764 
POE 
fubje&s, he continues his felicitations, urging their com¬ 
mon defcent from Pelops, and the facred ties of friend- 
fliip: 
Oh ! fevereign of th’ Athenian realm, I blufh 
Thus proftrate on the ground to clafp^your knees 5 
Grown grey with age, and once a happy king. 
Redeem the dead in pity to my woes. 
And tothefe matrons, of their fens bereft. 
Adraftrus, then anticipating the objection, “ Why not 
rather apply for fuccour to the neighbouring ftates of 
Peloponnefus, and particularly to Sparta, the moft pow¬ 
erful of them ?” replies in a (train very grateful to the ear 
of Athens: 
Sparta is itfelf too barbarous ; you alone 
To this emprize are equal; for you know 
To pity the diftreffed. Athens in you 
May boalt a godlike chief. 
At length, JEthra, the venerable mother of Thefeus, 
moved by the lamentations of the Argive matrons, inter¬ 
cedes in their favour, and incites him to the combat. 
Thefeus, moved by thefe various felicitations, declares 
liimfelf dilpofed to grant the requifite aid. He con¬ 
venes the affembly of the people, obtains their fanc- 
tion, collefls his troops, marches to Thebes, and gains 
a complete viflory. The concluding fcenes of this play 
are conduced with judgment. The friendfhip for many 
years fubfifting between the ftates of Argos and of Athens, 
founded, doubtlefs, in their mutual jealoufy of the power 
ot Sparta, is poetically reprefented as originating in the 
aid now imparted; and Minerva, who makes her appear¬ 
ance at the ciofe of the drama, fatisfies the claims of re¬ 
tributive juftice, by predicting the fuccefs of the fecond 
ftege of Thebes, conduced by the fens of the flaughtered 
Argive chiefs. 
6. “ Hippolytus.” The chara&er of Hippolytus is 
perhaps the moft perfect which the ancient drama has 
exhibited. He is placed in a fituation the moft embar- 
rafiing, and in that fituation he is a&uated by the higheft 
fenfe of virtue and indignant abhorrence of vice; yet his 
end is miferable, and his mifery is caufed, even by di¬ 
vine power inflicted upon him, as a punifhment for the 
unfullied purity of his character. In the affefting dia¬ 
logue between Thefeus and his fen, the former defpair- 
ingly fays, “ How gladly would I die for thee !” And, in 
reply to the gentle reproaches of Hippolytus, he bitterly 
complains, “ that by the gods he was deprived of under- 
ftanding.’' Hippolytus paflionately blafphemes thus: 
“ O that in return mankind could with their curfes 
blaft the gods!” But Diana, whofe favoured votary he 
was, at length appears to foothe his departing moments. 
In one refpeft only has the pure and perfect virtue of 
Hippolytus been deemed liable to exception. Previous 
to imparting the fatal fecret, “ that harbinger of vice,” 
the nurfe of Phaedra, exafts from Hippolytus an oath of 
fecrecy; but, on hearing the horrid truth, he recoils with 
indignation, and naturally exclaims, “ I cannot bury 
fuch atrocious guilt in filence.” The withered crone, 
ftretching out her hand, fays, “ I implore thee,” &c. To 
which he anfwers, 
Profane not by your touch my garment; 
My foul is from the compact free, although 
My tongue hath fworn. 
But, on calmer reflexion, he not only refelves to obferve 
his promife, but, in the progrefs of the drama, he adheres 
to it with the moft exalted generofity. 
An exception may be made to the conduct of the fable 
in reference to the character of Phaedra, who at the com¬ 
mencement of the play is reprefented as ftruggling, with 
all the heroifm of virtue, againft the guilty pafllon with 
which (he is, by the fupernatural power of Venus, infpired. 
