Theatre at paris. sfcf 



fiie was tired of him. The caufe of the murder Is 

 Clodius, a great lord of the court. He is the profeffed 

 lover of the queen, on exactly the fame footing as 

 married ladies in France, wild live in fiyle, ufually have 

 their adorers. The king gerray reproaches him ; this 

 fo enrages his confort, that fhe takes the refolution to 

 poifon him. She enters his cabinet with the fatal bowl : 

 horror feizes on her mind : fhe haftens out of the cham- 

 ber, and leaves the bowl behind. The king drinks it. 

 On her returning to the apartment fhe finds him dead." 



I am fenfible that the french poet has fhewn great 

 judgment in this alteration of what precedes the mur- 

 der. Shakefpeare's queen is rather a voluptuous than a 

 weak woman, who is rendered frill more contemptible 

 by being in love with the brother of her human d, and 

 utterly de tellable, by entering, immediately on the 

 death of her hufband, into marriage with his brother. 

 It is a concerted plan between her and her paramour to 

 murder her hufband ; with the queen of M. Ducis it is 

 the firft fally of rage and refentment on account of the 

 outrage her favourite has undeservedly received. She 

 does not herfelf prefent him the bowl of poifon, but, 

 confounded and conquered by the fuggeflions of nature, 

 fhe leaves it Handing, and the black deed follows na- 

 turally of itfelf. I likewife fee, that the french poet 

 has endeavoured to extenuate the. crime by the manner 

 of making love which Cifriion long has fandtioned or 

 tolerated in France, and in' the eyes of his countrymen 

 it certainly is thus extenuated. His queen acts with 

 decency, but the queen of Shakefpeare with brutality. 



" Clodius, on being informed of the death of the 

 king, urges the queen to beftow her hand on him. But 



the ( 



