rant bigots, armed with zeal for the deftruction of taste; or obfcure fcribblers, who affect the character of writers, and attack a favorite fubject for that purpose, with falfe quotation, and willing mifreprefentation. If Collier and Bedford have inveighed against the stage with great acrimony, have not Zoilus, Rymer, and Lauder, attempted to fully the character and injure the reputation of the most celebrated writers? Yet truth has at length prevailed, and the intrinfic worth of Homer, Shakefpeare, Milton, and the Stage, will outlast ages of brafs, while the fame of their invidi ous enemies fhall melt and be forgotten, likę tracks in fnow, or ice in the funbeam. CHA P. II. Of Dramatic Entertainments in general; of Tragedy; a remark on the characters of the Orphan; the Fair Penitent; Jane Shore; of the modern method of making Tragedies; of the Roman Father, and Mallet's Eurydice. HE Stage, from its earliest institution, TH has affumed two different methods of applying its inftructions to mankind. These are, Tragedy and Comedy; from them are derived other kinds of Dramatic Entertainments, of which, as well as the antiquity of the Drama, whether Tragic or Comic, we shall speak in their proper place. At present we fhall confine ourselves to examine the nature, defign, and end of Tragedy; in confidering and commenting upon which with particular exactness, we find the most auftere philofopher extremely intent. Tragedy then," according to Aristotle, "is a public leffon, fraught with more inftruction than even Philosophy itself, contributing more to the polish of fociety.""Its effects," according to him, tranfcend any thing that can be communicated 66 either by the best books or the most eloquent harrangues, because it addreffes the paffions:" it alarms the fenfes; whereas books and fimple oratory address themselves but to the ear, from whence they very feldom find a paffage to the heart, by touching which alone man's refinement or reformation is compaffed. It either affumes the appearance of public calamity or private distress; for if a dignified perfonage fuffer in the cause of virtue, it is a public calamity; and a plague had been lefs injurious to the republic of Athens than the lofs of an Ariftides. In these garbs it impreffes the eye, which quickly conveys the living reprefentations to the foul, by which they are lodged in the receffes of memory, whence the iron teeth of time can scarcely tear them out. The impreffion paffed through the eye will last almost as long as the motion of the visual orb, while the precept of the school, the maxim of the pulpit, makes but a flight stay, and foon vanishes with a crowd of other ideas that but little concern us. Who can behold, well acted, and not abhor, the ambition and cruelty of Richard the third, C 3 third, the pride and prodigality of Wolfey, the treachery and ingratitude of Iago, or the villainy and malice of Shylock? Who can fee the equal patriot Brutus, the honest abused Othello, the old injured Lear, the gallant and diftreffed Horatius, without sharing in their different calamities, admiring and wishing to emulate their virtues? There is a certain moral fense of virtue, an innate generofity impreffed on the mind of man in a greater or lefs degree, which interefts us in the event of the performance, and inclines us to the applause of good, to the deteftation of evil. There are two imperfections in the human compofition, which, in the opinion of the Stagyrite, Tragedy contributes to correct; pride and want of feeling. Will not the heart of man be humbled, when he fees that, in one capricious moment, the mafters of the world have been enflaved; when he beholds a Bajazet ftripped of power, and despairing in fetters; the glory of the Eaft, the head of the Perfian monarchy, --- Darius great and good, On On earth the king, the father lies, One kind band to close his eyes. Who can behold fuch a picture as this, well reprefented, without being melted into compaffion, foftened to humility, and reconciled to the difpenfations of that wonderful Provi dence which has permitted fuch viciffitudes, and placed him beyond their reach? When the highest ranks in life are thus exposed to the inferior character, they are a leffon, preparing him to sustain, with less murmur, fuch difgraces as may be incidental to his station, and which from comparison lose much of their terror. Thus, by proper tragic exhibition, the mind of man is happily softened, and, at the fame time, strengthened against accident, while its natural fears are tempered and worked up to a pitch of refolution that enables it to oppose the affaults of fortune, with due deference to the Sacred Hand that ftrikes. By Tragedy we are alfo taught to husband our pity, not to lavish it upon unworthy objects; for to lament the affliction of those who deserve to be miserable, is an injustice done to nature and reason. |