n
this picture do not bear a just proportion to the lights, it is not that
the Artist wanted either colours or skill in the disposition of 'em; but
the truth, I believe, might be, that he forbore doing it out of regard to
Queen _Elizabeth_, since it could have been no very great respect to the
memory of his Mistress, to have expos'd some certain parts of her father's
life upon the stage. He has dealt much more freely with the Minister of
that great King, and certainly nothing was ever more justly written, than
the character of Cardinal _Wolsey_. He has shewn him tyrannical, cruel,
and insolent in his prosperity; and yet, by a wonderful address, he makes
his fall and ruin the subject of general compassion. The whole man, with
his vices and virtues, is finely and exactly describ'd in the second Scene
of the fourth Act. The distresses likewise of Queen _Katherine_, in this
Play, are very movingly touch'd; and tho' the art of the Poet has skreen'd
King _Henry_ from any gross imputation of injustice, yet one is inclin'd
to wish, the Queen had met with a fortune more worthy of her birth and
virtue. Nor are the Manners, proper to the persons represented, less
justly observ'd in those characters taken from the _Roman_ History; and of
this, the fierceness and impatience of _Coriolanus_, his courage and
disdain of the common people, the virtue and philosophical temper of
_Brutus_, and the irregular greatness of mind in _M. Antony_, are
beautiful proofs. For the two last especially, you find 'em exactly as
they are describ'd by _Plutarch_, from whom certainly _Shakespear_ copy'd
'em. He has indeed follow'd his original pretty close, and taken in
several little incidents that might have been spar'd in a Play. But, as I
hinted before, his design seems most commonly rather to describe those
great men in the several fortunes and accidents of their lives, than to
take any single great action, and form his work simply upon that. However,
there are some of his pieces, where the Fable is founded upon one action
only. Such are more especially, _Romeo_ and _Juliet_, _Hamlet_, and
_Othello_. The design in _Romeo_ and _Juliet_ is plainly the punishment of
their two families, for the unreasonable feuds and animosities that had
been so long kept up between 'em, and occasion'd the effusion of so much
blood. In the management of this story, he has shewn something wonderfully
tender and passionate in the love-part, and very pitiful in the distress.