the Shadow of Tragedy, yet we have excell'd all the Antients in Comedy.

1

There is no Man has had more of this Vis Comica than our Shakespear in particular Characters; and in the Merry Wives of Windfor, he has given us a Play that wants but little of a perfect Regularity. Comedy in England has met with the Fate of Tragedy in Athens, for that only has yet been cultivated; whereas the polite Athenians took first care of Tragedy, and it was late e'er the Magiftrate took any notice of Comedy, or thought it worthy their Inspection.

All Arts indeed improve as they find Encouragement; our Statesmen have never yet thought it worth their while to rescue the Drama from the Hands of the Ignorant, and the Benefit of private Perfons, under which Load of Obftacles it can never rife to any Perfection; and place fuch Men in the Management of it, as may turn it to the Advantage of the Public. Whether this be any Proof of their good Politics or not, I fhall not here determine; but I am fure, that very politic Nations, that is, the Greeks and the Romans, had far other Sentiments.

This naturally leads me to the Rife of the Sage in Greece, where it was entirely rais'd by Tragedy. For Thefpis first made a moving Stage for that Poem, tho it was not then, as it is now, pure and unmix'd: for the ill Subjects that Thefpis chofe, threw him upon a fort of Tragi-Comedy; which Error Æfchylus corrected, by chufing only noble Subjects, and an exalted Stile, that being before too burlefque. So that as far as we may guess, the Plays of Thefpis were not unlike fome of those of our Shakespear. For it was fome time before the Stage came to its Magnificence and Purity, even in Greece it felf, at leaft in Comedy: For the People are generally the fame in all Countries, and obftinately retain licentious and obfcene things; and it is the Property of Roughness and Barbarism to give place to Politenefs with a great deal of difficulty. Nay, Sophocles was the firft that purg'd Tragedy it felf entirely, and brought it to its true Majefty and Gra-" vity. For, as Dacier obferves, the Changes that Tragedy and Comedy underwent, were brought about by little and little,

because

because it was impoffible to discover what was proper for them at once; and new Graces were added to them, as the Nature of thefe Poems came better to be understood.

'Tis true, that the Idea of Tragedy was taken from the Iliads and Odyffes of Homer; and of Comedy from his Poem call'd Margites but that was after thefe Poems had been in use in a ruder manner; then indeed Homer infpir'd the Improvers and Reformers of the Stage with this noble Idea. Tragedy truly had a very advantageous Rise in Greece, falling immediately under the Infpection of the Magistrate, being founded on Religion and this carry'd it fo foon to Perfection, to which it wou'd never have arriv'd, had it been in the hands of private Persons, and mercenary Players, ignorant of its Beauties and Defects, and whose Thoughts reach no farther than what they are us❜d to; which turning to a tolerable Advantage to their Pockets, they believe there is no greater Perfection. But Athens was too wife, too polite a State to let that fade, and remain useless in the hands of the Ignorant, which, by the care of the wife and knowing, might be turn'd to the Public Advantage, and Glory..

Tragedy, as I have said, had the Advantage of being grafted on the Goat-fong, or Vintage-fong, in the Honour of Bacchus; which, being a Recitation only, Thefpis firft made a Stage, and introduc'd one Actor. Efchylus added a fecond Actor, and fix'd his Stage, and adorn'd it in a more magnificent manner; but then the fame Ornaments ferv'd all Plays. Sophocles added a third Actor, and vary'd the Ornaments, and brought Tragedy to Perfection, and into fuch Efteem with the Athenians, that they spent more in the Decorations of the Theatre, than in all their Perfian Wars; nay the Mony appropriated to that ufe, was look'd on as fo facred, that Demofthenes, with Difficulty and a great deal of Art, attempted to alienate fome of it to the Defence of Greece against Philip of Macedon.

The Alterations that were made in this Poem in fo little a time, were almost in every Part of it; in the very Numbers as well as in the Subject, Manners, and Diction: For the firft Verse of the earlieft Tragedies were Tetrameters, or a fort of

Burlesque,

Burlesque, and fit for Countrymens Songs, and not unlike our Doggrel. But on the reforming the Stage, it was turn'd into Trimeter Iambics: For, as Dacier from Ariftotle observes, those Numbers were fitted for Tragedy, which were most like our common Discourse, and confequently it was Trimeter Iambics, for that was most us'd in familiar Converfation: and Tragedy, fays he, being an Imitation, ought to admit nothing but what is eafy and natural.

But as this feems to relate chiefly to the Greek and Latin Diction, so it will not be amifs to give you something like it in the English, at the Rife of the Drama here. I fhall take the Examples of both from Shakespear alone, to fhow this Error mended by himself, and brought to fuch a Perfection, that the highest Praise is to imitate his Stile.

