Page images
PDF
EPUB

It has been already declared, that Shakespear is not to be tried by any code of critic laws; nor is it more equitable to judge him entirely by the practice of any particular theatre. Yet some criterion must be established by which we may determine his merits. First, we must take into confideration what is proposed to be done by the means of dramatic imitation. Every species of poetry has its distinct offices. The effecting certain moral purposes, by the representation of a Fable, seems to have been the universal intention, from the first institution of the Drama to this time; and to have prevailed, not only in Europe, but in all countries where the dramatic art has been attempted. It has indeed been the common aim of all poetry to please and instruct; but by means as various as the kinds of composition. We are pleased with the ode, the elegy, the eclogue; not only for having Invention, spirit, elegance, and such perfections as are necessary to recommend any fort of poetry, but we also require that each

each should have its specific merit; the ode, that which constitutes the perfection of an ode, &c. In these views, then, our author is to be examined. First, whether his Fables answer the noblest end of Fable, moral instruction; next, whether his dramatic imitation has its proper dramatic excellence. In the latter of these articles, perhaps, there is not any thing will more assist our judgment than a candid comparison (where the nature of the fubjects will bear it) between his, and some other celebrated dramatic compositions. It is idle to refer to a vague unrealized idea of Perfection : we may safely pronounce That to be well executed, in any art, which after the repeated efforts of great geniuses is equal to any thing which has been produced. We may fecurely applaud what the ancients have crowned, therefore should not withold our approbation wherever we find our countryman has equalled the most admired passages in the Greek tragedians; but we shall not do justice to his native talents, when they are the object ject of confideration, if we do not remember the different circumstances under which these writings were composed. Shakespear's plays were to be acted in a paltry tavern, to an unlettered audience, just emerging from barbarity: the Greek tragedies were to be exhibited at the public charge, under the eare and auspices of the magistrates, at Athens; where the very populace were critics in wit, and connoiffeurs in public spectacles. The period when Sophocles and Euripides wrote, was that in which the fine arts, and polite literature, were in a degree of perfection which succeeding ages have emulated in vain.

[merged small][ocr errors]

It happened in the literary as in the moral world; a few sages, from the veneration which they had obtained by extraordinary wisdom, and a faultless conduct, rose to the authority of Legislators. The practice and manner of the three celebrated Greek tragedians were by succeeding critics established dramatic laws: happily for Shakespear,

Mr.

Mr. Johnson, whose genius and learning render him superior to a servile awe of pedantic institutions, in his ingenious preface to his edition of Shakespear, has well obviated all that can be objected to our author's neglect of the unities of time and place.

[ocr errors]

Shakespear's felicity has been rendered compleat in this age. His genius produced works that time could not destroy: but fome of the lighter characters were become illegible; these have been restored by critics, whose learning and penetration have traced back the vestiges of superannuated opinions and customs. They are now no longer in danger of being effaced, and the testimony of these learned commentators to his merit, will guard our author's great monument of human wit from the presumptuous invafions of our rash critics, and the squibs of our witlings; so that the bays will for ever flourish -unwithered and inviolate roundhis tomb; and his very spirit seems to come forth and to animate his characters, as often as Mr. Garrick, who

i

who acts with the same inspiration with which He wrote, assumes them on the stage.

After our poet has received such important services from the united efforts of talents and learning in his behalf, some apology seems necessary for this work. But let it be remembered, that the most sfuperb and lasting monument that ever was confecrated to Beauty, was that to which every lover carried a tribute. I dare hope to do him honour only by augmenting the heap of volumes given by his admirers to his memory. I will own, I was incited to this undertaking by great admiration of his genius, and still greater indignation at the treatment he has received from a French wit, who seems to think he has made prodigious concessions to our prejudices in favour of the works of our countryman, in allowing them the credit of a few splendid passages, while he speaks of every entire piece as a monstrous and ill - constructed Farce,

« PreviousContinue »