66

"and Death labouring with dread"ful oppofition: I fee the former ftraining every nerve to raise up "the dead, and the latter no lefs "eager in destroying the living: "I fee Hope conducting the hand "of the bleffed, and Defpair at "the head of the guilty: I fee the "clouds fulgid with rays iffuing "from the heavenly fires, "which Chrift fits environed with glories and terrors amidst his "bleffed hofts: I fee his counte

66

on

nance, which, emitting corruf"cations of a benign and terrible

light, fills the virtuous with joy, " and the profligate with terror: "in the mean time, I also see the "minifters of the abyfs with

66

frightful countenances, infulting "fuch as Cæfar and Alexander, "pointing to the glory of martyrs " and faints; to overcome one's "felf being quite a different thing "from conquering the world: I "fee Fame with her crowns and

" and palms trodden under foot, " and the herfelf lying among the "wheels of her fhattered car: laftly, I fee the final fentence iffuing from the divine mouth: I "fee it like two arrows, one of "falvation, the other of damna"tion; rapidly flying downwards " in its vindictive wrath, darting "on the elemental machine, and, "with loud claps of thunder,

66

ftriking creation to ruins: I fee "the lights of paradife, and the "furnaces of the abyfs, glaring "amidft the palpable darkness "which involves the ethereal ex

"works, how wilt thou fhudder "and fear when thou shalt fee "the Omnipotent Being himself "fit in judgment?"

"But do you think, Sir, that, though I have made a vow never "to fee Rome again, my ftrong, "defire of seeing fuch a picture "will not break that vow? Yes, "fooner than thus affront your in"comparable skill, I will give the

lye to my refolution; and I beg "your kind approbation of my "defire to celebrate your talents.

Venice, the 15th of "September, 1537."

Comparifon between The Perfians, a Tragedy, by Efchylus, and Hamlet; from an ingenious Effay lately publifhed, on the Writings and Genius of Shakespear.

I

T has been juft now obferved, that Shakespear has an advantage over the Greek poets, in the more folemn, gloomy, and myfterious air of his national fuperftitions; but this avails him only with critics of deep penetration and true tafte, and with whom fentiment has more sway than authority. The learned have received the popular tales of Greece from their poets; ours are derived to them from the illiterate vulgar. The phantom of Darius, in the tragedy of the Perfians, evoked by ancient rites, is beheld with reverence by the scholar, and endured by the bel efprit. To these the ghoft of Hamlet is an object of

con

contempt or ridicule. Let us candidly examine thefe royal fhades, as exhibited to us by thofe great masters in the art of exciting pity and terror, Æfchylus and Shakespear; and impartially decide which poet throws most of the fublime into the præternatural character; and, alfo, which has the art to render it most efficient in the drama. This enquiry may be more interefting, as the French wits have often mentioned Hamlet's ghoft as an inftance of the barbarifm of our theatre. The Perfians, of Efchylus, is certainly one of the moft auguft fpectacles that ever was reprefented on a theatre; nobly imagined, happily sustained, regularly conducted, deeply interefting to the Athenian people, and favourable to their great scheme of refifting the power of the Perfian monarch. It would be abfurd to depreciate this excellent piece, or to bring into a general comparison with it, a drama of fo different a kind as the tragedy of Hamlet. But it is furely allowable to compare the Perfian phantom with the Danish ghoft; and to examine, whether any thing but prejudice, in favour of the ancients, protects the fuperftitious circumftances relative to the one, from the ridicule with which thofe accompanying the other are treated. Atoffa, the widow of Darius, relates to the fages of the Perfian council, a dream and an omen; they advise her to confult the fhade of her dead lord, upon what is to be done in the unfortunate fituation of Xerxes just defeated by the Greeks. In the third act she enters offering to the manes a libation compofed of milk, honey, wine, oil, &c. upon this Darius iffues

