_Shrewsbury._ SALOPIENSIS.

* * * * *


NOTES OF A READER.

TRAGEDY.

We do not see any necessary and natural connexion between death and the
end of the third volume of a novel, or the conclusion of the fifth act
of a play,--though that connexion in some modern novels, and in most
English tragedies, seems to be assumed. Nor does it seem to follow,
that, because death is the object of universal dread and aversion, and
because terror is one of the objects of tragedy, death must, therefore,
necessarily be represented; and not only so, but the more deaths the
better. If it be true that familiarity has a tendency to create
indifference, if not contempt, it must be considered prudent to have
recourse to this strong exhibition as to drastic remedies in medicine,
with caution and discrimination, and with a view to the continuance of
its effect. We cannot help wishing that our own Shakspeare, who lays
down such excellent rules for the guidance of actors, and cautions them
so earnestly against "overstepping the modesty of nature," and the
danger of "tearing passion to rags," had remembered, that the poet
himself has certain limits imposed upon him, which he cannot transgress
with impunity. We should not then have observed, in the perusal of some
of his plays, the marginal notice of ["_dies_"] with about as much
emotion as a note of exclamation; nor, when at the actual
representation, we behold the few remaining persons of the drama
scarcely able to cross the stage without stumbling over the bodies of