Her Image only fall thy Breast employ, And fill thy captiv'd Soul with Shades of Joy; N° 592. Friday, September 10. Studium fine divite Venâ. Hor. Look upon the Play-house as a World within it felf. They have lately furnished the middle Region of. it with a new Set of Meteors, in order to give the Sublime to many modern Tragedies. I was there last Winter at the first Rehearsal of the new Thunder, which is much more deep and fonorous than any hitherto made ufe of. They have a Salmoneus behind the Scenes, who plays it off with great Succefs. Their Lightnings are made to flash more briskly than heretofore; their Clouds are also better furbelow'd, and more voluminous; not to mention a violent Storm locked up in a great Cheft, that is defigned for the Tempeft. They are alfo provided with above a Dozen Showers of Snow, which, as I am informed, are the Plays of many unfuccefsful Poets artificially cut and fhreaded for that Ufe. Mr. Rimer's Edgar is to fall in Snow at the next acting of King Lear, in order to heighten, or rather to alleviate, the Distress of that unfortunate Prince; and to serve by way of Decoration to a Piece which that great Critick has written against. I do not indeed wonder that the Actors should be fuch profeffed Enemies to thofe among our Nation who are commonly known by the Name of Criticks, fince it is a Rule among thefe Gentlemen to fall upon a Play, not because it is ill written, but because it takes. Several of them lay it down as a Maxim, That whatever Dramatick Performance has a long Run, mat of Neceflity be good for nothing; as though the firft Precept in Poetry were not to please. Whether this Rule holds good or not, I fhall leave to the Determination of those who are better Judges than my felf; If it does, I am fure it tends very much to the Honour of thofe Gentlemen who have established it; few of their Pieces having been difgraced by a Run of three Days, and most of them being fo exquifitely written, that the Town would never give them more than one Night's hearing. I have a great Efteem for a true Critick, fuch as Ariftotle and Longinus among the Greeks, Horace and Quintilian among the Romans, Boileau and Dacier among the French. But it is our Misfortune, that fome who fet up for profeffed Criticks among us are fo ftupid, that they do not know how to put ten Words together with Elegance or common Propriety, and withal fo illiterate, that they have no Taite of the learned Languages, and therefore criticife upon old Authors only. at fecond hand. They judge of them by what others have written, and not by any Notions they have of the Authors themselves. The Words Unity, Action, Sentiment, and Diction, pronounced with an Air of Authority, give them a Figure among unlearned Readers, who are apt to believe they are very deep, because they are unintelligible. The ancient Criticks are full of the Praises of their Contemporaries; they discover Beauties which escaped the Obfervation of the Vulgar, and very often find out Reafons for palliating and excufing fuch little Slips and Overfights as were committed in the Writings of eminent Authors. On the contrary, moft of the Smatterers in Criticism who appear among us, make it their Bufinefs to vilify and depreciate every new Production that gains Applaufe, to defcry imaginary Blemishes, and to prove by far-fetch'd Arguments, that what pass for Beauties in any celebrated Piece are Faults and Errors. In fhort, the Writings of these Criticks compared with those of the Ancients, are like the Works of the Sophifts compared with thofe of the old Philofophers. ENVY and Cavil are the natural Fruits of Laziness and Ignorance; which was probably the Reafon, that in the Heathen Mythology Momus is faid to be the VOL. VIII. G Son Son of Nox and Somnus, of Darknefs and Sleep. Idle Men, who have not been at the Pains to accomplish or diftinguish themselves, are very apt to detract from others; as ignorant Men are very fubject to decry those Beauties in a celebrated Work which they have not Eyes to discover. Many of our Sons of Momus, who dignify themselves by the Name of Criticks, are the genuine Defcendants of these two illuftrious Ancestors. They are often led into thofe numerous Abfurdities, in which they daily inftruct the People, by not confidering that, 1, There is fometimes a greater Judgment fhewn in deviating from the Rules of Art, than in adhering to them; and, 2dly, That there is more Beauty in the Works of a great Genius who is ignorant of all the Rules of Art, than in the Works of a little Genius, who not only knows, but fcrupulously obferves them. FIRST, We may