and he
would be considered as a far better teacher of morality than old
Rowley or Middleton, if they were living.

* * * * *

WILLIAM ROWLEY.

_A New Wonder; a Woman never Vext_.--The old play-writers are
distinguished by an honest boldness of exhibition,--they show
everything without being ashamed. If a reverse in fortune is to be
exhibited, they fairly bring us to the prison-grate and the
alms-basket. A poor man on our stage is always a gentleman; he may be
known by a peculiar neatness of apparel, and by wearing black. Our
delicacy, in fact, forbids the dramatizing of distress at all. It is
never shown in its essential properties; it appears but as the
adjunct of some virtue, as something which is to be relieved, from
the approbation of which relief the spectators are to derive a
certain soothing of self-referred satisfaction. We turn away from the
real essences of things to hunt after their relative shadows, moral
duties; whereas, if the truth of things were fairly represented, the
relative duties might be safely trusted to themselves, and moral
philosophy lose the name of a science.

* * * * *

THOMAS MIDDLETON.

_The Witch_.--Though some resemblance may be traced between the
charms in Macbeth and the incantations in this play, which is
supposed to have preceded it, this coincidence will not detract much
from the originality of Shakspeare. His witches are distinguished
from the witches of Middleton by essential differences. These are
creatures to whom man or woman, plotting some dire mischief, might
resort for occasional consultation. Those originate deeds of blood,
and begin bad impulses to men. From the moment that their eyes first
meet with Macbeth's, he is spellbound. That meeting sways his
destiny. He can never break the fascination. These witches can hurt
the body; those have power over the soul. Hecate in Middleton has a
son, a low buffoon: the hags of Shakspeare have neither child of
their own, nor seem to be descended from any parent. They are foul
anomalies, of whom we know not whence they are sprung, nor whether
they have beginning or ending. As they are without human passions, so
they seem to be without human relations. They come with thunder and
lightning, and vanish to airy music. This is all we know of them.
Except Hecate, they have no _names_; which heightens their
mysteriousness. The names, and some of the properties which the ot