DRAMATIS PERSONE.

NAOMI, Widow of Elimelech.

RUTH, a Moabitefs, Daughter-in-Law of Naomi, and Widow of Mahallon.

BOAZ, Son of Salmon, near Kinsman of Nacmi.

JEPHONAH, Servant of Boaz, and Overfeer of the Reapers.

REAPERS and GLEANERS.

DEDICATION TO PAMELA.

W HEN I read you the story of

Ruth, you were particularly

ftruck, Pamela, where the fays to Naomi, Whither thou goeft I will go, and where thou lodgeft I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. You requested me to write a drama on this fubject and dedicate it to you. Therefore, my dear, this piece, of right, belongs to you nor can any perfon whatever better decide, whether I have truly and naturally defcribed the gratitude and attachment which the cares and tenderness of an adopted mother ought neceffarily to infpire. If you find Ruth, when the speaks to Naomi, exprefs herfelf as you feel, I fhall be fatisfied with my work.

TH

HE interefting ftory of Ruth and Naomi has furnished Thomfon with the happiest episode to be found in his poem of the Seafons; but he has taken only the chief incidents, and has changed the names in the fcripture.

The ftory of Ruth is divided into four chapters, and is a masterly effufion of feeling and fimplicity, and a precious monument of ancient manners. But thofe manners are no longer our manners; and a dramatic work, in which they fhould be faithfully preferved, would please ftill lefs, at prefent, than one which fhould portray the manners of the ancient Gauls.

I have exactly followed the ftory of Ruth, and taken advantage in the denouement of a circumftance which Thomfon

*This Episode is to be found in his Autumn, and begins,

"The lovely young Lavinia once had friends." could

could not in his episode, because he has not laid the fcene in Judea, and becaufe it is peculiar to the laws of the Ifraelites. I have not meant to imitate the style, though I have literally copied the converfation between Ruth and Naomi, when the former forfakes her country to go with her mother-in-law. This con

verfation is in the fecond scene of the fecond act; and, it appears to me that, this short quotation is not at all diffimilar to the style of the rest of the piece, and that it cannot be distinguished in any manner from the colloquies which precede or which follow. The speech I have given to Naomi, when the bleffes Ruth, is not, I own, fo fimple in its diction; but Naomi is infpired at that moment; and, therefore, fhould neceffarily exprefs herself with more fublimity than at any other,

The following is an extract of the history of Ruth.

Naomi had a husband, named Elime

lech.

There was a famine in Ifrael,