writers at least above all modern writers the poet of nature the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life Violating Dramatic Rules Shakespeare ignored two unities time and place He kept only unity of action Johnson supports this He says drama is not real life so strict rules are unnecessary The audience can imagine time jumps or location changes About the unity of time and place the author says The unities of time and place are not essential to a just drama that though they may sometimes conduce to pleasure they are always to be sacrificed to the nobler beauties of variety and instruction Mixing Comedy and Tragedy Johnson praises Shakespeare for mixing sad and funny scenes He says life has both joy and sorrow so plays should too For example Hamlet has not only deep tragedy but also comic gravediggers Critics called this wrong but Johnson defends it He says Shakespeare's plays are not in the rigorous and critical sense either tragedies or comedies but compositions of distinct kind Weaknesses in Tragic Scenes While praising Shakespeare Johnson also finds faults He says Shakespeare's tragedies are not as strong as his comedies Sometimes tragic scenes feel forced The emotions do not seem deep enough For example Johnson thinks King Lear's ending is too cruel He believes Shakespeare worked harder on comedies where his talent came more naturally It is evident in the following quote In his tragic scenes there is always something wanting but his comedy often surpasses expectation or desire His comedy pleases by the thoughts and language and his tragedy for the greater part by incident and action Language and Style Johnson points out Shakespeare's writing flaws He uses too many puns even in serious moments Some jokes are vulgar His speeches sometimes sound nice but mean little He also made historical mistakes like putting clocks in ancient Rome Johnson says A quibble is the golden apple for which he will always turn aside from his career or stoop from his elevation Problems with Morals and Endings Johnson criticizes Shakespeare's moral lessons He says Shakespeare cares more about entertaining than teaching He says He sacrifices virtue to convenience and is so much more careful to please than to instruct that he seems to write without any moral purpose In his plays good characters often suffer while bad ones escape punishment Also many endings feel rushed or unnatural For example Measure for Measure's ending seems unfair Johnson thinks writers should show poetic justice rewarding good and punishing evil To end Johnson gave a fair judgment of Shakespeare He showed both his great skills and his mistakes He said Shakespeare understood people deeply He showed life in a proper way At the same time he accepted that Shakespeare had some faults But Johnson asked readers to look at the whole picture Shakespeare s good sides are much stronger than his weak ones That is why he is still loved and respected in English literature today