. The folution then of the difficulty is, in one word, this. All diftreffes are not improper in comedy; but fuch only as at tach the mind to the fable, in neglect of the manners, which are its chief object. On the other hand, all distresses are not proper in tragedy; but fuch only as are of force to intereft the mind in the action, preferably to the obfervation of the manners; which can only be done, or is done most effectually, when the diftrefsful event, reprefented, is taken from public life. So that the diftreffes, fpoken of, are equally unfuited to what the natures both of comedy and tragedy, refpectively, demand.

CHA P. IIL

OF M. DE FONTENELLE'S NOTION OF COMEDY.

NOTWITHSTANDING the pains I have taken, in the preceding chapters, to eftablish my theory of the comic drama, I find myfelf obliged to fupport it ftill further against the authority of a very eminent modern critic. M. de Fontenelle hath just now published two volumes of plays,

among

among which are fome comedies of a very fingular character. They are not only in a high degree, pathetic; but the scene of them is laid in antiquity; and great perfonages, fuch as Kings, Princeffes, &c. are of the drama. He hath befides endeavoured to justify this extraordinary species of comedy by a very ingenious preface. It will therefore be neceffary for me to examine this new system, and to obviate, as far as I can, the prejudices which the name of the author, and the intrinfic merit of the plays themselves, will occafion in favour of it.

His fyftem, as explained in the preface to these comedies, is, briefly, this.

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"The Subject of dramatic reprefentation, he obferves, is fome event or action "of human life, which can be confidered

only in two views, as being either that "of public, or of private, perfons. The "end of fuch reprefentation, continues he, "is to please, which it doth either by engaging the attention, or by moving the paffions. The former is done by reprefenting to us fuch events as are P 3 "great,

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great, noble, or unexpected: The latter by "fuch as are dreadful, pitiable, tender, or pleafant. Of thefe feveral fources of pleafure, he forms what he calls a dramatic "Scale, the extremes of which he admits to "be altogether inconfiftent; no art being "fufficient to bring together the grand, the "noble, or the terrible, into the same piece "with the pleasant or ridiculous. The im"preffions of thefe objects, he allows, are perfectly oppofed to each other. So "that a tragedy, which takes for its fubject "a noble, or terrible event, can by no "means admit the pleafant. And a co

medy, which reprefents a pleafant action, "can never admit the terrible or noble, "But it is otherwife, he conceives, with the "intermediate fpecies of this fcale. The "Singular, the pitiable, the tender, which "fill up the interval betwixt the noble and

ridiculous, are equally confiftent with "tragedy and comedy. An uncommon "ftroke of Fortune may as well befall a "peafant as a prince. And two lovers of an inferior condition may have as lively "a paffion for each other, and, when fome unlucky

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unlucky event feparates them, may de"ferve our pity as much, as thofe of the

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highest fortune. Thefe fituations then

are equally fuited to both dramas. They "will only be modified in each a little diffe❝rently. From hence he concludes, that there may be dramatic reprefentations, "which are neither perfectly tragedies nor perfectly comedies, but yet partake of the "nature of each, and that in different proportions. There might be a fpecies of tragedy, for inftance, which should unite "the tender with the noble in any degree,

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or even fubfift entirely by means of the "tender: And of comedy, which should af"fociate the tender with the pleasant, or even retain the tender throughout to a certain degree to the entire exclufion of "the pleasant.

As to his laying the fcene of his comedy in Greece, he thinks this practice fufficiently juftified by the practice of the French writers, who make no fcruple to lay their fcene abroad, as in Spain or England.

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"Lastly,

"Laftly, for what concerns the intro"duction of great perfonages into the co"mic drama, he obferves that by ordinary "life, which he fuppofes the proper fub

ject of comedy, he understands as well "that of Emperors and Princes, at times "when they are only men, as of inferior perfons. And he thinks it very evident "that what paffes in the ordinary life, fo “understood, of the greatest men, is truly " comic [k]."

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This is a fimple expofition of M. de Fontenelle's idea of comedy, which, however, he hath fet off with great elegance and a plaufibility of illuftration, fuch as writers of his clafs are never at a lofs to give to any fubject they would recommend.ne

Now tho' the principal aim of what I have to offer in confutation of this fyftem be to combat the ingenious writer's notion of comedy, yet as the tenor of his preface leads him to deliver his fentiments alfo of tragedy, I fhall not fcruple intermixing, after his example, fome reflexions on this latter drama.

[k] Pref. generale, tom. vii. Par. 17517

M. de