The Preface.
It
may be necessary to inform the Reader,
that after the first Representation of this
Play, the Conclusion was altered: Agamemnon
is left to continue in a Swoon, and the
Scene is clos'd with these few lines spoken by
Ulysses, immediately upon the Departure of
Chruseis,
Uly.
The Ills that Love has done, Love has aton'd,
And Glory calls, to make us full amends.
Look to the King, be that your care Talthybius,
(ToTal.
And let all Ages, in this Truth agree
Love never gain'd, a Nobler Victory.
The Reasons for this Alteration were these. The
Author was of Opinion, that some might think it
more Natural that Agamemnon, (considering
the Excess of Love which fills his Character)
should upon coming to himself, rather run after
his Mistress, than into the Battel: He declares
that in the same Circumstance he should have done
so himself, and it is a pretty true Observation,
that in the Frame of our Heroes, we commonly
draw our own Pictures. Another Reason was
Brevity, some having complain'd of the length
of that Act. There was indeed such effectual Care
taken not to seem tedious to the Audience, that the
last Scene may be more properly said to have been
Murder'd than Cut, for the Conveniency of Acting,
as will evidently appear to the Reader.
Some have objected, that it is unnatural for a
Hero to Swoon; those Persons are entreated to
inform us of what stuff they take Heroes to be
made: Hitherto they have pass'd for Men, and
by consequence subject to humane Infirmities. Othello
in one of his Agonies of Jelousie, falls into
a Swoon: and indeed in some Cases where the
Passion must be presum'd so Violent or so Tender,
that words can but faintly represent it, it is then
a Beauty to express it in this manner, and by far
more Pathetick, than any Speech thô never so
Rhetorical. Others have complain'd, that they
want to know what becomes afterwards of Agamemnon.
They are desir'd to accept of this
short reply, That the Author never undertook to
write the Life of
Agamemnon. A Tragedy is
the Representation of one single particular Action,
and not of every Circumstance of a Man's Life:
But however, to satisfie their Curiosity, these Persons
if they can give themselves the trouble to
observe, may find mixt up and down in the Play,
either by way of Relation or Prophecy, all the
remarkable Passages of the Life of
Agamemnon,
from the Beginning to the End, not omitting
so much as his Forefathers and his Posterity:
and what would they have more? It has likewise
been objected, that the Characters are too few.
Let those Criticks be pleas'd to consider, that a
single Action will allow of but few Persons, and a
regular Play is confin'd to a single Action: Let
them examine what number of Characters the Ancients
and all who have written in their Imitation,
were wont to introduce, and then let them judge.
It may be further observ'd; that whosoever crowds
his Play with a Multitude of Persons, will be
forc'd to draw his Characters so little, and as it
were in miniature, that it will scarce be perceptible
there are any Characters at all: for to shew
Men at full Length and in just Proportion, requires
room, which can only be found when the
Characters are few.
There is indeed one Personage which the Author
thinks himself oblig'd to make some Apology
for to the Judicious Reader, thô it happens to be
the Part which in the Representation meets the
loudest Applause; and this is the Character of
Briseis, which may seem to some a little over-strain'd,
and extended larger than the Life. However
he cannot help owning that in his Opinion he
verily believes there are many who think full as
vainly of themselves; Some Men he is sure
he has met with of that Character, but Ladies
are Sacred Things, and he would not be
thought to suggest the least uncivil Supposition of
any of that Sex. To proceed then to give some
account of the true Reason of his choice of
so extraordinary a Person, the plain Truth
of the whole matter is this; Had he form'd her a
moving Character, should he have brought her in lamenting
her Misfortune and attracting Compassion,
this would have prejudic'd the Chief Hero of the
Play: for all the Pity which she had excited, must
necessarily have rais'd so much Indignation against
him. The Author thus was under a Necessity to represent
her in such a manner, that no body might
be concern'd, or take any part in her Misfortune,
and he therefore chose to make her of a Piece
with her Lover; for in reality, her Character is
form'd out of his, as presuming and arrogant with
her Beauty, as
Achilles with the Opinion of his
Courage. There was scarce any other way of introducing
her without giving occasion for pity,
which was absolutely to be avoided; and therefore
the Author hopes in such a Case he is pardonable.
This Excuse is addrest to the Judicious, the generality
of the World needed it not, this being the
Part in the Play which found the best Reception.
It often indeed happens, that the Audience is best
pleas'd where the Author is most out of countenance,
and that part of the Performance which
the Writer Suspects, the Spectator chiefly approves.
When we observe how little notice is taken of the
noble and sublime Thoughts and Expressions of
Mr.
Dryden in
Oedipus, and what Applause
is given to the Rants and the Fustian of Mr.
Lee,
what can we say, but that Madmen are only fit to
write, when nothing is esteem'd Great and Heroick
but what is un-intelligible.
