IV.

OF THE ANCIENT DRAMATIC AUTHORS.

THE most celebrated tragic writers were fchylus, Sophocles, and Euripides *, among the Greeks, and Seneca among the Romans, Thefe Greek writers lived between four and five hundred years before the Chriftian æra. The tragedies of thefe three Greek poets, though fimple in their form, have excellences, which have been admired by all fucceeding ages. Seneca, the Latin poet, is much inferior to the Greeks.

The Tragedies of Sophocles were tranflated in 2 vols. 8vo. in 1766, by Dr. Franklin. All the three Greek authors have been fince tranflated by Mr. Potter.

The only comic poets among the ancients, whose works are tranfmitted to us, are Arifto

* fchylus, bef. Chr. 498. Sophocles, 469. Euripides, 430. See Sax. edit. 2da. in Epitome.

phanes,

phanes, a Greek writer, 420 years before the birth of Chrift; and, among the Romans, Plautus, before Chrift 189, and Terence, 164. The beft tranflations, which we have in English of thefe two Latin poets, are thofe of 1 hornton, Colman, and Warner.

V.

OF THE ORIGIN OF MODERN THEATRES.

ALL the theatres of Europe have had their origin in a kind of extempore farces, performed by idle people, ftrolling about from town to town, and acting in public places to the mob.

In the fifteenth century thefe buffooneries were fucceeded by the exhibition of the Myf teries, in which Adam and Eve, the patriarchs, the prophets, the virgin Mary, our Saviour, his apoftles, and even God himself, were brought upon the stage, and very often reprefented in the moft ridiculous manner.

In England the Myfteries were fucceeded by another extravagant fpecies of dramatic entertainment called the Moralities, in which the virtues and vices were perfonified, and introduced on the stage. But the true drama received its birth, from the creative genius of Shakespeare, Jonfon, and Fletcher. The first was born in 1564, and died in 1616; the fecond was born in 1574; and the third in 1576, and died in 1625.

The

The French theatre continued very rude and imperfect, till the time of Corneille, Mokere, and Racine. Corneille was born in 1606, Moliere in 1620, and Racine in 1639.

VI.

ON THE SUBJECT AND STYLE OF PASTORAL POETRY.

PASTORAL poetry is a poetical representation of rural life, or a defcription of the fports, the contests, the amours, or the adventures of fhepherds. In the eclogue, the country must be painted in its moft attractive charms, fuch as it may be supposed to have been in the romantic vales of Arcadia, or the golden age of the poets. The shepherds, who are introduced, must be neither clowns nor courtiers, neither fops nor philofophers. There must be nothing in their difcourfe, that is rude or vulgar, nothing finical or affected, nothing fubtle or abftrufe. All must be fimple, easy, and natural; the language harmonious and poetical; the images taken from rural life.

The most eminent paftoral writers, among the ancients, were Theocritus and Virgil. The former was a Greek, who flourished about 275 years before Chrift; the latter was the cele

brated