The Works of John Dryden: General Editor

THE WORKS OF JOHN DRYDEN
General Editor
H. T. SWEDENBERG, JR.
Associate General Editor

EARL MINER
Textual Editor
VINTON A. DEARING
Associate Textual Editor

GEORGE ROBERT GUFFEY
VOLUME SEVENTEEN
EDITOR
Samuel Holt Monk
COEDITOR
A. E. Wallace Maurer
TEXTUAL EDITOR
Vinton A. Dearing
ASSOCIATE E D I T O R S
R. V. LeClercq Maximillian E. Novak

V O L U M E XVII
The Works
of John Dryden
Prose 1668-1691
A N ESSAY O F D R A M A T I C K P O E S I E
AND SHORTER WORKS
University of California Press

Berkeley Los Angeles London
1971
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, LTD.

London, England
The copy texts of this edition have been drawn in

the main from the Dryden Collection of the
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
Copyright © 1971 by The Regents of the University of California

Printed in the United States of America
ISBN:978-0-520-01814-3
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 55-7149
Designed by Ward Ritchie
Preface
Dryden employed numerous prose styles, and they have been

variously described. Very much the same thing can be said of
the subjects to which he addressed himself in prose and of the
Protean guises in which he chose to appear. This volume might
best be described as a sampler of Dryden as biographer-histo-
rian, political commentator, religious controversialist, literary
polemicist, literary theorist, and practical critic. Here "the other
harmony of prose" is heard in numerous keys; also audible are
some discords that can be resolved only in the larger concord
of a life devoted to letters in the many realms over which
Dryden reigned. If he was, as Dr. Johnson said, the father of
English criticism, that is but one subject on which his prose pen
touched; but without doubt his fatherhood began with his most
carefully articulated piece of literary criticism, familiarly known
as An Essay of Dramatic Poesy. As our commentary aims to
show, the Essay achieves its stature not only by virtue of its
superbly ordered yet relaxed style and the intrinsic importance
of its ideas, but also by reason of its quasi-fictional dialogue
form. Dryden’s mastery of the form enabled him, in good
conscience, to claim kinship with Plato, Cicero, and other
Academic philosophers.
The same assurance is not found in all the pieces included
here. The rather lengthy period covered by this volume pro-
vided many challenges to the poet, to the prose writer, and to
the man alike. The commotion over the Popish Plot and the
succession, the controversy on religious matters after Dryden’s
conversion, and debate with fellow writers provoked responses
from Dryden which were often hurried and sometimes passion-
ate. On one occasion, indeed, his reaction to the redoubtable
pen of Thomas Rymer was sufficiently private to have been
taken no further than the writing of the "heads" for a critical
treatise on drama. And yet there were also times, as when
Dryden took up his pen to write a dedication on behalf of his
friend Henry Purcell, or as he sat down to review the achieve-
ment of Plutarch, when he could reflect upon the major issues
of human civilization, taking that wider view that marks his
thought at its finest.
vi Preface
The aim in this volume has been to provide the reader with
the resources to understand, analyze, and judge a number of
Dryden’s prose pieces which were not connected by way of
preface to other works. The essential basis of the commentary
and its design have been supplied by Samuel H. Monk, who has
also contributed, over a period of many years, to commentary
on critical works in other volumes of the California edition of
Dryden’s works. A. E. Wallace Maurer has written the headnote
and the annotation for the Life of Plutarch and has lent valu-
able assistance in other ways as well. For An Essay of Dramatic
Poesy, R. V. LeClercq has furnished new material on the
classical and French backgrounds, Earl Miner has put the head-
note in its final form, and H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., has expanded
the annotation. Maximillian E. Novak has amplified the com-
mentary on Notes and Observations on The Empress of
Morocco. Vinton A. Bearing has provided the text for this
volume, the first of four to be devoted to Dryden’s prose writ-
ings.
The Editor of this volume expresses his gratitude to the staff
of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at the Uni-
versity of California, Los Angeles, for its generous and efficient
service during his tenure as Senior Fellow in 1964, as well as to
the Clark Library Committee for appointing him to that fellow-
ship. He is also grateful to Dr. Louis B. Wright for a three-
month grant to work at the Folger Shakespeare Library in
1965–66.
Since Dryden’s classical learning, or his ease with the classics,
exceeds that of his editors, it is a mercy to be able to draw upon
the learning of colleagues in the classical literatures. We wish
to express our indebtedness and gratitude, therefore, to Philip
Levine, Professor of Classics and Dean of Humanities at UCLA,
for his generous assistance, especially for his guidance through
the altering forms of the dialogue and the Academic tradition.
We also wish to thank Professor Clarence Forbes of the Ohio
State University Classics Department who has translated the
Latin passages from the Rualdus edition of Plutarch.
Modern standards for editions of English authors are such,
Preface vii
and life is such, that the editors could not make what claim they
can to accuracy without alert and intelligent assistance. Mrs.
Geneva Phillips, the editorial assistant for this edition, has held
up standards for which the General Editor and the Associate
General Editor can only bow their heads gratefully, and Mrs.
Grace H. Stimson of the University of California Press has
assisted the editors to a degree that only those engaged in
similar endeavors will understand. The checking, rechecking,
and checking yet again of text and of commentary owes much
to the devoted care of UCLA graduate students. Michael
Seidel, David Latt, Mrs. Melanie Rangno, Mrs. Janette Lewis,
Mrs. Diane Eliel, and Nick Havranek have corrected manu-
script and proof with a fidelity as necessary as it is invisible.
The splendid assistance enjoyed by the editors would not
have been possible, of course, without financial aid from the
office of the Chancellor of the University of California, Los
Angeles, and the Committee on Research of this university.
The General Editor and the Associate General Editor take par-
ticular pleasure in acknowledging this indebtedness. The sup-
port of a university, the talents of men and of women from
more than one university, and the assistance of many persons
dedicated to literary study are essential to any major edition.
The editors of this volume gratefully acknowledge such aid.
S. H. M.
H. T. S.
E. M.
June 1970
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Of Dramatick Poesie, An Essay 3

Notes and Observations on The Empress of Morocco 83
Heads of an Answer to Rymer 185
His Majesties Declaration Defended 195
Contributions to Plutarchs Lives
Epistle Dedicatory 227
The Publisher to the Reader 237
The Life of Plutarch 239
Contribution to A Defence of the Papers Written by the Late
King of Blessed Memory, and Duchess of York
A Defence of the Third [Duchess's] Paper 291
Epistle Dedicatory for The Vocal and Instrumental Musick of
the Prophetess 324
Commentary 327
Textual Notes 485
Appendixes
A. His Majesties Declaration 513
B. Copy of a Paper written by the late Duchess of York 5*9
Index to the Commentary 521
Illustrations
TITLE PAGE OF Of Dramatick Poesie, An Essay 2

Somerset House and Stairs from the Thames Facing page 8
TITLE PAGE OF Notes and Observations on
The Empress of Morocco 82
TITLE PAGE OF His Majesties Declaration Defended 194
TITLE PAGE OF Plutarchs Lives 226
Plutarch, from Plutarchs Lives Facing page 239
TITLE PAGE OF A Defence of the Papers Written
by the Late King of Blessed Memory, and
Duchess of York 290
TITLE PAGE OF His Majesties Declaration 512
TITLE PAGE OF Copies of Two Papers Written by the
Late King Charles II. Together with a Copy of a
Paper written by the late Duchess of York 518
PROSE 1668-1691
AN ESSAY OF DRAMATICK POESIE
AND SHORTER WORKS

OF
Dramatick Poefie,
A N
ESSAY.
By f OH^SCPSirDJSJACEfq;
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Reddere gttAfirrum valet, exors ipfafetandi.
Horar.DeArtcPoet.
LONDON,
Printed for Henry Htmngman^ at the Sign of the
Anchor, on the Lower-walk of the New-
Exchange, 166%.
TITLE PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION (MACDONALD ia7A)
An Essay of Dramatick Poesie 3
An Essay of Dramatick Poesie

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
CHARLES LORD BUCKHURST.
My Lord,
I was lately reviewing my loose Papers, amongst the rest
AI I found this Essay, the writing of which in this rude and
indigested manner wherein your Lordship now sees it,
serv'd as an amusement to me in the Country, when the vio-
lence of the last Plague had driven me from the Town. Seeing
then our Theaters shut up, I was engag'd in these kind of
thoughts with the same delight with which men think upon
their absent Mistresses: I confess I find many things in this
10 discourse which I do not now approve; my judgment being not
a little alter'd since the writing of it, but whither for the better
or the worse I know not: Neither indeed is it much material in
an Essay, where all I have said is problematical. For the way
of writing Playes in verse, which I have seem'd to favour, I have
since that time laid the Practice of it aside, till I have more
leisure, because I find it troublesome and slow. But I am no
way alter'd from my opinion of it, at least with any reasons
which have oppos'd it. For your Lordship may easily observe
that none are very violent against it, but those who either have
20 not attempted it, or who have succeeded ill in their attempt.
'Tis enough for me to have your Lordships example for my
excuse in that little which I have done in it; and I am sure my
Adversaries can bring no such Arguments against Verse, as
those with which the fourth Act of Pompey will furnish me in
its defence. Yet, my Lord, you must suffer me a little to com-
plain of you, that you too soon withdraw from us a content-
ment, of which we expected the continuance, because you gave
it us so early. 'Tis a revolt without occasion from your Party,
10-11 not a] Qa-3, D; a Qi, F. [Fluctuations in the texts cited are explained in
the Textual Notes.]
24 those with which the . . . me] Qa-3, D; the . . . me with, Qi, F.
4 Prose 1668-1691
where your merits had already rais'd you to the highest com-
mands, and where you have not the excuse of other men that
you have been ill us'd, and therefore laid down Armes. I know
no other quarrel you can have to Verse, then that which
Spurina had to his beauty, when he tore and mangled the
features of his Face, onely because they pleas'd too well the
sight. It was an honour which seem'd to wait for you, to lead
out a new Colony of Writers from the Mother Nation: and
upon the first spreading of your Ensignes there had been many
10 in a readiness to have follow'd so fortunate a Leader; if not all,
yet the better part of Poets,
Pars, indocili melior grege; mollis & expes
Inominata perprimat cubilia.
I am almost of opinion, that we should force you to accept
of the command, as sometimes the Praetorian Bands have com-
pell'd their Captains to receive the Empire. The Court, which
is the best and surest judge of writing, has generally allow'd of
Verse; and in the Town it has found favourers of Wit and
Quality. As for your own particular, My Lord, you have yet
20 youth, and time enough to give part of them to the divertise-
ment of the Publick, before you enter into the serious and more
unpleasant business of the world. That which the French Poet
said of the Temple of Love, may be as well apply'd to the
Temple of the Muses. The words, as near as I can remember
them, were these:
Le jeune homme, a mauvaise grace,
N'ayant pas adore dans le temple d'Amour:
II faut qu'il entre, & pour le sage
Si ce n'est pas son vray sejour
30 C'est un giste sur son passage.
I leave the words to work their effect upon your Lordship in
their own Language, because no other can so well express the
7 sight] Qz-3, D; lookers on Qi, F.
11 Poets,] Q2-3, D (~ .); Writers, Qi, F.
20 them] Qz-3, D; it Qi, F.
22 French Poet] Qs, D; French Poet Qi-2, F.
26 Le jeune homme, d . . . grace,] Q2-3, D; La jeuncsse a ... grace. Qi, F.
29 n'est pas] Qz-j, D; nest Qi, F.
30 C'est] Q2-3, D; Ce'st Qi, F.
nobleness of the thought; And wish you may be soon call'd to

bear a part in the affairs of the Nation, where I know the world
expects you, and wonders why you have been so long forgotten;
there being no person amongst our young Nobility, on whom
the eyes of all men are so much bent. But in the mean time
your Lordship may imitate the course of Nature, who gives us
the flower before the fruit: that I may speak to you in the
language of the Muses, which I have taken from an excellent
Poem to the King.
10 As Nature, when she fruit designes, thinks fit
By beauteous blossoms to proceed to it;
And while she does accomplish all the Spring,
Birds to her secret operations sing.
I confess I have no greater reason, in addressing this Essay to
your Lordship, then that it might awaken in you the desire of
writing something, in whatever kind it be, which might be an
honour to our Age and Country. And methinks it might have
the same effect on you, which Homer tells us the fight of the
Greeks and Trojans before the Fleet, had on the spirit of
20 Achilles, who though he had resolved not to ingage, yet found
a martial warmth to steal upon him, at the sight of Blows, the
sound of Trumpets, and the cries of fighting Men. For my
own part, if in treating of this subject I sometimes dissent from
the opinion of better Wits, I declare it is not so much to combat
their opinions, as to defend my own, which were first made
publick. Sometimes, like a Schollar in a Fencing-School I put
forth my self, and show my own ill play, on purpose to be
better taught. Sometimes I stand desperately to my Armes, like
the Foot when deserted by their Horse, not in hope to over-
80 come, but onely to yield on more honourable termes. And yet,
my Lord, this war of opinions, you well know, has fallen out
among the Writers of all Ages, and sometimes betwixt Friends.
Onely it has been prosecuted by some, like Pedants, with vio-
10-13 In same type face as prose in Q/.

17 methinks] Qs, F, D; me thinks Qi-a.
18 on] Q2-g, D; upon Qi, F^
19 Greeks and Trojans] Qa- , D; Greeks and Trojans Qi, F.
6 Prose 1668-1601
lence of words, and manag'd by others like Gentlemen, with

candour and civility. Even Tully had a Controversie with his
dear Atticus; and in one of his Dialogues makes him sustain the
part of an Enemy in Philosophy, who in his Letters is his confi-
dent of State, and made privy to the most weighty affairs of
the Roman Senate. And the same respect which was paid by
Tully to Atticus, we find return'd to him afterwards by Caesar
on a like occasion, who answering his Book in praise of Cato,
made it not so much his business to condemn Cato, as to praise
10 Cicero. But that I may decline some part of the encounter with
my Adversaries, whom I am neither willing to combate, nor
well able to resist; I will give your Lordship the Relation of a
Dispute betwixt some of our Wits on the same subject, in which
they did not onely speak of Playes in Verse, but mingled, in
the freedom of Discourse, some things of the Ancient, many of
the Modern wayes of writing, comparing those with these, and
the Wits of our Nation with those of others: 'tis true they
differ'd in their opinions, as 'tis probable they would: neither
do I take upon me to reconcile, but to relate them: and that, as
20 Tacitus professes of himself, Sine studio partium aut ira: with-
out Passion or Interest; leaving your Lordship to decide it in
favour of which part you shall judge most reasonable, and with-
all, to pardon the many errours of,
Your Lordships most obedient humble Servant,
JOHN DRYDEN.
a civility] Qz-3, F, D; ciuility Qi.
6 Roman Senate] Qg, D; Roman Senate Qi-2, F.
13 on the same] Qz-3, D; upon this Qi, F. 19 that,]-»< A (£1-3, F, D.
An Essay of Dramatick Poesie n
TO THE R E A D E R .
HE drift of the ensuing Discourse was chiefly to vindicate

T the honour of our English Writers, from the censure of
those who unjustly prefer the French before them. This
I intimate, least any should think me so exceeding vain, as to
teach others an Art which they understand much better then
my self. But if this incorrect Essay, 'written in the Country with-
out the help of Books, or advice of Friends, shall find any ac-
ceptance in the world, I promise to my self a better success of
the second part, wherein I shall more fully treat of the Vertues
10 and Faults of the English Poets, who have written either in this,
the Epique, or the Lyrique way.
a English] Qj, D; English Qi-z, F. 3 French] Qg, D; French Qi-2, F.
9 wherein I shall more fully treat of] Qa-g, D; wherein Qi, F.
10 English] Qg, D; English Qi-z, F.
u way.] Qa-3, D; way, will be more fully treated of, and their several styles
impartially imitated, Qi, F.
8 Prose 1668-1691
An Essay of Dramatick Poesie
I
T was that memorable day, in the first Summer of the late
War, when our Navy ingag'd the Dutch: a day wherein the
two most mighty and best appointed Fleets which any age
had ever seen, disputed the command of the greater half of the
Globe, the commerce of Nations, and the riches of the Universe.
While these vast floating bodies, on either side, mov'd against
each other in parallel lines, and our Country men, under the
happy conduct of his Royal Highness, went breaking, by little
and little, into the line of the Enemies; the noise of the Cannon
10 from both Navies reach'd our ears about the City: so that all
men, being alarm'd with it, and in a dreadful suspence of the
event, which they knew was then deciding, every one went
following the sound as his fancy led him; and leaving the Town
almost empty, some took towards the Park, some cross the
River, others down it; all seeking the noise in the depth of
silence.
Amongst the rest, it was the fortune of Eugenius, Crites,
Lisideius and Neander, to be in company together: three of
them persons whom their witt and Quality have made known to
20 all the Town: and whom I have chose to hide under these
borrowed names, that they may not suffer by so ill a relation as
1 am going to make of their discourse.
Taking then a Barge which a servant of Lisideius had pro-
vided for them, they made haste to shoot the Bridge, and left
behind them that great fall of waters which hindred them from
hearing what they desired: after which, having disingag'd them-
selves from many Vessels which rode at Anchor in the Thames,
and almost blockt up the passage towards Greenwich, they
order'd the Watermen to let fall their Oares more gently; and
ao then every one favouring his own curiosity with a strict silence,
2 Dutch} D; Dutch Qi-3, F. 10 all] Qz-3, F, D; al Qi.
iz they] Qg-g, D; we Qi, F.
13 led] Qi (corrected state), Qs-3, F, D; ed Qi (uncorrecled state).
VIEW OF SOMERSET HOUSE So
FROM Nouveau TheAtre de la
See Of Dramatick P<
IUTH STAIRS TO THE WEST
Grande Bretagne, I (1724)
3SIE, p. 80, I. 27
An Essay of Dramatick Poesie g
it was not long ere they perceiv'd the Air to break about them
like the noise of distant Thunder, or of Swallows in a Chimney:
those little undulations of sound, though almost vanishing
before they reach'd them, yet still seeming to retain somewhat
of their first horrour which they had betwixt the Fleets: after
they had attentively listned till such time as the sound by little
and little went from them; Eugenius lifting up his head, and
taking notice of it, was the first who congratulated to the rest
that happy Omen of our Nations Victory: adding, that we had
10 but this to desire in confirmation of it, that we might hear no
more of that noise which was now leaving the English Coast.
When the rest had concur'd in the same opinion, Grites, a per-
son of a sharp judgment, and somewhat too delicate a taste in
wit, which the world have mistaken in him for ill nature, said,
smiling to us, that if the concernment of this battel had not
been so exceeding great, he could scarce have wish'd the Victory
at the price he knew he must pay for it, in being subject to the
reading and hearing of so many ill verses as he was sure would
be made on that Subject; adding, that no Argument could scape
20 some of those eternal Rhimers, who watch a Battel with more
diligence then the Ravens and birds of Prey; and the worst of
them surest to be first in upon the quarry, while the better able,
either out of modesty writ not at all, or set that due value upon
their Poems, as to let them be often desired and long expectedl
There are some of those impertinent people of whom you
speak, answer'd Lisideius, who to my knowledg, are already so
provided, either way, that they can produce not onely a Pane-
girick upon the Victory, but, if need be, a funeral elegy on the
Duke: wherein after they have crown'd his valour with many
so Lawrels, they will at last deplore the odds under which he fell;
i to break] Qa-g, D; break Qi; breaking F.
4 seeming] Qa-g, F, D; seeinng Qi.
9 adding, that] Qa-g, D; adding, Qi, F.
n English] Qg, D; English Qi-z, F.
17 he must] Qa-g, D; must Qi, F.
19 on that Subject; adding] Qa-g, D (Subject. Adding); upon it; adding Qi, F.
24 desired] Qa-g, D; call'd for Qi, F. 25 There] Qa-g, F, D; there Qi.
25-26 of whom you speak] Qa-g, D; you speak of Qi, F.
28 on] Qa-g, D; upon Qi, F. ag wherein] Qa-g, D; and Qi, F.
go they will at] Qa-g, D; at Qi, F.
io Prose 1668—1691
concluding that his courage deserv'd a better destiny. All the

company smil'd at the conceipt of Lisideius; but Crites, more
eager then before, began to make particular exceptions against
some Writers, and said the publick Magistrate ought to send be-
times to forbid them; and that it concern'd the peace and quiet
of all honest people, that ill Poets should be as well silenc'd
as seditious Preachers. In my opinion, replyed Eugenius,
you pursue your point too far; for as to my own particular, I
am so great a lover of Poesie, that I could wish them all re-
10 warded who attempt but to do well; at least I would not have
them worse us'd then one of their brethren was by Sylla the
Dictator: Quern in condone vidimus (says Tully) cum ei libel-
lum mains poeta de populo subjecisset, quod epigramma in
eum fecisset tantummodo alternis versibus longiusculis, statim
ex Us rebus quas tune vendebat jubere ei prcemium tribui, sub
ea conditione ne quid posted scriberet. I could wish with all my
heart, replied Crites, that many whom we know were as
bountifully thank'd upon the same condition, that they would
never trouble us again. For amongst others, I have a mortal
20 apprehension of two Poets, whom this victory with the help of
both her wings will never be able to escape. 'Tis easie to guess
whom you intend, said Lisideius; and without naming them, I
ask you if one of them does not perpetually pay us with clenches
upon words and a certain clownish kind of raillery? if now
and then he does not offer at a Catachresis or Clevelandism,
wresting and torturing a word into another meaning: In fine,
if he be not one of those whom the French would call un
mauvais buffon; one who is so much a well-wilier to the Satire,
that he intends, at least, to spare no man; and though he can-
so not strike a blow to hurt any, yet ought to be punish'd for the
11-12 one of their brethren was by Sylla the Dictator] Qa-3, D; Sylla the
Dictator did one of their brethren heretofore Qi, F.
12 Tully] Q2-g, D; Tully speaking of him Qi, F.
14 longiusculis] Qa-g, D; longiuculis Qi; longinculis F.
15 quas] Q2-3, D; quas Qi, F. 21 escape. 'Tis] D; escape; 'tis Qi-g, F.
25 offer] Q2-3, F, D; osser Qi.
25 Catachresis or Clevelandism] Q3, D; Catecresis or Clevelandism Qi-2, F.
27 French] Q3, D; French Qi-2, F. 28 who] Qa-g, D; that Qi, F.
29 intends, at least, to spare] Q2-3, D (intends A Q2); spares Qi, F.
malice of the action; as our Witches are justly hang'd because

they think themselves to be such; and suffer deservedly for
believing they did mischief, because they meant it. You have
described him, said Crites, so exactly, that I am affraid to come
after you with my other extremity of Poetry: He is one of
those who having had some advantage of education and con-
verse, knows better then the other what a Poet should be, but
puts it into practice more unluckily then any man; his stile
and matter are every where alike; he is the most calm, peaceable
10 Writer you ever read: he never disquiets your passions with
the least concernment, but still leaves you in as even a temper
as he found you; he is a very Leveller in Poetry, he creeps along
with ten little words in every line, and helps out his Numbers
with For to, and Unto, and all the pretty Expletives he can
find, till he draggs them to the end of another line; while the
Sense is left tir'd half way behind it: he doubly starves all his
Verses, first for want of thought, and then of expression; his
Poetry neither has wit in it, nor seems to have it; like him in
Martiall:
20 Pauper videri Cinna tiult, if est pauper:
he affects plainness, to cover his want of imagination: when he
writes the serious way, the highest flight of his fancy is some
miserable Antithesis, or seeming contradiction; and in the
Comick he is still reaching at some thin conceit, the ghost of a
Jest, and that too flies before him, never to be caught; these
Swallows which we see before us on the Thames, are the just
resemblance of his wit: you may observe how near the water
they stoop, how many proffers they make to dip, and yet how
seldome they touch it: and when they do, 'tis but the surface:
so they skim over it but to catch a gnat, and then mount into the
ayr and leave it. Well Gentlemen, said Eugenius, you may speak
your pleasure of these Authors; but though I and some few
more about the Town may give you a peaceable hearing, yet,
assure your selves, there are multitudes who would think you
a to be such] Qa-3, D; so Qi, F.

21 he affects] ^He affects Qi~3, F, D.
12 Prose 1668-1691
malicious and them injur'd: especially him whom you first

described; he is the very Withers of the City: they have bought
more Editions of his Works then would serve to lay under all
their Pies at the Lord Mayor's Christmass. When his famous
Poem first came out in the year 1660, I have seen them reading
it in the midst of Change-time; nay so vehement they were at it,
that they lost their bargain by the Candles ends: but what will
you say, if he has been received amongst great Persons? I can
assure you he is, this day, the envy of one, who is Lord in the
10 Art of Quibbling; and who does not take it well, that any man
should intrude so far into his Province. All I would wish, re-
plied Crites, is, that they who love his Writings, may still admire
him, and his fellow Poet: qui Bavium non odit, be. is curse
sufficient. And farther, added Lisideius, I believe there is no
man who writes well, but would think he had hard measure,
if their Admirers should praise any thing of his: Nam quos
contemnimus eorum quoque laudes contemnimus. There are so
few who write well in this Age, said Crites, that me-thinks any
praises should be wellcome; they neither rise to the dignity of
20 the last Age, nor to any of the Ancients; and we may cry out
of the Writers of this time, with more reason than Petronius of
his, Pace vestra liceat dixisse, primi omnium eloquentiam perdi-
distis: you have debauched the true old Poetry so far, that Na-
ture, which is the soul of it, is not in any of your Writings.
If your quarrel (said Eugenius) to those who now write, be
grounded onely on your reverence to Antiquity, there is no man
more ready to adore those great Greeks and Romans than I
am: but on the other side, I cannot think so contemptibly of the
Age in which I live, or so dishonourably of my own Countrey,
so as not to judge we equal the Ancients in most kinds of Poesie,
and in some surpass them; neither know I any reason why I may
not be as zealous for the Reputation of our Age, as we find the
i him whom] Qz-g, D; him who Qi; him F.
8 great Persons?] Qa~3, D (Persons; Qa); the great Ones? Qi, F.
9 one] Q2~3, D; a great person Qi, F.
15 he had hard measure] Qa-J, D; himself very hardly dealt with Qi, F.
26 on] Qa-3, D; upon Qi, F.
27 Greeks and Romans] Q3, D; Greeks and Romans Qi-2, F.
29 in which I live] Qa~3, D; I live in Qi, F.
Ancients themselves were in reference to those who lived be-

fore them. For you hear your Horace saying,
Indignor quidquam reprehendi, non quia crasse
Compositum, illepideve putetur, sed quia nuper,
And after,
Si meliora dies, ut vina, poemata reddit,
Scire velim pretium chartis quotus arroget annus?
But I see I am ingaging in a wide dispute, where the argu-
ments are not like to reach close on either side; for Poesie is of
10 so large an extent, and so many both of the Ancients and
Moderns have done well in all kinds of it, that, in citing one
against the other, we shall take up more time this Evening,
than each mans occasions will allow him: therefore I would ask
Crites to what part of Poesie he would confine his Arguments,
and whether he would defend the general cause of the Ancients
against the Moderns, or oppose any Age of the Moderns against
this of ours?
Crites a little while considering upon this Demand, told
Eugenius that if he pleased, he would limit their Dispute to
20 Dramatique Poesie; in which he thought it not difficult to
prove, either that the Antients were siiperiour to the Moderns,
or the last Age to this of ours.
Eugenius was somewhat surpriz'd, when he heard Crites
make choice of that Subject; For ought I see, said he, I have
undertaken a harder Province than I imagin'd; for though I
never judg'd the Plays of the Greek or Roman Poets compar-
able to ours; yet on the other side those we now see acted,
come short of many which were written in the last Age: but
my comfort is if we are orecome, it will be onely by our own
30 Countrey-men: and if we yield to them in this one part of
Poesie, we more surpass them in all the other; for in the
Epique or Lyrique way it will be hard for them to show us
i themselves were] Qz-3, D; themselves Qi, F.

3 crasse] Qg, D; crasse Qi-2, F.
10 an extent] Qz-3, D; extent Qi, F.
19 that] Qa-J, D; he approv'd his Propositions, and, Qi, F.
20 Dramalique] Qa; Dramatiqne Qi; Dramatick Qg, F, D.
26 Greek or Roman] Qj, D; Greek or Roman Qi-2, F.
14 Prose 1668-1691
one such amongst them, as we have many now living, or who

lately were. They can produce nothing so courtly writ, or
which expresses so much the Conversation of a Gentleman, as
Sir John Suckling; nothing so even, sweet, and flowing as Mr.
Waller; nothing so Majestique, so correct as Sir John Denham;
nothing so elevated, so copious, and full of spirit, as Mr
Cowley; as for the Italian, French, and Spanish Plays, I can
make it evident, that those who now write, surpass them; and
that the Drama is wholly ours.
10 All of them were thus far of Eugenius his opinion, that the
sweetness of English Verse was never understood or practis'd
by our Fathers; even Crites himself did not much oppose it:
and every one was willing to acknowledge how much our
Poesie is improv'd, by the happiness of some Writers yet liv-
ing; who first taught us to mould our thoughts into easie and
significant words; to retrench the superfluities of expression,
and to make our Rime so properly a part of the Verse, that it
should never mis-lead the sence, but it self be led and govern'd
by it.
20 Eugenius was going to continue this Discourse, when Lisi-
deius told him that it was necessary, before they proceeded
further, to take a standing measure of their Controversie; for
how was it possible to be decided who writ the best Plays,
before we know what a Play should be? but, this once agreed
on by both Parties, each might have recourse to it, either to
prove his own advantages, or to discover the failings of his
Adversary.
He had no sooner said this, but all desir'd the favour of
him to give the definition of a Play; and they were the more
so importunate, because neither Aristotle, nor Horace, nor any
other, who had writ of that Subject, had ever done it.
Lisideius, after some modest denials, at last confess'd he had
a rude Notion of it; indeed rather a Description then a Defini-
tion: but which serv'd to guide him in his private thoughts,
z were] Qa-3, D; were so Qi, F.
7 Italian, French, and Spanish] Qg, D; Italian, French, and Spanish Qi-z, F.
11 English] Qs, D; English Qi-2, F. 21 that it] Qz-g, D; it Qi, F.
26 or to] Qz~3, D; or Qi, F. 31 had writ] Qx-3, D; writ Qi, F.
when he was to make a judgment of what others writ: that he

conceiv'd a Play ought to be, A just and lively Image of Hu-
mane Nature, representing its Passions and Humours, and the
Changes of Fortune to which it is subject; for the Delight and
Instruction of Mankind.
This Definition, though Crites rais'd a Logical Objection
against it; that it was onely a genere b fine, and so not alto-
gether perfect; was yet well received by the rest: and after they
had given order to the Water-men to turn their Barge, and row
10 softly, that they might take the cool of the Evening in their
return; Crites, being desired by the Company to begin, spoke
on behalf of the Ancients, in this manner:
If Confidence presage a Victory, Eugenius, in his own opin-
ion, has already triumphed over the Ancients; nothing seems
more easie to him, than to overcome those whom it is our
greatest praise to have imitated well: for we do not onely build
upon their foundations; but by their modells. Dramatique
Poesie had time enough, reckoning from Thespis (who first
invented it) to Aristophanes, to be born, to grow up, and to
20 flourish in Maturity. It has been observed of Arts and Sciences,
that in one and the same Century they have arriv'd to great
perfection; and no wonder, since every Age has a kind of
Universal Genius, which inclines those that live in it to some
particular Studies: the Work then being push'd on by many
hands, must of necessity go forward.
Is it not evident, in these last hundred years (when the
Study of Philosophy has been the business of all the Virtuosi in
Christendome) that almost a new Nature has been reveal'd to
us? that more errours of the School have been detected, more
so useful Experiments in Philosophy have been made, more Noble
Secrets in Opticks, Medicine, Anatomy, Astronomy, discover'd,
than in all those credulous and doting Ages from Aristotle to
us? so true it is that nothing spreads more fast than Science,
when rightly and generally cultivated.
Add to this the more than common emulation that was in
17 foundations] Qz~3, D; foundation Qi, F.
21 to] Qz-3, D; to a Qi, F.
i6 Prose 1668-1691
those times of writing well; which though it be found in all

Ages and all Persons that pretend to the same Reputation; yet
Poesie being then in more esteem than now it is, had greater
Honours decreed to the Professors of it; and consequently the
Rivalship was more high between them; they had Judges
ordain'd to decide their Merit, and Prizes to reward it: and
Historians have been diligent to record of /Eschylus, Euripides,
Sophocles, Lycophron, and the rest of them, both who they
were that vanquish'd in these Wars of the Theater, and how
10 often they were crown'd: while the Asian Kings, and Grecian
Common-wealths scarce afforded them a Nobler Subject then
the unmanly Luxuries of a Debauch'd Court, or giddy In-
trigues of a Factious City. Alit cemulatio ingenia (says Patercu-
lus) 6- nunc invidia, nunc admiratio incitationem accendit:
Emulation is the Spur of Wit, and sometimes Envy, sometimes
Admiration quickens our Endeavours.
But now since the Rewards of Honour are taken away, that
Vertuous Emulation is turn'd into direct Malice; yet so sloth-
ful, that it contents it self to condemn and cry down others,
20 without attempting to do better: 'Tis a Reputation too un-
profitable, to take the necessary pains for it; yet wishing they
had it, that desire is incitement enough to hinder others from
it. And this, in short, Eugenius, is the reason, why you have
now so few good Poets; and so many severe Judges: Certainly,
to imitate the Antients well, much labour and long study is
required: which pains, I have already shown, our Poets would
want incouragement to take, if yet they had ability to go
through the work. Those Ancients have been faithful Imitators
and wise Observers of that Nature which is so torn and ill
so represented in our Plays, they have handed down to us a per-
fect resemblance of her; which we, like ill Copyers, neglecting
to look on, have rendred monstrous and disfigur'd. But, that
you may know how much you are indebted to those your
Masters, and be ashamed to have so ill requited them: I must
7 jEschylus] F, D; Eschylus Qt-3- 10 Asian] Qj, D; Asian Qi-a, F.
10 Grecian] (£3, D; Grecian Qi-2, F.
22 that desire is] Qa-g, D; is Qi, F.
28 the work] Qs-g, D; with it Qi, F.
remember you that all the Rules by which we practise the

Drama at this day, (either such as relate to the justness and
symmetry of the Plot; or the Episodical Ornaments, such as
Descriptions, Narrations, and other Beauties, which are not
essential to the Play;) were delivered to us from the Observa-
tions which Aristotle made, of those Poets, who either liv'd be-
fore him, or were his Contemporaries: we have added nothing
of our own, except we have the confidence to say our wit is
better; of which none boast in this our Age, but such as under-
10 stand not theirs. Of that Book which Aristotle has left us
mpl Tjfc noi-rjTiKrj<s, Horace his Art of Poetry is an excellent Com-
ment, and, I believe, restores to us that Second Book of his
concerning Comedy, which is wanting in him.
Out of these two have been extracted the Famous Rules
which the French call, Des Trois Unitez, or, The Three Uni-
ties, which ought to be observ'd in every Regular Play; namely,
of Time, Place, and Action.
The unity of Time they comprehend in 24 hours, the com-
pass of a Natural Day; or as near it as can be contriv'd: and
20 the reason of it is obvious to every one, that the time of the
feigned action, or fable of the Play, should be proportion'd as
near as can be to the duration of that time in which it is
represented; since therefore all Playes are acted on the Theater
in a space of time much within the compass of 24 hours, that
Play is to be thought the nearest imitation of Nature, whose
Plot or Action is confin'd within that time; and, by the same
Rule which concludes this general proportion of time, it fol-
lows, that all the parts of it are (as near as may be) to be equally
subdivided; namely, that one act take not up the suppos'd time
so of half a day; which is out of proportion to the rest: since the
2-5 (either . . . Play;)] Qs-3, D; A~ . . . ^-;A Qi, F.
5-6 Observations which] Qs-3, D; Observations that Qi, F.
6 Poets, who] Qa-g, D; Poets, which Qi, F.
9 of which none boast in this] Qa-3, DJ which none boast of in Qi, F.
11 Trepl] Qa-3, D; irepi Qi, F.
11 Art of Poetry] Art of Poetry Qi-g, F, D.
14 have] Qg-s, D; has Qi, F. 15 French] Qj, D; French Qi-2, F.
a8 are (as near as may be)] Qz-g, D; are Qi, F.
29 namely] Qz-3, D; as namely Qi, F.
i8 Prose 1668-1691
other four are then to be straightned within the compass of the

remaining half; for it is unnatural that one Act, which being
spoke or written, is not longer than the rest, should be sup-
pos'd longer by the Audience; 'tis therefore the Poets duty, to
take care that no Act should be imagin'd to exceed the time
in which it is represented on the Stage; and that the intervalls
and inequalities of time be suppos'd to fall out between the
Acts.
This Rule of Time how well it has been observ'd by the
10 Antients, most of their Playes will witness; you see them in
their Tragedies (wherein to follow this Rule, is certainly most
difficult) from the very beginning of their Playes, falling close
into that part of the Story which they intend for the action or
principal object of it; leaving the former part to be delivered
by Narration: so that they set the Audience, as it were, at the
Post where the Race is to be concluded: and, saving them the
tedious expectation of seeing the Poet set out and ride the
beginning of the Course, they suffer you not to behold him,
till he is in sight of the Goal, and just upon you.
20 For the Second Unity, which is that of place, the Antients
meant by it, That the Scene ought to be continu'd through the
Play, in the same place where it was laid in the beginning: for
the Stage, on which it is represented, being but one and the
same place, it is unnatural to conceive it many; and those far
distant from one another. I will not deny but by the variation
of painted Scenes, the fancy (which in these cases will contri-
bute to its own deceit) may sometimes imagine it several
places, with some appearance of probability; yet it still carries
the greater likelihood of truth, if those places be suppos'd so
so near each other, as in the same Town or City; which may all
be comprehended under the larger Denomination of one place:
for a greater distance will bear no proportion to the shortness
of time, which is allotted in the acting, to pass from one of
them to another; for the Observation of this, next to the
18 Course, they suffer you not to behold him] (£2-3, D; Course) you behold
him not Qi, F.
Antients, the French are to be most commended. They tie

themselves so strictly to the unity of place, that you never see
in any of their Plays, a Scene chang'd in the middle of an
Act: if the Act begins in a Garden, a Street, or Chamber, 'tis
ended in the same place; and that you may know it to be the
same, the Stage is so supplied with persons that it is never
empty all the time: he who enters second has business with
him who was on before; and before the second quits the Stage,
a third appears who has business with him.
10 This Corneille calls La Liaison des Scenes, the continuity
or joyning of the Scenes; and 'tis a good mark of a well con-
triv'd Play when all the Persons are known to each other, and
every one of them has some affairs with all the rest.
As for the third Unity which is that of Action, the Ancients
meant no other by it then what the Logicians do by their Finis,
the end or scope of any action: that which is the first in Inten-
tion, and last in Execution: now the Poet is to aim at one
great and compleat action, to the carrying on of which all
things in his Play, even the very obstacles, are to be sub-
20 servient; and the reason of this is as evident as any of the
former.
For two Actions equally labour'd and driven on by the
Writer, would destroy the unity of the Poem; it would be no
longer one Play, but two: not but that there may be many ac-
tions in a Play, as Ben. Johnson has observ'd in his Discoveries;
but they must be all subservient to the great one, which our
language happily expresses in the name of under-plots: such as
in Terences Eunuch is the difference and reconcilement of
Thais and Phadria, which is not the chief business of the Play,
ao but promotes the marriage of Chterea and Chremes's Sister,
principally intended by the Poet. There ought to be but one
action, sayes Corneille, that is one compleat action which
i French] Qj, D; French Qi-2, F.
7 who enters] Qa-3, D; that enters the Qi, F.
10 Corneille] Qz-g, D; Cornell Qi, F.
25 Discoveries] discoveries Qi-z; Discoveries Qj, F, D.
32 Corneille] Qz-3, D; Corneile Qi, F.
so Prose 1668-1691
leaves the mind of the Audience in a full repose: But this can-
not be brought to pass but by many other imperfect actions
which conduce to it, and hold the Audience in a delightful
suspence of what will be.
If by these Rules (to omit many other drawn from the
Precepts and Practice of the Ancients) we should judge our
modern Playes; 'tis probable, that few of them would endure
the tryal: that which should be the business of a day, takes
up in some of them an age; instead of one action they are the
10 Epitomes of a mans life; and for one spot of ground (which
the Stage should represent) we are sometimes in more Countries
then the Map can show us.
But if we will allow the Ancients to have contriv'd well, we
must acknowledge them to have written better; questionless we
are depriv'd of a great stock of wit in the loss of Menander
among the Greek Poets, and of Ctzcilius, Affranius and Varius,
among the Romans: we may guess at Menanders Excellency
by the Plays of Terence, who translated some of them, and yet
wanted so much of him that he was call'd by C. C&sar the
20 Halt-Menander, and may judge of Varius, by the Testimonies
of Horace, Martial, and Velleius Paterculus: 'Tis probable
that these, could they be recover'd, would decide the contro-
versie; but so long as Aristophanes and Plautus are extant;
while the Tragedies of Euripides, Sophocles, and Seneca are in
our hands, I can never see one of those Plays which are now
written, but it encreases my admiration of the Ancients; and
yet I must acknowledge further, that to admire them as we
ought, we should understand them better then we do. Doubt-
less many things appear flat to us, the wit of which depended
a actions] Q2-g, D; ones Qi, F. 14 written] Qa~3, D; writ Qi, F.

