FROM MRS. ELIZABETH CARTER, TO MRS. MONTAGU, BETWEEN THE YEARS 1755 AND 1800. CHIEFLY UPON LITERARY AND MORAL SUBJECTS. PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINALS IN THE POSSESSION OF THE REV, MONTAGU PENNINGTON, M.A. VICAR OF NORTHBOURN IN KENT, AND PERPETUAL CURATE OF ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL, Digni sunt amicitia, quibus in ipsis inest causa cur diligantur. Extremum hunc-mihi concede laborem.-VIRG. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. London : PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON, By R. & R. Gilbert, St. John's-Square, Clerkenwell. 1817. LETTERS TO MRS. MONTAGU. LETTER CX. Deal, August 10, 1768. I HAD the pleasure of receiving your letter, my dear friend, this evening at my return from Wingham, from whence I wrote to you on Wednesday last. My head-ach vexatiously lasted during the whole time of my stay there, which was an unavoidable aliay to my enjoyment of this little excursion, in which I was disposed to find much satisfaction: I think you pretty well agree with my adniration of the Troades, though you do not particularly mention your being struck with that circumstance in the behaviour of Cassandra, which appears to me so perfect a master-piece. I cannot help differing from you a little in the conduct. of Euripides with regard to the character of Hecuba, which seems to me to be perfectly well contrived, and most exquisitely drawn from nature, which would scarcely liave been the case if VOL. II. B he he had confounded the subjects of her lamenta. tion with those of Andromache. Perhaps there is no instance in which Euripides has more discovered the power of his genius, than his representing the different feelings arising in so many different persons from one common distress. It is surely very natural that amidst the pains and helplessness, and decrepitude of old age, the noble and sentimental affections should be weakly exerted, and the attention be chiefly engaged by the loss of the alleviations and comforts of harassed and weary life. The expression of such a regret would have been very improper at the active age of Andromache: but poor old Hecuba's aching bones, for which you seem to have so very little sympathy, every moment reminded her of the inconveniences of a hard bed. Hamlet does not enumerate, but just hints at bodily evils, in the pains that " flesh is heir to :" but however you will allow that no parallel can be drawn between him and Hecuba. The bawling old nurse in Romeo and Juliet had not the softness and pomp of Asiatic and regal luxury to oppose to the wants and hardships of captivity, The circumstances of Lear carry some resemblance to Hecuba, but there is I think a sufficient difference, to justify the different conduct of these two great tragic poets, and exempt each of them from cen sure. sure. Lear had not lost the ideas of sovereign power which he had so lately resigned and his high spirit and unsubdued pride, made him feel the sudden and astonishing change of his situation, to a degree which left him little leisure to attend to the bodily part of his sufferings, and raised his passions to a height, which Shakespear has most judiciously terminated in madness. I deliver up Neptune and Pallas, and the whole mob of heathen divinities with very little compunction to the secular arm of your severest criticism. The ancient poets understood human nature, but were absurd and puerile to a strange degree, whenever they attempted to describe divine intelligences. Even Homer, who had so extensive and astonishing a knowledge in the whole circle of human things, is so miserably deficient in his representations of the deity, that his Jupiter often appears as contemptible and ridiculous as the hero of a puppet show. Mr. Thomson's Agamemnon is a noble tragedy, It is some time since I read it: but I think it is Eschylus, and not Euripides, whom he copies in his Cassandra. I hope you will as fast as possible get rid of all remaining sympathy with my head-ach. Mine is a very unimportant head to the world either of business or of literature, and may act sans consequence; B 2 |