INTERESTING AND UNINTERESTING CHARACTERS.

bearing on the progress of a story. Shakespeare's Hamlet and Lear.

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We need refer only to

Not far removed in point of misfortune is idiotcy; yet this is also turned to account. If the subject is amiable, our pity warms into affection; if the opposite, the idiot may still be made use of, as an instrument of punishment and annoyance to those that deserve such treatment. The half-witted fool or jester, with his ingenious, irresponsible sallies, was once a favourite in courts. Nevertheless, an idiot as such is not a subject of interest; and Coleridge charges Wordsworth's treatment of his 'Idiot Boy' with serious defects.

Poverty and squalor are of themselves repellent; and are admissible only by the help of special_management. When the poor exemplify the amiable and self-denying virtues, they command respect. Their condition can also be redeemed by the display of contented mirth and jollity, as by Burns in The Jolly Beggars'; or by heroic defiance'A man's a man for a' that'. A king reduced to poverty, like Edipus, is a tragic hero. Abundant effects of the humorous have often been derived from the class.

Silliness would seem the most intractable of all qualities. Yet, silly persons are often rendered interesting, their silliness being skilfully guided for effect; as in Shakespeare's Justice Shallow, Slender, and his host of clowns. Marlowe's Mycetes, in the Tambulaine,' is a purely silly character, and being unredeemed by treatment, is only irritating.

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Badness or criminality can be employed in order to set off the good, and to give scope for signal retribution. Tragedy requires distinguished crimes as a part of its essence. Even such a crabbed personage as Thersites, in the Iliad, becomes interesting by the condign and summary punishment administered by Ulysses: but for which the character would have been inadmissible.

While the range of interesting characters is necessarily great, when they are rightly handled, it does not follow, as is sometimes said, that all characters are alike interesting if fully revealed.

The multiplication and harmonious unfolding of character types is one of the great achievements of literature. To the characters actually presented in History, has been added an equal number, of not inferior interest, in Poetry and Fiction.

SUBJECTS.

The emotional effects of Art compositions are due in part to the SUBJECTS chosen.

The Subjects of the poetic art are partly Humanity and partly what lies beyond it-Animal and Vegetable life, and the Inanimate world at large. In both spheres, there are numerous objects calculated to inspire agreeable emotion, however unadorned may be their language dress. The poet naturally prefers to deal with this class of things.

Nevertheless, circumstances may lead to the adoption of less suitable subjects: either such as contribute nothing to the pleasure, or such as have the opposite effect. It happens with themes once attractive, that their day of interest has passed. Neither the Iliad nor Paradise Lost now possesses the charm that they originally had; and to future ages their story may be still more repugnant.

Hence, it becomes a part of the criticism of a work of art, to regard first the subject in its own character, before it has been touched by the poet's hand. This enables us to view in separation the combined genius and devices of the treatment, which is alone the measure of poetic power.

Many discussions have arisen as to the fitness of certain subjects for the Grand Epic, commonly reputed the highest of all the kinds of poetry. Milton is understood to have hesitated in his choice before fixing on the 'Fall of Man'. One of his rejections- The Romance of Arthur and the Round Table-has been adopted by Tennyson, although in a form different from the Grand Epic.

Some of Wordsworth's subjects have been felt as a drag, rather than an aid, to his poetical success. (See p. 51.)

The Henriade of Voltaire is condemned by Mr. Morley, on the ground of inadequacy of the subject for Epic treatment. In comparison with the Iliad or Paradise Lost, it is obviously deficient in grandeur of events-in heroic personages, great battles, crimes, disasters and revolutionary changes.

The remarks already made on Character bear principally upon fitness or unfitness for poetic treatment. The consideration of Subject ranges still wider, and includes scenery, incident and juxtaposition of parts in completed works.

PROGRESS OF INTEREST IN NATURE.

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In the subsequent consideration of the special Qualities of Style, the laws of emotional effect will apply alike to the subjects chosen, and to the manner of handling them. The qualifications and disqualifications of particular subjects will be apparent, when their emotional bearing is understood. There will also be seen the poet's art in overcoming defects, by suitable selection and adaptation to the end in view.

NATURE AS A SUBJECT.

Humanity is assumed throughout as the main theme of poetical art. Yet in the world are to be found many other topics, partly interesting in themselves, and partly reflecting the interest proper to human beings.

The topic of Nature interest has been lately reviewed by Professor Veitch, with much illustrative fulness, although with special reference to Scottish Poetry. As more or less pervading the works of great poets, it has to be reckoned with in the Rhetorical art, among the sources of artistic emotion. It will be adverted to in connexion with the leading qualities of style; nevertheless, as a preparation in advance, we may make the following general remarks.

