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Show 214 THE CODE OF TERPSICHORE. tion furnishes also a great variety of characters and passions, developed in scenes alternately serious and gay. The Avonian bard is often successful in this medley of tragedy and comedy ; he handles with ease the pencil of yEschylus and the pen of Moliere, painting with equal talent the comic and the sublime. If Denina* and some others had taken the trouble to observe this, they might have spared themselves their unjust criticisms upon this celebrated man. It must be repeated, that discernment is necessary in the choice of ornament and effect. The theory of bad composers, who, without taste or genius, would impose upon the multitude by noise and show, is similar to that of many play-wrights, who suppose that every thing to be found in nature will produce an effect upon the stage ; and, provided that some emotions are awakened, and a certain quantity of tears shed, they trouble not themselves about the means by which that object is attained. This new system of poetics appears to have been created by some German writers. I prefer the Proverbes Dramatiques of Carmontelle to all such extravagant and unmeaning commotion as attain no useful end. The pleasant morality spread over this work amuses the mind, and becomes extremely serviceable. While discoursing on the different styles, it will not be unseasonable to say something on the romantic, and such productions as may prove useful to the composer, by introducing variety into his works. A fragment of M . Chaus-sard, relating to this subject, may furnish a kind of preface to our observations. " The followers of the romantic," says he, " declare that imagination alone is the essential soul of poetry. The classics, on the other hand, lay it down as a principle, that reason and imagination united is the essence of poetry. * A celebrated literary character of Italy. |