CHAPTER IX. CONTRAST. THE definition of contrast has already been given. In literature there are found illustrations upon every page. There are contrasts of words, contrasts of emotions, contrasts of scenes, contrasts of characters, and many others. Under the head of "Complex Relations" will be found numerous examples of the first class. We shall here consider a few illustrations of the other classes, while later on the student will find illustrations for more extended study. Contrast of emotion is admirably illustrated in the following scene from The Merchant of Venice, Act III., Sc. i. Enter TUBAL. SHYLOCK. How now, Tubal ! what news from Genoa? hast thou found my daughter? TUBAL. I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot find her. SHYLOCK. Why there, there, there, there! a diamond gone, cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse never fell upon our nation till now; I never felt it till now:- two thousand ducats in that; and other precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear! would she were hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin! No news of them? Why, so ; and I know not what's spent in the search: why, thou loss upon loss ! the thief gone with so much, and so much to find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge: nor no ill luck stirring but what lights on my shoulders; no sighs but of my breathing; no tears but of my shedding. TUBAL. Yes, other men have ill luck too. Antonio, as I heard in Genoa, - SHYLOCK. What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck ? TUBAL. Hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis. TUBAL. I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck. SHYLOCK. I thank thee, good Tubal. Good news, good news! ha, ha! - Where? in Genoa ? TUBAL. Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, one night fourscore ducats. SHYLOCK. Thou stick'st a dagger in me; I shall never see my gold again. Fourscore ducats at a sitting! fourscore ducats! TUBAL. There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my company to Venice, that swear he cannot choose but break. SHYLOCK. I am very glad of it: I'll plague him; I'll torture him I am glad of it. TUBAL. One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter for a monkey. SHYLOCK. Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal: it was my turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor. I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys. TUBAL. But Antonio is certainly undone. SHYLOCK. Nay, that's true, that's very true. Go, Tubal, fee me an officer; bespeak him a fortnight before. I will have the heart of him, if he forfeit; for, were he out of Venice, I can make what merchandise I will. Go, go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue; go good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal. Contrasted scenes are hardly to be considered apart from the effect the contrasts may have upon the emotions. Once more we select a paragraph from Robert of Sicily, wherein the degraded king is set in the midst of the gorgeous pageant. The emotion engendered by the first scene is pleasing and joyful, while by the second we are moved to pity and disdain. Almost three years were ended; when there came From Valmond, Emperor of Allemaine, Unto King Robert, saying that Pope Urbane By letter summoned them forthwith to come On Holy Thursday to his city of Rome. The Angel with great joy received his guests, Whose loveliness was more resplendent made By the mere passing of that cavalcade, With plumes, and cloaks, and housings, and the stir And lo! among the menials, in mock state, In all the country towns through which they went. Contrast of character is brought out in every great play. Horatio and Hamlet, Cordelia and her sisters, Macbeth and his wife, suggest themselves as examples. The third act of King Lear, where the jester's jibes are interpolated between the fearful outbursts of the king, is a striking example of character contrast. Before concluding this discussion it may be well to remark that the two parts of a contrast do not always occur in succession. Do not the last three or four speeches of Shylock depend for their effect upon the audience keeping in mind his emotions and bearing during the former scenes? Let the audience forget these, and they have lost a most significant æsthetic detail. Similarly, when King Robert utters the speech beginning, "Thou knowest best," the whole effect is lost unless we bear in mind that never for three years has his answer to the angel's question been other than, "I am, I am the king." Sheltered by the verdant shores, an hundred triremes were riding proudly at their anchors, their brazen beaks glittering in the sun, their streamers dancing in the morning breeze, while many a shattered plank and timber gave evidence of desperate conflicts with the fleets of Rome. KELLOGG, Regulus to the Carthaginians. The multitude swayed to and fro like a forest beneath a tempest, and the rage and hate of that tumultuous throng, vented itself in groans, and curses, and yells of vengeance. But calm, cold and immovable as the marble walls around him stood the Roman. — Ibid. If there be three in all your company dare face me on the bloody sands, let them come on. And yet I was not always thus, a hired butcher, a savage chief of still more savage men! My ancestors came from old Sparta, and settled among the vine-clad rocks and citron groves of Syrasella. My early life ran quiet as the brooks by which I sported; and when at noon I gathered the sheep beneath the shade, and played upon the shepherd's flute, there was a friend to join me in the pastime. . . . One evening, my grandsire, an old man, was telling of Marathon and Leuctra, and how, in ancient times, a little band of Spartans, in a defile of the mountains, had withstood a whole army. I did not then know what war was; but my cheeks burned, and I clasped the knees of that venerable man, until my mother, parting the hair from off my forehead, kissed my throbbing temples and bade me go to rest, and think no more of those old tales and savage wars. That very night the Romans landed on our coast. I saw the breast that had nourished me trampled by the hoof of the war-horse, and the bleeding body of my father flung amidst the blazing rafters of our dwelling! KELLOGG, Spartacus. O Rome, Rome, thou hast been a tender nurse to me! Ay, thou hast given to that poor, gentle, timid shepherd lad, who never knew a harsher tone than a flute-note, muscles of iron and a heart of flint; taught him to gaze into the glaring eyeballs of the fierce Numidian lion, even as a boy upon a laughing girl. The shouts of revelry had died away. — Ibid. Ibid. You all do know this mantle: I remember 'Twas on a summer's evening in his tent, That day he overcame the Nervii. Look! in this place ran Cassius' dagger through. My good blade carves the casques of men, My tough lance thrusteth sure, My strength is as the strength of ten, The shattering trumpet shrilleth high, The hard brands shiver on the steel, They reel, they roll, in clanging lists, That lightly rain from ladies' hands. The armaments which thunderstrike the walls of rock-built cities, These are thy toys; and as the snowy flake they melt into thy yeast of waves, Which mar alike the Armada's pride, or spoils of Trafalgar. Byron. The selection entitled the "Choric Song," a part of The Lotos Eaters, is a fine study in contrast. The speakers are the followers of Ulysses, who are debating whether they shall remain in this new found land of the Lotos or return to their homes. The first, third, fifth, and seventh stanzas are in striking contrast to the others. The feelings of the sailors as they alternately contemplate their life as it is and has been, in contrast with what it might be should they remain here, are strikingly depicted. |