It must be allowed that both his tragedies and comedies are full of strong and striking thoughts, which show a searching inquisition into the worst parts of human nature. Occasionally he expresses a general truth with great felicity, as when he says,
"Pygmy cares
Can shelter under patience' shield; but giant griefs
Will burst all covert."
His imagination is sometimes stimulated into unusual power in expressing the fiercer and darker passions; as, for example, in this image:—
"O, my soul's enthroned
In the triumphant chariot of revenge!"
And in this:—
"Ghastly amazement! with upstarted hair,
Shall hurry on before, and usher us,
Whilst trumpets clamor with a sound of death."
He has three descriptions of morning, which seem to have been written in emulation of Shakespeare's in "Hamlet"; two of them being found in the tragedy which "Hamlet" suggested.
"Is not yon gleam the shuddering morn that flakes
With silver tincture the east verge of heaven?
* * * *
For see the dapple-gray coursers of the morn
Beat up the light with their bright silver hoofs,
And chase it through the sky.