sources of inspiration of the poet, and make of
them groups, which may then be arranged in a
series of relations, an ideal succession.

On casting the eye over the rich extent of
his works, the attention is at once drawn to
certain of them, whose fresh, smiling colours
indicate that their principal and proper theme
is love. Not the love that becomes joined to
other graver passions and unified with them,
forms a complex, as in the Othello, or in An-
tony and Cleopatra, thus acquiring a pro-
foundly tragic quality, but love and love alone,
love considered in itself. These passions then
are to be found rather in the comedy of love
than in the tragedies or dramas: in love, re-
garded certainly with affectionate sympathy, but
also with curiosity, instinct with softness and
tenderness, indeed, one might almost say, with
the superiority of an expert mind and thus with
delicate irony. The mind that accompanies
this amorous heart, observes the caprices and
illusions, recognising their inevitability and
their necessity, but yet knowing them for what
they are, imaginings, however irresistible and
delicious they be, caprices, though noble and
beautiful, weaknesses, deserving of indulgence
and of gentle treatment, because human, and

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