THOUGH it be dangerous to raise too great an expectation, especially in works of this Nature, where we are to please an unsatia­ble Audience, yet 'tis reasonable to prepos­sess them in favour of an Author, and there­fore both the Prologue and Epilogue inform'd you, that Oedipus was the most celebrated piece of all Antiquity. That Sophocles, not only the greatest Wit, but one of the greatest Men in Athens, made it for the Stage at the Pub­lick Cost, and that it had the reputation of being his Master­piece, not only amongst the Seven of his which are still re­maining, but of the greater Number which are perish'd. Aristole has more than once admir'd it in his Book of Po­etry, Horace has mention'd it: Lucullus, Julius Caesar, and other noble Romans, have written on the same Subject, though their Poems are wholly lost; but Seneca's is still pre­serv'd. In our own Age, Corneille has attempted it, and it appears by his Preface, with great success: But a judicious Reader will easily observe, how much the Copy is inferi­our to the Original. He tells you himself, that he owes a great part of his success to the happy Episode of Theseus and Dirce; which is the same thing, as if we should acknowledge, that we were indebted for our good fortune, to the under­plot of Adrastus, Eurydice, and Creon. The truth is, he [Page] miserably fail'd in the Character of his Hero: if he desir'd that Oedipus should be pitied, he shou'd have made him a better man. He forgot that Sophocles had taken care to shew him in his first entrance, a just, a merciful, a success­ful, a Religious Prince, and in short, a Father of his Coun­try: instead of these, he has drawn him suspicious, designing, more anxious of keeping the Theban Crown, than solicitous for the safety of his People: Hector'd by Theseus, contemn'd by Dirce, and scarce maintaining a second part in his own Tragedie. This was an errour in the first concoction; and therefore never to be mended in the second or the third: He introduc'd a greater Heroe than Oedipus himself: for when Theseus was once there, that Companion of Hercu­les must yield to none: The Poet was oblig'd to furnish him with business, to make him an Equipage suitable to his digni­ty, and by following him too close, to lose his other King of Branford in the Crowd. Seneca on the other side, as if there were no such thing as Nature to be minded in a Play, is always running after pompous expression, pointed sen­tences, and Philosophical notions, more proper for the Study than the Stage: The French-man follow'd a wrong scent; and the Roman was absolutely at cold Hunting. All we cou'd gather out of Corneille, was, that an Episode must be, but not his way: and Seneca supply'd us with no new hint, but only a Relation which he makes of his Tiresias raising the Ghost of Lajus: which is here perform'd in view of the Au­dience, the Rites and Ceremonies so far his, as he agreed with Antiquity, and the Religion of the Greeks: but he himself was beholding to Homer's Tiresias in the Odysses for some of them: and the rest have been collected from Heliodore's, AEthiopiques, and Lucan's Erictho. Sophocles indeed is [Page] admirable every where: And therefore we have follow'd him as close as possibly we cou'd: But the Athenian Theater, (whether more perfect than ours is not now disputed) had a perfection differing from ours. You see there in every Act a single Scene, (or two at most) which manage the business of the Play, and after that succeeds the Chorus, which commonly takes up more time in Singing, than there has been employ'd in speaking. The Principal person appears almost constantly through the Play; but the inferiour parts seldome above once in the whole Tragedie. The conduct of our Stage is much more difficult, where we are oblig'd never to lose any considerable character which we have once present­ed. Custom likewise has obtain'd, that we must form an un­der-plot of second Persons, which must be depending on the first, and their by-walks must be like those in a Labyrinth, which all of 'em-lead into the great Parterre: or like so many several lodging Chambers, which have their out-lets in­to the same Gallery. Perhaps after all, if we could think so, the ancient method, as 'tis the easiest, is also the most Natural, and the best. For variety, as 'tis manag'd, is too often subject to breed distraction: and while we would please too many ways, for want of art in the conduct, we please in none. But we have given you more already than was necessary for a Preface, and for ought we know, may gain no more by our instructions, than that Politick Naton is like to do, who have taught their Enemies to fight so long, that at last they are in a condition to invade them.