The Arkansas advocate., 1834-10-10
AN ESSAY.


 AIS ESSAY, By member of the Lille Rock DeJdting
 Society, upon she comparaiius genius of SHAKESPEARE and BYRoN--gead af c meeting q ths Socieiy.
 coNoLusIoN.
 Let us turn now to his female characters. Few men have succeeded in describing women well. The cast of mind in the two sexes IS so entirely different, that it is difh- cult task. There IS such quick and ap- pareniiy inconsistent variation III women, such power of accommodating herself to circumstances, so much tact, so much ten- derness, so much self command, that he who dellneates women well, is much mightIer master of the human heart than he who succeeds only in describing man. No writer has ever described half so many female characters as Shakespeare, and all radically different. It was enough for Ho- mer to paint Andromache, Helen and Pen- elope, and for Virgil to describe Dido, and that how "lamely and unfashionably. But Shakespeare has drawn many, and none alike. Miranda, educated by her father in lonely isle, IS beautifully painted by one line
 's ] am fool,
 To weep at what am glad of."
 So utterly unsophisticated was she, that she knew not that she coald shed tears of joy. Desdemona is equally innocent, and yet how different. She does not imagine that suspicion could light upon her--and yet we as distinctly know Miranda from her, as we do any acquaintance from the other. What glorious character is Isabel Ia, in Measure for Measure, and how excel- lent of their kind, are the two Merry Wives of Windsor. What character was ever drawn like Beatrice, and yet 1t is all nature, and Juliet. and Cordelia. Look into King John, and mark how nicely discriminated are the characters of Elinor and Constance. Observe how in Scene Ist-Act 2d-the keen cutting sarcasms of Elinor produce fury, and fierce flow of vituperation in Katharine, the injured Queen of the eighth Henry, quiet, unpretending, almost tame, but when reused, energetic and bold. Imogen Porta--the maironly Volumnia, with her Roman pride and dignity, and the gentle Yirgilia, are fine contrasts. We have extended this part of the essay too far, and with one example more. we pass unwillingly from it. It is Lady Macbeth To most readers there seems no tie to con- meet this woman to humanity; this Shaks- peare knew, and he gave her one solitary touch of human nature, which suiiices. Sho says, speaking of the murder of Duncan
 C Had he not resembled l My father as lie slept, had done il. :"
 Itis the only sign of human feeling which she ever exhibits.
 Let us turn now 10 Byron. In all his poems-I speak not now of his plays, his male characters are copies of himself. He wrote from his own feelings, he described his own passions in all their vehemence and fire, and with power and spiendor rarely equalled, but the consequence is that he presents us but little variety. Childe Harold, the Corsair, Lara, SeIim, Manfred, even Cain, what are they all but the em- bodying of his own feelings--a and yet they well entitle him to the rank he holds in the worlds estimation. It is for this reason, that hold his tragedies to be fa., far su- perior to all his other works, always except ing Chi!de Harold. There is Marine Fa- Hero, the proud, yindictive, criminal Doge of Venice-of whom may remark, that he IS almost the only character where the pas- sions are traced out with strength and an effect worthy of Shakespeare. There IS the elder Foscari-the stern unbending magis- trate who reminds one of the Brutus who condemned one of his own sons. He ney- CT relents, he never shows the feelings of the father, until Marina tauntingly says, after the death of his son:
 ss Ton feel 1t then at last" What. uous
 Where is now
 fS The stoic of the State?''
 He throws himself on the body, and utters the single word "heye." Nothing was ever superior to it, or to the tone of deep grief and hopeless despair, which he holds through the whole of the fifth act. His death too IS given most rnagni6cently:
 C sovereign should die standing---
 My poor boy.
 Off with your arms! That bellt" It is a splendid conception. There is the younger Foscar, with his young and ten- der heart, full of a strong and wondrous love of country. There is Sardanapalus, the effeminate, luxurious, lazy monarch-- with q generous heart notwithstandinp. but true to his efieminacy, even while fight ing like lion. There is Myrha, singu- lar, hiph-mnded. noble slave. vet with a