e.

Notwithstanding the admirable disposition of the parts of this play,
the gradual increase of the interest, and the strong impassioned
language of the dialogue, the disagreeable nature of the plot forms an
objection to its success upon a British stage. Distress, which turns
upon the involutions of unnatural or incestuous passion, carries with
it something too disgusting for the sympathy of a refined age;
whereas, in a simple state of society, the feelings require a more
powerful stimulus; as we see the vulgar crowd round an object of real
horror, with the same pleasure we reap from seeing it represented on a
theatre. Besides, in ancient times, in those of the Roman empire at
least, such abominations really occurred, as sanctioned the story of
OEdipus. But the change of manners has introduced not only greater
purity of moral feeling, but a sensibility, which retreats with
abhorrence even from a fiction turning upon such circumstances. Hence,
Garrick, who well knew the taste of an English audience, renounced his
intention of reviving the excellent old play of "King and no King;"
and hence Massinger's still more awful tragedy of "The Unnatural
Combat," has been justly deemed unfit for a modern stage. Independent
of this disgusting circumstance, it may be questioned Whether the
horror of this tragedy is not too powerful for furnishing mere
amusement? It is said in the "Companion to the Playhouse," that when
the piece was performing at Dublin, a musician, in the orchestra, was
so powerfully affected by the madness of OEdipus, as to become himself
actually delirious: and though this may be exaggerated, it is certain,
that, when the play was revived about thirty years ago, the audience
were unable to support it to an end; the boxes being all emptied
before the third act was concluded. Among all our English plays, there
is none more determinedly bloody than "OEdipus," in its progress and
conclusion. The entrance of the unfortunate king, with his eyes torn
from their sockets, is too disgusting for representation[3]. Of all
the persons of the drama, scarce one survives the fifth act. OEdipus
dashes out his brains, Jocasta stabs herself, their children are
strangled, Creon kills Eurydice, Adrastus kills Creon, and the
insurgents kill Adrastus; when we add to this, that the conspirators
are hanged, the reader will perceive, that the play, which began with
a pestilence, concludes with a massacre,

And darkness is the burier o