not these sights deter thy noble mind,
For, lo! a sight more glorious courts thy eyes.[188]
See from afar a theatre arise;
There ages, yet unborn, shall tribute pay
To the heroic actions of this day;
Then buskin tragedy at length shall choose
Thy name the best supporter of her muse.

_Thumb._ Enough: let every warlike music sound.
We fall contented, if we fall renown'd.

SCENE IX.

LORD GRIZZLE, FOODLE, REBELS, _on one side_; TOM THUMB, GLUMDALCA, _on the other._

_Food._ At length the enemy advances nigh,
I hear them with my ear, and see them with my eye.[189]

_Griz._ Draw all your swords: for liberty we fight,
And liberty the mustard is of life.[190]

_Thumb._ Are you the man whom men famed Grizzle name?

_Griz._ Are you the much more famed Tom Thumb?[191]

_Thumb._ The same.

_Griz._ Come on, our worth upon ourselves we'll prove;
For liberty I fight.

_Thumb._ And I for love.

[_A bloody engagement between the two armies; drums beating,
trumpets sounding, thunder, lightning, They fight off and on
several times. Some fall._ GRIZZLE _and_ GLUMDALCA _remain._

_Glum._ Turn, coward, turn; nor from a woman fly.

_Griz._ Away--thou art too ignoble for my arm.

_Glum._ Have at thy heart.

_Griz._ Nay, then I thrust at thine.

_Glum._ You push too well; you've run me through the body,
And I am dead.

_Griz._ Then there's an end of one.

_Thumb._ When thou art dead, then there's an end of two.
Villain.[192]

_Griz._ Tom Thumb!

_Thumb._ Rebel!

_Griz._ Tom Thumb!

_Thumb._ Hell!

_Griz._ Huncamunca!

_Thumb._ Thou hast it there.

_Griz._ Too sure I feel it.

_Thumb._ To hell then, like a rebel as you are,
And give my service to the rebels there.

_Griz._ Triumph not, Thumb, nor think thou shalt enjoy
Thy Huncamunca undisturb'd; I'll send
My ghost to fetch her to the other world;[193]
It shall but bait at heaven, and then return.[194]
But, ha! I feel death rumbling in my brains:[195]
Some kinder sprite knocks softly at my soul,[196]
And gently whispers it to haste away.
I come, I come, most willingly I come.
So when some city wife, for country air,
To Hampstead or to Highgate does repair,
Her to make haste her husband does implore,
And cries, "My dear, the coach is at the door:"
With equal wish, desirous to be gone,
She gets into the coach, and then she cries--"Drive on!"

_Thumb._ With those last words he vomited his soul,[197]
Which, like whipt cream, the devil will swallow down.[198]
Bear off the body, and cut off the head,
Which I will to the king in triumph lug.
Rebellion's dead, and now I'll go to breakfast.

SCENE X.

KING, QUEEN, HUNCAMUNCA, COURTIERS.

_King._ Open the prisons, set the wretched free,
And bid our treasurer disburse six pounds
To pay their debts. Let no one weep to-day.
Come, Dollallolla; curse that odious name![199]
It is so long, it asks an hour to speak it.
By heavens! I'll change it into Doll, or Loll,
Or any other civil monosyllable,
That will not tire my tongue. Come, sit thee down.
Here seated let us view the dancers' sports;
Bid 'em advance. This is the wedding-day
Of Princess Huncamunca and Tom Thumb;
Tom Thumb! who wins two victories to-day,[200]
And this way marches, bearing Grizzle's head. [_A dance here._

_Nood._ Oh! monstrous, dreadful, terrible--Oh! oh!
Deaf be my ears, for ever blind my eyes!
Dumb be my tongue! feet lame! all senses lost!
Howl wolves; grunt, bears; hiss, snakes; shriek, all ye ghosts![201]

_King._ What does the blockhead mean?

_Nood._ I mean, my liege,
Only to grace my tale with decent horror.[202]
Whilst from my garret, twice two stories high,
I look'd abroad into the streets below,
I saw Tom Thumb attended by the mob;
Twice twenty shoe-boys, twice two dozen links,
Chairmen and porters, hackney-coachmen, drabs;
Aloft he bore the grizly head of Grizzle;
When of a sudden through the streets there came
A cow, of larger than the usual size,
And in a moment--guess, oh! guess the rest!--
And in a moment swallow'd up Tom Thumb.

_King._ Shut up again the prisons, bid my treasurer
Not give three farthings out--hang all the culprits,
Guilty or not--no matter. Kill my cows!
Go bid the schoolmasters whip all their boys!
Let lawyers, parsons, and physicians loose,
To rob, impose on, and to kill the world.

_Nood._ Her majesty the queen is in a swoon.

_Queen._ Not so much in a swoon but I have still
Strength to reward the messenger of ill news.
[_Kills_ NOODLE.

_Nood._ Oh! I am slain.

_Cle._ My lover's kill'd, I will revenge him so.
[_Kills the_ QUEEN.

_Hunc._ My mamma kill'd! vile murderess, beware.
[_Kills_ CLEORA.

_Dood._ This for an old grudge to thy heart.
[_Kills_ HUNCAMUNCA.

_Must._ And this
I drive to thine, O Doodle! for a new one. [_Kills_ DOODLE.