It is with the greateft reluCtance (he affents, if indeed (he 
can be faid to affent, to the propofal of divulgement by 
the nurfe; yet, on the indignant rejection of her ad¬ 
vances by Hippolytus, (lie a&s the part of a woman 
TRY 
utterly abandoned. The keeping of the character is 
therefore not properly preferved, and the maxim of eter¬ 
nal nature violated : “Nemo fuit repente turpiftimus,” 
7. “Aiceftis.” The fable of this drama is radically 
defective. The hofpitality and other good qualities with 
which the poet has endowed Admetus, can by no means 
difguife or reconcile us to the inherent pufillanirnity of 
his character in permitting the generous heroine Aiceftis 
to facrifice her life in order to pre(erve his own. And this 
unfavourable impreffion is heightened by the paflionate 
reproaches which he cafts on his aged father for refilling 
to become the deftined victim. In this contention the 
father and the fen appear indeed equally contemptible. 
The play, however, is not deftitute of beauties ; and the 
calm conftancy and ardent affection of Aiceftis are finely 
delineated. 
8. “ Hercules diftraCted.” This is one of thofe mytho¬ 
logical dramas which can never be perufed with intereft, 
fcarcely perhaps with patience, by a modern reader 5 
and (till lefs could it command the attention of a modern 
audience. The fable has for its bails the perfecution of 
the family of Hercules, confiding of his wife Megara, a 
perfenage of little celebrity, even in mythological hiftory, 
his three fens, and his fuppofed father, Amphitryon, by 
Lycus king of Thebes, in which city they had been left by 
Hercules during his abfence on his vifit to the infernal 
regions. That hero returns, however, in time to refcue 
the victims, and to take vengeance on the tyrant. But, 
Lycus being (lain, Hercules is, through the relentlefs 
hate of Juno, feized with fudden frenzy, and, in the pa- 
roxyfm of his diforder, he murders his wife and children. 
This is not only too horrid to be reprefented, but to be 
defcribed ; and the defcription, conformable to the Gre¬ 
cian mode in fimilar (ituations, is difguftingly minute, 
though not deficient in that pathos which is the diftin- 
guifhing character of Euripides. 
9. “ Heraclidas, or Children of Hercules.” This tra¬ 
gedy reprefents the fufferings of the children of Hercules, 
in confequence of the perfecution of Euryftheus, fevereign 
of Argos, fubfequent to the death of that hero. Upon 
this play is founded Metaftafio’s operatic drama of Demo- 
phoon. It is evident, from the example of Macaria in 
this tragedy, as well as that of Polyxena, Iphigenia, 
Menseceus, &c. that human facrifices, efpecially thofe of 
the young of either fex, beautiful in perfen, unfullied in 
character, and illuftrious in rank, were regarded even by 
the Athenians, the moft humane and polilhed people of 
antiquity, as beyond all other offerings acceptable to the 
gods. This direful fuperftition feems to have prevailed 
from the earlieft times of which any authentic record 
remains, either in facred or profane hiftory. And, after 
all that has been urged in explanation or palliation of 
the famous vow of Jepthah, it appears but too plainly to 
have been of this nature. 
The violation of the unity of time in this drama is 
more offenfive than the groffeft irregularities of Shake- 
fpeare. The fcene opens before the altar of Jupiter, in 
the town of Marathon, where the children of Hercules, 
with Alcmena his mother, had fled for refuge, under the 
guidance of Iolaus, the friend, kinfman, and companion, 
of Hercules, or, as he is femetimes called, his charioteer, 
which, as we learn from Homer, did not imply any degra¬ 
dation or inferiority. The chorus, compofed of aged 
Athenians, worfliippers of Jupiter, according to the 
invariable ufage of the Grecian theatre, remain conftantly 
on the ftage during the action. And in five lapfe of a 
few hours a herald arrives from Argos to demand from 
the date of Athens that the family of Hercules be de¬ 
livered up. Demophoon, the fen and fucceffor of Thefeus, 
fummons a civic affembly todifcufs the propriety of com¬ 
pliance, and facrifices are offered to the gods. At the 
conclufion of which, Demophoon informs Iolaus, ‘'that 
one dread beheft runs through the feveral aulpices,” and 
that a blooming virgin of noble birth muft be facrificed 
to Ceres to fecure fuccefs in the approaching war. Ma¬ 
caria, the daughter of Hercules then appears, and figni- 
