in the Mind; and fix the Audience in such a serious Composure of Thought as is much more lasting and delightful than any little transient Starts of Joy and Satisfaction.  Accordingly, we find, that more of our English Tragedies have succeeded, in which the Favourites of the Audience sink under their Calamities, than those in which they recover themselves out of them.  The best Plays of this Kind are ‘The Orphan’, ‘Venice Preserved’, ’Alexander the Great’, ‘Theodosius’, ‘All for Love’, ‘OEdipus’, ‘Oroonoko’, ‘Othello’, [2] &c.  ‘King Lear’ is an admirable Tragedy of the same Kind, as ‘Shakespear’ wrote it; but as it is reformed according to the chymerical Notion of Poetical Justice, in my humble Opinion it has lost half its Beauty.  At the same time I must allow, that there are very noble Tragedies which have been framed upon the other Plan, and have ended happily; as indeed most of the good Tragedies, which have been written since the starting of the above-mentioned Criticism, have taken this Turn:  As ‘The Mourning Bride’, ‘Tamerlane’, ‘Ulysses’, ‘Phaedra’ and ‘Hippolitus’, with most of Mr. Dryden’s. [3] I must also allow, that many of Shakespear’s, and several of the celebrated Tragedies of Antiquity, are cast in the same Form.  I do not therefore dispute against this Way of writing Tragedies, but against the Criticism that would establish this as the only Method; and by that Means would very much cramp the English Tragedy, and perhaps give a wrong Bent to the Genius of our Writers.

The Tragi-Comedy, which is the Product of the English Theatre, is one of the most monstrous Inventions that ever entered into a Poet’s Thoughts.  An Author might as well think of weaving the Adventures of AEneas and Hudibras into one Poem, as of writing such a motly Piece of Mirth and Sorrow.  But the Absurdity of these Performances is so very visible, that I shall not insist upon it.

The same Objections which are made to Tragi-Comedy, may in some Measure be applied to all Tragedies that have a double Plot in them; which are likewise more frequent upon the English Stage, than upon any other:  For though the Grief of the Audience, in such Performances, be not changed into another Passion, as in Tragi-Comedies; it is diverted upon another Object, which weakens their Concern for the principal Action, and breaks the Tide of Sorrow, by throwing it into different Channels.  This Inconvenience, however, may in a great Measure be cured, if not wholly removed, by the skilful Choice of an Under-Plot, which may bear such a near Relation to the principal Design, as to contribute towards the Completion of it, and be concluded by the same Catastrophe.