_King._ Ha! murderess vile, take that. [_Kills_ MUST.
And take thou this.[203] [_Kills himself, and falls._
So when the child, whom nurse from danger guards,
Sends Jack for mustard with a pack of cards,
Kings, queens, and knaves, throw one another down,
Till the whole pack lies scatter'd and o'erthrown;
So all our pack upon the floor is cast,
And all I boast is--that I fall the last. [_Dies._

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 65: Corneille recommends some very remarkable day wherein to fix the action of a tragedy. This the best of our tragical writers have understood to mean a day remarkable for the serenity of the sky, or what we generally call a fine summer's day: so that, according to this their exposition, the same months are proper for tragedy which are proper for pastoral. Most of our celebrated English tragedies, as Cato, Mariamne, Tamerlane, &c., begin with their observations on the morning. Lee seems to have come the nearest to this beautiful description of our author's:--

"The morning dawns with an unwonted crimson,
The flowers all odorous seem, the garden birds
Sing louder, and the laughing sun ascends
The gaudy earth with an unusual brightness:
All nature smiles."--"Cæs. Borg."

Massinissa, in the new Sophonisba, is also a favourite of the sun:--

"The sun too seems
As conscious of my joy, with broader eye
To look abroad the world, and all things smile
Like Sophonisba."

Memnon, in the Persian Princess, makes the sun decline rising, that he may not peep on objects which would profane his brightness:--

"The morning rises slow,
And all those ruddy streaks that used to paint
The day's approach are lost in clouds, as if
The horrors of the night had sent 'em back,
To warn the sun he should not leave the sea,
To peep," &c.
]

[Footnote 66: This line is highly conformable to the beautiful simplicity of the ancients. It hath been copied by almost every modern:--

"Not to be is not to be in woe."--"State of Innocence."

"Love is not sin but where 'tis sinful love."--"Don Sebastian."

"Nature is nature, Lælius."--"Sophonisba."

"Men are but men, we did not make ourselves."--"Revenge."
]

[Footnote 67: Dr. B--y reads. The mighty Tall-mast Thumb. Mr. D--s, The mighty Thumbing Thumb. Mr. T--d reads, Thundering. I think Thomas more agreeable to the great simplicity so apparent in our author.]

[Footnote 68: That learned historian Mr. S--n, in the third number of his criticism on our author, takes great pains to explode this passage. "It is," says he, "difficult to guess what giants are here meant, unless the giant Despair in the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' or the giant Greatness in the 'Royal Villain;' for I have heard of no other sort of giants in the reign of king Arthur." Petrus Burmannus makes three Tom Thumbs, one whereof he supposes to have been the same person whom the Greeks call Hercules; and that by these giants are to be understood the Centaurs slain by that hero. Another Tom Thumb he contends to have been no other than the Hermes Trismegistus of the ancients. The third Tom Thumb he places under the reign of king Arthur; to which third Tom Thumb, says he, the actions of the other two were attributed. Now, though I know that this opinion is supported by an assertion of Justus Lipsius, "Thomam illum Thumbum non alium quam Herculem fuisse satis constat," yet shall I venture to oppose one line of Mr. Midwinter against them all:

"In Arthur's court Tom Thumb did live."

"But then," says Dr. B--y, "if we place Tom Thumb in the court of king Arthur, it will be proper to place that court out of Britain, where no giants were ever heard of." Spenser, in his "Fairy Queen," is of another opinion, where, describing Albion, he says:--

"Far within a savage nation dwelt
Of hideous gants."

And in the same canto:--

"Then Elfar, with two brethren giants had
The one of which had two heads--
The other three."

Risum teneatis, amici.]

[Footnote 69: "To whisper in books," says Mr. D--s, "is arrant nonsense." I am afraid this learned man does not sufficiently understand the extensive meaning of the word whisper. If he had rightly understood what is meant by the "senses whisp'ring the soul," in the Persian Princess, or what "whisp'ring like winds" is in Aurengzebe, or like thunder in another author, he would have understood this. Emmeline in Dryden sees a voice, but she was born blind, which is an excuse Panthea cannot plead in Cyrus, who hears a sight:

"Your description will surpass
All fiction, painting, or dumb show of horror,
That ever ears yet heard, or eyes beheld."

When Mr. D--s understands these, he will understand whispering in books.]

[Footnote 70:

"Some ruffian stept into his father's place,
And more than half begot him."--"Mary Queen of Scots."
]

[Footnote 71:

"For Ulamar seems sent express from Heaven,
To civilize this rugged Indian clime."--"Lib. Asserted."
]

[Footnote 72: "Omne majus continet in se minus, sed minus non in se majus continere potest," says Scaliger in Thumbo. I suppose he would have cavilled at these beautiful lines in the "Earl of Essex:"

"Thy most inveterate soul,
That looks through the foul prison of thy body."

And at those of Dryden:

"The palace is without too well design'd;
Conduct me in, for I will view thy mind."--"Aurengzebe."
]

[Footnote 73: Mr. Banks hath copied this almost verbatim:

"It was enough to say, here's Essex come,
And nurses still'd their children with the fright."--"Earl of Essex."
]

[Footnote 74: The trumpet in a tragedy is generally as much as to say: Enter king, which makes Mr. Banks, in one of his plays, call it the trumpet's formal sound.]

[Footnote 75: Phraortes, in the Captives, seems to have been acquainted with king Arthur:

"Proclaim a festival for seven days' space,
Let the court shine in all its pomp and lustre,
Let all our streets resound with shouts of joy;
Let music's care-dispelling voice be heard;
The sumptuous banquet and the flowing goblet
Shall warm the cheek and fill the heart with gladness.
Astarbe shall sit mistress of the feast."
]

[Footnote 76:

"Repentance frowns on thy contracted brow."--"Sophonisba."

"Hung on his clouded brow, I mark'd despair."--_Ibid._

"A sullen gloom
Scowls on his brow."--"Busiris."
]

[Footnote 77: Plato is of this opinion, and so is Mr. Banks:--

"Behold these tears sprung from fresh pain and joy."--"Earl of Essex."
]

[Footnote 78: These floods are very frequent in the tragic authors:--

"Near to some murmuring brook I'll lay me down,
Whose waters, if they should too shallow flow,
My tears shall swell them up till I will drown."--Lee's "Soph."

