• Half Crown, and made a fair Purchase of as much of ⚫ the pleafing Melancholy as the Poet's Art can afford me, or my own Nature admit of, I am willing to carry fome of it home with me; and can't endure to be at once trick'd out of all, tho' by the wittieft Dexterity in the World. However, I kept my Seat t'other Night, in hopes of finding my own Sentiments of this Matter ⚫ favour'd by your Friend's; when, to my great Surprize, I found the Knight entering with equal Pleasure into both Parts, and as much fatisfied with Mrs. Oldfield's Gaiety, as he had been before with Andromache's Great⚫ nefs. Whether this were no other than an Effect of the Knight's peculiar Humanity, pleas'd to find at laft, that after all the tragical Doings every thing was fafe and well, I don't know. But for my own part, I muft confefs I was fo diffatisfied, that I was forry the Poet had faved Andromache, and could heartily have wifhed ⚫ that he had left her stone-dead upon the Stage. For you cannot imagine, Mr. SPECTATOR, the Mischief she was referv'd to do me. I found my Soul, during the Action, gradually work'd up to the highest Pitch; and felt the exalted Paffion which all generous Minds con⚫ceive at the Sight of Virtue in Distress. The Impreffion, believe me, Sir, was fo ftrong upon me, that I am perfuaded, if I had not been let alone in it, I could at an Extremity have ventured to defend your felf and Sir ROGER against half a Score of the fierceft Mo"hocks: But the ludicrous Epilogue in the Clofe extinguish'd all my Ardour, and made me look upon all • fuch noble Atchievements as downright filly and ro'mantick. What the rest of the Audience felt, I can't fo well tell: For my felf I muft declare, that at the < end of the Play I found my Soul uniform, and all of a Piece; but at the end of the Epilogue it was fo jumbled together, and divided between Jeft and Earnest, that if you will forgive me an extravagant Fancy, I will here fet it down. I could not but fancy, if my Soul had at ⚫ that Moment quitted my Body, and defcended to the po⚫etical Shades in the Pofture it was then in, what a ftrange Figure it would have made among them. They would not have known what to have made of my motley Spectre, half Comick and half Tragick, all over refem bling a ridiculous Face, that at the fame time laughs on one fide and cries o' t'other. The only Defence, I think I have ever heard made for this, as it seems to • me, the most unnaturalTack of the Comick Tail to the Tragick Head, is this, that the Minds of the Audience must be refreshed, and Gentlemen and Ladies not fent I away to their own Homes with too difmal and me⚫lancholy Thoughts about them: For who knows the • Confequence of this? We are much obliged indeed to the Poets for the great Tenderness they exprefs for the • Safety of our Persons, and heartily thank them for it. • But if that be all, pray, good Sir, affure them, that we are none of us like to come to any great Harm; and that, let them do their beft, we fhall in all probability • live out the Length of our Days, and frequent the • Theatres more than ever. What makes me more de firous to have fome Reformation of this matter, is be⚫ cause of an ill Confequence or two attending it: For a great many of our Church-Muficians being related to the Theatre, they have, in Imitation of thefe Epilogues, in⚫troduced in their farewel Voluntaries a fort of Mufick quite foreign to the Defign of Church-Services, to the great Prejudice of well-difpofed People. Those fingering Gentlemen fhould be informed, that they ought to ⚫ fuit their Airs to the Place, and Business; and that the • Mufician is obliged to keep to the Text as much as the • Preacher. For want of this, I have found by Expe⚫rience a great deal of Mischief: For when the Preacher has often, with great Piety and Art enough, handled his Subject, and the judicious Clerk has with utmost Diligence culled out two Staves proper to the Difcourfe, ⚫ and I have found in my felf and in the reft of the Pew good Thoughts and Difpofitions, they have been all in a ⚫ moment diffipated by a merry Jig from the Organ-Loft. • One knows not what further ill Effects the Epilogues I ⚫ have been speaking of may in time produce: But this I am credibly inform'd of, that Paul Lorrain has refolv'd upon a very fudden Reformation in his tragical Dramas; and that at the next monthly Performance, he defigns, <inftead of a Penitential Pfalm, to dismiss his Audience with an excellent new Ballad of his own compofing. . Pray, Sir, do what you can to put a stop to thofe growing Evils, and you will very much oblige Your bumble Servant, Phyfibulus. No 339. Saturday, March 29. Ut his exordia primis Omnia, & ipfe tener Mundi concreverit