RACINE'S, BRITANNICUS. Des malheurs qui dès lors me furent an noncés. boot gaid at m J'ai fait ce que j'ai pu : "vous régnes, c'est. assez. avez ravie, Avec ma liberté que vous Ne vous ravisse pas se qui m'a tant coute. What address in these two last fines! She dares not directly threaten Nero: He has already ar rested her; he may proceed farther He had before explained himself in such a manner, as to make her understand that he was determined to shake off the yoke ; she dreads to excite the tyger to fury. It was to Burrhus that she said a little, before: Let him consider," That by reducing me to the neceffity Of exerting against him my feeble authority, Qu'en me reduisant a la necessité Mon nom peut-etre aura plus de poids But it is not to Nero that she dares to say, if you attempt my destruction, have a care of yourself. She Contents herself with giving him to understand it, in a manner that cannot offend him,and gives to her menaces the tone of interest and friendship. But scarcely has Nero, who dissembles better than his mother, said to her, Very well, speak then what would you have me do? Eh bien, donc prononcez: que voulez vous qu'on fasse? she reassumes all her pride; as soon as she thinks herself sure of her power, she dictates the law. Punish the prefumption of my accufers; Soothe the refentment of Britannicus ; It is enough, I have fpoken to him, and every thing is changed. Doutre vous d'une paie dont je fais mon ouvrage ? Il suffit, j'ai parlé, tout a changé de fait. Is not this the ordinary policy of power? One of the means of preall those, who enjoy a borrowed serving it, is to make others believe it. The detail, into which sheen. double effect; it shews to the specters with Junia afterwards, has a Agrippina abandons herself in the tator the intoxicated pride, to which found dissimulation, of which Nero joy of her new favour, and the prohas been capable. I say nothing of the style: it is above all praise. Ah! if you had feen with how many careffes His natural kindness,imprinted on his countenances He poured out his foul, like a fon, who comes To forget his pride in the bofom of his mother. Secrets, on which depend the deftiny of mankind. Ah! si vous aviez vu, par combien de caresses Il m'a renouvelli la foi de ses promisser ! Par quels embracemeni il vient de m'ara Go on, Nero : with such ministera retér ! You are in the high road to distinguish Ses bras, dans nos adieux, ne pouvaient yourself by glorious deeds. me quitter. Go on : after this step, you cannot return. Sa facile bonti, star soni front répandué Your hand has begun with the blood of Fusqu' aux moindres secrets est d'abord your brother; descendue. I foresee that your strokes will at last Il s'epanchait en fils, qui vient en liberté reach your mother. Dans le sein de sa mere oblier sa fierté. From the bottom of your heart I know Mais bientôt reprenant un visage severe, that you hate me. Tel que d'un empereur qui consulta sa mere, You wish to throw off the yoke of my Sa confidence auguste a mis entre mes benefactions. maines But I hope that my death will be of nie Des secrets d'ou dépend le destin des hu- use to you i mains. Think not, that, in dying, I shall leave you at your ease. What lofty expressions ! and how Rome, these heavens, this light, which are they calculated to give an high Every where, every moment, will pres you receiv'd from me, idea of her power! sent me before you. Your contritions will pursue you, like so No, we must acknowledge, to his honour, many furies : His heart harbours no dark malice ; You will think to compose them, by oth. They are our enemies only, who, misrep. er barbarities. resenting his goodness, Your rage, increasing in its course, Have abused, to our disadvantage, the Will pollute all your days with fresh mildness of his nature. streams of blood. But finally, in their turn, their influence But I hope that heaven, at last weary of declines; your crimes, Rome once more is about to recognize Will add your perdition to so many oth: Agrippina. er victims ; Already they adore the reputation of my That, after having defiled yourself withi favour. their blood and mine, You will find yourself compelled to pour Non, il le faut ici confesser à sa gloire, out your own ; Son cæur renferme point un malice noire; And your name will appear in all futura Et nos seuls ennemies, alterant sa bonté, ages Abusaient contre noits de sa facilitate. The severest reproach to the most cruel Mais enfin, a son tour, leur puissance de of tyrants. cline ; Rome encore une