bits fucceffive Imitations of fucceffive Actions; and why may not the fecond Imitation represent an Action that happened Years after the first, if it be fo connected with it, that nothing but Time can be fuppofed to intervene? Time is, of all Modes of Existence, moft obfequious to the Imagination; a Lapfe of Years is as eafily conceived as a Paffage of Hours. In Contemplation we eafily contract the Time of real Actions, and therefore willingly permit it to be contracted when we only fee their Imitattion. It will be asked, how the Drama moves, if it is not credited. It is credited, with all the Credit due to a Drama. It is credited, whenever it moves, as a juft Picture of a real Original; as reprefenting to the Auditor what he would himself feel, if he were to do or fuffer what is there feigned to be fuffered or to be done. The Reflection that ftrikes the Heart is not, that the Evils before us are real Evils, but that they are Evils to which we ourselves may be expofed. If there be any Fallacy, it is not that we fancy the Players, but that we fancy ourfelves unhappy for a Moment; but we rather lament the Poffibility, than fuppofe the Prefence of Mifery; as a Mother weeps over her Babe, when the remembers that Death may take it from her. The Delight of Tragedy proceeds from our Confcioufnefs of Fiction; if we thought Murders and Treafons real, they would please to more. Imitations produce Pain or Pleasure, not because they are mistaken for Realities, but because they bring Realities to Mind. When the Imagination is recreated by a painted Landscape, the Trees are not fuppofed capable to give us Shade, or the Fountains Coolness; but we confider, how we fhould be pleafed with fuch Fountains playing befide us, and fuch Woods waving over us. We are agitated in reading the Hiftory of Henry the Fifth, yet no Man takes his Book Book for the Field of Agencourt. A dramatick Exhibition is a Book recited with Concomitants that encrease or diminish its Effect. Familiar Comedy is often more powerful on the Theatre, than in the Page; imperial Tragedy is always lefs. The Humour of Petruchio may be heightened by Grimace ; but what Voice or what Gefture can hope to add Dignity or Force to the Soliloquy of Cato? A Play read affects the Mind like a Play acted. It is therefore evident, that the Action is not fupposed to be real; and it follows, that between the Acts a longer or fhorter Time may be allowed to pass, and that no more Account of Space or Duration is to be taken by the Auditor of a Drama, than by the Reader of a Narrative, before whom may pass in an Hour the Life of a Hero, or the Revolutions of an Empire. Whether Shakespeare knew the Unities, and rejected them by Design, or deviated from them by happy Ignorance, it is, I think, impoffible to decide, and ufelefs to enquire. We may reafonably fuppofe that, when he rofe to Notice, he did not want the Counsels and Admonitions of Scholars and Criticks, and that he at last deliberately perfifted in a Practice, which he might have begun by Chance. As nothing is effential to the Fable, but Unity of Action, and as the Unities of Time and Place arife evidently from falfe Affumptions, and, by circum. fcribing the Extent of the Drama, leffen its Variety, I cannot think it much to be lamented, that they were not known by him, or not observed: Nor, if fuch another Poet could arife, fhould I very vehemently reproach him, that his firft act pafied at Ve nice, and his next in Cyprus. Such Violations of Rules merely pofitive, become the comprehenfive Genius of Shakespeare, and fuch Cenfures are fuitable to the minute and flender Criticisms of Voltaire : Non ufque adeo permifcuit imis Longus fumma dies, ut non, fi voce Metelli Yet when I speak thus flightly of dramatick Rules, I cannot but recollect how much Wit and Learning may be produced against me; before fuch Authorities I am afraid to ftand, not that I think the prefent Question one of those that are to be decided by mere Authority, but because it is to be fufpected, that these Precepts have not been fo eafily received, but for better Reasons than I have yet been able to find. The Refult of my Enquiries, in which it would be ludicrous to boast of Impartiality, is, that the Unities of Time and Place are not effential to a juft Drama; that tho' they may fometimes conduce to Pleasure, they are always to be facrificed to the nobler Beauties of Variety and Instruction; and that a Play, written with nice Obfervation of critical