fubject, ever thinks of talking aloud to himself. The fame objection lies against a foliloquy in the Adelphi of the fame author *. The foliloquy which makes the third scene, act third, of his Heicyra, is infufferable; for there Pamphilus, foberly and circumftantially, relates to himself an adventure which had happened to him a moment before. Corneille is not more happy in his foliloquies than in his dialogue. Take for a specimen the first scene of Cinna. Racine alfo is extremely faulty in the fame respect. His foliloquies, almost without exception, are regular harangues, a chain completed in every link, without interruption or interval. That of Antiochus in Berenice + refembles a regular pleading, where the parties pro and con difplay their arguments at full length. The following foliloquies are equally deftitute of propriety: Bajazet, act 3. fc. 7. Mithridate, act 3. fc. 4. & act 4. fc. 5. Iphigenia, act 4. fc. 8. Soliloquies upon lively or interesting sub * A& I. fc. I. + Act 1. fc. 2. jects, may jects, but without any turbulence of paffion, be carried on in a continued chain of thought. If, for example, the nature and fprightliness of the subject prompt a man to fpeak his thoughts in the form of a dialogue, the expreffion must be carried on without break or interruption, as in a dialogue betwixt two persons. This juftifies Falstaff's foliloquy upon honour: What need I be fo forward with Death, that calls not on me? Well, 'tis no matter, Honour pricks me on. But how if Honour prick me off, when I come on? how then? Can Honour fet a leg? No: or an arm? No: or take away the grief of a wound? No: Honour hath no skill in furgery then? No. What is Honour? A word. What is that word honour? Air; a trim reckoning. Who hath it? He that dy'd a Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. Is it infenfible then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No: Why? Detraction will not fuffer Therefore, I'll none of it; honour is a mere fcutcheon; and fo ends my catechifm. it. First part Henry IV. a&t 5. fc. 2. And even without dialogue, a continued discourse may be justified, where the folilo quy quy is upon an important fubject that makes a ftrong impreffion, but without much agita tion. For if it be at all excufable to think a loud, it is neceffary that the language with the reasoning be carried on in a chain without a broken link. In this view that admirable foliloquy in Hamlet upon life and immortality, being a ferene meditation upon the most interesting of all subjects, ought to efcape cenfure. And the fame confideration will justify the foliloquy that introduces the 5th act of Addison's Cato. The next class of the groffer errors which all writers ought to avoid, fhall be of language elevated above the tone of the fentiment; of which take the following inftan ces. Zara. Swift as occafion, I Myself will fly; and earlier than the morn Who knows What racking cares disease a monarch's bed? Forbidding Forbidding reft, may ftretch his eyes awake, I'll try. Mourning Bride, alt 3. fc. 4. The language here is undoubtedly too pompous and laboured for defcribing fo fimple a circumstance as abfence of fleep. In the following paffage, the tone of the language, warm and plaintive, is well suited to the paffion, which is recent grief. But every one will be fenfible, that in the last couplet fave one, the tone is changed, and the mind fuddenly elevated to be let fall as fuddenly in the last couplet. Il détefte à jamais fa coupable victoire, Il renonce à la cour, aux humains, à la gloire; Henriade, chant. viii. 229. Language too artificial or too figurative VOL. II. for for the gravity, dignity, or importance, of the occafion, may be put in a third class. Chimene demanding juftice against Rodrigue who killed her father, instead of a plain and pathetic expoftulation, makes a fpeech ftuffed with the most artificial flowers of rhetoric: Sire, mon pere eft mort, mes yeux ont vû fon fang And again: Son flanc etoit ouvert, et, pour mieux m'emouvoir, Me parloit par fa plaje, et hâtoit ma purfuite, Et |