Hi CRITIQUE.
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ad nature been as liberal in her gifts to our author,as learning was in opening all her stores to his ac-quirements, the world might have seen a poet, towhom there had been nothing, since the days of Ho-mer, aut simile, aut secundum ; but he stocked hismind with such a mass of other men's thoughts, thathis imagination had not power to struggle throughthe crowd, and escape into an atmosphere whichothers had not breathed before him. It is not always that writers are conscious of imi-tation when they fall into it, and many are accusedwithout being guilty of it; for there is a set of small-ware dealers in criticism, who occupy themselves inthe detection of parallel passages: but to sift a dung-hill for the sake of finding two cinders that tally witheafch other, is to waste their pain9 upon a ditty busi-ness, in the hope of making an unprofitable discovery* When my friend Garrick, in a happy moment,took this comedy from his shelf, and meditated toequip it for the stage, his sagacity, no doubt, disco-vered the powers of reviviscence, and the pulses ofinextinguishable life still remaining in it; but he wasby no means certain, that there was attraction enoughto repay the pains of resuscitation, for, in fact, thehumours were those of its own day, and that day waslong since gone by. He put his own strong hand tothe work, however, and gave it a most powerful castthroughout : he was himself the jealous Kitelv of thepiece, whilst the spirit of Bobadil transmigrated ascompletely into Woodward, as that of Euphorbus didinto Pvthagoras; and when the good folks of Londonwere applauding the re-animated muse of Old Ben,neither audience nor actors were aware that the stage =■ — 5QS«r «WEO®i CRITIQUE. Jiii of Drury had been magically transported to Athens,and that they were heariug Greek, (if I may so expressmyself) in their mother-tongue. When the people eat and drank in the theatres,they were much more patient hearers than they are atpresent; and our old dramatists were not apt to stintthem in quantity : Garrick, therefore, thought it ad-viseable to retrench the exuberances of Jonson, andthinned his blossoms as careful gardeners thin theirgrapes, lessening the abundance to give more swelland amplitude to the remainder. The reader of this comedy will acknowledge, thatwhat the author professes to represent he exactly fulfils,for here is a great variety of humourists, and evert/man is in his humour. Above all things, it is worthremarking, with what felicity of art the author hascontrived to make them play upon each other, andset them off by contrast : as, for instance, Bobadilwith Matthew, Kno’vvell with Master Stephen, Kitelywith Cash, and in the like manner throughout; con-stantly keeping up the harmony of his composition,and (to follow up the allusion) never failing to put agood base to his treble. These are points that lie,w’ho reads for instruction, should be particularly at-tentive to. It will behove him also to observe, how.correctly the poet adheres to nature, and how strictly-he administers justice, in the dispensations which he•deals out to his several humourists, at the conclusionof his fable. The only passion that threatened thedisturbance of domestic peace he entirely eradicates;and this is all that nature permitted him. to do: forjealousy may he eradicated from rational minds, likethose of Kitely and his wife, but cowardice cannot . c 3
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