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comical; and one was principal, the other but secondary or subservient. And this has obtained on the English stage, to give us the pleasure of variety.

As the action ought to be one, it ought as such, to have order in it; that is, to have a natural beginning, a middle, and an end. A natural beginning, says Aristotle, is that which could not necessarily have been placed after another thing; and so of the rest. This consideration will arraign all plays after the new model of Spanish plots, where accident is heaped upon accident, and that which is first might as reasonably be last an inconvenience not to be reinedied, but by making one accident naturally produce another; otherwise it is a farce, and not a play. Of this nature is THE SLIGHTED MAID; where there is no scene in the first act, which might not by as good reason be in the fifth. And if the action ought to be one, the tragedy ought likewise to conclude with the action of it. Thus in MUSTAPHA,' the play should naturally have ended with the death of Zanger, and not have given us the grace-cup after dinner of Solyman's divorce from Roxolana.

The following properties of the action are so casy, that they need not my explaining. It ought to be great, and to consist of great persons, to distinguish it from comedy; where the action is

A comedy by Sir Robert Stapylton, 4to. 1663.

7 MUSTAPHA is a tragedy in rhyme, written by Roger Boyle, carl of Orrery, and published in folio, in 1672.

trivial, and the persons of inferior rank. The last quality of the action is, that it ought to be probable, as well as admirable and great. It is not necessary that there should be historical truth in it; but always necessary that there should be a likeness of truth, something that is more than barely possible, probable being that which succeeds or happens oftener than it misses. To invent therefore a probability, and to make it wonderful, is the most difficult undertaking in the art of poetry for that which is not wonderful is not great, and that which is not probable_will not delight a reasonable audience. This action thus described, must be represented, and not told, to distinguish dramatick poetry from epick :—but I hasten to the end, or scope of tragedy; which is to rectify or purge our passions, fear, and pity.

To instruct delightfully is the general end of all poctry. Philosophy instructs, but it performs its work by precept; which is not delightful, or not so delightful as example. To purge the passions by example, is therefore the particular instruction which belongs to tragedy. Rapin, a judicious critick, has observed from Aristotle, that pride, and want of commiseration, are the most predominant vices in mankind; therefore, to cure us of these two, the inventors of tragedy have chosen to work upon two other passions, which are, fear and pity. We are wrought to fear, by their setting before our eyes some terrible example of misfortune, which happened to persons of the

highest quality; for such an action demonstrates. 7 to us, that no condition is privileged from the turns of fortune: this must of necessity cause terrour in us, and consequently abate our pride. But when we see that the most virtuous, as well as the greatest, are not exempt from such misfortunes, that consideration moves pity in us, and insensibly works us to be helpful to, and tender over, the distressed; which is the noblest and most godlike of moral virtues. Here it is observable, that it is absolutely necessary to make a man virtuous, if we desire he should be pitied. We lament not, but detest, a wicked man; we are glad when we behold his crimes are punished, and that poctical justice is done upon him. Euripides was censured by the criticks of his time, for making his chief characters too wicked: for example, Phædra, though she loved her son-in-law with reluctancy, and that it was a curse upon her family for offending Venus, yet was thought too ill a pattern for the stage. Shall we, therefore, banish all characters of villany? I confess I am not of that opinion; but it is necessary that the hero of the play be not a villain: that is, the characters which should move our pity ought to have virtuous inclinations, and degrees of moral goodness in them. As for a perfect character of virtue, it never was in nature; and therefore there can be no imitation of it. But there are allays of frailty to be allowed for the chief persons; yet so that the good which is in them shall outweigh

the bad, and consequently leave room for punishment on the one side, and pity on the other.

After all, if any one will ask me, whether a tragedy cannot be made upon any other grounds, than those of exciting pity and terrour in us ;Bossu, the best of modern criticks, answers thus in general that all excellent arts, and particularly that of poetry, have been invented and brought to perfection by men of a transcendent genius; and that therefore, they who practise afterwards the same arts, arc obliged to tread in their footsteps, and to search in their writings the foundation of them; for it is not just that new rules should destroy the authority of the old. But Rapin writes morc particularly thus: that no passions in a story are so proper to move our concernment as fear and pity; and that it is from our concernment we receive our pleasure, is undoubted: when the soul becomes agitated with fear for one character, or hope for another, then it is that we are pleased in tragedy, by the interest which we take in their adventures.

Here, therefore, the general answer may be given to the first question, how far we ought to imitate Shakspeare and Fletcher in their plots; namely, that we ought to follow them so far only, as they have copied the excellencies of those who invented and brought to perfection dramatick poetry: those things only excepted, which religion, customs of countries, idioms of languages, &c.

have altered in the superstructures, but not in the foundation of the design.

How defective Shakspeare and Fletcher have been in all their plots, Mr. Rymer has discovered in his Criticisms; neither can we, who follow them, be excused from the same or greater errours; which are the more unpardonable in us, because we want their beauty to countervail our faults. The best of their designs, the most approaching to antiquity, and the most conducing to move pity, is THE KING AND NO KING; which, if the farce of Bessus were thrown away, is of that inferior sort of tragedies, which end with a prosperous event. It is probably derived from the story of Oedipus, with the character of Alexander the Great, in his extravagancies, given to Arbaces. The taking of this play amongst many others, I cannot wholly ascribe to the excellency of the action; for I find it moving when it is read: it is truc, the faults of the plot are so evidently proved, that they can no longer be denied. The beauties of it must therefore lie either in the lively touches of the passions, or we must conclude, as I think we may, that even in imperfect plots, there are less degrees of nature, by which some faint emotions of pity and terrour are raised in us as a less engine will raise a less proportion of weight, though not so much as one of Archimedes' making; for nothing can move our nature, but by some natural reason which works upon [our] passions; and since

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