cession  interrupted  —  the  father  on  the  bier  —  the
mourning  child  by  his  side,  outraged  under  the  very
arches  of  the  house  of  death  —  that  deep  paleness  of
the  cheek  of  the  young  son  revealing  how  the  agony  of
his  sorrow  naasters  for  a  space  the  yehemence  of  his
burning  resentment,  —  that  awful  oath  of  revenge
against  the  house  of  his  future  affianced  bride  ;  —  how
it  sweeps  on,  from  this  burial  service  presided  over  by
doom,  through  those  unutterable  agonies  of  two  hearts,
to  the  successive  and  appalling  death-scenes ;  how
every  incident  and  appendage  swells  the  dark  and  swift
tide  of  destiny;  how  hifjhly  wrought — ,how  vivid  —
how  spontaneous  in  metaphor,  is  every  scene  and  dia-
logue ;  to  what  fervor  and  exaltation  of  mind  —  to
what  keen  susceptibility  of  emotion  —  to  how  towering
and  perturbed  a  mood  of  imagination,  all  the  dramatis
personce  seem  elevated !  In  the  same  sense  in  which
the  (Bdipus  or  the  Agamemnon  is  a  tragic  poem,  so  is
this  ;  and  the  glorious  music  of  the  opera,  is  scarcely
passionate  and  mournful  enough  to  relieve  the  over-
burthened  and  over-wrought  heart  and  imagination  of
the  reader.
