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she enters offering to the Manes a libation compofed of milk, honey, wine, oil, &c. upon this Darius iffues from his tomb. Let the wits, who are fo fmart on our ghost's dif appearing at the cock's crowing, explain why, in reason, a ghost in Perfia, or in Greece, fhould be more fond of milk and honey, than averfe, in Denmark, to the crow ing of a cock. Each Poet adopted, in his work, the fuperftition relative to his subject; and the Poet who does fo, understands his bufinefs much better than the critic, who, in judging of that work, refufes it his attention. The phantom of Darius comes forth in his regal robes to Atoffa and the Satraps in council, who, in the Eastern manner, pay their filent adorations to their emperor: His quality of Ghoft does not appear to make any impreffion upon them; and the Satraps fo exactly preserve the characters of courtiers, that they do not venture to tell him the true ftate of the affairs of his kingdom, and its recent difgraces: finding he cannot get any information from them, he addreffes himself to Atoffa, who does not break forth

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with that paffion and tenderness, one should expect on the fight of her long loft hufband; but very calmly informs him, after fome flattery on the conftant profperity of his reign, of the calamitous state of Perfia under Xerxes, who has been ftimulated by his courtiers, to make war upon Greece. The Phantom, who was to appear ignorant of what was paft, that the Ear of the Athenians might be foothed and flattered with the detail of their victory at Salamis, is allowed, for the fame reason, such prescience, as to foretell their future triumphat Platea. Whatever elfe he adds by way of counfel or reproof, either in itself, or in the mode of delivering it, is nothing more than might be expected from any experienced Counfellor of ftate. Darius advifes the old men to enjoy whatever they can, because riches are of no use in the grave. As this touches. the most abfurd and ridiculous foible in human nature, the increase of a greedy and folicitous defire of wealth, when the period of enjoyment of it becomes more precarious and short, the admonition has fomething of

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a comic and fatirical turn, unbecoming the folemn character of the Speaker, and the fad exigency upon which he was called. The intervention of this præternatural Being gives nothing of the Marvellous or the Sublime to the piece, nor adds to, or is connected with its intereft. The Supernatural divefted of the Auguft and the Terrible make but a poor figure in any fpecies of poetry; ufelefs and unconnected with the fable, it wants propriety, in dramatic poetry. Shakefpear had so just a taste, that he never introduced any præternatural character on the stage, that did not affift in the conduct of the drama. Indeed he had fuch prodigious force of talents, that he could make every being, his fancy created, fubfervient to his defigns. The uncouth, awkward monster, Caliban, is fo subject to his genius, as to affift in bringing things to the proposed end and perfection. And the flight Fairies, weak mafiers though they be, even in their wanton gambols, and idle fports, perform great tasks by his fo potent art,

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But to return to the intended comparison between the Grecian Shade, and the Danish Ghost. The first propriety in the conduct of this kind of machinery feems to be, that the præternatural perfon be intimately connected with the fable; that he increase the intereft, add to the folemnity of it, and that his efficiency, in bringing on the catastrophe, be in some measure adequate to the violence done to the ordinary course of things, in his visible interpofition. These are points peculiarly important in dramatic poetry, as has been before obferved. To thefe ends it is neceffary, this Being thould stand acknowledged and revered by the national Superftition, and thus every operation that developes the attributes, which vulgar opinion, or the nurfe's legend, have taught us to afcribe to him, will augment our pleasure; whether we give the reins to our imagination, and, as Spectators, willingly yield ourselves up to pleasing delufion, or, as Critics, examine the merit of the compofition. I hope it is not difficult to fhew, that in all these capital L 2 points

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points our author has excelled. folemn midnight hour, Horatio and Marcellus, the schoolfellows of young Hamlet, come to the centinels upon guard, excited by a report that a Ghost of their late Monarch had, some preceding nights, appeared to them. Horatio, not being one of the believing vulgar, gives little credit to the ftory, but bids Bernardo proceed in his relation.

BERNARDO.

Laft night of all,

When yon fame ftar, that's weftward from the pole,
Had made his courfe t'illume that part of heav'n,
Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,

The bell then beating one

Here enters the Ghoft, after you are thus prepared. There is fomething folemn and fublime in thus regulating the walking of the Spirit, by the course of the Star: It intimates a connection and correspondence between things beyond our ken, and above the vifible diurnal fphere. Horatio is affected with that kind of fear, which such an appearance would naturally excite. He trembles,

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