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But in English I find that which is possessed by no other modern language, and which, as it were, appropriates it to the drama. Take any homogeneous language, such as German, and try to translate into it the following lines : — " But not to one, in this benighted age, Is that diviner inspiration given. That burns in Shakspeare's or in Milton's page. The pomp and prodigality of heaven. In German it would be necessary to say " the pomp and spendthriftness of heaven," because the German has not, as we have, one word with two such distinct meanings, one expressing the nobler, the other the baser idea of the same action. The monosyllabic character of English enables us, The Sixth Lecture 413 besides, to express more meaning in a shorter compass than can be done in any other language.
In truth, EngUsh may be called the harvest of the unconscious wisdom of various nations, and was not the formation of any particu- lar time, or assemblage of individuals. Hence the number of its passionate phrases — its metaphorical terms, not borrowed from poets, but adopted by them. I have been induced to offer these remarks, in order to obviate an objection often made against Shakspeare on the ground of the multitude of his conceits. I admit, however, that even in those which bear the strongest characteristics of his mind, there are some conceits not strictly to be vindicated. The notion against which I declare war is, that whenever a conceit is met with it is unnatural. People who enter- tain this opinion forget, that had they lived in the age of Shakspeare, they would have deemed them natural.

Puns 414 The Sixth Lecture often arise out of a mingled sense of injury, and contempt of the person inflicting it, and, as it seems to me, it is a natural way of expressing that mixed feeling. I could point out puns in Shakspeare, where they appear almost as if the first openings of the mouth of nature — where nothing else could so properly be said. This is not peculiar to puns, but is of much wider application : read any part of the works of our great dramatist, and the conviction comes upon you irresistibly, not only that what he puts into the mouths of his personages might have been said, but that it must have been said, because nothing so proper could have been said. In a future lecture I will enter somewhat into the history of conceits, and shew the wise use that has heretofore been made of them. I will now (and I hope it will be received with favour) attempt a defence of conceits and puns, taking my examples mainly from the poet under considera- tion. To the young I would remark, that it is always unwise to judge of anything by its defects : the first attempt ought to be to discover its excellences.
Always begin with the good — a Jove principium — and the bad will make itself evident enough, quite as soon as is desirable. The point in which none of them had The Sixth Lecture 415 approached Shakspeare, according to this writer, was his wit. I own, I was somewhat shocked to see it gravely said in print, that the quahty by which Shakspeare was to be individualised from all others was, what is ordinarily called, wit. I had read his plays over and over, and it did not strike me that wit was his great and characteristic superi- ority. That Shakspeare has wit is indisputable, but it is not the same kind of wit as in other writers : his wit is blended with the other qualities of his works, and is, by its nature, capable of being so blended. It is not always easy to distinguish between wit and fancy.

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