ction of
imperfect or odious characters. The original conception of a weak or
guilty mind may have its intrinsic beauty. And much more so, when it
is connected with a tale which finally adjusts whatever is
reprehensible in the personages themselves. Richard and Iago are
subservient to the plot. Moral excellence of character may sometimes
be even a fault. The Clytemnestra of Euripides is so interesting, that
the divine vengeance, which is the main subject of the drama, seems
almost unjust. Lady Macbeth, on the contrary, is the conception of one
deeply learned in the poetical art. She is polluted with the most
heinous crimes, and meets the fate she deserves. Yet there is nothing
in the picture to offend the taste, and much to feed the imagination.
Romeo and Juliet are too good for the termination to which the plot
leads--so are Ophelia and the bride of Lammermoor. In these cases
there is something inconsistent with correct beauty, and therefore
unpoetical. We do not say the fault could be avoided without
sacrificing more than would be gained; still it is a fault. It is
scarcely possible for a poet satisfactorily to connect innocence with
ultimate unhappiness, when the notion of a future life is excluded.
Honours paid to the memory of the dead are some alleviation of the
harshness. In his use of the doctrine of a future life, Southey is
admirable. Other writers are content to conduct their heroes to
temporal happiness--Southey refuses present comfort to his Ladurlad,
Thalaba, and Roderick, but carries them on through suffering to
another world. The death of his hero is the termination of the action;
yet so little in two of them, at least, does this catastrophe excite
sorrowful feelings, that some readers may be startled to be reminded
of the fact. If a melancholy is thrown over the conclusion of the
_Roderick_, it is from the peculiarities of the hero's previous
history.

Opinions, feelings, manners, and customs, are made poetical by the
delicacy or splendour with which they are expressed. This is seen in
the _ode_, _elegy_, _sonnet_, and _ballad_; in which a single idea
perhaps, or familiar occurrence, is invested by the poet with pathos
or dignity. The ballad of _Old Robin Gray_ will serve, for an
instance, out of a multitude; again, Lord Byron's _Hebrew Melody_,
beginning 'Were my bosom as false', &c.; or Cowper's _Lines on his
Mother's Picture_; or Milman's 'Funeral Hymn' in the _Martyr of
Antioch_; or Milton's _Sonn