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" so unreasonably," spite of this inconsistency in his 

 character, has been always the centre of interest. It 

 would have satisfied all the dramatic critics, and have 

 rendered the play much more methodical and consistent, 

 no doubt, had he been a trim, courtly personage, talking 

 magniloquent blank verse, in a superb grandiose manner, 

 without salient points, or, it must be added, individuality. 

 But this would have violated that larger consistency and 

 order of construction, necessary to the elucidation of ab- 

 stract and metaphysical principles such as the poet de- 

 sired. The play would have been as popular no doubt 

 had it been more according to rule ; but the attempt was, 

 and the triumph has been, to make such an immethodic, 

 irregular production, popular and attractive too. Success 

 was attained, not by snatching a grace beyond the reach 

 of art, but by an inherent order and method which, if 

 not apparent to every eye, no less existed. An oak, even 

 if not trimmed like a Dutch yew or a box hedge, may 

 still possess vital order and consistency, though perhaps 

 not to Hanseatic minds. In " Eomeo and Juliet," another 

 irregular play, the whole of the incidents and characters 

 seem so naturally bound together, diverse as they ap- 

 pear at first sight, as to resemble those famous temples, 

 which by the removal of a column come crashing down 

 in hideous ruin. Touch but a spring and all the con- 

 struction falls to pieces. Every thing is in order, and 

 from first to last not a word could be spared without in- 

 jury. The story is of violent and unreasoning, violent 

 because unreasoning, passion ; and of an equally im- 

 petuous love and hate. The ardent Eomeo, witli an 

 impulsive and riotuos desire, alternates between the 

 heights of a blissful and most passionate love and the 

 depths of the most profound despair. His course is 

 between the utmost extremes. He seeks death as he 

 sought his love ; his life and his hopes are as violently 