"Pouring forth tears at such a lavish rate,
That were the world on fire they might have drown'd
The wrath of heaven, and quench'd the mighty ruin."--"Mithridates."

One author changes the waters of grief to those of joy:

"These tears, that sprung from tides of grief,
Are now augmented to a flood of joy."--"Cyrus the Great."

Another:

"Turns all the streams of heat, and makes them flow
In pity's channel."--"Royal Villain."

One drowns himself:

"Pity like a torrent pours me down,
Now I am drowning all within a deluge."--"Anna Bullen."

Cyrus drowns the whole world:

"Our swelling grief
Shall melt into a deluge, and the world
Shall drown in tears."--"Cyrus the Great."
]

[Footnote 79: An expression vastly beneath the dignity of tragedy, says Mr. D--s, yet we find the word he cavils at in the mouth of Mithridates less properly used, and applied to a more terrible idea:

"I would be drunk with death."--"Mithridates."

The author of the new Sophonisba taketh hold of this monosyllable, and uses it pretty much to the same purpose:--

"The Carthaginian sword with Roman blood
Was drunk."

I would ask Mr. D--s which gives him the best idea, a drunken king, or a drunken sword?

Mr. Tate dresses up king Arthur's resolution in heroic:

"Merry, my lord, o' th' captain's humour right,
I am resolved to be dead drunk to-night."

Lee also uses this charming word:

"Love's the drunkenness of the mind."--"Gloriana."
]

[Footnote 80: Dryden hath borrowed this, and applied it improperly:

"I'm half-seas o'er in death."--"Cleom."
]

[Footnote 81: This figure is in great use among the tragedians:

"'Tis therefore, therefore 'tis."--"Victim."

"I long, repent, repent, and long again."--"Busiris."
]

[Footnote 82: A tragical exclamation.]

[Footnote 83: This line is copied verbatim in the Captives.]

[Footnote 84: We find a candlestick for this candle in two celebrated authors:

"Each star withdraws
His golden head, and burns within the socket."--"Nero."

"A soul grown old and sunk into the socket."--"Sebastian."
]

[Footnote 85: This simile occurs very frequently among the dramatic writers of both kinds.]

[Footnote 86: Mr. Lee hath stolen this thought from our author:

"This perfect face, drawn by the gods in council,
Which they were long in making."--"Luc. Jun. Brut."

"At his birth the heavenly council paused,
And then at last cried out, This is a man!"

Dryden hath improved this hint to the utmost perfection:

"So perfect, that the very gods who form'd you wonder'd
At their own skill, and cried, A lucky hit
Has mended our design! Their envy hinder'd,
Or you had been immortal, and a pattern,
When Heaven would work for ostentation sake,
To copy out again."--"All for Love."

Banks prefers the works of Michael Angelo to that of the gods:

"A pattern for the gods to make a man by,
Or Michael Angelo to form a statue."
]

[Footnote 87: It is impossible, says Mr. W----, sufficiently to admire this natural easy line.]

[Footnote 88: This tragedy, which in most points resembles the ancients, differs from them in this--that it assigns the same honour to lowness of stature which they did to height. The gods and heroes in Homer and Virgil are continually described higher by the head than their followers, the contrary of which is observed by our author. In short, to exceed on either side is equally admirable; and a man of three foot is as wonderful a sight as a man of nine.]

[Footnote 89:

"My blood leaks fast, and the great heavy lading
My soul will quickly sink."--"Mithridates."

"My soul is like a ship."--"Injured Love."
]

[Footnote 90: This well-bred line seems to be copied in the Persian Princess:

"To be your humblest and most faithful slave."
]

[Footnote 91: This doubt of the king puts me in mind of a passage in the "Captives," where the noise of feet is mistaken for the rustling of leaves:--

"Methinks I hear
The sound of feet:
No; 'twas the wind that shook yon cypress boughs."
]

[Footnote 92: Mr. Dryden seems to have had this passage in his eye in the first page of Love Triumphant.]

[Footnote 93: Don Carlos, in the Revenge, suns himself in the charms of his mistress:

"While in the lustre of her charms I lay."
]

[Footnote 94: A tragical phrase much in use.]

[Footnote 95: This speech hath been taken to pieces by several tragical authors, who seem to have rifled it, and share its beauties among them:

"My soul waits at the portal of thy breast,
To ravish from thy lips the welcome news."--"Anna Bullen."

"My soul stands list'ning at my ears."--"Cyrus the Great."

"Love to his tune my jarring heart would bring,
But reason overwinds, and cracks the string."--"D. of Guise."

"I should have loved
Though Jove, in muttering thunder, had forbid it."--"New Sophonisba."

"And when it (_my heart_) wild resolves to love no more,
Then is the triumph of excessive love."--_Ibid._
]

[Footnote 96: Massinissa is one-fourth less happy than Tom Thumb.

"Oh! happy, happy, happy!"--_Ibid._
]

[Footnote 97:

"No by myseif."--"Anna Bullen."
]

[Footnote 98:

"Who caused
This dreadful revolution in my fate,
Ulamar. Who but a dog--who but a dog?"--"Liberty As."
]

[Footnote 99:

"A bride,
Who twenty years lay loving by your side."--Banks.
]

[Footnote 100:

"For, borne upon a cloud, from high I'll fall,
And rain down royal vengeance on you all."--"Alb. Queens."
]

[Footnote 101: An information very like this we have in the tragedy of Love, where Cyrus, having stormed in the most violent manner, Cyaxares observes very calmly, "Why, nephew Cyrus, you are moved?"]

