Circumftances. Oreftes was in the fame Condition with Hamlet in Shakespear, his Mother having murdered his Father, and taken Poffeffion of his Kingdom in Confpiracy with her Adulterer. That young Prince therefore, being determined to revenge his Father's Death upon thofe who filled his Throne, conveys himself by a beautiful Stratagem into his Mother's Apartment, with a Refolution to kill her. But because fuch a Spectacle would have been too fhocking to the Audience, this dreadful Refolution is executed behind the Scenes: The Mother is heard calling out to her Son for Mercy; and the Son anfwering her that the fhewed no Mercy to his Father: After which the fhrieks out that the is wounded, and by what follows we find that she is flain. I do not remember that in any of our Plays there are Speeches made behind the Scenes, though there are other Inftances of this nature to be met with in thofe of the Ancients: And I believe my Reader will agree with me, that there is fomething infinitely more affecting in this dreadful Dialogue between the Mother and her Son behind the Scenes, that could have been in any

thing tranfacted before the Audience. Oreftes immediately after meets the Ufurper at the Entrance of his Palace; and by a very happy Thought of the Poet avoids killing him before the Audience, by telling him that he fhould live fome Time in his prefent Bitterness of Soul before he would dispatch him, and by ordering him to retire into that part of the Palace where he had flain his Father, whofe Murther he would revenge in the very fame Place where it was committed. By this Means the Poet observes that Decency, which Horance afterwards established by a Rule, of forbearing to commit Parricides or unnatural Murthers before the Audience.

Nec coram populo natos Medea trucidet.
Let not Medea draw her murth'ring Knife,
And fpill her Childrens Blood upon the Stage.

The French have therefore refined too much upon Horace's Rule, who never defigned to banish all kinds of Death from the Stage; but only fuch as had too much Horror in them, and which would have a better Effect upon the Audience when tranfacted behind the € 4 Scenes.

Scenes. I would therefore recommend to my Countrymen the Practice of the ancient Poets, who were very fparing of their publick Executions, and rather chose to perform them behind the Scenes, if it could be done with as great an Effect upon the Audience. At the fame time I muft observe, that though the devoted Perfons of the Tragedy were feldom flain before the Audience, which has generally fomething ridiculous in it, their Bodies were often produced after their Death, which has always in it fomething melancholy or terrifying; fo that the killing on the Stage does not seem to have been avoided only as an Indecency, but also as an Improbability.

Nec pueros coram populo Medea trucidet;

Aut bumana palam coquat exta nefarius Atreus;
Aut in Avem Progne vertatur, Cadmus in an-
guem,
Quodcunque oftendis mihi fic, incredulus odi. Hor.

Medea muft not draw her murth'ring Knife,
Nor Atreus there his horrid Feaft prepare;
Cadmus and Progne's Metamorphofis,
(She to a Swallow turn'd, he to a Snake;)
And whatfoever contradicts my Senfe,
I hate to fee, and never can believe.

Ld. ROSCOMMON.

I have now gone through the feveral dramatick Inventions which are made ufe of by the ignorant Poets to fupply the Place of Tragedy, and by the skil ful to improve it; fome of which I could with entirely rejected, and the reft to be used with Caution. It would be an endless Task to confider Comedy in the fame Light, and to mention the innumerable Shifts that fmall Wits put in practice to raise a Laugh. Bullock in a fhort Coat, and Norris in a long one, feldom fail of this Effect. In ordinary Comedies, a broad and a narrow brim'd Hat are different Characters. Sometimes the Wit of the Scene lies in a ShoulderBelt, and fometimes in a Pair of Whif kers. A Lover running about the Stage, with his Head peeping out of a Barrel, was thought a very good Jeft in King Charles the Second's time; and invented by one of the firft Wits of that Age. But because Ridicule is not fo delicate as Compaffion, and because the Objects that make us laugh are, infinitely more numerous than thofe that make us weep, there is a much greater Latitude for Comick than Tragick Artifices, and by confequence a much greater Indulgence to be allowed them. Cr

C

Saturday,

N° 45.

Saturday, April 21.

Natio Comeda eft

Juv.

T

HERE is nothing which I more defire than a fafe and honourable Peace, tho' at the fame time I am very apprehenfive of many ill Confequences that may attend it. I do not mean in regard to our Politics, but to our Manners. What an Inundation of Ribbons and Brocades will break in upon us? What Peals of Laughter and Impertinence fhall we be expofed to? For the Prevention of thefe great Evils, I could heartily wish that there was an Act of Parliament for prohibiting the Importation of French Fopperies.

THE Female Inhabitants of our Ifland have already received very ftrong Impreffions from this ludicrous Nation, tho' by the Length of the War (as there is no Evil which has not fome Good attending it) they are pretty well worn out and forgotten. I remember the