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we can pronounce for Shakespear that he is more original in his plots, for I understand that late researches have traced him in all, or nearly all: Both poets added fo much machinery and invention of their own in the conduct of their fables, that whatever might have been the fource, ftill their ftreams had little or no taste of the fpring they flowed from. In point of character we have better grounds to decide, and yet it is but justice to observe, that it is not fair to bring a mangled poet in comparison with one who is entire In his divine perfonages Æfchylus has the field of heaven, and indeed of hell also, to himself; in his heroic and military characters he has never been excelled; he had too good a model within his own bofom to fail of making those delineations natural: In his imaginary beings alfo he will be found a refpectable, though not an equal, rival of our poet; but in the variety of character, in all the nicer touches of nature, in all the extravagancies of caprice and humour, from the boldeft feature down to the minutest foible, Shakespear stands alone; fuch perfons as he delineates never came into the contempla

tion of Æfchylus as a poet; his tragedy has no dealing with them; the fimplicity of the Greek fable, and the great portion of the drama filled up by the chorus, allow of little variety of character; and the moft which can be faid of Æschylus in this particular is, that he never offends against nature or propriety, whether his caft is in the terrible or pathetic, the elevated or the fimple. His verfification with the intermixture of lyric compofition is more various than that of Shakespear; both are lofty and fublime in the extreme, ́abundantly metaphorical, and fometimes extravagant:

-Nubes et inania captat.

This may be faid of each poet in his turn; in each the critic, if he is in fearch for defects, will readily enough difcover

In fcenam miffus magno cum pondere verfus.

Both were fubject to be hurried on by an uncontroulable impulfe, nor could nature. alone fuffice for either: Echylus had an apt creation of imaginary beings at command

He could call fpirits from the vafty deep,

and

and they would come-Shakespear, having no fuch creation in resource, boldly made one of his own; if Æfchylus therefore was invincible, he owed it to his armour, and that, like the armour of Æneas, was the work of the gods; but the unaffifted invention of Shakespear feized all and more than superstition supplied to Æschylus.

No. LXX.

ILLE profecto

Reddere perfonæ fcit convenientia cuique.

W

(HORAT.)

E are now to attend Macbeth to the perpetration of the murder, which puts him in poffeffion of the crown of Scotland; and this introduces a new personage on the scene, his accomplice and wife: She thus developes her own character

Come, all you fpirits,

That tend on mortal thoughts, unfex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe topful
Of direft cruelty; make thick my blood,

Stop

Stop up the accefs and paffage to remorse,
That no compunctious vifitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th' effect and it. Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murth'ring minifters,
Wherever in your fightless fubftances

You wait on nature's mifchief: Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunneft fmoke of hell!

Terrible invocation! Tragedy can speak no ftronger language, nor could any genius less than Shakespear's fupport a character of fo loftý a pitch, fo fublimely terrible at the very opening.

The part which Lady Macbeth fills in the drama has a relative as well as pofitive importance, and ferves to place the repugnance of Macbeth in the strongest point of view; fhe is in fact the auxiliary of the witches, and the natural influence, which fo high and predominant a spirit afferts over the tamer qualities of her husband, makes those witches but fecondary agents for bringing about the main action of the drama. This is well worth a remark; for if they, which are only artificial and fantastic inftruments, had been made the fole or even principal movers of the great incident of the murder, nature would have

been

been excluded from her fhare in the drama, and Macbeth would have become the mere machine of an uncontroulable neceffity, and his character, being robbed of its free agency, would have left no moral behind: I must take leave therefore to anticipate a remark, which I fhall hereafter repeat, that when lady Macbeth is urging her Lord to the murder, not a word is dropt by either of the witches or their predictions. It is in these instances of his conduct that Shakefpear is fo wonderful a ftudy for the dramatic poet. But I proceed

Lady Macbeth in her firft fcene, from which I have already extracted a paffage, prepares for an attempt upon the conscience of her husband, whose nature she thus defcribes

Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o'th' milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way.

He arrives before he quits the scene, and The receives him with confummate addrefs

Great Glamis! worthy Cardor!
Greater than both by the All-hail hereafter!

Thefe

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