↑ Nor fail'd they to express how much they prais'd, That for the general fafety he defpis'd His own. So that the Devil's character has every thing agreeable to the modern notions of a hero; but nothing of those chriftian characters, humility and refignation to the will of God; the great and characteristic virtues of chriftianity, which our divine epic poet would chiefly inculcate. But what shall we fay then of such characters, as a Polyphemus, Cacus, Caliban, the Harpyes, and the like monftrous, and out of nature productions? They seem to be in the poetical world, what in the natural are called lufus naturae; fo these are lufus poetici, the sportive creations of a fertil imagination, introduced, by the bye, to raise the paffions of admiration and abhorrence; and indeed they are fo far under-parts, as to be loft in the grand action. Upon these principles I cannot defend fuch a character as Richard III. as proper for the ftage. But much more faulty is the Jew's character, in The Merchant of Venice; who is cruel without neceffity. These are not pictures of human creatures, and are beheld with horror and deteftation. 4 Milt. II. 480. 5 In this poetical painting of the manners of men, it ought to be remember'd, that 'tis the human creature in general fhould be drawn, not any one in particular. Now man is of a mixed nature, virtue and vice alternately prevailing; it being as difficult to find a person thoroughly vitious, as thoroughly virtuous. Thus Philofophers, who make human nature their study, fpeak of it; and thus the greatest of all philofophers, having touched upon the character of the milanthrope, adds, Δῆλον ὅτι ἄνευ ΤΕΧΝΗΣ τῆς περὶ τὰ ἀνθρώπεια ὁ τοι τῷ χρῆσθαι ἐπιχειρεῖ τοῖς ἀνθρωπείοις· εἰ γάρ του μετὰ τέχνης ἐχρῆτο, ὥσπερ ἔχει, ὅπως ἂν ἡγήσαλο, τὸς μὲν χρησὰς καὶ πονηρές σφόδρα ὀλίγος εἶναι ἑκατέρος, τὰς δὲ μεταξὺ πλείσες. Those who profess a hatred of mankind and fociety, and would paint human nature ill, want art, and are but bunglers in the science they profefs. For it must be by long habit, and unnatural practice, that a man can become void of humanity and human affections: fince, as our 6 τα masters in this man-fcience have obferved, even 5 public Socrates in Plato's Phaedo. p. 89, 90. edit. H. Steph. 6 Plato in rep. 1. 1. p. 351. edit. Steph. Aoxeis äv û πόλιν, ἢ σρατόπεδον, ἢ λησὰς, ἢ κλέπιας, ἢ ἄλλο τι ἔθνῶ, ὅσα κοινῇ ἐπί τι ἔρχεται ἀδίκως, πρᾶξαι ἄν τι δύνασθαι, εἰ αδιxas; Cicero in Off. II. 11. Cujus [juftitiae] tanta public robbers are not often without social and generous principles. Whenever, therefore, a human creature is made to deviate from what is fair and good, the poet is unpardonable if he does not fhew the motives which led him aftray, and dazled his judgment with false appearances of happiness. Mean while how beautiful is it to fee the struggles of the mind, and the paffions at variance; which are wanting in the fteady villain, or fteady philosopher? and these are characters that feldom appear on the stage of the world. But what is tragic poetry without paffion? In a word, 'tis ourselves, and our own paffions, that we love to fee pictured; and in these representations we seek for delight and inftruction. II. The manners ought to be suitable. When the poet has formed his character, the person is up to it. And here the age, the fex, and to act vis eft, ut nec illi quidem, qui maleficio et fcelere pafcuntur, poffint fine ulla particulâ juftitiae vivere. Epict. 1. 2. c. 20. Οὕτως ἰσχυρόν τι καὶ ἀνικίνητόν ἔσιν ἡ φύσις ἡ ἀνθρωπική. Πῶς γὰρ δύναται άμπελο μή αμπελικῶς κινεῖσθαι, ἀλλ ̓ ἐλαϊκῶς ; ἢ ἐλαία πάλιν μὴ ἐλαικῶς, ἀλλ ̓ ἀμπελικῶς; αμή. χανον, ἀδιανοηλικόν. Οὐ τοίνυν ἐδ ̓ ἄνθρωπον οἷόν τε παντελῶς ἀπολέσαι τὰς κινήσεις τὰς ἀνθρωπικάς. ด 7 Δεύτερον δὲ, τὰ ἀςμόπλοια. Arift. περὶ ποιητ. κεφ. ιε. Reddere perfonae fcit convenientia cuique. Hor. poet. . 316. condition, F 3 condition, are to be confidered: thus what is commendable in one, may be faulty in another. An instance of the fuitablenefs of character we have in Milton, where Eve withdraws when the finds her husband and the angel entring on studious thoughts abftrufe. • Her husband the relater he prefer'd Chofe rather: He, he knew, would intermix When he gave these suitable manners to Eve, he had in his mind Plato's great art, fo much commended by Cicero, in making old Cephalus. withdraw in the first book of his republic on the pretence of a facrifice. 8 Par. loft. VIII, 40. 9 Cic. ad Att. 1. IV. ep. 16. Quod in iis libris, quos laudas, perfonam defideras fcaevolae, non eam temere dimovi; fed feci idem, quod in wohileig, deus ille nofter, Plato : cum in Piraeeum Socrates veniffet ad Cephalum, locupletem et feftivum Senem ; quoad primus ille fermo haberetur, adeft in difputando fenex: deinde cum ipfe quoque commodiffime locutus effet, ad rem divinam dicit fe velle difcedere ; neque poftea revertitur. Credo Platonem vix putaffe confonum fore, fi hominem id aetatis in tam longo fermone diutius retinuiffet... 221 Shakespeare Shakespeare seems to me not to have known fuch a character as a fine lady; nor does he ever recognize their dignity. What tramontanes in love are his Hamlets, the young Percy, and Henry the Fifth? Instead of the lady Bettys, and lady Fannys, who fhine fo much in, modern comedies, he brings you on the stage plain Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page, two honeft good-humoured wives of two plain country gentlemen. His tragic ladies are rather feen, than heard; fuch as Miranda, Defdemona, Ophelia, and Portia. So Lavinia is just fhewn in Virgil, innocent and quiet. And the poet is fo far from intermixing in his divine poem any thing of that kind, which we moderns term gallantry; that Juno is drawn a meer Fury: Dido and her fifter Anna plot together to debauch the pious prince of the Trojans: On this fide they fet the fleet on fire; on that, they blow the trumpet to fedition and even a heroine cannot forget the inconftancy of the fex, as 10 Boffu ingeniously obferves; her eyes 10 See Boffu of the epic poem. IV, 11. Camilla's character, the heroine, Virgil has artfully dafhed with this tincture of vanity, and love of finery; he knew their natural inclination from stories of his own country. The mother of Coriolanus, with other Roman women, had preF 4 ferved |