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Th' impatient gleam of many a whirring fpear

Inflames to frantic rage the lurid air *. His characters are ftrongly marked and diverfified, and his fituations are eminently interefting. His Prometheus, in particular, awakens the fublime emotions of terror, even at the prefent day, when all the perfonages of the drama are confidered as creations of the fabling fancy. It muft, therefore, when performed before an audience, who believe in their existence (and accompanied with all the fcenic embellishments, to which the ancients were fo attentive) have thrilled the foul with unutterable hor

ror.

I cannot quit this fublime performance without hazarding a conjecture, that from the Prometheus our own

immortal Milton firft caught his idea of that horrible fublimity of character difplayed in the deportment and fenti. ments of Satan. And I am even aftonifhed that fo many critics could have perufed the daring malice and invincible refentment of the former, chained to his bleak rock, and afterward have turned to the majestic blafphemy of fentiment, if one may hazard fuch an expreffion, difplayed by the latter, upon his first profpect of the fun, and on fome other occafions, without being led to the comparifon.

What I have here faid is fufficient to fhew, that terror is the paffion moftly excited by the tragedies of the

Grecian father of the drama. He was however far from deficient in power over the fofter paffions: witnefs the charming ode, in this fame tragedy, in particular.

For thee I heave the heartfelt figh,

My bofom melting at thy woes;
For thee iny tear-diftilling eye

In ftreams of tender forrow flows, &c.
POTTER.

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In point of pathos, however, Æfchylus has ever been esteemed to yield to his contemporary, Euripides, a dramatic poet, who had the keys of all the tender paffions,' as Dr. Langhorne has juftly observed, in his note upon the following beautiful apoftrophe of Collins to the pathetic genius of this writer—

By Pella's bard, a magic name,
By all the griefs his thoughts could frame,
Receive my humble rite:
Long, Pity! let the nations view
Thy fky-v
-worn robes of tenderest blue,
And
eyes of dewy light!

He was born about 468 years before Chrift, in the ifle of Salamis, whither his father and mother had retired a

little before Xerxes entered Attica. Every attention feems to have been paid to the education to which his fuperior genius was entitled; for he learnt rhetoric under Prodicus, natural philofophy under Anaxagoras; and morality under Socrates. the mufes intruded into the cell of philofophy, and induced him, fo early as at eighteen years of age, to aban

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But

*The fire of expreffion,' fays Mr. Jodrell, in Æfchylus, is often incapable of a literal tranflation. Here the whole atmosphere, convulfed with the agitation of fpears, is faid to be inflamed to madnefs.' The figure does not appear to me by any means inadmible in our language in its fulleft latitude. Dr. Potter renders it thus:

The gleaming luftre of the brandifhed fpear
Glares terribly across the troubled air.'

don

den feverer purfuits for the alluring graces of dramatic compofition,

Still, however, though he changed the principal object of his purfuit, he does not seem to have rejected the instructions of his admired mafters on the contrary, he seems conftantly fedulous to enrich his works with the fublimeft materials that could be drawn from the refpective sciences; so that the lovers of eloquence, of natural philofophy, and of mo al fentiment, need not be in fear of any disappointment, fhould they feek, in his remaining dramas, for fuch paffages as neither of his tutors would have been afhamed to own. Socrates, in particular, was fo fenfible of this merit in his pupil, that he went to the reprefentation of no tragedies but his.

The moral fentences, however, fo charming to the ear of the divine Socrates, were far from atoning, to an Athenian audience, for the want of poetical enthufiafm, and that martial fublimity fo congenial to the character of that people. Euripides, accordingly, feldom gained the prizes, which, at the public exhibition, rewarded the efforts of poetic genius. But we must not hence conclude that his moral muse was without its charms this was fo far from being the cafe, that we are told, by hiftorians, that when the Athenian army, commanded by Nicias, was defeated in Sicily, the foldiers purchased their lives and liberties, by reciting the verfes of Euripides; fuch a veneration had the Sicilians for this poet, and such a taste for the beauties of his compofitions.

I cannot venture, however, to promise the English reader, that he will experience, in the perufal of the tranflation of this author, an equal degree of admiration with that which actuated the Sicilian auditor. The fact is, that Dr. Potter does not appear to the fame advantage in expreffing the tendernefs of pathetic fentiment, which always requires the fofteft ftrain of varied melody, as he does in rendering the wilder and bolder beauties of the beforementioned poet.

