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care your Fame if not confirm'd by the Knowing. Dacier difcourfing of which Play is beft, that which pleases the Few, or that which transports the Many; the First be justly prefers to the laft, yet allows that the Beft which pleases Both. It is plain from your Success that you have pleased the MANY; we fall examine in the following Pages whether you have gained the fame Point with the FEW.cada unafarall

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HERE is nothing fo difcouraging to the Progrefs of any Art, as to have its Performances fubmitted to the Judgment of the Ignorant; which daily revives the Cenfure of Midas, giving the Laurel to Pan, tho' Apollo were a Candidate. This deters the fine Spirits from applying to fuch Arts, who only can carry them up to Perfection; and gives Affurance to impudent Pretenders to invade a Pro vince; which however they are incapable of cultivating, they have a double Probability of obtaining, fince the Gift is in fuch Hands as are determined by Fancy and Chance.

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The Art of Poetry has hitherto, in this Nation, lain under this Difadvantage: But no Part of Poetry more, than Tragedy, which is the Nobleft and most Useful to Human Society. For the Stage being generally in the Hands of Perfons most commonly Strangers to all manner of Literature, they chufe, and encourage by mere, Caprice, and Fancy and by their Management, the best Performance has always the worft Luck, either! by the negligent Performance, the ill Drefs, or the ill Name: they give it. From this ignorant Managements the Nobleft Performance of Human Wit is funk into Difgrace), and with many (not without fome Reafon) into Infamy.sto dors From hence proceeds the Frailty of that tranfitory: Reputati on, which any Gentleman derives from the Succefs of his Tra gedy And many Plays, that have had a prodigious Run on their first Appearance, have fcarce been born with Patience on their Revival. And yet there is that natural Vanity, in Poeti cal Perfons especially, that cannot but receive a Satisfaction

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from this Applaufe, which he would perfuade himself to be the juft Effect of his Merit. And the moft felf-denying of them all, are unwilling to have this favourable Verdict of the Million call'd in Question, and examin'd into ; unless they are perfectly affur'd in themselves, that there is a Sterling Merit in their Performances, that will turn that Scrutiny to their Advan tage, either in the Ignorance of the Critic, or his Juftice.

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This was Mr. Philips's Cafe, in the Distress'd Mother. The great Success of his Play alarm'd an old Writer of K. Charles's Reign, by finding a Tragedy of fo different a a Caft fro from the Minions of the Town in his Juvenile Days, fo well receiv'd by our Audience; which produc'd a Criticifm upon it, that at the fame time difcover'd the Ignorance of the Critic, and the Excellence of the Poet. But his Fate cannot deter me from my prefent Attempt But to avoid his Fate, I fhall lay down fuch Rules of my Cenfure, as are founded on Reason and Nature, and have been establish'd above these 2000 Years; and which I am confident, that the Gentleman, whofe Play I fhall Examine by them, will allow unexceptionable. Yes, Mr. Addifon will confefs, that Poetry is an Art: And if fo; that, as an Art, it has certain Rules, or Means of arriving at fome End that it proposes; which is the Inftruction of Men by Pleafure...

This Gentleman will farther own, as the Confequence of the Premises, that the Means or Rules of Obtaining this End, are known; or it would elfe be the fame thing as if there were no Rules at all. I believe he will further grant, that it is impoffible to fucceed without them. The certain Consequence of this is, that the Rules, and What pleafes, are never contrary to each other; and that you can never please without the Rules. For where there is a Right, and a Wrong, there must be fome Rules to avoid the laft, and arrive at the first.

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From hence it is plain, that there are Rules of juft Writing in the Drama, that these Rules are known; and that they are never oppofite to what pleafes, fince they were made to fhow us what will excite Pleasure in the Reader or Spectator. P

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There would be nothing bad (fays that admirable Critic Dacier) in the World, if all that pleas'd were good, fince there is nothing fo abfurd but will meet with fome Admirers. You may say indeed, that it is not true that what is good pleafes, because we daily fee Difputes about the GOOD and PLE ASANT: the fame thing pleafes fome, and displeases others, nay it pleases and displeases the very fame Man at different 'Times. From whence then proceeds this Difference? It comes either from an abfolute Ignorance of the Rules, or that 'the Paffions alter it. Rightly to clear this Truth, I believe 'I may lay down this Maxim ;-That all fenfible Objects are of 'Two Sorts, fome may be judged of by the Senfe independently of Rea"Son (I call Senfe that Impreffion which the Animal Spirits make on the Soul) and others cannot be judged of but by Reafon exercised in Science or Knowledge. Things fimply agreeable or disagreeable are of the first Sort, all the World may judge alike of thefe : For Example, The most ignorant of Mufic perceives very well when a Lutinift ftrikes one String for another, because he judges by his Senfe, and his Senfe is the Rule. On fuch Occafions we may fay, that all that pleafes is good, because that which is good does pleafe, or that which is ill never fails to difpleafe; for neither Paffion nor Ignorance dull the Senfes, but fharpen them. It is not thus in Things that fpring from Reafon; Paffion and Ignorance work very ftrongly in them and check the Judgment; and for this Caufe we ordinarily judge fo ill, and differently in thofe Things of which Reason is the Rule and Caufe. Why what is Bad of ten pleases, and that which is Good does not always do fo, is not the Fault of the Object but the Judgment. What is Good will infallibly pleafe thofe, who can judge, and that is sufficient. By this we may fee, that a Play, that hall bring those Things which are to be judged by Reafon within the Rules, and alfo that, which is to be judged by Senfe, fhall never fail to please 'both the Learned and Ignorant. Now this Conformity of Suffrages is the most fure, or, according to Ariftotle, the only Mark of the Good and the Pleasant. But thefe Suffrages are not to be obtained but by obferving the Rules, and confe

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quently thefe Rules are the only Caufe of the Good and the Pleafant, whether they are followed Methodically and with Defign, or only by Chance. For it is certain, there are many Perfons, who are entirely ignorant of thefe Rules, but yet do not mifs of Succefs in many Things; but this is far from deftroying the Rules, fince it only ferves to fhew their Beauty, and proves how far they are conformable to Nature, fince thofe often follow them, who know nothing of them.

Our Shakespear is an undeniable Proof of the Truth of the latter End of this Quotation, who is exactly conformable to the Rules in all that pleases the Judicious, and never difgufts but for want of his Knowledge of them. This, I hope, is fufficient to fatisfy any Man of Reason, that the Rules are abfolutely neceffary for judging and writing well. I fhall therefore proceed to lay down as briefly as the Matter will permit, the Rules which determine the Goodness or Badness of a Tragedy: With the Definition of which I fhall begin.

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TRAGEDY is the Imitation of one grave and entire Action of a juft Length, and which without the Affiftance of Narration, by the Means of Terror and Compaffion, perfectly refines in us all Sorts of Paffions, and whatever is like to them.

We may explain this by a Piece of History Painting, where the Painter takes one entire and grave Action to exprefs by Figures and Colours, without mingling any thing elfe with it. Raphael in his Battel of Conftantine, brings not all the Actions of the Life of that Prince, which would have been abfurd and confounding, but only what concerns that one Action alone. Thus Tragedy is the Imitation of one grave Action, not of all the Actions of a Man's whole Life.

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As the Action imitated by Tragedy must be grave, fo it must be entire; that is, it must have a Beginning, Middle, and End. The excluding Narration, and confining it to Terror and Compaffion, diftinguishes it from the Epic Poem, which employs chiefly Admiration, in which Cornielle tranfgreffed in almost all his, Plays.

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