neral circulation, otherwife did: great authorities have afcribed his attachment to Alcibiades to the most virtuous principle; common fame, or perhaps (more properly speaking) common defamation, turned it into a charge of the impurest nature: in like manner we find him ridiculed for his devotion to the noted Afpafia, in whofe company he is faid to have paffed much of his time; and Athenæus quotes fome paffages of his dialogues with her, which he tells us were published by Herodicus, and which we must either totally reject, or allow him to have been fubject to fuch private weakneffes and frail ties, as were unfuitable to his public character: what were the real motives for his frequent vifits to Afpafia, as well as for his feemiug attachment to the ftrumpet Theodote, must be left to conjecture; of the fact there is no room to doubt. He is, ftigmatized for his guilty connections in his youth with his preceptor Archelaus, and yet this charge (however improbable it may feem) refts upon the authority of Ariftoxenus, a man of the most candid character, and whofe credit ftands high with all true critics. Herodicus the historian whom I have before mentioned, and who lived about three hundred and fifty years before the Chriflian æra, feems to have treated Socrates with the greatest feve rity, charging him with fitting up all night drinking and caroufing with Agatha and others, whom when he had left drunk and afleep, he reeled into the Lyceum, more fit (in the words quoted from the relator) for the fociety of Homer's cannibals, than of thofe he found there in this debauch it is pretended, that although Phedrus, E

ryximachus and many other potent drinkers fled the company, Socrates fate to the last, fwallowing drenches of wine out of enormous goblets of filver: he defcribes him fitting amongit lafcivious revellers at a banquer, where dancing girls and boys were exhibiting their indecent attitudes to the mufic of harpers and minstrels: he exposes this mafter of morality entering into a controverfy with his fcholar Critobulus upon the subject of male beauty; and becaufe Critobulus had ridiculed him for his uglinefs, he afferts that Socrates challenged him to a naked exhibition, and that he actually expofed his unfeemly perfon to a Pathic and a dancing girl, the appointed umpires of the difpute; the conqueror was to be rewarded with an embrace from each of thefe umpires, as the prize of fuperior beauty, and the decifion was of confequence given ex abfurdo to the philofopher, in preference to one of the handfomeft young men in Greece, and he enjoyed the prize annexed to the decree. If we can believe this anecdote to have been gravely related by an hiftorian, who lived fo near to him in point of time, we fhall ceafe to wonder that Ariftophanes had the whole theatre on his fide, when fuch ftories were in circulation against the character of Socrates.

"As I have no other object in view but to offer what occurs to me in defence of Ariftophanes, who appears to have been moft unjustly accufed of taking bribes for his attack upon Socrates, and of having paved the way for the cruel fentence by which he fuffered death, I fhall here conclude an invidious task, which my fubject, not my choice, has laid upon me,'

An

"IN

men, no

N forming the minds and regulating the conduct of thing feems to be of greater importance than a proper system of what may be termed domeftic morality; the fcience of thofe relative duties, which do not apply only to particular fituations, to large fortunes, to exalted rank, to extenfive influence, but which confiiture that part and character in life which almost every one is called to perform.

"Of all above the lower ranks, of all who claim the ftation or the feelings of a gentleman, the knowledge of this fcience is either inculcated by family precept and example, or is endeavoured to be inftilled by reading. In the latter cafe the works made ufe of for that pur. pofe are either purely didactic, which fpeak the language of authoritative wifdom; hiftorical, which hold forth the example of paft e vents to the judgement; or they are of that fort which are calculated to mould the heart and the manners through the medium of the imagination. Of this last clafs the principal are ftories or novels and theatrical compofitions. On the fubjects of novels, I have in a former paper delivered a few general remarks, calculated to afcertain their moral tendency. In this I propofe extending my confideration to dramatic writing; and, as it is nearest to the novel, at least to that fpecies which I principally confidered in the paper alluded to, I fhall begin with a fimilar examination of tragedy.

The engines which tragedy profeffes to ufe for moral inftruction, are the pallions. The father of dramatic criticifin has told us, that

