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Show 7a An ESS A T __ - fomev that P 1 to tal< LVS, and return to theirs, l nave noici. U ^ U , -; ed upon fome known Hiftory : Aa"*^^^^^ttteyha^fuipafirV! » M / ^ r ; and 111 that they have ^ ™ ™ ^ A £ £ g . he Foundation of their the French goes farther; . f Atque itamentitur ; ftcvens faljx tcmijctt, Primo ne medium, medio ne dijcrtpet tmum : Hefo interweaves 'truth with probable Fiction, that he puts a pleafing Fallacy uoon u ! S s thl intrigues of Fate, and difpenfes with the leventy ot Hi lory, R e w a r d th1 vertue which has been rendred to us there unfortunate. Sometimes heftory has ft the fuccefs fo doubtful, that the Writer is free by the pmriep o a Poet to take that which of two or more relations will belt fute with hisde-t n AS £ Sample, the Death of Cyrus, w h o m %fm and lome others report mhave Deriih'd m the ScythianWzr, but X « ^ * a m r m s t o have died in his Bed of xt e m old Age. Nay more, when the event is palt difpute, even then w e a e willing to be deceiv'd, and the Poet, if he contrives it w ith appearance ot truth, has all the Audience of his Party ; at leaft during the time Ins Play is Ac. ing : fo na-turallv w e are kind to vertue, when our o w n intereft is not in queftion, that w e take it up as the general concernment of Mankind. On the other fide, it you con-fider the Hiftorical Plays of Shakefpear, they are rather fo many Chronicles of Kings, or the bufinefs many times ofThirty or Forty Years* crampt into a reprefentation oftwo Hours and a half, which is not to imitate or paint Nature, but rather to draw her in miniature, to take her in little ; to look upon her through the wrong endofaPerfpeaive, and receive her Images not only much lets, but inhnit more impeded than the Lite: 'this, initead of making a Play delightful, rendi it ridiculous. Quodcunctue ofendis mihi fie, increauius odi. For the Spirit of M a n cannot be fatisfied but with truth, or at I rifimil 11 and a Poem is to contain, if not T * hvy.a.yct livuoiiriv c^a, asoneot th. Poets has exprefs'd it. Another thing in which the French differ from us and from the Spam. that tliey do notcmbarafs , or cumber themfelve* with too much. Plot: they 01 rcprefent fo much of a Story as will conftitute one whole great Action tut nacnt r a Play ; we, who undertake more, do but multiply adventures; which, not being prod ue'd from one another, aseffeasfromcaufes, but barely following, conftitute many Adions in the Drama, and confequently make it many PI But by purfuing clofe one Argument, which is notcloy'd with many turns, the French have gain'd more 1 ibcrty for Verfe, in which they Write ; They have leifure to dwell upon a fubiea which deferves it; and to reprefent the Paffions (which w e have acknowledg'd to be the Poets W o r k ) without being hurried from one thing to another, as w e are in the Plays of Calderon, which w e have feen lately upon our 'theaters, under the name of Spanifii Plots. I have taken notice but of one Tragedy of ours, whofe Plot has that Uniformity and Unity of Delign in it which I have commended in the French ; and that is Rollo ; or rather, under the trie of Rollo , the Story of Baflianuazad Get a, in hlerodian, there indeed the Plot is neither large nor intricate, but juft enough to till the minds of the Audience, not to cloy them. Befides, you tee it founded upon the truth of f; onlv the time of the action is not reduceable to the ftrianefs of the Rules ; and you fee in fome places a little Farce mingled, which is below the Dignity of tl th.er Parts; and in this all our Poets are extremely peccant, even Bentyhnfon himfelf in _•> ind Catiline has given us this Oleoof a Play ; this unnatural mix-ncdy and Tragedy, which to m e founds juft as ridicuoutlv as the Hiftory or uavia with the merry Humours of Golias. In Sejanu* you may take no-of the Scene betwixt Livia and the Phyiician, which is a pieafant Satyre upon the Artificial helps of Beauty : In Catiline you m a y fee the Parliament of W o m e n ; the little envies of them to one another; and all that paffes betwixt Curio and PHI' S admirable in their kind, but of an ill mingle with the reft. Bu,t of Dramatic!^ Poefie. t Q 1 " '' ' ' " " • ' - • ' - -.--. - ^.