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all the scenes that bring the family of the Wrongheads into action, being ludicrous and farcical are in a very different tone from the principal fcenes, difplaying fevere and bitter expoftulations between Lord Townley and his lady. The fame objection touches not the double plot of the Careless husband; the different fubjects being fweetly connected, and having only fo much variety as to resemble fhades of colours harmoniously mixed. But this is not all. The under-plot ought to be connected with that which is principal, fo much at least as to employ the fame perfons: the under-plot ought to occupy the intervals or paufes of the principal action; and both ought to be concluded together. This is the cafe of the Merry Wives of Windfor.

Violent action ought never to be reprefented on the stage. While the dialogue goes on, a thousand particulars concur to delude us into an impreffion of reality; genuine fentiments, paffionate language, and perfuafive gefture: the fpectator once engaged, is willing to be deceived, lofes fight of himself, and without fcruple enjoys the fpectacle as a reality. From this abfent ftate, he is roufed by violent action, he awakes as from a pleafing dream, and gathering his fenfes about him, finds all to be a fiction. Horace delivers the fame rule, and founds it upon the fame reafon :

Ne

pueros coram populo Medea trucidet ;
Aut humana palam coquat exta nefarius Atreus;
Aut in avem Progne vertatur, Cadmus in aguem :
Quodcumque oftendis mihi fic, incredulus odi.

The French critics join with Horace in excluding blood from the ftage; but overlooking the most fubtantial objection, they urge only, that it is barbarous, and fhocking to a polite audience. The Greeks had

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no notion of fuch delicacy, or rather effeminacy: witness the murder of Clytemneftra by her fon Oreftes, paffing behind the fcene as represented by Sophocles her voice is heard calling out for mercy, bitter expoftulations on his part, loud fhrieks upon her being stabb'd, and then a deep filence. I appeal to every perfon of feeling, whether this fcene be not more horrible than if the deed had been committed in fight of the fpectators upon a fudden gust of paffion. If Corneille, in reprefenting the affair between Horatius and his fifler, upon which murder cnfues behind the scene, had no other view but to remove from the fpectators a fhocking action, he was guilty of a capital miftake: for murder in cold blood, which in fome meafure was the cafe as represented, is more fhocking to a polite audience, even where the conclufive ftab is not feen, than the fame act performed in their prefence by violent and unpremeditated paffion, as fuddenly repented of as committed. I heartily agree with Addifon,* that no part of this incident ought to have been represented, but referved for a narrative, with every alleviating circumstance in favour of the hero.

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A few words upon the dialogue; which ought to be fo conducted as to be a true reprefentation of na ture. I talk not here of the fentiments, nor of the language; for thefe come under different heads: I talk of what properly belongs to dialogue-writing: where every fingle fpeech, fhort or long, ought to arife from what is faid by the former ipeaker, and furnish matter for what comes after, till the end of the fcene. In this view, all the fpeeches, from first to laft, reprefent fo many links of one continued chain. No author, ancient or modern, poffeffes the art of di, alogue cqual to Shakcfpcar. Dryden, in that particu

*Spedator, No. 44,

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lar, may juftly be placed as his oppofite: he fre quently introduces three or four perfons speaking upon the fame fubje&, each throwing out his own notions feparately, without regarding what is faid by the reft: take for an example the first scene of Aurenzebe. Sometimes he makes a number club in relat ing an event, not to a stranger, fuppofed ignorant of it; but to one another, for the fake merely of speaking of which notable fort of dialogue, we have a fpecimen in the first scene of the first part of the Conquest of Granada. In the fecond part of the fame tragedy, fcene fecond, the King, Abenamar, and Zulema, make their feparate obfervations, like fo many foliloquies, upon the fluctuating temper of the mob. A dialogue fo uncouth, puts one in mind of two fhepherds in a pastoral, excited by a prize to pronounce verfes alternately, each in praife of his. own miftrefs.

This manner of dialogue-writing, befide an unnatural air, has another bad effect: it ftays the course of the action, because it is not productive of any confequence. In Congreve's comedies, the action is often fufpended to make way for a play of wit. But of this more particularly in the chapter immediately following.

No fault is more common among writers, than to prolong a speech after the impatience of the perfon to whom it is addreffed ought to prompt him or her to break in. Confider only how the impatient actor is to behave in the mean time. To exprefs his impatience in violent action without interrupting, would be unnatural; and yet to diffemble his impatience, by appearing cool where he ought to be highly inflamed, would be no lefs fo.

Rhyme being unnatural and difguftful in dialogue, is happily banifhed from our theatre: the only

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wonder is that it ever found admittance, efpecially among a people accustomed to the more manly freedom of Shakespear's dialogue. By banishing rhyme, we have gained fo much, as never once to dream of any further improvement. And yet, however fuitable blank verfe may be to elevated characters and warm paffions, it must appear improper and affected in the mouths of the lower fort. Why then should it be a rule, That every fcene in tragedy must be in blank verfe? Shakespear, with great judgment, has followed a different raie; which is, to intermix profe with verfe, and only to employ the latter where it is required by the importance or dignity of the fubject. Familiar thoughts and ordinary facts ought to be expreffed in plain language: to hear, for example, a footman deliver a fimple meffage in blank verfe, must appear ridiculous to every one who is not biaffed by cuftom. In fhort, that variety of characters and of fituations, which is the life of a play, requires not only a fuitable variety in the fentiments, but also in the diction.

CHAP.

CHAP. XXIII.

The Three Unities.

IN the first chapter is explained the pleasure

we have in a chain of connected facts. In hiftories of the world, of a country, of a people, this pleasure is faint; because the connections are flight or obfcure. We find more entertaiment in biography; because the incidents are connected by their relation to a perfon who makes a figure, and commands our attention. But the greatest entertainment is in the history of a single event, fuppofing it interesting; and the reafon is, that the facts and circumftances are connected by the ftrongest of all relations, that of caufe and effect: a number of facts that give birth to each other form a delightful train; and we have great mental enjoyment in our progrefs from the beginning to the end.

But this fubject merits a more particular difcuffion. When we confider the chain of caufes and effects in the material world, independent of purpofe, defign, or thought, we find a number of incidents in fucceffion, without beginning, middle or end every thing that happens is both a caufe and an effect; being the effect of what goes before, and the caufe of what follows: one incident may affect us more, another lefs; but all of them are links in the univerfal chain: the mind, in viewing thefe incidents, cannot reft or fettle ultimately upon any one; but is carried along in the train without any clofe.

But when the intellectual world is taken under view, in conjunction with the material, the fcene is varied. Man acts with deliberation, will, and choice:

he

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