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like other things of bad taste, no age or country can give a sanction.

Much still remains upon the subject of diction, but, as much has been said already, we here conclude.

CHAPTER XI.

RANK OR PRECEDENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIVE PARTS OF THE DRAMAREMARKS AND CAUTIONS BOTH FOR JUDGING AND COMPOSING.

THE four constitutive parts of dramatic poetry, which properly belong to the poet, have appeared to be the fable, the manners, the sentiment, and the diction; and something has been suggested to explain the nature of each.

Should we be asked, to which we attribute the first place, we think it due to the fable."

If the fable be an action, having a necessary reference to some end, it is evident that the manners and the sentiment are for the sake of that end; the end does not exist for the sake of the manners and the sentiment."

Again, the finest unconnected samples either of manners or of sentiment, cannot of themselves make a drama without a fable. But, without either of these, any fable will make a drama, and have pretensions (such as they are) to be called a play."

A third superiority is, that the most affecting and capital parts of every drama arise out of its fable; by these, I mean

• See chapters ii. iii. iv. P Sup. p. 428.

9 Αρχὴ μὲν οὖν, καὶ οἷον ψυχὴ ὁ μῦθος τῆς τραγῳδίας : “ The fable therefore is the principle, and (as it were) the soul of tragedy." And not long before, after the constituent parts of the drama have been enumerated, we read, μέγιστον δὲ τούτων ¿στly ʼn τŵν πрayμáтav ovσтασis: "but the greatest and the most important of all these is the combining of the incidents, that is to say, the fable.” Arist. Poet. cap. 6. p. 231. edit. Sylb.

· Οὐκ οὖν ὅπως τὰ ἤθη μιμήσωνται, πράττουσιν, ἀλλὰ τὰ ἤθη συμπεριλαμβάνουσιν διὰ τὰς πράξεις : “ The persons of the drama do not act, that they may exhibit manners, but they include manners, on account of the incidents in the fable." Arist. Poet. c. 6. p. 230. edit. Sylb.

The Stagirite often illustrates his poetic ideas from painting, an art at that time cultivated by the ablest artists, Zeuxis, Polygnotus, and others. In the present case, he compares the dramatic manners to

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colouring the dramatic fable to drawing; and ingeniously remarks, εἰ γάρ τις έναλείψειε τοῖς καλλίστοις φαρμάκοις χύδην, οὐκ ἂν ὁμοίως εὐφράνειεν, καὶ λευκογραφήσας εἰκόνα: “ if any one were to make a confused daubing with the most beautiful colours, he would not give so much delight, as if he were to sketch a figure in chalk alone." Arist. Poet. c. 6. p. 231. edit. Sylb.

Ἔτι ἐάν τις ἐφεξῆς θῇ ῥήσεις ἠθικὰς, καὶ λέξεις, καὶ διανοίας, εὖ πεποιημένας, οὐ ποιήσει ὁ ἦν τῆς τραγῳδίας ἔργον, ἀλλὰ πολὺ μάλλον ἡ καταδεεστέροις τούτοις κεχρημένη τραγωδία, ἔχουσα δὲ μῦθον καὶ σύστασιν πραγμάτων: “ Were any one to arrange in order the best formed expressions relative to character, as well as the best diction and sentiments, he would not attain what is the business of a tragedy; but much more would that tragedy attain it, which, having these requisites in a very inferior degree, had at the same time a just fable, and combination of incidents." Arist. Poet. c. 6. p. 230. edit. Sylb.

every unexpected discovery of unknown personages, and every unexpected revolution' from one condition to another. The revolutions and discoveries in the Edipus and the Fatal Curiosity have been mentioned already. We add to these, the striking revolution in the Samson Agonistes; where, while every thing appears tending to Samson's release, a horrible crash announces his destruction."

These dramatic incidents are properly tragic; but there are others of similar character, not wanting even to comedy. To refer to a modern drama: what discovery more pleasing than that, where, in the Drummer of Addison, the worthy lost master is discovered in the supposed conjuror? or, to refer still to the same drama, what revolution more pleasing, than where, in consequence of this discovery, the house of disorder and mourning changes into a house of order and joy? Now these interesting incidents, as well comic as tragic, arise neither from manners, nor from sentiment, but purely from the fable.

