40 Poetnj. [Chap. XX. 



rity of moral character. Nevei' before were these 

 characters go frequently assembled, so harmoni- 

 ously united, or so forcibly exhibited, as in some 

 of the elegiac productions of the century under 

 review. 



SECTION IX. 



DRAMA. 



Tlie 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 num- 

 ber of dramatic productions that have appeared 

 during this period. In almost every civilised and 

 literary nation the press has teemed with the ef- 

 forts of the tragic and comic muses. Perhaps in 

 no department of literature, if we except Novels, 

 has the taste of the age for multiplying books 

 been more remarkably displayed than in that 

 which is under consideration. In proportion as 

 theatrical amusements have been multiplied and 

 extended, the love of fame, the hope of profit, or 

 a fondness for the employment, have prompted 

 many to appear as candidates for supplying the 

 demands of the public. Of the moral effect of 



* The author is sensible that many dramatic productions can- 

 not with propriety be denominated jsoe^^c; but, to avoid multir 

 plying chapters, he has thought proper to throw under one head 

 all those works, >vhether poetic or not, which belong to the dra- 

 matic class. 