^ - - -. But I return again to the French Writers; who, as I have laid, do not burden themfelves too m u c h with Plot, which has been reproach'd to them by an ingene-ous Perfon of our Nation as a fault, for he fays they commonly make but one Per fon conliderable in a i they dwell upon him, and his concernments, while the reft ofthe Perfons are onlv fubfervient to fet him off. If he intends tins by it, that there is one Perfon in the Play w h o is of greater Dignity than the reft, he muft tax, not only theirs, but thofe of the Ancients, and which'he would be loth to do, the belt of ours; for 'tis imporfible but that one Perfon mult be more confpicuous in it than any other, and confequently the greateft lhare in the Aaion muft devolve on him. W e fee it fo in the management of all affairs ; even in the moft equal Ariftocracy, the ballance cannot be fo iuftly pois'd, but fome one will be fuperiout to the reft; either in parts, fortune, intereft, or the confideration of fome glorious exploit; which will reduce the greateft part of bufinefs into his hands. But, if hewoul'l have us to imagine that in exalting of oneCharaaer the reft of them are neglefted, and that all of them have not fome fhare or other in the Adion of the Play, I defire him to produce any o Tragedies, wherein every Perfon (like fo many Servants in a well governed Family) has not fome employment, and w h o is notnecelTary to the carrying on of the Plot, or at leafi to your understanding it. There are indeed fome protatick Perfons in the Ancients, w h o m they make ufe of in their Plays, either to hear, or give the Relation: But the French avoid this with great addrefs, making their Narration only to, or by fuch w h o are fome way interefTed in the main delign. And n o w I a m fpeaking of Relations, I cannot take a fitter Opportunity to add this in favour of the French, that they often ufe them with better judgment and more a propos than the Englifh do. Not that I commend Narrations in general, but there are two forts of them ; one of thofe things which are Antecedent to the Play, and are related to make the conclua of it more clear to us, but, 'tis a fault to choofe fuch fubjeas for the Stage which will inforceus upon that Rock ; becaufe w e fee they are feldom liftned toby the Audience, and that is many times the ruin of the Play : For, being once let pafs without attention, the Audience can never recover themfelves to underftand the Plot; and indeed it is fomewhat unrcafonable that they fhould be put to fo much trouble, as, that to comprehend what paffes in their fight, they muft have recourfe to what was done, perhaps, ten or twenty Years ago. But there is another fort of Relations, that is, of things hapning in the Action ofthe Play, and fuppos'd to be done behind the Scenes: And this is many times both convenient and Beautiful : For, by it, the French avoid the tumult, which w e are fub)ea to in England, by rcprefenting Duels, Battels, and the like ;^ which r< nders our Stage too like the Theaters,where they fight Prizes. For what is more ridiculous then to reprefent an A r m y with a D r u m and five Men behind it; all which, the Hero of the other fide is to drive in before him,or to fee a Duel fought, and one flain with two or three thrufts ofthe foilcs, which w e know are fo blunted, that w e might give a M a n an hour to kill another in good earneft with them. I have obferv'd that in all our Tragedies, the Audience cannot forbear laughing when the Actors are to di the moft Comick part of the whole Play. Alt Paffions ma v I reprefented on the Stage, if to the well-Writing of them the :or fiip] I commanded Voice, and Limbs that move cafily, and without ftiffnefs ; but'there are many Actions which can never be imitated to a juft height: Dyinj isathingwhich none but a R o m a n Gladiator could naturally perform upon t; when he did not imitate or reprefent, but naturally do it; and therefore it is better to omit the reprefentation of it. _ The wordsofa good Writer which defcribe it lively,will make a deeper imprcmon of belief in us than all the Actor can p us to, when he feems to fall dead before:- Poet in the description of a Beautiful Garden, or a M e a d o w , will pleafe our imagination more then the place it felf can pleafe our fight. W h e n we fee Death i aivinc'd it isbutFiaion; but when w e hear it related, our Eyes (the ftrongeft Wineries) are wanting, which might have unde- 'd us ; and w e an lling to favour the Height when the Poet does not too grofly impofe upon us. They therefore w h o imagine thefe relations would make no concernment in the Au t deceiv'd, by confounding them with the o-r, winch are of things A lent to the Play; thofe are made often in cold v\ fasj-m hence ; but thefe are warm'd with our concern- . Whicl, ,'d in the Play. What the Philofophers fay ot mo- . tlntwh.. ;nn ittontinues of it felf, and wul do fo to Eternity ' without |