It is also a plausible argument for the fable's superiority, that, from its superior difficulty, more poets have excelled in drawing manners and sentiment, than there have in the forming of perfect fables.*

But although we give a superiority to the fable, yet the other constitutive parts, even supposing the fable bad, have still an important value; so important, indeed, that through them, and them alone, many dramas have merited admiration.

And here, next to the fable, we arrange the manners. The manners, if well formed, give us samples of human nature, and seem in poetry as much to excel sentiment, as the drawing in painting to excel the colouring.

The third place, after the manners, belongs to the sentiment, and that before the diction, however they may be united: it being evident that men speak, because they think; they seldom think, because they speak.

After this, the fourth and last place falls to the diction.

Having settled the rank of these several constitutive parts, a few cursory remarks remain to be suggested.

One is this: that if all these parts are really essential, no drama can be absolutely complete which in any one of them is deficient.

Another remark is, that though a drama be not absolutely complete in every part, yet from the excellence of one or two

"A revolution," wepiwéreia; “a discovery," avayvópioris. See before, what is said about these two, p. 429, 430.

"Sams. Agon. 481, and 1452 to 1507. * Οἱ ἐγχειροῦντες ποιεῖν, πρότερον δύναν. ται τῇ λέξει καὶ τοῖς ἤθεσιν ἀκριβοῦν, ἢ τὰ πράγματα συνίστασθαι, οἷον καὶ οἱ πρώτοι ποιήται σχεδὸν ἅπαντες: “ Those who at

tempt to write dramatically, are first able to be accurate in the diction and the manners, before they are able to combine incidents, [and form a fable,] which was indeed the case of almost all the first poets.” Arist. Poet. c. 6. p. 230. edit. Sylb.

parts it may still merit praise. It is thus in painting, there are pictures admired for colouring, which fail in the drawing; and others for drawing, which fail in the colouring.

The next remark is, in fact, a caution; a caution not to mistake one constitutive part for another, and still, much more, not to mistake it for the whole. We are never to forget the essential differences between fable, manners, sentiment, and diction.

If, without attending to these, we presume to admire, we act, as if in painting we admired a Rembrandt for grace, because we had been told that he was capital in colouring.

This caution, indeed, applies not only to arts, but to philosophy. For here if men fancy, that a genius for science, by having excelled in a single part of it, is superlative in all parts; they insensibly make such a genius their idol, and their admiration soon degenerates into a species of idolatry.

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It is to be hoped that our studies are at present more liberal, and that we are rather adding to that structure which our forefathers have begun, than tamely leaving it to remain, as if nothing further were wanting.

Our drama, among other things, is surely capable of improvement. Events from our own history (and none can be more interesting) are at hand to furnish fables, having all the dramatic requisites. Indeed, should any of them be wanting, invention may provide a remedy, for here we know poets have unbounded privilege.

In the mean time, the subjects, by being domestic, would be as interesting to us, as those of Ajax or Orestes were of old to the Greeks. Nor is it a doubt, that our drama, were it thus rationally cultivated, might be made the school of virtue even in a dissipated age.

And now, having shewn such a regard for dramatic poetry, and recommended so many different rules, as essential to its perfection; it may not, perhaps, be improper to say something in their defence, and, when that is finished, to conclude this part of our inquiries.

y This is a case expressly decided by that able critic, Horace, as to the manners and the sentiment.

Speciosa locis, morataque recte, Fabula nullius veneris, sine pondere et arte,

Valdius oblectat populum, meliusque mo-
ratur,

Quam versus inopes rerum, nugæque ca-
Art. Poet. 320.

nora.

Which may be thus paraphrased:

"A fable (or dramatic story) of no beauty, without dignity or contrivance, if it excel in sentiment, and have its characters well drawn, will please an audience much more than a trifling piece barren of incidents, and only to be admired for the harmony of its numbers." See p. 449. * Infra, 449.

CHAPTER XII.

