Picces, that will much enhance the Value of them to the more capable Readers which has never, I think, been obfervido 19The Images, in each Poem, which he raifesa to excite Mirth and Melancholy, are exactly the fame, only fhewn in different Attitudes. Had a Writer, lefs acquainted with Nature, given us two Poems on thefe Subjects, he would have been fure to have fought out the most contrary Images to raife thefe contrary Paffions. And, particularly, as Shakespeare, sin the Paffage I am now commenting, fpeaks of thefe different Effects in Mufick fo Milton has brought it into each Poem as the Exci ter of each Affection: and left we fhould miftake him, as meaning that different Airs had this different Power, (which every Fid ler is proud to have you understand,) He gives the Image of those felf-fame Strains that Orpheus used to regain Eurydice, as proper both to excite Mirth and MelancholyomBut Milton moft induftriously copied the Conduct of our Shakespeare, in Paffages that thew'd an intimate Acquaintance with Nature and Science. lo racred sbb ung agr I have not thought it out of my Province, whenever Occafion offer'd, to take notice of Knowledge fome of our Poet's grand Touches of Nature: of Nature. Some, that do not appear fuperficially fuch; Shake fpeare's but in which he seems the most deeply inftructed; and to which, no doubt, he has fo much ow'd that happy Prefervation of his Charac Characters, for which he is juftly celebrated. If he was not acquainted with the Rule as deliver'd by Horace, his own admirable Genius pierc'd into the Neceffity of fuch a Rule. donals Qualis arcefferit,& fibi conftet. incœpto For what can be more ridiculous, than, in our modern Writers, to make a debauch'd young Man, immers'd in all the Vices of his Age and Time, in a few hours take up, confine himself in the way of Honour to one Woman, and moralize in good earnest on the Follies of this paft Behaviour? Nor can, that great Examplar of Comic Writing, Terence be altogether excufed in this Regard; who, in his Adelphi, has left Demea in the last Scenes fo unlike himself: whom, as Shakespeare expreffes it, he has turn'd with the feamy Side of bis Wit outward. This Conduct, as Errors are more readily imitated than Perfections, Beaumont and Fletcher feem to have follow'd inbay Character in their Scornful Lady. It may be objected, perhaps, by fome who do not go to the Bottom of our Poet's Conduct, that he has likewife tranfgrefs'd against the Rule himself, by making Prince Harry at once, upon coming to the Crown, throw off his former Diffolutenefs, and take up the Practice of a fober Morality and all the kingly Virtues. But this would be a mistaken Objection. The Prince's Reformation is not fo fo fudden, as not to be prepar'd and expected by the Audience. He gives, indeed, a Loofe to Vanity, and a light unweigh'd Behaviour, when he is trifling among his diffolute Companions; but the Sparks of innate Honour and true Nobleness break from him upon every proper Occafion, where we would hope to fee him awake to Sentiments fuiting his Birth and Dignity. And our Poet has fo well, and› artfully, guarded his Character from the Sufpicions of habitual and unreformable Profigatenefs; that even from the first fhewing him upon the Stage, in the firft Part of Henry IV, when he made him confent to join with Falstaffe in a Robbery on the Highway, he has taken care not to carry him off the Scene, without an Intimation that he knows them all, and their unyok'd Humour; and that, like the Sun, he will permit them only for a while to obfcure and cloud his Brightness; then break thro' the Mift, when he pleases to be himself again; that his Luftre, when wanted, may be the more wonder'd at. Another of Shakespeare's grand Touches of Nature, and which lies ftill deeper from the Ken of common Obfervation, has been taken notice of in a Note upon The Tempeft; where Profpero at once interrupts the Mafque of Spirits, and ftarts into a fudden Paffion and Disorder of Mind. As the latent Cause of his Emotion is there fully inquir'd into, I fhall no farther dwell upon it here. Such Such a Conduct in a Poet (as Shakespeare has manifefted on many like Occafions ;) where the Turn of Action arifes from Reflexions of his Characters, where the Reafon of it is not exprefs'd in Words, but drawn from the inmoft Refources of Nature, fhews him truly capable of that Art, which is more in Rule than Practice: Ars eft celare Artem. 'Tis the Foible of your worfer Poets to make a Parade and Oftentation of that little Science they have; and to throw it out in the most ambitious Colours. And whenever a Writer of this Class shall attempt to copy thefe artful Concealments of our Author, and hall either think them eafy, or practifed by a Writer for his Eafe, he will foon be convinced of his Miftake by the Difficulty of reaching the Imitation of them, bna le mad g Speret idem, fudet multùm, fruftraq; laboret, * Aufus idemo of slide a vot pe nady JM, Another grand Touch of Nature in our Author, (not lefs difficult to imitate, tho' more obvious to the Remark of a common Reader) is, when he brings down at once any Character from the Ferment and Height of Paffion, makes him correct himself for the unruly Difpofition, and fall into Reflexions of a fober and moral Tenour. An exquifite fing Inftance of this Kind occurs in Lear, where that old King, hafty and intemperate in his Paffions, coming to his Son and Daughb b ter ter Cornwall, is told by the Earl of Gloucester that they are not to be fpoken with: and thereupon throws himself into a Rage, fuppofing the Excufe of Sickness and Weariness in them to be a purpos'd Contempt: Gloucefter begs him to think of the fiery and unremoveable Quality of the Duke and This, which was defign'd to qualify his Paffion, ferves to exaggerate the Transports of it. As the Conduct of Prince Henry in the first Inftance, the fecret and mental Reflexions in the Cafe of Profpero, and the instant Detour of Lear from the Violence of Rage to a Temper of Reasoning, do fo much Honour to that furpizing Knowledge of human Nature, which is certainly our Author's Mafterpiece, I thought, they could not be fet in too good a Light. Indeed, to point out, and exclaim upon, all the Beauties of Shakespeare, as they come fingly in Review, would be as infipid, as endless; as tedious, as unneceffary: But the Explanation of those Beauties,that are lefs obvious to common Readers, and whofe Illuftration depends on the Rules of just Criticism, and an exact Knowledge of human Life, fhould defervedly have a Share in a general Critic upon the Author. I fhall difmifs the Examination into thefe his latent Beauties, when I have made a short Comment upon a remarkable Paffage from Julius Cajar, which is inexpreffibly fine in its felf, |