And in their orbs view the dark characters

Of fieges, ruins, murders, blood, and wars.

We'll blot out all those hideous draughts, and write
Pure and white forms; then with a radiant light
Their breasts encircle, till their paffions be

Gentle as nature in its infancy;

Till, foften'd by our charms, their furies ceafe,

And their revenge refolves into a pcace.

Thus by our death their quarrel ends,

Whom living we made foes, dead we'll make friends.

"If this be not a very liberal mefs, I will refer myself to the "ftomach of any moderate guest. And a rare mefs it is, far "excelling any Westminster white-broth. It is a kind of

"giblet porridge, made of the giblets of a couple of young "geefe, ftogged full of meteors, orbs, spheres, track, hideous draughts, dark characters, white forms, and radiant lights, defigned not only to please appetite, and indulge "luxury, but it is alfo physical, being an approved medi"cine to purge choler; for it is propounded, by Morena, as 86 a receipt to cure their fathers of their choleric humours; ❝and, were it written in characters as barbarous as the "words, might very well pafs for a doctor's bill. To con"clude: it is porridge, 'tis a receipt, 'tis a pig with a pud"ding in the belly, 'tis I know not what: for, certainly, ue"ver any one that pretended to write fenfe had the impu"dence before to put fuch stuff as this into the mouths of "those that were to speak it before an audience, whom he "did not take to be all fools; and after that to print it too, "and expose it to the examination of the world. But let fee what we can make of this stuff :

"

us

For when we're dead, and our freed fouls enlarg'd"Here he tells us what it is to be dead; it is to have our freed fouls fet free. Now, if to have a foul fet free, is to "be dead; then to have a freed foul fet free, is to have a "dead man die.

Then, gently as a happy lover's figh

They two like one figh, and that one figh like two wander. ❝ing meteors,

"Shall fly through the air

"That is, they fhall mount above like falling ftars, or else "they fhall skip like two jacks with lanthorns, or Will with a "whisp, and Madge with a candle."

And in their airy walk fieal into their cruel fathers' breafis, like fubtle guests. So "that their fathers' breafts "must be in an airy walk, an airy walk of a flier. And "there they will read their fouls, and track the fpheres of "their paffions. That is, thefe walking fliers, Jack with a "lanthorn, &c. will put on his fpectacles, and fall a reading fouls, and put on his pumps and fall a tracking of Spheres: fo that he will read and run, walk and fly, at the "fame time! Oh! nimble Jack! Then he will fee, how re

venge here, how ambition there--The birds will hop "about. And then view the dark characters of fieges, ruins, "murders, blood, and wars, in their orbs: Track the cha"racters to their forms! Oh! rare sport for Jack! Never

was place fo full of game as these breafts! You cannot "ftir, but flufh a fphere, ftart a character, or unkennel an "orb!"

Settle's is faid to have been the first play embellished with fculptures; thofe ornaments feem to have given poor Dryden great disturbance. He tries however to ease his pain by venting his malice in a parody.

"The poet has not only been fo imprudent to expose all "this ftuff, but fo arrogant to defend it with an epiftle; like' "a faucy booth-keeper, that, when he had put a cheat upon "the people, would wrangle and fight with any that would "not like it, or would offer to discover it; for which arrogance our poet receives this correction; and, to jerk him દ a little the sharper, I will not tranfpofe his verse, but by "the help of his own words tranfnonfense sense, that by my "ftuff, people may judge the better what is his :

"Great Boy, thy tragedy and sculptures done,

"From prefs and plates, in fleets do homeward run;
"And, in ridiculous, and humble pride,
"Their courfe in ballad-fingers' baskets guide,
"Whofe greafy twigs do all new beauties take,
"From the gay fhews thy dainty fculptures make.
"Thy lines a mefs of rhyming nonfenfe yield,
"A fenfelefs tale, with flattering fuftian fill'd.
"No grain of fenfe does in one line appear,

"Thy words big bulks of boisterous bombaft bear.

