So convinced was Shakspeare that his countrymen could not be satisfied with their dramatic exhibitions without fome mixture of merriment, that, in his moft ferious plays, he has thrown in characters of levity, or oddity, to enliven the fcene. In King John we have the bastard Falconbridge; in Macbeth, the witches; who, tho' not abfolutely comic, never fail to provoke laughter. In Julius Cæfar, Casca and the mob; in Hamlet, Polonius, the grave diggers, and Oftrick; nay, in Othello, his last and most finished tragedy, befides a happily-conceived drunken fcene of Caffio, we are prefented with the follies of a Roderigo: these comic characters, placed in proper fituations to produce action arifing from the plot, never failed to raise gaiety and diverfion amidst fcenes of the most affecting pathos and the most afflicting terror. What affords the most evident proofs of our author's infallible judgment and fagacity is, that, notwithflanding the great alteration and improvement in the public tafte, refpecting the amusements of the theatre, these chara&ers and scenes never fail to produce the fame effect at this day; and who, after all, is offended with the idle politics and filly pedantry of Polonius, after admiring the wonderful interview of Hamlet and the ghost! Who does not laugh at the prattling and goffipries of the nurfe, when Juliet has taken a fad and mournful leave of her beloved Romeo?

Ben Jonfon was not averfe to the use of the characters and language of comedy in his tragedies; but Ben underfood not the art of blending them fo happily as not to deftroy the effe& of either. In his Sejanus, he introduces a scene Ateween the principal character of the play and

Eudemus

Eudemus the phyfician. Sejanus gravely interrogates the doctor concerning the effect of the phyfic he adminifters to the ladies, his patients, and is anxious to know which of them, during the operation, made the moft wry faces: this is below farce. Nay, fo loft is this learned au thor to all fenfe of decency and decorum, that Catiline, in the grand scene of confpirators, in A& III. threatens one of his young affociates with the feverest punishment for his reluctance to fubmit to the most infamous of all crimes!

The scene continued.

CLOWN.

I shall never have the bleffing of God till I have iffue of my body; for, they fay, bearns are blettings.

The Clown's opinion correfponds with that of all mankind, and more particularly with the Jews. They hold barrenness to be a great curfe. No people in the world multiply fo fatt as they. Sir James Porter, in his letters on the Turkish nation, after informing us that, by a certain law in the Alcoran, when no heirs male are left in the family the eftate is immediately forfeited to the emperor, affures his readers it is next to a miracle to hear of the effects of a Jewish family being forfeited to the Sultan for want of heirs.

COUNTESS.

The mystery of your loneliness

Which, I think, a happy emendation of Theobald from loveliness.

Mr.

Mr. Tyrrwhit prefers, inftead of loneliness, a fuggeftion of Mr. Hall in favour of lowlinefs; but Mr. Steevens feems to understand the language of love better than his friend, and justifies Theobald. If Mr. Tyrrwhit wants an authority for a perfon in love being fond of retirement and folitude, Romeo and Juliet will give him one. Romeo, A& I.

MONTAGUE.

Away from light fteals home my giddy fon,
And private in the chamber pens himself.

And Rosalind, in As you like it, when he can no longer enjoy the company of Orlando, leaves her coufin Cælia to find a fhadow and to sleep.

HELE N.

My friends were poor, but honest; fo is my love!

Helen pleads that, although fhe is no higher in rank than a phyfician's daughter, yet her love is as much mark'd for fincerity as her relations were efteemed for their integrity.

In no part of Europe is the worth of a learned and skilful phyfician fo well understood, and fo generously rewarded, as in England. In France, till very lately, phyficians were placed in a lower clafs. The ancients, in the opinion of Dr. Middleton, who wrote a Treatife de Conditione Medicorum apud Antiquos, rated them not much higher than flaves. In Flanders, the cuftomary fee, to a phyfician, is no more than half a crown: I believe it is the fame through Holland and all Germany.

But

But Helen's love is as honeft as her parentage. It appears, throughout the whole play, that thepaffion of this fweet girl is of the nobleft kind:

Nature, fays Shakspeare, in Hamlet, is fine in love; that is, it purifies and refines our paffions. Before marriage Helen diminishes the blemishes of Parolles, because he is the constant companion of Bertram, and after marriage, tho' fhe might reasonably exclaim against the feducer of her husband, with the utmost delicacy the reftrains herself from the leaft reproach: nay, converts a question, implying cenfure, to a mark

of honour.

CHAP.

CHAP. XXII.

Meaning of Good faith across.-Helen's tax of impudence, e-Theobald defended.-Several paffages explained-A fcene of Parolles.-His cbaracter. Compared with that of Beffus.-King and no King intended to bave been revived by Mr. Garrick. Why tbrown afide.-Incest an improper fubject for a play.-Don Sebaftian.-Maflinger's unnatural combat.-Beffus a pander as well as a coward.-Cowardice in the abflract.-No proper fubject of mirtb.-Parolles admirable to the laft. Time and Dr. Jobnfon.Helen's ring-Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Effex.

A&. II. Scene I. King and Lafeu.

LAFE U.

Pardon, my lord, for me and for my tidings.

KING.

I'll fee thee to stand up.

LAFE U.

Then here's a man

Stands that has bought his pardon. I would you
Had kneel'd, my lord, to ask me mercy; and
That at my bidding you could fo stand up.

KING.

I would I had, fo I had broke thy pate,

And ak'd thee mercy for it.

LAFE U.

Good faith, across.