44 PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 



I regret my inability to speak of Shakspeare in conjunction 

 with the Greek dramatists. 



A carelessness in regard to the unities of time and place will 

 be therefore imputed to my being unacquainted with the virtue 

 of their observance, as shewn in the reasonings of the Greek critics 

 and the tragedies of Eschylus. That the extravagant violations of 

 them occasionally committed by Shakspeare are defensible no 

 one will maintain — immediate transitions from pne country to 

 another would puzzle us, even in these wonderful times of steam, 

 gas, and vacuum — they smack too much of harlequinade. Ne- 

 vertheless we may be too precise on this point ; and altho' the 

 prompter's whistle should be entrusted with no more magic than 

 will give us the instantaneous advantage of a moderate hackney 

 coach fare, I see no reason why the music between the acts should 

 not give us time to cross the Straits of Dover. 



Neither does it appear that we should be extreme in the en- 

 forcement of probabilit J/ y though it were certainly a virtue to keep 

 possibility ever in view. Of course, in those more poetical com- 

 positions, originating in an author's imagination, and addressed, 

 not so much to our optical, as to our mental vision, as we do not 

 look for likelihood we are not offended by extravagance. The 

 introduction of supernatural agency has a Grecian precedent and 

 a Shakspearian passport, though it would be now subject to con- 

 siderable hazard. A palpable ghost, however, whose rising must 

 be accompanied by the creaking of a windlass, and who shews 

 himself to the audience, while on the stage he is supposed to be 

 merely seen by the one conscience striken individual whose guilt 

 has deranged his wits — this, surely is an unnecessary violation 

 of propriety — nor can I see, why the spectator should partake 

 ivith Macbeth in the sight of Banquo's ghost any more than in 

 that of the " air drawn dagger which led him to Duncan." 



As to the construction of a piece, my architectural vice includes 

 me to be, perhaps, too particular, and to draw too offensive a 

 parallel between the five acts of a play and the five stories of a 

 house. As in the one case I would have a progressive increase 

 of richness from the basement to the cornice, so, methinks a play 

 should exhibit a gradual developement of plot, a continual in- 

 crease of interest, and a catastrophe, exceeding in excitement, 

 letting the curtain fall ere that excitement shall have dwindled. 



Now, Sir, if I have enumerated what will be acknowledged as 

 a string of essentials, it will be in the same moment permitted, 

 that Shakspeare is too generally and often very grossly at fault. 



