on Defdemona. The abbé du Bos is par ticulary ftrenuous against these enormous crimes. "He who is hurried away by the first impulfe of his paffion to commit a great crime, is always a villain. Paffion is no excufe for the voluntary murder of one's wife, not even by the law of poetic morality; the only one here con fidered, and, of all others, the most indulgent. Crimes of fo deep a die are fo repugnant to hearts not entirely corrupted, that it is not fufficient to have been deprived in fome measure of one's prefence and liberty of mind in committing them, to avoid being branded as a villain. It is not by dint of reflection, or by withstanding the temptation, that a man, who has any remains of virtue, avoids committing them; No, it is because he has no fuch motion in him, as can lead him to commit the like exceffes;

having an horror by inftinct, and, if I may be allowed the expreffion, a mechanic averfion to all fuch unnatural áctions. If the firft motion of paffion could impel him to fuch crimes, the first motion of virtue fhould be able to withhold him: For have not virtues their first motions, as well as our vicious paffions?

I avoid

* Celui à qui fes premiers mouvemens peuvent faire commettre de grands crimes, est toujours un fcélerat. L'emportement n'excuse point le meurtre volontaire de fa femme, même suivant la morale de la poëfie, la feule dont il s'agit ici, & la plus indulgente. De tels crimes répugnent tellément aux cœurs qui ne font pas entierement dépravés, qu'il ne fuffit point d'avoir perdu quelque chofe de la liberté de fon efprit pour les commettre, fans devenir un fcélerat odieux. Ce n'eft point par réflexion & èn refiftant à la tentation qu'un homme à qui il refte encore quelque vertu ne les commet pas; c'est parcequ'il n'est pas en lui de mouvement qui le porte jamais à de pareils excès: il eft en lui une horreur d'instinct, & fi j'ofe dire, machinale, contre les actions dénaturées.

I avoid too many quotations, left they fhould be tedious, but many more might be produced to ftrengthen the rule of preferving the characters of tragedy.. Giving a variety to the perfonages enlivens the piece, and adds to the entertainment: of the fpectator; and if their fentimentsare not adapted to their manners, the common notions of propriety are so offended, that it must render a tragedy difgufting, infomuch that nothing but

great

turées. S'il y pouvoit être porté par un premier mouvement de colere, un premier mouvement de vertu le retiendroit. Les vertus n'ont-t-elles pas leurs premiers mouvemens ainfi que les paffions vicieuses?

Réflexions Critiques, tome i. 14. Lord Kaimes, fpeaking of a dramatic poet, fays, "He ought, over and above, to be acquainted with the various appearances of the fame paffion in different perfons. Paffions, it is certain, receive a tincture from every peculiarity of character, and for that reafon it rarely happens that any two perfons vent their paffions precifely

in

great art in the composition of the fable, and very good language, can preserve a piece from oblivion, in which these neceffary maxims are violated.

in the fame manner. Hence the following rule concerning dramatic and epic compofitions, that a paffion be adjufted to the character, the fentiments to the paffion, and the language to the fentiments. If nature be not faithfully copied in each of thefe, a defect in execution is perceived. There may appear fome refemblance, but the picture upon the whole will be infipid, through want of grace and delicacy. A painter, in order to represent the various attitudes of the body, ought to be intimately acquainted with mufcular motion not lefs intimately acquainted with emotions and characters ought a writer to be, in order to represent the various attitudes of the mind. A general notion of the paffions, in their groffer differences of ftrong and weak, elevated and humble, fevere and gay, is far from being fufficient: Pictures formed fo fuperficially, have little refemblance, and no expreffion."

:

Elements of Criticifm, vol. ii. p. 150.

SECT.

I

SECT. VII.

Shall not have occafion to be diffuse in this article, as the language of tragedy is at prefent, and has been for fome time, better known and more stúdied than either the fable or fentiments : Yet it is the leaft important part in a dramatic poem. As the subject is always ferious, so should the language be alfo; fublime and perfpicuous, without bombaft and lownefs. The English language naturally runs into noble and fonorous measures; fo that the fublimity of the language is much oftener met with than that of fentiment; and without the latter there can be no true fublimity. The greatest excellency of Mr. Rowe's tragedies, is the mufical and harmonious verfification; but this technical beauty is

not