T 4 ] 



The obfervation to which I allude is to this efietfi:. — 

 '• It has commonly been thought a judicious rule with refpe(^ 

 '' to tragedy, not to borrow the ftory from recent events, 

 •' nor has any writer within our recolledlion tranfgrefTed this 

 *' law of limitation with impunity. Among other obvious 

 " reafons for the rule it may be obferved, that it converts the 

 " ftage from an inflrument of amufement into a field of poli- 

 " tical altercation, and tends to interefl the paffions on the 

 " fide of the popular judgment on any pafling event, before 

 " diligent enquiry and cool difcuffion can have determined 

 " whether that judgment be confonant to truth." 



I MUST obferve in the outfet that the authors of this re- 

 mark, in confidering the flage only as a mere inflrument of 

 amufement, feem to think too meanly of its funcSlions and 

 charadlei;. Shakejpeare had jufler and higher notions of the 

 dignity and importance of the ftage, when he faid, " Let the, 

 " players be well ufed, they are the abflradl and brief chro- 

 " nicies of the time. — Its end," fpeaking of the ftage, " both at 

 " the firft and now, was and is to hold as 'twere the mirror 

 " up to nature, to fliow virtue her own features, fcorn her 

 " own image, and the very age and body of the time his 

 " form and prefTure." 



In fact, thofe who adopt the language and fentiments of 

 the remark which I have ftated, feem to depend too much on 



the 



