the queen and Sohemus, of whom he was now jealous, as Mariamne had upbraided him with his cruel resolutions of putting her to death, entrusted to that minister.  Herod is satisfied of her innocence, by the evidence of Arsinoe; but as he had before given the cruel orders for patting the queen to death, she, to prevent the execution of such barbarity, drank poison.  The Queen is conducted in by the high priest in the agonies of death, which gives such a shock to Herod, that not able to survive her, he dies in the sight of the audience.

Sohemus, who knew what tortures would be reserved for him, kills himself, after having sacrificed Sameas, by whose treachery the plot was discovered, and who in his falling stabs Salome to the heart, as the last effort of his revenge.

As the plan of this play is regular, simple, and interesting, so are the sentiments no less masterly, and the characters graphically distinguished.  It contains likewise many beautiful strokes of poetry.

When Narbal, a lord of the queen’s party, gives an account to Flaminius the Roman general, of the queen’s parting with her son; he says,

  ——­A while she stood,
  Transform’d by grief to marble, and appear’d
  Her own pale monument;

Flaminius consistent with his character as a soldier, answers,

    Give me, ye gods! the harmony of war,
  The trumpet’s clangor, and the clash of arms,
  That concert animates the glowing breast,
  To rush on death; but when our ear is pierc’d
  With the sad notes which mournful beauty yields;
  Our manhood melts in symphathising tears.

The character of Sameas the king’s cup-bearer, is one of the most villainous ever shewn upon a stage; and the poet makes Sohemus, in order to give the audience a true idea of him, and to prepare them for those barbarities he is to execute, relate the following instance of his cruelty.

    ——­Along the shore
  He walk’d one evening, when the clam’rous rage
  Of tempests wreck’d a ship:  The crew were sunk,
  The master only reach’d the neighb’ring strand,
  Born by a floating fragment; but so weak
  With combating the storm, his tongue had lost
  The faculty of speech, and yet for aid
  He faintly wav’d his hand, on which he wore
  A fatal jewel.  Sameas, quickly charm’d
  Both by its size, and lustre, with a look
  Of pity stoop’d, to take him by the hand;
  Then cut the finger off to gain the ring,
  And plung’d him back to perish in the waves;
  Crying, go dive for more.—­I’ve heard him boast
  Of this adventure.

In the 5th act, when Herod is agitated with the rage of jealousy, his brother Pheroras thus addresses him,

  Sir, let her crime
  Erase the faithful characters which love
  Imprinted on your heart,

    Herod.  Alas! the pain
  We feel, whene’er we dispossess the soul
  Of that tormenting tyrant, far exceeds
  The rigour of his rule.