[ ^3 1 



REFLECTIONS on the CHOICE of SUBJECTS 

 for TRAGEDY among the GREEK WRITERS. By 

 WILLIAM PRESTON, Efq. M.RJ.A. 



JLVERY one who turns his thoughts on the Tragic Drama of ^^^^ ^^l 



14th, 1796. 

 the Greeks^ the Romans, and early Italian Poets, (the two latter of 



which were no more than fervile, and, in general, feeble imitators 



of the Grecian Drama) muft be ftruck with one particular — the 



extraordinary predominance of horror in the Fables of their Tragedy, 



which uniformly prefents us with the mofl dreadful and fanguinary 



fcenes, with miferies of the deepeft fhade, and crimes, at which 



human nature flartles. Furiis in fccnis agitattts Orejies — the horrid 



feaft of Atreus — Oedipus, ftained with inceft, mangled by his own 



hands, and bleeding on the flage. The torments of Hercules in the 



invenomed robe — Medea * plunging the murderous poignard in 



the little bofoms of her innocent offspring — The guilty paffion of 



Phedra 



* In Euripides, Medea does not abfolutely kill her children on the ftage ; but what 

 is much more horrid, you hear the lamentable fhrieks of the children. 



