fpeaking one Word. There may be a proper Seafon for these feveral Terrors; and when they only come in as Aids and Affiftances to the Poet, they are not only to be excufed, but to be applauded. Thus the founding of the Clock in Venice preferved makes the Hearts of the whole Audience quake; and conveys a ftronger Terror to the Mind, than it is poffible for Words to do. The Appearance of the Ghoft in Hamlet is a Mafter-piece in its kind, and wrought up with all the Circumftances that can create either Attention or Horror. The Mind of the Reader is wonderfully prepared for his Reception by the Difcour fes that precede it: His dumb Behaviour, at his firft Entrance, strikes the Imagination very ftrongly: but every Time he enters, he is ftill more terrifying. Who can read the Speech with which young Hamlet accosts him, without trembling?

Hor. Look, my Lord, it comes!

Ham. Angels and Ministers of Grace defendus! Be thou a Spirit of Health, or Goblin damn'd; Bring with thee Airs from Heav'n, or Blafts from Hell;

Be thy Event wicked or charitable;

Thou

Thou com'ft in such a questionable Shape
That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee Hamlet,
King, Father, Royal Dane: Ob! oh! answer me,
Let me not burst in Ignorance; but tell
Why thy canoniz'd Bones, hearsed in Death,
Have burst their Cearments? Why the Sepulchre,
Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd,
Hath op'd his ponderous and marble Jaws
To caft thee up again? What may this mean?
That thou dead Coarfe again in compleat Steel
Revifit'ft thus the Glimpses of the Moon,
Making Night bideons?

I do not therefore find Fault with the Artifices above-mentioned when they are introduced with Skill, and accompanied by proportionable Sentiments and Expreffions in the Writing.

FOR the moving of Pity, our principal Machine is the Handkerchief; and indeed in our common Tragedies, we fhould not know very often that the Perfons are in Distress by any thing they fay, if they did not from time to time apply their Handkerchiefs to their Eyes. Far be it from me to think of banishing this Inftrument of Sorrow from the Stage; I know a Tragedy could not fubfift without it: All that I would contend for, is, to keep it from being mifapplied.

applied. In a word, I would have the Actor's Tongue fympathize with his Eyes.

A difconfolate Mother, with a Child in her Hand, has frequently drawn Compaffion from the Audience, and has therefore gained a Place in feveral Tragedies. A modern Writer, that obferved how this had took in other Plays, being refolved to double the Distress, and melt his Audience twice as much as those before him had done, brought a Princess upon the Stage with a little Boy in one Hand and a Girl in the other. This too had a very good Effect. A third Poet being refolved to outwrite all his Predeceffors, a few Years ago introduced three Children, with great Succefs: And, as I am informed, a young Gentleman, who is fully deter mined to break the moft obdurate Hearts, has a Tragedy by him, where the first Person that appears upon the Stage is an afflicted Widow in her Mourningweeds, with half a dozen fatherless Children attending her, like those that ufually hang about the Figure of Charity. Thus feveral Incidents that are beautiful in a good Writer, become ridiculous by falling into the Hands of a bad one. C 2

BUT

BUT among all our Methods of moving Pity or Terror, there is none fo abfurd and barbarous, and what more exposes us to the Contempt and Ridicule of our Neighbours, than that dreadful butchering of one another, which is very frequent upon the English Stage. To delight in seeing Men ftabbed, poyfoned, racked, or impaled, is certainly the fign of a cruel Temper: And as this is often practised before the British Audience, feveral French Criticks, who think these are grateful Spectacles to us, take Occafion from them to represent us a People that delight in Blood. It is indeed very odd, to fee our Stage ftrowed with Carcaffes in the last Scene of a Tragedy; and to obferve in the Ward-robe of the Play-house several Daggers, Poniards, Wheels, Bowls for Poison, and many other Inftruments of Death. Murders and Executions are always tranfacted behind the Scenes in the French Theatre: which in general is very agreeable to the Manners of a polite and civilized People: But as there are no Exceptions to this Rule on the French Stage, it leads them into Abfurdities almoft as ridiculous as that which falls under our present Cenfure. I re

member

member in the famous Play of Corneille, written upon the Subject of the Horatii and Curiatii; the fierce young Hero who had overcome the Curiatii one after: another, (inftead of being congratulated by his Sifter for his Victory, being upbraided by her for having flain her Lover) in the height of his Paffion and Refentment kills her. If any thing could extenuate so brutal an Action, it would be the doing of it on a fudden, before the Sentiments of Nature, Reafon, or Manhood could take Place in him. However, to avoid publick Bloodshed, as foon as his Paffion is wrought to its Height, he follows his Sifter the whole length of the Stage, and forbears killing her till they are both withdrawn behind the Scenes. I must confefs, had he murder'd her before the Audience, the Indecency might have been greater; but as it is, it appears very unnatural, and looks like killing in cold Blood. To give my Opinion upon this Cafe; the Fact ought not to have been represented, but to have been told, if there was any Occafion for it.

IT may not be unacceptable to the Reader, to see how Sophocles has conducted a Tragedy under the like delicate C 3

Cir