flage. We have been too long attached to Grecian and Roman stories. In truth, domestica facta are more interesting, as well as more useful; more interesting, because we all think ourselves concerned in the actions and fates of our countrymen; more useful, because the characters and manners bid the fairest to be true and natural, when they are drawn from models with which we are exactly acquainted. The Turks, the Perfians, and Americans, of our poets, are, in reality, distinguished from Englishmen, only by their turbans and feathers; and think and act as if they were born and educated within the Bills of Mortality. The historical plays of Shakespear are always grateful to the spectator, who loves to fee and hear our own Harrys and Edwards, better than all the Achilleses or Cæfars that ever existed. In the choice of a domeftic story, however, much judgment and circumspection must be exerted, to select one of a proper æra; neither of too ancient, nor of too modern a date. The manners of times very ancient, we shall be apt to falfify, as those of the Greeks and Ro

mans.

And recent events, with which we are thoroughly acquainted, are deprived of the power of impressing solemnity and awe, by their notoriety and familiarity. Age softens and wears away all those disgracing and depreciating circumstances, which attend modern transactions, merely because they are modern. Lucan was much embarrassed by the proximity of the times he

treated of.

I take this occafion to observe, that Rowe has taken the fable of his Fair Penitent, from the Fatal Dowry of Maffinger and Field. WARTON.

Thsee obfervations are in general very just, but Dr. Warton should not have cited Shakespear, as having founded his most interesting. Plays on "domeftica facta." Who ever read Julius Cæfar, without sympathy and intereft? Who ever read, without a tear, the passage where Brutus, after his disagreement with Caffius, speaks of his wife's death? Who is not a partaker of his griefs, and fortunes? In truth, GENIUS can make at all times a "Cæfar," as interesting as an "Edward, or Henry."

EPILOGUE TO MR. ROWE'S JANE SHORE.

DESIGNED FOR MRS. OLDFIELD.

our Play

6

this! the Frail-one of
PRODIGIOUS
From her own Sex should mercy find to-day!
You might have held the pretty head afide,
Peep'd in your fans, been serious, thus, and cry'd,
The Play may pass-but that strange creature, Shore,
I can't indeed now I fo hate a whore-
Just as a blockhead rubs his thoughtless skull,
And thanks his stars he was not born a fool;
So from a fister sinner you shall hear,
"How strangely you expose yourself, my dear?"
But let me die, all raillery apart,

Our fex are still forgiving at their heart;
And, did not wicked custom so contrive,
We'd be the best, good-natur'd things alive.
There are, 'tis true, who tell another tale,
That virtuous ladies envy while they rail;
Such rage without betrays the fire within;
In fome close corner of the foul, they sin;
Still hoarding up, most scandaloufly nice,
Amidst their virtues a referve of vice.
The godly dame, who fleshly failings damns,
Scolds with her maid, or with her chaplain crams.

BB2

II

15

20

Would

25

Would you enjoy soft nights and folid dinners?
Faith, gallants, board with faints, and bed with sinners.
Well, if our Author in the Wife offends,
He has a Husband that will make amends :
He draws him gentle, tender, and forgiving,
And fure fuch kind good creatures may be living.
In days of old, they pardon'd breach of vows,

30

Stern Cato's felf was no relentless spouse :
Plu-Plutarch, what's his name, that writes his life?

Tells us, that Cato dearly lov'd his Wife:
Yet if a friend, a night or fo, should need her,

He'd recommend her as a special breeder.

39

To lend a Wife, few here would fcruple make, 35
But, pray, which of you all would take her back?
Tho' with the Stoic Chief our stage may ring,
The Stoic Husband was the glorious thing.
The man had courage, was a fage, 'tis true,.
And lov'd his country, but what's that to you?
Those strange examples ne'er were made to fit ye,
But the kind cuckold might instruct the City:
There, many an honest man may copy Cato,
Who ne'er faw naked sword, or look'd in Plato.
If, after all, you think it a disgrace,

That Edward's Miss thus perks it in your face;

NOTES.

45

To

VER. 44. Who ne'er faw] A fly and oblique stroke on the suicide of Cato; which was one of the reasons, as I have been informed,

why this epilogue was not spoken.

WARTON.

VER. 46. Edward's Miss] Sir Thomas More says, she had one accomplishment uncommon in a woman of that time; she could read and write.

WARTON.

To fee a piece of failing flesh and blood,
In all the rest so impudently good;

Faith, let the modest Matrons of the town

49

Come here in crouds, and stare the strumpet down.

THOMSON, in his Epilogue to Tancred and Sigismunda, severely censures the flippancy and gaiety of modern Epilogues, as contrary to those impressions intended to be left on the mind by a well-written Tragedy. The last new part Mrs. Oldfield took in tragedy was in Thomson's Sophonisba; and it is recorded that she spoke the following line,

Not one base word of Carthage for thy foul,

in fo powerful a manner, that Wilkes, to whom it was addressed, was aftonished and confounded. Mrs. Oldfield was admitted to visit in the best families. George II. and Queen Caroline, when Princess of Wales, condescended sometimes to converse with her at their levees. And one day the Princess asked her, if she was married to General Churchill? " So it is said, may it please your Highness, but we have not owned it yet." Her Lady Betty Modish and Lady Townly have never yet been equalled. She was univerfally allowed to be well-bred, fenfible, witty, and gene

She gave poor Savage an annual pension of fifty pounds; and it is strange that Dr. Johnson seems rather to approve of Savage's having never celebrated his benefactress in any of his poems. WARTON.

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