[Footnote 102:

"'Tis in your choice.
Love me, or love me not."--"Conquest of Granada."
]

[Footnote 103: There is not one beauty in this charming speech but what hath been borrow'd by almost every tragic writer.]

[Footnote 104: Mr. Banks has (I wish I could not say too servilely) imitated this of Grizzle in his Earl of Essex:

"Where art thou, Essex," &c.
]

[Footnote 105: The Countess of Nottingham, in the Earl of Essex, is apparently acquainted with Dollallolla.]

[Footnote 106: Grizzle was not probably possessed of that glue of which Mr. Banks speaks in his Cyrus:

"I'll glue my ears to every word."
]

[Footnote 107:

"Screech-owls, dark ravens, and amphibious monsters,
Are screaming in that voice."--"Mary Queen of Scots."
]

[Footnote 108: The reader may see all the beauties of this speech in a late ode, called the "Naval Lyrick."]

[Footnote 109: This epithet to a dolphin doth not give one so clear an idea as were to be wished; a smiling fish seeming a little more difficult to be imagined than a flying fish. Mr. Dryden is of opinion that smiling is the property of reason, and that no irrational creature can smile:

"Smiles not allow'd to beasts from reason move."--"State of Innocence."
]

[Footnote 110: These lines are written in the same key with those in the Earl of Essex:

"Why, say'st thou so? I love thee well, indeed
I do, and thou shalt find by this 'tis true."

Or with this in Cyrus:

"The most heroic mind that ever was."

And with above half of the modern tragedies.]

[Footnote 111: Aristotle, in that excellent work of his, which is very justly styled his masterpiece, earnestly recommends using the terms of art, however coarse or even indecent they may be. Mr. Tate is of the same opinion.

"_Bru._ Do not, like young hawks, fetch a course about.
Your game flies fair.

_Fra._ Do not fear it.
He answers you in your hawking phrase."--"In Love."

I think these two great authorities are sufficient to justify Dollallolla in the use of the phrase, "Hie away, hie!" when in the same line she says she is speaking to a setting-dog.]

[Footnote 112: We meet with such another pair of scales in Dryden's King Arthur:

"Arthur and Oswald, and their different fates,
Are weighing now within the scales of heaven."

Also in Sebastian:--

"This hour my lot is weighing in the scales."
]

[Footnote 113: Mr. Rowe is generally imagined to have taken some hints from this scene in his character of Bajazet; but as he, of all the tragic writers, bears the least resemblance to our author in his diction, I am unwilling to imagine he would condescend to copy him in this particular.]

[Footnote 114: This method of surprising an audience, by raising their expectation to the highest pitch, and then baulking it, hath been practised with great success by most of our tragical authors.]

[Footnote 115: Almeyda, in Sebastian, is in the same distress:--

"Sometimes methinks I hear the groan of ghosts,
Thin hollow sounds and lamentable screams;
Then like a dying echo from afar,
My mother's voice that cries, Wed not, Almeyda;
Forewarn'd, Almeyda, marriage is thy crime."
]

[Footnote 116: "As very well he may, if he hath any modesty in him," says Mr. D--s. The author of Busiris is extremely zealous to prevent the sun's blushing at any indecent object; and therefore on all such occasions he addresses himself to the sun, and desires him to keep out of the way.

"Rise never more, O sun! let night prevail.
Eternal darkness close the world's wide scene."--"Busiris."

"Sun, hide thy face, and put the world in mourning."--_Ibid._

Mr. Banks makes the sun perform the office of Hymen, and therefore not likely to be disgusted at such a sight:

"The sun sets forth like a gay brideman with you."--"Mary Queen of
Scots."
]

[Footnote 117: Neurmahal sends the same message to heaven:

"For I would have you, when you upwards move,
Speak kindly of us to our friends above."--"Aurengzebe."

We find another to hell in the Persian Princess:

"Villain, get thee down
To hell, and tell them that the fray's begun."
]

[Footnote 118: Anthony gives the same command in the same words.]

[Footnote 119:

"Oh! Marius, Marius, wherefore art thou, Marius?"--Otway's "Marius."
]

[Footnote 120: Nothing is more common than these seeming contradictions; such as--

"Haughty weakness."--"Victim."

"Great small world."--"Noah's Flood."
]

[Footnote 121: Lee hath improved this metaphor:

"Dost thou not view joy peeping from my eyes,
The casements open'd wide to gaze on thee?
So Rome's glad citizens to windows rise,
When they some young triumpher fain would see."--"Gloriana."
]

[Footnote 122: Almahide hath the same contempt for these appetities:

"To eat and drink can no perfection be.--"Conquest of Granada."

The Earl of Essex is of a different opinion, and seems to place the chief happiness of a general therein:

"Were but commanders half so well rewarded,
Then they might eat."--Banks's "Earl of Essex."

But, if we may believe one who knows more than either, the devil himself, we shall find eating to be an affair of more moment than is generally imagined:

"Gods are immortal only by their food."--

"Lucifer, in the State of Innocence."]

[Footnote 123: "This expression is enough of itself," says Mr. D., "utterly to destroy the character of Huncamunca!" Yet we find a woman of no abandoned character in Dryden adventuring farther, and thus excusing herself:

"To speak our wishes first, forbid it pride,
Forbid it modesty; true, they forbid it,
But Nature does not. When we are athirst,
Or hungry, will imperious Nature stay,
Nor eat, nor drink, before 'tis bid fall on?"--
"Cleomenes."

Cassandra speaks before she is asked: Huncamunca afterwards. Cassandra speaks her wishes to her lover: Huncamunca only to her father.]

