reads of Eneas carrying his aged Father Anchifes on his Shoulders, through the Flames of Troy, but wishes it were his own Fate to perform so pious and good an Action? Men are furpriz'd into the Love of Virtue, and ftrangely mov'd by poetical Reprefentations, even when their Nature is the moft corrupt. I fhall give but two Inftances of this Truth,, out of many; the firfty of a mutinous People, than which, generally. fpeaking, nothing is more outrageous.

Menenius Agrippa, when the whole People of Rome had made a Seceffion, and divided themfelves entirely from the Senate, whence the immediate Ruin of that State must have enfued, comes not out to the Multitude with his Oratory (which yet has had wonderful Effects on fuch an Audience) nor does he offer Philofophical Maxims and Definitions, but like a Poet, comes clofer, and more familiarly to them; tells them, a Tale, that there was a Time when all the Parts of the Body rebelled against the Stomach, which they thought devourd the Fruit of all their Labours, and fo they refolv'd they would let fo unprofitable a Servant ftarve. In fhort (for this Tale is fufficiently known) by punishing the Stomach, they: plagu themfelves.

This being told, and justly apply'd by him, produced fuch an Effect in the People, as no Hiftory, (that ever I read), gives us any Inftance produc'd by inger, Words, but at this Time; or fo fudden and good.

Alteration; for upon reafonable Conditions, a perfect Reconciliation follow'd between, the Fathers and the Populace.

The fecond Example of this Power of Fable, I shall.. give you from the Holy Scriptures, and that is of Nathan the Prophet., When David had fo far forfaken, Cod, as to confirm Adultery with Murther, when Nathan was to do the tendereft Office of a Friend, in laying his Fault before his Eyes, being fent by God, to call again fo chofen a Servant, how does the Pro

phet

phet perform it? But by telling a Tale of a Mán whofe beloved Lamb was barbarously taken from his Bofom. It is fo very moving, that I am fure it can'r be difagreeable to repeat it, as it lies in the Bible. There were two Men in one City (faid Nathan) the one rich, and the other poor, The rich Man had exceeding many Flocks and Herds; but the poor Man had nothing but one Ewe-Lamb, which he had bought and nourished up, and it grew up together with him and his Children, it did eat of his own Meat, and drank of his own Cup, and lay in his Bofam; and it was to him as a Daughter. And there came a Traveller unto the rich Man, and he spared to take of his own Flock, and his own Herd, to dress for the Way-faring Man that was come unto him, but took the poor Man's Lamb, and dreffed it for the Man that was come to him.

And

This is the admirable Parable, and how did itmove David to pronounce his own Judgment? David's Anger was greatly kindled against the Man, and he faid to Nathan, As the Lord livesh, the Man that has done this thing, shall furely die; and he shall restore the Lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no Pity.

In short, the whole Confequence of this is so very pathetick, that it is with Reluctance I go not thro it, which its being fo well known to every Chriftian, will only excufe.

The Application is most divinely true, but the Dif courfe it felf is feign'd, and yet inade David, as in a Glafs, fee his own Guilt, as his heavenly Pfalm of Mercy is a Proof.

Hence it is plain by Examples and Reafon, that Toetry draws the Mind with Delight, more than any • other Art, whatfoever; whence we may conclude, that as Virtue is the most worthy Aim of all valuable Learning, fo the Paet and Poetry teaching this in the most familiar, and moving the Heart of Man `towards it, in a fovereign Manner, must be allow'd to be the most excellent Inftructorand Inftruction. * ¡

But to defcend from the General to Particulars. Let us examine which Party or Denomination of Poetry is justly condemned. Do you didike the Paftoral Pow em? Is the poor Pipe difdafn'd, which, infpir'd by Malibarus, can fhew the Mifery of People under hard Lords, and rav'ning Soldiers; and by that of Tityrus, what Happiness is derived to the lowes, from the highef Fortunes of the Work. Sometimes, under the agreeable little Tales of Wolves and Sheep, they include the Confideration of Wrong-doing and Patience. Sometimes does it fhew, that Contentions for Trifles can get but a trifling Victory; where, perchance, a Man may fee, that even Alexander and Darius, when they ftrove for the Prize of Empire, got no other Benefit, than that thofe who lived afterwards might fay,

