Page images
PDF
EPUB

has censured as unintelligible, might perhaps have appeared to him perfectly clear, if he had been more conversant with the language, customs, and manners of Shakspeare's age, and of a preceding period. I much doubt, whether in all his plays, twenty words of his own coinage can be found; and whether the words and phrases which our author would have objected to, were new or old, he appears to have had no means of ascertaining, for the reason already assigned.

HEADS

ОР

AN ANSWER TO RYMER:

FIRST PRINTED IN OCT (VO, IN 1711.

may

Thomas Rymer, in 1678, published a tract, entitled "The Tragedies of the last Age considered and examined by the Practice of the Ancients, and the Common Sense of all Ages." To this Essay, the chief object of which was to expose the faults of three of Beaumont's and Fletcher's plays, ROLLO, (if that play be their joint production, which be doubted,) THE MAID'S TRAGEDY, and KING AND No KING, Dryden appcars to have intended to write an Answer; for a copy of Rymer's book having been presented to him by the author, he wrote on the blank leaves at the beginning and end of the volume, the following Observations, which it is to be regretted he did not afterwards enlarge and methodize. This volume, after his death, falling into the hands of the publisher of the works of Beaumont and Fletcher in 1711, he prefixed these remarks to that edition; and they were again published by Dr. Johnson, in the LIFE OF DRYDEN, from the original copy, which had fallen into the hands of Mr. Garrick.

There is a considerable variation between the two editions, in the arrangement of the paragraphs; but not having seen the original, I am unable to ascertain which arrangement is most conformable to the writer's intention. The variation was probably occasioned by these remarks being found at the beginning and end of Rymer's book; and perhaps those which were found in the beginning, were written last.I have followed Dr. Johnson's arrangement, though I have some doubt whether it be correct.

HEADS

OF

AN ANSWER TO RYMER'S REMARKS

ON

THE TRAGEDies of the LAST AGE.'

THAT. We may the less wonder why pity and terrour are not now the only springs on which our tragedies move, and that Shakspeare may be more excused, Rapin confesses that the French tragedies now all run on the tendre; and gives the reason, because love is the passion which most predominates in our souls; and that therefore the passions represented become insipid, unless they are conformable to the thoughts of the audience.

Mr. Spence, addressing Pope, observed, that Rymer was a learned and strict critick. " Ay," replied Pope, "that's exactly his character. He is generally right, though rather too severe in his opinion of the particular plays he speaks of; and is, on the whole, one of the best "criticks we ever had." Spence's ANECDOTES.

66

[ocr errors]

In citing the dictum of this great poet, that Rymer is generally right, I by no means wish it should be understood that I subscribe to his opinion.

But it is to be concluded, that this passion works not now amongst the French so strongly, as the other two did amongst the ancients. Amongst us, who have a stronger genius for writing, the operations from the writing are much stronger; for the raising of Shakspeare's passions is more from the excellency of the words and thoughts, than the justness of the occasion; and if he has been able to pick single occasions, he has never founded the whole reasonably; yet, by the genius of poetry in writing, he has succeeded.

Rapin attributes more to the dictio, that is, to the words and discourse of a tragedy, than Aristotle has done, who places them in the last rank of beauties; perhaps, only last in order, because they are the last product of the design, of the disposition or connection of its parts, of the characters, of the manners of those characters, and of the thoughts proceeding from those manners. Rapin's words are remarkable:-It is not the admirable intrigue, the surprising events, and extraordinary incidents, that make the beauty of a tragedy; it is the discourses, when they are natural and passionate.-So are Shakspeare's. The parts of a poem, tragick or heroick, are, 1. The fable itself.

2. The order or manner of its contrivance, in relation of the parts to the whole.

With what truth can this be said of ROMEO AND JULIET, MACBEth, King Lear, and OTHELLO?

« PreviousContinue »