[ 27 ] 



life, becaufe his miftrefs was ready to make him happy — and 

 Amelia in a dialogue of high-wrought tendernefs, which is worthy 

 of being read, as a mafterpiece of abfurdity, having confented to 

 furrender to the captivating unknown,* together with her virtue, 

 a ring, the keep-fake of her hji lover ^ Charles flies in a fury ; 

 but foon returns with his band of robbers. He releafes his old 

 father from a difmal dungeon, where he is confined and ftarvcd, 

 by order of his fecond fon. Charles caufes this unnatural relative, 

 who is a fort of mongrel being, patched up from Fielding' s Blifil, 

 Shakefpeare' s lago, and Richard the third, to be put to death, — 

 kills with his own hand the beautiful Amelia, whom he adores, 

 moralifes and preaches to the robbers, in an exalted ftrain, and 

 then furrenders himfelf to the thief-takers of the Rotation office, 

 that a peafant, whom he finds by chance labouring on the road, 

 may receive the reward offered by government for the apprehend- 

 ing of him ! 



Antient critics taught, and the dodrine feemed to be founded 

 in truth and nature, that it was the great art and fkill of the dra- 

 matic writer, and the great excellency of dramatic compofition, 

 to affign to each perfonage the language, fentiments, and condu6t 

 fuited to his country, his age, his fituation, his profeffion, and rank 



in life. 



( D 2 ) Defcriptas 



* This is certainly dignus- vindice nodus.— ^Hoih the lady and the audience were in 

 rather an aukward predicament ; but their bluflies are fpared, and indecorum' pre- 

 vented -, for when Charles Di Moor difcovers himfelf, and breaks away in a paffion, 

 Amelia fwoons and the fcene clofes. See Robbers. 



