 | The Tragedy of Tragedies ; Or The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great |  |
SCENE I.
SCENE King Arthur's Palace.Ghost solus.
Hail! ye black Horrors of Midnight's Midnoon!
Ye Fairies, Goblins, Bats and Screech-Owls, Hail!
And Oh! ye mortal Watchmen, whose hoarse Throats
Th' Immortal Ghosts dread Croakings counterfeit,
All Hail!—Ye dancing Fantoms, who by Day,
Are some condemn'd to fast, some feast in Fire;
Now play in Church-yards, skipping o'er the Graves,
All Hail!
Of all the Particulars in which the modern Stage falls short of the ancient, there is none so much to be lamented, as the great Scarcity of Ghosts in the latter. Whence this proceeds, I will not presume to determine. Some are of opinion, that the Moderns are unequal to that sublime Language which a Ghost ought to speak. One says ludicrously, That Ghosts are out of Fashion; another, That they are properer for Comedy; forgetting, I suppose, that Aristotle hath told us, That a Ghost is the Soul of Tragedy; for so I render the ψυχη ο μυθος της τραγωδιας,, which M. Dacier, amongst others, hath mistaken; I suppose mis-led, by not understanding the Fabula of the Latins, which signifies a Ghost as well as a Fable.
—Te premet nox, fabulæque Manes.Hor.
Of all the Ghosts that have ever appeared on the Stage, a very learned and judicious foreign Critick, gives the Preference to this of our Author. These are his Words, speaking of this Tragedy;
—Nec quidquam in illâ admirabilius quam Phasma quoddam horrendum, quod omnibus aliis Spectris, quibuscum scatet Anglorum Tragœdia, longè (pace D---isii V. Doctiss. dixeram) prætulerim.
| The Tragedy of Tragedies ; Or The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great | |