[ 9 i 



the French ftage, which has ever been confidered as a model 

 of guarded propriety, is not without examples of plays, written 

 with a view to modern politicSj or, at leaft, with a defign of 

 influencing the public opinion. Even the correfl, the decorous 

 and modeft Racine has done this, in his tragedy of EJlher. The 

 Mahomet of Voltaire was compofed with a defign of difcrediting 

 fanatical enthufiafm, and hypocritical impofition, on the part of the 

 minifters of religion, and fuperftitious and ferocious bigotry among 

 their adherents. Thefe ideas are purfued in the Alzire, and fimi- 

 lar topics are difplayed and enforced, by a writer of the prefent 

 day, in the Tragedy of Carl neuf oti L! Ecole des Rots. 



Recent events and modern politics may be introduced on the 

 Stage in three different Manners. — Modern events may be feleded 

 as the fubjedls of the Drama — Stories may be taken from ancient 

 hiftory and adapted, on the fpur of the occafion, for the exprefs pur- 

 pofe of prefenting parallels to recent events, or affording allufions 

 to modern politics ; or, laflly, occafion is taken, to introduce re- 

 fledlions of that nature in particular pafTages : and of thefe different 

 forms of reference the beft writers ancient and modern, as I have 

 faid, afford us examples. 



But the j uftification of dramatic fubjeds, which have a political 

 afped, does not reft merely on example ; they may be defended on 

 principle. I will not go fo far as to afTert, with fome critics, 

 that the chief end of poetry is to inflrud; — that Homer., for in- 



VoL. VII r. ( B ) fiance. 



