The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 4, October 1837Various
History
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 4, October 1837
Various
Periodicals
'Mark the moral, Sir:
An eagle once, from the Euganean hills,
Soared bravely to the sky.
In his giddy track,
Scarce marked by them who gazed upon the first,
Followed a new-fledged eaglet, fast and well.
Upward they sped, and all eyes on their flight
Gazed with admiring awe: when suddenly
The parent bird, struck by a thunder-bolt,
Dropped lifeless through the air. The eaglet paused
And hung upon his wings; and as his sire
Plashed in the far-down wave, men look'd to see him
Flee to his nest affrighted!
_Sforza._ 'Did he so?'
_Bianca._ 'My noble lord, he had a monarch's heart!
He wheeled a moment in mid air, and shook
Proudly his royal wings, and then right on,
With crest uplifted, and unwavering flight,
Sped to the sun's eye, straight and gloriously!'
There is a fine opportunity for the display of the power of the
actress, in the scene where news is brought to Bianca of her father's
death. The struggle between the joy which this event produces,
by giving a chance of the coronet to her husband, and the sorrow
which affection for her parent should cause, one acting against the
other, present a scene which calls for the highest powers of the
histrionic art to portray faithfully; and it is but just to say,
that Miss CLIFTON did it justice. There is a great deal of quaint
humor, and many truths wittily delivered, in the part of _Pasquali_.
His exposition of the true meaning of the word imagination, to the
homely understanding of his pupil, is as ingenious as true. One of
GOLDSMITH's characters, if we do not mistake, reasons not unlike the
Milanese bard, upon the same or a similar theme:
_Pasquali._ Answer me once more, and I'll prove to thee in what
I am richer. Thou'st ne'er heard, I dare swear, of imagination.
_Fiametta._ Is't a Pagan nation, or a Christian?
_Pasq._ Stay; I'll convey it to thee by a figure. What were the
value of thy red stockings, over black, if it were always night?
_Fiam._ None!
_Pasq._ What were beauty, if it were always dark?
_Fiam._ The same as none.
_Pasq._ What were green leaves better than brown, diamonds
better than pebbles, gold better than brass, if it were always
dark?
_Fiam._ No better, truly.
_Pasq._ Then the shining of the sun, in a manner, dyes your
stockings, creates beauty, makes gold, and diamonds, and paints
the leaves green?
_Fiam._ I think it doth.
_Pasq._ Now mark! There be gems in the earth, qualities in
the flowers, creatures in the air, the Duke ne'er dreams of.
There be treasuries of gold and silver, temples and palaces of
glorious work, rapturous music, and feasts the gods sit at, and
all seen only by a sun, which to the Duke is black as Erebus.
_Fiam._ Lord! Lord! Where is it, Master Pasquali?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account