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an old woman, that when Juba came on with his——"Hail! charming maid!"- the fellow could not help laughing. Another night I was furprifed to hear an eager lover talk of rushing into his miftrefs's arms, rioting on the nectar of her lips, and defiring (in the tragedy rapture) to hug her thus, and thus, for ever;" though he always took care to ftand at a most ceremonious distance. But I was afterwards very much diverted at the caufe of this extraordinary refpect, when I was told that the lady laboured under the misfortune of an ulcer in her leg, which occafioned fuch a difagreeable ftench, that the performers were obliged to keep her at arms length. The entertainment was Lethe; and the part of the Frenchman was performed by a South Briton; who, as he could not pronounce a word of the French language, fupplied its place by gabbling in his native Welsh.

The decorations, or (in the theatrical dialect) the property of our company are as extraordinary as the performers. Othello raves about a checked handkerchief; the ghoft in Hamlet ftalks in a poftilion's leathern-jacket for a coat of mail; and Cupid enters with a fiddle-cafe flung over his fhoulders for a quiver. The apothecary of the town is free of the houfe, for lending them a pestle and mortar to ferve as the bell in Venice Preferved and a barber-furgeon has the fame privilege, for furnishing them with bafons of blood to befmear the daggers in Macbeth. Macbeth himfelf carries a rolling-pin in his hand for a truncheon; and, as the breaking of glaffes would be very expenfive, he dashes down a pewter pint pot at the fight of Banquo's ghoit.

A fray happened here the other night, which was no fmall diverfion to the audience. It feems there had been a great contest between two of thofe mimic heroes, which was the fittest to play Richard the third. One of them was reckoned to have the better perfon, as he was very round-shouldered, and one of his legs was fhorter than the other; but his antagonist carried the part, because he started beft in the tent fcene. However, when the curtain

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The French have diftinguished the. artifices made use of on the lage to deceive the audience, by the expreffion of Jeu de Theatre, which we may tranflate, "the juggle of the theatre." When thefe little arts are exercifed merely to affift nature, and fet her off to the best advantage, none can be fo critically nice as to object to them; but when tragedy by these means is lifted into rant, and comedy diftorted into buffoonery, though the deceit may fucceed with the multitude, men of fenfe will always be offended at it. This conduct, whether of the poet or the player, refembles in fome fort the poor contrivance of the ancients, who mounted their heroes upon ftilts, and expreffed the manners of their characters by the grotefque figures of their masks. Ibid.

§ 77. True Pleafure defined.

We are affected with delightful fenfations, when we fee the inanimate parts of the creation, the meadows, flowers, and trees, in a flourishing ftate. There must be fome rooted melancholy at the heart, when all nature appears fimiling about us, to hinder us from correfponding with the reft of the creation, and joining in the univerfal chorus of joy. But if meadows and trees in their chearful verdure, if flowers in their bloom, and all the vegetable parts of the creation in their moft advantageous dress, can infpire gladnefs into the heart, and drive away all fadnefs but despair; to fee the rational creation happy and flourishing, ought to give us a pleafure as much fuperior, as the latter is to the former in the fcale of beings. But the pleafure is ftill heightened, if we ourfelves have been inftrumental in contributing to the happiness of our fellow-creatures, if we have helped to raise an heart drooping beneath the weight of grief, and revived that bar 3 A 2

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$78. How Politeness is manifefted.

To correct fuch grofs vices as lead us to commit a real injury to others, is the part of morals, and the object of the moft ordinary education. Where that is not attended to, in fome degree, no human fociety can fubfift. But in order to render converfation and the intercourfe of minds more eafy and agreeable, good manners have been invented, and