[Footnote 124:

"Her eyes resistless magic bear:
Angels, I see, and gods, are dancing there,"--Lee's "Sophonisba."
]

[Footnote 125: Mr. Dennis, in that excellent tragedy called Liberty Asserted, which is thought to have given so great a stroke to the late French king, hath frequent imitations of this beautiful speech of king Arthur:

"Conquest light'ning in his eyes, and thund'ring in his arm."
"Joy lighten'd in her eyes."
"Joys like light'ning dart along my soul."
]

[Footnote 126:

"Jove, with excessive thund'ring tired above,
Comes down for ease, enjoys a nymph, and then
Mounts dreadful, and to thund'ring goes again."--"Gloriana."
]

[Footnote 127: This beautiful line, which ought, says Mr. W----, to be written in gold, is imitated in the New Sophonisba:

"Oh! Sophonisba; Sophonisba, oh!
Oh! Narva; Narva, oh!"

The author of a song called Duke upon Duke hath improved it:

"Alas! O Nick! O Nick, alas!"

Where, by the help of a little false spelling, you have two meanings in the repeated words.]

[Footnote 128: Edith, in the Bloody Brother, speaks to her lover in the same familiar language:

"Your grace is full of game."
]

[Footnote 129:

"Traverse the glitt'ring chambers of the sky,
Borne on a cloud in view of fate I'll lie,
And press her soul while gods stand wishing by."--"Hannibal."
]

[Footnote 130:

"Let the four winds from distant corners meet,
And on their wings first bear it into France;
Then back again to Edina's proud walls,
Till victim to the sound th' aspiring city falls."--"Albion Queens."
]

[Footnote 131: I do not remember any metaphors so frequent in the tragic poets as those borrowed from riding post.

"The gods and opportunity ride post."--"Hannibal."

"Let's rush together,
For death rides post."--"Duke of Guise."

"Destruction gallops to thy murder post."--"Gloriana."
]

[Footnote 132: This image, too, very often occurs:

"Bright as when thy eye
First lighted up our loves."--"Aurengzebe."

"'Tis not a crown alone lights up my name."--"Busiris."
]

[Footnote 133: There is great dissension among the poets concerning the method of making man. One tells his mistress that the mould she was made in being lost, Heaven cannot form such another. Lucifer, in Dryden, gives a merry description of his own formation:

"Whom heaven, neglecting, made and scarce design'd,
But threw me in for number to the rest."--"State of Innocence."

In one place the same poet supposes man to be made of metal:

"I was form'd
Of that coarse metal which, when she was made,
The gods threw by for rubbish."--"All for Love."

In another of dough:

"When the gods moulded up the paste of man,
Some of their clay was left upon their hands.
And so they made Egyptians."--"Cleomenes."

In another of clay:

"Rubbish of remaining clay."--Sebastian."

One makes the soul of wax:

"Her waxen soul begins to melt apace."--"Anna Bullen."

Another of flint:

"Sure our souls have somewhere been acquainted
In former beings, or, struck out together,
One spark to Afric flew, and one to Portugal."--"Sebastian."

To omit the great quantities of iron, brazen, and leaden souls which are so plenty in modern authors--I cannot omit the dress of a soul as we find it in Dryden:

"Souls shirted but with air."--"King Arthur."

Nor can I pass by a particular sort of soul in a particular sort of description in the New Sophonisba.

"Ye mysterious powers,
Whether thro' your gloomy depths I wander,
Or on the mountains walk, give me the calm,
The steady smiling soul, where wisdom sheds
Eternal sunshine, and eternal joy."
]

[Footnote 134: This line Mr. Banks has plunder'd entire in his Anna Bullen.]

[Footnote 135:

"Good Heaven! the book of fate before me lay,
But to tear out the journal of that day.
Or, if the order of the world below
Will not the gap of one whole day allow,
Give me that minute when she made her vow."--

"Conquest of Granada."
]

[Footnote 136: I know some of the commentators have imagined that Mr. Dryden, in the altercative scene between Cleopatra and Octavia, a scene which Mr. Addison inveighs against with great bitterness, is much beholden to our author. How just this their observation is I will not presume to determine.]

[Footnote 137: "A cobbling poet indeed," says Mr. D.; and yet I believe we may find as monstrous images in the tragic authors. I'll put down one: "Untie your folded thoughts, and let them dangle loose as a bride's hair."--"Injured Love."

Which line seems to have as much title to a milliner's shop as our author's to a shoemaker's.]

[Footnote 138: Mr. L---- takes occasion in this place to commend the great care of our author to preserve the metre of blank verse, in which Shakespeare, Jonson, and Fletcher, were so notoriously negligent; and the moderns, in imitation of our author, so laudably observant:

"Then does
Your majesty believe that he can be
A traitor?"--"Earl of Essex."

Every page of Sophonisba gives us instances of this excellence.]

[Footnote 139:

"Love mounts and rolls about my stormy mind."--"Aurengzebe."

"Tempests and whirlwinds thro' my bosom move."--"Cleom."
]

[Footnote 140:

"With such a furious tempest on his brow,
As if the world's four winds were pent within
His blustering carcase."--"Anna Bullen."
]

[Footnote 141: Verba Tragica.]

[Footnote 142: This speech has been terribly mauled by the poet.]

[Footnote 143:

"My life is worn to rags,
Not worth a prince's wearing"--"Love Triumphant."
]

[Footnote 144:

"Must I beg the pity of my slave?
Must a king beg? But love's a greater king,
A tryant, nay, a devil, that possesses me.
He tunes the organ of my voice and speaks,
Unknown to me, within me."--"Sebastian."
]

[Footnote 145:

"When thou wert form'd heaven did a man begin;
But a brute soul by chance was shuffled in."--"Aurengzebe."
]

[Footnote 146:

"I am a multitude
Of walking griefs."--"New Sophonisba."
]

[Footnote 147:

"I will take thy scorpion blood,
And lay it to my grief till I have ease."--"Anna Bullen."
]

[Footnote 148: Our author, who everywhere shows his great penetration into human nature, here outdoes himself: where a less judicious poet would have raised a long scene of whining love, he, who understood the passions better, and that so violent an affection as this must be too big for utterance, chooses rather to send his characters off in this sullen and doleful manner, in which admirable conduct he is imitated by the author of the justly celebrated Eurydice. Dr. Young seems to point at this violence of passion:

"Passion chokes
Their words, and they're the statues of despair."