Rules, is to be contemplated as an elaborate Curiofity, as the Product of fuperfluous and oftentatious Art, by which is fhewn rather what is poffible, than what is neceffary. He that, without Diminution of any other Excellence, fhall preserve all the Unities unbroken, deferves the like Applaufe with the Architect, who fhall display all the Orders of Architecture in a Citadel, without any Deduction from its Strength; but the principal Beauty of a Citadel is to exclude the Enemy: and the greatest Graces of a Play are to copy Nature and inftruct Life. Perhaps, what I have here not dogmatically, but deliberately written, may recall the Principles of the Drama to a new Examination. I am almoft frighted at my own Temerity; and when I eftimate the Fame and the Strength of thofe that maintain the contrary Opinion, am ready to fink down in reverential Si lence; as Æneas withdrew from the Defence of Troy, when he faw Neptune fhaking the Wall, and June heading the Befiegers. Those whom my Arguments cannot perfuade to give their Approbation to the Judgment of ShakeSpeare, will eafily, if they confider the Condition of his Life, make fome Allowance for his Ignorance. Every Man's Performances, to be rightly estimated, must be compared with the State of the Age in which he lived, and with his own particular Opportunities; and though to the Reader a Book be not worfe or better for the Circumftances of the Authour, yet as there is always a filent Reference of human Works to human Abilities, and as the Enquiry, how far Man may extend his Defigns, or how high he may rate his native Force, is of far greater Dignity than in what Rank we shall place any particular Performance, Curiofity is always busy to discover the Inftruments, as well as to furvey the Workmanship, to know how much is to be ascribed to original Powers, and how much to cafual and adventitious Help. The Palaces of Peru or Mexico were certainly mean and incommodious Habitations, if compared to the Houfes of European Monarchs: yet who could forbear to view them with Astonishment, who remembered that they were built without the Use of Iron ? The English Nation in the Time of Shakespeare, was yet ftruggling to emerge from Barbarity. The Philology of Italy had been tranfplanted hither in the Reign of Henry the Eigthth: and the learned Languages had been fuccefsfully cultivated by Lilly, Linacer, and More; by Pole, Cheke, and Gardiner ; and afterwards by Smith, Clerk, Haddon, and Afcham. Greek was now now taught to Boys in the principal Schools; and those who united Elegance with Learning, read, with great Diligence, the Italian and Spanish Poets. But Literature was yet confined to profeffed Scholars, or to Men and Women of high I 3 Rank. Rank. The Publick was grofs and dark; and to be able to read and write, was an Accomplishment ftill valued for its Rarity. Nations, like Individuals, have their Infancy. A People newly awakened to literary Curiofity, being yet unacquainted with the true State of Things, knows not how to judge of that which is propofed as its Resemblance. Whatever is remote from common Appearances is always welcome to vulgar, as to childish Credulity; and of a Country unenlightened by Learning, the whole People is the Vulgar. The Study of those who then afpired to plebeian Learning was laid out upon Adventures, Giants, Dragons, and Enchantments. The Death of Arthur was the favourite Volume. The Mind, which has feafted on the luxurious Wonders of Fiction, has no Taste of the Infipidity of Truth. A Play which imitated only the common Occurrences of the World, would, upon the Admirers of Palmerin and Guy of Warwick, have made little Impreffion; he that wrote for fuch an Audience was under the Neceffity of looking round for ftrange Events and fabulous Tranfactions, and that Incredibility, by which maturer Knowledge is offended, was the chief Recommendation of Writings, to unfkilful Curiosity. Our Authour's Plots are generally borrowed from Novels, and it is reasonable to fuppofe, that he chofe the most popular, fuch as were read by many, and related by more; for his Audience could not have followed him through the Intricacies of the Drama, had they not held the Thread of the Story in their Hands. The Stories which we now find only in remoter Authours, were in his Time acceffible and familiar. The Fable of As you like it, which is fuppofed to be copied from Chaucer's Gamelyn, was a little Pamphlet of thofe Times; and old Mr. Cibber remem bered |