|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 10
Shakespear, _who, taught by none, did first impart
To _Fletcher_ Wit, to lab'ring _Johnson_ Art.
He, Monarch-like, gave those his Subjects Law,
And is that Nature which they Paint and Draw.
_Fletcher_ reach'd that which on his heights did grow,
Whilst _Johnson_ crept and gather'd all below:
This did his Love, and this his Mirth digest,
One imitates him most, the other best.
If they have since out-writ all other Men,
'Tis with the Drops which fell from _Shakespear_'s Pen.
The[B]Storm which vanish'd on the neighb'ring Shoar,
Was taught by _Shakespear_'s Tempest to roar.
That Innocence and Beauty which did smile
In _Fletcher_, grew on this _Enchanted Isle_.
But _Shakespear_'s Magick could not copied be,
Within that Circle none durst walk but he._
_I must confess 'twas bold, nor would you now
That Liberty to vulgar Wits allow,
Which works by Magick supernatural things:
But _Shakespear_'s Pow'r is Sacred as A King's._
Prologue to _The Tempest_, as it
is alter'd by Mr. _Dryden_.
It is the same Magick that raises the Fairies in _Midsummer Night's
Dream_, the Witches in _Macbeth_, and the Ghost in _Hamlet_, with
Thoughts and Language so proper to the Parts they sustain, and so
peculiar to the Talent of this Writer. But of the two last of these
Plays I shall have occasion to take notice, among the Tragedies of Mr.
_Shakespear_. If one undertook to examine the greatest part of these by
those Rules which are establish'd by _Aristotle_, and taken from the
Model of the _Grecian_ Stage, it would be no very hard Task to find a
great many Faults: But as _Shakespear_ liv'd under a kind of mere Light
of Nature, and had never been made acquainted with the Regularity of
those written Precepts, so it would be hard to judge him by a Law he
knew nothing of. We are to consider him as a Man that liv'd in a State
of almost universal License and Ignorance: There was no establish'd
Judge, but every one took the liberty to Write according to the Dictates
of his own Fancy. When one considers, that there is not one Play before
him of a Reputation good enough to entitle it to an Appearance on the
present Stage, it cannot but be a Matter of great Wonder that he should
advance Dramatick Poetry so far as he did. The Fable is what is
generally plac'd the first, among those that are reckon'd the
constituent Parts of a Tragick or Heroick Poem; not, perhaps, as it is
the most Difficult or Beautiful, but as it is the first properly to be
thought of in the Contrivance and Course of the whole; and with the
Fable ought to be consider'd, the fit Disposition, Order and Conduct of
its several Parts. As it is not in this Province of the _Drama_ that the
Strength and Mastery of _Shakespear_ lay, so I shall not undertake the
tedious and ill-natur'd Trouble to point out the several Faults he was
guilty of in it. His Tales were seldom invented, but rather taken either
from true History, or Novels and Romances: And he commonly made use of
'em in that Order, with those Incidents, and that extent of Time in
which he found 'em in the Authors from whence he borrow'd them. So _The
Winter's Tale_, which is taken from an old Book, call'd, _The Delectable
History of_ Dorastus _and_ Faunia, contains the space of sixteen or
seventeen Years, and the Scene is sometimes laid in _Bohemia_, and
sometimes in _Sicily_, according to the original Order of the Story.
Almost all his Historical Plays comprehend a great length of Time, and
very different and distinct Places: And in his _Antony_ and _Cleopatra_,
the Scene travels over the greatest Part of the _Roman_ Empire. But in
Recompence for his Carelessness in this Point, when he comes to another
Part of the _Drama_, _The Manners of his Characters, in Acting or
Speaking what is proper for them, and fit to be shown by the Poet_, he
may be generally justify'd, and in very many places greatly commended.
For those Plays which he has taken from the _English_ or _Roman_
History, let any Man compare 'em, and he will find the Character as
exact in the Poet as the Historian. He seems indeed so far from
proposing to himself any one Action for a Subject, that the Title very
often tells you, 'tis _The Life of King_ John, _King_ Richard, _&c._
What can be more agreeable to the Idea our Historians give of _Henry_
the Sixth, than the Picture _Shakespear_ has drawn of him! His Manners
are every where exactly the same with the Story; one finds him still
describ'd with Simplicity, passive Sanctity, want of Courage, weakness
of Mind, and easie Submission to the Governance of an imperious Wife,
or prevailing Faction: Tho' at the same time the Poet do's Justice to
his good Qualities, and moves the Pity of his Audience for him, by
showing him Pious, Disinterested, a Contemner of the Things of this
World, and wholly resign'd to the severest Dispensations of God's
Providence. There is a short Scene in the Second Part of _Henry_ VI.
