Preface to the Works of Shakespeare (1734) | Page 8

rapid, but not turbulent; copious, but not
ever overbearing its Shores. The Ease and Sweetness of his Temper
might not a little contribute to his Facility in Writing; as his
Employment, as a Player, gave him an Advantage and Habit of
fancying himself the very Character he meant to delineate. He used the
Helps of his Function in forming himself to create and express that
Sublime, which other Actors can only copy, and throw out, in Action
and graceful Attitude. But _Nullum fine Veniâ placuit Ingenium_, says
Seneca. The Genius, that gives us the greatest Pleasure, sometimes
stands in Need of our Indulgence. Whenever this happens with regard
to Shakespeare, I would willingly impute it to a Vice of his Times. We
see Complaisance enough, in our own Days, paid to a bad Taste. His
Clinches, false Wit, and descending beneath himself, seem to be a
Deference paid to reigning Barbarism. He was a Sampson in Strength,
but he suffer'd some such Dalilah to give him up to the Philistines.
As I have mention'd the Sweetness of his Disposition, I am tempted to
make a Reflexion or two on a Sentiment of his, which, I am persuaded,
came from the Heart.
The Man, that hath no Musick in himself, Nor is not mov'd with
Concord of sweet Sounds, Is fit for Treasons, Stratagems, and Spoils:
The Motions of his Spirit are dull as Night, And his Affections dark as
_Erebus_: Let no such Man be trusted.----
[Sidenote: A Lover of Musick.]
Shakespeare was all Openness, Candour, and Complacence; and had
such a Share of Harmony in his Frame and Temperature, that we have
no Reason to doubt, from a Number of fine Passages, Allusions,
Similies, &_c._ fetch'd from Musick, but that He was a passionate
Lover of it. And to this, perhaps, we may owe that great Number of
Sonnets, which are sprinkled thro' his Plays. I have found, that the
Stanza's sung by the Gravedigger in Hamlet, are not of _Shakespeare_'s
own Composition, but owe their Original to the old Earl of _Surrey_'s
Poems. Many other of his Occasional little Songs, I doubt not, but he

purposely copied from his Contemporary Writers; sometimes, out of
Banter; sometimes, to do them Honour. The Manner of their
Introduction, and the Uses to which he has assigned them, will easily
determine for which of the Reasons they are respectively employ'd. In
As you like it, there are several little Copies of Verses on Rosalind,
which are said to be the right _Butter-woman's Rank to Market_, and
the very false Gallop of Verses. Dr. Thomas Lodge, a Physician who
flourish'd early in Queen _Elizabeth_'s Reign, and was a great Writer of
the Pastoral Songs and Madrigals, which were so much the Strain of
those Times, composed a whole Volume of Poems in Praise of his
Mistress, whom he calls Rosalinde. I never yet could meet with this
Collection; but whenever I do, I am persuaded, I shall find many of our
Author's Canzonets on this Subject to be Scraps of the Doctor's
amorous Muse: as, perhaps, those by Biron too, and the other Lovers in
_Love's Labour's lost_, may prove to be.
It has been remark'd in the Course of my Notes, that Musick in our
Author's time had a very different Use from what it has now. At this
Time, it is only employ'd to raise and inflame the Passions; it, then, was
apply'd to calm and allay all kinds of Perturbations. And, agreeable to
this Observation, throughout all _Shakespeare_'s Plays, where Musick
is either actually used, or its Powers describ'd, it is chiefly said to be for
these Ends. His _Twelfth-Night_, particularly, begins with a fine
Reflexion that admirably marks its soothing Properties.
That Strain again;--It had a dying Fall. Oh, it came o'er my Ear like the
sweet South, That breathes upon a Bank of Violets, Stealing and giving
Odour!
[Sidenote*: Milton an Imitator of him.]
This Similitude is remarkable not only for the Beauty of the Image that
it presents, but likewise for the Exactness to the Thing compared. This
is a way of Teaching peculiar to the Poets; that, when they would
describe the Nature of any thing, they do it not by a direct Enumeration
of its Attributes or Qualities, but by bringing something into
Comparison, and describing those Qualities of it that are of the Kind
with those in the Thing compared. So, here for instance, the Poet

willing to instruct in the Properties of Musick, in which the same
Strains have a Power to excite Pleasure, or Pain, according to that State
of Mind the Hearer is then in, does it by presenting the Image of a
sweet South Wind blowing o'er a Violet-bank; which wafts away the
Odour of the Violets, and at the same time