Something it is to hold In God's worlds manifold, "Whether that form respect "Holy in me and thee, Rose fallen from the tree, Though the world stand dumb around us, All unable to expound us. "Though none us deign to bless, Blessed age, and consecrated, "Oh, shame to poet's lays, Gregory. VII. HORNE'S "GREGORY VII." A Tragedy. With an Essay on Tragic Influence. By R. H PRECEPT and example nowhere more illustriously unite in the great endeavour to clear the dull atmosphere of cant and superficiality, and to bring about a new dramatic literature, by showing the immortal and life-giving sun revolving in its unapproachable majesty above and beyond these mists and vapours, than in the person of Mr. Horne, one of the greatest dramatists of the day, and an earnest critic and inquirer into abuses. While the press is filled with clamours that the present state of things has a Denmark rottenness eating up the very heart of it, there is great satisfaction on seeing that in various quarters men are showing in their own persons that a better can and must be had. Leigh Hunt, George Darley, R. T. Troughton, &c. are names newly added to a list, which we confidently believe will bear down all before it. But in the foremost rank stands R. H. Horne, whose present tragedy outstrips his former efforts, and places him in the highest class of dramatists. In artistic construction and distribution, there is a vast improvement on "Cosmo de Medicis" (which was very faulty in this respect), and this is one of the highest merits of the drama, a merit almost utterly wanting in the old dramatists, who were not artists in the higher sense of that term, and requiring the greatest knowledge of the drama, and of the laws of human emotion for its fulfilment. But the passion of the piece is weaker, inasmuch as the struggle is broader, —appeals to the intellectual recognition for its depth and grandeur - carries in it the interests of nations and of millions, and the world-history of the past, present, and future, rather than striking home to the heart, ploughing up the depths of passion there, by its individual concrete interests. Now this we believe to be not the most successful province of the drama: we do not quarrel with Mr. Horne for the choice of his subject, because its very novelty, together with its grandeur, seems to us an advantage; but we must maintain that for success for touching deeply the multitude (and we do not here mean the mob), which is the dramatist's office, the subject chosen must be individual, not general — concrete, not abstract emotive, not intellective. Are we obscure? we will explain. It may be asserted as a fixed principle, that the wider the extent of our sympathy, the shallower it becomes, losing in intenso what it gains in extenso: thus a battle is a stirring incident in an epic, a pointless one in a drama; the reason is, in the epic the battle itself is one concrete whole, and each army arrests our sympathies as an individual; in the drama we see the various men composing the armies before our eyes, and we cannot collect them as one concrete whole, but our sympathies are hurried away, more or less, by each individual, and the attention, by being divided and extended, is weakened. On the contrary, a duel in a drama is highly effective, because here all our sympathies are convergent — all our attention is seized by the two individuals before us: every thrust and every parry attracts us, our hearts tremble-hang in suspense of the blow and this in proportion to the interest attached to the individuals. Now this fact, whether we have rightly explained it or not, is indisputable, and it will serve to illustrate what we said of Gregory for here the intense interest is excited, not by Gregory, but by Christianity, which he established on the throne of Europe, and our sympathy is not so intense as that of the individual passions of "Cosmo de Medicis." A great mistake will be committed if it is inferred from this that there is a want of individual human interest in "Gregory VII.” What we mean is, that this is subordinate to the grand abstract interest of Christianity which is bound up with it. The problem of this drama is the establishment of popedom; and to elucidate its importance, as well as to assign popedom its position in human history, we offer these compressed remarks. The Christianity of the middle ages was something peculiar, it was neither the Christianity of Christ nor of this nineteenth century, it was the incarnation of ecclesiastical power, the bodily might of the Christian doctrine - a power to be reverenced, were it only as a great fact that humanity had developed, which had maintained form any years its omnipotence; but more fully calling forth our reverence, when we reflect that to it we owe the Christianity of to-day. Let us explain. Nothing that nature does is vain; no great event has taken place (whatever horrors may have attended it) without its being for some great good. It is the province of the philosophy of history to seek out these events, and to give them their place in the progress of humanity. But amidst all the questions agitated concerning the history of Christianity, amidst all the volumes on the subject of the middle ages or popedom, no one, we believe, has asked the question, what part did popedom play in the revolution of humanity? Shrieking against temporal power, popish tyranny and mummery, &c., or elaborate panegyrics on the only true Church, these and other questions have been multifariously handled, but the question has not been handled. -- Rejecting as futile all inquiries into Divine Providence in the guidance of history, and asserting, without fear of contradiction, that as far as limited reason can ever throw gleams of light on these mysteries, it is evident that Christianity was to be brought about by human means, was to be accepted by free human souls upon conviction, and was to take its course in worldhistory as every other event, as every other religion. The religion was given to man-miracles were wrought to attest its truth, and henceforth one may safely affirm that miracles were to cease no miracle (God-interference) was to be wrought to spread the doctrine, else there had been no freedom, no conviction in the case there it lay God-written, God-attested, for free human souls to take it up or reject it, as they thought fit. Now these are data which no one will deny, and hence we repeat that Christianity was to be spread over the world by human means. The point here gained is important - it enables us to reason on the progress of Christianity as on that of every other religion. It rose, we may see, through all persecution, through all ridicule and privation; but it rose slowly, and suffered much. It grew and grew by the invincible might of a faith in human souls, until the Pope of Rome was the ruler of the mightiest part of the world, to whose footstool humbly bowed the mightiest potentates. This pontifical power, and glory, and wealth, and luxury was not Christianity, but it was a necessary step in the progress of that religion. Man yokes an ox to his plough, toils with the ox, and turns the beautiful daisyfield into an unsightly mass of ploughed earth, this is not wheat, but it is the necessary preliminary to the crop which the coming harvest will produce, and the astonished sentimental on-looker at length admits that this rough cutting up of the field is to be admired. So let us admire popedom! If it was not Christianity, it was the collection and union of that energy and power which would rescue it from persecution, and give it unshakeable place and footing in this world of ours, never more to be disturbed. The temporal as well as spiritual might of Christianity has conquered the greatest part of the civilized world; and if we believe it to be the religion of man, which he can lay up in his heart, we cannot but regret that it has not conquered the whole world. When the Church of Rome had completed its temporal empire, had perfectly established its dominion, its mission was fulfilled-it became useless, and nature commanded it to disappear. Then arose the Reformation to develope the inner life of Christianity-to save religion from wholly relapsing into a temporal and worldly thing-and to substitute the doctrine for the might of the Church. This great event has been, and is still, accomplishing its mission: hence, without arrogance, we may claim for ourselves a more perfect Christianity; but we must not presume upon it to the disparagement of our ancestors. We gather in the wheat only because they with the sweat of their brows and blood of their hearts tilled the ground for Our work is also appointed us: see that we be not idle, but help to gather in this wheat, and store it in the barn (the human soul), that our children and children's children may eat the bread thereof! us. |