which it stands is
parched by the summer sun.

In selecting this single specimen from among so many, the translator was
influenced by the consideration of its remarkable accordance with our
own canons of criticism. The Chinese themselves make no regular
classification of comedy and tragedy; but we are quite at liberty to
give the latter title to a play which so completely answers to the
European definition. The unity of action is complete, and the unities of
time and place much less violated than they frequently are on our own
stage. The grandeur and gravity of the subject, the rank and dignity of
the personages, the tragical catastrophe, and the strict award of
poetical justice, might satisfy the most rigid admirer of Grecian rules.
The translator has thought it necessary to adhere to the original by
distinguishing the first act (or Proem) from the four which follow it:
but the distinction is purely nominal, and the piece consists, to all
intents and purposes, of five acts. It is remarkable that this peculiar
division holds true with regard to a large number of the "Hundred Plays
of Yuen."

The reader will doubtless be struck by the apparent shortness of the
drama which is here presented to him; but the original is eked out, in
common with all Chinese plays, by an irregular operatic species of song,
which the principal character occasionally chants forth in unison with a
louder or a softer accompaniment of music, as may best suit the
sentiment or action of the moment. Some passages have been embodied in
our version: but the translator did not give all, for the same reasons
that prompted Pere Premare to give none--"they are full of allusions to
things unfamiliar to us, and figures of speech very difficult for us to
observe." They are frequently, moreover, mere repetitions or
amplifications of the prose parts; and being intended more for the ear
than the eye, are rather adapted to the stage than to the closet.

His judgment may perhaps be swayed by partiality towards the subject of
his own labors; but the translator cannot help thinking the plot and
incidents of "The Sorrows of Han" superior to those of the "Orphan of
Chaou"--though the genius of Voltaire contrived to make the last the
ground-work of an excellent French tragedy. Far is he, however, from
entertaining the presumptuous expectation that a destiny of equal
splendor awaits the present drama; and he will be quite satisfied if the
reader has patience to read