CHAP. VIII. A miscellaneous chapter.--Pronunciation.-Aches, Mr. Kemble's own defence of that dissyllable.-Passage in Macbeth. -His notion as to emphasis.-Roman character.—Mr. Kemble particularly devoted to its three finest displays, Coriolanus, Brutus, and Cato.-The author's view of the Cato.-Mr. Kemble mentally and personally considered, to show the radical differences between Mr. Garrick and himself.-The sportive exuberances of the one-the reserve of the other as to mimicry.-How courted by the great.-His reception at Carleton-house. AFTER the conclusion of so fierce a storm as that which we have just described, the reader may be glad of an opportunity to discuss some points of a pure literary character, in which Mr. Kemble himself will assign his reasons for a peculiar pronunciation, or a preferable emphasis. We have just seen, that the rioters who advocated the old prices, had, among other qualities, assumed those of the critic, and made themselves, at all events, extremely merry with the sound of the word aches. Among the performances of Mr. Kemble, his Prospero, in the Tempest, had excited remarkable notice from the groundlings, not so much from the awful dignity, or paternal goodness which were certainly to be found in it, as from a single word in a speech of the Magician to Caliban, which Mr. Kemble dared to pronounce agreeably to the intention of Shakspeare. It occurs in the second scene of the first act. "If thou neglect'st, or dost unwillingly What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps; The reader here sees, that the line would be incomplete, if the disputed word were not pronounced as one of two syllables. The more modern akes can only have the power of a monosyllable. It would at this time of day be assuredly useless to recapitulate, from either the ancient or modern writers, the numerous proofs of Mr. Kemble's accuracy. He was commonly, but very erroneously supposed to be a man extremely gratified by scholastic peculiarity, and a sort of knowledge far fetched, and worth but very little. Few men of his time were less addicted to inquiries of such a nature. On the subject of this painful word aches, disputes often arose in society, and the topic, as is usual, was argued with more heat than knowledge on one such occurrence, the difference of opinion terminated in a bet; the most proper thing in the world; as presumption ought undoubtedly to pay for its ignorance, or its obstinacy. Mr. Rees, of Paternoster Row, although sufficiently confident as to Mr. Kemble's practice and its motive, addressed a letter to him, late in his dramatic life, the answer to which I insert here for the sake of closer reference to a disputed matter. "My dear sir, (COPY.) "I never do pronounce the word aches in two syllables (like the word aitches), but when the metre of a verse (that is, but when the measure of the poetry or verse) requires it. So much for the wager. "The old pronunciation of the word aches in two syllables is so entirely laid aside in common conversation, and in all modern use, that it would be ridiculous indeed to use it familiarly, and idle to attempt its revival in poetical composition: yet when the word occurs as a dissyllable in our elder poets, it must be so pronounced; because in a metrical work the metre must be observed. These lines are in Pope's Essay on Man : Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made "The word satellites is now-a-days pronounced in three syllables, and a man would be a coxcomb to affect to pronounce it otherwise; but it was pronounced as four in Mr. Pope's time, and he employs it as four-and a man would be thought very ignorant, who, in reciting Mr. Pope's lines, should destroy their metre, by giving this word its modern pronunciation. If the old use and pronunciation of the word aches can be decided by authority, I should think Baret, in his Alvearic, F. 1580, conclusive on the question. The ache, or payne of body or minde, &c.' Ake is And under Ake, to which the reader is referred the verbe of this substantive Aches, ch being turned into k,' &c. So that it appears that anciently the monosyllable and dissyllable pronunciation distinguished the verb and substan.tive. "I beg pardon for taking up your time with so much of this uninteresting matter. "I am, my dear sir, (Signed) May 13, 1816, ** J. P. KEMBLE.