Thus is tragedy raised from her afhes, carried to the utmost point of greatnefs, and fo dazzling that the prefers herself to herself. Surprised to fee herfelf produced again in France in fo fhort a time, and nearly in the fame manner as before in Greece, fhe is difpofed to believe that her fate is to make a short tranfition from her birth to her perfection, like the goddess that iffued from the brain of Jupiter.

If we look back on the other fide to the rife of comedy, we fhall fee it hatched by Margites from the Odyf fey of Homer, in imitation of her eldest fifter; but we fee her under the conduct of Aristophanes become licentious and petulant, taking airs to herself which the ma◄ giftrates were obliged to crush. Menander reduced her to bounds, taught her at once gaiety and politenefs, and enabled her to correct vice, without shocking the offenders. Plautus, among the Romans, to whom we must now pass, united the earlier and the later comedy, and joined buffoonery with delicacy. Terence, who was bet✩ ter inftructed, received comedy from Menander, and furpaffed his original, as he endeavoured to copy it. And lastly, Moliere produced a new fpecies of comedy, which must be placed in a clafs by itself, in oppofition to that of Aristophanes, whofe manner is likewife peculiar to himself.

But fuch is the weaknefs of the human mind, that when we review the fucceffions of the drama a third time, we find genius falling from its height, forgetting itfelf, and led aftray by the love of novelty, and the defire of striking out new paths. Tragedy degenerated in Greece from the time of Ariftotle, and in Rome after Auguftus. At Rome and Athens comedy produced Mimi, pantomimes, burlettas, tricks, and farces, for the fake

of

of variety; fuch is the character, and fuch the madness of the mind of man. It is fatisfied with having made great conquests, and gives them up to attempt others, which are far from anfwering its expectation, and only enables it to discover its own folly, weakness, and deviations. But why should we be tired with standing still at the true point of perfection, when it is attained? If eloquence be wearied, and forgets herfelf a while, yet she foon returns to her former point: fo will it happen to our theatres if the French Mufes will keep the Greek models in their view, and not look with difdain upon a stage whose mother is nature, whose soul is paffion, and whofe art is fimplicity: a stage, which, to speak the truth, does not perhaps equal ours in fplendor and elevation, but which excels it in fimplicity and propriety, and equals it at least in the conduct and direction of those paffions which may properly affect an honest man and a christian.

For my part, I fhall think myself well recompenfed for my labour, and fhall attain the end which I had in view, if I fhall in fome little measure revive in the minds of those who purpose to run the round of polite literature, not an immoderate and blind reverence, but a true taste of antiquity: fuch a taste as both feeds and polishes the mind, and enriches it by enabling it to appropriate the wealth of foreigners, and to exert its natural fertility in exquifite productions; fuch a taste as gave the Racines, the Molieres, the Boileaus, the Fontaines, the Patrus, the Pelefons, and many other great geniuses of the last age, all that they were, and all that they will always be; fuch a tafte as puts the feal of immortality to those works in which it is difcovered; a tafte fo neceffary, that without it we may be certain that

.the

the greatest powers of nature will long continue in a ftate below themselves; for no man ought to allow himself to be flattered or feduced by the example of fome men of genius, who have rather appeared to defpife this taste than to despise it in reality. It is true that excellent originals have given occafion, without any fault of their own, to very bad copies. No man ought severely to ape either the ancients or the moderns: but if it was neceffary to run into an extreme of one fide or the other, which is never done by a judicious and well-directed mind, it would be better for a wit, as for a painter, to enrich himself by what he can take from the ancients, than to grow poor by taking all from his own stock; or openly to affect an imitation of thofe moderns whofe more fertile genius has produced beauties peculiar to themselves, and which themselves only can difplay with grace: beauties of that peculiar kind, that they are not fit to be imitated by others; though in those who first invented them they may be justly esteemed, and in them only.

"As to all those things which have been published under the "titles of Efays, Remarks, Obfervations, &c. on Shakespeare, (if 66 you except fome critical notes on Macbeth, given as a specimen "of a projected edition, and written as appears by a man of parts "and genius) the reft are abfolutely below a ferious notice." Warburton's Preface to Shakespeare.

E.

VOL, III,

Norder to make a true estimate of the abilities and

INO!

merit of a writer, it is always neceffary to examine the genius of his age, and the opinions of his contemporaries. A poet who fhould now make the whole action of his tragedy depend upon enchantment, and produce the chief events by the affiftance of fupernatural agents, would be cenfured as tranfgreffing the bounds of probability, he would be banished from the theatre to the nursery, and condemned to write Fairy Tales inftead of Tragedies; but a furvey of the notions that prevailed at the time when this play was written, will prove that Shakespeare was in no danger of fuch cenfures, fince he only turned the fyftem that was then univerfally admitted to his advantage, and was far from overburthening the credulity of his audience.

The reality of witchcraft or enchantment, which, though not strictly the fame, are confounded in this play, has in all ages and countries been credited by the common people, and in moft by the learned themselves.

Thefe