"The subject of dramatic représentation, ἐσ he observes, is some event or action of human life, which can be considered only in "two views, as being either that of public, or "of private, persons. The end of such re"presentation, continues he, is to please, "which it doth either by engaging the atten❝tion, or by moving the passions. The for"mer is done by representing to us such " events as are great, noble, or unexpected: "The latter by such as are dreadful, pitiable, "tender, or pleasant. Of these several sources "of pleasure, he forms what he calls a dra-. "matic scale, the extremes of which he admits "to be altogether inconsistent; no art being. "sufficient to bring together the grand, the "noble, or the terrible, into the same piece. "with the pleasant or ridiculous. The impressions of these objects, he allows, are perfectly opposed to each other. So that a "tragedy, which takes for its subject a noble, "or terrible event, can by no means admit "the pleasant. And a comedy, which repre"sents a pleasant action, can never admit the "terrible or noble. But it is otherwise, he "conceives, with the intermediate species of "this scale. The singular, the pitiable, the "tender, which fill up the interval betwixt the noble and ridiculous, are equally consistent

"with tragedy and comedy. An uncommon “stroke of Fortune may as well befall a pea

sant as a prince. And two lovers of an in"ferior condition may have as lively a passion "for each other, and, when some unlucky " event separates them, may deserve our pity "as much, as those of the highest fortune. "These situations then are equally suited to "both dramas. They will only be modified "in each a little differently. From hence he concludes, that there may be dramatic representations, which are neither perfectly "tragedies nor perfectly comedies, but yet partake of the nature of each, and that in "different proportions. There might be a

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species of tragedy, for instance, which should "unite the tender with the noble in any de

gree, or even subsist entirely by means of "the tender: And of comedy, which should "associate the tender with the pleasant, or

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even retain the tender throughout to a cer"tain degree to the entire exclusion of the pleasant.

"As to his laying the scene of his comedy “in Greece, he thinks this practice sufficiently "justified by the practice of the French writers, "who make no scruple to lay their scene abroad, as in Spain or England.

"Lastly, for what concerns the introduction "of great personages into the comic drama, "he observes that by ordinary life, which he

supposes the proper subject of comedy, he "understands as well that of Emperors and "Princes, at times when they are only men, "as of inferior persons. And he thinks it 66 very evident that what passes in the ordinary life, so understood, of the greatest men, is truly comick."

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This is a simple exposition of M. de Fontenelle's idea of comedy, which, however, he hath set off with great elegance and a plausibility of illustration, such as writers of his class are never at a loss to give to any subject they would recommend.

Now, tho' the principal aim of what I have to offer in confutation of this system be to combat the ingenious writer's notion of comedy, yet as the tenor of his preface leads him to deliver his sentiments also of tragedy, I shall not scruple intermixing, after his example, some reflexions on this latter drama.

M. de Fontenelle sets out with observing, that the end of dramatic representation is to

k Pref. generale, tom, vii. Par. 1751.

But he

please. This end is very general. explains himself more precisely, by saying, "this pleasure is of two kinds, and consists "either in attaching the mind or affecting it." And this is not much amiss. But his further explanation of these terms is suspicious. "The

mind, says he, is ATTACHED by the repre"sentation of what is great, noble, singular, or unexpected: It is AFFECTED by what is "terrible, pitiable, tender, or pleasant1." In this enumeration he forgets the merely natural draught of the manners. Yet this is surely one of the means by which the drama is enabled to attach the spectator. With me, I confess, this is the first excellence of comedy. Nor could he mean to include this source of pleasure under his second division. For tho' a lively picture of the manners may in some sort be said to affect us, yet certainly not as coming under the consideration of what is terrible, pitiable, tender, or ridiculous, but simply of what is natural. The picture is pleasant or otherwise, as it chances; but is always the source of entertainment to the obWhen the pleasantry is high, it takes

server.

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1 "On attache par le grand, par le noble, par le rare, par l'imprévû. On émeut par le terrible ou affreux,

par le pitoyable, par le tendre, par le plaisant ou ridi"cule." p. xiv.

indeed the passion of ridicule. In other instances, it can scarcely be said to move, "emouvoir." Now this I take to be a very considerable omission. For if the observation of character be a pleasure, which comedy is more particularly qualified to give, and which is not in any degree so compatible with tragedy, does not this bid fair for being the proper end of comedy? Human life, he says, which is the subject of the drama, can only be regarded in two views, as either that of the great and principally of kings, and that of private men. Now the attachments and emotions, he speaks of, are excited more powerfully and to more advantage in a representation of the former. That which is peculiar to a draught of ordinary life, or which is attained most perfectly by it, is the delight arising from a just exhibition of the manners. No, he will say. The pleasant belongs as peculiarly to a picture of common life, as the natural. Surely not. Common life distorted, or what we call farce, gives the entertainment of ridicule more perfectly than comedy. The only pleasure, which an exposition of ordinary life affords, distinct from that we receive from a view of high life on the one hand, and ordinary life disfigured on the other, is the satisfaction of contemplating the truth of character. How