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22 
ecution are equally beautiful and intereft- 
ing ;—but thefe are happy exceptions :— 
the generality of his imaller pieces are in- 
fipid ;—whilft thefe epithets, of beautiful. 
and interefling, may be applied as general 
characteriftics of his more important com- 
pofitions. But then, again, in the multi- 
plicity of thefe, the fame kind of beauty, 
and the fame kind of intereft, are fo fre- 
quently repeated, with fo little of diftin- 
guifhing character, as but feldom to leave 
any appropriate impreffion. This effect 
as increafed by the rule he feems to have 
univerfally obferved of preferving poetic 
juftice. We are generally able, trom the 
sirft developement of the characters, and 
their relative fituation, to prediét, with 
tolerable precifion, the denouement.- 
His characters are fufficiently-adequate 
‘to conduét the piece with fpirit to its con- 
clufion: but the grand defect is the want 
of variety in the mode of their conducting 
it. There is a multiplicity of heroic 
aétions, but they are all performed in the 
fame fiyle of heroifm. New actions of the 
fame generic nature might have been infi- 
nitely varied by the {pecific differences of 
the chara€ters performing them. Gene- 
rofity, for example, appears the favourite 
virtue of the poet, and this he has exhibited 
in numerous aétions, bit all in one caft of 
_ character, unmodified by any variation of 
concomitant paffions :—the purpofe of ge- 
nerofity, indeed, muft always be the fame ; 
but the {pirit, which conftitutes the bafis of 
the cordial, may vary in flavour, accord- 
ing to the nature of the fubftance from 
which it is drawn, or the ingredients with 
which it is compounded. 
But st is not difficult to account for Me- 
taftalio’s deficiency in individuality of cha- 
xacter. He wyote in the funfhine of royal 
favour ;—his theatre was a_ palace ;— 
kings and courtiers were his fpeétators, 
and princes not unfrequently perfonated 
his characters. The ation, then, and 
perfons of his drama, were to be fuchas 
ight be fuppofed worthy of engaging the 
intereft of an audience fo auguft. 
** So wits, plain dealers, fops and fools appear, 
Charged to fay nought but what the king may 
hears 
And old_and young declaim on foft defire, 
And herees, never-but for love, expire.” 
The poet, inftead of ranging through 
the infinite modifications of the focial cha- 
racler, was confined to one clafs of men, 
where a fimilarity of occupations and 
cuftoms neceffarily impofe, a fimilarity of 
fubjeét, of fentiment, and of expreffion. 
The characters are generally good, or 
Obfervations on Metaftafio. 
[ Feb. r, 
gencrally bad : but to diftinguifh the indi- 
viduals of thefe refpective claffes, we find 
none of thofe difcriminating traits, which 
we meet with in fcenes drawn from com- 
mon life ; where countlefs combinations of 
paffions, and infinite variety of circum- 
ftances, ftamp their modifications as they 
pafs. I do not recolleé& one of Metafta- 
fio’s greater pieces, where the hero’is not 
a royal perfonage, or at, leaft the {cene in 
which the hero is to aét, depends for its 
form on royalty. It feems, however, to 
have been neceflity that circumicribed the 
author’s range; and though he could not 
confiftently give very different manners to 
characters formed by the fame fituation, he 
has feized the only occaficn, perhaps, that 
ever offered, of exhibiting a fingularity of 
manner, without tranfereffing the pre- 
fcribed idea of dignity in the intereft to be 
created. This is in his ‘* Semiramide,”? 
where is an affemblage of kings to conteft 
the hand of Tamira ; and among them 
comes Ircano, the Scythian Sovereign; 
All the other princes reign over compara- 
tively polifhed nations ; but Ircano rules 
a rude and fimple people, who honoured 
their king only as he excelled in the vir- 
tues which themfelves were formed to ad- 
mire. ‘This diftinguifhing character Me- 
taftafio has very happily pourtrayed: Ir- 
cano’s vices acquire the merit of virtues, 
by that open avowal of them, which proves ~ 
that they are-an error in judgment, nota 
depravation of heart, in the poffeflor : and 
his virtues are of that energetic kind, that 
command admiration, without conciliating 
love: his manners are drawn not unlike 
the blunt haughtinefs of Shakefpeare’s 
Falconbridge, but without his humour. 
Such inftances, however, of individuality 
of charaéter are very rare indeed in Me- 
taftafio. His perfonages are ufually of 
fuch a defcription, as might be fuppofed 
perfonifications, or abftraét general ideas, ~ 
of the virtues and vices they reprefent, 
rather than mortal examples of their ex- 
iftence. 
I have. now concluded my obfervations 
on the greater works of the principal Ita- 
lian poets :—what I have faid on Dante, 
Petrarch, and Ariofto, wil] fufficiently ex- 
plain why I think the perufal of thezr works 
not an adequate compenfation for the 
trouble of acquiring their language. But 
the merit which I have allowed in Taflo 
and Metaftafio, might feem to juftify the 
advocates of the Italian tongue: and, 
therefore, it may be neceflary to tate, why, 
allowing that merit in its fulléft extent, I~ 
would ftillendeavour to diffuade the i 
? rom 