RULES DEFENDED DO NOT CRAMP GENIUS, BUT GUIDE IT-FLATTERING DOCTRINE THAT GENIUS WILL SUFFICE-FALLACIOUS, AND WHY— FURTHER DEFENCE OF RULES-NO GENIUS EVER ACTED WITHOUT THEM; NOR EVER A TIME WHEN RULES DID NOT EXIST-CONNEC TION BETWEEN RULES AND GENIUS-THEIR RECIPROCAL AID-END OF THE SECOND PART-PREPARATION FOR THE THIRD.

HAVING mentioned rules, and indeed our whole theory having been little more than rules developed, we cannot but remark upon a common opinion, which seems to have arisen either from prejudice or mistake.

Do not rules, say they, cramp genius? Do they not abridge it of certain privileges?

It is answered, if the obeying of rules were to induce a tyranny like this, to defend them would be absurd, and against the liberty of genius. But the truth is, rules, supposing them good, like good government, take away no privileges. They do no more than save genius from error, by shewing it, that a right to err is no privilege at all.

It is surely no privilege to violate, in grammar, the rules of syntax; in poetry, those of metre; in music, those of harmony; in logic, those of syllogism; in painting, those of perspective; in dramatic poetry, those of probable imitation.

If we enlarge on one of these instances, we shall illustrate the

rest.

The probable imitation just now mentioned, like that of every other kind, is, when the imitation resembles the thing imitated in as many circumstances as possible; so that the more of those circumstances are combined, the more probable the resemblance.

It is thus in imitation by painting the resemblance is more complete, when to the outline we add light and shade; and more complete still, when to light and shade we add the colours.

The real place of every drama is a stage; that is, a space of a few fathoms deep, and a few fathoms broad. Its real time is the time it takes in acting, a limited duration, seldom exceeding a few hours.

Now imagination, by the help of scenes, can enlarge this stage into a dwelling, a palace, a city, &c.; and it is a decent regard to this which constitutes probable place.

Again, the usual intervals between the acts, and even the attention paid by the mind to an interesting story, can enlarge without violence a few hours into a day or two; and it is in a

decent regard to this, we may perceive the rise of probable time."

Now it is evident that the above probabilities, if they belong to the fable, cannot but affect us, because they are both of them requisites which heighten the resemblance, and because resemblance is so universally an essential to imitation.

If this doctrine want confirming, we may prove it by the contrary; I mean, by a supposition of such time and such place as are both of them improbable.

For example, as to time, we may suppose a play, where lady Desmond, in the first act, shall dance at the court of Richard the Third, and be alive, in the last act, during the reign of James the First.b

As to place, we may suppose a tragedy, where Motesuma shall appear at Mexico, in the first act; shall be carried to Madrid, in the third; and be brought back again, in the fifth, to die at Mexico.

It is true, indeed, did such plays exist, and were their other dramatic requisites good, these improbabilities might be endured, and the plays be still admired. Fine manners and sentiment, we have already said, may support a wretched fable, as a beautiful face may make us forget a bad figure. But no authority for that reason can justify absurdities, or make them not to be so, by being fortunately associated.

Nor is it enough to say, that by this apparent austerity many a good play would have been spoilt. The answer is obvious: choose another and a fitter subject. Subjects are infinite. Consult the inexhaustible treasures of history; or, if these fail, the more inexhaustible fund of invention. Nay, more; if you are distressed, bring history and invention together, and let the richness of the last embellish the poverty of the former. Poets, though bound by the laws of common sense, are not bound to the rigours of historical fact.

It must be confessed, it is a flattering doctrine to tell a young beginner, that he has nothing more to do, than to trust his own genius, and to contemn all rules as the tyranny of pedants.

a What this implies, we are told in the following passage: "Ori μáλiora reipaтa. υπο μίαν περιόδον ἡλίου εἶναι, ἢ μικρὸν ékaλλátteш: “Tragedy aims, as far as possible, to come within a single revolution of the sun, (that is, a natural day,) or but a little to exceed." Arist. Poet. c. 5. p. 229. edit. Sylb.

b Aristotle, speaking upon the indefinite duration of the epopee, which is sometimes extended to years, adds, Kairo то прŵтоν Suolas év Taîs тpayqdíais Toûтo èπolovy: "at first they did the same in tragedies;" that is, their duration, like that of the epopee, was alike undefined, till a better

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