———————— By his light
Did all the chivalry of England move,
To do brave acts. He was indeed the glass,
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.
He had no legs that practis’d not his gait:
And speaking thick, which Nature made his blemish,
Became the accents of the valiant:
For those who could speak low and tardily,
Would turn their own perfection to abuse,
To seem like him.
Second part, Henry IV. act 2. sc. 6.
When the passion of love has ended its course, its object becomes quite a different creature.—— Nothing left of that genteel motion, that gaiety, that sprightly conversation, those numberless graces, that formerly, in the lover’s opinion, charmed all hearts.
The same communication of passion obtains in the relation of principal and accessory. Pride, of which self is the object, expands itself upon a house, a garden, servants, equipage, and every thing of that nature. A lover addresseth his mistress’s glove in the following terms:
Sweet ornament that decks a thing divine.
A temple is in a proper sense an accessory of the deity to which it is dedicated. Diana is chaste, and not only her temple, but the very isicle which hangs on it, must partake of that property:
The noble sister of Poplicola,
The moon of Rome; chasle as the isicle
That’s curdled by the frost from purest snow,
And hangs on Dian’s temple.
Coriolanus, act 5. sc. 3.
Thus it is, that the respect and esteem, which the great, the powerful, the opulent naturally command, are in some measure communicated to their dress, to their manners, and to all their connections. It is this principle, which in matters left to our own choice prevails over the natural taste of beauty and propriety, and gives currency to what is called the fashion.
By means of the same easiness of transition, the bad qualities of an object are carried along, and grafted upon related objects. Every good quality in a person is extinguished by hatred; and every bad quality is spread upon all his connections. A relation more slight and transitory than that of hatred, may have the same effect. Thus the bearer of bad tidings becomes an object of aversion:
Fellow begone, I cannot brook thy sight,
This news hath made thee a most ugly man.
King John, act 3. sc. 1.
Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office: and his tongue
Sounds ever after, as a sullen bell
Remember’d, tolling a departing friend.
Second part, Henry IV. act 1. sc. 3.