cramped in action, when he muft utter, not the fentiments of the paffion he feels, but a cold description in the language of a bystander? It is that imperfection, I am perfuaded, in the bulk of our plays, which confines our stage almost entirely to Shakespear, notwithstanding his many irregu larities. In our late English tragedies, we sometimes find fentiments tolerably well adapted to a plain paffion but we must not, in any of them, expect a fentiment expreffive of character; and, upon that very account, our late performances of the dramatic kind are for the most part intolerably infipid.

Looking back upon what is faid, I am in fome apprehenfion of not being perfectly understood; for it is not easy to avoid obfcurity in handling a matter fo complicated; but I promise to set it in the clearest light, by adding example to precept. The first examples fhall be of fentiments that ap pear the legitimate offspring of paffion; to which fhall be opposed what are defcriptive only, and illegitimate and in making this comparison, I borrow my inftances from Shakespear and Corneille, who for genius in dramatic compofition ftand uppermost in the rolls of fame.

Shakespear fhall furnish the first example, being of fentiments dictated by a violent and perturbed paffion :

Lear.

Lear..

Filial ingratitude!

Is it not, as if this mouth fhould tear this hand
For lifting food to't ?—But I'll punish home;
No, I will weep no more.In fuch a night,
To shut me out!- Pour on, I will endure.

In fuch a night as this! O Regan, Gonerill,
Your old kind father, whofe frank heart gave all--
O! that way madnefs lies; let me fhun that;

No more of that.

Kent. Good, my Lord, enter here.

Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thyfelf, feek thine own eafe, This tempeft will not give me leave to ponder On things would hurt me more:-but I'll go in ; In, boy, go first. You houfelefs poverty Nay, get thee in; I'll pray, and then I'll fleepPoor naked wretches, wherefoe'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm! How fhall your houseless heads, and unfed fides, Your loop'd and window'd raggedness defend you From feafons fuch as thefe? OI have ta'en

Too little care of this! take phyfic, Pomp;
Expofe thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou may'ft fhake the fuperflux to them,
And fhow the heavens more just.

King Lear, a&t 3. sc. 5.

I give another example of the fame kind, expreffing sentiments arifing from remorse and despair :

Othello. Lo! I have a weapon:

A better never did itself sustain

Upon a foldier's thigh. I've feen the day,

That

That with this little arm, and this good fword,
I've made my way through more impediments
Than twenty times your ftop. But, oh vain boast!
Who can controul his fate?, 'tis not fo now.
Be not afraid, though you do fee me weapon'd;
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,
The very fea-mark of my outmost fail.

Do

you go back difmay'd? 'tis a loft fear. Man but a rush against Othello's breast,

And he retires. Where fhould Othello go?

Now-how doft thou look now? Oh ill-ftarr'd wench! Pale as thy fmock! when we shall meet at compt,

This look of thine will hurl my foul from heav'n,

1

And fiends will fnatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl;

Ev'n like thy chastity. O curfed flave!

Whip me, ye devils,

From the poffeffion of this heav'nly fight;

Blow me about in winds, roaft me in fulphur,

Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire

Oh, Desdemona ! Desdemona ! dead! dead! oh! oh! Othello, act 5.Sc. 9.

The fentiments here difplay'd flow fo naturally from the paffions represented, that we cannot conceive any imitation more perfect.

With regard to the French author, truth obligės me to acknowledge, that he defcribes in the style of a spectator, inftead of expreffing paffion like one who feels it; which naturally betrays him into a tiresome monotony, and a pompous decla

matory

matory ftyle *. It is fcarce neceffary to give examples, for he never varies from that tone. I fhall, however take two paffages at a venture, in order to be confronted with thofe tranfcribed above. In the tragedy of Cinna, Æmilia, after the confpiracy

This criticifm reaches the French dramatic writers in general, with very few exceptions: their tragedies, excepting those of Racine, are mostly, if not totally, defcriptive. Corneille led the way; and later writers, imitating his manner, have accustomed the French ear to a ftyle, formal, pompous, declamatory, which fuits not with any paffion. Hence to burlesque a French tragedy, is not more difficult than to burlesque a stiff solemn fop. The facility of the operation has in Paris introduced a fingular amusement, which is, to burlesque the more fuccefsful tragedies in a fort of farce, called a parody. La Motte, who himself appears to have been forely galled by fome of these productions, acknowledges, that no

neceffary to give them currency but barely to vary the dramatis perfona, and inftead of kings and heroes, queens and princeffes, to fubftitute tinkers and tailors, milkmaids and feamftreffes. The declamatory style, fo different from the genuine expreffion of paffion, paffes in fome measure unobferved, when great perfonages are the speakers; but in the mouths of the vulgar, the im propriety, with regard to the speaker as well as to the paffion represented, is fo remarkable as to become ridiculous A tragedy, where every paffion is made to speak in its natural tone, is not liable to be thus burlesqued: the fame paffion is by all men expreffed nearly in the fame manner; and, therefore, the genuine expreffions of a paffion cannot be ridiculous in the mouth of any man who is fufceptible of the paffion.

confpiracy was discovered, having nothing in view but racks and death to herself and her lover, receives a pardon from Auguftus, attended with the brightest circumstances of magnanimity and tenderness. This is a lucky fituation for representing the paffions of surprise and gratitude in their different ftages, which feem naturally to be what follow. These paffions, raised at once to the utmost

It is a well known fact, that to an English ear, the French actors appear to pronounce with too great rapididity a complaint much infifted on by Cibber in particular, who had frequently heard the famous Baron upon the French stage. This may in fome measure be attributed to our want of facility in the French tongue; as foreigners generally imagine, that every language is pronounced too quick by natives. But that it is not the fole caufe, will be probable from a fact directly oppofite, that the French are not a little difgufted with the languidness, as they term it, of the English pronunciation. May not this difference of tafte be derived from what is obferved above? The pronunciation of the genuine language of a paffion, is neceffarily directed by the nature of the paffion, particularly by the flownefs or celerity of its progrefs: plaintive paffions, which are the most frequent in tragedy, having a flow motion, dictate a flow pronunciation in declamation, on the contrary, the speaker warms gradually; and as he warms, he naturally accelerates his pronunciation. But as the French have formed their tone of pronunciation upon Corneille's declamatory tragedies, and the English upon the more natural language of Shakespear, it is not furprising that custom should produce fuch difference of tafte in the two nations.