[Footnote 72: "Omne majus continet in se minus, sed minus non in se majus continere potest," says Scaliger in Thumbo. I suppose he would have cavilled at these beautiful lines in the "Earl of Essex:" "Thy most inveterate soul, That looks through the foul prison of thy body." And at those of Dryden: "The palace is without too well design'd; Conduct me in, for I will view thy mind."--"Aurengzebe." ] [Footnote 73: Mr. Banks hath copied this almost verbatim: "It was enough to say, here's Essex come, And nurses still'd their children with the fright."--"Earl of Essex." ] [Footnote 74: The trumpet in a tragedy is generally as much as to say: Enter king, which makes Mr. Banks, in one of his plays, call it the trumpet's formal sound.] [Footnote 75: Phraortes, in the Captives, seems to have been acquainted with king Arthur: "Proclaim a festival for seven days' space, Let the court shine in all its pomp and lustre, Let all our streets resound with shouts of joy; Let music's care-dispelling voice be heard; The sumptuous banquet and the flowing goblet Shall warm the cheek and fill the heart with gladness. Astarbe shall sit mistress of the feast." ] [Footnote 76: "Repentance frowns on thy contracted brow."--"Sophonisba." "Hung on his clouded brow, I mark'd despair."--_Ibid._ "A sullen gloom Scowls on his brow."--"Busiris." ] [Footnote 77: Plato is of this opinion, and so is Mr. Banks:-- "Behold these tears sprung from fresh pain and joy."--"Earl of Essex." ] [Footnote 78: These floods are very frequent in the tragic authors:-- "Near to some murmuring brook I'll lay me down, Whose waters, if they should too shallow flow, My tears shall swell them up till I will drown."--Lee's "Soph." "Pouring forth tears at such a lavish rate, That were the world on fire they might have drown'd The wrath of heaven, and quench'd the mighty ruin."--"Mithridates." One author changes the waters of grief to those of joy: "These tears, that sprung from tides of grief, Are now augmented to a flood of joy."--"Cyrus the Great." Another: "Turns all the streams of heat, and makes them flow In pity's channel."--"Royal Villain." One drowns himself: "Pity like a torrent pours me down, Now I am drowning all within a deluge."--"Anna Bullen." Cyrus drowns the whole world: "Our swelling grief Shall melt into a deluge, and the world Shall drown in tears."--"Cyrus the Great." ] [Footnote 79: An expression vastly beneath the dignity of tragedy, says Mr. D--s, yet we find the word he cavils at in the mouth of Mithridates less properly used, and applied to a more terrible idea: "I would be drunk with death."--"Mithridates." The author of the new Sophonisba taketh hold of this monosyllable, and uses it pretty much to the same purpose:--