by the Examples of Princes, and by the Precepts of Laws ; such, I mean, as should be Designed to Form Manners, to Restrain Excesses, to Encourage Industry, to Prevent Mens Expences beyond their Fortunes, to Countenance Virtue, 5 and Raise that True Esteem due to Plain Sense and Common Honesty.

But to Spin off this Thread which is already Grown too long: What Honour and Request the antient Poetry has Lived in may not only be Observed from the Universal 10 Reception and Use in all Nations from China to Peru, from Scythia to Arabia, but from the Esteem of the Best and the Greatest Men as well as the Vulgar. Among the Hebrews, David and Solomon, the Wisest Kings, Job and Jeremiah, the Holiest Men, were the best Poets of their Nation and 15 Language. Among the Greeks, the Two most renowned Sages and Law-givers were Lycurgus and Solon, whereof the Last is known to have excelled in Poetry, and the first was so great a Lover of it, That to his Care and Industry we are said by some Authors to owe the Collection 20 and Preservation of the loose and scattered Pieces of Homer in the Order wherein they have since appeared. Alexander is reported neither to have Travelled nor Slept without those admirable Poems always in his Company. Phalaris, that was Inexorable to all other Enemies, Relented 25 at the Charms of Stesichorus his Muse. Among the Romans, the Last and Great Scipio passed the soft Hours of his Life in the Conversation of Terence, and was thought to have a Part in the composition of his Comedies. Cæsar was an Excellent Poet as well as Orator, and Composed a 30 Poem in his Voyage from Rome to Spain, Relieving the Tedious Difficulties of his March with the Entertainments of his Muse. Augustus was not only a Patron, but a Friend and Companion of Virgil and Horace, and was himself both an Admirer of Poetry and a pretender too, as far 35 as his Genius would reach or his busy Scene allow. 'Tis

true, since his Age we have few such Examples of great Princes favouring or affecting Poetry, and as few perhaps of great Poets deserving it. Whether it be that the fierceness of the Gothick Humors, or Noise of their perpetual Wars, frighted it away, or that the unequal mixture of the 5 Modern Languages would not bear it, Certain it is, That the great Heighths and Excellency both of Poetry and Musick fell with the Roman Learning and Empire, and have never since recovered the Admiration and Applauses that before attended them. Yet such as they are amongst us, they to must be confest to be the Softest and Sweetest, the most General and most Innocent Amusements of common Time and Life. They still find Room in the Courts of Princes and the Cottages of Shepherds. They serve to Revive and Animate the dead Calm of poor or idle Lives, and to Allay 15 or Divert the violent Passions and Perturbations of the greatest and the busiest Men. And both these Effects are of equal use to Humane Life; for the Mind of Man is like the Sea, which is neither agreable to the Beholder nor the Voyager in a Calm or in a Storm, but is so to both 20 when a little Agitated by gentle Gales; and so the Mind, when moved by soft and easy Passions or Affections. I know very well that many, who pretend to be Wise by the Forms of being Grave, are apt to despise both Poetry and Musick as Toys and trifles too light for the Use or Enter- 25 tainment of serious Men. But whoever find themselves wholly insensible to these Charms would, I think, do well to keep their own Counsel, for fear of Reproaching their own Temper, and bringing the Goodness of their Natures, if not of their Understandings, into Question. It may be 30 thought at least an ill Sign, if not an ill Constitution, since some of the Fathers went so far as to esteem the Love of Musick a Sign of Predestination, as a thing Divine, and Reserved for the Felicities of Heaven it self. While this World lasts, I doubt not but the Pleasure and Request 35

of these Two Entertainments will do so too; and happy those that content themselves with these or any other so Easy and so Innocent, and do not trouble the World or other Men, because they cannot be quiet themselves, 5 though no body hurts them!

When all is done, Human Life is, at the greatest and the best, but like a froward Child, that must be Play'd with and Humor'd a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the Care is over.

A

GERARD LANGBAINE

FROM AN ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH
DRAMATICK POETS

1691

JOHN DRYDEN, Esq.,

PERSON whose Writings have made him remarkable to all sorts of Men, as being for a long time much read and in great Vogue. It is no wonder that the Characters given of him, by such as are or would be thought Wits, are various, since even those who are generally allow'd to be 5 such are not yet agreed in their Verdicts. And as their Judgments are different as to his Writings, so are their Censures no less repugnant to the Managery of his Life, some excusing what these condemn, and some exploding what those commend: So that we can scarce find them 10 agreed in any One thing, save this, That he was Poet Laureat and Historiographer to His late Majesty. For this and other Reasons, I shall wave all Particularities of his Life, and let pass the Historiographer, that I may keep the closer to the Poet, toward whom I shall use my 15 accustom'd Freedome; and having spoken my Sentiments of his Predecessors Writings, shall venture without partiality to exercise my slender Judgment in giving a Censure of his Works.

Mr. Dryden is the most Voluminous Dramatick Writer 20 of our Age, he having already extant above Twenty Plays of his own writing, as the Title-page of each would perswade the World, tho' some people have been so bold as to call the Truth of this in question, and to propogate in the world another Opinion.

His Genius seems to me to incline to Tragedy and Satyr

25

rather than Comedy; and methinks he writes much better in Heroicks than in blank Verse. His very Enemies must grant that there his Numbers are sweet and flowing, that he has with success practic'd the new way of Versifying 5 introduc'd by his Predecessor, Mr. Waller, and follow'd since with success by Sr. John Denham and others. But for Comedy, he is for the most part beholding to French Romances and Plays, not only for his Plots, but even a great part of his Language; tho' at the same time he has Io the confidence to prevaricate, if not flatly deny the Accusation, and equivocally to vindicate himself; as in the Preface to the Mock Astrologer, where he mentions Thomas Corneille's le Feint Astrologue because 'twas translated, and the Theft prov'd upon him, but never says One word of 15 Molliere's Depit amoureux, from whence the greatest part of Wild-blood and Jacinta (which he owns are the chiefest parts of the Play) are stollen. I cannot pass by his Vanity1 in saying, 'That those who have called Virgil, Terence, and Tasso Plagiaries (tho' they much injur'd them) had yet 20 a better Colour for their Accusation'; nor his Confidence in sheltring himself under the protection of their great Names, by affirming, 'That he is able to say the same for his Play that he urges for their Poems; viz. That the Body of his Play is his own, and so are all the Ornaments 25 of Language and Elocution in them.' I appeal only to those who are vers'd in the French Tongue, and will take the pains to compare this Comedy with the French Plays above-mention'd, if this be not somewhat more than Mental Reservation, or, to use one of his own Expressions,' 30 A Sophisticated Truth, with an allay of Lye in't.

Nor are his Characters less borrow'd in his Tragedies and the serious parts of his Tragi-Comedies, as I shall observe in the sequel. It shall suffice me at present to

1 Preface to Mock Astrologer.

2 Love in a Nunnery, p. 59.