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Had Shakespear made one unsuccessful attempt in the manner of the ancients (that he had any knowledge of their rules, remains to be proved) it would certainly have been recorded by contemporary writers, among whom Ben Jonfon would have been the first. Had

his darling ancients been unfkilfully imitated by a rival poet, he would at least have preserved the memory of the fact, to fhew how unfafe it was for any one, who was not as thorough a scholar as himself, to have meddled with their facred remains.

"Within that circle none durft walk but he." He has reprefented Inigo Jones as being ignorant of the very names of thofe claffic authors, whofe architecture he undertook to correct: in his Poetafter he has in feveral places hinted at our poet's injudicious ufe of words, and feems to have pointed his ridicule more than once at fome of his defcriptions and characters. It is true that he has praised him, but it was not while that praise could have been of any fervice to him; and pofthumous applaufe is always to be had on eafy conditions. Happy it was for Shakespear, that he took nature for his guide, and, engaged in the warm purfuit of her beauties, left to Jonfon the repofitories of learning: fo has he escaped a contest which might have rendered his life unealy, and bequeathed to our poffeffion the more valuable copies from nature herfelf: for Shakespear was (fays Dr. Hurd, in his notes on Horace's Art of Poetry) "the firft that broke through the bondage of claffical fuperftition. And he owed this felicity, as he did fome others, to his want of what is called the advantage of a learned education. Thus, uninfluenced by the weight of early prepoffeffion, he ftruck at once into the road of nature and common fenfe: and without defigning, without knowing it, hath left us in his historical plays, with all their anomalies, an exact resemblance of the Athenian ftage, than is any where to be found in its moft profeffed admirers and copyifts." Again, ibid. "It is poffible, there are, who think a want of reading, as well as vaft fuperiority of genius, hath contributed to lift this aftonishing man, to

the

the glory of being esteemed the most original THINKER and SPEAKER, ince the times of Homer.

To this extract I may add the fentiments of Dr. Ed ward Young on the fame occafion. "Who knows whether Shakespear might not have thought lefs, if he had read more? Who knows if he might not have laboured under the load of Jonfon's learning, as Enceladus under Etna? His mighty genius, indeed, through the moft mountainous oppreffion would have breathed out fome of his inextinguishable fire; yet poffibly, he might not have risen up into that giant, that much more than common man, at which we now gaze with amazement and delight. Perhaps he was as learned as his dramatic province required; for whatever other learning he wanted, he was master of two books, which the last conflagration alone can deftroy; the book of nature, and that of man. These he had by heart, and has transcribed many admirable pages of them into his immortal works. These are the fountain-head, whence the Caftalian Areams of original compofition flow; and thefe are often mudded by other waters, though waters, in their distinct channel, most wholesome and pure: as two chemical liquors, feparately clear as crystal, grow foul by mixture, and offend the fight. So that he had not only as much learning as his dramatic province required, but, perhaps, as it could fafely bear. If Milton had fpared fome of his learning, his mufe would have gained more glory than he would have loft by it.",

Conjectures on Original Compofition.

THE first remark of Voltaire on this tragedy, is that the former king had been poifoned by his brother and his queen. The guilt of the latter, however, is far from being afcertained. The Ghoft forbears to accufe her as an acceffary, and very forcibly recommends her to the mercy of her fon. I may add, that her con→ fcience appears undisturbed during the exhibition of the nock tragedy, which produces fo vifible a diforder in her husband who was really criminal. The last obferva

tion

tion of the fame author has no greater degree of veracity to boast of; for now, fays hc, all the actors in the piece are swept away, and one Monfieur Fortenbras is introduced to conclude it. Can this be true, when Horatio, Ofrick, Voltimand, and Cornelius furvive? Thefe, together with the whole court of Denmark, are fuppofed to be prefent at the catastrophe, fo that we are not indebted to the Norwegian chief for having kept the ftage from vacancy.

Monfieur de Voltaire has fince tranfmitted, in an Epistle to the Academy of Belles Lettres, fome remarks on the late French tranflation of Shakespear; but alas! no traces of genius or vigour are difcoverable in this erambe repetita, which is notorious only for its infipidity, fallacy, and malice. It ferves indeed to fhew an apparent decline of talents and spirit in its writer, who no longer relies on his own ability to depreciate a rival, but appeals, in a plaintive ftrain, to the queen, and princeties of France for their affiftance to stop the further circulation of Shakespear's renown.

Impartiality, neverthelefs, muft acknowledge that his private correfpondence difplays a fuperior degree of animation. Perhaps an ague fhook him when he appealed to the public on this fubject; but the effects of a fever feem to predominate in his fubfequent letter to Monfieur D'Argenteuil on the fame occafion; for fuch a letter it is as our John Dennis (while his frenzy lafted) might be fuppofed to have written. "C'est moi qui autrefois parlai le premier de ce Shakespear: c'est moi qui le premier montrai aux François quelques perles quels j'avois trouvé dans fon enorme fumier." Mrs. Montague, the juftly celebrated authorefs of the Essay on the genius and writings of our author, was at Paris, and in the circle where thefe.ravings of the Frenchman were first publicly recited. On hearing the illiberal expreffion already quoted, with no lefs elegance than readinefs fhe replied “ C'eit un fumier qui a fertilizé une terre bien ingrate."-- in hort, the author of Zayre, Mahomet, and Semiramis, pulièfles all the mifchievous qualities

qualities of a midnight felon, who, in the hope to con-
ceal his guilt, fets the house which he has robbed on
fire.

As for Meffieurs D'Alembert and Marmontet, they
might fafely be paffed over with that neglect which
their impotence of criticifm deferves. Voltaire, in
fpite of his natural difpofition to vilify an English poet,
by adopting fentiments, characters, and fituations from
Shakespear, has bestowed on him involuntary praise.
Happily, he has not been difgraced by the worthle's
encomiums or disfigured by the aukward imitations of
the other pair, who "follow in the chace, not like
hounds that hunt, but like thofe who fill up the cry."
When D'Alembert declares that more fterling fenfe is
to be met with in ten French verfes than in thirty Eng-
lib ones, contempt is all that he provokes,-fuch con-
tempt as can only be exceeded by that which every
fcholar will exprefs, who may chance to look into the
profe tranflation of Lucan by Marmontel, with the vain
expectation of discovering either the sense, the spirit, or
the whole of the original.

STEEVENS.

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME,

INDEX.

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