It may be observed, that thefe two poems were produced by events that really happened; and may, therefore, be of use to prove, that we can always feel more than we can imagine, and that the most artful fiction must give way to truth. I am, Sir, your humble servant, T DUBIUS. N° XCIII. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1753. IRRITAT, MULCET, FALSIS TERRORIBUS IMPLET UT MAGUS; ET MODO ME THEBIS, MODO PONIT ATHENIS. "TI6 HE WHO GIVES MY BREAST A THOUSAND PAINS, WRITERS a ter, that abound in tranfcendent beauties and in grofs imperfections, are the mo proper and most pregnant fubjects for criticism. The regularity and correctness of a Virgil or Horace, almoft confine their commentators to perpetual panegyric, and afford them few opportunities of diverfifying their remarks by the detection of latent blemishes. For this reafon, I am inclined to think, that a few obfervations on the writings of Shakespeare will not be deemed uielefs or unentertaining, because he exhibits more numerous examples of excellencies and faults, of every kind, than are, perhaps, to be difcovered in any other author. I fhall, therefore, from time to time, examine his merit as a poet, without blind admiration, or wanton invec tive. As Shakespeare is fometimes blameable for the conduct of his fables, which have no unity; and fometimes for his diction, which is obfcure and turgid; fo his characteristical excellencies may poffibly be reduced to these three general heads: his lively creative imagination; his ftrokes of nature and paffion; and bis prefervation of the confiftency of his characters. Thefe excellencies, particularly the laft, are of fo much importance in the drama, that they aimply compenfate for his tranfgreffions against the rules of Time and Place, which being of a more mechanical nature, are often ftrictly obferved by a genius of the lowest order; but to pourtray characters naturally, and to preferve them uniformly, requires fuch an intimate knowledge HOR. POPE. tion of felicity, as to have been enjoyed, perhaps, only by two writers, Homer and Shakespeare. Of all the plays of Shakespeare, the Tempeft is the most striking inftance of his creative power. He has there given the reins to his boundlefs imagination, and has carried the romantic, the wonderful, and the wild, to the most pleasing extravagance. The feene is a defolate ifland; and the characters the most new and fingular that can well be conceived: a prince who practifes magic, an attendant fpirit, a monfter the fun of a witch, and a young lady who had been brought to this folitude in her infancy, and had never beheld a man except her father. As I have affirmed that Shakespeare's chief excellence is the confiftency of his characters, I will exemplify the truth of this remark, by pointing out fome ma fter-ftrokes of this nature in the drama before us. The poet artfully acquaints us that Profpero is a magician, by the very firft words which his daughter Miranda fpeaks to him: If by your art, my deareft father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them: which intimate that the tempest described in the preceding fcene was the effect of Profpero's power. The manner in which he was driven from his dukedom of Milan, and landed afterwards on this folitary ifland, accompanied only by his daughter, is immediately introduced in a fhort and natural narration. The But notwithstanding the excellence of the tenth paftoral, I cannot forbear to give the preference to the first, which is equally natural and more diverfified. The complaint of the fhepherd who faw his old companion at eafe in the fhade, while himself was driving his little flock he knew not whither, is fuch as, with variation of circumftances, mifery always utters at the fight of profperity: Ns patriæ fines, et dulcia linquimus arvaz Nos patriam fugimus: tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra, Formofam refonare doces Amaryllida fyluas. We leave our country's bounds, our much lov'd plains; We from our country fly, unhappy fwains! You, Tit'rus, in the groves at leifure laid, Teach Amaryllis name to every fhade. WARTON. Hic inter denfas corylos modo namque gemellós. And lo! fad partner of the general care, The defcription of Virgil's happiness in his little farm, combines almost all the images of rural pleasure; and he, therefore, that can read it with indifference, has no fense of paftoral patry; Fortunate fenex, ergo tua rura manebunt, Limefsque palus ol ducat pafcua junco, N° XCIV. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER. 29, 17531 But as we have feen thousands fubfcribe to a raffle, of which one only could obtain the prize; fo idleness will still prefume to hope, if the advantages, however improbable, are admitted to lie within the bounds of poffibility. Let the drone, therefore, be told, that if by the error of fortune he obtains the ftores of the bee, he cannot enjoy the felicity; that the honey which is not gathered by industry will be eaten without relish, if it is not wafted in riot; and that all who become poffeffed of the immediate object of their hope, without any efforts of their own, will be difappointed of enjoyment. No life can be happy but that which is spent in the profecution of fome purpofe to which our powers are equal, and which we, therefore, profecute with fuccefs: for this reafon it is abfurd to dread bufinefs, upon pretence that it will leave few intervals to pleasure. Bufinefs is that by which industry purfues it's purpofe, and the purpose of industry is feldom difappointed: he who endeavours to arrive at a certain point, which he perceives himself perpetually to approach, enjoys all the happinefs which nature has allotted to thofe hours that are not fpent in the immediate gratification of appetites by which our own wants are indicated, or of affections by which we are prompted to fupply the wants of others. The end proposed by the bufy, is various as their temper, conftitution, habits, and circumftances: but in the labour itself is the enjoyment, whether it be pursued to fupply the neceffaries or the conveniencies of life, whether to cultivate a farm or decorate a palace; for when the palace is decorated, and the barn filled, the pleasure is at an end, till the object of defire is again placed at a diftance, and our powers are again employed to obtain it with apparent fuccefs. Nor is the value of life lefs, than if our enjoyment did not thus confift in anticipation; for by anticipation the pleafure which would otherwife be contracted within an hour is diffufed through a week; and if the dread which exaggerates future evil is confeffed to be an increafe of mifery, the hope which magnifies future good cannot be denied to be an acceffion of