have carried the matter fomewhat farther. Wherever nature has given the mind a propenfity to any vice, or to any paffion difagreeable to others, refined breeding has taught men to throw the bias on the oppofite fide, and to preferve, in all their behaviour, the appearance of fentiments contrary to thofe which they naturally incline to. Thus, as we are naturally proud and felfish, and apt to affume the preference above others, a polite man is taught to behave with deference towards thofe with whom he converfes, and to yield up the fuperiority to them in all the common incidents of fociety. In like manner, wherever a perfon's fituation may naturally beget any difagreeable fufpicion in him, 'tis the part of good manners to prevent it, by a ftudied difplay of fentiments directly contrary to thofe of which he is apt to be jealous. Thus old men know their infirmities, and naturally dread contempt from youth: hence, well-educated youth redouble their inNances of respect and deference to their elders. Strangers and foreigners are without protection: hence, in all polite countries, they receive the highest civilities, and are entitled to the first place in every company. A man is lord in his own family, and his guefts are, in a manner, fubject to his authority: hence, he is always the lowest perfon in the company; attentive to the wants of every one; and giving himself all the trouble, in order to pleafe, which may not betray too visible an affectation, or impofe too much conftraint on his guests. Gallantry is nothing but an in. fance of the fame generous and refined attention. As nature has given man

the fuperiority above woman, by endowing him with greater ftrength both of mind and body, 'tis his part to alleviate that fuperiority, as much as poffible, by the generofity of his behaviour, and by a ftudied deference and complaifance for all her inclinations and opinions. Barbarous nations display this fuperiority, by reducing their females to the moft abject flavery; by confining them, by beating them, by felling them, by killing them. But the male fex, among a polite people, difcover their authority in a more generous, though not a lefs evident, manner; by civility, by refpect, by complaifance, and, in a word, by gallantry. In good company, you need not ask, who is mafter of the feaft? The man who fits in the lowest place, and who is always induftrious in helping every one, is molt certainly the perfon. We muft either condemn all fuch inftances of generofity, as foppifh and affected, or admit of gallantry among the reft. The ancient Mofcovites wedded their wives with a whip instead of a wedding ring. The fame people, in their own houfes, took always the precedency above foreigners, even foreign ambaffadors. Thefe two inftances of their generofity and politenefs are much of a piece. Hume's Efays.

$79. The Bufinefs and Qualifications

of a Poet defcribed.

And

"Wherever I went, I found that poetry was considered as the highest learning, and regarded with a veneration fomewhat approaching to that which man would pay to the angelic nature. it yet fills me with wonder, that, in almost all countries, the most ancient poets are confidered as the beft: whether it be that every other kind of knowledge is an acquisition gradually attained, and poetry is a gift conferred at once; or that the firft poetry of every nation furprifed them as a novelty, and retained the credit by confent which it received by accident at first or whether, as the province of poetry is to defcribe nature and paffion, which are always the fame, the first writers took poffeffion of the moft ftriking objects for defcription, and

the

the most probable occurrences for fiction, and left nothing to thofe that followed them, but tranfcriptions of the fame events, and new combinations of the fame images. Whatever be the reafon, it is commonly obferved that the early writers are in poffeffion of nature, and their followers of art: that the first excel in ftrength and invention, and the latter in elegance and refinement.

"I was defirous to add my name to this illuftrious fraternity. I read all the poets of Perfia and Arabia, and was able to repeat by memory the volumes that are fufpended in the mofque of Mecca. But I foon found that no man was ever great by imitation. My defire of excellence impelled me to transfer my attention to nature and to life. Nature was to be my fubject, and men to be my auditors: I could never defcribe what I had not feen: I could not hope to move thofe with delight or terror, whofe interefts and opinions I did not understand.

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Being now refolved to be a poet, I faw every thing with a new purpose; my fphere of attention was fuddenly magnified: no kind of knowledge was to be overlooked. I ranged mountains and deferts for images and refemblances, and pictured upon my mind every tree of the foreft and flower of the valley. I obferved with equal care the crags of the rock and the pinnacles of the palace. Sometimes I wandered along the mazes of the rivulet, and fometimes watched the changes of the fummer clouds. To a poet nothing can be ufelefs. Whatever is beautiful, and whatever is dreadful, must be familiar to his imagination: he must be converfant with all that is awfully vaft or elegantly little, The plants of the garden, the animals of the wood, the minerals of the earth, and meteors of the fky, muft all concur to ftore his mind with inexhauftible variety: for every idea is useful for the enforcement or decoration of moral or religious truth; and he, who knows moft, will have most power of diverfifying his fcenes, and of gratifying his reader with remote allufions and unexpected inftruc.

tion.

"All the appearances of nature I was therefore careful to ftudy, and every country which I have furveyed has contributed fomething to my poetical powers."

