The French Dramatists: Corneille [pp. 763-766]

Reality of the Mind's Creations.-The French Dramatists.
of Scio;* and on his homeward voyage, captured a
large Tripoline frigate, having on board three hundred Mahommedan seamen, and seventy-seven
Christian slaves. These last, when liberated from
their chains, he employed in navigating his prize
to Malta.
De Vignacourt did not live to hear of his admiral's success. WVorn out with bodily infirmities,
he breathed his last on the "4th of February,
1697," in the seventh year of his reign," and ninetyseventh of his age." His venerable corse was entombed in the Chapel of the French Language, in
St. John's church; and over it, a monument still
remains to his memory.
This unsubstantial, beauteous vision shines,
In form unreal'mid ethereal sky.
Thus unsubstantial, yet withal eterne; Enduring, as the word of HIM who gave
Its radiant hues upon the cloud to burn,
Lighting, for Faith, the world beyond the grave.
And is there not an Iris of the soul, Which morning's hope, or Memory's evening rays,
Upon the clouds of Life can bright unroll
To cheer Imagination's earnest gaze?
And must it prove unreal and untrue,
Because from MIND it catches all its grace?'Tis MIND alone sustains the worlds we view
Suspended baseless in unbounded space!
And not presumptuous, thus the mind to call
A power sustaining all the eye beholds;'
That Mind Eternal, which created all,
By mental power the mighty whole upholds.
And as all light is borrowed from the Sun,
And all is glorious, pare, and dazzling fair,
All Mind is kindled from the wondrous ONE,
And in its wondrous nature claims a share.
*The Venetians, desirous of retaining Scio under their
rule, left a governor and garrison to defend it. But the
Sultan, enraged by his loss of an island, which was, of all
others in the Grecian Archipelago, the most productive in
its soil, the most picturesque in its appearance, and the
most important in its revenue, sent Mustapha Pasha, to
drive the Christians out of its fortresses, and bring it again
under the jurisdiction of his crown. The Turks were victorious, when most of the Venetians were slain; and the
few who survived, made an honorable capitulation, and returned in their galleys to Venice. Scio has from that day
to the present, if we except a brief period during the Greek
revolution, been a dependency of the Ottoman Empire.
McFarlane thus feelingly describes the appearance of its
capital on his visit in 1828. It was written shortly after its
reduction by the Capudan Pasha, who was sent by the Sultan to quell the rebellion-and who by fire, tlhe sword and
slaughter, so readily and effectually performed his diabolical task:
"We walked," says this writer, " through long streets
"that contained nothing but ragged skeletons of houses and
"heaps of fallen masonry; grass, weeds, and nettles, were
"growing in the crevices of the marble halls, in the ruined
"churches, in the but lately busy streets; and, to give an
"idea of the utter desolation, we started a covey of par"tridges in the Strada dei Primati, or principal street."
We visited Scio in the spring of 1833, and wherever we
went, found only desolation and ruin in its towns, and
poverty and despair depicted in the appearance of its miserable population.
There is no style of literature more completely
indicative of national taste and character, than the
dramatic, and the assertion of Lord Bacon with
regard to the proverbs of a country, is still more
applicable to their theatrical compositions; that
they evince at once, the genius, wit, and spirit of
a nation. They are the living and moving portraits of the mental tendencies of the age in which
they spring; the history of a people's mind, made
poetry. In all other methods of composing, the
writer obeys more exclusively the bent and impulse
of his individual genius, especially in his earliest
efforts. He composes at first, without forethought,
from the'strong necessity' of writing, and because
his heart and intellect are full to overflowing with
bewildering, perplexing dreams, and visions which
find no relief, but in expression. A little later,
and the yearning for sympathy is aroused, and the
exciting desire for praise dawns on the poet's life.
It is not enough for him then, to feel his power, to
know his strength, his innate conviction ceases to
satisfy; hie must have that power acknowledged,
that strength bowed down to, and he pines with the
first wild, irrepressible enthusiasm of newly awa
Is nought then real" but the firm-set earth; The rocks and hills immovable and fixed?
Can mind to no realities give birth,
Unless with things corporeal grossly mixed?
What is the charm of Music's witching tone?
Unreal sound, in half unreal air!
W~hat is the storm-cloud's matchless rainbow-zone?
A thing unreal;-yet how sweetly fair!
The Rainbow,-child of vapor and of light,
Two things intangible:-yet not the less
Its splendors press on our enraptured sight
All that we know or dream of loveliness.
Fair, as the wreath, which Beauty's brow entwines,
-Woven of flowers that spring beneath your eye,
1842.]
763
Since Mind ourselves created and our Earth,
We bow before Irnagination's slirine,
And ou n a be'ng of celestial birth;
Its bright creations,-like itself,-Divine.
Genius embodies in undying tones
These bright creations of celestial.power:No light more REAL than such beauty owns,
Shines in the bow or blushes in the flower!
THE FRENCH DRAMATISTS.
CORNEILLE.
Jamais nous ne gofttous de parfaite al6gresso;
Nos plus heureux succ6s sout ni6l6s de tristesse.
Toujours quelques soucis, en ces 6v6nemens,
Troublent la puret6 de nos contentemens.-Cornet7le.
REALITY OF THE MIND'S CREATIONS.
BY ROBERT HOWE GOULD.
Addressed to a contemner of the 11 cloud-capped towers and
gorgeous palaces" of the world of imagination.