TO HER GRACE

THE DUTCHESS OF BEAUFORT,

THESE

SACRED DRAMAS

ARE,

WITH THE MOST PERFECT RESPECT,

INSCRIBED:

As. among the many amiable and distinguished Qualities which adorn her Mind, and add Lustre to her Rank, her Excellence in the Maternal Character gives a peculiar Propriety to her Protection of THIS LITTLE WORK; written with an humble Wish to promote the Love of Piety and Virtue in Young Persons,

By her GRACE'S

Most obedient,

Most obliged,

And most humble Servant,
HANNAH MORE.

ADVERTISEMENT

BY THE AUTHOR.

sacred historian represents him as exhibiting no mean lesson of modesty, humility, courage, and piety. Many will think that the introduction of Saul's daughter would have added to the effect of the piece; and I have no doubt but that it would have made the intrigue more complicated and amusing had this Drama been intended for the stage. There, all that is tender, and all that is terrible in the passions, find a proper place. But I write for the young, in whom it will be always time enough to have the passions awakened; I write for a class of readers, to whom it is not easy to accommodate one's subject, so as to be at once useful and interesting.

I AM as ready as the most rigid critic to confess, that nothing can be more simple and inartificial than the plans of the following Dramas. In the construction of them I have seldom ventured to introduce any persons of my own creation; still less did I imagine myself at liberty to invent circumstances. I reflected with awe, that the place whereon I stood was holy ground. All the latitude I permitted myself was, to make such persons as I selected act under such circumstances as I found, and express such sentiments as, in my humble judgment, appeared not unnatural to their characters and situations. Some of the speeches are so long as to retard the action; for I rather aspired after moral instruction than the purity of dramatic composition. I am aware, that it may be brought as an objection, that I have now and then made my Jewish characters speak too much like Chris-duction, concludes with the following remark, tians, as it may be questioned whether I have not occasionally ascribed to them a degree of light and knowledge greater than they probably had the means of possessing; but I was more anxious in consulting the advantage of my youthful readers, by leading them on to higher religious views, than in securing to myself the reputation of critical ex

actness.

It will be thought that I have chosen, perhaps, the least important passage in the eventful life of David, for the foundation of the Drama which bears his name. Yet, even in this his first exploit, the

• Never, indeed, except in DANIEL, and that of necessity, as the Bible furnishes no more than two persons, Daniel and Darius; and these were not sufficient to carry on the business of the piece,

The amiable poet Cowley, after showing the superiority of the sacred over the profane histories, some instances of which I have noticed in my intro

which I may apply to myself with far more propriety than it was used by the author:-" I am far from assuming to myself to have fulfilled the duty of this weighty undertaking; and I shall be ambitious of no other fruit from this weak and imperfect attempt of mine, but the opening of a way to the courage and industry of some other persons, who may be better able to perform it thoroughly and successfully."

It would not be easy, nor perhaps proper, to introduce sacred tragedies on the English stage. The pious would think it profane, while the profane would think it dull. Yet the excellent Racine, in a profligate country and a voluptuous court, ventured to adapt the story of" Athalia" to the French theatre: and it remains to us a glorious monument of its author's courageous piety, while it exhibits the perfection of the dramatic art.

MEMOIRS

OF

MRS. HANNAH MORE.

THIS lady, who has so highly distinguished herself by her literary productions, was born, we believe, at Hanham, a village near Bristol; in which latter place she for several years kept a boarding-school for young ladies.

Her first publication was a pastoral drama, called "The Search after Happiness," which appeared in 1773. It was written at the age of eighteen, for some female friends, who performed the several characters in private parties. Though the plot of this little piece is perfectly inartificial, the poetry which it contains does infinite credit to the powers of such early years, and it experienced a very favourable reception. Indeed few pastorals, in this or any other language, are better calculated to refine the female taste, repress the luxuriance of juvenile imaginations, or charm. the rising affections of minds glowing with sensibility and ardour. But its chief distinctions over every similar drama, are its purity of sentiment, simplicity of diction, originality of design, and the inviolable affinity which it establishes and preserves between truth and nature, virtue and happiness, habits of innocence and the practice of piety.

The concern that she took, and the interest which she felt, in the dignity of her own sex, were afterwards exemplified by a series of "Essays on various Subjects, principally designed for young

Ladies."

In the year 1774, Mrs. More published "The Inflexible Captive," a Tragedy, founded on the story of Regulus; its literary merits are great, and it was once acted on the Bath stage.