16 Greek] Qj, D; Greek Qi-2, F. 17 Romans] Qg, D; Romans Qi-2, F.
17 at] Q2-g, D; of Qi, F. 18 them] Qa-g, D; his Qi, F.
20 and may judge] Qa-g, D; and Qi, F.
ai Horace,] Qg, F, D; Â Qi-2.
83 and Plautus] Qs-g, D; in the old Comedy, and Plautus in the new Qi, F.
24 Euripides] Qg, D; Eurypides Qi-2, F.
24-25 in our hands] Q8-g, D; to be had Qi, F.
29 the wit of which depended] Qz-g, D; whose wit depended Qi, F.
An Essay of Dramatick Poesie %i
on some custome or story which never came to our knowledge,

or perhaps on some Criticism in their language, which being
so long dead, and onely remaining in their Books, 'tis not pos-
sible they should make us understand perfectly. To read Ma-
crobius, explaining the propriety and elegancy of many words
in Virgil, which I had before pass'd over without consideration,
as common things, is enough to assure me that I ought to think
the same of Terence; and that in the purity of his style (which
Tully so much valued that he ever carried his works about
10 him) there is yet left in him great room for admiration, if I
knew but where to place it. In the mean time I must desire
you to take notice, that the greatest man of the last age (Ben.
Johnson) was willing to give place to them in all things: He
was not onely a professed Imitator of Horace, but a learned
Plagiary of all the others; you track him every where in their
Snow: If Horace, Lucan, Petronius Arbiter, Seneca, and Ju-
venal, had their own from him, there are few serious thoughts
which are new in him; you will pardon me therefore if I pre-
sume he lov'd their fashion when he wore their cloaths. But
20 since I have otherwise a great veneration for him, and you,
Eugenius, prefer him above all other Poets, I will use no far-
ther argument to you then his example: I will produce before
you Father Ben. dress'd in all the ornaments and colours of
the Ancients, you will need no other guide to our Party if you
follow him; and whether you consider the bad Plays of our
Age, or regard the good Plays of the last, both the best and
worst of the Modern Poets will equally instruct you to admire
the Ancients.
Crites had no sooner left speaking, but Eugenius who had
so waited with some impatience for it, thus began:
I have observ'd in your Speech that the former part of it is
convincing as to what the Moderns have profitted by the rules
of the Ancients, but in the latter you are careful to conceal
how much they have excell'd them: we own all the helps we
i, z on] Qz-g, D; upon Qi, F. 4 understand] Qz-g, D; know it Qi, F.
32-23 before you Father Ben.] Qz-g, D; Father Ben. to you, Qi, F.
26 good Plays] Qz-g, D; good ones Qi, F.
z; admire] Qz-g, D; esteem Qi, F. zg who had] Qz-g, D; who Qi, F.
22 Prose 1668-1691
have from them, and want neither veneration nor gratitude

while we acknowledge that to overcome them we must make
use of the advantages we have receiv'd from them; but to these
assistances we have joyned our own industry; for (had we sate
down with a dull imitation of them) we might then have lost
somewhat of the old perfection, but never acquir'd any that
was new. We draw not therefore after their lines, but those of
Nature; and having the life before us, besides the experience
of all they knew, it is no wonder if we hit some airs and fea-
10 tures which they have miss'd: I deny not what you urge of Arts
and Sciences, that they have flourished in some ages more then
others; but your instance in Philosophy makes for me: for if
Natural Causes be more known now then in the time of Aris-
totle, because more studied, it follows that Poesie and other
Arts may with the same pains arrive still neerer to perfec-
tion, and, that granted, it will rest for you to prove that they
wrought more perfect images of humane life then we; which,
seeing in your Discourse you have avoided to make good, it
shall now be my task to show you some part of their defects,
20 and some few Excellencies of the Moderns; and I think there
is none among us can imagine I do it enviously, or with pur-
pose to detract from them; for what interest of Fame or Profit
can the living lose by the reputation of the dead? on the other
side, it is a great truth which Velleius Paterculus affirms, Au-
dita visis libentius laudamus; if prcesentia invidia, praterita
admiratione prosequimur; if his nos obrui, illis instrui credi-
mus: That praise or censure is certainly the most sincere which
unbrib'd posterity shall give us.
Be pleased then in the first place to take notice, that the
so Greek Poesie, which Crites has affirm'd to have arriv'd to per-
fection in the Reign of the old Comedy, was so far from it,
that the distinction of it into Acts was not known to them; or
if it were, it is yet so darkly deliver'd to us that we cannot make
it out.
All we know of it is from the singing of their Chorus, and
that too is so uncertain that in some of their Playes we have
30 Greek} Q$, D; Greek Qi-2, F.
reason to conjecture they sung more then five times: Aristotle

indeed divides the integral parts of a Play into four: First, The
Protasis or entrance, which gives light onely to the Characters
of the persons, and proceeds very little into any part of the ac-
tion: Secondly, The Epitasis, or working up of the Plot where
the Play grows warmer: the design or action of it is drawing
on, and you see something promising that it will come to pass:
Thirdly, the Catastasis, call'd by the Romans, Status, the
heighth, and full growth of the Play: we may call it properly
10 the Counterturn, which destroys that expectation, imbroyles
the action in new difficulties, and leaves you far distant from
that hope in which it found you, as you may have observ'd in
a violent stream resisted by a narrow passage; it runs round to
an eddy, and carries back the waters with more swiftness then
it brought them on: Lastly, the Catastrophe, which the Gre-
cians call'd Av'tns, the French le denouement, and we the dis-
covery or unravelling of the Plot: there you see all things
selling again upon their first foundations, and the obstacles
which hindred the design or action of the Play once remov'd,
20 it ends with that resemblance of truth and nature, that the
audience are satisfied with the conduct of it. Thus this great
man deliver'd to us the image of a Play, and I must confess it
is so lively that from thence much light has been deriv'd to
the forming it more perfectly into Acts and Scenes; but what
Poet first limited to five the number of the Acts I know not;
onely we see it so firmly establish'd in the time of Horace, that
he gives it for a rule in Comedy; Neu brevior quinto, neu sit
productior actu: So that you see the Grecians cannot be said
to have consummated this Art; writing rather by Entrances
so then by Acts, and having rather a general indigested notion
of a Play, then knowing how and where to bestow the par-
ticular graces of it.
5 Secondly] Qa-j, F, D; zly Qi.
8-10 call'd by the Romans, . . . properly the] Qs-g, D (Romans Qz); or Qi, F.
11 distant] Qa-3, F, D; dsstant Qi.
15-16 Grecians] Q3, D; Grecians Qi-2, F.
16 XiStris] Qa-3, D; Sîs Qi; «<f<r< F. 16 French] Qg, D; French Qi-z, F.
16 denouement] denouement Qi-3, F, D.
28 Grecians] Q3, D; Grecians Qi-a, F.
24 Prose 1668-1691
But since the Spaniards at this day allow but three Acts,
which they call Jornadas, to a Play; and the Italians in many
of theirs follow them, when I condemn the Antients, I declare
it is not altogether because they have not five Acts to every
Play, but because they have not confin'd themselves to one cer-
tain number; 'tis building an House without a Modell: and
when they succeeded in such undertakings, they ought to have
sacrific'd to Fortune, not to the Muses.
Next, for the Plot, which Aristotle call'd 6 /ui0o« and often
10 and from him the Romans Fabula, it has al-
ready been judiciously observ'd by a late Writer, that in their
Tragedies it was onely some Tale deriv'd from Thebes or
Troy, or at least some thing that happen'd in those two Ages;
which was worn so thred-bare by the Pens of all the Epique
Poets, and even by Tradition it self of the Talkative Greek-
lings (as Ben. Johnson calls them) that before it came upon
the Stage, it was already known to all the Audience: and the
people so soon as ever they heard the Name of Oedipus, knew
as well as the Poet, that he had kill'd his Father by a mistake,
20 and committed Incest with his Mother, before the Play; that
they were now to hear of a great Plague, an Oracle, and the
Ghost of Laius: so that they sate with a yawning kind of ex-
pectation, till he was to come with his eyes pull'd out, and
speak a hundred or more Verses in a Tragick tone, in com-
plaint of his misfortunes. But one Oedipus, Hercules, or
Medea, had been tollerable; poor people they scap'd not so
good cheap: they had still the Chapon Bouille set before them,
till their appetites were cloy'd with the same dish, and the
Novelty being gone, the pleasure vanish'd: so that one main
so end of Dramatique Poesie in its Definition, which was to cause
Delight, was of consequence destroy'd.
In their Comedies, the Romans generally borrow'd their
1 Spaniards] Qj, D; Spaniards Qi-2, F.
2 Italians] Q3, D; Italians Qi-2, F.
9 & fiCOos] D; TO nvOos Qi, F; rt> fj.vff&s Qa-3.
10 Romans] Q3, D; Romans Qi-2, F.
15-16 Greeklings] Q3, D; Greeklings Qi-a, F.
16 Ben.] Qa-3, F, D; Ben Qi.
24 more] Q2~3, D; two of Qi, F. 32 Romans] D; Romans Qi~3, F.
Plots from the Greek Poets; and theirs was commonly a little
Girle stollen or wandred from her Parents, brought back un-
known to the City, there got with child by some lewd young
fellow; who, by the help of his servant, cheats his father, and
when her time comes, to cry Juno Lucina fer opem; one or
other sees a little Box or Cabinet which was carried away
with her, and so discovers her to her friends, if some God do
not prevent it, by coming down in a Machine, and taking the
thanks of it to himself.
10 By the Plot you may guess much of the Characters of the
Persons. An Old Father who would willingly before he dies,
see his Son well married; his Debauch'd Son, kind in his Na-
ture to his Mistress, but miserably in want of Money; a Ser-
vant or Slave, who has so much wit to strike in with him, and
help to dupe his Father, a Braggadochio Captain, a Parasite,
and a Lady of Pleasure.
As for the poor honest Maid, on whom the Story is built,
and who ought to be one of the principal Actors in the Play,
she is commonly a Mute in it: She has the breeding of the
20 Old Elizabeth way, which was for Maids to be seen and not
to be heard; and it is enough you know she is willing to be
married, when the Fifth Act requires it.
These are Plots built after the Italian Mode of Houses, you
see thorow them all at once; the Characters are indeed the Imi-
tations of Nature, but so narrow as if they had imitated onely
an Eye or an Hand, and did not dare to venture on the lines
of a Face, or the Proportion of a Body.
But in how straight a compass soever they have bounded
their Plots and Characters, we will pass it by, if they have reg-
30 ularly pursued them, and perfectly observ'd those three Uni-
ties of Time, Place, and Action: the knowledge of which you
say is deriv'd to us from them. But in the first place give me
i Greek] D; Greek Qi-g, F. 3 City] Qa-g, D; same City Qi, F.
8 taking] Qa-g, D; take Qi, F. 11 who] Qs-3. D; that Qi, F.
13 Mistress] Q3, D; Wench Qi, F; Mistres Qz.
17 on whom the Story is built] Qz-g, D; whom all the Story is built upon
Qt.F.
20 way, which was] Qz-3, D; way, Qi, F. 23 Italian] D; Italian Qi-3, F.
26 Prose 1668-1691
leave to tell you, that the Unity of Place, how ever it might
be practised by them, was never any of their Rules: We nei-
ther find it in Aristotle, Horace, or any who have written of it,
till in our age the French Poets first made it a Precept of the
Stage. The unity of time, even Terence himself (who was the
best and most regular of them) has neglected: His Heautonti-
moroumenos or Self-Punisher takes up visibly two dayes, sayes
Scaliger, the two first Acts concluding the first day, the three
last the day ensuing: and Euripides, in tying himself to one
10 day, has committed an absurdity never to be forgiven him: for
in one of his Tragedies he has made Theseus go from Athens
to Thebes, which was about 40 English miles, under the walls
of it to give battel, and appear victorious in the next Act; and
yet from the time of his departure to the return of the Nuntius,
who gives the relation of his Victory, Mthra and the Chorus
have but 36 Verses; which is not for every Mile a Verse.
The like errour is as evident in Terence his Eunuch, when
Laches, the old man, enters by mistake into the house of Thais,
where betwixt his Exit and the entrance of Pythias, who comes
20 to give ample relation of the Disorders he has rais'd within,
Parmeno who was left upon the Stage, has not above five lines
to speak: C'est bien employe un temps si court, sayes the
French Poet, who furnish'd me with one of the observations;
And almost all their Tragedies will afford us examples of the
like nature.
'Tis true, they have kept the continuity, or as you call'd it,
Liaison des Scenes somewhat better: two do not perpetually
come in together, talk, and go out together; and other two suc-
4 French] D; French Qi-3, F.
5 Stage.] period jailed to print in some copies of Qi.
7 Self-Punisher] Self-Punisher Qi-3, F, D.
7 dayes,] Qs-3, D (^ ; Qz-s); dayes, therefore Qi, F.
8 day,] Qz-3, D; day, were acted over-night; Qi, F.
g the day ensuing] Qa-3, D; on the ensuing day Qi, F.
9 Euripides] D; Eurypides Qi~3, F. ig English] D; English Qi~3, F.
16 which] Qa-3, D; that Qi, F. 17 Eunuch] Eunuch Qi~3, F, D.
18 by mistake into] Qa-3, D; in a mistake Qi, F.
so ample] Qa~3, D; an ample Qi, F.
20 Disorders] Qa-3, D; Garboyles Qi, F.
23 French] D; French Qi-3, F.
ceed them, and do the same throughout the Act, which the
English call by the name of single Scenes; but the reason is,
because they have seldom above two or three Scenes, properly
so call'd, in every act; for it is to be accounted a new Scene,
not onely every time the Stage is empty, but every person who
enters, though to others, makes it so; because he introduces a
new business: Now the Plots of their Plays being narrow, and
the persons few, one of their Acts was written in a less com-
pass then one of our well wrought Scenes, and yet they are
10 often deficient even in this: To go no further then Terence,
you find in the Eunuch Antipho entring single in the midst of
the third Act, after Chremes and Pythias were gone off: In the
same Play you have likewise Dorias beginning the fourth Act
alone; and after she has made a relation of what was done at
the Souldiers entertainment (which by the way was very in-
artificial, because she was presum'd to speak directly to the
Audience, and to acquaint them with what was necessary to
be known, but yet should have been so contriv'd by the Poet
as to have been told by persons of the Drama to one another,
20 and so by them to have come to the knowledge of the people)
she quits the Stage, and Phcedria enters next, alone likewise:
He also gives you an account of himself, and of his returning
from the Country in Monologue, to which unnatural way of
narration Terence is subject in all his playes: In his Adelphi
or Brothers, Syrus and Demea enter; after the Scene was broken
by the departure of Sostrata, Geta and Canthara; and indeed
you can scarce look into any of his Comedies, where you will
not presently discover the same interruption.
But as they have fail'd both in laying of their Plots, and in
so the management, swerving from the Rules of their own Art,
by mis-representing Nature to us, in which they have ill satis-
fied one intention of a Play, which was delight, so in the in-
2 English] Q3, D; English Qi-2, F. 5 not oncly] Qa-3, D; not Qi, F.
11 Eunuch] Eunuch Qi-J, F, D.
15-16 inartificial,] Qa-3, D (~)); inartificial to do, Qi, F.
21 Pluedria] U; Phcedria Qi-3, F.
23 Monologue] Monologue Qi-3, F, D.
25 Brothers] Brothers Qi-3, F, D. 28 interruption.] Qa~3, F, D; ,_ : Qi.
29-30 in the management] Qz-3, D; managing o£ them Qi, F.
g8 Prose 1668-1691
structive part they have err'd worse: instead of punishing Vice

and rewarding Virtue, they have often shown a Prosperous
Wickedness, and an Unhappy Piety: They have set before us
a bloudy image of revenge in Medea, and given her Dragons
to convey her safe from punishment; a Priam and Astyanax
murder'd, and Cassandra ravish'd, and the lust and murder
ending in the victory of him who acted them: In short, there
is no indecorum in any of our modern Playes, which if I would
excuse, I could not shaddow with some Authority from the
10 Ancients.
And one farther note of them let me leave you: Tragedies
and Comedies were not writ then as they are now, promiscu-
ously, by the same person; but he who found his genius bend-
ing to the one, never attempted the other way. This is so plain,
that I need not instance to you, that Aristophanes, Plautus,
Terence, never any of them writ a Tragedy; /Eschylus, Euripi-
des, Sophocles and Seneca, never medled with Comedy; the
Sock and Buskin were not worn by the same Poet: having then
so much care to excel in one kind, very little is to be pardon'd
20 them if they miscarried in it; and this would lead me to the
consideration of their wit, had not Crites given me sufficient
warning not to be too bold in my judgment of it; because the
languages being dead, and many of the Customes and little
accidents on which it depended, lost to us, we are not com-
petent judges of it. But though I grant that here and there
we may miss the application of a Proverb or a Custom, yet a
thing well said will be wit in all Languages; and though it
may lose something in the Translation, yet, to him who reads
it in the Original, 'tis still the same; He has an Idea of its
ao excellency, though it cannot pass from his mind into any other
expression or words then those in which he finds it. When
Phcedria in the Eunuch had a command from his Mistress to
be absent two dayes; and encouraging himself to go through
5 punishment; a] punishment. A Qi-g, Fa-b, D.
7 who] Qa-3, D; that Qi, Fa-b.
16-17 Euripides} Qg, Fb, D; Eurypides Qi-2, Fa.
33 Phadria] Qg, D; Phcediia— Qi-2, Fa-b.
ga Eunuch] Eunuch Qi~3, Fa-b, D.
with it, said; Tandem ego non ilia caream, si opus sit, vel
totum triduum? Parmeno to mock the softness of his Master,
lifting up his hands and eyes, cryes out as it were in admira-
tion; Hui! universum triduum! the elegancy of which univer-
sum, though it cannot be rendred in our language, yet leaves
an impression on our souls: but this happens seldom in him,
in Plautus oftner; who is infinitely too bold in his Metaphors
and coyning words; out of which many times his wit is nothing,
which questionless was one reason why Horace falls upon him
10 so severely in those Verses:
Sed Proavi nostri Plautinos if numeros, &
Laudavere sales, nimium patienter utrumque
Ne dicam stolide.
For Horace himself was cautious to obtrude a new word on
his Readers, and makes custom and common use the best mea-
sure of receiving it into our writings:
Multa renascentur qua nunc cecidere, cadentq;
Qua: nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus,
Quem penes, arbitrium est, 6- jus, 6- norma loquendi.
20 The not observing this Rule is that which the world has
blam'd in our Satyrist Cleveland; to express a thing hard and
unnaturally, is his new way of Elocution: 'Tis true, no Poet
but may sometimes use a Catachresis; Virgil does it;
Mistaque ridenti Colocasia fundet Acantho;
in his Eclogue of Pollio: and in his 7th /Eneid;
Mirantur if undte,
Miratur nemus, insuetum fulgentia longe,
Scuta virum fluvio, pictasq; innare carinas:
and Ovid once so modestly, that he askes leave to do it;
so Si verbo audacia detur
Hand metuam summi dixisse Palatia cceli;
calling the Court of Jupiter by the name of Augustus his Pal-
6 on] Qz-3, D; of the wit upon Qi, Fa-b.
14 on] Qz-3, D; upon Qi, Fa-b. 16 writings:] ^ . Qi-3, Fa-b, D.
24-25 Acantho; in] Acantho. fin Qi~3, Fa-b, D.
25 Pollio: . . . JEneid;] < • * / , . . . / • » . Qi-2, Fa-b, D; / • » , . . . w , Qj.
28 Scuta] Q2-3, Fa-b, D; Scnta Qi.
28-29 carinas: and] carinas. f And Qi~3, Fa-b, D.
31-32 cceli; calling] cceli. f Calling Qi-3, Fa-b, D.
30 Prose 1668-1691
lace, though in another place he is more bold, where he sayes,

Et longas visent Capitolia pampas. But to do this alwayes,
and never be able to write a line without it, though it may be
admir'd by some few Pedants, will not pass upon those who
know that wit is best convey'd to us in the most easie lan-
guage; and is most to be admir'd when a great thought comes
drest in words so commonly receiv'd that it is understood by
the meanest apprehensions, as the best meat is the most easily
digested: but we cannot read a verse of Cleveland's without
10 making a face at it, as if every word were a Pill to swallow:
he gives us many times a hard Nut to break our Teeth, with-
out a Kernel for our pains. So that there is this difference be-
twixt his Satyres and Doctor Donns, That the one gives us
deep thoughts in common language, though rough cadence;
the other gives us common thoughts in abstruse words: 'tis
true, in some places his wit is independent of his words, as in
that of the Rebel Scot:
Had Cain been Scot God luould have chang'd his doom;
Not forc'd him wander, but conftn'd him home.
20 .Si sic, omnia dixisset! This is wit in all languages: 'tis like
Mercury, never to be lost or kill'd; and so that other;
For Beauty like White-powder makes no noise,
And yet the silent Hypocrite destroyes.
You see the last line is highly Metaphorical, but it is so soft
and gentle, that it does not shock us as we read it.
But, to return from whence I have digress'd, to the consid-
eration of the Ancients Writing and their Wit, (of which by
this time you will grant us in some measure to be fit judges,)
Though I see many excellent thoughts in Seneca, yet he, of
so them who had a Genius most proper for the Stage, was Ovid;
he had a way of writing so fit to stir up a pleasing admiration
and concernment, which are the objects of a Tragedy, and to
show the various movements of a Soul combating betwixt two
different Passions, that, had he liv'd in our age, or in his own
5 know] some copies of Q/ read kuow.
13 Satyres] Satyres Qi~3, Fa-b, D.
17 Rebel Scot] Rebel Scot Qi-j, Fa-b, I).
18 Cain been Scot] Qs, D; Cain been Scot Qi-2, Fa-b.
34 liv'd] Qa-3, Fa-b, D; live'd Qi.
could have writ with our advantages, no man but must have
yielded to him; and therefore I am confident the Medea is
none of his: for, though I esteem it for the gravity and sen-
tentiousness of it, which he himself concludes to be suitable
to a Tragedy, Omne genus scripti gravitate Tragcedia vincit,
yet it moves not my soul enough to judge that he, who in the
Epique way wrote things so near the Drama, as the Story of
Myrrha, of Caunus and Biblis, and the rest, should stir up no
more concernment where he most endeavour'd it. The Master-
10 piece of Seneca I hold to be that Scene in the Troades, where
Ulysses is seeking for Astyanax to kill him; There you see the
tenderness of a Mother, so represented in Andromache, that it
raises compassion to a high degree in the Reader, and bears
the nearest resemblance of any thing in the Tragedies of the
Ancients to the excellent Scenes of Passion in Shakespeare, or
in Fletcher: for Love-Scenes you will find few among them,
their Tragique Poets dealt not with that soft passion, but with
Lust, Cruelty, Revenge, Ambition, and those bloody actions
they produc'd; which were more capable of raising horrour
20 then compassion in an audience: leaving Love untoucht, whose
gentleness would have temper'd them, which is the most fre-
quent of all the passions, and which being the private con-
cernment of every person, is sooth'd by viewing its own image
in a publick entertainment.
Among their Comedies, we find a Scene or two of tender-
ness, and that where you would least expect it, in Plautus;
but to speak generally, their Lovers say little, when they see
each other, but anima mea, vita mea; £<UT) K<U tfivxtf, as the women
in Juvenal's time us'd to cry out in the fury of their kindness:
so Any sudden gust of passion (as an extasie of love in an unex-
pected meeting) cannot better be express'd than in a word and
3-4 sententiousness] Q2-3, Fa-b, D; sentiousness Qi.
5 Tragcedia] Qg, D; Tragtedia Qi-2, Fa-b.
10 Seneca] Q2~3, Fa-b, D; Seneca Qi.
12 Andromache] Qa-g, Fa-b, D; Andromache Qi.
14-15 the Tragedies of llie Ancients] Qa-3, D; their Tragedies Qi, Fa-b.
28 fw?) «ai ^X'n} £<•"? K&' ^"X.'n Q1, Fa-b (*"* Fa-b); fw^ KO.\ ^vxî Qa-g, D
(tvxv Q2).
29 kindness:] Qa-3, D; kindness: then indeed to speak sense were an offence.
Qi, Fa-b.
g2 Prose 1668—1691
a sigh, breaking one another. Nature is dumb on such occa-

sions, and to make her speak, would be to represent her un-
like her self. But there are a thousand other concernments of
Lovers, as jealousies, complaints, contrivances and the like,
where not to open their minds at large to each other, were to
be wanting to their own love, and to the expectation of the
Audience; who watch the movements of their minds, as much
as the changes of their fortunes. For the imaging of the first
is properly the work of a Poet, the latter he borrows from the
10 Historian.
Eugenius was proceeding in that part of his Discourse, when
Crites interrupted him. I see, said he, Eugenius and I are never
like to have this Question decided betwixt us; for he main-
tains the Moderns have acquir'd a new perfection in writing,
I can onely grant they have alter'd the mode of it. Homer de-
scrib'd his Heroes men of great appetites, lovers of beef broild
upon the coals, and good fellows; contrary to the practice of
the French Romances, whose Heroes neither eat, nor drink,
nor sleep, for love. Virgil makes /Eneas a bold Avower of his
20 own virtues,
Sum plus /Eneas fama super athera notus;
which in the civility of our Poets is the Character of a Fan-
faron or Hector: for with us the Knight takes occasion to walk
out, or sleep, to avoid the vanity of telling his own Story,
which the trusty Squire is ever to perform for him. So in their
Love Scenes, of which Eugenius spoke last, the Ancients were
more hearty, we more talkative: they writ love as it was then
the mode to make it, and I will grant thus much to Eugenius,
that perhaps one of their Poets, had he liv'd in our Age,
BO Si foret hoc nostrum fato delapsus in avum
(as Horace says of Lucilius) he had alter'd many things; not
that they were not natural before, but that he might accom-
modate himself to the Age in which he liv'd: yet in the mean
9 borrows from] Qz-3, D; borrows of Qi, Fa-b.
18 French] Qg, D; French Qi-a, Fa-b.
31 (as ... Lucilius)] on line above in Qi, Fa-b.
32 natural] Qz-3, D; as natural Qi, Fa-b.
33 in which he liv'd] Qz-3, D; he liv'd in Qi, Fa-b.
time we are not to conclude any thing rashly against those

great men; but preserve to them the dignity of Masters, and
give that honour to their memories, (Quos Libitina sacravit;)
part of which we expect may be paid to us in future times.
This moderation of Crites, as it was pleasing to all the com-
pany, so it put an end to that dispute; which Eugenius, who
seem'd to have the better of the Argument, would urge no
farther: but Lisideius after he had acknowledg'd himself of
Eugenius his opinion concerning the Ancients; yet told him
10 he had forborn, till his Discourse were ended, to ask him why
he prefer'd the English Plays above those of other Nations?
and whether we ought not to submit our Stage to the exact-
ness of our next Neighbours?
Though, said Eugenius, I am at all times ready to defend
the honour of my Countrey against the French, and to main-
tain, we are as well able to vanquish them with our Pens as
our Ancestors have been with their swords; yet, if you please,
added he, looking upon Neander, I will commit this cause to
my friend's management; his opinion of our Plays is the same
20 with mine: and besides, there is no reason, that Crites and I,
who have now left the Stage, should re-enter so suddenly upon
it; which is against the Laws of Comedie.
If the Question had been stated, replied Lisideius, who had
writ best, the French or English forty years ago, I should have
been of your opinion, and adjudg'd the honour to our own
Nation; but since that time, said he, (turning towards Nean-
der) we have been so long together bad Englishmen, that we
had not leisure to be good Poets; Beaumont, Fletcher, and
Johnson (who were onely capable of bringing us to that de-
so gree of perfection which we have) were just then leaving the
world; as if in an Age of so much horror, wit and those milder
3 Libitina] D; libitina Qi-g, Fa-b. 6 which] D; ~ , Qi~3, Fa-b.
11 English] Qs, D; English Qi-z, Fa-b.
15 French] Qg, D; French Qi-«, Fa-b.
23 Lisideius] Qz-3, Fa-b, D; Lysideius Qi.
24 French or English} Q3, D; French or English Qi-2, Fa-b.
20 said] Fa-b; (~ Qi-3, D.
27 Englishmen] Q3, D; Englishmen Qi-a, Fa-b.
28 Beaumont,] Qa-3, Fa-b, D; ~A Qi.
34 Prose 1668-1691
studies of humanity, had no farther business among us. But

the Muses, who ever follow Peace, went to plant in another
Countrey; it was then that the great Cardinal of Richelieu
began to take them into his protection; and that, by his en-
couragement, Corneille and some other Frenchmen reform'd
their Theatre, (which before was as much below ours as it now
surpasses it and the rest of Europe;) but because Crites, in his
Discourse for the Ancients, has prevented me, by observing
many Rules of the Stage, which the Moderns have borrow'd
10 from them; I shall onely, in short, demand of you, whether
you are not convinc'd that of all Nations the French have best
observ'd them? In the unity of time you find them so scrupu-
lous, that it yet remains a dispute among their Poets, whether
the artificial day of twelve hours more or less, be not meant
by Aristotle, rather than the natural one of twenty four; and
consequently whether all Plays ought not to be reduc'd into
that compass? This I can testifie, that in all their Drama's writ
within these last 20 years and upwards, I have not observ'd
any that have extended the time to thirty hours: in the unity
20 of place they are full as scrupulous, for many of their Criticks
limit it to that very spot of ground where the Play is suppos'd
to begin; none of them exceed the compass of the same Town
or City.
The unity of Action in all their Plays is yet more conspicu-
ous, for they do not burden them with under-plots, as the
English do; which is the reason why many Scenes of our Tragi-
comedies carry on a design that is nothing of kinne to the
main Plot; and that we see two distinct webbs in a Play; like
those in ill wrought stuffs; and two actions, that is, two Plays
so carried on together, to the confounding of the Audience; who,
before they are warm in their concernments for one part, are
diverted to another; and by that means espouse the interest
3 Richelieu] Richlieu Qi~3, Fa-b, D.
5 Corneille] Q3, D; Cornell Qi-2, Fa-b.
5 Frenchmen] D; Frenchmen Qi-3, Fa-b.
8 observing] Qa-3, D; touching upon Qi, Fa-b.
11 French] D; French Q1-3, Fa-b.
zG English] D; English Qi~3, Fa-b.
of neither. From hence likewise it arises that the one half of

our Actors are not known to the other. They keep their dis-
tances as if they were Mountagues and Capulets, and seldom
begin an acquaintance till the last Scene of the Fifth Act, when
they are all to meet upon the Stage. There is no Theatre in
the world has any thing so absurd as the English Tragi-com-
edie, 'tis a Drama of our own invention, and the fashion of it
is enough to proclaim it so; here a course of mirth, there an-
other of sadness and passion; and a third of honour, and a
:o Duel: Thus in two hours and a half we run through all the
fits of Bedlam. The French affords you as much variety on the
same day, but they do it not so unseasonably, or mal a propos
as we: Our Poets present you the Play and the farce together;
and our Stages still retain somewhat of the Original civility of
the Red-Bull;
Atque ursum &• pugiles media inter carmina poscunt.
The end of Tragedies or serious Playes, sayes Aristotle, is
to beget admiration, compassion, or concernment; but are not
mirth and compassion things incompatible? and is it not evi-
20 dent that the Poet must of necessity destroy the former by in-
termingling of the latter? that is, he must ruine the sole end
and object of his Tragedy to introduce somewhat that is forced
into it, and is not of the body of it: Would you not think that
Physician mad, who having prescribed a Purge, should im-
mediatly order you to take restringents?
But to leave our Playes, and return to theirs, I have noted
one great advantage they have had in the Plotting of their
Tragedies; that is, they are always grounded upon some known
History: according to that of Horace, Ex noto fictum carmen
BO sequar; and in that they have so imitated the Ancients that
they have surpass'd them. For the Ancients, as was observ'd
before, took for the foundation of their Playes some Poetical
6 English] D; English Qi-3, Fa-b.
9 and a third] Qa-3, D; a third Qi, Fa-b.
9-10 and a Duel] Qa-3, D; and fourth a Duel Qi, Fa-b.
11 French] D; French Qi~3, Fa-b.
12 mal A] Q3, D; mal a Qi-s, Fa; mala Fb.
23 into it] Qa-3, D (in to Qa-s); in Qi, Fa-b.
25 restringents] Qa-3, D; restringents upon it Qi, Fa-b.
36 Prose 1668-1691
Fiction, such as under that consideration could move but little

concernment in the Audience, because they already knew the
event of it. But the French goes farther;
Atque ita mentitur; sicveris falsa remiscet,
Primo ne medium, medio ne discrepet imum.
He so interweaves Truth with probable Fiction, that he
puts a pleasing Fallacy upon us; mends the intrigues of Fate,
and dispenses with the severity of History, to reward that ver-
tue which has been rendred to us there unfortunate. Some-
10 times the story has left the success so doubtful, that the Writer
is free, by the privilege of a Poet, to take that which of two or
more relations will best sute with his design: As for example,
in the death of Cyrus, whom Justin and some others report to
have perish'd in the Scythian war, but Xenophon affirms to
have died in his bed of extream old age. Nay more, when the
event is past dispute, even then we are willing to be deceiv'd,
and the Poet, if he contrives it with appearance of truth, has
all the audience of his Party; at least during the time his Play
is acting: so naturally we are kind to vertue, when our own
20 interest is not in question, that we take it up as the general
concernment of Mankind. On the other side, if you consider
the Historical Playes of Shakespeare, they are rather so many
Chronicles of Kings, or the business many times of thirty or
forty years, crampt into a representation of two hours and an
half, which is not to imitate or paint Nature, but rather to
draw her in miniature, to take her in little; to look upon her
through the wrong end of a Perspective, and receive her Im-
ages not onely much less, but infinitely more imperfect then
the life: this, instead of making a Play delightful, renders it
30 ridiculous.
Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic, incredulus odi.
For the Spirit of man cannot be satisfied but with truth, or
at least verisimility; and a Poem is to contain, if not TO.
3 French] D; French Qi-g, Fa-b. 5 imum.] Q3, D; ~ : Qi-z, Fa-b.

13 in the death] Qa-j, D; the death Qi, Fa-b.
24-25 an halt] Qa; a halt Qi, Qs, Fa-b, IX
fTv/ia, yet irv/jtoimv a/ioia, as one of the Greek Poets has express'd
it.
Another thing in which the French differ from us and from
the Spaniards, is, that they do not embarass, or cumber them-
selves with too much Plot: they onely represent so much of a
Story as will constitute one whole and great action sufficient
for a Play; we, who undertake more, do but multiply adven-
tures; which, not being produc'd from one another, as effects
from causes, but barely following, constitute many actions in
10 the Drama, and consequently make it many Playes.
But by pursuing closely one argument, which is not cloy'd
with many turns, the French have gain'd more liberty for
verse, in which they write: they have leisure to dwell on a
subject which deserves it; and to represent the passions (which
we have acknowledg'd to be the Poets work) without being
hurried from one thing to another, as we are in the Playes of
Calderon, which we have seen lately upon our Theaters, under
the name of Spanish Plotts. I have taken notice but of one
Tragedy of ours, whose Plot has that uniformity and unity of
20 design in it which I have commended in the French; and that
is Rollo, or rather, under the name of Rollo, The Story of
Bassianus and Geta in Herodian; there indeed the Plot is
neither large nor intricate, but just enough to fill the minds of
the Audience, not to cloy them. Besides, you see it founded
upon the truth of History, onely the time of the action is not
reduceable to the strictness of the Rules; and you see in some
places a little farce mingled, which is below the dignity of the
other parts; and in this all our Poets are extreamly peccant,
even Ben. Johnson himself in Sejanus and Catiline has given
so us this Oleo of a Play; this unnatural mixture of Comedy and
Tragedy, which to me sounds just as ridiculously as the His-
i ?Tu/xa] Q3, T); frvfia Qi-z, Fa-b. i Greek] D; Greek Qi-g, Fa-b.
3-4 French . . . Spaniards] D; French . . . Spaniards Qi-g, Fa-b.
10 Drama] Fa-b, D; Drama Qi-g. 11 closely] Qz-g, D; close Qi, Fa-b.
12 French] D; French Qi-g, Fa-b. »g on] Qa-g, D; upon Qi, Fa-b.
18 Spanish] D; Spanish Qi-g, Fa-b. 20 French] D; French Qi-g, Fa-b.
82 Herodian;] Qa-g, D; ~ , Qij Fa-b.
38 Prose 1668-1691
tory of David with the merry humours of Golia's. In Sejanus

you may take notice of the Scene betwixt Livia and the
Physician, which is a pleasant Satyre upon the artificial helps of
beauty: In Catiline you may see the Parliament of Women;
the little envies of them to one another; and all that passes
betwixt Curio and Fulvia: Scenes admirable in their kind, but
of an ill mingle with the rest.
But I return again to the French Writers; who, as I have
said, do not burden themselves too much with Plot, which has
10 been reproach'd to them by an ingenious person of our Nation
as a fault, for he says they commonly make but one person
considerable in a Play; they dwell on him, and his concern-
ments, while the rest of the persons are onely subservient to set
him off. If he intends this by it, that there is one person in the
Play who is of greater dignity then the rest, he must tax, not
onely theirs, but those of the Ancients, and which he would be
loth to do, the best of ours; for 'tis impossible but that
one person must be more conspicuous in it then any other,
and consequently the greatest share in the action must devolve
20 on him. We see it so in the management of all affairs; even
in the most equal Aristocracy, the ballance cannot be so justly
poys'd, but some one will be superiour to the rest; either in
parts, fortune, interest, or the consideration of some glorious
exploit; which will reduce the greatest part of business into
his hands.
But, if he would have us to imagine that in exalting one
character the rest of them are neglected, and that all of them
have not some share or other in the action of the Play, I desire
him to produce any of Corneilles Tragedies, wherein every
so person (like so many servants in a well govern'd Family) has
not some employment, and who is not necessary to the carrying
on of the Plot, or at least to your understanding it.
There are indeed some protatick persons in the Ancients,
whom they make use of in their Playes, either to hear, or give
the Relation: but the French avoid this with great address,
8 French] D; French Qi~3, F. 12 on] Qa-3, D; upon Qi, F.
26 exalting] Qa-3, D; exalting of Qi, F. 35 French] D; French Qi-3, F.
making their narrations onely to, or by such who are some way
interessed in the main design. And now I am speaking of
Relations, I cannot take a fitter opportunity to add this in
favour of the French, that they often use them with better
judgment and more a propos then the English do. Not that I
commend narrations in general, but there are two sorts of
them; one, of those things which are antecedent to the Play,
and are related to make the conduct of it more clear to us,
but, 'tis a fault to choose such subjects for the Stage as will
10 force us on that Rock; because we see they are seldome listned
to by the Audience, and that is many times the ruin of the
Play: for, being once let pass without attention, the Audience
can never recover themselves to understand the Plot; and in-
deed it is somewhat unreasonable that they should be put to
so much trouble, as, that to comprehend what passes in their
sight, they must have recourse to what was done, perhaps, ten
or twenty years ago.
But there is another sort of Relations, that is, of things
hapning in the Action of the Play, and suppos'd to be done be-
20 hind the Scenes: and this is many times both convenient and
beautiful: for, by it, the French avoid the tumult, to which we
are subject in England, by representing Duells, Battells, and
the like; which renders our Stage too like the Theaters where
they fight Prizes. For what is more ridiculous then to represent
an Army with a Drum and five men behind it; all which, the
Heroe of the other side is to drive in before him, or to see a
Duel fought, and one slain with two or three thrusts of the
foyles, which we know are so blunted, that we might give a
man an hour to kill another in good earnest with them?
so I have observ'd that in all our Tragedies, the Audience can-
not forbear laughing when the Actors are to die; 'tis the most
Comick part of the whole Play. All passions may be lively
4 French] D; French Qi-3, F. 5 &] a Qi-3, F, D.
g English] D; English Qi-3, F. 7 one,] ~A Qi~3, F, D.
g-io as will force us on] Qa-3, D; which will inforce us upon Qi, F.
a j French] D; French Qi-3, F.
21-22 to which we are subject] Qa-3, D; which we are subject to Qi, F.
23 Theaters] Qa-3, D; ~ , Qi, F. 29 them?] D; ^ . Qi-3, F.
40 Prose 1668-1691
represented on the Stage, if to the well-writing of them the

Actor supplies a good commanded voice, and limbs that move
easily, and without stifness; but there are many actions which
can never be imitated to a just height: dying especially is a
thing which none but a Roman Gladiator could naturally
perform on the Stage when he did not imitate or represent,
but do it; and therefore it is better to omit the representation
of it.
The words of a good Writer which describe it lively, will
10 make a deeper impression of belief in us then all the Actor
can insinuate into us, when he seems to fall dead before us;
as a Poet in the description of a beautiful Garden, or a
Meadow, will please our imagination more then the place it
self can please our sight. When we see death represented we are
convinc'd it is but Fiction; but when we hear it related, our
eyes (the strongest witnesses) are wanting, which might have
undeceiv'd us; and we are all willing to favour the sleight when
the Poet does not too grosly impose on us. They therefore who
imagine these relations would make no concernment in the
20 Audience, are deceiv'd, by confounding them with the other,
which are of things antecedent to the Play; those are made
often in cold blood (as I may say) to the audience; but these
are warm'd with our concernments, which were before awak-
en'd in the Play. What the Philosophers say of motion, that
when it is once begun it continues of it self, and will do so
to Eternity without some stop put to it, is clearly true on this
occasion; the soul being already mov'd with the Characters
and Fortunes of those imaginary persons, continues going of
its own accord, and we are no more weary to hear what be-
so comes of them when they are not on the Stage, then we are
to listen to the news of an absent Mistress. But it is objected,
That if one part of the Play may be related, then why not all?
I answer, Some parts of the action are more fit to be repre-
sented, some to be related. Corneille sayes judiciously, that the
5 Roman] D; Roman Qi-3, F. 6 on] Qz~3, D; upon Qi, F.
7 do] Qz-3, D; naturally do Qi, F.
II insinuate into us] Qz-3, D; perswade us to Qi, F.
18 on] Qz-3, D; upon Qt, F. 23 which were] Q«-3, D; which are Qi, F.
Poet is not oblig'd to expose to view all particular actions

which conduce to the principal: he ought to select such of
them to be seen which will appear with the greatest beauty,
either by the magnificence of the show, or the vehemence of
passions which they produce, or some other charm which they
have in them, and let the rest arrive to the audience by nar-
ration. 'Tis a great mistake in us to believe the French present
no part of the action on the Stage: every alteration or crossing
of a design, every new sprung passion, and turn of it, is a part
10 of the action, and much the noblest, except we conceive noth-
ing to be action till the Players come to blows; as if the paint-
ing of the Heroes mind were not more properly the Poets
work then the stiêngth of his body. Nor does this any thing
contradict the opinion of Horace, where he tells us,
Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem
Quam qua sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus.
For he sayes immediately after,
Non tamen intus
Digna geri promes in scenam, Multaq; tolles
20 Ex oculis, qua mox narret facundia prtzsem.
Among which many he recounts some.
Nee pueros coram populo Medea trucidet,
Aut in avem Progne mutetur, Cadmus in anguem, &c.
That is, those actions which by reason of their cruelty will
cause aversion in us, or by reason of their impossibility un-
belief, ought either wholly to be avoided by a Poet, or onely
deliver'd by narration: To which, we may have leave to add
such as to avoid tumult, (as was before hinted) or to reduce the
Plot into a more reasonable compass of time, or for defect of
so Beauty in them, are rather to be related then presented to the
eye. Examples of all these kinds are frequent, not onely among
all the Ancients, but in the best receiv'd of our English Poets.
We find Ben. Johnson using them in his Magnetick Lady,
where one comes out from Dinner, and relates the quarrels and
7 French] D; French Qi-g, F. 8 on] Qz-g, D; upon Qi, F.
11 the Players] (£2-3, D; they Qi, F. 27 narration:] ^ . (£1-3, F, D.
32 English] D; English Qi-g, F.
33 Magnetick Lady] D; Magnetick Lady Qi-3, F.
42 Prose 1668—1691
disorders of it to save the undecent appearance of them on the

Stage, and to abreviate the Story: and this in express imitation
of Terence, who had done the same before him in his Eunuch,
where Pythias makes the like relation of what had happen'd
within at the Souldiers entertainment. The relation likewise
of Sejanus'& death, and the prodigies before it are remarkable;
the one of which was hid from sight to avoid the horrour and
tumult of the representation; the other to shun the introducing
of things impossible to be believ'd. In that excellent Play the
10 King and no King, Fletcher goes yet farther; for the whole
unravelling of the Plot is done by narration in the fifth Act,
after the manner of the Ancients; and it moves great concern-
ment in the Audience, though it be onely a relation of what
was done many years before the Play. I could multiply other
instances, but these are sufficient to prove that there is no
errour in choosing a subject which requires this sort of nar-
rations; in the ill management of them, there may.
But I find I have been too long in this discourse since the
French have many other excellencies not common to us, as
20 that you never see any of their Playes end with a conversion,
or simple change of will, which is the ordinary way which our
Poets use to end theirs. It shows little art in the conclusion of
a Dramatick Poem, when they who have hinder'd the felicity
during the four Acts, desist from it in the fifth without some
powerful cause to take them off their design; and though I deny
not but such reasons may be found, yet it is a path that is
cautiously to be trod, and the Poet is to be sure he convinces
the Audience that the motive is strong enough. As for example,
the conversion of the Usurer in the Scornful Lady, seems to me
so a little forc'd; for being an Usurer, which implies a lover of
Money to the highest degree of covetousness, (and such the Poet
i appearance] Qa-g, D; appearing Qi, F.
3 Eunuch} Eunuch Qi~3, F, D.
6 remarkable] Qa-3, F, D; remakable Qi.
jo King and no King] Qg, D; King and no King Qi-a, F.
17 management] Qz-g, D; managing Qi, F.
19 French] D; French Qi-3, F. 21 way which] Qa-j, D; way Qi, F.
85 off their design] Q2-3, D; off Qi, F.
29 Scornful Lady] Qj, D; Scornful Lady Qi-z, F.
has represented him) the account • he gives for the sudden

change is, that he has been dup'd by the wilde young fellow,
which in reason might render him more wary another time,
and make him punish himself with harder fare and courser
cloaths to get up again what he had lost: but that he should
look on it as a judgment, and so repent, we may expect to
hear in a Sermon, but I should never indure it in a Play.
I pass by this; neither will I insist on the care they take,
that no person after his first entrance shall ever appear, but
10 the business which brings him upon the Stage shall be evident:
which rule, if observ'd, must needs render all the events in
the Play more natural; for there you see the probability of
every accident, in the cause that produc'd it; and that which
appears chance in the Play, will seem so reasonable to you,
that you will there find it almost necessary; so that in the exit
of the Actor you have a clear account of his purpose and design
in the next entrance: (though, if the Scene be well wrought,
the event will commonly deceive you) for there is nothing so
absurd, sayes Corneille, as for an Actor to leave the Stage,
20 onely because he has no more to say.
I should now speak of the beauty of their Rhime, and the
just reason I have to prefer that way of writing in Tragedies
before ours in Blanck-verse; but because it is partly receiv'd by
us, and therefore not altogether peculiar to them, I will say
no more of it in relation to their Playes. For our own I doubt
not but it will exceedingly beautifie them, and I can see but
one reason why it should not generally obtain, that is, because
our Poets write so ill in it. This indeed may prove a more
prevailing argument then all others which are us'd to destroy
so it, and therefore I am onely troubled when great and judicious
Poets, and those who are acknowledg'd such, have writ or spoke
against it; as for others they are to be answer'd by that one
sentence of an ancient Authour:
5 up again what he had lost] Qz~3, D; it up again Qi, F.
6 on] Qz-3, D; upon Qi, F. 7 hear] (£2-3, D; hear of Qi, F.
8 on] Qz-3, D; upon Qi, Fa-b.
11 which rule] Qz~3,1); which Qi, Fa-b.
15-16 exit of the Actor] Qa-J, D; exits of their Actors Qi, Fa-b.
16 his] Qz-g, D; their Qi, Fa-b. 33 Authour:] ~ . Qi-3, Fa-b, D.
44 Prose 1668-1691
Sed ut primo ad consequcndos eos quos priores ducimus

accendimur, ita ubi aut prceteriri, aut aquari eos posse despera-
vimus, studium cum spe senescit: quod, scilicet, assequi non
potest, sequi desinit; prceteritoq; eo in quo eminere non possu-
mus, aliquid in quo nitamur conquirimus.
Lisideius concluded in this manner; and Neander after a
little pause thus answer'd him.
I shall grant Lisideius, without much dispute, a great part
of what he has urg'd against us; for I acknowledg that the
10 French contrive their Plots more regularly, and observe the
Laws of Comedy, and decorum of the Stage (to speak generally)
with more exactness then the English. Farther, I deny not but
he has tax'd us justly in some irregularities of ours which he
has mention'd; yet, after all, I am of opinion that neither our
faults nor their virtues are considerable enough to place them
above us.
For the lively imitation of Nature being in the definition of
a Play, those which best fulfil that law ought to be esteem'd
superiour to the others. 'Tis true, those beauties of the French-
20 poesie are such as will raise perfection higher where it is,
but are not sufficient to give it where it is not: they are indeed
the Beauties of a Statue, but not of a Man, because not animated
with the Soul of Poesie, which is imitation of humour and
passions: and this Lisideius himself, or any other, however
byassed to their Party, cannot but acknowledg, if he will either
compare the humours of our Comedies, or the Characters of
our serious Playes with theirs. He who will look upon theirs
which have been written till these last ten years or thereabouts,
will find it an hard matter to pick out two or three passable
30 humours amongst them. Corneille himself, their Arch-Poet,
what has he produc'd except The Lier, and you know how it
was cry'd up in France; but when it came upon the English
Stage, though well translated, and that part of Dorant acted
9 that the] Qa-g, D; the Qi, Fa-b. 10 French] D; French Qi-3, Fa-b.
10 and observe] Qa-3, D; observe Q:, Fa-b.
12 English] D; English Qi-3, Fa-b. 12 Farther,] Qz-g, D; ~/A Qi, Fa-b.
19-20 French-poesie] D; French-poesie Qi-3, Fa-b.
27 who] Qs-3, D; that Qi, Fa-b. 31 The] Q3, D; the Qi-2, Fa-b.
32 English] Q3, D; English Qi-2, Fa-b.
to so much advantage as I am confident it never receiv'd in its

own Country, the most favourable to it would not put it in
competition with many of Fletchers or Ben. Johnsons. In the
rest of Corneilles Comedies you have little humour; he tells
you himself his way is first to show two Lovers in good in-
telligence with each other; in the working up of the Play to
embroyle them by some mistake, and in the latter end to clear
it, and reconcile them.
But of late years Moliere, the younger Corneille, Quinault,
10 and some others, have been imitating afar off the quick turns
and graces of the English Stage. They have mix'd their serious
Playes with mirth, like our Tragicomedies, since the death
of Cardinal Richelieu, which Lisideius and many others not
observing, have commended that in them for a virtue which
they themselves no longer practice. Most of their new Playes
are like some of ours, deriv'd from the Spanish Novells. There
is scarce one of them without a vail, and a trusty Diego, who
drolls much after the rate of the Adventures. But their hu-
mours, if I may grace them with that name, are so thin sown
20 ihat never above one of them comes up in any Play: I dare take
upon me to find more variety of them in some one Play of
Ben. Johnsons then in all theirs together: as he who has seen
the Alchymist, the Silent Woman, or Bartholomew-Fair, cannot
but acknowledge with me.
I grant the French have performed what was possible on the
groundwork of the Spanish Playes; what was pleasant before,
1 as] Qz-3, D; by Mr. Hart, as Qi, Fa-b.

