and fentiments alone give an air of majesty to the poetry, without confidering even the lofty expreffions and fublimity of the diction. What can be more affecting and paffionate than king Lear? How does the ghost in Hamlet raise and terrify the imagination of the audience? In a word, the sentiments are fo agreeable to the characters, so just and natural, yet so animated and transported, that one would think no other could be poffibly ufed, more proper to the ends he proposes, whether it be to approve or disapprove, to magnify or diminish, to stir or to calm the paffions, Ut fibi quivis Speret idem fudet multum, fruftraque laboret THE laft and loweft is the diction or expreffion, which fhould indeed be fuitable to the subject and character; and every affection of the human mind ought to speak in its proper tone and language. Shakespeare's expreffion is fo various, fo flowing and metaphorical, and has fo many peculiarities in it, that a more minute examination must be referved for ano❤ ther place. Mean while it may be sufficient to obferve, I 8 observe, that for a poet to labour in these mere ornamental parts of poetry; to make his diction fwelling and splendid, so as to overlook his plan, and obfcure his manners and fentiments; is just as abfurd, as if a painter fhould only attend to his colouring and drapery, and never regard the human face divine. 9 Painting and poetry are two fifter arts; each of them has its fhades and lights, and each requires its proper points of view: each has it's defign, as well as colouring; if the former is defective, the latter is ridiculous. An ugly woman, tricked out in a tawdry dress, renders herself more notorioufly contemptible by her useless ornaments. Interdum fpeciofa locis, morataque reƐte 8 Τῇ δὲ λέξει δεν διαπονεῖν ἐν τοῖς ἀφτοῖς μέρεσι, καὶ μήτε ήθε κοῖς μήτε διανοητικοῖς. Αποκρύπτει γὰρ πάλιν ἡ λίαν λαμπρά λέξις τὰ ἤθη καὶ τὰς διανοίας. The foet fhould labour in his diction in thofe places where there is no action; not where there are manners and fentiments; for both these are obscured where the diction is fplendid and glowing. Ariftot. wegi ποιητ. κεφ, κδ. 9 Ut pictura poefis erit, &c. Hor. art. poet. 361. SECT. I SECT. XIII. F we will confider Shakespeare's tragedies, as dramatic heroic poems, fome ending with a happy, others with an unhappy catastrophe ; why then, if Homer introduces a buffoon character, both among his ' gods and heroes in his Iliad, and a ridiculous monster Polypheme in his Odyffey, might not Shakespeare in his heroic drama exhibit a Falstaff, a Caliban, or clown? A limping Vulcan takes upon him the office of Ganymede. Il. d. He advises the gods not to trouble their heads about wretched mortals. I wonder fome of the commentators, who are fond of fetching every thing from Homer, never thought of making Epicurus fteal his philolofophy from Vulcan. 2 Therfites. II. C. Where Euftathius has this remark, "The tragic poets aim at what is grave and ferious, and "treat fublimely the events of things. The comedians on "the contrary treat things ludicroufly, and leffen them. In "Homer these tragic and comic chara&ers are found mixed ; "for he plainly acts the comedian when he leffens and " brings down from its heroic ftation, the character of "Therfites." 3 The character of Polyphemus appear'd to Euripides fo proper for farce; that from hence he form'd his fatyric play, The Cyclops. Ulyffes told the monfter his name was Ortiz, or Noman. Polyphemus' eye being put out, he calls to his friends, Ω φίλοι clown? Here is no mixture of various fables: thos the incidents are many, the ftory is one. 'Tis true, there is a mixture of characters, not all proper to excite those tragic paffions, pity and terror; the serious and comic being fo blended, as to form in fome measure what Plau Ω Φίλοι ΟΥΤΙΣ με κλείνει δόλω, δε βίηφι In Euripies the fcene is as follows, ΚΥΚ. ΟΥΤΙΣ μ' ἀπώλεσεν, ΧΟ. Οὐκ ἀξ ̓ ἐδεὶς ἠδίκει. ΧΟ. Οὐκ ἀς' εἶ τυφλός. ΚΥΚ. Ως δὴ σύ. ΧΟ. Καὶ πῶς σ ̓ ἔτις ἂν θείη τυφλόν : ΚΥΚ. Σκώπλεις, ὁδ' ΟΥΤΙΣ στ' τώ ; Cyc. Noman hath killed me. Cho. Then no one bath hurt thee. Cyc. Noman puts out my eye. Cho. Then thou'rt not blind. Cyc. Would thou evaft fo. Cho. Can no man make the blind ? Cyc. You mock me; where is Noman? tus Book I. tus calls + tragicomedy; where, not two different stories, the one tragic, the other comic, are preposterously jumbled together, as in the Spanish Fryar, and Oroonoko: but the unity of the fable being preferved, several ludicrous characters are interfperfed, as in a heroic poem. Nor does the mind from hence fuffer any violence, being only accidentally called off from the serious story, to which it soon returns again, and perhaps better prepared by this little refreshThe tragic episode of Dido is followed by the sports in honour of old Anchises. Immediately after the quarrel among the heroes, and the wrathful debates arifing in heaven, the deformed Vulcan affumes the office of cupbearer, and raises a laugh among the heavenly fynod. Milton has introduced a piece of mirth in his battle of the gods; where the evil spirits, elevated with a little fuccefs, 7ftand scoffing and ment. 4 In his prologue to Amphitryo. Faciam ut commiffa fit tragicomoedia: quo veniant et Dii, non par arbitror. Quid igitur? quoniam hic fervus partes quoque habet 5 Virg. Aen. IV. and V. 6 Hom. Il. ά. 7 The speeches which Satan and Belial make in derifion, are after the caft of Homer, Il'. 374. and Il. π'. 745. punning |