OF THAT SORT OF DRAMATIC POEM WHICH IS CALL'D TRAGEDY. TRAGEDY, as it was antiently composed, hath been ever held the gravest, moralest, and most profitable of all other Poems: therefore said by Aristotle to be of power by raising pity and fear, or terror, to purge the mind of those and such like passions; that is to temper nd reduce them to just measure with a kind of delight, tirr'd up by reading or seeing those passions well nitated. Nor is Nature wanting in her own effects to ake good his assertion; for so in Physic things of elancholic hue and quality are us'd against melancholy, wr against sowr, salt to remove salt humours. Hence hilosophers and other gravest Writers, as Cicero, Plurch, and others, frequently cite out of Tragic Poets, both adorn and illustrate their discourse. The Apostle Paul mself thought it not unworthy to insert a verse of Euripides into the Text of Holy Scripture, I Cor. 15. 33. ad Paræus commenting on the Revelation, divides the hole Book as a Tragedy, into Acts distinguisht each ya Chorus of Heavenly Harpings and Song between. eretofore Men in highest dignity have labour'd not a tle to be thought able to compose a Tragedy. Of that 4 honour Dionysius the elder was no less ambitious, the before of his attaining to the Tyranny. Augustus Cæsi also had begun his Ajax, but unable to please his ow judgment with what he had begun, left it unfinish Seneca the Philosopher is by some thought the Author those Tragedies (at least the best of them) that go und that name. Gregory Nazianzen a Father of the Churc thought it not unbeseeming the sanctity of his perso to write a Tragedy, which he entitl'd, Christ Sufferin This is mention'd to vindicate Tragedy from the sma esteem, or rather infamy, which in the account of mar it undergoes at this day with other common Interlude: hap'ning through the Poets error of intermixing Com stuff with Tragic sadness and gravity; or introducir trivial and vulgar persons, which by all judicious ha bin counted absurd; and brought in without discretio corruptly to gratifie the people. And though antie: tragedy use no Prologue, yet using sometimes, in ca of self-defence, or explanation, that which Martial cal an Epistle; in behalf of this Tragedy coming forth aft the antient manner, much different from what among passes for best, thus much before-hand may be Epistl' that Chorus is here introduced after the Greek mann not antient only but modern, and still in use among t Italians. In the modelling therefore of this poem, w good reason, the antients and Italians are rather follow as of much more authority and fame. The measure Verse used in the Chorus is of all sorts, call'd by t Greeks Monostrophic, or rather Apolelymenon, withc regard had to Strophe, Antistrophe, or Epod, whi were a kind of Stanza's fram'd only for the Music, th us'd with the Chorus that sung; not essential to t 5 Poem, and therefore not material; or being divided into Stanza's or Pauses, they may be called Allæostropha. Division into Act and Scene referring chiefly to the Stage (to which this work never was intended) is here omitted. It suffices if the whole Drama be found not produc't beyond the fift Act, of the style and uniformitie, and that commonly called the Plot, whether intricate or explicit, which is nothing indeed but such œconomy, or disposition of the fable as may stand best with verisimilitude and decorum; they only will best judge who are not unacquainted with Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the three Tragic poets unequall'd yet by any, and the best rule to all who endeavour to write Tragedy. The circumscription of time wherein the whole Drama begins and ends, is according to antient rule, and best example, within the space of 24 hours. S THE ARGUMENT. AMSON made Captive, Blind, and now in the Prison of Gaza, there to labour as in a common work-house, on a Festival day, in the general cessation from labour, comes forth into the open Air, to a place nigh, somewhat retir'd there to sit awhile and bemoan his condition. Where he happens at length to be visited by certain friends and equals of his tribe, which make the Chorus, who seek to comfort him what they can; then by his old Father Manoa, who endeavours the like, and withal tells him his purpose to procure his liberty by ransom; lastly, that this Feast was proclaim'd by the Philistins as a day of Thanksgiving for thir deliverance from the hands of Samson, which yet more troubles him. Manoa then departs to prosecute his endeavour with the Philistian lords for Samson's redemption; who in the mean time is visited by other persons; and lastly by a publick Officer to require his coming to the Feast before the Lords and People, to play or shew his strength in thir presence; he at first refuses, dismissing the publick Officer with absolute denya to come; at length, perswaded inwardly that this was from God he yields to go along with him, who came now the second tim with great threatenings to fetch him; the Chorus yet remaining|| on the place, Manoa returns full of joyful hope, to procure e'r long his Sons deliverance: in the midst of which discourse a Ebrew comes in haste confusedly at first; and afterwards more distinctly relating the Catastrophe, what Samson had done to th Philistins, and by accident to himself; wherewith the Traged ends. A LITTLE onward lend thy guiding hand To these dark steps, a little further on; |