"if any part of Mr. Bayes's tragedy is fo full of absurdity as this? Upon hearing the clafh of fwords, Lucia and "Marcia come in. The question is, why no men "come in upon hearing the noife of fwords in the governor's hall? Where was the governor himself? "Where were his guards? Where were his fervants? "Such an attempt as this, fo near the perfon of a governor of a place of war, was enough to alarm "the whole garrison and yet, for almost half an "hour after Sempronius was killed, we find none of “those appear, who were the likelieft in the world "to be alarmed; and the noise of swords is made to "draw only two poor women thither, who were most ❝certain to run away from it. Upon Lucia and "Marcia's coming in, Lucia appears in all the 'fymptoms of an hyfterical gentlewoman : 66 : "Luc. Sure 'twas the clash of fwords! my troubled "heart "Is fo caft down, and funk amidst its forrows, "It throbs with fear, and aches at every found! "And immediately her old whimsey returns upon "her: "O Marcia, should thy brothers, for my fake- "She fancies that there can be no cutting of throats, "but it must be for her. If this is tragical, I would "fain know what is comical. Well! upon this they σε spy the body of Sempronius; and Marcia, deluded by the habit, it seems, takes him for Juba; for, " fays fhe, "The face is muffled up within the garment. K 3 ❝ Now, "Now, how a man could fight, and fall with hist face muffled up in his garment, is, I think, a little hard to conceive! Befides, Juba, before he killed "him, knew him to be Sempronius. It was not by "his garment that he knew this; it was by his face "then his face therefore was not muffled. Upon "feeing this man with his muffled face, Marcia falls "a-raving; and, owning her paffion for the fup"pofed defunct, begins to make his funeral oration. : Upon which Juba enters liftening, I fuppofe on "tip-toe; for I cannot imagine how any one can en"ter liftening in any other pofture. I would fain "know how it came to pafs, that during all this "time he had fent nobody, no, not fo much as a candle-fnuffer, to take away the dead body of Sem"pronius. Well! but let us regard him listening. "Having left his apprehenfion behind him, he, at firft, applies what Marcia fays to Sempronius. But ❝ finding at last, with much ado, that he himself is "the happy man, he quits his eve-dropping, and 66 But difcovers himself just time enough to prevent his "being cuckolded by a dead man, of whom the moment before he had appeared fo jealous; and greedily intercepts the blifs which was fondly defigned for one who could not be the better for it. here I muft afk a question: how comes Juba to liften here, who had not liftened before throughout the play? Or how comes he to be the only "perfon of this tragedy who liftens, when love and "treafon were so often talked in so publick a place as a hall? I am afraid the author was driven upon all thefe abfurdities only to introduce this miferable mistake of Marcia, which, after all, is "much "much below the dignity of tragedy, as any thing is "which is the effect or refult of trick. "But let us come to the scenery of the Fifth Act. "Cato appears firft upon the fcene, fitting in a "thoughtful pofture; in his hand Plato's treatife on "the Immortality of the Soul, a drawn fword on the "table by him. Now let us confider the place in "which this fight is prefented to us. The place, "forfooth, is a long hall. Let us suppose, that any "one fhould place himself in this pofture, in the "midst of one of our halls in London; that he "fhould appear folus, in a fullen pofture, a drawn "fword on the table by him; in his hand Plato's "treatife on the Immortality of the Soul, tranflated "lately by Bernard Lintot: I defire the reader to "confider, whether fuch a person as this would pass, "with them who beheld him, for a great patriot, a great philofopher, or a general, or fome whimfical "perfon, who fancied himfelf all thefe ? and whether "the people, who belonged to the family, would "think that fuch a perfon had a defign upon their "midriffs or his own? "In short, that Cato fhould fit long enough in "the aforefaid pofture, in the midft of this large "hall, to read over Plato's treatise on the Immorta"lity of the Soul, which is a lecture of two long "hours; that he should propofe to himself to be private there upon that occafion; that he should "be angry with his fon for intruding there; then, "that he fhould leave this hall upon the pretence "of fleep, give himself the mortal wound in his "bedchamber, and then be brought back into that "hall to expire, purely to fhew his good-breeding, "and fave his friends the trouble of coming up to "his bedchamber; all this appears to me to be im"probable, incredible, impoffible." Such is the cenfure of Dennis. There is, as Dryden expreffes it, perhaps "too much horfe-play in "his raillery;" but if his jefts are coarfe, his arguments are strong. Yet, as we love better to be pleased than be taught, Cato is read, and the critick is neglected. Flushed with consciousness of these detections of abfurdity in the conduct, he afterwards attacked the fentiments of Cato; but he then amufed himself with petty cavils and minute objections. Of Addifon's fmaller poems, no particular mention is neceffary; they have little that can employ or require a critick. The parallel of the Princes and Gods, in his verses to Kneller, is often happy, but is too well known to be quoted. His tranflations, so far as I have compared them, want the exactnefs of a fcholar. That he understood his authors cannot be doubted; but his verfions will not teach others to understand them, being too licentiously paraphraftical. They are, however, for the most part, fmooth and eafy; and, what is the firft excellence of a tranflator, fuch as may be read with pleasure by those who do not know the originals. His poetry is polifhed and pure; the product of a mind too judicious to commit faults, but not fufficiently vigorous to attain excellence. He has fometimes a striking line, or a fhining paragraph; but in the whole he is warm rather than fervid, and fhews more more dexterity than ftrength. He was however one of our earliest examples of correctness. The verfification which he had learned from Dryden he debased rather than refined. His rhymes are often diffonant; in his Georgick he admits broken lines. He uses both triplets and alexandrines, but triplets more frequently in his tranflation than his other works. The mere ftructure of verses seems never to have engaged much of his care. But his lines are very fmooth in Rofamond, and too fmooth in Cato. Addison is now to be confidered as a critick; a name which the prefent generation is fcarcely willing to allow him. His criticism is condemned as tentative or experimental, rather than scientifick; and he is confidered as deciding by tafte rather than by principles. It is not uncommon, for those who have grown wife by the labour of others, to add a little of their own, and overlook their mafters. Addison is now despised by fome who perhaps would never have seen his defects, but by the lights which he afforded them. That he always wrote as he would think it neceffary to write now, cannot be affirmed; his inftructions were fuch as the characters of his readers made proper. That general knowledge which now circulates in common talk, was in his time rarely to be found. Men not profeffing learning were not afhamed of ignorance; and, in the female world, any acquaintance with books was diftinguished only to be cenfured. His purpofe was to infufe literary curiofity by gentle and unfuspected conveyance, into the gay, the idle, and the wealthy: he therefore prefented knowledge |