[Opengallery-users] Midable: he had all the pride of the Plantag

[Bronk A. <sw...@sm...>]

Impression of the timid softness of Juliet, and the harsh subjection in
which she has been kept:-- But one, poor one!--one poor and loving
child, But one thing to rejoice and solace in, And cruel death hath
catched it from my sight! Capulet, as the jovial, testy old man, the
self willed, violent, tyrannical father,--to whom his daughter is but a
property, the appanage of his house, and the object of his pride,--is
equal as a portrait: but both must yield to the Nurse, who is drawn with
the most wonderful power and discrimination. In the prosaic homeliness
of the outline, and the magical illusion of the coloring, she reminds us
of some of the marvellous Dutch paintings, from which, with all their
coarseness, we start back as from a reality. Her low humor, her shallow
garrulity, mixed with the dotage and petulance of age--her subserviency,
her secrecy, and her total want of elevated principle, or even common
honesty--are brought before us like a living and palpable truth. Among
these harsh and inferior spirits is Juliet placed; her haughty parents,
and her plebeian nurse, not only throw into beautiful relief her own
native softness and elegance, but are at once the cause and the excuse
of her subsequent conduct. She trembles before her stern mother and her
violent father: but, like a petted child, alternately cajoles and
commands her nurse. It is her old foster-mother who is the confidante of
her love. It is the woman who cherished her infancy, who aids and abets
her in her clandestine marriage. Do we not perceive how immediately our
impression of Juliet's character would have been lowered, if Shakspeare
had placed her in connection with any common-place dramatic
waiting-woman?--even with Portia's adroit Nerissa, or Desdemona's
Emilia? By giving her the Nurse for her confidante, the sweetness and
dignity of Juliet's character are preserved inviolate to the fancy, even
in the midst of all the romance and wilfulness of passion. The natural
result of these extremes of subjection and independence, is exhibited in
the character of Juliet, as it gradually opens upon us. We behold it in
the mixture of self-will and timidity, of strength and weakness, of
confidence and reserve, which are developed as the action of the play
proceeds. We see it