In a fourth class shall be given specimens of language too light or airy for a severe passion.
The agony a mother must feel upon the savage murder of two hopeful sons, rejects all imagery and figurative expression, as discordant in the highest degree. Therefore the following passage is undoubtedly in a bad taste:
Queen. Ah, my poor princes! ah, my tender babes,
My unblown flow’rs, new-appearing sweets!
If yet your gentle souls fly in the air,
And be not fixt in doom perpetual,
Hover about me with your airy wings,
And hear your mother’s lamentation.
Richard III. act 4. sc. 4.
Again,
K. Philip. You are as fond of grief as of your child.
Constance. Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garment with his form;
Then have I reason to be fond of grief.
King John, act 3. sc. 6.
A thought that turns upon the expression instead of the subject, commonly called a play of words, being low and childish, is unworthy of any composition, whether gay or serious, that pretends to the smallest share of dignity. Thoughts of this kind make a fifth class.
In the Aminta of Tasso[73] the lover falls into a mere play of words, demanding how he who had lost himself, could find a mistress. And for the same reason, the following passage in Corneille has been generally condemned:
Chimene. Mon pere est mort, Elvire, et la premiére épée
Dont s’est armé Rodrigue à sa trame coupée.
Pleurez, pleurez, mes yeux, et fondez-vous en eau,
La moitié de ma vie a mis l’autre au tombeau,
Et m’oblige à venger, aprés ce coup funeste,
Celle que je n’ai plus, sur celle qui me reste.
Cid, act 3. sc. 3.
To die is to be banish’d from myself:
And Sylvia is myself; banish’d from her,
Is self from self; a deadly banishment!
Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 3. sc. 3.