d the Shades in this Picture do not bear a just Proportion to the
Lights, it is not that the Artist wanted either Colours or Skill in the
Disposition of 'em; but the truth, I believe, might be, that he forbore
doing it out of regard to Queen _Elizabeth_, since it could have been no
very great Respect to the Memory of his Mistress, to have expos'd some
certain Parts of her Father's Life upon the Stage. He has dealt much
more freely with the Minister of that Great King, and certainly nothing
was ever more justly written, than the Character of Cardinal _Wolsey_.
He has shewn him Tyrannical, Cruel, and Insolent in his Prosperity; and
yet, by a wonderful Address, he makes his Fall and Ruin the Subject of
general Compassion. The whole Man, with his Vices and Virtues, is finely
and exactly describ'd in the second Scene of the fourth Act. The
Distresses likewise of Queen _Katherine_, in this Play, are very
movingly touch'd: and tho' the Art of the Poet has skreen'd King _Henry_
from any gross Imputation of Injustice, yet one is inclin'd to wish, the
Queen had met with a Fortune more worthy of her Birth and Virtue. Nor
are the Manners, proper to the Persons represented, less justly
observ'd, in those Characters taken from the _Roman_ History; and of
this, the Fierceness and Impatience of _Coriolanus_, his Courage and
Disdain of the common People, the Virtue and Philosophical Temper of
_Brutus_, and the irregular Greatness of Mind in _M. Antony_, are
beautiful Proofs. For the two last especially, you find 'em exactly as
they are describ'd by _Plutarch_, from whom certainly _Shakespear_
copy'd 'em. He has indeed follow'd his Original pretty close, and taken
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 i