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Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1824. Excerpt: ... presents us with an extremely good plan: it cannot neglect to surprise; it is wanting in only truth. Nonetheless it must be observed, that if this line had but the smallest ray of verisimilitude--had it certainly its birth in the pangs of grief, it would then have all the truth, all the beauty, of theatrical fitness. Heureuse en mes malheurs, si ce triste hymenee Pour le bonlieur de Rome h Cesar m'eut donnee, Et si j'eusse avec moi porte dans ta maison D'un aslre envenime l'invincible poison ! Car enfin n'attends pas que j'abaisse ma haine : Je te I'ai deja dit, Cesar, je suis Romaine; Et, quoique ta captive, un ccour tel que le mien, De peur de s'oublier, ne te demande rien.--Id. Yet happy in my own woes, had these sad nuptials Given me to Cspsar for the good of Rome-- Had 1 but carried with me to thy house The mortal venom of any noxious star ! For think not, in the end, my hate is less : Already have I told thee 1 am Roman ; And, though thy captive, such a heart as mine, Lest it forget itself, will sue for nothing. That is Lucan again. She wishes, in the Pharsalia, that she had married Caesar : Atque utinam in thalamos invisi Csesaris essem Infelix conjux, et nullo la?ta 'marito ! Lib. viii. v. 88,89. Ah ! wherefore was I not much rather led A fatal bride to Coesar's hated bed, &c. Rowe. This sentiment is not in nature; it is at once gigantic and puerile: but at least it isn't to Caesar that Cornelia talks thus in Lucan. Corneille, on the contrary, makes Cornelia talk with Caesar himself: he makes her say that she wishes to be his wife, to ensure that she may carry into his house ' the mortal poison of any noxious star;' for (adds she) my hatred can't be abated, and I have told thee already that we am Roman, and I sue for nothing. Here is odd reasoning:--I would fain have married thee, to cause thy de...