Sunbury American and Shamokin journal. [volume] (Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa.) 1840-1848, 1843-04-08
Comets.

at one time favorite amusement among tho
wits Of the Literary Club to search out in
SBAKspEAR some Characteristic touch that hit
of the character Of each one of them, and of e.
very one known to them. The search, il is
said, was seldom made in vain for the range
of SHAKsPEARs genius seems to have included
almost every variety ofhuman character. Ma
turalists of the present century have further
declared that in his allusions to natural objects,
such as minerals, trees, flowers. precious stones,
and the like, Shakspear has almost invariably
given to each some Characteristic expression
marking is individuality with an accuracy and
truthfulness to nature altogether wonderful.
Nor could this felicity of discrimination have
proceeded from scientific knowledge of the
things described. 1t was the instinct of genius
which thus caught the inward essence, as it
were, off every object-that quick and delicate
sympathy whereby is intmated the unity Of
spirit pervading all creation and harmonizng
the mind OF man with the external nature a
round him.
With that all-grasping observation which
took in the vast and the minute, the common
and the strange, using all as elements where
with the creative imaginatons fashioned forth
lis forms Of beauty, grace and grandeur, it
could scarcely happen that such portentious
things as Comets could escape the eye Of Po.
ct Since the appearance Of the strange visi-
tor whose evening light frightening the West
ern horizon has for some time past attracted the
attention of gazers, a condemndnble curiosity
has prompted many to search out in the Ency-
clopedias and books Of science every thing that
could be found relative to the nature of comets,
meteors, zodiacal lights, and such phenomena.
Among other authors we find that SHAKsPEAa
has been consulted and whether his illusions
! 10 comets be " orth more or less in a scienti.
ic way than the disqusitions of the philo,o.
pliers, he has undoubtedly expressed them in q
more striking manner and perhaps we may
add that he has employed comets in the way
! in which men have hitherto made them useful
that is in the service ofpoetry.
Here follow some passages. The play Of
King Henry VI. opens with the following ex-
clamation from Bedford:
|
| night
! Comets. importing change Of times and states,
| BrsndIsh your chrystll ,resses in the sky.
| And with them scourge the bad, revolving stars,
That have consented unto Henry's death !"
When GLEsDowER boasts to HorspUR, in
Henry w of his own importance and extraor-
dinary character, he says:
lat nv nativity
| The front Of Heaven wa, foil OF fery sb ,pes
| Ofburnng cressets."
In the same play the King thus speaks to
WoRCEsrER, who had been in rebellion:
-"Move in that obedisnt orb again,
Where you did give a fair and natural light;
| And he no more an eIhaed meteor,
| A prodigy Of fear and q porent
or preached mischief to the unborn iimes"
When CALrnuRNIA wishes 10 dissuade CT
sAR from going to the Capitol on the Ijes Of
March, she relates the strange appearance that
had been seen in the heavens during the night,
and says:
"When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death Of
Princes"
CJEsAR's noble reply intimates that there
, are wonders more strange than those seen in
the sky:
"Cowards die many times before their death;
The valiant never taste of death but once,
Of all the wonders that vet have heard,
II seems 10 me most strange that man should
fear;
Seeing that death q necessary end,
viii come when it will come"
| BARDoLPH's nose occasions numerous re-
ferences to all sorts of fiery phenomena (;
it is likened to meteor, an ignis iatuus it
is a bonfire, perpetual illumination.
Other poets have used comets for the illumi.
nation of their pages. The passage in MiLTos
describing the fearful potent as shaking "pesti.
lence from his horror hair" is familiar enough,
The same poet says:
AS when, to warn proud cities war appears
Waged in thetroubltd sky, and armies rush.
To battle in the clouds"
Gray says of the bard:
Loose his heard and hoary hair
S,reamed like meteor to the troubled air."
We note palpable contradiction in this
last quotation. The heard and hair o. the bard
to resemble meteor must have been red--yet
the latter is called "hoary" or white. We
pass it over as poetisal license-But Shaks.
pear would never have made such mistake.
Comets have been regarded in all ages by
the multitude as portending fearful things and
this age is not unlike preceding ones in thai
respect. The strange visitor now in the hca
vens is looked upon by many as foreboding NJ
| lessa calamity than the destruction of the