SOPHONISBA: A TRAGEDY. MADAM, TO THE QUEEN. THE notice your Majesty has condescended to take of the following Tragedy, emboldens me to lay it, in the humblest manner, at your Majesty's feet. And to whom can this illustrious Carthaginian so properly fly for protection, as to a queen who commands the hearts of a people more powerful at sea than Carthage, more flourishing in commerce than those first merchants, more secure against conquest, and under a monarchy more free than a commonwealth itself?. I dare not, nor indeed need I, here attempt a character where both the great and the amiable qualities shine forth in full perfection. All words are faint to speak what is universally felt and acknowledged by a happy people. Permit me therefore only to subscribe myself, with the truest zeal and veneration, Madam, Your Majesty's most humble, most dutiful, and most devoted servant, JAMES THOMSON. PREFACE. Ir is not my intention, in this preface, to defend any faults that may be found in the following piece. I am afraid there are too many; but those who are best able to discover, will be most ready to pardon, them. They alone know how difficult an undertaking the writing of a tragedy is: and this is a first attempt. I beg leave only to mention the reason that determined me to make choice of this subject. What pleased me par ticularly (though perhaps it will not be least liable to objec tion with ordinary readers) was the great simplicity of the story. It is one, regular, and uniform; not charged with a multiplicity of incidents, and yet affording several revolu tions of fortune, by which the passions may be excited, varied, and driven to their full tumult of emotion. This unity of design was always sought after and admired by the ancients: and the most eminent among the moderns who understood their writings, have chosen to imitate them in this, from an entire conviction that the reason of it must hold good in all ages. And here allow me to translate & passage from the celebrated Monsieur Racine, which contains all that I have to say on this head :- "We must not fancy that this rule has no other foundation but the caprice of those who made it. Nothing can touch us in tragedy, but what is probable. And what probability is there that in one day should happen a multitude of things which could scarce happen in several weeks? There are some who think that this simplicity is a mark of barrenness of invention. But they do not consider that, on the contrary, invention consists of making something out of nothing; and that this huddle of incidents has always been the refuge of poets who did not find in their genius either richness or force enough to engage their spectators, for five acts together, by a simple action, supported by the violence of passions, the beauty of sentiments. and the nobleness of expression." I would not be understood to mean that all these things are to be found in my perform |