So hallow’d and so gracious is that Time.
Truly Mr. Lee was in my Opinion, the most exact of all our modern Dramatists in his Plays; but yet he is not without his Irregularities and Foibles, especially in religious Matters, of which we shall only take notice of this in his Tragedy call Theodosius, or the Force of Love, where, in Act 3. Scen. 1. he represents the Emperor Theodosius a hopeful Convert, when at the sight of Athenais he makes one of the Articles of the Christian Faith a Simile for his Cod-piece Passion in these Words,
What hinders now but in spite of Rules
I burst thro’ all the Bands of Death that hold me,
And fly with such a haste to that Appearance,
As bury’d Saints shall make at the last Summons.
In Mr. Lee’s Tragedy call’d the Rival Queens, or the Death of Alexander the Great, in Act 1. Scen. I. he makes Polyperchon give a Description of Hell after the Christian Manner; for tho’ it was the Theology of the Grecians to believe a future State, yet it does not occur to my Memory that I ever read they allotted any Punishment to the Wicked by Fire, as he intimates in these Lines.
Tho’ the Earth yawn so wide,
That all the Labours of the Deep were seen,