118 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 250. 



hence all that belongs to Ariel belongs to the 

 pleasure the mind is capable of receiving from 

 external appearances. His answers to Prospero 

 are directly to the question and nothing beyond; 

 or where he expatiates, which is not unfrequently, 

 it is upon his own delights, or upon the unnatural 

 situation in which he is placed, though under a 

 kindly power and to good ends. 



" Shalcspeare has properly made Ariel's very 

 first speech characteristic of him. After he has 

 described the manner in which he has raised the 

 fitorm, and produced its harmless consequences, 

 we find that he is discontented — that he has been 

 freed it is true from a cruel confinement, but still 

 that he is not at liberty, but bound to obey 

 Prospero and to execute his commands. We feel 

 that such a state of bondage is almost unnatural, 

 yet we see that it is delightful to him to be so 

 employed. It is as if we were to command one of 

 the winds in a different direction to that which 

 nature dictates, or one of the waves, now rising 

 and now sinking, to recede before it bursts upon 

 the shore. Such is the feeling we experience 

 when we learn that a being like Ariel is com- 

 manded to fulfil any mortal behest." 



The lecturer proceeded in this strain for some 

 time, illustrating most emphatically the admirable 

 judgment of Shakspeare in this drama, as well as 

 the astonishing powers of his imagination. He 

 then adverted to the contrast afforded by Caliban. 



*' The character of Caliban (said Coleridge) is 

 wonderfully conceived; he is a creature of the 

 earth, as Ariel is a creature of the air. He par- 

 takes of the qualities of the brute, but is distin- 

 guished from brutes in two ways — by having 

 understanding without moral reason, and by not 

 possessing the instincts which pertain to mere 

 animals. Still, in some respects, Caliban is a noble 

 being ; the poet has raised him far above con- 

 tempt ; he is a man in the sense of the imagina- 

 tion ; all the images he uses are highly poetical ; 

 they fit in with the images of Ariel. Caliban 

 gives us images from the earth, Ariel images from 

 the air. Caliban talks of the difficulty of finding 

 fresh water, of the situation of morasses, and other 

 circumstances, which even brute instinct, without 

 the aid of reason, could comprehend. No mean 

 figure is employed by him ; no mean passion dis- 

 played, beyond animal passions and a repugnance 

 to command." 



Surely all this is admirably said, and nicely and 

 philosophically distinguished ; and I seem to have 

 been so sensible of the worth of what was uttered, 

 that my note of this lecture is longer than of any 

 other, with the exception of that upon Romeo and 

 Jvliet, from which I shall select one or two speci- 

 mens. First, I will insert Coleridge's definition 

 of love, which he gave in these terms : 



" Love is a perfect desire of the whole being to 



be united to some thing or some being, felt neces- 

 sary to its completeness, by the most perfect 

 means that nature permits and reason dictates." 



Upon this idea of the imperfectness of ofte sex, 

 which is always striving after perfection by unit- 

 ing itself with the other sex, the lecturer mainly 

 relied, and he followed up his definition (after a little 

 enlargement and explanation) by these remarks : 



" Love is not, like hunger, a mere selfish appe- 

 tite: it is an associative quality. The hungry 

 savage is nothing but an animal, thinking only of 

 the satisfaction of his stomach. What is the first 

 effect of love, but to associate the feeling with 

 every object in nature : the trees whisper, the 

 roses exhale their perfumes, the nightingales sing 

 — nay, the very skies smile in unison with the 

 feeling of true and pure love. It gives to every 

 object in nature a power of the heart, without 

 which it would indeed be spiritless, a mere dead 

 copy. 



" Shakspeare has described this passion in 

 various states and stages ; beginning, as was most 

 natural, with love in the young. Does he open 

 his play with making Romeo and Juliet in love 

 at first sight, at the earliest glimpse, as any ordi- 

 nary thinker would do? Certainly not: he knew 

 what he was about, and how he was to accomplish 

 what he was about. He was to develop the whole 

 passion, and he commences with the first elements 

 — that sense of imperfection, that yearning to 

 combine itself with something lovely. Romeo 

 became enamoured of the idea he had formed in 

 his mind; and then, as it were, christened the 

 first real being of the contrary sex as endowed 

 with the perfections he desired. He appears to 

 be in love with Rosaline ; but, in truth, he is in 

 love only with his own idea. He felt that neces- 

 sity of being beloved, which no noble mind can be 

 without. Then our poet — our poet who so well 

 knew human nature — introduces Romeo and 

 Juliet, and makes it nut only a violent but a 

 permanent love; a point for which Shakspeare 

 has been ridiculed by the ignorant and uiitliink- 

 ing. Romeo is first represented in a state most 

 susceptible of love ; and then, seeing Juliet, he 

 took and retained the infection." 



I consider myself fortunate to have been able 

 to rescue such jmints as these from the oblivion to 

 which I fear Coleridge's other lectures are de- 

 stined ; and I will add a single short paragraph 

 regarding a class of characters that has hitherto 

 excited little observation. 



" As I may not have another opportunity, the 

 introduction of Friar Lawrence into this tragedy 

 enables me to remark upon the different manner 

 in which Shakspeare has treated the priestly 

 character, as compared with other writers. In 

 Beaumont and Fletcher priests are represented as 

 a vulgar mockery ; and, as in other of their dramatic 



