Note 65 — ACT I.
Reading edition
Corneille recommends some very remarkable day wherein to fix the action of a tragedy. This the best of our tragical writers have understood to mean a day remarkable for the serenity of the sky, or what we generally call a fine summer's day: so that, according to this their exposition, the same months are proper for tragedy which are proper for pastoral. Most of our celebrated English tragedies, as Cato, Mariamne, Tamerlane, &c., begin with their observations on the morning. Lee seems to have come the nearest to this beautiful description of our author's:—
"The morning dawns with an unwonted crimson, The flowers all odorous seem, the garden birds Sing louder, and the laughing sun ascends The gaudy earth with an unusual brightness: All nature smiles."—"Cæs. Borg."
Massinissa, in the new Sophonisba, is also a favourite of the sun:—
"The sun too seems As conscious of my joy, with broader eye To look abroad the world, and all things smile Like Sophonisba."
Memnon, in the Persian Princess, makes the sun decline rising, that he may not peep on objects which would profane his brightness:—
"The morning rises slow, And all those ruddy streaks that used to paint The day's approach are lost in clouds, as if The horrors of the night had sent 'em back, To warn the sun he should not leave the sea, To peep," &c.