2 put it] Q2-3, D; put Qi, Fa-b.
8 it, and reconcile them] Qz-3, D; it up Qi, Fa-b.
9 Moliere} Qa-g, D; de Moliere Qi, Fa-b.
10 afar] Qa-g, D; of afar Qi, Fa; of a far Fb,
12 Tragicomedies,] Qs, Fa-b, D; ~A Qi-2.
13 Richelieu] Qs, D; Richlieu Qi-2, Fa-b.
16 Spanish] Q3, D; Spanish Qi-«, Fa-b.
18 after] Q2-3, Fa-b, D; afer Qi.
23 Alchymist] Qs, D; Alchymist Qi-a, Fa-b.
23 Silent Woman] Q3, D; silent Woman Qi-a, Fa-b (Silent Q2).
23 Bartholomew-Fair] Q3, D; Iiartholmew-t'a.ij: Qi-2, Fa-b.
25 French] Q3, D; French Qi-2, Fa-b.
26 Spanish] Q3, D; Spanish Qi-2, Fa-b.
aG before,] Q2-g, D; ^-A Qi, Fa-b.
46 Prose 1668-1691
they have made regular; but there is not above one good Play
to be writ on all those Plots; they are too much alike to please
often, which we need not the experience of our own Stage
to justifie. As for their new way of mingling mirth with serious
Plot I do not with Lisideius condemn the thing, though I can-
not approve their manner of doing it: He tells us we cannot so
speedily recollect our selves after a Scene of great passion and
concernment as to pass to another of mirth and humour, and to
enjoy it with any relish: but why should he imagine the soul of
10 man more heavy then his Sences? Does not the eye pass from
an unpleasant object to a pleasant in a much shorter time then
is requir'd to this? and does not the unpleasantness of the first
commend the beauty of the latter? The old Rule of Logick
might have convinc'd him, that contraries when plac'd near,
set off each other. A continued gravity keeps the spirit too
much bent; we must refresh it sometimes, as we bait in a
journey, that we may go on with greater ease. A Scene of mirth
mix'd with Tragedy has the same effect upon us which our
musick has betwixt the Acts, which we find a relief to us from
20 the best Plots and language of the Stage, if the discourses have
been long. I must therefore have stronger arguments ere I
am convinc'd, that compassion and mirth in the same subject
destroy each other; and in the mean time cannot but con-
clude, to the honour of our Nation, that we have invented,
increas'd and perfected a more pleasant way of writing for the
Stage then was ever known to the Ancients or Moderns of any
Nation, which is Tragicomedie.
And this leads me to wonder why Lisideius and many others
should cry up the barrenness of the French Plots above the
so variety and copiousness of the English. Their Plots are single,
they carry on one design which is push'd forward by all the
Actors, every Scene in the Play contributing and moving
2 on] Qz-g, D; upon Qi, Fa-b.
5 Lisideius] Q3, Fa-b, D; Lysideius Qi-a.
16 in] Q2-3, D; upon Qi, Fa-b.
19 which] Qz-3, D; and that Qi, Fa-b.
ag French] Qj, D; French Q\-a, Fa-b.
towards it: Our Playes, besides the main design, have under
plots or by-concernments, of less considerable Persons, and
Intrigues, which are carried on with the motion of the main
Plot: as they say the Orb of the fix'd Stars, and those of the
Planets, though they have motions of their own, are whirl'd
about by the motion of the primum mobile, in which they are
contain'd: that similitude expresses much of the English Stage:
for if contrary motions may be found in Nature to agree; if a
Planet can go East and West at the same time; one way by
10 virtue of his own motion, the other by the force of the first
mover; it will not be difficult to imagine how the under Plot,
which is onely different, not contrary to the great design, may
naturally be conducted along with it.
Crites has already shown us, from the confession of the
French Poets, that the Unity of Action is sufficiently preserv'd
if all the imperfect actions of the Play are conducing to the
main design: but when those petty intrigues of a Play are so
ill order'd that they have no coherence with the other, I must
grant that Lisideius has reason to tax that want of due con-
20 nexion; for Co-ordination in a Play is as dangerous and un-
natural as in a State. In the mean time he must acknowledge
our variety, if well order'd, will afford a greater pleasure to the
audience.
As for his other argument, that by pursuing one single
Theme they gain an advantage to express and work up the
passions, I wish any example he could bring from them would
make it good: for I confess their verses are to me the coldest I
have ever read: Neither indeed is it possible for them, in the
way they take, so to express passion, as that the effects of it
BO should appear in the concernment of an Audience: their
Speeches being so many declamations, which tire us with the
length; so that instead of perswading us to grieve for their
i Our Playes] Qa-g, D; Ours Qi, Fa-b.

4 as] Qz-g, D; just as Qi, Fa-b.
7 English] Qg, D; English Qi-z, Fa-b.
14 Crites] Eugenitis Qi-3, Fa-b, D.
15 French] Qg, D; French Qi-a, Fa-b.
19 grant that] Qz-g, E>; grant Qi, Fa-b.
48 Prose 1668-1691
imaginary Heroes, we are concern'd for our own trouble, as we

are in tedious visits of bad company; we are in pain till they
are gone. When the French Stage came to be reform'd by
Cardinal Richelieu, those long Harangues were introduc'd, to
comply with the gravity of a Churchman. Look upon the
Cinna and the Pompey, they are not so properly to be called
Playes, as long discourses of reason of State: and Polieucte in
matters of Religion is as solemn as the long stops upon our Or-
gans. Since that time it is grown into a custome, and their
10 Actors speak by the Hour-glass, like our Parsons; nay, they
account it the grace of their parts: and think themselves dis-
parag'd by the Poet, if they may not twice or thrice in a Play
entertain the Audience with a Speech of an hundred lines. I
deny not but this may sute well enough with the French; for
as we, who are a more sullen people, come to be diverted at
our Playes; so they who are of an ayery and gay temper come
thither to make themselves more serious: And this I conceive
to be one reason why Comedy's are more pleasing to us, and
Tragedies to them. But to speak generally, it cannot be deny'd
20 that short Speeches and Replies are more apt to move the
passions, and beget concernment in us then the other: for it is
unnatural for any one in a gust of passion to speak long to-
gether, or for another in the same condition, to suffer him,
without interruption. Grief and Passion are like floods rais'd
in little Brooks by a sudden rain; they are quickly up, and if
the concernment be powr'd unexpectedly in upon us, it over-
flows us: But a long sober shower gives them leisure to run
out as they came in, without troubling the ordinary current. As
for Comedy, Repartee is one of its chiefest graces; the greatest
BO pleasure of the Audience is a chase of wit kept up on both sides,
and swiftly manag'd. And this our forefathers, if not we, have
2 tedious] Qz~3, D; the tedious Qi, Fa-b.

3 French] Qg, D; French Qi-2, Fa-b.
10 like our Parsons] Qa-j, D; as our Parsons do Qi, Fa-b.
13 hundred] Qa~3, D; hundred or two hundred Qi, Fa-b.
14 French] Qs, D; French Qi-z, Fa-b.
16 so they] Qa-3, D; they Qi, Fa-b.
18 Comedy's are] Qz~3, D; Comedy is Qi, Fa-b.
had in Fletchers Playes, to a much higher degree of perfection

then the French Poets can, reasonably, hope to reach.
There is another part of Lisideius his Discourse, in which he
has rather excus'd our neighbours then commended them;
that is, for aiming onely to make one person considerable in
their Playes. 'Tis very true what he has urged, that one char-
acter in all Playes, even without the Poets care, will have
advantage of all the others; and that the design of the whole
Drama will chiefly depend on it. But this hinders not that
10 there may be more shining characters in the Play: many per-
sons of a second magnitude, nay, some so very near, so almost
equal to the first, that greatness may be oppos'd to greatness,
and all the persons be made considerable, not onely by their
quality, but their action. 'Tis evident that the more the
persons are, the greater will be the variety of the Plot. If then
the parts are manag'd so regularly that the beauty of the whole
be kept intire, and that the variety become not a perplex'd
and confus'd mass of accidents, you will find it infinitely pleas-
ing to be led in a labyrinth of design, where you see some of
20 your way before you, yet discern not the end till you arrive at
it. And that all this is practicable, I can produce for examples
many of our English Playes: as the Maids Tragedy, the
Alchymist, the Silent Woman; I was going to have named the
Fox, but that the unity of design seems not exactly observ'd
in it; for there appear two actions in the Play; the first naturally
ending with the fourth Act; the second forc'd from it in the
fifth: which yet is the less to be condemn'd in him, because the
disguise of Volpone, though it suited not with his character
as a crafty or covetous person, agreed well enough with that of
so a voluptuary: and by it the Poet gain'd the end at which he
aym'd, the punishment of Vice, and the reward of Virtue,
2 French} D; French Qi-g, Fa-b.

2 can, reasonably, hope to reach] Qz-3, D; can arrive at Qi, Fa-b.
22-24 Maids Tragedy, the Alchymist, the Silent Woman . . . Fox] Qs, Fa-b, D;
Maids Tragedy, the Alchymist, the Silent Woman . . . Fox Qi-a.
25 appear] Qa-3, D; appears Qi, Fa-b.
30-31 at which he aym'd] Q2-3, D; he aym'd at Qi, Fa-b.
50 Prose 1668-1691
both which that disguise produc'd. So that to judge equally of

it, it was an excellent fifth Act, but not so naturally proceeding
from the former.
But to leave this, and pass to the latter part of Lisideius his
discourse, which concerns relations, I must acknowledge with
him, that the French have reason to hide that part of the action
which would occasion too much tumult on the Stage, and to
choose rather to have it made known by narration to the
Audience. Farther I think it very convenient, for the reasons
10 he has given, that all incredible actions were remov'd; but,
whither custome has so insinuated it self into our Country-men,
or nature has so form'd them to fierceness, I know not; but
they will scarcely suffer combats & other objects of horrour to
be taken from them. And indeed, the indecency of tumults is
all which can be objected against fighting: For why may not our
imagination as well suffer it self to be deluded with the prob-
ability of it, as with any other thing in the Play? For my
part, I can with as great ease perswade my self that the
blowes are given in good earnest, as I can, that they who
20 strike them are Kings or Princes, or those persons which
they represent. For objects of incredibility I would be satisfied
from Lisideius, whether we have any so remov'd from all
appearance of truth as are those of Corneilles Andromede, a
Play which has been frequented the most of any he has writ?
If the Perseus, or the Son of an Heathen God, the Pegasus and
the Monster were not capable to choak a strong belief, let him
blame any representation of ours hereafter. Those indeed were
objects of delight; yet the reason is the same as to the proba-
bility: for he makes it not a Ballette or Masque, but a Play,
so which is to resemble truth. But for death, that it ought not to
be represented, I have besides the Arguments alledg'd by
Lisideius the authority of Ben. Johnson, who has forborn it in
i both which] Qa-g, D; which Qi, Fa-b.
6 French} Qg, D; French Qi-a, Fa-b.
6 to] Qa-g, D; when they Qi, Fa-b.
7 on] Qz-g, D; upon Qi, Fa-b.
7 and to] Qz-g, D; and Qi, Fa-b.
19 blowes] Q2-g, D; blowes which are struck Qi, Fa-b.
sg Andromide, a] Andromede? A Qi-j, Fa-b, D.
his Tragedies; for both the death of Sejanus and Catiline are
related: though in the latter I cannot but observe one irregular-
ity of that great Poet: he has remov'd the Scene in the same
Act, from Rome to Catiline's Army, and from thence again to
Rome; and besides, has allow'd a very inconsiderable time, after
Catilines Speech, for the striking of the battle, and the return of
Petreius, who is to relate the event of it to the Senate: which
I should not animadvert on him, who was otherwise a painful
observer of TO wpt-irov, or the decorum of the Stage, if he had not
10 us'd extream severity in his judgment on the incomparable
Shakespeare for the same fault. To conclude on this subject of
Relations, if we are to be blam'd for showing too much of the
action, the French are as faulty for discovering too little of it:
a mean betwixt both should be observed by every judicious
Writer, so as the audience may neither be left unsatisfied by not
seeing what is beautiful, or shock'd by beholding what is either
incredible or undecent. I hope I have already prov'd in this
discourse, that though we are not altogether so punctual as the
French, in observing the lawes of Comedy; yet our errours are
20 so few, and little, and those things wherein we excel them so
considerable, that we ought of right to be prefer'd before them.
But what will Lisideius say if they themselves acknowledge
they are too strictly bounded by those lawes, for breaking which
he has blam'd the English? I will alledge Corneille's words, as I
find them in the end of his Discourse of the three Unities; II
est facile aux speculatifs d'estre severes, &c. " 'Tis easie for
speculative persons to judge severely; but if they would produce
to publick view ten or twelve pieces of this nature, they would
perhaps give more latitude to the Rules then I have done, when
90 by experience they had known how much we are limited and
constrain'd by them, and how many beauties of the Stage they
banish'd from it." To illustrate a little what he has said: by their
8 on] Qz-3, D; upon Qi, Fa-b. 10 on] Qa-3, D; upon Qi, Fa-b.
13 French] D; French Qi-g, Fa-b. 19 French] D; French Qi~3, Fa-b.
23 bounded] Qz-3, D; ti'd up Qi, Fa-b.
a6 speculati/s . . . sevtres] speculates . . . severes Qi-g, Fa-b, D.
go limited] Q2-3, D; bound up Qi, Fa-b.
32 said:] Qs, D; ~ , Qi, Fa-b; ~ ; Q2.
52 Prose 1668-1691
servile observations of the unities of time and place, and in-

tegrity of Scenes, they have brought on themselves that dearth
of Plot, and narrowness of Imagination, which may be ob-
serv'd in all their Playes. How many beautifull accidents might
naturally happen in two or three dayes, which cannot arrive
with any probability in the compass of 24 hours? There is time
to be allowed also for maturity of design, which amongst great
and prudent persons, such as are often represented in Tragedy,
cannot, with any likelihood of truth, be brought to pass at so
10 short a warning. Farther, by tying themselves strictly to the
unity of place, and unbroken Scenes, they are forc'd many times
to omit some beauties which cannot be shown where the Act
began; but might, if the Scene were interrupted, and the Stage
clear'd for the persons to enter in another place; and therefore
the French Poets are often forc'd upon absurdities: for if the
Act begins in a chamber all the persons in the Play must have
some business or other to come thither, or else they are not to
be shown that Act, and sometimes their characters are very
unfitting to appear there; As, suppose it were the Kings Bed-
20 chamber, yet the meanest man in the Tragedy must come and
dispatch his business there rather then in the Lobby or Court-
yard (which is fitter for him) for fear the Stage should be
clear'd, and the Scenes broken. Many times they fall by it into
a greater inconvenience; for they keep their Scenes unbroken,
and yet change the place; as in one of their newest Playes,
where the Act begins in the Street. There a Gentleman is to
meet his Friend; he sees him with his man, coming out from
his Fathers house; they talk together, and the first goes out: the
second, who is a Lover, has made an appointment with his
so Mistress; she appears at the window, and then we are to
imagine the Scene lies under it. This Gentleman is call'd
away, and leaves his servant with his Mistress: presently her
Father is heard from within; the young Lady is affraid the
Servingman should be discover'd, and thrusts him into a place
of safety, which is suppos'd to be her Closet. After this, the
2 on] Qz-g, D; upon Qi, Fa-b. 15 French] D; French Qi~3, Fa-b.

34-35 into a place of safety,] Qa-3, D; in through a door Qi; through a door
Fa-b.
Father enters to the Daughter, and now the Scene is in a

House: for he is seeking from one room to another for this
poor Philipin, or French Diego, who is heard from within,
drolling and breaking many a miserable conceit on the subject
of his sad condition. In this ridiculous manner the Play goes
forward, the Stage being never empty all the while: so that the
Street, the Window, the two Houses, and the Closet, are made
to walk about, and the Persons to stand still. Now what I be-
seech you is more easie than to write a regular French Play,
10 or more difficult then to write an irregular English one, like
those of Fletcher, or of Shakespeare?
If they content themselves as Corneille did, with some flat
design, which, like an ill Riddle, is found out e're it be half
propos'd; such Plots we can make every way regular as easily
as they: but when e're they endeavour to rise to any quick
turns and counterturns of Plot, as some of them have at-
tempted, since Corneilles Playes have been less in vogue, you
see they write as irregularly as we, though they cover it more
speciously. Hence the reason is perspicuous, why no French
20 Playes, when translated, have, or ever can succeed on the
English Stage. For, if you consider the Plots, our own are
fuller of variety, if the writing ours are more quick and fuller
of spirit: and therefore 'tis a strange mistake in those who decry
the way of writing Playes in Verse, as if the English therein
imitated the French. We have borrow'd nothing from them;
our Plots are weav'd in English Loomes: we endeavour therein
to follow the variety and greatness of characters which are
deriv'd to us from Shakespeare and Fletcher: the copiousness
and well-knitting of the intrigues we have from Johnson, and
so for the Verse it self we have English Presidents of elder date
3 French] D; French Qi~3, Fa-b.
4-5 on the subject of] Q2-3, D; upon Qi, Fa-b.
6 forward] Qa-g, D; on Qi, Fa-b. 9 French] D; French Qi-g, Fa-b.
11 Shakespeare?] Qa-3, D; ~ . Qi, Fa-b.
15 to rise] Qz-3, D; ro rise up Qt; to rise up Fa-b.
19 French] D; French Qi-3, Fa-b. 20 on] Qz-3, D; upon Qi, Fa-b.
25 French] D; French Qi-3, Fa-b. 26 English] D; English Qi-3, Fa-b.
54 Prose 1668-1691
then any of Corneille's Playes: (not to name our old Comedies

before Shakespeare, which were all writ in verse of six feet,
or Alexandrin's, such as the French now use) I can show in
Shakespeare, many Scenes of rhyme together, and the like in
Ben. Johnsons Tragedies: In Catiline and Sejanus sometimes
thirty or forty lines; I mean besides the Chorus, or the Mono-
logues, which by the way, show'd Ben, no enemy to this way
of writing, especially if you read his Sad Shepherd which goes
sometimes on rhyme, sometimes on blanck Verse, like an
10 Horse who eases himself on Trot and Amble. You find him
likewise commending Fletcher's Pastoral of the Faithful Shep-
herdess; which is for the most part Rhyme, though not refin'd
to that purity to which it hath since been brought: And these
examples are enough to clear us from a servile imitation of the
French.
But to return whence I have digress'd, I dare boldly affirm
these two things of the English Drama: First, That we have
many Playes of ours as regular as any of theirs; and which,
besides, have more variety of Plot and Characters: And sec-
20 ondly, that in most of the irregular Playes of Shakespeare or
Fletcher (for Ben. Johnson's are for the most part regular)
there is a more masculine fancy and greater spirit in the writ-
ing, then there is in any of the French. I could produce even in
Shakespeare's and Fletcher's Works, some Playes which are al-
most exactly form'd; as the Merry Wives of Windsor, and the
Scornful Lady: but because (generally speaking) Shakespeare,
i Corneille's] Qj, Fa-b, D; Corneilles's Qi-2.

3 French] D; French Qi-3, Fa-b.
8 read] Qz-g, D; look upon Qi, Fa-b.
8 Sad Shepherd] Qj, D; sad Shepherd Qi-z, Fa-b (Sad Qz).
g-io on ... on ... on] Qz-3, D; upon . . . upon . . . upon Qi, Fa-b.
11-13 Faithful Shepherdess] D; Faithful Shepherdess Qi-3, Fa-b.
16 whence] Qz-3, D; from whence Qi, Fa-b.
17 English] D; English Qi~3, Fa-b.
zz in the] Qz-3, D; in all the Qi, Fa-b.
25 Merry Wives of Windsor] Qs, D; Merry Wives of Windsor Qi-z, Fa-b.
25 and] Q2-3, Fa-b, D; aud Qi.
a6 Scornful Lady] Qs, D; Scornful Lady Qi-2, Fa-b.
who writ first, did not perfectly observe the Laws of Comedy,
and Fletcher, who came nearer to perfection, yet through
carelesness made many faults; I will take the pattern of a
perfect Play from Ben. Johnson, who was a careful and learned
observer of the Dramatique Lawes, and from all his Comedies I
shall select The Silent Woman; of which I will make a short
Examen, according to those Rules which the French observe.
As Neander was beginning to examine the Silent Woman,
Eugenius, earnestly regarding him; I beseech you Neander,
10 said he, gratifie the company and me in particular so far, as
before you speak of the Play, to give us a Character of the
Authour; and tell us franckly your opinion, whether you do
not think all Writers, both French and English, ought to give
place to him?
I fear, replied Neander, That in obeying your commands I
shall draw some envy on my self. Besides, in performing them,
it will be first necessary to speak somewhat of Shakespeare and
Fletcher, his Rivalls in Poesie; and one of them, in my opinion,
at least his equal, perhaps his superiour.
20 To begin then with Shakespeare; he was the man who of all
Modern, and perhaps Ancient Poets, had the largest and most
comprehensive soul. All the Images of Nature were still present
to him, and he drew them not laboriously, but luckily: when
he describes any thing, you more than see it, you feel it too.
Those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give him the
greater commendation: he was naturally learn'd; he needed
not the spectacles of Books to read Nature; he look'd inwards,
and found her there. I cannot say he is every where alike; were
he so, I should do him injury to compare him with the greatest
ao of Mankind. He is many times flat, insipid; his Comick wit
degenerating into clenches, his serious swelling into Bombast.
But he is alwayes great, when some great occasion is presented
to him: no man can say he ever had a fit subject for his wit,
8 Silent Woman] Qa-g, D; Silent Woman Qi, Fa-b.
9 earnestly regarding] Qz~3i D; looking earnestly upon Qi, Fa-b.
13 French and English] D; French and English Qi~3, Fa-b.
16 some envy on] Qa-3, D; a little envy upon Qi, Fa-b.
56 Prose 1668-1691
and did not then raise himself as high above the rest of Poets,
Quantum lenta solent, inter viburna cupressi.
The consideration of this made Mr. Hales of Eaton say,
That there was no subject of which any Poet ever writ, but
he would produce it much better done in Shakespeare; and
however others are now generally prefer'd before him, yet
the Age wherein he liv'd, which had contemporaries with him
Fletcher and Johnson, never equall'd them to him in their
esteem: And in the last Kings Court, when Ben's reputation
10 was at highest, Sir John Suckling, and with him the greater
part of the Courtiers, set our Shakespeare far above him.
Beaumont and Fletcher of whom I am next to speak, had
with the advantage of Shakespeare's wit, which was their
precedent, great natural gifts, improv'd by study, Beaumont
especially being so accurate a judge of Playes, that Ben. John-
son while he liv'd, submitted all his Writings to his Censure,
and 'tis thought, us'd his judgement in correcting, if not con-
triving all his Plots. What value he had for him, appears by
the Verses he writ to him; and therefore I need speak no
20 farther of it. The first Play that brought Fletcher and him in
esteem was their Philaster: for before that, they had written
two or three very unsuccessfully: as the like is reported of
Ben. Johnson, before he writ Every Man in his Humour. Their
Plots were generally more regular then Shakespeare's, especially
those which were made before Beaumont's death; and they
understood and imitated the conversation of Gentlemen much
better; whose wilde debaucheries, and quickness of wit in rep-
arties, no Poet before them could paint as they have done. Hu-
mour, which Ben. Johnson deriv'd from particular persons,
so they made it not their business to describe: they represented
all the passions very lively, but above all, Love. I am apt to
believe the English Language in them arriv'd to its highest
2 viburna] 0,2-3, Fa-b, D; viberna Qi.
5 done] Q2-3, D; treated of Qi, Fa-b.
7-8 him . . . Johnson,] ^/, . . . —^ Qi~3, Fa-b; <~ , . . . ~ , D.
14 study,] ,~ . Qi-3, Fa-b, D. 20 that] Qs-g, D; which Qi, Fa-b.
28 before them could] (£2-3, D (them, Qa-3); can ever Qi, Fa-b.
28-29 Humour,] Qa-g, D (~A Qa); This Humour of Qi, Fa-b.
perfection; what words have since been taken in, are rather
superfluous then ornamental. Their Playes are now the most
pleasant and frequent entertainments of the Stage; two of theirs
being acted through the year for one of Shakespeare's or
Johnsons: the reason is, because there is a certain gayety in
their Comedies, and Pathos in their more serious Playes, which
suits generally with all mens humours. Shakespeares language
is likewise a little obsolete, and Ben. Johnson's wit comes short
of theirs.
10 As for Johnson, to whose Character I am now arriv'd, if we
look upon him while he was himself, (for his last Playes were
but his dotages) I think him the most learned and judicious
Writer which any Theater ever had. He was a most severe
Judge of himself as well as others. One cannot say he wanted
wit, but rather that he was frugal of it. In his works you find
little to retrench or alter. Wit and Language, and Humour
also in some measure we had before him; but something of Art
was wanting to the Drama till he came. He manag'd his
strength to more advantage then any who preceded him. You
20 seldome find him making Love in any of his Scenes, or en-
deavouring to move the Passions; his genius was too sullen
and saturnine to do it gracefully, especially when he knew he
came after those who had performed both to such an height.
Humour was his proper Sphere, and in that he delighted most
to represent Mechanick people. He was deeply conversant in
the Ancients, both Greek and Latine, and he borrow'd boldly
from them: there is scarce a Poet or Historian among the
Roman Authours of those times whom he has not translated in
Sejanus and Catiline. But he has done his Robberies so openly,
so that one may see he fears not to be taxed by any Law. He
invades Authours like a Monarch, and what would be theft
in other Poets, is onely victory in him. With the spoils of these
Writers he so represents old Rome to us, in its Rites, Cere-
monies and Customs, that if one of their Poets had written
2 oinamental] Qa-g, H; necessary Qi, Fa-b.
4 Shakespeare's] Qa-g, Fa-b, D; Shakespheare's Qi.
26 Greek and Latine] Qg, D; Greek and Latine Qi-2, Fa-b.
28 Roman] Qg, D; Roman Qi-2, Fa-b.
58 Prose 1668-1691
either of his Tragedies, we had seen less of it then in him. If

there was any fault in his Language, 'twas that he weav'd it
too closely and laboriously, in his Comedies especially: perhaps
too, he did a little too much Romanize our Tongue, leaving
the words which he translated almost as much Latine as he
found them: wherein though he learnedly followed their
language, he did not enough comply with the Idiom of ours.
If I would compare him with Shakespeare, I must acknowledge
him the more correct Poet, but Shakespeare the greater wit.
10 Shakespeare was the Homer, or Father of our Dramatick Poets;
Johnson was the Virgil, the pattern of elaborate writing; I
admire him, but I love Shakespeare. To conclude of him, as
he has given us the most correct Playes, so in the precepts
which he has laid down in his Discoveries, we have as many
and profitable Rules for perfecting the Stage as any wherewith
the French can furnish us.
Having thus spoken of the Authour, I proceed to the ex-
amination of his Comedy, The Silent Woman.
Examen of the Silent Woman.

20 To begin first with the length of the Action, it is so far from
exceeding the compass of a Natural day, that it takes not up an
Artificial one. 'Tis all included in the limits of three hours
and an half, which is no more than is requir'd for the present-
ment on the Stage. A beauty perhaps not much observ'd; if it
had, we should not have look'd on the Spanish Translation of
Five Hours with so much wonder. The Scene of it is laid in
London; the latitude of place is almost as little as you can
3 laboriously, . . . Comedies especially] Q2-g, D; ~A . . . serious Playes
Qi, Fa-b.
4 too much] Qa-g, Fa-b, D; to much Qi.
5 Latine] Qg, D; Latine Qi-2, Fa-b.
6 their] Qz-g, D; the Idiom of their Qi, Fa-b.
7 the Idiom of ours] Qa-g, D; ours Qi, Fa-b.
14 Discoveries] Discoveries Qi-g, Fa-b, D.
16 French] Qg, D; French Qi-2, Fa-b.
19 Silent Woman] Qg, D; Silent Woman Qi-2, Fa-b.
25 on] Q2-g, D; upon Qi, Fa-b.
25 Spanish] Qg, Fa-b, D; Spanish Qi-2.
26 Five Hours] Fa-b; five hours Qi-g, D (Five Qg; Hours D).
imagine: for it lies all within the compass of two Houses, and
after the first Act, in one. The continuity of Scenes is observ'd
more than in any of our Playes, except his own Fox and
Alchymist. They are not broken above twice or thrice at most
in the whole Comedy, and in the two best of Corneille's Playes,
the Cid and Cinna, they are interrupted once. The action of
the Play is intirely one; the end or aim of which is the selling
Morose's Estate on Dauphine. The Intrigue of it is the greatest
and most noble of any pure unmix'd Comedy in any Language:
10 you see in it many persons of various characters and humours,
and all delightful: As first, Morose, or an old Man, to whom
all noise but his own talking is offensive. Some who would be
thought Criticks, say this humour of his is forc'd: but to re-
move that objection, we may consider him first to be naturally
of a delicate hearing, as many are to whom all sharp sounds
are unpleasant; and secondly, we may attribute much of it to
the peevishness of his Age, or the wayward authority of an old
man in his own house, where he may make himself obeyed; and
to this the Poet seems to allude in his name Morose. Beside
20 this, I am assur'd from divers persons, that Ben. Johnson was
actually acquainted with such a man, one altogether as ri-
diculous as he is here represented. Others say it is not enough
to find one man of such an humour; it must be common to
more, and the more common the more natural. To prove this,
they instance in the best of Comical Characters, Falstaffe:
There are many men resembling him; Old, Fat, Merry, Cow-
ardly, Drunken, Amorous, Vain, and Lying: But to convince
these people, I need but tell them, that humour is the ridicu-
lous extravagance of conversation, wherein one man differs
so from all others. If then it be common, or communicated to
many, how differs it from other mens? or what indeed causes
it to be ridiculous so much as the singularity of it? As for
3 except] Qz-g, D; excepting Qi, Fa-b.
3-4 Fox and Alchymist] Qs, Fa-b, D; Fox and Alchymist Qi-z.
6 once] Qz-g, D; once apiece Qi, Fa-b (a piece Fb).
8 Morose's] Qj, D; Moroses's Qi-8, Fa-b.
19 to this . . . allude] Qs-3, D; this . . . allude to Qi, Fa-b.
19 Beside] 0)2-3, D'' Besides Qi, Fa-b.
go divers] Qz-3, D; diverse Qi, Fa-b.
6o Prose 1668-1691
Falstaffe, he is not properly one humour, but a Miscellany of

Humours or Images, drawn from so many several men; that
wherein he is singular is his wit, or those things he sayes,
prceter expectatum, unexpected by the Audience; his quick
evasions when you imagine him surpriz'd, which as they are
extreamly diverting of themselves, so receive a great addition
from his person; for the very sight of such an unwieldy old
debauch'd fellow is a Comedy alone. And here having a place
so proper for it I cannot but enlarge somewhat upon this sub-
10 ject of humour into which I am fallen. The Ancients had little
of it in their Comedies; for the TO yt\olov of the old Comedy,
of which Aristophanes was chief, was not so much to imi-
tate a man, as to make the people laugh at some odd con-
ceit, which had commonly somewhat of unnatural or obscene
in it. Thus when you see Socrates brought upon the Stage,
you are not to imagine him made ridiculous by the imita-
tion of his actions, but rather by making him perform some-
thing very unlike himself: something so childish and absurd,
as by comparing it with the gravity of the true Socrates, makes
20 a ridiculous object for the Spectators. In their new Comedy
which succeeded, the Poets sought indeed to express the ydo?,
as in their Tragedies the tr6.0o<s of Mankind. But this 7j0os con-
tain'd onely the general Characters of men and manners; as
old men, Lovers, Servingmen, Courtizans, Parasites, and such
other persons as we see in their Comedies; all which they made
alike: that is, one old man or Father; one Lover, one Courtizan
so like another, as if the first of them had begot the rest of
every sort: Ex homine hunc natum dicas. The same custome
they observ'd likewise in their Tragedies. As for the French,
ao though they have the word humeur among them, yet they have
small use of it in their Comedies, or Farces; they being but ill
imitations of the ridiculum, or that which stirr'd up laughter
in the old Comedy. But among the English 'tis otherwise:
where by humour is meant some extravagant habit, passion,
or affection; particular (as I said before) to some one person:
by the oddness of which, he is immediately distinguished from
3 is his] Qa-3, D; in his Qi, Fa-b. 11 yf\oiot>] Fa-b, D; ~ , Qi-3.
the rest of men; which being lively and naturally represented,

most frequently begets that malicious pleasure in the Audience
which is testified by laughter: as all things which are deviations
from customes are ever the aptest to produce it: though by
the way this laughter is onely accidental, as the person repre-
sented is Fantastick or Bizarre; but pleasure is essential to it,
as the imitation of what is natural. The description of these
humours, drawn from the knowledge and observation of par-
ticular persons, was the peculiar genius and talent of Ben.
10 Johnson; To whose Play I now return.
Besides Morose, there are at least 9 or 10 different Charac-
ters and humours in the Silent Woman, all which persons have
several concernments of their own, yet are all us'd by the Poet,
to the conducting of the main design to perfection. I shall not
waste time in commending the writing of this Play, but I will
give you my opinion, that there is more wit and acuteness of
Fancy in it then in any of Ben. Johnson's. Besides that, he has
here describ'd the conversation of Gentlemen in the persons
of True-Wit, and his Friends, with more gayety, ayre and free-
20 dom, then in the rest of his Comedies. For the contrivance of
the Plot 'tis extream elaborate, and yet withal easie; for the
AWTK, or untying of it, 'tis so admirable, that when it is done,
no one of the Audience would think the Poet could have
miss'd it; and yet it was conceald so much before the last
Scene, that any other way would sooner have enter'd into your
thoughts. But I dare not take upon me to commend the Fab-
rick of it, because it is altogether so full of Art, that I must
unravel every Scene in it to commend it as I ought. And this
excellent contrivance is still the more to be admir'd, because
so 'tis Comedy where the persons are onely of common rank, and
their business private, not elevated by passions or high con-
cernments as in serious Playes. Here every one is a proper
Judge of all he sees; nothing is represented but that with
which he daily converses: so that by consequence all faults
4 from] Q2-J, D; from common Qi, Fa-b.
12 in the] Qa~3, Fa-b, D; in the the Qi.
17 Besides that,] Besides, that Qi-g, Fa-b, D.
;>2 XiVu] Qa-3, D; Mau Qi, Fa-b,
62 Prose 1668-1691
lie open to discovery, and few are pardonable. 'Tis this which
Horace has judiciously observ'd:
Creditur ex media quia res arcessit habere
Sudoris minimum, sed habet Comedia tanto
Plus oneris, quanta Venice minus.
But our Poet, who was not ignorant of these difficulties, has
made use of all advantages; as he who designes a large leap
takes his rise from the highest ground. One of these advan-
tages is that which Corneille has laid down as the greatest
10 which can arrive to any Poem, and which he himself could
never compass above thrice in all this Playes, viz. the making
choice of some signal and long-expected day, whereon the ac-
tion of the Play is to depend. This day was that design'd by
Dauphine for the selling of his Uncles Estate upon him; which
to compass he contrives to marry him: that the marriage had
been plotted by him long beforehand is made evident by what
he tells True-Wit in the second Act, that in one moment he
had destroy'd what he had been raising many months.
There is another artifice of the Poet, which I cannot here
20 omit, because by the frequent practice of it in his Comedies,
he has left it to us almost as a Rule, that is, when he has
any Character or humour wherein he would show a Coup de
Maistre, or his highest skill; he recommends it to your ob-
servation by a pleasant description of it before the person first
appears. Thus, in Bartholomew Fair he gives you the Pictures
of Numps and Cokes, and in this those of Daw, Lafoole, Mo-
rose, and the Collegiate Ladies; all which you hear describ'd
before you see them. So that before they come upon the Stage
you have a longing expectation of them, which prepares you
so to receive them favourably; and when they are there, even
from their first appearance you are so far acquainted with
them, that nothing of their humour is lost to you.
I will observe yet one thing further of this admirable Plot;
3 res] Qa-3, Fa-b, D; ret Qi.
6-7 has made use] Qz-3, D; had prevail'd himself Qt, Fa-b.
12 long-expected] Qa-g, D; long expected Qi, Fa-b.
17 True-Wit] Qz-g, D; Truwit Qi, Fa-b.
27 Collegiate] Qa~3, Fa-b, D; Cellegiate Qi.
the business of it rises in every Act. The second is greater then

the first; the third then the second, and so forward to the fifth.
There too you see, till the very last Scene, new difficulties aris-
ing to obstruct the action of the Play; and when the Audience
is brought into despair that the business can naturally be ef-
fected, then, and not before, the discovery is made. But that
the Poet might entertain you with more variety all this while,
he reserves some new Characters to show you, which he opens
not till the second and third Act. In the second, Morose, Daw,
10 the Barber and Otter; in the third the Collegiat Ladies: All
which he moves afterwards in by-walks, or under-Plots, as
diversions to the main design, least it should grow tedious,
though they are still naturally joyn'd with it, and somewhere
or other subservient to it. Thus, like a skilful Chest-player,
by little and little he draws out his men, and makes his pawns
of use to his greater persons.
If this Comedy, and some others of his, were translated into
French Prose (which would now be no wonder to them, since
Moliere has lately given them Playes out of Verse which have
20 not displeas'd them) I believe the controversie would soon
be decided betwixt the two Nations, even making them the
Judges. But we need not call our Hero's to our ayde; Be it
spoken to the honour of the English, our Nation can never
want in any Age such who are able to dispute the Empire of
Wit with any people in the Universe. And though the fury of
a Civil War, and Power, for twenty years together, abandon'd
to a barbarous race of men, Enemies of all good Learning, had
buried the Muses under the ruines of Monarchy; yet with the
restoration of our happiness, we see reviv'd Poesie lifting up
BO its head, fc already shaking off the rubbish which lay so heavy
on it. We have seen since His Majesties return, many Dra-
matick Poems which yield not to those of any forreign Na-
tion, and which deserve all Lawrels but the English. I will set
aside Flattery and Envy: it cannot be deny'd but we have had
7 while] Qs-3, Fa-b, D; whille Qi. 18 French] D; French Qi-g, Fa-b.