In vain did Thyrfis, with unequal Skill,
Contend with Corydon

Or do you arraign the lamenting Elegy, which bewails the Weakness of Mankind, and the wretchednefs of the World which gives Tears to the Afhes of our dead Friends, and mourns the Lofs of an agreeable and faithful Confort ? Or does Satyr provoke your Anger for sparing no Vice or Folly in Friend or Foe? That never leaves off till it make a Man laugh, and hate Vice; and he finds that the only way of efcaping from being laugh'd at himself, is to avoid the Folly to makes others ridiculous. Satyr, in a pleafant Manner, lets us feel how many Head-achs, and other Pains a Life directed by Paffions brings us to. Or is it Comedy provokes your Spleen? This indeed our wretched Play-wrights, and Stage-keepers, have but too justly made odious in this Nation. But this is the Abufe; for Comedy is in it felf an Imitation of the common Errors, and Humours of Vulgar Life, which it represents in the most ridiculous Manner it cany

fe

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fo that: it is imposible that any Spectator or Heaven. can be content to be fuck an one in the Eye of the World. Now, as in Geometry, the Oblique Lines must be known,, as well as the Right, and in Arithe meticky the odd, as well as the even Numbers; fa in the Actions of our Life, he that has not had a View of the Deformity of Vice, will want a great Foil to. fet off the Beauties of Virtue. Nor is here the leaft Truth in that Affertion, that Men learn the Evil by feeing it reprefented in that Manner, fince there is no Man, living, but by the Force and Power, that Truth has in Nature, fooner fees thefe Characters play their Parts, but wishes them in their true Place off Punishment, though perhaps he fees not that he himfelf dances the fame Meafure; and yet to discover this Blindness and his own Faults, nothing contributes more, than thefe his own Actions reprefented: untemptible and ridiculous; fo that the juft and right Ufe of Comedy, can, Fthink, be condemn'd.by no Man.

But if Comedy be thus innocent, Tragedy is much more fo, and deferves your Anger much lefs. Tragedy. opens the greatest Wounds, and difcovers the Ulcers that are hidden by Tifhue. That makes Kings fear to be Tyrants, and Tyrants discover openly their Ty rannical Inclinations. That by firring up Fear and Compaffion, teaches the Uncertainty, of this World, and on what weak Foundation the gilded Palaces of Princes are built.

Tragedy, indeed, was of old call'd the Poem of Kings, but by our Modern Management is become the Contempt of the Vulgar. The most excellent of our English Poets in that, which feems fomething of this Kind, is Shakespears but how far fhort does he fall of the true Dignity and Excellence of Tragedy? The highest he rifes, is to the Painting of the Manners, in which he is truly admirable. fometimes, tho' he often errs. And he feems the more inexcufable in his

Neglect of the Fable, or Defign, because he could not be wholly ignorant of that Matter; fince there is no doubt but he had read Sir Philip Sidney, who wrote his Defence of Poefy, before Shakespear appeared in the World, and fhew'd fufficiently, the Abfurdity of the Play-wrights of his Time, to have inftructed fuch a capacious Genius as Shakespear. Nay, he feems condemn'd out of his own Mouth; in his Historical Plays he is convinced of the Abfirdity of rambling from Place to Place, of bringing in the Actions of the whole Lives of his Princes or Heroes, and of reprefenting the Battles of his Warriors on the Stage, and fo finnd against his own Confcience. But paying all the juft Deference we can, to this great Genius, without forfaking Truth, we muft confefs, that his original, and inferior Bufinefs of a Player funk the more excellent Duties of his affum'd Chara-' &er of a Poet. Money seems to have been his Aim: more than Reputation, and therefore he was always in a Hurry, and gave not himself Time to weigh the Juftness of a Defign, but only confider'd how to fatisfy the most unjudging Audience that ever was ini the World, the meaneft of the People, the very Canaille, who then fill'd the Theatres, and brought in the Profit to the Actors. Tis faid, that he wrote his Merry Wives of Windfor in a Fortnight, which is one of the beft Defigus he has, except the Tempest. He was by his Draught of the Manners grown popular. with his Audience, and he thought it time thrown away, to study Regularity and Order, when any confus'd Stuff that came into his Head, would do his Bufinefs, and fill his Houfe. And fo by his Writing, and his Acting, he got a very confiderable Eftate, for thofe Times, and his Station of Life.

Playing indeed began in this Nation, and perhaps in moft in Europe, on the Revival of Learning from the Gothic, Ignorance, with the loweft, and very Dieggs of the People, and fo rofe, by Degrees to tholes

of