СНАР. Of Judg ment. 14. Shakspeare has represented the Roman rabble to be just as fickle, as rash, and as sanguinary, as the Parisian: but had he made Mark Antony speak no better than Robespierre, Danton, or Hebert, the London audience would have hooted him from the stage, though the Roman might have applauded him in the rostrum *: for the spectators in the theatre sympathize with none of the passions, which agitated those in the forum. They know that the person representing Mark Antony is an actor dressed out for the purpose; and that the events exhibited are entirely fictitious, merely meant to give an appropriate meaning to the speeches, uttered; with the energies of sentiment and expression of which they only sympathize †. 15. It is from knowing and feeling that the persons, whom we see on the stage, are mere * From the mountebank tricks which Mark Antony played over the body of Cæsar with so much effect, it is probable that his real style of eloquence was not much better. See Appian. de Bello civili.-Augustus observed that he wrote to be admired rather than understood"quasi ea scribentem quæ mirentur potius homines quam intelligant." Sueton. in Aug. f. lxxxvi. He has left a numerous tribe of disciples. + Demosthenes being asked what was the first qualification of an orator? answered, Action. What the second? Action. What the third? Action. He had learned, from long and humiliating experience, that the strong sound sense, which distinguishes his ora actors and actresses; and not the personages, * tions, though it constitute their principal merit in the closet, contributed but little to their effect in the forum. "Actio, inquam, in dicendo una dominatur: sine hac summus orator esse in numero nullo potest; mediocris hac instructus summos sæpe superare. Huic primas dedisse Demosthenes dicitur, cum rogaretur quid in dicendo esset primum; huic secundas; huic tertias sententiæ sæpe acutæ non acutorum hominum sensus prætervolant: actio, quæ præ se motum animi fert, omnes movet." Cic. de Orat. lib. iii. ad fin. * μαλλον δ' ενδεχεται εν τη εποποιία το αλογον, δι ̓ ὁ συμβαινει μαλιστα το θαυμαστον, δια το μη δραν εις τον πράττοντα. ARISTOT. Poetic. f. xliii CHAP. III. Of Judg ment. T СНАР. Of Judg ment. 16. Upon this principle, that sort of semblance to truth, which, for distinction's sake, we will call poetical probability, does not arise so much from the reseniblance of the fictions to real events, as from the consistence of the language with the sentiments, of the sentiments and actions with the characters, and of the different parts of the fable, with each other: for, if the mind be deeply interested; as it always will be by glowing sentiments and fervid passions happily expressed, and naturally arising out of the circumstances and incidents of a consistent fable, it will never turn aside to any extraneous matter for rules of comparison; but judge of the probability of the events merely by their connection with, and dependence upon each other. 17. All change of place; and all progression of time in a drama, beyond that actually employed in the representation of the piece, must be equally violations of truth and probability, if they be any violations of it at all: for whether the change of scene be from one street to another, or from one kingdom to another, there is equally, in the representation, a supposition of that which is not; and in that which is not, there can be neither mode nor degree. In the Electra of Sophocles, the most perfect piece, perhaps, extant of the Greek theatre, a conspiracy of the most secret and dangerous nature is carried on against a bloody and suspicious usurper, at the door of his own palace, in the public street, and in the presence of a multitude of persons; all which incongruities are heaped together to preserve the unity of the place; the sacrifice of which would, surely, have been a much less important sacrifice of probability. Had Aristotle known no other great epic poem than the Iliad, his sagacity would have discovered, and his ingenuity proved that unity of place was as necessary to epic as to dramatic poetry; and all succeeding critics would have repeated, exemplified, and' explained the dictates of their oracle: but the Odyssey luckily saved epic poetry from any such limitation; and allowed the taste and genius of Virgil to display itself in those various changes of scenery, which he was so eminently qualified to describe and embellish; but which, nevertheless, the natural cautiousness and modesty of his disposition would not have allowed him to introduce contrary to the established I rules of criticism; though those rules were nothing more than general deductions from the particular, and, in many instances, accidental practice of such poets as himself. The authors of the Iliad and Odyssey (for I have no doubt that they were two) would probably have laughed at the restrictions, which their modes of treating their respective fables, had imposed СНАР. III. Of Judg ment. CHAP. Of Judg ment. upon all succeeding epic poets; and have been as much amazed, as the most ignorant of their audience, at hearing of the systematic principles of profound philosophy, in which critics, after the lapse of many ages, discovered their practice to be founded. 18. Unity of action has been held to be a still more essential requisite both of epic and dramatic poetry, than either unity of time or identity of place; and here it is asserted, the venerable authority of the father of poetry, is decisive and unquestionable; the action, in each of the two poems of the Iliad and the Odyssey, being simply one; namely, the anger of Achilles, and the restoration of Ulysses. 19. But is it quite certain that any precise and determinate idea is here attached to the word action; or whether it be not used, sometimes to signify the subject of the poem, which is the cause of the actions described in it, and sometimes the actions themselves, which are. the effects of that cause? 20. Questions of this kind are always best answered by examples; which at once explain the matter, and solve the doubts if they admit of solution. I shall therefore briefly compare the action of the Iliad with that of the tragedy of Macbeth; not because these two poems are justly esteemed to be the highest efforts of human genius; but because, in the one, unity |