se,
where they were both so very well known, by having Juba's dress and his
guards; as if one of the Marshals of France could pass for the Duke of
Bavaria at noonday, at Versailles, by having his dress and liveries. But
how does Syphax pretend to help Sempronius to young Juba's dress?
Does he serve him in a double capacity, as general and master of his
wardrobe? But why Juba's guards? For the devil of any guards has Juba
appeared with yet. Well, though this is a mighty politic invention, yet,
methinks, they might have done without it: for, since the advice that
Syphax gave to Sempronius was

"'To hurry her away by manly force,'

in my opinion the shortest and likeliest way of coming at the lady
was by demolishing, instead of putting on an impertinent disguise to
circumvent two or three slaves. But Sempronius, it seems, is of another
opinion. He extols to the skies the invention of old Syphax:--

"'SEMP. Heavens! what a thought was there!'

"Now, I appeal to the reader if I have not been as good as my word. Did
I not tell him that I would lay before him a very wise scene?

"But now let us lay before the reader that part of the scenery of the
fourth act which may show the absurdities which the author has run
into, through the indiscreet observance of the unity of place. I do not
remember that Aristotle has said anything expressly concerning the unity
of place. 'Tis true, implicitly he has said enough in the rules which he
has laid down for the chorus. For by making the chorus an essential
part of tragedy, and by bringing it on the stage immediately after the
opening of the scene, and retaining it there till the very catastrophe,
he has so determined and fixed the place of action that it was
impossible for an author on the Grecian stage to break through that
unity. I am of opinion that if a modern tragic poet can preserve the
amity of place, without destroying the probability of the incidents,
'tis always best for him to do it; because by the preservation of that
unity, as we have taken notice above, he adds grace and clearness and
comeliness to the representation. But since there are no express rules
about it, and we are under no compulsion to keep it, since we have
no chorus as the Grecian poet had; if it cannot be preserved without
rendering the greater part of the incidents unreasonable and absurd, and
perhaps sometimes monstrous, 'tis certainly better to break it.

"Now comes bully Sempronius, comical