by extorting this testimony from so insensible a

monster.

Shakspeare seems to be the only poet who possesses the power of uniting poetry with propriety of character; of which I know not an instance more striking, than the image Caliban makes use of to express silence, which is at once highly poetical, and exactly suited to the wildness of the speaker:

Pray you tread softly, that the blind mole may not
Hear a foot-fall.-

I always lament that our author has not preserved this fierce and implacable spirit in Caliban, to the end of the play; instead of which, he has, I think, injudiciously put into his mouth words that imply repentance and understanding.

-I'll be wise hereafter

And seek for grace.

What a thrice double ass
Was I, to take this drunkard for a god,
And worship this dull fool!

It must not be forgotten, that Shakspeare has artfully taken occasion from this extraordinary character, which is finely contrasted to the mildness and obedience of Ariel, obliquely to satirize the prevailing passion for new and wonderful sights, which has rendered the English so ridiculous. 'Were I in England now,' says Trinculo, on first discovering Caliban, and had but this fish painted, not an holiday fool there but would give a piece of silver.— When they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian.'

Such is the inexhaustible plenty of our poet's invention, that he has exhibited another character in this play, entirely his own; that of the lovely and innocent Miranda.

When Prospero first gives her a sight of prince Ferdinand, she eagerly exclaims,

-What is't? a spirit?

Lord! how it looks about! Believe me, sir,
It carries a brave form. But 'tis a spirit.

Her imagining that as he was so beautiful, he must
necessarily be one of her father's aërial agents, is a
stroke of nature worthy admiration; as are likewise
her entreaties to her father not to use him harshly,
by the
power of his art:

Why speaks my father so ungently? This
Is the third man that e'er I saw; the first
That e'er I sigh'd for!-

Here we perceive the beginning of that passion, which Prospero was desirous she should feel for the prince, and which she afterwards more fully expresses upon an occasion which displays at once the tenderness, the innocence, and the simplicity of her character. She discovers her lover employed in the laborious task of carrying wood, which Prospero had enjoined him to perform. Would,' says she, the lightning had burnt up those logs, that you are enjoined to pile!'

-If you'll sit down,

I'll bear your logs the while. Pray give me that,
I'll carry't to the pile.-

You look wearily.

It is by selecting such little and almost imperceptible circumstances, that Shakspeare has more truly painted the passions than any other writer: affection is more powerfully expressed by this simple wish and offer of assistance, than by the unnatural eloquence and witticisms of Dryden, or the amorous declamations of Rowe.

The resentment of Prospero for the matchless cruelty and wicked usurpation of his brother; his parental affection and solicitude for the welfare of his daughter, the heiress of his dukedom; and the awful solemnity of his character, as a skilful magician, are all along preserved with equal consistency, dignity, and decorum. One part of his behaviour deserves to be particularly pointed out during the exhibition of a mask with which he had ordered Ariel to entertain Ferdinand and Miranda, he starts suddenly, from the recollection of the conspiracy of Caliban and his confederates against his life, and dismisses his attendant spirits, who instantly vanish to a hollow and confused noise. He appears to be greatly moved; and, suitably to this agitation of mind, which his danger has excited, he takes occasion, from the sudden disappearance of the visionary scene, to moralize on the dissolution of all things:

These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits; and
Are melted into air, into thin air.

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this unsubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind.-

To these noble images he adds a short but comprehensive observation on human life, not excelled by any passage of the moral and sententious Euripides:

Thus admirably is an uniformity of character, that leading beauty in dramatic poesy, preserved throughout the Tempest. And it may be further

remarked, that the unities of action, of place, and of time, are in this play, though almost constantly violated by Shakspeare, exactly observed. The action is one, great, and entire, the restoration of Prospero to his dukedom: this business is transacted in the compass of a small island, and in or near the cave of Prospero; though, indeed, it had been more artful and regular to have confined it to this single spot: and the time which the action takes up, is only equal to that of the representation; an excellence which ought always to be aimed at in every well-conducted fable, and for the want of which a variety of the most entertaining incidents can scarcely atone.

Ꮓ

No. 98. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1753.

Aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris, et carcere dignum,
Si vis esse aliquis.—

JUV. SAT. i. 73.

Would'st thou to honours and preferments climb ?
Be bold in mischief, dare some mighty crime,
Which dungeons, death, or banishment deserves.

"TO THE ADVENTURER.

"DEAR BROTHER,

DRYDEN.

"THE thirst of glory is, I think, allowed, even by the dull dogs who can sit still long enough to write books, to be a noble appetite.

My ambition is to be thought a man of life and spirit, who could conquer the world if he was to set about it, but who has too much vivacity to give the necessary attention to any scheme of length.

"I am, in short, one of those heroic Adventurers, who have thought proper to distinguish themselves by the titles of Buck, Blood, and Nerve. When I am in the country, I am always on horse-back, and I leap or break every hedge and gate that stands in my way: when I am in town, I am constantly to be seen at some of the public places, at the proper times for making my appearance; as at Vauxhall, or Marybone, about ten, very drunk; for though I don't love wine, I am obliged to be consumedly drunk five or six nights in the week: nay, sometimes five or six days together, for the sake of my character. Wherever I come, I am sure to make all the confusion, and do all the mischief I can ; not for the sake of doing mischief, but only out of frolic, you know, to show my vivacity. If there are women near me, I swear like a devil to show my courage, and talk bawdy to show my wit. Under the rose I am a cursed favourite amongst them; and have had bonne fortune, let me tell you. I do love the little rogues hellishly but faith I make love for the good of the public; and the town is obliged to me for a dozen or two of the finest wenches that were ever brought into its seraglios. One, indeed, I lost : and, poor fond soul! I pitied her! but it could not be helped-self preservation obliged me to leave her—I could not tell her what was the matter with her, rot me if I could; and so it got such a head, that the devil himself could not have saved her.

"There's one thing vexes me; I have much ado to avoid having that insignificant character, a goodnatured fellow, fixed upon me; so that I am obliged, in my own defence, to break the boy's head, and kick my whore down stairs every time I enter a nighthouse: I pick quarrels when I am not offended, break the windows of men I never saw, demolish lamps, bilk hackney coachmen, overturn wheel-bar