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" Why not compel me then, malicious power ! "To the hard task of this degrading hour ? "Where now, in what profound abyss of shame, "Dost thou conspire with Fate to fink my name ? " Whence are my hopes ? What voice can age supply "To charm the ear; what grace to please the eye? "Where is the action, energy, and art, "The look, that guides its passion to the heart? " Age creeps like ivý o'er my wither'd trunk, " Its bloom all blasted, and its vigour shrunk ; "A tomb, where nothing but a name remains "To tell the world whose ashes it contains."

The original is so superiorly beautiful, that to prevent a bathos I shall infert it after the tranflation.

NECESSITAS, cujus cursus tranfverfi impetum
Voluerunt multi effugere, pauci potuerunt,
Quò me detrufit pæne extremis fenfibus ?
Quem nulla ambitio, nulla unquam largitio,
Nullus timor, vis nulla, nulla auctoritas
Movere potuit in juventa de statu;
Ecce in fenecta ut facile labefecit loco
Viri excellentis mente clemente edita
Submissa placidè blandiloquens oratio!
Etenim ipfi Dii negare cui nihil potuerunt,
Hominem me denegare quis posset pati?
Ergo bis tricenis annis altis fine nota
Eques Romanus lare egressus meo
Domum revertas mimus: Nimirum boc die
Uno plus vixi mihi quam vivendum fuit.
Fortuna, immoderata in bono æque atque in malo,

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Si

Si tibi erat libitum literarum laudibus
Floris cacumen noftræ fame frangere,
Cur cum vigebam membris præviridantibus,
Satisfacere populo et tali cum poteram viro,
Non flexibilem me concurvasti ut carperes?
Nunc me quo dejicis ? quid ad scenam affero?
Decorem forma, an dignitatem corporis,
Animi virtutem, an vocis jucundæ fonum?
Ut hedera ferpens vires arboreas necat,
Ita me vetuftas amplexa annorum enecat :
Sepulchri fimilis nihil nifi nomen retines.

The play which this pathetic prologue was attached to was a comedy, in which Laberius took the character of a flave, and in the course of the plot (as usual) was beaten by his master : In this condition, having marked his habit with counterfeited stripes, he runs upon the stage, and cries out amain-Porro, Quirites! libertatem perdimus-In good faith, Countrymen, there is an end of freedom. The indignant spectators sent up a shout; it was in the language of our present playhouse bills, a burst of applause; a most violent burst of applause from a most crowded and brilliant house, overflowing in all parts. Laberius not yet content with this atonement to the manes of his knighthood, subjoins the following pointed allusion: Neceffe est multos timeat, quem multi timent-The man, whom many fear, must needs fear many. All eyes were now turned turned upon Cafar, and the degraded Laberius enjoyed a full revenge.

We may naturally suppose this conduct loft him the favour of Cafar, who immediately took up Publius Syrus, a Syrian slave, who had been manumitted for his ingenious talents, and was acting in the country theatres with much applause: Cæfar fetched him out of his obscurity, as we bring up an actress from Bath or York, and pitted him against Laberius. It was the triumph of youth and vigour over age and decay, and Cæfar with malicious civility said to Laberius, Favente tibi me victus es, Laberi, a Syro You are furpassed by Syrus in spite of my support. As Laberius was going out of the theatre he was met by Syrus, who was inconfiderate enough to let an expression escape him, which was very difrespectful to his veteran competitor: Laberius felt the unbecoming insult, and, turning to Syrus, gave him this extemporary answer

"To stand the first is not the lot of all; " 'Tis now your turn to mount, and mine to fall : "'Tis flippery ground; beware you keep your feet; " For public favour is a public cheat."

Non poffunt primi esse omnes omni in tempore ;

Summum ad gradum cum claritatis veneris,

Confiftes egre; et quam defcendas, decides :
Ceçidi ego: Cadet qui fequitur. Laus eft publica.

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I need not remind the learned Reader in what credit the sayings of this Publius Syrus have been justly held by all the literati from Seneca to Scaliger, who turned them into Greek; and it is for the honour of the fraternity of the stage, that both he and Sophron, whose moral sentences were found under Plato's pillow when he died, were actors by profeffion.

I shall now only add that my Newspaper contains a very interesting description of two young actors, Hylas and Pylades, who became great favourites with Augustus, when he was emperor, and made their first appearance at the time this journal was written. If the Reader shall find any allufion to two very promifing young performers, now living, whose initials correspond with the above, I can promise him that our contemporaries will not suffer by the comparison. I may venture to say in the words of Doctor Young

The Roman wou'd not blush at the mistake.

NLXXXVIII.

D

N° LXXXVIII.

R. Samuel Johnson, in his life of Rowe, pronounces of The Fair Penitent, that it is one of the most pleasing tragedies on the stage, where it still keeps its turns of appearing, and probably will long keep them, for that there is fcarcely any work of any poet at once so interesting by the fable, and fo delightful by the language. The story, he observes, is domestic, and therefore easily received by the imagination, and affimilated to common life; the diction is exquisitely harmonious, and soft or sprightly as occafion requires. Few people, I believe, will think this character of The Fair Penitent too lavish on the score of commendation; the high degree of public favour in which this tragedy has long stood, has ever attracted the best audiences to it, and engaged the talents of the beft performers in its display. As there is no drama more frequently exhibited, or more generally read, I propose to give it a fair and impartial examination, jointly with the more unknown and less popular tragedy from which it is derived.

The Fair Penitent is in fable and character so closely copied from The Fatal Dowry, that it is impossible not to take that tragedy along with it; and it is matter of fome furprize to me that Rowe should

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