I fhould be glad to know, at least, why it is allowed to theatrical heroes and heroines to kill themselves, and, at the fame time, that it is prohibited, they fhould kill others? Is the scene lefs imbrued with blood when Athalia ftabs herfelf for her lover, than it would be by Caesar's murder? and if the appearance of the flain fon of Cato on the stage before his father's eyes, be the occafion of an admirable speech from this old Roman; if it has been applauded in England and in Italy by people who are the greatest partizans to French decency; if the most delicate of the fair fex have not been offended at it, why fhould not Frenchmen accustom themselves to it? Is not nature the fame through all mankind?

All these rules, not to imbrue the stage with blood, not to introduce upon it above three perfons difcourfing at a time, might meet with fome exceptions among us, as they did among the Greeks; laws of decency, for the most part somewhat arbitrary, are not like the fundamental laws of the theatre, which are the three unities. It would fhew a want of talents and fertility to extend an action beyond the limited time and place. Afk a man, who has hurried together too many events in the fame play, the reason of this conduct? If he is fincere, he will tell you, he wanted genius to fill his piece with a single fact, and if he employs two days and takes in two towns for the scene B 2

it be in the prefent profaic translation, to do the fame!

of action, be affured, it is because he had not the addrefs to confine it to the space of three hours, and within the limits of a palace, as probability required it.

It is quite different with him who hazards a dreadful fpectacle on the stage; he does not mean to go beyond the probable; and this boldness, far from fuppofing a want of parts in the author, requires, on the contrary, a great genius to render, by his poetry, that action truly great, which without fublimity of expreffion, would appear heinous and loathsome.

This is what our great Corneille once dared attempt in his Rodogune. He introduces a mother, who, in prefence of her courtiers, and an ambassador, wants to poifon her fon and her daughter-in-law, after having killed another fon with her own hands; fhe offers them the empoifoned draught, and, on their refusal and suspicion, she takes it herself, and dies of the poifon fhe had destined for others.

Such terrible strokes must be practifed with caution; and it does not become every body to make use of them. These innovations require great circumfpection and a masterly execution. The English themselves allow, for example, that Shakespear is the only poet among them, who has been able to make ghosts appear, and fpeak with any fuccefs.

Within that circle none durft move but he. Dryden.

The more majestic or awful a theatrical acti

on, the more infipid a frequent repetition; as, the account of battles, than which, nothing can be more terrible, becomes at laft cold and tirefome, through a constant repetition of them in history.

The only play in which Racine has introduced any spectacle is in Athalia, his master piece. An infant appears on the throne, his nurse ftands by him, and he is furrounded by priefts; a queen gives orders to her foldiers to put this child to death, and armed Levites run to his defence. All this action is pathetic, but without the fublimity of ftile and expreffion, it would have been puerile and filly.

The more we aim at ftriking the eye with pomp and state, the greater neceffity we are under of fupporting it with elevated thoughts and fentiments. Otherwise the author is a decorator, not a tragic poet. About thirty years ago a tragedy called Montezuma was acted in Paris: the scene opened by a new fpectacle: a palace was represented of a magnificent but barbarous ftructure; Montezuma appeared in a very fingu lar drefs; arrow-armed flaves were placed at the bottom of the stage; eight grandees of the court were, near his majesty, proftrate on the ground; Montezuma begins the play by faying to his courtiers:

Arife, your emperor gives you leave to-day,
To fee and speak to him.

This fpectacle was pleafing; but it was the

only good thing in the whole play. For my part, I must confefs it was not without fome dread that I introduced on the French theatre the fenators of Rome in red robes, and giving their opinions. I remembered that when I had formerly introduced in Oedipus, a chorus of Thebans saying,

O Death! we all implore thy dreadful aid;
Grant our defires, and terminate our days!

The pit, instead of being seriously affected, was only ftruck with the pretended ridicule of giving thefe lines to be repeated by actors who were unaccustomed to fuch folemn dirges; and, instead of applauding the intent, the execution was laughed at. This is what hindered me from making the fenators speak in Brutus, when Titus is accufed before them; and from encreafing the terror of the fituation by the surprise and grief of these fathers of Rome, who must have marked their aftonishment, otherwife than by dumb fhew; but which was not put in execu. tion.

However, my lord, if there are any tolerable paffages in this work, I am obliged for it to my friends who think like you. They encouraged me to moderate the feverity of Brutus's temper by paternal love, that the effort he makes in condemning his fon might be the more pitied and admired. They advised me to give Tullia a character of tenderness and innocence; becaufe, if I had made her a haughty heroine capable of fpeaking to Titus, as to a fubject who fhould

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obey his fovereign, Titus would have been debased, and the ambaffador would have been uselefs.

They defired, that Titus fhould be drawn a young man violent in his paffions, loving Rome and his father, adoring Tullia, thinking it his duty to be faithful to the very fenate by which he thought himself injured, and hurried away from his duty by a paffion which he imagined he was master of.

And in fact, if Titus had been of the opinion of his mistress, and had given fufficient reasons in favour of kingly authority, Brutus then would be looked upon as a leader of rebels: Titus would feel no more remorse; Brutus would not have excited his paffion.

They defired me alfo to take care that Brutus's fons fhould not both appear upon the ftage, because the intereft is loft when divided; "but above all, faid they, let your piece be fimple; imitate that excellency of the Geeeks; be affured that a multiplicity of events, and a complication of interefts is only the refource of barren minds, who are capable of drawing from one passion the matter of five acts; ftrive to finish every fcene as if it were the only one you had to write. Beautiful details are what fupports a work in verfe, and makes it defcend to pofterity. It is often the peculiar manner of expreffing common thoughts, it is that art of embellishing by diction what every man feels equally well, that makes the great poet. There are neither far-fetched fentiments nor romantic adventures in the fourth book of Virgil; all is extremely natural, and yet it is the greateft effort of the hu