properties-but Jonfon ftands ftill to be furveyed, and prefents fo bold a front, and levels it fo fully to our view, as feems to challenge the compafs and the rule of the critic, and defy him to find out an error in the fcale and compofition of his ftructure.

Putting afide therefore any further mention of Shakespear, who was a poet out of all rule, and beyond all compafs of criticifm, one whofe excellencies are above comparison, and his errors beyond number, I will venture an opinion that this drama of The Fox is, critically fpeaking, the nearest to perfection of any one drama, comic or tragic, which the English stage is at this day in poffeffion of.

IN

No. LXXVI.

N my foregoing paper, when I remarked that Jonfon in his comedy of The Fox was a clofe copier of the antients, it occurred to me to fay fomething upon the celebrated drama of The Sampson Agonistes, which, though lefs beholden to the Greek

pocts

poets in it's dialogue than the comedy above-mentioned, is in all other particulars as compleat an imitation of the Antient Tragedy, as the diftance of times and the difference of languages will admit of.

It is profeffedly built according to antient rule and example, and the author, by taking Ariftotle's definition of tragedy for his motto, fairly challenges the critic to examine and compare it by that teft. His clofe adherence to the model of the Greek tragedy is in nothing more confpicuous than in the fimplicity of his diction; in this particular he has curbed his fancy with fo tight a hand, that, knowing as we do the fertile vein of his genius, we cannot but lament the fidelity of his imitation; for there is a harshness in the metre of his Chorus, which to a certain degree feems to border upon pedantry and affectation; he premises that the measure is indeed of all forts, but I must take leave to observe that in fome places it is no measure at all, or fuch at least as the ear will not patiently endure, nor which any recitation can make harmonious. By cafting out of his compofition the ftrophe and ant ftrophe, thofe ftanzas which the Greeks appropriated

to finging, or in one word by making his Chorus monoftrophic, he has robbed it of that lyric beauty, which he was capable of beftowing in the highest perfection; and why he fhould stop short in this particular, when he had otherwife gone fo far in imitation, is not easy to guefs; for furely it would have been quite as natural to suppose those stanzas, had he written any, might be fung, as that all the other parts, as the drama now ftands with a Chorus of fuch irregular meafure, might be recited or given in reprefentation.

Now it is well known to every man converfant in the Greek theatre, how the Chorus, which in fact is the parent of the drama, came in procefs of improvement to be woven into the fable, and from being at first the whole, grew in time to be only a part: The fable being fimple, and the characters few, the striking part of the spectacle rested upon the finging and dancing of the interlude, if I may fo call it, and to these the people were too long accustomed and too warmly atached, to allow of any reform. for their exclufion; the tragic poet therefore never got rid of his Chorus, though

the

the writers of the Middle Comedy contrived to dismiss thèir's, and probably their fa ble being of a more lively character, their fcenes were better able to ftand without the fupport of mufic and fpectacle, than the mournful fable and more languid recitation. of the tragedians. That the tragic authors laboured against the Chorus will appear from their efforts to expel Bacchus and his Satyrs from the stage, in which they were long time oppofed by the audience, and at last by certain ingenious expedients, which were a kind of compromife with the public, effected their point: This in part was brought about by the introduction of a fuller fcene and a more active fable, but the Chorus with it's accompaniments kept it's place, and the poet, who feldom ventured upon introducing more than three fpeakers on the fcene at the fame time, qualified the fterility of his business by giving to the Chorus a fhare of the dialogue, who at the same time that they furnished the stage with numbers, were not counted amongst the speaking: characters according to the rigour of the ufage above-mentioned. A man must be an enthusiast for antiquity, who can find charms

I 6

and indicate an impulfe, either natural or præternatural, fuch muft be called leading incidents, and thofe leading incidents will conftitute a middle, or in more diffufive terms the middle bufinefs of the drama. Manoah in his interview with Sampfon, which the author of the Rambler denominates the fecond act of the tragedy, tells him

This day the Philistines a popular feaft
Here celebrate in Gaza, and proclaim
Great pomp and facrifice and praifes loud:
To Dagon, as their God-

Here is information of a meeting of his enemies to celebrate their idolatrous triumphs; an incident of juft provocation to the fervant of the living God, an opportunity perhaps for vengeance, either human or divine; if it paffes without notice from Sampfon, it is not to be ftiled an incident, if on the contrary he remarks upon it, it must be onebut Sampfon replies

Dagon must foop, and shall ere long receive
Such a difcomfit, as fhall quite defpoil him
Of all thefe boafted trophies won on me,
And with confufion blank his worshippers.

Who