In fo wide a furvey," faid the prince, "you must furely have left much unobferved. I have lived, till now, within the circuit of thefe mountains, and yet cannot walk abroad without the fight of fomething which I never beheld before, or never heeded."

"The bufinefs of a poet," faid Imlac, "is to examine, not the individual, but the fpecies; to remark general properties and large appearances: he does not number the ftreaks of the tulip, or defcribe the different fhades in the verdure of the foreft. He is to exhibit in his portraits of nature fuch prominent and ftriking features, as recal the original to every mind; and must neglect the minuter difcriminations, which one may have remarked, and another have neglected, for thofe characteristics which are alike obvious to vigilance and careleffness.

"But the knowledge of nature is only half the task of a poet; he must be acquainted likewife with all the modes of life. His character requires that he eftimate the happinefs and mifery of every condition, obferve the power of all the paffions in all their combinations, and trace the changes of the human mind as they are modified by various inftitutions, and accidental influences of climate or cuftom, from the sprightlinefs of infancy to the defpondence of decrepitude. He must divet himself of the prejudices of his age or country; he must confider right and wrong in their abitract and invariable ftate; he muft difregard prefent laws and opinions, and rife to general and tranfcendental truths, which will always be the fame; he must therefore content himself with the flow progress of his name; contemn the applaufe of his own time, and commit his claims to the juftice of pofterity. He must write as the interpreter of nature, and the legiflator of mankind, and confider. himfelf as prefiding over the thoughts and manners of future generations, as a being fuperior to time and place. 3 A 3

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"His labour is not yet at an end: he must know many languages and many fciences; and, that his ftyle may be worthy of his thoughts, muft by inceffant practice familiarize to himself every delicacy of speech and grace of harmony." Johnson's Raffelas.

§ 80. Remarks on fome of the best Poets,

both ancient and modern.

'Tis manifeft, that fome particular ages have been more happy than others, in the production of great men, and all forts of arts and fciences; as that of Euripides, Sophocles, Ariftophanes, and the reft, for itage poetry, amongst the Greeks; that of Auguftus for heroic, lyric, dramatic, elegiac, and indeed all forts of poetry, in the perfons of Virgil, Horace, Varius, Ovid, and many others; efpecially if we take into that century the latter end of the commonwealth, wherein we find Varro, Lucretius, and Catullus: and at the fame time lived Cicero, Salluft, and Cæfar. A famous age in modern times, for learning in every kind, was that of Lorenzo de Medici and his fon Leo X. wherein painting was revived, oetry flourished, and the Greek language was restored.

Examples in all thefe are obvious: but what I would infer is this, That in fuch an age, 'tis pofiible fome great genius may arife to equal any of the ancients, abating only for the language; for great contemporaries whet and cultivate each other; and mutual borrow ing, and commerce, makes the common riches of learning, as it does of civil government.

But fuppofe that Homer and Virgil were the only poets of their species, and that nature was fo much worn out in producing them, that the is never able to bear the like again; yet the example only holds in heroic poetry. In tragedy and fatire, I offer my felf to maintain, gainft fome of our modern critics, that this age and the laft, particularly in England, have excelled the ancients in both thefe kinds.

Thus I might fafely confine myself to my native country: but if I would only cross the feas, I might find in

France a living Horace and a Juvenal, in the perfon of the admirable Boileau, whofe numbers are excellent, whofe expreffions are noble, whofe thoughts are juft, whofe language is pure, whofe fatire is pointed, and whofe fenfe is clofe. What he borrows from the ancients, he repays with ufury of his own, in coin as good, and almost as univer faily valuable; for, fetting prejudice and partiality apart, though he is our enemy, the ftamp of a Louis, the patron of arts, is not much inferior to the medal of an Auguftus Cæfar. Let this be faid without entering into the interefts of factions and parties, and relating only the bounty of that king to men of learning and merit: a praife fo juft, that even we, who are his enemies, cannot refufe it to him.