fois, va reconnaitre Agrip. Poursuiz, Neron : avec de tels ministres pine. Par de faits glorieux, tu vas te signaler. Deja de ma favour on alore le bruit. Poursuiz : tu n'a pas fait ce pas pour re. culer. “ They adore the report of my fa- Ta mam a commencé par le sang frere ; vour"! What happy boldoéss in Je prèvois que tes coups viendront jusqu'a the choice of words! And this ta mere: boldness is so exactly measured, Dans le fond de ton cæur je sais que tu me that it appears perfectly simple ; hais. reflection alone perceives it : the Tu voudras t'affranchir du joug de mes bienfaits ; poet conceals himself under the Mais je veux que ma mort te soit même personage. Finally, when Britannicus, mor- Ne crois pas qu'en mourant je te laisse tally poisoned, has shewn all thať tranquille. might be expected from Nero, Rome, ce ceil, ce jour que tu recus de moi, Agrippina, who has no resource Par-tout, à tout moment, m'offrirant de vant toi. remaining, thinks only of terrifying Tes remords te suitrout comme autant de bim by her futs, furies ; de ton inutile ; Tu croiras les calmer par d'autres barba. the novelty of Britannicus the ries. heads of the audience were set to Ta fureur, s'irritant soi-même dans son the tone, which Corneille had incours, D'un sang toujours nouveau marquera tous troduced for thirty years,' they tes jours. were astonished, that he had not Mais j'espere qu'enfin le ciel, las de tes habitually in his mouth the most crimes, infernal maxims ; that he did not tdjutera ta perte à tant d'autres victimes; glory in his wickedness ; that he Dapres tètre couvert de leur sang et du mien, betrayed the least shame at being Tu te verras forcè de rèpandre le tien ; thought a poisoner. In a word, Et ton nom paraitra, dans la race future, the publick thought him much too Aux plus cruels tyrans une cruelle injure. good. These are the expressions which Racine uses in his preface : Here is an example of that art, It is true that he has not the rheso common in Racine, of giving to torick of crimes ; but he has all the strongest ideas the most simple the calm and refined atrocity, and expressions. To tell a man that all the reflecting, deliberate depth his name will be a reproach to ty- of wickedness. Examine his conrants, is of itself terrible ; but to duct. He hears the beauty of Juthe cruellest of tyrants the most mia mentioned ; his first emotion is cruel of injuries ! Invective can to carry her off, even before he has imagine nothing beyond this, but seen her; and upon the bare susit is not too much for Nero ; his picion, that Britannicus might per: name is become that of cruelty it: haps be loved by her, his first self. words are, What fearful truth is rercaled in the portrait of this monster in So much the more unfortunate for him, if he has gained her affections, his infancy! It is one of the most Narcissus, he ought rather to wish for striking productions of the genius her aversion. of Racine, and one of those which None shall excite jealousy in Nero with impunity. prove that this great man could do every thing. Nero, as Racine D'autant plus malheureux qu'il aura su lui plaire, well observes, had not yet assassin Narcisse, il doit plutôt souhaiter sa colere. ated his brother, his mother, nor Nero impunement ne sera par jaloux. his preceptor ; he had not yet set fire to Rome; and yet every thing He has scarcely seen Junia for he says, every thing he does, in a moment, when the death of his the whole course of the piece, an- rival and brother is already resolve nounces a soul naturally perverse ed in his heart. But he prepares and atrocious. But how long a for him another punishment : He time elapsed before the publick will have Junia herself tell him, acknowledged the prodigious me that he must renounce her; and rit of this part ! It was an obliga- 'to compel her to make this declation that they owed at last to the ration, he declares to her, that Britinimitable Le Kain ; and it was annicus is a dead man, if she does the effort of a great actor to bring not obey. It has been said, that it down to the comprehension of the is a trifling incident, and below the multitude, what none but connois- dignity of tragedy to make Nero seurs had perceived. As the name conceal himself, during the interof Nero seemed to promise every view between the two lovers. thing the most odious, and during This is truc : but here, I think, "Had I the plantation of this isle, my lord, THE office of the Remarker is not confined to speculations on morals and literature, but