give name to the tragedy are left alive: Cressida is false, and is not punished." The excitement of pity and terror, we are told, is the only ground of tragedy. Tragedy, too, must have "a moral that directs the whole action of the play to one centre." To this standard, then, is Shakspere's 'Troilus and Cressida' to be reduced. The chief persons who give name to the tragedy are not to be left alive. Cressida is not to be false; but she is to die: and so terror and pity are to be produced. And then comes the moral : "Then, since from home-bred factions ruin springs, : The management by which Dryden has accomplished this metamorphosis is one of the most remarkable examples of perverted ingenuity. He had a licentious age to please. He could not spare a line, or a word, of what may be considered the objectionable scenes between Pandarus, Troilus, and Cressida. They formed no part of the "rubbish" he desired to remove. He has heightened them wherever possible; and what in Shakspere was a sly allusion becomes with him a positive grossness. Now let us consider for a moment what Shakspere intended by these scenes. Cressida is the exception to Shakspere's general idea of the female character. She is beautiful, witty, accomplished,—but she is impure. In her, love is not a sentiment, or a passion,— it is an impulse. Temperament is stronger than will. Her love has nothing ideal, spiritual, in its composition. It is not constant, because it is not discriminate. Setting apart her inconstancy, how altogether different is Cressida from Juliet, or Viola, or Helena, or Perdita! There is nothing in her which could be called love: no depth, no concentration of feeling,—nothing that can bear the name of devotion. Shakspere would not permit a mistake to be made on the subject; and he has therefore given to Ulysses to describe her, as he conceived her. Considering what his intentions were, and what really is the high morality of the characterization, we can scarcely say that he has made the representation too prominent. The feeling which the study of Shakspere's 'Troilus and Cressida slowly but certainly calls forth, is that of almost prostration before the marvellous intellect which has produced it. But this is the result of study, as we have said. The play cannot be understood upon a superficial reading: it is full of the most subtle art. We may set aside particular passages, and admire their surpassing eloquence,— their profound wisdom; but it is long before the play, as a whole, obtains its proper mastery over the understanding. PERSONS REPRESENTED. ESCALUS, Prince of Verona. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act III. sc. 1. Act V. sc. 3. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act III. sc. 4. Act V. sc. 3. MONTAGUE, head of a house, at variance with the house of Capulet. Appears, Act III. sc. 1. Act V. sc. 3. with the house of Montague. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 4; sc. 5. Act V. sc. 3. CAPULET, head of a house, at variance An old Man, uncle to Capulet. Appears, Act I. sc. 5. ROMEO, son to Montague. Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 5. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3; sc. 4; sc. 6. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 3; sc. 5. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 3. MERCUTIO, kinsman to the Prince and friend to Romeo. Appears, Act I. sc. 4. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 4. Act III. sc. 1. BENVOLIO, nephew to Montague, and friend to Romeo. Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 5. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 4. Act III. sc. 1. TYBALT, nephew to Lady Capulet. Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 5. Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 5. FRIAR LAURENCE, a Franciscan. Appears, Act II. sc. 3; sc. 6. Act III. sc. 3. Act V. sc. 2; sc. 3. FRIAR JOHN, a Franciscan. Appears, Act V. sc. 2. BALTHASAR, servant to Romeo. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 3. SAMPSON, servant to Capulet. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. GREGORY, servant to Capulet. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. ABRAM, servant to Montague. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. |
