3. The manners, or decency of the characters, in "speaking or acting what is proper for them, and 86 proper to be fhewn by the poet.

4. The thoughts which exprefs the manners.

5. The words which exprefs thofe thoughts. "In the last of thefe, Homer excels Virgil; Virgil "all other ancient poets; and Shakspeare all modern

"poets.

"For the fecond of thefe, the order: the meaning is, that a fable ought to have a beginning, middle, "and an end, all just and natural; fo that that part, e. g. which is the middle, could not naturally be "the beginning or end, and fo of the reft; all depend on one another, like the links of a curious "chain. If terror and pity are only to be raised, "certainly this author follows Ariftotle's rules, and "Sophocles' and Euripides's example: but joy may "be raised too, and that doubly; either by seeing a "wicked man punished, or a good man at laft fortu"nate; or perhaps indignation, to fee wickedness profperous, and goodness depreffed: both thefe may be "profitable to the end of tragedy, reformation of manners; but the last improperly, only as it begets pity "in the audience: though Ariftotle, I confefs, places "tragedies of this kind in the fecond form.

"He who undertakes to answer this excellent cri* tique of Mr. Rymer, in behalf of our English poets against the Greek, ought to do it in this manner.

Either by yielding to him the greatest part of what "he contends for, which confifts in this, that the "púbos, i. e. the defign and conduct of it, is more "conducing in the Greeks to thofe ends of tragedy, "which Ariftotle and he propofe, namely, to caufe Ff2

'terror

"terror and pity: yet the granting this does not fet "the Greeks above the English poets.

"But the answerer ought to prove two things: first, "that the fable is not the greatest mafter-piece of a tragedy, though it be the foundation of it.

.

"Secondly, That other ends as fuitable to the na"ture of tragedy may be found in the English, which 66 were not in the Greek.

"Ariftotle places the fable firft; not quoad digni"tatem, fed quoad fundamentum: for a fable, never "fo movingly contrived to those ends of his, pity and "terror, will operate nothing on our affections, except the characters, manners, thoughts, and words, "are fuitable.

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"So that it remains for Mr. Rymer to prove, that

in all those, or the greatest part of them, we are in"ferior to Sophocles and Euripides: and this he has "offered at, in fome measure; but, I think, a little partially to the ancients.

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"For the fable itfelf; 'tis in the English more "adorned with epifodes, and larger than in the Greek "poets; confequently more diverting. For, if the action be but one, and that plain, without any counterturn of defign or episode, i. e. under-plot, "how can it be fo pleafing as the English, which "have both under-plot and a turned defign, which keeps the audience in expectation of the catastrophe whereas in the Greek poets we fee through the whole defign at first.

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"For the characters, they are neither fo many nor "fo various in Sophocles and Euripides, as in Shak'fpeare and Fletcher; only they are more adapted to "thofe

"thofe ends of tragedy which Ariftotle commends to "us, pity and terror.

"The manners flow from the characters, and con

fequently must partake of their advantages and dif"advantages.

"The thoughts and words, which are the fourth "and fifth beauties of tragedy, are certainly more no"ble and more poetical in the English than in the "Greek, which must be proved by comparing them, "fomewhat more equitably than Mr. Rymer has done.

"After all, we need not yield that the English way "is lefs conducing to move pity and terror, because they often thew virtue oppreffed and vice punished; "where they do not both, or either, they are not to "be defended.

"And if we should grant that the Greeks performed "this better, perhaps it may admit of difpute, whether pity and terror are either the prime, or at least the "only ends of tragedy.

""Tis not enough that Ariftotle has faid fo; for "Ariftotle drew his models of tragedy from Sophocles "and Euripides; and, if he had feen ours, might "have changed his mind. And chiefly we have to say

(what I hinted on pity and terror, in the last paragraph "fave one), that the punishment of vice and reward of "virtue are the most adequate ends of tragedy, becaufe "moft conducing to good example of life. Now pity is

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not so easily raised for a criminal, and the ancient "tragedy always reprefents its chief perfon fuch, as "it is for an innocent man; and the fuffering of innoss cence and punishment of the offender is of the na"ture of English tragedy: contrarily, in the Greek, ❝ innocence is unhappy often, and the offender efcapes. "Then

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"Then we are not touched with the fufferings of any "fort of men fo much as of lovers; and this was al"most unknown to the ancients; fo that they neither "administered poetical justice, of which Mr. Rymer "boafts, fo well as we; neither knew they the best "common-place of pity, which is love.

"He therefore unjustly blames us for not building "on what the ancients left us; for it feems, upon "confideration of the premises, that we have wholly "finished what they began.

"My judgement on this piece is this, that it is "extremely learned; but that the author of it is "better read in the Greek than in the English poets; "that all writers ought to study this critique, as the "best account I have ever seen of the ancients; that "the model of tragedy he has here given, is ex"cellent, and extreme correct; but that it is not the "only model of all tragedy, because it is too much "circumfcribed in plot, characters, &c.; and, laftly, "that we may be taught here juftly to admire and "imitate the ancients, without giving them the pre"ference with this author, in prejudice to our own country.

"Want of method in this excellent treatise, "makes the thoughts of the author fometimes ob"fcure.

"His meaning, that pity and terror are to be moved, is, that they are to be moved as the means conducing to the ends of tragedy, which are pleasure and "instruction.

"And these two ends may be thus diftinguished. "The chief end of the poet is to pleafe; for his immediate reputation depends on it.

"The

"The great end of the poem is to inftruct, which is performed by making pleasure the vehicle of that "inftruction; for poefy is an art, and all arts are made "to profit. Rapin,

"The pity, which the poet is to labour for, is for "the criminal, not for thofe or him whom he has mur❝dered, or who have been the occafion of the tragedy. "The terror is likewife in the punishment of the fame "criminal; who, if he be reprefented too great an "offender, will not be pitied: if altogether innocent, *his punishment will be unjuft.

"Another obfcurity is, where he fays Sophocles

perfected tragedy by introducing the third actor: that ❝is, he meant three kinds of action; one company fing*ing, or another playing on the mufick; a third dancing.

"To make a true judgement in this competition betwixt the Greek poets and the English, in "tragedy:

"Confider, first, how Aristotle has defined a tragedy. "Secondly, what he affigns the end of it to be. "Thirdly, what he thinks the beauties of it. "Fourthly, the means to attain the end proposed.

"Compare the Greek and English tragick poets "justly, and without partiality, according to thofe <rules.

"Then, fecondly, confider whether Aristotle has "made a juft definition of tragedy; of its parts, of its "ends, and of its beauties; and whether he, having "not feen any others but thofe of Sophocles, Euri"pides, &c. had or truly could determine what all "the excellences of tragedy are, and wherein they confift.

"Next fhew in what ancient tragedy was deficient: "for example, in the narrowness of its plots, and "fewness

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