"In the last of thefe, Homer excels Vir"gil; Virgil all other ancient poets; and Shakspeare all modern poets. "For the fecond of thefe, the order: "the meaning is, that a fable ought to have "a beginning, middle, and an end, all just " and natural; fo that that part, e. g. which "is the middle, could not naturally be the beginning or end, and fo of the rest: all 46 66 depend on one another, like the links of a curious chain. If terror and pity are "only to be raised, certainly this author 66 follows Ariftotle's rules, and Sophocles' and Euripides' example: but joy may be "raised too, and that doubly, either by feeing a wicked man punished, or a good "man at last fortunate; or perhaps indig "nation, to fee wickedness profperous, and "goodness depreffed: both thefe may be "profitable to the end of a tragedy, refor "mation of manners; but the laft impro 66 perly, only as it begets pity in the audi"ence: though Ariftotle, I confefs, places "tragedies of this kind in the second form. " He "He who undertakes to anfwer this ex"cellent critique of Mr. Rymer, in behalf "of our English poets against the Greek, ought to do it in this manner: either by 66 yielding to him the greatest part of what "he contends for, which confifts in this, 66 that the μúbos, i. e. the defign and con"duct of it, is more conducing in the "Greeks to thofe ends of tragedy, which Ariftotle and he propofe, namely, to "caufe terror and pity: yet the granting this does not set the Greeks above the English poets. 66 "But the anfwerer ought to prove two "things: first, that the fable is not the greatest master-piece of a tragedy, though "it be the foundation of it. 66 "Secondly, That other ends as fuitable to "the nature of tragedy may be found in "the English, which were not in the Greek, Ariftotle places the fable firft; not quoad "dignitatem, fed quoad fundamentum: for a fable, never so movingly contrived to those 66 "ends "ends of his, pity and terror, will operate nothing on our affections, except the cha"racters, manners, thoughts, and words, "are fuitable. 66 "So that it remains for Mr. Rymer to prove, that in all thofe, or the greatest 66 part of them, we are inferior to Sophocles "and Euripides: and this he has offered at, "in fome meafure; but, I think, a little partially to the ancients. For the fable itfelf, 'tis in the English "more adorned with epifodes, and larger than in the Greek poets; confequently "more diverting. For, if the action be but 66 one, and that plain, without any counter"turn of defign or episode, i. e. under plot, 66 how can it be fo pleafing as the English, "which have both under-plot and a turned. defign, which keeps the audience in ex"pectation of the catastrophe? whereas in "the Greek poets we fee through the whole "defign at firft. 66 "For the characters, they are neither fo many nor fo various in Sophocles and "Euri Euripides, as in Shakspeare and Fletcher; only they are more adapted to thofe ends "of tragedy which Ariftotle commends to "us, pity and terror. "The manners flow from the characters, "and confequently muft partake of their ad"vantages and difadvantages. "The thoughts and words, which are the "fourth and fifth beauties of tragedy, are "certainly more noble and more poetical in "the English than in the Greek, which "must be proved by comparing them fome"what more equitably than Mr. Rymer has ❝ done. 66 "After all, we need not yield that the English way is lefs conducing to move pity and terror, because they often fhew "virtue oppreffed and vice punished; where they do not both, or either, they are not "to be defended. 66 "And if we should grant that the Greeks "performed this better, perhaps may ad"mit of difpute, whether pity and terror "are either the prime, or at least the only "ends of tragedy. ""Tis not enough that Ariftotle had faid fo; for Ariftotle drew his models of tra"gedy from Sophocles and Euripides; and, "if he had feen ours, might have changed ❝his mind. And chiefly we have to fay "(what I hinted on pity and terror, in "the laft paragraph fave one), that the "punishment of vice and reward of virtue are the most adequate ends of tragedy, be"caufe moft conducing to good example of "life. Now, pity is not fo eafily raised for a "criminal (and the ancient tragedy always "reprefents its chief perfon fuch), as it is "for an innocent man; and the fuffering of innocence and punishment of the offender "is of the nature of English tragedy; con trarily, in the Greek, innocence is unhappy often, and the offender escapes. "Then we are not touched with the fuffer"ings of any fort of men fo much as of "lovers; and this was almost unknown to "the ancients; fo that they neither adminiftered poetical juftice, of which Mr. Rymer boafts, fo well as we: neither "knew |