bounds. His thoughts are wonderfully suited to tragedy, but frequently lost in such a cloud of words that it is hard to see the beauty of them. There is an infinite fire in his works, but so involved in smoke, that it does not appear in half its lustre. He frequently succeeds in the passionate parts of the tragedy, but more particularly where he slackens his efforts, and eases the style of those epithets and metaphors in which he so much abounds. What can be more natural, more soft, or more passionate, than that line in Statira's speech, where she describes the charms of Alexander's conversation? Then he would talk: good gods! how he would talk! 1 2 That unexpected break in the line, and turning the description of his manner of talking into an admiration of it, is inexpressibly beautiful, and wonderfully suited to the fond character of the person that speaks it. There is a simplicity in the words that outshines the utmost pride of expression. Otway has followed nature in the language of his tragedy, and therefore shines in the passionate parts, more than any of our English poets. there is something familiar and domestic in the fable of his tragedy, more than in those of any other poet, he has little pomp, but great force in 1 Then he will talk; good gods! how he will talk! Even when the joy he sighed for is possessed, He speaks the kindest words and looks such things, Vows with such passion, vows with so much grace, That 'tis a kind of heaven to be deluded by him.' As -The Rival Queens, Act i. 2 Thomas Otway (1652-1685) wrote two famous tragedies, The Orphan' (1680), and Venice Preserved' (1682), and some very inferior comedies. Unlike Lee, Otway put aside the emperors and princes of the heroic drama, and drew touching scenes of ordinary life. his expressions. For which reason, though he has admirably succeeded in the tender and melting part of his tragedies, he sometimes falls into too great a familiarity of phrase in those parts which, by Aristotle's rule, ought to have been raised and supported by the dignity of expression. It has been observed by others, that this poet has founded his tragedy of Venice Preserved' on so wrong a plot, that the greatest characters in it are those of rebels and traitors. Had the hero of his play discovered the same good qualities in the defence of his country, that he showed for its ruin and subversion, the audience could not enough pity and admire him: but as he is now represented, we can only say of him, what the Roman historian1 says of Catiline, that his fall would have been glorious (si pro patria sic concidisset) had he so fallen in the service of his country. No. 40. Monday, April 16, 1711. C. [ADDISON. Ac ne forte putes me, quæ facere ipse recusem, TH HE English writers of tragedy are possessed with a notion, that when they represent a virtuous or innocent person in distress, they ought not to leave him till they have delivered him out of his troubles, or made him triumph over his 1 Sallust's Catalina. enemies. This error they have been led into by a ridiculous doctrine in modern criticism, that they are obliged to an equal distribution of rewards and punishments, and an impartial execution of poetical justice. Who were the first that established this rule I know not; but I am sure it has no foundation in nature, in reason, or in the practice of the ancients. We find that good and evil happen alike to all men on this side the grave; and as the principal design of tragedy is to raise commiseration and terror in the minds of the audience, we shall defeat this great end, if we always make virtue and innocence happy and successful. Whatever crosses and disappointments a good man suffers in the body of the tragedy, they will make but small impression on our minds, when we know that in the last act he is to arrive at the end of his wishes and desires. When we see him engaged in the depth of his afflictions, we are apt to comfort ourselves, because we are sure he will find his way out of them; and that his grief, how great soever it may be at present, will soon terminate in gladness. For this reason the ancient writers of tragedy treated men in their plays as they are dealt with in the world, by making virtue sometimes happy and sometimes miserable, as they found it in the fable which they made choice of, or as it might affect their audience in the most agreeable manner. Aristotle considers the tragedies that were written in either of these kinds, and observes, that those which ended unhappily had always pleased the people, and carried away the prize in the public disputes of the stage, from those that ended happily.1 Terror and commiseration leave a pleasing anguish 1 Aristotle says that upon the stage, and in dramatic contests, tragedies which end unhappily, if they succeed, have the most tragic effect (Poetics, Part II. § 12). in the mind; and fix the audience in such a serious composure of thought, as is much more lasting and delightful than any little transient starts of joy and satisfaction. Accordingly we find, that more of our English tragedies have succeeded in which the favourites of the audience sink under their calamities, than those in which they recover themselves out of them. The best plays of this kind are ‘The Orphan,' 'Venice Preserved,' 'Alexander the Great,' 'Theodosius,"1All for Love,' 'Edipus,' 'Oroonoko, 'Othello,' &c. 'King Lear' is an admirable tragedy of the same kind, as Shakespeare wrote it; but as it is reformed according to the chimerical notion of poetical justice, in my humble opinion it has lost half its beauty. At the same time I must allow, that there are very noble tragedies which have been framed upon the other plan, and have ended happily; as indeed most of the good tragedies which have been written since the starting of the above-mentioned criticism, have taken this turn; as 'The Mourning Bride,' 'Tamerlane,' Ulysses, 'Phædra and Hyppolitus,' with most of Mr. Dryden's. I must also allow, that many of Shakespeare's, and several of the celebrated tragedies of antiquity, are cast in the same form. I do not therefore dispute against this way of writing tragedies, but against the criticism that would establish this as the only method; and by that means would very much cramp the English tragedy, 1 This tragedy, like Alexander the Great' and 'Edipus,' was by Lee. 2 Oroonoko,' by Thomas Southern, was produced in 1699. 3 The Mourning Bride,' Congreve's sole tragedy, was produced in 1697. Tamerlane' (1702) and Ulysses' (1706) are by Nicholas Rowe; and Phædra and Hyppolitus' (see No. 18) by Edmund Smith. and perhaps give a wrong bent to the genius of our writers. The tragi-comedy, which is the product of the English theatre,1 is one of the most monstrous inventions that ever entered into a poet's thoughts. An author might as well think of weaving the adventures of Æneas and Hudibras into one poem, as of writing such a motley piece of mirth and sorrow. But the absurdity of these performances is so very visible, that I shall not insist upon it. The same objections which are made to tragicomedy may, in some measure, be applied to all tragedies that have a double plot in them, which are likewise more frequent upon the English stage than upon any other; for, though the grief of the audience in such performances be not changed into another passion, as in tragi-comedies, it is diverted upon another object, which weakens their concern for the principal action, and breaks the tide of sorrow by throwing it into different channels. This inconvenience, however, may in a great measure be cured, if not wholly removed, by the skilful choice of an under-plot, which may bear such a near relation to the principal design as to contribute towards the completion of it, and be concluded by the same catastrophe. There is also another particular which may be reckoned among the blemishes, or rather the false beauties, of our English tragedy; I mean those particular speeches which are commonly known by the name of rants. The warm and passionate parts of a tragedy are always the most taking with the audience, for which reason we often see the players pronouncing, in all the violence of action, several 1 Tragi-comedies are found in Spain before they appear in England. |
