OBSERVANCES OF SHAKSPEARE. 47 



• * * • A strange fish ! 



Were I in England now, (as once I was), 



And had but this fish painted, 



Not a holiday fool there but would 



Give a piece of silver : there would this monster 



Make a man ; any strange beast there 



Makes a man. When they will not give a doit 



To relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten 



To see a dead Indian." 



" Qui credit 

 Stultus stultum vult, ut sit sui similis."* 

 " Et nati natorum et qui nascentur ab illis."-f- 



The monomaniae of Shakspeare's characters, as in The Tempest, 

 Macbeth, Hamlet, Julius Ccesar, &c, outrivals all reasoning. Had 

 Shakspeare been a Pinnel he could not more nicely have delineated 

 '* the mind's extacy." Though spiritual agency is represented in 

 The Tempest, the visitation to Alonzo is called extacy by Gonzalo, 

 to whom also Ariel would have been visible unless he was blinder 

 than Balaam's ass. The guiltless good old lord, Gonzalo, was in- 

 sensible to the appearance, and himself attributes the language of 

 Alonzo, &c, to their " extacy ;" which word Shakspeare uses for 

 any degree of mental alienation. But of this more " anon." 



The situation of Ferdinand and Miranda living for themselves, 

 with such a total giving up of the heart, in the solitude of that 

 lonely isle, is inconceivably beautiful. Byron's Haidee and Juan 

 are more sensual, but far less lovely and pleasing. Haidee quickens 

 the pulse, but Miranda awakens the affections. A model for Eve, 

 " so perfect and so peerless, created of every creature best.'' 



Mrs. Jameson has exquisitely touched the character of Miranda — 

 it is sacred. Prospero, with all his philosophy, is a most subtle dis- 

 cerner. He reasoned like a god, but he felt as a man and a father. 



Prospero to Ferdinand, — " Look thou be true ; do 

 not give dalliance 

 Too much the rein ; the strongest oaths are straw 

 To the fire i' the blood." 



Eve fell knowing no ill ; Miranda could not have sinned, but her 

 innocence made chastity with Ferdinand a double virtue, and he 

 was a Milanese and a courtier. 



• Not in Terence. Free translation, " One fool makes many." 

 f Juvenal. 



