with admiration by the scholar. They interest the old and the young, the gallery and the pit, the people and the critic. At their representation appetite is never palled, expectation never disappointed. The changes of fashion have not cast him into shade, the variations of language have not rendered him obsolete. His plots are lively, and command attention; his characters are still new and striking, and his wit is fertile even to exuberance. Perhaps there never was a drama which so happily combined tender sentiment with comic force as "As You Like it:" there is scarcely a character in it which fails to interest. Adam and Jacques are truly original; and even the buffoonery of the clown is of a superior cast. In the Merchant of Venice the unity of action is somewhat violated by a double plot; but perhaps two plots were never so happily combined as in this play; and one rises so naturally out of the other, that not the smallest confusion is produced. The comic scenes pleasantly relieve the mind from the effect produced by the serious. The conclusion is unexpected, and the effect of the whole is truly happy. Gratiano appears to me a character which Shakspeare only could have

penned; though, from the little interest which he has in the plot, he is less noticed than he would have been for his sportive wit, had he been of more importance to the main action. What an effort of imagination is the Tempest! Magic, the tendency of which is naturally to excite horror and disgust, is converted into an instrument of gaiety and pleasure; and the author can give diversity of character even to ideal beings, or rather seems as much conversant with the world of spirits as with the characters of men. Perhaps the Merry Wives of Windsor is one of the most regular of Shakspeare's comedies; and I scarcely know a play that comes more completely under that description. The principal character, Falstaff, is, however, scarcely so well depicted as in Henry the Fourth. In the scenes with the Prince, when debauchery and cheating are the themes, the old Knight seems more in his proper element than in his rencounter with ladies. It is remarkable that, so early as Shakspeare's time, the paltry stage trick of exciting a vulgar laugħ at the broken dialect of a foreigner was in use ; a trick which has since been almost the sole support of a comedy, but which was utterly

unworthy of the genius of Shakspeare. Much Ado About Nothing, though the subject in some measure justifies the title, is yet abundant in wit and pleasantry; and Measure for Measure, and the Twelfth Night, are truly interesting. The Winter's Tale is the most irregular of our author's comedies: there the unity of time is indeed violated beyond all bounds: yet it contains some exquisite strokes of nature and poetry, and many pleasant playful scenes. Of the Midsummer Night's Dream it is difficult to judge by any of the rules of criticism; it is, in every point of view, a most extraordinary piece, and I confess I should like to see it well performed. The scenes between Bottom, Quince, and their company of players, are exquisitely humorous. The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour Lost, and the Two Gentlemen of Verona, are the worst of our author's productions, if indeed they are really his.

Ben Jonson may be regarded as next in order of time to Shakspeare, but in genius he is greatly his inferior. Jonson was classically educated, and be endeavoured to reduce the English comedy to the rules of the critics. He studied character rather than plot; but he crowds cha

racters together in an artificial manner, and yet they are less striking than those of Shakspeare. Another circumstance unfavourable to the dramas of Jonson, when compared with those of his great master, is, that Jonson painted from the age in which he lived, Shakspeare from human nature itself. "He's knight of the shire, and represents you all," is a line that will apply to most of the characters of Shakspeare. Hence his plays are in fashion in every age; while those of Jonson are now almost banished from the stage.

Beaumont and Fletcher wrote rather on the model of Shakspeare than of Jonson ; * yet in their plots they are somewhat more regular than the former; but the composition is incorrect, though they contain many beauties. Dryden informs us that the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher were the reigning favourites of his time, two of theirs being acted for one of Shakspeare's: they have, however, had their day, for at present only one of them keeps the stage, "Rule a Wife and Have a Wife;" which, notwithstanding a strain of indelicacy in it, is still po

*With Jonson they were contemporaries.

pular, from the entertainment which it affords, by an interesting plot supported by much hu

mour.

I shall pass over a multitude of comic writers whose plays are now consigned to oblivion, and even Dryden himself, (whose excellence was certainly not comedy, though in the Spanish Friar there is much pleasantry and wit) to mention Congreve, an author of whom you must have heard much, though I dare believe you have never seen one of his plays performed. The last of them that I remember to have been acted is Love for Love, which is certainly one of his worst. The plays of Congreve, like those of Jonson, are deficient in plot: the characters too are not well discriminated; they are only depicted in the sentiment, for they all speak the same language. They abound in wit, and but little in what is properly called humour. They are, at the same time, disgraced occasionally by gross obscenity.

Farquhar and Vanburgh had both better notions of what a comedy should be than Congreve; yet they are well characterized by Pope