a higher creature, than the generous horse that stands grafing below? So that after all were I to fhew the reader inftances of the true fublime, I should make choice of fuch as thefe :

Aude bofpes contemnere opes, et te quoque dignum Finge deo. Virg. Aen. VIII, 369.

And in Milton. V, 350.

"Mean while our primitive great fire, to meet "His godlike gueft, walks forth

66 more train

without

Accompanied than with his own compleat "Perfections; in himself was all his ftate : "More folemn than the tedious pomp that waits "On princes, when their rich retinue long "Of horses led, and grooms befmear'd with gold "Dazzles the crowd, and fets them all? agape."

9 Kexpóres. Virg. Aen. VII, 813.

Turbaque miratur matrum, et profpe&at euntem,
Attonitis INHIANS animis.

Servias, INHIANS, ftupore quodam in ore patefa&o.

SECT. XII.

UT to return.

What manners are to the

B fable, fuch are fentiments to manners; and

fentiments properly exprefs the manners. In the fentiments, truth, nature, probability, and likelihood, are entirely to be regarded,

* Refpicere exemplar vitae morumque jubebo Dotum imitatorem, et veras hinc ducere voces.

Poetic truth, and likelihood, Horace means; such sentiments, as exhibit the truth of characters, the nature and difpofitions of mankind. In this light Shakespeare is most admirable.

n

I The perfons must not only have manners, but fentiments conformable to those manners. Sentiment (fays Ariftotle) is discoverable in all those parts of our conversation, where we either prove any thing, or lay down fome maxim or general truth. διάνοιαν δὲ, ἐν ὅσοις λέγοντες ἀποδεικ νύεσι τι, ἢ καὶ ἀποφαίνονται γνώμην. Ariftot. περὶ ποιητ. κεφ. s. And prefently after, Διάνοια δὲ, ἐν οἷς ἀποδεικνύεσι τι ὡς ἰσὶν, ἢ ὡς ἐκ ἐσὶν, ἢ καθόλυ τι ἀποφαίνονται. Again, Κεφ. εθ. Ἔτι δὲ κατὰ τὴν διάνοιαν ταῦτα, [lege τοιαῦτα,] ὅσα ὑπὸ τὰ λόγο δεν παρασκευασθῆναι μέρη δὲ τέτων, τό, τε ἀποδεικνῦναι, καὶ τὸ λύειν, καὶ τὸ πάθη παρασκευάζειν· οἷον, ἔλεον, ἢ φόβον, ἢ ὀργὴν, καὶ ὅσα τοιαῦτα, καὶ ἔτι μέγεθος καὶ σμικρότητα. Now all those things have reference to fentiments, which are the peculiar bufinefs of speech or difcourfe: their parts are to demonftrate, to folve, and to raise the paffions, as pity, fear, anger, and the like; and to encrease and diminish.

2 Hor. art. poet. 317. Dr. Bentley, not reflecting how to separate hiftorical from poetical truth, has altered this paffage in his edition; he reads,

Et vivas bine ducere vaces.

Can

Can the ambitious, and jealous man have fentiments more expreffive of their manners, than what the poet gives to Macbeth and Othello? Mark Antony, as Plutarch informs us, affected the Afiatic manner of speaking, which much resembled his own temper, being ambitious, unequal, and very rodomontade. And Cicero 3 in his Brutus, mentioning the Afiatic manner, gives it the following character: Aliud autem genus eft non tam fententiis frequentatum, quàm verbis volucre, atque incitatum; qualis nunc eft

Afia

3 Cic. in Brut. five de claris orator. f. 95. & f. 13. Hinc Afiatici oratores non contemnendi quidem nec celeritate, nec copiâ, fed parum preffi, et nimis redundantes. Petronius, Sat. c. II. "Nuper ventofa ifthæc, et enormis loquacitas "Athenas ex Afiâ commigravit, animofque juvenum ad magna "furgentes veluti peftilenti quodam fideré afflavit, fimulque

corrupta eloquentia regula ftetit et obtinuit," Octavius used to call Antony a mad man, for writing what people would rather admire at, than understand. "MARCUM 64 quidem ANTONIUM ut infanum increpat, quafi ea fcri

bentem quæ mirentur potius homines, quàm intelligant. De«inde ludens malum et inconftans in eligendo genere dicendi

ingenium ejus, addidit hæc, Tuque dubitas, Cimberne "Annius, an Veranius Flaccus imitandi fint tibi ? ita ut "verbis, quæ Crifpus Salluftius excerpfit ex originibus Ca

tonis, utaris? an potius ASIATICORUM ORATORUM "INANIBUS SENTENTIIS VERBORUM VOLUBILITAS in noftrum fermonem transferenda "

And

Afia tota; nee flumine folùm orationis, fed etiam exornato, et faceto genere verborum. This style our poet has very artfully, and learnedly interspersed in Antony's fpeeches. He thus addreffes Cleopatra.

Let Rome in Tyber meit, and the wide arch
Of the rais'd empire fall, here is my space,
Kingdoms are clay, &c.

Nor with less art has Shakespeare expreffed the coquetry of the wanton Cleopatra. When he defcribes nature diftorted and depraved, as in the characters of the Clown, the Courtier, the Fool, or Madman; how justly conformable are the fentiments to the feveral characters? One would think it impoffible that Falstaff should talk otherwise, than Shakespeare has made him talk: and what not a little fhews the genius of

And this obfervation, here made on Antony's Afiatic and bombast style, will explain the reafon, why Fluellin, fin K. Henry V. Act III.] mistaking, through the ho nefty and fimplicity of his heart, Piftol's real character, compares him to M. Antony. "There is an Ancient

** lieutenant there at the pridge, I think, in my very con“ science, he is as valiant a man as Mark Antony, and he " is a man of no estimation in the world, but I did fee him "do gallant services.”

4 Antony and Cleop. Aa I.

Our

6

our poet, he has kept up the fpirit of his humour through three plays, one of which he wrote at the requeft of queen Elizabeth. For which reason, if 'tis true what Dryden tells us, speaking of Mercutio's character in Romeo and Juliet, that Shakespeare faid himself, he was forced to kill him in the third act, to prevent being killed by him: it must be his diffidence and modesty that made him say this; for it never could be thro' barrennefs of invention, that Mercutio's fprightly wit was ended in the third act; but because there was no need of him, or his wit any longer. The variety of humour, exhibited in the several characters, deferves no lefs our admiration; and whenever he forms a different perfon, he forms a different kind of man. But when he exercifes his creative art, and makes a new creature, a bagborn whelp, not honoured with a human shape ; · he gives him manners, as difproportion'd, as bis Jhape, and fentiments proper for fuch manners. If on the contrary nature is to be pictured in more beautiful colours; if the hero, the friend, the patriot, or prince appears, the thoughts

7

'6 Dryden's defence of the epilogue: or an effay on the dramatic poetry of the last age.

7 Caliban, in the Tempeft.

and