Tragedy was not in those Times a Poem of more general Dignity or Elevation than Comedy; it required only a calamitous Conclufion, with which the common Criticism of that Age was fatisfied, whatever lighter Pleasure it afforded in its Progrefs.

Hiftory was a Species of Actions, with no other than chronological Succeffion, independent of each other, and without any Tendency to introduce or regulate the Conclufion. It is not always very nicely distinguished from Tragedy. There is not much nearer Approach to Unity of Action in the Tragedy of Anthony and Cleopatra, than in the History of Richard the fecond. But a Hiftory might be continued through many Plays; as it had no Plan, it had no Limits.

Through all these Denominations of the Drama, Shakespeare's Mode of Compofition is the fame; an Interchange of Seriousness and Merriment, by which the Mind is foftened at one Time, and exhilarated at another. But whatever be his Purpose, whether to gladden or deprefs, or to conduct the Story, without Vehemence of Emotion, through Tracts of eafy and familiar Dialogue, he never fails to attain his Purpose; as he commands us, we laugh or mourn, or fit filent with quiet Expectation, in Tranquility without Indifference.

When Shakespeare's Plan is understood, most of the Criticisms of Rhymer and Voltaire vanish away, The Play of Hamlet is opened without Impropriety, by two Sentinels; lago bellows at Brabantio's Window, without Injury to the Scheme of the Play, though in Terms which a modern Audience would not easily endure; the Character for Polonius is feafonable and ufeful; and the Grave-diggers themselves may be heard with Applause.

Shakespeare engaged in dramatick Poetry with the World open before him; the Rules of the Ancients were yet known to few; the publick Judgment was

unformed

unformed; he had no Example of such Fame as might force him upon Imitation, nor Criticks of fuch Authority as might reftrain his Extravagance: He therefore indulged his natural Difpofition, and his Difpofition, as Rhymer has remarked, led him to Comedy. In Tragedy he often writes with great Appearance of Toil and Study, what is written at laft with little Felicity; but in his comic Scenes he seems to produce without Labour, what no Labour can improve. In Tragedy he is always ftruggling after fome Occafion to be comick; but in Comedy he seems to repose, or to luxuriate, as in a Mode of Thinking congenial to his Nature. In his tragick Scenes there is always fomething wanting; but his Comedy often furpaffes Expectation or Defire. His Comedy pleases by the Thoughts and the Language, and his Tragedy for the greater Part by Incident and Action. His Tragedy seems to be Skill, his Comedy to be Instinct.

The Force of his comick Scenes has fuffered little Diminution from the Changes made by a Century and a halfin Manners or in Words. As his Perfonages act upon Principles arifing from genuine Paffion, very little modified by particular Forms, their Pleasures and Vexations are communicable to all Times, and to all Places; they are natural, and therefore durable; the adventitious Peculiarities of perfonal Habits are only fuperficial Dyes, bright and pleafing for a little while, yet foon fading to a dim Tinct, without any Remains of former Luftre, but the Discriminations of true Paffion and the Colours of Nature; they pervade the whole Mafs, and can only perifh with the Body that exhibits them. The accidental Compofitions of heterogeneous Modes are diffolved by the Chance which combined them; but the uniform Simplicity of primitive Qualities neither admits Increase, nor fuffers Decay. The Sand heaped by one Flood is fcattered by another, but the Rock always

continues

I

continues in its Place. The Stream of Time, which is continually washing the diffoluble Fabricks of other Poets, paffes without Injury by the Adamant of Shakespeare.

If there be, what I believe there is, in every Nation, a Stile which never becomes obfolete, a certain Mode of Phrafeology fo confonant and congenial to the Analogy and Principles of its respective Language, as to remain fettled and unaltered; this Stile is probably to be fought in the common Intercourfe of Life among thofe who fpeak only to be understood, without Ambition of Elegance. The Polite are always catching modifh Innovations, and the Learned depart from established Forms of Speech, in Hope of finding or making better; thofe who wish for Diftinction, forfake the Vulgar, when the Vulgar is right; but there is a Converfation above Groffness, and below Refinement, where Propriety refides, and where this Poet seems to have gathered his Comick Dialogue. He is therefore more agreeable to the Ears of the prefent Age than any other Authour equally remote, and among his other Excellencies, deferves to be ftudied as one of the original Mafters of our Language.

