the Springs and however intricate and involv'd are their operations. But these enquiries I leave to men of more flegm and consideration. 5 Othello comes next to hand, but laying my Papers together without more scribling I find a volumn, and a greater burthen then I dare well obtrude upon you. If I blindly wander in erroneous paths, 'tis more then time, Mr. Shepheard, that you set me right; and if I am Io not so much out of the way, then most of the main faults in these other Tragedies cannot be far from our view, if we tread not on their skirts already. I will wait your direction e're I advance farther, and be sure of your pardon for what is past. Many seeming 15 contradictions I rather chose to slip over then to be ever casting in your way some parenthesis or some distinction. Many other slips and mistakes too you meet withall, but the fortune of Greece depends not on them. Nor, I know, could you, that read Hebrew without the 20 pricks, be at a loss for the sense, where you found not a period truly pointed. If the Characters I have examin'd are the same I take them for, I send you Monsters enough for one Bartholmewfair; but what would vex a Christian, these are shown us 25 for our own likenesses, these are the Duch Pictures of humane kind. I have thought our Poetry of the last Age as rude as our Architecture; one cause thereof might be that Aristotle's treatise of Poetry has been so little studied amongst us; it 30 was perhaps Commented upon by all the great men in Italy before we well knew, on this side of the Alps, that there was such a Book in being. And though Horace comprizes all in that small Epistle of his, yet few will think long enough together to be Masters, and to under35 stand the reason, of what is deliver'd so in short. With the remaining Tragedies I shall also send you some reflections on that Paradise lost of Miltons which some are pleas'd to call a Poem, and assert Rime against the slender Sophistry wherewith he attacques it; and also a Narrative of Petrarch's Coronation in the Capitol, with 5 all the Pontificalibus on that occasion, which seems wanting in Selden where he treats on that subject. Let me only anticipate a little in behalf of the Cataline, and now tell my thoughts, that though the contrivance and economy is faulty enough, yet we there find (besides what is borrow'd 10 from others) more of Poetry and of good thought, more of Nature and of Tragedy, then peradventure can be scrap't together from all those other Plays. Nor can I be displeas'd with honest Ben, when he rather chooses to borrow a Melon of his Neighbour than to treat 15 us with a Pumpion of his own growth. But all is submitted to you Men of better sense by, SIR, Your most obliged, humble Servant, III. FROM A SHORT VIEW OF TRAGEDY, ITS ORIGINAL, EXCELLENCY, AND CORRUPTION, WITH SOME REFLECTIONS ON SHAKESPEAR AND OTHER PRACTITIONERS FOR THE STAGE 20 1693 CHAP. I THE CONTENTS. The Chorus keeps the Poet to Rules. A show to the Spectators. 5 IO Story of Demosthenes. Mistakes in Judging. Two sorts of WHAT Reformation may not we expect, now that in France they see the necessity of a Chorus to their Tragedies? Boyer and Racine, both of the Royal Academy, 15 have led the Dance; they have tried the success in the last Plays that were Presented by them. The Chorus was the root and original, and is certainly always the most necessary part, of Tragedy. The Spectators thereby are secured that their Poet shall 20 not juggle, or put upon them in the matter of Place and Time other than is just and reasonable for the representation. And the Poet has this benefit: the Chorus is a goodly Show, so that he need not ramble from his Subject, out of his Wits for some foreign Toy or Hobby-horse to humor 25 the Multitude. 'Aristotle tells us of Two Senses that must be pleas'd, our Sight and our Ears. And it is in vain for a Poet, with Bays in the Rehearsal, to complain of Injustice and the wrong Judgment in his Audience, unless these Two senses 30 be gratified. The worst on it is that most People are wholly led by these Two senses, and follow them upon content, without ever troubling their Noddle farther. How many Plays owe all their success to a rare Show? 35 Even in the days of Horace, enter on the Stage a Person in a Costly strange Habit, Lord! What Clapping, what Noise and Thunder, as Heaven and Earth were coming together! yet not one word spoken. Dixit adhuc aliquid? nil sane: quid placet Ergo? Was there ought said? troth, no! What then did touch ye? 5 It matters not whether there be any Plot, any Characters, any Sense, or a wise Word from one end to the other, provided in our Play we have the Senate of Rome, the 10 Venetian Senate in their Pontificalibus, or a Blackamoor Ruffian, or Tom Dove, or other Four-leg'd Hero of the Bear-Garden. The Eye is a quick sense, will be in with our Fancy, and prepossess the Head strangely. Another means whereby 15 the Eye misleads our Judgment is the Action. We go to see a Play Acted; in Tragedy is represented a Memorable Action; so the Spectators are always pleas'd to see Action, and are not often so ill-natur'd to pry into and examine whether it be Proper, Just, Natural, in season or out of 20 season. Bays in the Rehearsal well knew this secret. The Two Kings are at their Coranto; nay, the Moon and the Earth dance the Hey; any thing in Nature or against Nature, rather than allow the Serious Councel or other dull business to interrupt or obstruct Action. This thing of Action finds the blindside of humane-kind an hundred ways. We laugh and weep with those that laugh or weep; we gape, stretch, and are very dotterels by example. 25 Action is speaking to the Eyes; and all Europe over, 30 Plays have been represented with great applause in a Tongue unknown, and sometimes without any Language at all. Many, peradventure, of the Tragical Scenes in Shakespear, cry'd up for the Action, might do yet better without words. Words are a sort of heavy baggage that were better out of the way at the push of Action, especially in his bombast Circumstance, where the Words and Action are seldom 5 akin, generally are inconsistent, at cross purposes, embarrass or destroy each other; yet to those who take not the words distinctly, there may be something in the buz and sound, that, like a drone to a Bagpipe, may serve to set off the Action. For an instance of the former, Would not a 10 rap at the door better express Jago's meaning than Call aloud. Jago. Do, with like timerous accent and dire yel Is spied in populous Cities? 15 For, What Ship? Who is Arrived? The Answer is: 20 'Tis one Jago, Auncient to the General. He has had most Favourable and Happy speed; Traytors ensteep'd to clog the guiltless Keel, Their common Natures, letting go safely by Is this the Language of the Exchange or the Ensuring25 Office? Once in a man's life, he might be content at Bedlam to hear such a rapture. In a Play one should speak like a man of business; his speech must be Пoλirikós, which the French render Agissante, the Italians, Negotiosa and Operativa; but by this Gentleman's talk one may well 30 guess he has nothing to do. And he has many Companions that are Hey day! I know not what to do nor what to say.1 It was then a strange imagination in Ben. Johnson, to go 35 stuff out a Play with Tully's Orations: And in Seneca, to 1 Rehearsal. |