tragedy "purges the paffions by "exciting them" a propofition, which, from its fhort apothegmati cal form, is fubject to confiderable obfcurity. A modern writer, in his defence of tragedy as a moral exhibition, explains its meaning, by the analogy of the Spartan cuftom of making their flaves drunk, and fhewing them in that beastly state to their children, in order to infpire a deteftation for the vice of intemperance. But if this is to furnifh us with an illustration of Ariftotle's affertion, I am afraid it will not aid the cause of tragedy as a fchool of morals. It was from the previous contempt of the rank and manners of the drunkard, that the Spartan boy was to form his eftimate of drunkennels. The vice of a flave could hardly fail to disguft him. But had they fhewn him the vice itself, how loathfome and degrading foever in its own nature, in a perfon of fuperior refpect and eftimation, what would have been the confequence? The fairest anfwer may be drawn from the experience of thofe countries where freemen get drunk, where fenators and leaders of armies are fometimes intoxicated. The youths who behold thefe examples the ofteneft are not the lefs liable to follow them. I am afraid it is even fo with trage: dy. Scenes prefenting paffions and vices, round which the poet throws the veil of magnanimity, which he decorates with the pomp of verfe, with the fplendor of eloquence, fa miliarize the mind to their appear ance, and take from it, that natural difguft which the crimes, prefented in their native form, would certain ly excite. Cruelty, revenge, and

murder,

imurder, are often the attribute of the hero; for he must always be the hero on whom the principal stress of the action lies. What pu nishment awaits, or what mistor tunes attend his crimes, is little to the purpose; if the villain is the prominent figure of the piece, he will be the hero of the tragedy, as the robber, though he is about to be hanged, is the hero of the trial or the execution. But even of the nobler charters, does not the morality of fentiment often yield. to the immorality of fituation? Treachery is often the fruit of wifdom and of refolution; murder, an exertion of valour; and fuicide, the refource of virtuous affliction. It will be remembered, that it is not fo much from what the hero fays, as from what he does, that an impreffion is drawn. The repentant lines which Cato fpeaks when he is dying are never regarded. It is the dagger only we remember, that dagger by which he escaped from chains, and purchafed immortality.

But the leading paffion of modern tragedy is one to which Ariftotle could fcarce have meant his rule to apply; because in ancient tragedy it was almost unknown. The paf fion I allude to is love. The manners and fociety of modern times neceffarily led to this change in the drama. For the obfervation which fome authors have m de is perfectly juit, that the fentiments of the tage will always be fuch as are flattering, rather than corrective of national manners and national failings; fuperflition in Greece, gallantry in France, freedom and couin England. In every popular exhibition this must be the cafe. Even the facrednefs and authority of the pulpit is not exempted from its influence. In polite chapels

rage

1787.

preachers exhort to morality: in crouded churches of lefs fashionable people they enlarge on doctrinal fubjects, on faith and fanctification. But the very existence of the stage depends on that public opinion which it is not to reform but to conciliate: and Dr. Johnfon's expreffion is not the lefs true for its quaintnefs,

"They that live to please, muft please to live."

To this neceffary conformity to the manners of the audience is owing the introduction of love into almost all our dramatic compofitions; and thofe, as might be expected, are most in favour with the young, where this paffion is allowed the most extenfive influence, and the most unlimited power. It was this which, when it was the fashion for genteel people to pay attention to tragedies, drew fuch audiences to Lee's Theodofius, and to Dryden's Anthony and Cleopatra, where the length of the fpeeches, and the thinnefs of the incidents, would have been as tirefome to them as a fermon, had it not been for a tendernefs and an extravagance of that paffion, which every girl thought fhe could feel, and believed he could The moral confeunderland. quences of fuch a Drama it is unneceffary to question. Even where this paffion is purified and refined to its utmost degree, it may be fair. ly held, that every fpecies of comhpofition, whether narrative or dramatic, which places the only felicity of life in fuccefful love, is unfa vourable to the ftrength and purity of a young mind. It holds forth that fingle object to the ambition and purfuit of both fexes, and thus tends to enfeeble and repress every other exertion. This increases a

H

fource

fource of weakness and corruption, which it is the business of a good inftructor to correct and overcome, by fetting before the minds of his pupils other objects, other atrainments, of a nobler and lefs felfil kind. But in that violence, in that tyranny of dominion, with which love is invested in many of our tragedies, it overbears every virtue and every duty. The obligations of justice and of humanity fink before it. The king, the chief, the patriot, forgets his people, his followers, and his country; while parents and children mention the deareit objects of natural attachment only to lead them in the triumph of their love.

It is the bufinefs of tragedy to exhibit the paffions, that is, the weakneffes of men. Ancient tragedy fhewed them in a fimple minner; virtue and vice were ftrongly and distinctly marked, wifdom and weakness were eafily difcriminated; and though vice might be fometimes palliated, and weakness excufed, the fpectator could always difcover the character of each. But in the modern drama there is an uncertain fort of outline, a blended colouring, by which the diftinction of thefe objects is frequently loft. The refinement of modern audiences calls for fhades of character more delicate than thofe which the stage formerly exhibited; the confequence is, that the bounds of right and wrong are often fo un certainly marked as not to be easily diftinguished; and if the powers of poetry, or the eloquence of fentiment, fhould be on the fide of the latter, it will require a greater firmness of mind than youth or inexperience is mafter of to resist it.

