This Tragedian like Æschylus does not often concern himself with Amours, and when he does, nothing can be more temperate, and decent. For example where the Incest of Oedipus is described,Oedip. Tyran. Ed Steph.
Antig. 242. 244.[52] the Offensiveness of the Idea is screen'd off and broken by Metaphorical and distant Expressions. In another Play[53] Creon resolves to put Antigone to Death for presuming to bury Polynices. This Lady and Hæmon Creons Son were very far engaged; Hæmon endeavours to disswade his Father from Antigones Execution: He tells him the burying her Brother tho' against his Order, was a popular Action. And that the People would resent her being punish'd: But never so much as mentions his own Concern unless in one Line; which was so obscure that Creon misunderstood him. Antigone amongst her other Misfortunes laments her dying Young and Single, but says not one word about Hæmon. The Poet takes care not to bring these two Lovers upon the Stage together, for fear they might prove unmanagable? Had They been with us, they had met with kinder treatment. They might have had Interviews and Time and Freedom enough. Enough to mud their Fancy, to tarnish their Quality, and make their Passion Scandalous. In the Relation of Hæmons Death, his Love is related too, and that with all the Life and Pathos imaginable. But the Description is within the Terms of Honour: The tendernesses are Solemn, as well as Soft: They move to Ibid. 264.[54]Pity and Concern, and go no farther. In his Trachiniæ the Chorus owns the Force of Love next to irresistable; gently hints the Intrigues of the Gods, and then passes on to a handsome Trach. 348.[55]Image of the Combat between Achelous and Hercules. We see how lightly the Poet touches upon an amorous Theme: He glides along like a Swallow upon the Water, and skims the Surface, without dipping a Feather.

Sophocles will afford us no more, let us therefore take a view of Euripides. 'Tis the Method of this Author to decline the Singularities of the Stage, and to appear with an Air of Conversation. He delivers great Thoughts in Common Language, and is dress'd more like a Gentleman than a Player. His Distinction lies in the perspicuity of his Stile; In Maxim, and Moral Reflection; In his peculiar Happiness for touching the Passions, especially that of Pity; And lastly, in exhausting the Cause, and arguing pro and Con, upon the streach of Reason. So much by way of Character. And as for the Matter before us He is entirely Ours. We have had an Instance or two already in Electra and Phædra: To go on to the rest. In his Hippolitus He calls Whoring, stupidness and playing the Fool. And to be Chast and regular, is with him, as well as with Æschylus, Σωφρονεῖν. As much as to say 'tis the Consequence of Sence, and right Thinking. Phædra when her Thoughts were embarrass'd with Hippolitus, endeavours to disentangle her self by Argument.Μωρία τὸ Μῶρον Ed. Cant. 241. 250. 252.[56] She declaims with a great deal of Satyr against intemperate Women; she concluded rather to die then dishonour her Husband and Stain her Family. The Blemishes of Parents, as she goes on, often stuck upon their Children, and made them appear with Disadvantage. Upon this, the Chorus is transported with the Virtue of her Resolution and crys out

Φεῦ Φεῦ. Τὸ σῶφρον ὥς ἁπανταχοῦ καλὸνIbid. 232. 233.[57]

καί δό ξαν ἐσθλην ἐνβροτοῖς κομίζεται.

How becoming a Quality is Modesty in all Places.

How strangly does it burnish a Character, and oblige ones Reputation?

The Scholiast upon these verses of Hippolitus.

Σοί τόν δε πλεκτὸν Στεφανον εξ ἀκηρά

Λειμῶνος, &c.

Makes this Paraphrase, 'Tha[......] Mind should be clean and unsulli[......] that the Muses being Virgins their Performances should agree with their Condition.'