[ 8 ] 



the ftage very near the time when the events happened, and 

 even while the daughter and fucceffor of that monarch was on 

 the throne. The lines in the prophetic fpeech of Cranmer, which 

 are meant to convey a comphment to James the Jirfi, were in- 

 ferted after the death of Elizabeth, as appears from the aukward 

 manner in which they are introduced and connefled with the 

 foregoing and fubfequent lines. In the play of the Midjummer 

 Night's Dream, there are lines, which in the opinion of the com- 

 mentators, refer in a particular manner to the politics of the 

 day : 



I fat on a promontosy 



And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back 

 Uttering fuch dulcet and harmonious breath, 

 ' . That the rude fea grew civil at her fong, 



And certain (lars (hot madly from their fpheres 

 To hear the fea-maid's mufic* &c. &c. 



We find Diyden adapting the ftory of the cruelties pradifed. at 

 Amhoyna Ao the flage, at the time when the Britifh court had 

 determined on a rupture with the United States of Holland. 

 Rowe's fine play of Tamerlane was exprefsly written with a re- 

 ference to the politics of the day,, and under the perfonages of 

 Tamerlane and the ferocious Turk it is well known, that the 

 poet meant to exhibit the portraits of William the third and 

 his ambitious rival and opponent Lewis the fourteenth. Even 



the 



* See Dr. Warburton's notes on the whole pnlTage. 



