What if of farther Progress you despair, 'Tis somewhat, surely, to have gone so far. Creech.
However, they are much more in the wrong, who confine the general Scene within one Room, or Chamber; for it is ridiculous to suppose, that Persons of most distant Circumstances should meet, or Actions of the most different Kind be perform'd, in the same Place, or in so narrow an one. Truth, then, seems to lie, as it generally does, between both Extremes; and one House, perhaps, may be said to be the just Extent of the dramatical Scene. It ought not to be of greater Extent, because Persons of all Ranks and Qualities are, in Reality, contain'd under one Roof, and Actions of all Kinds perform'd in that Compass. It ought not to be of a narrower; because the Spectators, whether they sit in the Pit, or Boxes, may very easily conceive different Parts of the same House represented in the Scenes, since the Theatre is large enough to contain one House entire, and both the Persons of the Drama, and the Spectators themselves, may be suppos'd to move from one Side of it to the other.
These Unities of Action, Time, and Place, ought very carefully to be observ'd. For tho' a Play, form'd upon the most regular Plans, will gain but little Applause, if it is destitute of the true poetic Spirit; so will it deserve as little, how much soever it may be set off with Decoration, if it offends against the Rules of the Drama. The former, with all its Regularity, is cold and lifeless; the latter, with all in Brightness, absurd and ridiculous. Let Rules be first the Basis of the Poem, and from a right Disposal of these, let the Ornaments arise naturally, and with Ease. Colouring in Painting, is, no doubt, an Excellence; but we are not to be so studious of it, as to neglect Proportion, and transgress the Laws of Optics. Besides, great Judgment and Caution must be us'd, that we don't adhere so close to one Rule, as to violate another. Horace's Observation is here undoubtedly just:
[379] In vitium ducit culpæ fuga, si caret arte.
Thus Fear of Erring, join'd with want of Skill, Is a most certain Way of erring still. Roscom.
A Misfortune, which, in this Case, it is very difficult to guard against.
To these three Unities, as they are usually reckon'd up, we may not improperly add a fourth: That of Character, which I just mention'd before, but now design to explain more fully. By a Character, I understand, that Assemblage of Circumstances which discriminates one Man from another; such as Age, Fortune, Manners, and Inclination. In this Respect, then, let each Person be one from Beginning to the End. Not that he is always to betray the same Sentiments, or one Passion; this would be as absurd as it is tedious; but that he should never speak, nor act repugnant to his own fundamental Character. An old or young Man, for Instance, a King or Servant may, nay, ought, as Occasion serves, to shew the common Passions of Joy or Sorrow. But for an old Man to be introduced in the first Act; and to appear a young one in the second, is inverting Nature. Again, the Meek may sometimes sally into a Warmth, and the Breast of the Passionate be calm; a Change which often introduces in the Drama very affecting Variety: But if the natural Disposition of the former was to be represented as boisterous, and that of the latter mild and soft, they would both act out of Character, and contradict their Persons. The Temper of a Man, I own, is sometimes entirely chang'd; a vicious Disposition may be reform'd, and a good one corrupted: But this is a Change which cannot be wrought in so short a Time as the Action of the Drama takes up. It may be much doubted, therefore whether the unravelling of the Plot in Terence's Adelphi is agreeable to Truth and Nature, where Demea, from an old Miser, turns, of a sudden, profuse, and lays aside his Moroseness, for Good-nature; and Micio, who had hitherto liv'd single, and dreaded the married State as the greatest of Sins, in his old Age, at last, by the Persuasion of his Brother and Nephew, marries an old Woman, without a Fortune.
Twenty-first Lecture.
The English Drama differs in nothing more from the ancient, than in Narration and Action. Of both these Heads, Horace delivers himself thus:
[380] Aut agitur Res in scenis, aut acta refertur. Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem, Quam quæ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, & quæ Ipse sibi tradit spectator: Non tamen intus Digna geri promes in scenam; multaque tolles Ex oculis, quæ mox narret facundia præsens. Nec pueros coram populo Medea trucidet, Aut humana palam coquat exta nefarius Atreus; Aut in avem Progne mutetur, Cadmus in anguem: Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic, incredulus odi.