[ ^4 ] 



Phedra for her ftep-fon, — Of Canace for her brother — The luftful 

 cruelty of Tereus. Such were the favourite themes of the Grecian 

 tragic mufc : I fpeak not this in contempt ; I feel all the vene- 

 ration that the divine remains of ancient Greece muft excite in a 

 bofom fmit with the love of poetry. If we except our immortal 

 Shakefpeare, what have all the efforts of fo many fucceeding cen- 

 turies produced to emulate the fublime produdlions of the Athenian 

 tragic ftage ? In them we behold the mature and perfed form of 

 tragedy ; and thofe, who, in modern days, have attempted to woo 

 the Mufe of Tears, have proved either cold and languid imitators 

 of the Grecian models, or, in venturing to depart from them, have 

 disfigured and degraded the genuine form of tragedy. Yet, furely, 

 we mufl: allow that there is a flrangc and uniform prevalence of 

 the dreadful both in thofe plays of the great tragedians which have 

 been preferved, and in fables of a vaft number more, the names 

 and fubjeds of which are recorded, though the pieces themfelves 

 have perifhed. 



An exhibition of the deepefl horrors, with very few exceptions, 

 in fuch a prodigious number* of dramas, could not have proceeded 

 from mere chance alone ; it mufl have been produced by the 

 deliberate choice of the writer. It may prove no uninterefting 

 enquiry to endeavour to trace out the caufes which led the Greek 

 tragic writers to brood over the moft fombre images, and to range 



through 



• Seven plays of ^fchylus are preferved, the like number of Sophocles, nineteen 

 of Euripides ; the fubjefts of niofl of them are horrid. 



