| Citation |
NYJ-N.768.075
28 Apr 1768:33 (1321)
As the tragedy of All For Love, was never perform'd here, it
may not be judg'd impertinent to present the public with an
estimate of its merit, in an extract from a late
publication, call'd, A Companion to the Theatre, in which
most of the pieces that are represented upon the English
stage, are critically examined. "This is generally
consider'd by the critics, as the most complete dramatic
piece of that justly admired author*. There needs, perhaps,
no other reason to be assign'd for its being so, than that
it was the only one (amongst a very large number) which he
was permitted to bring to that perfectin, which leisure and
application, added to a most capital degree of genius, might
be expected to attain.--The plot and general design of it is
undoubtedly borrowed from Shakespear's Anthony and
Cleopatra, yet justice and candour require this confession,
at least from us, that as much as he has fallen short of his
first model in originality, he has equally surpassed him in
point of regularity and poetic harmony; and it may perhaps
stand thereafter as a matter of contest, whether or not this
tragedy is not to be esteemed as an invincible masterpiece
of the power of English poetry.
* Dryden.
|