Here I cannot help observing upon a modest Mistake which I thought the late Mr. _Booth_ committed in his acting the Part of _Morat_. There are in this fierce Character so many Sentiments of avow'd Barbarity, Insolence, and Vain-glory, that they blaze even to a ludicrous Lustre, and doubtless the Poet intended those to make his Spectators laugh while they admir'd them; but _Booth_ thought it depreciated the Dignity of Tragedy to raise a Smile in any part of it, and therefore cover'd these kind of Sentiments with a scrupulous Coldness and unmov'd Delivery, as if he had fear'd the Audience might take too familiar a notice of them.[129] In Mr. _Addison's Cato, Syphax_[130] has some Sentiments of near the same nature, which I ventur'd to speak as I imagin'd _Kynaston_ would have done had he been then living to have stood in the same Character. Mr. _Addison_, who had something of Mr. _Booth_'s Diffidence at the Rehearsal of his Play, after it was acted came into my Opinion, and own'd that even Tragedy on such particular Occasions might admit of a _Laugh_ of _Approbation_.[131] In _Shakespear_ Instances of them are frequent, as in _Mackbeth_, _Hotspur_, _Richard the Third_, and _Harry the Eighth_,[132] all which Characters, tho' of a tragical Cast, have sometimes familiar Strokes in them so highly natural to each particular Disposition, that it is impossible not to be transported into an honest Laughter at them: And these are those happy Liberties which, tho' few Authors are qualify'd to take, yet, when justly taken, may challenge a Place among their greatest Beauties. Now, whether _Dryden_, in his _Morat, feliciter Audet_,[133]----or may be allow'd the Happiness of having hit this Mark, seems not necessary to be determin'd by the Actor, whose Business, sure, is to make the best of his Author's Intention, as in this Part _Kynaston_ did, doubtless not without _Dryden_'s Approbation. For these Reasons then, I thought my good Friend, Mr. _Booth_ (who certainly had many Excellencies) carry'd his Reverence for the Buskin too far, in not following the bold Flights of the Author with that Wantonness of Spirit which the Nature of those Sentiments demanded: For Example! _Morat_ having a criminal Passion for _Indamora_, promises, at her Request, for one Day to spare the Life of her Lover _Aurenge-Zebe_: But not chusing to make known the real Motive of his Mercy, when _Nourmahal_ says to him,