from his tomb. Let the wits, who are fo fmart on our ghoft's disappearing at the cock's crowing, explain why, in reafon, a ghost in Perfia, or in Greece, fhould be more fond of milk and honey, than averse, in Denmark, to the crowing of a cock. Each poet adopted, in his work, the fuperftition relative to his fubject; and the poet who does fo, understands his bufinefs much better than the critic, who, in judging of that work, refufes it his attention. The phantom of Darius comes forth in his regal robes to Atoffa and the Satraps in council, who, in the eastern manner, pay their filent adorations to their emperor. His quality of ghoft does not appear to make any impreffion upon them; and the Satraps fo exactly preferve the characters of courtiers, that they do not venture to tell him the true state of the affairs of his kingdom, and its recent difgraces: finding he cannot get any information from them, he addreffes himself to Atoffa, who does not break forth with that paffion and tenderness one fhould fuppofe he would do on the fight of her long loft hufband; but very calmly informs him, after fome flattery on the conftant profperity of his reign, of the calamitous ftate of Perfia under Xerxes, who has been ftimulated by his courtiers to make war upon Greece. The phantom, who was to appear ignorant of what was paft, that the Athenian ear might be foothed and flattered with the detail of their victory at Salamis, is allowed, for the fame reafon, fuch prefcience as to foretell their future triumph at Platea. Whatever elfe he adds by way of council or reproof, either in itself,

or

or in the mode of delivering it, is nothing more than might be expected from any old counsellor of ftate. Darius gives his advice to the old men, to enjoy whatever they can, because riches are of no

ufe in the grave. As this touches the most abfurd and ridiculous foible in human nature, the increase of a greedy and folicitous defire of wealth, as the period of enjoyment of it becomes more precarious and fhort, the admonition has fomething of a comic and fatirical turn, unbecoming the folemn character of the speaker, and the fad exigency upon which he was called. The intervention of this præternatural being gives nothing of the mar vellous or the fublime to the piece, nor adds to, or is connected with its interefts. The fupernatural divefted of the auguft and the terrible make but a poor figure in any fpecies of poetry; ufelefs and unconnected with the fable, it wants propriety in dramatic poetry. Shakefpear had fo juft a tafte that he never introduced any præternatural character on the ftage that did not affift in the conduct of the drama. Indeed he had fuch a prodigious force of talents he could make every being his fancy created fubfervient to his defigns. The uncouth, ungainly monfter, Caliban, is fo fubject to his genius, as to affift in bringing things to the propofed end and perfection.

And

the flight fairies, weak mafters though they be, even in their wanton gambols, and idle fports, perform great tasks by his fa potent

art.

But to return to the intended comparison between the Grecian fhade and the Danish ghoft. The first propriety in the conduct of this

kind of machinery, feems to be, that the præternatural perfon be intimately connected with the fable; that he increase the intereft, add to the folemnity of it, and that his efficiency, in bringing on the catastrophe, be in fome meafure adequate to the violence done to the ordinary courfe of things in his vifible interpofition. These are points peculiarly important in dramatic poetry, as has been before observed. To these ends it is neceffary this being should be acknowledged and revered by the national fuperftition, and every operation that developes the attributes, which the vulgar opinion, or nurse's legend, taught us to afcribe to him, will augment our pleafure; whether we give the reins to imagination, and, as fpectators, willingly yield ourselves up to pleafing delufion, or, as critics, examine the merit of the compofition. I hope it is not difficult to fhew, that in all thefe capital points our author has excelled. At the folemn midnight hour, Horatio and Marcellus, the fchool-fellows of young Hamlet, come to the centinels upon guard, excited by a report that the ghoft of their late monarch had fome preceding nights appeared to them. Horatio, not being of the credulous vulgar, gives little credit to the ftory, but bids Bernardo proceed in his relation.

HAMLET.

Angels and minifters of grace defend us!

Be thou a fpirit of health, or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heav'n, or blafts from hell,

Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou com'ft in fuch a questionable shape,

That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee Hamlet, King, father, royal Dane: oh! anfwer me;

Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell,

Why thy canonized bones, hearfed in death,

Have burst their cearments? Why the fepulchre, Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd,

Hath op'd his ponderous and mar

ble jaws,

Make thy two eyes, like ftars, start from their fpheres,

Thy knotted and combined locks to part,

And each particular hair to stand on end

Like quills upon the fretful porcupine;

But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood.

All that follows is folemn, fad, and deeply affecting.

Whatever in Hamlet belongs to the præternatural is perfectly fine; the reft of the play does not come within the fubject of this chapter.

An Account of the unfortunate young Lady, celebrated by Mr. Pope; from Ruffhead's Life of that Writer.

this mean, That thou, dead corfe, again, in compleat fteel, Revifit'ft thus the glimpfes of the

to whom the duke of Buckingham addreffed fome lines on her intentions of retiring into a monaftery, which defign is alfo hinted at in one of Mr. Pope's letters, where he fays, addreffing himself, as it is prefumed, to this very perfon: "If

66

you are refolved, in revenge to "rob the world of fo much ex