"David Hume - Of Tragedy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hume David)

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Copyright 1995, Christopher MacLachlan ([email protected]). See
end note for details on copyright and editing conventions.[1]

Editor's note: "Of Tragedy" first appeared in 1757 in Hume's Four
Dissertations. The text file here is based on the 1875 Green and Grose
edition. Spelling and punctuation have been modernized.

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Of Tragedy

It seems an unaccountable pleasure, which the spectators of a
well-written tragedy receive from sorrow, terror, anxiety, and
other passions, that are in themselves disagreeable and
uneasy. The more they are touched and affected, the more are
they delighted with the spectacle; and as soon as the uneasy
passions cease to operate, the piece is at an end. One scene
of full joy and contentment and security is the utmost, that
any composition of this kind can bear; and it is sure always
to be the concluding one. If, in the texture of the piece,
there be interwoven any scenes of satisfaction, they afford
only faint gleams of pleasure, which are thrown in by way of
variety, and in order to plunge the actors into deeper
distress, by means of that contrast and disappointment. The
whole heart of the poet is employed, in rouzing and supporting
the compassion and indignation, the anxiety and resentment of
his audience. They are pleased in proportion as they are
afflicted, and never are so happy as when they employ tears,
sobs, and cries to give vent to their sorrow, and relieve
their heart, swoln with the tenderest sympathy and compassion.

The few critics who have had some tincture of philosophy, have
remarked this singular phenomenon, and have endeavoured to
account for it.

L'AbbВ Dubos, in his reflections on poetry and painting,
asserts, that nothing is in general so disagreeable to the
mind as the languid, listless state of indolence, into which
it falls upon the removal of all passion and occupation. To
get rid of this painful situation, it seeks every amusement
and pursuit; business, gaming, shews, executions; whatever
will 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 than
that insipid languor, which arises from perfect tranquillity
and repose.