hume - of-739, książki, Philosphy
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[TABLE NOT SHOWN][TABLE NOT SHOWN]Copyright 1995, Christopher MacLachlan (cjmm@st-andrews.ac.uk). Seeend note for details on copyright and editing conventions.[1]Editor's note: "Of Tragedy" first appeared in 1757 in Hume's FourDissertations. The text file here is based on the 1875 Green and Groseedition. Spelling and punctuation have been modernized.---------------------------------------------------------------------Of TragedyIt seems an unaccountable pleasure, which the spectators of awell-written tragedy receive from sorrow, terror, anxiety, andother passions, that are in themselves disagreeable anduneasy. The more they are touched and affected, the more arethey delighted with the spectacle; and as soon as the uneasypassions cease to operate, the piece is at an end. One sceneof full joy and contentment and security is the utmost, thatany composition of this kind can bear; and it is sure alwaysto be the concluding one. If, in the texture of the piece,there be interwoven any scenes of satisfaction, they affordonly faint gleams of pleasure, which are thrown in by way ofvariety, and in order to plunge the actors into deeperdistress, by means of that contrast and disappointment. Thewhole heart of the poet is employed, in rouzing and supportingthe compassion and indignation, the anxiety and resentment ofhis audience. They are pleased in proportion as they areafflicted, and never are so happy as when they employ tears,sobs, and cries to give vent to their sorrow, and relievetheir heart, swoln with the tenderest sympathy and compassion.The few critics who have had some tincture of philosophy, haveremarked this singular phenomenon, and have endeavoured toaccount for it.L'Abb� Dubos, in his reflections on poetry and painting,asserts, that nothing is in general so disagreeable to themind as the languid, listless state of indolence, into whichit falls upon the removal of all passion and occupation. Toget rid of this painful situation, it seeks every amusementand pursuit; business, gaming, shews, executions; whateverwill rouze the passions, and take its attention from itself.No matter what the passion is: Let it be disagreeable,afflicting, melancholy, disordered; it is still better thanthat insipid languor, which arises from perfect tranquillityand repose.It is impossible not to admit this account, as being, at leastin part, satisfactory. You may observe, when there are severaltables of gaming, that all the company run to those, where thedeepest play is, even though they find not there the bestplayers. The view, or, at least, imagination of high passions,arising from great loss or gain, affects the spectator bysympathy, gives him some touches of the same passions, andserves him for a momentary entertainment. It makes the timepass the easier with him, and is some relief to thatoppression, under which men commonly labour, when leftentirely to their own thoughts and meditations.We find that common liars always magnify, in their narrations,all kinds of danger, pain, distress, sickness, deaths,murders, and cruelties; as well as joy, beauty, mirth, andmagnificence. It is an absurd secret, which they have forpleasing their company, fixing their attention, and attachingthem to such marvellous relations, by the passions andemotions, which they excite.There is, however, a difficulty in applying to the presentsubject, in its full extent, this solution, however ingeniousand satisfactory it may appear. It is certain, that the sameobject of distress, which pleases in a tragedy, were it reallyset before us, would give the most unfeigned uneasiness;though it be then the most effectual cure to languor andindolence. Monsieur Fontenelle seems to have been sensible ofthis difficulty; and accordingly attempts another solution ofthe phaenomenon; at least makes some addition to the theoryabove mentioned.[2]'Pleasure and pain,' says he, ' which are two sentiments sodifferent in themselves, differ not so much in their cause.From the instance of tickling, it appears, that the movementof pleasure, pushed a little too far, becomes pain; and thatthe movement of pain, a little moderated, becomes pleasure.Hence it proceeds, that there is such a thing as a sorrow,soft and agreeable: It is a pain weakened and diminished. Theheart likes naturally to be moved and affected. Melancholyobjects suit it, and even disastrous and sorrowful, providedthey are softened by some circumstance. It is certain, that,on the theatre, the representation has almost the effect ofreality; yet it has not altogether that effect. However we maybe hurried away by the spectacle; whatever dominion the sensesand imagination may usurp over the reason, there still lurksat the bottom a certain idea of falsehood in the whole of whatwe see. This idea, though weak and disguised, suffices todiminish the pain which we suffer from the misfortunes ofthose whom we love, and to reduce that affliction to such apitch as converts it into a pleasure. We weep for themisfortune of a hero, to whom we are attached. In the sameinstant we comfort ourselves, by reflecting, that it isnothing but a fiction: And it is precisely that mixture ofsentiments, which composes an agreeable sorrow, and tears thatdelight us. But as that affliction, which is caused byexterior and sensible objects, is stronger than theconsolation which arises from an internal reflection, they arethe effects and symptoms of sorrow, that ought to predominatein the composition.'This solution seems just and convincing; but perhaps it wantsstill some new addition, in order to make it answer fully thephaenomenon, which we here examine. All the passions, excitedby eloquence, are agreeable in the highest degree, as well asthose which are moved by painting and the theatre. Theepilogues of Cicero are, on this account chiefly, the delightof every reader of taste; and it is difficult to read some ofthem without the deepest sympathy and sorrow. His merit as anorator, no doubt, depends much on his success in thisparticular. When he had raised tears in his judges and all hisaudience, they were then the most highly delighted, andexpressed the greatest satisfaction with the pleader. Thepathetic description of the butchery, made by Verres of theSicilian captains, is a masterpiece of this kind: But Ibelieve none will affirm, that the being present at amelancholy scene of that nature would afford anyentertainment. Neither is the sorrow here softened by fiction:For the audience were convinced of the reality of everycircumstance. What is it then, which in this case raises apleasure from the bosom of uneasiness, so to speak; and apleasure, which still retains all the features and outwardsymptoms of distress and sorrow?I answer: This extraordinary effect proceeds from that veryeloquence, with which the melancholy scene is represented. Thegenius required to paint objects in a lively manner, the artemployed in collecting all the pathetic circumstances, thejudgment displayed in disposing them: the exercise, I say, ofthese noble talents, together with the force of expression,and beauty of oratorial numbers, diffuse the highestsatisfaction on the audience, and excite the most delightfulmovements. By this means, the uneasiness of the melancholypassions is not only overpowered and effaced by somethingstronger of an opposite kind; but the whole impulse of thosepassions is converted into pleasure, and swells the delightwhich the eloquence raises in us. The same force of oratory,employed on an uninteresting subject, would not please half somuch, or rather would appear altogether ridiculous; and themind, being left in absolute calmness and indifference, wouldrelish none of those beauties of imagination or expression,which, if joined to passion, give it such exquisiteentertainment. The impulse or vehemence, arising from sorrow,compassion, indignation, receives a new direction from thesentiments of beauty. The latter, being the predominantemotion, seize the whole mind, and convert the former intothemselves, at least tincture them so strongly as totally toalter their nature. And the soul, being, at the same time,rouzed by passion, and charmed by eloquence...
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