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this respect the peculiarities of Shakespeare's genius are no where more forcibly illustrated than in the play we are here considering. The champions of Greece and Troy, from the hour in which their names were first recorded, had always worn a certain formality of attire, and marched with a slow and measured step. No poet till this time, had ever ventured to force them out of the manner which their epic creator had given them. Shakespeare first suppled their limbs, took from them the classic stiffness of their gait, and enriched them with an entire set of those attributes, which might render them completely beings of the same species with ourselves.

"Yet, after every degree of homage has been paid to the glorious and awful superiorities of Shakespeare, it would be unpardonable in us, on the present occasion, to forget one particular in which the play of TROILUS AND CRESSIDA does not eclipse, but on the contrary falls far short of its great archetype, the poem of Chaucer. This too is a particular, in which, as the times of Shakespeare were much more enlightened and refined than those of Chaucer, the preponderance of excellence might well be expected to be found in the opposite scale. The fact however is unquestionable, that the characters of Chaucer are much more respectable and loveworthy than the correspondent personages in Shakespeare. In Chaucer Troilus is the pattern of an honourable lover, choosing rather every extremity of want and the loss of life, than to divulge, whether in a direct or an indirect manner, any thing which might compromise 62

the reputation of his mistress, or lay open her name as a topic for the vulgar. Creseide, however (as Mr. Urry has observed) she proves at last a false unconstant whore,' yet in the commencement, and for a considerable time, preserves those ingenuous manners and that propriety of conduct, which are the brightest ornaments of the female character. Even Pandarus, low and dishonourable as is the part he has to play, is in Chancer merely a friendly and kind-hearted man, so easy in his temper that, rather than not contribute to the happiness of the man he loves, he is content to overlook the odious names and construction to which his proceedings are. entitled. Not so in Shakespeare: his Troilus shows no reluctance to render his amour a subject of notoriety to the whole city; his Cressida (for example in the scene with the Grecian chiefs, to all of whom she is a total stranger) assumes the manners of the most abandoned prostitute; and his Pandarus enters upon his vile occupation, not from any venial partiality to the desires of his friend, but from the direct and simple love of what is gross, impudent and profligate. For these reasons Shakespeare's play, however enriched with a thousand beauties, can scarcely boast of any strong claim upon our interest or affections.-It may be alleged indeed that Shakespeare, having exhibited pretty much at large the whole catalogue of Greek and Trojan heroes, had by no means equal scope to interest us in the story from which the play receives its name: but this would scarcely be admitted as an adequate apology before an impartial

tribunal."

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