of our own behaviour) we make guilty of our difafters, the fun, the moon and ftars; as if we were bias it to all the contrary iH qualities. So wretched and monfrous an opinion did it fet ont with. But the Italians, to whom we owe this, as well as moft other unnatural crimes and follies of thefe latter ages, fomented its original impiety to the moft deteftable height of extravagance. Petrus Aponenfis, an Italian phyfician of the XIIIth century, affures us that thofe prayers which are made to God when the moon is in conjunction with Jupiter in the Dragon's tail, are infallibly heard. The great Milton with a juft indignation of this impiety, hath, in his Paradife Regained, fatirized it in a very beautiful manner, by putting thefe reveries into the mouth of the Devil. Nor could the licentious Rabelais himfelf forbear to ridicule this impious dotage, which he does with exquifite addrefs and humour, where, in the fable which he fo agreeably tells from jop, of the man who applied to Jupiter for the lofs of his hatchet, he makes thofe, who, on the poor man's good fuccefs, had projected to trick Jupiter by the fame petition, a kind of aftrologick atheists, who afcribed this good fortune, that they imagin ed they were now all going to partake of, to the influence of fome rare conjunction and configuration of the ftars. Hen, ben, difent ils-Et doncques, telle eft au temps prefent la revolution des Cieulx, la conftellation des Af tres, afpe des Planetes, que 7 quiconque Coignée perdra, foubaoin deviendra ainfi riche ?Nou. Prol. du IV. Livre. But to return to Shakespear. So blafphemous a delufion, there fore, it became the honefty of our poet to expofe. But it was a tender point, and required managing. For this impious juggle had in his time a kind of religious reverence paid to it. It was therefore to be done obliquely; and the circumstances of the fcene furnished him with as good an opportunity as he could with. The perfons in the drama are all pagans, fo that as, in compliance to cuftom, his good characters were not to speak ill of judicial aftrology, they could on account of their religion give no reputation to it. But in order to expofe it the more, he, with great judgment, makes thefe pagans Fatalifts; as appears by thefe words of Lear, By all the operations of the orbs, From whom we do exift and ceafe to be. For the doctrine of fate is the true foundation of judicial Aftrology. Having thus difcre. dited it by the very commendations given to it, he was in no danger of having his direct fatire againft it mistaken, by its being put (as he was obliged, both in paying regard to cultom, and in following nature) into the mouth of the villain and atheift, efpecially when he has added fuch force of reafon to his ridicule, in the words referred to in the beginning of the note. villains villains on neceffity; fools, by heavenly compulfion; knaves, thieves, and treacherous, by fpherical predominance; drunkards, lyars, and adulterers, by an inforc'd obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrufting on. + An admirable evasion of whore-mafter Man, to lay his goatish difpofition on the charge of a ftar! my father compounded with my mother under the Dragon's tail, and my nativity was under Urfa major; fo that it follows, I am rough and lecherous. I fhould have been what I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing. Pat! To him, Enter Edgar. 5 he comes, like the Catastrophe of the old comedy; my cue is villainous Melancholy, with a • An admirable evafion-to lay bis-difpofition on the CHARGE of a far!] We should read, CHANGE of a far! which both the fenfe and grammar require. It was the opinion of Aftrologers, (fee what is faid juft above) that the momentary influence did all; and we do not fay, Lay a thing on the charge, but to the charge. Befides, change anfwering to evafion just above, gives additional elegance to the expreffion. WARBURTON. 5 He comes, like the Cataitrophe of the old comedy;] This we are to understand as a compliment, intended by the Author, on the natural winding up of the plot in the Comedy of the ancients; which as it was owing to the artful and yet natural in figh troduction of the perfons of the Drama into the scene, juft in the nick of time, or pat, as our author fays, makes the fimilitude very proper. This, without doubt, is the fupreme beauty of Comedy, confidered as an action. And as it depends folely on a ftrict obfervance of the Unities, it fhews that thefe Unities are in nature, and in the reafon of things, and not in a meer arbitrary invention of the Greeks, as fome of our own country critics, of a low mechanic genius, have, by their works, perfuaded our wits to believe. For common sense requiring that the fubject of one comedy fhould be one action, and that that action fhould be contained nearly within the period of time which the reprefentation of figh like Tom o' Bedlam -O, thefe eclipfes portend thefe divifions! fa, fol, la, me Edg. How now, brother Edmund, what ferious contemplation are you in? Edm. