r 21 ] 



earlier Italian dramatifls, his diiciples, and imitators. Thefe moft' 

 frigid and infipid of all writers plunge into the deepeft abyfs of' 

 horror?, nnd add to bombaflic language and extravagant fcntimeiits 

 an unexampled ferocity of fpedacle; for Seneca^ it muft be known,, 

 together with his vapouring language, his holiday fuit of fuftian 

 and buckram, bequeathed to his Italian followers his blood-flained 

 mantle of cruelty. The hunters of literary rarities, who have 

 fwelled their .libraries from Grub-ftreet with all fuch reading as 

 W'as never read, will find the fame love of horrors predominate in 

 ourworft Englifh tragedies, as, for inftance, in the plays oi Banks* 

 It is obfervable, that Titus Andronicus, the moft outrageoufly 

 bloody, is alfo, the moft flat and infipid of all the plays of Shake- 

 fpeare, if, indeed, that mean performance is from the hand of 

 Shakefpeare. Thofe, who are converfant with ancient metrical 

 Romances and Ballads, muft be fenfible of the truth of this re- 

 mark ; they muft perceive, that thofe produdions of rude and' 

 infant tafte are, in general, deficient in vigorous thought, poetical 

 defc iption, and in all thofe fublime conceptions, which charade- 

 rife the true Poet ; but, in return, they abound in goblins, giants, 

 witches and enchanters, with a plentiful feafoning of cruelty and 

 blood. Such is the ballad called the Lady Ijabel]a\ Tragedy, for 

 example, which I would recommend to fome German or Anglo- 

 German playwright of the monftro-terrific fchool, as aifording an 

 exquifite fiibjed, full of delightful bloody defcription and horrible 

 in<:ident, and prefenting fiiuations of the higheft ftagc efftdl. 



Then. 



* Sec his grand Cyrus, &c. &c. 



