CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS informs us, that Chiron, who went with the Argonauts, obferv'd the conftellations at the time of that famous expedition, and fix'd the vernal equinox to the middle of the Ram; the autumnal equinox to the middle of Libra, our fummer folftice to the middle of Cancer, and our winter folftice to the middle of Capricorn.

A LONG time after the expedition of the Argonauts, and a year before the Peloponneftan war, Methon obferv'd that the point of the fummer folftice pafs'd thro' the eighth degree of Cancer.

Now every fign of the zodiack contains thirty degrees. In Chiron's time, the folftice was arriv'd at the middle of the fign, that is to fay, to the fifteenth degree. A year before the Peloponnefian war, it was at the eighth, and therefore it had retarded feven degrees. A degree is equivalent to feventy-two years; confequently, from the beginning of the Peloponnefian war to the expedition of the Argonauts, there is no more than an interval of feven times feventy-two years, which make five hundred and four years, and not seven hundred years, as the Greeks computed. Thus in comparing the pofition of the heavens at this time, with their pofition in that age, we find that the expedition of the Argonauts ought to be plac'd about nine hundred years before Chrift, and not about

fourteen

fourteen hundred; and confequently that 131 the world is not fo old by five hundred years as it was generally fuppos'd to be. By this calculation all the æras are drawn nearer, and the feveral events are found to have happen'd later than is computed. I don't know whether this ingenious fyftem will be favourably receiv'd; and whether these notions will prevail fo far with the learned, as to prompt them to reform the chronology of the world. Perhaps these gentlemen would think it too great a condefcenfion, to allow one and the fame man the glory of having improv'd natural philofophy, geometry and hiftory. This would be a kind of univerfal monarchy, which the principle of felf-love that is in man will fcarce fuffer him to indulge his fellow-creature; and, indeed, at the fame time that fome very great philofophers attack'd Sir Ifaac Newton's attractive principle, others fell upon his chronological fyftem. Time, that thou'd difcover to which of thefe the victory is due, may perhaps only leave the difpute still more undetermin'd.

LETTER XVIII.

ON

TRAGEDY.

TH

HE English, as well as the Spaniards, were poffefs'd of theatres, at a time when the French had no more than moving, itinerant ftages. Shakespeare, who was confider'd as the Corneille of the first mention'd nation, was pretty near contemporary with Lopez de Vega, and he created, as it were, the English theatre. Shakespeare boasted a strong, fruitful genius: He was natural and fublime, but had not so much as a fingle fpark of good tafte, or knew one rule of the drama. I will now hazard a random, but, at the fame time, true reflection, which is, that the great merit of this dramatic poet has been the ruin of the English ftage. There are fuch beautiful, fuch noble, fuch dreadful fcenes in this writer's monftrous farces, to which the name of Tragedy is given, that they have always been exhibited with great fuccefs. Time, which only gives reputation to wri

ters,

ters, at last makes their very faults venerable. Most of the whimfical, gigantic images of this poet, have, thro' length of time (it being an hundred and fifty years fince they were firft drawn) acquir'd a right of paffing for fublime. Moft of the modern dramatick writers have copied him; but the touches and defcriptions which are applauded in Shakespeare, are hifs'd at in these writers; and you'll eafily believe, that the veneration in which this author is held increases in proportion to the contempt which is fhewn to the moderns. Dramatick writers don't consider that they fhould not imitate him; and the ill fuccefs of Shakespeare's imitators produces no other effect, than to make him be confider'd as inimitable. You remember, that in the tragedy of OTHELLO Moor of Venice, (a most tender piece) a man strangles his wife on the stage; and that the poor woman, whilft fhe is ftrangling, cries aloud, that she dies very unjustly. You know that in HAMLET Prince of Denmark, two gravediggers make a grave, and are all the time drinking, finging ballads, and making humorous reflections (natural indeed enough to persons of their profeffion) on the several skulls they throw up with their spades; but a circumstance which will furprize you is, that this ridiculous incident has been imitated. In the reign of king Charles the fecond,

fecond, which was that of politeness, and the golden age of the liberal arts, Otway, in his VENICE PRESERV'D, introduces Antonio the fenator,, and Naki his courtezan, in the midft of the horrors of the marquis of Bedmar's confpiracy. Antonio, the fuperannuated fenator, plays in his mistress's prefence, all the apifh tricks of a lewd, impotent debauchee, who is quite frantic and out of his fenfes. He mimicks a bull and a dog; and bites his mistress's legs, who kicks and whips him. However, the players have ftruck thefe buffooneries (which indeed were calculated merely for the dregs of the people) out of Otway's tragedy; but they have still left in Shakespeare's JULIUS CASAR, the jokes of the Roman fhoemakers. and coblers, who are introduc'd in the fame fcene with Brutus and Caffius. You will undoubtedly complain, that thofe who have hitherto difcours'd with you on the English ftage, and efpecially on the celebrated Shakespeare, have taken notice only of his errors; and that no one has translated any of thofe ftrong, thofe forcible paffages which atone for all his faults. But to this I will anfwer, that nothing is easier than to exhibit in profe all the filly impertinencies which a poet may have thrown out; but that 'tis a very difficult task to translate his fine verfes. All your junior academical Sophs, who fet up for cenfors of the emi

nent