Judges in Commiffion, by the Government fworn to do right, and determine the Merits of a Play, without favour or affeЄtion.

But amongst the Moderns, never was a Cause canvafs'd with so much heat, between the Play-Judges, as that in France, about Corneille's Tragedy of the Cid. The Majority were so fond of it, that with them it became a Proverb, (f) Cela eft plus bean que la Cid. On the other fide, Cardinal Richelien damn'd it, and faid, All the pudder about it, was only between the ignorant people, and the men of judgment.

Yet this Cardinal with so nice a taste, had not many years before been several times to fee acted the Tragedy of Sir Thomas Moor, and as often wept at the Representa tion. Never were known fo many people () crowded to death, as at that Play. Yet was it the Manufacture of Jehan de Serre, one about the form of our Flekno, or Thomas Jordan. The fame de Serre, that dedicated a Book of Meditations to K. Charles I. and went home with Pockets full of Medals and Reward.

By this Inftance we fee a man the most harp, and of the greateft penetration was impofed upon by thefe cheating Sences, (f) Peliffon. Hift. Acad. (g) Parnasse Reform.

the

the Eyes and the Ears, which greedily took in the impreffion from the Show, the Action, and from the Emphasis and Pronunciation; tho there was no great matter of Fable, no Manners, no fine Thoughts, no Language; that is, nothing of a Tragedy, nothing of a Poet all the while.

Horace was very angry with these empty Shows and Vanity, which the Gentlemen of his time ran like mad after.

----Infanos oculos, et gaudia vana.

What woud he have faid to the French Opera of late fo much in vogue? There it is for you to bewitch your eyes, and to charm your ears. There is a Cup of Enchantment, there is Mufick and Machine; Circe and Calipfo in confpiracy against Nature and good Senfe. 'Tis a Debauch the most infinuating, and the moft pernicious; none would think an Opera and Civil Reafon, should be the growth of one and the fame Climate. But fhall we wonder at any thing for a Sacrifice to the Grand Monarch? fuch Worship, fuch Idol. All flattery to him is infipid, unless it be prodigious: Nothing reasonable, or within compafs can come near the Matter. All must be monstrous, enormous, and outragious to Nature, to be like him, or give any Eccho on his Appetite.

Were

Were Rabelais alive again, he would look on his Garagantua as but a Pygmy.

(h)--The Heroes Race excels the Poets Thought. The Academy Royal may pack up their Modes and Methods, & penfes ingenienfes ; the Racines and the Corneilles must all now dance to the Tune of Baptifta. Here is the Opera; here is Machine and Baptifta, farewell Apollo and the Muses.

Away with your Opera from the Theatre, better had they become the Heathen Temples; for the Corybantian Priefts,and (Semiviros Gallos) the old Capons of Gaul, than a People that pretend from Charlemayn, or descend from the undoubted Loyns of Ger main and Norman Conquerors.

In the French, not many years before was observed the like vicious appetite, and immoderate Paffion for vers Burlesque.

They were currant in Italy an hundred years, ere they paffed to this fide the Alps; But when once they had their turn in France, fo right to their humour, they over-ran all; (i) nothing wife or fober might ftand in their way. All were poffeffed with the Spirit of Burlesk, from Doll in the Dairy, to the Matrons at Court, and Maids of Honour. Nay, fo far went the (b) Waller. (i) Peliffon Hiftor. Acad.

Frenzy,

Frenzy, that no Bookfeller wou'd meddle on any terms without Burlesk; infomuch that Ann. 1649. was at Paris printed a fe rious Treatise with this Title,

--La Paffion de Noftre Seigneur, En vers Burlesques. If we cannot rife to the Perfection of intreigue in Sophocles, let us fit down with the honefty and fimplicity of the first begin ners in Tragedy: As for example;

One of the most fimple now extant, is the Perfians by Aefchylus.

Some ten years after that Darius bad been beaten by the Greeks, Xerxes (his Father Darius being dead) brought against them fuch Forces by Sea and Land, the like never known in Hiftory: Xerxes went alfo in person, with all the Maifon de Roy, Satrapie and Gendarmery; all were routed. Some forty years afterwards the Poet takes hence his fubject for a Tragedy.

The Place is by Darius's Tomb, in the Metropolis of Perfia.

The Time is the Night, an hour or two before day break.

First, on the Stage are feen 15 Perfons in Robes, proper for the Satrapa, or Chief Princes in Perfia: Suppofe they met fo early at the Tomb,then facred,and ordinarily reforted

to

to by people troubled in mind, on the accounts of Dreams, or any thing not boding good. They talk of the state of Affairs: Of Greece; and of the Expedition. After fome time take

to be the Chorus.

upon them

The next on the Stage comes Atoffa the Queen Mother of Perfia; he cou'd not lie in Bed for a Dream that troubled her; fo in a fit of Devotion comes to her Husband's Tomb, there luckily meets with so many Wife-men and Counsellors to eaf her Med by interpreting her Dream; This with the Chorus makes the Second Act.

After this, their Disorder, Lamentation and Wailing, is fuch,that Darius is cifturbed in his Tomb, fo his Ghost appears, and belike stays with them till Day-break: Then the Chorus concludes the A.

In the Fourth Act come the Meffengers with fad Tidings, which, with the reflections and troubles thereupon, and the Chorus, fill out this

Act.

In the Laft, Xerxes himself arrives, which gives occafion of condoling, bouling, and diftraction enough, to the end of the Tragedy.

One may imagine how a Grecian Äudience that lov'd their Countrey, and glory'd in the Vertue of their Ancestors wou'd be affected with this Representation.