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Show 518 THE CODE OF TERPSICHORE. In comic and pastoral compositions, I have many times remarked affectation in the place of naivete", and gaudy decoration instead of pure simplicity. Of compositions which are thus offensive to good taste, we may say what Cazotte said of Fontenelle: " The shepherd's pipe is bedecked with lace, and his sheep stray about adorned with collars of rose-coloured riband*." Authors of every description, when copying nature, frequently attempt to improve, or actually injure, her features, according to their own manner of looking at her, or to attain some particular object which they have in view ; thus, as it has been well remarked, Corneille represents his heroes such as they should have been ; Racine, such as they really are ; Crebillon, such as they should not have been ; and Voltaire, such as they would have wished to be. The productions, however, of these great men are models, which, together with those of England, Italy, and Germany, we should study in such a manner as to enable us to select with taste, so as to ameliorate the art we profess. Shakspeare t, in the representation of characters, is a great master ; he gives us nature as he found her-simple or mixed, base or sublime, odious or charming. Here he thunders like Homer; there he paints like Moliere; sometimes he is a Caravaggio, sometimes a Tiziano ; here we are lifted to the skies by his magic powers; there he * La musette du berger est garnie de dentelles, et ses moutons ont des colliers faits de rubaris de couleur de rose. f Always let it be remembered the author speaks of our immortal bard only from translations, and yet w e see he displays a very proper idea; could he read him in the original, w e can easily imagine he would soon present us with his inimitable pieces in all the expressive majesty of the gestic art. R. B. |