How defective Shakespeare and Fletcher have been in all their plots, Mr Rymer has discovered in his criticisms.  Neither can we, who follow them, be excused from the same, or greater errors; which are the more unpardonable in us, because we want their beauties to countervail our faults.  The best of their designs, the most approaching to antiquity, and the most conducing to move pity, is the “King and no King;” which, if the farce of Bessus were thrown away, is of that inferior sort of tragedies, which end with a prosperous event.  It is probably derived from the story of OEdipus, with the character of Alexander the Great, in his extravagances, given to Arbaces.  The taking of this play, amongst many others, I cannot wholly ascribe to the excellency of the action; for I find it moving when it is read.  It is true, the faults of the plot are so evidently proved, that they can no longer be denied.  The beauties of it must therefore lie either in the lively touches of the passion; or we must conclude, as I think we may, that even in imperfect plots there are less degrees of nature, by which some faint emotions of pity and terror are raised in us; as a less engine will raise a less proportion of weight, though not so much as one of Archimedes’s making; for nothing can move our nature, but by some natural reason, which works upon passions.  And, since we acknowledge the effect, there must be something in the cause.

The difference between Shakespeare and Fletcher, in their plottings, seems to be this; that Shakespeare generally moves more terror, and Fletcher more compassion:  for the first had a more masculine, a bolder, and more fiery genius; the second, a more soft and womanish.  In the mechanic beauties of the plot, which are the observation of the three unities, time, place, and action, they are both deficient; but Shakespeare most.  Ben Jonson reformed those errors in his comedies, yet one of Shakespeare’s was regular before him; which is, “The Merry Wives of Windsor.”  For what remains concerning the design, you are to be referred to our English critic.  That method which he has prescribed to raise it, from mistake, or ignorance of the crime, is certainly the best, though it is not the only; for amongst all the tragedies of Sophocles, there is but one, OEdipus, which is wholly built after that model.

After the plot, which is the foundation of the play, the next thing to which we ought to apply our judgment, is the manners; for now the poet comes to work above ground.  The ground-work, indeed, is that which is most necessary, as that upon which depends the firmness of the whole fabric; yet it strikes not the eye so much, as the beauties or imperfections of the manners, the thoughts, and the expressions.