often take notice of Men who are perfectly acquainted with all the Rules of good Writing, and notwithstanding choofe to depart from them on extraordinary Occafions. I could give Inftances out of all the Tragick Writers of Antiquity who have fhewn their Judgment in this Particular; and purposely receded from an established Rule of the Drama, when it has made way for a much higher Beauty than the Obfervation of fuch a Rule would have been. Those who have furveyed the nobleft Pieces of Architecture and Statuary both ancient and modern, know very well that there are frequent Deviations from Art in the Works of the greatest Mafters, which have produced a much nobler Effect than a more accurate and exact way of Proceeding could have done. This often arifes from what the Italians call the Gufto Grande in these Arts, which is what we call the Sublime in Writing. IN the next Place, our Criticks do not feem fenfible that there is more Beauty in the Works of a great Genius who is ignorant of the Rules of Art, than in those of a little Genius who knows and obferves them. It is of these Men of Genius that Terence fpeaks, in oppofition to the little artificial Cavillers of his Time; Quorum Quorum æmulari exoptat negligentiam Potiùs, quàm iftorum obfcuram diligentiam. A Critick may have the fame Confolation in the ill Succefs of his Play, as Dr. South tells us a Phyfician has at the Death of a Patient, That he was killed fecundum artem. Our inimitable Shakespear is a Stumbling block to the whole Tribe of thefe rigid Criticks. Who would not rather read one of his Plays, where there is not a fingle Rule of the Stage obferved, than any Production of a modern Critick, where there is not one of them violated! Shakespear was indeed born with all the Seeds of Poetry, and may be compared to the Stone in Pyrrhas's Ring, which, as Pliny tells us, had the Figure of Apollo and the Nine Mufes in the Veins of it, produced by the spontaneous Hand of Nature, without any Help from Art. N° 593. Monday, September 13. Quale per incertam Lunam fub luce maligna M Virg. Y dreaming Correfpondent, Mr. Shadow, has fent me a fecond Letter, with feveral curious Obfervations on Dreams in general, and the Method to render Sleep improving: An Extract of his Letter will not, I prefume, be dilagreeable to my Readers. INCE we have fo little Time to fpare, that SIN I no we fhould neglect to examine thofe imaginary Scenes we are prefented with in Sleep, only because they have a lefs Reality in them than our waking Meditations. A Traveller would bring his Judgment in Question, G 2 Question, who fhould defpife the Directions of his Map for want of real Roads in it, because here ftands a Dott inftead of a Town, or a Cypher instead of a City, and it must be a long Day's Journey to travel through two or three Inches. Fancy in Dreams gives us much fuch another Landskip of Life as that does of Countries, and though its Appearances may feem ftrangely jumbled together, we may often obferve fuch Traces and Footiteps of noble Thoughts, as, if carefully purfued, might lead us into a proper Path of Action. There is fo much Rapture and Ecftafy in our fancied Blifs, and fomething fo difmal and fhocking in our fancied Mifery, that though the Inactivity of the Body has given Occafion for calling Sleep the Image of Death, the Brisknefs of the Fancy affords us a ftrong Intimation of fomething within us that can never die. came I have wondered, that Alexander the Great, who into the World fufficiently dreamt of by his Parents, and had himself a tolerable Knack at dreaming, fhould often fay, that Sleep was one thing which made him fenfible he was Mortal. I who have not fuch Fields of Action in the Day-time to divert my Attention from this Matter, plainly perceive, that in thofe Operations of the Mind, while the Body is at reft, there is a certain Vaftnefs of Conception very fuitable to the Capacity, and demonftrative of the Force of that Divine Part in our Compofition which will laft for ever. Neither do I much doubt but had we a true Account of the Wonders the Hero laft mentioned performed in his Sleep, his conquering this little Globe would hardly be worth mentioning. I may affirm, without Vanity, that when I com6 pare several Actions in Quintus Curtius with fome others in my own Noctuary, I appear the greater Hero of the two. I fhall close this Subject with obferving, that while we are awake we are at Liberty to fix our Thoughts on what we please, but in Sleep we have not the Command of them. The Ideas which strike the Fancy, arife in us without our Choice, either from the Occurrences of |