will occasionally be extended to the delineation of schemes for the whole country. Objects of national concern ought to employ the most active exertions of every individual, and the labours of our statesmen ought to be diminished by the assistance of every citizen, who possesses leisure and ingenuity to devise means of publick safety and private repose. Since the liberation of our countrymen from the tuition of a cruel stepdame, who fondly hoped that in the decrepitude of age she should be nourished and sustained SHAKESP. No. 12. by our labour and love, our citizens while engaged in lawful commerce have been exposed to violence and impressment. The licensed buccaniers and royal robbers of the ocean have divorced our citizens from their friends and families, and compelled them to exert, in the service of a king,every muscle not palsied by fear of the thong and the scourge. Remonstrance only admonishes them of their power of inflicting still greater injuries, and the specious plea of justification is, that similarity of language prevents discrimination between Englishmen and Americans. It is now proposed to strike at the root of the evil, and to construct a language en tirely novel. This language must be composed of five parts, viz. one part Indian, another Irish, and three fifths Negro tongue. These ingredients well mixed will constitute a language unintelligible by any human nation from Gades to Ganges. As drivers of herds of cattle sometimes bind a spat across the horns of a fierce bullock to prevent his escape in the thickets of the forest, so will this language debar us from all intercourse with other nations, and will erect a strong wall of partition between us and our adversaries. Without doubt this plan will be strenuously opposed by those, who are continually declaiming against the subversion of ancient institutions, and the destruction of ancient principles. But it is reasonable that man should pursue a course analogical to that nature, which is a process of continual change, of decay and revival.Flowers, whose existence is brief, and which flourish only for the scythe, are ever most beautiful and fragrant. Besides, a virtuous republican government induces modes of thought and of action, so different from those produced by a monarchy, that many of the terms of the English language are in this country as insignificant and destitute of meaning, as the representatives of old Sarum are of constituents, and the bold and the original thoughts of Americans perish, as would giants in this pigmy land, because they could not be cooped in our cabins, or covered by our garments. On account of this paucity of terms, adapted to our ideas, most of our authors and holiday orators have been compelled to invent new words, and make our language as various as the face of our country. It will be perceived, that this new language is the result of a spirit of compromise and concilia. tion, and that those classes of citi zens, which are most numerous, contribute most to its formation, If we inspect the American court calender, we shall immediately as certain, that in selecting materials for this language, due attention has been paid to the origin and descent of those who guide the des tinies of our nation the most eminent of whom are of Irish or Indian blood. We need not the aid of the college of heralds to trace the lineage of our greatest orator, Randolph, to the renowned Pocahontas...for no sachem among the aboriginals could hurl the tomahawk with more unerring aim, or could, with more adroitness, mangle, and scalp, and lacerate the trembling victims of his wrath. His eloquence is of the whooping kind, and his words, "like bullets chewed, rankled where they entered, and, like melted lead, blistered where they lighted." An ancient author thus describes this species of eloquence: "Magna ista et notabilis eloquentia, alumna licnntæ, quam stulti libertatem vo cabant, comes seditionum, effrenati populi incitamentum, sine obsequiis, sine servitute, contumax, temeraria, arrogans, quæ in bene constitutis civitatibus non oritur." The fame and glory of our orators in Congress must be attributed wholly to their knowledge of Indian dialects. Those, who utter English, are fortunately few, otherwise the circumstance of their receiving their tone and language from a foreign court, would sub ject them to punishment, as it now does to suspicion and disgrace. The excellencies of the proposed dialect will be numerous; it will not possess the quality of harmony, so that it may conge |