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Show 150 THE CODE OF TERPSICHORE. This doctrine, Voltaire successfully attacked, and prevented any proselytes from being made, who, however, could not have obtained much encouragement. In England, it may be observed the unities are almost totally disregarded ; the audience are carried to and fro, almost from one side of the world to the other, and consequently during any indefinite space of time. The English have, indeed, some few tragedies in which the unities are preserved. One of these (CatoJ, though written by a celebrated genius, and containing great beauties, being considered dull from want of motion, is seldom performed. It is evident that Shakspeare is the father of that unbounded license, to be observed in the English dramas. W h a t fine opportunities for display have not been lost while paying too strict an attention to unity of place ! I do not pretend that the composer should keep his characters journeying from town to town, or that he should transport us into another country at the beginning of every act; but I am of the same opinion as those who, proceeding to neither of these extremities, do exactly what the plot and design of the piece require, and, if it is necessary, convey their characters from one city to another, or from one quarter to another in the same town. By this means dramatic pieces become more varied and natural, and, consequently, more interesting. The ideas of the composer, also, will have a greater latitude to range in, his resources multiplied, and he may rove indeed nearly in unlimited liberty: while the imagination, feeling itself thus unconstrained, invents with a greater facility. In short, taste and judgment have a right to destroy the works of pedantry6. With respect to unity of time, even the philosopher who first promulgated these laws, which many consider indispensable, remarks, that, when the nature of the action renders it necessary, the time of twenty-four hours may be |