understood nature better than we. But if the story which we treat be modern, we are to vary the customs, according to the time and the country where the scene of action lies: for this is still to imitate nature which is always the same, though in a different dress.

As "in the composition of a picture, the Painter is to take care that nothing enter into it, which is not proper or convenient to the subject;" so likewise is the Poet to reject all incidents which are foreign to his Poem, and are naturally no parts of it: they are wens, and other excrescences, which belong not to the body, but deform it. No person, no incident in the piece or in the play, but must be of use to carry on the main design. All things else are like six fingers to the hand, when nature, which is superfluous in nothing, can do her work with five. "A Painter must reject all trifling ornaments ;" so must a poet refuse all tedious and unnecessary descriptions. A robe which is too heavy, is less an ornament than a burden. In Poetry, Horace calls these things,

Versus inopes rerum, nugæque canora. These are also the lucus & ara Dianæ, which he mentions in the same Art of Poetry: but since there must be ornaments, both in Painting and Poetry, if they are not necessary, they must at least be decent; that is, in their due place, and but moderately used. The Painter is not to take so much pains about the drapery, as about the face, where the principal resemblance lies; neither is the Poet, who is working up a passion, to make similes, which will certainly make it languish. My Montezuma dies with a fine one in his mouth, but it is out of season. Where there are more figures in a picture than are necessary, or at least ornamental, our author calls them " Figures to be lett," because the picture has no use of them: so I have seen in some modern plays above twenty actors, when the action has not required half the number. In the principal figures of a picture, the Painter is to employ the sinews of his art, for in them consists the principal beauty of his work. Qur author saves me the comparison with Tra

gedy: for he says, that "herein he is to imitate the Tragic Poet, who employs his utmost force in those places, wherein consists the height and beauty of the action."

Du Fresnoy, whom I follow, makes DESIGN, or Drawing, the second part of Painting; but the rules which he gives concerning the posture of the figures are almost wholly proper to that art, and admit not any comparison, that I know, with Poetry. The posture of a poetic figure is, as I conceive, the description of his heroes in the performance of such or such an action: as of Achilles, just in the act of killing Hector; or of Eneas, who has Turnus under him. Both the Poet and the Painter vary the postures, according to the action or passion, which they represent of the same person. But all must be great and graceful in them. The same Æneas must be drawn a suppliant to Dido, with respect in his gestures, and humility in his eyes; but when he is forced, in his own defence, to kill Lausus, the Poet shows him compassionate, and tempering the severity of his looks with a reluctance to the action, which he is going to perform. He

has pity on his beauty and his youth, and is loth to destroy such a master-piece of nature. He considers Lausus rescuing his father, at the hazard of his own life, as an image of himself, when he took Anchises on his shoulders, and bore him safe through the rage of the fire, and the opposition of his enemies; and therefore, in the posture of a retiring man, who avoids the combat, he stretches out his arm in sign of peace, with his right foot drawn a little back, and his breast bending inward, more like an orator than a soldier; and seems to dissuade the young man from pulling on his destiny, by attempting more than he was able to perform. Take the passage as I have thus translated it:

Shouts of applause ran ringing through the field,
To see the son the vanquish'd father shield;
All, fir'd with noble emulation, strive,

And with a storm of darts to distance drive
The Trojan chief; who, held at bay, from far
On his Vulcanian orb sustain'd the war,
Æneas thus o'erwhelm'd on ev'ry side,

Their first assault undaunted did abide;

And thus to Lausus, loud, with friendly threatning cry'd,

Why wilt thou rush to certain death, and rage
In rash attempts beyond thy tender age,
Betray'd by pious love?

And afterwards,

He griev'd, he wept, the sight and image brought Of his own filial love, a sadly pleasing thought,"

But, beside the outlines of the posture, the design of the picture, comprehends in the next place the forms of faces which

to be different; and so in a Poem, or Play, must the several characters of the persons be distinguished from each other. I knew a Poet, whom out of respect I will not name, who, being too witty himself could draw nothing but wits in a Comedy of his; even his fools were infected with the disease of their author; they overflowed with smart repartees, and were only distinguished from the intended wits, by being called coxcombs, though they deserved not so scandalous a name. Another, who had a great genius for Tragedy, following the fury of his natural temper, made every man and woman too, in his Plays, stark raging mad; there was not a sober person to be had for love or money: all was tempestuous and