(1) The earliest form of the poetic interest in nature is the alliance with the utilities of life, as in the celebration of the objects of agricultural interest,-the rich pastures, fertile fields and running streams, the trees that give fruit and shade, the animals that are in the service of man. This is the stage of Theocritus and Virgil. It implies, further, a revulsion from the intractable and desert tracts, with their ruthless tenantry of savage animals. The grand forces of nature on their genial side-the sunshine and the fertilizing rain-would contribute to the agreeable picture.

(2) The next stage is the purely disinterested pleasure in nature, not depending on the yield of material products, and not confined to the fruitful land and the helping animals. This is a far higher stretch of imaginative interest, and supposes a great advance in the control of natural powers. As a problem of the workings of the human mind, it is extremely subtle and complicated; and the best clue to its workings is the expression that it has prompted in the most susceptible minds. In the first place, the aspects of Nature furnish a considerable stock of gratification for the higher senses- -sight and hearing. The variegated colouring of earth and sky, of plant and animal life; the sounds of the breeze, the waters and the birds,-give pleasure as mere sense stimulation.

Much more influential, however, is the suggestion of human aspects by the personifying tendency already discussed (p. 21). It

is not simply the likeness to humanity traceable in material objects viewed in repose, it is the far wider range of likeness in the motions and changes that these undergo. The movements of the sun in his daily and yearly rounds can be used to body forth human life, notwithstanding the disparity of the things compared. So with the flow of rivers, and all the multiplied displays of atmospheric effect.

The subtle references to human feelings have even a still larger scope. Much stress is laid by Professor Veitch on the suggestion of the free, as giving the charm to wild nature. The reaction from the multiplied restraints of artificial life yields a joyous rebound of deliverance, and is regarded as such in the forms of poetical expression.

Ruskin tells us that his love of Nature, ardent as it is, depends entirely on the wildness of the scenery-its remoteness from human influences and associations.

Yet further. Not content with tracing resemblances to humanity as such, the poet has often striven to involve the Deity with Nature suggestion. The oldest and most prevalent form of this reference is to rise from the world to its Creator, as in Addison's hymn. A more subtle kind of reference consists in regarding the Deity as 'immanent' or indwelling, and nature as His garment or expression as may be seen in Goethe, and still more in Wordsworth. To this effect, the name Symbolism' is applied. It completes the development of nature interest through the suggestion of personality.

We have in Pope :

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All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul.

Wordsworth thus introduces the sea :

Listen! the mighty Being is awake,

And doth with His eternal motion make
A sound like thunder everlastingly.

(3) It is by minds unusually sensitive and able to express their feelings in the poetic garb, that the mass of mankind are slowly educated to the enjoyment of Nature: a circumstance that indicates the risks encountered by the nature poet. To the average reader the language used must often seem extravagant or hyperbolical and the resources of genius and art are needed by way of redemption.

(4) The treatment of Nature takes two distinct forms. The one consists in making it a main theme, as in Thomson's 'Seasons,' in the poems devoted to particular flowers or animals, and in depicting scenes of grandeur or beauty, as Mont Blanc. The other form is the employment of interesting natural objects as ornament, or harmonious accompaniments and surroundings of human situations. The last is the more usual, but there is no difference between them in the conditions for securing the desired effect.

STRENGTH.

Strength, or the Sublime, as a quality of style, consists in producing by language the grateful emotions attending the manifestation of superior might.

The term Sublimity, or the Sublime, is commonly applied to the highest kinds of Strength. There are other names indicative of the quality, in various aspects and degreesLoftiness, Grandeur, Magnificence; Brilliancy, Animation, Liveliness, Vivacity; Force, Energy, Vigour, Verve. last of these groups might be regarded either as the lower forms of Strength, or as the emotional aspects of the quality designated Impressiveness'.

The

In the celebrated treatise of Longinus On the Sublime, the term (os) is used in a wide sense, being equivalent to emotional elevation of style generally.

Sublimity is often contrasted with Beauty, both being excellency of style. The more significant contrast is between Strength or the Sublime and Feeling or Pathos. The sphere most properly assigned to Beauty will be considered at a later stage.

One important accompaniment of Sublimity is the infinite or illimitable character of its objects. According to Professor Veitch, this is inseparable from the quality. Yet Strength, as active energy, has many degrees before we reach the forms that transcend our faculties of comprehension; and poetry recognizes all the modes. Nevertheless, there is a distinctive impression arising from objects in their nature unbounded; and a certain art is required to guide this into pleasurable channels.

A

Sublimity has always been regarded as pre-eminently a product of Art generally, and not of Poetry alone. study of the best examples will show that it is not a simple result, but an aggregate of many effects. . The one thing constantly present is the embodiment of vast or superior power. This, however, seldom stands alone. The various consequences of the power are often what makes the chief impression.

These consequences, when pleasurable, consist in gratifying some of our chief emotions, such as Love, Malevolence