And Seneca tells us, "Curæ leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent." The story of the Egyptian king in Herodotus is too well known to need to be inserted; I refer the more curious reader to the excellent Montaigne, who hath written an essay on this subject.]

[Footnote 149:

"To part is death.
'Tis death to part.
Ah!
Oh!"--"Don Carlos."
]

[Footnote 150:

"Nor know I whether
What am I, who, or where."--"Busiris."

"I was I know not what, and am I know not how."--"Gloriana."
]

[Footnote 151: To understand sufficiently the beauty of this passage, it will be necessary that we comprehend every man to contain two selfs. I shall not attempt to prove this from philosophy, which the poets make so plainly evident.

One runs away from the other:

"Let me demand your majesty,
Why fly you from yourself?"--"Duke of Guise."

In a second, one self is a guardian to the other:

"Leave me the care of me."--"Conquest of Granada."

Again:

"Myself am to myself less near."--_Ibid._

In the same, the first self is proud of the second:

"I myself am proud of me."--"State of Innocence."

In a third, distrustful of him:

"Fain I would tell, but whisper it in my ear.
That none besides might hear, nay, not myself."--"Earl of Essex."

In a fourth, honours him:

"I honour Rome,
And honour too myself."--"Sophonisba."

In a fifth, at variance with him:

"Leave me not thus at variance with myself."--"Busiris."

Again, in a sixth:

"I find myself divided from myself."--"Medea."

"She seemed the sad effigies of herself."--Banks.

"Assist me, Zulema, if thou would'st be
The friend thou seem'st, assist me against me."--"Alb. Q."

From all which it appears that there are two selfs; and therefore Tom Thumb's losing himself is no such solecism as it hath been represented by men rather ambitious of criticising than qualified to criticise.]

[Footnote 152: Mr. F. imagines this parson to have been a Welsh one, from his simile.]

[Footnote 153: Our author hath been plundered here, according to custom:

"Great nature, break thy chain that links together
The fabric of the world, and make a chaos
Like that within my soul."--"Love Triumphant."
"Startle Nature, unfix the globe,
And hurl it from its axletree and hinges."--"Albion Queens."

"The tott'ring earth seems sliding off its props."
]

[Footnote 154:

"D--n your delay, ye torturers, proceed:
I will not hear one word but Almahide."--"Conq. of Gran."
]

[Footnote 155: Mr. Dryden hath imitated this in All for Love.]

[Footnote 156: This Miltonic style abounds in the New Sophonisba.

"And on her ample brow
Sat majesty."
]

[Footnote 157:

"Your ev'ry answer still so ends in that,
You force me still to answer you, Morat."--"Aurengzebe.
]

[Footnote 158:

"Morat, Morat, Morat! you love the name."--_Ibid._
]

[Footnote 159: "Here is a sentiment for the virtuous Huncamunca!" says Mr. D--s. And yet, with the leave of this great man, the virtuous Panthea, in Cyrus, hath a heart every whit as ample:

"For two I must confess are gods to me,
Which is my Abradatus first, and thee."--"Cyrus the Great."

Nor is the lady in Love Triumphant more reserved, though not so intelligible:

"I am so divided,
That I grieve most for both, and love both most."
]

[Footnote 160: A ridiculous supposition to any one who considers the great and extensive largeness of hell, says a commentator; but not so to those who consider the great expansion of immaterial substance. Mr. Banks makes one soul to be so expanded, that heaven could not contain it.

"The heavens are all too narrow for her soul."--"Virtue Betrayed."

The Persian Princess hath a passage not unlike the author of this:

"We will send such shoals of murder'd slaves,
Shall glut hell's empty regions."

This threatens to fill hell, even though it was empty; Lord Grizzle, only to fill up the chinks, supposing the rest already full.]

[Footnote 161: Mr. Addison is generally thought to have had this simile in his eye when he wrote that beautiful one at the end of the third act of his Cato.]

[Footnote 162: This beautiful simile is founded on a proverb which does honour to the English language:

"Between two stools the breech falls to the ground."

I am not so well pleased with any written remains of the ancients as with those little aphorisms which verbal tradition hath delivered down to us under the title of proverbs. It were to be wished that, instead of filling their pages with the fabulous theology of the pagans, our modern poets would think it worth their while to enrich their works with the proverbial sayings of their ancestors. Mr. Dryden hath chronicled one in heroic:

"Two ifs scarce make one possibility."--"Conq. of Granada."

My Lord Bacon is of opinion that whatever is known of arts and sciences might be proved to have lurked in the Proverbs of Solomon. I am of the same opinion in relation to those above-mentioned; at least I am confident that a more perfect system of ethics, as well as economy, might be compiled out of them than is at present extant, either in the works of the ancient philosophers, or those more valuable, as more voluminous ones of the modern divines.]

[Footnote 163: Of all the particulars in which the modern stage falls short of the ancients, there is none so much to be lamented as the great scarcity of ghosts. Whence this proceeds I will not presume to determine. Some are of opinion that the moderns are unequal to that sublime language which a ghost ought to speak. One says, ludicrously, that ghosts are out of fashion; another, that they are properer for comedy; forgetting, I suppose, that Aristotle hath told us that a ghost is the soul of tragedy; for so I render the [Greek: psychê ho mythos tês tragôdias], which M. Dacier, amongst others, hath mistaken; I suppose misled by not understanding the Fabula of the Latins, which signifies a ghost as well as fable.