23 English] C>3, D; English Qi-2, Fa-b.
64 Prose 1668-1691
some little blemish either in the Plot or writing of all those

Playes which have been made within these seven years: (and
perhaps there is no Nation in the world so quick to discern
them, or so difficult to pardon them, as ours:) yet if we can
perswade our selves to use the candour of that Poet, who
(though the most severe of Criticks) has left us this caution by
which to moderate our censures;
Ubi plura nitent in carmine non ego paucis
offendar maculis.
10 If in consideration of their many and great beauties, we can
wink at some slight, and little imperfections; if we, I say, can
be thus equal to our selves, I ask no favour from the French.
And if I do not venture upon any particular judgment of our
late Playes, 'tis out of the consideration which an Ancient
Writer gives me; Vivorum, ut magna admiratio ita censura dif-
ficilis: betwixt the extreams of admiration and malice, 'tis hard
to judge uprightly of the living. Onely I think it may be per-
mitted me to say, that as it is no less'ning to us to yield to
some Playes, and those not many of our own Nation in the
20 last Age, so can it be no addition to pronounce of our present
Poets that they have far surpass'd all the Ancients, and the
Modern Writers of other Countreys.
This was the substance of what was then spoke on that oc-
casion; and Lisideius, I think was going to reply, when he
was prevented thus by Crites: I am confident, said he, that the
most material things that can be said, have been already urg'd
on either side; if they have not, I must beg of Lisideius that
he will defer his answer till another time: for I confess I have
a joynt quarrel to you both, because you have concluded, with-
30 out any reason given for it, that Rhyme is proper for the Stage.
I will not dispute how ancient it hath been among us to write
this way; perhaps our Ancestours knew no better till Shake-
speare's time. I will grant it was not altogether left by him,
and that Fletcher and Ben. Johnson us'd it frequently in their
8 Ubi] Ubi Qi-3, F, D. 9 Not indented in £>/.
12 French] D; French Qi~3, F.
23 This] Q2-3, D (~ , Qa); This, ray Lord, Qi, F.
25-26 that the most] Qa-3, U; the most Qi, F.
Pastorals, and sometimes in other Playes. Farther, I will not

argue whether we receiv'd it originally from our own Coun-
trymen, or from the French; for that is an inquiry of as little
benefit, as theirs who in the midst of the late Plague were not
so sollicitous to provide against it, as to know whether we had
it from the malignity of our own air, or by transportation from
Holland. I have therefore onely to affirm, that it is not allow-
able in serious Playes; for Comedies I find you already con-
cluding with me. To prove this, I might satisfie my self to tell
10 you, how much in vain it is for you to strive against the stream
of the peoples inclination; the greatest part of which are pre-
possess'd so much with those excellent Playes of Shakespeare,
Fletcher, and Ben. Johnson, (which have been written out of
Rhyme) that except you could bring them such as were writ-
ten better in it, and those too by persons of equal reputation
with them, it will be impossible for you to gain your cause
with them, who will still be judges. This it is to which in fine
all your reasons must submit. The unanimous consent of an
Audience is so powerful, That even Julius Caesar (as Macro-
20 bins reports of him) when he was perpetual Dictator, was not
able to ballance it on the other side. But when Laberius, a
Roman Knight, at his request contended in the Mime with
another Poet, he was forc'd to cry out, Etiam favente me victus
es Laberi. But I will not on this occasion, take the advantage
of the greater number, but onely urge such reasons against
Rhyme, as I find in the Writings of those who have argu'd for
the other way. First then I am of opinion, that Rhyme is un-
natural in a Play, because Dialogue there is presented as the
effect of sudden thought. For a Play is the imitation of Nature;
so and since no man, without premeditation speaks in Rhyme,
neither ought he to do it on the Stage; this hinders not but
the Fancy may be there elevated to an higher pitch of thought
then it is in ordinary discourse: for there is a probability that
men of excellent and quick parts may speak noble things ex
tempore: but those thoughts are never fetter'd with the num-
3 French] D; French Qi-g, F. 4 late] Qa-3, D; great Qi, F.
24 Laberi] Qz-3, D; Liberi Qi, F.
66 Prose 1668-1691
bers or sound of Verse without study, and therefore it cannot

be but unnatural to present the most free way of speaking, in
that which is the most constrain'd. For this Reason, sayes Aris-
totle, 'Tis best to write Tragedy in that kind of Verse which
is the least such, or which is nearest Prose: and this amongst
the Ancients was the lambique, and with us is blank verse, or
the measure of verse kept exactly without rhyme. These num-
bers therefore are fittest for a Play; the others for a paper of
Verses, or a Poem; blank verse being as much below them as
10 rhyme is improper for the Drama. And if it be objected that
neither are blank verses made ex tempore, yet as nearest Na-
ture, they are still to be preferr'd. But there are two particular
exceptions which many besides my self have had to verse; by
which it will appear yet more plainly, how improper it is in
Playes. And the first of them is grounded on that very reason
for which some have commended Rhyme: they say the quick-
ness of repartees in argumentative Scenes receives an ornament
from verse. Now what is more unreasonable then to imagine
that a man should not onely imagine the Wit, but the Rhyme
20 too upon the sudden? This nicking of him who spoke be-
fore both in sound and measure, is so great an happiness, that
you must at least suppose the persons of your Play to be born
Poets, Arcades omnes & cantare pares if respondere parati:
they must have arriv'd to the degree of quicquid conabar
dicere: to make Verses almost whether they Avill or no: if they
are any thing below this, it will look rather like the design of
two then the answer of one: it will appear that your Actors
hold intelligence together, that they perform their tricks like
Fortune-tellers, by confederacy. The hand of Art will be too
so visible in it against that maxime of all Professions; Ars est
celare artem, That it is the greatest perfection of Art to keep
it self undiscover'd. Nor will it serve you to object, that how-
ever you manage it, 'tis still known to be a Play; and conse-
quently the Dialogue of two persons understood to be the la-
6 lambique} lambique Qi~3, F, D. 7 verse] ~ , Qi-g, F, D.
8 paper] Qs-g, F, D; p per Qi.
9 Poem; blank] Qs, D; Poem. Blank Qi-a, F.
15 on] Qa-s, D; upon Qi, F. 19 imagine] Qs-g, D; light upon Qi, F.
bour of one Poet. For a Play is still an imitation of Nature;

we know we are to be deceiv'd, and we desire to be so; but
no man ever was deceiv'd but with a probability of truth, for
who will suffer a gross lie to be fasten'd on him? Thus we
sufficiently understand that the Scenes which represent Cities
and Countries to us, are not really such, but onely painted on
boards and Canvass: But shall that excuse the ill Painture or
designment of them; Nay rather ought they not to be labour'd
with so much the more diligence and exactness to help the
10 imagination? since the mind of man does naturally tend to
Truth; and therefore the nearer any thing comes to the imita-
tion of it, the more it pleases.
Thus, you see, your Rhyme is uncapable of expressing the
greatest thoughts naturally, and the lowest it cannot with any
grace: for what is more unbefitting the Majesty of Verse, then
to call a Servant, or bid a door be shut in Rhime? And yet
you are often forc'd on this miserable necessity. But Verse,
you say, circumscribes a quick and luxuriant fancy, which
would extend it self too far on every subject, did not the la-
20 bour which is requir'd to well turn'd and polish'd Rhyme, set
bounds to it. Yet this Argument, if granted, would onely prove
that we may write better in Verse, but not more naturally.
Neither is it able to evince that; for he who wants judgment
to confine his fancy in blank Verse, may want it as much in
Rhyme; and he who has it will avoid errours in both kinds.
Latine verse was as great a confinement to the imagination of
those Poets, as Rhime to ours: and yet you find Ovid saying
too much on every subject. Nesdvit (sayes Seneca) quod bene
cessit relinquere: of which he gives you one famous instance
ao in his Description of the Deluge,
Omnia pontus erat, deerant quoque Litora Ponto.
Now all was Sea, Nor had that Sea a shore.
10 to] Qa-3, D; to, and seek after Qi, F.
17 you are often forc'd on this miserable necessity] Qa-3, D; this miserable
necessity you are forc'd upon Qi, F.
26 Latine] D; Latine Qi-3, F.
30 Description] Qa-g, F, D; Discription Qi.
30 Deluge,] Q3, D; ~ . Qi-2, F.
32 Not set off as verse or italicized in Qi-}, F, D,
68 Prose 1668-1691
Thus Ovid'?, fancy was not limited by verse, and Virgil

needed not verse to have bounded his.
In our own language we see Ben. Johnson confining himself
to what ought to be said, even in the liberty of blank Verse;
and yet Corneille, the most judicious of the French Poets, is
still varying the same sence an hundred wayes, and dwelling
eternally on the same subject, though confin'd by Rhyme.
Some other exceptions I have to Verse, but since these I have
nam'd are for the most part already publick; I conceive it rea-
10 sonable they should first be answer'd.
It concerns me less then any, said Neander, (seeing he had
ended) to reply to this Discourse; because when I should have
prov'd that Verse may be natural in Playes, yet I should al-
wayes be ready to confess, that those which I have written in
this kind come short of that perfection which is requir'd. Yet
since you are pleas'd I should undertake this Province, I will
do it, though with all imaginable respect and deference both
to that person from whom you have borrow'd your strongest
Arguments, and to whose judgment when I have said all, I
20 finally submit. But before I proceed to answer your objections,
I must first remember you, that I exclude all Comedy from
my defence; and next that I deny not but blank verse may be
also us'd, and content my self onely to assert, that in serious
Playes where the subject and characters are great, and the Plot
unmix'd with mirth, which might allay or divert these con-
cernments which are produc'd, Rhyme is there as natural, and
more effectual then blank Verse.
And now having laid down this as a foundation, to begin
with Crites, I must crave leave to tell him, that some of his
ao Arguments against rhyme reach no farther then from the
faults or defects of ill rhime, to conclude against the use of it
in general. May not I conclude against blank verse by the same
reason? If the words of some Poets who write in it, are either
ill chosen, or ill placed (which makes not onely rhime, but all
kind of verse in any language unnatural;) Shall I, for their
vitious affectation condemn those excellent lines of Fletcher,
7 on] Qa-g, D; upon Qi, F. 8 since] Qa-3, D; being Qi, F.
which are written in that kind? Is there any thing in rhyme

more constrain'd than this line in blank verse,
/ Heav'n invoke, and strong resistance make,
where you see both the clauses are plac'd unnaturally; that is,
contrary to the common way of speaking, and that without the
excuse of a rhyme to cause it? yet you would think me very
ridiculous, if I should accuse the stubbornness of blank Verse
for this, and not rather the stifness of the Poet. Therefore,
Crites, you must either prove that words, though well chosen,
10 and duly plac'd, yet render not Rhyme natural in it self; or,
that however natural and easie the rhyme may be, yet it is not
proper for a Play. If you insist on the former part, I would ask
you what other conditions are requir'd to make Rhyme natural
in it self, besides an election of apt words, and a right disposi-
tion of them? For the due choice of your words expresses your
sence naturally, and the due placing them adapts the rhyme to
it. If you object that one verse may be made for the sake of
another, though both the words and rhyme be apt; I answer
it cannot possibly so fall out; for either there is a dependance
20 of sence betwixt the first line and the second, or there is none:
if there be that connection, then in the natural position of the
words, the latter line must of necessity flow from the former:
if there be no dependance, yet still the due ordering of words
makes the last line as natural in it self as the other: so that the
necessity of a rhime never forces any but bad or lazy Writers
to say what they would not otherwise. 'Tis true, there is both
care and Art requir'd to write in Verse; A good Poet never
establishes the first line, till he has sought out such a rhime
as may fit the sense, already prepar'd to heighten the second:
so many times the close of the sense falls into the middle of the
next verse, or farther off, and he may often prevail himself of
2 verse,] ~ ? Qi~3, F, D.
3 I . . . make} in romans in Q/; not set off as vrr<;e in Qi-j, F, D.
6 it?] ~ : Qi-g, F, D. 12 on] Q2-3, D; upon Qi, F.
14-15 disposition] Q2-g, D; disposing Qi, F.
21 then in] Qi (corrected state), Qz-3, F, D; then it Qi (uncorrected state).
28 establishes] Q2~3, D; concludes upon Qi, F.
31 farther off] D; farther of Qi-3, F.
70 Prose 1668—1691
the same advantages in English which Virgil had in Latine,

he may break off in the Hemistich, and begin another line: in-
deed, the not observing these two last things, makes Playes
which are writ in verse so tedious: for though, most commonly,
the sence is to be confin'd to the Couplet, yet nothing that
does perpetuo tenore fluere, run in the same channel, can please
alwayes. 'Tis like the murmuring of a stream, which not vary-
ing in the fall, causes at first attention, at last drowsiness. Va-
riety of cadences is the best rule, the greatest help to the Ac-
10 tors, and refreshment to the Audience.
If then Verse may be made natural in it self, how becomes
it unnatural in a Play? You say the Stage is the representation
of Nature, and no man in ordinary conversation speaks in
rhime. But you foresaw when you said this, that it might be
answer'd; neither does any man speak in blank verse, or in
measure without rhime. Therefore you concluded, that which
is nearest Nature is still to be preferr'd. But you took no notice
that rhime might be made as natural as blank verse, by the
well placing of the words, ire. All the difference between them
20 when they are both correct, is the sound in one, which the
other wants; and if so, the sweetness of it, and all the advan-
tage resulting from it, which are handled in the Preface to
the Rival Ladies, will yet stand good. As for that place of
Aristotle, where he sayes Playes should be writ in that kind
of Verse which is nearest Prose; it makes little for you, blank
verse being properly but measur'd Prose. Now measure alone
in any modern Language, does not constitute verse; those of
the Ancients in Greek and Latine, consisted in quantity of
words, and a determinate number of feet. But when, by the
30 inundation of the Goths and Vandals into Italy new Lan-
guages were introduced, and barbarously mingled with the
Latine (of which the Italian, Spanish, French, and ours, (made
out of them and the Teutonick) are Dialects:) a new way of
1 English . . . Latine,] D; English . . . Latine, Qi-3, F (Latine. Qi).
2 Hemistich] D; Hemystich Qi-g, F.
12 unnatural in] QZ-S, D; improper to Qi, F.
19 All] all Qi-3, F, D.
28 Greek and Latine] D; Greek and Latine Qi-g, F.
31 introduced] Q2~3, D; brought in Qi, F.
32 Latine] D; Latine Qi-3, F.
Poesie was practised; new, I say in those Countries, for in all

probability it was that of the Conquerours in their own Na-
tions: at least we are able to prove, that the Eastern people
have us'd it from all Antiquity, Vid. Dan. his Defence of
Rhyme. This new way consisted in measure or number of
feet and rhyme, the sweetness of Rhyme, and observation of
Accent, supplying the place of quantity in words, which could
neither exactly be observ'd by those Barbarians who knew not
the Rules of it, neither was it suitable to their tongues as it
10 had been to the Greek and Latine. No man is tied in modern
Poesie to observe any farther rule in the feet of his verse, but
that they be dissylables; whether Spondee, Trochee, or 7am-
bique, it matters not; onely he is obliged to rhyme: Neither
do the Spanish, French, Italians or Germans acknowledge at
all, or very rarely any such kind of Poesie as blank verse
amongst them. Therefore at most 'tis but a Poetick Prose, a
Sermo pedestris, and as such most fit for Comedies, where I
acknowledge Rhyme to be improper. Farther, as to that quo-
tation of Aristotle, our Couplet Verses may be rendred as near
20 Prose as blank verse it self, by using those advantages I lately
nam'd, as breaks in an Hemistich, or running the sence into
another line, thereby making Art and Order appear as loose
and free as Nature: or not tying our selves to Couplets strictly,
we may use the benefit of the Pindarique way, practis'd in the
Siege of Rhodes; where the numbers vary and the rhyme is
dispos'd carelesly, and far from often chymeing. Neither is that
other advantage of the Ancients to be despis'd, of changing the
kind of verse when they please with the change of the Scene,
or some new entrance: for they confine not themselves alwayes
so to lambiques, but extend their liberty to all Lyrique numbers,
and sometimes, even to Hexameter. But I need not go so far
2-5 Nations: at ... Dan. his Defence of Rhyme.] Qz-g, D (Dan. his Qa; Dan.
his Qs; Dan. his D); Nations. Qi, F.
6 rhyme, the] rhyme. The Qi-j, F, D.
10 Greek and Latine] D; Greek and Latine Qi~3, F.
14 Italians] Italian Qi-g, F, D. 16-17 a Sermo] Q2-g, D; a Sermo Qi, F.
21 in an] Qz-3. F, D; in a Qi.
21 Hemistich] Hemistick Qi, F; Hcmystick Q2-3; Hemistich D.
25 Siege of Rhodes] Siege of Rhodes Qi-g, F, D.
30 lambiques] Qg, D; lambiques Qi-z, F.
72 Prose 1668-1691
to prove that Rhyme, as it succeeds to all other offices of Greek

and Latine Verse, so especially to this of Playes, since the cus-
tome of Nations at this day confirms it: the French, Italian
and Spanish Tragedies are generally writ in it, and sure the
Universal consent of the most civiliz'd parts of the world,
ought in this, as it doth in other customs, to include the rest.
But perhaps you may tell me I have propos'd such a way to
make rhyme natural, and consequently proper to Playes, as is
unpracticable, and that I shall scarce find six or eight lines to-
10 gether in any Play, where the words are so plac'd and chosen
as is requir'd to make it natural. I answer, no Poet need con-
strain himself at all times to it. It is enough he makes it his
general Rule; for I deny not but sometimes there may be a
greatness in placing the words otherwise; and sometimes they
may sound better, sometimes also the variety it self is excuse
enough. But if, for the most part, the words be plac'd as they
are in the negligence of Prose, it is sufficient to denominate
the way practicable; for we esteem that to be such, which in
the Tryal oftner succeeds then misses. And thus far you may
20 find the practice made good in many Playes; where you do
not, remember still, that if you cannot find six natural Rhymes
together, it will be as hard for you to produce as many lines
in blank Verse, even among the greatest of our Poets, against
which I cannot make some reasonable exception.
And this, Sir, calls to my remembrance the beginning of
your discourse, where you told us we should never find the
Audience favourable to this kind of writing, till we could pro-
duce as good Playes in Rhyme, as Ben. Johnson, Fletcher, and
Shakespeare, had writ out of it. But it is to raise envy to the
so living, to compare them with the dead. They are honour'd,
and almost ador'd by us, as they deserve; neither do I know
any so presumptuous of themselves as to contend with them.
Yet give me leave to say thus much, without injury to their
Ashes, that not onely we shall never equal them, but they
1-2 Greek and Latine] D; Greek and Latine Qi~3, F.
3 of Nations] Qa-g, D; of all Nations Qi, F.
3 the] Qa-3, D; All the Qi, F.
6 to include] Qa-3, D; include Qi, F.
could never equal themselves, were they to rise and write

again. We acknowledge them our Fathers in wit, but they
have ruin'd their Estates themselves before they came to their
childrens hands. There is scarce an Humour, a Character, or
any kind of Plot, which they have not us'd. All comes sullied
or wasted to us: and were they to entertain this Age, they
could not now make so plenteous treatments out of such de-
cay'd Fortunes. This therefore will be a good Argument to us
either not to write at all, or to attempt some other way. There
10 is no bayes to be expected in their Walks; Tentanda via est
qua me quoque possum tollere humo.
This way of writing in Verse, they have onely left free to
us; our age is arriv'd to a perfection in it, which they never
knew; and which (if we may guess by what of theirs we have
seen in Verse, as the Faithful Shepherdess, and Sad Shepherd:)
'tis probable they never could have reach'd. For the Genius of
every Age is different; and though ours excel in this, I deny
not but that to imitate Nature in that perfection which they
did in Prose, is a greater commendation then to write in verse
20 exactly. As for what you have added, that the people are not
generally inclin'd to like this way; if it were true, it would be
no wonder, that betwixt the shaking off an old habit, and the
introducing of a new, there should be difficulty. Do we not see
them stick to Hopkins and Sternholds Psalmes, and forsake
those of David, 1 mean Sandys his Translation of them? If by
the people you understand the multitude, the ol TroAXot, 'tis no
matter what they think; they are sometimes in the right, some-
times in the wrong; their judgment is a meer Lottery. Est ubi
plebs recte putat, est ubi peccat. Horace sayes it of the vulgar,
so judging Poesie. But if you mean the mix'd audience of the
populace, and the Noblesse, I dare confidently affirm that a
great part of the latter sort are already favourable to verse;
and that no serious Playes written since the Kings return have
5 us'd. All] Qz-g, D; blown upon: all Qi, F (All F).
7 not now] Qa-g, D; not Qi, F. 15 Verse, as] F, D; Verse (as Qi-g.
26 o! iro\\ol, 'tis] iii Tro\\al. Tis Qi-J, F, D (iroXAot. Qa; TroXXoi, D; A iro\\ol.
F; 'tis Q3).
a8 wrong] Qa-g, F, D; wong Qi.
74 Prose 1668-1691
been more kindly receiv'd by them, then the Seige of Rhodes,

the Mustapha, the Indian Queen, and Indian Emperour.
But I come now to the inference of your first Argument.
You said that the Dialogue of Playes is presented as the effect
of sudden thought, but no man speaks suddenly, or ex tempore
in Rhyme: And you inferr'd from thence, that Rhyme, which
you acknowledge to be proper to Epique Poesie cannot equally
be proper to Dramatick, unless we could suppose all men born
so much more then Poets, that verses should be made in them,
10 not by them.
It has been formerly urg'd by you, and confess'd by me,
that since no man spoke any kind of verse ex tempore, that
which was nearest Nature was to be preferr'd. I answer you
therefore, by distinguishing betwixt what is nearest to the na-
ture of Comedy, which is the imitation of common persons
and ordinary speaking, and what is nearest the nature of a
serious Play: this last is indeed the representation of Nature,
but 'tis Nature wrought up to an higher pitch. The Plot, the
Characters, the Wit, the Passions, the Descriptions, are all ex-
20 alted above the level of common converse, as high as the imag-
ination of the Poet can carry them, with proportion to veri-
simility. Tragedy we know is wont to image to us the minds
and fortunes of noble persons, and to portray these exactly,
Heroick Rhime is nearest Nature, as being the noblest kind
of modern verse.
Indignatur enim privatis, fr prope socco,
Dignis carminibus narrari ccena Thyestes (sayes Horace.)
And in another place,
Effutire leveis indigna tragcedia versus.
so Blank Verse is acknowledg'd to be too low for a Poem, nay
more, for a paper of verses; but if too low for an ordinary Son-
net, how much more for Tragedy, which is by Aristotle in the
1 Seige of Rhodes] Seige of Rhodes Qi-3, F, D.

2 Indian Queen, and Indian Emperour] Indian Queen, and Indian Em-
perour Qi-3, F, D.
4 said that] Qz~3, D; said Qi, F. 26 socco,] (£2-3; ,~ . Qi, F; ~ A D.
27 Thyeslie (sayes] Thyestie. (Sayes Qi~3, F, D (says D).
29 tragcedia] Qj, D; tragadia Qi-2, F.
dispute betwixt the Epique Poesie and the Dramatick, for

many reasons he there alledges, ranck'd above it.
But setting this defence aside, your Argument is almost as
strong against the use of Rhyme in Poems as in Playes; for the
Epique way is every where interlac'd with Dialogue, or dis-
coursive Scenes; and therefore you must either grant Rhyme
to be improper there, which is contrary to your assertion, or
admit it into Playes by the same title which you have given
it to Poems. For though Tragedy be justly preferr'd above the
10 other, yet there is a great affinity between them as may easily
be discover'd in that definition of a Play which Lisideius gave
us. The Genus of them is the same, a just and lively Image of
humane nature, in its Actions, Passions, and traverses of For-
tune: so is the end, namely for the delight and benefit of Man-
kind. The Characters and Persons are still the same, viz. the
greatest of both sorts, onely the manner of acquainting us with
those Actions, Passions and Fortunes is different. Tragedy per-
forms it viva voce, or by action, in Dialogue, wherein it excels
the Epique Poem which does it chiefly by narration, and there-
20 fore is not so lively an Image of Humane Nature. However,
the agreement betwixt them is such, that if Rhyme be proper
for one, it must be for the other. Verse 'tis true is not the
effect of sudden thought; but this hinders not that sudden
thought may be represented in verse, since those thoughts are
such as must be higher then Nature can raise them without
premeditation, especially to a continuance of them even out
of verse, and consequently you cannot imagine them to have
been sudden either in the Poet, or the Actors. A Play, as I
have said, to be like Nature, is to be set above it; as Statues
so which are plac'd on high are made greater then the life, that
they may descend to the sight in their just proportion.
Perhaps I have insisted too long on this objection; but the
clearing of it will make my stay shorter on the rest. You tell
us Crites, that rhyme appears most unnatural in repartees, or
short replyes: when he who answers, (it being presum'd he
i-a Dramatick, . . . alledges,] Qa-3, D; ~ ; . . . ~A Qi, F.
29 said,] Qg, D; ~ A Qi-z, F. 32 on] Qa-3, D; upon Qi, F.
76 Prose 1668-1691
knew not what the other would say, yet) makes up that part
of the verse which was left incompleat, and supplies both the
sound and measure of it. This you say looks rather like the
confederacy of two, then the answer of one.
This, I confess, is an objection which is in every mans mouth
who loves not rhyme: but suppose, I beseech you, the repartee
were made onely in blank verse, might not part of the same
argument be turn'd against you? for the measure is as often
supply'd there as it is in Rhyme, the latter half of the Hemi-
10 stick as commonly made up, or a second line subjoyn'd as a
reply to the former; which any one leaf in Johnson's Playes
will sufficiently clear to you. You will often find in the Greek
Tragedians, and in Seneca, that when a Scene grows up into
the warmth of repartees (which is the close fighting of it) the
latter part of the Trimeter is supply'd by him who answers;
and yet it was never observ'd as a fault in them by any of the
Ancient or Modern Criticks. The case is the same in our verse
as it was in theirs; Rhyme to us being in lieu of quantity to
them. But if no latitude is to be allow'd a Poet, you take from
20 him not onely his license of quidlibet audendi, but you tie him
up in a straighter compass then you would a Philosopher. This
is indeed Musas colere severiores: You would have him follow
Nature, but he must follow her on foot: you have dismounted
him from his Pegasus. But you tell us this supplying the last
half of a verse, or adjoyning a whole second to the former,
looks more like the design of two then the answer of one.
Suppose we acknowledge it: how comes this confederacy to be
more displeasing to you then in a Dance which is well con-
triv'd? You see there the united design of many persons to
ao make up one Figure: after they have seperated themselves in
many petty divisions, they rejoyn one by one into a gross: the
confederacy is plain amongst them; for chance could never
produce any thing so beautiful, and yet there is nothing in it
that shocks your sight. I acknowledg the hand of Art appears
5 mans] Qa-g, D; ones Qi, F. 9 Rhyme, the] ~ . The Qi~3, F, D.

9-10 Hemistich] Hemystich Qi~3; Hemistich F, D.
F
ig Greek] D; Greek 0)1-3, -
in repartee, as of necessity it must in all kind of verse. But

there is also the quick and ,poynant brevity of it (which is an
high imitation of Nature in those sudden gusts of passion) to
mingle with it: and this joyn'd with the cadency and sweetness
of the Rhyme, leaves nothing in the soul of the hearer to de-
sire. 'Tis an Art which appears; but it appears onely like the
shadowings of Painture, which being to cause the rounding of
it, cannot be absent; but while that is consider'd they are lost:
so while we attend to the other beauties of the matter, the care
10 and labour of the Rhyme is carry'd from us, or at least drown'd
in its own sweetness, as Bees are sometimes bury'd in their
Honey. When a Poet has found the repartee, the last perfec-
tion he can add to it, is to put it into verse. However good
the thought may be; however apt the words in which 'tis
couch'd, yet he finds himself at a little unrest while Rhyme
is wanting: he cannot leave it till that comes naturally, and
then is at ease, and sits down contented.
From Replies, which are the most elevated thoughts of
Verse, you pass to those which are most mean and which are
20 common with the lowest of houshold conversation. In these,
you say, the Majesty of Verse suffers. You instance in the call-
ing of a servant, or commanding a door to be shut in rhyme.
This, Crites, is a good observation of yours, but no argument:
for it proves no more but that such thoughts should be wav'd,
as often as may be, by the address of the Poet. But suppose
they are necessary in the places where he uses them, yet there
is no need to put them into rhime. He may place them in the
beginning of a Verse, and break it off, as unfit, when so de-
bas'd, for any other use: or granting the worst, that they re-
30 quire more room then the Hemistich will allow; yet still there
is a choice to be made of the best words, and least vulgar (pro-
vided they be apt) to express such thoughts. Many have blam'd
Rhyme in general, for this fault, when the Poet, with a little
care, might have redress'd it. But they do it with no more jus-
19 those which are most mean and] Qs-3, D; the most mean ones: those Qi, F.
28-29 dcbas'd,] ~ A Qi-g, F, D.
30 Hemistich] Hcmystich Qi-2; Hemystick (£3; Hemistich F, D.
78 Prose 1668-1691
tice, then if English Poesie should be made ridiculous for the

sake of the Water Poet's Rhymes. Our language is noble, full
and significant; and I know not why he who is Master of it
may not cloath ordinary things in it as decently as the Latine;
if he use the same diligence in his choice of words.
Delectus verborum Origo est Eloquentia.
It was the saying of Julius Casar, one so curious in his, that
none of them can be chang'd but for a worse. One would
think Unlock the door was a thing as vulgar as could be
10 spoken; and yet Seneca could make it sound high and lofty
in his Latine.
Reserate clusos Regii postes Laris.
Set wide the Palace gates.
But I turn from this exception, both because it happens not
above twice or thrice in any Play that those vulgar thoughts
are us'd; and then too (were there no other Apology to be
made, yet) the necessity of them (which is alike in all kind
of writing) may excuse them. For if they are little and mean
in Rhyme, they are of consequence such in blank Verse. Be-
20 sides that the great eagerness and praecipitation with which
they are spoken makes us rather mind the substance then the
dress; that for which they are spoken, rather then what is
spoke. For they are alwayes the effect of some hasty concern-
ment, and something of consequence depends on them.
Thus, Crites, I have endeavour'd to answer your objections;
it remains onely that I should vindicate an Argument for
Verse, which you have gone about to overthrow. It had for-
merly been said, that the easiness of blank verse, renders the
Poet too luxuriant; but that the labour of Rhyme bounds and
so circumscribes an over-fruitful fancy, the sence there being
commonly confin'd to the couplet, and the words so order'd
i English] Q3, D; English Qi-z, F. 4 Latine] Qg; Latine Qi-a, F.

9 Unlock the door] D; unlock the door Qi-j, F.
11 Latine] Qg, D; Latine Qi-2, F.
12-13 Laris. / Set . . . gates,] Qa-3, D; Laris. Qi, F.
18-19 them. For . . . Verse.] Qa-g, D; them. Qi, F.
24 on] Qa-3, D; upon Qi, F.
30 fancy, the] fancy, The Qi, F; ~ . The Qa-g, D.
that the Rhyme naturally follows them, not they the Rhyme.
To this you answer'd, that it was no Argument to the ques-
tion in hand, for the dispute was not which way a man may
write best; but which is most proper for the subject on which
he writes.
First, give me leave, Sir, to remember you that the Argu-
ment against which you rais'd this objection, was onely sec-
ondary: it was built on this Hypothesis, that to write in verse
was proper for serious Playes; which supposition being granted
10 (as it was briefly made out in that discourse, by showing how
verse might be made natural) it asserted, that this way of writ-
ing was an help to the Poets judgment, by putting bounds to
a wilde over-flowing Fancy. I think therefore it will not be
hard for me to make good what it was to prove on that sup-
position. But you add, that were this let pass, yet he who wants
judgment in the liberty of his fancy, may as well show the de-
fect of it when he is confin'd to verse: for he who has judg-
ment will avoid errours, and he who has it not, will commit
them in all kinds of writing.
20 This Argument, as you have taken it from a most acute
person, so I confess it carries much weight in it. But by using
the word Judgment here indefinitely, you seem to have put a
fallacy upon us: I grant he who has Judgment, that is, so pro-
found, so strong, or rather so infallible a judgment, that he
needs no helps to keep it alwayes pois'd and upright, will com-
mit no faults either in rhyme or out of it. And on the other
extream, he who has a judgment so weak and craz'd that no
helps can correct or amend it, shall write scurvily out of
Rhyme, and worse in it. But the first of these judgments is no
so where to be found, and the latter is not fit to write at all. To
speak therefore of judgment as it is in the best Poets; they
who have the greatest proportion of it, want other helps than
from it within. As for example, you would be loth to say, that
8 on] Qz-3, D; upon Qi, F.

g Playes: which] Playes. Which Qi-g, F, D.
14-15 prove on that supposition.] Qz-g, D; prove: Qi, F.
44 strong, or rather] Qz-g, D; strong, Qi, F.
8o Prose 1668-1691
he who is indued with a sound judgment has no need of His-

tory, Geography, or Moral Philosophy, to write correctly. Judg-
ment is indeed the Master-workman in a Play: but he requires
many subordinate hands, many tools to his assistance. And
Verse I affirm to be one of these: 'Tis a Rule and line by
which he keeps his building compact and even, which other-
wise lawless imagination would raise either irregularly or loosly.
At least if the Poet commits errours with this help, he would
make greater and more without it: 'tis (in short) a slow and
10 painfull, but the surest kind of working. Ovid whom you ac-
cuse for luxuriancy in Verse, had perhaps been farther guilty
of it had he writ in Prose. And for your instance of Ben. John-
son, who you say, writ exactly without the help of Rhyme; you
are to remember 'tis onely an aid to a luxuriant Fancy, which
his was not: As he did not want imagination, so none ever
said he had much to spare. Neither was verse then refin'd so
much to be an help to that Age as it is to ours. Thus then the
second thoughts being usually the best, as receiving the ma-
turest digestion from judgment, and the last and most mature
20 product of those thoughts being artful and labour'd verse, it
may well be inferr'd, that verse is a great help to a luxuriant
Fancy; and this is what that Argument which you oppos'd was
to evince.
Neander was pursuing this Discourse so eagerly, that Eu-
genius had call'd to him twice or thrice ere he took notice
that the Barge stood still, and that they were at the foot of
Somer^-Stairs, where they had appointed it to land. The com-
pany were all sorry to separate so soon, though a great part of
the evening was already spent; and stood a while looking back
so on the water, upon which the Moon-beams play'd, and made
it appear like floating quick-silver: at last they went up through
a crowd of French people who were merrily dancing in the
open air, and nothing concern'd for the noise of Guns which
i is] Qa-3, D; was Qi, F.
i has] Qa-3, D; had Qi, F. 30 on] Qa~3, D; upon Qi, F.
30 upon which the Moon-heams play'd] Qa~3, D; which the Moon-beams
play'd upon Qi, F.
32 French] Q3, D; French Qi-s, F.
A n Essay of Dramatick Poesie 81
had allarm'd the Town that afternoon. Walking thence to-

gether to the Piazze they parted there; Eugenius and Lisideius
to some pleasant appointment they had made, and Crites and
Neander to their several Lodgings.
z Lisideius] Qg, D; Lysideius Qi-2, F.
NOTES
AND
OBSERVATIONS
O N T HE
EMPRESS
O F
MOROCCO.
O R,
Some few EHR4 T A S to be Printed
infleadof the SCULPTURES with
the Second Edition of that PLAY.
ntta*Mtne itpo»4M,
rexattttetitt r**ti XhefcideCodrtt
Jwtml.
L 0 N D 0 N,
Printed in the Year, 1674*
TITLE PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION (MACDONALD 128)
Notes and Observations 83
Notes and Observations

on The Empress of Morocco
PREFACE
HEN I first saw the Empress of Morocco, though I

W found it then to be a Rapsody of non-sense, I was
very well contented to have let it pass, that the Repu-
tation of a new Authour might not be wholly damn'd; but that
he might be encourag'd to make his Audience some part of
amends another time. In order to this, I strain'd a point of
Conscience to cry up some passages of the Play, which I hop'd
would recommend it to the liking of the more favourable
Judges. But the ill report it had from those that had seen it
10 at Whitehall, had already done its Buisness with Judicious
Men. It was generally dislik'd by them; and but for the help
of Scenes and Habits, and a Dancing Tree, even the Ludgate
Audience had forsaken it. After this ill success, one would
have thought the Poet should have been sufficiently mortified,
and though he were not naturally modest, should at least have
deferr'd the showing of his Impudence till a fitter season. But
instead of this, he has written before his Play, the most arro-
gant, calumniating, ill-manner'd, and senseless Preface I ever
saw. This upstart illiterate Scribler, who lies more open to
20 censure then any writer of the Age, comes amongst the Poets,
like one of the Earth-born Brethren, and his first buisness in
the World is, to Attack and Murder all his Fellows. This I
confess rais'd a little Indignation in me, as much as I was
capable of, for so contemptible a Wretch, and made me think
it somewhat necessary that he should be made an Example, to
the discouragement of all such petulant III Writers, and that
he should be dragg'd out of that Obscurity to which his own
i of Morocco] oj Morocco Q. 9 Judges] Judges Q.
84 Prose 1668-1691
Poetry would for ever have condemn'd him. I knew indeed

that to Write against him, was to do him too great an Honour:
But I consider'd Ben. Johnson had done it before to Decker,
our Authors Predecessor, whom he chastis'd in his Poetaster
under the Character of Crispinus; and brought him in Vomit-
ing up his Fustian and Non-sense. Should our Poet have been
introduc'd in the same manner, he must have disgorg'd his
whole Play ere he had been cleans'd. Never did I see such a
confus'd heap of false Grammar, improper English, strain'd
10 Hyperboles, and downright Bulls. His Plot is incoherent and
full of absurdities; and the Characters of his Persons so ill
chosen, that they are all either Knaves or Fools; only his
Knaves are Fools into the Bargain: and so must be of neces-
sity while they are in his Management. They all speake alike,
and without distinction of Character: That is, every one Rants
and Swaggers, and talks Non-sense abundantly. He steals no-
toriously from his Contemporaries; but he so alters the prop-
erty, by disguising his Theft in ill English, and bad Applica-
tions, that he makes the Child his oion by deforming it. Male
20 dum recitas incipit esse tuus. A Poet when he sees his thoughts
in so ill a dress, is asham'd to confess they ever belonged to
him. For the Latine and Greek Authors, he had certainly done
them the same injurie he has done the English, but that he has
the excuse of Aretine for not railing against God: he Steals
not from them, because he never knew them. In short, he's an
Animal of a most deplor'd understanding, without Reading <fr
Conversation: his being is in a twilight of Sence, and some
glimmering of thought, which he can never fashion either into
Wit or English. His Stile is Boisterous and Rough Hewen: his
so Rhyme incorrigibly lewd, and his numbers perpetually harsh
and ill sounding. That little Talent which he has is Fancy. He
sometimes labours with a thought, but with the Pudder he
makes to bring it into the World, 'tis commonly Still-born: so
that for want of Learning and Elocution, he will never be able
3 Decker] Deeker Q. 4 Poetaster] Poetaster Q.
9, 18 English] English Q. 22 Latine and Greek] Latine and Greek Q,
23 English] English Q. 29 English] Englisli Q.
to express any thing either naturally or justly. This subjects

him on all occasions to false allusions, and mistaken points of
Wit. As for Judgment he has not the least grain of it: and
therefore all his Plays will be a mere confusion. What a beastly
Pattern of a King, whom he intends vertuous, has he shown
in his Muley Labasl Yet he is the only person who is kept to
his Character; for he is a perpetual Fool: and I dare under-
take that if he were Play'd by Nokes, who Acted just such an-
other Monarch in Mackbeth, it would give new life to the
10 Play, and do it more good then all its Devils. But of all
Women, the Lord Bless us from his Laula: no body can be
safe from her; she is so naturally mischievous, that she kills
without the least occasion, for the mere Letchery of Blood-
shed. I suspect he took her Character from the poisoning
Woman, who, they say, makes almost as little ceremony of a
Murder as that Queen. It were endless to run over the rest;
but they are all of the same Stamp: He has a heavy hand at
Fools, and a great felicity in writing Non-sense for them. Fools
they will be in spight of him. His King, his two Empresses,
20 his Villain and his Sub-villain, nay his Heroe have all a cer-
tain natural cast of the Father: one turn of the Countenance
goes through all his Children. Their Folly was born and bred
in 'em; and something of the Elkanah will be visible. Our
Poet in writing Fools, has very much in him of that Sign-post
Painter, who was famous only for drawing Roses; when a Vint-
ner desir'd him to paint him a Lyon, he answer'd he would do
it to content him, but he was sure it would be like a Rose.
Yet since the common Audience are much of his levell, and
both the great Vulgar and the small (as Mr. Cowly calls them)
so are apt to admire what they do not understand; (omne ig-
notum habent pro magnified) and think all which rumbles is
Heroick: It will be no wonder if he pass for a great Authour
amongst Town Fools and City Wits. With these Men, they
who laugh at him, will be thought envious, for they will be
sure to rise up in Arms for Non-sense, and violently defend a
cause, in which they are engag'd by the tyes of Nature and
6 Labasl] ~ 1 Q. 20 Heroe} Heroe Q.
86 Prose 1668-1691
Education. But it will be for the benefit of Mankind here-

after, to observe what kind of People they are, who frequent
this Play: that Men of common sense may know whom to
shun. Yet I dare assure the Reader, that one half of the faults
and absurdities are not shown; what is here, is only Selected
Fustian, Impertinence, and false Grammar. There is as much
behind as would reasonably damn as many Plays as there are
Acts: for I am sure there are no four Lines together, which
are free from some errour; and commonly a gross one. But
10 here is enough to take a tast of him: to have observ'd all, were
to have swell'd a Volume, and have made you pay as dear for
a Fools Picture, as you have done for his Tragedy with Sculp-
tures.
8 7]IQ.

ERRATA'S IN THE EPISTLE
My LORD, The Impudence of Scriblers, &c.

UR Poet to shew he has as little Manners as Wit, begins
O his Address to his Patron with Impudence, and in-
stead of making those humble and modest approaches
which become him to a person of his Patrons great quality,
he very saucily (as he phrases it) Attacks him, that is, mounts
his wooden Pegasus, and runs a tilt at him, or at best rides
cheek by jole by him, and makes his dumb Beast Wince and
Kick Dirt in the Face of all his fellow Impudent Scriblers,
10 whom he looks down with much contempt upon, as Rascalls
not worthy to hold his Stirrup, nor to walk by his Horse sides,
whilst he keeps company with Princes. Whence arises this
mighty pride? is it the extraordinary mettle of his Beast, the
rich trappings of his Muse, the splendid equipage he rides in,
that makes him thus scorn the poor Hackney Jades of other
Scriblers? I am afraid the following page will prove the con-
trary; nay, I need go no further then his own confessions in this
Epistle; so that for all that I can perceive, he is but a Jackanapes
a Horse-back, that because his prances and makes sport to the
20 people, is proud of being ridiculous, and enviously bites his
fellow Jackanapes that would fain get a Horse-back as well as
himself. But what is it that he accuses his fellow Scriblers of?
The Impudence, &c. has so corrupted the Original design of
Dedications, that before I dare tell you this trifle begs your
Lordships Protection, I ought first to examine on what grounds
I make the Attack; for now every thing that e're saw the Stage,
how modest soever it has been there, without daring to shew Us
zz accuses] excuses Q.
88 Prose 1668-1691
face above three days, has yet the arrogance to thrust it self into
the World in Print, with a great name before it where
the Fawning Scribler shall compendiously say &c. And
thus a Dedication which was formerly a present to a Person of
Quality, is now made a Libell on him, whilst the Poet either
supposes his Patron so great a Sot, as to defend that in Print
which he hist off the Stage, or makes himself a greater in ask-
ing a favour from him which he ne're expects to obtain.
This is the sum of his Accusation, and of the first part of his
10 Epistle. To let pass the Non-sense of corrupting the Original
design of Dedications; as if one mans designs could corrupt an-
others, and of a Dedication which was a present becoming a
Libell, as if Dedications were like Ale in Summer, the same
Dedication which was a present, could sowre into a Libell;
The sense of the whole is this: Impudent Scriblers, that is,
Sawcy and Foolish Writers, by making great persons patronize
their damn'd Plays; that is, by Attacking them with Trifles,
make all Dedications so suspected for Libells; that he dares not
Attack his Patron with his Trifle, before he tells him on what
20 grounds he does it, least he should be thought a Libeller as well
as they. One would think by the horrid bluster that he made
at Starting, the sawcyness wherewith he demeans himself all
along in his Epistle to so great a person as his Patron, the con-
tempt he shews to his poor fellow Scriblers, strutting and crow-
ing over them at the rate he does, that for certain he must be
some extraordinary inspired mortal, his Play some very tran-
scendent piece, and his Dedication so secure from being a Li-
bell, that (to speak in his own phrase) he infinitely obliges his
Patron to condescend to grant him that honour. But alas! this
30 Huff, like all those in his Play, dwindles, when examin'd, into
non-sense or nothing. Here all that he has to say against the
poor Wretches is, that they are so sawcy and impudent as to
Attack great persons with Trifles, and yet confesses he do's the
same; and this he takes a great deal of pains to prove is plain
Libelling of them, and by consequence (though he is so silly as
not to see it) is industrious to prove himself a Libeller and
n-i2 aiiolliers, anil] ~ . And Q.
impudent Scribler. And (as there is always sure to be Non-sense

in the tayle of all his huffs) All that he has to say for himself is,
that he has grounds for what he do's, as if any one could have
grounds for Libelling a Person of Honour. For taking Libell in
the strictest and most proper signification, to say a Man has
grounds to write a Libell of any one, is to say, he has grounds
to write a paper full of Scandalous lyes of him, which non-
sensically infers the lyes he writes of him are true. But suppose
he will take Libell in the largest signification, that is, only a
10 scandalous paper, then the more grounds he brags of, the worse
he makes the business. Such a Pur-blind Animal is our Poet,
that he cannot see to the end of his own sentences, but before
he gets half way, knocks his foolish head against some non-
sense, inconvenience, contradition or other. But he will say, I
take him up before he is down, by Trifle he means modest
Trifles that never durst show their Faces upon the Stage above
three days; As if a Fool, whether modest or sawcy, were not a
Fool. A Fool is a Fool, and a Trifle is a Trifle, whether modest
or impudent; and the more impudent the worse. And I am sure
20 his is an impudent Trifle, that being so wretched a one, durst
not only shew its Face upon a Court Stage, but after dedicate it
self to a Person of so great quality and honour as its Patron, and
had the impudence to begin that very Dedication with Impu-
dence; this is Impudence upon Impudence. I but still you
mistake him, he intends not when he calls his Play a Trifle, that
you should be so dull as to think it so, he only says this to get a
Complement. Then I shall for once disappoint him, and take
him at his word, and by the following pages prove it the most
non-sensical and ridiculous Trifle that ever was written; and
ao himself an impudent Scribler, that not only has corrupted the
Original design of Dedications, but of all Verse and Tragedy.
For whereas the design of Verse is to please the Ear with the
Chime and Musick cf it; and of Tragedy to move Admiration
and Passion; he by his blundering hobling Verse, disagreeing
and (to imitate his non-sense) almost never-riming rime, has
made all Verse ridiculous; and by his foolish, barbarous, and
23-24 Impudence;] ~ / , Q.
go Prose 1668-1691
unnatural Characters, impossible Designs, childish Turns and

Tricks; and these clothed with intolerable Fustian, nauseous
and senseless Huffing, endless Tautology, and palpable Non-
sense, has debased Tragedy to farce, and accordingly upon the
ridiculous mirth of it, depends the sole success this merry
Tragedy has had among Fools. So that by all his Wincing and
Floundring to dash out the Teeth of others, he has but bemired
and bogged himself. Others he calls pawning Scriblers, and
confesses himself an impudent Attacker. Others if the worst
10 come to the worst, do but make Sots of themselves, in asking
favours of their Patrons which they never expect to obtain, for
that is the only horn of his Dilemma that he can hurt his weak
brethren with; and if they must be gored the wound will not
be mortal: for I hope any one may if he please make bold with
himself. But it is apparent by his arrogance, he neither thinks
nor designs to make himself a Sot: then to turn his own horn
upon him, it is as apparent from his own confession, how bold
he makes with the favour of his Patron, and how guilty he
is of that very Impudence he so much rails against. Ayl
20 But he says he has grounds for it. This indeed seems to be a
pretty Riddle, and well worth examining, that he should have
grounds for being Impudent. And he Apologizes finely, to
confess that truly he is very Sawcy and Affronting in making an
Attack with such a Trifle, but he has reason for it: I cannot
devise how he will prove it; but I am sure the more reasons
he brings for his Sawcyness, the more Sawcy he is, so ill does he
mend the matter. However, I long to see what these reasons are;
and it is high time we came at them; for he promised in the be-
ginning of the Epistle, that he would examin them the first
so thing he did, so careful was he then to show his good Breeding;
and it is one point of Manners to perform what one promises,
especially to great People; but his memory it seems is very
short; for he has no sooner made the promise, but he instantly
forgets it, and spends above half his Epistle in silly railing,
without so much as once mentioning the grounds he promised,
as it is always the manner of fools to talk a great while about
nothing, before they come to the point. But now we shall have
them.
But my Lord, whilst I trouble you with this kind of

discourse, 7 beg you would not think I design.
Ridiculous Poet, does he think so great a Person as his
Patron troubles himself with the foolish designs of such a
Wretch? He begs to be thought considerable.
To give rules to the Press, as others have done to the
Stage.
No, Heaven forbid he should, they would be miserable
Rules, his Printing would be like his Writing; he would do by
10 Letters as he does by Words, take any that comes next, as he puts
Breath for the Mind, Hands for the Tongue, Eyes for the Nose,
ire. and makes an unintelligible Poetical cant: so he would A
for B; and B for C, and let any body read his Cant that could.
Or that I find fault with their Dedications in Com-
plement to my own: No, that's a Trick I do not
pretend to.
Our Authour continues his good Manners: He talks of noth-
ing throughout the Epistle, but Impudence, Fawning Scriblers,
compendious Sots and Tricks. He behaves himself rather like
20 some malapert Country Justice upon the Bench, in equal
Commission with the Judge, and examining fawning Scriblers
with Authority, then a poor Poet at the Feet of a great Person,
on whose favour he depends. And now having all along rail'd
at Scriblers and Dedicators of bad Plays, indited all such for
Libellers, proved e'm by dint of Logick Compendious Sots,
and yet after all, having foolishly confessed himself guilty of
the same Crimes, fearing by consequence that he had intangled
himself in his own Nooze; and that if he in so plain a Case
could bring himself off, he must be suspected to deal in strange
so tricks of Legerdemain, he replies very peartly, No, my Lord,
no such matter, I have no occasion for any Tricks, what I have
done I have grounds for, and the reason of my Attack was this.
And now we come full butt upon his Grounds:
Besides your particular favours in the publick honours you
have condescended to grant this Play, and its Authour, have
heightned my sense of Gratitude beyond my power of express-
n I beg] I beg Q. 12 be.] be, Q. 13 B for] B. for Q.
38 if he] he if Q.
g2 Prose 1668-1691
ing it. This Play, which for no other merit durst take Sanctuary
here, throws it self at your feet as your own, the Story of which
I owe to your hands, &c.
What a Medley of confounded stuff is here? in the publick
honours you have condescended; condescend honours is a new
and a very proper phrase. To grant this Play and its Authour,
have heightned my sense. Here he distinguishes betwixt him-
self and the Authour of the Play; if spoke with design, it is
the only thing in the Epistle that has Wit in it; for no one but
10 would be ashamed of owning such a Play; but there is very
little reason to think that is his design, and so I must place it
among the rest of his Fustian. Besides the publick honours
you have condescended have heightned: Here is have
have twice. And then what tolerable connexion is there
in the words? This Play which for no other merit, i.e, No other
merit then the honours condescended; he makes conferring of
honours to confer merit. Merit sometimes procures Honour,
but Honour never bestows Merit. For no other merit durst take
Sanctuary: I had thought People had used to take Sanctuary for
20 Guilt and not for Merit. Poor Morocco, heaven knows, is
much injured to be so accused of Merit, that in a great fright it
must take Sanctuary to be protected from it. Durst take Sanctu-
ary here, throws it self at your Feet. Take Sanctuary here:
where? at your Feet; then it is Tautology. This Play, which for
no other merit durst take Sanctuary at your feet, does take Sanc-
tuary at your Feet. If not at your feet, where then? I am sure the
foot is the fitting'st place for such Stuff, and yet by the Authours
arrogance, he rather seems to aim at the crown of the head;
and yet such non-sense should not choose the Head for Sanctu-
30 ary of all parts of the body; I am sure no Head but his own
but would be ashamed to give it Sanctuary. There is another
part of the body which his Plays and Scribbles would be more
useful to. Throws it self at your feet as your own. This is the
greatest piece of Saucyness and Arrogance we have met with
yet, to accuse his Lordship of being the Authour of his damn'd
Play. Cannot a great Person take a little pitty of a Fool, but he
33 to] too Q.
must be charg'd with his Follies? I must confess it is hard for

one to stroke a Changling, and not be slavered. I£ the Play be
his Lordships, he is very sawcy to throw it at his feet, if it be
not, (which I think no one need dispute) he is more sawcy to
lay all his Bulls and Bombast to his charge. But perhaps he will
say, he means the Story only is his Lordships; The Story of
which I owe to your hands. What, did his hands tell the Story?
they say indeed that in Spain, persons that cannot get access
to each other to talk, have a knack of imparting their minds by
10 their fingers and thumbs; but this needed not to have been
used in this case. The too frequent access he has had to this
Great and Noble Person, is that which swells him to this ar-
rogance. Besides, if he owes the Story to his Lordships hands,
why does he pay it to his feet? This is robbing Peter to pay
Paul. Every thing that he does, as well as all he writes must be
incongruous. But I do also say, the Story is not his Lordships,
I mean as this Poet has manag'd it; for though I know not what
story he received, yet I am pretty sure it never was this barbar-
ous and ridiculous Tale that he has pester'd us with. He may
20 well tell his Lordship, he throws it at his Feet as his own: that
is, as it were his own; for I am confident it is nothing like it as
it came from him. And his Lordship needed that information
to know his own Story when he met it in that disguise. And he
was very patient when the Poet had the impudence to throw
his Story at his feet so abus'd and mangl'd, that he did not make
one of his Grooms to throw him there after it. But now to col-
lect, if possible, out of this heap of Rubbish, the grounds we
heard so much talk of: The sum total amounts to no more then
this: the honours condescended, &c. Favours from a Person of
so Honour, are incomparable grounds for being Sawcy with him.
Truly, ingenious Men they use to render more modest and
submissive; but Fools it seems more arrogant. And this
heightned his sense of Gratitude beyond his power of express-
ing it. And this so transported our Poet, he has not been able
to speak one wise word. Poor Poetl he has it seems a very
weak head, he cannot bear a little favour, but he must presently
29 &c.]~AQ.
94 Prose 1668-1691
be intoxicated; and in his Drink he has another infirmity, to be

