when Ulyffes addreffes Ajax in Hades , in the mod;pathetic and conciliatory manner , inltead of furnifhinghim with an anfwer, made him remain in indignantlilence during the addrefs, then turn his ftep andftalk away ? has not the univerfal voice of genuinecriticifm with Longinus told us, and if it had not,would not Nature’s own voice tell us, that that lilencewas charadterillic, that it precluded, included, andfoaring above all anfwer, conligned Ulyffes for ever to afenfe of inferiority ? Nor is it neceffary to render fuchcriticifm contemptible to mention the lilence of Dido inVirgil, or the Niobe of JEfchylus, who was introducedveiled, and continued mute during her prefence on theftage.
But in hiding Agamemnon ’s face Timanthes lofes thehonour of invention, as he is merely the imitator ofEuripides , who did it before him (p) ? I am not pre-pared
( p ) It is obferved by an ingenious Critic, that in the tragedy of Euripides ,the proceffion is defcribed, and upon Iphigenia ’s looking back on her father, hegroans, and hides his face to conceal his tears; whilft the pidiure gives the momentthat precedes the facrifice, and the hiding has a different objedt and arifes fromanother imprellion.
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