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Show THE COMPOSITION OF BALLETS. 163 is to produce gentle, agreeable, and sometimes even terrible sensations. Love has been employed in a masterly manner by the authors of Phedre and Zayre. These great poets will teach in what method love, of all passions the finest and most powerful, contributes to delight us on the stage; they were the organs of nature, which, together with their works, should be studied as models and guides. The exalted stateliness of Corneille's genius appears above describing the scenes and events of this passion, which he has frequently treated in an episodical and even insipid style in his tragedies. In Alfieri, love is generally no more than secondary and accessary, excepting in the fine tragedy of Myrrha. The harmonious Metastasio, however, is a worthy rival of the great Racine, who may be termed the poet of the heart. The former treated the tender passion in a most elevated style; but what merits remark in him is, that a moral may frequently be traced in his most seductive scenes; he is superior to Alfieri in pathos. However, instances of tragic terror are to be found in his productions. His characters are drawn very much in the manner of Corneille. The delightful Qui-nault is also another dramatic model; he is tender, impassioned, and sometimes even sublime ; his descriptions are frequently equal to the pictures of Correggio and Guido. Apostolo Zeno is full ofdramatic fire and feeling, and treats on the passions with great energy. Shakspeare is another great painter of the passions ; the truth and vigour of his conceptions are equally astonishing. Nature is his model, and his creations are not, in any particular, inferior to her. His pathos is often overpowering and sublime; his works are a mine, the gold of which must be extracted with care. In m y opinion, however, the Avonian bard should not be consulted until after all the other great authors have |