From Delphi's golden fhrine,

And in fweet founds declare the will of Jove;

Daughter

not poffibly have been got together fo quickly as to enter and make a chorus immediately, according to Boivin: it is much more natural, he fays, to fuppofe that the priests belonging to the feveral temples, the or our ynça Capers,' who had heard the converfation between OEdipus and Creon, should join in their invocation to Apollo, requesting him to explain the oracle, and deliver their country. Those who are defirous of entering more minutely into the arguments brought by thefe gentlemen on both fides of the question, will meet with a fummary account of it in the Hiftoire de l'Academie des infcriptions & Belles Lettres, Tom. 3. p. 108. Brumoy fides with the fcholiaft and Boivin, and gives the chorus the title of antient Thebans; alledging only as his reafon, that Jocafta calls them pas avantes Princes, or, men of the first rank, in Thebes," which perhaps might be applied with equal propriety to the priests, r

The learned Dr. Burton, whofe Пevranoya is just come to my hands, has given us, in his excellent and useful notes on the OEdipus Tyrannus, an opinion in fome measure differing from, and perhaps preferable to all the reft: he imagines that OEdipus, the highprieft, &c. retiring, the ftage is left in poffeffion of the priests, who form the chorus and fing the first fong or intermede during the abfence of the king, who returns foon after together with the affembled people; that then the priests go out and give place to a new chorus, composed of the principal citizens of Thebes, who continue on the stage to the end of the drama. This folution of the difficulty is ingenious, but feems to want that kind of confirmation which arifes from fimilitude of practice in the fame author: we do not remember any inftance in Sophocles of the like conduct with regard to his chorus. The Dr. indeed fays, examples are not wanting, and mentions the hymn to Apollo in the Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides, as a fimilar circumstance; but, befides that the cafes are not exactly parallel, it may be fufficient to obferve that the conduct of Euripides should by no means determine that of Sophocles, who is infinitely more correct and regular in the plan and difpofition of every part of his tragedies, than his illustrious rival. If, after

the

Daughter of hope, Ol footh my foul.to, reft,
And calm the rifing tumult in my breast;

Look down, O! Phoebus, on thy lov'd abode;
Speak, for thou know'ft the dark decrees of fate,
Our present and our future ftate,

O! Delian, be thou still our healing God!
ANTIS TROPHE I..

Minerva, firft on thee I call,
Daughter of Jove, immortal maid,
Low beneath thy feet we fall,

O bring thy fifter Dian to our aid; Goddess of Thebes, from thy imperial throne Look with an eye of gentle pity down,

And thou, far-fhooting Phoebus, once the friend

Of this unhappy, this devoted land,

O! now if ever let thy hand

Once more be stretch'd to fave and to defend !

the ingenious, conjectures of thefe gentlemen, I were to propofe my own on this point, it would be, that the fame chorus continues from the beginning to the end, and that it confifted of the priests and facrificers, intermingled with the principal and moft antient inhabi tants of Thebes.

O! thou great oracle, &c. The first intermede or fong of the chorus is a folemn invocation of Apollo and other deities, intreating them to fuccour Thebes, and pathetically defcribing the dreadful effects of the pestilence. The whole is, in the original, nobly expreffed, and naturally arifing from the circumftances of the drama. The will of Jove. The oracle of Apollo only interpreted the will of Jove, the great father and source of all.

Que Phoebo pater omnipotens mihi Phoebus Apollo.

Prædixit,

fays Virgil. Abfurd as the Pagan theology was, we frequently find the ancients refolving all power into one fupreme Being, called, particularly in Sophocles, by the name of ov, or the God."

STROPHE II.

Great Thebes, my fons, is now no more,
She falls and ne'er again fhall rife,

Nought can her health or strength restore,
The mighty nation finks, the droops, the dies:
Strip'd of her fruits behold the barren earth;
The half-form'd infant ftruggles for a birth;
The mother finks unequal to her pain:
Whilft quick as birds in airy circles fly,
Or lightnings from an angry fky,

Crouds press on crouds to Pluto's dark domain.
ANTIS TROPHE II,

Behold what heaps of wretches flain,
Unbury'd, unlamented lye,

Nor parents now nor friends remain
To grace their deaths with pious obfequyi
The aged matron and the blooming wife,
Clung to the altars, fue for added life;
With fighs and groans united Paans rife;
Re-echo'd still doth great Apollo's name
Their forrows and their wants proclaim
Frequent to him afcends the facrifice,

STROPHE III.

Hafte then, Minerva, beauteous maid,
Defcend in this afflictive hour,in

Haffe to thy dying people's aid,

Drive hence this baneful, this deftructive pow'r! Who comes not arm'd with hostile fword or fhield, Yet ftrews with many a corse th' enfanguin'd field; To Amphitrite's wide-extending bed. O! drive him, Goddefs, from thy fav'rite land, i Or let him, by thy dread command, Bury in Thracian waves his ignominious head.

A N

ANTIS TROPHE III.

Father of all, immortal Jove,

O! now thy fiery terrors send;
From thy dreadful ftores above

Let lightnings blaft him and let thunders rends
hunders rends
And thou, O! Lydian king, thy aid impart;
Send from thy golden bow, th' unerring dart;

Smile, chafte Diana, on this lov'd abode,....
Whilft Theban Bacchus joins the mad'ning throng,

O! God of wine and mirth and long,

Now with thy torch deftroy the bafe inglorious god.

[Exeunt.

ACT

With thy torch, &c. Bacchus is always defcribed with torches; probably in remembrance of his birth, as being born in flames, when his mother Semele was confumed by Jove's lightning. We read of the λμπтпрia coрTη, or feaft of torches, dedicated to this god. Dacier imagines, that the chorus invoke Bacchus with his torches, because wine and fire are the best prefervatives against the plague: but this feems to be a mere allegorical and vifionary refinement.

ACT II.

SCENE J. T

OEDIPUS, CHORUS, the People affémbled.

Y

OE DIPUS.

OUR pray'rs are heard; and, if you will obey
Your king, and hearken to his words, you foon

Shall find Relief; myfelf will heal your woes:

I was a ftranger to the dreadful deed,

A franger ev'n to the report till now;
without fome traces of the crime
I fhou'd not urge this matter; therefore hear me;

And yet

Myfelf a citizen; obferve me well:
If any know the murtherer of Laius,
Let him reveal it; I command you all;
But if reftrain'd by dread of punishment
He hide the fecret, let him fear no more;
For nought but exile fhall attend the crime-
Whene'er confefs'd; if by a foreign hand
The horrid deed was done, who points him out:
Commands our thanks, and meets a fure reward;
But if there be who knows the murtherer,
And yet conceals him from us, mark his fate
Which here I do pronounce; let none receive

Throughout

Let none receive, &c. Sophocles has here given us the folemn form of a pagan excommunication, almost as terrible in its circumftances as a pope's bull; this we find frequently denounced against thofe who were guilty of murther, or any other very heinous crime:

the