_Vol. III. pag._ 1504. which I cannot but think admirable in its Kind.
Cardinal _Beaufort_, who had murder'd the Duke of _Gloucester_, is shewn
in the last Agonies on his Death-Bed, with the good King praying over
him. There is so much Terror in one, so much Tenderness and moving Piety
in the other, as must touch any one who is capable either of Fear or
Pity. In his _Henry_ VIII. that Prince is drawn with that Greatness of
Mind, and all those good Qualities which are attributed to him in any
Account of his Reign. If his Faults are not shewn in an equal degree,
and the Shades in this Picture do not bear a just Proportion to the
Lights, it is not that the Artist wanted either Colours or Skill in the
Disposition of 'em; but the truth, I believe, might be, that he forbore
doing it out of regard to Queen _Elizabeth_, since it could have been no
very great Respect to the Memory of his Mistress, to have expos'd some
certain Parts of her Father's Life upon the Stage. He has dealt much
more freely with the Minister of that Great King, and certainly nothing
was ever more justly written, than the Character of Cardinal _Wolsey_.
He has shewn him Tyrannical, Cruel, and Insolent in his Prosperity; and
yet, by a wonderful Address, he makes his Fall and Ruin the Subject of
general Compassion. The whole Man, with his Vices and Virtues, is finely
and exactly describ'd in the second Scene of the fourth Act. The
Distresses likewise of Queen _Katherine_, in this Play, are very
movingly touch'd: and tho' the Art of the Poet has skreen'd King _Henry_
from any gross Imputation of Injustice, yet one is inclin'd to wish, the
Queen had met with a Fortune more worthy of her Birth and Virtue. Nor
are the Manners, proper to the Persons represented, less justly
observ'd, in those Characters taken from the _Roman_ History; and of
this, the Fierceness and Impatience of _Coriolanus_, his Courage and
Disdain of the common People, the Virtue and Philosophical Temper of
_Brutus_, and the irregular Greatness of Mind in _M. Antony_, are
beautiful Proofs. For the two last especially, you find 'em exactly as
they are describ'd by _Plutarch_, from whom certainly _Shakespear_
copy'd 'em. He has indeed follow'd his Original pretty close, and taken
in several little Incidents that might have been spar'd in a Play. But,
as I hinted before, his Design seems most commonly rather to describe
those great Men in the several Fortunes and Accidents of their Lives,
than to take any single great Action, and form his Work simply upon
that. However, there are some of his Pieces, where the Fable is founded
upon one Action only. Such are more especially, _Romeo_ and _Juliet_,
_Hamlet_, and _Othello_. The Design in _Romeo_ and _Juliet_, is plainly
the Punishment of their two Families, for the unreasonable Feuds and
Animosities that had been so long kept up between 'em, and occasion'd
the Effusion of so much Blood. In the management of this Story, he has
shewn something wonderfully Tender and Passionate in the Love-part, and
vary Pitiful in the Distress. _Hamlet_ is founded on much the same Tale
with the _Electra_ of _Sophocles_. In each of 'em a young Prince is
engag'd to Revenge the Death of his Father, their Mothers are equally
Guilty, are both concern'd in the Murder of their Husbands, and are
afterwards married to the Murderers. There is in the first Part of the
_Greek_ Trajedy, something very moving in the Grief of _Electra_; but as
Mr. _D'Acier_ has observ'd, there is something very unnatural and
shocking in the Manners he has given that Princess and _Orestes_ in the
latter Part. _Orestes_ embrues his Hands in the Blood of his own Mother;
and that barbarous Action is perform'd, tho' not immediately upon the
Stage, yet so near, that the Audience hear _Clytemnestra_ crying out to
_�ghystus_ for Help, and to her Son for Mercy: While _Electra_, her
Daughter, and a Princess, both of them Characters that ought to have
appear'd with more Decency, stands upon the Stage and encourages her
Brother in the Parricide. What Horror does this not raise!
_Clytemnestra_ was a wicked Woman, and had deserv'd to Die; nay, in the
truth of the Story, she was kill'd by her own Son; but to represent an
Action of this Kind on the Stage, is certainly an Offence against those
Rules of Manners proper to the Persons that ought to be observ'd there.
On the contrary, let us only look a little on the Conduct of
_Shakespear_. _Hamlet_ is represented with the same Piety towards his
Father, and Resolution to Revenge his Death, as _Orestes_; he has the
same Abhorrence for his Mother's Guilt, which, to provoke him the more,
is heighten'd by Incest: But 'tis with wonderful Art and Justness of
Judgment, that the Poet restrains him from doing Violence to his Mother.
To prevent any thing of that Kind, he makes his Father's Ghost forbid
that part of his Vengeance.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|