I might also add that many things which not only please, but are
real beauties in the reading, would appear absurd upon the stage;
and those not only the speciosa miracula, as Horace calls them, of
transformations of Scylla, Antiphates, and the Laestrygons (which
cannot be represented even in operas), but the prowess of Achilles
or AEneas would appear ridiculous in our dwarf-heroes of the
theatre. We can believe they routed armies in Homer or in Virgil,
but ne Hercules contra duos in the drama. I forbear to instance in
many things which the stage cannot or ought not to represent; for I
have said already more than I intended on this subject, and should
fear it might be turned against me that I plead for the pre-eminence
of epic poetry because I have taken some pains in translating
Virgil, if this were the first time that I had delivered my opinion
in this dispute; but I have more than once already maintained the
rights of my two masters against their rivals of the scene, even
while I wrote tragedies myself and had no thoughts of this present
undertaking.
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