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"the principal actors is to be raised, by mak"ing them appear fuch in the characters,

their words, and actions, as will interest "the audience in their fortunes.

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“And if, after all, in a larger fenfe, pity

comprehends this concernment for the good, "and terror includes deteftation for the bad, "then let us confider whether the English "have not answered this end of tragedy, as "well as the ancients, or perhaps better.

"And here Mr. Rymer's objections against "these plays are to be impartially weighed, "that we may fee whether they are of "weight enough to turn the balance against "our countrymen.

""Tis evident thofe plays, which he ar"raigns, have moved both thofe paffions in "a high degree upon the stage.

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the actors,

"To give the glory of this "the poet, and to place it feems unjuft.

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"One reafon is, because whatever actors "they have found, the event has been "the fame; that is, the fame paffions have "been always moved; which fhews that "there is fomething of force and merit in the "plays themselves, conducing to the defign "of raifing thefe two paffions: and fuppofe "them ever to have been excellently acted,

yet action only adds grace, vigour, and "more life, upon the ftage; but cannot give "it wholly where it is not first. But, fe"condly, I dare appeal to those who have "never feen them acted, if they have not "found these two paffions moved within "them and if the general voice will carry "it, Mr. Rymer's prejudice will take off "his fingle teftimony.

"This being matter of fact, is reasonably "to be established by this appeal; as, if one "man fays 'tis night, the rest of the world "conclude it to be day, there needs no far"ther argument against him, that it is fo.

"If he urge, that the general taste is depraved, his arguments to prove this can can

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at best but evince that our poets took not, the best way to raife thofe paffions; but "experience proves against him, that these, "means, which they have ufed, have been, "fuccefsful, and have produced them.

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"And one reafon of that fuccefs is, in my opinion, this; that Shakspeare and Fletcher have written to the genius of the age and. nation in which they lived; for though nature, as he objects, is the fame in all places, and reafon too the fame; yet the climate,, the age, the difpofition of the people, to "whom a poet writes, may be fo different, that what pleased the Greeks would not "fatisfy an English audience.

"And if they proceed upon a foundation of truer reason to please the Athenians, "than Shakspeare and Fletcher to please the English, it only fhews that the Athenians. "were a more judicious people; but the "poet's business is certainly to please the. "audience.

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"Whether our English audience have "been pleased hitherto with acorns, as he "calls

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"calls it, or with bread, is the next queftion; "that is, whether the means which Shak

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fpeare and Fletcher have ufed in their plays, "to raife thofe paffions before named, be "better applied to the ends by the Greek poets than by them. And perhaps we "fhall not grant him this wholly let it be

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granted that a writer is not to run down "with the ftream, or to please the people by "their ufual methods, but rather to reform "their judgements, it ftill remains to prove "that our theatre needs this total refor"mation

"The faults, which he has found in their "defign, are rather wittily aggravated in many "places than reafonably urged; and as much

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may be returned on the Greeks, by one "who were as witty as himself.

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"2. They destroy not, if they are granted, "the foundation of the fabrick; only take away from the beauty of the fymmetry: "for example, the faults in the character of

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the King in King and No-king are not, as " he calls them, fuch as render him deteftable, but only imperfections which accom

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pany human nature, and are for the most 66 part excused by the violence of his love;

fo that they deftroy not our pity or concernment for him: this anfwer may be "applied to most of his objections of that "kind.

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"And Rollo committing many murders, when he is anfwerable but for one, is too 66 feverely arraigned by him; for it adds our horror and deteftation of the criminal; and poetick juftice is not neglected neither; for we ftab him in our "minds for every offence which he commits; and the point which the poet is to gain on the audience, is not fo much in the death of an offender as the raising an horror of his "crimes.

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"That the criminal fhould neither be "wholly guilty, nor wholly innocent, but "fo participating of both as to move both "pity and terror, is certainly a good rule, but "nor perpetually to be obferved; for that "were to make all tragedies too much alike,

which objection he forefaw, but has not "fully answered.

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