[ 447 ] 



However is obftinate, for a confiderable time, in concealing the 

 fource of her affliction ; and when doth me difclofe it at laft ? 

 Not while her nurfe, whofe fidelity fhe can abfolutely depend 

 upon, is only prefent, but when the Chorus (a number of Tra- 

 zenian women, with whom fhe doth not appear to have had any 

 great intimacy) have intruded themfelves into her prefence. 

 How infinitely- better is this conducted in Racine ! where the 

 confidant is the fole perfon attending, whofe affection for her ' 

 Phaedra cannot doubt. I promifed you I would not dwell long 

 on the imperfections of the Chorus, and I have been, I hope, as ; 

 good as my word; however, I cannot help taking a little notice 

 here of the ancient prologues, which fometimes are made by a 

 Deity (as by Venus in the Hippolytus); and fometimes by a 

 ghoft (as that of Polydorus in the- Hecuba).. My objection 

 however to thefe prologues is not their being fpoken by deities d „ ■ 

 but that they generally choofe. to. difcover and anticipate all the 

 principal events in the play, particularly the cataftrophe. This I 

 take to be exceffively improper, and very prudently avoided by the 

 moderns in their prologues, for when the audience is acquainted 

 with the event, the ftory becomes lefs interefting, and prevents 

 all the agreeable furprize that might arife from well chofen and 

 unforefeen incidents, Deities too are fometimes introduced into- » 

 the ancient tragedies, when there is by no means any dignus vin- 

 dfce nodus , as in the Atag ^ocs-iyocpo^og f , where Minerva appears in \ 



d Not but that perhaps it would be as well if 'they were fpoken by 

 mortals. But as a prologue is by no means a part of the tragedy (as it 

 certainly is not lefs a tragedy without it); I mould imagine that the poet : 

 may by thefevereft critic be allowed this liberty, particularly as it hath 

 the fanftion of Taflb and Guarini, the firfl of which poets makes the 

 God of Love fpeak the prologue to his Aminta, and the latter the -' 

 river Alpheus to his Paftor Fido, 



f Of Sophocles* 



the. 



