ward, for the particular entertain- poets; which has been brought as an

ment of thofe who valued themfelves on their skill in archery, a hundred leopards, as many hinds, and three hundred hares. The exhibition was clofed by a gladiatorial fight of three hundred couple of the captive nations. So infatuated were the Romans with thefe fhews and games, that there was no coming at any of the capital dignities but by entertaining the people with them; and the virtuous Cato loft the confulthip because he would not humour the public folly whereas the Greeks had no gladiators, nor wild beats, in any of their exhibitions.

In Naples, where the rifible tafte is at its height, nothing takes fo much with the aud ence as Punchinello, and fuch kind of jocular perfonages. In Venice, Harlequin and Pantaloon are the favourite characters; the fpirited burlesque of the former, and the phlegmatic patience of the latter, under all abules and misfortunes, never fail to fend the houfe away highly delighted with their entertainment. For elegant comedies, none come up to thofe of Moliere, whofe equal in imagination and judg ment, humour, and phrafe, has not yet appeared. Corneille and Racine have carried tragedy to its fummit of perfection.

Both the Roman and Grecian theatres are handed down to us (as the nobleft things are in their infancy) very defective, over-run with ribaldry, wantonnefs, and rough-hewn raillery. They both gradually mended in decorum and fente, though fo very different the actors, that the Grecians were perfons of birth and education, it being no difgrace for a lady to tread the flage; whereas among the Romans, the actors (though firit fent for from Tufcany, to reconcile the deities in a time of calamity) were claffed among flaves. Livius Andronicus reformed the Roman ftage, 504 years after the building of Rome; and Ariftotle, fome centuries before, had laid down rules for the Grecian

argument to prove the good efs of the Grecian temper beyond that of the Romans. Thefe Horace has tranfplanted into his Art of Poetry, and they have been the ftandard of poetic regularity among the Europeans.

One of the principal rules of thefe celebrated mafters, especially concerning tragedy, is, that its actions muit not exceed twenty-hours; that is, that all the tranfactions of the play, which are exhibited on the flage within three hours, may readily be fuppofed, in their reality, not to take up above twenty-four hours, and are reprefented as happening within that fpace. This reftriction, not admitting of any very intricate plotting, or deep-laid arrangements, would not go down with the Romans; nor would they be tied up to Ariftotle's fcrupulous nicety, which forbids any bloodthed, or fo much as the death of a perfon upon the ftage. Their ferocity called for poisoning, flabbing, and fighting to be openly exhibited. This of late is become the taste of Italy, as it ever was of England, and I believe of all the northern nations. With fubmiffion to Aristotle and Horace, I am fo far from laying any great trefs upon their punctualities, that I never was better pleated than at a tranfgrefion of then in an English tragedy, where Caffius and Brutus openly murder Cæfar, and a few fcenes after fight the battle of Ph lippi. However, on this head, I cannot wholly excufe the English theatre; it carries this to an excels, there being few tragedies in which various kinds of murders are not openly perpetrated; and this, I conceive, does not convey the best infractions to the fpeétators.

I have already noticed, that theatrical exhibitions owe their origin to amufeme t, and not to inftruction, and that the main drift of the poets was gain or applaufe, compañing their ends by flattering the foibles of the feveral nations where they wrote; yet there have not been wanting fome honeft poets, who, humoroufly expofing

the

by realities. Nor is it only the easy, filled by indulgencies with noxious humours, who leave the world thus abruptly, or rush on death from no virtuous principle; but the like is feen even in the dregs of the English commonalty; fo that mot of the malefactors meet their fate if not with mirth, without any dejection; however thefe things are a grief to the fenfible part of the nation. As in a quarrelfome country, nothing more promotes that unhappy humour than wearing weapons; fo in a nation like England, prone to fuicide, the fanguinary fcenes on its theatre muit naturally promp them to destroy themfelves, or to venture upon ill courfes, though death be continually taring in their face *.

This is the common opinion of all foreigners, who have treated of the English ftage; they fupposed the Engins to be fond of bloody exhibitions. The French theatre kined its heroes behind the kage, out of respect for the audience, but in order to be convinced how greatly fuch writers have been mittaken, in attributing a fanguinary difpofition to the English, let the conduct of the French nation for the last two years he attentively considered, and the horror with which that conduct has affected the English. At the fame time, it may be doubted whether murders, committed on the stage, may not have an improper effect on minds of a certain texture.

hence it is that no petty town lets the year pafs without having an opera in fome part of it. In Naples they have it all the year round, and in mot of the capitals at least half the year. Mufic has not only a very powerful influence on the mind, but it is alfo undeniable, that many have been reftored from defperate difcafes by it.