** No. 89, Great Russel Street, Bloomsbury Square. Owen Rees, Esq. Paternoster Row." I shall not think it necessary to do more, when Mr. Kem→ ble's own defence has been considered, than to recapitulate the authorities on which his practice was grounded; namely, Shakspeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Massinger. Ford, Davenant, Dryden, Otway and Swift. Perhaps, however, the reader may pardon the insertion of two passages. which I myself discovered in Hudibras. Again, "Can by their pains and aches find "As other flames and aches prove." It is not a little remarkable, that Mr. Kemble, for twenty years together, whenever he acted the character of Jaffier in Venice Preserved, had given the same pronunciation to this unhappy word, when in the first scene of the second act he thus imprecates disasters upou Priuli. "Kind heaven, let heavy curses Gall his old age! cramps, aches rack his bones! But I never heard a breath of displeasure there; the storm seemed to wait only upon the Tempest. Perhaps my friend may be excused, after the long and painful studies he had made, if he did not expect much instruction from a mixed au dience; or seek for any steady illumination from the hurried decisions of the daily critic. Indeed, he very rarely looked into a newspaper. It is often extremely difficult to find ears nice enough, to observe how much the elevation of the voice renders emphasis unnecessary the higher key does all that is expected from the pointed impulse. A very ingenious friend of ours, for whom Mr. Kemble entertained the highest regard-in his studies of Shakspeare thought he had found a new point, by placing a strong emphasis on the word bid, in the following passage of Macbeth Mr. I have no opportunity of offering to the reader the arguments by which our friend supported his opinion. Kemble's answer, however, to them, was as follows: "MY DEAR TAYLOR, 6 "Don't you see, that bidding the tree unfix his earthbound root' is but an amplification, as it were, of impressing the forest-and consequently, that no emphasis is necessary? All unnecessary emphasis must be bad emphasis; for unless some contradistinction is understood by it, it becomes nonsensical. You would not expect, perhaps, to find me an enemy to ingenious discoveries in this kind: but the truth is, that a poet's literal meaning requires little emphasis, to be thoroughly understood to an audience; the emphasis I wish to see cultivated is of that sort that swells the passion of the scene, and ennobles the sentiment. "Yours, Dec. 23d, 1795. 13, Caroline street, Bedford Square. J. P. KEMBLE." "I am confined to my room by a bad cough, and can't act to-night-you might call for half an hour." I have myself no kind of doubt of the propriety of Mr. Kemble's decision. "To bid the tree unfix his earth-bound root" is, as he remarks, but an amplification; or, as I should say, an illustration of the words "impress the forest :”—for let us consider the meaning of the whole passage, and Dr. Johnson's interpretation of the first member of it may decide as to that which follows. He says "Who can command the forest to serve him like a soldier impressed?" To which I may add, that is, bid the trees, of which it is composed, unfix their earth-bound roots. A mere illustration of the previous passage. Thus the reader sees, that to "impress the forest" necessarily implies the unfixing of its roots, without which, its leafy inhabitants could never march away, to subdue or terrify Macbeth. In the latter part of Mr. Kemble's career, he seems to have devoted himself with infinite solicitude, to the impersonation of the Roman character. Coriolanus had, indeed, for many years been considered as a performance absolutely unparalleled. The high patrician pride of that hero leads him to venture every thing for the Roman NAME; but he thinks only of the senate, and the triumphs of their arms: for the multitude he has no affection, but as they promote his objects, and are the ready slaves of his ambition. He therefore looks with jealousy upon every popular encroachment, and cannot submit to ask with courtesy for even that which the people are lawfully empowered to bestow. Such men are not at all suited to a free government; and, with amazing inconsistency, they despise other nations for wanting those very popular rights, which, personally, they feel disposed at home to deny and to resist. These men value their services at a rate, which the free can never be expected to pay. That sort of fame, which exists but in the popular breath, becomes at length despised from its certainty; and the victor resiles from a cheap and vulgar reward, to gratify his vanity in lonely abstraction, or the permitted applause of a privileged order. In such a frame of mind, disappointment excites a perfect frenzy in the soul; the principles, which produced the hero at his outset, lose their influence for a season, and the man will sometimes hurry even into treason for the sole delight of unnatural vengeance. But he is equally insecure either as a friend or an enemy; when fighting against his COUNTRYMEN, he will allow no one to despise his COUNTRY: a word will revive the original incentive to virtue, and the renegade must be sacrificed by those whom he had served at the hazard of infamy. The severe character of CATO allowed of no paltering with the freedom of his country: he lived only to promote it.Always full of energy, he had erected its standard in Africa, and drawn every possible advantage during the long fascination in which Cæsar was held by Cleopatra. When the |