And deck my body in gay ornaments,

And 'witch fweet ladies with my words and looks.
Oh! miferable thought! and more unlikely,
Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns.
Why, love forfwore me in my mother's womb,
And, for I should not deal in her soft laws,
She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe
To fhrink my arm like to a wither'd fhrub;
To make an envious mountain on my back,
Where fits deformity to mock my body;
To shape my legs of an uneven fize;
To difproportion me in every part:
Like to a chaos, or unlick'd bear-whelp
That carries no impreffion like the dam.
And am I then a man to be belov'd?

Oh monstrous fault to harbour fuch a thought!
Then fince the world affords no joy to me,
But to command, to check, to o'er-bear fuch
As are of better perfon than myself;

I'll make my heav'n to dream upon the crown,
And while I live to account this world but hell,
Until the mishap'd trunk that bears this head

Be round impaled with a glorious crown.

[Henry VI. Act 3d, Scene 3d. GLOUCESTER.

GLOUCESTER.

The midwife wender'd, and the woman cry'd,
Oh Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth!
And fo I was, which plainly fignified

That I fhould fnarl, and bite, and play the dog :
Then fince the heav'ns have shap'd my body fo,
Let hell make crook'd my mind to answer it.
I have no brother, I am like no brother,

And that word, love, which grey-beards call divine,
Be refident in men like one another,

And not in me: I am myself alone.

[Henry VI. Act 5th, Scene 7th.

Our author, by following minutely the chronicles of the times, has embarrassed his drama's with too great a number of perfons and events. The hurley-burley of these plays recommended them to a rude illiterate audience, who, as he fays, loved a noise of targets. His poverty, and the low condition of the ftage (which at that time was not frequented by perfons of rank) obliged him to this complaisance; and unfortunately he had not been tutored by any rules of art, or informed by acquaintance with just and regular drama's. Even the politer fort by reading

E 4

reading books of chivalry, which were the polite literature of the times, were accuftomed to bold adventures and achievements. In our northern climates heroic adventures pleafed more than the gallant dialogue, where love and honour dispute with all the fophiftry of the fchools, and one knows not when the conteft would end, if heraldry did not step in and decide the point, as in the foliloquy of the Infanta in the Cid.

L'INFANTE.

T'écouterai-je encor, respect de ma naissance'
Qui fais un crime de mes feux ?

T'écouterai-je, amour, dont la douce puiffance

Contre ce fier tyran fait rebeller mes vœux ?
Pauvre princeffe, auquel des deux

Dois-tu prêter obéiffance?

Rodrigue, ta valeur te rend digne de moi;

Mais pour être vaillant tu n'es pas fils de roi.

Le Cid, Acte 5me.

Nor is this rule, that a princefs can love only the fon of a king, a mere Spanish punto; you fhall hear two Spartan virgins, daugh

ters.

ters of Lyfander, fpeaking the fame

language,

ELPINICE.

Cotys eft roi, ma fæur; & comme sa couronne

Parle fuffifamment pour lui,

Affuré de mon cœur que fon trône lui donne,
De le trop demander il s'épargne l'ennui.

This lady then proceeds to question her fifter concerning her inclination for her lover Spitridates, and urges in his favour;

ELPINICE.

Car enfin, Spitridate a l'entretien charmant, L'œil vif, l'efprit aifé, le cœur bon, l'ame belle ; A tant de qualités s'il joignait un vrai zéle. .. To which the other answers,

AGLATIDE.

Ma fæur, il n'eft pas roi comme l'eft votre amant.
Il n'eft pas roi, vous dis-je, & c'eft un grand défaut.

The Queen of the Lufitanians, in the famous play of Sertorius, fpeaks thus to that Roman general;

Agefilaus of Corneille.

VIRITATE.

VIRITATE.

Car enfin pour remplir l'honneur de ma naiffance, Il me faudroit un roi de titre, et de puiffance; Mais comme il n'en eft plus, je penfe m'en devoir, Ou le pouvoir fans nom, ou le nom fans pouvoir.

And cifion turns the

great

upon the effect of this prudent deintereft of the play. By the laws of romance the men are to be amorous, and the ladies ambitious. Poor Sertorius in his old age is in love with this lady, for whom Perpenna is also dying; and Sertorius, whom we had fuppofed facrificed to the ambition of his lieutenant, is the victim of his jealousy.

Shakespear and Corneille are equally blamable for having complied with the bad taste of the age; and by doing so, they have both brought unmerited cenfures on their country. The French impute barbarity and cruelty, to a people that could delight in bloody fkirmishes on the stage. The English, as unjustly, but as excufably, accuse of effeminacy and frivoloufness, those

who