The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 20, No. 561, August 11, 1832

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Various. The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 20, No. 561, August 11, 1832

BURNHAM ABBEY

A DREAM OF THE BEAUTIFUL

TRAGEDY AND COMEDY

THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

REAL CHARACTER OF LOUIS XIV

THE GRAND SECRET OF SUCCESS IN LIFE

SIR EGERTON BRYDGES.—THE LATE DUKE OF NORFOLK

MADAME DE STAËL

THE TOPOGRAPHER

REMARKABLE CAVES AT CRAVEN, IN YORKSHIRE

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

M. Chaptal

GOETHE

NOTES OF A READER

BEAR-HUNTING IN CANADA

THE CHOLERA IN INDIA

NEW BOOKS

CHARLEMAGNE

SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY

THE CASHMERE SHAWL GOAT

THE GATHERER

Отрывок из книги

BURNHAM ABBEY, From a Sketch, by a Correspondent.

Burnham is a village of some consideration, in Buckinghamshire, and gives name to a deanery and hundred. Its prosperity has been also augmented by the privilege of holding three fairs annually. It is situate in the picturesque vicinity of Windsor, about five miles from that town, and three miles N.E. of Maidenhead. It was anciently a place of much importance. One of the few relics of its greatness is the ivy-mantled ruin represented in the above Engraving. So late as the fourteenth century, Burnham could also boast of a royal palace within its boundary: but, alas! the wand of Prospero has long since touched its gorgeousness, so as to "leave not a rack behind."

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There is another great difference between Tragedy and Comedy, and that is, with regard to diction: the language made use of by Comedy is natural and proper, while that of Tragedy is laboured and elevated; we meet not unfrequently with long declamation and sentences highly polished, whereas passion never speculates in this manner; the feelings of nature dictate the simplest language, and generally find a vent in broken sentences, as we find them in the Greek tragedians.

The unities of the drama are rules which are the result of good sense, and serve greatly to heighten the entertainment of the stage; they undoubtedly tend to keep up the necessary illusion that we are witnessing scenes in real life, and the more they are acted up to, the greater is the merit of the piece, and the more perfect the effect produced. Now, Comedy rarely breaks through these rules; for, from its nature, the events recorded are frequently comprised within the space of a day; and there is the same regard paid (as far as it is possible) to unity of place as well as time. Tragedy, at least modern Tragedy, (with the exception of Cato and one or two more) entirely disregards these rules, and we sometimes find the hero of the piece has grown ten years older within the short space between the acts, or else that he has travelled from one country to another in the same period of time. Thus, in Julius Caesar, Brutus, in one act is at Rome, and another in Thessaly. Again, in Coriolanus, now we find him expelled by the Romans, afterwards residing amongst the Volscians, and eventually marching an immense army to the gates of Rome; all within the space of two or three hours: this is a sad blow to any scenic illusion, and tends to weaken, if it does not entirely break, the thread of the imagination.

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