1 . the Æolian line, while Xuthus, on the other hand, favours young Ilyssus, believing him to be an Æolian. Aviolent quarrel ensues between the king and queen. She afterwards agrees with Phorbas, that Ilyssus should be destroyed; and even desires that at the banquet poison may be administered to him. Thus far we have what Scaliger calls the Epitasis, or winding up the plot to a state of perplexity and impending danger. Unforeseen incidents arise, and they go on, working and rising higher in every scene. In this alarming situation, Aletes, in the fourth act, has an interview with Creusa, and there discovers himself to be Nicander. Another important secret follows: She learns that Ilyssus is her son. This is Scaliger's Catastasis. Creusa is involved in difficulties: She finds her loved Nicander, but she is married to Xuthus.. Besides this, she has employed Phorlas VOL. I. $ Phorbas to destroy her own son. The fourth act ends in this confusion, which may well be called, the full growth of the fable. The Lysis, as Scaliger calls it, or the solution of the Gordian knot, still remains, and what turn affairs are to take, no one can foresee. In the fifth act, the mother flies to the banquet to save her son, whom she had doomed to death. A slave advances with a poisoned cup, and presents it to the youth. The mother seizes it, and, after giving another goblet to her son, swallows the mortal draught. The ingre dients are slow in their operation: She retires to the temple, and with transport tells Nicander, that she has saved her son, and delivered herself from the power of Xuthus, with whom she could not live, when her first husband and the father of her child was still alive. But the distress still encreases: Nicander has re 1 ceived a mortal wound. He and Creusa take their last adieu of their son in the most pathetic terms, and expire. Пlyssus, now Ion, and heir to the crown of Athens, laments his condition, calling himself more an orphan now than when he knew no parents. A noble moral arises from the conduct of Creusa : -Upon herself alone She drew heav'n's vengeance, and too surely proves, To horrid act, before th' eternal throne, The stile throughout is such as consists with a just imitation of nature, pure and elegant, often poetical, but never aspiring to the false sublime; the sentiments are suited to the charac ters, and are frequently full of moral dignity. I HAVE dwelt the longer on this play, because I think it a model of dramatic fable, which our modern writers would do well to take into their consideration, if they wish to form a regular, a probable, and coherent, plot. * Mr. Garrick, in Aletes (or Nicander) appeared to great advantage: In his scenes with his son, Ilyssus, he delivered his moral precepts in the finest vein of elocution; and in the pathetic situations he penetrated every heart. Mossop supported the part of Xuthus with weight and energy. Mrs. Pritchard was always in high favour with the author, and her performance of Creusa shewed that she deserved it. The play, as well as I recollect, has not been acted for several years, but it is to be hoped, will be revived, whenever the public taste shall undergo a thorough reform. CHAP. CHAP. XXIII. The Comedy of the CHANCES, altered from BEAUMONT and September 1754, to June 1755. WHENEVER Garrick appeared in any of his capital parts, either in tragedy or comedy, he was sure of attracting crowded audiences. But |