Page:Elfrida, a Dramatic Poem - Mason (1752).djvu/9

I was aware, when I sent you my Poem, that it would be liable to the very objections you make to it. Yet perhaps, they will be obviated to your satisfaction, when I have laid before you (as indeed I ought to have done at first) the original idea which led me to the choice of such a subject, and to execute it in so peculiar a manner.

Had I intended to give an exact copy of the ancient Drama, your objections to the present Poem would be unanswerable. But my design was much less confin'd. I meant only to pursue the ancient method so far as it is probable a Greek Poet, were he alive, would now do, in order to adapt himself to the genius of our times, and the character of our Tragedy. According to thisnotion,