Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

1

20. Hamlet reflecting on his Irresolution.

MEDITATIVE MANNER:

Deepens into Solemnity; assumes & Decision.

-Whether it be

Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on the event, -

(A thought, which quartered, hath but one part

wisdom,

And ever three parts coward,) I do not know Why yet I live to say, This thing's to do,

Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and

means,

To do't. What is man,

If his chief good and market of his time

Be but to sleep and feed? a beast; no more.
1 Sure He that made us with such large discourse
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and God-like reason

To rust in us unused. About, my brains!

[ocr errors][merged small]

That guilty creatures, sitting at a play

Have, by the very cunning of the scene,

Been struck so to the soul, that presently

They have proclaimed their malefactions:

2

* I'll have these players

Play something like the murder of my father

Before my uncle: I'll observe his looks;

I'll tent him to the quick; If he do blench,
I know my course: the play, the play's the

thing

Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

SHAKSPEARE.

21. General Wolfe to his Army before Quebec, 1759.

VEHEMENT EXPRESSION:

Encouragement, Indignant Anger, Plain Narration, Pride and Ardour, Contempt, Firmness, Contempt, Firmness, Plain Narration, 1o Ardour, "Firmness, 12 Cheerful Resignation.

1

1I congratulate you, my brave countrymen and fellow soldiers, on the spirit and success with which you have executed this important part of our enterprise. The formidable Heights of Abraham are now surmounted, and the city of Quebec, the object of all our toils, now stands in full view before you. 2 A perfidious enemy who have dared to exasperate you by their cruelties, but not to oppose you on equal ground, are now constrained to face you on the open plain, without ramparts or entrenchments to shelter them.

*You know too well the forces that compose their army, to dread their superior numbers. A few regular troops from old France, weakened by hunger and sickness, * who, when fresh, were unable to withstand British soldiers, are their general's chief dependence.

5 Those numerous

I

companies of Canadians, insolent, mutinous, unsteady, and ill-disciplined, have exercised his utmost skill to keep them together to this time; and as soon as their irregular ardour is damped

6

by one firm fire, they will instantly turn their backs, and give you no further trouble but in the pursuit. As for those savage tribes of Indians, whose horrid yells in the forests have struck many a bold heart with affright, terrible as they are with the tomahawk and scalping knife to a flying and prostrate foe, you have experienced how little their ferocity is to be dreaded by resolute men upon fair and open ground: you can now only consider them as the just objects of a severe revenge for the unhappy fate of many slaughtered countrymen.

• This day puts it into your power to terminate the fatigues of a siege, which has so long employed your courage and patience. 10 Possessed with a full confidence of the certain success which British valour must gain over such enemies, I have led you up these steep and dan. gerous rocks, only solicitous to shew you the foe within your reach. The impossibility of a retreat makes no difference in the situation of men " resolved to conquer or die : 12 and believe me, my friends, if the conquest could be bought with the blood of your general, he would most cheerfully resign a life, which he has long de. voted to his country.

AIKIN.

22. Marcellus reproving the fickleness of the

Roman Mob.

VEHEMENT EXPRESSION:

* Contempt and Reproach, Eagerness and Admiration, Contempt and Reproach, 5 Anger.

Wherefore rejoice? That Cæsar comesin triumph!
What conquests brings he home?
What tributaries follow him to Rome
To grace, in captive bonds, his chariot wheels ?
1 You blocks, you stones, you worse than sense-

less things,

O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome!
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
Have you climbed up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The livelong day in patient expectation
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome.
And when you saw his chariot but appear,
3 Have you not made a universal shout,
That Tiber trembled underneath his banks
To hear the replication of your sound,
Made in his concave shores?

* And do you now put on your best attire ?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood?

[blocks in formation]

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, Pray to the Gods to intermit the plagues That needs must light on this ingratitude. SHAKSPEARE.

23. David's Lamentation over Saul and

2

3

Jonathan

PLAINTIVE EXPRESSION :

4

6

Shame, Reproach; Vaunting, Plaintive, Vaunting, Plaintive.

2

The beauty of Israel is fallen upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, nor rain upon you, nor fields of offerings for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil. From the blood. of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty. They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in death they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me thy love to

5

4

3

« AnteriorContinuar »