(i) A N ESSA Y ON THE ART, RISE, and PROGRESS B In Greece, Rome, and England. EFORE I come to the Art and Rife of the Stage, I fhall fay a Word or two of Shakespear, the English Ornament of it, and of his Works. I confefs that I have nothing to add to his Life, written by Mr. Rowe, who has perfectly exhaufted that Subject; yet he has, by declining a general and full Criticifm, left me room enough to difcourfe both of the Author's Genius, and his Writings. As I fhall give many more Examples of his Beauties, than those few which his Editor has but flightly glanc'd on in his Life; fo fhall I lay down fuch Rules of Art, as that the Reader may be able VOL. VIII. to distinguish his Errors from his Perfections, now too much, and too unjustly confounded by the foolish Bigotry of his blind and partial Adorers. For there are a fort of Men, who deal by him, as fome of our modern Dedicators do by their Patrons; denying them all Defects, and at the fame time dawbing them with fhining Qualities, which they do not only not poffefs, but have no need of, to compleat their Character: By so childifh a Conduct not only bringing into question those which are really their Due, but making their Patrons as ridiculous, as themselves. For an unjuft or ill-grounded Praise of the Living, is no better than fulfom Flattery; and of the Dead, only a mere affuming Compliment to ourselves, as Men of greater Genius, Difcernment, and Penetration than others, in the Discovery of Beauties, which they are not able to find out. This is the very Fault which thofe Modernists lay to the Charge of the Admirers of the Antients: For while they would perfuade us, that these have given Beauties to Homer, Virgil, Horace, &c. which thofe Poets never thought of, or defign'd, they have advanc'd fo unreasonable a Bigotry to our Poet, that if a Man, by Art and Reafon, but queftion the greatest and most abfurd of his Faults, with the Romans of old, on the fame occafion-------Clamant periffe Pudorem. 'Tis my Opinion, that if Shakespear had had those Advantages of Learning, which the perfect Knowledge of the Antients would have given him; fo great a Genius as his would have made him a very dangerous Rival in Fame to the greatest Poets of Antiquity: So far am I from feeing, how this Knowledge could either have curb'd, confin'd, or fpoil'd the natural Excellence of his Writings. For tho I must always think our Author a Miracle, for the Age he liv'd in, yet I am oblig'd, in Justice to Reason and Art, to confefs that he does not come up to the Antients, in all the Beauties of the Drama; yet it is no fmall Honour to him, that he has furpafs'd them in the Topicks ar Common Places. But to put his Errors and his Excellencies on the fame Bottom, is to injure the latter, and give the Enemies of our Poet an an Advantage against him, of doing the fame; that is, of rejecting his Beauties, as all of a piece with his Faults. This unaccountable Bigotry of the Town to the very Errors of ShakeSpear was the Occafion of Mr. Rymer's Criticifms, and drove him as far into the contrary Extreme. I am far from approving his Manner of treating our Poet: Tho Mr. Dryden owns that all, or moft of the Faults he has found, are juft; yet he adds, this odd Reflection: "And yet, fays he, who minds the Cri« tick, and who admires Shakespear lefs?" That was as much as to say, "Mr. Rymer has indeed made good his Charge, and yet "the Town admir'd his Errors ftill: Which I take to be a greater Proof of the Folly and abandon'd Tafte of the Town, than of any Imperfections in the Critick. And this, Opinion, expos'd the Ignorance of the Age he liv'd in; to which, Mr. Rome very juftly afcribes most of his Faults. It must be own'd, that Mr. Rymer carry'd the Matter too far, fince no Man, who has the leaft Relifh of Poetry, can queftion his Genius For, in fpite of his known and visible Errors, when I read Shakespear, even in fome of his moft irregular Plays, I am furpriz'd into a Pleasure so great, that my Judgment is no longer free to fee the Faults, tho they are ever fo grofs and evident. There is fuch a Witchery in him, that all the Rules of Art, which he does not obferve, tho built on an equally folid and infallible Reafon, as intirely vanifh away in the Tranfports of thofe that he does obferve, as if I had never known any thing of the Matter. The Pleasure, I confefs, is as peculiar as ftrong; for it comes from the admirable Draughts of the Manners, vifible in the Diftinction of his Characters, and his furprizing Reflections and Topicks, which are often extremely heighten'd by the Expreffion and Harmony of Numbers: For in these no Man ever excell'd him, and very few ever came up to his Merit. Nor is his nice touching the Paffion of Joy, the leaft Source of this Satisfaction; for he frequently moves this, in fome of the most indifferent of his Plays, fo ftrongly, that it is impoffible to quell the Emotion. There is likewise ever a Sprightlinefs in his Dialogue, and often a Genteelnefs, efpe a 2 cially cially in his Much ado about Nothing, which is very furprizing for that Age, and what the Learned BEN could not attam by all his Industry: And I confefs, if we make fome fmall Allowance for a few Words and Expreffions, I queftion whether any one has fince excell'd him in that Particular. Tho all these Beauties were owing chiefly to a natural Strength of Genius in him, yet I can never give up his Acquaintance with the Antients, fo intirely as Mr. Rowe has done; be cause I think there are many Arguments to prove, that he knew at least some of the Latin Poets, particularly Ovid; two of his Epiftles being translated by him: His Motto to Venus and Adonis is another Proof. But that he had read Plautus himself, is plain from his Comedy of Errors, which is taken vifibly from the Menachmi of that Poet; as will be evident, when we come to confider that Play. The Characters he has in his Plays drawn of the Romans, is a Proof, that he was acquainted with their Hiftorians; and Ben himself, in his commendatory Verses before the firft Folio Edition of Shakespear's Works, allows him to have a little Latin, and lefs Greek; that is, he would not allow him to be as perfect a Critick in the Latin, as he himself was; but yet that he was capable of reading at least the Latin Poets; as is, I think, plainly prov'd. For I can fee no manner of Weight in that Conjecture, which fuppofes that he never read the Antients, because he has not any where imitated them; fo fertile a Genius as his, having no need to borrow Images from others, which had fuch Plenty of his own. Befides, we find by Experience, that fome of our modern Authors, nay, those who have made great Figures in the University for their Wit and Learning, have fo little follow'd the Antients in their Performances, that by them a Man could never guess that they had read a Word of them; and yet they would take it amifs, not to be allow'd to be very well read both in the Latin, and Greek Poets. If they do this in their Writings out of Pride, or want of Capacity; may we not as juftly fuppofe, that Shakespear did it out of an Abundance of his own natural Stock? I contend not here to prove, that he was a perfect Master of either the Latin, or Greek Authors; |