ing a powerful and well-served
artillery, the duke of Luxemburgh was forced to abandon his
trenches, and retire with great loss. The English and Scottish
regiments, under the gallant earl of Ossory, had their full share
in the glory of the day. It is strongly suspected, that the Prince
of Orange, when he undertook this perilous atchievement, knew that
a peace had been signed betwixt France and the States, though the
intelligence was not made public till next day. Carleton says, that
the troops, when drawn up for the attack, supposed the purpose was
to fire a _feu-de-joie_ for the conclusion of the war. The
enterprize, therefore, though successful, was needless as well as
desperate, and merited Dryden's oblique censure.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

OEDIPUS, _King of Thebes._
ADRASTUS, _Prince of Argos._
CREON, _Brother to_ JOCASTA.
TIRESIAS, _a blind Prophet._
HAEMON, _Captain of the Guard._
ALCANDER, }
DIOCLES, } _Lords of_ CREON'S _faction._
PYRACMON, }
PHORBAS, _an old Shepherd._
DYMAS, _the Messenger returned from Delphos._
AEGEON, _the Corinthian Embassador._
_Ghost of_ LAIUS, _the late King of Thebes._

JOCASTA, _Queen of Thebes._
EURYDICE, _her Daughter, by_ LAIUS, _her first husband._
MANTO, _Daughter of_ TIRESIAS.

_Priests, Citizens, Attendants,_ &c.

SCENE--_Thebes._

OEDIPUS.

ACT I.

SCENE I.--_The Curtain rises to a plaintive Tune, representing the
present condition of Thebes; dead Bodies appear at a distance in the
Streets; some faintly go over the Stage, others drop._

_Enter_ ALCANDER, DIOCLES, _and_ PYRACMON.

_Alc._ Methinks we stand on ruins; nature shakes
About us; and the universal frame
So loose, that it but wants another push,
To leap from off its hinges.

_Dioc._ No sun to cheer us; but a bloody globe,
That rolls above, a bald and beamless fire,
His face o'er-grown with scurf: The sun's sick, too;
Shortly he'll be an earth.

_Pyr._ Therefore the seasons
Lie all confused; and, by the heavens neglected,
Forget themselves: Blind winter meets the summer
In his mid-way, and, seeing not his livery,
Has driven him headlong back; and the raw damps,
With flaggy wings, fly heavily about,
Scattering their pestilential colds and rheums
Through all the lazy air.

_Alc._ Hence murrains followed
On bleating flocks, and on the lowing herds:
At last