not to leave him until they have delivered him out of his troubles, or made him triumph over his enemies. This error they have been led into by a ridiculous doctrine in modern criticism, that they are obliged to an equal diftribution of rewards and punishments, and an impartial execution of poetical juftice. Who were the firft that established this rule I know not; but I am fure it has no foundation in nature, in reafon, or in the practice of the ancients. We find that good and evil happen alike to all men on this fide the grave; and, as the principal defign of tragedy is to raise commiferation and terror in the minds of the audience, we fhall defeat this great end, if we always make virtue and innocence happy and fuccessful. Whatever croffes and disappointments a good man fuffers in the body of the tragedy, they will make but fmall impreffion on our minds, when we know that in the last act he is to arrive at the end of his wishes and defires. When we fee him engaged in the depth of his afflictions, we are apt to comfort ourselves, because we are fure he will find his way out of them; and that his grief, how great foever it may be at prefent, will foon terminate in gladnefs. For this reafon the ancient writers of tragedy treated men in their plays as they are dealt with in the world, by making virtue fometimes happy and sometimes miferable, as they found it in the fable which they made choice of, or as it might affect their audience in the most agreeablemanner. Ariftotle confiders the tragedies that were written in either of these kinds, and obferves, that those which ended unhappily had always pleafed the people, and carried away the prize in the public difputes of the stage, from those that ended happily. Terror and commiferation leave a pleafing anguifi in the mind, and fix the audience in fuch a serious compofure of thought, as is much more lafting and delightful than any little tranfient starts of joy and fatisfaction. Accordingly, we find, that more of our English P 2 Englifb tragedies have fucceeded, in which the favourites of the audience fink under their calamities, than thofe in which they recover themselves out of them. The beft plays of this kind are, The Orphan, Venice Preferved, Alexander the Great, Theodofius, All for Love, Oedipus, Oroonoko, Othello, &c. King Lear is an admirable tragedy of the fame kind, as Shakespear wrote it; but, as it is reformed according to the chimerical notion of poetical juftice, in my humble opinion it has loft half its beauty. At the fame time I muft allow, that there are very noble tragedies which have been framed upon the other plan, and have ended happily; as indeed most of the good tragedies which have been written fince the ftarting of the above-mentioned criticism have taken this turn as, The Mourning Bride, Tamerlane, Ulyffes, Phadra and Hippolitus, with moft of Mr. Dryden's. I muft alfo allow, that many of Shakefear's, and feveral of the celebrated tragedies of antiquity, are caft in the fame form. I do not therefore difpute against this way of writing tragedies, but against the criticism that would establish this as the only method; and by that means would very much cramp the English tragedy, and perhaps give a wrong bent to the genius of our writers. The tragicomedy, which is the product of the Englifb theatre, is one of the most monftrous inventions that ever entered into a poet's thoughts. An author might as well think of weaving the adventures of Æneas and Hudibras into one poem, as of writing fuch a motley piece of mirth and forrow. But the abfurdity of thefe performances is so very vifible, that I fall not infift upon it. The fame objections, which are made to tragicomedy, may in fome measure be applied to all tragedies that have a double plot in them; which are likewife more frequent upon the English ftage, than upon any other for, though the grief of the audience,. in fuch performances, be not changed into another paffion, as in tragicomedies; it is diverted upon ano ther ther object, which weakens their concern for thè principal action, and breaks the tide of forrow, by throwing it into different channels. This inconvenience, however, may in a great measure be cured, if not wholly removed, by the fkilful choice of an under-plot, which may bear fuch a near relation to the principal defign, as to contribute towards the completion of it, and be concluded by the fame catäftrophe. There is also another particular, which may be reckoned among the blemishes, or rather the falfe beauties of our English tragedy: I mean thofe par-ticular speeches which are commonly known by the name of Rants. The warm and paffionate parts of a tragedy, are always the most taking with the au-¡ dience; for which reafon we often fee the players pronouncing, in all the violence of action, feveral parts of the tragedy which the author writ with great temper, and defigned that they fhould have been fo acted. I have feen Powell very often raise himself a loud clap by this artifice. The poets that were acquainted with this fecret, have given frequent occafions for fuch emotions in the actor, by adding vehemence to words where there was no paffion, or inflaming a real paffion into fuftian. This hath filled the mouths of our heroes with bombaft, and given them fuch fentiments as proceed rather from a fwelling than a greatness of mind: Unnatural exclamations, curfés, vows, blafphemies, a defiance of mankind, and an outraging of the gods, frequently pass upon the audience for towering thoughts, and have accordingly met with infiniteapplause. I fhall here add a remark, which I am afraid our tragic writers may make an ill ufe of. As our heroes are generally lovers, their fwelling and bluftering upon the ftage, very much recommends them to the fair part of their audience. The ladies are wonderfully pleased to see a man infulting kings; or affronting P 3 affronting the gods in one fcene, and throwing him-self at the feet of his mistress in another. Let him. behave himself infolently towards the men, and ab jectly towards the fair one, and it is ten to one but be proves a favourite of the boxes. Dryden and Lee, in feveral of their tragedies, have practifed this fecret with good fuccefs.. But, to fhew how a Rant pleafes beyond the most just and natural thought that is not pronounced with vehemence, I would defire the reader, when he feesthe tragedy of Oedipus, to obferve how quietly the bero is difmiffed at the end of the third act, after having pronounced the following lines, in which the thought is very natural,, and apt to move compaffion : To you, good gods, I make my last appeal; And backward tread thofe paths I fought to shun; My hands are guilty, but my heart is free. Let us then obferve with what thunder-claps of applause he leaves the ftage, after the impieties and execrations at the end of the fourth act; and you will. wonder to see an audience so curfed and so pleased at the fame time; O that, as oft I have at Athens feen, [Where, by the way, there was no stage until The ftage arife, and the big clouds defcend; This pond'rous globe, and all yon marble roof, ADVER ADVERTISEMENT. Having poken of Mr. Powell, as fometimes raifing himself applaufe from the ill taste of an audience;: I must do him the juftice to own, that he is excellently formed for a tragedian, and, when he pleases, de-. ferves the admiration of the best judges; as I doubt not but he will in the Conqueft of Mexico, which is acted for his own benefit to-morrow night. C No. 41. TUESDAY, APRIL 17. -Tu non invento reperta es. OVID. Met.l.i.ver. 654 ADDISON. So found, is worse than lost.. YOMPASSION for the gentleman who writes the following letter, fhould not prevail upon me to fall upon the Fair Sex, if it were not that I find they are frequently fairer than they ought to be... Such impoftures are not to be tolerated in civil fo-ciety; and I think his misfortune ought to be made: public, as a warning for other men always to exa、mine into what they admire. Suppofing you to be a person of general know-ledge, I make my application to you on a very par ⚫ticular occafion. I have a great mind to be rid of my wife, and hope, when you confider my cafe, you will be of opinion I have very juft pretentions to a divorce. I am a mere man of the town, and have. very little improvement, but what I have got from plays. I remember, in The Silent Woman, the learned Dr. Cutberd, or Dr. Otter, (I forget which) • makes one of the causes of feparation to be error 'perfona, |