"Cæfar thou doft me wrong."

He replied, "Cæfar did never wrong, but with "juft caufe ;"

And fuch like, which were ridiculous ; but he redeemed his vices with his virtues; there was ever more in them to be praised, than to be pardoned. Ben in his converfation with Mr. Drumond of Hawthornden, faid, that Shakespear wanted art, and fometimes fenfe. The truth is, Ben was himself a better critic than poet, and though he was ready at difcovering the faults of Shakefpear, yet he was not mafter of fuch a ge nius, as to rife to his excellencies; and great as Johnfon was, he appears not a little tinctured with envy. Notwithstanding the defects of Shakespear, he is justly elevated above all other dramatic writers. If ever any author deferved the name of original (fays Pope) it was he:* His poetry was infpiration indeed, he is not fo much an imitator, as inftrument of nature; and it is not fo juft to fay of him that he speaks from her, as that the fpeaks through him. His characters are fo much nature herself, that it is a fort of injury to call them by fo diftant a name as copies of her. The power over our paffions was likewife never pof⚫feffed in fo eminent a degree, or displayed in fo many different inftances, nor was he more a mafter of the great, than of the ridiculous in human nature, nor only excelled in the paffions, fince he was full as admirable in the coolness of reflection and reasoning: His fentiments are not only in general the moft pertinent and judicious upon every fubject, but by a talent very peculiar,

Preface to Shakespear.

• fomething

་

fomething between penetration and felicity, he hits upon that particular point, on which the bent of each argument, or the force of each mo⚫tive depends.'

Our author's plays are to be diftinguished only into Comedies and Tragedies. Thofe which are called Hiftories, and even fome of his Comedies, are really Tragedies, with a mixture of Comedy amongst them. That way of Tragi-comedy was the common miftake of that age, and is indeed become fo agreeable to the English tafte, that though the feverer eritics among us cannot bear it, yet the generality of our audiences feem better pleafed with it than an exact Tragedy. There is certainly a great deal of entertainment in his comic humours, and a pleafing and well diftinguifhed variety in thofe characters he thought fit to exhibit with. His images are indeed every where fo lively, that the thing he would reprefent ftands full before you, and you poffefs every part of it; of which this inftance is aftonifhing: it is an image of patience. Speaking of a maid in love, he fays,

-She never told her love,

But let concealment, like a worm i'th'bud,
Feed on her damask cheek: She pin'd in thought,
And fat like patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief.

But what is characteristically the talent of Shakefpear, and which perhaps is the most excellent part of the drama, is the manners of his perfons, in acting and in fpeaking what is proper for them,, and fit to be fhewn by the Poet, in making an apparent difference between his characters, and marking every one in the ftrongeft manner.

Poets who have not a little fucceeded in writing for the ftage, have yet fallen fhort of their great original in the general power of the drama;

none

none ever found fo ready a road to the heart; his tender fcenes are inexpreffibly moving, and fuch as are meant to raise terror, are no lefs alarming; but then Shakespear does not much shine when he is confidered by particular paffages; he fometimes debafes the nobleft images in nature by expreffions which are too vulgar for poetry. The ingenious author of the Rambler has obferved, that in the invocation of Macbeth, before he proceeds to the murder of Duncan, when he thus expreffes himself,

-Come thick night

And veil thee, in the dunneft smoke of hell, Nor heaven peep thro' the blanket of the dark, To cry hold, hold.

that the words dunneft and blanket, which are fo common in vulgar mouths, deftroy in fome manner the grandeur of the image, and were two words of a higher fignification, and removed above common ufe; put in their place, I may challenge poetry itself to furnish an image fo noble. Poets of an inferior clafs, when confidered by particular are excellent, but then their ideas are not fo great, their drama is not fo ftriking, and it is plain enough that they poffefs not fouls fo elevated as Shakefpear's. What can be more beau-,, tiful than the flowing enchantments of Rowe; the delicate and tender touches of Otway and Southern, or the melting enthufiafm of Lee and Dryden, but yet none of their pieces have affected the human heart like Shakespear's..

But I cannot conclude the character of Shakefpear, without taking notice, that befides the fuffrage of almoft all wits fince his time in his favour, he is particularly happy in that of Dryden,, who had read and ftudied him clearly, fometimes borrowed from him, and well knew where his

ftrength

ftrength lay. In his Prologue to the Tempeft altered, he has the following lines;

Shakespear, who taught by none, did firft impart,
To Fletcher wit, to lab'ring Johnfon, art.
He, monarch-like gave there his fubjects law,
And is that nature which they paint and draw;
Fletcher reached that, which on his heights did
grow,

While Johnion crept, and gathered all below:
This did his love, and this his mirth digeft,
One imitates him moft, the other beft.

If they have fince outwrit all other men,
'Tis from the drops which fell from Shakespear's

pen.

The form which vanished on the neighb'ring fhore

Was taught by Shakespear's Tempeft first to roar.
That innocence and beauty which did smile
In Fletcher, grew in this Inchanted Isle.
But Shakespear's magic could not copied be,
Within that circle none durft walk but he.

'The plays of this great author, which are fortythree in number, are as follows,

1. The Tempeft, a Comedy acted in the Black Fryars with applause.

2. The Two Gentlemen of Verona, a Comedy writ at the command of Queen Elizabeth.

3. The first and fecond part of King Henry IV. the character of Falstaff in thefe plays is juftly efteemed a mafter-piece; in the fecond part is the coronation of King Henry V. Thefe are founded upon English Chronicles.

4. The Merry Wives of Windfor, a Comedy, written at the command of Queen Elizabeth.

5. Measure for Meafure, a Comedy; the plot of this play is taken from Cynthio Ciralni.

Alluding to the fea voyage of Fletcher.

6. The

6. The Comedy of Errors, founded upon Plautus Mænechmi.

7. Much Ado About Nothing, a Comedy; for the plot fee Ariofto's Orlando Furiofo.

8. Love's Labour Loft, a Comedy.

9. Midfummer's Night's Dream, a Comedy.
ro. The Merchant of Venice, a Tragi-Comedy?
11. As you Like it, a Comedy.

12. The Taming of a Shrew, a Comedy.
13. All's Well that Ends Well.

14. The Twelfth-Night, or, What you Will, a Comedy. In this play there is fomething fingularly ridiculous in the fantastical steward Malvolio; part of the plot taken from Plautus's Mænechmi.

15. The Winter's Tale, a Tragi-Comedy; for the plot of this play confult Doraftus and Faunia. 16. The Life and Death of King John, an historical play.

17. The Life and Death of King Richard II. a Tragedy.

18. The Life of King Henry V. an historical play.

19. The First Part of King Henry VI. an historical play.

20. The Second Part of King Henry VI. with the death of the good Duke Humphrey.

21. The Third Part of King Henry VI. with the death of the Duke of York. These plays contain the whole reign of this monarch.

22. The Life and Death of Richard III. with the landing of the Earl of Richmond, and the battle of Bosworth field. In this part Mr. Garrick was first diftinguished.

23. The famous hiftory of the Life of King Henry VIII.

24. Troilus and Creffida, a Tragedy; the plot from Chaucer.

25. Coriolanus, a Tragedy; the ftory from the Roman Hiftory.

26. Tites