The Spectator Volume Iii Part 68

'To do honour to his Country, Prince _Arthur_ is an Universal Hero; in Holiness, Temperance, Chast.i.ty, and Justice super-excellent. For the same Reason, and to compliment Queen _Elizabeth_, _Gloriana_, Queen of Fairies, whose Court was the Asylum of the Oppressed, represents that Glorious Queen. At her Commands all these Knights set forth, and only at her's the Red-cross Knight destroys the Dragon. _Guyon_ overturns the Bower of Bliss, _Arthegal_ (i. e. _Justice_) beats down _Geryoneo_ (i. e. _Phil._ II. King of _Spain_) to rescue _Belge_ (i. e.

_Holland_) and he beats the _Grantorto_ (the same _Philip_ in another Light) to restore _Irena_ (i. e. _Peace_ to Europe.)

'Chast.i.ty being the first Female Virtue, _Britomartis_ is a _Britain_; her Part is fine, though it requires Explication. His stile is very Poetical; no Puns, Affectations of Wit, forced Ant.i.theses, or any of that low Tribe.

'His old Words are all true _English_, and numbers exquisite; and since of Words there is the _Multa Renascentur_, since they are all proper, such a Poem should not (any more than _Milton's_) subsist all of it of common ordinary Words. See Instances of Descriptions.

'Causeless Jealousy in _Britomartis_, V. 6, 14, in its Restlessness.

'Like as a wayward Child whose sounder Sleep Is broken with some fearful Dream's Affright, With froward Will doth set himself to weep, Ne can be stil'd for all his Nurse's Might, But kicks, and squalls, and shrieks for fell Despight; Now scratching her, and her loose Locks misusing, Now seeking Darkness, and now seeking Light; Then craving Suck, and then the Suck refusing: Such was this Lady's Loves in her Love's fond accusing.'

Curiosity occasioned by Jealousy, upon occasion of her Lover's Absence. _Ibid, Stan_. 8, 9.

'Then as she looked long, at last she spy'd One coming towards her with hasty Speed, Well ween'd she then, e'er him she plain descry'd, That it was one sent from her Love indeed; Whereat her Heart was fill'd with Hope and Dread, Ne would she stay till he in Place could come, But ran to weet him forth to know his Tidings somme; Even in the Door him meeting, she begun, And where is he, thy Lord, and how far hence?

Declare at once; and hath he lost or won?'

_Care_ and his _House_ are described thus, IV. 6, 33, 34, 35.

'Not far away, not meet for any Guest, They spy'd a little Cottage, like some poor Man's Nest.'

34.

'There entring in, they found the Good-Man's self, Full busily unto his Work ybent, Who was so weel a wretched wearish Elf, With hollow Eyes and raw-bone Cheeks forspent, As if he had in Prison long been pent.

Full black and griesly did his Face appear, Besmear'd with Smoke that nigh his Eye-sight blent, With rugged Beard and h.o.a.ry s.h.a.ggy Heare, The which he never wont to comb, or comely shear.'

35.

'Rude was his Garment and to Rags all rent, Ne better had he, ne for better cared; His blistred Hands amongst the Cinders brent, And Fingers filthy, with long Nails prepared, Right fit to rend the Food on which he fared.

His Name was_ Care; _a Blacksmith by his Trade, That neither Day nor Night from working spared, But to small purpose Iron Wedges made: These be unquiet Thoughts that careful Minds invade.'

'Homer's Epithets were much admired by Antiquity: See what great Justness and Variety there is in these Epithets of the Trees in the Forest where the Red-cross Knight lost _Truth_, B. I. Cant. i. St. 8, 9.

'The sailing Pine, the Cedar proud and tall, The Vine-prop Elm, the Poplar never dry, The Builder Oak, sole King of Forests all.

The Aspine good for Staves, the Cypress Funeral.

The Laurel, Meed of mighty Conquerors, And Poets sage; the Fir that weepeth still, The Willow worn of forlorn Paramours, The Yew obedient to the Bender's Will.

The Birch for Shafts, the Sallow for the Mill; The Myrrhe sweet bleeding in the bitter Wound, The warlike Beech, the Ash for nothing ill, The fruitful Olive, and the Plantane round, The Carver Helm, the Maple seldom inward sound.'

'I shall trouble you no more, but desire you to let me conclude with these Verses, though I think they have already been quoted by you; They are Directions to young Ladies opprest with Calumny. VI. 6, 14.

'The best_ (said he) _that I can you advise, Is to avoid the Occasion of the Ill; For when the Cause whence Evil doth arise Removed is, the Effect surceaseth still.