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read. this other day, what fhould follow thefe eclipfes. Edg. Do you bufy yourself with that? Edm. I promife you, the effects, he writes of, fucceed unhappily. When faw you my father laft? of it takes up; hence we have the unities of Time and Ation; and from thefe unavoidably arifes the third, which is that of Place. For when the whole of one action is included within a proportionable fmall space of time, there is no room to change the fcene, but all must be done upon one pot of ground. Now from this laft unity (the neceffary iffue of the two other, which derive immediately from nature) proceeds all that beauty of the catastrophe, or the winding up the plot in the ancient comedy. For all the perfons of the Drama being to appear and act on one limited fpot, and being by their feveral interefls to embarras, and at length to conduct the action to its deftin'd period, there is need of confummate skill to bring them on, and take them off, naturally and neceffarily for the grace of action requires the one, and the perfection of it the other. Which conduct of the action must needs produce a beauty that will give a judicious mind the highest pleasure. On the other hand, when a comic writer has a whole country to range in, nothing is easier than to find the Edg. perfons of the Drama just where he would have them; and this requiring no art, the beauty we fpeak of is not to be found. Confequently a violation of the unities deprives the Drama of one of its greatest beauties; which proves what I afferted, that the three unities are no arbitrary mechanic invention, but founded in reafon and the nature of things. The Tempest of ShakeSpear fufficiently proves him to be well acquainted with thefe unities; and the paffage in queftion fhews him to have been ftruck with the beauty that refults from them. WARBURTON. 6 I promise you,] The folio edition commonly differs from the firit quarto, by augmentations or infertions, but in this place it varies by omiffion, and by the omiffion of fomething which naturally introduces the following dialogue. The quarto has the paffage thus: I promise you, the effects, be writes of, fucceed unhappily, as of unnaturalness between the child. and parent, death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities, divifions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles, need Edg. The night gone by. Edm. Spake you with him? Edg. Ay, two hours together. Edm. Parted you in good terms, found you no difpleasure in him, by word or countenance ? Edg. None at all. Edm. Bethink yourself, wherein you have offended him: and, at my intreaty, forbear his prefence, until fome little time hath qualified the heat of his difpleafure; which at this inftant fo rageth in him, 7 that with the mischief of your perfon it would fcarcely allay. Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong. Edm. That's my fear. I pray you, have a continent forbearance 'till the speed of his rage goes flower; and, as I fay, retire with me to my lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to hear my Lord fpeak. Pray you, go, there's my key. If you do stir abroad, go arm'd. Edg. Arm'd, brother! Edm. Brother, I advife you to the beft; I am no honeft man, if there be any good meaning toward you: I have told you what I have feen and heard, but faintly; nothing like the image and horror of it. Pray you, away. Edg. Shall I hear from you anon? needlefs diffidences, banishment of friends, diffipation of courts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what. It is easy to remark, that in this fpeech, which ought, I think, to be inferted in the text, Edmund, with the common craft of fortune-tellers, mingles the paft and future, and teils of the fu ture only what he already foreknows by confederacy, or can attain by probable conjecture. 7 that with the mischief of your perfon] This reading is in both copies, yet I believe the authour gave it, that but with the mischief of your person it would fcarce allay. SCENE Edm. I do ferve you in this bufinefs. [Exit Edgar A credulous father, and a brother noble, Whose nature is fo far from doing harms, That he fufpects none; on whofe foolish honefty My practices ride eafy; I fee the business. Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit; All with me's meet, that I can fashion fit. Gon. D [Exit. ID my father ftrike my gentleman for chiding of his fool? Stew. Ay, madam. Gon. By day and night, he wrongs me. Every hour He flashes into one grofs crime or other, That fets us all at odds; I'll not endure it. His Knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us You fhall do well; the fault of it I'll anfwer. Stew. He's coming, Madam, I hear him. Whofe mind and mine, I know, in that are one, That still would manage thofe Authorities, That Idle old Man,] The follow- themfelves, and very much in lowing Lines, as they are fine in Character for Gonerill, I have re fored |