"Te premet nox, fabulæque manes."--Horace.

Of all the ghosts that have ever appeared on the stage, a very learned and judicious foreign critic gives the preference to this of our author. These are his words, speaking of this tragedy:--"Nec quidquam in illâ admirabilius quàm phasma quoddam horrendum, quod omnibus aliis spectris, quibuscum scatet Angelorum tragoedia, longè (pace D--ysii V. Doctiss. dixerim) prætulerim."]

[Footnote 164: We have already given instances of this figure.]

[Footnote 165: Almanzor reasons in the same manner:

"A ghost I'll be;
And from a ghost, you know, no place is free."--"Conq. of Gran."]

[Footnote 166: "The man who writ this wretched pun," says Mr. D., "would have picked your pocket:" which he proceeds to show not only bad in itself, but doubly so on so solemn an occasion. And yet, in that excellent play of Liberty Asserted, we find something very much resembling a pun in the mouth of a mistress, who is parting with the lover she is fond of:

"_Ul._ Oh, mortal woe! one kiss, and then farewell.

_Irene._ The gods have given to others to fare well,
O! miserably must Irene fare."

Agamemnon, in the Victim, is full as facetious on the most solemn occasion--that of sacrificing his daughter:

"Yes, daughter, yes; you will assist the priest;
Yes, you must offer up your--vows for Greece."
]

[Footnote 167:

"I'll pull thee backwards by thy shroud to light,
Or else I'll squeeze thee, like a bladder, there.
And make thee groan thyself away to air."--"Conq. of Gran."

"Snatch me, ye gods, this moment into nothing."--"Cyrus the Great."
]

[Footnote 168:

"So, art thou gone? Thou canst no conquest boast,
I thought what was the courage of a ghost."--"Conq. of Gran."

King Arthur seems to be as brave a fellow as Almanzor, who says most heroically: "In spite of ghosts I'll on."]

[Footnote 169: The ghost of Lausaria, in Cyrus, is a plain copy of this, and is therefore worth reading:

"Ah, Cyrus!
Thou may'st as well grasp water, or fleet air,
As think of touching my immortal shade."--"Cyrus the Great."
]

[Footnote 170:

"Thou better part of heavenly air."--"Conquest of Granada."
]

[Footnote 171: "A string of similes," says one, "proper to be hung up in the cabinet of a prince."]

[Footnote 172: This passage hath been understood several different ways by the commentators. For my part I find it difficult to understand it at all. Mr. Dryden says--

"I've heard something how two bodies meet,
But how two souls join I know not."

So that, till the body of a spirit be better understood, it will be difficult to understand how it is possible to run him through it.]

[Footnote 173: Cydaria is of the same fearful temper with Dollalolla:

"I never durst in darkness be alone."--"Ind. Emp."
]

[Footnote 174:

"Think well of this, think that, think every way."--"Sophon."
]

[Footnote 175: These quotations are more usual in the comic than in the tragic writers.]

[Footnote 176: "This distress," says Mr. D--, "I must allow to be extremely beautiful, and tends to heighten the virtuous character of Dollallolla, who is so exceeding delicate, that she is in the highest apprehension from the inanimate embrace of a bolster. An example worthy of imitation for all our writers of tragedy."]

[Footnote 177:

"Credat Judæus Appella,
Non ego,"

says Mr. D. "For, passing over the absurdity of being equal to odds, can we possibly suppose a little insignificant fellow--I say again a little insignificant fellow--able to vie with a strength which all the Samsons and Herculeses of antiquity would be unable to encounter?" I shall refer this incredulous critic to Mr. Dryden's defence of his Almanzor; and, lest that should not satisfy him, I shall quote a few lines from the speech of a much braver fellow than Almanzor, Mr. Johnson's Achilles:

"Though human race rise in embattled hosts,
To force her from my arms--Oh! son of Atreus!
By that immortal pow'r, whose deathless spirit
Informs this earth, I will oppose them all."--"Victim."
]

[Footnote 178: "I have heard of being supported by a staff," says Mr. D., "but never of being supported by a helmet." I believe he never heard of sailing with wings, which he may read in no less a poet than Mr. Dryden:

"Unless we borrow wings and sail through air."--"Love Triumphant.

What will he say to a kneeling valley?

"I'll stand
Like a safe valley, that low bends the knee
To some aspiring mountain."--"Injured Love."

I am ashamed of so ignorant a carper, who doth not know that an epithet in tragedy is very often no other than an expletive. Do not we read in the New Sophonisba of "grinding chains, blue plagues, white occasions, and blue serenity?" Nay, it is not the adjective only, but sometimes half a sentence is put by way of expletive, as "Beauty pointed high with spirit," in the same play; and "In the lap of blessing, to be most curst," in the Revenge.]

[Footnote 179: A victory like that of Almanzor:

"Almanzor is victorious without fight."--"Conquest of Granada."]

[Footnote 180:

"Well have we chose an happy day for fight;
For every man, in course of time, has found
Some days are lucky, some unfortunate."--"King Arthur."
]

[Footnote 181: We read of such another in Lee:

"Teach his rude wit a flight she never made,
And send her post to the Elysian shade."--"Gloriana."
]

[Footnote 182: These lines are copied verbatim in the Indian Emperor.]

[Footnote 183: "Unborn thunder rolling in a cloud."--"Conquest of Granada."]

