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public difputes of the ftage, from those that. ended happily. Terror and commiferation leave a pleafing anguish in the mind; and fix the audience in fuch a ferious compofure of thought, as is much more lafting and delightful than any little tranfient starts of joy and fatisfaction. Accordingly we find, that more of our English Tragedies have fucceeded, in which the favourites of the audience fink under their calamities, than thofe in which they recover themselves out of them. The best plays of this kind are The Orphan, Venice Preserved, Alexander the Great, Theodofius, All for Love, Oedipus, Oroonoko, Othello, &c. King Lear is an admirable Tragedy of the fame kind, as Shakespeare wrote it; but as it is reformed according to the chimerical notion of poetical juftice, in my humble opinion it has loft half its beauty. At the fame time I must allow, that there are very noble Tragedies, which have been framed upon the other plan, and have ended happily; as indeed most of the good Tragedies, which have been written fince the starting of the above-mentioned criticism, have taken this turn: as The Mourning Bride, Tamerlane, Ulyffes, Phædra and Hippolitus, with most of Mr. Dryden's. I must alfo allow, that many of Shakespeare's, and feveral of the celebrated Tragedies of antiquity, are caft in the fame form. I do not therefore difpute against this way of writing Tragedies, but against the criticism that would establish this as the only method; and by that means would very much

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much cramp the English Tragedy, and perhaps give a wrong bent to the genius of our writers.

The Tragi-Comedy, which is the product of the English theatre, is one of the most monftrous inventions that ever entered into a poet's thoughts. An author might as well think of weaving the adventures of Æneas and Hudibras into one poem, as of writing fuch a motly piece of mirth and forrow. But the abfurdity of thefe performances is so very vifible, that I fhall not fo infift upon it.

The fame objections which are made to Tragi-Comedy, may in fome meafure be applied to all Tragedies that have a double plot in them; which are likewife more frequent upon the English stage, than upon any other: for though the grief of the audience, in fuch performances, be not changed into another paffion, as in TragiComedies; it is diverted upon another object, which weakens their concern for the principal action, and breaks the tide of forrow, by throwing it into different channels. This inconvenience however, may in a great measure be cured, if not wholly removed, by the fkilful choice of an under-plot, which may bear fuch a near relation to the principal defign, as to contribute towards the completion of it, and be concluded by the fame catastrophe,

There is alfo another particular, which may be reckoned among the blemishes, or rather the falfe beauties of our English Tragedy: I mean those particular speeches which are commonly

known

known by the name of Rants. The warm and paffionate parts of a Tragedy, are always the most taking with the audience; for which reason we often see the players pronouncing, in all the violence of action, feveral parts of the Tragedy which the author writ with great temper, and designed that they fhould have been fo acted. I have seen Powell very often raise himself a loud clap by this artifice. The The poets that were acquainted with this fecret, have given frequent occafion for fuch emotions in the actor, by adding vehemence to words where there was no paffion, or inflaming a real paffion into fustian. This hath filled the mouths of our heroes with bombaft; and given them such sentiments, as proceed rather from a fwelling than a greatness of mind. Unnatural exclamations, curfes, vows, blafphemies, a defiance of mankind, and an outraging of the gods, frequently pafs upon the audience for towering thoughts, and have accordingly met with infinite applause.

I fhall here add a remark, which I am afraid our Tragic writers may make an ill ufe of. As our heroes are generally lovers, their fwelling and bluftering upon the stage very much recommends them to the fair part of their audience. The ladies are wonderfully pleased to see a man infulting kings, or affronting the gods, in one fcene, and throwing himself at the feet of his miftrefs in another. Let him behave himself infolently towards the men, and abjectly towards the fair one, and it is ten to one but he proves a favourite of the boxes. Dryden and Lee,

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Lee, in feveral of their Tragedies, have practised this fecret with good fuccefs,

But to fhew how a Rant pleases beyond the most just and natural thought that is not pronounced with vehemence, I would defire the reader, when he fees the tragedy of Oedipus, to obferve how quietly the hero is difmiffed at the end of the third act, after having pronounced the following lines, in which the thought is very natural, and apt to move compassion:

"To you, good gods, I make my last appeal;
"Or clear my virtues, or my crimes reveal,
"If in the maze of fate I blindly run,

"And backward trod thofe paths I fought to fhun; "Impute my errors to your own decree: "My hands are guilty, but my heart is free." Let us then obferve with what thunder-claps of applause he leaves the stage, after the impieties and execrations at the end of the fourth act; and you will wonder to fee an audience fo curfed and fo pleased at the fame time.

"O that, as oft I have at Athens feen,

[Where, by the way, there was no stage till many
years after Oedipus]

"The ftage arife, and the big clouds defcend;
"So now, in very deed, I might behold

"This pond'rous globe, and all yon marble roof,
"Meet like the hands of Jove, and crufh man-

"kind:

"For all the elements," &c.

C*,

By ADDISON, dated it feems from Chelfea. See final

Note to N° 7'; N°221, and Notes.

ADVERTISEMENT.

Having spoken of Mr. Powell, as sometimes raising himfelf applaufe from the ill taste of an audience; I must do him the justice to own, that he is excellently formed for a tragedian, and, when he pleafes, deferves the admiration of the beft judges; as I doubt not but he will in the "Conquest of Mexico," which is acted for his own benefit to-morrow night.

41. Tuesday, April 17, 1711,

-Tu non inventa reperta es.

OVID, Met, i. 654.

So found, is worse than loft.

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ADDISON.

YOMPASSION for the gentleman, who writes the following letter, fhould not prevail upon, me to fall upon the fair fex, if it were not that I find they are frequently fairer than they ought to be. Such impoftures are not to be tolerated in civil fociety, and I think his misfortune ought to be made public, as a warning for other men always to examine into what they admire.

'SIR,

SU

UPPOSING you to be a perfon of general knowledge, I make my application to you on a very particular occafion. I have a great mind to be rid of my wife, and hope, 3

' when

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