And somewhat before, when the doctor gives Macbeth an account of the troubled ftate of the queen, he asks,

Canft thou not minifter to a mind difeas'd,
Pluck from the memory a rooted førrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain;
And, with fome fweet oblivious antidote,
Cleanfe the ftuff'd bofom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?

fecond edition. Study then feems the authentic word-
To die is a leffon fo eafily learnt, that even fools can study
it even the motley fool, in As you like it, could reason
on the time.

'Tis but an hour ago fince it was nine,

And after one hour more 'twill be eleven ;
And fo from hour to hour we ripe and ripe,
And then from hour to hour we rot and rot,
And thereby hangs a tale.

22 Alluding to the Nepenthe: a certain mixture, of which perhaps opium was one of the ingredients. Homer, Od. . 221.

Νηπενθές τ ̓ ἄχολόν τε, κακῶν ἐπίληθον ἁπανίων.

i. e. the oblivious antidote, caufing the forgetfulness of all the evils of life. What is remarkable, had Shakespeare understood Greek as well as Johnson, he could not more closely have expreffed the meaning of the old bard.

It might be likewise deferving notice, how finely Shakespeare observes that rule of tragedy, to paint the miseries of the great: almost all the perfons in the play, more or less, are involved in calamity. The leffon to be learnt by the lower people is acquiefcence in the ease of a private station, not obnoxious to those diforders, which attend greatness in the stage of the world.

23 Ἐν τοῖς πλεσίοις καὶ βασιλεῦσι καὶ τυράννοις αἱ τραγῳδίας τόπον ἔχωσιν, ἐδεὶς δὲ πίνης τραγῳδίαν συμπληροί, εἰ μὴ ὡς χορευτής· οἱ δὲ βασιλεῖς ἄρχονται μὲν εἶπ ̓ ἀγαθῶν,

Στέψαλε δώματα.

εἶτα περὶ τρίτον ἢ τίταρον μέρα,

A

Ἰω Κιθαιρών, τί μ' ἰδίχε ;

Arrian. L. 1. c. 25. p.124. Marc. Anton. XI, 16,

SECT. VI.

GAIN, let us fuppofe the poet had a mind, to inculcate this moral, that villany, tho for a time fuccessful, will meet it's certain ruin.

* ΕΙΠΕΡ ΓΑΡ ΤΕ ΚΑΙ ΑΥΤΙΚΑ ΟΛΥΜΠΙΟΣ ΟΥΚ

ΕΤΕΛΕΣΣΕΝ

ΕΚ ΤΕ ΚΑΙ ΟΨΕ ΤΕΛΕΙ.

What,

1 Hom. II. . 160, &c. Agamemnon foon after fuggefts he shall return back to Argos with ignominy; to his muchinjur'd Argos, fa he calls it; this expreffion carries paffion

What, tho' the band of beav'n withholds its stroke?
At length, tho' late, more dreadful 'twill defcend
Down, on the author's head, his wife and offspring.
For well I ween the fatal day draws near,
When Troy's curft walls, and Priam with his people
Shall perish all. High o'er their impious beads
Jove Shakes his gloomy Aegis, fully fraught
With vengeance 'gainst their frauds and perjuries.
Thus Fate ordains irrevocably fixt.

Thus is Hamlet made an inftrument by provi-
dence to work the downfal of his uncle; and
the punishment being compleated, the play
ends. Were one to enter into a detail of the
fable, to what advantage would the poet's art
appear
? The former king of Denmark being
fecretly murdered by the poffeffor of the crown,
the fact could not be brought to light, but by
the intervention of a fupernatural power. The
ghoft

2

with it, ΠΟΛΥΡΙΠΣΙΟΝ ΑΡΓΟΣ. Which the tranfcriber has alter'd into woλudí↓ “Agso, miftaking the Aeolic digamma for a A.

2 Aristotle having obferved that the unravelling of the plot, or the folution of the fable, fhould proceed from the fable itself, and not from any machine, or the interpofition of a fupernatural charaćter, adds, ̓Αλλὰ μηχανή χρησίον ἐπὶ τὰ ἔξω τα δράματα, ἢ ὅσα ἀπὸ τῆς γέγονεν, (ἃ εχ οἷόν τι ανθρωπον εἰδέναι,) ἡ ὅσα ύσερον, ἃ δεῖται προαΓυρεύσεως και άγγε

ghoft of the murdered king was usually seen to walk on a platform before the palace, where the centinels kept guard. There was a foldier, who doubting this tale, came on the platform

out

λίας, περὶ ποιητ. κεφ. ιε. But a machine may be used with respect to things not included within the drama, that is to fay either fuch as have happened previously (which 'twas not poffible for meer man to know of himself ) or else such as are to happen hereafter, which fand in need of prediction and prophetic information. The murder of the king is a fact of this fort, which could not be known but by a machine. Machines thus introduced add furprife and majefly to the incidents nor are they improbable, if according to the received and vulgarly believed opinions; as the ghost in Hamlet, the witches in Macbeth, &c. The epic poet has greater latitude; his speciofa miracula are received more eafly; he tells you ftories; the tragedian reprefents them, and brings them before your eyes.

:

Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem,
Quam quae funt oculis fubje&a fidelibus.

Hor. art. poet. 180.

Now what is marvellous, and out of the vulgar road, is highly pleafing. What Aristotle fays to this purpofe is worth our notice. I will give his words as they seem to me they fhould be printed and corrected. Asî mèr ÿu iy ταῖς τραγῳδίαις ποιεῖν τὸ θαυμαςόν. Μᾶλλον δ' ἐνδέχεται ἐν τῇ ἐποποιία τὸ ἄλογον, (δι ̓ ὃ συμβαίνει μάλισα τὸ θαυμασόν,) διὰ τὸ μὴ ὁρᾷν εἰς τὸν πράττονα. Επειτα [lege Επεί τοι] τὰ περὶ τὴν Εκλος δίωξιν ἐπὶ σκηνῆς ἔνα, γελοῖα ἂν φανείς.

out of curiofity, and defired to hear a particular account of this apparition. The centinel begins :

Laft night of all

When yon fame ftar, that's weftward from the pole,
Had made his courfe t' illume that part of heav'n
Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,
The bell then beating one-

Mar. Peace, break thee off; Enter the ghoft. Look, where it comes.

With what art does the poet break off, just as he raifes the curiofity of the audience; and thus avoids a long circumftantial narration? Let any

εἰ μὲν ἐρῶτες καὶ εἰ διώκοντες, ὁ δὲ ἀνανεύων. Ἐν δὲ τοῖς ἔπισι ó λανθάνει. Τὸ δὲ θαυματὸν, ἡδύ· σημεῖον δέ· πάλες γάρ προσιθέντες ἀπαγ[ελλεσιν ὡς χαριζόμενοι. The marvellous ought to be in tragedy; but rather in the Epopea is admitted. what even tranfgreffes the bounds of reafon, (by which the marvellous is chiefly raised) because the actors are not feen. So that which Homer writes of Hector, perfued by Achilles, would be ridiculous on the ftage; for here the foldiers must be Standing fill, and not perfuing the flying Hector; there one perfon only following and beckoning the reft to fland off. But all this is not difcernable in the Epopea. Now the marvellous is likewife pleasant: a proof of it is, that thofe, who relate any thing, generally add something or other of their own invention, to make their narration more diverting. wsgi woint. xip. d.

one