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I could confidently produce my commentary as equaf to the encouragement which I have had the honour of receiving. Every work of this kind is by its nature deficient, and I fhould feel little folicitude about the sentence, were it to be pronounced only by the skilful and the learned.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

ΟΝ THE

PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE,

TEMPEST.

Tis obferved of The Tempest, that its plan is re

IT

gular; this the author of The Revifal thinks, what I think too, an accidental effect of the ftory, not intended or regarded by our author. But whatever might be Shakespear's intention in forming or adopting the plot, he has made it inftrumental to the production of many characters diverfified with boundlefs invention, and preferved with profound fkill in nature, extenfive knowledge of opinions, and accurate observation of life. In a fingle drama are here exhibited princes, courtiers, and failors, all speaking in their real characters. There is the agency of airy fpirits, and of an earthly goblin; the operations of magick, the tumults of a ftorm, the adventures of a defart ifland, the native effufion of untaught affection, the punishment of guilt, and the final happiness of the pair for whom our paffions and reafon are equally interested.

Mr. Heath, who wrote a revifal of Shakespeare's text, pub fifhed in 8vo. circa 1760.

TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.

In this play there is a ftrange mixture of knowledge and ignorance, of care and negligence. The verfification is often excellent, the allufions are learned and juft; but the author conveys his heroes by fea from one inland town to another in the fame country; he places the emperor at Milan, and fends his young men to attend him, but never mentions him more; he makes Protheus, after an interview with Silvia, fay he has only seen her picture; and, if we may credit the old copies, he has, by mistaking places, left his fcenery inextricable. The reason of all this confufion feems to be that he took his ftory from a novel, which he fometimes followed, and fometimes forfook, fometimes remembered, and fometimes forgot.

That this play is rightly attributed to Shakespeare, I have little doubt. If it be taken from him, to whom fhall it be given? This queftion may be afked of all the difputed plays, except Titus Andronicus; and it will be found more credible, that Shakespeare might fometimes fink below his highest ffights, than that any other should rife up to his lowest.

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

Of this play there is a tradition preferved by Mr. Rowe, that it was written at the command of queen Elizabeth, who was fo delighted with the character of Falstaff, that fhe wifhed it to be diffused through inore plays; but fufpecting that it might pall by continued

'continued uniformity, directed the poet to diverfify his manner, by fhewing him in love. No tafk is harder than that of writing to the ideas of another. Shakespeare knew what the queen, if the ftory be true, feems not to have known, that by any real paffion of tenderness, the felfifh craft, the careless jollity, and the lazy luxury of Falstaff must have fuffered fo much abatement, that little of his former caft would have remained. Falstaff could not love, but by ceafing to be Falfaff. He could only counterfeit love, and his profeffions could be prompted, not by the hope of pleasure, but of money. Thus the poet approached as near as he could to the work enjoined him; yet having perhaps in the former plays completed his own idea, feems not to have been able to give Falfiaff all his of entertainment.

former power

This comedy is remarkable for the variety and number of the perfonages, who exhibit more characters appropriated and discriminated, than perhaps can be found in any other play.

Whether Shakespeare was the firft that produced upon the English ftage the effect of language diftorted and depraved by provincial or foreign pronunciation, I cannot certainly decide. This mode of forming ridiculous characters can confer praife only on him, who originally discovered it, for it requires not much of either wit or judgment: its fuccefs must be derived almost wholly from the player, but its power in a skilful mouth, even he that defpifes it, is unable to refift.

The conduct of this drama is deficient; the action begins and ends often before the conclufion, and the different parts might change places without incon

venience;

venience; but its general power, that power by whichi all works of genius fhall finally be tried, is fuch, that perhaps it never yet had reader or fpectator, who did not think it too foon at an end.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

There is perhaps not one of Shakespeare's plays more darkened than this, by the peculiarities of its author, and the unskilfulness of its editors, by diftortions of phrafe, or negligence of tranfcription.

The novel of Giraldi Cynthio, from which Shakefpeare is fuppofed to have borrowed this fable, may be read in Shakespeare illuftrated, elegantly tranflated, with remarks, which will affift the enquirer to difcover how much abfurdity Shakespeare has admitted or avoided.

I cannot but fufpect that fome other had newmodelled the novel of Cynthio, or written a story which in fome particulars resembled it, and that Cynthio was not the author whom Shakespeare immediately followed. The emperor in Cynthio is named Maximine; the duke, in Shakespeare's enumeration of the perfons of the drama, is called Vincentio. This appears a very flight remark; but fince the duke has no name in the play, nor is ever mentioned but by his title, why fhould he be called Vincentio among the perfons, but because the name was copied from the ftory, and placed fuperfluoufly at the head of the lift by the mere habit of tranfcription? It is therefore likely that there was then a ftory of Vincentio duke of Vienna, different from that of Maximine emperor of the Romans.

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