Volume I Part 35 (1/2)

But to shew how a Rant pleases beyond the most just and natural Thought that is not p.r.o.nounced with Vehemence, I would desire the Reader when he sees the Tragedy of _OEdipus_, to observe how quietly the Hero is dismissed at the End of the third Act, after having p.r.o.nounced the following Lines, in which the Thought is very natural, and apt to move Compa.s.sion;

'To you, good G.o.ds, I make my last Appeal; Or clear my Virtues, or my Crimes reveal.

If in the Maze of Fate I blindly run, And backward trod those Paths I sought to shun; Impute my Errors to your own Decree: My Hands are guilty, but my Heart is free.'

Let us then observe with what Thunder-claps of Applause he leaves the Stage, after the Impieties and Execrations at the End of the fourth Act; [4] and you will wonder to see an Audience so cursed and so pleased at the same time;

'O that as oft have at Athens seen,--

[Where, by the Way, there was no Stage till many Years after OEdipus.]

... The Stage arise, and the big Clouds descend; So now, in very Deed, I might behold This pond'rous Globe, and all yen marble Roof, Meet like the Hands of Jove, and crush Mankind.

For all the Elements, &c.'

[Footnote 1: Here Aristotle is not quite accurately quoted. What he says of the tragedies which end unhappily is, that Euripides was right in preferring them,

'and as the strongest proof of it we find that upon the stage, and in the dramatic contests, such tragedies, if they succeed, have always the most tragic effect.'

Poetics, Part II. -- 12.]

[Footnote 2: Of the two plays in this list, besides 'Oth.e.l.lo', which have not been mentioned in the preceding notes, 'All for Love', produced in 1678, was Dryden's 'Antony and Cleopatra', 'Oroonoko', first acted in, 1678, was a tragedy by Thomas Southerne, which included comic scenes. Southerne, who held a commission in the army, was living in the 'Spectator's' time, and died in 1746, aged 86. It was in his best play, 'Isabella', or the Fatal Marriage, that Mrs. Siddons, in 1782, made her first appearance on the London stage.]

[Footnote 3: Congreve's 'Mourning Bride' was first acted in 1697; Rowe's 'Tamerlane' (with a hero planned in complement to William III.) in 1702; Rowe's 'Ulysses' in 1706; Edmund Smith's 'Phaedra' and 'Hippolitus' in 1707.]

[Footnote 4: The third Act of 'OEdipus' was by Dryden, the fourth by Lee. Dryden wrote also the first Act, the rest was Lee's.]

ADVERTIs.e.m.e.nT

_Having spoken of Mr._ Powell, as sometimes raising himself Applause from the ill Taste of an Audience; I must do him the Justice to own, that he is excellently formed for a Tragoedian, and, when he pleases, deserves the Admiration of the best Judges; as I doubt not but he will in the Conquest of Mexico, _which is acted for his own Benefit To-morrow Night_.

C.

No. 41. Tuesday, April 17, 1711. Steele.

'Tu non inventa reperta es.'

Ovid