poem, in the fame manner as execu tioners have a place in a picture reprefenting a faint's martyrdom: but as a painter would be cenfured for rendering those men amiable by their looks, whom he draws perpetrating an odious or flagitious action; in like manner a poet would be blamed for dreffing his villanous perfonages with qualities capable of engaging. the benevolence of the fpectator. Such a benevolence might be carried fo far as to render the villain an object of pity, and to diminish the horror of the crime by the compaffion raised for the criminal.. This would be acting diametrically oppofite to the principal end of tragedy, to its defign of purging the paffions. Otway compaffion que donneroit le criminel. Voilà ce qui eft entierement oppofé au grand but de la tragédie, je veux dire à fon deffein de purger les paffions. Réflexions Critiques, tome i. § 15. tranf tranfgreffed very much when he painted Jaffier an amiable villain. Monf. Rouffeau, in his celebrated letter to d'Alembert, has fome very just observations on the theatre: his remark on villains in tragedy is extremely juft. "On me dira que dans ces pieces le crime est toujours puni, & la vertu toujours récompensée. Je réponds que, quand cela feroit, la plûpart des actions tragiques, n'étant, que de pures fables, des évenemens qu'on fait être de l'invention du poëte, ne font pas grande impreffion fur les fpectateurs ; à force de leur montrer qu'on veut les inftruire, on ne les inftruit plus. Je réponds encore que ces punitions & ces récompenfes s'operent toujours par des moyens fi peu communs, qu'on n'attend rien de pareil dans le cours naturel des chofes humaines, Enfin, je réponds, en niant le fait. Il n'eft, ni ne peut être générale généralement vraie: car cet objet n'étant point celui fur lequel les auteurs dirigent leurs pieces, ils doivent rarement l'atteindre, & fouvent il feroit un obftacle au fuccès. Vice ou vertu qu'importe, pourvu qu'on en impofe par un air de grandeur? Auffi la fcene Françoife, fans contredit la plus parfaite, ou du-moins la plus réguliere qui ait encore exifté, n'eft elle pas moins le triomphe des grands fcélérats que des plus illuftres héros: témoin Catilina, Mahomet, Atrée, & beaucoup d'autres." Oeuvres, tome ii. p. 46. Shakespear had the art of fupporting his characters to the highest degree of perfection. His Othello, Iago, Macbeth,. Lear, &c. &c. are all drawn in the ftrongest colours, and yet always fup.. ported: But his Caliban, as Mr. Warton has obferved, is the greatest effort * Adventurer, vol. iii. No. 93. VOL. III. K of 1 of the creative power of his lively ima gination; for though entirely original, yet it is preferved with fo much confiftency, that if there was fuch a monster in nature, it would certainly poffefs those fentiments with which Shakespear has drawn him. When a poet paints a particular character from his imagination, he should take the greatest care to preserve it throughout his piece. If it is natural only in the first and second acts, and flags afterwards, the fpectator muft neceffarily be difgufted. Caliban, Iago, and Zan ga appear to the laft, acting and fpeaking in exact conformity to the paffions with which they are drawn: Thus it was very natural for Caliban to curfe Profpero and Miranda in that terrible manner, As As wicked dew, as e'er my mother brush'd, All the charms Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you! Iago is painted a complete villain, perpetrating one of the moft horrible actions; when we are acquainted with his character, we are not furprized at the excess of his wickedness, as the natural confequence of his paffions. Zanga, tormented with the defire of revenge, fpeaks quite in character when he curfes Alonzo and Leonora : Why, get thee gone! horror and night go with thee! Go, dance around the bow'r, and close them in ; May |