Abstain from Pleasure, and restrain your Will, Subdue Desire, and bridle loose Delight, Use scanted Diet, and forbear your Fill, Shun Secrecy, and talk in open Sight; So shall you soon repair your present evil Plight.'

T.

No. 541. Thursday, November 20, 1712. John Hughes.

'Format enim Natura prius nos intus ad omnem Fortunarum habitum; juvat, aut impellit ad iram, Aut ad humum maerore gravi deducit et angit; Post effert animi motus interprete Lingua.'

Hor.

My Friend the _Templar_, whom I have so often mentioned in these Writings, having determined to lay aside his Poetical Studies, in order to a closer Pursuit of the Law, has put together, as a Farewell Essay, some Thoughts concerning [_p.r.o.nunciation_ and _Action_, [1]] which he has given me leave to communicate to the Publick. They are chiefly collected from his Favourite Author, _Cicero_, who is known to have been an intimate Friend of _Rostius_ the Actor, and a good Judge of [Dramatick [2]] Performances, as well as the most Eloquent Pleader of the Time in which he lived.

Cicero concludes his celebrated Books _de Oratore_ with some Precepts for p.r.o.nunciation and Action, without which Part he affirms that the best Orator in the World can never succeed; and an indifferent one, who is Master of this, shall gain much greater Applause. What could make a stronger Impression, says he, than those Exclamations of _Gracchus_:

'Whither shall I turn? Wretch that I am! To what Place betake my self?

Shall I go to the_ Capitol?--_Alas! it is overflowed with my Brother's Blood. Or shall I retire to my House? Yet there I behold my Mother plung'd in Misery, weeping and despairing!'

These Breaks and Turns of Pa.s.sion, it seems, were so enforced by the Eyes, Voice, and Gesture of the Speaker, that his very Enemies could not refrain from Tears. I insist, says _Tully_, upon this the rather, because our Orators, who are as it were Actors of the Truth it self, have quitted this manner of speaking; and the Players, who are but the Imitators of Truth, have taken it up.

I shall therefore pursue the Hint he has here given me, and for the Service of the _British Stage_ I shall copy some of the Rules which this great _Roman_ Master has laid down; yet, without confining my self wholly to his Thoughts or Words: and to adapt this Essay the more to the Purpose for which I intend it, instead of the Examples he has inserted in his Discourse, out of the ancient Tragedies, I shall make use of parallel Pa.s.sages out of the most celebrated of our own.

The Design of Art is to a.s.sist Action as much as possible in the Representation of Nature; for the Appearance of Reality is that which moves us in all Representations, and these have always the greater Force, the nearer they approach to Nature, and the less they shew of Imitation.

Nature herself has a.s.signed to every Emotion of the Soul, its peculiar Cast of the Countenance, Tone of Voice, and Manner of Gesture; and the whole Person, all the Features of the Face and Tones of the Voice, answer, like Strings upon musical Instruments, to the Impressions made on them by the Mind. Thus the Sounds of the Voice, according to the various Touches which raise them, form themselves into an Acute or Grave, Quick or Slow, Loud or Soft Tone. These too may be subdivided into various kinds of Tones, as the gentle, the rough, the contracted, the diffuse, the continued, the intermitted, the broken, abrupt, winding, softned, or elevated. Every one of these may be employed with Art and Judgment; and all supply the Actor, as Colours do the Painter, with an expressive Variety.

Anger exerts its peculiar Voice in an acute, raised, and hurrying sound.

The pa.s.sionate Character of _King Lear_, as it is admirably drawn by _Shakespear_, abounds with the strongest Instances of this kind.

'--Death! Confusion!

Fiery!--what Quality?--why_ Gloster! Gloster!

I'd speak with the Duke of_ Cornwall _and his Wife.

Are they informed of this? My Breath and Blood!

Fiery? the fiery Duke?--&c.'

Sorrow and Complaint demand a Voice quite different, flexible, slow, interrupted, and modulated in a mournful Tone; as in that pathetical Soliloquy of Cardinal _Wolsey_ on his Fall.

'Farewel!--a long Farewel to all my Greatness!

This is the State of Man!--to-day he puts forth The tender Leaves of Hopes; to-morrow Blossoms, And bears his blushing Honours thick upon him, The third Day comes a Frost, a killing Frost, And when he thinks, good easie Man, full surely His Greatness is a ripening, nips his Root, And then he falls as I do.'

We have likewise a fine Example of this in the whole Part of _Andromache_ in the 'Distrest-Mother', particularly in these Lines.

'I'll go, and in the Anguish of my Heart Weep o'er my Child--If he must die, my Life Is wrapt in his, I shall not long survive.