This, I
say, is an effect wrought by mere lights and shades; consider also a
representation made by words only, as in an account given by a good
writer: Catiline in Sallust makes just such a figure as Porus by Le
Brun. It is said of him, 'Catilina vero longe a suis inter hostium
cadavera repertus est; paululum etiam spirans, ferocitatemque animi quam
vivus habuerat in vultu retinens.'[146] ('Catiline was found killed far
from his own men among the dead bodies of the enemy: he seemed still to
breathe, and still retained in his face the same fierceness he had when
he was living.') You have in that one sentence, a lively impression of
his whole life and actions. What I would insinuate from all this, is,
that if the painter and the historian can do thus much in colours and
language, what may not be performed by an excellent poet, when the
character he draws is presented by the person, the manner, the look, and
the motion, of an accomplished player? If a thing painted or related can
irresistibly enter our hearts, what may not be brought to pass by seeing
generous things performed before our eyes?" Eugenio ended his discourse,
by recommending the apt use of a theatre, as the most agreeable and easy
method of making a polite and moral gentry, which would end in rendering
the rest of the people regular in their behaviour, and ambitious of
laudable undertakings.
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