Sawcy. But is this all he has to brag of? Other Scriblers for
ought he knows may be fuddled with Favour, and sawcy in their
Drink as well as he; and then why must they be jerked and he
be stroked: What equity is there in that? This it is to give a
Babboon Brandy, twenty to one but he sawcily Attacks you.
I have tyred my self and I fear my Reader, with raking into
the endless absurdities of this Epistle; there are many more, al-
most as many as words; but I shall but touch at some few, and
10 the next that offers it self, is I think worth observing.
I present it to your Patronage, as the Jews made their Sacri-
fices, which we read took Fire from Heaven: the Incence was
lighted by that Divinity to whom it was offered.
Here he compares presenting to making, and has Tautology
upon Tautology, Made and Offered, Fired and Lighted, Heaven
and Divinity, and which is most gross of all, Incence and
Sacrifice must be added to the Tautology: for it is apparent he
takes 'em to be the same. He says he presented it, as the Jews
made their Sacrifices, which we read took fire from Heaven.
20 How did the Jews make such Sacrifices? Answ. The Incence was
lighted by the Divinity to whom it was offer'd. Besides, the
absurdity of saying the same thing over again, as if I should
ask one how the paper came to be blotted, and he should
answer me by blotting the paper; It further appears he takes
them to be the same, by his saying that of Incence which was
only true of Sacrifice: for Sacrifice indeed did take Fire
from Heaven, but Incence it is known, had a distinct Altar
appointed for it, and if he would but have vouchsafed to have
looked into the Bible, he might have found Incence was lighted
BO by the Priest, with a Coal from the Altar of Sacrifice; but I
suppose he avoids reading the Bible, as he says he does other
books, for fear of spoiling his Fancy. I do not wonder he can-
not distinguish betwixt Sense and Bulls, since he knows no
difference betwixt Frankincence and Myrrh, and Sheep and
Oxen. To imitate his non-sense in presenting this Play to his
18 Jews] Jews Q. 33 came] come Q.
Noble Patron, he offers up the Incence of whole Hecatombs

of Bulls in Sacrifice to him.
Thus has your Lordship shewed your self so great a Friend
to the Muses, that as in former Ages, when all that is left of
a Maecenas be.
That as in former Ages when all that is left of
This Poet sure never learnt his Accidence, no ten lines pass
him without false English; but he does by Tenses as he does
by Words and Sentences, put 'em together Higglety Pigglety,
10 first that come into his head first served, and what stuff they
make when they come together he is unconcerned at.
Your influence on the contrary makes the Poet.
With all respect to his Honourable Patron be it spoken: if
he did make this Poet, he is not the best Poet-maker in Eng-
land; but he does it like a Gentleman, only for his Divertise-
ment. I thought the Poet was not of Natures making he is so
awkard a piece. But perhaps this is that Honourable Persons
first Essay, the next Poet he is pleased to make, perhaps will
be better. 'Ere I let this pass, I must beg pardon, if tracing
20 the footsteps of this Impudent Scribler, I use any unfitting
freedom; but I am thrust upon it by my Authour, whose non-
sensicall and arrogant Epistle, like a Fanatick Prayer is hard
to expose without seeming profaneness, and entrenching upon
things that are Sacred.
And if this Play live or have success enough to preserve a
Name, 'tis by being your Creature, and enjoying your Smiles.
Then the Play will live and live Merrily; for it is impossible
for any one to abstain from Smiling that ever sees or reads it,
it is so pleasant a Tragedy. Will. Doll the Sculptor too, has a
so little helped on the Mirth with his Sculptures, if the charge of
'em like the double rates at Foolish operaes, does not spoil the
Mirth among our Poets upper Gallery Friends, and make 'em
see his Plays with Smiles upon their Brows, as in the fourth
Act he makes his Queen-Mother meet Death, that is with
Frowns. But that which is an abuse to them is a Complement
5 a] S; is that Q. 8 English] English Q. 23 to] ro Q.
96 Prose 1668-1691
to the Book-Seller, who whisper'd the Poet and told him, Sir,
your Play had misfortune, was thought a little non-sensical,
and all that but if you would be at the charge of a Sculp-
ture or two the Poet takes the hint; lets the Book-seller
(as 'tis said) pick his Pocket and all that 'Tis not
to be imagin'd how far a Sculpture or two at the Poets charge,
goes to make the Book-seller Rich, and the Poet Ridiculous. I
will conclude my observations on this Epistle with four lines
of our Poets.
10 Kings Bounties act like the Suns courteous Smiles,
Whose rayes produce kind Flowers on fruitful Soiles;
But cast on barren Sands and baser Earth,
Only breed poysons, and give Monsters Birth.
I will not engage in the non-sense of these lines, my buis-
ness here being only to return his Simile upon him, and leave
the examination of the non-sense of the expression to another
place, it being too much for this, witness the plenty contained
but in the first line.
Kings Bounties act like the Suns courteous Smiles.
20 He calls a Smile courteous, and says a Kings Bounty acts like
a Smile; it had been more like sense to have said Kings in their
bounties act like Smiles; and yet it had been ridiculous enough
to compare a King to a Smile. But I observe our Poet is much
delighted with Smiles, and they are things that have great
power over him.
In his Epilogue to Cambises, he begg'd Smiles to help him
to write a Play.
Faith for once grant it, that the World may say,
Your Smiles have been the Authour of a Play.
so In this Epistle he begs his Patrons Smiles to preserve his
Play. And in his Epilogue to this Play he begs Smiles in gen-
eral for the Scribling Trade.
So your kind Smiles advance the Scribling Trade.
Oh: Witty Smiles, what cannot Smiles do? write Plays, pre-
serve Plays, and advance Play-making! sure Smiles cannot but
be very proud of themselves. But I doubt our Poet means he
1i rayes] S; race Q.
will write the Plays, and Smiles shall have the credit of them;
an excellent Whedle! Truly if Smiles get no more credit by
their Plays, then they get by Morocco, Smiles will give over
Smiling, or Smile upon the Brow; which is worse. And I be-
lieve Smiles cannot but be vext, that they were drawn in to
be the Authours of a Play, since it was such a wretched one. A
barbarous thing it is of the Poet, with his non-sense to force
Smiles to Smile, and then accuse Smiles of all his non-sense. If
this be the trade, there will be no end of Smiling and Non-
10 sense; for his Non-sense will beget Smiles, and Smiles will
beget Non-sense, and so to the end of the Chapter, unless Smiles
convinced of the evil consequence contain themselves though
never so much provok'd. But to apply his Simile: As the Suns
rates cast on fruitful Soils produce Flowers, but on barren
Sands and baser Earth only breed Monsters and Poisons,
(where by the way it is hard to find any baser Earth then bar-
ren Sands, nor are those Sands properly barren that produce
poisons, nor the Womb that breeds Monsters, but the Sands
or Womb that produce nothing) So the favours of persons of
20 Honour and Generosity cast on ingenious Men, encourage
them to produce excellent things, and are bestowed for the
advantage of the World; but thrown away on such unimprov-
able Dunces as this, only produce such things as they say are
bred of Sun and Slime in SF.gypt, things half Mud and half
Monster, and such another thing is this Play, a thing made up
of Fustian and non-sense, which with much ado, after two years
painful hatching, crawl'd out of the muddy head where it was
engendred.
19 nothing] ~ . Q.
g8 Prose 1668-1691
T
HE Reader is desired to take notice, that in the Observa-
tions on the Plot and Conduct of the Play the last
sheet is missing, being lost in the Press; and that the
faults of the Fourth and Fifth Acts are not observed there;
which were as gross and considerable as any in the Play: But
if the Poet be not of that Opinion, I promise to make him
satisfaction another time. There are likewise many Errata's not
marked, which the Reader may discern not to be the Authors.
[Tlie errata listed have been corrected in this edition.]
Errata note: The Reader . . . the Authors.] cancellans slip (Authors,); ERRATA,
original text.
THE FIRST ACT
Condemn'd to Fetters, and to Scepters born.

HAT we may know what to expect, our Poet stuffs non-
T sense in the very first Line of his Play; and condemns
his simple Mulylabas before he was born. To have said
he had a knock in his Cradle, had been good sense, and every
one would have believed it; but to damn him to Fetters before
he was so much as in Swadling-cloaths, is very severe. But this
kind of Figure is frequent with our Poet, who not only damns
People before they die, as Pluto in the Masque does Orpheus,
10 Thy Breath has damn'd thee, thou shalt die,
but before they are born, and Routs Armies before they fight,
as if our Poets Plays should be damn'd before they were made;
to say our Poet is a damn'd Poet, is not only Sense but Truth;
but to say his Plays are damn'd Plays before he writes them, is
I think as great non-sense as any he can write.
'Tis in this Garb unhappy Princes mourn.
Fetters are the Crape, the Purple, or what you will, that
Princes mourn in, or else Princes are out of humour, and
mourn when they are in Fetters.
20 Yet Fortune to great Courages is kind.
Here he makes the King call himself a Man of small Cour-
age; for immediately before he makes him complain of his Fet-
ters, and by consequence of Fortunes unkindness to him, and
here he says,
Yet Fortune to great Courages is kind.
An excellent Character of a King both Fool and Coward.
But perhaps he means Fortune is kind to great Courages in
their very misfortunes; and then it is absolute non-sense. That
is; Great Courages though unfortunate, are fortunate.
so 'Tis he wants liberty whose Soul's conftn'd.
Then all the people in the world want liberty; for all their
Souls are confm'd within their Bodies. But there is farther non-
8 our] out Q. n but] ^[Biit Q. 11-12 fight, as] fight. As Q.
ioo Prose 1668-1691
sense in it; for this Line is design'd for a proof of the former,
else it is all empty Tautology.
'Tis he wants liberty whose Soul's confin'd.
He means not Corporal Liberty, it is plain; for his King who
speaks it, and who would fain proove (if he would speak sense)
that he does not want the nobler kind of Liberty which is that
of the Mind, yet confesses himself to want the former, and
shews his Fetters. And therefore the sense is, he who has a
confin'd Soul, has a confin'd Soul. But if it relates to the for-
10 mer Line, there is this non-sence in it.
Yet Fortune to great Courages is kind;
'Tis he wants liberty whose Soul's confin'd.
'Tis apparent, that great Courages and unconfm'd Souls are
here the same thing, and then the sence is this: Great Cour-
ages, or unconfin'd Souls are unconfin'd by the kindness of For-
tune; that is, great Courages are valiant by chance or by good
luck.
What stuff may not a silly unattending Audience swallow,
wrapt up in Rhime; certainly our Poet writes by chance, is
20 resolv'd upon the Rhime before hand, and for the rest of the
Verse has a Lottery of words by him, and draws them that
come next, let them make sense or non-sense when they come
together he matters not that; and his luck is so bad, that he
seldom hits upon any that agree any more, than so many Men
of several Languages would do.
My thoughts out-fly that mighty Conqueror,
Who having one World vanquisht, wept for more,
Fettefd in Empires, he enlargement crav'd,
To the short walk of one poor Globe enslav'd,
30 My Soul mounts higher, and fates power disdains,
And makes me Reign a Monarch in my Chains.
To pass by the non-sense of enslaving a Man to a walk, and
to the walk of a Globe, a thing so improper for a walk, that a
Woman upon a Globe is the Embleme of Fortunes incon-
stancy; a Globe being a thing that no one can with ease so
much as stand upon; and to the walk of a poor Globe, as if
there could be poverty in a Globe; the whole is unintelligible
Fustian. He brings in his foolish King, after he had as good as

contest himself a Man of mean Courage, preferring himself be-
fore Alexander the Great, but no body can tell in what. He says
his thoughts out-fly that mighty Conqueror; that mighty Con-
queror never pretended to flying that I know. But I suppose he
means his thoughts out-fly that mighty Conquerors thoughts;
and then wherein? In this it seems; Alexanders thoughts were
too big for the World, and Mulylabas his for a Prison. As if he
should say: He scorned the World, but I scorn a Goale, he
10 scorned Empires, but I scorn Fetters, I am a greater Man than
he, because he was a greater Man than I; and my thoughts out-
fly his, because his out-flew mine.
Thy rage brave Prince mean Subjects does despise;
None but thy Son shall be thy Sacrifice.
A pretty Character Mulylabas gives of his Father: A mali-
cious and bloody Man that must hate and murder some body,
he could not tell whom nor why; but since it must be some
body, he scorns it should be any one inferiour to his Son.
This dazling Object my weak sight invades.
20 That is, this dazling Object comes before my sight, and my
weak Eyes make a shift to see it.
Such Beauty would make Dungeons lose their Shades.
Shades for darkness.
Remember Sir, when first you were a guest
To Taffaletta'j Court, and to my Breast.
A new way of Courtship to a Mistress, to become a Guest to
her Breast.
That I fond Woman in a borrow'd shape.
It seems she begins to repent her bargain, and no wonder,
so marrying such a Fool, and yet I admire she should discover it,
for she was as errand a Fool as he, and accordingly she talks
non-sence all along.
Was a Conspirator in my own Rape.
By consequence it was no Rape.
Heir only to an unkind fathers frown.
She is Heir apparent to her fathers frowns. By our Common
Law, which the Poet by an expression in the fourth Act would
loa Prose 1668-1691
make us believe is in force at Morocco, she can be but Execu-

trix or Administratrice; for frowns can be but reckoned among
Goods and Chattels at the best, and how can she be possessed
of this Estate, and her Father leave these frowns behind him
after his death, I cannot understand.
Our amorous flights like threatning Comets are,
Which thus draw after 'urn, a Train of blood.
Here he compares an amorous thing to a threatning thing;
and a flight to a Comet, a motion to a substance. And this mo-
10 tion he calls an amorous motion: I know no motion but one
that can properly be called amorous; he has scarce so many
Syllables in his Lines as non-sensical meanings.
Now I recount the Scenes of our past storms.
To arme our fancy with more pleasing forms.
She will arm his fancy with a more pleasing form than the
Scene of a storm.
As Purgatory does make way for Heaven.
He makes Mahometans believe a Purgatory.
And has my Father, shall we then and are
20 Our Loves and Hopes Oh! my unruly Joy
The soft headed King is so blunder'd with Morena's non-
sense, that he cannot bring out a plain word.
And the same jealousie that made his breath
Decree your Chains, made him pronounce your death.
This Poet has so perverse a fancy, that he inverts the whole
order of nature; he will make people see with their Ears, and
hear with their Noses: Here he makes the old Emperour pro-
nounce with no body knows what, and contrive and decree
with his Breath. It is frequent with him to put one faculty
so upon an imployment which belongs to another. If he tells you
a man sees a thing, it is indifferent to him whether he tells you
he sees with his Eyes or his Nose. But he is not so large in his
Commissions to any thing as Breath. Here he makes Breath de-
i in force at] at force in Q. 7 draw] S; draws Q.
7 blood] S; blare Q (corrected in Errata). 16 storm.] ~ , Q.
18 Mahometans] Mahometans Q. 19 has] S; ha's Q.
20 As in S; divided after Hopes in Q (our).
27 hear with] hear wth Q.
cree. In the next Page he makes it Paint, Write, Print, Guild,

or something of that kind; for he says,
Whose couragious Breath,
Can set such glorious Characters on death.
Breath has Courage too, and in the second Act he makes it
hear.
Her gentle Breath already, from fust fame,
Has kindly entertain'd your glorious name.
In the third Act he gives it Regal Dominion, the Queen
10 Mother claims a supremacy above her Son the King, because
She gave him Breath by which he does command.
And yet she gave him not Breath neither; at most she gave
him but Lungs wherewith to breath, and the poor Fool might
have sound Lungs and yet be still-born. Nay in the same Act
he makes Breath transmigrate like Souls, and subsist after a
Mans death in Parchment and Paper,
For this guilt, our Prophets Breath,
Has in our sacred Laws pronounc'd your death.
It seems Mahomets Breath subsisted in his Books for above
20 a thousand years after his death, a very strange Miracle, and
could our Poet prove it to be true, he would do infinite service
to the Turkish Religion, and the Mufti could do no less than
procure him to be made a Mamamouchi. But I am afraid this
miracle, when all is done, is but a Cheat, is wholly subject to
faith, and not to sense; being indeed all non-sense: For the
Prophets breath subsists in the Book, and yet the Book I sup-
pose does not breath, as if sight could be in Eyes and yet Eyes
not see. To Conclude, breath can command the fates them-
selves. In the same Act the Queen mother says,
so You see the fates do their allegiance know,
And to my powerfull breath their conduct owe.
It is pleasant to make a Queen brag of her strong breath.
But any thing to exalt breath. Oh! wonderfull Breath! what
canst thou not do? oh! Breath.
Life is a Debt we to our Parents owe.
7 already, . . . fame,] S; already . . . fame. Q.
9 he gives] he gives he gives Q.
104 Prose 1668-165? z
Parents should have power of life and death over their Chil-
dren as he argues.
No shape of ill can come within her Sphere.
I would fain know what part of a Woman her Sphere is. It
seems Morena's was a squeamish Sphere, and would admit no
shape of ill into it, or nothing of ill shape.
When e're she bleeds,
Pie no severer a damnation needs,
That dares pronounce the sentence of her death,
10 Than the infection that attends that breath.
That attends that Breath. The Poet is at Breath again,
Breath can never scape him; and here he brings in a Breath
that must be infectious with pronouncing a Sentence, and this
Sentence is not to be pronounced till the condemned party
bleeds; that is she must be executed first and sentenced after,
and the pronouncing of this Sentence will be infectious, that
is others will catch the disease of that Sentence, and this in-
fecting of others will torment a mans self. The whole is thus,
when she bleeds thou needest no greater Hell or Torment to
20 thy self, than infecting of others by pronouncing a Sentence
upon her. What hedge podge does he make here? Never was
Dutch Grout such Clogging, thick indigestible stuff; but this
is but a last to stay the Stomach, we shall have a more plentiful!
Mess presently.
Hold Sir, and your unmanly fears remove.
Morena here tells the King he is fearfull and unmanly, and
to speak in the Poets Phrase;
Like a weak animal of Mortal Race,
Affronts her Husband to's face.
so But now to dish up the Poets Broth that I promised,
For when we'r dead, and our freed Souls enlarged,
Of Natures grosser burden we are discharg'd.
Then gentle as a happy lovers sigh,
Like wandring Meteors through the Air we'I flie;
And in our Airy walk, as subtil Guests,
We'l steal into our cruel Fathers Breasts,
There read their Souls, and track each passions Sphere:
37 their] S; their Q.
See how Revenge moves there, Ambition here:

And in their Orbes view the dark Characters
Of Sieges, Ruins, Murders, Blood and Wars.
We'l blot out all those hideous draughts, and write
Pure and white forms; then with a radiant light
Their Breasts encircle, till their passions be
Gentle as Nature in its Infancy:
Till soften'd by our Charms their furies cease,
And their Revenge dissolves into a Peace.
10 Thus by our death their Quarrel ends,
Whom living we made Foes, dead we'l make Friends.
If this be not a very liberall Mess, I will refer my self to the
Stomach of any moderate Guest. And a rare Mess it is, far ex-
celling any Westminster White-broth. It is a kind of Giblet
Porridge, made of the Giblets of a couple of young Geese,
stodg'd full of Meteors, Orbes, Spheres tract, hideous Draughts,
dark Characters, White Forms, and Radiant Light, and de-
signed not only to please Appetite, and indulge luxury, but it
is also Physical, being an approved Medicine to purge Choler;
20 for it is propounded by Morena as a Receipt to cure their
Fathers of their Cholerick Humours; and were it written in
Characters as barbarous as the words, might very well pass for
a Doctors Bill. To Conclude, it is Porridge, 'tis a Receipt, 'tis
a Pig with a Pudding in the belly, t'is I know not what; for
certainly never any one that pretended to write sense, had the
impudence before to put such 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 ex-
pose it to the examination of the World. But let us see what
so we can make of this stuff.
For when we'r dead and our freed Souls enlarg'd.
Here he tells us what it is to be dead; it is to have our free'd
Souls set free. Now if to have a Soul set free is to be dead, then
to have a free'd Soul set free, is to have a dead man die.
Then gentle as a happy lovers sigh.
They two like one sigh, and that one sigh like two wandring
16 Meteors] Metiers Q. 25 write] wtite Q. 30 stuff.] ~ , Q.

io6 Prose 1668-1691
Meteors, [Shall fly through the Air.] That is, they shall mount
above like falling Stars, or else they shall skip like two Jacks
with Lanthorns, or Will with a Wisp, and Madge with a Can-
dle. [And in their Airy walk steal into their cruel fathers
Breasts, like subtile Guests.] So that their Fathers Breasts must
be in an Airy walk, an Airy walk of a Flyer. [And there they
will read their Souls, and track the Spheres of their Passions]
That is, these walking Flyers, Jack with a Lanthorn, ire. will
put on his Spectacles and fall a reading Souls, and put on his
10 Pumps and fall a tracking of Spheres, so that he will read and
run, walk and fly at the same time! OhI Nimble Jack. [Then
he will see how Revenge here, how Ambition there] The Birds
will hop about. [And then view the dark Characters of Sieges,
Ruines, Murders, Blood, and Wars in their Orbes] Track the
Characters to their formsl Oh, rare sport for Jack! Never was
place so full of Game as these Breastsl You cannot stir but you
flush a Sphere, start a Character, or unkennel an Orbel [Then
we'l blot out those hideous Draughts, and write Pure and
White Forms] Now Jack must out with his Pen and Ink, and
20 fall a scribling of White Forms with intent I suppose to Con-
jure the Game. [Then incircle their Breasts with radiant light,
till their Passions be gentle as nature in its Infancy.] Now Jack
must round the bush with his Lanthorn, till the Birds are so
dead he may take them up with his hand: Or to speak in our
Poets Phrase, [As gentle as Nature in its Infancy,] which in
the latter end of the Third Act he says was [wild, savage and
strong;] but I suppose he means as gentle, as wild, savage and
strong things can be; as if I should say his Play is as full of
sense as a Play all non-sense can be. [Then soften'd by our
so Charms their furies cease, &c. ] Now Jacks sport is at
an end, and the old people are quiet: No wonder they were
troublesome when they had all this bustle in their Bellies, and
now Jack and Madge may go marry. But me thinks these are
a kind of humoursome people, both Fathers and Children, that
i Meteors,] /^/ . Q. 4 fathers] sathers Q.

7 Passions.] ~/A Q. 10 he] he we Q. 19 White] Write Q.
ai Breasts] Breast Q. 25 as Nature] Nature as Q.
«5 Infancy,] which] Infancy.] Which Q. 34 Children] Childten Q.
the fathers will not be reconciled, nor their Children marry,

till the Children are become Ignes fatui; Helena, Castor and
Pollux's fiery Whirlegiggs, and no body knows what. By all
these Orbes, Characters, hideous Draughts, be. it seems as if
our Poet would set up for a Teutonique Philosopher, a second
Jacob Behmen, and because he is conscious to himself he can-
not write any tollerable sense; he subtilly wraps up empty and
insignificant stuff in big and barbarous Phrases, to confound
people, and make them believe he conceals some notable mean-
10 ing, which they cannot discover. But the best of it is, all that
know our Poet are sufficiently assured, he cannot be guilty of
so wise a Plot: And to Conclude, this is the best sense that he
can write. As this intollerable stuff has had the luck to please
some Fools, though of them but few: So it infinitely pleases
Mulylabas, who presently cries out [Oh! generous Princess!
whose couragious Breath, &c.] Oh, witty Creature! What fine
whim whams and Conumdrums hast thou in thy Head? And
thus he proceeds in his senseless transports.
The antient world did but too modest prove
20 In giving a Divinity to love.
A Divinity is a trifling thing! Love ought to have been
something above a Divinity, though what thing that is no
body can tell; for it has no name, neither indeed can there
such a thing be, yet that thing Love is, whether such a thing
can be or no, and that for this most excellent Reason.
Love the great power of th' higher world controuls:
Heaven but creates, but love refines our Souls.
The very Reason that proves directly the contrary; for cer-
tainly to Create is much more than to Refine; but thus does
so our Poet perpetually argue, when he offers at reasoning, as if
his Brains were turn'd the wrong side outward, and the whole
world appeared chim cham to him, perfectly contrary to what
it is.
Hold! your tears
Confound my hopes, Oh! my presaging fears!
a fatui] fatnus's Q (corrected in Errata). 6 Behmen] Bhemen Q.
8 Phrases] Phrase Q (corrected in Errata). 13 write.] ^ , Q.
*i trifling] triflling Q. 34 Hold! your tears] S; Hold your tears, Q.
io8 Prose 1668-1691
Has he? it cannot be! Has he decreed?

Morena must not, no she shall not bleed.
This King has a strange infirmity in his Speech, and like
some other Fools that I know is perpetually stammering. Per-
haps our Author thinks it an Ornament; no wonder if he
makes such ridiculous Characters when he Copies himself.
Just as he sate
Pronouncing yours, and your Morena's fate:
A sudden check his hasty breath controul'd,
10 He startled, trembled, and his Eye-balls rowld:
His wandring fears, his unshap'd thoughts supply'd
With horrors; Then Mulylabas he cryed,
Forgive what my mistaken rage has done,
In peace possess thy Mistress, and my Throne.
Then with his dying Breath his Soul retir'd,
And with a sullen sigh his life expir'd.
This Relation agrees not so much as in one passage, with
the Relation Crimalhaz makes in the very next Page.
She says he dyed sitting. Just as he sate, &c.
20 He says he dyed standing.
Up from his seat he rose, and sighing cryed,
Oh! unkind Lawla, and then groan'd and dyed.
She sayes, Mulylabas he cryed,
Forgive what my mistaken rage
He sayes, He sighing cryed,
Oh! unkind Lawla, Sec.
It is hard to know which of these two we should believe,
for both of them were protest Lyers, and their Authorities of
very little value. The King is like to suffer by the bargain; for
so the old Emperor bequeathed Morena to him, but the two prin-
cipal Witnesses that were present disagreeing so vastly in their
Testimony, he can never be able to prove the Will. Besides the
disagreement betwixt this Relation and the other, I must also
take notice of the non-sense in it.
His wandring fears, his unshap'd thoughts supplyed
With horrors.
i decreed?} ~A Q; ~ S. 12 honors;] S; /WA Q.
32 Testimony] Testimouy Q. 32 Besides] ~ , Q.
That is, fear made him horribly fearfull.

Then with his dying Breath his Soul retired,
And in a sullen sigh his life expir'd.
That is, just as he dyed, he dyed, and when he dyed his Soul
expired, his life retired, and he dyed.
The Emperour dead! and with his dying breath.
He has met again with his darling word Breath: He has it
up no less than three times in nine Lines. He could almost
wish there were no other word in our Language: And to shew
10 'tis all out of pure kindness, any other word would serve turn
as well in most of the places where he uses it, but Breath is the
favourite Syllable, and it shall come in, whether it signifies any
thing or nothing; and if you do not like it he cares not, he
will not part with his babble to please your humour.
For those just tears which nature ought t'imploy,
To pay my last Debt to his memory,
The Crowning of my passion disallows,
Grief slightly sits on happy lovers brows.
Here he makes Mulylabas so overjoyed for Moreno, that he
20 has but little sense of his Fathers death; in his next Speech he
absolutely contradicts it.
Enjoy a Throne, and my Morena wed,
A Joy too great, were not my Father dead.
Here his great Sorrow for his fathers death, allays his Joy for
Morena. Like a Scaramouche he laughs on one side of his Face,
and cries on the other. His Passions are at Leap-frog within
him; Joy jumps over Grief, and Grief jumps over Joy, and
keep such a tumbling within him, that in great disorder he
breaks out into the most unintelligible piece of non-sense that
so ever he spoke yet.
Heaven fits our swelling Passions to our Souls.
If every word had been Spheres, Breath, Infection, Orbes,
White Forms, &c. the sense had been full as good as it is, and
so the Author might have met his Friends, and done no body
any hurt, but perhaps he thinks he mends it in the next Lines.
When some great Fortune to Mankind's conveigh'd,
16 memory,] S; ~ . Q. 25 on one] on Q.
31 swelling] S; squelling Q.
no Prose 1668-1691
Such blessings are by Providence allay'd:

Thus Nature to the World a Sun Creates;
But with cold Winds its pointed Rayes rebates,
That is, the Blessing of great Fortune, or the Fortune of
great Blessings are allayed by something, as here in Morocco
cool winds allay the Blessing of the scorching Sun.
The King is gone, and now that which pleases me infinitely
is, his Mother and Crimalhaz are plotting his death, but a very
odd kind of death they once designed him.
10 Thy early growth we in thy Chains had crusht,
And mixt thy Ashes with thy Fathers Dust.
A strange Engine it must be that can crush a Man to Ashes,
and as strange a Poison that can turn a Man to Dust in two
hours time, for it could be no longer since the Emperor was
Poisoned.
Poison'd my Husband, Sir, and if there need
Examples to instruct you in the deed:
I'le make my Actions plainer understood,
Copying his death on all the Royal Blood.
20 She will instruct him by an Example to do a deed that is
done; and by an Example that must be Copyed after his Ex-
ample, which he again is to Coppy: As if a Writing-Master
that were to teach me to Write should say, I will set you a
Coppy, which shall be written after your Coppy, to teach you
to write after my Coppy, the same words you have already
written in your own Coppy; which Coppy I Coppy, for you
to Coppy again. Ohl thou wretched Blunderheadl How con-
foundedly dost thou entangle thy Brain, and cannot wind off
it one clean Thread of Sense!
so I am a Convert, Madam, for kind Heaven
Has to Mankind Immortal Spirits given.
The Poet is at his Mock-reasons again. Crimalhaz is Con-
verted to Villany, (for that is the Poets Phrase) Because kind
Heaven has given Man an Immortal Spirit: That is, because
4 great Fortune] great Fortunne Q. 5-6 Morocco cool] Morocco. Cool Q.
7 Same paragraph in Q. 22 Coppy:] ~ . Q. 29 Sensel] ~ ? Q.
ga Crimalhaz] Chrimalhaz Q. 33 that is] that Q.
Notes and Observations in
having an Immortal Spirit there are some hopes of damnation,

and he opposes Heaven because Heaven is kind. He turns Vil-
lain for the very Reasons why he should be honest. But per-
haps the Poet will say he has a farther meaning in it; yes there
is more non-sense.
And Courage is their life, but when that sinks
Into tame fears, and Coward faintness shrinks,
We the great work of that bright frame destroy,
And shew the World that even our Souls can die.
10 Man has an Immortal Spirit, and Courage is the life of it,
now when Courage sinks and shrinks into tameness and faint-
ness, and tearfulness and Cowardise, then we shew that Im-
mortality can die. A pretty Riddle this. Riddle my Riddle,
when can Immortality become Mortal? When Courage be-
comes Cowardise, when an Egg becomes an Oyster.
And by such subtilty his Breast infect,
Till he his Generalls Loyalty suspect.
Hametalhaz says he will infect the Kings Breast with sus-
picion of his Generalls Loyalty, but no Man can infect an-
20 other with a Disease which he has not himself, or carries not
about him some way or other: Hametalhaz then must have
suspition of the Generalls Loyalty, or carry the Disease about
him, else he cannot infect the King with it, but this the Poet
never considers, but every thing is infectious with him. In this
Act Sentences are infectious; in the Fourth Act Earth, and
Earth infects Gold with Venome, and Venome infects people
with Rapes, be. All things are infectious but Wit and Sense,
and them he can catch from no body.
And to that pitch his heightned Virtues raise;
so That their perfection shall appear their Crime,
As Gyants by their heights do Monsters seem.
Crime and seem are excellent Rhime; to take notice of all
his damn'd Rhimes, as well as all his non-sense, would swell
up this Pamphlet to a Volume; and therefore I must pass by
5 be] by Q. 7 shrinks,] S; ~. Q. 13 this.] ^, Q.

14 Mortal? When] ~ , when Q. 17 he] S; be Q.
17 Loyalty] S; Loyally Q. 24 him. In] him, in Q.
112 Prose 1668-16gi
all the first, and only take notice of some of the latter.
Here he makes Gygantickness the perfection of Humane
Stature; and says Gyants are not Monsters, only seem so to
Mankind: By consequence all that are not Gyants are imper-
fect, if not Monsters.
Brave Crimalhaz thy Breast and mine agree,
Now thou art worthy of a Crown, and me.
He deserves a Crown and her, because he is a Villain and
talks non-sense. And their Breasts agree: How Breasts can agree
10 or quarrel, any more than Backs or Necks, I cannot tell.
We'l act his death in state.
How can one act anothers death? Perhaps the Queen Mother
will have a Play made of her Son, and she will Act in it. I
would to Heaven our Poet were sent for to Morocco to make
it, and to reward him, made Poet to Mariamne; then he would
be disposed of to his own content, and we should be troubled
with his non-sence no more.
We'l act his death in state,
And dash his Blood against his Palace Gate.
20 A stately thing to dash a Pale-full of Blood against a Palace-
Gate.
To Conclude this Act with the most rumbling piece of non-
sense that has been spoken yet,
To flattering Lightning our feign'd smiles conforms,
Which backt with Thunder do but guild a Storm.
Conforme a smile to Lightning; make a smile imitate Light-
ning, and flattering Lightning; Lightning sure is a threatning
thing, and this Lightning must Guild a Storm; now if I must
conform my smiles to Lightning, then my Smiles must guild
so a Storm too: To Guild with smiles is a new invention of
Guilding, and Guild a Storm by being backt with Thunder.
Thunder is part of the Storm; so one part of the Storm must
help to Guild another part, and help by backing; as if a Man
would Guild a thing the better for being backt, or having a
Load on his back, So that here is, Guilding by conforming,
Smiling, Lightning, Backing and Thundring. The whole is as
6 Crimalhaz] S; Chrimalhaz Q.
if I should say thus. 1 will make my counterfeit Smiles

look like a flattering Stone Horse, which being backt with a
Trooper, does but Guild a Battle. I am mistaken if non-sense
is not here pretty thick sowed. Sure the Poet writ these two
Lines Aboard some Smack in a Storm, and being Seasick,
Spued up a good Lump of clotted non-sense at once. They say
fancy is his Talent, I say writing non-sense; for no one in Eng-
land besides himself could have crowded so much in so little
room: With this Storm he concludes this Act, and presently
10 goes Aboard a Fleet in the beginning of the next.
THE SECOND ACT
HIS Act begins with the description of a great Fleet com-

T ing up a River, and Sailing to Morocco, an in-land
City, where Ships were never seen; and a great Army
is Aboard this Fleet; as if a Generall that had been at Sea with
Land Forces, to reduce some places upon the Shore, should
bring his Army after Victory up the River Thames. But all
these Absurdities must be committed for the sake of a descrip-
tion, which is of no more concern to his Plot than his Sculp-
tures are; but it is designed like them for Ornament, and Or-
20 naments they are alike. It is hard to say who has pictured Ships
worst, the Poet Elkanah, or the Sculpture-maker Will. Doll:
Of the two I think Will. Doll has done best; for he has
scratched out five things which look a little like Ships, (which
our Poet calls a glorious Fleet) but the things which the Poet
designs for Ships, are Pageants, Masques, things with instinct,
Animals, and no body knows what. And because some people
before this stuff was exposed had so little wit as to commend
it, to shew how much we may rely upon their Judgments an-
other time, I will examine every Line, and if there are two
18-19 Sculptures] Scnlptures Q. 25 instinct,] ~ A Q.
29 time,] — Q.
114 Prose 1668-1691
that afford us not either non-sense or Bombast, I will be

obliged to confide in their Judgments again.
Great Sir, your Royal Fathers Generall,
Prince Mulyhamets Fleet does homeward Sail.
Here he makes Mulyhamets Fleet to be the Old Emperours
Generall; and Generall of a Prince that is dead.
And in a solemn and triumphant Pride.
What is it to Sail in a Pride? and in a triumphant Pride?
then the Pride was Victorious before: So the Ships Conquered
10 with their Pride.
Their course up the great River Tensift guide.
They guide their course; that is, they steer themselves.
Whose Guilded Currents do new Glories take.
If the Currents were Guilded when they take new Glories,
then the Currents are double Hatcht.
From the reflection his bright Streamers make.
I thought the Water had made the reflection, and not the
Streamers; and his Streamers: That is, the Streamers of his Ex-
cellency the Fleet, the Old Emperours Generall.
20 The Waves a Masque of Martial Pageants yield.
The Waves yield a Masque; that is, the Masque is made of
the Waves, or the Waves produce a Masque; a new kind of
Ships built of Water.
A flying Army on a floating Field.
Flying is an excellent Epithete for a Victorious Army; but
now the Martial Pageants, which I took to be Ships, are a Fly-
ing Army: Our Fleet is sunk already, and turned into an Army.
Order and harmony in each appear.
In each? In what? in the Flying Army, the Waves, the
30 Masque, or the Floating Field?
Their lofty Bulks, the foaming Billows bear.
Now the Ships are Buoyed up again, and the foaming Bil-
lows bear their lofty Bulks; that is, the Water bears them. It
is no great News to us in England that Water should bear
15 Hatcht.] ~, Q. 18 of his] of this Q. 30 Field?] ~ . Q.
31 Sulks, the] S; Bulks, their Q.
Ships; but perhaps the River Tensift never bore any before;
and at Morocco they may admire how it should become Navi-
gable of a sudden to bear lofty Bulks; and yet it is a consider-
able River, for it has foaming Billows, and those more furious
than any in the Bay of Biscay, or Gulf of Florida; for they toss
Ships quite out of the Water.
In state they move, and on the Waves rebound.
To rebound on the Waves is to leap up from the Water into
the Air; and this rebounding he calls a stately Motion.
10 As if they danc'd to their own Trumpets sound.
Merry Ships that cut Capers as they Sail.
By winds inspired with lively Grace they rowl.
No doubt there may be great Grace in Rowling as the pos-
ture may be managed; but then Ships never Rowl but when
they are not inspired with Winds, that is in Calmes.
As if that breath and motion lent a Soul.
Here he makes the Effect produce the Cause. Whereas it is
a Soul that lends Breath and Motion he makes Breath and
Motion lend a Soul, as if sight could lend Eyes; if so, then
20 sight must be before Eyes.
And with that Soul they seem taught Duty too.
He takes it for granted Breath and Motion have lent a Soul,
and this Soul is lent by instruction, they are taught a Soul,
and with it taught Duty. And they are taught a Soul; that is,
they have one Soul among all.
Their Topsails Lowr'd, their heads with reverence bow.
That is, they put off their Caps and make Legs. Oh, man-
nerly Ships I
As if they would their Generalls worth enhance.
so That is, they make Legs to shew their Generalls Manners, or
the Generall make his Honours to the King with their Legs.
From him by instinct taught allegiance.
The instinct of a Ship. And the Ship learns by instinct, that
is, it learns from another, by having it naturally of it self. And
13 No] Now Q. ig not] not not Q. 16 motion] S; motion Q.
as have] has Q. 27 Legs.] ,~, Q. 33 Ship. And] Ship, and Q.
n6 Prose 1668—1691
it learns Allegiance, which it shews by bowing with reverence.

There is much Allegiance in making Legs.
Whilst the loud Cannons eccho to the Shore.
I thought the Shore should have ecchoed to the Cannons.
Their Flaming Breaths salute you Emperour.
An Odd way of Salutation, and as the Breath may be, an un-
pleasant one to salute with Breath.
From their deep mouths he does your Glory sing,
He sings Glory: And he sings with their mouths As if
10 one man could sing with another mans mouth. Perhaps the
Poet intends for excuse, that he studyed this non-sense with
another Fools Brains.
With Thunder and with Lightning greets his King.
With and with, and Salute, and Greet, and Breath and
Thunder, and Emperour and King; this is the hodge podge
we perpetually meet with. But the Poet perhaps makes a dis-
tinction betwixt Saluting and Greeting. Sea Captains do in-
deed observe differences in the manner of Saluting, according
to what it is they Salute, a Merchant Man, a Man of War, or
20 a Castle; but they know no difference between Saluting and
Greeting, or rather Greeting seems a very absurd Tearm, for
a Salutation at Sea. But the Poet seems to make it a higher
sort of Salutation; observing still their Rules in Saluting: For
if it be but an Emperour you meet with, then you are but to
Salute with Breath; that is, to flash in the Pan only: But if a
King, then Greet is the word, and you let off all the Thunder
and Lightning; that is, you fire all your upper and lower Teer;
for King is a more thundring Title than Emperour.
Thus to express his Joys in a loud Quire.
ao He serenaded the King with a Quire of Guns: Serenading
and Greeting are proper Sea Tearms.
And Consort of winged Messengers of fire.
Singers sure, and not Messengers make a Consort, and they
i reverence] revereuce Q.
9 mouths ] <•*.— Q. 11 he] he he Q.
30 serenaded . . . Serenading] serevaded . . . Serevading Q (corrected in Er-
rata).
make it with their Voices, and not with their Wings. And they
are winged Messengers of Fire: by this it should appear he shot
Bullets; for what else can he mean by Messengers of Fire? un-
less the Fire blew all the Guns in the Air; perhaps he means
every Corn of Powder was a winged Messenger, and if so, their
Wings must be small.
He has his Tribute sent and Homage given.
A Tributary Subject.
As Men in Incense send up vows to Heaven.
10 As if Incense could carry up Thoughts, or a Thought go up
in smoak: He may as well say he will Roast or Bake Thoughts
as smoke them. And the allusion too is very agreeable and
naturall. He compares Thunder, Lightning, and Roaring of
Guns to Incense: And says thus; he expresses his loud Joys
in a Consort of Thundring Guns, as Men send up silent Vows
in gentle Incense. If this description be not plentifully sup-
plyed with non-sense, I will refer my self to the Reader. No
doubt it was worth our Poets pains to cut a River up to Mo-
rocco, for the sake of such a description of Ships as this: A
20 rare and studyed piece it is. The Poet has imployed his Art
about every Line, that it may be esteemed a Curiosity in its
kind, and himself a person endowed with a peculiar Talent in
writing new and exact non-sense. And for this no doubt it was
that our Poet was so much courted, sent for from place to
place, that you could hardly cross a street, but you met him
puffing and blowing, with his Fardel of non-sense under his
arm, driving his Bulls in hast to some great person or other to
shew them, as if he had lately come out of Asia or Affrica with
strange kinds of Dromedaries, Rhinoceroses, or a new Cambises,
so a Beast more monstrous than any of the former, Nay, both the
Play-houses contended for him, as if he had found out some
new way of eating fire. No doubt their design was to entertain
the Town with a rarity. People had been long weary of good
sense that lookt like non-sense, and now they would treat 'um
with non-sense which yet lookt very like sense. But as he that
10 As] Is Q. 16 be] is Q (corrected in Errata).
17 to the] the Q. 33 People] Peo- Q (corrected in Errata).
118 Prose 1668-1691
pretended he would shew a Beast, which was very like a Horse,

and was no Horse, set people much admiring what strange Ani-
mal it should be; but when they came in, and found it was
nothing but a plain Grey Mare, laught a while at the conceit,
but were ready after to stone the Fellow for his Impudence:
So it must needs fare with our Poet, when his upper Gallery
Fools discover they have tricks put upon them, and all that
they have so ignorantly clapt, is downright non-sense. And for
my part I cannot but admire, that not only to those who know,
10 or at least have had time enough to learn, what sense is, but
also to a people who of all Nations in the World pretend to
understand best what belongs to shiping, our Poet should dare
to offer this Fustian for sense, and a description of Ships: A
description so ridiculous, that Mulylabas, as errant a Fool, and
as ignorant of Ships as he is, must needs discover that he is
abused; and that Ships cannot be such things as the Poet makes
them: But the Poet has not only been so Impudent to expose
all this stuff, but so arrogant to defend it with an Epistle; like
a sawcy Booth-keeper, that when he had put a Cheat upon the
20 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 a little the sharper,
I will not Transprose his Verse, but by the help of his own
words trans-non-sense sense, that by my stuff people may judge
the better what his is.
Great Boy, thy Tragedy and Sculptures done

From Press and Plates in Fleets do homewards run:
And in ridiculous and humble Pride,
Their Course in Ballet-singers baskets guide,
so Whose Greazy Twigs do all new Beauties take,
From the gay shews thy dainty Sculptures make.
Thy Lines a Mess of Rhiming non-sense yield,
A senseless Tale, with fluttering Fustian Fill'd.
No grain of sense does in one Line appear,
5 Impudence:] ^ . Q. 13 Ships:] ~. Q.
14 description] descrition Q. 27 and] and and Q.
27 homewards run] homeward come Q (corrected in Errata).
Thy words big bulks of boistrous bombast bear.

