Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Bell's British Theatre, Consisting of the Most Esteemed English Plays, Vol. 18: Being the Ninth Volume of Tragedies; Containing Sophonisba, by Mr. Thomson; Philaster, Altered From Beaumont and Fletcher; Virginia, by Mr. Crisp; Ulysses, by N. Rowe; Gustavus Vasa, by Henry Brooke, Esq.
T is not my intention, in this preface, to' defend any I faults that may be found in the following piece. I am a raid there are top many: but thofe who are befl able to difcover, will be mofi read to pardon them They alone know how difficult an nu ertaliing the writing of a tra y is: and this is a firfi attempt. Beg leave only to mention the rcafonthat determined the to make choice of this fubjeét. What pleafed me particularly, tho' perhaps it will not be leali liable to oh jefifion with ordinary readers, was the fgreat fimplicity of thgfiory. It is one, regular, and uni orm, not charged with a multiplicity of incidents, and yet affording foreral revolutions of fortune; by which t e pa?ions may be qxdted, varied, and driven to their full tumult of emotion. This unity of defign was always fought after, and ad mired by the antionts: and the molt eminent among the modems, who underflood their writings, have chofen to imitate them in this, from an intire conviélion that the rgafon of it mull hold good in all ages. And here allow to tranaste a paifage from the celebrated Monfieur °ne, whi6h contains all that I have to 'fay on this a hp'lc mull not fancy that this rule has no other foun datioll but the caprice of thofe who made it. Nothin can touch us in tragedy, but what is frobable. Aug what probability is theic, ' that, in one 'ay, ?tduld hap pen a multitude of things, which could fcarce happen m fe'veral weeks? There are fome who think that this fimplicity is a mark of barrennefs of invention. But they do not confider, that, on the contrary, invention coulifls in making fomething out of nothing: and that this huddle of inctdents has always been the refuge of poets, who did not tindiz their genius either richnet's 3 or(5)
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