n the Distress. _Hamlet_ is founded on much the same Tale
with the _Electra_ of _Sophocles_. In each of 'em a young Prince is
engag'd to Revenge the Death of his Father, their Mothers are equally
Guilty, are both concern'd in the Murder of their Husbands, and are
afterwards married to the Murderers. There is in the first Part of the
_Greek_ Trajedy, something very moving in the Grief of _Electra_; but as
Mr. _D'Acier_ has observ'd, there is something very unnatural and
shocking in the Manners he has given that Princess and _Orestes_ in the
latter Part. _Orestes_ embrues his Hands in the Blood of his own Mother;
and that barbarous Action is perform'd, tho' not immediately upon the
Stage, yet so near, that the Audience hear _Clytemnestra_ crying out to
_AEghystus_ for Help, and to her Son for Mercy: While _Electra_, her
Daughter, and a Princess, both of them Characters that ought to have
appear'd with more Decency, stands upon the Stage and encourages her
Brother in the Parricide. What Horror does this not raise!
_Clytemnestra_ was a wicked Woman, and had deserv'd to Die; nay, in the
truth of the Story, she was kill'd by her own Son; but to represent an
Action of this Kind on the Stage, is certainly an Offence against those
Rules of Manners proper to the Persons that ought to be observ'd there.
On the contrary, let us only look a little on the Conduct of
_Shakespear_. _Hamlet_ is represented with the same Piety towards his
Father, and Resolution to Revenge his Death, as _Orestes_; he has the
same Abhorrence for his Mother's Guilt, which, to provoke him the more,
is heighten'd by Incest: But 'tis with wonderful Art and Justness of
Judgment, that the Poet restrains him from doing Violence to his Mother.
To prevent any thing of that Kind, he makes his Father's Ghost forbid
that part of his Vengeance.

_But howsoever thou pursu'st this Act,
Taint not thy Mind; nor let thy Soul contrive
Against thy Mother ought; leave her to Heav'n,
And to those Thorns that in her Bosom lodge,
To prick and sting her._ Vol. V. p. 2386.

This is to distinguish rightly between _Horror_ and _Terror_. The latter
is a proper Passion of Tragedy, but the former ought always to be
carefully avoided. And certainly no Dramatick Writer ever succeeded
better in raising _Terror_ in the Minds of an Audience than _Shakespear_
has done. The whole Tragedy of _Macbeth_, but more especially the Scene
where the King is murder'd, in the s