And Whistles in his Sound. Laft Scene of all,
That ends this ftrange eventful Hiftory,
Is fecond Childishness and meer Oblivion,
Sans Teeth, fans Eyes, fans Taft, fans ev'ry thing.
p. 625.

His Images are indeed ev'ry where fo lively, that the Thing he would reprefent ftands full before you, and you poffefs ev'ry Part of it. I will venture to point out one more, which is, I think, as strong and as uncommon as any thing I ever faw; 'tis an Image of Patience. Speaking of a Maid in Love, he fays,

She never told her Love,

But let Concealment, like a Worm i'th Bud Feed on her Damask Cheek: Shepin'd in Thought, And fate like Patience on a Monument, ' Smiling at Grief.

What an Image is here given! and what a Task would it have been for the greatest Mafters of Greece and Rome to have express'd the Paffions defign'd by this Sketch of Statuary? The Stile of his Comedy is, in general, Natural to the Characters, and eafie in it felf; and the Wit most commonly fprightly and pleafing, except in thofe places where he runs into Dogrel Rhymes, as in The Comedy of Errors,

and

and a Passage or two in some other Plays. As for his Jingling fometimes, and playing upon Words, it was the common Vice 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 fome of the Gravest Divines of thofe Times; perhaps it may not be thought too light for the Stage.

But certainly the greatness of this Author's Genius do's no where fo much appear, as where he gives his Imagination an entire Loose, and raises his Fancy to a flight above Mankind and the Limits of the vifible World. Such are his Attempts in The Tempest, MidsummerNight's Dream, Macbeth and Hamlet. Of thefe, The Tempeft, however it comes to be plac'd the first by the former Publishers of his Works, can never have been the first written by him: It feems to me as perfect in its Kind, as almost any thing we have of his, One may obferve, that the Unities are kept here with an Exactness uncommon to the Liberties of his Writing: Tho' that was what, I suppose, he valu'd himself leaft upon, fince his Excellencies were all of another Kind. I am very fenfible that he do's, in this Play, depart too much from that likeness to Truth which ought to be obferv'd in these fort of Writings; yet

he do's it fo very finely, that one is easily drawn in to have more Faith for his fake, than Reafon does well allow of. His Magick has something in it very Solemn and very Poetical: And that extravagant Character of Caliban is mighty well fuftain'd, fhews a wonderful Invention in the Author, who could strike out fuch a particular wild Image, and is certainly one of the finest and most uncommon Grotefques that was ever seen. The Obfervation, which I have been inform'd * three very great Men concurr'd in making upon this Part, was extremely juft. That Shakespear had not only found out a new Character in his Caliban, but had alfo devis'd and adapted a new manner of Language for that Character. Among the particular Beauties of this Piece, I think one may be allow'd to point out the Tale of Profpero in the First Act; his Speech to Ferdinand in the Fourth, upon the breaking up the Mafque of Juno and Ceres; and that in the Fifth, where he diffolves his Charms, and refolves to break his Magick Rod. This Play has been alter'd by Sir William D'Avenant and Mr. Dryden; and tho' I won't Arraign the Judgment of those two great Men, yet I think I may be allow'd to fay, that there are some things

* Ld. Falkland, Ld.C.F. Vaughan, and Mr. Selden.

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 eafily obferve. And, I think, in Juftice to 'em both, I fhould not on this Occasion omit what Mr. Dryden has faid of him.

Shakespear,who,taught by none,did first impart To Fletcher Wit, to lab'ring Johnson Art. He, Monarch-like, gave thofe his Subjects Law, And is that Nature which they Paint and Draw. Fletcher reach'd that which on his heights did grow,

Whilft Johnson crept and gather'd all below: This did his Love, and this his Mirth digeft, One imitates him moft, the other beft.

If they have fince out-writ all other Men, [Pen.
"Tis with the Drops which fell from Shakespear's
The* Storm which vanish'd on the neighb'ring
Shoar,

Was taught by Shakespear's Tempeft first to roar.
That Innocence and Beauty which did fmile
In Fletcher, grew on this Enchanted Isle.
But Shakespear's Magick could not copied be,
Within that Circle none durft walk but he.

*Alluding to the Sea-Voyage of Fletcher.

I

I must confefs 'twas bold, nor would you now
That Liberty to vulgar Wits allow,

Which works by Magick fupernatural things:
But Shakespear's Power is Sacred as a King's.

Prologue to The Tempeft, as it is alter'd by Mr. Dryden.

the

It is the fame Magick that raises the Fairies in Midfummer Night's Dream, the Witches in Macbeth, and the Ghost in Hamlet, with Thoughts and Language fo proper to the Parts they sustain, and fo peculiar to the Talent of this Writer. But of the two last of these Plays I fhall have occafion to take notice, among Tragedies of Mr. Shakespear. If one undertook to examine the greatest part of these by thofe Rules which are establish'd by Ariftotle, and taken from the Model of the Grecian Stage, it would be no very hard Task to find a great many Faults: But as Shakespear liv'd under a kind of mere Light of Nature, and had never been made acquainted with the Regularity of those written Precepts, fo it would be hard to judge him by a Law he knew nothing of. We are to confider him as a Man that liv'd in a State of almost universal License and Ignorance: There was no establish'd Judge, but every one took the liberty to Write according to the Dictates of his own Fancy. When