KEATS'S EVE OF ST. AGNES'.

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She guides Porphyro till

He found him in a little moonlit room,

Pale, latticed, chill, and silent as a tomb.

The grouping here is intended both to give a picture and to inbue it with the feelings of cold and loneliness. For the picture, the helps are 'little,' 'latticed,' 'moonlit,' and 'pale'-size, form, and illumination; by no means an effective grouping, especially in the arrangement given. The comparison, 'silent as a tomb,' is apt and powerful, in spite of commonness.

Stanza XV. Of the old woman it is said

Feebly she laugheth in the languid moon

a harmonizing conjunction between the weakness of the old creature and the scenic embodiment. The force of the combination eludes analysis; it aims at being poetical, but may possibly be lost upon the mass of readers.

Through many a dusky gallery, they gain

The maiden's chamber, silken, hush'd and chasteintended to be suggestive, both of a picture and of the purity of Madeline; and to a certain limited extent answers the end.

The poet's genius is, however, reserved for the sleeping casement and the maiden herself. Stanza XXIV. gives an elaborate picture, which admits of being examined for the laws of description, while the emotional keeping is one of Keats's successes in the art.

In Stanza XXV. Madeline is seen at her devotions:-
:--

As down she knelt for heaven's grace and boon;
Rose-bloom fell on her hands together prest,
And on her silver cross soft amethyst,

And on her hair a glory, like a saint:

She seemed a splendid angel, newly drest,
Save wings, for heaven.

There is little attempt at giving a picture, but the images are all emotionally suitable to a pure and saintly beauty.

In Stanza XXVI. :

:

Unclasps her warmed jewels one by one;
Loosens her fragrant boddice; by degrees
Her rich attire creeps rustling to her knees;
Half hidden, like a mermaid in seaweed.

The poet here wakens our different senses with his suggestive imagery-warmth, fragrance, rustling sound; and goes far to disclose to us a beautiful naked figure, made more impressive by active and partial concealment.

The greatest effect remaining is in Stanza XXXVI., where the emotion of Porphyro, on being addressed in earnest love tones by

Madeline, is described by the highest intensity of subjective language, aided by objective settings.

As a narrative and descriptive poem, there is a defect of setting in the surrounding scene.

Time past lends itself to Pathos in various ways. To recall the fortunes of those that have passed away may awaken a pathetic interest, as well as the admiration of greatness and the detestation of tyrants and oppressors. Horace Smith's Mummy' is an attempt to imagine Egyptian life and history, through the survival of one human frame. A short example of the same kind is seen in Keats's 'Nightingale':

The voice I hear this passing night was heard

In ancient days by emperor and clown:

Perhaps the self-same song that found a path

Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn.

This bold device is not always successful; it must come as a surprise, and have more than usual appropriateness.

The examples may be fittingly closed with Matthew Arnold's little Ode-Requiescat. The pathos of Death, as deliverance from trouble and life-weariness, is enhanced by the fine touches of character; the writer's own sympathies concurring.

Strew on her roses, roses,

And never a spray of yew!
In quiet she reposes;

Ah! would that I did too.

Her mirth the world required;
She bathed it in smiles of glee.
But her heart was tired, tired,
And now they let her be.

Her life was turning, turning,
In mazes of heat and sound;
But for peace her soul was yearning,
And now peace laps her round.

Her cabin'd, ample spirit,

It fluttered and failed for breath;

To-night it doth inherit

The vasty hall of death.

'The vasty hall of death' suggests the remark that the poetry of death has passed from the pathos of pure negation, as in Job-'Ye shall seek me in the morning, but I shall not be—to the imagination of something positive, however vague.

VITUPERATION. THE LUDICROUS.

There is a large department of Literature marked out by the terms-Comic, Ludicrous, Humour, Wit. The effects thus designated admit of critical adjustment.

It is known that Greek Comedy had its rise in the jeering and vituperation exchanged during the processions in honour of the god Dionysus, or Bacchus. At first, this was simply the pleasure of coarse malignity. When, however, the regular comedy was matured, there was still vituperation and ridicule, but accompanied with literary skill and refinement-in consequence of which, the interest survived to after ages. The milder forms of Ridicule, such as we now term the Ludicrous and Humour, were cultivated along with those severer outbursts, whereby Comedy was rendered a weapon of denunciation in the conflicts of political parties. But even the mildest forms could not dispense with vilifying, degrading or otherwise maltreating persons, institutions and other objects commanding veneration or respect.

