imaginary characters the incidents of actual event;
with the fervour of the poet, portray the transactions and thoughts of
past times; with the eye of the painter, arrange his scenery, dresses,
and localities, so as to produce the strongest possible impression of
reality on the mind of the spectator. Unite, in imagination, all the
greatest and most varied efforts of the human mind--the fire of the poet
and the learning of the historian, the conceptions of the painter and
the persuasion of the orator, the skill of the novelist and the depth of
the philosopher, and you will only form a great tragedian. Ordinary
observers often express surprise, that dramatic genius, especially in
these times, is rare; let the combination of qualities essential for its
higher flights be considered, and perhaps the wonder will rather be,
that it has been so frequent in the world.

It is a sense of this extraordinary combination of power necessary to
the formation of a great dramatic poet, which has rendered the
masterpieces of this art so general an object of devout admiration, to
men of the greatest genius who have ever appeared upon earth. Euripides
wept when he heard a tragedy of Sophocles recited at the Isthmian games;
he mourned, but his own subsequent greatness proved without reason, the
apparent impossibility of rivalling his inimitable predecessor. Milton,
blind and poor, found a solace for all the crosses of life in listening,
in old age, to the verses of Euripides. Napoleon, at St Helena, forgot
the empire of the world, on hearing, in the long evenings, the
masterpieces of Corneille read aloud. Stratford-on-Avon does not contain
the remains of mere English genius, it is the place of pilgrimage to the
entire human race. The names of persons of all nations are to be found,
as on the summit of the Pyramids, encircled on the walls of Shakspeare's
house; his grave is the common resort of the generous and the
enthusiastic of all ages, and countries, ad times. All feel they can

"Rival all but Shakspeare's name below."

If the combination of qualities necessary to form a first-rate dramatic
poet is thus rare, hardly less wonderful is the effort of genius to
sustain the character of a great actor. The mind of the performer must
be sympathetic with that of the author; it must be cast in the same
mould with the original conceiver of the piece. To form an adequate and
correct conception of the proper representation of the leading
chara