from the Weakness rather than the Misfortune of the Person represented:  But in this Tragedy you are not entertained with the ungoverned Passions of such as are enamoured of each other merely as they are Men and Women, but their Regards are founded upon high Conceptions of each others Virtue and Merit; and the Character which gives Name to the Play, is one who has behaved her self with heroic Virtue in the most important Circumstances of a Female Life, those of a Wife, a Widow, and a Mother.  If there be those whose Minds have been too attentive upon the Affairs of Life, to have any Notion of the Passion of Love in such Extremes as are known only to particular Tempers, yet, in the above-mentioned Considerations, the Sorrow of the Heroine will move even the Generality of Mankind.  Domestick Virtues concern all the World, and there is no one living who is not interested that Andromache should be an imitable Character.  The generous Affection to the Memory of her deceased Husband, that tender Care for her Son, which is ever heightned with the Consideration of his Father, and these Regards preserved in spite of being tempted with the Possession of the highest Greatness, are what cannot but be venerable even to such an Audience as at present frequents the English Theatre.  My Friend WILL HONEYCOMB commended several tender things that were said, and told me they were very genteel; but whisper’d me, that he feared the Piece was not busy enough for the present Taste.  To supply this, he recommended to the Players to be very careful in their Scenes, and above all Things, that every Part should be perfectly new dressed.  I was very glad to find that they did not neglect my Friends Admonition, because there are a great many in his Class of Criticism who may be gained by it; but indeed the Truth is, that as to the Work it self, it is every where Nature.  The Persons are of the highest Quality in Life, even that of Princes; but their Quality is not represented by the Poet with Direction that Guards and Waiters should follow them in every Scene, but their Grandeur appears in Greatness of Sentiment[s], flowing from Minds worthy their Condition.  To make a Character truly Great, this Author understands that it should have its Foundation in superior Thoughts and Maxims of Conduct.  It is very certain, that many an honest Woman would make no Difficulty, tho she had been the Wife of Hector, for the sake of a Kingdom, to marry the Enemy of her Husbands Family and Country; and indeed who can deny but she might be still an honest Woman, but no Heroine?  That may be defensible, nay laudable in one Character, which would be in the highest Degree exceptionable in another.  When Cato Uticensis killed himself, Cottius a Roman of ordinary Quality and Character did the same thing; upon which one said, smiling, Cottius might have lived, tho Caesar has seized the Roman Liberty.  Cottius’s Condition might have been the same, let things at the upper End of the World pass as they would.  What is further very