A. Free, easy, and varied.

Q. Is our blank verse happily suited to this purpose?

A. Yes. It has sufficient majesty for raising the style; it can descend to the simple and familiar; it is free from the constraint and monotony of rhyme.

Q. What is one of the greatest misfortunes of the French Tragedy?

A. That it is always written in rhyme.

Q. What were some of the characteristics of the Greek Tragedy?

A. The plot was taken from ancient stories, and was simple. It admitted of few incidents. Exact regard was paid to the unities of action, time, and place. Love was never admitted. Machinery was employed. The sentiments were moral; and but slight addresses were made to the passions.

Q. Who were the most masterly of the Greek tragedians ?

1

A. Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Sophocles excelled. They are elegant and beautiful in their style; just in their thoughts; and speak with the voice of nature.

Q. Were dramatic entertainments favourite spectacles of the Greeks and Romans ?

A. Very. The magnificence of their theatres far exceeded any thing in modern ages. Q. Where did the actors perform?

A. In the open air, surrounded by immense crowds of people.

Q. How were they heard?

A. They wore masques, the mouths of

which were like a trumpet and increased the sound of the voice.

Q. Who are the principal French dramatic writers ?

A. Corneille, Racine, and Voltaire.

Q. What is their character ?

A. They have improved much upon the ancients, whom they have imitated; but there is a want of fervour, strength, and the natural language of passion in them.

Q. What is the character of the Musical dramas of Metastatio?

A. They are eminent for elegance of style, the charms of lyric poetry, and the beauties of sentiment. They considerably resemble the ancient Greek Tragedies.

Q. How does the English Tragedy differ from the French?

A. It is more animated and passionate, but more irregular and incorrect; and less attentive to decorum and elegance.

Q. Who is the great father of the English drama?

A. Shakespeare.

Q. What are his two chief virtues?

A. His lively and diversified paintings of characters, and his strong and natural expressions of passion.

Q. What are some of his defects?

A. Extreme irregularities in conduct; grotesque mixtures of serious and comic; unnatural thoughts and harsh expressions.

Q. What are thought his two master-pieces ? A. Othello and Macbeth.

Q. Who have written since Shakespeare? A. Dryden, Lee, Otway, Rowe, Young, Thomson.

Q. How do the ancient and modern tragedies compare?

A. The ancients were more natural and simple; the moderns more artful and complex. Q. How the French and English?

A. In the French there is more correctness; in the English, more fire.

COMEDY.

Q. What is Comedy?

A. A satirical exhibition of the improprieties and follies of mankind.

Q. How may Comedy be divided?

A. Into comedy of character, and comedy of intrigue.

Q. How do these differ?

A. In the former, the display of some peculiar character is chiefly aimed at; in the latter, the action of the play is made the principal object.

Q. What should be the style of Comedy? A. Pure, elegant, and lively, seldom rising higher than the ordinary tone of polite conversation.

Q. Which is the most ancient, Tragedy or Comedy?

A. Tragedy.

Q. In what did ancient Comedy consist?
A. In direct and avowed satire against par-

ticular known persons, and was a powerful political engine.

Q. Who are the principal writers of Comedy among the ancients ?

A. Aristophanes, Menander, Terence and Plautus.

Q. What are the characteristics of Aristophanes ?

A. Vivacity, satire, and buffoonery. His plays show what a turbulent and licentious republic Athens was; a republic in which the best men might be publicly exposed to ridicule. Q. What change did Menander effect?

A. He reformed, in a high degree, the public taste; and set the modes of correct, elegant, and moral comedy.

Q. What modern nation has been remarkably fertile in dramatic productions?

A. The Spanish.

Q. Who are their chief comedians?

A. Lopez de Vega, who wrote above a thousand plays; Guillin and Calderon.

Q. Who are the principal writers of comedy in the French nation?

A. Regnard, Marivaux, Moliere.

Q. Who, in the English?

A. Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Dryden, Cibber, Vanburgh, Congreve.

Q. What is the general character of the French comic theatre ?

A. Correct, chaste, and decent.

Q. What, of the English?

A. Exceedingly licentious; and very destructive to the morals of the English nation.

With a view of applying the foregoing rules, the scholar should bestow particular attention upon the following Critical Examination of the Style of Mr. Addison, in No. 411 of the Spectator."

"Our sight is the most perfect, and most delightful of all our senses.

This is an excellent introductory sentence. It is clear, precise, and simple. In this man

ner, we should always set out.

A first sentence should seldom be a long, and never an intricate one. He proceeds:

"It fills the mind with the largest variety of ideas, converses with its objects at the greatest distance, and continues the longest in action, without being tired or satiated with its proper enjoyments."

This sentence deserves attention, as remarkably harmonious, and well constructed. It possesses, indeed, almost all the properties of a perfect sentence. It is entirely perspicuous. It is loaded with no superfluous or unnecessary words.

Observe, too, the music of the period; consisting of three members, each of which, agreeably to a rule I formerly mentioned, grows and rises above the other in sound, till the sentence is conducted, at last, to one of the most melodious closes which our language