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plan, in order to compafs fome desired event:

the prosecution of that plan, and the obstructions, carry the reader into the heat of action : the middle is properly where the action is the most involved; and the end is where the event is brought about, and the plan accomplished.

A plan thus happily perfected after many obftructions, affords wonderful delight to the reader; to produce which, a principle mentioned above* mainly contributes, the fame that difpofes the mind to complete every work commenced, and in general to carry every thing to its ultimate conclufion.

I have given the foregoing example of a plan crowned with fuccefs, because it affords the cleareft conception of a beginning, a middle, and an end, in which confifts unity of action; and indeed stricter unity cannot be imagined than in this cafe. But an action may have unity, or a beginning, middle, and end, without fo intimate a relation of parts; as where the cataftrophe is different from what is intended or défired; which frequently happens in our best tragedies. In the Eneid, the hero, after many obftructions, brings his plan to perfection. The Iliad is formed upon a different model: it begins with the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon; goes on to defcribe the feveral effects produced by that caufe; and ends in a reconcili

* Chap. 8.

ation. Here is unity of action, no doubt, a beginning, a middle, and an end; but inferior to that of the Æneid: which will thus appear. The mind hath a propensity to go forward in the chain of history: it keeps always in view the expected event; and when the incidents or under-parts are connected together by their relation to the event, the mind runs fweetly and easily along them. This pleasure we have in the Æneid. It is not altogether fo pleasant, as in the Iliad, to connect effects by their common caufe; for fuch connection forces the mind to a continual retrofpect: looking backward is like walking backward.

Homer's plan is still more defective, for another reason, That the events defcribed are but imperfectly connected with the wrath of Achilles as their caufe: his wrath did not exert itself in action; and the misfortunes of his countrymen were but negatively the effects of his wrath, by depriving them of his affiftance.

If unity of action be a capital beauty in a fable imitative of human affairs; a plurality of uncon nected fables must be a capital defect. For the fake of variety, we indulge an under-plot that is connected with the principal event: but two tinconnected events are a great deformity; and it leffens the deformity but a very little, to engage the fame actors in both. Ariofto is quite licentious in this particular: he carries on at the fame time a plurality of unconnected ftories. His VOL. II. Сс

only

only excufe is, that his plan is perfectly well adjufted to his fubject; for every thing in the Orlando Furiofo is wild and extravagant.

Though to ftate facts according to the order of time is natural, yet this order may be varied for the fake of confpicuous beauties *. If a noted ftory, for example, cold and fimple in its first movements, be made the fubject of an epic poem, the reader may be hurried into the heat of action; referving the preliminaries for a converfation-piece, if it fhall be thought neceffary; and this method, at the fame time, being dramatic, hath a peculiar beauty, which narration cannot reach †. But a privilege that deviates from na‐ · ture ought not to be much indulged. Romancewriters, who give little attention to nature, are licentious in this particular: they make no difficulty of prefenting to the reader, without the least preparation, unknown perfons engaged in fome arduous adventure equally unknown. In Caffandra two perfonages, who afterward are difcovered to be the heroes of the ftory, ftart up completely armed upon the banks of the Euphra tes, and engage in a fingle combat 1.

* See chap. I.

‡.

+ See chap. 21.

I am fenfible that a commencement of this fort is much relished by certain readers difpofed to wonder. Their curiofity is raised, and they are much tickled in its gratification. But curiofity is at an end with the first reading, because the perfonages are no longer unknown; and therefore at the fecond reading a com mencement fo artificial, lofes all its power even over the vulgar. A writer of genius loves to deal in lasting beauties.

A

A play analyzed, is a chain of connected facts, of which each scene makes a link. Each fcene, accordingly, ought to produce fome incident relative to the catastrophe or ultimate event, by advancing or retarding it. If no incident be produced, fuch a scene, which may be termed barven, ought not to be indulged, because it breaks the unity of action: a barren fcene can never be intitled to a place, because the chain is complete without it. In the Old Bachelor, the 3d fcene of act 2. and all that follow to the end of that act, are mere converfation-pieces, without any confequence. The 10th and 11th fcenes, act 3. Double Dealer, the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th scenes, act 1: Love for Love, are of the fame kind. Neither is The Way of the World entirely guiltless of fuch scenes. It will be no juftification, that they help to difplay characters": it were better, like Dryden in his dramatis perfona, to defcribe characters beforehand, which would not break the chain of action. But a writer of genius has no occafion for fuch artifice: he can difplay the characters of his perfonages much more to the life in fentiment and action. How fuccessfully is this done by Shakespear! in whofe works there is not to be found a fingle barren fcene.

Upon the whole, it appears, that all the facts in an historical fable, ought to have a mutual connection, by their common relation to the grand event or catastrophe. And this relation, Cc 2

in

in which the unity of action confifts, is equally effential to epic and dramatic compositions.

In handling the unity of action, it ought not to escape obfervation, that the mind is fatisfied with a flighter unity in a picture than in a poem; because the perceptions of the former are more lively than the ideas of the latter. In Hogarth's enraged musician, we have a collection of every grating found in nature, without any mutual connection except that of place. But the horror they give to the delicate ear of an Italian fidler, who is reprefented almost in convulfions, bestows an unity upon the piece with which the mind is fatisfied.

How far the unities of time and of place are effential, is a question of greater intricacy. These unities were strictly observed in the Grecian and Roman theatres; and they are inculcated by the French and English critics, as effential to every dramatic compofition. In theory, these unities are also acknowledged by our beft poets, though their practice feldom correfponds: they are often forc'd to take liberties, which they pretend not to justify, against the practice of the Greeks and Romans, and against the folemn decifion of their own countrymen. But in the course of this inquiry it will be made evident, that upon this article the example of the ancients, ought not to have any weight with us, and that our critics are guilty of a mistake, in admitting no greater latitude

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