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Show 16 An E S S AT I grant the French have performed what was poffible on the ground-Work of the Spanifh Plays ; what was pleafant before they have made regular ; but there is not above one good Play to be Writ upon all thofe Plots; they are too much alike to pleafe often, which w e need not the Experience of our o wn Stage tojuftifie. As for their new way of mingling mirth with ferious Plot I do not with Liftdeius condemn the thing, though I cannot approve their manner of doing it: H e tells us w e cannot fo fpeedily recollea our felves after a Scene of great Paffion and concernment as to pafs to another of mirth and humour, and to enjoy it with any relifh : But w h y fhould he imagine the Soul of M a n more heavy than his Sences ? Does not the Eye pafs from an unpleafant objea to a pleafant in a much fhorter time than is requir'd to this? and does not the unpleafantnefs ofthe firft commend the Beauty ofthe latter? The old Rule of Logick might have convinc'd him, that contraries when plac'd near, fet off each other. A continued gravity keeps the Spirit too much bent; w e muft refrefh it fometimes, as w e bait upon a journey, that w e may go on with greater cafe. A Scene of Mirth mix'd with Tragedy has the fame eftba upon us which our Mufick has betwixt the A a s , and that w e find a relief to us from the belt Plots and Language of the Stage, if the difcourfes have been long. I muft therefore have ftronger arguments e'er I a m convinc'd, that Companion and Mirth in the famefubjea deflroy each other ; and in the mean time cannot but conclude, to the Honour of our Nation, that w e have invented,increas'd and perfeaed a more pleafant w a y of Writing for the Stage than was ever known to theAncients or Moderns of any Nation,which isTragi-Comedy. And this leads m e to wonder w h y Liftdeius and many others fhould cry up the barrennefs of the French Plots above the variety and copioufnefs of the Englifh. Their Plots are fingle, they carry on one defign which is pufh'd forward by all the Aaors, every Scene in the Play contributing and moving towards it: Ours, be-fides the main defign, have under Plots or by-concernments, of lefs confiderable Perfons, and Intrigues, which are carried on with the motion of the main Plot: Juft as they fay the Orb of the fix'd Stars, and thofe of the Planets, though they have motions of their owrn,are whirl'd about by the motion ofthe primum mobilc,ln which they are contain'd : That fimilitude expreffes much ofthe Fmglifh Stage: For if contrary motions may be found in Nature to agree ; if a Planet can go Eaft and Weft at the fame time ; oneway by Virtue of his o w n motion, the other by the force ofthe firft mover ; it will not be difficult to imagine h o w the under Plot, which is only different, not contrary to the great defign, m a y naturally be con-duaed along with it. Eugenius has already fhown us, from the Confeffion of the French Poets, that the Unity of Aaion is fufficiently preferv'd if all the imperfea Aaions of the Play are conducing to the main defign : But when thofe petty intrigues of a Play are fo ill order'd tha t they have no Co-herence with the other, I muft grant Liftdeius. has reafon to tax that want of due Connexion; for Co-ordination in a Play is as dangerous and unnatural as in a State. In the mean time he muft acknowledge our variety, if well order'd, will afford a greater pleafure to the Audience. As for his other Argument, that by purfuing one fingle T h e m e they gain an advantage to exprefs and work up the Paffions, I with any example lie could bring from them would make it good: For I confefs their Verfes are to m e the coldcft I have ever read : Neither indeed is it poffible for them, in the w a y they take, fo to exprefs Paffion, as that the effects of it fhould appear in the concernment of an Audience: Their Speeches being fo many Declamations, which tire us with the length; fo that infteadof perfuading us to grieve for their imaginary Heroes, w e are concern'd for our o w n trouble, as w e are in the tedious Vifits of Bad Company ; w e are in pain till they are gone. W h e n the French Stage came to be re-form'd by Cardinal Richelieu, thofe long Harangues were introduc'd, to comply with the gravity of a Churchman. Look upon the Cinna and the Pompey, they are not fo properly to be called Plays, as long Difcourfes of reafon of State : And Po-lieucle in matters of Religion is as folemn as the long ftops upon our Organs. Since that time it is grown into a Cuftom, and their Aaors fpeak by the Hour- Glafs, as ourParfons do; nay, they account it the grace of their parts: And think themfelves chfparag'd by the Poet, if they m a y not twice or thrice in a Play entertain the Audience with a Speech of an hundred or two hundred lines. I deny not but this m a y fute well enough with theFrench; for as we, w h o are a more fullen PeopIe,come to be diverted at our cfoomne whihtyhe rC otom emadky ei st hmeomrfe lpvleesa fmi oPnglr aety ofs eu;r sito,hu esay:n wdA hnTodr aatgrheeids oi fIe sac not noAc ietrihyve eam n.td o GbBageuey ton e ntreteao mrl pelfeaypr, e ak of Dramatick Poefie. • 17 generally, it cannot be.deny'd that fhort Speeches and Replies are;mo to move the Paffions, and beget concernment in us than the other: Ecr it ts unnatural for any one in aGuft of Paffion to fpeak long together, or for another m the fame Condition, tofuflerhim, without interruption. Grief and Paffion arc like. floods rais'd in little Brooks by a. fudden rain ; they arc quickly up, and it the concernment be pour'dunexpeaedlv in upon us, it overflows us .