"Sir Eldred of the Bower," and "The Bleeding Rock," two charming legendary Tales, were published together in quarto, 1776. The latter is in the manner of Ovid; and the pretty fiction at the conclusion had its origin from a rock, near the author's residence in Somersetshire, whence a crimson stream flows, occasioned by the red strata over which the water makes its way from the

mountains.

Mrs. More has also written "An Ode to Dragon," Mr. Garrick's house-dog: "Percy," a Tragedy, founded on the Gabrielle de Vergy of M. de Belloy; "The Fatal Falsehood," a Tragedy; "Sacred Dramas," chiefly intended for young Persons-the subjects taken from the Bible; "Sensibility," a Poem: "Florio," and "The Bas Bleu," two Poems; "Slavery," a Poem; and "Remarks on the Speech of M. Dupont, made in the National Convention of France, on the Subjects of Religion and Public Education. In this work she exposed the gross atheistical tendency of the speech of M. Dupont, and roused the general abhorrence of all ranks at the atrocity of a system which struck at the vitals of every thing good and sacred among men. The profits of the book were appropriated toward the relief of the French emigrant clergy.

After this latter work, Mrs. More projected a "Cheap Repository," for supplying intelligence of an opposite tendency, to such as could not afford it on other terms. The fund by which she reared, and for a long time maintained, this impregnable fortress against the havoc of irreligion and licentiousness, originated in the munificence of the liberal circle to which she had access by her personal merits and address.

ners of the Great to General Society," and her "Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World,' were very popular with all orders in the community. In short, such was the impression which they made, that scarcely any other book was for a long time read in private families, or mentioned in polite conversation; nay, its arguments were even detailed from the pulpits in the vicinity of the court.

Mrs. More has since given to the world "Practical Piety, or the Influence of the Religion of the Heart on the conduct of the Life;"Christian Morals;" "Hints toward forming the Character of a Young Princess;" "Strictures on Female Education;" "Celebs in search of a Wife ;" and "An Essay on the Character and Practical Writings of St. Paul."

Her works, in general, are calculated to awaken the world to its best interest, and excite it to praiseworthy, actions; and she uses, for this laudable purpose, the gentle means of reason and persuasion. She would lead her fellow-creatures into habits of mutual forbearance and kind accommodation with each other, not drive them into those of harshness and aversion; she would fill their heads with knowledge, that their hearts may not be blinded by passion; she would inspire them with principles of integrity, and a sense of what is just and right, that their duty may be an object of choice, not compulsion. We understand that her publications are an exact transcript of her own life, which is literally spent in doing good. Some of her friends (says the Editor of the "Biographia Dramatica," edit. 1812,) called her exquisite humanity her hobby-horse; and to such of them as were wits, it furnished a new species of raillery. It is in this humour, which is a mixture of praise and blame, that the late Lord Orford, in a letter to herself, gives the following sketch of her character.

"It is very provoking (says his Lordship,) that people must be always hanging or drowning themselves, or going mad, that you, forsooth, mistress, may have the diversion of exercising your pity, and good-nature, and charity, and intercession, and all that bead-roll of virtues that make you so troublesome and amiable, when you might be ten times more agreeable, by writing things that would not cost one above half-a crown at a time. You are an absolute walking hospital, and travel about into lone and bye places, with your doors open to house stray-casualties. I wish, at least, that you would have some children yourself, that you might not be plaguing one for all the pretty brats that are starving and friendless. I suppose it was some such goody, two or three thousand years ago, that suggested the idea of an alma-mater suckling the three hundred and sixty-five bantlings of the Countess of Hainault. Well, as your newly adopted pensioners have two babes, I insist on your accepting two guineas for them, instead of one, at present; that is, when you shall be present. If you cannot circumscribe your own charities, you shall not stint mine, madam, who can afford it much better, and who must be dunned for alms, and do not scramble over hedges and ditches in searching for opportunities of flinging away my money on good works. I employ mine better at auctions, and in buying pictures and baubles, and

Her "Thoughts on the Importance of the Man-hoarding curiosities, that, in truth, I cannot keep

Moses in the Bulrushes-David and Goliath

Belshazzar-and Daniel.

long, but that will last for ever in my catalogue,' and make me immortal. Alas! will they cover a multitude of sins? Adieu! I cannot jest after that sentence."

INTRODUCTION.