The principal beauty of Euripides, is faid to be derived from his nice felection of words; to which he was fo exceedingly attentive, that he is reported frequently to have spent whole days upon fingle lines, and to have trusted to this single circumstance for much of the charm and beauty of his poetry. This beauty, Dr. Potter, (anxious to present the most faithful copy of his original) has endeavoured to tranfplant into a language not fufceptible of the like graces: for the English, having neither the melody, nor the fwelling majefty of the Greek, and being deftitute of the advantage of having feparate dialects for poetry and for profe, it becomes neceffary to pay the first attention to the modulation of our verfe, and to be even much more anxious about the tranfpofition and arrangement of words, than about the felection of the terms we are to adopt.

Solitude and retirement feem to have been particularly requifite for cherishing the genius of Euripides; and hence, perhaps, the fombre fhade of winning melancholy fo univerfally diffufed over his writings; for we are told, that whenever he was compofing any of his tragedies, he used to shut himself up alone in a cave, and there hold fweet communion with the plaintive mufe.

The afperity with which this poet fometimes thought proper to make his characters exprefs themselves, and which has obtained him the odious name of the Woman-hater, may perhaps be accounted for, from the infelicity of his matrimonial engagements; the ridicule thrown upon him on account of which, by the licentious Aristophanes, and other comic poets, occafioned him to abandon his country, and retire to the court of Archelaus, king of Macedon, by whom he was munificently patronised.

Dr. Potter, however, has very juftly vindicated both the poet and the fex from the wanton afperfions of Dean Swift, who, in fact, appears in this particular to have criticited an author whom he had never read, and to have

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His genius was of the correct and majestic kind, and he is esteemed to have brought the Grecian drama to fuch a state of critical perfection, that a conformity to his model has been deemed the effential excellence of dramatic compofition, by the pedants of all fucceeding times, in all countries. This, however, is not his only praise; for his plays are replete with rich and noble fentiments, juft traits of nature and character, and forcible appeals to the paffions.

In short, the 113 tragedies written by Sophocles, (of which feven only remain, fo highly advanced his reputation, that he not only feveral times obtained the prizes of poetic excellence, but, when he died, the burialplace of his ancestors being in the hands of the Spartans, Lyfander, their general, venerated fo much his poetic genius, that he permitted the Athenians to bury him there.

It is remarkable, that thefe three immortal poets were contemporaries in the little state of Athens; so that nature feems to have departed from her general parfimony, in this, as indeed fhe did in fome other particulars, to adorn with unequalled mental, as well as political splendour, this flourishing era of Athenian fame. With refpect to their comparative merits, I cannot do better than quote the excellent obfervations of Dr. Potter:

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The fublime and daring Æfchylus refembles fome ftrong and impregnable caftle, fituated on a rock, whose martial grandeur awes the beholder, its battlements defended by heroes in arms, and its gates proudly hung with trophies. Sophocles appears with fplendid dignity, like fome imperial palace of richeft architecture, the fymmetry of whose parts, and the chafte magnificence of the whole, delight the eye, and command the approbation of the judgment. The pathetic and moral Euripides has the folemnity of a Gothic Temple, whose storied windows admit a dim religious light, enough to fhew us its high-embowed roof, and the monuments of

she

the dead which rife in every part, impreffing our minds with pity and terror at the uncertain and fhort duration of all human greatness, and with an awful fente of our own mortality.' With refpect to the Romans, who were always rather an imitative, than an ingenious people, little need be faid of their theatre more than may be found in a former number of this mifcellany except that to them we feem to owe the artificial divifion of the play into five acts, and that Seneca was the most eminent of their tragic writers. He took many of his fubjects from his Grecian predeceffors; but notwithstanding his many beauties, he had much more of fententious gravity, and confequently lefs of poetry and of nature than his masters.

*

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Among modern nations, the French have been justly celebrated as the most fuccessful imitators of the Greek drama; and Corneille and Racine, in particular, have challenged the admiration of all Europe. Nor has Voltaite been without his admirers, in the dramatic art, though perhaps his unjustifiable attack on our immortal Shakspeare, has injured his reputation here. The celebrity which political occurrences have given to his plays at home, however, and the growing correfpondence of fentiment between these once hoftile countries, may, perhaps, fhortly restore him to his merited rank in England.