"With noife they move, and from players' mouths re

"bound,

"When their tongues dance to thy words' empty found,
"By thee infpir'd the rumbling verfes roll,

"As if that rhyme and bombaft lent a foul;
"And with that foul they seem taught duty too;
"To huffing words does humble nonfenfe bow,
"As if it would thy worthlefs worth enhance,
"To th' lowest rank of fops thy praise advance,
"To whom, by inftinet, all thy ftuff is dear:
"Their loud claps echo to the theatre.
"From breaths of fools thy commendation fpreads,
"Fame fings thy praise with mouths of logger-heads.
"With noife and laughing each thy fuftian greets,
""Tis clapt by choirs of empty-headed cits,
"Who have their tribute fent, and homage given,
"As men in whispers fend loud noife to Heaven.

"Thus I have daubed him with his own puddle: and now 66 we are come from aboard his dancing, masking, rebounding, breathing fleet: and, as if we had landed at Gotham, " we meet nothing but fools and nonsense."

"

Such was the criticism to which the genius of Dryden could be reduced, between rage and terrour; rage with little provocation, and terrour with little danger. To fee the higheft mind thus levelled with the meaneft, may produce fome folace to the confcioufnefs of weaknefs, and fome mortitication to the pride of wisdom. But let it be remembered, that

minds are not levelled in their powers but when they are first levelled in their defires. Dryden and Settle had both placed their happiness in the claps of multitudes.

An Evening's Love, or The Mock Aftrologer, a comedy (1671) is dedicated to the illustrious Duke of Newcastle, whom he courts by adding to his praises those of his lady, not only as a lover, but a partner of his ftudies. It is unpleafing to think how many names, once celebrated, are fince forgotten. Of Newcastle's works nothing is now known but his Treatife on Horfemanship.

The Preface feems very elaborately written, and contains many just remarks on the Fathers of the English drama. Shakfpeare's plots, he says, are in the hundred novels of Cinthio; thofe of Beaumont and Fletcher in Spanish Stories; Jonfon only made them for himself. His criticisms upon tragedy, comedy, and farce, are judicious and profound. He endeavours to defend the immorality of fome of his comedies by the example of former writers; which is only to fay, that he was not the firft nor perhaps the greatest offender. Against those that accused him of plagiarism he alleges a favourable expreffion of the king: "He only defired that they, who ac"cufe me of thefts, would fteal him plays like mine;" and then relates how much labour he fpends in fitting for the English stage what he borrows from others.

Tyrannick Love, or the Virgin Martyr (1672), was another tragedy in rhyme, confpicuous for many paffages of ftrength and elegance, and many of empty noife and ridiculous turbulence. The rants of Maximin have been always the sport of criticism; and were at length, if his own confeffion may be trusted, the shame of the writer.

Of this play he has taken care to let the reader know, that it was contrived and written in feven weeks. Want of time was often his excufe, or perhaps fhortnefs of time was his private boast in the form of an apology.

It was written before The Conquest of Granada, but published after it. The defign is to recommend piety. "I

"confidered that pleasure was not the only end of Poesy; and "that even the inftructions of morality were not fo wholly "the business of a poet, as that the precepts and examples " of piety were to be omitted; for to leave that employment "altogether to the clergy, were to forget that religion was "firft taught in verfe, which the laziness or dullness of fuc"ceeding priesthood turned afterwards into profe." Thus foolishly could Dryden write, rather than not fhew his malice to the parfons*.

The two parts of The Conquest of Granada (1672), are written with a feeming determination to glut the publick with dramatick wonders, to exhibit in its highest elevation a theatrical meteor of incredible love and impoffible valour, and to leave no room for a wilder flight to the extravagance of pofterity. All the rays of romantick heat, whether amorous or warlike, glow in Almanzor by a kind of concentration. He is above all laws; he is exempt from all restraints; he ranges the world at will, and governs wherever he appears. He fights without enquiring the cause, and loves in spight of the obligations of justice, of rejection by his miftrefs, and of prohibition from the dead. Yet the scenes are, for the most part, delightful; they exhibit a kind of illustrious depravity, and majestick madness, such as, if it is fometimes despised, is often reverenced, and in which the ridiculous is mingled with the astonishing.

In the Epilogue to the second part of The Conquest of Granada, Dryden indulges his favourite pleasure of discre

So fond was he of opportunity to gratify his fpleen against the clergy, that he fcrupled not to convert Chaucer's images, in the Knightes Tale, of The fmiler with the knif under the cloke," and of "Conteke with blody knif," into these fatires on the church. See Warton's Hift. Eng. Poetry, vol. 1. p. 358.