"romantic fpirit, and had the misfortune to "have fomewhat of the Poet in him; fo as he "chofe Sir William Davenant, an eminent "good poet, and loyal gentleman, to be lieu"tenant-general of his ordnance. This in"clination of his own, and fuch kind of witty "fociety (to be modeft in the expreffions of it) "diverted many councils, and loft many op"portunities, which the nature of that affair, "this great man had now entered into, required." MEMOIRS, P. 235.

132. CASTIS CUM PUERIS, etc.] We have, before, taken notice, how properly the poet, for the eafier and more fuccefsful introduction of his apology, affumed the perfon urbani, parcentis viribus. We fee him here, in that of Rhetoris atque Poetae. For admonished, as it were, by the rifing dignity of his fubject, which led him bemo from the moral, to fpeak of the religious ufes of poetry, he infenfibly drops the badineur, and takes an air, not of seriousness only, but of folemnity. This change is made with art. For the attention is carried from the uses of poetry, confoling the unhappy, by the eafieft tranfition imaginable, to the still more folemn application of it to the offices of piety. And its ufe, is, to imprefs on the mind a stronger sense of the weight of the poet's plea, than could have

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been expected from a more direct and continued declamation. For this is the conftant and natural effect of knowing to pafs from gay to fevere, with grace and dignity.

169. SED HABET COMOEDIA TANTO PLUS ONERIS, QUANTO VENIAE MINUS.] Tragedy, whose intention is to affect, may secure what is moft effential to its kind, though it fail in fome minuter refemblances of nature: Comedy, propofing for its main end exact reprefentation, is fundamentally defective, if it do not perfectly fucceed in it. And this explains the ground of the poet's obfervation, that Comedy hath venias minus; for he is speaking of the draught of the manners only, in which refpect a greater indulgence is very defervedly fhewn to the tragic than comic writer. But though Tragedy hath thus far the advantage, yet in another refpect its laws are more fevere than those of Comedy; and that is in the conduct of the fable. It may be asked then, which of the two dramas is, on the whole, most difficult. To which the answer is decifive. For Tragedy, whofe end is the Pathos, produces it by action, while Comedy produces its end, the Humourous, by Character. Now it is much more difficult to paint manners, than to plan action; because that requires the

philofopher's knowledge of human nature, this, only the hiftorian's knowledge of human events. c. It is true, in one fenfe, the tragic mufe has veniae minus; for though grave and pleasant scenes may be indifferently reprefented, or even mixed together, in comedy, yet, in tragedy, the ferious and folemn air muft prevail throughout. Indeed, our Shakespear has violated this rule, as he hath, upon occafion, almost every other rule, of just criticism: Whence, fome writers, taking advantage of that idolatrous admiration which is generally profeffed for this great poet, and naufeating, I fuppofe, the more common, though juster, forms of literary compofition, have been for turning his very tranfgreffion of the principles of common fenfe, into a ftanding precept for the ftage. "It is faid, that, if

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comedy may be wholly ferious, why may not "tragedy now and then be indulged in being gay ?" If thefe critics be in earnest, in putting this question, they need not wait long for an answer. The end of comedy being to paint the manners, nothing hinders (as I have fhewn at large in the differtation on the provinces of the drama) but "that it may take either character "of pleasant or ferious, as it chances, or even "unite them both in one piece :" But the end of tragedy being to excite the fronger passions, this difcordancy in the fubject breaks the flow

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of those paffions, and fo prevents, or leffens at least, the very effect which this drama primarily intends. "It is faid, indeed, that this contraft "of grave and pleasant scenes, heightens the "paffion:" if it had been faid that it heightens the furprize, the observation had been more just. Lastly," we are told, that this is nature, "which generally blends together the ludicrous, "and the fublime." But who does not know

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That art is nature to advantage drefs'd,

and that to drefs out nature to advantage in the prefent inftance, that is, in a compofition whose laws are to be deduced from the confideration of its end, thefe characters are to be kept by an artift, perfectly distinct?

However this reftraint upon tragedy does not prove that, upon the whole, it has plus oneris. All I can allow, is, that either drama has weight enough, in all reason, for the ableft shoulders to sustain.

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177. QUEM TULIT AD SCENAM VENTOSO GLORIA CURRU, EXANIMAT LENTUS SPECTATOR etc. to 182.] There is an exquifite fpirit of pleasantry in these lines, which hath quite evaporated in the hands of the critics. These have gravely supposed them to come from the person of the poet, and to contain his serious cenfure of the vanity of poetic fame. Whereas, befides

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befides the manifeft abfurdity of the thing, its inconfiftency with what is delivered elsewhere on this fubject [A. P. 324.], where the Greeks. are commended as being praeter laudem nullius avari, absolutely requires us to understand them as proceeding from an objector; who, as the poet hath very fatirically contrived, is left to expose himself in the very terms of his objection. He had just been blaming the venality of the Roman dramatic writers. They had shewn themfelves more follicitous about filling their pockets, than deferving the reputation of good poets. And, instead of infifting further on the excellency of this latter motive, he ftops short and brings in a bad poet himself to laugh at it.

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"And what then, fays he, you would have us yield ourselves to the very wind and gust "of praise; and, dropping all inferior con"fiderations, drive away to the expecting stage "in the puffed car of vain-glory? For what? "To be difpirited, or blown up with air, as the "capricious spectator fhall think fit to enforce, "or withhold, his infpirations. And is this the "mighty benefit of your vaunted paffion for "fame? No; farewel the stage, if the breath "of others is that, on which the filly bard is "to depend for the contraction or enlargement * of his dimenfions." To all which convincing rhetoric the poet condescends to say nothing;

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