. Poetry. 209 



moral character. Never before were these charac- 

 ters so frequently assembled, so harmoniously 

 united, or so forcibly exhibited, as in some of the 

 elegiac productions of the century under review. 



DRAMA. 



The Dramatic Poetry of the eighteenth century 

 bears, in several respects, a distinguished charac- 

 ter/ An obvious circumstance which deserves to 

 be noted, is the great and unprecedented number of 

 dramatic productions which have appeared during 

 this period. In almost every civilized and literary 

 nation the press has teemed with the efforts of the 

 tragic and comic muse. Perhaps in no department 

 of literature, if we except Novels, has the taste of 

 the age for multiplying books been more remark- 

 ably displayed than in that which is under consi- 

 deration. In proportion as theatrical amusements 

 have been multiplied and extended, the love of 

 fame, the hope of profit, or a fondness for the em- 

 ployment, have prompted many to appear as can- 

 didates for supplying the demands of the public. 

 Of the moral effect of this increase in the taste 

 and demand for theatrical representations some 

 notice will be taken hereafter. 



The specimens of English Tragedy which be- 

 long to the period under review, though numer- 

 ous, are yet few of them entitled to the praise of 

 first-rate excellence. After the Mourning Bride, 

 of Congreve, which properly belongs to the pre- 

 ceding age, the Fair Penitent, and the Jane Shore \ 

 of Ro\ve, with respect to time, hold the first place. 

 These, though of different relative merit, yet, both 



e The author is sensible that many dramatic productions cannot with 

 propriety be denominated poetic ; but to avoid multiplying chapters he has 

 thought proper to throw under one head all those work*, whether poetic 

 •r not, which belong to the dramatic clasi. 

 VOL. II. zV, 



