"Paradise Lost," wrote also the masks of Arcades and Comus, which latter still keeps possession of the Stage, and the tragic poem of Samson Agonistes. In the preface to the last he says, "Tragedy, as it was anciently composed, hath ever been held the gravest, moralest, and most profitable of all other poems; hence philosophers and the gravest writers, as Cicero, Plutarch, and others, frequently cite out of tragic poets, to adorn and illustrate their discourse. The apostle Paul himself thought it not unworthy to insert a verse of Euripides into the text of holy Scripture; and Paræus, commenting on the Revelation, divides the whole book as a tragedy, into acts, distinguished each by a chorus of heavenly harpings and song between. Heretofore, men in highest dignity have laboured not a little to be thought able to compose a tragedy."* In Milton's MS., in Trinity College, Cambridge, are one hundred plans of subjects intended by him for tragedies, from the Scriptures and from British history. On this, Bishop Hurd observes, "Many of these subjects, in Milton's hands, would have made glorious tragedies: and one cannot enough lament, that the prejudices of his age should have discouraged him from giving us more of these dramas."+ * Dionysius the Elder was ambitious of attaining this honour. Queen Elizabeth, on the authority of Sir Robert Naunton, translated a tragedy of Euripides. † Appendix to Samson Agonistes. The pious, moral ADDISON is the author of the tragedy of Cato, the comedy of the Drummer, and the opera of Rosamond. He was a frequenter of the Theatre all his life, and on his death-bed he sent for the Earl of Warwick, to whom he was guardian, and said to him, "See in what peace a Christian can die!" His exemplary death is said to have worked an instantaneous reformation in the conduct of a dissipated young nobleman.* Addison has been most unjustly called an advocate of suicide, and his play condemned as anti-christian, because Cato dies by his own hand. Surely nothing can well be more unreasonable than this. The poet handles a well-known historical subject, and treats it historically. If he were to alter the catastrophe, he would falsify a striking event in history, and change the leading incident of his Drama. Cato of Utica is not a Christian, but a heathen. He reasons, not from Christian revelation, but from pagan philosophy. If it is * In Tickell's Elegy on Addison, which Dr. Johnson commends as a sublime and elegant funeral poem, are the following lines in allusion to this incident, as Tickell himself informed Dr. Young: "He taught us how to live, and oh! too high The price of knowledge, taught us how to die." † Yet the concluding lines of Cato's famous Soliloquy, have been quoted in the pulpit. Alas, Expediency! to what strange extremes wilt thou drive thy votaries! lawful to read history, it cannot be unlawful to mould it into a poem; and when that poem assumes a dramatic shape, there can be no more harm in acting it, than in singing a song which has been composed for the purpose. If Cato were represented as a Christian, and reconciling himself to suicide, on Christian arguments, the case would be widely altered, and the charge against Addison might stand good. Suicide which in the Christian code, is a crime of the first magnitude, was considered by the most enlightened heathens, under particular circumstances, as an incumbent duty, and the crowning test of virtue. But so cautious is the Christian poet to avoid the imputation which has been unjustly cast on him, that he puts into the mouth of his dying hero, a doubt, suggested by his own reverence for Christian doctrine. "A gleam of light Breaks in on my departing soul. Alas! I fear These lines alone might have saved Addison from a groundless accusation. It is strange, how even pious and good men will suffer their reason to be warped, when they are anxious to bear out a favourite argument. The Rev. S. Pigott, in a very beautiful work on Suicide, charges the death of Eustace Budgell, to the ac count of Cato, "What," says he, "was the effect of the exhibition on the mind of the unhappy Mr. Budgell, who on retiring, as it is supposed from the Theatre, plunged into the Thames, and was found with this defence on his person-What Cato did, and Addison approved, must needs be right." This apology was mere flimsy nonsense, a sort of struggling at effect which half mad people often indulge in, even in their last moments. What Cato did on heathen principles, could be no argument to a man professing to be a Christian, nor did Addison approve it, because the Cato of his poem acted like the Cato of history.* There is not the slightest reason to suppose that Budgell committed his suicide on retiring from the Theatre, nor was it a sudden impulse arising from the effect of Addison's play, as Mr. Pigott has determined. It was deliberately done, in the day time, to avoid the disgrace of conviction for forging the will of Dr. Tindal, in which he had provided himself with a legacy of two thousand pounds. He filled his pockets with stones, took a boat, and jumped over board while they were shooting one of the bridges. He had proposed to his daughter to accompany him, but she was not disgusted with life, and * Budgell, it is said, was an avowed free-thinker. If so, my argument is strengthened by that fact. + Croker's Boswell's Johnson, passim. Rees's Cyclop. Aikin's Biog. declined the invitation. His defence, such as it was, was found on his bureau and not in his pocket.* Dr. Styles, goes far beyond Mr. Pigott, and in quoting also the death of Budgell, as chargeable to Cato, he draws a general conclusion from this individual case, and says, "the alarming progress of suicide may be ascribed in a great measure to the influence of the Theatre."t CUMBERLAND, the Author of "Calvary," a poem of much merit, though little read, was a moral and conscientious writer, and published a great many dramatic pieces, many of them eminently successful on the Stage, particularly The West Indian, and The Wheel of Fortune. DR. JOHNSON, who I presume will be admitted to be both a moral writer and a sound practical Christian, wrote the tragedy of Irene, frequented the Theatre, and associated with actors and dramatic poets. His works abound with reviews and dissertations on the various branches of theatrical literature. A short time before his death, on the occasion of a visit from Mrs. Siddons, then in the first bloom of her fame, he said, "Madam, whenever you represent Queen Katharine, old as I am, I will once more hobble out to the Theatre to see you." Few men were * The words were, "what Cato did, and Addison approved, cannot be wrong!" †The Rev. Rowland Hill, the Rev. Job Orton, and Miss Hannah More, also attribute the suicide of Budgell to the pernicious influence of Cato. |