With noise they move, and from Players mouths rebound,
When their Tongues dance to thy words empty sound.
By thee inspired thy rumbling Verses rowl,
As if that Rhime and bombast lent a Soul:
And with that Soul they seem taught duty too,
To huffing words does humble non-sense bow,
As if it would thy worthless worth enhance,
To the lowest rank of fops thy praise advance.
10 To whom by instinct all thy stuff is dear;
Their loud claps eccho to the Theatre.
From breaths of Fools thy commendation spreads,
Fame sings thy praise with mouths of Loggerheads.
With noise and laughing each thy Fustian Greets,
'Tis clapt by Quires of empty headed Cits,
Who have their Tribute sent, and Homage given,
As men in whispers send loud noise to Heaven.
Thus I have daubed him with his own Puddle, And now
we are come from Aboard his Dancing, Masquing, Rebound-
20 ing, Breathing Fleet; and as if we had landed at Gotham, we
meet nothing but Fools and non-sense.
Sayes the King,
Wellcome true owner of the fame you bring,
A Conqueror is a Guardian to a King:
Conquest and Monarchy consistent are;
'Tis Victory secures the Crowns we wear.
An ingenious Speechl every Line in it rises, and is more
foolish than the other.
Wellcome true Owner.
so As if a Man could be a false Owner or have a wrong
right to a thing.
A Conquerour is a Guardian to a King.
Poor King! the Poet makes thee here confess thy self fit to be
beg'd for a Fool, and so chuse thy Cousin Mulyhamet for thy
Guardian. But perhaps the Poet has a deeper search in Poli-
5 Rhime] Rhim Q. 15 Cits,] ~ . Q.
s6 the other. ] other, Q.
ISO Prose 1668-1691
tiques, and would imply that that King who trusts a Subject
to Conquer for him, makes himself the Conquerours ward, and
deserves to be beg'd: But I doubt both Poet and King are
too much Fool to have so wise a meaning. The former therefore
must be the Poets design; and as if he had brought the King
before a Court to be tryed whether he could count five, tie a
Knot, and was fit to be beg'd or no, he makes him say,
Conquest and Monarchy consistent are.
A wise Apothegme! implying it is possible for a Monarch to
10 Conquer, or a Conquerour to be, or to serve a Monarch. And
the sense rises well too from the former Line. In the former he
had said, a Conquerour is a Kings Guardian, or protects a
King, and here he says he is consistent with a King; that is,
he is a brave fellow, and 'tis possible for him to be an honest
fellow: Just as if he had been askt, how many are the Five
Vowels, and he had answered almost five. Poor King! thou art
beg'd, there is no saving thy Estate; but perhaps the Poet thinks
he helps him in the next Line.
'Tis Victory secures those Crowns we wear.
20 Not at all! this Line is as silly as any of the rest. ['Tis Victory
secures!] That is, whilst we Conquer, we shall not be Con-
quered, and whilst we Conquer we are safe: As if he had been
asked, which was safer, to beat or to be beaten? and he answers,
'tis as safe a thing to beat as to be beaten. Now let us take the
whole Speech together. Wellcome, Oh! thou owner of thy
own Things! A Conquerour is a brave fellow, and guards his
King, and 'tis possible for him to be an honest fellow, and for
his King and him to agree; and whilst we beat others, others
will not beat us; and so we are safer than if we had been beaten.
so Mulyhamet, though a Conquerour, is Humble and Civil,
and to comply with the Kings weakness, answers in the same
kind of non-sense, cunningly (I suppose) to gain upon him, and
make him proceed in chusing him his Guardian, which yet was
his right, as being his near Cousin, and they have the same
Laws you know at Morocco, as we have.
zz safe:] ~ . Q. 83 safer,] ~ A Q. 32 upon him,] ~ . Q.

My actions all are on your name enroll'd.

What it is to Enroll upon Parchment, I know, but not upon
Names. Strange kinds of Records they keep in Morocco.
With burning Ships made Beacons on the Sea.
He fired Beacons after the Victory.
Whose very looks so much your foes surprize,
That you like Beauty Conquer with your Eyes.
Here he gives Eyes to a Notion. Beauty is a thing consists in
Harmony, features and proportion; and to say the Eyes of
10 Beauty, is to say the Eyes of Harmony, or the Eyes of Pro-
portion; that is, the Eyes of Tallness, and Streightness, or the
Eyes of evenness, and the Eyes of Features, that is the Eyes of
ones Nose, or of ones Mouth. But perhaps he means you like a
Beauty Conquer, &c. and then it is an Heroick Epithete to call
a Generall a Beauty, and tell him he Conquer'd with his Eyes
like a pretty Wench.
No Madam, War has taught my hands to aim.
As in the former Speech he gave Eyes to the Nose, so here he
makes Hands to aim, in another place he makes 'em give a
20 blast.
Blasted with the hand of Heaven.
Where me thinks he is very unkind to his Friend Breath, to
give to Hands what was its proper right.
I do command you love where I admire.
Mulyhamet is now absolutely chose Guardian; and mighty
fond his Ward is of him.
Though Mariamne'i love appear'd before,
The highest happiness fate had in store;
Yet when I view it as an Offering
30 Made by the hand of an obliging King,
It takes new charms, looks brighter, lends neio heal:
No Objects are so glorious or so great,
But what may still a greater form put on,
As Optique Glasses magnifie the Sun.
Mulyhamet by this Speech seems to be a kind of jeering
Companion; under pretence of complementing the King and
8 Notion.] ~ , Q. 32 great,] S; ~ . Q.
122 Prose 1668-1691
his Sister, he abuses them both. The King he calls by craft a

pittifull Optique Glass, a thing to see through, and he tells
Mariamne that her love seen through that Optique Glass called
a King, seems to be a greater happiness than it is indeed.
And that this is the sense of his words the following Lines
plainly prove.
No Objects are so glorious or so great,
But what may still a greater forme put on,
As Optique Glasses magnifie the Sun.
10 That is, though Mariamne's love be the most glorious thing
in the World; yet there is no Object so great or glorious, but
what may put on a greater form than it hath, as the Sun does
by the help of an Optique or Magnifying Glass. By this he
affirms too, that an Optique Glass makes the Sun look bigger
than it is. No other tollerable sense can be made of this Speech;
for it would be most ridiculous to say, no Objects are so great,
but what may appear almost as great as they are; that would be
as much as to say, no Objects are so great, but what may
appear pretty great; as if it were wonder for great Objects to
20 appear great; I wonder what should appear great, but great
Objects. The wonder is, that no Object is so great, but may
seem greater than it is by the help of Art, and saying this, he
speaks sense, but then his allusion abuses Mariamne, as I said
before, and affirms an Optique Glass makes the Sun look
bigger than it is. Such blundring does the Poet make when he
endeavours never so little to flie.
Your Subjects wait with eager Joys, to pay
Their Tribute to your Coronation day.
Tributary Subjects again! But the King is beg'd, and so they
so only give him Tribute; I suppose he means a small allowance
to maintain him, for an acknowledgement. Witness these two
following Lines.
Whilst they behold triumphant on one Throne,
The wearer and defender of a Crown.
It is something unusual for a Subject to sit on a Throne
with a King, but it is his Guardian, whose authority sways all;
as it appears by the next words.
7 great,] S; ~ . Q. 17 they arc;] ~ , Q.
Lead on
Muly H. Lead on, and all that kneel to you
Shall bow to me; this Conquest makes it due.
The Kings word of command signified nothing, he is but a
Cypher; and therefore his Protector Mulyhamet gives it; but
yet to please the King they mock him with a Coronation, and
have a fine Childish babble at it, a dancing Palm-tree, which
dances to a Consort of Hearts, as the Ships did to a Consort
of Messengers.
10 No Mustek like that, which Loyalty sings
A Consort of Hearts at the Crowning of Kings.
Loyalty sings Musick, and sings a Consort of Hearts: This
is like singing with anothers mouth, for one to sing a Consort,
and sing the Consort of others.
There is no such delightfull and ravishing strein,
As the ecchoes and shouts of long live, and Reign.
Long live, and Reign, is a most ravishing strein, and it is
not only a strein, but it has shouts and ecchoes: It must strain
hard to make ecchoes; for only Concave Places or Woods make
20 ecchoes.
No Homage like that which from Loyalty springs.
Like that which from is a soft Line for a Song.
And Loyalty was Musick before, now it is Homage; as if one
could pay Homage with Musick: We shall hear of Tributary
Fidlers presently sure; it seems the King parts with his Crown
for a Song.
No raising of Alters, like long live, and Reign.
This long live, and Reign, is a strange ravishing strein; it not
only ravishes the Air, and makes Ecchoes, but Stones, and
so raises Altars: It was long live and Reign sure built the Theban
Walls; but yet what e're the matter is, it ravishes no reasonable
Creature.
Her gentle Breath already from just fame,
Has kindly entertain'd your glorious name.
Spoke to in the first Act.
1-3 Printed as prose, with romans and italics reversed, in £) (Mulyh.).

19 for only . . . make] for it is only some . . . that make Q (corrected in
Errata).
124 Prose 1668-1691
Who beyond love can wish a higher state?

Higher beyond.
Turns Vassal to a smile, a looks disguise.
As if a smiling look were not a look, as well as other sort
of looks.
Fate sets commanding Beauty in their way,
Beauty that has more God-like power than they.
Fate sets Beauty in their way that has more power than it;
here he puts false Grammar for Rhimes sake. And Fate sets
10 Beauty in their way, which has more power than it self. By
consequence it is not of fates setting, but of its own; for with-
out its own consent Fate could never set it, if it has more power
than fate.
THE THIRD ACT
'Tis now our Royal Mothers Breath must bind,

That Sacred tie of Love, my King has sign'd,
And Providence has seal'd; make her but kind.
T
HE King has sign'd it, and Providence has seal'd it; the
Deed being sign'd and seal'd, how is his Mother to
bind all with Breath? Is she to set her mark with her
20 Breath? Or in Witness that it is sooth, is she to bite the Wax
with her Tooth? for why may not Breath mean Tooth, as well
as Regal Power, &c. but perhaps she is to bind all with her
Breath; that is, to deliver the Deed with her Breath; that is, to
puff the Parchment into his Hands I This Queen has a strong
blast.
Make her but kind.
That I suppose is a private ejaculation, for it has no depen-
dance on the rest.
Has lust such Charms,
so Can make her fly to an Adulterers arms?
i state!] S; ~ . Q. 30 arms?] S; ~ . Q.
Can Lust make her a Whore? Can lust make one lustfull?
can Folly make one a Fool?
I'le right her wrongs, but I'le conceal her shame.
This Mulyhamet is an impertinent Fellow, he will kill a
Man for lying with the Queen, though for ought he knows he
may be her Husband; and lying with her, though with her
own consent, he calls wronging of her; and to revenge it he
carries away Crimalhaz his Sword under his Coat: But meeting
the King immediately, the King, (as it is the Nature of Fools
10 to be inquisitive) would needs see what Mulyhamet had got,
and cries,
Mulyhamet stay!
What have you there?
Just Jack Adams like! Cudden! What have you under your
Coat, Cudden? Some people mistake this Play, and think
it a Tragedy; I take it to be the merryest Rhiming Farce that
I ever saw, much beyond Mock-Pompey, old Simpleton the
Smith, or any of that Kind.
But she's my Mother, and I dare not guess;
20 But she's a Woman, and I can no less
Then start at horrours which my Honour stain.
The Women are much beholding to the Poet for the good
Character he gives them. His King can no less than guess his
own Mother to be a Whore, because she is a Woman.
And starts at horrours which stain his honour.
How can his horrours stain his Honour? Perhaps Horrour,
or a great Fright, might make him stain his Breeches, and so it
might reflect upon his Honour.
I'le make him infamous, low and contemned.
so He will disgrace Crimalhaz for lying with his Mother; he
will tell all the world, and make him ashamed of it.
Yet nothing is so bright, but has some scars:
Men can through Glasses find out spots in Stars.
He opposes Scars to Brightness: And makes his Hero. a
7 consent,] ~/A Q. 13 there?] S; ~ . Q. 15 Coat,] ~ I Q.
17-18 the Smith] the Smith Q. 21 Honour] S; Honours Q.
25 stain] stains Q. sg contemned.] S; <~ , Q. 34 Hero] Hero Q.
126 Prose 1668-1691
ridiculous Coxcombe, that is vext he is not faultless and im-

maculate.
Love acts the part of Tributary Kings:
As they pay Homage to their Conquerour;
Our kind embraces are but Offerings
Of Tribute, to Triumphant Beauties power.
Why does not Love as well act the part of Under-Sheriffs,
or Bumbayliffs, as they pay Fees to the High-Sheriff, &c. and yet
their love did not pay Tribute, only offer it.
10 Our kind embraces are but Offerings
Of Tribute.
So that their Love did the part of Fumblers act, and in their
embraces did but offer at it, though they liked one an-
other; for they mutually offer'd Tribute to Triumphant Beau-
ties power; that is, he offer'd to her Beauty, and she to his
Beauty: 'Tis strange then they should proceed no farther than
Offering.
'Tis Blasphemy to name, nay understand
What Princes act.
20 'Tis Blasphemy to understand a thing: This I think is as
bold a piece of Settlian non-sense as we have met with yet. It
is pretty well to say it is Blasphemy to name what Princes act;
for if their actions be good, to name 'em is to speak well of
Princes, and yet with him it is Blasphemy; that is, it is speak-
ing ill of 'em, to speak well of 'em. But he carries the non-sense
farther, and says it is Blasphemy to understand; he might as
well have said it was Fornication or Adultery.
Know Tray tor, I am Mother to a King,
His power subordinate from me does spring.
so That is, it is originally her power subordinate, and it sprung
from her, because she is Mother to the King. The King and
his Power are Twins, she gave 'em Birth. And why may not his
Nurse too put in for a share, since she suckled the King and
his Power?
3 Kings:] S; things, Q (corrected in Errata to Kings).
4 Conquerour;] S; ~ : Q.
8 Bumbayliffs, . . . Fees] ~A . . . ~ , Q.
Is it not pity now,

That grave Religion, and dull sober Law
Should the high flights of sportive lovers awe?
A very Heroick expression I is it not pity now, there is a
Law against Wenching, the recreation is so sportive.
And the high flights of sportive lovers!
It seems, though the sportive Couple did but offer, they tost
and flung extreamly, that they had such high flights.
No, though I lose that head, which I before
10 Design'd should the Morocco Crown have wore.
Wore instead of worn.
Yet what's the fear of Tortures, Death, Hell?
Death,
Like a faint lust, can only stop the Breath.
Tortures weak Engines, that can run us down,
Or shrew us up, till we are out of Tune.
Down and Tune are excellent Rhime.
And Hell a feeble puny cramp of Souls,
Such infant pains may serve to frighten Fools.
A Mess of absurd stuff. No, though I lose my Head; yet
20 what's the fear of death? If a Man will not fear death when he
is to lose his Head, I do not know when he will fear it! Oh,
but he means Heroically! what if I lose my head? why then I
loose my Head! I, but to lose ones Head is to die. What is
Death? Death can but stop the Breath. To stop the Breath,
properly implyes a Death by Smothering, Choaking or Strang-
ling; So that he is for Hanging Crimalhaz with a Hatchet. And
Death, like a faint Lust, only stops the Breath: Why like a faint
Lust? It must be a strong Lust can stop the Breath. Nay, with
the Poets leave, Breath if it be strong, will quell the strongest
so Lust that is. And then what are Tortures? Tortures are only
things that can screw us up and run us down, break all our
Arteries, Nerves, Sinews and Bones; in short they can only
Torture us. And what is Hell? a Feeble, Puny, Cramp, an
3 sportive] S; sporting Q. >j seems, . . . Couple] ~A . . . /w , Q.
ig Death,] S; ~A Q. 18 Fools] S; Souls Q.
30 are Tortures?] ~ I Q. 31 screw] know Q (corrected in Errata).
128 Prose 1668-1691
Infant Pain; he allows a Hell, and yet says it is no Hell; it is

but a Cramp. He calls a place a Disease: To write the non-sense
he stuffs in every Line would put the Cramp in my ringers.
The Powers above are Titular below.
After in the same Speech she says,
But fear no danger, to our aid I'le call,
My Arts and Friends in Hell, to stop our fall.
Heaven is Titular it seems, but Hell is not.
No matter for Heaven, you are secure as long as you have the
10 Devil of your side.
Since you have sullyed thus our Royal Blood,
The Grounds and Rise of this past Crime relate:
That having your Offences understood,
We, what we can't recall may expiate.
That is, Come since you have lain with my Mother, tell the
Truth how it was, and since it cannot be helped, no words
shall be made of it.
A Womans frailty from a Womans Tongue.
As if it was a frailty to be ravished; she like the young Queen
20 confesses her self a Conspirator in her own Rape. The very
first word of her Tale, before any Judge but such a Fool as
Mulylabas, would have made the Indictment be thrown out
of the Court, and cleared Mulyhamet without any further
Process.
Mulyhamet then your cruel Breast.
He ravished her with his Breast, having a White Skin: I
suppose he unbuttoned himself, and opened his Breast.
His alter"d brow,
Wore such fierce looks, as had more proper been
so To lead an Army with, than Court a Queen.
He places a Mans Looks upon his Brow; and says his Brows
wore Looks fit to lead an Army. What kind of habit Looks are
I cannot Imagine; perhaps the Poet pursues his fancy of com-
paring his Hero to a pretty Wench, and so he makes his Brow
wear a Fore-head Cloth of Looks.
34 Hero] Hero Q. 34 Brow] Blow Q.
And as a ravisher I abhor'd him more

In that Black form, than I admir'd before.
She abhor'd him as a ravisher in a Black Form, more than
she admir'd before; that is as a Ravisher in a Black Form she
abhor'd him more than lik'd him: Or she abhor'd him as a
Ravisher more than she admir'd him in a Black Form, for no
body can tell what to make of it.
His kind soft words do but confirm th' Offence;
Men are n'ere losers by their Breaths expence.
10 One Line Contradicts the other; he says his speaking con-
firms his Offence, and yet he is no loser by it.
Mulyhamet, for this guilt our Prophets Breath
Has in his Sacred Laws pronounc'd your Death.
Spoke to in the first Act.
Our Holy Prophet dares not see him fall,
I'm sure had he my Eyes
As if changing of Eyes would alter ones mind. If he had her
Eyes, if he had not her inclination to him, he would dare to
see him fall.
20 The Powers above would shrink at what he felt.
He hath felt nothing yet that I know of, but her: Very
probable the Powers above and below would shrink at that.
His Death to Tears the Christal Orbes would melt.
It must be a hot Death that can melt Christal as far as the
Orbes. But I suppose the Poet means the Orbes would cry at
Mulyhamets death. Good Natured Orbesl If Mulyhamet dies,
poor Orbes will cry their Eyes out, therefore for the sweet
Orbes sake spare his life. But how came there such mighty
Friendship between him and the Orbes. If this be not a merry
so Play let any one Judge. Witness also that which follows.
Here bind the Traytor, and conveigh him streight,
To Prison, there to linger out his fate:
Till his hard Lodging, and his slender Food,
Allay the fury of his lustfull Blood.
That is, here, take this letcherous Fellow away, carry him to
35 That] that Q.
igo Prose 1668-1691
Prison, mortifie him, and take down his Mettle, that my

Mother and my Women may live in quiet for him.
My Soul! Dull Man! What has my Soul to do
With such mean Acts, as my betraying you?
Murder and Treason,
Without the help of Souls, when I think good
Such toys I act, as I'm but Flesh and Blood.
Murder and Treason without the help of Souls, when I
think good, such Toys I act.
10 There is excellent Coherence in these words! but it is written
like one that thinks without a Soul, as he makes his Queen
Mother do: Dull Man! What has my Soul to do with thinking?
Such Villanies I act and think, as I'm but Flesh and Blood, as
I'm an unthinking Carcas.
This Poet is all for pure matter; he will not allow any use
for Souls: He makes Flesh and Blood think, Breath decree,
Hands aim.
Hell! no of that I scorn to be afraid: Sec.
Betray, and Kill, and Damn to that Degree,
20 Tie Crowd up Hell till there's no room for me.
A senseless and ridiculous huff; where there is scarce a word
but contains non-sense, or contradiction. The Queen Mother
says she scorns to be afraid of Hell, and yet plainly confesses
she is afraid of it; for she will Kill and Damne to a horrible
Degree to avoid it: One would think the course she takes
should rather bring her to it, than help to escape it; but she has
found out a new knack, she will murder such Crowds of
People as shall fill Hell so full there shall be no room for her.
It seems she is exactly informed of the Dimensions of Hell,
so what numbers it will hold, and what it wants to fill it. How she
should come by this Knowledge I cannot tell, unless she had
correspondence with some Devil, and by consequence be a
Witch: Dull Poetl that from his own words could not take the
hint; he lost an excellent opportunity of Gracing his Play with
Flying and Machines. But is Hell so near filling, happy People
10 words] wotds Q. 18 Hell!] S; Hell, Q.
18 afraid: Sec.] afraid: Q.
Notes and O bservations 131
they that are born after the Reign of Queen Lawla, she pin'd
the Basket an universal Benefactrice to the World; Mankind
may live as jollily as they please, we ought to have a Holyday
kept for her; but the News is too good to be true, I doubt the
Devil played the lying Rascal, and cheated the foolish credulous
old Witch. But suppose it true, I do not see ho\v she can Crowd
up Hell yet; for must all that she kills needs be damned? if
so she has a strange unlucky Fist: and poor murder'd People
would be very hardly dealt with at that rate, to be kill'd and
10 damn'd too, nay damn'd for being kill'd; And the murderess
escape, only because she has Crowded the Goal so full of
Innocent People, that there is no room for the guilty. Sure the
murdered parties will Crowd and Squeeze to make a little room
for her out of revenge. But after all, I do not find she will
Crowd up Hell with the number she kills; for she only says,
Betray, and Kill, and Damn to that Degree. Here he puts
Degree for Number, and for Rhime sake makes it palpable
non-sense; for whatever there is in Betraying and Damning, in
Killing there is no Degree; no Man can be more or less Kill'd.
20 In Betraying and Damning indeed there may be Degrees; but
that relates not to the Number of the damned, but the Excess of
their punishment. It is direct non-sense to say I will damn
People so horribly, that there shall be no room for me to be
damned by 'em. This is the principal huff of his Play, and by
consequence the thickest of non-sense, for I always observe,
where he endeavours most to flatter, there he is sure to be
most bemired.
Monarchs do nothing ill, unless when they
By their own Acts of Grace their Lives betray.
so They do not do ill it seems to betray their Lives, provided
they do not do it by Acts of Grace.
Your Counsels weakly do my Ears attract.
What is it to attract ones Ears? does he mean your Counsels
but weakly lug me by the Ears? if so it is no very Heroick
Expression; and yet it must be either that or non-sense.
Live then, till time this sense of horrour brings,
What 'tis to ravish Queens, and injure Kings.
132 Prose 1668-1691
Live till time brings the sense of honour, Horrour is a thing

that surprizes, And brings this sense of honour. What sense?
for no body can tell. What 'tis to ravish Queens and injure
Kings. What it is to ravish my Mother, and not only so, but
to do me an unkindness.
The Queen Mother says upon the success of her Lies,
You see the Fates do their Allegiance know.
As if she was Queen of Fates. Rather by her Character she
is Queen of Sluts.
10 'Tis pity Monarchs are so scarce
Such gen'rous, easie, kind, good-natur'd things.
As if all Kings were Fools, because her Son was one.
Our guilded Treason thus like Coral seems;
Which appears Black within its native Streams:
But when disclos'd it sees the open Air;
It changes Colour., and looks Fresh and Fair.
Here he makes a Guilded thing look like Coral; and like a
Thing which first looks Black, and then looks Fair.
Disrob'd of all at once! what turns more strange
20 Can Ages, if an Hour can make such Change?
Why, what can Ages do more than rob one of all? Because
an Hour took all, he thinks Ages may take Ten Thousand
times more than all.
The Daughters easie Breast would ill confer
A kindness on her Mothers Ravisher.
What, do you think I will be kind to a Man that is kind
to my Mother? Very proper discourse for a Tragedy; our Poet
will shortly make a Tragedy of the Italian Seignior.
Cruel Princess! to whom Heaven
ao Has all its Titles but its Knowledge given.
Here he makes Knowledge a Title.
Were I that Savage Ravisher I seem,
I still might father this imputed Crime.
Crime and seem Rhime incomparably. And the sense is this:
Were I that real Ravisher I seem, then I might seem the real
Ravisher I was.
3 Queens] Qeens Q. 6 Lies,] ^ . Q. 26 What,] ~A Q.
27 Mother?] ~ : Q. ag Princess] S; Princes Q.
This Prison, and Our private Interview,

Giving me pow'r t' Attempt that force on You.
He pursues his former pleasant discourse, and says to this
Effect, Were I such a Letcherous Fellow as you take me to be,
I might with the Liberty and Opportunity you give me have
a Bout with you, as well as I had with your Mother, and now
could lay you down in spite of your Teeth. Mariamne
hearing him talk of attempting her is much pleased with him,
and thinks him a virtuous Man presently.
10 Virtue ne're dies, where so much Love does live.
And now she will huff the Gods in his behalf; what will she
not do to save a Man so lusty?
But since of injur'd innocence Heav'n dares
Be a Spectator, I'le correct the Stars.
This power of huffing Gods, and correcting Stars, I suppose
she derives from her Mother, who is Queen of Fates; but the
Poet makes it so common, that the Command is not worth
begging.
Fly these infected Walls, this barbarous Town.
20 The Walls are infected with Barbarity. Then supposing they
were Cured, the Walls would be civil well-bred Walls.
yes, in my Memory.
Absent you shall in my remembrance Reign.
He shall not only Reign in her Memory, but in her Remem-
brance.
To make You share those Frowns which threatned me.
As before our Poet made the Queen Heir to Future Frowns;
so here Muly Harriet and Mariamne are to share Frowns past.
I wonder what knack they have in Morocco of preserving
so Frowns; sure they have an Art of Pickling of 'em, that we
know not of in these Countries; and so these Lovers are to
divide a Barrel of Pickled Frowns.
// his rash passion natures bonds should quit,
And make him both my Sex, and Birth forget;
Remember that you wear a Sword, and you
As you're my Servant, be my Champion too.
Muly Hamet having told her, he is afraid the King her
4 Effect,] ~ . Q.
134 Prose 1668-1691
Brother will be displeased with her for giving him liberty, she
replies: [// his Passions, Sec.] That is, if the Fool grows
troublesome and impertinent, you wear a Sword, come and
cut the Coxcombe o're the Pate. This Poet shews an excellent
Judgment in his choice of Characters.
How! Rebel, dare you with things Sacred sport,
Ravish the Mother, and the Daughter Court?
Just as Citizens carry their Wives to see the Mad-folks in
Bedlam; the King here brings his Wife, his Mother, and his
10 whole Family to see Muly Hamet in Prison, and as it hap-
pened catched him Courting his Sister, and very like himself
falls a railing, and asks him how he dares sport with Sacred
things; Ravishing, and Courting are the same things with him,
both but Sporting.
Since Prisons no restraint o're Lust can have
Why did I not confine him to a Grave?
Since nothing can rule this Town-Bull, I will have his Brains
knocked out. This discourse must needs move Pity.
Not circled in a Chain, but in a Crown.
20 To be circled in a Crown, as Men are in Chains, is to wear
a Crown about his middle, or upon his Legs.
Sir, You mistake a Dungeon for a Throne.
A very Foolish mistake, as if one should mistake a Room for
a Joint-stool.
T'unravel your Scenes of Love.
Unraveling of Scenes, implyes they were Knit.
These Prison-walls have Eccho'd to their Sighs.
That Prison was Built in imitation sure of the Whispring
place in Gloucester, else it could never Eccho to a Sigh; but
so why may not there be loud Sighs, as well as roaring Incense?
Tortures, nor Chains, shall not my love rebate.
Tortures nor Chains. As if it was a worse thing to be
Chained than Tortured.
These Traitors walk like mad-men in a Trance:
Seem not to understand the Crimes they act.
i her . . . liberty,] ~ , . . . ~ A Q. 7 Court?] S; ~ . Q.
25 Love.] S; ^ , Q.
As if Mad-men only pretended to be mad; and were most

cunningly mad in Trances, when they are most still and under-
stand least.
From Springs so deep shall sink thee down to Hell.
I have heard of sinking of a Well, but never of sinking Peo-
ple with Springs before. She will Knock him over the Pate with
a Spring, with a Spring-Lock indeed she may, and do Execution.
/ shed my Tears, as Rain in Egypt falls,
Sent for no common cause, but to foretel
10 Destructions, Ruins, Plagues, and Funerals.
I ne're draw Tears, but when those Tears draw Blood.
She sheds and draws Tears, as Rain falls and is sent. And she
draws Tears; That is she Taps her Eyes. One may guess with
whom the Poet converses by his Metaphors.
And she never draws Tears but when those Tears draw
Blood. Then they are not sent like Rain in Egypt to fore-
tell. Omens do not use to accompany or cause Mischiefs, but
threaten 'em; our Poets Omens foretell things after they are
come to pass.
20 View that Brow, that Charming Eye:
See there the Grace and Meen of Majesty.
Can you to Exile then that man enjoine,
Whose Soul must, like his Aspect, be Divine?
She accuses him of Ravishing her, and yet pleads for his Par-
don, and says he hath a Divine Soul, and a Charming Counten-
ance, Delicate Eye-brows, fine Rowling Eyes, and has a lovely
Meen, is an excellent Dancer, Words that before any one but
such a Fool as Mulylabas would absolutely clear him, Nay, he
has some suspition that it was no Rape when all was done,
so His Sentence is already past;
And now her Kindness does his Ruine hast.
I plainly see she likes him, he's a lusty taking Fellow, I'le
send him away.
Be gone, and fly to some infected Air,
Where Poysons brood, where men derive their Crimes,
Their Lusts, their Rapes, and Murthers from their Climes:
19 pass.] ~A Q. 31 Kindness] S; Kindest Q.
136 Prose 1668-1691
And all the Venome which their Soyls do want,

May the Contagion of your Presence grant.
Fly to some infected Air where Poysons brood. He is for in-
fecting the Air with Poysons, and deriving Crimes from Climes.
And all the Venome which their Soyls do want. Their Soyls?
The Soyls of the infected Air, or the Soyls of the
Climes? May the Contagion of your presence grant. He curses
other places for the Villany Muly Hamet has done, and wishes
the Contagion of his presence may supply 'em with Venome.
10 The whole is thus; Go to infected Airs, and there Piss Poyson
like a Toad, till the Contagion fills the Soyl of their Climes
with Venome; and for the Letchery thou hast shewn, mayst
thou infect infected places with all the Rapes and Murders
they want. A most wise doom.
Since in your Kingdoms limits I'm deny'd
A seat, may your great Empire spread so wide,
Till its vast largeness does Reverse my doom;
And for my Banishment the World wants room.
There are but these Lines that have any tollerable fancy
20 throughout the whole Play: But like good Cloaths sent to a
Botcher to finish, the fancy is so bungled together, so filled with
Bombazeene stiffning, that one abhors it in the shape he has
put it.
Since in your Kingdoms limits I'm deny'd
A seat, may your great Empire
Since I am Banished your Kingdom, Heavens Blessing on
your Empire.
May your great Empire spread so wide,
Till its vast largeness
so Bombazeene in abundance. May your great Empire
grow so great, till its great greatness, or till its vast vast-
ness, or large largeness.
The Great
Are never fully darkened till they set.
That is, Great Links are never dark till they are out, as if
little Links were out before they were out.
i Soyls] S; Souls Q. 7 Climes?] ~ . Q.

I'le work him from the Town up to the Camp.

She may as well say she will Churne him up to the Camp.
No, the more barbarous garb our Deeds assume,
We nearer to our first perfection come.
Since Nature first made man wild, savage, strong,
And his Blood hot, then when the World was Young:
If infant-times such Rising valours bore,
Why should not Riper Ages now do more?
I observe our Poet towards the latter end of an Act, does,
10 like his Muly Harriet near landing, express his Joys in a loud
Quire of ramping non-sense. He offers here at a Notion about
the state of Nature; but his thoughts are so clumsey, that if he
attempts to untie a Knot, he entangles it ten times more. To
pass by his ridiculous Phrase of the Garb of Deeds; and inco-
herent stuff of since Nature made Man, then, when, if: his
Notion is this, that which Religion calls Sin is not Sin; for the
more barbarous we grow, the nearer we come to the perfection
we had in the state of Nature; for by Nature we are wild and
savage: Now if Infant-times had such perfection, why should
20 not riper Ages do more; that is, go beyond perfection? That is;
if the World was so old and perfect, whilst it was young, why
should it not grow younger, and more perfect now it is old?
an ingenious inference.
To him who climbs by Blood, no track seems hard:
The sense of Crimes is lost in the Reward:
Aspirers neither Guilt nor Danger Dread:
No path so rough Ambition dares not Tread.
These two last Lines are the same with one another, and
with the first, the Phrases are only varyed. In the first Line it
ao is, Climbers by Blood care for no Track (except Tracking of
Spheres.) In the third Aspirers fear no Colours: And in the
last, Ambition Treads any Path. And thus having Twisted
three Lines, and Tagged them with hard words, he ends this
Act.
i Camp] S; Gamp Q.
15-16 it: his Notion is] if his Notion be Q (corrected in Errata).
16 this,] ^-A Q.
20 perfection?] ~ . Q. 30 Climbers] Climbes Q (corrected in Errata).
138 Prose 1668-1691
THE FOURTH ACT
How! Crimalhaz up to the Mountains fled,

And with him the Morocco Forces led.
Oh Rebel!
ERE his Foolish King, upon this News, most Heroically
H exclaims against him with Oh Rebel! and that's all;
that being all he says of him is as Comical, as if he
had call'd him Arch-wag; immediately a nameles Lord tells
Mulylabas, that Crimalhaz has been too strict a Guardian of his
Gold: And his Reason is, because he has stoln it away by night,
10 so that he makes a Thief a strict Guardian; then he says,
Crimalhaz
Encamped on Atlas skirls, he by your Gold
Has Rais'd new Forces, and Confirm'd the Old.
In the last Scene of the Third Act, Crimalhaz was in Mo-
rocco; 'tis a pretty leap Elkanah makes him take from thence
to Atlas, 130 Miles, and a pretty Interval of time he passes
over to make him have Rais'd new Forces after he was En-
camped there, and the News to be brought of it; but this Re-
bellion would have made any but a Pidgeon-Liver'd King, who
20 had as little Gall as Brains, to have been angry with the Rebel.
(But by the way, if Elkanah had had as little Gall as Brains,
he had not shewn all Malice in his Epistle, and no Wit:) But
to go on, Muly Labas says not a word against Crimalhaz, but
is bitterly satyrical, and abuses poor Gold Inhumanely; which
being a flight of his, 'tis (like all the rest of his flights) stuffed
with non-sense.
Oh prophane Gold, which from infectious Earth,
From Sulphrous and Contagious Mines takes Birth.
Gold is prophane, because it takes Birth from infectious
so Earth, viz. Infection is Prophaneness; From Infectious Earth,
and from Contagious Mines; that is, from, from, two froms to
4 this News] his News Q (corrected in Errata).
13 Rais'd] Rrais'd Q. 16 Atlas, 130] ~ A — Q.
the same thing, then takes Birth; to be Born has a Passive sig-
nification, but to take Birth an Active one; and one that takes
Birth is Author of his own Birth.
Then he makes the same thing Sulphurous and Contagious,
whereas Sulphur is one of the best things in the world against
Contagion, and then after it has taken Birth both from In-
fectious Earth and Contagious Mines,
It grows from Poysons, and has left behind
Its native Venome to infect Mankind.
10 Gold has left Venome behind; this has no Construction in
it, unless Gold had first fled away, and left Mankind its Ven-
ome: But though Muly Labas's Gold fled from him, it was
with Mankind still: Or else he must mean, that the Birth of
Gold had fled and left Venome behind, which is equal non-
sense: Nor is it intelligible how Gold by its Sulphur or Con-
tagion makes Men wicked; it cannot by Contagion make Men
wicked, unless it were wicked it self.
Rapes, Murders, Treasons, what has Gold not done?
That is, What has Gold not done, Rapes, Murders, Trea-
20 sons?
This is excellent English! What Verb governs Rapes, Mur-
ders, Treasons? Next he says, if ever it has won Glory by Re-
warding Virtue, a Pious Use, or Charitable Deed,
That Sacred Power's but borrowed, which it bears,
Lent from the Royal Images it wears.
Here Muly Labas complements his own pretty Image, among
others, and would infer, that no Gold can be given to a Pious
Use but stamp'd Gold, viz. Money; Ingots, or Plate can
do nothing, or are worth nothing, the Intrinsick value of Gold
so being in the stamp. I am afraid Elkanah has very little ac-
quaintance with Gold, that he mistakes it so much; but pres-
ently he compares Kings Bounties to
the Suns Courteous smiles,
Whose Rayes produce kind Flowers
7 Contagious] Conta- / tagiotts Q. 9 Mankind.] S; ~A Q.
16 wicked;] ~ , Q. 19-20 Treasons?] ~ . Q.
23 Deed,] ~ . Q. 29 do nothing,] ~ /-^ . Q.
32-33 compares Kings Bounties to / the] compares / Kings Bounties to
— the Q.
140 Prose 1668-1691
Bounties are very like Smiles, besides he might have said

Civil or Well-bred as well as Courteous, and Civil as well as
kind Flowers: But his Epithetes never signifie any thing, but
serve to make up his Verse.
Perhaps you've mis-interpreted his Breast.
This is a new Phrase, and not very proper.
He who forced Favours both from Fate and Fame;
Made War a sport, and Conquest but a Game.
Forcing Fate is altering on't, which is very ill Divinity in
10 Morocco; where they believe absolute predestination being
Mahometans: But he made War a sport, very pretty sport;
but I believe it is a sport and a Game which the Poet delights
not in, though he may more easily be thought to force Favours,
<lrc. then Crimalhaz if he has any; for I am sure he deserves 'em
not; but the Lord who has as little Wit as Muly Labas, goes
on, and would perswade him that Crimalhaz has put a very
Honourable Trick upon him with running away to Atlas with
his Army, which should defend Morocco against Tajjaletla, as
he says a while after, arid that honest Crimalhaz has
20 From the common Rout
Of the Worlds beauties singled Honour out.
The Common Rout of Beauties is excellent sense, and a very
Honourable thing it is to run away with the Army whether
the King would or no, which the Lord in the next Line but
one calls a Flight of Honour; but Muly Labas says no: He's a
Traytor, subtilly found out. This is the first time Little Labas
was ever in the right, but presently after he slips, where he
Compares swoln Power to Showers, and
Showers,
30 Luxurious grown,
The Luxury of Showers I never understood; but that Raine
takes no pleasure in its Luxury I am certain.
But when misplaced, those Arms our Ruins be:
As Mountains Bulwarks are at Land, but Rocks at Sea.
Here he compares Arms, viz. Swords (as he names 'em be-
fore) to Mountains, which if any body should misplace, that
21 Honour] S; Honours Q. 33 misplaced] misplaced Q.
36 misplace,] /~ ; Q.
is, whip 'em up, and carry 'em into the Sea, would turn Rocks
ipso facto.
Out-face his Treason e're its Rise begins.
Here the Pious Queen Mother advises her Son to out-face
Crimalhaz's Treason before it be Treason, viz. Out-face that
which is now Treason before it be Treason. Besides the Eng-
lish of its Rise, Beginning is naught. Treason may begin its
Rise, but Treasons Rise cannot begin of it self; for this he ad-
mires her Courage he tells her, but not her Wit, for he says,
10 Her thoughts can't reach the flight which Treason makes.
If he means by Flight the Wit of Treason it must be thus,
Treason's a very witty thing which you do'nt understand; he
takes her for as errant a Fool as himself: But to pass by a great
deal of non-sense; (for I pass by more than half) Muly Labas
says,
Kings that want Arms, do not want Majesty.
For as he says in the precedent Line he can frown and bow
(for bend) Crimalhaz's thoughts with his Brow, though he has
no Arms; but the subsequent Line is,
20 Heav'n is not Heav'n, though 't lays its Thunder by.
As if any Fool believ'd that Thunder made it Heaven: Here
he modestly compares himself to Heaven, and his having his
Army taken from him to Heavens voluntary laying its Thun-
der by: For if it wanted Thunder as he Arms, or could be
rob'd of it, it were no Heaven as certainly as Mr. Settle is no
Poet; but the Queen Mother says very well,
Go easie Fool,
For certainly if ever there was one Muly Labas was,
And die, and when you Bleed,
30 Remember I was Author of the Deed.
Here she bids him die first, and then Bleed, and Remember
that which he did not nor could not know: then she calls his
Bleeding a Deed; Bleeding is a Suffering and no Action with
the Poets leave.
T' enlarge Fates black Records, search but my Soul:
There ye infernal Furies read a scrowl
Of Deeds,
3 his Treason] S; its Treason Q. 18 for] for Q.
142 Prose 1668-1691
Here he supposes Fate that necessitates all Actions to be

done, Records them done, which is non-sense. Fate has
nothing to do but to determine, and it cannot determine things
past; besides he is at Reading a Soul again, as he was in the
First Act, but he has the greatest Passion for non-sense, and is
the most constant Man alive to it.
Such Storms as these, our Climate never knew:
A Shower of Hail
Such Storms as one Shower is admirable English) and a
10 Shower of Hail is no more proper than a Shower of Snow.
My Country, Princess, and my King forsook.
Forsook is false English, it should be forsaken. 'Tis strange,
he having no learning but that of a School-boy, should per-
petually forget his Grammar.
Tempests are to my Sufferings due
Says Muly Harriet, and his Reason is,
When my King Frowns 'tis just that Heaven Frown too.
When my King Frowns 'tis just that it should Hail; but I am
infinitely tired with ill sense, and must pass by a great deal:
20 But now the Vagabond, the Gipsey Mariamne, who never
thought on't when her Lover and she parted, has bethought
her self, and alone found out her Muly Hamet, and says,
Wing'd by that zeal united Souls do bear
Those Stars that smile on Lovers, brought me here.
That is, first carryed upon Wings of zeal, and then upon
Stars; besides the single zeal of her own Soul is that which two
Souls bear: But she goes on well.
/ for your sake my wandring steps engage:
Devotion is the Rise of Pilgrimage.
30 This Princess is no better than she should be to tell one
whom she is not Marryed to, that she adores him, and she is
something confident and prophane too to compare her Love
to Worship or Devotion.
Lovers, Sec. have Souls that scorn
The Guilded Wreaths which swelling Brows adorn.
14 Grammar.] ^ , Q.
34 Lovers, ice. ] Lovers, &c. •/ • Q,
What does he mean by Swelling Brows? Brows that are

beaten Black and Blew and Swelled? or Beetle Brows? that
would run well.
The guilded Wreaths which Beetle Brows Adorn.
But they who have Soul enough to love like me.

He, by they, and soul, which are of different Numbers,
would infer that many Men have but one Soul amongst them.
For all his Ships which he describes had but one Soul
amongst them, but that was enough of all Conscience for Ships.
10 But now Hametalhaz having a great many Men in Ambush,
comes in the Habit of a Priest with Six Villains, to disguise
himself from two Men and a Woman, viz. Muly Harriet, Ab-
delcador, and Mariamne! and tells him his Prophet has doom'd
his Love to be unfortunate. Says Muly Harriet,
No Sir, Thou dost belye his Name.
He calls him Sir first, and then gives him the Lye, and wrong-
fully, for he does not belye Mahomets name, when he calls him
his Prophet: Am is the Rhime to Name too, it should be Nam;
but Hametalhaz takes no notice, but goes on,
20 Your Mistress too must your misfortune find.
That could not be; for his misfortune was his own: Hers
could not be the same; for she could not loose a Mistress: Be-
sides he says, 'tis his Fate, and his Prophet had doom'd him
to't into the bargain, yet calls it his Misfortune, as if that hap
pened by chance that were necessitated: Read Philosophy El-
kanah, for Rhime and Measure (which are imperfect too in
thee) are not enough to make a Man a Poet.
His Eternal will confute.
Here he makes the Will which is Cceca facultas to be Opin-
so ion: For nothing can be confuted but Opinion; it had been
nearer sense, though it had not been sense, if he had said Con-
fute Understanding.
She is a Beauty and that names her Guard.
4 Adorn,] ~: Q. 6 by] ~ , Q. n Villains,] ^ . Q.

