But I will give a fpecimen of this performance as a tranflation, from that affecting scene, in which Oedipus, blind and exiled from the city, is led on by his daughter Antigone, the rival in filial fidelity of Lear's Cordelia, to touch the dead and murthered bodies of his queen Jocafta, and his fons Eteocles and Polynices. It appears to be the chief fault of the tranflators, that they have weakened the force of the original, which confifts in a pathetic brevity, by needlefs dilatations, and the affectations of circumlocution. The whole dialogue in the original is carried on in fingle lines. Such, however, is the pregnant fimplicity of the Greek language, that it would have been impoffible to have rendered line for line in English.

OEDIPUS.

Daughter, I must commend thy noble heart.

ANTIGONE.

Father, I will not liue in company",

And you alone wander in wildernes.

OEDIPUS.

yes, dear daughter, leaue thou me alone Amid my plagues: be merry while thou mayft.

ANTIGONE.

And who shall guide thefe aged feete of yours,
That banisht beene, in blind neceffitie?

Where fo the heauens fhall lend me harborough.
And, in exchange of rich and stately towres,
The woods, the wildernes, the darkesome dennes,
Shall be the boure of mine unhappy bones.

ANTIGONE.

O father, now where is your glory gone?

OEDIPUS.

One happy day did rayfe me to renowne,
One haples day hath throwen mine honor downe.

Deare father, yes: let youth geue place to age.

OEDIPUS.

Where is thy mother? Let me touch her face:
That with these hands I may yet feele the harme
That these blind eyes forbid me to behold.

ANTIGONE.

Here father, here her

corps, here put your

hand.

OEDIPUS.

O wife, O mother! O, both woful names!

O woful mother, and O woful wife!

O would

O would to God, alas! O would to God,
Thou nere had been my mother, nor my wife!
But where now lie the paled bodies two
Of mine vnluckie fonnes? O where be they?

ANTIGONE.

Lo, here they lie, one by another dead!

OEDIPUS.

Stretch out this hand, deare daughter, stretch this hand
Vpon their faces.

ANTIGONE.

Lo father, loe, now you do touch them both.

OEDIPUS.

O bodies deare! O bodies deerely bought
Vnto your father! Bought with hard mishap !

Why cannot I of cruel Creon crave,

Ne with my death now purchase thee, a graue?

OEDIPUS.

Now comes Apollo's oracle to paffe,

That I in Athens towne fhould end my dayes.
And fince thou doest, O daughter mine, defire
In this exile to be my wofull mate,

Lend me thy hand, and let vs goe together.

ANTIGONE.

Loe here all prest', my deare beloued father!
A feeble guyde, and eke a fimple scoute,
To paffe the perils in a doubtful way'.

OEDIPUS.

Vnto the wretched be a wretche guyde.

ANTIGONE.

In this alonly equall to my father.

OEDIPUS.

And where fhal I fet foorth my trembling feete ?
O reach me yet some furer staffe", to stay
My staggering pace amyd these wayes vnknowen.

ANTIGONE.

Here, father, here, and here, set foorth

your feete.

OEDIPUS.

Nowe can I blame none other for my harmes
But secret spite of fore-decreed fate.

Thou art the cause, that crooked, old, and blind,
I am exilde farre from my countrey foyle, &c ".

That it may be seen in fome measure, how far these two poets, who deferve much praife for even an attempt to introduce the Grecian drama to the notice of our ancestors, have

fucceeded in translating this scene of the tenderest expoftulation, I will place it before the reader in a plain literal verfion.

"OED. My daughter, I praise your filial piety. But yet "ANT. But if I was to marry Creon's fon, and you, my fa"ther, be left alone in banishment? OED. Stay at home, and "be happy. I will bear my own misfortunes patiently. ANT. "But who will attend you, thus blind and helpless, my father? "OED. I shall fall down, and be found lying in fome field on "the ground, as it may chance to happen ". ANT. Where is "now that Oedipus, and his famous riddle of the Sphinx? "OED. He is loft! one day made me happy, and one day "destroyed me! ANT. Ought I not, therefore, to share your "miferies? OɛD. It will be but a base banishment of a prin"cess with her blind father! ANT. To one that is haughty : "not to one that is humble, and loves her father. OED. Lead "me on then, and let me touch the dead body of your mother. "ANT. Lo, now your hand is upon her °. OED. O my mo"ther! O my most wretched wife! ANT. She lies a wretched "corpfe, covered with every woe. OED. But where are the "dead bodies of my fons Eteocles and Polynices? ANT. They "lie just by you, ftretched out clofe to one another. OED. "Put my blind hand upon their miferable faces! ANT. Lo " now, you touch your dead children with your hand. OED. "O, dear, wretched, carcafes of a wretched father! ANT. "O, to me the most dear name of my brother Polynices! "OED. Now, my daughter, the oracle of Apollo proves true. "ANT. What? Can you tell any more evils than those which "have happened? OED. That I should die an exile at Athens. "ANT. What city of Attica will take you in? OED. The "facred Colonus, the house of equeftrian Neptune. Come, "then, lend your affiftance to this blind father, fince you mean