the greatest powers of nature will long continue in a state below themselves; for no man ought to allow himself to be flattered or feduced by the example of fome men of genius, who have rather appeared to despise this taste than to despise it in reality. It is true that excellent originals have given occafion, without any fault of their own, to very bad copies. No man ought severely to ape either the ancients or the moderns: but if it was neceffary to run into an extreme of one fide or the other, which is never done by a judicious and well-directed mind, it would be better for a wit, as for a painter, to enrich himself by what he can take from the ancients, than to grow poor by taking all from his own ftock; or openly to affect an imitation of those moderns whose more fertile genius has produced beauties peculiar to themselves, and which themselves only can difplay with grace: beauties of that peculiar kind, that they are not fit to be imitated by others; though in those who first invented them they may be justly esteemed, and in them only. MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS ON THE TRAGEDY OF MA WITH REMARKS On SIR THOMAS HANMER'S Edition of SHAKESPEARE. First printed in the Year MDCCXLV. -As to all those things which have been published under the titles of Eays, Remarks, Obfervations, &c. on Shakespeare, (if you except fome critical notes on Macbeth, given as a specimen "of a projected edition, and written as appears by a man of parts and genius) the reft are abfolutely below a ferious notice." Norder to make a true eftimate of the abilities and IN merit of a writer, it is always neceffary to examine the genius of his age, and the opinions of his contemporaries. A poet who fhould now make the whole action of his tragedy depend upon enchantment, and produce the chief events by the affiftance of fupernatural agents, would be cenfured as tranfgreffing the bounds of probability, he would be banished from the theatre to the nursery, and condemned to write Fairy Tales inftead of Tragedies; but a furvey of the notions that prevailed at the time when this play was written, will prove that Shakespeare was in no danger of fuch cenfures, fince he only turned the fyftem that was then univerfally admitted to his advantage, and was far from overburthening the credulity of his audience. The reality of witchcraft or enchantment, which, though not ftrictly the fame, are confounded in this play, has in all ages and countries been credited by the common people, and in moft by the learned themselves. Thefe These phantoms have indeed appeared more frequently, in proportion as the darkness of ignorance has been more grofs; but it cannot be shown, that the brightest gleams of knowledge have at any time been fufficient to drive them out of the world. The time in which this kind of credulity was at its height, feems to have been that of the holy war, in which the Chriftians imputed all their defeats to enchantment or diabolical oppofition, as they ascribe their fuccefs to the affiftance of their military faints; and the learned Mr. Warburton appears to believe (Suppl. to the Introduction to Don Quixote) that the firft accounts of enchantments were brought into this part of the world by thofe who returned from their eastern expeditions. But there is always fome distance between the birth and maturity of folly as of wickedness: this opinion had long existed, though perhaps the application of it had in no foregoing age been fo frequent, nor the reception fo general. Olympiodorus, in Photius's Extracts, tells us of one Libanius, who practised this kind of military magick, and having promifed χώρις ὁπλιτῶν κατὰ βαρβάρων ἐνεργειν, το perform great things against the Barbarians without foldiers, was, at the inftances of the emprefs Placidia, put to death, when he was about to have given proofs of his abilities. The emprefs fhewed fome kindness in her anger by cutting him off at a time fo convenient for his reputation. But a more remarkable proof of the antiquity of this notion may be found in St. Chryfoftom's book de Sacerdotio, which exhibits a fcene of enchantments not exceeded by any romance of the middle age; he fuppofes a spectator, overlooking a field of battle, attended by one that points out all the various objects of horror, the engines of deftruction, and the arts of flaughter. Δεικνύτο δέ ἔτι παρὰ τοῖς ἐναντίος καὶ πετομένες ἵππος διά τιν μαγγανείαι, καὶ ὁπλίτας δι αέρῷ φερομένες, καὶ πάσην γοητείας δύναμιν καὶ ἰδέαν. Let him then proceed to how him in the oppofite armies horfes flying by enchantment, armed men tranfported through the air, and every power and form of magick. Whether St. Chryfoftom believed that fuch performances were really to be feen in a day of battle, or only endeavoured to enliven his defcription, by adopting the notions of the vulgar, it is equally certain, that fuch notions were in his time received, and that therefore they were not imported from the Saracens in a later age; the wars with the Saracens, however, gave occafion to their propagation, not only as bigotry naturally discovers prodigies, but as the scene of action was removed to a greater diftance, and distance either of time or place is fufficient to reconcile weak minds to wonderful relations. The reformation did not immediately arrive at its meridian, and though day was gradually encreafing upon us, the goblins of witchcraft ftill continued to hover in the twilight. In the time of Queen Elizabeth was the remarkable trial of the witches of Warbois, whofe conviction is ftill commemorated in an annual Sermon at Huntingdon. But in the reign of King James, in which this tragedy was written, many circumftances concurred to propagate and confirm this opinion. The king, who was much celebrated for his knowledge, had, before his arrival in England, not only examined in perfon a woman |