and the characters it works with: the plot is rarely fictitious, but is
generally built either on fact, or on some event that the antiquated
errors of fable or history have made sacred; not having in this respect
the advantage which Comedy possesses from liberty of invention, and
correcting thereby the inequalities of life; and having also the
additional fault of laying its scenes for the most part in a foreign
country. The characters of Tragedy are always selected from high life;
here is a great defect, for it is by no means a true observation, that
men are inclined greatly to pity the misfortunes of their superiors; on
the contrary, they are secretly rejoiced at seeing them fall from a
situation so much above their own; whereas they sympathize more with
their equals, and take a much greater interest in a course of events
that is likely to occur to themselves. Thirdly, let us look to the end
that Tragedy has in view. The main object in a tragic representation is
to excite pity and terror in the spectators; in this definition I am
amply borne out by authority, for not only Gibbon, Addison, and others,
but Voltaire and even Aristotle, have used these very expressions; now
how can we be benefited by the excitement of these feelings? Pity is at
the best but a feminine virtue, and by giving way to it, the mind, if
not enervated, is at any rate not strengthened; and with regard to
terror, a man under its influence is incapable of any reflection
whatever. When we witness, for instance, the tragedy of _Macbeth_, the
mind, after such a scene of human villany is rather inclined to become
morbid than to feel either dignified or improved.

We will now turn to Comedy, which, in order to compare more
satisfactorily with Tragedy, we will consider under the same view.
First, then, the province of Comedy is with the follies and foibles or
our nature; it is generally, and it ought always to be, a speaking
picture of national faults, and should satirize the people of the