tion, Order and Conduct of its feveral parts. As it is not in this province of the Drama that the ftrength and maftery of Shakespeare lay, fo I fhall not undertake the tedious and ill-natur'd trouble to point out the feveral faults he was guilty of in it. His Tales were feldom invented, but rather taken either from true Hiftory, or Novels and Romances: and he commonly made use of 'em in that order, with thofe Incidents, and that extent of time in which he found 'em in the Authors from whence he borrow'd them. Almost all his hiftorical Plays comprehend a great length of time, and very different and distinct places: And in his Antony and Cleopatra, the Scene travels over the greatest part of the Roman Empire. But in recompence for his.carelessnefs in this point, when he comes to another part of the Drama, The Manners of his Characters, in acting or Speaking what is proper for them, and fit to be fhewn by the Poet he may be generally juftify'd, and in very many places greatly commended. For thofe Plays which he has taken from the English or Roman hiftory, let any man compare 'em, and he will find the character as exact in the Poet as the Hiftorian. He feems indeed fo far from propofing to himself any one action for a Subject, that the Title very often tells you, 'tis The Life of King John, King Richard, &c. What can be more agreeable to the idea our hiftorians give of Henry the fixth, than the picture Shakespeare has drawn of him! His Manners are every where exactly the fame with the ftory; one finds him ftill defcrib'd with fimplicity, paffive fanctity, want of courage, weakness of mind, and eafy fubmiffion to the gover nance of an imperious Wife, or prevailing Faction: Tho' at the fame time the Poet does juftice to his good qualities, and moves the pity of his audience for him, by fhewing him pious, difinterested, a contemner of the things of this world, and wholly refign'd to the fevereft difpenfations of God's providence. There is a fhort Scene in the fecond part of Henry VI. which I eannot but think admirable in its kind. Cardinal Beaufort, who had murder'd the Duke of Gloucester, is fhewn in the laft agonies on his death-bed, with the

good

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 fhades in this picture do not bear a just proportion to the lights, it is not that the Artist 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 memory 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 juftly written, than the character of Cardinal Wolfey. He has fhewn him infolent in his profperity; and yet, by a wonderful address, he makes his fall and ruin the fubject of general compaffion. The whole man, with his vices and virtues, is finely and exactly defcrib'd in the second scene of the fourth act. The diftreffes likewife of Queen Catharine, in this play, are very movingly touch'd; and tho' the art of the Poet has fcreen'd King Henry from any grofs imputation of injuftice,, yet one is inclin'd to with, the Queen had met with a fortune more worthy of her birth and virtue. Nor are the Manners, proper to the perfons reprefented, lefs juftly obferv'd, in those characters taken from the Roman Hiftory; and of this, the fiercenefs and impatience of Coriolanus, his courage and disdain 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 laft especially, you find 'em exactly as they are defcrib'd by Plutarch, from whom certainly Shakespeare copy'd 'em. He has indeed followed his original pretty close, and taken in feveral little incidents that might have been spared in a Play. But as I hinted before, his defigns feem moft 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 fome of his pieces, where the Fable is founded upon one action only. Such are more especially Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Othello. The defign in Romeo and Juliet, is plainly the punishment of their two families, for the unreasonable 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 ftory, he has fhewn fomething wonderfully tender and paffionate in the love-part, and very pitiful in the diftrefs. Hamlet is founded on much the fame tale with the Electra of Sophocles. In each of 'em a young Prince is engaged 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 first part of the Greek Tragedy, fomething very moving in the grief of Electra; but as Mr. Dacier has obferv'd, there is fomething very unnatural and fhocking in the Manners he has given that Princefs 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 ftage, yet fo near, that the audience hear Clytemnestra crying out to Egyfthus for help, and to her fon for mercy: While Electra her daughter, and a Princefs (both of them characters that ought to have appear'd with more decency) ftands upon the ftage 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 ftory, fhe was kill'd by her own fon; but to represent an action of this kind on the ftage, is certainly an offence againft 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 Shakespeare. Hamlet is reprefented with the fame piety towards his father, and

refo

refolution to revenge his death, as Oreftes; he has the fame abhorrence for his mother's guilt, which, to provoke him the more, is heighten'd by inceft But 'tis with wonderful art and juftnefs 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 howfoever thou purfu'ft this Act,

Taint not thy mind, nor let thy foul contrive
Against thy mother ought; leave her to heav'n,
And to thofe thorns that in her bofom lodge,
To prick and fting her.

This is to diftinguish rightly between Horror and
Terror. The latter is a proper paffion of Tragedy,
but the former ought always to be carefully avoid-
ed. And certainly no dramatick Writer ever fuc-
ceeded better in raifing Terror in the minds of an
audience than Shakespeare has done. The whole Tra-
gedy of Macbeth, but more efpecially the scene where
the King is murdered, in the fecond Act, as well as
this play, is a noble proof of that manly fpirit with
which he writ ; and both fhew how powerful he
was, in giving the ftrongeft motions to our fouls
that they are capable of. I cannot leave Hamlet,
without taking notice of the advantage with which
we have feen this Mafter-piece of Shakespeare di-
ftinguish itself upon the ftage, by Mr. Betterton's
fine performance of that part. A man, who tho'
he had no other good qualities, as he has a great
many, muft have made his way into the efteem of
all men of letters, by this only excellency.
man is better acquainted with Shakespeare's manner
of expreffion, and indeed he has ftudied him fo
well, and is fo much a master of him, that what-
ever part of his he performs, he does it as if it
had been written on purpose for him, and that the
Author had exactly conceived it as he plays it. I
must own a particular obligation to him, for the moft

No

confiderable part of the paffages relating to this life, which I have here tranfmitted to the publick; his veneration for the memory of Shakespeare having engaged him to make a journey into Warwickfbire, on purpose to gather up what remains he could, of a name for which had fo great a veneration.

The