dramatic entertainments are derived, the origin of this art was no other than the fong which was commonly fung at the festival of Bacchus. A goat was the facrifice offered to that god: after the facrifice, the priests, and all the company attending, fung hymns in honour of Bacchus; and, from the name of the victim, rgayos a goat, joined with won a fong, undoubtedly arose the word Tragedy. Thefe hymns, or lyric poems, were fung fometimes by the whole company, and fometimes by feparate bands, answering alternately to each other; making what we call a chorus, with its strophes and antitrophes. In order to throw fome variety into this entertainment, and to relieve the fingers, it was thought proper to introduce a person who, between the fongs, fhould make a recitation in verfe. Thefpis was the firft that made this innovation; and Afchylus, who is properly the father of Tragedy, introduced a dialogue between two perfons, in which he contrived to interweave some interesting story, and brought his actors on a ftage adorned with proper fcenery and decorations. All that thefe actors recited was called epifode, or additional fong, and the fongs of the chorus were made to relate no longer to Bacchus, their original fubject, but to the story in which the actors were concerned. This began to give the drama a regular form, which was foon after brought to perfection by Sophocles and Euripides. It is remarkable in how fhort a space of time, Tragedy grew up among the Greeks, from the rudeft beginnings to its most perfect ftate: for Sophocles, the greatest and most correct of all the tragic poets, flourished only twenty-two years after Æfchylus, and was little more than feventy years pofterior to Thefpis, At first, the Tragedy was void of art; A fong, where each man danc'd and fung his part: And of god Bacchus roaring out the praife, Sought a good vintage for their jolly days: Then wine and joy were feen in each man's eyes, And a fat goat was the beft finger's prize. Thefpis was first, who, all befmear'd with lee*, And with his carted actors, and a fong, Engag'd the chorus fong in ev'ry part, DRYDEN. The chorus, it appears, was the bafis of the ancient Tragedy. It was not an ornament added to it, nor a contrivance to render it more perfect; but, in fact, the dramatic dialogue was an addition to the chorus, which was the original entertainment. In process of time, the chorus, from being the principal, became only the acceffory in Tragedy; till, at last, in modern Tragedy, it difappeared entirely. This, which forms the chief diftinction between the ancient and the modern ftage, has given rife to a queftion much agitated among the partizans of the Ancients and the Moderns-whether the drama has gained, or fuffered, by the abolition of the chorus. But this queftion, together with the fubject of the three Unities of Action, Place, and Time, and a review of the principal writers in Tragedy, both ancient and mo dern, fhall be confidered hereafter. It has been already intimated, that the original of the stage was the epic poem +; and I fhall clofe this effay with a paffage on the fubject from Dryden's fine dedication of the Æneid to the marquis of Normanby, afterward duke of Buckingham. Narration,' fays this excellent poet and critic, doubtlefs, preceded acting, and gave laws to it. What at firft was told artfully, was, in process of time, reprefented gracefully to th + Ib. page 4. * See Univerfal Magazine, Vol, LXXXIX, page 3. fight and hearing. Thofe epifodes of Homer, which were proper for the ftage, the poets amplified each into an action: out of his limbs they formed their bodies: what he had contracted they enlarged: out of one Hercules were made infinity of pygmies yet all endued with human fouis for from him, their great creator, they have each the divine particulum auræ.' They flowed from him at firit, and are at last refolved into him. Nor were they only animated by him, but their measure and fymmetry were owing to him. His one, entire, and great action was co SOM pied by them according to the proportions of the drama: if he finished his orb within the year, it fufficed to teach them, that their action being lefs, and being alfo lefs diverfified with incidents, their orb, of confequence, must be circumfcribed in a lefs compafs, which they reduced within the limits either of a natural or an artificial day: fo that as he taught them to amplify what he had fhortened, by the fame rule, applied the contrary way, he taught them to shorten whathe had amplified. Tragedy is the miniature of human life: an epic poem is the draught at length.' THE HISTORY OF GLOVES, OME have given Gloves a very early original, imagining they are noticed in the 108th pfalm, where the Royal Prophet declares, he will caft his hoe over Edom. They go ftill higher; fuppofing them to be ufed in the times of the Judges, Ruth iv. 7. where it is faid, it was the custom for a man to take off his fhoe, and to give it to his neighbour, as a token of redeeming or exchanging any thing. They tell us, the word which in thefe two texts is ufually tranflated hoe, is by the Chaldee paraphraft in the latter, rendered glove. Cafaubon is of opinion, that gloves were worn by the Chaldeans, because the word here mentioned is in the Talmud Lexicon explained, the cloathing of the hand.' But it muft be confeffed, all these are mere conjectures; and the Chaldean paraphraft has taken an unallowable liberty in his verfion. Let us, then, be content to begin with Xenophon, who gives a clear and diftinct account of Gloves. Speaking of the manners of the Perfians, he gives us a