other grave writers, as CICERO, PLUTArch, and others, frequently cite out of tragic poets, both to ADORN and illustrate their discourse. The APOSTLE PAUL himself thought it not unworthy to insert a verse of Euripides into the TEXT of HOLY I. Cor. C. 15. v. 38.-And Peræus, commenting on the REVELATION, divides the whole book as a TRAGEDY into ACTS, distinguished each by a chorus of heavenly harpings and songs between."

SCRIPTURE.

Of

"Heretofore MEN IN THE HIGHEST DIGNITY have laboured not a little to be thought able to compose A TRAGEDY. that honour Dionysius the elder, was no less ambitious than before of his attaining the tyranny. AUGUSTUS CESAR, also had begun his AJAX, but unable to please his own judgment with what he had begun, left it unfinished. SENECA the philosopher, is by some thought the author of those tragedies (at least the best of them) that

go

under his name. GREGORY NAZIANZEN, a FATHER OF THE CHURCH, thought it not unbecoming the sanctity of his person, to WRITE a TRAGEDY, which he entitled CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS!"

Now, Madam, what say you to the strong evidence in our favour, thus furuished by a religious poet, and latin secretary to the puritanical Oliver, whose attainments as a scholar, whose skill as a poet, and whose integrity as a man, stands unimpeachable?

It is with extreme regret I feel myself under the necessity of detaining you a few minutes longer in this disgusting investigation, but I have yet in reserve, a few more absurdities, to which I must call your attention,

Jeremy Collier, a name high in the list of our correctors, having given some

instances of the lamentable pruriencies, to be found in the writers of his day, proceeds to the accusation of profaneness. He then particularizes. Some of his extracts, I will furnish you with, that you may feel the full value of his pindaric flight.

VALENTINE, in LOVE FOR LOVE; says "I am Truth, I am Truth.-Who's that that's out of his way?-1 am Truth, and can set him right."

LADY BRUTE, in THE PROVOKED WIFE, observes "The part of a down-right wife, is to cuckold her husband:-and though this is against the strict statute law of religion, yet if there were a Court of Chancery in Heaven, she should be sure to cast him.”

YOUNG FASHION in THE RELAPSE, when plotting against his elder brother, remarks to his servant: "LORY, Providence

thou seest, at last, takes care of men of merit.”—BERINTHIA says to AMANDA:

Mr. Worthy used you like a text, he took you all to pieces:"-and she concludes with this pious exhortation, "Now consider what has been said, and Heaven give you grace to put it in practice."

Mr. Collier declares, "There are few of these last quotations but what are plain blasphemy, and within the LAW. They look reeking as if it were from PANDÆMONIUM, and almost smell of fire and brimstone. This is an eruption of Hell with a witness! I almost wonder the smoke of it has not darkened the sun, and turned the air to plague and poison! These are outrageous provocations; enough to arm all nature in revenge; to exhaust the judgments of Heaven, and sink the island into the sea!!!"

Observe, that I am far from considering

these profane passages, or any similar to them, justifiable.-No-I deeply deplore the propensity, that too many dramatic writers have, for trifling with opinions, from whence wit should not be elicited, nor into which ridicule should not be infused. Had I my Lord Chamberlain's pen to exercise, upon the new pieces, I must candidly confess, it would be very freely employed in the erasure of those lively jests, too imbecile to be impious, and too dull to be witty. viz. "I would shake hands with Old Nick."-"A fig for all the saints in the calendar, &c. &c. &c.But to imagine the follies of all the poets that ever existed, could poison the air, darken the sun, and sink the island, is forming an idea so base, so puerile, so unworthy of the great enlightened incomprehensible Creator, as to make it a doubt which is the most reprehensible, the poet, or the right reverend critic.

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