Reafon condemns every fort of weakness; but paffion, enthufiafm, and fickly fenfibility, have

dignified certain weakneffes with the name of amiable; and the young, of whom fome are fufceptible, and others affect fufceptibility, think it often an honour to be fubject to their coutroul. In tragedy, or tra gic writing, they often find fuch characters for their imitation. Such characters, being various, compli cated, and fluctuating, are the propereft for tragedy. The poets bave not neglected to avail themselves of that circumftance: their dramas are filled with fuch characters, who fhift the hue and colour of their minds, according to the change of fituation or the variety of incident; or fometimes, whofe minds, in the hand of the poet, produce that change, and create that variety. Wisdom and virtue, fimple, uniform, and unchanging, only fupe rior artists can draw, and fuperior fpectators enjoy.

"The high heroic virtue we fee exemplified in tragedy warms the imagination and wells the mind; but being diftant from the ordinary feelings and exertions of life, has, I fufpect, but little influence upon the conduct. On the contrary, it may be fairly doubted, whether this play of the fancy, in the walks of virtue and benevolence, does not leffen the exertion of thofe qualities in practice and reality. "Indocilis privata lo "qui," faid Lucan of Cæfar: fo in fome meafure, he who is deeply converfant in the tragic phrafe, in the fwelling language of compaf fion, of generofity, and of love, finding no parallel in his common intercourte with mankind, will not fo readily open his heart to the calls on his feeling, which the vulgat diftreffes of his fellow creatures, or the ordinary relations of life, may occafion. Is age-misfortunes, in fancied fufferings, the drapery of

the

the figure hides its form; and real diftrefs, coming in a homely and unornamented ftate, difgufts the eye which had poured its tears over the hero of tragic mifery, or the martyr of romantic woe. Real calamity offends with its coarfenefs, and therefore is not produced on the fcene, which exhibits in its ftead the fantastic griefs of a delicate and high-wrought fenfibility. Lillo, in his Fatal Discovery, prefented extreme poverty as the diftrefs of the fcene; and the moral of his piece was to inculcate, that poverty was not to be fhunned, nor wealth purfued, at the expence of honefty and virtue. A modern audience did not relish a diftrefs fo real, but gave their tears to the widow of St. Valori, who was mad for the lofs of a hufband killed twenty years before. From the fame caufe, the Gamefter, one of the best and most moral of our later tragedies, though fucceffively reprefented by the greatest players, has never become popular. And even now the part of Mrs. Beverley, (the first character of the firit actress in the world), is performed to indifferent houses.

"The tragic poet is thriving to diftrefs his hero that he may move his audience it is not his bufinefs to equalize the affliction to the evil that occafions it; the effect is what he is to exhibit, which he is to clothe in the flowing language of poetry, and the high colouring of imagination; and if the cause be not very difproportionate indeed, the reader, or the fpectator, will not find fault with it. Caftalio, in the Orphan, (a play fo grofsly immoral, that it were unfair in me to quote it, except as illuftrative of this fingle argument), is mad with anguifh and with rage, becaufe his wife's maid refufes him access to her apartment, according to the

previous appointment they had made; and Orofmane, in Zayre, remains "immobile, et fa langue "glacée," because his bride begs him to defer their marriage for a day. Yet these were difappointments which the lover of Otway, and much more the hero of Voltaire, might furely have borne with greater fortitude.

"If we are to apply all this in example, it feems to have a tendency to weaken our mind to our own fufferings, without opening it to the fufferings of others. The real evils which the dignity of the fcene hides from our view, are thofe which we ought to pity in our neighbours; the fantastic and ima ginary diftreffes which it exhibits, are those we are apt to indulge in ourselves. Here then tragedy adds to the lift of our calamities, without increafing the catalogue of our virtues.

66

As tragedy thus dignifies the diftreffes, fo it elevates the actions of its perfonages, their virtues and their vices. But this removes virtue at a greater diftance from us, and brings vice nearer; it exalts the first to a point beyond our imitation, and ennobles the latter to a degree above our abhorrence. Shakespeare, who generally difcriminates ftrongly the good and ill qualities of his characters, has yet exhibited a Mac. beth, a tyrant and a murderer, whom we are difpofed rather to pity than to hate. Modern tragedy,' fays a celebrated critic, has become more a fchool of virtue than the ancient, by being more the theatre of paffion: an Othello, hurried by jealoufy to murder his innocent wife; a Jaf • fier, enfnared by refentment and 'want to engage in a confpiracy, and then stung with remorfe and involved in ruin; a Siffredi, ' through

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