This brings us round once more to the seemingly inexhaustible pleasure of Malignity, already referred to as prominent in the Quality of STRENGTH (p. 64). There is a gradual shading, from the effects described under Strength to the present class; the extremes being sufficiently wellmarked. From the Sublime to the Ridiculous is a considerable step yet, if we start from the malignant Sublime, the descent is natural and easy. Without some infusion of malignancy, the Comic would lose its force, Humour its unction.

VITUPERATION.

1. In approaching the Comic, the Ridiculous, the Ludicrous, we may halt at the kindred effect, named VITUPERATION.

To vituperate, abuse, vilify, denounce, calumniate, satirize, is so far a distinct operation; it may or may not be accompanied by the ludicrous, although at all times in near alliance with that quality. Every language possesses

a vocabulary suited to the purpose. There is a gross form, consisting of the unstinted employment of vilifying epithets; and a more refined method, by which it is possible either to increase the severity, or to reconcile it better with our sympathies.

Artistic vituperation, like other emotional excellence, needs, besides a large command of the vocabulary of abuse, original combinations and illustrations; the figures of epigram, innuendo and irony; rhythm of language, and the intellectual arts of style-simplicity, clearness and impressiveness.

In Dramatic Dialogue, and in the verbal encounters preparatory to life-and-death struggles in poetry and romance, may be found exemplified the highest arts of vituperative eloquence.

Vituperation enters especially into Oratory, as a means of gaining conviction. Nearly all great orators afford examples of invective. Demosthenes and Cicero have been censured for the occasional violence and coarseness of their abuse of opponents; in other words, it was too little veiled and redeemed by the arts and graces of style.

The management of invective with a view to effect is exemplified both in ancient and in modern literature, whether as oratory or as poetry.

The speeches of Achilles in the first Iliad are powerful and stinging invective, and yet not coarse, if we consider the intensity of the hero's rage. He denounced Agamemnon for cowardice, as well as injustice and robbery. The language is dignified as well as strong: hearers in after times would regard it as thoroughly deserved, and consequently would enjoy its severity to the full. innuendo of the lines-

So much 'tis safer through the camp to go,

And rob a subject, than despoil a foe

The

is a tremendous sarcasm. The threat that he utters is also dignified although plainly stated, and is redeemed by an appeal to the gods, to whom he professes submission.

In Julius Caesar (V. 1.), where Shakespeare brings together Antony and Octavius on one side and Brutus and Cassius on the other for a battle of words before Philippi, the dramatic and narrative elements of verbal encounter before the real fight are combined. To Brutus' colourless query Words before blows: is it so, countrymen?' comes

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SPECIAL CONDITIONS, POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE. Octavius' sudden outbreak-' Not that we love words better, as you do'; and then for thirty lines retort begets retort, each intended to give as much pain as possible. At points they break into set abuse :

Villains, you did not so, when your vile daggers

Hacked one another in the sides of Cæsar :

You showed your teeths like apes, and fawned like hounds,
And bowed like bondmen, kissing Cæsar's feet;

Whilst damnèd Casca, like a cur, behind

Strook Cæsar on the neck. O you flatterers !

Previously had come a retort of more refined execution; the innuendo by praise for the opposite being effective vituperation :

Antony,

The posture of your blows are yet unknown;
But for your words, they rob the Hybla bees,
And leave them honeyless.

2. The more special conditions of Vituperation are analogous to those for Strength and Feeling-(1) Delineation of the Object, (2) Harmonious surroundings, (3) Subjective description.

These three arts are universal in attempting to inspire feeling in connexion with any given object. The object itself must be so described as to affect us emotionally in the way that is intended; while, by selected adjuncts or accompaniments, the effect is still further heightened. Last of all, the speaker's own feelings, and those of concurring parties, must be made to tell upon the minds of the hearers.

It will be seen, in connexion with the Ludicrous, how the second condition-harmonizing adjuncts-can be.made a ruling circumstance in producing the desired effect.

3. The negative condition of restraint and refinement, essential to the malign emotions generally, is here particularly called for.

The instrument of malignity being, not blows but words, its regulation is purely a matter of verbal adjustment.

4. Plausibility must be carefully attended to, when denunciation is unusually strong.

As we have to be, in part at least, satisfied with the justice of the incrimination, our misgivings must be kept down by a plausible rendering. In a weak case, there is required all the greater skill in the management.