Of the modern craftsmen, to my thinking Alfieri has carried the Attic severity to the utmost; and I am obliged to say, sir, that in them all—those Greeks and this Italian—the severity oppresses me—I feel the rule of art—not the free movement of human existence. That I feel overpoweringly, only in Shakspeare. NORTH. Ay. TALBOYS. Alfieri says that the constituent Element of Tragedy is Conflict—as of Duty and Passion—as of conscious Election in the breast of Man and Fate. NORTH. He does—does he? TALBOYS. There is Conflict—or Contrast—or Antithesis—the Jar of two Opposites—a Discord—a Rending—in Lear; between his misplaced confidence and its requital—between his misplaced displeasure and the true love that is working towards his weal. And, again, between the Desert and the Reward of Cordelia—with more in the same Play. NORTH. Schiller says of Tragic Fate, “The great gigantic Destiny That exalts Man in crushing him.” Welcker has, I believe, written on the Fate of the Greek Tragedy, which I desire to see. TALBOYS. Are Waves breaking against a Rock the true image of Tragedy? NORTH. Hardly; any more than a man running his head against a post, or stone wall is. The two antagonistic Forces, Talboys, must each of them have, or seem to have, the possibility of yielding; the Conflict or Strife must have a certain play. Therefore I inquire—Is the Greek Fate the most excellent of Dramatic means? and is the Greek Fate inflexible? And, granting that the Hellenic Fate is thoroughly sublime and fitting to Greek Tragedy, and withal inflexible—does it follow that Modern Tragedy must have a like overhanging tyrannical Necessity? TALBOYS. No. NORTH. No. The Greek Tragedy representing a received religious Mythology, we may conceive the poetical, or esthetical _hardness_ of a Fate known for unalterable, to have been tempered by the inherent Awe—the Holiness. There is a certain swallowing-up of human interests, hopes, passions—this turmoiling, struggling life—in a revealed Infinitude. Our Stage is human—built on the Moral Nature of Man, and on his terrestrial Manner of Being. It stands _under_ the Heavens—_upon_ the Earth. In Hamlet, the Ghost, with his command of Revenge, represents the Impassive, Inflexible—with a breath freezing the movable human blood into stillness—everything else is in agitation. TALBOYS. Say it again, sir. NORTH. Beg my pardon and your own, fully and unconditionally, Talboys, this very instant, for talking slightingly of the Greek Drama. TALBOYS.