proof of their effeminacy; that, not fatisfied with covering their head and their feet, they alfo guarded their hands against the cold with thick gloves. Homer, fpeaking of Laertes at work in his garden, reprefents him with Gloves on his hands, to fecure Varro, an them from the thorns. Thefe authorities fhew, that the ancients were not strangers to gloves though, perhaps, their ufe might not be fo common as among us. When the ancient feverity of manners declined, the ufe of gloves prevailed among the Romans; but not without fome oppofition from the philofophers. Mufonius, a philofopher, who lived at the clofe of the firft century of Christianity, among other invectives against the corruption of the age, fays, It is a fhame, that perfons in perfect health should clothe their hands and feet with foft and hairy coverings.' Their convenience, however, foon made their ufe general. Pliny the younger informs us, in his account of his uncle's journey to Vefuvius, that his fecretary fat by him, ready to write down whatever occurred remarkable; and that he had gloyee on Let us now proceed to point out the various ufes of gloves in the feveral ages; for, befide their original defign for a covering of the hand, they have been employed on feveral great and folemn occafions: as in the ceremony of inveftitures, in beftowing lands, or, in conferring dignities. Giving poffeffion by the delivery of a glove, prevailed in feveral parts of Christendom in later ages. In the year 1002, the bishops of Paderborn and Moncerco were put into poffeffion of their fees by receiving a glove. It was thought fo effential a part of the epifcopal habit, that fome abbots in France, prefuming to wear gloves, the council of Poitiers interpofed in the affair, and forbade them the ufe of them, on the fame footing with the ring and fandals, as being peculiar to bishops. Monfieur Favin observes, that the cuftom of bleffing gloves at the coronation of the kings of France, which ftill fubfifts, is a remain of the eastern practice of inveftiture by a glove. A remarkable inftance of this ceremony is recorded in the German hiftory. The unfortunate Conradin was deprived of his crown and his life by the ufurper Mainfroy. When, having afcended the fcaffold, the injured prince lamented his hard fate, he afTerted his right to the crown; and, as a token of inveftiture, threw his glove among the crowd; begging it might be conveyed to fome of his relations, who should revenge his death. 3 It was taken up by a knight, who brought it to Peter, king of Arragon, who was afterward crowned at Palermo. As the delivery of gloves was once a part of the ceremony used in giving poffeffion; fo the depriving a perfon of them, was a mark of divesting him of his office, and of degrading him. Andrew Herkley, earl of Carlifle, was, in the reign of Edward the fecond, impeached of holding a correfpondence with the Scots, and condemned to die as a traitor. Walfingham, relating other circumstances of his degradation, fays- His fpurs were cut off with a hatchet; and his gloves and fhoes were taken off,' &c. Another use of gloves was in a duel: on which occafion, he whọ threw one down, was thereby underftood to give defiance; and he who took it up, to accept the challenge. The ufe of fingle combat, at first defigned only for a trial of innocence, like the ordeal fire and water, was, in fucceeding ages, practifed for deciding right and property. Challenging by the glove was continued down to the reign of queen Elizabeth, as appears by an account given by Spelman, of a duel appointed to be fought in Tothill-fields, in the year 1571. The difpute was concerning fome lands in the county of Kent. The plaintiffs appeared in court, and demanded a fingle combat. One of them threw down his glove, which the other immediately took up, carried off on the point of his fword, and the day of fighting was appointed; but the matter was adjusted in an amicable manner by the queen's judicious interference. Though fuch combats are now no longer in ufe, we have one ceremony ftill remaining among us, in which the challenge is given by a glove ;* viz. at the coronation of the kings of England: upon which occafion, his majefty's champion, compleatly armed, and well mounted, enters Weftminfter-hall, and proclaims, that, if any man fhall deny the prince's title B to the crown, he is ready to maintain and defend it by fingle combat. After which declaration, he throws down his glove, or gauntlet, as a token of defiance. This cuftom of challenging by the glove is still in ufe in fome parts of the world. It is common in Germany, on receiving an affront, to fend a glove to the offending party, as a challenge to a duel. The laft ufe of gloves to be mentioned here, was for carrying the hawk, which is very ancient. In former times, princes and other great men took fo much pleasure in carrying the hawk on their hand, that fome of them have chosen to be reprefented in this attitude. There is a monument of Philip the first of France ftill remaining; on which he is reprefented at length, on his tomb, holding a glove in his hand. Mr. Chambers fays that, formerly, judges were forbidden to wear gloves on the bench. No reafon is affigned for this prohibition. Our judges lie under no fuch restraint; for both they and the rest of the court make no difficulty of receiving gloves from the fheriffs, whenever the feffion or affize concludes without any one receiving fentence of death, which is called a Maiden Affize. This cuftom is of great antiquity. Our curious antiquarian has alfo preserved a very fingular anecdote concerning