text:  And when I further enquired what they represented and of what use they were he said they were to hold a mirror up to nature and to be the abstract and brief chronicle of the time; by which he afterwards explained to me he meant this--that although tragedies and the loftier portions of the drama treated generally of great events yet that in England there were many men of extraordinary talent who taught great moral lessons by means of the stage and above all things never overstepped the modesty of nature but in every scene gave a vivid and true imitation of the actual events of life