eyes are caught with the gawdy drefs of a Trojan; fhe eagerly perfues the glittering fpoils, and lofes her life in the attempt. How conformable to their characters are the ambitious Macbeth, and the jealous Othello? Tho' Falstaff is a fardle of low vices, a lyar, a coward, a thief; yet his good-humour makes him a pleasant companion. If you laugh at the oddness of Fluellin, yet his bravery and honesty Sanxit uti faeminis femita ferved their country from fire and fword, and the refentment of that proud patrician. How could the fenate reward them proportionably to their defert? Why, as Valerius Maximus tells us, 1. 5. c. 2. viri cederent-permifit quoque his purpurea vefte et aureis uti fegmentis. Which we may tranflate, The Jenate ordered that the men should give the women the upper-hand, and allowed them to wear fine cloaths, and ornaments of gold, However old Cato fome time after, affifted by the tribunes, was refolved to repeal this order, but the clamours, and uproars of the ladies were fo great, that he was forced to defift. Livy's account [L. 34.] of this female commotion is admirable. If we look into Milton, we fhall there find this vanity in Eve, when in her innocent ftate; that Narciffus-like admiration of herself, which the poet paints, B. IV. . 449, &c. far exceeds any thing in Ovid: and the glozing tempter at length catches her with flattery. B. IX, 1 . 532. &c. What fhall we think after this of fuch unpoetical characters, as Marcia and Lucia in Addifon's Cato? But the lefs that women appear on the ftage, ge nerally 73 honefty claim a laugh of love, rather than of contempt. These manners, and most others which the poet has painted, are agreeable to the character, and fuitable to his defign. III. The poet fhould give his manners that refemblance which hiftory, or common report has published of them. This is to be underflood of known" characters. Shakespeare very ftrictly obferves this rule, and if ever he varies from it, 'tis with great art; as in the character of Banquo, mention'd above. Of those characters, which he has taken from the English chronicles, as king John, Henry VIII, cardinal Wolfey, &c. the manners and qualities are like to what hiftory reports of them.; Breval, in J 12 nerally the better is the ftory: and unmarried women are left entirely out in Shakespeare's beft plays, as in Macbeth, Othello, Julius Cæfar; in Hamlet, Ophelia is neceffary to carry on the plot of the pretended madness. After the Restoration women were fuffered to act on the stage, and ftories were formed for them, wherein they acted the principal parts. Hence the ftage began to be corrupted; and at the fame time fprung up, love, honour, gallantry, and fuch like Gothic ornamental parts of poetry; and Shakefpeare, and Johnson in proportion were despised. 1. Ariftot. κεφ. ιε. τρίτον δὲ, τὸ ὅμοιον. i. e. this likenefs must be drawn from hiftory, or common report. Aut famam fequere. Horat. art. poet. 119. 12 Breval's travels, p. 104. & tony, the stupid Lepidus, were either palliated or excufed. The cruelty of Octavius is particu larly mention'd by Suetonius, Reftitit aliquandiu collegis, ne qua fieret profcriptio, fed inceptam utroque acerbius exercuit. But with these and other vices he still preserved great dignity, and, what we moderns call, good-breeding; a fort of mock-virtues of a very low clafs. And this character of Octavius Shakespeare has very justly preserved in his play. IV. The manners ought to be "5 uniform and confiftent: and, whenever a change of manners is made, care should be taken that there appear proper motives for fuch a change; and the audience are to be prepared before hand. There is a very fine inftance of this confiftent change in Terence. Demea begins to find that all his peevish severity avail'd nothing; no reformation 15 Τέταξον δὲ τὸ ὁμαλόν· καν γὰρ ἀνώμαλός τις ᾖ ὁ τὴν μίμησιν παρέχων, καὶ τοιῦτον ἦθῶν ὑποτιθείς, ὅμως ὁμαλῶς árúμador der sivas. The fourth is that the manners be equal: and fhould the perfon, who is the fubject of imitation, be unequal in his manners, yet we ought to make them equally unequal. Opañas avapahov as the manners of Tigellius in Horace, conftans in levitate. Servetur ad imum Qualis ab incepto processerit, et fibi conftet. Hor. art. poet. 126. was was made by it, every one hated and avoided him as much as they loved his brother, whose manners were diametrically oppofite. The old man refolves to try a contrary behaviour, and takes himself roundly to task, Ego ille agreftis, faevus, triftis, parcus, truculentus, tenax. But how great is the poet's art? Having thus prepared the spectators for a change of manners, you plainly perceive how 16 aukwardly this new affumed character fits upon the old man; his civility is all forced. 'Tis as when finners turn faints, all is over-acted. a Who does not all along fee, that when prince Henry comes to be king, he will affume à character fuitable to his dignity? And this change the audience expect. P. Henry. I know you all, and will a while uphold The unyok'd bumour of your idleness: Yet herein will I imitate the fun, Who doth permit the bafe contagious clouds 15 Mr. Theobald, in a preface to his edition of Shakespeare, blames Terence for this change in the character of Demea than which change nothing more agreeable to the ftricteft decorum was ever imagined. To To fmother up his beauty from the world; The uxorious and jealous Othello is eafily wrought to act deeds of violence and murder. You know the haughty Coriolanus will perfevere in his obftinacy and proud contempt of the commons: as well as that the refentful 17 Achilles will never be prevailed on, by any offers from Agamemnon, to return to the field. Angelo fo fevere against the common frailty of human nature, never turns his eye on his own character. What morose bigot, or demure hypocrite ever did? From Hamlet's filial affection, you expect what his future behaviour will be, when the ghost bids him revenge his murder. The philofophical character of Brutus bids you expect confiftency and steadiness from his behaviour: he thought the killing of Antony, when Caefar's affaffination was refolved on, would appear too bloody and unjust: Let us be SACRIFICERS, but not butchers: 17 Hom. II. IX. The |