SONNET.

TO A YOUNG LADY ON HER BIRTH-DAY.

THIS is the holiest day of all the year

To thy fond mother's heart. Thy natal morn
Unchanged returns. Still hope's bright rays adorn
The laughing scene, and round thy path appear
The flowers of life's fresh spring. Thy ravished ear
Is filled with pleasant sounds, and feelings born
Of sinless dreams, from dismal thoughts forlorn
Protect thy trusting spirit. All things cheer
Thine inward eye,

The guileless and the true.

Undimmed by care or crime, may drink sweet hues
From every form, e'en where life's shadows lie.-
While all seems dark to souls that ne'er diffuse

A radiance of their own, the dreariest sky
A fancy pure with kindred light imbues !

SONNET-SUN-RISE.

How gloriously yon mighty monarch rears,
His proud resplendent brow-like Fame's first light
Breaking oblivion's gloom! His tresses bright
Inwreathe the rosy clouds. All nature wears

A bliss-reviving smile.-The glittering tears,

Shed by the pensive spirits of the night

Like verdant meadows, vanish from the sight,
Like rain-drops on the sea! The warm beam cheers
The drowsy herd, and thrills the feather'd throngs

Of early minstrels, whose melodious songs
Seem like a gush of joy. Now mortals send
Their orisons above, while shrubs and flowers
On whispering winds ambrosial odours blend,
To charm and consecrate the morning hours!

OTHELLO AND IAGO.

Let Jealousy

Distill her bane to taint their growing loves!
Light up resentment! fan the dangerous fire
With dark surmises, hints, invented tales,
"Till it burst all the ten ler bonds asunder
That knit their souls.—Virginia.

This jealousy

Is for a precious creature ; as she's rare,
Must it be great; and as his person's mighty,
Must it be violent; and as he does conceive
He is dishonored by a man which ever
Professed to him, why his revenges must

In that be made more bitter.-Winter's Tale.

COLERIDGE gave it out as a discovery, that Othello was not jealous. This is either an idle truism or an outrageous paradox. If he meant that the Moor was not naturally suspicious, he merely echoed the general judgment; but if he really thought that the cunning insinuations of Iago instilled no jealousy into Othello's mind, and that it was not Shakespeare's intention to exhibit the progress and effects of that passion, his opinion is equally new and strange*.

It is true that the jealousy of the Moor is not of that despicable character which always anticipates evil, and is ever on the watch. He is not one of those sly and greedy listeners who, according to

* Dr. Lowth observes, "that the passion of jealousy, its causes, circumstances, progress, and effects, are more accurately, more copiously, more satisfactorily described in this one drama of Shakespeare, than in all the disputations of philosophy."

the vulgar proverb, never hear any good of themselves. He is not a Paul Pry. His is the jealousy of a fiery and impassioned nature that cannot brook a taint of dishonour either in love or

war.

"A savage jealousy that sometimes savours nobly."

Twelfth-Night.

If his jealousy had been of that cast which characterizes mean and suspicious minds, instead of sympathizing with him in his afflictions, we should have regarded him with mingled hatred and contempt. His distress would have seemed a fitting punishment. Even if his jealousy had spontaneously arisen in his own heart, instead of its being forced upon him, as it was, by the circumvention of a fiend in human form, it would have greatly lessened our sympathy and respect. It is almost unnecessary to observe that it was not Shakespeare's desire to render him repulsive or contemptible, but on the contrary to compel us to love and honor him even while he is writhing with a passion which would have rendered a meaner nature intolerably hateful. Though he becomes the murderer of his spotless wife, he only deepens our pity. The more pure and precious was that angelic being, the heavier was his misfortune. We forget his guilt in his agony. Who does not sympathize with that terrible straining of the heartstrings, when the sense of his wife's death comes suddenly home to his apprehension, while Amelia is knocking at the chamberdoor?

"If she come in, she'll sure speak to my wife:

My wife my wife! what wife!-I have no wife.
O, insupportable! O, heavy hour!"

We never cease to remember, that it was the intensity of his love. and the boundless confidence of his friendship that exposed him to the subtle treachery of Iago. We could not despise him for his credulity without insulting virtue. It is not the credulity of weakness like that of Roderigo, who by the dark-lantern

of his own mean imagination sometimes catches a slight glimpse of the dreadful interior of Iago's mind, and then all is veiled again. A noble spirit like that of Othello could form no conception of those hideous images that haunt the obscure cells of a villain's brain. But the Moor and Roderigo* were not the only dupes of the plotting and malignant "ancient." He must have deceived even the more keen and worldly-minded of his associates, for he had obtained such a character for truth and frankness that they must have been nearly as tired of hearing of the honesty of Iago as the Athenians of the justice of Aristides. That Othello should have rejected as he did, the first suggestions of Iago, insinuated with such consummate address, and with such apparent reluctance, shows that he was not "easily jealous," though "being wrought, perplexed in the extreme." No man could have wholly resisted the shrewd hints and the circumstantial evidence adduced by Iago, backed as they were by his reputation for sincerity.

When the poison of jealousy has once fairly entered the heart, the most trivial circumstances tend to strengthen and confirm its influence; but with such a man as Othello, the misery is not at first self-inflicted. The Moor was the very reverse of a suspicious character, which is always a mean one. In the words of Dr. Johnson, he was magnanimous, artless, and credulous—ardent in his affection, and boundless in his confidence. Even Iago, who "knew all qualities with a learned spirit of human dealing," repeatedly acknowledges the generous trustfulness and high character of the man whom he hates.

"The Moor-howbeit that I endure him not,

Is of a constant, loving, noble nature;

And I dare think he'll prove to Desdemona

A most dear husband."

* How different is the simplicity of the Moor from the simplicity of Roderigo !

And it is from a due consideration of the Moor's "free and open nature," that Iago is induced to depend for the purposes of his revenge upon the effect of such subtle insinuations as Othello,

believing him to be honest, was compelled to credit.

"The Moor is of a free and open nature,

That thinks men honest, that but seem to be so ;

And will as easily be led by the nose,

As asses are."

Othello had too much fire in his soul to suffer him to play the mean and dilatory and patient part of a man naturally suspicious, who is always lying in wait for opportunities to discover his own misery and dishonour, and who treasures up long and greedily the minute evidences that feed his hateful passion. "Think'st thou," he exclaims

"Think'st thou, I'd make a life of jealousy,

To follow still the changes of the moon

With fresh suspicions? No; to be once in doubt,
Is once to be resolved."

When he is sent by the Senate on the expedition to Cyprus, with what perfect confidence he places his young and lovely wife in the charge of Iago; and when Brabantio says,

"Look to her, Moor; have a quick eye to see;
She has deceived her father, and may thee."

What is his answer?

"My life upon her faith!"

And to show, out of his own mouth, how little he was inclined to insist upon a strict surveillance of his wife, or to build his doubts of her fidelity on trifles, let me quote part of his speech to Iago, even after that artful villain had poured the first drops of bitterness into Othello's cup. It is not the language of a man originally disposed to be mistrustful.

""Tis not to make me jealous, To say-my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company,