ON HER EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE OF BLINDNESS, IN THE REVIVED OPERA OF
ARTHUR AND EMMELINE.
Rare artist, who with half thy tools, or none,
Canst execute with ease thy curious art,
And press thy powerful’st meanings on the heart
Unaided by the eye, expression’s throne!
While each blind sense, intelligential grown
Beyond its sphere, performs the effect of sight,
Those orbs alone, wanting their proper might,
All motionless and silent seem to moan
The unseemly negligence of nature’s hand,
That left them so forlorn. What praise is thine,
O mistress of the passions!--artist fine!--
Who dost our souls against our sense command;
Plucking the horror from a sightless face,
Lending to blank deformity a grace.