Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/134

 S C H Y L U S. Then .ffifchylus a decent vizard us'd, Built a low ftage, the flowing robe diffus'd j In language more fublrme his adtors ra;e, And in the graceful bufKin tread the fiage. Francis. fur The ancients give /Efchylus alfo the praifc of 'having been Hor>t0m>!f -the firft who removed murders and {hocking fights from the cdk. 9 ' 'eyes of the fpe<ftarors. He is faid likewife to have leflened the number of the chorus ; or rather this reformation was owir.t.' to an accident: in his Eumemdes, the chorus which confiftcd of fifty perfons, appearing on the ftage with fright- ful habits, had fuch an effedt on the fpedlators, that the wo- iJtanleius,p. men with child mifcarried, and the children fell into fits; 70*. 707. this occasioned a law to be made to reduce the chorus to fif- In his Life teen, Mr. Le Fevre has oblerved, that /Efchylus never re- . y " prefented women in love, in his tragedies, which, he fays, was not fuited to his genius; but in reprcfcnting a wo- man tranfported with fury he was incomparable. Longi- nus fays, that /Efchylus has a noble boldnefs of expref- fion ; and that his imagination is lofty and heroic. It muft be owned, however, that he affected pompous words, and that his fenle is too often obfcured by figures : which gave Salmafius cccafion to fay, that he was more difficult to be under/flood than the Sciipture itfelf fcT. But notwitlulanding Scholiaft. . r i i i - t.oele imperfections, this poet was held in great veneration by tlie Athenians, who made a public decree that his trage- ^; es (K ou ja be pbycd after his death. When JEfiJhylus retired to the court of Hrcro kino; of Sicily, this'prince was then building the city of ^Etna, and our poet celebrated the new city oy a tragedy of the fame name. After having lived fome years at Gela, we are told that he died of a fra&are of his fkuli, caufed by an eagle's letting fall a Val. Man. tortoile on his head ; and the manner of his death is faid y,.' ' ' I2 to have been prcc'jdled by an oracle, which had foretold cap. 3. that he fliould die by foniewhaj; from the heavens. This happened, according to Mr. Stanley > in the 6e*th year of his age. He had the honour of a pompous funeral from the Sicilians, who buried him near the river Gela; and the tragedians of the country performed plays and theatrical ex- [c] Quis /Efchyluoi pofilt adfirmars crorum cum fiiis Hzbraifmis, et Sytiaf- Crce rune (cienti ms?is pattre expli- mis, e^ toa Hc-llenirtica fupcileclile vel cabilem ouam tvanetlia aut rpiituias /Jtragintr, De Helleniltica, p. 37. Epift, apoflolicat ? unus e_ius A^sn c,nr,on ob- D;dicat 4 fcuritate luperat quantum eft librcrum fa-