14 unfortunate. Says] unfortunate, says Q.
19 on,] ~ . Q. 24 bargain,] /^ Q,
144 Prose 1668-1691
Here he makes the Quality of a Woman to be her Name,

besides it is a rare Argument that he must have Mariamne,
and she must be happy in him, because she is Beauty-Man-
amne; 1 have heard a Hound Bitch called so, but never a Prin-
cess before.
Good Fates as due should be to Beauty given.
Give a Debt is none of the best sense.
Beauty which decks our Earth, and props his Heaven.
Whose Heaven? Beauty is the proximum antecedent, Ma-
10 hornet is not spoke of within Five Lines: Besides he did not
believe it to be Mahomets Heaven, but a greater power'sl
Then how Beauty props Heaven he must tell us; for most
think it sends more to Hell than Heaven.
When Heaven to Beauty is propitious.
It payes those Favours it but lends to us.
Favours are Gifts, he gave Debts before and now he lends
Gifts: Heaven pays Favours to Beauties but lends 'em to Men.
If Men be honest they must pay those Favours back, and then
Men may favour and be propitious to Heaven.
20 With patience hear the Language of the Sky.
Heaven, &c.
Here for want of Philosophy he calls Heaven the Sky, and
the Language of the Sky as he describes it presently is Hail, a
fine white Language; which Hail he thinks is ingendred in the
Sky; he has never heard sure of the middle Region.
Heaven writes above what we must read below.
Heaven writes is non-sense, and we must whether we can or
no read below what that writes above. If he means from below
he has excellent Eyes whom any Optique Glass can help to do
30 that. But Elkanah runs on to an impertinent description of 20
Lines to say it Hail'd, which the Audience and Muly Hamet
knew before, and this is very inartificial.
The Etherial Walk was uninhabited.
No walk was ever inhabited: This Line is spoken but not
Printed.
3-4 Beauty-Mariamni?;] ~ , Q. 6 given.] ~ : Q.
23 it] ~ , Q. 28 above.] ~ , Q.
But strait, as if it had some Penance bore.

There's bore for born, besides the proper Phrase is doing not
bearing Penance.
A mourning Garb of thick black Clouds it wore.
Penance is done in White, and that White is no Garb, be-
sides Garb includes Motion and Meen; but this it seems is a
Black Penance.
The Clouds dishevel'd from their crusted Locks,
Something like Gems Coin'd out of Chrystal Rocks.
10 Besides the non-sense of Crusted Locks of Clouds, dishevel'd
is never made a Verb, but if it were, to dishevel Gems from
Locks is non-sense: But 'tis as proper as Coining of Gems, no
body stamps Jewels, nor are little bits of Chrystal Gems.
As if Heaven in affront to Nature had
Design'd some new found Tillage of its own;
And on the Earth these unknown Seeds had sown.
Heaven affronts Nature, that is Heaven affronts it self, if he
means Natura Naturans; if Natura Naturata, Heaven can a
thousand times less be said to affront what it has Created, than
20 a Father can be said to affront his Child, or a Gentleman his
own Servant; an affront implies superiority, or at least parity,
in the affronted.
Of this I reacht a Grain, which to my sense
Appear'd as cool as Virgin-innocence: [A fine Botch.]
And like to that (which chiefly I admir'd)
Its ravisht Whiteness with a Touch expir'd.
Here is no manner of sense: It appear'd cool to his Touch;
nothing appears but to sight, but his Touch saw it cool, as
Virgin-Innocence. Why is not Innocence warm? but he had
so toucht Innocence; to touch a Quality an abstract!
is fine indeed: Cool as Virgin-Innocence! Virgins are far from
being cooler than other Women: I am sure they have less Rea-
son, having parted with less of their Heat and Vigour.
It's Ravish'd Whiteness with a touch expir'd. Nothing can
24 A fine Botch] A fine Botch Q. 30 Innocence: to] ~ , ~ Q.
30 Quality an abstractl ] ~ ; ~ I Q.
34 It's . . . [to] . . . expir'd] in romans in Q.
146 Prose 1668-1691
expire unless it Breaths first: Does a Colour Breath? Then its

Ravish'd Whiteness; Is a Woman the less Innocent for being
Ravish'd? Being Ravish'd is no Sin, besides the non-sense of
touching Whiteness is admirable.
Those showers of Hail Morocco never see.
For Morocco never saw.
And all that Story which the Slave did frame,
Was only to gain time to take their aim.
Oh the cunning contrivance of our Poet, first it Hails, and
10 then a long description of Hail is made only to give the Men
in Ambush time to take aim. He makes them very ill Marks-
men; for no Man could have been so long aiming at a Wren
as they were at a Man.
But missing of your Blood, your brave Escape
Chang"d the intended murder to a Rape.
A Horse might as soon be tranformed into a Poet, nay sooner
into Elkanah than Murder into a Rape: his sense is, your brave
escape made them so letcherous to Ravish your Mistress.
/ should have Fought till I my Princess freed
20 Though I had waded through the Blood I shed.
This is very Heroick! he would have freed his Mistress,
though after he had shed Blood, he had waded through it and
spoiled his Shooes and Stockins! well said Elkanah, to make
the sum of his daring to wade. A most admirable Hero, and
a brave Generosity! which is one of the Poets own words.
Banish'd the Temple to be banisht Heaven.
Horrours and Tortures now my Jaylours be,
Who paints Damnation needs but Copy me.
Here Muly Hamet compares himself to banish'd Men; and
30 in the next Line says he is a Prisoner, and Horrours and Tor-
tures are his Jaylors: At the same time to be Banished and a
Prisoner is a Bull: Nor did I ever hear of Horrours and Tor-
tures being Jaylors before. Paints Damnation: Damnation is
either pain of sense or pain of loss, and can any Man Paint
3 Ravish'd? Being] ~ : ~ Q. 24 Hero] Hero Q.
28 needs] S; need Q.
Pain? and he is to be painted for Damnation. Can a Man be

like Damnation?
And to appear extravagantly great
He makes a splendid Mask in this nights Treat.
His Mask of Orpheus (as shall shortly be made appear) is
very extravagant, but neither splendid nor great; there being
nothing great in it but great non-sense: But the entertainment
might pass upon the Skirts of Atlas, if it could be supposed they
should understand recitative Musick, and make Masks in that
10 Countrey; but Elkanah thinks it the most Extravagant, Great
and Honourable thing in the World to present a Mask.
The Queen says she has been an Actor in such Comick Sports
in her Father Taffaletta's Court: His Mask is Burlesque, but
not Comick; but observe what she calls Comick Sport.
He took delight i'th' represented Spoils
Of Cyrus, Cesar, and Êneas Toils.
These are very Comick things indeed, and would make a
Man laugh extreamly, if honest Elkanah had the writing of
them; but I believe by the way she lyes, for Taffaletta had no
20 such Masks.
The Queen Mother perswades Morena to go in Masquerade,
which Morena thinks is a very valiant thing, saying
7 dare do any thing to shew, &c.
A generous brave thing to go in Masquerade, toe.
Immediately Muly Hamet says,
My Entertainments, &c.
All shows of Loyalty and Friendship bear.
But does he in that Garb? &c.
He calls Loyalty and Friendship a Garb: Garb is a beloved
so word with him, and he often uses it to as little purpose as
Breath, and there is no one thing which he will not either call
Breath or Garb.
Traytors rarely look like what they act.
Can the looks of Traytors be like Treason? indeed as like as
any of his Similitudes.
z Damnation?] ,-/. Q. 29 a Garb] a Garb Q.
148 Prose 1668-1691
And by what Arts was it disdos'd by you?
Enter Queen Mother.
Here she enters abruptly, and answers to what she did not
hear.
That were too long to tell: th' unhappy Son
This night too must the Fathers Fortune run.
And within Three Lines she contradicts her self, saying to
him,
I'le save your life, your Empress, and your Throne.
10 And the intrigue of this Dramatique sport.

Very pretty sport; his Mask looks as if it were written in
jest, but he meant it in earnest: But the Intrigue is Orpheus
his Descent to fetch Euridice, a very Intricate thing indeed.
On this Foundation I've this Structure laid.
To lay a Foundation is proper, or to Build a House upon a
Foundation; but to lay a House upon a Foundation is not
English. Then she compares her Story to a Structure. A Lye
is very like a Structure indeed. But this Structure passes upon
the foolish King, and he'l in Honour stay and die: Ay,
20 marry will he! his reason to his Mother is,
Knowing how ill your kindness he'l requite,
If he should find you Author of my flight.
He will if he should is false English, he would if he should
it should be: Besides Author of a Flight is a base Phrase;
but she replyes,
Leave that to Providence; but grant he shou'd
He will not sure attempt a Womans Blood.
At least when he considers how t'was done,
A Mothers Piety to save a Son.
so That is, what if he should know that I your Mother am Au-
thor of your Flight being my Son? Yet when he considers, that
you being my Son, I your Mother, let you escape, be. Again
13 Euridice,] -~A Q. 17 Structure. A] Structure, a Q.
21 requite,] S; ~ . Q. ge, replyes,] ^ . Q.
his Grammar's excellent, when he considers how 'twas done;

to find me Author of your flight, a Mothers Piety to save a Son.
How twas done, a Mothers Piety.
I'le lead you where you may all Eyes escape,
And privately put on this borrow'd shape.
What need he put on a borrowed shape, after he had escaped
all Eyes?
Whilst with the noise of Drums, and Trumpets sound.
Tautology! noise and sound, viz. noise and noise.
10 Inhumane Monster! such a bloody Fact
No Mortal sure can think, &c.
To think a Fact is non-sense, any one but Mr. Settle thinks
Thoughts, not Facts: I suppose if he has any meaning 'tis think
on such a Fact.
To take
This brave resolve
Resolve for Resolution: The Verb is never used substan-
tively by any but affected Fools who understand not good Eng-
lish.
20 In your Defence act your own Champions part,
With your drawn Dagger stab him to the Heart.
To stab him to the Heart in her Defence was not to act her
own Champions part, but to be her own Champion: But Lawla
subtilly advises it to be done with a drawn Dagger; Morena
might else have been such a Fool to have stabbed at him with
a sheathed Dagger.
And this Heroick act looks brave and great.
A very Heroick brave and great thing to Stab: Well said,
Elkanah.
so My Deeds above their reach, and Power aspire.
The Doer may aspire but not the Deeds.
My Bosom holds more rage than all Hell Fire.
This is so silly a Rant, that it has no meaning in it, unless it
be that she is wickeder than all the Devils in Hell; and then
it is a fine thing to brag on, which she does so zealously, as if
7 Eyes?] ~ . Q. 17 for] for Q. 24 Dagger;] ^ , Q.
28-29 Well said, Elkanah.] ~ , ~/\ ,-*• , Q.
150 Prose 1668-1691
she had set up a Religion to the Devil; and had obliged her
self in Conscience to be Impious: This is foolishly unnatural;
none ever loved and gloryed in Wickedness for Wickedness
sake: But now comes the Splendid Mask, and he cannot refrain
from non-sense in his direction.
The Scene opened is presented a Hell,
Viz. The opened Scene is presented a Hell. Very good Eng-
lish: and a Hell, as if there were more than one.
In which Pluto, Proserpine, and other Women-Spirits, 8cc.
10 As if Pluto and Proserpine were Women Spirits. This is as
bad as Twelve Cows whereof one was a Bull: Besides it is non-
sense to say Women-Spirits, as if Spirits had Sexes: Then he
says the Stage is filled on each side with Crimalhaz, &c. and all
the Court: so that all the Court is on each side, that is in two
places at once.
And now he is no more civil to Orpheus, Pluto or Proser-
pine, than to the rest in the Play; for he puts as much non-
sense in their mouths as in any: And Orpheus begins.
The Groans of Ghosts and Sighs of Souls.
20 Sighs of Souls! Sighs are with his leave the effects of Lungs;
how a Soul can sigh without Lungs I cannot imagine, or how
Spirits can howl; but some Fools that admire him will say it
is poetical. This is the general excuse for any thing that is un-
intelligible or non-sense: So that poetical, as they apply the
word, signifies nonsensical.
A gentle Gust
Has all things husht.
Besides his barbarous Rhime, what can he mean by a Gust
hushing all things? Orpheus it seems came down to Hell with
30 a gentle Gust; besides, a gentle Gust is a Bull, for a Gust is a
sudden violent Storm of Wind.
Whilst ravisht by my warbling Strings,
The Vultures moult their Wings.
Warbling Voices I have heard of; but if Elkanah had but
understood a Cittern, (which I wonder he does not) he would
zo Sighs] Sights Q. 24 non-sense:] ~ . Q.
have known that Strings never warble, nor do Vultures care

for Strings, though they did warble, so much as to moult their
Feathers, much less their Wings; moulting of Wings is very
new.
And Hell it self forget their Tyrant Kings.
Hell it self forgets its Tyrant Kings, would be true Grammar,
though not very good sense: Hell forget their Kings, is such
false Grammar, that the lowest Boy in Westminster School
would be ashamed to write it.
10 Whence Mortal does thy Courage grow,
To dare to take a Walk so low?
Says Pluto; to which Orpheus answers,
To tell thee God, thou art a Ravisher.
No Tears nor Prayer
Your unresisted Will Controuls,
Who Commit force on Virtue, Rapes on Souls.
These are Four excellent Lines. Pluto asks, Whence does thy
Courage grow? Orpheus answers, from to tell thee God thou
art a Ravisher; besides Orpheus came a long Journey to tell
20 Pluto very great news, viz. that he was a Ravisher, as if he did
not know that before: Besides Tears or Prayer never Controul
any thing, they may perswade indeed: Nor can any thing that
is unresisted be controuled. How can a thing be controuled
that is never resisted? This was great News too. This was not
Orpheus's way to charm Hell; he had as good have stayed at
home if he could have spoken no better. Again your unresisted
Will who Commit, ifc. Will being the Proximum Antecedens
to who, makes it false English, who for which, and Commit
for Commits: if it be which Commits, and so true Grammar,
BO 'tis not sense; for Pluto's Will does not Commit Rapes, it only
inclines him to Commit Rapes on Souls.
Dares a weak Animal of Mortal Race
Affront a God t' his Face.
An Animal of Mortal Race is very Elegant, as much as to say
a warble,] warble not Q.
19 Ravisher] Ravishe Q (corrected in Errata). 23 controuled.] ^ ? Q.
152 Prose 1668-1691
an Animal of Animal Race, or a Mortal of Mortal Race; there

being no Animal but what is Mortal; the other Line is Bur-
lesque.
Thy Breath has damn'd thee, thou shall die.
First he's damn'd, and afterwards he shall die: Here is Breath
again, which is every thing, and does every thing with Elkanah;
nay, Breath that makes others live shall make Orpheus die.
Unloose your twisted Crests of Snakes:
Into his Breast those swift Tormentors fling,
10 And his tortur'd Entrals Sting.
Twisted Crests I take to be Fustian and non-sense; and why
swift Snakes? Snakes are far from being swift Creatures; and
his tortur'd Entrals; If his Entrals were tortured before, why
should they be Stung afterwards? But now Proserpine,
Oh Sir, &c.
Let not such Noble worth your Victim fall.
Here Proserpine calls a God Sir: "Tis a very new Title for a
God; she might as well have said your Worship. Then how can
worth fall a Victim? a worthy Man may, but worth cannot;
20 then Attendant trolls it away, he has not Poetry enough to
know what to call an Attendant of Proserpine: This is her
Suivante, her waiting Woman it seems.
Rage is a venial Sin in Lovers.
Then says Proserpine,
Then gentle Stranger tell;
What Fortune has befell,
That brings a Lover down to Hell?
Then viz. Since or because Rage is a venial Sin, tell what
Fortune has befell, for has befallen: Has be-fell is false Gram-
30 mar.
/ have a Mistress in your Spheare,
Forc'd from my Armes
By Deaths Alarm's.
The Sphear of Hell is non-sense; nor is any thing forced by
alarmes. An alarme is but a preparation to force.
4 thee,] S; ~A Q. 19 Victim?] ^, , Q. 23 Lovers.] S; ,~ : Q.
29 for has] for has Q. 33 Alarm's.] ~ ? Q.
Oh take me down to her, or send her back to me.

Here Orpheus speaks as if he were upon the Stage, and not
in Hell. Would he have himself taken down from Hell to Hell,
or her brought back from Hell to Hell. This is admirable, but
his non-sense is so very various, and so very frequent, a Man
had need have a sound Head to endure the many turnings and
windings of it.
Your tiresome Story pleads in vain;
Be gon,
10 Says Pluto; but Proserpine it seems wears the Breeches, and
for all what Pluto says, she says,
With thee thy fair Treasure take,
Releast by Love from that Eternal Chain
Which destin'd Kings and Conquerours cannot break.
Released from an Eternal Chain is a Bull; if her Chain had
been Eternal she could never have broken it: Therefore it is
no wonder that destin'd Kings and Conquerours cannot break
an Eternal Chain: But why destin'd Kings? Elkanah with all
his little sense cannot tell me, unless it be to make up the Verse.
20 To th' wondring World he in soft Airs may tell,
Mercy as well as Justice rules in Hell.
To tell in soft Tunes or Airs to the World: How shall the
whole World hear soft Tunes? They had need be lowd ones
one would think.
No Law there nor here, no God so severe,
But Love can Repeale, or Beauty can Tame.
He makes Love to Repeale a God, and thus ends the splen-
did Mask, in which there are not Two Lines without false
Grammar or non-sense.
so My Son kill'd by her hand!
Says Crimalhaz, Call my Physitians since he is Killed.
Since, as he says the Emperour Stabbed! the Queen his Mur-
derer! A Physitian is very usefull to a dead Man: But though
he thought Muly Labas was dead, he was not yet, but said,
Your hand fee.
23 Tunes?] ~ . Q. 31 Crimalhaz,] ~ I Q.
34-35 said, / Your hand &c. ] said your hand, frc. Q.
154 Prose 1668-1691
Has reach'd my Heart, but not the Love it held.

How could a Hand touch Love, or a Dagger Stab Love, <t?c.
But says Morena,
Good, Gentle, Kind, give me the Dagger back, &c.
// my Request appear too burdensome,
Grant but this one, That pointed Steel restore, 8cc.
That is, give me back the Dagger; or if my Request appear
(for appears) too burdensome, give me the Dagger back!
Oh cruel Queen! what has your fury done?
10 That made you lose a Husband, me a Son;
This Realm a King, the world a Virtue, grown
Too fit for Heaven, but not to go so soon.
The Question is an Answer to it self; she asks what her fury
had done that made her loose a Husband, &c. Why it answers
it self, it made one loose a Husband, the other a Son. 'Twas a
very impertinent Question: The World a Virtue! Here the
Poet calls a Man, viz. Muly Labas a Virtue. What non-sense
that is need not be demonstrated: Too fit for Heaven is a Bull,
nothing can be too fit for any end it is designed for, much less
20 for Heaven: But after he calls Muly Labas a Virtue too fit for
Heaven; he says, but not to go so soon, viz. he was too fit
to go to Heaven at all, but not too fit to go to Heaven so soon.
Was it not you that arm'd me to this guilt,
Told me I should a Ravishers Blood have spilt?
No, 'twas by your design, &c.
Arming one to guilt is base English; besides / should have
spilt before she did it, is non-sense: It must be I should spill.
But what does he mean by no there? But this, 'twas your De-
sign. No 'twas your Design.—
30 Madness always ushers in great Sins.
Madness takes away all Sin! Mad-men cannot sin.
This is no news to that which she has done.
Done News, to use a Phrase like this, this is no non-
sense to that which he has done.
She mov'd, star'd, walk'd, storm'd, rag'd, curs'd, rav'd,
and damn'd.
4 &c.] ilfc. Q. 6 8cc.] Ar. Q.
This is the sillyest Line of Mono-syllables that ever was writ-

ten. She moved and walked, as if any body could walk without
moving: She stormed, raged, and raved, that is, raged, raged,
and raged: What he means by damned, unless she swore God
Damn her, I cannot tell.
Her Face discolour'd grew to a deep Red.
That is, either her Red Face grew Red, or her Tawny, or
Black and Blew Face grew Red.
Then with an Infant rage, more soft, and mild,
10 She plaid with madness, leap'd, sung, danc'd, and smil'd.
She plaid, leap'd, sung, danc'd, and smil'd; these are pretty
effects of rage, but tis an Infant rage: rage is the excess of pas-
sion: but he means either Childish rage, and that way it is not
sense, because Children when they rage bite, scratch, stare,
stamp, cry and roare. If he means little or moderate rage,
then 'tis moderate excess, which is a Bull.
I'st not enough that my dear Lord I slew,
But must be Actor and Designer too?
No, barbarous stepmother
20 It should be But I must; I being as necessary as any word
in the Verse. But she saies no, Barbarous Stepmother, viz. no,
'tis not enough. This is as good a No as that before.
But see how idly her wild Fancies walk,
But she who acts so ill, as ill may talk.
Though the Poet thinks his own Fancy flies, he makes the
Queens Wild Fancy but walk, and walk idly too: But she who
acts so ill. The word Act refers not to the Queen, but to Mrs.
lohnson who acted the Part, and then he does her wrong; for
she acted very well though she talked ill; he having put such
30 foolish words into her mouth. Her action exceeds his Poetry
as much as her Beauty and Meene does his.
The Wits and Senses lost, the Soul may stray.
That is, as he meanes, when the wits and senses are gone,
'tis possible to be mad; never was any man so unlucky at sen-
14-15 bite . . . roare. ] set off as a line of verse in Q_, in italics (Bite).
17-25, Follow 136:2 in Q. 20 But] but Q.
21 no,]~ A Q. 24 talk
-] s; ~ • Q- a? Mrs.] MJVS. Q.
33 is, ... meanes,] ~A . . . .—A Q- 34 unlucky] unlicky Q.
156 Prose 1668-1691
tences, similes, or descriptions as this Fumbler in poetry by

name Elkanah Settle.
How she disowns that blood which she has spilt!
She did not disown his blood, for she said before 'twas her
Sonns: but I suppose though the Poet dos not say so, he means
she disowns the spilling of it; but I will pass by a great deal of
unpardonable stuff to come to the end of this tedious Act.
Morena'i hand shall wash the staine she wears,
As condemn'd men turne Executioners.
10 This is one of his similes, which are commonly the most
unlike things to what they are compar'd in the world; Morena
must execute her self as condemn'd men execute others, and
she must wash the staine off her self as condemnd men wash
the staine off themselves by being Hangmen.
To expiate thy blood, I let out mine.
His blood was good and had no Crime in it.
In his next two lines he makes Skyes and Sighes to Rhime.
Wingd by my Love I will my passage steer.
To steer a flight is a phrase, which none but he would have
20 used, and then his reason why he cannot miss his way is ex-
cellent, and undeniable:
Nor can I miss my way when you shine there.
And thus ends the most tedious insipid dull Act I ever read.
THE FIFTH ACT
Mysterious Majesty best fitts a Throne.
T
HIS is one of his Sentences; which are commonly sound-
ing Nonsense. For why Misterious Majesty becomes a
Throne better than plain Majesty, is to me a Misterious
riddle. But this fellow has a Buz of poetry in his head; and
never thinking clearly, can never expresse him self intelligibly.
2 Settle] Settle Q. 8 Morena's] Moreno's Q.

16 good] good to expiate Q (corrected in Errata).
17 Rhime.] ~ Q. ai undeniable:] <~ . Q.
28 and] aud Q.
Men have ador'd; and have made Offerings

To unknown Gods, why not to unknown Kings?
Here is a bundle of Nonsense: for his Tyrant, who speakes
it was no unknown King, though he was an Vsurper: They all
saw him, knew him and were forc'd to acknowledge him: Next
his Phrase of makeing offerings, is improper English. No man
makes the Oxen and the Sheep he Sacrifices; I confess our
Authour makes Bulls not seldom.
Expecting when the Martiall Summon calls,
10 That is when the Summon Summons; a Figure called Tau-
tology very frequent in this Authour.
The number of my Foes enhance my Crown.
Numbers of Foes most Commonly pull down Crownes; but
the Crown of Morocco has the priviledge onely to be inhanc'd
by them: the number of his Faults inhance his Play by the same
reason. And to inhance a Crown is excellent English into the
bargain.
Muley Hamet and Mariamne are the last.
Wou'd any one take this for a Verse? it runs like a foundred
20 Jade upon pebbles: and must be pronounc'd thus:
Muley Hamet and Marjamne are the last.
To write not onely non-sense, but hobling non-sense too!—
But though your hand did of his Murder miss;
How 'ere his Exile has restraind his pow'r.
In prose thus: But though howere your hand did miss. But
though, and Howere signify both one thing: but he would have
you think he immitates Homers Expletives: ™l yap vw. He fills
a Verse, as Masons do Brick-walls, with broken peeces in the
middle.
30 Iv'e shook my late familiars from my brest.
z Gods,] S; ~ A Q. 3 Here is] H e ris Q.
6 English] English Q. 12 Crown.] S; ~ : Q.
16 English] English Q. 18 Romans and italics reversed in Q.
18 last.] ~A Q. 19 Verse?] ~ : Q.
20-22 thus: / Muley Hamet and Marjamne are the last. / To] thus. / Mu/ev
Hamet and Marjamne are the last, to Q.
24 pow'r.] pov'r: Q. 25 miss. But] miss: but Q.
26 signify both] signifies all Q (corrected in Errata).
27 vvv. He] vOv he Q. 27 fills] fils Q. 30 brest.] ^-A Q.
158 Prose 1668-1691
I shook is English, and I have shaken: he constantly mistakes

the Aorist for the preterperfect tense; And an ill Grammarian
is like to make a good Poet.
/ must
To the dead King, before my Love, be just.
He meanes, before I Love, I must be just to the dead King:
but he expresses it so awkardly, that he clouds his meaning,
for before my Love, is in the presence of my Love, or in her
sight.
10 In Common murders Blood for Blood may pay:
But when a martyr'd monarch dyes we may
His murderers condemn; but that's not all;
A vengance hangs or'e Nations where they fall.
He has the worst luck in Sentences of any man: In common
murders Blood may pay for Blood; but when a Martyr'd Mon-
arch dyes then we may condemn his Murderer: A man may be
executed for a common Murder, but he may be condemn'd for
Regicide: But that's not all; A vengance hangs or'e Nations
where they fall: What does a vengance hang or'e a Nation,
20 where Murderers are condemn'd for killing Kings? where
they fall: pray, Mr. Morocco, to what does they relate? if to
Martyr'd Monarchs they fall, tis false Grammar: If to his
Murderers, your sense must be that a vengance hangs or'e
Nations where the Murderers of Kings fall, that is a Nation
is cursd where Murderers of Kings are punished.
No prologue to her death; let it be done.
Let what be done? Let her death be done, is that your
English?
I on his murderer must pronounce a Doom
BO As may express
I can't do more; Nor can his Blood ask less:
Guards I on you that Office do conferre;
Obey my Orders; Seize this murderer.
i English] English Q. a tense] fence Q.
5 before] hefore Q. 10 pay] S; play Q.
16 condemn] condem'n Q. 19 hang] hangs Q.
28 Martyr'd Monarchs] Martyrd Monarch Q (corrected in Errata).
27-28 done, . . . English] done^ . . . English Q.
He sayes he must pronounce a Doom; and in the same

breath confers that Office on his Guards: then the Guards
must pronounce the Doom; for he speakes not of Obeying his
Orders, and seizing the Murderer till afterwards.
Thy poyson'd Husband, and thy murdred Son
This injured Empress and Morocco's Throne
Which thy accursed hand so oft has shook,
Deserves a blow more fierce &c.
As I observed before, he mistakes the Aorist for the preter-
10 perfect tense, has shook, for has shaken: then the word deserves
is false Grammar; for deserve: Thy poyson'd Husband and thy
murdered Son, &c. deserve: but now why do's her poyson'd
Husband deserve a blow: and why does her murdered Son
deserve another; because her Son was a Foole when he was
alive, he must be beaten now he is Dead? What has the injured
Empress done, or Morocco's Throne, that they deserve a blow
too? I shrewdly suspect who deserves a Lash.
Stop her poison'd Breath.
And check her growing outrage by her Death.
20 If her Breath were poyson'd, there was no need of stopping
it: but he means her poisnous Breath, and her growing outrage
which he would check by Death: To check a man by Death,
is a very civil kind of reprehention. As if a Judge should say
to a Malefactor, sirrah you have transgressed the Laws, and
therefore I will check your outrage with a halter, and stop your
poyson'd Breath with a ropes end.
Bid my Physitians a strong Draught prepare;
And leave her Execution to their Care.
Just now he commanded his Guards to kill her; now no
30 Body knows why his Physitians must do it. Yet it may be he in-
tends not her Death, for he bids his Physitians onely prepare a
strong Draught, and a strong Draught may be as well strong
Ale as strong Poyson.
6 Morocco's] Morocco's Q. 8 &c.] be. Q.
9 As I] As i Q (corrected state); I Q (uncorrected state).
9 before,] ~A Q. 9-10 preterperfect] pretetperfcct Q.
10 tense,] tence Q. 11 Grammar] Crammer Q.
16 Empress] Emperour Q. 17 too?] ~ ! Q. 23 Judge] Judge Q.
160 Prose 1668-1691
Guilt onely thus to Guilty minds appeares;

As Syrens do to drowning Mariners;
Seen onely by their eyes, whose Deaths are nigh:
We rarely see our Crimes before we Dye.
First here is a false Allusion: For Syrens appeare not like
Prospices before a Storme, or in it: but if you will beleive
Homer in a Calme; enticeing Marriners to the rocks by their
Songs, who may escape them as Vlysses did. Next observe he
sayes Guilt Seen onely by their eyes whose Deaths are
10 nigh; this line and the two former prove that guilt appears to
dying men; Yet in the very next he contradicts himself.
We rarely see our Crimes before we dye.
These four lines are two grave sentences, of our Sententious
Numps: he will be wise, and see what comes on't.
But since my Dagger has so feebly done,
Missing thy Brest Iv'e sent it to my own.
To send a thing is to part with the Possession of it: but she,
it seems sends the Dagger to her Selfe.
// some kind Devil had but took my part, fee.
20 Had took (for had taken) will be false English in spite of all
his Devils.
Curse on weak Nature which my rage unman'd
A Masc'line heart link'd with a Female hand.
How does a Womans rage become unman'd? or what reason
has she to fall foul upon Nature for unmanning her, who had
never made her a man? One would have thought it had been
the Curse of an Impotent Lover, who accused Nature for
unmanning his rage, rather than of a Lady whose unman'd
rage, might at least Supply her with a Signior.
BO Your Courteous arme retrir/d mine from a guilt:
Morenas hand Morenas blood had spilt Sec.
To retrive, is to finde a thing which is lost: as to retrive a
Partridge is to spring her the second time. To retrive an arme
from guilt, is very metaphoricall non-sense.
6 Prospices] Procpisses Q. 8 escape] escape as Q (unconnected state).
8 Vlysses] Vlysses Q. 15 Dagger] S; Daggar Q. 19 &c.] ire. Q.
go English] English Q. ag Masc'line] Mascline Q; Masculine S.
31 Morenas] Morenas Q (bis). 31 &c.] be. Q.
Is this your thanks for all her love has done!

Who stak'd her Soule, to raise thee to a throne.
Here is excellent Grammar betwixt is and thanks: but you
must consider the poor Woman was just dying, and could not
mind true English: this may excuse her for youing him in one
line, and theeing him in the next; and for stakeing her Soule:
against what did she stake it, or with whom did she play her
Soul? or did she stake it upon Crimalhazzes Gaunches?
Kind Taffalet does for my presence call;
10 I am invited to his Funerall.
He was a kind man indeed to invite him to his Funerall.
The little Champion with impatience waites
To beg a tomb before Morocco's Gates.
Believe it who will; for my part I can never think that
Taffalet would bring an Army to the Walls of Morocco onely
to beg a Tomb before the Gates; and to invite Crimalhaz to his
Buriall.
His heat of Blood, and lust of Crownes shall cease:
Lash'd to a Calm; and cool'd into a Peace.
20 Here Crimalhaz discovers himself to be a Tyrant; and a
wicked man, as the Poet intends him all along: For kind
Taffalet came to invite him to his Funerall, and to beg a
Tomb before Morocco's walls; and he very uncivilly flies out
upon him, and sayes his heat of Blood and lust of Crownes
shall Cease: This Threatning was very high; but he comes off
very strangely in the next line: Lash'd to a Calm, and cool'd
into a Peace: As if he would have said, I will not onely Murder
him and give him a Tomb, but I will also lash him, and coole
him into a Peace: Or to apply it to our Poets reputation,
so Not onely thou in London hast a name
But Islington has also heard thy fame.
A notable Climax like that of shours of Arrow's and of raine.
Your Army's routed er'e the Wars begun.
i thanks . . . done!] S; ^/1 . . . ~ . Q. 2 throne.] S; ~ I Q.
5 English] English Q. 9 Taffalet] Taffalet Q.
10 Funerall] S; ~ : Q. 13 Morocco's] Morocco's Q.
30-31 Entirely in italics in Q.
31 thy fame] the same Q (corrected in Errata).
162 Prose 1668-1691
The rout of an Army commonly presupposes fighting: but

it seems this rout was so very quick, that it was not onely before
any Battell: but before even the Warr was begun. This was
intended for a flight: but our Poet where ever he begins his
Flight is sure to end it where the Beetle does: I have heard
him resembled in these extraordinary sallies of his fancy; to an
Vnfortunate Dog leaping at a high stile; and perpetually hang-
ing by the Buttocks.
Muley Hamet ner'e was taught
10 To back, but head those Armyes where he fought.
Here I am absolutely of the Poets opinion, that Muley Hamet
was never taught to back an Army; nor any body else of whom
I ever heard: I will allow Muley Hamet being a Heroe, to
have a back as broad as Hercules, but I am confident he could
never have been taught to back whole Armyes with it.
Draw up my Forces, raise my Guard.
The Usurper (you must know) had been just told that his
Army was beaten, or revolted and that Muley Hamet was
proclaimd King; yet he talks of drawing up his Forces, and
20 raising afterwards his Guards.
His Blood, Deare Prince shall pay for shedding thine.
Did his Blood shed the others Blood?
He by no force withstood,
Comes now this way to Sacrifice your Blood.
This Elkanah is a very Bloody Poet; but he is perpetually
mistaken in his wrath: for to Sacrifice Blood, is as improper as
the former.
Whose Fortune and whose Sword has wonders done.
Whose hand and whose pen has writ false Grammar; has for
so have.
lie be a Monarch, to act deeds, like thee.
To act deeds is only to represent them: 'tis well for him his
Monarchs are Players, to save the propriety of his English.
9 Muley Hamet] Muley Hamet Q. 15 it.] ~ : Q.
16 Forces, . . . Guard.] ~ A . . . ~ A Q.
20 raising] raise Q (corrected in Errata).
21 thine.] S; ~ : Q. 28 Whose] Whose Q. 28 done.] S; ~ : Q.
33 'tis] ti's Q. 33 English] English Q.
His Blood, Sec.

Shall pay, What to your Brothers dust I owe.
Her Brother was kil'd two days before: he turn'd dust very
quickly in a Country which preserves mummey 3000 years.
Though I am fall'n so low,
My Fortune lost, I may a Begger grow.
That is, Though my Fortune be lost, yet I may grow poore;
and though I grow poore, yet I may grow a Begger; though our
Authour has no wit, yet he may grow a Foole.
10 Immur'd within the Walls:
That is, walld within the Walls.
I know your vertue is so strong, that if
You sweare you will protect my Throne and life:
That if is a most excellent ending of a Verse; and it rhimes
as well to life: half he writes is such: powers and adores are
the very next rhymes.
Theres not one Dart
In Heaven that would not strike the murderers heart
Before his hand should touch her sacred Brest.
20 Pray answer me one civil question; how could he be a
murderer before his hand had touch'd her sacred Breast; that is
in your sence, kil'd her: And besides, how come all the Darts
in Heaven to be so much concern'd, that they must all strike
the Murderer together? then a Murderers heart is not so very
large that all the Darts in Heaven can stick there: this is very
poeticall non-sense; and these Darts are little better than fools
bolts.
lie try
Who's the best Executioner, Heaven or I.
so A man may Cry out to him with his next ensuing words,
Hold, Barbrous, Cruell; hold your Murdering hands: never
was poore verse so Executed: Executioner must be read Exe-
l-z Hif Blood, fcc. / Shall . . . owe.] His blood shall . . . oweA Q.
6 7) I Q. 6 grow.] S; ^ : Q. 21 before] bafore Q.
22 come] comes Q. 84 together?] ~ ; Q.
s6 poeticall] poeticall Q.
26-27 little better than fools bolts] bolts Q (corrected in Errata).
29 Who's] S; Whose Q. 32 read] red Q (uncorrected state}.
164 Prose 1668-1691
cusner, to bring the verse into Compass: he cuts of Syllables as

the Tyrant did Legs and Feete that were too long for his Bed.
lie to a thousand Deaths my life expose
Before I will one inch of Empire loose.
A Crittick can gaine no Credit from this play; he can never
make cleare riddance but must of necessity leave more non-sense
behind him, than he takes away. I overpassed silent Grotto as
if any Grotto talked, and though your hand and Hers no
Scepters beares; false English for beare: But who ever exposed
10 their lives to a thousand Deaths? How many lives had Mar-
iarane to expose to those thousand Deaths? yet all this She will
do rather then loose one inch of Empire: An inch of Empire is
no great matter; But she is a Woman who speakes it, and an
inch may be somewhat to her.
lie travell, then, to some remoter Sphere,
Till I finde out new worlds; and Crown you there.
1 believe our learned Authour takes a Sphere for a Country:
so he had the Sphere of Hell in his maske before: here he
means the Sphere of Morocco; as if Morocco were the Globe
20 of Earth and Water; and he not contented with this vniverse of
Barbary, would travail to the vniverse of Europe or the Sphere
of Asia, and Crown her there. But the jeast of it is, that the
Earth and Water makeing but one Globe (which is not a
Sphere neither by his leave) He will be shrewdely put to't, to
travail farther.
You this great deed fulfill'd.
To fulfil a deed: most admirable English.
Since you at Scorn and dareing are so good.
Very Heroicke.
so He sing my Funerall Obsquies in these Armes:
First he sings after he is dead; then Funeral obsquies are very
finely shortned Euphonia Gratia: but he who perpetually cur-
a Tyrant] Tyrant Q. 9 Scepters] Septers Q.
9 beares; . . . English] beares? . . . english Q.
18 here] here of Q (uncorrected state). 26 deed] S; deeed Q.
27 English] English Q. 28-29 good. / Very] good, very Q.
31 after] afttr Q. 31 dead;] ~ . Q.
32 Euphonitf] Euphonioe Q.
Notes and Observations 16^
tailes Sence, may be allow'd to curtaile words: So immediately,

he says, What have th' hig'r powers to do.
Sure Heaven acts wonders; wonders, no tis none!
First Heaven is an Actor; for to act a thing, and to do it, are
of several Significations (as was said before:) next see how he
runs out of one Number into another: sure Heaven acts
Wonders I Wonders, no tis none: That is, the Wonders is no
Wonders; A rare Grammarian!
So may my body rot when I am dead
10 Till my ranch dust has such Contagion bred
My grave may dart forth Plagues, as may strike death
Through the infected aire where thou drawst breath.
He meanes this for an Imprecation but makes no sense of it:
for he begins the sentence with so may my Body rot: Now we
expect as somewhat to follow: but he leaves us in the Lurch;
he has already done; his armies routed, er'e the Warrs begun.
He will tell you he pursues till my ranck dust, but till has no
relation to so: but suppose that sense: till my ranck dust has
such Contagion bred: by that time 'tis dust it will cease to be
20 ranck, and consequently breed no Contagion, if it bred none
before.
Subjects my Homage pay; but Monarcks thine.
To pay my Homage, is to pay that Homage which is my
due to another person. But he meant Subjects pay me Homage,
and I pay it thee. Then Monarchs pay thine. How many
Monarchs is Muley Harriet?
And saves her Blood to be ally'd to yours.
By this allyance he means Marriage: But to be married and
to be ally'd are as different, as Cousen and Husband,
so A Nobler passion, Story never writ,
That turn d a Traytor to a Proselite.
Put it into prose for non-sense sake: Story never writ a
Nobler passion That turn'A a Traytor to a Proselite. How could
Story write? and then a Proselite is one that changes his Re-
ligion, and he is the likest to make a Traytor.
8 Grammarian] Gramarian Q. 18 suppose] supose Q.
25 thee] the Q. 26 Harriet?] ~ 1 Q.
166 Prose 1668-1691
Pilgrims, &c.
Go meet their Saints.
I thought they had gone quite to them; and that the Saints
had staid for them in their Shrines. But Mr. Settles Saints are
civiller than any other.
I from those eyes for ever will remove:
I cannot stand the sight of hopeless love, &c.
To What ere place my wandring steps incline
lie fancy Empyres; for lie think her mine.
10 His love is Hopeless and yet he'l thinke her his.
See the reward of treason: Death's the thing
Distinguishes th' Vsurper from the King:
Kings are immortal; and from life remove;
From their Low'r thrones, to weare new Crowns above:
But Heaven for him has scarse that bliss in store:
When an Usurper dyes he reignes no more.
If he would have studied for non-sense; (but God be thanked
he needs not) he could scarce have crouded more together in
six lines.
20 Deaths the thing, Distinguishes th' Vsurper from the King,
this is his first Sentence; and tis non-sense, for Death makes
all men equall.
Kings are immortal and from life remove.
Another Sentence: Kings are immortal and yet dye. From
life remove; from their Lower thrones: that is from, from.
Then all Kings go to Heaven too: that is good Divinity: but if
they weare new Crowns above, we shall be sure to know them
from Vulgar Saints, who either weare no Crownes, or none but
old.
30 When an Vsurper dies he raignes no more.
Sentences are fatall to this fellow: this is a very glorious one;
when a man dies he reignes no more: I think I can make one
as good of this Poet, when he has done this Play he writes no
more: or which is all one, he will never get it acted; or which
is even yet all one, It will never get an Audience.
1-2 Pilgrims, Sec. / Go] Pilgrims, go Q. 7 love, &c.] love Q.
8 wandring] S; wandering Q. 10 his.] ~ : Q.
14 above:] S; ~ A Q. 23 remove.] ~ : Q. 24 From] from Q.
z6 Then] then Q. 30 more.] ~ : Q.
My Justice ended, now lie meete a Crown.

