whole laws he considered as sacred and inviolable.

* * * * *

In the year 1707 Mr. Smith's Tragedy called Phaedra and Hippolitus was
acted at the Theatre-Royal. This play was introduced upon the stage,
at a time when the Italian Opera so much engrossed the attention of
the polite world, that sense was sacrificed to sound. It was dress'd
and decorated, at an extraordinary expence:----and inimitably
perform'd in all its parts, by Betterton, Booth, Barry, and Oldfield.
Yet it brought but few, and slender audiences.----To say truth,
'twas a fine Poem; but not an extraordinary Play. Notwithstanding the
intrinsic merit of this piece, and the countenance it met with from
the most ingenious men of the age, yet it languished on the stage,
and was soon neglected. Mr. Addison wrote the Prologue, in which he
rallies the vitiated taste of the public, in preferring the unideal
entertainment of an Opera, to the genuine sense of a British Poet.

The PROLOGUE.


Long has a race of Heroes fill'd the stage,
That rant by note, and thro' the gamut rage;
In songs, and airs, express their martial fire,
Combat in trills, and in a feuge expire;
While lull'd by sound, and undisturb'd by wit,
Calm and serene, you indolently fit;
And from the dull fatigue of thinking free,
Hear the facetious fiddle's rapartee;
Our home-spun authors must forsake the field,