ON THE PLOT, THE FABLE, AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE TEMPEST. DOCTOR JOHNSON, who certainly was as great an enemy to incongruity as any man that has commentated on the works of Shakspeare, felt, nevertheless, so forcibly the excellencies of this play surpassing infinitely its defects, that he has not only defended it against the attacks of such sour spirits, as could turn their eyes no whither, except on its improbabilities; but has even made those improbabilities, resulting from the machinery employed in it, a principal object of commendation. "Whatever might be Shakspeare's intention," says he, "in forming or adopting the plot, he hath made it instrumental to the production of many characters, diversified with boundless invention, and preserved with profound skill in nature, extensive knowledge of opinions, and accurate observation of life. In a single drama are here exhibited princes, courtiers, and sailors, all speaking in their real characters. Here is the agency of airy spirits, and of an earthly goblin; the operations of magic, the tumults of a storm, the adventures of a desert island, the native effusion of untaught affection, the punishment of guilt, and the final happiness of the 4 pair for whom our passions and reason are equally interested." It will not surprise a reader of reflection, that Ben Jonson should inveigh against this drama in the bitter language of spleen. All the world knows that, great as were his abilities, his ill-nature was still greater; and therefore there is nothing wonderful in his fastening on any imperfections of that mighty genius, by the splendor of whose superior talents alone, he dreaded the eclipse of his own. "If there be never a servant monster in the fair, who can help it, nor a nest of antiques? He is loth to make nature afraid in his plays, like those that beget Tales, Tempests, and such like drolleries." But Fletcher appreciated more justly the merits of his astonishing invention. "He seems particularly to have admired The Tempest, and The Midsummer's Night's Dream," says Dr. Warburton," and hath written two plays in imitation of them, The Sea Voyage, and The Faithful Shepherdess. After him, sir John Suckling and Milton catched the brightest fire of their imagination from these two plays; which shines fantastically indeed in The Goblins, but much more nobly and serenely in The Mask at Ludlow-Castle." How far this drama may be denominated the offspring of Shakspeare's own imagination it is impossible for us to determine. That a very considerable portion of it is the produce of his creative fancy will hardly be questioned: for no one has yet met with any novel from which its plot can have been borrowed. |