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A

FRAGMENT*

ON

SHAKSPEAR E.

Always therefore study Nature.

T is the who was thy book, O Shakspeare; it is

fhe who was thy ftudy day and night; it is she from whom thou haft drawn thofe beauties which are at once the glory and delight of thy nation. Thou wert the eldest fon, the darling child, of Na, ture; and, like thy mother, enchanting, astonishing, fublime, graceful, thy variety is inexhauftible. Always original, always new, thou art the only prodigy which Nature has produced. Homer was the first of men, but thou art more than man. The reader who thinks this elogium extravagant is a stranger to my fubject, To say that Shakspeare had the imagination of Dantè, and the depth of Machiavel, would be a

* The work from which it is taken is mentioned by Mr. Sherlock, in Letter xx, vol. I,

weak

weak encomium: he had them, and more.

To fay that he poffeffed the terrible graces of Michael Angelo, and the amiable graces of Correggio, would be a weak encomium: he had them, and more. To the brilliancy of Voltaire he added the ftrength of Demofthenes; and to the fimplicity of La Fontaine, the majefty of Virgil.-But, fay you, we have never feen fuch "a being." You are in the right; Nature made it, and broke the mould.

The merits of this poet are fo extraordinary, that the man, who should speak of them with the most rigid truth, would seem to the highest degree extravagant. But what fignifies what I feem, if really I be true? I will therefore fay, because a more certain truth was never faid; Shakspeare poffeffed, in the highest degree of perfection, all the most excellent talents of all the writers that I bave ever known.

"Horace," fays Bacon, " is the most popular of all "the poets of antiquity, because he contains moft ob"fervations applicable to the business of human life.” Shakspeare contains more of them than Horace.

One of the chief merits of the Greek tragic poets (principally of Euripides) is, that they abound with morality. Shakspeare has more morality than they.

Dramatic poetry is a picture made to be feen at a certain point of view. This point of fight is the theatre. Moliere, who was an actor, had occafion, when he was on the stage, to obferve the effects produced during the representation. This advantage is one of the reafons of Moliere's being fuperior in theatric effect to all the comic actors of his nation. Shakspeare had the fame advantage: he was also an actor; and in that perfpective

ON

SHAKSPEARE.

15

perspective of poetry (if I may be allowed the expreffion) Shakspeare is equal to Moliere.

Other poets have made men fpeak by means of words: Shakspeare alone has made filence fpeak *. Othello, a man of a noble heart, but violent to an extreme, deceived by a villain, thinks that his wife, whom he adores, is unfaithful to him, and kills her. In fuch a fituation another poet would have made Othello fay; Good God! what a punishment! what miferies are equal to mine!-Shakspeare petrifies his Othello; he becomes a ftatue motionlefs and dumb.

Tacitus and Machiavel together could not have painted nor fupported the character of a villain better than that of lägo.

What is a poet, if he be ftripped of his language and harmony? See then what Shakspeare is, deprived of these advantages. (He is fpeaking of two princes.) They are foft as the Zephyrs which blow on the violet without moving its fragrant head; but, when their royal blood is kindled, they are furious as the ftorm which feizes by the top the mountain pine, and makes it bend down to the valley.

With other poets a fimile is a principal beauty: in Shakspeare the most beautiful fimiles are frequently loft in a croud of fuperior beauties. I will explain myfelf. Whoever has obferved Nature knows, that, when a man of courage is once provoked, he endeavours to

Surely not alone, when we recollect the expreffive filence of the ghoft of Ajax in the Odyffey, imitated by Virgil in his Dido; both which have been always juftly admired. A differtation on the latter, by the earl of Corke, was printed in the paper called The Old Maid, 1755 English Translator.

strengthen

ftrengthen his ideas by metaphors; he makes fimilitude, without knowing it, and these fimilitudes are always fhort. The exceffive fenfibility of Coriolanus, his intrepidity, and his pride, are well known. After his return from Rome to Antium, Tullus, the general of the Volfcians, was jealous of him, accused him in the public fquare before the affembly of the nobles, the people, and the foldiers, with having betrayed their interefts by a boyish tenderness for his mother, by a weaknefs which had astonished the whole army. Coriolanus exclaims,

"Hear'ft thou, Mars?

*

"Tullus. Name not the God, thou boy of tears. At this infult the difpute grows warm, and one of the nobles raifing his voice, fays,

"Peace both, and hear me fpeak."

Then Coriolanus:

"Cut me to pieces, Volfcians, men and lads, "Stain all your edges in me. Boy? false hound! "If you have writ your annals true, 'tis there, That, like an eagle in a dove-coat, I "Flutter'd your Volfcians in Corioli. "Alone I did it-Boy?".

*There are some critics who will condemn this expreffion. They have forgotten that Homer, to convey a reproach, has ufed the femi

nine gender;

Αχαιίδες εκ ετ' Αχαιοί.

And Virgil, after Homer,

O vera Phrygiæ neque enim Phryges.

Neither of these reproaches is fo well founded as that of Tullus to Coriolanus.

"Boy of tears" is a strange expreffion; weeping boy would have been a trifling one. I would rather have Shakspeare feem ftrange than groveling, French Tranflator.

A more

ON SHAKSPEARE.

17

A more juft, a more noble, a more appofite comparifon cannot be conceived. A lion amidst heifers, a wolf among sheep: this has been said a thousand times. An eagle among doves presents a new image. But it is more than an eagle among doves; it is an eagle among doves, in a dove-house, where the disturbance and the terror are far greater. But the beauty of the comparison is loft, as it were, among other fuperior beauties. This image is here a characteristic stroke, it is a sentiment, and a fentiment which can only fuit that particular moment. It is to the valiant, the fuf ceptible, the proud Coriolanus, that Tullus gives an affront, and an affront which touches him in the most delicate point, his military glory. His heart inflamed, his imagination fired, Coriolanus replies,

Boy? falfe hound!—you know, "That, like an eagle in a dove-cote, I "Flutter'd your Volfcians in Corioli *."

Coriolanus

* Mr. Sherlock quotes this comparison among a thousand others, which he might as well have chofen. The reasons which he gives to convince us of its beauty feem to me extremely juft; but I fear that they will not be fufficiently clear to a fuperficial reader, or a faftidious fine gentleman. Let us endeavour to add some more. What then is there here fo admirable? Let me be told. How! Tullus reproaches Coriolanus with his weakness, and he diverts himself with speaking of an eagle, and a dove-house. In the height of his rage, he makes a fimilitude, which, befides, is very common, to fay no more, and has not even the weak merit of being brilliant. For my part, I maintain that the imagination of man can never go farther, nor nature be better represented, than in this paffage of Shakspeare. I maintain that the answer of the warrior is the only one which the poet ought to have put into his mouth. Reader, the only favour that I request of you is, not to condemn me before you have heard me.