"knew they the best common place of pity, " which is love.

"He therefore unjustly blames us for not "building on what the ancients left us; for "it feems, upon confideration of the pre"mifes, that we have wholly finished what "they began.

"My judgement on this piece is this: that "it is extremely learned; but that the au"thor of it is better read in the Greek than

in the English poets; that all writers "ought to study this critique, as the best "account I have ever feen of the antients; "that the model of tragedy, he has here

given, is excellent, and extremely cor"rect; but that it is not the only model of "all tragedy, because it is too much cir"cumfcribed in plot, characters, &c. and,

laftly, that we may be taught here juftly "to admire and imitate the ancients, with"out giving them the preference with this "author, in prejudice to our own country.

"Want of method in this excellent trea"tise makes the thoughts of the author "fometimes obfcure.

His meaning, that pity and terror are "to be moved, is, that they are to be "moved as the means conducing to the ends "of tragedy, which are pleasure and inftruc

❝tion.

66

"And these two ends may be thus diftinguifhed. The chief end of the poet is to "pleafe; for his immediate reputation depends on it.

66

"The great end of the poem is to inftruct, "which is performed by making pleasure "the vehicle of that inftruction; for poefy "is an art, and all arts are made to profit. Rapin.

66

"The pity, which the poet is to labour for, is for the criminal, not for those or "him whom he has murdered, or who "have been the occafion of the tragedy. "The terror is likewife in the punishment "of the fame criminal; who, if he be reprefented too great an offender, will not "be pitied; if altogether innocent, his punishment will be unjust.

VOL. II.

P

"Ano

"Another obfcurity is, where he says Sophocles perfected tragedy by introducing the third actor: that is, he meant three "kinds of action; one company finging, or "another playing on the mufick; a third "dancing.

66

66

"To make a true judgement in this competition betwixt the Greek poets and the English, in tragedy:

"Confider, firft, how Ariftotle had de"fined a tragedy. Secondly, what he af

66

figns the end of it to be. Thirdly, what "he thinks the beauties of it. Fourthly, "the means to attain the end proposed.

66

"Compare the Greek and English tragick poets justly, and without partiality, ac"cording to thofe rules.

"Then, fecondly, confider whether Ari"stotle has made a juft definition of tra

66

gedy; of its parts, of its ends, and of its "beauties; and whether he, having not "feen others but thofe of Sophocles, Eu “ripides, &c. had or truly could determine

"what

** what all the excellences of tragedy ake, * and wherein they confift.

"Next, fhew in what ancient tragedy was deficient for example, in the narrowness *of its plots, and fewness of persons; and "try whether that be not a fault in the "Greek poets; and whether their excellency great, when the variety was visibly fo little; or whether what they did was "not very eafy to do.

86

was fo

"Then make a judgement on what the ઠંડ English have added to their beauties: as,

for example, not only more plot, but also 86 new paffions: as, namely, that of love, 86 fcarcely touched on by the ancients, except "in this one example of Phædra, cited by "Mr. Rymer; and in that how short they "were of Fletcher!

"Prove alfo that love, being an heroick "paffion, is fit for tragedy, which cannot "be denied, because of the example alledged of Phædra; and how far Shakspeare has ❝ outdone them in friendship, &c.

"To return to the beginning of this enquiry; confider if pity and terror be

enough for tragedy to move: and, I be"lieve, upon a true definition of tragedy, it "will be found that its work extends far"ther, and that it is to reform manners,

66

by a delightful reprefentation of human "life in great perfous, by way of dialogue. "If this be true, then not only pity and "terror are to be moved, as the only means "to bring us to virtue, but generally love "to virtue, and hatred to vice; by fhewing "the rewards of one, and punishments of "the other; at least, by rendering virtue "always amiable, tho' it be shewn unfor"tunate; and vice deteftable, though it be "fhewn triumphant.

66

If, then, the encouragement of virtue "and difcouragement of vice be the proper "ends of poetry in tragedy, pity and terror, "though good means, are not the only. "For all the paffions, in their turns, are “to be set in a ferment; as joy, anger, love, fear, are to be used as the poet's common"places; and a general concernment for

"the