THE

TRAGEDIE S

O F

SOPHOCLES,

From the GRE E K;

By THOMAS FRANCK LIN, M. A.

Fellow of Trinity-College, and Greek Profeffor in the University of Cambridge.

PRINTED for R. FRANCKLIN, in Covent-Garden, 1759.

A

NTIENT tragedy in it's pure and perfect state was made fubfervient only to the nobleft purposes, and facred to truth, religion and virtue. This fpecies of the drama attain'd to it's highest degree of perfection in the time, and under the direction of the immortal Sophocles, the acknowledged prince of tragic poets, the admiration of all Greece, the envy of his cotemporaries, and in a word, the Shakespear of antiquity.

SUCH is the work, and fuch the author, which I have the honour to present to your ROYAL HIGHNESS. That a writer fo univerfally applauded, fhould never yet have been seen in an English habit (for the difguifes, which he has hitherto worn, are not worthy of that name) is certainly a matter of astonishment; but Sophocles feems purposely to have waited for the present happy opportunity of making his first appearance amongst us, under the patronage of your ROYAL HIGHNESS; a circumstance, which has made him ample retribution for all our former flight and neglect of him. The author of the following fheets, though confcious of his own inabilities, and the difficulty of the task which he has undertaken, approaches your ROYAL HIGHNESS with confidence, as fatisfy'd that the fame kindness and humanity, which induced your ROYAL HIGHNESS to accept thefe volumes, will alfo

pardon