world, by making virtue sometimes
happy and sometimes miserable, as they found it in the fable which they
made choice of, or as it might affect their audience in the most
agreeable manner.

'Aristotle considers the tragedies that were written in either of those
kinds; and observes, that those which ended unhappily had always pleased
the people, and carried away the prize, in the public disputes of the
state, from those that ended happily.

'Terror and commiseration leave a pleasing anguish in the mind, and fix
the audience in such a serious composure of thought, as is much more
lasting and delightful, than any little transient starts of joy and
satisfaction.

'Accordingly, we find, that more of our English tragedies have succeeded,
in which the favourites of the audience sink under their calamities, than
those in which they recover themselves out of them.

'The best plays of this kind are The Orphan, Venice Preserved, Alexander
the Great, Theodosius, All for Love, Oedipus, Oroonoko, Othello, &c.

'King Lear is an admirable tragedy of the same kind, as Shakespeare wrote
it: but as it is reformed according to the chimerical notion of POETICAL
JUSTICE, in my humble opinion it has lost half its beauty.

'At the same time I must allow, that there are very noble tragedies which
have been framed upon the other plan, and have ended happily; as indeed
most of the good tragedies which have been written since the starting of
the above-mentioned criticism, have taken this turn: The Mourning Bride,
Tamerlane,* Ulysses, Phaedra and Hippolitus, with most of Mr. Dryden's. I
must also allow, that many of Shakespeare's, and several of the
celebrated tragedies of antiquity, are cast in the same form. I do not,
therefore, dispute against this way of writing tragedies; but against the
criticism that would establish this as the only method; and by that means
would very much cramp the English tragedy, and perhaps give a wrong bent
to the genius of our writers.'

* Yet, in Tamerlane, two of the most amiable characters, Moneses and
Arpasia, suffer death.

This subject is further considered in a letter to the Spectator.*

* See Spect. Vol. VII. No. 548.

'I find your opinion,' says the author of it, 'concerning the
late-invented term called poetical justice, is controverted by some
eminent critics. I have drawn up some additional arguments to strengthen
the opinion which you have there delivered; having endeavoured to go t