the interlude, if I may fo call it, and to these the people were too long accuftomed and too warmly attached, to allow of any reform for their exclufion; the tragic poet therefore never got rid of his Chorus, though the writers of the Middle Comedy contrived to difmifs their's, and probably their fable being of a more lively character, their fcenes were better able to ftand without the support of music and spectacle, than the mournful fable and more languid recitation of the tragedians. That the tragic authors laboured against the Chorus will appear from their efforts to expel Bacchus and his Satyrs from the ftage, in which they were long time opposed by the audience, and at last by certain ingenious expedients, which were a kind of compromise with the public, effected their point: This in -part was brought about by the introduction of a fuller fcene and a more active fable, but the Chorus with it's accompaniments kept it's place, and the poet, who feldom ventured upon introducing more than three speakers on the scene at the fame time, qualified the fterility of his bufinefs by giving to the Chorus a fhare of the dialogue, who at the fame time that they furnished the ftage with numbers, were not counted amongst the speaking characters according to the rigour of the ufage above-mentioned. A man man muft be an enthufiaft for antiquity, who can find charms in the dialogue-part of a Greek Chorus, and reconcile himself to their unnatural and chilling interruptions of the action and pathos of the fcene: I am fully perfuaded they came there upon motives of expediency only, and kept their poft upon the plea of long poffeffion, and the attractions of spectacle and mufic: In fhort nature was facrificed to the dif play of art, and the heart gave up it's feelings that the ear and eye might be gratified. When Milton therefore takes the Chorus into his dialogue, excluding from his drama the lyric ftrophe and antiftrophe, he rejects what I conceive to be it's only recommendation, and which an elegant contemporary in his imitations of the Greek tragedy is more properly attentive to; at the fame time it cannot be de nied that Milton's Chorus fubfcribes more to the dialogues, and harmonizes better with the bufi nefs of the scene, than that of any Greek tragedy we can now refer to. I would now proceed to a review of the performance itself, if it were not a difcuffion, which the author of The Rambler has very ably prevented me in; respect however to an authority fo high in criticism muft not prevent me from obferving, that, when he fays-This is the tra gedy, gedy, which ignorance has admired and bigotry applauded, he makes it mefitorious in any future critic to attempt at following him over the ground he has trode, for the purpose of discovering what those blemishes are, which he has found out by fuperior fagacity, and which others have fo palpably overlooked, as to merit the difgraceful character of ignorance and bigotry. The principal, and in effect the only, objection, which he states, is that the poem wants a middle, fince nothing passes between the first act and the last, that either haftens or delays the death of Sampfon. This demands examination: The death of Sampfon I need not describe; it is a fudden, momentary event; what can haften or delay it, but the will of the person, who by an exertion of miraculous ftrength was to bury himself under the ruins of a ftructure, in which his enemies were affembled ? To determine that will depends upon the impulse of his own spirit, or it may be upon the infpiration of Heaven: If there are any incidents in the body of the drama, which lead to this determination, and indicate an impulfe, either natural or præternatural, fuch muft be called leading incidents, and thofe leading incidents will conftitute a middle, or in more diffufive terms the middle bufinefs of the drama. Manoah in his inter VOL. IV. M view view with Sampfon, which the author of the Rambler denominates the fecond act of the tragedy, tells him This day the Philistines a popular feaft Here is information of a meeting of his enemies. to celebrate their idolatrous triumphs; an incident of juft provocation to the fervant of the living God, an opportunity perhaps for vengeance, either human or divine; if it paffes without notice from Sampfon, it is not to be filed an incident, if on the contrary he remarks upon it, it must be one-but Sampfon replies Dagon must floop, and fhall ere long receive Who will fay the expectation is not here pre- nodus-and therefore we may boldly pronounce Deus interfit! That this interpretation meets the sense of the author is clear from the remark of Manoah, who is made to say that he receives these words as a prophecy. Prophetic they are, and were meant to be by the poet, who in this ufe of his facred prophecy imitates the heathen oracles, on which feveral of their dramatic plots are conftructed, as might be shewn by obvious examples. The interview with Manoah then is conducive to the catastrophe, and the drama is not in this fcene devoid of incident. Dalilah next appears, and if whatever tends to raise our intereft in the leading character of the tragedy, cannot rightly be called epifodical, the introduction of this perfon ought not to be accounted fuch, for who but this perfon is the cause and origin of all the pathos and distress of the ftory? The dialogue of this fcene is moral, affecting and fublime; it is alfo ftrictly characteristic. The next scene exhibits the tremendous giant Harapha, and the contraft thereby produced is amongst the beauties of the poem, and may of itself be termed an important incident: That it leads to the catastrophe I think will not be dif puted, M 2 |
