Languages & literature > Abridgement of lectures on rhetoric

TRAGEDY.
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Preferved. Perhaps however he is too tragic in thefe
pieces. He had genius and ftrong pafiions, but was
very indelicate.
The tragedies of Rowe abound in morality and in
elevated fentiments. His poetry is good, and his lan¬
guage pure and elegant. He is, notwithftanding, too
cold and uninterefting ; and flowery rather, than tra¬
gic. His beft dramas are Jane Shore and the Fair
Penitent, which excel in the tender and pathetic.
Dr. Young’s Revenge difcovers genius and fire ; but
wants tendemefs, and turns too much on the direfill
paflions. In the Mourning Bride of Congreve there
are fine fituations and much good poetry. The trage¬
dies of Thomfon are too full of a ftiff morality, which
renders them dull and formal. His Tancred and Sigif-
munda is his mafterpiece ; and for the plot, characters,
and fentiments, juftly deferves a place among the bed
Englilh tragedies.
A Greek tragedy is a Ample relation of an interell-
ing incident. A French tragedy is a feries of artful
and refined converfations. An Englifh tragedy is a
combat of ftrong paflions, fet before us in all their vio¬
lence, producing deep difafters, and filling the fpedta-
tors with grief. Antient tragedies are more natural
and iimple; modern more artful and complex.