He has dealt much more freely with the Minister of that Great King, and certainly nothing was ever more justly written, than the Character of Cardinal _Wolsey_. He has shewn him Tyrannical, Cruel, and Insolent in his Prosperity; and yet, by a wonderful Address, he makes his Fall and Ruin the Subject of general Compassion. The whole Man, with his Vices and Virtues, is finely and exactly describ'd in the second Scene of the fourth Act. The Distresses likewise of Queen _Katherine_, in this Play, are very movingly touch'd: and tho' the Art of the Poet has skreen'd King _Henry_ from any gross Imputation of Injustice, yet one is inclin'd to wish, the Queen had met with a Fortune more worthy of her Birth and Virtue. Nor are the Manners, proper to the Persons represented, less justly observ'd, in those Characters taken from the _Roman_ History; and of this, the Fierceness and Impatience of _Coriolanus_, his Courage and Disdain of the common People, the Virtue and Philosophical Temper of _Brutus_, and the irregular Greatness of Mind in _M. Antony_, are beautiful Proofs. For the two last especially, you find 'em exactly as they are describ'd by _Plutarch_, from whom certainly _Shakespear_ copy'd 'em. He has indeed follow'd his Original pretty close, and taken in several little Incidents that might have been spar'd in a Play. But, as I hinted before, his Design seems most commonly rather to describe those great Men in the several Fortunes and Accidents of their Lives, than to take any single great Action, and form his Work simply upon that. However, there are some of his Pieces, where the Fable is founded upon one Action only. Such are more especially, _Romeo_ and _Juliet_, _Hamlet_, and _Othello_. The Design in _Romeo_ and _Juliet_, is plainly the Punishment of their two Families, for the unreasonable Feuds and Animosities that had been so long kept up between 'em, and occasion'd the Effusion of so much Blood. In the management of this Story, he has shewn something wonderfully Tender and Passionate in the Love-part, and vary Pitiful in the Distress. _Hamlet_ is founded on much the same Tale with the _Electra_ of _Sophocles_. In each of 'em a young Prince is engag'd to Revenge the Death of his Father, their Mothers are equally Guilty, are both concern'd in the Murder of their Husbands, and are afterwards married to the Murderers. There is in the first Part of the _Greek_ Trajedy, something very moving in the Grief of _Electra_; but as Mr. _D'Acier_ has observ'd, there is something very unnatural and shocking in the Manners he has given that Princess and _Orestes_ in the latter Part. _Orestes_ embrues his Hands in the Blood of his own Mother; and that barbarous Action is perform'd, tho' not immediately upon the Stage, yet so near, that the Audience hear _Clytemnestra_ crying out to _AEghystus_ for Help, and to her Son for Mercy: While _Electra_, her Daughter, and a Princess, both of them Characters that ought to have