The Arkansas advocate., 1834-10-03

nation, and we do not wonder al the char acter, because it IS so aotsgdI. There is nothing like this in Byron. and I may add, there IS nothing like 1t among the Greek or Roman Poets. But the character of lago is equally as fine. When we first see him we find him an unprincipled, time-serving scoundrel, but 1t is by slow degrees that he forms the plans of iniquity which produce the denoement of the tragedy--at first he had formed no idea of exciting OtheIlo's jealousy, and when he did form it, 1t grew oat Of bis unpriacipied principle. If may use the expression,) of serving himself, and getting promotion, no matter at what ex- pense.
 We are not introduced at once to the madness of Lear, or the half-rational erazi- ness of Hamlet. We see them sane at first. and we fellow tho great magician as he traces the aberration of reason, and the be- wilderment Of intellect III both. We see the very writings m the mind of Brutus when he listens to the advances of Cassius, and we are not surprised when he agrees to slaughter his friend for the good of Rome. which that friend would enslave. We are not astoEished, for ace feel hot ipe should boue done tt ouselUes. We are prepared for the atrocities of Richard the Third, for we see him from his youth upward, and hls iniquities and murders follow naturally, one on the heels of Inc other. Timon is shown to us in his generosity and philanthropy, and we mark his change to misanthropy. And here may remark, although 1t be somewhat out of place, that Byron would have taken Timon in his misanthropy, and he would have shown us the fierce and bit- ter feelings of his heart with tremendous power--it would have been Timon, but not the Timon of Shakespeare. The character would have been imperfect, because we should have had no remembrance of his former nature. The shading of the paint ing would have been wanting. We not only see Coriolanus a patriot, but we see him forced to become a traitor. Byron would only have shown him to us after he became patricide, and fearful indeed would the picture have been.
 Commencing with Childe Harold, we find his nature altered when we meet him, he IS already a soured and disappointed man, one estranged from the world--No change comes over him while we follow him i'll his wanderings, and when we leave him, 1t is Ghilde Harold still,--the same
 lover of nature and scorner of mankind. 1t
 is the state of his passions that IS painted Wvidly and terribly to us--it is not their de-
 velopment and increase. We find his heart 1 already scathed and blasted, but we have
 not seen the lightning or the mildew which
 had been there--Shakspeare would have
 shown us that, and Harold would have
 been allied to us, as one that had iored
 humanity. We find the nature of Se-
 linn in the Bride of AIydos, and of the
 stern Corsair, already formed The lat-
 ter is magnificent character. Nothing
 but high and towering strength of intel-
 lect, nothing but an astonishing genius
 could have invented this character. But stil he comes upon us at once in all his proportions. He stands before us at the
 outset as terrible embodying of passion,
 fearful and strange being. We see the
 most wonderful painting of passion and
 stern energy, but it Is passion that neith-
 CT ebbs nor flows. We see no develop
 ment of character--no creating of passion
 no deduction of one from the other. He is
 the same being throughout the whole the same Tn Lara, as in the Corsair. Par lsina too is brought before us suddenly, after she has become a guilty and lost wretch. We see her as she IS described. I 1t IS true. We acknowledge the power of the Poet, but we also acknowledge that in the hands of Shakespeare, the progress of her passions towards crime would have been traced with an anatomical accuracy. which requires mightier genius than the mere description of the agony of remorse, and the horror of a guilty conscience.
 There are some exceptions in Byron to this general rule, which shall speak of hereafter. At present. without multiplying to any greater extent the examples support-
 ing my position, simply remark that each one will judge for himself of the relative power required to treat character in two ways so thoroughly different. think, how ever, that it will ro: De denied, that # re-. quIres far more intimate acquaintance with the human heart to trace it's passions from their source than to take them in ono strong light, and to describe them as un- changing and changeless.
 Ipass, now to the variety and discrimi- nation of character. Hi certainly no com- mon merit to describe one character alone. as Byron has described Childe Harold but 1t IS most wondrous power 10 be able to invent thousand different, to mark ex- acty the shades of difference, and to SUD- port every character so thatit shall not con- tradlct itself. A wide field is opened to ma here and u;tb yo,,r ,a~,,;.; T-.