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Show - Z. • •••"l-i • • i„.^„„f -.in™ the incomparable Shakefpear for the us'd^rte^eifeventy * £ * indgineif UP°» ^ ^ \ve are t0 bf b l a m M for fameMt, ' ^ ^ ^ j ^ ^ ^ ^ t X for difcovering too little ofTlmT be l&1ti^**^ % ry ***? y%i * « 1 A u d S m7y neither be left unfatisficd by not feeing what is Beautiful, or fhoct'd b beholding what is either incredible or indecent. I hope I have already P ov'd in tins Difcourfe, that though w e are not altogether fo punctual as he French in obferving the Law s of Comedy; yet our errours are fo few, and little, amd tl o'fe things wherein w e excel them fo confiderable that w e ought of right to be p efer'd befSre them. But what v\\\ Lifideius fzy if they themfelves acknowledge they are too firmly ty'd up by thofe Laws/or breaking which he has Warn d t h e E n g 4 ? I will allege CcrmOth Words, as I find them in the end of his Difcomfe of the three Unities; II efi facile auxfpeculatis ff efirefever•« &c. TlS eafiefor fpeculative Perfons to judge fcverely; but ifthey would produce to pub- " lick view tenor twelve pieces of this Nature, they would perhaps give more Ia- " titude to the Rules than I have done, when by experience they had known h ow " much w e are bound up and conftrain'd by them, and h o w many Beauties of the " Stage they banifhM from it. To illuftrate a little what he has faid, by their fer-viie Obfervationsof the Unities of time and place, and integrity of Scenes, th have brought upon themfelves that Dearth of Plot, and narrownefs of Imagination, which may be obferv'd in all their Plays. H o w many Beautiful Accidents might naturally happen in two or three Days, which cannot arrive with any probability in the compafs of Twenty Four hours? There is time to be allowed alfo for maturity of defign, which amongft great and prudent Perfons, fuch as are often reprefented in Tragedy, cannot, with any likelihood of truth, be brought to pafs at fo fhort a warning. ' Farther, by tying themfelves ftriftly to the Unity of place, and unbroken Scenes, they are fore'd many times to omit fome Beauties which cannot be fhown where the Aft began ; but might, if the Scenes were interrupted, and the Stage clear'd for the Perfons to enter in another place; and therefore the French Poets are often fore'd upon abfurdities: For if the Aft begins in a Chamber all the Perfons in the Play muft have fome bufinefs or other to come thither, or elfe they are not to be fhown that A a , and fometimes their Characters are very unfitting to appear there; As,fuppofe it wrere theKing'sBed-Cham-ber, yet the meaneftMan in the Tragedy muft come and difpatch his bufinefs there rather than in the Lobby or Court-yard (which is fitter for him) for fear the Stage fhould be clear'd, and the Scenes broken. Many times they fall by it into a greater inconvenience; for they keep their Scenes unbroken,and yet change the place; as in one of their neweft Plays, where the A a begins in the Street. There a Gentleman is to meet his Friend ; he fees him with his M a n , coming out from his Father's Houfe; they talk together, and the firft goes out: The fecond, w h o is a Lover, has made an appointment with his Miftrefs; fhe appears at the W i n d o w, and then w e are to imagine the Scene lies under it. This Gentleman is call'd away, and leaves his Servant with his Miftrefs: Prefently her Father is heard from within; the young Lady is affraid the Serving-Man fhould be difcover'd, and thrufts him through a Door which is fuppos'd to be her Clofet. A Iter this, the Father enters to the Daughter, and now the Scene is in a Houfe: For he is feeking from one R o o m to another for this Poor Philipm, or French Diego, w h o is heard from within, drolling and breaking many a miferable conceit upon his fad Condition. In this ridiculous manner the Play goes on, the Stage being never empty all the while: So that the Street, the Window, the two Houfes, and the Clofet are made to walk about, and the Perfons to ftand ftill. N o w what I befeech you is more eafie than to Write a regular French Play, or more difficult than to Writ an irregular Engh(IT one, like thofe of Fletcher, or of Shake[pear. If they content themfelves as 0»«Y/,? did, with fome flat defign, which, like an ill Riddle, is found out e'er it be half proposed ; fuch Plots w c can make evert-way regular as eafily as they: But when e'er they endeavour to rife up to any quick turns and counterturns of Plot, as fome of them have attempted, fince Cvr-ncike\ Plays have been lefs in Vogue, you fee they Write as irregularly though they cover it more fpecioufly. Hence the reafon is perfpicuous. w h v ™ IT qTK and *llller ot SPi r i t : A " d therefore 'tis a ftrange miftake in thh& drench. We have borrow'd nothing from them; our Plots are weav'd in Englifh - of Dramatic^ Poefie. {p