diting his predeceffors; and this Epilogue he has defended by a long postscript. He had promised a second dialogue, in which he should more fully treat of the virtues and faults of the English poets, who have written in the dramatick, epick, or lyrick way. This promife was never formally performed; but, with respect to the dramatick writers, he has given us in his prefaces, and in this poftfcript, fomething equivalent ; but his purpose being to exalt himself by the comparison, he shews faults diftinctly, and only praises excellence in general terms. A play thus written, in profeffed defiance of probability, naturally drew upon itself the vultures of the theatre. One of the criticks that attacked it was Martin Clifford, to whom Sprat addreffed the Life of Cowley, with fuch veneration of his critical powers as might naturally excite great expectations of inftructions from his remarks. But let honeft credulity beware of receiving characters from contemporary writers. Clifford's remarks, by the favour of Dr. Percy, were at last obtained; and, that no man may ever want them more, I will extract enough to fatisfy all reasonable defire. In the first Letter his observation is only general; "You "do live," fays he, " in as much ignorance and darkness as "you did in the womb; your writings are like a Jack-of-all"trade's fhop; they have a variety, but nothing of value; " and if thou art not the dulleft plant-animal that ever the "earth produced, all that I have conversed with are strangely "mistaken in thee." In the fecond he tells him that Almanzor is not more copied from Achilles than from Ancient Pistol. "But I am," fays he, "ftrangely mistaken if I have not seen this very Al(6 manzor of yours in some disguise about this town, and pass"ing under another name. Pr'ythee tell me true, was not "this Huffcap once the Indian Emperor? and at another "time did he not call himself Maximin? Was not Lynda raxa once called Almeria? I mean under Montezuma "the Indian Emperor. I proteft and vow they are either "the fame, or fo alike, that I cannot, for my heart, diftin "guish one from the other. You are therefore a strange "unconscionable thief; thou art not content to steal from "others, but doft rob thy poor wretched felf too." Now was Settle's time to take his revenge. He wrote a vindication of his own lines; and, if he is forced to yield any thing, makes his reprisals upon his enemy. To fay that his anfwer is equal to the cenfure, is no high commendation. To expofe Dryden's method of analyfing his expreffions, he tries the fame experiment upon the fame description of the ships in the Indian Emperor, of which however he does not deny the excellence; but intends to fhew, that by studied mifconftruction every thing may be equally represented as ridiculous. After so much of Dryden's elegant animadverfions, juftice requires that fomething of Settle's fhould be exhibited. The following obfervations are therefore extracted from a quarto pamphlet of ninety five pages: "Fate after him below with pain did move, "And victory could scarce keep pace above. "These two lines, if he can fhew me any sense or thought in, or any thing but bombast and noise, he fhall make me be"lieve every word in his obfervations on Morocco fenfe. In The Empress of Morocco were thefe lines: "I'll travel then to fome remoter sphere, "Till I find out new worlds, and crown you there." On which Dryden made this remark: "I believe our learned author takes a sphere for a coun "try; the sphere of Morocco; as if Morocco were the 66 globe of earth and water; but a globe is no sphere neither, "by his leave, &c." "So sphere must not be fenfe, unless "it relates to a circular motion about a globe, in which sense "the aftronomers ufe it. I would defire him to expound "thofe lines in Granada: "I'll to the turrets of the palace go, "And add new fire to thofe that fight below. VOL. I. "Thence, Hero-like, with torches by my fide, "With open arms, loofe veil, and flowing hair, "I wonder, if he be so strict, how he dares make fo bold "with Sphere himself, and be so critical in other men's writ"ings. Fortune is fancied ftanding on a globe, not on a Sphere, as he told us in the first act. "Becaufe Elkanah's Similies are the most unlike things "to what they are compared in the world, I'll venture to start a fimile in his Annus Mirabilis: he gives this poetical de"fcription of the thip called the London : "The goodly London in her gallant trim, "And fanguine streamers feem'd the flood to fire: "With roomy decks her guns of mighty ftrength "What a wonderful pother is here, to make all these poetical "beautifications of a fhip; that is, a phenir in the first "stanza, and but a wasp in the laft; nay, to make his hum"ble comparison of a wafp more ridiculous, he does not "fay it flies upon the waves as nimbly as a wasp, or the "like, but it seemed a wafp. But our author at the writing "of this was not in his altitudes, to compare fhips to floating "palaces: a comparison to the purpose, was a perfection he "did not arrive to till the Indian Emperor's days. But per haps his fimilitude has more in it than we imagine; this "fhip had a great many guns in her, and they, put all toge"ther, made the fting in the wafp's tail: for this is all the " reafon I can guefs, why it seemed a wafp. But, because will allow him all we can to help out, let it be a phenix fea-wafp, and the rarity of fuch an animal may do much "towards heightening the fancy. 6 we "It had been much more to his purpose, if he had de"figned to render the fenfelefs play little, to have searched "for fome fuch pedantry as this: "Two ifs fcarce make one poffibility. "If juftice will take all, and nothing give, "To die or kill you is the alternative. "Obferve how prettily our author chops logick in heroick "verfe. Three fuch fuftian canting words as diftributive, al"ternative, and two ifs, no man but himself would have 66 come within the noise of. But he's a man of general learning, and all comes into his play. ""Twould have done well too if he could have met with "the rant or two, worth the obfervation: fuch as, "Move fwiftly, Sun, and fly a lover's pace, "Leave months and weeks behind thee in thy race. "But furely the Sun, whether he flies a lover's or not a "lover's pace, leaves weeks and months, nay years too, be"hind him in his race. "Poor Robin, or any other of the Philo-mathematicks, "would have given him fatisfaction in the point. "If I could kill thee now, thy fate's fo low, "That I muft ftoop, ere I can give the blow. "That all thy men, "Piled on thy back, can never pull it down. "Now where that is, Almanzor's fate is fixt, I cannot "guefs: but, wherever it is, I believe Almanzor, and think "that all Abdalla's fubjects, piled upon one another, might "not pull down his fate fo well as without piling: befides I "think Abdalla fo wife a man, that, if Almanzor had told "him piling his men upon his back might do the feat, he "would scarcely bear fuch a weight, for the pleasure of the "exploit; but it is a huff, and let Abdalla do it if he dare. 66 "The people like a headlong torrent go, a very pretty allufion, contrary to all fenfe or reafon. Tor66 rents, I take it, let them wind never fo much, can never "return to their former courfe, unless he can fuppofe that fountains can go upwards, which is impoffible; nay more, in the foregoing page he tells us fo too; a trick of a very "unfaithful memory. "But can no more than fountains upward flow; "which of a torrent, which fignifies a rapid ftream, is much more impoffible. Befides, if he goes to quibble, and fay, "that it is poffible by art water may be made return, and "the fame water run twice in one and the fame channel; then " he quite confutes what he fays: for it is by being oppofed, "that it runs into its former courfe; for all engines that make "water fo return, do it by compulfion and oppofition. Or, "if he means a headlong torrent for a tide, which would be "ridiculous, yet they do not wind in volumes, but come "fore-right back (if their upright lies ftraight to their former "courfe), and that by oppofition of the fea-water, that "drives them back again. "And for fancy, when he lights of any thing like it, 'tis a "wonder if it be not borrowed. As here, for example of, I "find this fanciful thought in his Ann. Mirab. |