e But one look more will make that martyr me." 1 In this dilemma he sends Placidius, "a great officer," to St Catharine; the great officer quotes and praises the gods of Epicurus; forthwith the lady propounds the doctrine of final causes, which upsets that of atoms. Maximin comes himself, and says: "Since you neglect to answer my desires, Know, princess, you shall burn in other fires." 2 Thereupon she beards and defies him, calls him a slave, and walks off. Touched by these delicate manners, he wishes to marry her lawfully, and to repudiate his wife. Still, to omit no expedient, he employs a magician, who utters invocations (on the stage), summons the infernal spirits, and brings up a troop of Spirits; these dance and sing voluptuous songs about the bed of St. Catharine. Her guardian-angel comes and drives them away. As a last resource, Maximin has a wheel brought on the stage, on which to expose St. Catharine and her mother. Whilst the executioners are going to strip the saint, a modest angel descends in the nick of time, and breaks the wheel; after which the ladies are carried off, and their throats are cut behind the wings. Add to these Tyrannic Love, iii. 2. 1. Did. 3. 1. This Maximin has a turn for jokes. Porphyrius, to he offers his daughter in marriage, says that "the distance was st;" whereupon Maximin replies: "Yet heaven and earth, which emote appear, are by the air, which flows betwixt them, near" 1). 16 THE CLASSIC AGE. HAP. BOOK IIL reco Con ok at nd ast tirred Le is st rst PPY, P pretty inventions a twofold intrigue, the love eed prm ba heir ear ma ve esc bit de have no incongruities; they avoid all which mar Ost shock the imagination or the eyes; they are writt 1 Lulli (1633-1687), a renowned Italian composer. of his chief works. -TR. Armide is * Christian Priest. But we by martyrdom our faith avow. To prove religion true, If either wit or sufferings would suffice, recognise in this frightful pedantry the handsome valiers of the time, logicians and hangmen, who fed a controversy, and for the sake of amusement went to pok at the tortures of the Puritans. I recognise behind hese heaps of improbabilities and adventures the puerile nd worn-out courtiers, who, sodden with wine, were ast seeing incongruities, and whose nerves were only irred by startling surprises and barbarous events. Let us go still further. Dryden would set up on is stage the beauties of French tragedy, and in the rst place its nobility of sentiment. Is it enough to py, as he does, phrases of chivalry? He would eed a whole world, for a whole world is necessary to rm noble souls. Virtue, in the French tragic poets, based on reason, religion, education, philosophy. heir characters have that uprightness of mind, that earness of logic, that lofty judgment, which plant in man settled maxims and self-government. We perive in their company the doctrines of Bossuet and escartes; with them, reflection aids conscience; the bits of society add tact and finesse. The avoidance violent actions and physical horrors, the meed and der of the fable, the art of disguising or shunning arse or low persons, the continuous perfection of the bst measured and noble style, everything contributes All faiths afford the constant and the wise, In age defend what infancy obeyed. Christian Priest. Since age by erring childhood is misled, Refer yourself to our unerring head. Montezuma. Man, and not err! what reason can you give? VOL. III. in opera ? Indi re driver: are als pleasar 5 Ind.ares Sceler a, le Addenly 1 Tyrone Lom ± 5.1 Whn bring Macmin sys shoving back this art on viich I st, 12 mun; and sumber all t Goda 1 im..* * Aurong-Zebe, v. 4. 1. Dryden thought he was initaching Racky when six lines farther on he makes Neural sy: “I am not changed, I love my husband still; And the first down began to shade his face That image does my virgin-dames renew, oper Racine's Phedre (2 5) thinks her husband Theseus dead, and says her stepson Hippolytus; “Oui, prince, je languis, je brüle pour Thésée : Mais fidèle, mais fier, et même un peu farouche, hile. is oc Dlusion vanishes at once; instead of being in a room with noble characters, we and a drunken savage. others are little better. offered, says insolently: meet with a mad prostitute When we lift the masks the Almeria, to whom a crown is "I take this garland, not as given by you, But as my merit, and my beauty's due."1 Indamora, to whom an old courtier makes love, settles him with the boastfulness of an upstart and the coarseness of a kitchen-maid: "Were I no queen, did you my beauty weigh, My youth in bloom, your age in its decay."2 None of these heroines know how to conduct themselves; they look on impertinence as dignity, sensuality as tenderness; they have the recklessness of the courtesan, the jealousies of the grisette, the pettiness of a chapman's wife, the billingsgate of a fishwoman. The heroes are the most unpleasant of swashbucklers. Leonidas, first recognised as hereditary prince, then suddenly forsaken, consoles himself with this modest reflection: 'Tis true I am alone. So was the godhead, ere he made the world, I have scene enough within To exercise my virtue." 3 Shall I speak of that great trumpet-blower Almanzor, Il avait votre port, vos yeux, votre langage; According to a note in Sir Walter Scott's edition of Dryden's works, The Indian Emperor, i. 2. 2 Aureng-Zebe, v. 2, 1. 3 Marriage à la Mode, iv. 3. 1. |