What they call'd their Tetrameters may be anfwer'd by the Doggrel in the Comedy of Errours, and Love's Labour Loft.

Bal. Good Meat, Sir, is common, that every Churle affords. E. Ant. And Welcome more common, for that's nothing but Words.

S. Drom. Either get thee from the Door, or fit down at the Hatch:

Doft thou conjure for Wenches, that thou call'ft for such Store ?

When one is one too many, go get thee from the Door.

But left this fhou'd be thought paffable in the Mouths of the Dromios, and their Mafters, we fhall fee, in those of Lords and Princes, in Love's Labour Loft; first Boyet, of the Retinue of the Princess of France, and the Princess her self.

Princess. It was well done of you to take him at his word.

Boyet, I was as willing to grapple, as he was to board. Two hot Sheeps, Marry, and therefore not Ships.

Maria one of the

Ladies of Honour, S

Princefs.

Boyet. No Sheep, fweet Lamb, unless we feed on your
Lips.

Princess. Good Wits will be jangling, but Genteels agree----
The civil War of Wits were much better us'd

On Navarre, and his Book-men, for here 'tis abus'd.

In fhort, these false Numbers and Rhimes are almost thro the whole Play; which muft confirm any one, that this was one of his firft. But that Verfe, which anfwers both the Latin and the Greek is our Blank Verfe, which generally confifts of Iambics, and fo fit for the Drama, that tho Mr. Dryden had once brought rhiming on the Stage fo much into fashion, that he told us plainly in one of his Prefaces, that we fhou'd scarce fee a Play take in this Age without it; yet as foon as The Rehearsal was acted, that violent and unnatural Mode vanish'd, and Blank Verse resum'd its place. A thousand beautiful Examples of this Verse might be taken out of Shakespear, there scarce being a Play of his which will not furnish us with many; I fhall fatisfy my felf here with an Inftance or two out of the Much Adoe about Nothing.

And bid her steal into the pleafed Bower,
Where Hony-Suckles, ripen'd by the Sun,
Forbid the Sun to enter; like Favourites
Made proud by Princes, that advance their Pride,
Against that Power that made it, &c.
The pleasantest Angling is to fee the Fish
Cut with their Golden Oars the Silver Stream,
And greedily devour the treacherous Bait.

Comedy, on the other hand, lay long uncultivated in private Hands, among the Mob or Country Fellows, without any regard of the Government; till at laft Epicharmus and fome others taking the Idea from the Margites of Homer, and having purg'd the Country Railleries from their Licentioufnefs, the Magiftrates of Athens took it into their Confideration, that it might be of VOL. VII. ufe

g

ufe to the State in the Hands, and under the Management of the Publick. And thus by the Encouragement and Inspection of the Government, the Drama of both kinds arriv'd to Perfection in not many Years after their Appearance in the World.

But it was not fo in Rome, it was in the 399th Year of the City, when any thing like a Stage got into Rome; and tho it was introduc'd to appease a great Plague, which cou'd not be averted by any other Propitiation, yet they being originally perform'd by Strangers, the Romans had little regard to them. For on this Occafion they fent for Players out of Etruria, which in their Language they call Hifter, from whence the Romans call'd their Actors Hiftriones. Nor did thefe make use of any Verfe, but danc'd to the Tunes of their Pipes, with Meafures not indecent, after the Thufcan manner. The young Sparks began to imitate them by rallying one another in undigested Verfes. With their Voices their Motions agreed; fo that the Matter was receiv'd, and by often Repetition came into a Mode. But the Players did not, as in the Fefcennine Verfes, rally one another with extempore Verses; but reprefenting Paftorals, call'd Satires with Vocal Mufic, fet to the Inftrumental, and a regular Action, perform'd their Parts. But Livius Andronicus, a Greek by Nation, was the first (fome Years after this) who ventur'd to mingle a Fable with these Songs, acting himself in these Performances, as then all the Poets did. This Livy tells us, and the fame we find in Valerius Maximus, Lib. 2. Cap 4. • From which we fee, from what fmall Beginnings the Scenic Plays arofe: First, Players were fent for out of Etruria, who danc'd without either Verfe or Piper: After this, rude and unpolish'd Verfe came in, and Motions fomething agreeable to the Voice; • but at last all things were improv'd by Art.' Tho these two Accounts do not agree in every Particular, we eafily see the low Rife of the Stage in this City; which tho brought in at first for the appeasing a raging Peftilence, yet the Players, who belong'd to the Drama, had their Names put out of the Lift of their Tribe, fome fay by way of Difgrace, and were never permitted to have the Honour to go to the Wars, but on the greatest Extremity;

yet