ftage. We have been too long attached to Grecian and Roman ftories. In truth, domestica facta are more interesting, as well as more useful; more interefting, because we all think ourselves concerned in the actions and fates of our countrymen; more useful, because the characters and manners bid the fairest to be true and natural, when they are drawn from models with which we are exactly acquainted. The Turks, the Perfians, and Americans, of our poets, are, in reality, diftinguished from Englishmen, only by their turbans and feathers; and think and act as if they were born and educated within the Bills of Mortality. The hiftorical plays of Shakespear are always grateful to the fpectator, who loves to fee and hear our own Harrys and Edwards, better than all the Achillefes or Cæfars that ever exifted. In the choice of a domestic story, however, much judgment and circumfpection must be exerted, to select one of a proper æra; neither of too ancient, nor of too modern a date. The manners of times very ancient, we shall be apt to falfify, as thofe of the Greeks and Romans. And recent events, with which we are thoroughly acquainted, are deprived of the power of impreffing folemnity and awe, by their notoriety and familiarity. Age foftens and wears away all thofe difgracing and depreciating circumftances, which attend modern transactions, merely because they are modern. Lucan was much embarrassed by the proximity of the times he treated of. I take this occafion to observe, that Rowe has taken the fable of his Fair Penitent, from the Fatal Dowry of Maffinger and Field. WARTON. Thfee obfervations are in general very just, but Dr. Warton should not have cited Shakespear, as having founded his most interesting Plays on "domeftica facta." Who ever read Julius Cæfar, without fympathy and intereft? Who ever read, without a tear, the paffage where Brutus, after his difagreement with Caffius, fpeaks of his wife's death? Who is not a partaker of his griefs, and fortunes? In truth, GENIUS can make at all times a "Cæfar," as interefting as an "Edward, or Henry." EPILOGUE TO MR. ROWE'S JANE SHORE. DESIGNED FOR MRS. OLDFIELD. PRODIGIOUS this! the Frail-one of our Play Just as a blockhead rubs his thoughtless skull, "How strangely you expose yourself, my dear ?" Our fex are still forgiving at their heart; There are, 'tis true, who tell another tale, B B 2 6 I I 15 20 Would Would you enjoy foft nights and folid dinners? Faith, gallants, board with faints, and bed with finners. Well, if our Author in the Wife offends, He has a Husband that will make amends: 25 30 35 He draws him gentle, tender, and forgiving, ye, 39 45 Το NOTES. VER. 44. Who ne'er faw] A fly and oblique ftroke on the fuicide of Cato; which was one of the reasons, as I have been informed, why this epilogue was not spoken. WARTON. VER. 46. Edward's Mifs] Sir Thomas More fays, she had one accomplishment uncommon in a woman of that time; she could read and write. WARTON. To fee a piece of failing flesh and blood, 49 Faith, let the modest Matrons of the town THOMSON, in his Epilogue to Tancred and Sigifmunda, severely cenfures the flippancy and gaiety of modern Epilogues, as contrary to those impreffions intended to be left on the mind by a well-written Tragedy. The laft new part Mrs. Oldfield took in tragedy was in Thomfon's Sophonifba; and it is recorded that fhe fpoke the following line, Not one base word of Carthage for thy soul, in so powerful a manner, that Wilkes, to whom it was addressed, was aftonished and confounded. Mrs. Oldfield was admitted to vifit in the best families. George II. and Queen Caroline, when Princess of Wales, condefcended sometimes to converfe with her at their levees. And one day the Princess asked her, if she was married to General Churchill?" So it is faid, may it please your Highnefs, but we have not owned it yet." Her Lady Betty Modifh and Lady Townly have never yet been equalled. She was univerfally allowed to be well-bred, fenfible, witty, and geneShe gave poor Savage an annual penfion of fifty pounds; and it is ftrange that Dr. Johnson seems rather to approve of Savage's having never celebrated his benefactress in any of his WARTON. poems. rous. |