Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1854-08-24

headed boy creeping up those Stare, zeal
Gus to explore the mysteries of that dark
garrett There perhaps he saw the cat, with
"eyne Of burning coal, crouching fore the
mouse's hole" Doubtless in this old gar
re, were wonderful mysteries to him, curl
Gus stores of old cas-of goods end fu'ni-
ture, and rats, and micr, and cobwebs.
fancied the indignation Of some belligeren!
grandmother or aunt, who finds Willie up
there watching a mouse hole, with the cat,
and has him down straigh.way, gr1mblIng
.ha, Mary did not govern that child7ee''er.
We know nothing who this Mary was
that was his mother; bu. one sometimes
wonders where in that coarse ege, when
queens and ladies talked familiarly, as wo-
men would blush 10 talk now, and when the
broad coarse wi, Of the Merry Wives OF
Windsor was gotten up 70 sui. the taste OF
virgin queen,-one wonders, ] say, when
women were such and so, where he found
those models of lily like purity, women SO
chas.e in soul and pure in language that
they could not even bring their lips to Ut
ter word of shame. Desdemona cannot
even bring herself TO speak the coarse word
with which her husband launts her; she
cannot make herself believe ,ha. there are
women in The world who could stoop 10
such grossness.
| | canno, but think, in lha, beautiful scene,
where he represents Desdemona as amazed
and struck dumb with the grossness and
brutality Of the charges which had been
thrown upon her, YET so dignlfed in the
consciousness of her own purity, SO mag
unanimous in the power OF oisinteresled. for
giving love, that he was porTaying no ideal
excellence, bu, only reproducing, under fic-
.i,ous and supposi,ious circumstances, the
patience, and magnanimity, and enduring
love which had shone upon him in the
household words and ways of his mother.
Tha. Milton read and admired Shaks-
peure is eviden, from his allusion TO him in
L'Allegro. II is evident, however, that
Mil,on's taste had been SO formed by the
Greek models, that be was no! entirely a.
ware of all that was in Shakespeare; he
speaks of him as sweet, fanciful warbler,
and j. is exactly in sweetness and fancitul-
ness that he seems to have derived benefi.
from him. 10 his earlier poems, Milton
] seems, like Shak speare. TO have Lei his mind
run freely, as brook wsrbles over many
colored pebbles whereas in bis grea. poem
he built after models. Had he known as
l.,le Latin and Greek as Shakespeare, the
world, instead Of seeing well-arranged i'm
i,a,ion Of the ancien, epics from his pen,
would have seen inaugurated new order OF
poetry.
An unequaled artist, who should build af-
ter the model Of Grecian temple, would
doubtless produce splendid and effective
building, because a certain originality al
ways inheres in genius, even when copying;
but far greater were il to inven. an entirely
new style Of architecture, as different ss the
Gothic from the Grecian. This merit was
Shak speare's. He was superb Gothic po-
ct; Milton, a magnificent imi,a.or of old
forms, which by his genius were wrought
almos. into the energy Of new productions.
think Shakespeare is to Milton precisely
wha. Golhlc architecture is 10 Grecian, or
rather TO the warmest, most vltaIlzed repro
duclions Of the Gfecian there is in Milton
a calm, severe majesty, graceful and pol
shed inforescence Of ornament, that pro-
duces, as you look upon it, serene, long
strong ground-swell of admiration and ap-
proval. Yel there is cold unity of express
sion, that calls into exercise only The very
highes, range Of our faculties there is none
of that wreaIhed invoulion of smiles and
tears, solemn earnes,ness and quaint con-
ceits; those sudden uprushIngs of grand
and magnificent sentiment, like the flame
pointed arches of ca.hedrals ; those ranges
of fancy, half goblin, half human; those
complications Of dizzy magnificence with
fairy lighlness; those s!reamings of many
colored ligh! those carvings wherein every
natural objec. is faithfully reproduced, yet
combined in kind of enchantmenl; the
union of all these is in Shakespeare, and
no, in Milton Milton had one mos! glori-
Gus phase Of humanity in its perfection !;
Shakespeare had all united from the ''deeP
and dreadful" sub-bass Of The organ to the
most aerial warbling Of its highes! key, mol
d stop or pipe was wanting.
Tha. Shakespeare had religious principle,
infer not merely from the indications OF his
will and tombstone, but from those strong
evidences of the workings Of the religious ell
ement which are scattered through his plays.
No man could have clearer perception OF
Gods authority end mans duty no one
has expressed more forcibly the strength
Of G DDS government, the spirituality OF his
requirements, or shown with more fearful
power the struggles of the claw in the
members warning against the law OF The
mind"
These evidences, scattered through his
plays, of deep religious struggles, make pro-
babe The idea that, in the latter, thoughtful,
and tranquil years of his life, devotional i'm
pulses might have settled into habits, and
sha. The solemn language Of his will, in
which he processes his faith in Christ, was
no. me,e form. Probably ne had ell his
life, even in his gayes! hours, more real re.