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132 kind of farce, is the only specimen remaining to us of a form of theatrical entertainment which all the Greek tragedians had recourse to, in order to relieve the mental tension consequent on witnessing the performance of a long tragedy. It must be remembered, however, that with them a tragedy was merely a drama written in an intense and serious style; it was not necessary that it should have a disastrous ending. Thus the Alcestis, the Ion, and the two Iphigenias of Euripides, and the Electra and Œdipus Coloneus of Sophocles, since none of these plays end unhappily, do not fall under the definition of a tragedy as now understood.

35. 6. Ter. Eunuchus, Act. ii. Sc. I. 17, 18.

16. Our author has quoted from memory. The lines are, At nostri proavi, etc., and afterwards, Ne dicam stulte mirati. (Malone.) Hor. A. P. 270.

23. Hor. A. P. 70.

28. Catachresis is the improper or abusive employment of a word.

29. Virg. Ecl. iv. 20.

36. 4. Virg. Æn. viii. 91.

8. Ovid, Met. i. 175; and (below) ib. 561. Malone says that the true reading is pompae, and this is certainly adopted in Burmann's edition; but longas pompas occurs in some MSS. Malone also points out that in the preceding quotation, for verbo we should read verbis, and for metuam summi, timeam magni.

31. From The Rebel Scot, by Cleveland.

37. 1. Juv. Sat. x. 123.

22. Many Medeas were produced by the ancients; Delrio tells us that it was treated as a subject for comedy by the Greek authors,, Stratis, and Cantharus, and for tragedy by (besides Euripides) , Diogenes, , and Demologus; it was also dramatized by the Latin writers , Attius, Pacuvius, Varro, and Ovid. (See Schroder's Seneca; Delft, 1728.)

25. Ovid, Tristia ii. 381.

30. Our author (as Dr. Johnson has observed) might have determined this question upon surer evidence, for it