gloves. Chambers informs us, that it is not fafe, at prefent, to enter the stables of princes without pulling off the gloves. He does not, indeed, tell us in what the danger confiits. A friend from Germany explains the matter. He fays, it is an ancient established custom in that country, that whoever enters the ftables of a prince, or great man, with his gloves on his hands, is obliged to forfeit them, or redeem them by a fee to the fervants. The fame custom is obferved in fome places at the death of the ftag; in which cafe, the gloves, if not taken off, are redeemed by money given to the huntfmen and keepers. This is practised in France; and the late king never failed to pull off one of his gloves on that occafion. The reafon of this ceremony is not known. We meet with the term Glove-mo-> ney in our old records; by which is meant, money given to fervants to buy gloves. This, no doubt, gave rife to the faying of giving a pair of gloves,' to fignify making a prefent for fome favour or fervice. To the honour of the glove, it has more than once been admitted as a term of the tenure or holding lands. One Bortran, who came in with William the conqueror, held the manor of Farnham Royal by the fervice of providing a glove for the king's right-hand on the day of his coronation, and fupporting the fame hand that day while the king held the royal fceptre. In the year 1177, Simon de Mertin gave a grant of his lands in confideration of fifteen fhillings, one pair of white gloves at Eafter, and one pound of cummin. MEN of GENIUS not neceffarily unhappy, nor generally neglected on Account of their Talents; with Strictures on the Misfortunes of feveral celebrated POETS. had frequent opportunities of quef tioning maxims long received as incontrovertible facts, and of obferving the ftrange contradictions between the experience of rational enquiry, and the obftinate opinions of prejudiced old age. In fhort, though I am far from believing (notwithstanding the united authority of a Roman pon tir*, and an Athenian orator +) that the popularity of an opinion is the teft of its abfurdity, yet I am well convinced that innumerable are the groundlefs prejudices, which fuperficial obfervation and cynical difcontent have impofed upon the fuppofed fagacious part of mankind, and ripened into fallacious axioms. Merely to trace the fource of these popular errors, would perhaps be an eafy and unprofitable tak to explode them, indeed, were an Herculean labour; but it would alfo be of the highest benefit to mankind. Every literary adventurer feems, therefore, called upon by the virtues, for which he ftands pledged to fociety, (the virtues I mean of liberal fentiment, and zeal for the public good) to brandifh his weapon against thefe deadly pefts. To this call (from which the obscurity of an anonymous effayift ought not in my opinion to be deemed an exemption) I flatter myself I have not been inattentive. My mifile weapons have repeatedly been directed, not always I hope with an erring aim, against the cuiraffes of prejudice and delufion; and I fometimes entertain the pleafing fuppofition, that my fhafts may humble in the duft many a mental enemy to virtue and felicity, though in the midst of the promiscuous warfare, the hand fhall be unnoticed by which they are directed. An ambition like this I need not be ashamed to own:-an ambition like this ftimulates the attack against a popular prejudice, by which many an effort of youthful genius has been fifled and oppreffed, the mind of many a votary of fcience has been overshadowed by gloom and defpondency, and many a victim of diffipated pleasure has been encouraged to attribute to the mufes that ruin, or those misfortunes, which his vices have alone occafioned; and which, * Pope John XXIII, in any other fituation of life, might have led him to fill more difgraceful actions, and a ftill more fatal catastrophe. After this exordium, I need fcarcely inform the reader, that the enfuing effay is meant to be directed against the declamatory and mortifying obfervations, fo often reiterated, and fo generally believed, concerning the peculiar perfecutions of men of genius; the neglect, contempt, and gratitude they generally receive from the world; and the almost inevitable mi fortunes which cloud the literary career. The names, it is true, of a Savage, and a Chatterton, the fabled horrors of the fate of Otway, the elegant complaints of a Shenstone and a Hammond, and many other inftances, seem to give but too much countenance to the mortifying opinion of the infelicity of genius; yet even thefe, and they are among the ftrongest of pcpular examples, will.but indifferently fupport an opinion that fuperior talents, or even the necessary concomitants of difpofition, have any imm diate or real tendency to impede the progrefs of fortune, or prevent the ordinary enjoyments of felicity. The life of the firit of these characters is undoubtedly marked with many tranfitions, which none but a man of genius could ever have experienced: but they are the fortunate fhades of his life only that are to be attributed to this fource; the darker lines of misfortune and disappointment, were generally reflected by his imprudence and his vices; and had not Savage been a poet, and a man of parts, his poverty (notwithstanding the mystery of his birth) might have been for ever unalleviated and unpitied; and want or juftice might fooner have cut fhort the thread of his wretched existence. The talents of the poet, though far from being of the firit refpectability, enforced the claims which nature might in vain have reiterated |