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E T R Y. 
P O 
for loving where you do : but if yourfelf, 
Whofe aged honour cites a virtuous youth, 
Did ever, in lb true a flame of liking, 
Willi chaftely, and love dearly, that your Dian 
Was both iierfelf and love ; O then give pity 
To her whofe Hate is fuch, that cannot choofe 
But lend and give, where (he is lure to lofe, 
That leeks not to find that her fearch implies, 
But, riddle -1 ike, lives fweetly where (lie dies. 
All's Well that Ends Well, Ad i. fc. 3, 
The profaic fiyle of defpondency is well fhown in the 
two following extrads : 
Pray do not mock me ; 
I am a very foolilh fond old man, 
Fourfcore and upward; and, to deal plainly with you, 
I fear lam not in my perfed mind. 
Methinks I lhould know you, and know this man ; 
Yet I am doubtful : for I am mainly ignorant 
What place this is ; and all the (kill I have 
Remembers not thefe garments: nor I know not 
Where I did lodge laft night. Lear, Ad iv. fc. 7. 
My mother had a maid call’d Barbara; 
She was in love, and he Ihe lov’d prov’d falfe, 
And did forfake her. Site had afong of willow; 
An old thing it was, but it exprefs’d her fortune. 
And Ihe died finging it. That fong to-night 
Will not go from my mind : I have much to do, 
But to go hang my head all at one fide, 
And fing it like poor Barbara. Othello, Ad iv. fc. 3. 
The apofirophe is a figure of poetry which is of great 
force; but it is fo fubiime, that few' occafions lerve to 
introduce it. Oniy in the heights of paflion, or in the 
Rrongeft of the emotions, is itadmiffibie. But play wrights 
love this figure. 
It is a curious fubjed of enquiry, by what criterion we 
try the corrednels of dramatic charaders. Obfervation 
of the world might give the neceffary judgment as far as 
regards genteel comedy; but, in tragedy, we fee fentiments 
called forth, and adions produced, of which we can con¬ 
ceive, but have never obferved, the exiftence. It would 
feetn that it is by identifying ourfelves with a charader 
that we try its corrednels. We fuppofe how we (hould 
ad under the predominance of fuch a pafiion, if endued 
with fuch a form and fuch an education. The more ex- 
teniive education becomes, by fo much the eafier (hall we 
receive this pleafure from a multitude of charaders. 
Shnkefpeare’s charadler of Prince Hal would fcarce be 
railed in our opinion to the great confequence it pcf- 
Jeffes, were it not that we behold in him the fupporter of 
Ins country’s fame. This diferimination of charader is 
perhaps the moll amuling exercife of the imagination that 
poetry can excite; and hence it is the triumph of the 
dramatic art. It was a rule of Arillotle, that no charac¬ 
ter entirely vicious lhould be introduced on the fiage, 
fince his extreme vice would render him uninterefting: 
we rather objed to fuch an introdudion, becaufe the 
charader is unnatural. 
However varied the charaders of a play may be, how¬ 
ever forcible their thoughts and appropriate their lan¬ 
guage, the mere exhibition of them cannot interelt men 
in general unlefs they perform fome event. Narration is, 
with the vulgar, the life of a play : they like the ftory; 
and of courie the collilion of the charaders forces them 
into fome events. As in all narrations it is moll amuling 
to be told one ftory at a time, and that without digreftions; 
and as this defire for unity becomes quite imperious with 
grave and momentous fubjeds; a tragedy mult have one 
event to which the completion of all its dialogues (hould 
tend, either primarily by developing incidents, or fecon- 
darily by difplaying charaders. With refped to the na¬ 
ture of a tale proper for a drama, this only can be laid 
down ; that we cannot begin, as in a common narration, 
ah ova; but mull leave the antecedent part of our tale to 
be inferred by the audience from the language of the ac¬ 
tors, while the concluding portions are enaded by them. 