Now, if it may be permitted me to go back again to the confideration of epic poetry, I have confeffed that no man hitherto has reached, or fo much as approached to the excellencies of Homer or Virgil; I muft farther add, that Statius, the bett verfificator next Virgil, knew not how to design after him, though he had the model in his eyes; that Lucan is wanting both in defign and fubject, and is befides too full of heat and affection; that among the moderns, Ariofto neither defigned juftly, nor obferved any unity of action or compafs of time, or moderation in the vastnefs of his draught: his ftyle is luxurious, without majefty or decency; and his adventures without the compafs of nature and poffibility. Taf fo, whofe defign was regular, and who obferved the rules of unity in time and place more clofely than Virgil, yet was not fo happy in his action; he confeffes himfel to have been too lyrical, that is, to have written beneath the dignity of heroic verfe, in his episodes of Sophronia, Erminia, and Armida; his flory is not fo pleafing as Ariotto's; he is too flatulent fometimes, and fometimes too. dry; many times unequal, and almost always forced; and befides, is full of conceptions, points of epigram, and witticifms; all which are not only below the dignity of heroic verfe, but contrary to its nature. Virgil and Homer have not one of them:

and

and those who are guilty of fo boy ith an ambition in fo grave a fubject, are fo far from being confidered as he roic poets, that they ought to be turn ed down from Homer to Anthologia, from Virgil to Martial and Owen's epigrams, and from Spenfer to Flecno, that is, from the top to the bottom of all poetry. But to return to Taffo; he borrows from the invention of Boyardo, and in his alteration of his poem, which is infinitely the worst, imitates Homer fo very fervilely, that (for example) he gives the king of Jerufalem fifty fons, only becaufe Homer had bestowed the like number on king Priam; he kills the youngest in the fame manner, and has provided his hero with a Patroclus, under another name, only to bring him back to the wars, when his friend was killed. The French have performed nothing in this kind, which is not below those two Italians, and fubject to a thousand more reflections, without examining their St. Louis, their Pucelle, or their Alarique. The English bave only to boast of Spenfer and Milton, who neither of them wanted either genius or learning to have been perfect poets, and yet both of them are liable to many cenfures. For there is no uniformi ty in the defign of Spenfer; he aims at the accomplishment of no one action; he raifes up a hero for every one of his adventures, and endows each of them with fome particular moral virtue, which renders them all equal, without fubordination or preference. Every one is moft valiant in his own legend; only we must do them the juftice to observe, that magnanimity, which is the character of Prince Ar. thur, fhines through the whole poem, and fuccours the reft, when they are in diftrefs. The original of every knight was then living in the court of queen Elizabeth; and he attributed to each of them that virtue which he thought moft confpicuous in them: an ingenious piece of flattery, though it turned not much to his account. Had he lived to finish his poem, in the fix remaining legends, it had certainly been more of a piece; but could not have been perfect, because the model

was not true. But Prince Arthur, or his chief patron, Sir Philip Sidney, whom he intended to make happy by the marriage of his Gloriana, dying before him, deprived the poet both of means and fpirit to accomplish his defign. For the reit, his obfolete language, and ill choice of his stanza, are faults but of the fecond magnitude: for, notwithstanding the firft, he is still intelligible, at least after a little practice; and for the laft, he is the more to be admired, that, labouring under fuch a difficulty, his verfes are so nufo merous, fo various, and fo harmonious, that only Virgil, whom he profeffedly imitated, has furpaffed him among the Romans, and only Mr. Waller among the English. Dryden.

§ 81. Remarks on fome of the best

English dramatic Poets.

Shakespeare was the man who, of all modern and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehenfive foul. All the images of nature were ftill present to him, and he drew them not laboriously, but luckily: when he defcribes any thing, you more than fee it, you feel it too. Those who accufe him to have wanted learning, give him the greater commendation: he was naturally learned; he needed not the fpectacles of books to read nature; he looked inwards, and found her there. I cannot fay he is every where alike; were he fo, I should do him injury to compare him with the greatest of mankind. He is many times flat and infipid; his comic wit degenerating into clenches; his ferious, fwelling into bombaft. But he is always great, when fome great occafion is prefented to him: no man can fay he ever had a fit fubject for his wit, and did not then raise himfelf as high above the rest of Poets,

Quantùm lenta folent inter viburna cupreffi. The confideration of this made Mr. Hales of Eaton fay, that there was no fubject of which any poet ever writ, but he would produce it much better treated in Shakespeare; and, however others are now generally preferred before him, yet the age wherein he lived, which had contemporaries with him

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