5^ THE BEE, OR Jan. 11 r 



every other writer, ancient or modern, are left far be- 

 hind by Shakefpear, whofe merit in this refpecl is in- 

 deed aftonifliing. He hath defcribed the great and the 

 ludicrous, tlie good and the bad, with equal facility, 

 in all their fliades of chara£ter, and in every fcene of 

 human life. Succeeding writers have feldom mention- 

 ed his name without the epithet of Inimitable-, and with 

 muchjuftice; for there has not been wanting in the 

 Englifh language, dramatic writers of merit, who were 

 not infenfible to the fingular abilities of Shakefpear ; 

 but of what writer except himfelf can it be faid, that 

 no imitation has been attempted, none of his charac- 

 ters have been affumed ; his fimplicity, his fentiments, 

 and even his ftile is altogether his own. In imitating 

 Homer^ many writers have not been unfuccefsful. 

 Virgil in beauty and tendernefs has exceeded him. 

 TalTo in ftrength of defcription has often equalled him. 

 In enraptured fublimity, Milton has gone beyond him. 

 But none lias yet in any degree appropriated the fpirit 

 and the manner of Shakefpear. 



In every work of this great author, we difcover all 

 the marks of his genius ; his diverfity of character, his 

 boundlefs imagination, his acute difcernment, and his 

 nervous exprellion ; but in none of them are thefe qua- 

 lities more confpicuous than in the tragedy of Othello ; 

 a work alfo, the freell of his irregularities, his puns, 

 his bombaft, and conceits. No where has he painted 

 virtue with more flaming fublimity tlian in the charac- 

 ter of Othello ; with more amiable tendernefs, than in 

 that of Defdemona ; and no where are all tlie artifices 

 of human nature more fully difplayed than in the cha- 

 racter of lago : from the whole, he has contrived a plot 

 the moll moral in its tendency, which winds up to 

 the higheft pitch our fympathetic feelings, in concern 

 for unfufpicious virtue, and at the fame time roufes 

 our utmoll indignation again*! deep-laid villainy. From 

 a review of the condudl of the poet in producing fuch 



