"when such characteristic qualities are exag"gerated, and the expression of them stretched beyond truth, they become buffoonry, even "in the person's own."

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This is an instance of the second species of humour, under its idea of exciting ridicule. But it may, also, be employed with the utmost seriousness; as being only a method of expressing the truth of character in the most striking manner. This same old man in the Hecyra will furnish an example. Though a lover of money, he appears, in the main, of an honest and worthy nature, and to have born the truest affection to an amiable and favourite son. In the perplexity of the scene, which had arisen from the supposed misunderstanding between his son's wife and his own, he proposes, as an expedient to end all differences, to retire with his wife into the country. And to enforce this proposal to the young man, who had his reasons for being against it, he adds,

odiosa est haec actas adolescentulis:

- E medio aequum excedere est: postremò nos 27s jam fabula

Sumus, Pamphile, senex atque anus.

There is nothing, I suppose in these words, which provokes a smile. Yet the humour is

strong, as before. In his solicitude to promote his son's satisfaction, he lets fall a sentiment truly characteristic, and which old men usually take great pains to conceal; I mean, his acknowledgment of that suspicious fear of contempt, which is natural to old age. So true a picture of life, in the representation of this weakness, might, in other circumstances, have created some pleasantry; but the occasion, which forced it from him, discovering, at the same time, the amiable disposition of the speaker, covers the ridicule of it, or more properly converts it into an object of our esteem.

We have here, then, a kind of intermediate species of humour betwixt the ridiculous and the grave; and may perceive how insensibly the one becomes the other, by the accidental mixture of a virtuous quality, attracting esteem. Which may serve to reconcile the reader to the application of this term even to such expression of the manners, as is perfectly serious; that is, where the quality represented is entirely, and without the least touch of attending ridicule, the object of moral approbation to the mind. As in that famous asseveration of Chremes in the Self-tormentor:

Homo sum: humani nihil à me alienum puto.

This is a strong expression of character; and, coming unaffectedly from him in answer to the cutting reproof of his friend,

Chreme, tantumne ab re tuá’st otí tibi Aliena ut cures; ea quae nihil ad te adtinent? hath the essence of true humour, that is, is a lively picture of the manners without design.

For

Yet in this instance, which hath not been observed, the humour, though of a serious cast, is heightened by a mixture of satire. we are not to take this, as hath constantly been done, for a sentiment of pure humanity and the natural ebullition of benevolence. We may observe in it a designed stroke of satirical resentment. The Self-tormentor, as we saw, had ridiculed Chremes' curiosity by a severe reproof. Chremes, to be even with him, reflects upon the inhumanity of his temper.

You, says he, seem such a foe to humanity,

"that you spare it not in yourself; I, on the “other hand, am affected, when I see it suffer "in another."

Whence we learn, that, though all which is requisite to constitute comic humour, be a just expression of character without design,

yet such expression is felt more sensibly, when it is further enlivened by ridicule, or quickened by the poignancy of satire.

From the account of comedy, here given, it may appear, that the idea of this drama is much enlarged beyond what it was in Aristotle's time; who defines it to be, an imitation of light and trivial actions, provoking ridicule. His notion was taken from the state and practice of the Athenian stage; that is, from the old or middle comedy, which answers to this description. The great revolution, which the introduction of the new comedy made in the drama, did not happen till afterwards. This proposed for its object, in general, the actions and characters of ordinary life; which are not, of necessity, ridiculous, but, as appears to every observer, of a mixt kind, serious as well as ludicrous, and within their proper sphere of influence, not unfrequently, even important. This kind of imitation therefore, now admits the serious; and its scenes, even without the least mixture of pleasantry, are entirely comic. Though the common run of laughers in our theatre are so little aware of the extension of this province, that I should scarcely have hazarded the observation, but for. the authority of Terence; who hath confessedly

very little of the pleasant in his drama. Nay, one of the most admired of his comedies hath the gravity, and, in some places, almost the solemnity of tragedy itself. But this idea of comedy is not peculiar to the more polite and liberal ancients. Some of the best modern comedies are fashioned in agreement to it And an instance or two, which I am going to produce from the stage of simple nature, may seem to shew it the plain suggestion of com

mon sense.

"The Amautas (says the author of the Royal Commentaries of PERU), who were "men of the best ingenuity amongst them, in"vented COMEDIES and TRAGEDIES; which, "on their solemn festivals, they represented "before the King and the Lords of his court. "The plot or argument of their tragedies was "to represent their military exploits, and the "triumphs, victories, and heroic actions of "their renowned men. And the subject or

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design of their comedies was, to demonstrate "the manner of good husbandry in cultivating "and manuring their fields, and to shew the "management of domestic affairs, with other

familiar matters. These plays, continues "he, were not made up of obscene and dis"honest farces, but such as were of serious