Enghfh Looms: W e endeavour therein to follow the variety and greatnefs of Characters which arc deriv'd to us from Shakcjjpear and Fletcher: The copioufnefs and well-knitting of the intrigues w e have from Johnfon, and for the Verfe it felf w e have Enghfh Prefixlents of Elder date then any of Corneille's Plays : (not to name our Old Comedies before Shakcfpear, which were all Writ in Verfe of fix Feet or Alexandras, fuch as^he French n o w ufe; I can m o w in Shake/pear, many Scenes of R h y m e together, and the like in Ben. Johnfonh Tragedies: In Catiline and Se-janu* fometimes thirty or forty lines ; I mean befides the Chorus, or the Monologues, which by the way, fhow'd Ben. no Enemy to this Way of Writing, efpecial-ly if you look upon his fad Shepherd which goes fometimes unon R h y m e fometimes upon blank Verfe, like an Horfe w h o cafes himfelf upon Trot and Amble You find him hkewife commcndingFWw'sPaftoral of the Faithful Shepherdefs; which is for the moft part Rhyme, though not refin'd to that purity to which it hath fince been brought: And thefe examples are enough to clear us from a fervile imitation of theFrench. But to return from whence I have digrefs'd,I dare boldly affirm thefe two things of the Enghfh Drama : Firft, That w e have many Plays of ours as regular as any of theirs; and which, befides, have more variety of Plot and Charafters : And fe-condly, that in moft ofthe irregular Plays of Shakefpear or Fletcher ( for Ben. John-fon\ are for the moft part regular; there is a more mafculine fancy and greater Spirit in all the Writing, than there is in any of the French. I could produce even in Shakefpear's and Fletcher's Works, fome Plays which are almoft exaaiy form'd ; as the Merry Wives of Wind for, and the Scornful Lady : But becaufe (generally fpeaking) Shakefpear, w h o Writ firft, did not perfectly obferve the Laws of Comedy, and Fletcher, w h o came nearer to perfeaion, yet through carelefnefs made many faults ; I will rake the pattern of a perfea Play from Ben. Johnfou, w h o was a careful and learned obfervcr of the Dramatick Laws', and from all his Comedies I fhall fcleft The Silent Woman; of which I will make a fhort Examen, according to thofe Rules which theFrench obferve. As Neandtr was beginning to examine the Silent W o m a n , Eugenius, looking earneftly upon him; I befeechyou Neander, faid he, gratifie the Company and m e in particular fo far, as before you fpeak of the Play, to give us a Character of the Author; and tell us frankly your Opinion, whether you do not think all Writers, both French and Englifh, ought to give place to him? I fear, replied Neander, That in obeying your commands I fhall draw a little en vy upon m y fef f. Befides, in performing them, it will be firft ncceffary to fpeak fomewhat of Shakefpear and Fletcher, his Rivals in Poefie; and one of them, in m y Opinion, - at leaft his equal, perhaps his fuperior. T o begin then with Shake/pear ; he was the M a n w h o of all Modern, and perhaps Ancient Poets, had the largeft and moft comprehenfive Soul. All the Images of Nature were ftill prefentto him, and he drew7 them not laborioufly, but luckily : W h e n he defcribes any thing, you more than fee it, you feel it too. Thofe whoaccufe him to have wanted learning, give him the greater commendation: H e was naturally learn'd ; he needed not the Speftacles of Books to read Nature : helook'dhuvards, and found her there. I cannot fay he is every where alike; were he fo, I fhould do him injury to compare him with the greateft of Mankind. H e is many times flat, infipid ; His Comick Wit degenerating into Clenches, his Serious fwelling into Bombaft. But he isalways great, when fome great occafion is prefented to him : N o M a n can fay he ever had a fit fubjeft for his Wit, and did not thenraife himfelf -Js high above the reft of'Peots, Quantum lint a (o.'ent, inter viburnacupreffi. The confideration of this made Mr. Hales of Eaton fay. That there was no fub-jeft of which any Poet ever Writ, but he would produce it much better treated of in Shakefpear', and however others are now' generally prefer'd before him, yet the in he liv'd, which had Contemporaries with him, Fletcher and John/on tt equal'dthem to him in their efteem: And in the laft King's Court, when •'s reputation was at higheft, Sir John Suckling, and with him the greater part ofthe Courtiers, let our Shakefpear hv above him. rher of w h o m I a m next to fpeak, had with the advantage of Sha , Wit, which was their precedent, great natural gifts, improv'd by ftudy. hwihisim lj,eu a dh pgepm Beleeainarvtus'd m b,ion vnf ttcu hobcremfr i^eVtcdettareifWdney gs a,,l lbih efIein n nsWog trW f ricoito tan tctiocrn iughvrsiia mntt geo ; aah l ialjsn u hdCdi gesten hP feloruofertf esoP.,rl eaa yWIns hd,n a e'tetthdi asv t aft lphBueoeeaun khg. eh nJ thoo,a h fdnua /srtoodnr ther |