ZEN OBIA. A TRAGEDY. ANONYMOUS. Pening the drama with foliloquy, unless what the character fpeaks appertains peculiarly to felf, we cannot entirely approve; and what Zelmira offers at the beginning of this tragedy, we deem an uneffential, faint, trite effort at description; what The fays to her husband Zopiron, concerning the havoc which ambition caufes, is expreffed in terms commendably humane; a moft hateful picture of Pharafmanes is given, and we are informed, that he holds in captivity a beauteous dame, diftinguished by the name of Ariana, for whofe virtue Zelmira conceives tender apprehenfions; the entrance of Zenobia is well prepared, by mention of the diftrefs her mind appears to wear; and her fainting under a load of forrow when he comes in view, affects the tender mind: there is fomething pretty in her fenfe of obligation for the tender affiduity of her attendants, and their difinterested attachment; but we think them very ftrange, very improper messengers to supervise and bring intelligence of the impending battle; it muft convey an Amazonian idea to fuppofe them capable of fuch a charge; befides, Zopiron, who now difappears fo oddly, might have either undertaken the matter himself, or recommended a proper meffenger. In Zenobia. In the conference between Zenobia and Zelmira, Pharafmanes's brutal, bloody character, is fet in a clearer light, by the direct charge of fratricide, in murdering Mithridates, an amiable monarch, whofe virtues, exclufive of natural ties, fhould have fecured him from fuch violence; it appears too, that the tyrant illegally holds the crown of Armenia, given to his eldest fon Rhadamiftus by Mithridates: a crown Pharafmanes feized by force of arms, purfuing even the life of his plundered child. On Zelmira's charging Rhadamiftus with the murder of his wife, Zenobia gives a nervous and pathetic account of the affair, from whence we learn that prince was fent when young to Mithridates' court, where an early affection grew between him and Zenobia, to whom he was married. At length, driven to defpair by the unnatural rage of Pharafmanes, the royal couple determined to seek an asylum in death, for which purpose they plunged into the river Araxes; in the tranfport of relation, Zenobia, known to Zelmira only as Ariana, flips out her real name, which feems to promise further explanation; but the entrance of Tigranes, an officer and creature of Pharafmanes ftops it. The appearance of fome captives ftrikes Zenobia with apprehenfion that the Romans have been vanquished, but Tigranes informs her they are only fome perfons who were intercepted going to the Roman camp, for which the king has fentenced them to be impaled alive; the latter end of this line we think liable to objection, They fuffer death in mifery of torment. The Zenobia. The word mifery feems fuperfluously annexed to torment, as not tending to add any force, but rather furnishing a poverty of idea; there may be mifery without torment, but there cannot be torment without mifery. Upon viewing the unhappy objects of unrelenting tyranny, Zenobia tenderly recognizes Megiftus, for whom the profeffes most friendly regard, as he does for her, and on the authority of being beloved by Pharafmanes, fhe takes him under her protection. This meeting is extremely well conceived, and the caufe of her efteem for the old man judiciously concealed. In the scene between Tigranes and Zelmira we are informed, that Teribazus, the younger fon of Pharafmanes, loves Zenobia; a fhort sketch of that young prince's character is given by Tigranes, who afterwards drops a diftant intimation of being himself a foe to Zenobia; here Teribazus prefents himfelf, and makes kind enquiry of Zelmira for Ariana: Zenobia comes in upon his words, and en quires concerning the fate of war, when fhe is informed, that the king has condescended to treat of peace, and that an ambaffador from the Roman camp is to have audience in Pharafmanes's tent; from this Zenobia cannot draw any prefage in her own favour, however, proceeds to an immediate and warm interceffion for Megiftus, whom he calls more than father; fhe drops alfo fome unfavourable hints of Tigranes's officiousness in the act of crimination; the prince, glad of an occafion to oblige the object of his affection, promises not only life but liberty Zenobias liberty to the old man, and reproves Tigranes with confiderable afperity. This defirable point gained, Zenobia's mental gloom appears for fome time gilded with the enlivening rays of heart-felt fatisfaction; in the full flow of her feelings, and to account for being fo interefted for Megiftus, fhe reveals herself at large, and relates how the good old man refcued her, when floated far from Rhadamiftus; rescued her juft expiring, from the flood, and with her faved a boy of which the then was pregnant; the remainder of this fcene, where he mentions living with Megiftus, feparation from her child, captivity with Pharafmanes, and the grief of her husband loft, is poetically pathetic, well calculated for capital action, without any ftrain or exaggeration of nature. That dramatic writers, forty years fince, when actors chaunted according to the flow of verfe, paying more refpect to harmony of expreffion than meaning, fhould tag their acts with those paltry unnatural clap traps, rhimes, is not at all furprifing; but for a poet of this day to intrude them upon public tafte, is what we could not reafonably expect, and muft therefore blame in this play, especially those at the end of the firft act, which are fervilely fimilar to one of Andromache's fpeeches in the Diftreffed Mother; we have alfo an objection to fpeaking of fpirit, in the ftile of a diftinct fex, when the most ignorant must know, that the corporeal compofition only, admits fuch a diftinction; the paffage runs Zenobia. Till you shall bid this fad, world weary fpirit, There is another line in this fcene cenfurable, as being both in idea and expreffion exactly fimilar to a paffage in Dryden's Virgil; Zenobia, fpeaking. of her husband's fatal catastrophe, fays, the last difmal accents That trembled on thy tongue came bubbling upSpeaking of a fea-nymph's departure under water, Dryden has it thus, And her last words came bubbling up in air. At the beginning of the fecond act, Tigranes prefents himself ruminating, in a fhort foliloquy, upon fome terms of reproach, uttered against him by. Teribazus, which occafions him to declare refent-. ment against the Prince, marking Zenobia alfo as an object of hatred; Pharafmanes approaches this minifterial tool of tyranny, and like the true man of blood, regrets that propofed negotiation from the Roman camp, has ftopped the glorious havoc of impending battle; then enquires, whether the captives have fuffered death according to his fentence; this gives Tigranes's malevolence an opportunity of accufing Teribazus, by infinuation of fufpending their fate; thus he touches the monarch's, impatience, who expreffes himself in terms of feverity against the Prince, just as Zenobia enters, who fupplicates in pathetic terms, mercy for the captives, this fuit, from an amourous inclination, Pharafmanes grants; the perfuafion of one, and VOL, I. Fff the |