He that wou'd have Spectators share his Grief, Must write not only well, but movingly, And raise Mens Passions to what Height he will. We weep and laugh, as we see others do. He only makes me sad, who shews the Way, And first is sad himself. Then, Telephus, I feel the Weight of your Calamities, And fancy all your Miseries my own; But if you act them ill, I sleep, or laugh: Your Looks must alter, as your Subject does, From kind to fierce, from wanton to severe; For Nature forms and softens us within, And writes our Fortunes Changes in our Face. Pleasure enchants, impetuous Rage transports, And Grief dejects, and wrings the tortur'd Soul, And these are all interpreted by Speech. Roscom.
Next of the Characters, or the different Circumstances, and Dispositions of the Persons:
[367] Si dicentis erunt fortunis absona dicta, Romani tollent Equites, Peditesque cachinnum. Intererit multum Davusne loquatur, an Heros, Maturusne senex, an adhuc florente juventa Fervidus, an matrona potens, an sedula nutrix, Mercatorne vagus, cultorne virentis agelli, Colchus, an Assyrius, Thebis nutritus, an Argis.
But he whose Words and Fortune disagree, Absurd, unpitied, grows a public Jest. Observe the Characters of those that speak, Whether an honest Servant, or a Cheat; Or one whose Blood boils in his youthful Veins, Or a grave Matron, or a busy Nurse, Extorting Merchants, careful Husbandmen, Argives or Thebans, Asians or Greeks. Roscom.
The subject Matter of this Kind of Poem, is call'd the Fable tho' it is often grounded upon true History; because the greatest Part of it is fabulous, tho' the Fiction be intermix'd with Matter of Fact. When it is not so, it ought to be styled rather a Dramatical History, than Drama; of which Sort are many of the Plays of our celebrated Countryman[368], who has crowded together the Annals of some of our Kings, without any Regard to the dramatical Rules of Time or Place. But in other Respects, he
[369] —Spirat tragicum satis, & feliciter audet.
With happy Boldness draws a tragic Scene.
Yes, extremely happy, and in these Works, but more especially in his truer Tragedies, has deserv'd well of Posterity.
But often the Drama, properly so call'd, is built upon true History; as the Octavia of Seneca, and many of our modern Tragedies, both English and French, (for Comedy has rarely such a Foundation; but is either rais'd from some private Fact, which, tho' true, is below History; or from Fiction only;) sometimes, indeed, it is built upon Fable, but such as is common, and well known; as the Trachiniæ of Sophocles, Oedipus, &c. the Author disposing of the Fable according to his own Fancy, and giving it a new Appearance: According to that of Horace:
[370] Publica materies privati juris erit, si Nec circa vilem, patulumque moraberis orbem, Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere, fidus Interpres.