"ship 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 " reason I can guess, why it seemed a wasp. But, because "we 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. "It had been much more to his purpose, if he had de"figned to render the fenfeless play little, to have searched "for fome fuch pedantry as this: "Two ifs fcarce make one poffibility. "If justice will take all, and nothing give, "To die or kill you is the alternative. "Rather than take your life, I will not live. "Obferve how prettily our author chops logick in heroick "verse. 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 observation: such 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 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. "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 suppose 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 stream, is much more impoffible. Befides, if he goes to quibble, and say, "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 says: for it is by being opposed, "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. "Old father Thames rais'd up his reverend head : "But fear'd the fate of Simoeis would return; "Deep in his ooze he fought his fedgy bed; "And fhrunk his waters back into his urn. "This is stolen from Cowley's Davideis, p. 9. "Swift Jordan started, and ftrait backward fled, "Hiding amongst thick reeds his aged head." "And when the Spaniards their affault begin, "At once beat those without and those within. "This Almanzor speaks of himself; and fure for one man "to conquer an army within the city, and another without "the city, at once, is fomething difficult: but this flight is "pardonable to fome we meet with in Granada: Ofmin, speaking of Almanzor, " "Who, like a tempeft that outrides the wind, "Pray, what does this honourable person mean by a tempeft "that outrides the wind? a tempeft that outrides itself. To "suppose a tempeft without wind, is as bad as supposing a man to walk without feet; for if he supposes the tempest "to be fomething diftinct from the wind, yet, as being the "effect of wind only, to come before the cause is a little pre"pofterous; fo that, if he takes it one way, or if he takes it "the other, those two ifs will scarcely make one possibility." Enough of Settle. Marriage a-la-mode (1673) is a comedy dedicated to the Earl of Rochefter; whom he acknowledges not only as the defender of his poetry, but the promoter of his fortune. Langbaine places this play in 1673. The Earl of Rochester, therefore, was the famous Wilmot, whom yet tradition always represents as an enemy to Dryden, and who is mentioned by him with fome difrefpect in the preface to Juvenal. The Affignation, or Love in a Nunnery, a comedy (1673) was driven off the stage, against the opinion, as the author fays, of the best judges. It is dedicated, in a very elegant address, to Sir Charles Sedley; in which he finds an opportunity for his ufual complaint of hard treatment and unreafonable cenfure. Amboyna (1673) is a tiffue of mingled dialogue in verse and profe, and was perhaps written in lefs time than The Virgin Martyr; though the author thought not fit either oftentatiously or mournfully to tell how little labour it cost him, or at how fhort a warning he produced it. It was a temporary performance, written in the time of the Dutch war, to inflame the nation against their enemies; to whom he hopes, as he declares in his Epilogue, to make his poetry not lefs destructive than that by which Tyrtæus of old animated the Spartans. This play was written in the fecond Dutch war, in 1673. Troilus and Creffida (1679) is a play altered from Shakfpeare; but fo altered, that, even in Langbaine's opinion, "the laft fcene in the third act is a mafter-piece." It is introduced by a discourse on "the Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy," to which I fufpect that Rymer's book had given occafion. The Spanish Fryar (1681) is a tragi-comedy, eminent for the happy coincidence and coalition of the two plots. As it was written againft the Papifts, it would naturally at that time have friends and enemies; and partly by the popularity which it obtained at firft, and partly by the real power both of the ferious and rifible part, it continued long a favourite of the publick. It was Dryden's opinion, at least for fome time, and he maintains it in the dedication of this play, that the drama required an alternation of comick and tragick fcenes; and that it is neceffary to mitigate by alleviations of merriment the preffure of ponderous events, and the fatigue of toilfome paffions. "Whoever," fays he, "cannot perform both parts, is but half a writer for the flage.” The Duke of Guife, a tragedy (1683), written in cons junction with Lee, as Oedipus had been before, feems to deferve notice only for the offence which it gave to the remnant of the Covenanters, and in general to the enemies of the court, who attacked him with great violence, and were anfwered by him; though at laft he feems to withdraw from the conflict, by transferring the greater part of the blame or merit to his partner. It happened that a contract had been made between them, by which they were to join in writing a play and "he happened,” says Dryden, "to claim the pro"mife juft upon the finishing of a poem, when I would have "been glad of a little refpite. Two-thirds of it belonged to "him; and to me only the first scene of the play, the whole "fourth act, and the first half, or fomewhat more, of the "fifth." This was a play written profeffedly for the party of the Duke of York, whose fucceffion was then oppofed. A parallel is intended between the Leaguers of France and the Covenanters of England: and this intention produced the controverfy. Albion and Albanius (1685) is a mufical drama or opera, written, like The Duke of Guife, against the Republicans. With what fuccefs it was performed, I have not found *. The State of Innocence and Fall of Man, (1675) is termed by him an opera: it is rather a tragedy in heroick rhyme, but of which the perfonages are fuch as cannot decently be exhibited on the ftage. Some fuch production was foreseen by Marvel, who writes thus to Milton: "Or if a work fo infinite be spann'd, "Jealous I was left fome lefs fkilful hand Downes fays, it was performed on a very unlucky day, viz. that on which the Duke of Monmouth landed in the Weft; and he intimates, that the confternation into which the kingdom was thrown by this event was a reason why it was performed but fix times, and was in general ill received. H. |