Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/363

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Mr. OZELL.
353

great[1] many tranſlations, amongſt which are the following French plays;

  1. Britannicus and Alexander the Great. Two Tragedies from Racine.
  2. The Litigant, a Comedy of 3 Acts; tranſlated from the French of M. Racine, who took it from the Waſps of Ariſtophanes, 8vo. 1715. Scene in a city of Lower Nornandy.
  3. Manlius Capitolinus, a Tragedy from the French of M. La Foſſe, 1715. When the earl of Portland was ambaſſador at the French court, this play was acted at Paris threeſcore nights running; the ſubject is related by Livy. This French author ſtudied ſome time at Oxford, and, upon his return home, applied himſelf to dramatic poetry, in which he acquired great reputation. He died about the year 1713.
  4. The Cid, a Tragedy from Corneille.
  5. Cato of Utica, a Tragedy from M. Des Champs; acted at the Theatre in Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields 1716, dedicated to Count Volkra his Excellency the Imperial Ambaſſador: to which is added a Parallel between this Play and Mr. Addiſon’s Cato.

Beſides theſe, Mr. Ozell has tranſlated all Moliere’s plays, which are printed in 6 vol. 12mo. and likewiſe a collection of ſome of the beſt Spaniſh and Italian plays, from Calderon, Aretin, Ricci, and Lopez de Vega. Whether any of theſe plays, tranſlated from the Spaniſh, were ever printed, we cannot be poſitive. Mr. Ozell’s tranſlation of Moliere is far from being excellent, for Moliere was an author to whom none but a genius like himſelf, could well do juſtice.

  1. Jacob.
His