danger, orders Arsinoe to be
intercepted, whose return clears up her innocence, as she declares
that no correspondence had ever been carried on between the queen and
Sohemus, of whom he was now jealous, as Mariamne had upbraided him
with his cruel resolutions of putting her to death, entrusted to that
minister. Herod is satisfied of her innocence, by the evidence of
Arsinoe; but as he had before given the cruel orders for patting the
queen to death, she, to prevent the execution of such barbarity, drank
poison. The Queen is conducted in by the high priest in the agonies
of death, which gives such a shock to Herod, that not able to survive
her, he dies in the sight of the audience.

Sohemus, who knew what tortures would be reserved for him, kills
himself, after having sacrificed Sameas, by whose treachery the plot
was discovered, and who in his falling stabs Salome to the heart, as
the last effort of his revenge.

As the plan of this play is regular, simple, and interesting, so
are the sentiments no less masterly, and the characters graphically
distinguished. It contains likewise many beautiful strokes of poetry.

When Narbal, a lord of the queen's party, gives an account to
Flaminius the Roman general, of the queen's parting with her son; he
says,

----A while she stood,
Transform'd by grief to marble, and appear'd
Her own pale monument;

Flaminius consistent with his character as a soldier, answers,

Give me, ye gods! the harmony of war,
The trumpet's clangor, and the clash of arms,
That concert animates the glowing breast,
To rush on death; but when our ear is pierc'd
With the sad notes which mournful beauty yields;
Our manhood melts in symphathising tears.

The character of Sameas the king's cup-bearer, is one of the most
villainous ever shewn upon a stage; and the poet makes Sohemus, in
order to give the audience a true idea of him, and to prepare them for
those barbarities he is to execute, relate the following instance of
his cruelty.

----Along the shore
He walk'd one evening, when the clam'rous rage
Of tempests wreck'd a ship: The crew were sunk,
The master only reach'd the neighb'ring strand,
Born by a floating fragment; but so weak
With combating the storm, his tongue had lost
The faculty of speech, and yet for aid
He faintly wav'd his hand, on which he wore
A fatal jewel. Sameas, quickly charm'd
Both by its size, and lustre, with a look
Of pity sto