Py 
8 Ox the Woril Dramatic. 
of God (the iftermiffion of hoftility com- 
manded occafionally by the Bardic order) 
were liable to punifhment by excommunica- 
tion, and often made great facrifices of per- 
fonal convenience to the defire of executing 
an individual vengeance from deference 
apparently for fecret tribunals. To thefe 
features may be added, a paffion for public 
hiftorical recitations in rime by the Dad- 
geiniad, an order of men educated tor 
that purpofe, and analogous to the earlier 
minftrels. 
Thefe intimations fingly taken might 
be -infufficient to authorize decifion ; but 
as they all favour one conclufion collec- 
tively, they are entitled to much confi- 
dence. It is reafonable then to believe, 
that romance, rime, and knighthood, which 
_ sare the pivots of what is moft peculiar in 
- the manners of our hervic ages, and the 
compofitions of our popular poets, are all 
derived from the Welfh or Cimbric inha- 
bitants of Armorica and Britain. ~ 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE mifapplication of terms, or the 
not applying of them to the full 
extent of which they are capable, it is 
well known may produce very ferious 
miftakes, and be the caufe of pertonal 
malice. Hence the importance of accuracy 
in the ufe of language, and hence the ne- 
ceflity of attending to the {cope of an 
author, if we wifh critically to determine 
the character of a particular writing. 
Among the many words which in com- 
mon converfation, and f{emetimes in writ- 
ing, are not carried to their due extent, 1s 
the term Dramatic. 
The word is ufed to exprefs that {pecies 
of writing, which confifts in the imitation 
of life and manners, an imitation by a€tion 
and reprefentation. Here the author bor- 
rows characters, and his writing is termed 
dramatic, in oppofition to the narrative or 
epic, where he borrows no character, but 
fpeaks in his own perfon. 
Hence the propriety of calling Tragedy 
and Comedy, emphatically rue Drama, 
as confifting entirely of aétion and repre- 
fentation, under ailumed chara&ters ; but 
the word Dramatic mut not be reftristed to. 
the ftage; but applies to any fpecies of 
writing, where the author himfelt affumes 

tial on the education and character of modern 
Europe as chivalry. 
i 
ein (Feb. tT; 
a character, or introduces perfons a@ing 
a part*. . 
On this principle Homer throughout his 
Iliad and Odyffey is Dramatic, as well as, 
though not fo much as, Sophocles, or Arif- 
tophanes; Virgil, as well as Terence; 
Milton, as well as Shakefpeare ; though 
the title given to their poems will be Epic ; 
tor the poets fet out at leaft in their own 
names, and narrate in their own perfons. 
Paftoral poetry is in a manner dramatic ; 
and, indeed, derived its form and charac« 
ter from the fame fource as Comedy +. 
Didaétic and defcriptive poems occafionally 
take the dramatic form. In the ftory of 
Orpheus and Euridice, in the fourth book 
of the Georgics, the poet becomes drama- 
tic; Thomfon is dramatic in the ftory of 
Palemon and Lavinia; and Mafon, in the 
fourth book of his Englifh' Garden, is 
dramatic. Odes are very frequently dre- 
matic. _ A Dutch critic has clafied the 
Odes of Horace. .Ode the 28th of the 
firft book, : 
Te maris et terra numerog. carentis arena, 
he calls sporayogeurinn; he might- have - 
termed it more PE dramatic ; for the 
poet is not introduced {peaking himfelf.- 
In fome fort Gray’s incomparable Ode, 
entitled, The Progrefs of Poetry, is dra- 
matic. The poet, indeed, {peaks in his - 
own perfon ; but he places himfelf in dif- 
ferent ages, and different countries ; and 
hence his imagery becomes appropriate and 
beautiful, which otherwife would be liable 
to cenfure. Ovid’s Love Epiftles, and 
Pope’s Eloifa to Abelard, and others, may, 
in this fenfe, be denominated dramatic. 
fa certain perfon, whom I accidentally 
met the other day, had attended to this 
circumftance, he would not by dis broad 
hint have informed me, that in a copy ef 
verfes which appeared in your magazine 
the la& month, I had fome particular per 
fous in my eye, and leaft of all his own 
felf. He would have feen, that the 
verfes are entirely 'dramatic. “They make 
one of a feries of little poems, that I 
compofed fome time ago without having 
any perfon living in my eye; and [ am . 
no more like Democritus, than he is like 
Homer or Pythagoras. | I remain, Sir, 
Your’s refpeCtiully, 
G. Dyer, 

* Vid. Ariftot. dé Poet. ae 
+ Vid. de Bucol. Poef. Grecorum Differ- 
tation.--przfxed to Warton’s Theocritus. 
For 
