ample, in his STICHUS, one of his moft polished pieces, in the fcene "Quifnam obfecro"- -when PANEGYRIS, who, PENELOPE like, had mourned her husband's abfence for three long years, at laft receives the unexpected news of his arrival at a very critical juncture; instead of our being entertained with the fentiments of that amiable character upon fuch a joyful event, and the questions, which it would have been proper for her to make to the meffenger, relative to all the little circumftances of her husband's arrival; on the contrary, we are only treated with the buffooneries which pafs between the meffenger and the parafite. How do we regret, that fuch a virtuous and refined character, which had gained fo much intereft in our favour, fhould give place to low-life, and become dumb juft at the most important moment? She does indeed at laft find opportunity to thrust in one fingle queftion concerning her fifter's husband, perhaps just time enough to fhew that the woman is not quite dead; but yet after fo long an interval, that it comes in with as bad a grace, as in many a grave addrefs among ourselves, after many a fentence of bombaft commendation upon the fagacity, activity and execution of minifters, there at laft comes limping in behind, in a parenthesis (under the favour of God.) Nor is it only in PLAUTUS that we are thus difgufted at having refined characters give place to low ones, but in our own writers too; and, not to mention thofe of the dramatic kind, it feems to me a difagreeable circumftance in FIELDING's novels, that he so often deferves much the fame cenfure as HORACE paffed on DOSENNUS" See how tedioufly he dwells upon the rufticity of a country 'fquire." In fine, we can juft bear now and then, by way of variety, to take a peep into the rude fcenes of human nature, and that is all; we foon with ourselves back again into fuch as have been improved by art, and with as much ardency as a traveller, after paffing over dreary heaths, longs to arrive ཇ་ at at fome cultivated valley. I conclude therefore with joining in the frequent demand for comedy of a more polifhed kind; and that in order to please in perfection, the fubjects of it must be refined above the ordinary produce of uncultivated nature. So likewife, in the next place, muft the characters attributed to thefe better fubjects, be raised a little by Education, as I obferved before, makes one man refemble fo much to another, that the beft fubjects are but flat of themfelves, unless their characters are feparated and diftinguifhed from one another by nice artificial touches; one of the principal means of doing which, is by the frequent ufe of hyperbole. Every one knows that this figure deals in falfity, by making fome addition beyond the real truth. With what caution hyperbole fhould be used in folemn subjects, I leave to others to determine; but in comedy it feems to be in its natural climate, and lawful kingdom. There it feldom fails to produce the most pleasant effects, by heightening the fhades and peculiar failings of each character to fuch a degree above reality, as may become vifible to every eye, and catch hold of the rifible fancy of every obferver. As Quintilian has obferved long ago, It almost always attains the happy effect to produce laughter. Some few other particulars concerning hyperbole, I fhall defer to another opportunity, when I hope to vindicate what QUINTILIAN fays from the mifinterpretation of lord KAIMES, in his Elements of Criticism. At prefent it is my business to obferve, that in the characters too, as well as the fubjects, we are always pleafed to fee them raised fomewhat above the real produce of nature; that there are falfities which delight us, and that the commendable rule of copying uature, must not be underftood fo rigorously, as to exclude the adventitious aid of art. Many little follies are apt to lie dormant and unnoticed, unlefs thus called forth to view by exaggeration: It is to this caufe that PLAUTUS is VOL. I. Eee chiefly chiefly indebted for what advantage he has over TERENCE, who painted too ftrictly according to the truth of nature. Yet even in comedy there is a certain moderation neceffary to be observed in the application of hyperbole; otherwife it is apt to degenerate into farce. Indeed the boundaries, which diftinguish comedy from farce, are now in general fo much tranfgreffed by writers, that they often run into each other, and differ in nothing except name and length: yet it is the greater or lefs degree in the ufe of hyperbole, which feems to form their distinguishing difference. In comedy, hyperbole attempts no more than only to heighten latent follies to fuch a magnitude, that they may ftrike the eye of every beholder: but in farce it goes further, and attempts to ftretch every folly to the utmost extent of extravagance, so as to distort nature, rather than only exhibit it. Farce is in dramatic writings, what grotefque is in painting. Thus the Capricci of CALOT are properly farces in defign. In the narrative way, the travels to LILLIPUT and BROBDINGNAG are the fame; where nature is continually diftorted by the application of an exceffive magnifying or diminishing glass. Such reprefentations, nevertheless, do produce a kind of pleafure, but of a very different fort from pictures of nature: for one is ftruck with aftonishment at the ftrange fancy of the inventor, and the wildness of the painter's dream, rather than fincerely pleafed with the picture presented to us we no longer efteem ourselves converfant with natural objects, but are furrounded with a new world, framed by the author's own imagination. Farces then should be hyperbolic to an extravagant degree; but comedy admits of no more than juft what may ferve like fauce to give relish to the meat. PLAUTUS and MOLIERE have both been accused, and not without truth, of admitting too much of this enlivening fauce, and thereby approaching too near to the boundaries of farce. To dafh dafh always exactly with the proper quantity, fo as to please all tastes, must be difficult; but in the BagGART-CAPTAIN, the BOBBADILL of antient times, when his parafite tells him, that he blew away, whole legions of the enemy with his breath, just as the wind blows about leaves or fraw; this is certainly more fit for TOM THUMB, a farce in true character. But tho' this ingredient of hyperbole may be worked up too ftrongly, yet a certain proportion of it feems abfolutely neceffary, in order to produce ridicule; and the characters must be heightened by means of it, above the ftandard of real nature, left they should be tame and lifelefs. Confequently the fentiments ought to undergo the fame degree of artificial exaltation; as it is by them that the characters are made known to us, at le reading. leaft in Still further the fame reafoning must hold good in refpect to the diction or, language; for fince it is by means of it that the fentiments are conveyed to us, they ought in all reafon to be correfpondent to one another. Nay, a pleasant hyperbole receives great addition from a statelinefs and elegance of language above the common run of converfation: and whenever the fentiments are of fuch an affecting kind, as often occurs in common life, they are enforced ftill more ftrongly by a choice diction So that why the language of comedy should be so much debased as it is by our late writers, and left to its own natural infipidity, without the least affistance from art, I can fee no reason at all. Indeed in reprefentation, language it is of lefs confequence; because the actor, by the power of juft action and pronunciation, is able to add fo many proper graces * Cujus tu legiones difflavifti fpiritu, Quafi ventus folia, aut panniculam tectoriam, to fupport the character and fentiments, that we fee no deficiency in the language; but when they are deprived of his affiftance, there is nothing but the language left to convey and fupport them. Hence it arifes, that many comedies which please in action, become fo exceeding flat on a perufal at home, that we cannot have patience to read them through: yet as fo few have opportunities to fee comedies well performed, in comparifon of those who take delight, to read them, it seems but reasonable that the benefit of the readers fhould be confulted as well as that of the fpectators. This can fcarce be accomplished, unless the language be elevated above the infipid familiarity of common talk; due care however being taken not to run into the turgid and tragical, But I go ftill further, and contend, that comedy should not be written in profe, but in fome easy meafure, after the pattern fet us by the Antients; that is, the cadence of the fentences fhould be more regular and mufical, than whatever happens in real converfation; and for the fame reafons, which have been urged above in regard to the SUBJECTS, the CHARACTERS, the SENTIMENTS, and LANGUAGE. But to oppofe an eftablished opinion, and explain myself fully on this head, will require more room than you will be able to allow at prefent; I fhall therefore defer it to your next number. Imitated from CATULLUS. YE E powers, you heard how Lefbia swore Nor change for any worldly ftore, But |