The first class contains faulty sentiments of various kinds, which I shall endeavour to distinguish from each other. And first sentiments that are faulty by being above the tone of the passion.
_Othello._---- O my soul’s joy! If after every tempest come such calms, May the winds blow till they have waken’d death: And let the labouring bark climb hills of seas Olympus high, and duck again as low As hell’s from heaven! _Othello, act 2. sc. 6._
This sentiment is too strong to be suggested by so slight a joy as that of meeting after a storm at sea.
_Philaster._ Place me, some god, upon a pyramid Higher than hills of earth, and lend a voice Loud as your thunder to me, that from thence I may discourse to all the under-world The worth that dwells in him. _Philaster of Beaumont and Fletcher, act 4._
Secondly, Sentiments below the tone of the passion. Ptolemy, by putting Pompey to death, having incurred the displeasure of Cæsar, was in the utmost dread of being dethroned. In this agitating situation, Corneille makes him utter a speech full of cool reflection, that is in no degree expressive of the passion.
Ah! si je t’avois crû, je n’aurois pas de maître, Je serois dans le trône où le Ciel m’a fait naître; Mais c’est une imprudence assez commune aux rois, D’ecouter trop d’avis, et se tromper au choix. Le Destin les aveugle au bord du précipice, Ou si quelque lumiere en leur ame se glisse, Cette fausse clarté dont il les eblouit, Le plonge dans une gouffre, et puis s’evanouit. _La mort de Pompée, act 4. sc. 1._
In _Les Freres ennemies_ of Racine, the second act is opened with a love-scene. Hemon talks to his mistress of the torments of absence, of the lustre of her eyes, that he ought to die no where but at her feet, and that one moment of absence was a thousand years. Antigone on her part acts the coquette, and pretends she must be gone to wait on her mother and brother, and cannot stay to listen to his courtship. This is odious French gallantry, below the dignity of the passion of love. It would scarce be excusable in painting modern French manners; and is insufferable where the ancients are brought upon the stage. The manners painted in the _Alexandre_ of the same author are not more just. French gallantry prevails there throughout.