To tell thofe circumltances that have preceded the 
events we have to difclofe, requires a great llretch of inge¬ 
nuity; for, if our principle be right, that truth of lan¬ 
guage is the JirJl dramatic excellence, nothing can be 
worle than to lay one word diredly to the audience or 
reader, or to allow any adors to be introduced for the 
purpofe of telling each other llories which their fucceed- 
ing adions do not require them to be acquainted with : 
a method it would be fuperfluous to inveigh 2gainll, did 
not half our tragedies commence with lome fuch clumfy 
contrivance. Any obfeurity is preferable to fuch barren 
inventions. Shakelpeare is in this refped a perfed model ; 
but his (kill mull be imitated, it cannot be analyzed. 
Arillotle and molt critics have been very folicitousabout 
the fnbjecl of a tragedy. It is very obvious that a tra¬ 
gedy lhould convey fome moral inltrudion; but many 
persons have been millaken in the nature of moral inilruc- 
tion. According to moll dramatic critics, it cordills in 
(bowing, by human events, punithment of the bad and re¬ 
ward of the virtuous. This kind of morality delights old 
women extremely; but whether it ever has the leaft in¬ 
fluence on the condud of youth is doubtful. In the firll 
place, experience contradids the affertion that worldly ad¬ 
vantage waits on pious adions; and in the next place, 
virtue founded on fo mean a llimulus would be defpifed 
by the high-minded lover of poetry. But, if by moral 
inltrudion is meant any inftrudion that teaches the laws, 
operations, dangers, benefits, &c. thatrefult from the ufe 
or abufe of our paffions, then, indeed,every favourite tra¬ 
gedy will be found to convey moral inftrudion; and in 
this point of view alone are Shakefpeare’s tragedies worth 
reading. The Greek tragedies generally conveyed no 
other moral inftrudion than tfiat it was proper to fubmit 
to the will of the gods ; which, however, was not worth 
much, as thedeltinj.es ruled every thing; and, whether 
people repined at them or nor, it was all the fame. 
It is very unpleafant, however, to find good charaders 
in a play come to an untimely end : now this is not be¬ 
caufe we fee any untruth or injuftice in fuch termination, 
but becaufe, after long fufferings and trials, quiet emo¬ 
tions, happinefs excites in us, form an exquiiite fource of 
pleafure by contrail. But we never require mere fuccefs 
when happinefs of mind is loll to the (offerer. What 
could have been done with Hamlet, (the bell of charaders,) 
if he were not killed ? He mull have made fome moral re- 
fiedion, and taken the feeptre,—a thing, to fuch a mind, 
about as gratifying as a doll. Nobody repines, or goes 
from the theatre dilcontented, when this excellent youth 
is killed ; but does it, therefore, follow that any man can 
ltudy the charader of the Danilh prince without receiv¬ 
ing moral inftrudion ? 
The fame vvilh that a tragedy lhould be ufeful, as well 
as amuling, led Arillotle to the four foliowing propoii- 
tions : 1. That, it being the province of tragedy to ex¬ 
cite pity and terror, an innocent perfon falling into adver- 
fity ought never to be the fubjed. This propofition is a 
neceffary confequence of his dodrine as before explained. 
A fubjed of that nature may indeed excite pity and ter¬ 
ror ; but the former in an inferior degree, and the latter 
in no degree lor moral inftrudion. 2. That the hillory 
of a wicked perfon in a change from mifery to happinefs 
ought not to be reprefented ; which excites neither ter¬ 
ror nor co.nipafllon, nor is agreeable in any refped. 3. 
That the misfortunes of a wicked perfon ought not to 
be reprefented. Such reprefentation may be agreeable in 
fome meafure upon a principle of jullice; but it will not 
move our pity, or any degree of terror, except in thofe of 
the lame vicious difpofition with the perfon reprefented. 
4.. That the only charader fit for reprefentation lies in the 
middle, neither eminently good nor eminently bad; 
where the misfortune is not the effed of deliberate vice, 
• but 
