antiquity, and other prejudices in their favour, as well as from the very defign and end of their theatrical entertainments, would be fure to keep it. What had the poet then, in these circumftances, to do, but, in pursuance of his main defign, to encourage a reformation of that entertainment, which he was not at liberty absolutely, and under every fhape, to reject? This he judged might moft conveniently be done by adopting the Greek fatires, instead of their own Oscan characters. With this change, though the Atellanes might not, perhaps, be altogether to his own taste, yet he hoped to render it a tolerable entertainment to the better fort. And this, in fact, it might have been by following the directions here given; part of which were intended to free it from that obscene and farcical trash, which appears to have been no less offenfive to the poet, than to this critic. As for the fo much applauded mimes, they had not, it is probable, at this time gained a footing on the ftage, fufficient to entitle them to fo much confideration. This was a new upftart fpecies of the drama, which, though it had the common good fortune of abfurd novelties, to take with the great; yet was generally disapproved by men of better taste, and better morals. Cicero had paffed a fevere cenfure upon it in one of his epiftles, [Ad Famil. ix. 16.] which intimates, intimates, that it was of a more buffoon and ridiculous compofition, than their Atellanes; whofe place it began to be the fashion to supply with this ribaldry. And we collect the fame thing from what Ovid obferves of it in apology for the looseness of his own verses, Quid fi fcripfiffem MIMOS obfcæna jocantes, Nec fatis inceflis temerari vocibus aures, Horace, with this writer's leave, might therefore judge it better to retain the Atellanes under fome restrictions, than adopt what was much worse. But the mimes of Laberius were quite another thing. They were all elegance. So J. Scaliger [Comment. de Comoed. & Tragoed. c. vi.] and, after him, this writer, tells us; but on no better grounds, than that he wrote good Latin (though not always that, as may be seen in A. Gellius, 1. xvi. c. 7.) and hath left a few elegant moral scraps behind him. But what then? the kind of compofition was ridiculous and abfurd, and, in every view, far less tolerable than the fatires under the regulation of Horace. The latter was a regular drama, confifting of an entire fable, conducted O 3 accordin g according to the rules of probability and good fenfe, only dashed with a little extravagance for the fake of the mob, The character of the former hath been given above, from unquestionable authorities. Accordingly Diomedes [iii. p. 488, ed. Putfch.] defines it to be an irreverent and lafcivious imitation of obscene acts— mimus eft fermonis cujuflibet motus fine reverentia, vel factorum et turpium cum lafcivia imitatio. And Scaliger himself owns veri mimi proprium esse quædam fordida ut affectet, loc. cit, It feems, in fhort, to have been a confufed medley of comic drollery on a variety of subjects, without any confiftent order or defign; delivered by one actor, and heightened with all the licence of obfcene gefticulation. Its beft character, as practifed by its greatest master, Laberius, was that of being witty in a very bad way [Sen, Controv. I. iii. c. 18.] and its fole end and boaft, rifu diducere rictum [Hor. i. S. x. 7.] which, whatever virtue it may be, is not always a proof of much elegance. But I have spent too many words on a criticifin, which the ingenious author, I am perfuaded, let fall unawares, and did not mean to give us as the result of a mature and well-weighed deliberation on this fubject. 225. VE 225. VERUM ITA RISORES, &c.] The connecting particle, verum, expreffes the oppofition intended between the original fatire and that which the poet approves. For, having infinuated the propriety of the satiric fhews, as well from the practice of Greece, as the nature of festival folemnities, the poet goes on to animadvert on their defects, and to prescribe such rules, in the conduct of them, as might render them a tolerable diverfion, even to the better fort. This introduction of the fubject hath no small art. For, there being at this time (as hath been fhewn) an attempt to bring in the Greek fatires, while the Atellane plays (as was likely) ftill held. the affections of the people, the poet was not openly to reproach and difcredit thefe; but, by a tacit preference, to fupport and justify the other. This is done with addrefs. For, instead of criticifing the Atellanes, which came directly in his way, after having clofed his account of the Roman tragedy, he relates, as it were, incidentally, the practice of ancient Greece in exhibiting fatyrs, and thence immediately paffes on, without fo much as touching on the other favourite entertainment, to offer fome directions concerning the fatiric drama. 227. NE QUICUNQUE DEUS, QUICUNQUE ADHIBEBITUR HEROS, &c.] Gods and heroes were introduced as well into the fatiric as tragic drama, and often the very fame gods and heroes, which had borne a part in the preceding tragedy a practice, which Horace, I fuppofe, intended by this hint, to recommend as inoft regular. This gave the ferious, tragic air to the fatire. The comic arofe from the rifor and dicax, who was either a fatyr himself, or fome character of an extravagant, ridiculous caft, like a fatyr. Of this kind, fays Diomedes, from whom I take this account, are Autolychus and Burris which laft particular I mention for the fake of juftifying a correction of the learned Cafaubon. This great critic conjectured, that, instead of Burris, in this place, it should be read Bufiris. His reafon is "nam Burris ifte ex Gra"corum poetis mihi non notus:" which reafon hath more force, than appears at firft fight. For the very nature of this diverfion required, that the principal character of it fhould be well known, which it was fcarce likely to be, if not taken from a common ftory in their poets. But Voffius objects, "fed non ea fuerit perfona ridi"cula" contrary to what the grammarian reprefents it. But how fo? Bufiris was a favage inhofpitable tyrant, who facrificed ftrangers, And |