brought about, in any language, time or place.

Such is the conduct of the tragedy of Semiramis, if you except the beauties with which I was incapable of adorning it. You may fee from the very first scene, that the whole is to be tranfacted by fupernatural powers; every thing is relative, from act to act, to this fole idea. An avenging god inspires Semiramis with remorfe, which fhe would not have felt in the course of her profperity, had not the voice of Ninus, rifing from his tomb, terrified her in the midst of all her glory. The fame god makes ufe of that very remorfe to bring about her punishment; and from thence refults the moral of the piece. The ancients had often in their works a defign of establishing some great maxim; fo Sophocles finishes his dipus, by faying, that a man can never be deemed happy before his death. Here the whole instruction lies in one fentence, That

There are crimes of fo horrid a nature, that the wrath of God can never be appeas'd.

A maxim of much greater importance than that of Sophocles. But it may be asked, what inftruction can the generality of mankind derive from a crime fo rare, and a punishment ftill more fo? I own the catastrophe of Semiramis can happen but feldom, but what happens every day is contained in the last lines of the play.

-Learn from hence that crimes

From mankind hidden, by the gods are seen.

There are few families in the world, to whom thefe lines may not be applicable, one time or other. Subjects, the most diftant from the general courfe of events, may thus have the trueft relation to the manners of all mankind.

I might, particularly, apply to the tragedy of Semiramis, the moral by which Eripides finishes his Alceftes, a performance, where the marvellous reigns more abundantly than in mine: "That the gods make ufe of furprising methods to bring about their eternal defigns; that the great events which they prepare, are above the ideas of mortal men."

In

In fine, my lord, it is merely because this work breathes the pureft morals, and even the most severe, that I offer it to your eminence. True tragedy is the school of virtue; and the only difference that fubfifts between a refined theatre and books of morality, is, that inftructions in tragedy are alive, in action, interefting, and fet off with the charms of an art invented formerly to inftruct the earth; they fing the praises of heaven; and were therefore called the language of the gods. You, who join this great art to fo many others, will eafily forgive me the long detail I have entered into, on matters, which, perhaps, had not been before cleared up; but which might be foon explained fatisfactorily, would your eminence be pleased to communicate your thoughts upon antiquity, of which you have fo profound a knowledge.

PREFACE

To the Comedy of the PRODIGAL SON.

T is not a little furprising that this

It

comedy, which was acted about ten years ago, and ran thirty nights, fhould have hitherto remained in manufcript. As the author concealed his name, it was attributed to feveral perfons of diftinguished merit; but it certainly is the work of monfieur de Voltaire, though the ftyle is fo very different from that of the Henriade, that it would be hardly poffible to discover they were both written by the fame perfon.

We offer this piece therefore in his name. to the public, as the first comedy which

* The style and manner of this and fome other introductory prefaces, offered to the public, in the name of the publisher or bookfeller, fufficiently fhew, that they were written by monfieur de Voltaire,

has

has been written in verfes of ten fyllables +; this novelty, may perhaps, induce fome other person to chufe the fame metre. It will caufe fome variety on the french ftage; and he who finds out new fources of pleasure and entertainment, has a right to meet with a favourable reception.

If a comedy fhould be the reprefentation of manners, this play deferves that name. It contains that mixture of gravity and mirth, that fucceffion of ridiculous and pathetic events, with which the life of man is variegated. Even the fame accident is sometimes productive of all these contrasts. How many families may we obferve, in which the father scolds, the love-fick daughter weeps, and the fon turns both into ridicule; while the other relations variously partake in the fame scene! What is laughed at in one apartment, draws tears from the company of the next. The fame perfon has often

The French Comedies are all in verfes of twelve fyllables, or Alexandrins, as they are called in France, except a very few, that are wrote in Profe.

laughed