of his age or rank, as when an old man is made to display the tastes and fopperies of a youth of fashion, or a plain citizen assumes the air and bearing of a nobleman. The great point here is not to transgress the bounds of probability and nature. When thus employed, within its legitimate province, it is often a more powerful means of exploding vice, of purifying the morals, and of calling the attention of men. to the decencies and decorum of society than the most serious attacks, or the most powerful arguments. At the same time it must be allowed that ridicule is no test of truth, since it may be employed against what is good and serious as well as the contrary. But in the former case the fault lies not in the nature of the thing itself, but in the disposition and intention of him who employs it. It may also be overcharged, and the comic writer ought never to forget that there is a point to which he may be carried where we do not laugh, and then, again, that there is another point to which, if he descends, modest people, at least, cannot laugh.

2. OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF THE COMIC.

381. The vices, follies, and inconsistencies of mankind of all ranks in life is the legitimate field in which' the comic poet displays his talents. Hence, according to the situation in life or the rank of the persons with which comedy is occupied, it takes different names, as the high or dignified comedy, the comedy of middle life, and the low comedy. In the latter the author should never descend to what is

low, mean, and vulgar. The representation of base and revolting vices, of gross actions, and indecent expressions, instead of exciting laughter, produce only contempt, disgust and horror, and, far from improving the morals, tend only to pollute the heart and defile the imagination. In this respect the French comedy is far superior to the English: the former is always correct and chaste, while the latter is too often the school of vice.

3. OF THE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF COMEDY.

382. We may distinguish two species of comedy: -The comedy of intrigue, and the comedy of character. The former consists in a succession of adventures and exploits which keep the spectator in suspense, and form a plot which goes on increasing to the catastrophe.-The action, or the intrigue, is the ground work of the piece, and the display of character is secondary to it, and, therefore, but superficially touched upon. The object of this species of comedy is rather to amuse than to instruct.

Ex.-The Provoked Husband, The Careless Husband, by Cibber; The Beaux Stratagem, by Farquhar.

383. In the comedy of character a principal character is represented, which properly forms the subject of the piece, the display of which is all that is aimed at by the poet. The action is made subordinate to it, and the plot, if there is any thing that deserves the name, is contrived solely with a view to the same end.

Ex.-The Merry Wives of Windsor, of Shakspeare; Le Glorieux, L'Avare, Le Misanthrope, Le Tartuffe, Le Menteur, of Molière.

The best comedies are those in which these two species are blended.

Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, Terence, Molière, Reynard, Shakspeare, Cibber, Vanburgh, Congreve, may be cited as the best writers of comedy.

II. OF TRAGEDY.

384. Tragedy (zpaywdɛw, from zpayos, a goat, and adw, to sing, because it took its origin from the hymns chanted at the festivals of Bacchus at which. a goat was the sacrifice) is the representation of a distinguished or heroic action, generally unfortunate in its issue.

385. Its object is to inspire horror for great crimes and love for exalted virtue, by the representations of the dreadful miseries into which great and good men are often plunged by their passions or their faults.

1. OF THE QUALITY OF AN HEROIC ACTION.

386. An action becomes heroic either from the principle or the motive from which it is performed, from the object with which it is performed or from the nature and quality of the action itself.

1. From its principle, when it bears the stamp of a mind superior to that of ordinary men. Such, for example, as that of Augustus pardoning Cinna, that

of Polynectes dying for the faith, etc.; and in criminal actions, that of Medea murdering her own children, that of Cleopatra, who stabs one of her sons and wishes to poison the other, that of lady Macbeth instigating her husband to the murder of Duncan, that of Richard III. wading through scenes of blood to the throne; atrocious crimes all of them, certainly, but which suppose a force and energy of soul that astonishes us.

387. 2. From its object,-when it proceeds from patriotic devotion to one's king, prince, or some great personage, as in The Cid, in Cinna;-in the character of Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII.;—to our own people or country, as in Esther, in The Horatii ;-to religion, as in Athalie. At the same. time, all these kinds of interest may be combined in the same action. Thus, in the last quoted instance, in Athalie, the triumph of Joas does not less subserve the interests of the prince, and of the whole Jewish people, than it does those of religion.

388. 3. From the quality of the actors, whether considered in regard to the actors themselves, or the personages against whom, or in whose favour, the action is performed; such, for example, as kings, princes, illustrious personages, etc. If they are virtuous, their virtues ought to be great and sublime. If the contrary, their vices and manners ought to possess a force and energy which indicate a soul superior to ordinary minds, and which, accordingly, cannot fail to draw forth our admiration, while at the same time we detest their crimes. For, how

ever virtuous, or however wicked we may suppose a personage to be, his virtue must not be faultless, or, at least, it ought to appear feeble from the position in which the poet places him; his vices, too, on the other hand, ought to possess some trait of goodness, some redeeming quality.-We see this in lady Macbeth, in her sleep-walking scene, in Polynectes, who has some moments of feebleness, in Joad, who has no resources but in God;-and so, too, in Medea, Cleopatra, Nero, who are sometimes harassed by remorse.-A perfectly faultless character is placed too far above us to excite our sympathy; while an accomplished villain would excite in our minds nothing but horror. We may add, that such characters have no existence in nature.

2. OF TERROR AND PITY.

389. The tragical action ought, generally speaking, to terminate unfortunately. The object of this species of poem is to awaken in the soul the strongest and deepest passions of our nature. Now terror and pity are the most powerful springs that move the human heart. Accordingly the tragic poet excites terror by placing his hero in situations in which he is threatened with some great misfortune, or exposed to some imminent peril; and pity by his vivid delineation, whether by expression, or even by action, of the misfortune or danger to which he is exposed. These perilous and unfortunate circumstances in which the poet places him should go on increasing, rendering his situation more and more