ducted will contribute but little to that end; and tho it fhould be affecting, yet even that will not be fufficient: all poetical performances, tho' ever so perfect in other points, muft neceffarily difplease, if the lines are not strong and harmonious, and if there does not run thro the whole a continued elegance and in

empoifoned draught prefented to Mariamne, took into his head to cry out," the queen drinks." † All the Frenchmen began to laugh, and the piece was difcontinued. It was given the next year, and the queen received another kind of death. The play ran forty nights.

Mr. Rouffeau who began to be jealous of the author, wrote at that time another Mariamne from Tristan's ancient tragedy; he fent it to the players who could never act it; and to Didot the bookfeller who could never fell it. long variance that fubfifted between our author and Rouffeau. Voltaire.

This was the origin of the

+ This alludes to a custom established in France of chufing a king by lot in every company on twelfth-night, who, on his part, names the queen. They often are at the expence of an entertainment, and both highly honoured during that night; when they drink, it is proclaimed aloud, and their example followed by all their loyal subjects.

Not the prefent philofopher Rouffeau, but another of the fame name, whofe reputation in poetry is very high among the French. His odes are remarkably fine.

expreffible

expreffible charm of verfe, that genius only can infpire, that wit alone can never attain, and about which, people have argued fo ill, and to fo little purpose, fince the death of Boileau.

It is a very gross mistake to imagine that the verfification is the leaft effential and leaft difficult part of a theatrical piece. Mr. Racine, than whom, after Virgil, no man ever knew better the art of verfifying, was not of that opinion. His Phædra alone employed him for two years. Pradon boafted of having finished his in three months. As the success, at the acting of a play, does not depend fo much on the stile, as on the plot and the actors performance; it happened that both Phædra's feemed to fhare the same fate; but on the reading, their difference was eafily perceived, and their merits were foon settled in their proper claffes. It was to no purpose that Pradon published, according to the cuftom of all bad authors, a very infolent preface, in which he abuses the critics of his piece; notwithstanding the praises it received from himself and

from

3

from his cabal, it foon fell into that contempt which it deferves; and had it not been for the Phædra of Racine, it would not now be known that Pradon writ one.

Yet what is the cause of this mighty difference between the two performances? The plot is pretty much the fame in both plays: Phædra expires in each; Thefeus is abfent during the two firft acts, and fuppofed to have travelled to hell with Pirithoüs; his fon Hypolitus is refolved to quit Trezena, in order to fhun Aricia whom he loves; he declares his paffion to her, but is ftruck with horror at Phædra's love for him; he dies in the fame manner, and his governor gives the fame account of it. Befides, the perfonages of both plays being in the fame fituation, talk pretty much to the fame purport; but this is what beft diftinguishes the great man from the bad poet. The difference between Pradon and Racine is never fo confpicuous, as when their thoughts are most alike. Hypolitus's declaration to Aricia is a remarkable proof of this affertion. Racine makes Hypolitus fpeak in this manner :

Moi

Moi qui contre l'amour fiérement révolté,
Aux fers de ces captifs ai long-temps infulté ;
Qui des faibles mortels déplorant les naufrages,
Penfois toujours du bord contempler les orages;
Affervi maintenant fous la commune loi,

Par quel trouble maintenant me vois-je emporté
[loin de moi?
Un moment a vaincu mon audace imprudente;
Cette ame fi fuperbe est enfin dépendante.
Depuis pres de fix mois honteux, desespéré,
Portant partout le trait dont je fuis déchiré,
Contre vous, contre moi, vainement je m'éprouve,
Préfente je vous fuis, abfente je vous trouve.
Dans le fond des forêts votre image me fuit.
La lumiere du jour, les ombres de la nuit,
Tout retrace à mes yeux les charmes que j'évite;
Tout vous livre à l'envi le rebelle Hippolite.
Moi-même pour tout fruit de mes foins fuperflus,
Maintenant je me cherche, et ne me trouve plus.
Mon arc, mes javelots, mon char, tout m'importune,
Je ne me fouviens plus des leçons de Neptune.
Mes feuls gémiffemens font retentir les bois,
Et mes courfiers oififs ont oublié ma voix *.

In Pradon's play, Hypolitus expreffes himself in the following manner:

* The thought and fentiment being the fame in these two speeches, their whole difference lying in the expreffion, the reader must allow that the attempt to convey that difference in a tranflation would be abfurd.

Affez

Affez et trop long-temps, d'une bouche profane,
Je méprifai l'amour, et j'adorai Diane ;
Solitaire, farouche, on me voyoit toujours
Chaffer dans nos forêts les lions et les ours.
Mais un foin plus preffant m'occupe et m'embarraffe;
Depuis que je vous vois, j'abandonne la chaffe.
Elle fit autrefois mes plaisirs les plus doux,
Et quand j'y vais, ce n'eft que pour penser à vous.

It is impoffible to compare these two fpeeches without admiring the one, and laughing at the other. Yet the like thought and fentiments run thro' each; for when the paffions are to be described, nearly the fame ideas occur to every body; but it is in the expreffion of them that the man of genius is easily discerned from the wit, and the poet from the scribler.

To attain to Mr. Racine's perfection in writing, a man must be poffeffed of his genius, and take as much pains as he did in finishing his works. What apprehenfions must I be then under, who, born with flender parts, and continually afflicted with diseases, have neither an imagination to create many beauties, nor the liberty to correct my faults by conftant labour and study. I am fully convinced

of