The excitement which is produced by exaggerated scenes of distress and death has always had a charm for the multitude; and although the principal tragedies of this period are based upon heroic stories, many of them of classic origin, the genius of the writer displayed itself in applying these to his own times, and in introducing that "touch of nature" which "makes the whole world kin." Human sympathy is based upon a community of suffering, and the sorrows of one age are similar to those of another.

Besides, tragedy served, in the period of which we are speaking, to give variety and contrast to what would otherwise have been the gay monotony of the comic muse.
OTWAY .-- The first writer to be mentioned in this field, is Thomas Otway (born in 1651, died in 1685).

He led an irregular and wretched life, and died, it is said, from being choked by a roll of bread which, after great want, he was eating too ravenously.
His style is extravagant, his pathos too exacting, and his delineation of the passions sensational and overwrought.

He produced in his earlier career _Alcibiades_ and _Don Carlos_, and, later, _The Orphan_, and _The Soldier's Fortune_.

But the piece by which his fame was secured is _Venice Preserved_, which, based upon history, is fictional in its details.