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nance of an imperious Wife, or prevailing Faction: Tho' at the fame time the Poet do's Juftice to his good Qualities, and moves the Pity of his Audience for him, by fhowing him Pious, Difinterested, a Contemner of the Things of this World, and wholly refign'd to the feverest Difpenfations of God's Provi dence. There is a fhort Scene in the Second Part of Henry VI. Vol. III. pag. 1504. which I cannot but think admirable in its Kind. Cardinal Beaufort, who had murder'd the Duke of Gloucester, is fhewn in the last Agonies on his Death-Bed, with the good King praying over him. There is fo much Terror in one, so much Tenderness and moving Piety in the other, as must touch any one who is capable either of Fear or Pity. In his Henry VIII. that Prince is drawn with that Greatnefs of Mind, and all those good Qualities which are attributed to him in any Account of his Reign If his Faults are not fhewn in an equal degree, and the Shades in this Picture do not bear a juft Proportion to the Lights, it is not that the Artift wanted either Colours or Skill in the Difpofition of 'em; but the truth, I believe, might be, that he forbore doing it out of regard to Queen Elizabeth, fince it could have been no very great Refpect to the Me

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mory of his Mistress, to have expos'd fome certain Parts of her Father's Life upon the Stage. He has dealt much more freely with the Minister of that Great King, and certainly nothing was ever more justly written, than the Character of Cardinal Wolfey. He has shewn him Tyrannical, Cruel, and Infolent in his Profperity; and yet, by a wonderful Addrefs, he makes his Fall and Ruin the Subject of general Compaffion. The whole Man, with his Vices and Virtues, is finely and exactly defcrib'd in the fecond Scene of the fourth Act. The Diftreffes likewife of Queen Katherine, in this Play, are very movingly touch'd; and tho' the Art of the Poet has skreen'd King Henry from any grofs Imputation of Injustice, yet one is inclin'd to wish, the Queen had met with a Fortune more worthy of her Birth and Virtue. Nor are the Manners, proper to the Perfons reprefented, lefs justly obferv'd, in thofe Characters taken from the Roman History; and of this, the Fierceness and Impatience of Coriolanus, his Courage and Difdain of the common People, the Virtue and Philofophical Temper of Brutus, and the irregular Greatness of Mind in M. Antony, are beautiful Proofs. For the two last especially, you find 'em exactly as they are defcrib'd by

Plutarch,

Plutarch, from whom certainly Shakespean copy'd 'em. He has indeed follow'd his Ori ginal pretty close, and taken in feveral little Incidents that might have been fpar'd in a Play. But, as I hinted before, his Defign seems most commonly rather to defcribe thofe great Men in the feveral Fortunes and Accidents of their Lives, than to take any fingle great Action, and form his Work fimply upon that. However, there are some of his Pieces, where the Fable is founded upon one Action only. Such are more especially, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Othello. The Design in Romeo and Juliet, is plainly the Punishment of their two Families, for the unreafonable Feuds and Animofities that had been fo long kept up between 'em, and occafion'd the Effufion of fo much Blood. In the management of this Story, he has fhewn fome. thing wonderfully Tender and Paffionate in the Love-part, and very Pitiful in the Distress. Hamlet is founded on much the fame Tale with the Electra of Sophocles. In each of 'em a young Prince is engag'd to Revenge the Death of his Father, their Mothers are equally Guilty, are both concern'd in the Murder of their Husbands, and are afterwards married' to the Murderers. There is in the firft

Part

1

Part of the Greek Trajedy, fomething very moving in the Grief of Electra; but as Mr. D'A cier has obferv'd, there is fomething very unnatural and shocking in the Manners he has given that Princess and Oreftes in the latter Part. Oreftes embrues his Hands in the Blood of his own Mother; and that barbarous Action is perform'd, tho' not immediately upon the Stage, yet so near, that the Audience hear Cly temnestra crying out to Eghyftus for Help, and to her Son for Mercy: While Electra, her Daughter, and a Princess, both of them Characters that ought to have appear'd with more Decency, ftands upon the Stage and encourages her Brother in the Parricide. What Horror does this not raife! Clytemnestra was a wicked Woman, and had deferv'd to Die; nay, in the truth of the Story, fhe was kill'a by her own Son; but to represent an Action of this Kind on the Stage, is certainly an Offence against thofe Rules of Manners proper to the Perfons that ought to be obferv'd there. On the contrary, let us only look a little on the Conduct of Shakespear. Hamlet is reprefented with the fame Piety towards his Father, and Refolution to Revenge his Death, as Orefies; he has the fame Abhorrence for his Mother's Guilt, which, to pro

voke him the more, is heighten'd by Incest: But 'tis with wonderful Art and Juftness of Judgment, that the Poet reftrains him from doing Violence to his Mother. To prevent any thing of that Kind, he makes his Father's Ghoft forbid that part of his Vengeance.

But how foever thou purfuft this Act,

Taint not thy Mind; nor let thy Soul contrive
Against thy Mother ought; leave her to Heav'n,
And to thofe Thorns that in her Bofom lodge,
To prick and fting her.
Vol. V. p. 2386.

a

This is to distinguish rightly between Horror and Terror. The latter is a proper Paffion of Tragedy, but the former ought always to be carefully avoided. And certainly no Dramatick Writer ever fucceeded better in raising Terror in the Minds of an Audience than Shakespear has done. The whole Tragedy of Macbeth, but more efpecially the Scene where the King is murder'd, in the fecond Act, as well as this Play, is a noble Proof of that manly Spirit with which he writ; and both fhew how powerful he was, in giving the strongest Motions to our Souls that they are capable of. I cannot leave Hamlet, without taking notice of the Advantage with which we have feen VOL. I. the Advantag

this

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