describes for a family there and makes the Welsh Parson descant very pleasantly upon 'em. That whole Play is admirable, the Humours are various and well opposed; the main Design which is to cure Ford of his unreasonable jealousy is extremely well conducted. Falstaff's billet doux, and Mr. Slender's "Ah, Sweet Ann Page!" are very Good Expressions of Love in their Way. In Twelfth Night there is something singularly Ridiculous and Pleasant in the Fantastical steward Malvolio. The Parasite and the Vainglorious in Parolles, in All's Well that Ends Well is as good as anything of that kind in Plautus or Terence. Petruchio, in The Taming of the Shrew, is an uncommon Piece of Humour. The conversation of Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado about Nothing and of Rosalind in As You Like It, have much Wit and sprightliness all along. His Clowns, without which Character there was hardly any Play writ in that Time, were all very entertaining: and I believe Thersites in Troilus and Cressida, and Apemantus in Timon, will be allowed to be masterpieces of ill nature and Satyrical snarling. To these I might add, that incomparable Character of Shylock the Jew, in The Merchant of Venice; But tho' we have seen that Play received and acted as a Comedy, and the part of the Jew performed by an excellent Comedian, yet I cannot but think it was designed Tragically by the Author, There appears in it such a deadly Spirit of Revenge, such a Savage Fierceness and Fellness and

such a bloody designation of Cruelty and Mischief, as cannot agree either with the style or characters of Comedy. The Play itself, take it altogether, seems to me to be one of the most finished of any of Shakespear's. The Tale indeed, in that Part relating to the Caskets and the extravagant and unusual kind of Bond given by Antonio, is a little too much removed from the Rules of Probability: But taking the Fact for granted, we must allow it to be very beautifully written.

There is something in the Friendship of Antonio and Bassanio very Great, Generous and Tender. The whole Fourth Act, supposing, as I said, the fact to be probable, is extremely Fine. But there are two Passages that deserve a particular Notice. The first is what Portia says in praise of Mercy, and the other on the power of Music. The Melancholy of Jaques, in As You Like it, is as singular and odd as it is diverting, and if what Horace says,

"Difficile est proprie communia Dicere,"

'T will be a hard task for any one to go beyond him in his description of the several Degrees and Ages of Man's Life, tho' the Thought be Old and common enough.

His Images are indeed ev'ry where so lively that the Thing that he would represent stands fully before you, and you possess every part of it. I will venture to point out one more, which is as I think, as strong and

uncommon as anything I ever saw; 'tis an Image of Patience, speaking of a Maid in Love, he says

She never told her Love,

But let concealment, like a worm i' th' bud

Feed on her damask cheeks: she pined in Thought
And sate like Patience on a Monument,
Smiling at Grief.

What an Image is here given! and what a task it would have been for the greatest Masters of Greece and Rome to have expressed the Passions designed by this sketch of Statuary. The style of his Comedy is, in general, Natural to the Characters, and easie in itself; and the Wit most commonly, sprightly and pleasing, except in those places where he runs into Dogrel Rhymes, as in The Comedy of Errors and a passage or two in some other Plays. As for his jingling sometimes, and playing upon Words, it was a common Vise of the Age he liv'd in: and if we find it in the Pulpit made use of as an Ornament to the Sermons of some of the Gravest Divines of those Times; perhaps it may not be thought too light for the Stage. But certainly the greatness of this Author's Genius does no way so much appear, as where he gives Imagination an entire Loose, and raises his Fancy to a flight above Mankind and the Limits of the Visible World. Such are his attempts in The Tempest, Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth and Hamlet. Of these The Tempest, however it comes to be placed the first by former Publishers of his Works, can never

have been first written by him: It seems to me as perfect in its kind as almost anything we have of his. One may observe, that the Unities are kept here with an Exactness uncommon to the Liberties of his Writing: Tho' that was what, I suppose, he valued himself the least upon, since his excellencies were all of another Kind. I am very sensible that he does, in this Play, depart too much from that likeness to Truth which ought to be observed in these sort of Writings; yet he does it so very finely, that one is easily drawn in to have more Faith, for his sake, than Reason does well allow of. His Magic has something in it very Solemn and very Poetical; and that extravagant character of Caliban is mighty well sustained, shews a wonderful Invention in the Author Who could strike out such a particular wild Image and is certainly one of the finest and most uncommon Grotesques that ever was seen. The observation which I have been informed three very great men concurred in making upon this part, was extremely just. "That Shakespear had not only found out a new Character in his Caliban, but had also devised and adapted a new manner of Language for that Character." Among the particular Beauties of this Piece, I think one may be allowed to point out the Tale of Prospero in the first Act; his speech to Ferdinand in the Fourth, upon the Masque of Juno and Ceres; and that in the Fifth, where he dissolves his Charms and resolves to break his Magic Rod. This Play has been altered by Sir Wm. D'Ave

nant and Mr. Dryden; and tho' I won't arraign the judgment of those two Great Men, yet I think I may be allowed to say, that there are some things left out by them that might, and even ought, to have been kept in. Mr. Dryden was an Admirer of our Author, and indeed he owed him a great deal, as those who have read them both may very easily observe. And I think in Justice to 'em both I should not omit what Mr. Dryden has said of him.

Shakespear, who, taught by none, did first impart
To Fletcher Wit, to lab'ring Jonson Art.

He Monarch like gave those his Subjects Law,
And is that Nature which they Paint and Draw.

Fletcher reach'd that which on his heights did Grow
While Jonson crept and gathered all below:
This did his Love, and this his Mirth digest,

One imitates him most, the other best.

If they have since out-writ all other Men

'Tis with the Drops that fell from Shakespear's Pen
The storm which vanish'd on the Neighboring shore1
Was taught by Shakespear's Tempest, first to roar.
That Innocence and Beauty which did smile
In Fletcher, grew on this enchanted Isle.
But Shakespear's Magic could not copied be,
Within that Circle none durst walk but he.
I must confess 't was bold, nor would you now
That Liberty to Vulgar Wits allow,

Which works by Magic supernatural things:

But Shakespear's Pow'r is Sacred as a King's.

Prologue to "The Tempest" as altered by Mr. Dryden.

It is the same magic that raises the Fairies in Midsummer Night's Dream, the Witches in Macbeth,

'Alluding to Fletcher's sea-voyage.