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ments of fate, when that juftice was precluded to them? This is expreffed, in answer to the plea of Oreftes, that he fhould fuffer the vengeance of the Gods for the murder of his mother; Electra replies,

Τῷ δαὶ πατρώαν διαμεθῆς τιμωρίαν

i. e. Who then shall repay vengeance to our father? She owns the confequence, yet infifts on the duty of incurring it. There was no other to whom the right of vengeance properly belonged.

4. Further, the pagan doctrine of fate was fuch, that, in order to discharge duty in one refpect, it was unavoidable to incur guilt in another. This was the cafe here. Phoebus commanded, and fate had decreed; yet obedience was a crime, to be expiated by future punifhment. This may feem ftrange to us, who have other notions of these matters, but was perfectly according to the pagan fyftem. The refult is, that they knowingly expofed themselves to vengeance, in order to fulfil their fate. All that remained was to lament their destiny, and revere the awful and myfterious providence of their Gods. And this is, exactly, what Oreftes pleads, in vindication of himself, elsewhere;

Ἀλλ ̓ ὡς μὲν ἐκ εὖ, μὴ λεγ', εἴργασαι τάδε,

Ἡμῖν δὲ τοῖς δράσασιν ἐκ εὐδαιμόνως. Oreft. At ii. દે 5. Laftly,

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5. Laftly, it fhould be remembered, how heinous a crime adultery was esteemed in the old world; when, as well as murder, we find it punished with death. The law of the XII Tables exprefly fays, ADVLTERII CONVICTAM VIR ET COGNATI, VTI VELINT, NECANTO. Now, all these confiderations put together, Electra might affift at the affaffination of her mother, confiftently with the ftrongeft feelings of piety and affection. That these then should inftantly break forth, fo foon as the debt to justice, to duty, and to fate was paid, is nothing wonderful. And this, by the way, vindicates the chorus from the inconfiftency, by fome charged upon it, in condemning the act, when done, which before they had laboured to justify. The common anfwer, "That the chorus follows the character of the people," is infufficient.. For (befides that the chorus always fuftains a moral character) whence that inconfiftency in the people themselves? The reafon was, the popular creed of those times. It had been an omiffion of duty to have declined, it was crimi nal to execute, the murder.

3. The difpofition of the drama (whether the moft judicious, or not, is not the question) was calculated to introduce this change with the greatest probability. Electra's principal refentment was to Ægyfthus. From him chiefly pro

ceeded

ceeded her ill treatment, and from him was apprehended the main danger of the enterprize. Now, Egyfthus being taken off in the beginning of the preceding act, there was time to indulge all the movements and gratulations of revenge, which the objection fuppofes fhould precede, and for a while fufpend the horrors of remorse, before they come to the murder of Clytemneftra. This is rendered the more likely by the long parley, that goes before it; which rather tends to foften, than exafperate, her refentments, and seems artfully contrived to prepare the change, that follows.

On the whole, Electra's concern, às managed by the poet, is agreeable to the tenor of her character, and the circumftances of her fituation. To have drawn her otherwise, had been perhaps in the taste of modern tragedy, but had certainly been befide the line of nature, and practice of the antients.

2. The cafe of Iphigenia, though a greater authority ftand in the way, is ftill eafier. Ariftotle's words are, τῇ δὲ ἀνωμάλα [παράδειγμα] ἡ ἐν Αὐλίδι Ιφιγένεια. Οὐδὲν γὰρ ἔοικεν ἡ ἱκετεύεσα τῇ ὑσέρα, i. e. Iphigenia is an instance of

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"the inconfiftent character: for there is no "probable conformity betwixt her fears and "fupplications at firft, and her firmness " and refolution afterwards." But how doth VOL. I. I this

this appear, independently of the name of this great critic? Iphigenia is drawn indeed, at firft, fearful and fuppliant: and surely with the greatest observance of nature. The account of her deftination to the altar was fudden, and without the leaft preparation; and, as Lucretius well obferves, in commenting her cafe, NUBENDI TEMPORE IN IPSO; when her thoughts were all employed, and, according to the fimplicity of those times, confeffed to be so, on her promised nuptials. The cause of fuch deftination too, as appeared at first, was the private family intereft of Menelaus. All this juftifies, or rather demands, the ftrongest expreffion of female fear and weakness. But the afterwards recants, "and voluntarily devotes herself to the altar." And this, with the fame ftrict attention to probability. She had now informed herself of the importance of the cafe. Her devotement was the demand of Apollo, and the joint petition of all Greece. The glory of her country, the dignity and intereft of her family, the life of the generous Achilles, and her own future fame, were, all, nearly concerned in it. fidered, together with the high, ments of thofe times, and the fuperior merit, as was believed, of voluntary devotement, Iphigenia's character must have been very unfit for the diftrefs of a whole tragedy to turn upon, if

All this conheroic fenti

fhe

The had not, in the end, difcovered the readieft fubmiffion to her appointment. But, to fhew with what wonderful propriety the poet knew to fuftain his characters, we find her, after all, and notwithstanding the heroifm of the change, in a ftrong and paffionate apoftrophe to her native Mycenæ, confeffing fome involuntary apprehenfions and regrets, the remains of that inftinctive abhorrence of death, which had before fo ftrongly poffeffed her.

Ἔθρεψας Ελλάδι μέγα φάος
θανᾶσα δ ̓ ἐκ αναίνομαι.

Once the bright ftar of Greece-
But I fubmit to die.

This, I take to be not only a full vindication of the confiftency of Iphigenia's character, but as delicate a ftroke of nature, as is, perhaps, to be found in any writer.

After the writing of this note, I was pleased to find, that fo fenfible a critic, as P. Brumoi, had been before me in these sentiments concerning the character of Iphigenia. The reasons he employs, are nearly the fame. Only he confirms them all by fhewing, that the Iphigenia of Racine, which is modelled, not according to the practice of Euripides, but the comment of Aristotle, is, in all refpects, fo much the worse for it. In juftice to this ingenious writer, it fhould

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