• But .a long fober fhower gives them leifure to run out as they came in, without troubling the ordinary current. As for Comedy, Repartee is one of its chiefeft Graces; the greateft pleafure of the Audience is a chafe of W i t kept up on both fides, and fwiftly ma-fiag'd. And this our Fore-Fathers, if not we, have had in Fletcher's Plays, to a much higher degree of pcrtixVon than theFrench Poets can arrive at. There is another part of Liftdeius his Difcourfe, in which he has rather excus'd our Neighbours than commended them ; that is, for aiming only to make one Perfon confiderable in their Plays, 'tis very true what he has urged, that one Charaaer in all PI en without the Poets care, will have advantage ot all the otVrs ; and that the defign of the whole Drat ' it. But. this hinders not thai there may be more Aiming Chai Play : Many Perfons of a fecond magnitude, nay, feme fo w r, to almoft equal to the firft,' that greatnefs may be oppos'd to gr '' die Perfons be m; ra-ble not only bvtheir »n. ' Its evident that the more the Perfons are, the greater will be t ety of the Plot. It then die parts are ma-nag'd fo regularly that the Beaut ' * intll'e> aml that t,,e ™rW become no?a perplex'd and con lents, vou will hud it mbnit, pi afing to be led in a Labyrinth of d ' you fee lome ot your way be-h ou, yet difcern not" the end til! you arrive at it And that all this is practicable, I can produce for e -any of our Englifh Plays: As the Maids Traoedy, the Afomijt, the ' 'going to have named the box, but that the Unity oi - * i ,for ^ v < r *&*** two Actions in the Play; thefirftn lefourthAft; die fecond fore'd from itin the fifth : Which J to be O uidemn d in him, becaufe the difguife ofVolpone, though it fuited not with fas Chai aftei ; s a crafty or covetous Perfon, agreed well enough with that of a Voluptuary : V it the Poet gain'd theendheaim'd at,thepunifhment of Vicc,and the reward ot Virtue, which that difguife produe'd. So that to j pally of it,it was an excellent fifth Act, but not fo naturally proceeding from the former. But to leave this, and pafs to the latter p-to! ItHdetus his Difcourfe, whieir concerns relations, I muft acknowledge with HfR.i that the French have realon when they hide that part of theAftion which would occafion too much tumult upon the Stage, and choofe rather to have it made known by Narration to the Audience, Farther I think it very convenient, for the reafons he has given, that a incredible Aaions wereremov'd; but, whether Cuftom has fo inhnnated it felt into oiu Country-Men, or Nature has fo form'd them to fiercenefs, I know not; but they will fcarcely fuffcr combats and other objects of horrour to be taken fromi them. And indeed, the indecency of tumults is all which can be obiected againft fighting - For w h y may not our imagination as well fuffcr it felf to be deluded with the p. o^ bability of it',as with any other thing in the Play ? For m y part,I can with as grea eafe D made m y felf that the b* for** are given in good earneft, as- I can that they w h o ftvike them are Kings,or Princes, or thofe Perfons winch they enrcfcnt. For objects of incredibility I would he fatisfied fiob^S - ^ w e have any fo remov'd from all appearance of truth as are thofe of g r « * £ £ dromede ? A play which has been frequented the moft ot any b ^ W ^ £ *J Verfeus, or the Son of an Heathen God, the P«frf*ndthe Monfter were n * c * AaSle to choak a ftrong belief, let him blame any ^ ^ ^ { ^ Z ^ b l - Tbofe indeed were objects of Delight; yet the reafon is the fur* as to tlc proba_ bility: For he makes it not a Ballette or Mafque , but a P , * tabL^dSSc ble truth. But for Death, that it ought not to Reprefented, 1.have betides the Argumentsalleg'd by Liftdeius, the Authority ot Ben. Johnjon, who has torooin it m^Tragedi^-foJbotli the Death of ^ ^ ^ t ^ f ^ U ^ t in the latter I cannot but obferve one irregularity of that Jpeat ^ ' ^ ^ e mov'd the Scene in the fame Aft, from Rome toCatiline s A n , a n d ^ « £ *? againtORome; andbefides, hasallow'da very inconfiderable tunc,after C a t i ^ oStthpheee eercv whei,nf tef oo arf ptiahtie nt ffotu nlt hkoeib nfSegeronvafet treh :eo fBW *ahtt*ilce&h, *Ia nfodhr ot uthlhede r ndeotetucr oanrm oumtm a Pdofv^teh ej St^^ag»e^ , i'lw hJe h^ad^ on otr |