and feveral others, prefent fome pictures of tragi-comedy, the moft barbarous of all compofitions. As to Hamlet, it is.

the moft irregular of the three. I have often endeavoured to discover a unity of action in it, by confidering the jumble of episodes as fo many links of one chain; but it is impoffible: it would be an attempt as abfurd as Mr. Upton's, to think. of diftinguishing between the real fable and the epifodes in this tragedy; for they are fo complicated, fo mixed and confounded together, that it is impoffible to separate the one totally from the other; yet we may plainly fee the want of a unity of action in the variety of actions which it contains, and the useless vicious fcenes, not to fay whole characters, that are jumbled together. The fcene which begins the fecond act between Polonius and Reynoldo, is entirely fuperfluous: the whole part of Fortin

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Fortinbras might have been difpenfed with, as he feems to be introduced only to weaken the catastrophe. After the death of Hamlet, all is vicious, and tends to draw the attention of the audience from the impreffions which the cataftrophe must neceffarily have occafioned. The fifth act opens with the grave-digging fcene, of which I fhall fay nothing: in fhort, this piece is a dramatic hiftory. of feveral actions, both comic and tragic.

In none of the three are the unities of time and place ever regarded for a mo. ment. I do not here renew the defence of neglecting them; indeed I cannot but remark, that they may be broke through with too little ceremony, as we must al-low to be the cafe in Hamlet; but I have pointed out the defects in the fables of these tragedies, by examining them on

the

the rules of criticifm. I do not myself blame our immortal bard (though he is, certainly too free in fome of his wild excurfions) for introducing that variety of incidents which give rife to paffion and character; but as Mr. Upton defended these tragedies by Ariftotle's rules, it was neceffary to point out their critical defects.

Thefe very tragedies of which I am. now fpeaking, confidered in a different light, but especially Macbeth and Othello, are certainly mafter-pieces of genius; but if we confine ourselves to the definition which Aristotle, and fucceeding critics, have given to the word Tragedy, neither these, nor many others of Shaker fpear's can be allowed to claim that title. But let us take a nearer view of fome of this great man's celebrated compofitions.

If we overlook the tranfgreffions againft the unity of action, the fable of Macbeth is finely calculated, as Shakespear has drawn the events of feventeen years together, to form a noble and ftriking tra= gedy: this must be apparent to every one. The action is truly great, import ant, and tragical; and a fufpenfive terror must hang continually on the minds of an audience, during its representation. The history the fable is taken from, is well known; but I cannot help taking fome notice of the machinery, on which the plot is in a great meafure founded. Mr. Johnfon juftly obferves*, "That in order to make a true eftimate of the abilities and merit of a writer, it is always neceffary to examine the genius of his age, and the opinions of his cotemporaries. A poet who fhould now make

** Mifcel. Obferv. on Macbeth, p. 1, 2, 3.

the whole action of his tragedy depend upon enchantment, and produce the chief events by the affiftance of fupernatural agents, would be censured as tranfgreffing the bounds of probability; he would be banished from the theatre to the nursery, and condemned to write fairy tales instead of tragedies. But a furvey of the notions that prevailed at the time when this play was written, will prove that Shakespear was in no danger of fuch cenfures, fince he only turned the system 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 ftrictly the fame, are confounded in this play, has in all ages and countries been credited sby the common people, and in most by the learned themfelves. The phantoms

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have