But to return to the inftruction to be reaped from theatres. Terence may have written his plays with that commendable view, and Mol ere may have exploded feveral ridiculous affecta ions in the French ladies, yet it is my firm perfuafion, that there is more loft than gained by theatrical admonitions; they being intermixed with a great deal of alloy, and the mind naturally taking fire at the representation of any paffion which has the upper-hand in it, as in the cale of fuicide. Befides, to exhibit virtue, and imprefs it on the heart, requires a train of reflections too long for a tranfitory scene. I take the liberty efpecially to fhut the doors of the theatres against the youth of both fexes. Melancholy havi g little fhare in their compofitions, they ftand in no need of fuch diverfions, neither is it for them that they are tolerated by the government: and fecondly, their want of experience and difcernment to unravel the good, expofes them to be eafily perverted by thofe alluring reprefentations of the vices with which the dramas are fluffed; and thus that depravity comes to break out, which, unacquainted with fuch incentives, would have been either later in its eruptions, or prevented by a fettled life. But could youth be prefent at plays without fuch prejudice, diffipation is infeparable from them. The children of fubftantial citizens never want an education fuitable to their age and condition, with which all the mildness of their teachers cannot bring them to be heartily reconciled: now, every time this refractory tribe are carried to the theatrical entertainments, they contrast them with their

tedious employments at home; they are enraptured at fuch diverfified fcenes of pleasure, and become hardened in their averfion to mental improvements.

Since the general increase of wealth, and confequently of fenfual gratifications, the cities are fo over-run with idlenefs and the hypochondria, that plays being found infufficient to anfwer all the vacuities of time, home diverfions have been called in to fupply their deficiency. Thefe partly confift of balls and feafls, but gaming is the principal an.ufement. Thus it was with ancient Rome: when its original poverty became ignominious, gaming was the general diverfion of the Roman nobility; and Juvenal, in his fatire against Ponticus, reads them a fevere lecture on fitting up all night at dice. This mode of play, which at firft was invented only as a relief from the vapours, is grown to be the bane of our morality, and the carker of our wealth; inftead of foothing melancholy, and affwaging the agitations of the mind, for which only diverfions were invented and ought to be continued, it raises in it the most violent hurricane, either of avidity to win our friends or relation's money, or of rage at the lofs of our own: and yet theie, though fufficiently bad, are but the leaft evils of those gaming focieties; thefe peftilential paftimes infect the whole mind and heart; from the innocence in which the gamefter made his firft effay, loffes put him upon iniquitous measures to raise money, or fet his wits to work to cheat with impenetrable dexterity: or if he has a run of luck, his innocence equally fuffers; for, intoxicated by the fudden. flow of riches, he launches into all kinds of excess and diforder. Further, this deftructive practice has been fo eagerly adopted by the fair fex, that a good wife muft ftand the mockeries of all the fashionable ladies, and even fubmit to the inares laid for her, that the may be like themselves.

M.

On the AFFECTATION of INFERIORITY, or INVERTED AMBITION. To the EDITOR of the UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE.

SIR,

SINC

CINCE thofe agreeable days are the very reverse of this, which conover, when we were periodically fifts in affecting to be inferior to the inftructed by Spectators and Guardi- reft of the world in fome qualification, ans, Tatlers, Ramblers, and Idlers, either bodily or mental. Firft, bodily; it affords us fome fatisfaction that the how many very amiable young men occafional lucubrations of humbler have of late affected to be very nearpens, can yet find an afylum in fuch fighted, if not totally blind. Whence publications as the Univerfal Maga- this blindness came, whether it arofe zine; that they may depend upon a from fome new and noxious principle civil reception, that they have the in the atmosphere, or from fomething chance to be read and commented in our diet, or whether it be come upon by fome thousands of critics, (for upon us like an Egyptian plague, I every reader is in a certain degree a cannot take upon me to determine; critic) and that there is almoft a cer- but it is certain that the manufacture tainty of their falling under the in- of fpectacles and opera-glaffes is of fpection of the very parties for whom late years amazingly extended, and they were intended. Viewing Ma- what is blindness in one part of his gazines in this light, I have always majesty's fubjects, gives bread to the confidered them as works of public other. It is remarkable, that this deufefulness, and especially as contri- fire of being blind, affects us moft buting very largely to the public stock when we are going to any place where of information and amufement. They the perfect ufe of fight would be moft record and mark all those varieties of convenient, at the theatres, for incharacter and manners which diftin- ftance. The approach of a distinguish the progrefs of a civilized peo- guished actrefs, or the opening of a ple; and perhaps there are few fo new scene operates like the word of callous as not to be awakened by their command, and a thousand glaffes are reproofs, or so dull as not to be in- applied in the twinkling of an eye.' ftructed by their precepts. But I for- In my younger days, I remember get that I am not writing a panegyric that blindnefs was accounted a very on Magazines. My pen run on in- great misfortune, and mentioned with fenfibly thus far, and I hope you will tenderness and delicacy. Those who not think that I am doing any thing were afflicted with it, concealed the in the way of flattery to fecure me a diforder with as much care as poffifavourable reception, as it is the ble, pretending to fee where they did cuftom to fee the porter before you not. But now, nothing is fo genteel can get access to the great man, or, as to complain of a defect in those as we applaud a man very much for valuable orbs, and the production of his unbounded generofity, when we a glafs is fuppofed to add more have a defign upon his pocket.-My grace and dignity to the perfon, only purpofe is to point out fome ftrik- than total blindness could poffibly take ing peculiarities of character which away. have fometimes amufed and fometimes difgufted me.

Affectation, I need fcarcely tell you, is of many kinds, but that which is proper and legitimate affectation is very nearly allied to pride. It is the affectation of fuperior merit, virtue, or talents. But there is another kind,

Talking the other day to an old friend upon this fubject, he repeated the proverb, that there are none fo blind as thofe who will not fee, and added, "that this blindnefs of modern times was not merely an affectation, as I was pleased to think it, but a political fcheme, which answered cer