Specimens of the Table Talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge Samuel Taylor

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      Prothesis.

      1.

      Thesis. Mesothesis. Antithesis.

      2. 4. 3.

      Synthesis.

      5.

      Conceive it thus:—

      1. Prothesis, the noun-verb, or verb-substantive, I am, which is the previous form, and implies identity of being and act.

      2. Thesis, the noun.

      3. Antithesis, the verb.

      Note, each of these may be converted; that is, they are only opposed to each other.

      4. Mesothesis, the infinitive mood, or the indifference of the verb and noun, it being either the one or the other, or both at the same time, in different relations.

      5. Synthesis, the participle, or the community of verb and noun; being and acting at once.

      Now, modify the noun by the verb, that is, by an act, and you have—

      6. The adnoun, or adjective.

      Modify the verb by the noun, that is, by being, and you have—

      7. The adverb.

      Interjections are parts of sound, not of speech. Conjunctions are the same as prepositions; but they are prefixed to a sentence, or to a member of a sentence, instead of to a single word.

      The inflections of nouns are modifications as to place; the inflections of verbs, as to time.

      The genitive case denotes dependence; the dative, transmission. It is absurd to talk of verbs governing. In Thucydides, I believe, every case has been found absolute.24

      Dative:—[Greek: –]

      Thuc.VIII. 24. This is the Latin usage.

      Accusative.—I do not remember an instance of the proper accusative absolute in Thucydides; but it seems not uncommon in other authors: [Greek: –]

      Yet all such instances may be nominatives; for I cannot find an example of the accusative absolute in the masculine or feminine gender, where the difference of inflexion would show the case.—ED.]

      The inflections of the tenses of a verb are formed by adjuncts of the verb substantive. In Greek it is obvious. The E is the prefix significative of a past time.

      June 15. 1827

MAGNETISM.—ELECTRICITY.—GALVANISM

      Perhaps the attribution or analogy may seem fanciful at first sight, but I am in the habit of realizing to myself Magnetism as length; Electricity as breadth or surface; and Galvanism as depth.

      June 24. 1827

SPENSER.—CHARACTER Of OTHELLO.—HAMLET.—POLONIUS.—PRINCIPLES AND MAXIMS.—LOVE.—MEASURE FOR MEASURE.—BEN JONSON.—BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.– VERSION OF THE BIBLE.—SPURZHEIM.—CRANIOLOGY

      Spenser's Epithalamion is truly sublime; and pray mark the swan-like movement of his exquisite Prothalamion.25 His attention to metre and rhythm is sometimes so extremely minute as to be painful even to my ear, and you know how highly I prize good versification.

* * * * *

      I have often told you that I do not think there is any jealousy, properly so called, in the character of Othello. There is no predisposition to suspicion, which I take to be an essential term in the definition of the word. Desdemona very truly told Emilia that he was not jealous, that is, of a jealous habit, and he says so as truly of himself. Iago's suggestions, you see, are quite new to him; they do not correspond with any thing of a like nature previously in his mind. If Desdemona had, in fact, been guilty, no one would have thought of calling Othello's conduct that of a jealous man. He could not act otherwise than he did with the lights he had; whereas jealousy can never be strictly right. See how utterly unlike Othello is to Leontes, in the Winter's Tale, or even to Leonatus, in Cymbeline! The jealousy of the first proceeds from an evident trifle, and something like hatred is mingled with it; and the conduct of Leonatus in accepting the wager, and exposing his wife to the trial, denotes a jealous temper already formed.

* * * * *

      Hamlet's character is the prevalence of the abstracting and generalizing habit over the practical. He does not want courage, skill, will, or opportunity; but every incident sets him thinking; and it is curious, and at the same time strictly natural, that Hamlet, who all the play seems reason itself, should he impelled, at last, by mere accident to effect his object. I have a smack of Hamlet myself, if I may say so.

* * * * *

      A Maxim is a conclusion upon observation of matters of fact, and is merely retrospective: an Idea, or, if you like, a Principle, carries knowledge within itself, and is prospective. Polonius is a man of maxims. Whilst he is descanting on matters of past experience, as in that excellent speech to Laertes before he sets out on his travels, he is admirable; but when he comes to advise or project, he is a mere dotard.26 You see Hamlet, as the man of ideas, despises him.

* * * * *

      A man of maxims only is like a Cyclops with one eye, and that eye placed in the back of his head.

* * * * *

      In the scene with Ophelia, in the third act,27 Hamlet is beginning with great and unfeigned tenderness; but, perceiving her reserve and coyness, fancies there are some listeners, and then, to sustain his part, breaks out into all that coarseness.

      Love is the admiration and cherishing of the amiable qualities of the beloved person, upon the condition of yourself being the object of their action. The qualities of the sexes correspond. The man's courage is loved by the woman, whose fortitude again is coveted by the man. His vigorous intellect is answered by her infallible tact. Can it be true, what is so constantly affirmed, that there is no sex in souls?—I doubt it, I doubt it exceedingly.28

      Measure for Measure is the single exception to the delightfulness of Shakspeare's plays. It is a hateful work, although Shakspearian throughout. Our feelings of justice are grossly wounded in Angelo's escape. Isabella herself contrives to be unamiable, and Claudio is detestable.

* * * * *

      I am inclined to consider The Fox as the greatest of Ben Jonson's works. But his smaller works are full of poetry.

* * * * *

      Monsieur Thomas and the little French Lawyer are great favourites of mine amongst Beaumont and Fletcher's plays. How those plays overflow with wit! And yet I scarcely know a more deeply tragic scene any where than that in Rollo, in which Edith pleads for her father's life, and then, when she cannot prevail, rises up and imprecates vengeance on his murderer.29

* * * * *

      Our version of the Bible is to be loved and prized for this, as for a thousand other things,—that it has preserved a purity of meaning to many terms of natural objects. Without this holdfast, our vitiated imaginations would refine away language to mere abstractions. Hence the French have lost their poetical language; and Mr. Blanco White says the same thing has happened to the Spanish.

* * * * *

      I have the perception of individual images very strong, but a dim one of the relation of place. I remember СКАЧАТЬ