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Show 4 PREFACE. the fame thing, as if we lhould acknow. ledge, that w e are indebted for our good Fortune , to the under-plot of Adraftus Euridice , and Creon. The truth is, hj miferably failed in the Character of his Hero. If he defir'd that Oedipus lhould be pitied , he fhould have made him a better M a n . H e forgot that Sophocles had taken care to fhew him in his firft entrance, a juft , a merciful , a fuccefsful , a Reli.' gious Prince; and in (hort , a Father of his Country : inftead of thefe he has drawn him fufpicious , defigning, more anxious of keeping the Thehan Crown , than folj. citous for the fafety of his People : Hec-tor'd by Thefeus , contemn'd by Dine and fcarce maintaining a fecond part in his o w n Tragedy. This was an Error in the firft concoction ; and therefore never to be mended in the fecond or the third.I H e introduc'd a greater Hero than Oedipntl himfelf; for when Thefeus was once there, I that Companion of Hercules muft yield to none : the Poet was obliged to furnifh him with Bufinefs , to make him an E<| quipage fuitable to his Dignity; and by following him too clofe, to lofe his other King of Branford in the Crowd. Seneca, on the other fide, as if there were no fudi thing as Nature to be minded in a Play, is always running after pompous Expref-fions, pointed Sentences, and Philofophicai Notions , more proper for the Study than P R E F A C E . f the Stage. The French-man followed a wrong Scent; *and the Roman was abfolu-tely at cold Hunting. All w e cou'd gather out of ComeiHe , was, that an Epifode muft be , but not his w ay : and Seneca fupply'd us with no n e w Hint, but only a Relation which he makes of his Tirefias railing the Goft of Lajus , which is here perform'd in view of the Audience ; the Rites and Ceremonies fo far his, as he a-greed with Antiquity, and the Religion of the Greeks ; but he himfelf was beholden to Homer's Tire ft as in the Odyffes for fome of them ; and the reft have been collected from Heliodore's Ethiopiques, and Lucan's Eric%ho. Sophocles , indeed , is admirable every where ; and therefore w e have fol-low'dhim as clofe aspofllblywecou'd : but the Athenian Theatre (whether more perfect than ours , is not n o w difputed) had a Perfection differing from ours. Y o u fee there in every Act a fingle Scene , or two at moft, which manage the bufinefs of the Play ; and after that fucceeds the Chorus, which commonly takes up more T i m e in finging , than there has been employ'd in fpeaking. The principal Perfon appears ai-moft conftantly through the Play ; but the inferior Parts feldom above once in the whole Tragedy. The Conduct of our Stage is much more difficult, where w e are oblig'd never to lofe any confiderable Character which w e have once prefented. Cuf- A 3 torn |
