in several little Incidents that might have been spar'd in a Play. But,
as I hinted before, his Design seems most commonly rather to describe
those great Men in the several Fortunes and Accidents of their Lives,
than to take any single great Action, and form his Work simply upon
that. However, there are some of his Pieces, where the Fable is founded
upon one Action only. Such are more especially, _Romeo_ and _Juliet_,
_Hamlet_, and _Othello_. The Design in _Romeo_ and _Juliet_, is plainly
the Punishment of their two Families, for the unreasonable Feuds and
Animosities that had been so long kept up between 'em, and occasion'd
the Effusion of so much Blood. In the management of this Story, he has
shewn something wonderfully Tender and Passionate in the Love-part, and
vary Pitiful in the Distress. _Hamlet_ is founded on much the same Tale
with the _Electra_ of _Sophocles_. In each of 'em a young Prince is
engag'd to Revenge the Death of his Father, their Mothers are equally
Guilty, are both concern'd in the Murder of their Husbands, and are
afterwards married to the Murderers. There is in the first Part of the
_Greek_ Trajedy, something very moving in the Grief of _Electra_; but as
Mr. _D'Acier_ has observ'd, there is something very unnatural and
shocking in the Manners he has given that Princess and _Orestes_ in the
latter Part. _Orestes_ embrues his Hands in the Blood of his own Mother;
and that barbarous Action is perform'd, tho' not immediately upon the
Stage, yet so near, that the Audience hear _Clytemnestra_ crying out to
_Æghystus_ for Help, and to her Son for Mercy: While _Electra_, her
Daughter, and a Princess, both of them Characters that ought to have
appear'd with more Decency, stands upon the Stage and encourages her
Brother in the Parricide. What Horror does this not raise!
_Clytemnestra_ was a wicked Woman, and had deserv'd to Die; nay, in the
truth of the Story, she was kill'd by her own Son; but to represent an
Action of this Kind on the Stage, is certainly an Offence against those
Rules of Manners proper to the Persons that ought to be observ'd there.