of returning fwells and cadences, with a light fufpenfion of the voice to mark the close of each line, had a finer effect, and better coincided with the purpose of the poet. It is obvious to remark, that if verfe is not to be pronounced as fuch, it is unneceffary to write it; for any pleasure the eye can receive by parcelling out lines into divifions of ten fyllables, must be merely childish, unless it originally refers to the ear.

In every country but our own, verfe is spoken with what we call a tone or chanta fort of modulation between finging and common speaking; as it undoubtedly was likewife by the Greeks and Romans. In this mode of reciting, emphafis is, to our ears, almost entirely loft, as any one will perceive on hearing French verfe read by a native. Yet no readers appear more impreffed with their fubject, or more to intereft their hearers, than the French. We always endeavour to preserve the emphafis, though often to the total lofs of the modulation. Which of these methods

is best, cannot eafily be determined by general principles, but must be referred to tastes and habits already formed. On the whole, however, that nation which derives the greatest pleasure from its performances, has beft attained its end. With this remark, and the corollary-that no one nation can be a competent judge of the verfification of another-I conclude my present letter, to refume the subject in my next.

THE train of thought which I have followed, next leads me to confider the poetical language of tragedy; another circumftance in which art takes the lead of nature. I know, indeed, that critics have afferted figurative diction to be natural to perfons labouring under strong emotions; but for proof of this affertion, I find quotations from Shakespear, instead of appeals to fact. One of these critics, and of no mean rank, has given us an example of the natural playfulness of a lover's imagination, Juliet's fancy of cutting out Romeo all into little stars when he is dead. I do not deny that a certain degree of mental excitement (to use modern phraseology)

may,

But

may, like a cheerful glass, vivify the ima-
gination, and impart a glow and fluency
of expreffion; but I never knew a real in-
stance in which violent paffion, like intoxi-
cation, did not overwhelm the intellectual
faculties, and abolish all connexion of
thought and choice of language.
tragedy cannot confift of ahs and ohs, of
exclamations and broken fentences. Its
purpose is to delight, to instruct, to elevate,
and above all, to gratify the defire after
novelty: the paffion of tragedy is there-
fore neceffarily made fluent, inventive,
eloquent, metaphorical, and fententious.
See how Milton characterises the tragic'
writers of the Grecian school.

Thence what the lofty grave tragedians taught
In chorus and Iambic, teachers beft
Of moral prudence, with delight receiv'd
In brief fententious precepts, while they treat
Of fate, and chance, and change in human life,
High actions, and high paffions best describing.
PAR. REG. iv. 161.

It was evidently after this model, that he framed his Samfon Agonistes and Comus,

pieces,

pieces, however ill adapted for the modern English ftage, which will continue to charm and inftruct the cultivated reader, as long as the language in which they are written exifts. Nor would Shakespear himself, though peculiarly styled the bard of nature, have afforded a whole fchool of poetry and morals, had his dialogue been a real pattern of that natural fimplicity which is ufually fuppofed to characterife it. To every impartial obferver it will be manifeft, that his "brief fententious precepts" are generally brought in with effort; and that his fublime and often farfetched images rather belong to the playwriter, than to the fpeaker. The sweet Racine and the lofty Corneille communicated their own diftinctions to all their characters, and were properly "describers of high actions and high paffions" in their feveral styles. In short, if tragedy be not confidered as a fublime poem, rather than a mere fable to move the paffions for a moral purpose, it will be impoffible not to prefer the Gamester and George Barnwell

to