Page:The Poetical Works of Elijah Fenton (1779).djvu/19

 Mr. Fenton, in the conduct of this design, has shewn himself a very great master of stage propriety; he has softened the character of Herod, well knowing that so cruel a tyrant as the story makes him could not be borne upon the English stage: he has altered the character of Sohemus from an honest confident to a crafty enterprising statesman, who, to raise his master to the throne of Judea, murthered the natural heir: he has introduced in his drama a character under the name of Salome, the King's sister, who bore an implacable hatred to Mariamne, and who, in league with Sohemus, pursues her revenge at no less a price than that of her brother's and the Queen's life.

After the wars which had subsisted between Cæsar and Anthony had subsided, and the world fell to the share of the former, Herod is represented as having just returned from Rome, where, as an hostage to the Emperor, he has stipulated to send his younger son there, and Flaminius, a noble Roman, accompanies him into Jewry, to carry off the young prince. The day in which this dramatic action begins is upon a grand festival, appointed in honour of Herod's safe return from Rome, and being still permitted to enjoy his kingdom. The hard condition of sending the prince to Rome greatly affects the heart of the Queen, whom the poet has drawn a most tender mother. This throws a cloud over the ceremony, and furnishes an opportunity for Sohemus and Salome to set their infernal engines at work; who, in conjunction with