DRAMA. 



Thm in comedy, though a plot he necessary, yet a 

 good plot is not so essential to it as to tr;i'.-i-!y. On the 

 a 1 H plot, if ! may plot 



v liii-li draws away our curiosity from .-Iviractor to inci- 

 dent, i- destructive of the highe-t > \<- llciu't of comedy. 

 This is remarkably felt in tlm-.- !> ;^y plots, when- the 

 author-: hive themselves the trouble of painting human 



e by .surprising event-. and ndwB revolutions. 



I'.itlios in a tragedy, on the contrary, is the result of the 



entire action, i. c. of all the circumstances of the story 



Miring to a completion in the event. 



Comic humour in barfaMrom times is nil practical; in 



: l>ecomes spiritual. The simpleton of 

 Moliere is exquisitely ludicrous, when ho embraces the 

 greatest rogue on the face of the e.-'i-th, aiif! supposes 

 him the only honest man in Paris. In a .Spanish plot, 

 the humour would not be in supposing a ro';ue an ho- 

 nest man, but in mistaking one person for another. A 

 failure, as Hunt observes, in the just arrangt nient and 

 disposition of the parts, ii'ay then alleet \.h.it is the es- 

 sence of tragedy. On the contrary, hunioiir, though 

 brought out by action, is not the eil'ect of the whole, 

 but may be distinctly evidenced in a single scene ; as 

 may be eminently illi:str,ted in the two comedies of 

 Fletcher called The Li/tle />,-. It Lniryrr, and The 

 Spanish Curate. The nice contexture of the fable, 

 therefore, though it may give a pleasure of another 

 kind, is not so immediately required to the production 

 of that pleasure, which the nature of comedy demands. 

 Much lers is there occasion for that labour and ingenui- 

 ty of contrivance, which is seen in the intricacy of the 

 Spanish fable. Vet this is the taste of our comedy ; 

 our writers arc all for plot and intrigue, and never ap- 

 pear so well satisfied with themselves, as when (to 

 speak in their owv phrase) they have a great deal of bu- 

 siness on their hands. Indeed they have reason, for it 

 hides their inability to colour manners, which is the 

 proper, but much harder province of true comedy. 

 When Hiird said this, Sheridan had not revived the 

 genius of British comedy ; but there is something in the 

 remark which still applies to the plot-makers of the 

 present stage. Tragedy, he adds, succeeds best when 

 the subject is real ; comedy, when it is feigned. What 

 would this say, but that tragedy, turning our attention 

 principally on the action represented, finds means to in- 

 us more strongly, on the persuasion of its being 

 taken from actual life ; while comedy, on the other 

 hand, can neglect the scrupulous measures of probabi- 

 lity, as intent only on exhibiting characters, for which 

 purpose an invented story will serve much better. The 

 reason is, real action does not ordinarily afford variety 

 of incidents enough to shew the character fully ; feigned 

 action may. And this difference, we may observe, ex- 

 plains the reason why tragedies are often formed on 

 the most trite and vulgar subjects, whereas a new sub- 

 ject is generally demanded in comedy ; the reality of 

 the story being of so much consequence to interest the 

 affections, the more known it is, the fitter for the poet's 

 purpose. Hut a feigned story having l>een found more 

 convenient for the di-play of characters, it grew into a 



rule, that the story should be always new. One sees 



then the reason why tragedy prefers real .subjects, and 



Id ones; and, on the contrary, why comedy deli; liu 



in feigned subjects, and even new. The same genius 



in Uie two dramas in observable in their draft of cliarae- 

 Comedy makes all cliaracters general ; tragedy 



particular. My meaning (continues llurd,) is, that 



they are more particular thin those of tragedy ; for in 



the former, no more character is shewn than what the Drtmt. 



. h: whereas hi s ~*~.~~" 



the latter. \ i/.. comoclv, all, or most of the feature-. b\ 

 which it is usually tbstinguished, are sought out ,iiul 



Vi'rf. 



In the rudest stages of society, we hardly ever find 

 poetry separated from the passions am! 

 man; but dramatic poetry, being more complicated in 

 its nature than either the lyric or epic kinds, niig! 

 expected to be later invented than any other 

 fact, when the drama fir>t arose in the region of nnti- 

 quity, which may be called its birth-place, it was not 

 till four hundred years after Homer had b." . Crnis* 



poetry to perfection. The earliest drama that is known drm. 

 is the Greek. Tragedy, or the song of the goat, from 

 Tjy{, a goat, and *J, &*ong, was among that ]. 

 at first only a sacred hymn. R-icchus being worshipped 

 as the inventor and culthator of t''e vine, the goat was 

 sacrificed to him as its de-trover ; the -; 'orifice grew 

 into a festival, anil the festival into an annual solemnity, 

 which, in process of ('me, assumed all the pomp 

 .splendour of religious ceremonial. 1'octs wi re i in 

 ed by the magistrates to compose hymns or inir.s ibr 

 the occasion; and such was the rudeness and simplicity 

 of the age, that their hauls contondi d tor a prize, which, 

 as Horace intimates, was scarce worth contending for, 

 filcm ob liirt-um being no more than a goat, or goat-skin 

 of wine, which was given to tile sucres-inl competitor. 



This was probably the period when Thespis first Thopt*, 

 pointed out the tragic path, by his introduction of a 

 new person, who relieved the chorus, or troop of sing- 

 ers, by reciting part of some well-known history or fa- 

 ble, which give time for the (horns to rest. All that 

 the actor repeated between the songs of the choru- 

 called an r/x'.vwiV, or additional part, consisting often of 

 different adventures, which had no connection with each 

 other. When tragedy assumed a regular form, tlu-c 

 recitations, which, during its imperfect state, were only 

 adventitious ornaments, became the principal and con- 

 stituent parts of the drama ; the subject of them drawn 

 from one and the same action, retaining the name of 

 episode. Thus the chorus, or song, which was at first 

 the only, and for a long time the principal performance, 

 became gradually and insensibly an inconsiderable, 

 though, according to the structure of the Greek dram-', 

 an indispensiblf part. 



From this time, we may imagine the actor or reciter 

 was more attended to than the chorus, as his part had 

 the charm of novelty to recommend it. The sours of 

 the chorus also began to waver from their original subject 

 in praise of Bacchus, and spoke so lit tie of the god of the 

 vintage, that the priests exclaimed against the ne- 

 glect of him, and their complaint grew into a proverb. 

 |-Vo;ii the time of Thespis to that of IV ylns. how- jj, 

 ever, the history of the Greek drama (if the name can 

 be applied to their strolling performances) is nil dark- 

 ness and conjecture. Tragedy might be said to lie crea- 

 ted by .Kschyhis, who lived in Athens at the brilliant 

 period of the battles of Marathon and I'lata-a. Filly 

 \r.,r .before his time, Thc-pis had exhibited his rude 

 i nances in a cart, and besmeared the f.iees of his 

 actor-, with the lees of wine, either for drollery or dis- 

 guise. /Kschylus, who was himself author, actor, and 

 manager, took upon him the whole conduct of the dra- 

 ma, improved the scenery and decorations, and brought 

 liis actors into a regular aid well-constructed theatre; 

 raised his heroes on the cothurnus or buskin, invented 

 masks, and introduced splendid habits, with sweeping 

 3 







