"the ancient bards, and they will tell you, that "the gods themselves are under her controul." And fo goes on, enumerating particular examples, from all which fhe infers at laft the neceffity of Phædra's yielding to her fate. Again, 2. Towards the clofe of the Greek play, when, upon receiving the tragical story of his for's fufferings, Thefeus began to feel his refentments give way to the workings of paternal affection, and, on that account, though he was willing to conceal the true motive even from himself, had given orders for the dying Hippolytus to be brought before him, the chorus very properly flings out into that fine address to Venus, ~. Σὺ τῶν θεῶν ἄκαμπίον φρένα, &c.

the fubftance of which is, "That Venus, with her fwift-winged boy, who traverses the earth and ocean, fubdues the ftubborn hearts of gods "and men: infpiring into all, on whom her influence refts, whether inhabitants of the land

or deep, and more especially the race of man, a "soft and sympathizing tenderness; demonftrating hereby, that fhe alone extends her all❝controuling dominion over univerfal nature,' This fong, as thus connected with the occafion, is apparently very proper, and, when reduced from the pomp of lyric eloquence to plain prose, is only an addrefs of congratulation to the

powers

powers of love; confeffing and celebrating their influence, in thus foftening the rigours of a father's hate, and awakening in his breast the soft touches of returning pity and affection.

Now these two places, taken together, are plainly the ground-work of that song,

Diva, non miti generata ponto, &c.

but how improperly applied, has appeared, in respect of the latter of them, from what has been obferved concerning the occafion; and must be acknowleged of the other, from the different character of the perfon to whom it is given; and alfo from hence, that the chorus in the Greek poet exprefly condemns the impiety of such suggeftions in the nurse, and admonishes Phædra not to lend an ear to them. The chorus, when it comes to fing in him, is far otherwise employed; not in celebrating the triumphs, but deprecating the pernicious fury of this paffion, and in lamenting the fatal miscarriages of Hymeneal love.

II. The fecond fong, on the graces of the prince's perfon, and the danger of beauty, which follows on the abrupt departure of Hippolytus, rejecting, with a virtuous difdain, the mad attempts of Phædra and her confidante, is fo glaringly improper, as not to admit an excuse from any example. And yet, I am afraid, the

fingle authority, it has to lean on, is a very fhort hint, flightly dropped by the chorus in the Greeek poet on a very different occafion. It is in the entrance of that fcene, where the mangled body of Hippolytus is brought upon the stage; on the fight of which the chorus very naturally breaks out,

Καὶ μὲν ὁ τάλας ὅδε δὴ τείχει
Σάρκας νεαρὰς

Ξανθόν τε κάρα διαλυμανθείς.

and yet, as the reader of just taste perceives, nothing beyond a fingle reflexion could have been endured even here.

III. The next fong of the chorus may feem directly copied from Euripides. Yet the two occafions will be found extremely different. In Seneca Thefeus, under the conviction of his fon's guilt, inveighs bitterly against him, and at laft fupplicates the power of Neptune to avenge his crimes. The chorus, as anticipating the effects of this imprecation, arraigns the justice of the gods. In the Greek poet, the father, under the like circunftances, invokes the fame avenging power, and, as fome immediate relief to his rage, pronounces the fentence of banishment, and urges the inftant execution of it, against him. Hippolytus, unable to contend any longer with his father's fury, breaks out

into that most tender complaint (than which nothing was ever more affecting in tragedy) Αρηρεν, ὡς ἔοικεν, ὦ τάλας ἐγώ, &c.

containing his laft adieu to his country, companions, and friends. The chorus, touched with the pathos of this apoftrophe, and commiferating his fad reverse of fortune, enters with him into the fame excess of lamentation, and, as the first expreffion of it, lets fall this natural sentiment, "That, though from coolly contemplating. "the divine fuperintendency of human affairs, "there refults abundant confidence and fecurity "against the ills of life, yet when we look "abroad into the lives and fortunes of men, "that confidence is apt to fail us, and we find "ourselves difcouraged and confounded by the "promifcuous and undistinguishing appoint❝ments of good and ill." This is the thought, which Seneca hath imitated, and, as his manner is, outraged in his chorus of the third act: O magna parens, Natura, Deum, &c. But the great difference lies here. That, whereas in Euripides this fentiment is proper and agreeable to the ftate and circumstances of the chorus, which is ever attentive to the progrefs of the action, and is most affected by what immediately prefents itself to obfervation; in Seneca it is

quite foreign and impertinent; the attention of the chorus naturally turning, not on the dif treffes of Hippolytus, which had not yet commenced, but on the rashness and unhappy delufion of Thefeus, as being that which had made the whole fubject of the preceding scene. But the confequence of that delufion, it will be faid, was obvious. It may be fo. But the chorus, as any fenfible spectator, is moft agitated by fuch reflexions, as occur to the mind from those fenes of the drama, which are actually paffing before it, and not from those which have not yet taken place.

IV. What was remarked of the second song of the chorus will be applicable to the fourth, which is abfurdly founded on a fingle reflection in the Greek poet, but just touched in a couple of lines, though much more naturally introduced. Thefeus, plunged in the deepest affliction, by the immature death of Phædra, and not enduring the fight of the supposed guilty author of it, commands him into banishment, "left, as he goes on," his former triumphs and fuc"ceffes against the difturbers of mankind, fhould "in confequence of the impunity of fuch un*precedented crimes, henceforth do him no "honour." The chorus, ftruck with the distressful fituation of the old king, and recol

lecting