OCR Text |
Show 228 THE CODE OF TERPSICHORE. turned into ridicule, and they are, therefore, always moral. H e may, however, be justly reproached with having always represented characters and manners of a vicious description ; a peculiarity in which he excels ; but he should either have made his comedies universal, or have confined himself to exhibiting the characters, mind, and manners of Italians. H e was equal to the task, and Italy might then have been indebted to him for a national comedy. He is an author whose genius is equal to that of the first dramatists, and his works offer to the composer a numerous train of characters, dramatic situations, bright pictures of manners and passions, which may be easily transferred to Ballets of the comic or melo-dramatic class. From some of Goldoni's pieces, also, may be learned the art of arranging a plot, and of raising interest by an adroit progress of the action, without introducing useless episodes or unlooked-for incidents. This is a writer who, possibly, is not always guided by art, but he always follows nature. The greatest poet of England was created and formed by nature, and for her alone. " In works of art, it is the labour and ingenuity that attract attention; but in those of nature we are astonished by the sublime and prodigious." This passage of Longinus may be applied to Shakspeare; he can only be considered as a prodigy of nature : study contributed little to the formation of his mind. He is great, unequal, sublime, fantastic, like his model - nature; and he who can at once imitate his beauties and avoid his defects, may be regarded as one possessed of a happy discrimination. W e might sometimes even suppose that this poet had formed himself upon the Grecian school; for it is well known that, in some ancient tragedies, certain characters were introduced, who, by the jocularity of their manners, witticisms, ribaldry, |