acts: he is fuppos'd to be in the fhades below with Pirithous. Hippolytus, his fon, wants to leave Trezene, and to fly from Aricia, whom he is in love with: he declares his paffion to Aricia, and listens to Phædra's with horror: he dies the fame kind of death, and his governor relates the manner of it.

Add to this likewife, that the principal perfonages in both pieces, as they are in the fame circumstances, fay almoft the fame things: but this is the very place which distinguishes the great man from the bad poet; when Racine and Pradon have the fame fentiments, they differ most from each other: for a proof of this, let us take the declaration of Hippolytus to Aricia. Racine makes him talk thus:

I who so long defy'd the tyrant's pow'r,
Smil'd at his chains, and made a mock of love :
Myself on fhore, I saw weak mortals wreck'd,
And thought I fafely might behold the storm
At distance rage, which I cou'd never feel:
And muft I fink beneath the common lot?
I must: this haughty foul at length is conquer'd,
And hangs on thee: for fix long months despair
And shame have rent my foul: where'er I go,

The

The wound still rankles: with myself long time
In vain I ftruggled, reafon'd, wept in vain :
When abfent feek thee, and when prefent fhun:
Thy image haunts me in the fylvan shade:
The day-light's fplendor and the evening's gloom.
All bring the lov'd Aricia to my eyes :,
All, all, unite to make this rebel thine.
O! I have loft myfelf: the bow unbent,
And ufelefs arrows lay neglected by me;.
Thy leffons, Neptune, are no more remember'd:
The woods re-eccho to my fighs alone

Refponfive, and my idle courfers now

Forget the voice of their Hippolytus.

Now observe how this Hippolytus expreffes himself in

Pradon.

Long time, too long, alas! with lips profane,
Laughing at love, did I adore Diana;
A folitary favage long I liv'd,

And chafed the bears and lions in the foreft;
But now more preffing cares employ my time,
For fince I faw thee I have left off hunting,
Tho' once I took delight in it, but now
I never go there but to think of

you,

It

It is impoffible to read and compare these two pieces without admiring one and laughing at the other; and yet there is the fame ground of thoughts and fentiments in both: when we are to make the paffions. speak, all men have pretty nearly the fame ideas; but the manner of expreffing them, diftinguishes the man of wit from him that has none; the man of genius from him who has nothing but wit; and the real poet, from him who wou'd be a poet if he could.

To arrive at Racine's perfection in writing, a man muft poffefs his genius, and withal muft polish and correct his works as he did: how diffident then ought. I to be, born as I am with fuch indifferent talents, and opprefs'd by continual diforders, who have neither the gift of a fine imagination, nor time to correct laboriously the faults of my performances! I am fenfible of and lament the imperfections of this piece, as well with regard to the conduct as the diction of it: I fhou'd have mended them a little, if I cou'd have put off this edition for a little longer; but ftill I fhou'd have left a great many behind. In every art there is a certain point beyond which we can never advance: we are shut up within the limits of our talents; we see perfection lying beyond us; and only make impotent endeavours to attain to it..

I fhall not make a formal and regular critique or this piece, the reader will probably fave me that trouble; but it may be neceffary to fay fomething concerning a general objection to the choice of my fubject. As it is the nature of Frenchmen to lay hold with rapidity on the ridicule of things, in themselves the most serious, it has been faid, that the subject of Mariamne is nothing but an old amorous brutal hufband; whofe wife, being out of humour with him, refuses him the return of conjugal duty to which it has been added, that a family quarrel cou'd never make a good tragedy. I wou'd only beg these criticks to join with me in a few reflections on this strange: kind of prejudice.

The plots of tragedies are generally founded, either on the interefts of a whole nation, or the private interefts of the fovereign. Of the first kind are the Iphigenia in Aulis; where all Greece, met in full affembly, demands the blood of the son of Agamemnon; the Horatii, where the three combattants are to decide: the fate of Rome; and the Oedipus, where the fafety and profperity of Thebes depends on the discovery of the murtherer of Laius. Of the latter kind are Britannicus, Phædra, Mithridates, &c. In thefe all the interest

intereft is confin'd to the hero of the piece and his family: all turns upon fuch paffions as the vulgar feel equally with princes, the plot of them may be as proper for comedy as for tragedy: for, take away the names only, and Mithridates is no more than an old fellow in love with a young girl: his two fons are in love with her at the fame time: and he makes use of a very low artifice to discover which of his fons the lady is fond of. Phadra is a step-mother, who, egg'd on by her confidante, makes love to her fon-in-law, who is unfortunately pre-engag'd. Nero is an impetuous young man, who falls precipitately in love, and immediately wants to be feparated from his wife, and hides himself behind the tapestry to overhear the converfation of his mistress. These are all of them subjects which Moliere might treat as well as Racine: nay, the whole plot of the Mifer is. exactly the fame as that of Mithridates: Harpagon and the king of Pontus are two old fellows in love: each of them has a fon for his rival; both of them make use of the fame artifice to discover the intrigue carry'd on between the fon and the miftrefs; and both pieces end in the marriage of the young man,

Maliere