happiness. The most numerous clafs of those who presume to hope for miraculous advantages, is that of gamefters. But by gamefters I do not mean the gentlemen who ftake an estate against the cunning of those who have none; for I leave the cure of lunatics to the profeffors of phyfic: I mean the diffolute and indigent, who in the common phrafe put them felves in fortune's way, and expect from her bounty that which they eagerly defire, and yet believe to be too dearly purchafed by diligence and industry; tradefmen who neglect their business, to fquander in fashionable follies more than it can produce; and swaggerers who rank themfelves with gentlemen, merely becaufe they have no bufinefs to purfue. The gamefter of this clafs will appear to be equally wretched, whether his hope be fulfilled or difappointed; the object of it depends upon a contingency, over which he has no influence; he purfues no purpose with gradual and perceptible fuccefs, and therefore cannot enjoy the pleafure which arifes from the anticipation of it's accomplishment; his mind is perpetually on the rack; he is anxious in proportion to the eagerness of his defire, and his inability to effect it; to the pangs of fufpence fucceed those of difappointment; and a momentary gain only imbitters the lofs that follows. Such is the life of him who fhuns bufinefs because he would fecure leifure for enjoyment; except it happens, against the odds of a million to one, that a run of fuccefs puts him into the poffeffion of a fum fufficient to fubfift him in idleness the remainder of his life: and in this cafe, the idlenefs which made him wretched while he waited for the bounty of fortune, will neceffarily keep him wretched after it is beftowed: he will find, that in the gratification of his appetites he can fill but a finall portion of his time, and that these appetites themselves are weakened by every attempt to increase the enjoyment which they were intended to fupply; he will, therefore, either doze away life in a kind of liftless indolence, which he defpairs to exalt into felicity, or he will imagine that the good he wants is to be obtained by an increase of his wealth, by a larger house, a more fplendid equipage, and a more numerous retinue. If with this notion he has again recourfe to the altar of fortune, he will either be undeceived by a new feries of fuccefs, or he will be reduced to his original indigence by the lofs of that which he knew not how to enjoy: if this happens, of which there is the highest degree of probability, he will inftantly become more wretched in proportion as he was rich; though, while he was rich, he was not more happy in proportion as he had been poor. Whatever is won, is reduced by experiment to it's intrinfic value; whatever is loft, is heightened by imagination to more. Wealth is no fooner diffipated, than it's inanity is for. gotten, and it is regretted as the means of happiness which it was not found to afford." The gamefter, therefore, of whatever clafs, plays against manifeft Hh2 odds; odds; fince that which he wins he difcoveis to be brafs, and that which he lofes he values as gold. And it thould alfo be remarked, that in this eftimate of his life, I have not fuppofed him to lofe a fingle ftake which he had not firft won. But though gaming in generalis wifely prohibited by the legiflature, as productive not only of private but of public evil; yet there is one fpecies to which all are fometimes invited; which equally encourages the hope of idlenefs, and relaxes the vigour of industry. Ned Froth, who had been feveral years butler in a family of diftinction, having faved about four hundred pounds, took a little house in the suburbs, and laid in a ftock of liquors for which he paid ready-money, and which were, therefore, the beft of the kind. Ned perceived his trade increase; he purfued it with fresh alacrity, he exulted in his fuccefs, and the joy of his heart fparkled in his countenance: but it happened that Ned, in the midft of his happiness and profperity, was prevailed upon to buy a lotteryticket. The moment his hope was fixed upon an object which industry could not obtain, he determined to be induftrious no longer: to draw drink for a dirty and boisterous rabble, was a flavery to which he now fubmitted with reluctance, and he longed for the moment in which he should be free: inftead of telling his ftory, and cracking his joke for the entertainment of his cuftomers, he received them with indifference, was obferved to be filent and fullen, and amufed himself by going three or four times a day to fearch the register of fortune for the fuccefs of his ticket. In this difpofition Ned was fitting one morning in the corner of a bench by his fire-fide, wholly abstracted in the contemplation of his future fortune; indulging this moment the hope of a mere poffibility, and the next fhuddering with the dread of lofing the felicity which his fancy had combined with the pof. feffion of ten thousand pounds. A man well dreffed entered haftily, and enquired for him of his guests, who many times called him aloud by his name, and curfed him for his deafness and ftupidity, before Ned started up as from a dream, and afked with a fretful impatience what they wanted. An affected confidence of being well received, and an air of forced jocularity in the ftranger, gave Ned fome offence; but the next moment he catched him in his arms in a transport of joy, upon receiving his congratulation as proprietor of the fortunate ticket, which had that morning been drawn a prize of the first class. It was not, however, long before Ned difcovered that ten thousand pounds did not bring the felicity which he expected; a difcovery which generally produces the diffipation of fudden affluence by prodigality. Ned drank, and whored, and hired fiddlers, and bought fine cloaths; he bred riots at Vauxhall, treated flatterers, and damned plays. But fomething was ftill wanting; and he refolved to strike a bold ftroke, and attempt to double the remainder of his prize at play, that he might live in a palace and keep an equipage; but in the execution of this project, he loft the whole produce of his lottery ticket, except five hundred pounds in bank notes, which when he would have ftaked he could not find. This fum was more than that which had established him in the trade he had left; and yet, with the power of returning to a station that was once the utmost of his ambition, and of renewing that pursuit which alone had made him happy, fuch was the pungency of his regret, that in the defpair of recovering the money which he knew had produced nothing but riot, disease, and vexation, he threw himself from the Bridge into the Thames. I am, Sir your humble fervant, CAUTUS, N° XCV |