[Footnote 184:

"Were heaven and earth in wild confusion hurl'd,
Should the rash gods unhinge the rolling world,
Undaunted would I tread the tott'ring ball,
Crush'd, but unconquer'd, in the dreadful fall."--"Female Warrior."
]

[Footnote 185: See the History of Tom Thumb, p. 141.]

[Footnote 186:

"Amazement swallows up my sense,
And in the impetuous whirl of circling fate
Drinks down my reason."--"Persian Princess."
]

[Footnote 187:

"I have outfaced myself.
What! am I two? Is there another me?"--"King Arthur."
]

[Footnote 188: The character of Merlin is wonderful throughout; but most so in this prophetic part. We find several of these prophecies in the tragic authors, who frequently take this opportunity to pay a compliment to their country, and sometimes to their prince. None but our author (who seems to have detested the least appearance of flattery) would have passed by such an opportunity of being a political prophet.]

[Footnote 189: "I saw the villain, Myron; with these eyes I saw him."--"Busiris." In both which places it is intimated that it is sometimes possible to see with other eyes than your own.]

[Footnote 190: "This mustard," says Mr. D., "is enough to turn one's stomach. I would be glad to know what idea the author had in his head when he wrote it." This will be, I believe, best explained by a line of Mr. Dennis:

"And gave him liberty, the salt of life."--"Liberty Asserted."

The understanding that can digest the one will not rise at the other.]

[Footnote 191:

"_Han_, Are you the chief whom men famed Scipio call?

_Scip._ Are you the much more famous Hannibal?"--"Hannibal."
]

[Footnote 192: Dr Young seems to have copied this engagement in his Busiris:

_Myr._ Villain!

_Mem._ Myron!

_Myr._ Rebel!

_Mem._ Myron!

_Myr._ Hell!

_Mem._ Mandane!
]

[Footnote 193: This last speech of my Lord Grizzle hath been of great service to our poets:

"I'll hold it fast
As life, and when life's gone I'll hold this last;
And if thou tak'st it from me when I'm slain,
I'll send my ghost and fetch it back again."--"Conq. of Gran."
]

[Footnote 194:

"My soul should with such speed obey,
It should not bait at heaven to stop its way."
]

[Footnote 195: Lee seems to have had this last in his eye:

"'Twas not my purpose, sir, to tarry there:
I would but go to heaven to take the air."--"Gloriana."

"A rising vapour rumbling in my brains."--"Cleomenes."
]

[Footnote 196:

"Some kind sprite knocks softly at my soul,
To tell me fate's at hand."
]

[Footnote 197: Mr. Dryden seems to have had this simile in his eye, when he says:

"My soul is packing up, and just on wing."--"Conq. of Gran."
"And in a purple vomit pour'd his soul."--"Cleomenes."
]

[Footnote 198:

"The devil swallows vulgar souls
Like whipt cream."--"Sebastian."
]

[Footnote 199:

"How I could curse my name of Ptolemy!
It is so long, it asks an hour to write it.
By heaven! I'll change it into Jove or Mars!
Or any other civil monosyllable,
That will not tire my hand."--"Cleomenes."
]

[Footnote 200: Here is a visible conjunction of two days in one, by which our author may have either intended an emblem of a wedding, or to insinuate that men in the honeymoon are apt to imagine time shorter than it is. It brings into my mind a passage in the comedy called the Coffee-House Politician:

"We will celebrate this day at my house to-morrow."
]

[Footnote 201: These beautiful phrases are all to be found in one single speech of King Arthur, or the British Worthy.]

[Footnote 202:

"I was but teaching him to grace his tale
With decent horror."--"Cleomenes."
]

[Footnote 203: We may say with Dryden:

"Death did at length so many slain forget,
And left the tale, and took them by the great."

I know of no tragedy which comes nearer to this charming and bloody catastrophe than Cleomenes, where the curtain covers five principal characters dead on the stage. These lines too--

"I ask'd no questions then, of who kill'd who?
The bodies tell the story as they lie--"

seem to have belonged more properly to this scene of our author; nor can I help imagining they were originally his. The Rival Ladies, too, seem beholden to this scene:

"We're now a chain of lovers link'd in death;
Julia goes first, Gonsalvo hangs on her,
And Angelina hangs upon Gonsalvo,
As I on Angelina."

No scene, I believe, ever received greater honours than this. It was applauded by several encores, a word very unusual in tragedy. And it was very difficult for the actors to escape without a second slaughter. This I take to be a lively assurance of that fierce spirit of liberty which remains among us, and which Mr. Dryden, in his essay on Dramatic Poetry, hath observed. "Whether custom," says he, "hath so insinuated itself into our countrymen, or nature hath so formed them to fierceness, I know not; but they will scarcely suffer combats and other objects of horror to be taken from them." And indeed I am for having them encouraged in this martial disposition; nor do I believe our victories over the French have been owing to anything more than to those bloody spectacles daily exhibited in our tragedies, of which the French stage is so entirely clear.]

CHRONONHOTONTHOLOGOS:

THE MOST TRAGICAL TRAGEDY, THAT EVER WAS TRAGEDIZ'D BY ANY COMPANY OF TRAGEDIANS.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

CHRONONHOTONTHOLOGOS, _King of Queerummania_.
BOMBARDINIAN, _his General_.
ALDIBORONTIPHOSCOPHORNIO,
RIGDUM-FUNNIDOS, [_Courtiers_.
_Captain of the Guards._
_Herald._
_Cook._
_Doctor._
_King of the Fiddlers._
_King of the Antipodes._
FADLADINIDA, _Queen of Queerummania_.
TATLANTHE, _her favourite_.
_Two Ladies of the Court._
_Two Ladies of Pleasure._
VENUS.
CUPID.
Guards and Attendants, &c.

SCENE.--QUEERUMMANIA.