I have now gone through the several Dramatick Inventions
which are made use of by [the] Ignorant Poets to supply
the Place of Tragedy, and by [the] Skilful to improve
it; some of which I could wish entirely rejected,
and the rest to be used with Caution. It would
be an endless Task to consider Comedy in the same
Light, and to mention the innumerable Shifts that
small Wits put in practice to raise a Laugh. Bullock
in a short Coat, and Norris in a long one, seldom
fail of this Effect. [5] In ordinary Comedies, a broad
and a narrow brim’d Hat are different Characters.
Sometimes the Wit of the Scene lies in a Shoulder-belt,
and Sometimes in a Pair of Whiskers. A Lover running
about the Stage, with his Head peeping out of a Barrel,
was thought a very good Jest in King Charles
the Second’s time; and invented by one of the
first Wits of that Age. [6] But because Ridicule is
not so delicate as Compassion, and [because] [7] the
Objects that make us laugh are infinitely more numerous
than those that make us weep, there is a much greater
Latitude for comick than tragick Artifices, and by
Consequence a much greater Indulgence to be allowed
them.
C.
[Footnote 1: the]
[Footnote 2: In Act V The toll of the passing
bell for Pierre in the parting scene between Jaffier
and Belvidera.]
’sufficient, were all other critics
lost, to teach anew the rules of
writing,’
said in his ‘Reflections on Aristotle’s
Treatise of Poetry,’ translated by Rymer in
1694,
The English, our Neighbours, love Blood
in their Sports, by the quality of their Temperament:
These are Insulaires, separated from the
rest of men; we are more humane ... The English
have more of Genius for Tragedy than other People,
as well by the Spirit of their Nation, which delights
in Cruelty, as also by the Character of their Language,
which is proper for Great Expressions.’]
[Footnote 4: The Earl of Roscommon, who died
in 1684, aged about 50, besides his ‘Essay on
Translated Verse,’ produced, in 1680, a Translation
of ‘Horace’s Art of Poetry’ into
English Blank Verse, with Remarks. Of his ‘Essay,’
Dryden said:
’The Muse’s Empire is restored
again
In Charles his reign, and by Roscommon’s
pen.’]
[Footnote 5: Of Bullock see note, p. 138, ante.
Norris had at one time, by his acting of Dicky in
Farquhar’s ‘Trip to the Jubilee,’
acquired the name of Jubilee Dicky.
[Footnote 6: Sir George Etherege. It was
his first play, ’The Comical Revenge, or Love
in a Tub’, produced in 1664, which introduced
him to the society of Rochester, Buckingham, &c.
