il 16. who whic stage A porta talen apol let i perb conf every to do heap his n this his the ti wit, prodi in fa in all did p piece pecies of poetry, as distinct from Statuary from Painting; and can Im that merit which specifically t, and constitutes its perfection, sification, or any other poetical than a ftatue can be rendered a n of fculpture, from being beaured, or highly polished. It is didle, therefore, to infift on any tal and acceffory beauties, where rt, the very conftitution of the efective. Yet on fuch trivial the French found all their preuperiority and excellence in the to Ariftotle, there can be no ithout Action*. Mr. Voltaire that fome of the moft admired in France, are rather converfan representations of an action. rdly be allowed to those who fail it effential part of an art, to set rformances as models. Can they Arift. Chap. vi. who who have robbed the Tragic Muse of all her virtue, and divested her of whatsoever gives her a real interest in the human heart, require, we should adore her for the glitter of a few false brilliants, or the nice arrangement of frippery ornaments? If she wears any thing of intrinfic value, it has been borrowed from the ancients; but by these artifts it is fo fantastically fashioned to modern modes, as to lofe all its original graces, and even that neceffary qualification of all ornaments, Fitnefs and Propriety. A French Tragedy is a tiffue of declamations, and laboured recitals of the catastrophe, by which the spirit of the Drama is greatly weakened and enervated, and the theatrical piece is deprived of that peculiar influence over the mind, which it derives from the vivid force of Representation. Segnius irritant animos demiffa per aurem The bufinefs of the Drama is to excitę fym sympathy; and its effect on the spectator depends on such a juftness of imitation, as shall cause, to a certain degree, the fame paffions and affections, as if what was exhibited was real. We have observed narrative imitation to be too faint and feeble a means to excite paffion: declamation, still worse, plays idly on the furface of the fubject, and makes the Poet, who should be concealed in the action, vifible to the fpectator. In many works of art, our pleasure arises from a reflection on the art itself; and in a comparison, drawn by the mind, between the original and the copy before us. But here the Art and the Artist must not appear; for, as often as we recur to the Poet, so often our sympathy with the Action on the Stage is fufpended. The pompous declamations of the French Theatre are mere rhetorical flourishes, fuch as an uninterested person might make on the state of the persons in the drama. They assume the office of the Spectator by expreffing his feelings, inftead of conveying to us the ftrong emotions and fenfations of the perfons C under under the preffure of diftrefs. Experience informs us, that even the inarticulate groans and involuntary convulfions of a creature in agonies, affect us much more, than any eloquent and elaborate description of its fituation, delivered in the propereft words, and moft fignificant geftures. Our pity is then attendant on the paffion of the unhappy person, and on his own fenfe of his misfortunes. From defcription, from the report of a Spectator, we may make fome conjecture of his internal state of mind, and fo far we fhall be moved: but the direct and immediate way to the heart is by the Sufferer's expreffion of his paffion. As there may be fome obfcurity in what I have faid on this fubject, I will endeavour to illuftrate the doctrine by examples. Sophocles, in his admirable Tragedy of dipus Coloneus, makes Œdipus expoftulate with his undutiful fon. The injured parent exposes the enormity of filial disobedience; fets forth the duties of this relation in a very ftrong and lively manner; but it is only by the |