The Spaniards have also their celebrated dramatic poets, though the wildness and irregularity of their plots have brought upon them the cenfure of critics; and very few of their pieces have found their way into other languages. The moft celebrated of their writers is Lopez de Vega, the most voluminous, perhaps, of all poets. In Spain, his celebrity is fcarcely inferior to that of Shakfpeare among us, and a fuperb edition of his dramatic works only, has been published by the state, in twentyfour folio volumes.

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Among the authors of our own country, it is not neceffary to dwell on the claffical correctness of Ben Jonfon, the affecting tenderness of Otway and Southern, the smooth elegance of Rowe, the interesting fimplicity of Moore, or the fublime energy of Shakspeare, of whom we have the following juft and forcible commendation by Dr. Potter: It is a proof of the commanding force of genius, that as the Agamemnon of Efchylus, with all its faults, excels any thing that remains to us of the Grecian drama, fo there are many tragedies of Shakspeare, though with more and greater faults, which are fuperior to the Agamemnon. Nature may yet produce another poet bleft with the powers of Shakspeare and the judgment of Sophocles; and the critics, who fhall fee this, may then fay with Ariftotle, Tragedy has now attained the perfection of its nature.'

It is neceffary, however, to remind all, but the profeffed literati, that the works of Maffenger, and Beaumont and Fletcher, feem to have fallen into unmerited neglect.

In the modern drama it is proper to note, that an effential alteration has taken place in the omiffion of the chorus †, whence, in fact, tragedy

See our Magazine for October 1791, page 283.
See an Effay on the Chorus of the Ancients, in our Magazine for February laft.

originally fprung. We have, however, an excellent poet, who has revived, in two successful and charming pieces, this fplendid appendage of the Grecian drama; and who (as the excellent critic I have fo often quoted has obferved) united the powers of the three illuftrious Grecians, and has charmed us with the tenderness of Euripides in Elfrida, with the force ef Æfchylus, and the correctnefs and harmony of Sophocles in Caractacus, adding, from his own ftores, a richnefs and a grace with which the Jeve

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OBSERVATIONS on the NATURAL HISTORY of SWANS, and on the LAWS for their PROTECTION.

[From Mr. Ireland's Picturefque Views on the River Thames.]

HE Thames from Hampton, and

The goofe, it is obferved, has been

Tin the neighbourhood of Kew, is known to live to a hundred years,

amply enriched with that noble waterfowl the fwan, whofe round and beautiful form, when failing along the stream, has not, perhaps, in the works of nature, its equal; yet, when out of its favourite element, no bird makes a more inelegant figure, ftretching out its neck with an air fingularly unmeaning, and with all its motions equally awkward and ungraceful.

This bird has long been rendered domeftic, and is as delicate in its food, as in its proper point of view it is in form elegant: corn, bread, or herbs growing in the water, and feeds or roots found near its margin, are its conflant diet.

The fwan is remarked for its longevity; fome naturalifts have afferted that it lives to the age of three hundred years, and, to fupport the affertion, draw their inference from its flow approaches to maturity, it being two months hatching, and a year growing to its proper fize. Though the fwan may remain longer in the fhell than any other bird we know, yet two months is by no means proportionate to its extraordinary longevity; I think the firm and hard texture of the flesh of an old fwan, is a much more convincing argument.

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but the Michaelmas-day feftivities, fince the period of good queen Bess, have put the proof of the affertion totally out of the question.

The fwan was by the ancients confecrated to Apollo, from the belief of its finging melodiously when near expiring. In aid of this opinion Pandafius affirms, that he had often heard fwans fweetly finging in the lake of Mantua, as he was rowed up and down in a boat; and Aldrovandus the Bolognefe, who died fo late as the beginning of the feventeenth century, and who was perhaps one of the moft inquifitive men in the world, in respect to natural history (though perhaps with more credulity than belongs to this fceptic age) fays, that even in other times, and on other occafions, he is affured, beyond all doubt, that nothing was more common in England, than to hear swans fing; that they were bred in great numbers in the fea near London; and that every fleet of ships that returned from their voyages from diftant countries, were met by fwans that came joyfully out to welcome their return, and falute them with a loud and cheerful finging.'

Of the melodious faculty of this bird,

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