^79I' ON EKGLTdH PLAYS. 3OI 



Remarks on fome Engli/J} Plays, continued fiom 



^"^. 



!2. 



Ximena, or the Hemic Dawrhter ; a Tragedy, hy Cih- 

 her. 

 Tins pla)' is below crltiiifni. 



Bufiri'! Kmg of EiryM, a Tragedy, hy young. 



This, I do think, is t?ie mofl aUfiird and ruHcnloiK ttavr^y in the whole 

 of Monfieur Bell's Collft>ftion of the lnjl Entclifh Plays ; and it is written 

 by the ^reat ^as they call him) Do*.1or Young, [t is, however, hardly 

 more cminentK' extravagant and outre, thaii another tragedy, much ad- 

 mired by the many, and wrirten by the fame author, viz. Tlie Rt- 

 •venge '. What an audience ! that failed to damn cliis play at the firft 

 bearing-: Yet it lives to this day, at the difbance of half a century, in 

 Bell's Cotleftion of Cho'K^ Eng^lifh Plays. And we are told, is yet aiflcd 

 with applaufe on the London ftage. The epilogue has fouie merit. 



Tije Drummer, a Comedy, hy Addifon. 



\ intend to have this piece taken into a volume of bad plays by good 

 authors, in which Sir Richard Steele's Tender Hufband fliould have a 

 place, if I can find it. 



Amphitryton, or the Two Sojias ; a Comedy, altered 

 from Dryden, by Hawkefworth. 



Tins I Jhall have bound up with Addifon's Drummer, as a bad play by 

 a good author ; with allowance, in this cafe, that the modern reformer 

 has made it worfe %. 



Eurydice, a Tragedy, hy Mallet. 



Artificial poetry, laboured language, and romantic love, are too re- 

 mote from nature and Shakefpeare to plcafe me ; yet they commonly 

 gain a. temporary aoplaufe from the fond many, and uninformed igno- 



•» To thi< lilt, our critic might have added THE BROTHERS. la one fcene. Dr. V. inttoducei 

 Perfr'js imitating a p^tfage iti Macbctti ; but the imitaUun id attended with fome very ridiculuu^ 

 circumllances. 



^ II nmrkt-rwonhfalUhcliind Dryden, the iKter is at leaft as mic.-i inferior to Pbutui. lu the 

 nr'Kinal Latin, there is a lom:anci very plcaling t»rologue^ and the dcfciipiiun of .1 battle, in the 

 very firft fcene of the play, has little tu feir ijv a e«jntpaiilon with Epic puctry. Of rlautus, a traa- 

 flation ha* hecn pui>lilbed. Udder the name iif the late Mr. Bonnel Thornton, and another gentlj. 

 mm. It fills no Icf- than Iwr Lirgc .>i lavo vulumci. Had their bonk retained ihe tjoM md li»riT 

 /eit, It mutt have been of «V>ie. Xtc ,'iet:.ndeil (etfirn i> in blank, vcrfe, audinialerabls. 



