PHOENICIAN VIRGINS.

THE reader has here the fairest opportunity to judge of the comparative merit of Æschylus and Euripides, where the latter rivals his great master in that drama on which he most valued himself. It has been observed in the preface to The Seven Chiefs against Thebes, that "the judicious choice "of the persons of the Chorus forms one of the "principal graces of that tragedy, as it gave the poet an opportunity of mixing the natural timidity of the female character with the animated "and fiery daring of heroes; the fears of these daughters of Cadmus presenting nothing to "their imagination but scenes of distress and horror, which the insolence of conquest spreads through a vanquished and plundered city, and this painted in the warmest colours, in the strongest "style of Eschylus." This no succeeding poet could hope to exceed, or even to equal: Euripides therefore has taken for his Chorus some Virgins brought from Phoenicia, the spoils of war, devoted to the service of Apollo at Delphi, but detained at Thebes by the invasion of the Argive army; from these the tragedy takes its title. As the persons of these Virgins were sacred, their apprehensions were not

so strongly alarmed; and as they were strangers at Thebes, they could not be so deeply concerned as natives, whose persons, lives, and fortunes, with all they held most dear, were in great and immediate danger hence their part is less interesting, their odes are less pertinent and less animated, and the drama wants much of that distress and terror which agitates the Theban Virgins through the scenes of Eschylus.

One is sorry to find that the emulation of Euripides was not free from some stain of envy; he obliquely censures schylus (see 1. 835.) for taking up the time in describing the chiefs, when they ought to have been in action; and to avoid this in his own scenes, he leads Antigone to a tower, from whence she has a view of the Argive army and its leaders: here the poet had an opportunity and leisure to display all the powers of his imagination; but we are disappointed; he shrinks before the superior genius of Eschylus. This scéne is an imitation of the third Iliad, where Helen points out and describes the Grecian leaders to Priam: P. Brumoy calls it une imitation trèsheureuse, and says that Euripides has happily improved upon his original; for as Homer only relates, the tragic poet makes his persons act: but Homer is not so easily excelled; he was too nice an' observer of propriety to represent his heroes in action at a time when they had nothing to do; yet

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Ulysses, consistently with the wisdom and vigilance of his character, is moving from rank to rank, and inspecting his men. Euripides indeed is happy in softening this view of arms and war with the affectionate tenderness of Antigone at the sight of her brother; this beauty is peculiarly his own, and constitutes the chief grace of the scene: we are sorry that it is closed with a reflection not to be pardoned even to a man, who perhaps was not happy in his own domestic connexions, and who was no stranger to the shrill-tongued wife of Socrates. But Eschylus is unjustly censured for delaying the time in describing the chiefs when they ought to have been in action: it was necessary that Eteocles should be well informed what Argive prince assumed his station at each gate, that he might know what Theban chief to oppose against him; and it is but candid to consider him as commander receiving intelligence, and giving his orders to an officer, who goes to execute them, whilst he himself is arming for the battle were it not so, the reader of taste would rather be indulgent to some little impropriety, than give up the boldest descriptions that ever animated poetry. But is Euripides himself free from the fault which he here censures in Eschylus? Should the messenger, who tells Jocasta that her sons were arming for a single combat, have deferred his important information till he had given a long and circumstantial account of the attack and repulse of the

Argives? The lives of her sons, her own life, and the welfare of all the unhappy house of Edipus, depended on her immediate interposition to prevent this combat; and no narrative, however interesting on other accounts, could justify the delay : this impropriety is the more unpardonable, as it might have been prevented by a little management of the poet.

Candour now and justice require us to point out the excellence of Euripides, and the improvements he has made upon the simple plan of Eschylus: these are considerable. To the Persons of the Drama he hath added Jocasta, Polynices, Creon, Tiresias, Menaceus, and Edipus; and no writer supports his characters with more propriety: this enlargement of his plan enabled him to enrich his play with incidents, which are chosen with great judgment. The reader will be pleased with the maternal affection and solid reasoning of Jocasta; he will acknowledge the interview of the brothers to be well conducted, and their characters nicely distinguished; he will admire the glorious resolution of Menœceus, and be touched with the manly sorrow and firm dignity of the injured and unhappy Edipus but nothing can be more affecting than the tender lamentations, the noble yet feminine spirit, and the filial piety of Antigone. Eschylus is always sublime; his conceptions are great, and expressed with inimitable force and fire: no man

ever succeeded so well in raising terror. The genius of Euripides is less ardent, but this is compensated by a tender and feeling heart; to this he always gives way; and never fails to raise those sadly sweet emotions of sympathetic sorrow, of which he himself was so sensible: no man ever succeeded so well in raising pity.

P. Brumoy seems inclined to censure the part of Menaceus as episodical, and subordinate to the action of the drama: he says, with his usual good sense, that the Greek poets rarely admitted these episodes, as being contrary to the effect of the príncipal action, and turning aside, at least dividing, the attention of the spectator. But it is not so here; in ancient Greece few important actions were carried on without oracles, sacrifices, and expiations; and the sacred dragon held so great a share in the history of Thebes, that the Poet had reason to make this atonement for the slaughter of him; so that the sacrifice of Menaceus was a proper part of the principal action. Brumoy was so well acquainted with ancient customs and manners, that this could not escape him; but the truth was this, he gave his view of the Greek theatre with the laudable intention of reforming the taste of his countrymen, and to bring them back to the beautiful simplicity of the ancients; the critic was well qualified for his task, but the taste of the age was against him; and to gain an hearing,