sole him -this is not so pleasing a play as most of the others. 19. Electra-see C. G. March 13 1769. Besides these plays, there are fragments of many others. When the Athenians, under Nicias and Demosthenes, were taken prisoners in Sicily, the greater part of them perished in the stone quarries; but several of them, who were able to repeat passages from the plays of Euripides, obtained their libertyso anxious at that time were the Sicilians to procure a copy of his Tragedies-(Plutarch) — Euripides himself was invited into Macedon by one of the Kings, and died there. SENECA. All the Tragedies of Seneca have been translated, but there seems to have been no regular translation of them by any single person. Gorboduc was printed in 1565—-Sir Philip Sidney praised this play as "climbing to the height of Se"neca his stile "-Seneca however is about the last person one would wish a dramatic author to follow -Seneca has some very good things in his playsbut Dryden says of him very properly" as if no “such thing as nature were to be minded in a play, "he is always running after some pompous expres"sions, pointed sentences, and philosophical notions, "more proper for the study than the stage." 1. Hercules Furens-the plot of this T. is nearly the same as that of Hercules in his Madness-see Euripides. 2. Thyestes--see Crown's Thyestes T. R. 1681. 3. Phœnissæ-a great part of this T. has perished --for the plot see the Phoenissæ of Euripides. 4. Hippolitus-see Phædra and Hippolitus Hay. April 21 1707. 5. Edipus-see Dryden's Edipus D. G. 1679. 6. Troades-this T. begins soon after the taking of Troy-Hecuba and the Trojan women lament their fate-Talthybius says, that the Ghost of Achilles has appeared, and demanded that Polyxena should be sacrificed, at his tomb, and by the hand of Pyrrhus -Agamemnon wishes that the life of Polyxena should be spared-he and Pyrrhus quarrel-Chalcas decrees, that not only Polyxena, but also Astyanax should be killed-Andromache conceals Astyanax in the tomb of Hector Ulysses demands Astyanax-Andromache pretends, first that she does not know where he is, and then that he is dead-Ulysses, with great art, induces her to produce her son-at the conclusion, a Messenger says, that Polyxena is sacrificed, and that Astyanax is thrown down from a towersome parts of this play are very well written. 7. Medea-see D. L. Dec. 11 1730. 8. Agamemnon-see D. L. April 6 1738. 9. Hercules Etæus-the plot of this T. is nearly the same as that of the Trachiniæ of Sophocles (see Sophocles at the end of 1758-1759)-but Seneca pursues the story farther than Sophocles does-in the 5th act, Philoctetes relates the death of Hercules -Hercules, on his death was received into the number of the Gods-he appears to Alcmena, and consoles her. 10. Octavia-Octavia is the daughter of Claudius, and the wife of Nero-Nero hates her, and is in love with Poppaa-in the 1st act, Octavia laments her wretched condition-in the 2d act, Nero rejects the good advice of Seneca, and determines to marry Poppea in the 3d act, the Ghost of Agrippina foretels the death of Nero-in the 4th act, Poppaa relates to her Nurse a dream, by which she had been frightened-a Messenger describes the indignation of the Roman people against Nero, for divorcing Octavia, and marrying Poppaa -in the 5th act, Nero orders the Roman people to be severely punished, and Octavia to be put to death. MORE'S SACRED DRAMAS. Miss Hannah More in 1782 published a small volume of Sacred Dramas. 1. Moses in the Bulrushes-the D. P. are Jochebed, the mother of Moses-Miriam his sister-the Princess of Ægypt and her attendant, to whom the author has injudiciously given the name of Ianthein the 3d part Jochebed, on finding the ark without the child, says― "You spar'd him, pitying spirits of the deep!" this line is not suited to the character-Josephus calls the Princess Thermuthis-he forgets to tell us who told him so-this little piece is written in a very pleasing manner-as a Drama, it wants incident. Josephus in his history professes that it was his intention to translate the books of the Hebrews into Greek, without addition or subtraction-he makes however some exceptions to this rule-Moses himself does not tell us any thing of what happened to him during the time that he was under the protection of the Princess of Egypt-Josephus gives us a good story about him-the Ibis is a bird famous for destroying serpents-it was so much esteemed by the Ægyptians, that Herodotus says (b. 2. ch. 65) whoever killed an Ibis, even accidentally, was put to death-according to Josephus, Moses was appointed General of the Ægyptians-part of the country, through which he wished to march, was nearly impassable on account of the great numbers of serpents in it-Moses, to obviate this difficulty, invented a notable stratagem-he collected a large quantity of Ibisses in cages-when he came to the proper place, he let out the Ibisses-and they ate up the serpents. 2. David and Goliath-this Drama is divided into 5 parts-in the 4th part David and Goliath, after a dialogue of considerable length, go off to fightwhich is flat-the best lines are perhaps these "O war, what art thou? "After the brightest conquest, what remains Tom Payne said, that if we should see two persons take out their watches, and knock them one against the other, till one or both of them were broken to pieces, we should call them fools-but when we see two nations fit out two fleets, and then send them to destroy one another, we are not struck with the folly of the action, tho' equally great. 3. Belshazzar-the D. P. are Belshazzar, Nitocris the Queen-Mother, Daniel, Courtiers, Astrologers, &c.-the 1st and 3d parts of this Drama are mere dialogue-the 2d is very good when Belshazzar sees the hand-writing on the wall, he says in a low trembling voice Ye mystic words! Thou semblance of an hand! illusive forms! Dread shadows speak! explain your horrible Ye will not answer me-yes, yes, I feel I am a mortal now-my failing limbs Gods do not tremble thus-support me, hold me, Betray I'm but a man-a weak one too! Courtier. How fares my lord the king? |