i 5 8 APPENDIX, 



roines as well as Heroes are comprehended in the rule. But 

 the parallel is more complete in Tragedy than in an Epic 

 Poem : For as a Tragedy may he made out of many particular 

 Epifodes of Homer, or of Virgil ; Co may a noble piciure be 

 defigned out of this or that particular ftory in either author. 

 Hiftory is alfo fruitful of defigns, both for the Painter and the 

 Tragic Poet: Curtius throwing hirnfelf into a gulph, and the 

 two Decii facrificing themfelves for the fafety of their country, 

 are fubjects for Tragedy and Picture. Such is Scipio, refto- 

 ring the Spanim Bride, whom he either loved, or may be 

 fuppofed to love ; by which he gained the hearts of a great 

 nation, to intereft themfelves for Rome againft Carthage : 

 Thefe are all but particular pieces in Livy's Hiftory, and yet 

 are full, complete fubjects for the pen and pencil. Now the 

 reafon of this is evident : Tragedy and Picture are more nar- 

 rowly circumfcribed by the mechanic rules of Time and Place 

 than the Epic Poem : The Time of this laft is kft indefinite. 

 It is true, Homer took up only the fpace of eight and forty 

 days for his Iliad; but whether Virgil's action was .compre- 

 hended in a year, or fomewhat more, is .not determined by 

 BofTu. Homer made the Place of his action Troy, and the 

 Grecian camp befieging it. Virgil introduces his ./Eneas fome- 

 times in Sicily, fometimes in Carthage, an-d other times at 

 Cumae, before he brings him to Laurentum ; and even after 

 that, he wanders again to the kingdom of Evandrr, and fome 

 parts of Tufcany, before he returns to finim the war by the 

 death of Turnus. But Tragedy, according to the practice of 

 the Antients, was .always .confined within the compais of 

 twenty-four hours, and feldom takes -up io much time. As 

 for the place of it, it was always one, and that not in a larger 

 fenfe, as, for example, a whole -city, or two or three feveral 

 houfes in it, but the market, or fome other public place, 



common 



