and the Paffions are wrought up to as great Violence, but there is not fuch extreme Dignity of Character, nor fuch noble Sentiments of Morality in either Amintor or Melantius as in Brutus.*

Having thus giv'n, we hope, pretty strong Proofs of our Authors Excellence in the Sublime, and fhewn how near they approach in Splendor to the great Sun of the British Theatre; Let us now just touch on their Comedies and draw one Parallel of a very different Kind. Horace makes a Doubt whether Comedy should be call'd Poetry or not, i. e. whether the Comedies of Terence, Plautus, Menander, &c. should be esteem'd fuch, for in its own Nature there is a Comic Poetic Diction as well as a Tragic one; a Diction which Horace himself was a great Master of, tho' it had not then been used in the Drama; for ev'n the fublimeft Sentiments of Terence, when

* One Key to Amintor's Heroism and Distress, will, I believe, folve all the Objections that have been rais'd to this Scene; which will vanish at once by only an occafional Conformity to our Authors ethical and political Principles. They held Paffive Obedience and Non-refiftance to Princes an indifpenfable Duty; a Doctrine which Queen Elizabeth's Goodness made her Subjects fond of imbibing, and which her Succeffor's King-craft with far different Views, carried to its higheft Pitch. In this Period, our Authors wrote, and we may as well quarrel with Tass for Popery, or with Homer and Virgil for Heathenifm, as with our Aathors for this Principle. It is therefore the violent Shocks of the highest Provocations struggling with what Amintor thought his eternal Duty; of Nature rebelling against Principle (as a famous Partifan for this Doctrine in Queen Ann's Reign exprefs'd it, when he happen'd not to be in the Miniftry) which drive the Heroic Youth into that Phrenfy, which makes him challenge his dearest Friend for efpoufing too revengefully his own Quarrel against the facred Majefty of the moft abandonedly wicked King. The fame Key is neceffary to the Heroism of Ecius, Aubrey, Archas, and many others of our Author's Characters; in all which the Reader will perhaps think, there is fomething unnaturally abfurd; but the Abfurdity is wholly chargeable on the Doctrine not on the Poets.

his Comedy raises its Voice to the greatest Dignity, are still not cloath'd in Poetic Diction. The British Drama which before Jonson receiv'd only fome little Improvement from the Models of Greece and Rome, but fprung chiefly from their own Moralities, and religious Farces; and had a Birth extremely fimilar to what the Grecian Drama originally sprung from; differed in its Growth from the Greeks chiefly in two Particulars. The latter feparated the folemn Parts of their religious Shews from the Satiric Farcical Parts of them, and fo form'd the diftinct Species of Tragedy and Comedy; the Britons were not fo happy, but fuffer'd them to continue united, ev'n in Hands of as great or greater Poets than Sophocles and Euripides. But they had far better Succefs in the fecond Inftance. The Greeks appropriated the Spirit and Nerves of Poetry to Tragedy only, and tho' they did not wholly deprive the Comedy of Metre, they left it not the Shadow of Poetic 'Diction and Sentiment;

Idcirco quidam, Comedia necne Poema
Effet, quafivére: quod acer Spiritus ac Vis
Nec Verbis nec rebus ineft.

The Britons not only retain'd Metre in their Comedies, but also all the acer Spiritus, all the Strength and Nerves of Poetry, which was in a good Meafure owing to the Happiness of our blank Verfe, which at the fame time that it is capable of the highest Sublimity, the moft extenfive and noblest Harmony of the Tragic and Epic; yet when used familiarly is fo near the Sermo Pedeftris, fo easy and natural as to be well adapted ev'n to the drolleft Comic Dialogue. The French common Metre is the

very

very Reverse of this; it is much too stiff and formal either for Tragedy or Comedy, unable to rife with proper Dignity to the Sublimity of the one, or to defcend with Eafe to the jocofe Familiarity of the other. Befides the Cramp of Rhime every Line is cut asunder by fo ftrong a Cafure, that in English we should divide it into the three-foot Stanza, as

When Fanny blooming Fair

First caught my ravish'd Sight,
Struck with her Shape and Air
I felt a ftrange Delight.

Take one of the Rhimes from these, and write them in two Lines, they are exactly the fame with the French Tragic and Epic Metre.

When Fanny blooming Fair, firft caught my ra-
vish'd Sight,

Struck with her Air and Shape, I felt a strange
Delight.

In a Language where this is their fublimest Measure, no wonder that their greatest Poet fhould write his Telemaque an Epic Poem in Profe. Every one must know that the genteel Parts of Comedy, Defcripti ons of polite Life, moral Sentences, paternal Fondnefs, filial Duty, generous Friendship, and particularly the Delicacy and Tenderness of Lovers' Sentiments are equally proper to Poetry in Comedy as Tragedy; in thefe Things there is no fort of real Difference between the two, and what the Greeks and Latins form'd had no Foundation in Nature ; our old Poets therefore made no fuch Difference,

and their Comedies in this Refpect vaftly excel the Latins and Greeks. Jonfon who reform'd many Faults of our Drama, and follow'd the Plans of Greece and Rome very closely in moft Inftances, yet preferv'd the Poetic Fire and Diction of Comedy as a great Excellence, How many Inftances of inimitable Poetic Beauties might one produce from Shakespear's Comedies? Not fo many yet extremely numerous are thofe of our Authors, and fuch as in an ancient Claffic would be thought Beauties of the firft Magnitude. These lie before me in fuch Variety, that I scarce know where to fix. But I'll confine myself chiefly to Moral Sentiments. In the Elder Brother, Charles the Scholar thus fpeaks of the Joys of Literature; being ask'd by his Father

Nor will you

Take care of my Estate? Char. But in my Wishes;
For know, Sir, that the Wings on which my
Soul
Is mounted, have long fince born her too high
To ftoop at any Prey that foars not upwards.
Sordid and Dunghill Minds, compos'd of Earth,
In that grofs Element fix all their Happiness ;
But purer Spirits, purg'd, refin'd, shake off
That Clog of buman Frailty, Give me leave
T'enjoy myself; that Place that does contain
My Books, my beft Companions, is to me
A glorious Court, where hourly I converse
With the old Sages and Philofophers;
And fometimes, for Variety, I confer

With Kings and Emperors, and weigh their

Counfels;

Callingy

Calling their Victories, if unjustly got,
Unto a ftritt Account, and, in my Fancy,
Deface their ill-plac'd Statues.

Vol. II. Page 3.

In Monfieur Thomas, a Youth in Love with his Friend's intended Wife, after refifting the greatest Temptations of Paffion, is thus encouraged by the young Lady to perfevere in his Integrity.

Francis. Whither do you drive me?

Cellide. Back to your Honesty, make that good ever,
'Tis like a ftrong-built Castle feated high,
That draws on all Ambitions; ftill repair it,
Still fortify it: there are thousand Foes,
Befide the Tyrant Beauty will affail it.
Look to your Centinels that watch it hourly,
Your Eyes, let them not wander,

-Keep your Ears,
The two main Ports that may betray ye, ftrongly
From light Belief first, then from Flattery,
Efpecially where Woman beats the Parley;
The Body of your Strength, your noble Heart
From ever yielding to difhoneft Ends,

Ridg'd round about with Virtue, that no
Breaches,

No fubtle Mines may find you,

*

As

Our Authors, in carrying the Metaphor of a Citadel compar'd to the Mind thro' fo many Divifions, feem to have built on the Foundation of St. Paul, who in like manner carries on a Metaphor from Armour thro' its feveral Parts. Ephefians vi. 11.

Put