ge
for the addition of a comic element or an underplot. He must obey the
"hampering critics," though his avowed model had ignored them.
Accordingly, in his more deliberate prose criticism we find, amid his
veneration of Shakespeare, his regard for the rules of the classical
drama. The faults of Shakespeare, we read, were not so much his own as
those of his time, for "tragi-comedy was the common mistake of that age,"
and there was as yet no definite knowledge of how a play should be
constructed.

The burden of Rowe's criticism is that "strength and nature made amends
for art." The line might serve as the text of many of the early
appreciations of Shakespeare. Though the critics all resented Rymer's
treatment of the poet, some of them stood by his doctrines. They might
appease this resentment by protesting against his manners or refuting his
plea for a dramatic chorus; but on the whole they recognised the claims of
the classical models. The more the dramatic fervour failed, the more the
professed critics counselled observance of the rules. In 1702 Farquhar had
pleaded for the freedom of the English stage in his _Discourse upon
Comedy_, but his arguments were unavailing. The duller men found it easier
to support the rigid doctrines, which had been fully expounded by the
French critics. The seventh or supplementary volume of Rowe's edition of
Shakespeare was introduced by Charles Gildon's _Essay on the Art, Rise,
and Progress of the Stage in Greece, Rome, and __ England_, which, as the
title shows, was a laboured exposition of the classical doctrines. Gildon
had begun as an enemy of Rymer. In 1694 he had published _Some Reflections
on Mr. Rymer's Short View of Tragedy and an Attempt at a Vindication of
Shakespeare_. Therein he had spoken of "noble irregularity," and censured
the "graver pedants" of the age. By 1710 he is a grave pedant himself. In
1694 he had said that Rymer had scarce produced one criticism that was not
borrowed from the French writers; in 1710 the remark is now applicable to
its author. Gildon's further descent as a critic is evident eight years
later in his _Complete Art of Poetry_. He is now a slave to the French
doctrine of the rules. He confesses himself the less ready to pardon the
"monstrous absurdities" of Shakespeare, as one or two plays, such as the
_Tempest_, are "very near a regularity." Yet he acknowledges that
Shakespeare abounds in beauties, and he makes some reparation by including
a long l