topped. His wit was in his own power: would the rule of it had been fo. Many times he fell into those things which could not efcape laughter; as when he faid, in the perfon of Cæfar, one speaking to him,

"Cæfar thou doft me wrong."

• He replied,

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

and many others of the like kind; 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. Drummond of Hawthornden, faid, that Shakespear wanted art, and fometimes fenfe. The truth is, Ben was himfelf a better critic than poet; and though he was ready at difcovering the faults of Shakefpear, yet he was not mafter of fuch a genius 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 deserved the name of original (fays Pope) it was he: " His poetry was infpiration indeed; he is not fo much an imitator as an inftrument of nature; and it is not fo juft to fay of him, that he speaks from her, as that fhe fpeaks through him. His characters are so much nature herself, that it is a fort of in、 jury to call them by so distant a name as co

pies

pies of her. The power over our paffions was likewife never poffeffed in fo eminent a degree, or difplayed in fo many different instances, nor was he more a master 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 reafoning: his fentiments are not only in general the moft pertinent and judicious upon every subject, but, by a talent very peculiar, fomething between penetration and facility, he hits upon that particular point, on which the bent of each argument, or the force of each motive depends. Our author's plays are to be diftinguished only into comedies and tragedies. Those which are called hiftories and even some 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 feverest critics among us cannot bear it, yet the generality of our audiences feem better pleased with it than an exact tragedy. There is certainly a great deal of entertainment in his comic humours, and a pleafing and well diftinguished variety in those characters he thought fit to exhibit with. His images are indeed every where fo lively, that the thing he would represent ftands full before you, and you poffefs every part of it; of which this inftance is aftonishing: it is an image of patience. Speaking of a maid in love, he says,

"She

"She never told her love, "But let concealment, like a worm i'th'bud, "Feed on her damnafk cheek: the pin'd in thought,

"And fat like patience on a monument, fmiling at grief.

But what is characteristically the talent of Shakespear, and which, perhaps is the most excellent part of the drama, is the manners of his perfons, in acting and in speaking what is proper for them, and fit to be fhewn by the poet, in making apparent difference between his characters, and marking every one in the strongest 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 ever found fo ready a road to the heart; his tender scenes are inexpreffibly moving; and fuch as are meant to raise terror, are no lefs alarming; but then, Shakespear does not much fine 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 spoke of hell, "Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,

"To cry, hold, hold.

2

That

That the words dunneft, and blanket, which are fo common in vulgar mouths, destroy, 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 class, when confidered by particular paffages, are excellent, but then their ideas are not so great, their drama is not fo ftriking, and it is plain enough that they poffefs not fouls fo elevated as Shakespear's. What can be more beautiful 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 studied him clearly, fometimes borrowed from him, and well knew where his ftrength lay. In his prologue to the Tempeft altered, he has the following lines:

Shakespear, who, taught by none, did first 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

Fletcher reach'd that, which on his heights did

grow,

While Johnfon crept, and gather'd all below: This did his love, and this his mirth digeft, One imitates him most, the other best. If they have fince outwrit all other men, 'Tis from the drops which fell from Shakefpear's pen.

The ftorm which vanish'd on the neighb'ring fhore,

Was taught by Shakespear's Tempest first to roar,
That innocence and beauty which did smile
In Fletcher, grew in his inchanted ifle.
But Shakespear's magic could not copy'd be,
Within that circle none durft walk but he.

The play's of this great author, which are: forty-three in number, are as follows:

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

2. The two Gentlemen of Verona, a Comedy, writ at the command of queen Elizabeth.

3. The Frft and Second parts of king Henry IV. The character of Falstaff in thefe plays is juftly esteemed a masterpiece; in the fecond part is the coronation of king Henry V. Thofe are founded upon English chronicles.

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

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

6. The