Thefe Obfervations are to be confidered not as unexceptionably conftant, but as containing general and predominant Truth. Shakespeare's familiar Dialogue is affirmed to be fmooth and clear, yet not wholly without Ruggedness or Difficulty; as a Country may be eminently fruitful, though it has Spots unfit for Cultivation His Characters are praised as natural, though their Sentiments are fometimes forced and their Actions improbable; as the Earth upon the Whole is fpherical, though its Surface is varied with Protuberances and Cavities.

Shakespeare with his Excellencies has likewife Faults, and Faults fufficient to obfcure and overwhelm any other Merit. I fhall fhew them in the

Pro

Proportion in which they appear to me, without envious Malignity, or fuperftitious Veneration. No Queftion can be more innocently difcuffed than a dead Poet's Pretenfions to Renown; and little Regard is due to that Bigotry which fets Candour higher than Truth.

His firft Defect is that to which may be imputed most of the Evil in Books or in Men. He facrifices Virtue to Convenience, and is so much more careful to please than to inftruct, that he seems to write without any moral Purpose. From his Writings indeed a Syftem of focial Duty may be felected, for he that thinks reasonably muft think morally; but his Precepts and Axioms drop cafually from him; he makes no just Distribution of Good or Evil, nor is always careful to fhew in the Virtuous a Difapprobation of the Wicked; he carries his Perfons indifferently through Right and Wrong, and at the Clofe difmiffes them without further Care, and leaves their Examples to operate by Chance. This Fault the Barbarity of his Age cannot extenuate; for it is always a Writer's Duty to make the World better; and Juftice is a Virtue independant on Time or Place.

The Plots are often fo loosely formed, that a very flight Confideration may improve them, and fo carelefsly pursued, that he feems not always fully to comprehend his own Defign. He omits Opportunities of inftructing or delighting which the Train of his Story feems to force upon him, and apparently rejects thofe Exhibitions which would be more affecting, for the Sake of those which are more easy.

It may be observed, that in many of his Plays the latter Part is evidently neglected. When he found himself near the End of his Work, and in View of his Reward, he fhortened the Labour, to fnatch the Profit. He therefore remits his Efforts where he should most vigourously exert them, and

his Catastrophe is improbably produced or imperfectly reprefented.

or

He had no Regard to Diftinction of Time Place, but gives to one Age or Nation, without Scruple, the Cuftoms, Inftitutions, and Opinions of another, at the Expence not only of Likelihood, but of Poffibility. Thefe Faults Pope has endeavoured, with more Zeal than Judgment, to tranffer to his imagined Interpolators. We need not wonder to find Hector quoting Ariftotle, when we see the Loves of Thefeus and Hippolyta combined with the Gothick Mythology of Fairies. Shakespeare indeed was not the only Violator of Chronology, for in the fame Age Sydney, who wanted not the Advantages of Learning, has, in his Arcadia, confounded the Paftoral with the Feudal Times, the Days of Innocence, Quiet and Security, with those of Turbulence, Violence and Adventure.

In his Comick Scenes he is feldom very fuccefsful, when he engages his Characters in Reciprocations of Smartness, aud Contests of Sarcasm; their Jefts are commonly grofs, and their Pleafantry licentious; neither his Gentlemen nor his Ladies have much Delicacy, nor are fufficiently diftinguished from his Clowns by any Appearance of refined Manners. Whether he reprefented the real Converfation of his Time is not eafy to determine: The Reign of Elizabeth is commonly fuppofed to have been a Time of Statelinefs, Formality, and Referve; yet perhaps the Relaxations of that Severity were not very elegant. There muft, however, have been always fome Modes of Gayety preferable to others, and a Writer ought to chuse the best.

In Tragedy his Performance feems conftantly to be worfe, as his Labour is more. The Effufions of Paffion which Exigence forces out are for the most Part ftriking and energetick; but whenever he folicits his Invention, or ftrains his Faculties, the Off