"fewness of perfons, and try whether that be not a "fault in the Greek poets; and whether their excel"lency was fo great, when the variety was vifibly fo "little; or whether what they did was not very easy 66 to do.

"Then make a judgement on what the English have "added to their beauties: as, for example, not only "more plot, but alfo new paffions; as, namely, that "of love, fearce touched on by the ancients, except "in this one example of Phædra, cited by Mr. "Rymer; and in that how fhort they were of "Fletcher!

"Prove alfo that love, being an heroick paffion, " is fit for tragedy, which cannot be denied, because "of the example alledged of Phædra; and how far "Shakspeare has outdone them in friendship, &c.

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"To return to the beginning of this enquiry; con"fider if pity and terror be enough for tragedy to move and I believe, upon a true definition of tragedy, it will be found that its work extends "farther, and that it is to reform manners, by a

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delightful reprefentation of human life in great per"fons, by way of dialogue. If this be true, then not "only pity and terror are to be moved, as the only "means to bring us to virtue, but generally love to "virtue, and hatred to vice; by fhewing the rewards "of one, and punishments of the other; at least, by "rendering virtue always amiable, tho' it be fhewn un"fortunate; and vice deteftable, though it be fhewn "triumphant,

"If, then, the encouragement of virtue and dif couragement of vice be the proper ends of poetry in tragedy, pity and terror, though good means, are

not the only. For all the paffions, in their turns, are to be set in a ferment: as joy, anger, love, fear, "are to be used as the poet's common-places; and a "general concernment for the principal actors is to be "raised, by making them appear fuch in the charac

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ters, their words, and actions, as will interest the "audience in their fortunes.

"And if, after all, in a larger fenfe, pity compre"hends this concernment for the good, and terror in"cludes deteftation for the bad, then let us confider "whether the English have not answered this end of

tragedy, as well as the ancients, or perhaps better. “And here Mr. Rymer's objections against these plays are to be impartially weighed, that we may "fee whether they are of weight enough to turn the "balance against our countrymen.

" "Tis evident thofe plays, which he arraigns, have "moved both those paffions in a high degree upon the 66 stage.

"To give the glory of this away from the poet, and to place it upon the actors, seems unjust. "One reafon is, because whatever actors they have "found, the event has been the fame; that is, the "fame paffions have been always moved; which shews "that there is fomething of force and merit in the

plays themselves, conducing to the design of raising "these two paffions: and fuppofe them ever to have "been excellently acted, yet action only adds grace, "vigour, and more life, upon the ftage; but cannot 66 give it wholly where it is not firft. But, fecondly, "I dare appeal to those who have never seen them

acted, if they have not found thefe two paffions "moved within them: and if the general voice will carry it, Mr. Rymer's prejudice will take off his fingle teftimony.

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"This, being matter of fact, is reasonably to be ef tablished by this appeal; as if one man fays 'tis night, "the rest of the world conclude it to be day; there "needs no farther argument against him, that it is fo.

"If he urge, that the general tafte is depraved, his 66 arguments to prove this can at best but evince that 66 our poets took not the best way to raise those pas"fions; but experience proves against him, that these 66 means, which they have used, have been fuccefsful, " and have produced them.

"And one reafon of that fuccefs is, in my opinion, "this, that Shakspeare and Fletcher have written to "the genius of the age and nation in which they lived; "for though nature, as he objects, is the fame in all

places, and reafon too the fame; yet the climate, "the age, the difpofition of the people, to whom "a poet writes, may be fo different, that what pleased "the Greeks would not fatisfy an English audience.

"And if they proceeded upon a foundation of truer "reafon to please the Athenians than Shakspeare and "Fletcher to please the English, it only fhews that "the Athenians were a more judicious people; but "the poer's business is certainly to please the audience.

"Whether our English audience have been pleased "hitherto with acorns, as he calls it, or with bread, "is the next queftion; that is, whether the means "which Shakspeare and Fletcher have used in their "plays to raise those paffions before named, be better "applied to the ends by the Greek poets than by them. "And perhaps we fhall not grant him this wholly: "let it be granted that a writer is not to run down "with the stream, or to please the people by their own "ufual methods, but rather to reform their judgements,

"it ftill remains to prove that our theatre needs this total reformation.

"The faults, which he has found in their defigns,

are rather wittily aggravated in many places than ❝reasonably urged; and as much may be returned "on the Greeks, by one who were as witty as him"felf.

2. They deftroy not, if they are granted, the foundation of the fabrick; only take away from the "beauty of the fymmetry: for example, the faults "in the character of the King in King and No-king are 66 not, as he makes them, fuch as render him detefta"ble, but only imperfections which accompany human "nature, and are for the most part excufed by the vi❝olence of his love; fo that they destroy not our pity ❝or concernment for him: this anfwer may be applied "to most of his objections of that kind.

"And Rollo committing many murders, when he "is anfwerable but for one, is too feverely arraigned

by him; for it adds to our horror and detestation of the criminal: and poetick juftice is not neglected "neither; for we ftab him in our minds for every of"fence which he commits;. and the point, which the. 66 poet is to gain on the audience, is not fo much in the death of an offender as the raifing an horror of his crimes.

"That the criminal fhould neither be wholly guilty, "nor wholly innocent, but fo participating of both as "to move both pity and terror, is certainly a good rule, "but not perpetually to be observed; for that were

to make all tragedies too much alike, which objec❝tion he forefaw, but has not fully answered.

"To conclude, therefore: if the plays of the ancients are more correctly plotted, ours are more beautifully

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tifully written. And if we can raise passions as high "on worse foundations, it fhews our genius in tragedy "is greater; for, in all other parts of it, the English "have manifeftly excelled them."

THE

* In these his obfervations on a tract of Rymer's, which, to give it accurately, is entitled "The tragedies of the last age con"fidered," Mr. Dryden terms this most abturd of all books of the kind, an excellent critique, for which commendation hardly any reafon can be found, other than that he stood in awe of the writer. Dryden every where profeffes himself an admirer of Shakspeare, and it is the aim of this critic to turn all he has written to ridicule. Out of many paffages in another discourse of his entitled A fhort 'view of tragedy,' that are not to be matched for their absurdity, I felect the following fummary of the character of our great dramatic poet :

"Shakspeare's genius lay for comedy and humour. In tragedy "he appears quite out of his element; his brains are turned, he "raves and rambles, without any coherence, any spark of reason, 86 or any rule to controul him, or fet bounds to his phrenzy. His "imagination was ftill running after his masters, the coblers, and "parish clerks, and Old Testament Stroulers. So he might make "bold with Portia, as they had done with the Virgin Mary. Who, "in a church acting their play called the Incarnation, had usually "the Ave Mary mumbled over to a tradling wench (for the bleffed "Virgin), ftraw-hatted, blue aproned, big-bellied, with her im"maculate conception up to her chin."

With a degree of faftidious infolence to which hardly any critic ever arrived, and in a strain of buffoonery peculiar to himself, he laughs to fcorn the plot, the manners and the fentiments of Othello, and makes fport with the author in his cenfures of Julius Cæfar.

In the former of the above tracts he promises his friend Fleetwood Shepheard, to whom it is addreffed, "fome reflections on that "Paradife Loft of Milton's, which fome are pleased to call a poem," but they do not appear to have been ever published. This farcaf tical expreffion has not efcaped the notice of Mr. Fenton, and bifuop Newton.