"This is not the place to expatiate on the merits of the Latin play;
but the assertion may be hazarded without much risk, that both the
original and Thornton's version are, taken as wholes, considerably
superior to any of the imitations. Indeed, the character of Alcmena, as
drawn by Plautus, so truly innocent, simple, and loving, her distress
on being suspected by her husband, and his agony at finding her, as he
believes, dishonest, immediately suggest, as the accomplished
translator has observed, a not discreditable comparison with our
'Othello.' We may add, too, that the conclusion of the fourth act,
where Amphitryon, 'perplexed in the extreme,' and defying the gods in
the intensity of his despair, rushes to the house to wreak his
vengeance on his family, and is struck down by lightning, rises to
grandeur, almost to sublimity, and must produce immense dramatic effect
in the representation. Very little of this sort of thing appears in the
modern play. What Dryden has made of Alcmena will be understood, when
we observe that he adapted her to the standard of contemporary taste.
Yet Scott has strangely said, that, 'in the scenes of a higher cast,
Dryden far outstrips both the French and Roman poet!'
"The reader will not find any such important characters as gods and
generals in the drama before him. 'Jack Juggler' can hardly be called
an imitation of the comedy of Plautus. It is the play of 'Amphitryon'
without the part of Amphitryon, and resembles more than anything else
one of those pieces made up of the comic portions of plays, which used
to be called 'drolls.
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