Shake Pieces, that will much enhance the Value of them to the more capable Readers; which has never, I think, been observ'd. The Images, in each Poem, which he raises to excite Mirth and Melancholy, are exactly the fame, only shewn in different Attitudes. Had a Writer, less acquainted with Nature, given us two Poems on these Subjects, he would have been fure to have fought out the most contrary Images to raise these contrary Paffions. And, particularly, as Shakespeare, in the Passage I am now commenting, speaks of these different Effects in Mufick; fo Milton has brought it into each Poem as the Exciter of each Affection: and left we should mistake him, as meaning that different Airs had this different Power, (which every Fidler is proud to have you understand,) He gives the Image of those self-fame Strains that Orpheus used to regain Eurydice, as proper both to excite Mirth and Melancholy. But Milton most industriously copied the Conduct of our Shakespeare, in Passages that shew'd an intimate Acquaintance with Nature and Science. I have not thought it out of my Province, speare's whenever Occafion offer'd, to take notice of Knowledge some of our Poet's grand Touches of Nature: of Nature. Some, that do not appear fuperficially fuch; but in which he seems the most deeply instructed; and to which, no doubt, he has fo much ow'd that happy Preservation of his Charae 1 Characters, for which he is justly celebrated. If he was not acquainted with the Rule as deliver'd by Horace, his own admirable Genius pierc'd into the Neceffity of fuch a Rule. Servetur ad imum Qualis ab incæpto procefferit, & fibi conftet. For what can be more ridiculous, than, in our modern Writers, to make a debauch'd young Man, immers'd in all the Vices of his Age and Time, in a few hours take up, confine himself in the way of Honour to one Woman, and moralize in good earnest on the Follies of his past Behaviour? Nor can, that great Examplar of Comic Writing, Terence be altogether excufed in this Regard; who, in his Adelphi, has left Demea in the last Scenes so unlike himself: whom, as Shakespeare expresses it, he has turn'd with the feamy Side of bis Wit outward. This Conduct, as Errors are more readily imitated than Perfections, Beaumont and Fletcher feem to have follow'd in a Character in their Scornful Lady. It may be objected, perhaps, by fome who do not go to the Bottom of our Poet's Conduct, that he has likewise transgress'd against the Rule himself, by making Prince Harry at once, upon coming to the Crown, throw off his former Diffoluteness, and take up the Practice of a fober Morality and all the kingly Virtues. But this would be a mistaken Objection. The Prince's Reformation is not fo so sudden, as not to be prepar'd and expected by the Audience. He gives, indeed, a Loose to Vanity, and a light unweigh'd Behaviour, when he is trifling among his dissolute Companions; but the Sparks of innate Honour and true Nobleness break from him upon every proper Occafion, where we would hope to see him awake to Sentiments suiting his Birth and Dignity. And our Poet has so well, and artfully, guarded his Character from the Sufpicions of habitual and unreformable Profligateness; that even from the first shewing him upon the Stage, in the first Part of Henry IV, when he made him consent to join with Falstaffe in a Robbery on the Highway, he has taken care not to carry him off the Scene, without an Intimation that he knows them all, and their unyok'd Humour; and that, like the Sun, he will permit them only for a while to obscure and cloud his Brightness; then break thro' the Mist, when he pleases to be himself again; that his Luftre, when wanted, may be the more wonder'd at. Another of Shakespeare's grand Touches of Nature, and which lies still deeper from the Ken of common Observation, has been taken notice of in a Note upon The Tempest; where Profpero at once interrupts the Masque of Spirits, and starts into a sudden Paffion and Disorder of Mind. As the latent Cause of his Emotion is there fully inquir'd into, I shall no farther dwell upon it here. 2 Such Such a Conduct in a Poet (as Shakespeare has manifested on many like Occafions ;) where the Turn of Action arises from Reflexions of his Characters, where the Reafon of it is not express'd in Words, but drawn from the inmost Resources of Nature, shews him truly capable of that Art, which is more in Rule than Practice: Ars eft celare Artem. 'Tis the Foible of your worfer Poets to make a Parade and Oftentation of that little Science they have; and to throw it out in the most ambitious Colours. And whenever a Writer of this Class shall attempt to copy these artful Concealments of our Author, and shall either think them easy, or practised by a Writer for his Eafe, he will foon be convinced of his Mistake by the Difficulty of reaching the Imitation of them. Speret idem, fudet multùm, frustráq; laboret, Another grand Touch of Nature in our Author, (not less difficult to imitate, tho' more obvious to the Remark of a common Reader) is, when he brings down at once any, Character from the Ferment and Height of Paffion, makes him correct himself for the unruly Disposition, and fall into Reflexions of a sober and moral Tenour. An exquifite fine Instance of this Kind occurs in Lear, where that old King, hasty and intemperate in his Paffions, coming to his Son and Daugh ter Cornwall, is told by the Earl of Gloucester that they are not to be spoken with: and thereupon throws himself into a Rage, fuppofing the Excuse of Sickness and Weariness in them to be a purpos'd Contempt: Gloucefter begs him to think of the fiery and unremoveable Quality of the Duke: and This, which was design'd to qualify his Paffion, serves to exaggerate the Transports of it. As the Conduct of Prince Henry in the first Instance, the secret and mental Reflexions in the Cafe of Prospero, and the instant Detour of Lear from the Violence of Rage to a Temper of Reasoning, do so much Honour to that furpizing Knowledge of human Nature, which is certainly our Author's Masterpiece, I thought, they could not be fet in too good a Light. Indeed, to point out, and exclaim upon, all the Beauties of Shakespeare, as they come singly in Review, would be as infipid, as endless; as tedious, as unnecessary: But the Explanation of those Beauties, that are less obvious to common Readers, and whose Illuftration depends on the Rules of just Criticism, and an exact Knowledge of human Life, should defervedly have a Share in a general Critic upon the Author. I shall dismiss the Examination into these his latent Beauties, when I have made a short Comment upon a remarkable Passage from Julius Cæfar, which is inexpressibly fine in its felf, |