_In tragedy_, etc. Cf. Pope (Spence’s _Anecdotes_, 1820, p. 173):
“Shakespeare generally used to stiffen his style with high words and
metaphors for the speeches of his kings and great men: he mistook it for a
mark of greatness.”
125. _What he does best, he soon ceases to do._ This sentence first
appears in the edition of 1778.
126. _the unities._ Johnson’s discussion of the three unities is perhaps
the most brilliant passage in the whole preface. Cf. the _Rambler_, No.
156; Farquhar, _Discourse upon Comedy_ (1702); _Some Remarks on the
Tragedy of Hamlet_ (1736); Upton, _Critical Observations_ (1746), 1. ix.;
Fielding, _Tom Jones_, prefatory chapter of Book V.; Alexander Gerard,
_Essay on Taste_ (1758); Daniel Webb, _Remarks on the Beauties of Poetry_
(1762); and Kames, _Elements of Criticism_ (1762). “Attic” Hurd had
defended Gothic “unity of design” in his _Letters on Chivalry_ (1762).
127. _Corneille_ published his _Discours dramatiques_, the second of which
dealt with the three unities, in 1660; but he had observed the unities
since the publication of the _Sentiments de l’Académie sur le Cid_ (1638).
130. _Venice ... Cyprus._ See Voltaire, _Du Théâtre anglais_, vol. 61, p.
377 (ed. 1785), and cf. Rymer’s _Short View_.