more than the other, I cannot determine. But I believe it might rectify the conduct both of the one and of the other, if the writer laid down the whole contexture of his dialogue in plain English, before he turned it into blank verfe; and if the reader, after the perufal of a scene, would confider the naked thought of every fpeech in it, when divefed of all its Tragic ornaments. By this means, without being impofed upon by words, we may judge impartially of the thought, and confider whether it be natural or great enough for the perfon that utters it, whether it deferves to shine in fucha blaze of eloquence, or fhew itself in fuch a variety of lights as are generally made ufe of by the writers of our English TRAGEDY.

I must in the next place obferve, that when our thoughts are great and juft, they are often obfcured by the founding phrafes, hard metaphors, and forced expreflions in which they are clothed. Shakespeare is often very faulty in this particular. There is a fine obfervation in Ariftotle to this purpofe, which I have never feen quoted. The expreffion fays he, ought to be very much laboured in the unactive parts of the fable, as in defcriptions, fimilitudes, narrations, and the like; in which the opinions, manners, and paffions of men are not reprefented; for thefe (namely, the opinions, manners, and paffions) are apt to be obfcured by pompous phrafes and elaborate expreffions. Horace, who copied moft of his criticisms after Ariftotle, feems to have had his eye on the foregoing rule, in the following verfes.

Et

Et tragicus plerumque dolet fermone pedeftri:
Telephus & Peleus, cùm pauper & exul uterque,
Projicit ampullas & fefquipedalia verba,

Si curat cor fpectantis tetigiffe querela.

ARS Poet. ver. 95.

Tragedians too lay by their state to grieve:
Peleus and Telephus, exil'd and poor,
Forget their fwelling and gigantic words.

ROSCOMMON.

Among our modern English POETS, there is none who was better turned for Tragedy than LEE; if instead of favouring the impetuofity of his genius, he had restrained it, and kept it within its proper bounds. His thoughts are wonderfully fuited to Tragedy, but frequently loft in fuch a cloud of words, that it is hard to fee the beauty of them. There is an infinite fire in his works, but fo involved in fmoke, that it does not appear in half its luftre. He frequently fucceeds in the paffionate parts of the Tragedy, but more particularly where he flackens his efforts, and eases the ftile of thofe epithets and metaphors, in which he fo much abounds. What can be more natural, more foft, or more paffionate, than that line in Statira's fpeech, where the defcribes the charms of Alexander's converfation?

Then he would talk-Good Gods! how he would talk!'

That unexpected break in the line, and turning the defcription of his manner of talking into an admiration of it, is inexprcffibly beautiful, and wonderfully fuited to the fond VOL. I. character

character of the perfon that speaks it. There is a fimplicity in the words, that outshines the utmoft pride of expreffion.

OTWAY has followed nature in the language of his Tragedy, and therefore fhines in the paffionate parts, more than any of our English poets. As there is fomething familiar and domestic in the fable of his Tragedy, more than in those of any other poet, he has little pomp, but great force in his expreffions. For which reason, though he has admirably fucceeded in the tender and melting part of his Tragedies, he fometimes falls into too great a familiarity of phrase in those parts, which by Aristotle's rule, ought to have been raised and fupported by the dignity of expreffion.

It has been obferved by others, that this poet has founded his Tragedy of "Venice Preferved" on fo wrong a plot, that the greatest characters in it are those of rebels and traitors. Had the hero of his play difcovered the fame good qualities in the defence of his country, that he fhewed for its ruin and fubverfion, the audience could not enough pity and admire him: but as he is now reprefented, we can only fay of him what the Roman hiftorian fays of Catiline, that his fall would have been glorious (fi pro patriâ fic concidiffet) had he fo fallen in the fervice of his country.

C*.

By ADDISON, dated as fuppofed from Chelsea. See final Note to N°7, on ADDISON's Signatures C, L, I, 0; No 221, and Notes, on Capital and Cabalistical LETTERS.

N° 40.

N° 40. Monday, April 16, 1711.

Ac ne fortè putes, me, que facere ipfe recufem,
Cùm rectè tractant alii, laudare malignè;
Ille per extentum funem mihi poffe videtur
Ire poëta, meum qui pectus inaniter angit,
Irritat, mulcet, falfis terroribus implet,
Ut Magus; & modò me Thebis, modo ponit Athenis.
HOR. 2. Ep. i. 208.

IMITATED.

Yet left you think I rally more than teach,
Or praise, malignant, arts I cannot reach,
Let me for once prefume t'inftruct the times,
To know the Poet from the man of Rhymes;
'Tis he, who gives my breast a thousand pains,
Can make me feel each paffion that he feigns;
Enrage, compofe, with more than Magic ART,
With pity, and with terror, tear my heart;
And fnatch me o'er the earth, or thro' the air,
To Thebes, to Athens, when he will, and where.
РОРЕ.

TH

HE English writers of Tragedy are poffeffed with a notion, that when they reprefent a virtuous or innocent perfon in diftrefs, they ought not to leave him till they have delivered him out of his troubles, or made him triumph over his enemies. This error they have been led into by a ridiculous doctrine in modern criticifm, that they are obliged to an equal diftribution of rewards and punishments, and an imFartial

Who

partial execution of poetical juftice*. were the first that established this rule I know not; but I am fure it has no foundation in nature, in reafon, or in the practice of the ancients. We find that good and evil happen alike to all men on this fide the grave; and as the principal defign of Tragedy is to raise commiferation and terror in the minds of the audience, we fhall defeat this great end, if we always make virtue and innocence happy and successful. Whatever crofles and difappointments a good man fuffers in the body of the Tragedy, they will make but small impreffion on our minds, when we know that in the laft act he is to arrive at the end of his wifhes and defires. When we fee him engaged in the depth of his afflictions, we are apt to comfort ourfelves, because we are fure he will find his way out of them; and that his grief, how great foever it may be at present, will foon terminate in gladness. For this reafon the ancient writers of Tragedy treated men in their plays, as they are dealt with in the world, by making virtue fometimes happy and fometimes miferable, as they found it in the fable which they made choice of, or as it might affect their audience in the moft agreeable manner. Ariftotle confiders the Tragedies that were written in either of thefe kinds, and obferves, that thofe which ended unhappily had always pleased the people, and carried away the prize in the

See "Original Letters, familiar, moral, and critical" by Mr. J. Dennis, 2 vols. 8vo. 1721. p. 407.