:

**a tree, as being come to its pe "riod and while I perceive every "one fhuddering at the clangor of the angels trumpets, I fee Life "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 deftroying the living: 1 fee Hope conducting the hand "of the bleffed, and Defpair at "the head of the guilty: I fee the clouds fulged with rays iffuing "from the heavenly fires,

On

which Chrift fits environed with glories and terrors amidft his "bleffed hofts: I fee his counte

"the deftruction attending the laft "day, intimate to me, "If thou "feareft and trembleft thus whilft

only beholding Buonaruoti's

"works, how wilt thou fhudder "and fear when thou fhalt 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 feeing fuch a picture "will not break that vow? Yes, "fooner than thus affront your in"comparable fkill, I will give the lye to my refolution; and I beg " your kind approbation of my

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

Camparifox between The Perfians, a Tragedy, by Efchylus, and Hamlet; from an ingenious Effay lately published, on the Writings and Genins of Shakespear.

Fame with her crowns and palms trodden under foot, "and the herfelf lying among the "wheels of her fhattered car: laftly, I fee the final fentence if "fuing from the divine mouth: I "fee it like two arrows, one of falvation, the other of damnation, rapidly flying downwards in its vindictive wrath, darting "on the elemental machine, and, "with loud clays of thunder, #triking creation to ruins: I fee "the lights of paradife, and the "fornaces of the abyfs, glaring "amidit the palpable darkners "which involves the etherial ex.

panie. So that the thoughts "railed in me by the imagery of

T has been juft now observed,

tage over the Greek poets, in the more folemn, gloomy, and myfte. rious air of his national fuperiti. tions; but this avails him only with critics of deep penetration and true talte, and with whom fentiment has more fway than authority. The learned have received the popular tales of Greece from their pots;

ours are derived to them from the illiterate vulgar. The phantom of Darius, in the tragedy of the Pertians, evoked by ancient riees, is beheld with reverence by the fcholar, and endured by the bel efprit. To these the ghot of Hamlet is an object af

con

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 ghoft in Perfia, or in Greece, fhould be more fond of milk and honey, than averfe, 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 ghoit does not appear to make any impreflion upon them; and the Satraps fo exactly preferve the characters of courtiers, that they do not venture to tell him the true ftate of the affairs of his kingdom, and its recent difgraces: finding he cannot gez any information from them, he addreffes himself to Atoffa, who does not break forth with that paffion and tenderness one fhould fuppese 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 reafen, fuch prefcience as to foretell their future triumph at Platea. Whatever elfe he adds by way of council of reproof, either in itfel,

contempt or ridicule. Let us candidly examine thefe royal fhades, as exhibited to us by thofe great mafters in the art of exciting pity and terror, Æfchylus and Shakefpear; and impartially decide which poet throws moft 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 interesting, as the French wits have often mentioned Hamlet's ghoft as an inftance of the barbarifm of our theatre. The Perfians, of Æfchylus, is certainly one of the most auguft fpectacles that ever was reprefented on a theatre; nobly imagined, happily futained, regularly conducted, deeply interefting to the Athenian people, and favourable to their great fcheme 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 circumftantes 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 Peruan council, a dreain and an omen; they advife her to confult the fhade of her dead lord, upon what is to be done in the unfortunate fituation of Xerxes, juft defeated by the Greeks. In the third act the enters offering to the manes a libation compofed of milk, honey, wine, oil, &c. upon this Darius idues

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 foi ble 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 fpeaker, and the fad exigency upon which he was called. The intervention of this præternatural being gives nothing of the marvellous 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; ufclefs and unconnected with the fable, it wants propriety in dramatic poetry. Shakefpeare had fo juft a tafte, that he never introduced any præternatural character on the flage 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 jo potent

art.

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

kind of machinery, seems 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 measure adequate to the violence done to the ordinary course 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 fhould 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 pleasure; 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.

BERNARDO.

Laft night of all, When yon fame ftar, that's weftward from the pole, Had made his courfe t'illume that part of heav'n,

Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, The bell then beating one

Here

HAMLET.

Angels and minifters of grace defend us!

Be thou a fpirit of health, or goblin dama'd;

Bring with thee airs from heav'n, or blafts from hell,

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

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

Let me not burft in ignorance; but tell,

Why thy canonized bones, hearfed in death,

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

Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws,

To caft thee up again? What may

this mean,

That thou, dead corfe, again, in compleat steel, Revifit'ft thus the glimpfes of the

Make thy two eyes, like ftars, ftart from their (pheres,

Thy knotted and combined locks to part,

And each particular hair to ftand on end

Like quills upon the fretful porcu

pine;

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.

is fuppofed to

THIS lady the fame perfon,

have been to whom the duke of Buckingham addreffed fome lines on her intentions of retiring into a monastery, which defign is alfo hinted at in one of Mr. Pope's letters, where he fays, addrefiing himself, as it is prefumed, to this very perfon: "If "you are refolved, in revenge, to "rob the world of fo much ex"ample as you may afford it, I "believe your defign will be vain: "for even in a monastery, your "devotions cannot carry you fo "far towards the next world, as "to make this lofe fight of you:

but you will be like a ftar, that, "while it is fixed in heaven, thines "over all the earth. Wherefo"ever providence fhall difpofe of "the most valuable thing I know, "I fhall ever follow you with my "fincereft wifhes; and my best

"thoughts