orbis. L Virg. ONGINUS has obferved, that there may be a Loftiness in Sentiments where there is no Paffion, and brings Instances out of ancient Authors to fupport this his Opinion. The Pathetick, as that great Critick obferves, may animate and inflame the Sublime, but is not effential to it. Accordingly, as he further remarks, we very often find that those who excel moft in ftirring up the Paffions, very often want the Talent of writing in the great and fublime manner, and fo on the contrary. Milton has fhewn himself a Master in both these ways of Writing. The feventh Book, which we are now entring upon, is an Inftance of that Sublime which is not mixed and worked up with Paffion. The Author appears in a kind of compofed and fedate Majefty; and tho' the Sentiments do not give fo great an Emotion as those in thẹ former Book, they abound with as magnificent Ideas. The fixth Book, like a troubled Ocean, reprefents Greatnefs in Confufion; the feventh affects the Imagination like the Ocean in a Calm, and fills the Mind of the Reader, without producing in it any thing like Tumult or Agitation. THE Critick above-mentioned, among the Rules, which he lays down for fucceeding in the fublime way of writing, propofes to his Reader, that he fhould imitate the most celebrated Authors who have gone before him, and have been engaged in Works of the fame nature ; as as in particular, that if he writes on a poetical Subject, he fhould confider how Homer would have spoken on fuch an Occafion. By this means one great Genius often catches the Flame from another, and writes in his Spirit, without copying fervilely after him. There are a thoufand fhining Paffages in Virgil, which have been lighted up by Homer. MILTON, tho' his own natural Strength of Genius was capable of furnishing out a perfect Work, has doubtless very much raifed and enobled his Conceptions by fuch an Imitation as that which Longinus has recom mended. IN this Book, which gives us an Account of the fix Days Works, the Poet received but very few Affiftances fromHeathen Writers, who were Strangers to the Wonders of Creation. But as there are many glorious Strokes of Poetry upon this Subject in Holy Writ, the Author has numberless Allufions to them through the whole courfe of this Book. The great Critick I have before mentioned, though an Heathen, has taken notice of the fublime Manner in which the Lawgiver of the Jews has defcrib'd the Creation in the firft Chapter of Genefis; and there are many other Paffages in Scripture, which rife up to the fame Majefty, where this Subject is touched upon. Milton has fhewn his Judgment very remarkably,in making use of fuch of thefe as were proper for his Poem, and in duly qualifying thofe high Strains of Eaftern Poetry, which were fuited to Readers whofe Imaginations were fet to an higher pitch than those of colder Climates. ADAM's Speech to the Angel, wherein he defires an Account of what had passed within the Regions of Nature before the Creation, is very great and folemn. The following Lines, in which he tells him, that the Day is not too far spent for him to enter upon such a Subject, are exquisite in their kind. And the great Light of Day yet wants to run Much of his Race, though fleep, fufpenfe in Heav'n And longer will delay, to hear thee tell His Generation, &c. THE Angel's encouraging our firft Parents in a modeft purfuit after Knowledge, with the Caufes which he affigne for the Creation of the World, are very just and beautiful. The Meffiah, by whom, as we are told in Scripture, the Heavens were made, comes forth in the Power of his Father, furrounded with an Hoft of Angels, and clothed with fuch a Majefty as becomes his entring upon a Work, which, according to our Conceptions, appears the utmoft Exertion of Omnipotence. What a beautiful Description has our Author raised upon that Hint in one of the Prophets! And behold there came four Chariots out from between two Mountains, and the Mountains were Mountains of Brass. About his Chariot numberless were pour'd I have before taken notice of thefe Chariots of God, and of these Gates of Heaven; and shall here only add, that Homer gives us the fame Idea of the latter, as opening of themfelves; tho' he afterwards takes off from it, by telling us, that the Hours first of all removed those prodigious heaps of Clouds which lay as a Barrier before them. I do not know any thing in the whole Poem more fublime than the Defcription which follows, where the Meffiah is reprefented at the head of his Angels, as looking down into the Chaos, calming its Confufion, riding into the midst of it, and drawing the first Out-Line of the Creation. On Heavenly Ground they flood, and from the Shore |