Then it seems he intends not to doe Justice any longer, now
he's a King; but either to turn Rogue like Crimalhaz, or
Foole like Muley Labas Before he was for meeting a
Saint, and now he's for meeting a Crown. Is it a walking or a
flying Crown?
Reignings a whole lifes toyle; the work of years.
I observe that in the last pages, his Play thickens with non-
sense; as he comes nearer the gole he mends his pace. Raign-
10 ing, is neither a whole lives toyle, if the King be not Crownd
in his Cradle; nor the work of years, in case he Reign but one
year.
In Love, a Day, an houre, a minutes bliss
Is all flight, Rapture, flame and Extasyes.
A minutes bliss is all Extasyes: is and Extasyes are of several
numbers. When our Poet talkd of flight, rapture and flame, he
might have added, Salt, fire and great Nature, to make it
absolute Poet Ninny.
An Age in Empyre's but an houre in love.
20 This is the last line; and he is as true to Non-sense in it, as he
was in the first: How an age in Empyre is but an houre in love,
I cannot understand; and if he can make me, I will conclude
him to be as great an Apollo, as he over the Kings Boxe, which
seems to be made for Mr. Settles statue, amongst the poets
heads.
OF THE PLOTT AND CONDUCT OF THE PLAY
NE would have thought that a Fellow who takes upon

O him to Dedicate to a Person of High Quality, and to
entertain him, (though very sawcily by the way) with
the Faults and Errors of other Poets, should have had enough of
so judgement to avoid them in his own Writings. But, nil rnalo
\ Crown.] /-^ : Q.
7 lijes . . . the . . . years.] S; lije . . . tbe . . . years, Q.
8-9 non-sense;] w ? Q. 13 houre,] S; ~A Q.
17 Salt,] ~A Q. 23 Apollo] Apollo Q.
i68 Prose 1668-1691
securius Poeta. He was Arrogant, because he saw not his own

mistakes, though they are now grown so notorious, that his
Tragedy is turned round into a Farce, and the judicious part of
his Audience came only to laugh, as they did to Plarlequin and
Scaramoucha, and to find an entertainment, which is therefore
pleasant, because 'tis so extreamly absurd, and out of Nature.
What pictures of Man-kind is such a Creature like to draw,
who is never admitted into the conversation of Gentlemen,
who can talk of nothing but Plays, and of them too so sillily,
10 that he is a shame to his Profession; no man will be called a
Poet for his sake, such a crossgraind block, that he can never be
contriv'd into a Mercury; for this wretch who is in one, all the
Muley Labasses, Muley Hamets, Morenos, I mean all the
Fools of his own Play, for him to Censure other Poets, who can
never arrive any further than to be their Zany, and to do
that, on the low Rope, which they do on the high, is so unsuffer-
able an impudence, that he has provoked me to lay him open,
to pluck his borowed Feathers from him, and strip him naked
to his own natural Non-sense. First therefore let us look on
20 him in the judicious part of a Poet, his Plot, and the manage-
ment of his Play. You see him stumbling in the very beginning
of the First Act; there his Morena tells the Story of her love to
her lover; How he stole her away from her Fathers Court;
where she (sayes this incorrigible Dunce) was a Conspirator
in her own Rape, and from thence brought her to Morocco,
Where they were both imprisoned by his Father, and to be
put to death for the stealing away of one another; Yet in the
mean time, her Father is so far offended, that he is wageing
Warr, against his; and coming with an Army against Morocco.
so On this foundation of Nonsence his play is built.
For observe first she relates a thing to one who knows it as
well as her self and upbrayds him with what she suffered for
his sake. A pretty Character of his Heroine, to make her an
ill natured fool.
5 Scaramoucha,] Scaramucha Q. 11 crossgraind] crosgraind Q.
is Mercury] Mercury Q. 13 Hamets] Harriet Q.
14 own] oun Q. 21 You] you Q.
24 incorrigible] incorigible Q.
In the next place why should this Muley Labas steale her
away, or, to follow our Authors Bull, ravish her with her own
consent? who for ought we know might have had her for
speaking. And it ought to have been the first bargain her Father
should have made: He was a Prince, her equall or Superiour;
and as errant a foole as his Daughter; So that they were onely
fit for one another; And as good as married in their Characters.
Yet since nothing would serve the Poets turn but an
Action of Knights-errantry, that the Lady must be stoln, why
10 should Muley Labas his Father put his onely Son in Prison, at
his return? That was more than Priam did to Paris for stealing
Helena, though he had fifty Sons besides him. If he would not
have defended him for fear of indangering his Estate, he might
have sent the Lady back and avoided the inconvenience of the
Warr. But instead of this nothing will serve his turn but to
kill them both: that was to leave himself without a Son, and
to exasperat her Father by her Death. A pretty match of our
Poets making, where the friends on both sides were displeased:
and a rediculous senceless War to be made, onely that the
20 Authour might have an Argument for a Play.
But pray marke what reasons are given by the Emperour for
killing his Son and Daughter in Law, he sayes he will present
her Father with her head; a good way to pacify him, and to
make him withdraw his Seige: And for his Son he will execute
him for suspition of treason! Who, he a Traytor? I wonder his
Father knew him no better than to suspect him of so much
wit as goes to the makeing one! I dare say there was not one
honest Citizen in the pit, but his Stomach was ready to rise
to heare him so miscall'd: by the first twenty lines he spoke
so you might finde he was never like to make such a designing
person. The old Gentleman, might have set his heart at rest
for any harme his Son wou'd do him: Indeed if he had knockt
him on the head for a Foole, he had shown some reason, and
the Audience would have thank'd him: As to matter of Plots
7 another] anoher Q. 9 Knights-errantry, that] ~ : ~>, Q.
11 return?] ~ . Q. 12 him.] ~ : Q.
25 Who, . . . Traytor?] Â . . . ~ I Q.
170 Prose 1668-1691
1 dare be Compurgator both for Muley Labas and for the Poet,
Our Elkanah shall never suffer for Treason in the Raign of
King Charles the Second. He is certainly the most Innocent
servant his Majesty has; and therefore I am sorry that I finde
by the Gazette he must loose his priviledge of poet in extraor-
dinary to his Majesty.
But what if after all this, Moreno, can furnish us with a
reason why she makes this relation to her Lover, of what she
suffered for him, will the Critticks be then contented? she tells
10 him 'tis not to upbrayd him, but to arm his fancy for more
pleasing formes: (that expression is non-sense too, by the way,
to arme against an Enemy is proper, but to arme for a more
pleasing form, that is where there is no danger, is ridiculously
absurd:) but she wou'd say she relates their past troubles to
make him taste the pleasures which must follow; For now his
Father is grown kind; and has designd their mutual Happi-
ness. This is good news indeed; and surprizes Muley Labas so
much that he falls into a fit of nonsense (very natural to our
Author) And in broken sentences, expresses his joy. But after
20 she has let him run on for six lines together, and has heightned
his expectation with the hope of great and glorious things, and
fit onely for the breath of Kings, that he approves their passions
and will Crown their Loves; she turns short like a Damned
jilting Bitch, and tells him, it is decreed they shall to-
gether Dye. O Barbarous Morena, to wriggle and pull back
her from her Lover to forsake him in the midest of his
pleasure when he was just ready to have (those two
strokes were in imitation of our Authour.) But what a Char-
acter of a Woman was this; of one whome he intends a vertuous
so Woman, to put her Lover in hope, that she might make his
dispair the greater afterwards: And all this that the Poet might
surprise his Audience, for the worse.
But I find he gathers new non-sense every line; as a Snow
2 Elkanah] Elkanah Q. 5 Gazette] Gazette Q.

6 Majesty.] ~ A Q. 8 makes] maks Q. 9 be] he Q.
13 ridiculously] ridiculously Q. 23 Ciown] Cown Q.
«6 from her] ^ ~ , Q. 28 Authour.)] ~^ Q.
ball grows by rowling. For how the Devil should Morena know
the News She tells Muley Labas, before him? either they were
both in the same Prison or kept seperate. If they were seperated
who brought her to him, or how came she to have the first
Intelligence, who was a Stranger as well as a Prisoner in
Morocco? If they were together The news must have arrived
by some other hand, and have been brought to both.
Well, from whencesoever the News arrives, Muley Labas is
thunder-struck with it: He wonders his Father should suspect
10 him of Treason; and pray observe how he cleares himself
Can he thinhe so foule
A thought as Treason harbours in his Soule
Which does Morena',? Sacred Image beare?
No shape of ill can come within her Sphere.
A wonderfull Demonstration of his innocence, that he was
in Love with Morena: for nothing of ill could come within her
Sphere. What he meanes by coming into her Sphere I know
not: for Sphere signifies every thing with this Authour: the
Sphere of Morena, the Sphere of passions in the next Page,
20 the Sphere of Morocco, and the Sphere of Hell. And all these
within the Sphere of our Authours activity. His argument runs
thus: No Traitor can come within the Sphere of Morena, but
I can come within the Sphere of Morena, therefore I am no
Traitor: what could his Father reply to this; but that his
Treason greater was for being small; And had been greater
were it none at all.
Imagin what a kind of Plott we are like to have on this
Foundation. Immediately after this first Scene, or opening,
enters the Queen-Mother, and brings News to Muley Labas
BO that his Father the old Emperour is suddenly Dead, as he was
pronouncing the sentence of his Death: She tells the manner
of it with all the Circumstances; and yet being afterwards
alone with Crimalhaz her Confident, and Adulterer, tells us
her Husband was poison'd by her procurement; and desires
5 Stranger] Strainger Q. 6 Morocco?] ~ I Q.
13 Morena's] Moreno's Q.
87-28 Plott . . . Foundation.] <~ : . . . ~A Q. 27 to] ro Q.
172 Prose 1668-1691
Crimalhaz to relate the manner of it. This was a miserable
shift of the Poet, to let the Audience know how the old
Emperour Dyed: For she her self, could not be ignorant of it:
She who was whor'd by Crimalhaz, who set him on, and who
could not have known her Husbands Death, but she must know
the Circumstances also. So he did before in the first Scene be-
twixt Muley Labas and his Morena: to make the Storie plaine
to us he makes it told to those who knew it before, But we must
excuse him he had but that one trick, and was forc'd to use
10 it twice, like him who haveing but one Trump in his game
takes it up to play again.
After this you have a wonderful politick speech of the Queen
Mother, that she has onely set up her Son to throw him down:
That he was not yet ripe for Ruine, till she had undermind
his absent General; who being taken from him, the King would
be left without a Prop, and then she might safely murther him
to make way for her Lover Crimalhaz.
Mark here the head Peice of our Poet: How rediculously
he contrives in the Person o£ this great plotter, the Queen
20 Mother. The General was absent, his return uncertain, (for
there was no News of it in the first Act) Her Son in Prison, and
a foole into the bargain, so that the City was at her disposing,
and she and her Gallant had a much fairer game to play, if they
immediately possessed themselves of the Crown, now in their
reach, Than if they waited for the Generals coming, who was
a Friend to the King, and whom they were not certain they
could render suspected to him: But then the Play must
have ended in the first Act, or the Poet had been to seek for a
more reasonable Plot. But wanting that, he has drawn his
so buisness out at length; and like a Roguish Chyrurgeon has
made a sore first, that he might make a cure afterwards.
His Address is admirable too. He acquaints his Audience
with what he intends to do; which is the way never to surprize
them: As if a man who intended to cheat another, should tell
him his design before hand.
But what a Character of a Woman was here in his Queen-
4 Crimalhaz^ Grimalhaz^ Q. 25 coming] comming Q.
Notes and Observations 1*73
Mother: He designes her Bloody, and Cunning, and Ambitious:

we will grant she might be unnaturall enough to commit
Murther on her nearest Relation: But no body was ever
wicked for the sake of Wickedness, and without design. She
was ambitious and Crafty, as well as Cruell, and neither of
those two Qualities were consistent with her Actions. For as she
was ambitious she ought to have let her Husband have lived,
because by his life she was a Queen. And as she was Crafty
and Ambitious, she ought, when she had kild him, not to have
10 overskipd the occasion of taking the Power again into her
hands, to have possessed it with her Lover.
The Second Act contains nothing in it of design. You have
onely the Description of Muley Harriets return with his Fleet, a
Song and Dance, the appearance of two new Characters Muley
Harriet and Mariamne, with a promise of their Marriage. The
Discription opens the Act, which he begins with calling not
Muley Hamet the General, but his Fleet.
Your Royal Fathers General, Prince Muley Harriets Fleet,
does homewards sayle. Any one may see at first sight that
20 he has been borrowing from the relation made by Guyomar of
the Spanish Navy in the Indian Emperour. But he is so damn'd
a Copier, that he always discredits the Originall. I marke (be-
sides the frequent Barbarism of his Language in it, and Non-
sense,) that he expresses himself three severall times the same
way.
As if they danc'd to their own Trumpets sound.
As if that Breath and motion lent a Soule.
As if they would their Generals worth enhance.
Every thing is as if he meant wit and sense but is not so. This
30 Fellow will as certainly be the ruine of Heroick verse, as
Hyperbolus was of the ostracism: by his writing in it he will
shame it out of use.
His Muley Hamet is an ill imitation of Porphyrius in Max-
3 Murther] Murthers Q. 13 Fleet,] ~A Q.

15 Marriage.] ~ , Q. 21 Navy] Navy Q.
22 Copier] Copier Q. 23 Barbarism] Barbarism Q.
30-31 Fellow . . . Hyperbolus] Fellow . . . Hyperbolus Q.
174 Prose 1668-1691
imin; who being General to the Emperour, brings his Army

back to his aid: compare the verses, and the theft will be visible.
Maxim. Porphyrius, whom you Egypts Prcetor made
Is come from Alexandria to your aid.
Morocco. Hearing whose force Morocco will invade
I have brought home your Army to your aid.
His Hametalhaz is likewise as plainly stollen from Placidius:
Placidius envy'd Porphyrius, Hametalhaz, Muley Harriet.
Placid. May all the Curses envy ever knew
10 Or could invent, Porphirius pursue. aside.
Hametal. But in Morocco his high pride may find
His name less Glorious, and his stars less kind.
fiqjHl*
ciDjim<«
The Image of Morena desiring Muley Harriet to spare her

Father in the Battell is taken from Cidaria speaking to Cortez
in the Indian Emperour, on the same occasion. And Cortez his
answer to her, is the same in effect with that of Muley Hamet
to Morena.
Cort: The edge of War lie from the battel take,
And spare your Fathers Subjects for your sake.
20 Morocco But the rough hand of War more gentle make;
And spare his Blood for his Morenas sake:
We onely do aspire to this great end
To make your Father not our Prize but friend.
Tis a plaine Case that when ever Mr. Dryden leaves writing
in Heroick verse Mr. Morocco will be starved. He lives upon
his offals onely; and yet like an ill natur'd Cur, is perpetually
snarling at him, who feeds him.
He has us'd all the licence of a Poet in the Conquests of his
Heroe Muley Hamet: for he has very bountifully given into his
so hands
i Emperour] Emperour Q. 2 visible.] ~A Q.

3 Egypts] Egypts Q. 4 Alexandria] Alexandria Q.
5 Morocco will] Morocco will Q. 7 Hametalhai] Hameltaz Q.
10 aside.] ~A Q. 12 stars . . . aside.] S; shews . . . asid Q.
14 Cortez] Cartel Q. 18 lie} He Q. 21 Morenas] Morenas Q.
27 him.] ~ : Q. 29-30 given . . . hands] giveu . . . hands. Q.
Saphee and Sally, Mugadore, Oran

The fam'd Arzille, Alcazer, Tituan.
If he had been never so little conversant in Historic, he must
have known that Oran has been in the Possession of the Span-
iards above these hundred years: But he satisfied himself with
looking over a Map of Affrica, and finding Oran on the Sea
coast, and that it rhym'd with Tituan, he laid Seige to it and
took it for his Heroe.
He makes his Labas a very Courteous Monarch to set Muley
10 Harriet with him on the Throne on his Coronation day, a
Civility which is not ordinarily practis'd by Kings to their
Subjects.
Whilst they behold triumphant on one Throne
The Wearer and defender of a Crown.
And his Muley Hamet takes him very confidently at his
word bidding him Lead on; for (sayes he)
all that kneele to you
Shall bow to me; this Conquest makes it due.
By his Conquest he means Mariamne; whom it seems, he had
20 newly taken in, amongst the rest of his Saphees and Sallyes:
But as I take it, 'tis not very Heroick in his Heroe, to assume
to himself the Conquest of his Mistress; nor savours of much
good manners in him, to tell the Emperour that it is his due.
To conclude the Absurdities of this Act; the Emperour gives
Muley Hamet a Ring, that by shewing it he might be admitted
to visit the Queen Mother, who was a close mourner for her
Husbands death; and was not to stir from her private Lodgings.
Tis true, in decency she ought not: but yet our Poet, though
he calls himself the Kings Servant, is a little forgetfull of the
30 Court mode. He did not think time enough of the Ceremony;
for after her Husbands death the Queen dowager appear'd in
the first Act, to bring her Son the news in Prison: and appears
abroad again in the third Act, that is the next day after, to
1-2 Entirely in italics in Q. 9 Monarch] Monarch Q.
20 Saphees and Sallyes] Saphees and Sallyes Q.
as Mistress] Mistress Q. 23 due.] ~/, Q.
25 Muley] Muly Q.
176 Prose 1668-1691
catch Mariamne with Muley Harriet: the onely excuse that can
be found is that it may be there was a Prison in the Kings
Palace; and that Muly Labas and after him Muley Harriet,
were onely sent to be whipt at the Porters Lodge.
The third Act has more of buisness in it than the second,
and consequently is fuller of Absurdities. Here it is that Poet
Ninnyes play begins to thicken. Muley Harriet haveing the
Emperours signet comes into the Seraglio, and surprizes the
Queen mother with Crimalhaz asleep, takes away his Sword,
10 and not to spoile sport where he could make none, civilly
withdraws: The lustfull Villain wakes and misses his weapon;
His Queen and he devise a story to turn the mischief on Muley
Harriet by perswading the Emperour that Muley Harriet was
the Ravisher, and Crimalhaz the defender, which succeeds,
and Muley Hamet is imprison'd, &c.
In the next place 'tis to be considered that the Emperour
gave his signet to Muley Hamet in publick: So that the Queen
and Crimalhaz had fair warning of their danger.
Then, though Muley Hamet gain'd admission into the Sera-
20 glio, he could not get into the Queens Lodgings without the
notice of some of her Attendance: so that it was impossible he
should have surpris'd the Lovers. Nay you see Achmat the
Eunuch afterwards confesses that he met Muley Hamet, and
did not stop him, which makes the story more ridiculous: for
Achmat knew what was doing within, as being their confident
and in reason could not have made so great a mistake as to
have let Muley Hamet passe without notice given.
The Queens defence is yet more improbable: She sayes that
Muley Hamet would have ravished her; and Crimalhaz came
30 in to her rescue.
Muley Hamet was in love with her Daughter, and came to
ask her consent to the Marriage: He was a heroe indeed and a
very bold one, to fly upon the old Gentlewoman with so much
7 Ninnyes] Ninnyes Q. 7 begins] be gins Q.
n Villain] Villian Q. 19-20 Seraglio] Seraglio Q.
20 get . . . Queens] git ... Queens Q. 21 was] /•>/ , Q.
21 impossible] impossibe Q. 23 Eunuch] Eunuch Q.
26 and . . . mistake] aud . . . mistake. Q. 28 Queens] Queens Q.
violence; to forsake the Daughter for the Mother; and to at-

tempt a rape in her own Seraglio, in the mid'st of her Servants:
Yet Muley Labas is foole enough to beleive all this: But how
came Crimalhaz to her rescue? He had not the Emperours sig-
net too; did he drop from the Clouds into the Seraglio? this
is so manifestly absurd that it is not to be suffered.
Muley Harriet all this while sayes nothing to the purpose in
his own defence; but onely that their mystique Language does
his sense confound, and can th' eternal powers such Trechery
10 permit? oh horrour! and such balderdash stuff: he suffers him-
self to be run down without telling his own Story. Onely he
offers Crimalhaz the duel in these words,
That justice by his hand might give him death
And stifle with his Blood his perjur'd breath.
But that a man should stiffle anothers breath with his Blood,
seems rather a desire to be his Hangman, than to fight with
him.
The Emperour is ever sure to take all things wrong: and
therefore instead of granting the Combat to Muley Harriet; he
20 thinks his offering it a proof of his guilt. // you this rash at-
tempt pursue, you'l make me think that what he sayes is true!
That is if you will offer to cleare your selfe, I shall conclude
you guilty. Admirably argued, If you dare fight, I am sure you
are a Rascall. Presently upon this he pronounces the sentence
of his Death: And now what can the Poet do to save his heroe?
Of all the world who could imagine the Queen-Mother
should be the Woman? yet the Poet makes use of her to do
it: and gives his reason in these lines aside;
But hold! the King will then my cheat descry,
so / wish his Death, who tamely see him die;
which I confess I either do not understand, or if I do they are
i violence;] ~ . Q. 3 beleive] beeive Q.
4 rescue?] ~ I Q. 5 too;] ~ ? Q.
5-6 Seraglio? . . . absurd] Seraglio; . . . absur'd Q.
10 permit?] permitA Q. 10 stuff:] ~ , Q. 12 words,] ~A Q.
21 think] S; thinks Q. 24 Presently] presently Q.
25 heroe?] ~ . Q. 26 Queen-Mother] Queen-Mother Q.
29 hold! . . . descry,] S; ~ A . . . ~ : Q. 30 die;] ~ . Q.
31 which I] HWhich i Q.
178 Prose 1668-1691
flat non-sense. The Queen-Mother's great design with her Gal-

lant was to ruine Muley Hamet: Now she has it in her power
she sayes the King will descry her cheat, if she desires his
Death. If the Poet had so thought fit, it was the onely way in
the World to keepe her cheat undiscover'd: for who should re-
veale it when he was dead on whom it was practised; or doth
he meane, the King will find out the Cheat, that she wishes
his death if she tamely see him die? take his bad English in the
most favourable meaning, Yet what reason had she to care if
10 the King knew she desired Muley Harriets death, who was sup-
posed to have attempted a rape upon her? So that 'tis false
reasoning and non-sense every way. Onely Muley Hamet was
not to be kild; and therefore rather then faile, the Queen must
preserve him against her intrest and her Character: for when
he askes her, aside, how so fowle a treason gaind admission
to her Soule; She answers him in very refin'd fustian,
Without the help of Soules, when I think good
Such Crimes I do, as I'm meer flesh and blood.
That is, without reason, thought, or understanding: without
20 sense I am sure.
Another part of the Heroes Character is that he will not
plead for himself because the Kings Mother accuses him:
Believe me, her intended Ravisher
Appearing so, I take the guilt from her.
A very well bred Heroe, to be hang'd out of pure respect to
her who accused him.
His Mistress coming to see him in Prison, and freeing him,
is one of our Poets Generosityes: 'tis an usuall saying with
him, that 'tis an easy thing to make an Heroicke play: Some
30 forty rants and some four or five Generosityes and the buisness
is done (at least for ought he knows.) But this Generosity, by
i Queen-Mother's] Queen-Mother's Q.
8 die? . . . English] ~ ; . . . English Q.
11 her? . . . 'tis] herl . . . ti's Q. 12 way. Onely] way onely Q.
13 Queen] Queen Q. 16 fustian,] ~ . Q.
»8 do, as I'm] do as i'm Q. 19 is,] <~>A Q>
88 Kings Mother] Kings-Mother Q. 83 me,] S; ~ A Q.
84 so,] S; ~A Q. 87 Mistress] Mistres Q.
89-30 Some forty] Som forty Q. 31 knows.)] <~AA Q-
Notes and Observations 1*79
his favour, was a very Senseless one for Mariamne to free Muley
Harriet, because he had been false to love and would have rav-
ished her own mother; I am affraid she had some other design
in coming thither; and hearing of his manhood in enterprising
upon an old Woman, she thought he would do miracles to her.
But how knew she he was in Prison? she was not by, when
he was committed; and yet within Ten or Twelve lines, after
his going off, she has not onely heard of it, but has gone to his
Jaile and bribd his Keeper for his delivery, very quick work of
10 a nimble wilted Poet: and yet all this is suppos'd too: for we
heare nothing of those Circumstances. So the Play goes for-
ward till it comes to a broad place, and there the Authour
comes to the ditch, leaps over, and leaves the plot to come af-
ter as it can.
When it was not for his purpose that Muley Harriet should
clear himself; then he had not a word to say in his own de-
fence: But when the buisness is over he makes out his inno-
cence to Mariamne: But when Muley Labas and that close
mourner the Queen-mother came in the second time, he is be-
20 witchd againe and cannot speake to the King. So though he
be the Heroe and the Emperour the Foole of the Play, yet
the Foole rides the Heroe, and has the whip hand of him per-
petually. Once more the King will have his blood, and once
more the Queen-mother, whose second thoughts are no wiser
than her first, would save him: At last tis concluded he must
be banished. Upon this the old Queen and Crimalhaz plot
anew to destroy him by an Ambuscade which they would lay
for him, in his way to Banishment. They might have done it
more easily and less Suspiciously by the Kings order and by
so Law; but they will needs wave the certain way for the uncer-
tain, and the plausible for the Suspicious. So here's a Play spun
i favour,] ~ ; Q. 1 Mariamne] Marirmne Q.

3 mother;] ~ , Q. 4 thither;] ~A Q. 6 Prison?] ~ : Q.
12-13 Authour . . . ditch,] Authours . . . ditchA Q.
13 over,] over with the Story, Q (corrected in Errata). 16 clear] clea Q.
18 Mariamne] Mariomne Q. 21-22 yet the] yet the the Q.
s>7 anew] a new Q. 27 Ambuscade] Ambuscade Q.
31 here's] her's Q.
180 Prose 1668-1691
out of Accidents as unnatural, as Scaramoucha's farces; and a

heaping Adventure upon Adventure, without any probable
way of producing them from each other; He has given us a
Babell, instead of a Morocco: and had need have a whole Au-
dience as favourable as that good natur'd Gentleman was, who
being ask'd by another, at some Tragedy as absurd as this, how
such a man in the play came thither, answerd very civilly,
What need'st thou care how he came, so long as thou hast him
here for thy half Crown?
POSTSCRIPT
10 /">j OME who are pleased with the bare sound of Verse, or the
^^ Rumbling of Robustuous non-sense, will be apt to think
>s_J Mr. Settle too severely handled in this Pamphlet; but I
do assure the Reader that there are a vast number of Er-
rors past by, perhaps as many or more then are taken notice
of, both to avoid the Tediousness of the work and the great-
ness: it might have occasion'd of a volume upon such a trifle:
I dare affirm that no objections in this Book are fruitless
cavills, but if through too much hast Mr. Settle may be ac-
cused of any seeming fault which may reasonably be defended,
20 Let the passing by many gross Errors without reprehension
compound for it; I am not ignorant that his admirers who
most commonly are Women, will resent this very ill; and some
little friends of his who are Smatterers in Poetry, will be ready
for most of his gross Errors to use that much mistaken plea of
Poetica Licentia, which words Fooles are apt to use for the
Palliateing the most absurd non-sense in any Poem. I can not
find when Poets had Liberty from any Autority to write non-
sense more then any other men, Nor is that Plea of Poetica
Licentia used as a Subterfuge, by any but weake professors
5 Gentleman] Gentle man Q. 6 Tragedy] Tragady Q.
7-8 civilly, What] tivily what Q. 9 Crown?] ~ . Q.
of that Art, who are commonly given over to a mist of Fancy, a

buzzing of invention and a sound of something like Sense, and
have no use of Judgement: They never think throughly but
the best of their thoughts are like those we have in dreams
imperfect; which though perhaps wee are often pleased with
sleeping, we blush at wakeing. The licentious wildeness and
extravagance of such mens conceits have made Poetry con-
temn'd by some, though it be very unjust for any to condemne
the Science for the Weakness of some of the Professors.
10 Men that are given over to fancy onely, are little better then
Madmen: What people say of Fire (Viz. That it is a good Ser-
vant, but an ill Master) may not unaptly be applyed to Fancy,
which when it is too active Rages, but when cooled and allay'd
by the Judgement, produces admirable Effects. But this rage
of Fancy is never Mr. Settles crime, he has too much flegme,
and too little Choller to be accused of this, He has all the
pangs and throws of a fancyfull Poet, but is never delivered
of any more perfect issue of his Flegmatick braine, then a dull
Dutchwomans Sooterkin is of her body.
20 His stile is very muddy, and yet much Labour'd; for, his
meaning (for Sense there is not much) is most commonly ob-
scure, but never by reason o£ too much height, but Lowness.
His Fancy never flyes out of sight, but often sinkes out of
sight: But now I hope the Reader will excuse some digression
upon the extravagant use of Fancy and Poeticall Lycence.
Fancyfull Poetry, and Musick, us'd with moderation are
good, but men who are wholy given over to either of them,
are commonly as full of whimseyes as diseas'd and Splenatick
men can be: Their heads are continually hot, and they have
so the same elevation of Fancy sober, which men of Sense have
when they drink. So Wine used moderately does not take away
the Judgement, but used continually debauches mens under-
i of that] of of that Q. i Fancy,] ~A Q.

12 Master) may] Master.) May Q. 13 and] aud Q.
15 Fancy is ... crime,] is Fancy, . . . crimes Q (corrected in Errata).
19 Dutchwomans Sooterkin] Dutchwomans-Soaterk'm Q.
20 Labour'd] Lobour'd Q. 26 Musick] Mutsik Q.
31 used] use'd Q.
182 Prose 1668-1691
standings; and turns 'em into Sots, makeing their heads con-
tinually hot by accident, as the others heads are by nature; so
meer Poets and meer Musicians, are as sottish as meer Drunk-
ards are, who live in a continual! mist without seeing, or judge-
ing any thing clearly.
A man should be learn'd in severall Sciences, and should
have a reasonable Philosophicall, and in some measure a Math-
ematicall head; to be a compleat and excellent Poet: And be-
sides this should have experience in all sorts of humours and
10 manners of men: should be throughly skil'd in conversation,
and should have a great Knowledge of mankind in generall.
Mr. Settle haveing never studied any sort of Learning but
Poetry, and that but slenderly as you may find by his Write-
ings, and haveing besides no other advantages, must make but
very lame work on't; He himselfe declares he neither reads,
nor cares for Conversation, so that he would perswade us he
is a kind of Phanatick in Poetry, and has a light within him;
and writes by an inspiration which (like that of the Heathen
Prophets) a man must have no sense of his own when he re-
20 ceives, and no doubt he would be thought inspired and would
be reverenc'd extreamly in the Country where Santons are wor-
ship'd; But some will I doubt not object, That Poetry should
not be reduced to the strictnesse of Mathematicks, to which I
answer it ought to be so far Mathematica.il, as to have likeness,
and Proportion, since they will all confess that it is a kind of
Painting: But they will perhaps say that a Poem is a Picture
to be seen at a distance, and therefore ought to be bigger then
the life; I confess there must be a due distance allowd for the
seeing of any thing in the World: For an object can no more
ao be seen at all too neare, then too far off the eye; but granting
that a Poem is a Picture to be viewd at a great distance, the
distance and the bigness ought to be so suited, as though the
Picture be much bigger then the life, yet it must not seem so,
7 in] ni Q. 8 Poet:] ~ . Q.
go he would] some body would Q (corrected in Errata).
si Santons] Santons Q. 26 Painting] Paintaing Q.
and what miserable mistakes some Poets make for want of

Knowing this truly I leave to men of Sense to Judge, and by
the way let us consider that drammatick Poetry, especially the
English brings the Picture nearer the eye, then any other sort
of poetry.
But some will say after this, what Licence is left for Poets?
certainly the same that good Poets ever tooke, without being
faulty (for surely the best were so sometimes, because they were
but men) and that Licence is Fiction, which kind of Poetry
10 is like that of Landschap painting; and poems of this nature,
though they be not Vera ought to be Verisimilia.
The great art of poets is either the adorning and beautifying
of truth or the inventing pleasing, and probable fictions. If
they invent impossible fables, like some of /Esops, they ought
to have such Morals couch'd under them as may tend to the
instruction of mankind, or the regulation of manners; or they
can be of no use nor can they really delight any (but such as
would be pleas'd with Tom Thumb) without these circum-
stances. But there are some pedants who will quote Authoritie
20 from the ancients for the faults and extravagancies of some of
the modernes, who being able to immitate nothing but the
faults of the classick Authours mistake 'em for their excel-
lencyes. I speake with all due reverence to the Antients for no
man esteemes their perfections more then my self though I
confess I have not that blind implicit faith in them which some
ignorant Schoolmasters would impose upon us, to believe in
all their errours and own all their crimes. To some pedants
every thing in 'em is of that Authoritie that they will create a
new Figure out of Rhetorick upon the fault of an old poet.
so I am apt to believe the same faults were found in them, when
4 English] English Q. 6 Poets?] ~ . Q.

8 sometimes] somtimes Q. 10 painting;] ,~A Q.
12 beautifying] be autifying Q. 19 quote] quit Q (corrected in Errata).
22 classick] clasick Q. 22 mistake] mistakes Q (corrected in Errata).
26 us,] ~A Q. 27 own] owne own Q (corrected in Errata).
27 crimes. To] crims to Q.
29 Figure out of] Figuie of Q (corrected [?] in Errata).
184 Prose 1668-1691
they wrote, which men of Sense find now; but if not, and they
were judged excellencies as Schoolemasters would perswade us,
Yet I must now say,
Nobis non Licet esse tarn disertis
Musas qui colimus Severiores.
i wrote,] ~A Q.
1-8 if not, and they were judged excellencies as] not, and that thoseif mine
excellencies in 'em as Q (corrected in Errata; correction in original Errata
tinder pasted slip was but not the Excellencies which).
3 now say] say now Q (corrected in Errata).
4 disertis] desertis Q (corrected in Errata).
Heads of an Answer to Rymer
E who undertakes to Answer this Excellent Critick of

HE Mr. Rymer, in behalf of our English Poets against the
Greek, ought to do it in this manner.
Either by yielding to him the greatest part of what he con-
tends for, which consists in this, that the fivOoi (i.e.) the Design
and Conduct of it is more conducing in the Greeks, to those
Ends of Tragedy which Aristotle and he propose, namely, to
cause Terror and Pity; yet the granting this does not set the
Greeks above the English Poets.
10 But the Answerer ought to prove two things; First, That
the Fable is not the greatest Master-Piece of a Tragedy, tho'
it be the Foundation of it.
Secondly, That other Ends, as suitable to the Nature of
Tragedy, may be found in the English, which were not in the
Greek.
Aristotle places the Fable first; not quoad dignitatem, sed
quoad fundamentum; for a Fable never so Movingly contriv'd,
to those Ends of his, Pity and Terror, will operate nothing on
our Affections, except the Characters, Manners, Thoughts and
20 Words are suitable.
So that it remains for Mr. Rymer to prove, That in all those,
or the greatest part of them, we are inferior to Sophocles and
Euripides: And this he has offer'd at in some measure, but, I
think, a little partially to the Ancients.
To make a true Judgment in this Competition, between the
Greek Poets and the English in Tragedy, Consider,
I. How Aristotle has defin'd a Tragedy.
II. What he assigns the End of it to be.
III. What he thinks the Beauties of it.
so IV. The Means to attain the End propos'd. Compare the
Greek and English Tragick Poets justly and without Partiality,
according to those Rules.
5 nOffos] nvSos T; PV00S J, M.

i86 Prose 1668-1691
Then, Secondly, consider, whether Aristotle has made a just

Definition of Tragedy, of its Parts, of its Ends, of its Beauties;
and whether he having not seen any others but those of Sopho-
cles, Euripides, &c. had or truly could determine what all the
Excellencies of Tragedy are, and wherein they consist.
Next show in what ancient Tragedy was deficient; for Ex-
ample, in the narrowness of its Plots, and fewness of Persons,
and try whether that be not a Fault in the Greek Poets; and
whether their Excellency was so great, when the Variety was
10 visibly so little; or whether what they did was not very easie
to do.
Then make a Judgment on what the English have added to
their Beauties: as for Example, not only more Plot, but also
new Passions; as namely, that of Love, scarce touch'd on by
the Ancients, except in this one Example of Phcedra, cited by
Mr. Rymer, and in that how short they were of Fletcher.
Prove also that Love, being an Heroique Passion, is fit for
Tragedy, which cannot be deny'd; because of the Example al-
ledged of Phcedra: And how far Shakespear has outdone them
20 in Friendship, fcc.
To return to the beginning of this Enquiry, consider if Pity
and Terror be enough for Tragedy to move, and I believe
upon a true definition of Tragedy, it will be found that its
Work extends farther, and that it is to reform Manners by
delightful Representation of Human Life in great Persons, by
way of Dialogue. If this be true, then not only Pity and Terror
are to be mov'd as the only Means to bring us to Virtue, but
generally Love to Virtue, and Hatred to Vice, by shewing the
Rewards of one, and Punishments of the other; at least by
so rendring Virtue always amiable, though it be shown unfor-
tunate; and Vice detestable, tho' it be shown Triumphant.
If then the Encouragement of Virtue, and Discouragement
of Vice, be the proper End of Poetry in Tragedy: Pity and
Terror, tho' good Means, are not the only: For all the Passions
in their turns are to be set in a Ferment; as Joy, Anger, Love,
Fear, are to be used as the Poets common Places; and a gen-
4 Euripides, &c.] J; Emypides, &c. T; &c M.
eral Concernment for the principal Actors is to be rais'd, by

making them appear such in their Characters, their Words
and Actions, as will Interest the Audience in their Fortunes.
And if after all, in a large Sense, Pity comprehends this
Concernment for the Good, and Terror includes Detestation
for the Bad; then let us consider whether the English have not
answer'd this End of Tragedy, as well as the Ancients, or per-
haps better.
And here Mr. Rymer's Objections against these Plays are to
10 be impartially weigh'd; that we may see whether they are of
weight enough to turn the Ballance against our Country-men.
'Tis evident those Plays which he arraigns have mov'd both
those Passions in a high Degree upon the Stage.
To give the Glory of this away from the Poet, and to place
it upon the Actors, seems unjust.
One Reason is, because whatever Actors they have found, the
Event has been the same, that is, the same Passions have been
always mov'd: which shows, that there is something of Force
and Merit in the Plays themselves, conducing to the Design of
20 Raising those two Passions: And suppose them ever to have
been excellently acted, yet Action only adds Grace, Vigour,
and more Life upon the Stage, but cannot give it wholly where
it is not first. But Secondly, I dare appeal to those who have
never seen them acted, if they have not found those two Pas-
sions mov'd within them; and if the general Voice will carry
it, Mr. Rymer's Prejudice will take off his single Testimony.
This being matter of Fact, is reasonably to be Established by
this Appeal: As if one Man says 'tis Night, when the rest of
the World conclude it to be Day, there needs no further Argu-
80 ment against him that it is so.
If he urge, that the general Taste is deprav'd; his Arguments
to prove this can at best but evince, that our Poets took not
the best way to raise those Passions; but Experience proves
against him, that those Means which they have us'd, have been
successful, and have produc'd them.
And one Reason of that Success is, in my Opinion, this, that
28 says] J; say T; sh< say M.
i88 Prose 1668-1691
Shakespear and Fletcher have written to the Genius of the Age

and Nation in which they liv'd: For tho1 Nature, as he objects,
is the same in all Places, and Reason too the same; yet the Cli-
mate, the Age, the Dispositions of the People to whom a Poet
writes, may be so different, that what pleas'd the Greeks, would
not satisfie an English Audience.
And if they proceeded upon a Foundation of truer Reason
to please the Athenians, than Shakespear and Fletcher to please
the English, it only shows that the Athenians were a more judi-
10 cious People: But the Poet's business is certainly to please the
Audience.
Whether our English Audience have been pleas'd hitherto
with Acorns, as he calls it, or with Bread, is the next Ques-
tion; that is, whether the Means which Shakespear and Fletcher
have us'd in their Plays to raise those Passions before-named,
be better applied to the ends by the Greek Poets than by them;
and perhaps we shall not grant him this wholly. Let it be
yielded that a Writer is not to run down with the Stream, or
to please the People by their own usual Methods, but rather
20 to reform their Judgments: It still remains to prove that our
Theater needs this total Reformation.
The Faults which he has found in their Designs, are rather
wittily aggravated in many places, than reasonably urg'd; and
as much may be return'd on the Greeks, by one who were as
witty as himself.
Secondly, They destroy not, if they are granted, the Foun-
dation of the Fabrick, only take away from the Beauty of the
Symmetry: For Example: The faults in the Character of the
King and no King, are not, as he makes them, such as render
so him detestable; but only Imperfections which accompany hu-
man Nature, and for the most part excus'd by the Violence of
his Love; so that they destroy not our Pity or Concernment
for him. This Answer may be applied to most of his Objec-
tions of that kind.
And Rollo committing many Murders, when he is answer-
able but for one, is too severely arraign'd by him; for it adds
i Shakespear] J, M; Skakespear T.
Heads of an Answer to Rymer 18g
to our Horror and Detestation of the Criminal: And Poetique

Justice is not neglected neither, for we stab him in our Minds
for every Offence which he commits; and the point which the
Poet is to gain upon the Audience, is not so much in the Death
of an Offender, as the raising an Horror of his Crimes.
That the Criminal should neither be wholly Guilty, nor
wholly Innocent, but so participating of both, as to move both
Pity and Terror, is certainly a good Rule; but not perpetually
to be observed, for that were to make all Tragedies too much
10 alike; which Objection he foresaw, but has not fully answered.
To conclude therefore, if the Plays of the Ancients are more
correctly Plotted, ours are more beautifully written; and if we
can raise Passions as high on worse Foundations, it shows our
Genius in Tragedy is greater, for in all other parts of it the
English have manifestly excell'd them.
For the Fable it self, 'tis in the English more adorn'd with
Episodes, and larger than in the Greek Poets, consequently
more diverting; for, if the Action be but one, and that plain,
without any Counterturn of Design or Episode (i.e.) Under-
20 plot, how can it be so pleasing as the English, which have both
Under-plot, and a turn'd Design, which keeps the Audience in
Expectation of the Catastrophe? whereas in the Greek Poets
we see through the whole Design at first.
For the Characters, they are neither so many nor so various
in Sophocles and Euripides, as in Shakespear and Fletcher;
only they are more adapted to those ends of Tragedy which
Aristotle commends to us; Pity and Terror.
The Manners flow from the Characters, and consequently
must partake of their Advantages and Disadvantages.
so The Thoughts and Words, which are the fourth and fifth
Beauties of Tragedy, are certainly more Noble and more Po-
etical in the English than in the Greek, which must be proved
by comparing them somewhat more Equitably than Mr. Rymer
has done.
After all, we need not yield that the English way is less con-
ducing to move Pity and Terror; because they often shew
8 not] J, M; no T (some copies may read not). 83 first.] J, M; ^/ ? T.
190 Prose 1668-1691
Virtue oppress'd, and Vice punish'd; where they do not both

or either, they are not to be defended.
That we may the less wonder why Pity and Terror are not
now the only Springs on which our Tragedies move, and that
Shakespear may be more excus'd, Rapin confesses that the
French Tragedies now all run upon the Tendre, and gives the
Reason, because Love is the Passion which most Predominates
in our Souls; and that therefore the Passions represented be-
come insipid, unless they are conformable to the Thoughts of
10 the Audience; but it is to be concluded, that this Passion works
not now among the French so strongly, as the other two did
amongst the Ancients: Amongst us, who have a stronger Ge-
nius for Writing, the Operations from the Writing are much
stronger; for the raising of Shakespear's Passions is more from
the Excellency of the Words and Thoughts, than the Justness
of the Occasion; and if he has been able to pick single Occa-
sions, he has never founded the whole reasonably, yet by the
Genius of Poetry in Writing, he has succeeded.
The Parts of a Poem, Tragique or Heroique, are,
20 I. The Fable it self.
II. The Order or Manner of its Contrivance, in relation of
the parts to the whole.
III. The Manners, or Decency of the Characters in Speak-
ing or Acting what is proper for them, and proper to be shewn
by the Poet.
IV. The Thoughts which express the Manners.
V. The Words which express those Thoughts.
In the last of these Homer excels Virgil, Virgil all other an-
cient Poets, and Shakespear all Modern Poets.
ao For the second of these, the Order; the meaning is, that a
Fable ought to have a beginning, middle, and an end, all just
and natural, so that that part which is the middle, could not
naturally be the beginning or end, and so of the rest; all are
depending one on another, like the links of a curious Chain.
14 is] J; are T, M.
18 Poetry in Writing,] J; Poetry, in Writing T; Poetry in writing M,
34 Chain] J, M; Chair T.
If Terror and Pity are only to be rais'd; certainly this Au-

thor follows Aristotle's Rules, and Sophocles' and Euripides's
Example; but Joy may be rais'd too, and that doubly, either
by seeing a wicked Man Punish'd, or a good Man at last For-
tunate; or perhaps Indignation, to see Wickedness prosperous,
and Goodness depress'd: both these may be profitable to the
end of Tragedy, Reformation of Manners; but the last im-
properly, only as it begets Pity in the Audience; tho' Aristotle,
I confess, places Tragedies of this kind in the second Form.
10 And, if we should grant that the Greeks perform'd this bet-
ter; perhaps it may admit of Dispute whether Pity and Terror
are either the Prime, or at least the Only Ends of Tragedy.
'Tis not enough that Aristotle has said so, for Aristotle drew
his Models of Tragedy from Sophocles and Euripides; and if
he had seen ours, might have chang'd his Mind.
And chiefly we have to say (what I hinted on Pity and Ter-
ror in the last Paragraph save one) that the Punishment of
Vice, and Reward of Virtue, are the most Adequate ends of
Tragedy, because most conducing to good Example of Life;
20 now Pity is not so easily rais'd for a Criminal (as the Ancient
Tragedy always Represents its chief Person such) as it is for
an Innocent Man and the Suffering of Innocence and Punish-
ment of the Offender, is of the Nature of English Tragedy;
contrarily in the Greek, Innocence is unhappy often, and the
Offender escapes.
Then we are not touch'd with the Sufferings of any sort of
Men so much as of Lovers; and this was almost unknown to
the Antients; so that they neither administred Poetical Justice
(of which Mr. Rymer boasts) so well as we, neither knew they
BO the best common Place of Pity, which is Love.
He therefore unjustly blames us for not building upon what
the Antients left us, for it seems, upon consideration of the
Premises, that we have wholly finished what they begun.
My Judgment on this Piece is this; that it is extreamly
a Sophocles'] J; Sophocles T, M.
a Euripides's] J; Euripedes's T; Euripides his M.
II o£]J, M ; a T . gi its] J. M; his T.
84 contrarily] J; contrary T, M.
igg Prose 1668-1691
Learned; but that the Author of it is better Read in the Greek

than in the English Poets; that all Writers ought to Study this
Critick as the best Account I have ever seen of the Ancients;
that the Model of Tragedy he has here given, is Excellent, and
extream Correct; but that it is not the only Model of all Trag-
edy; because it is too much circumscrib'd in Plot, Characters,
ifc. and lastly, that we may be taught here justly to Admire
and Imitate the Antients, without giving them the Preference,
with this Author, in Prejudice to our own Country.
10 Want of Method, in this Excellent Treatise, makes the
Thoughts of the Author sometimes obscure.
His Meaning, that Pity and Terror are to be mov'd, is that
they are to be mov'd as the Means conducing to the Ends of
Tragedy, which are Pleasure and Instruction.
And these two Ends may be thus distinguished. The chief
End of the Poet is to please; for his immediate Reputation
depends on it.
The great End of the Poem is to Instruct, which is perform'd
by making Pleasure the Vehicle of that Instruction: For Poetry
20 is an Art, and all Arts are made to Profit. Rapin.
The Pity which the Poet is to Labour for, is for the Crimi-
nal, not for those, or him, whom he has murder'd, or who have
been the Occasion of the Tragedy: The Terror is likewise in
the Punishment of the same Criminal, who if he be repre-
sented too great an Offender, will not be pitied; if altogether
Innocent, his Punishment will be unjust.
Another Obscurity is where he says, Sophocles perfected
Tragedy, by introducing the third Actor; that is, he meant
three kinds of Action, one Company singing, another Playing
so on the Musick, a third Dancing.
Rapin attributes more to the Dictio, that is, to the Words
and Discourses of a Tragedy, than Aristotle has done, who
places them in the last Rank of Beauties; perhaps only last in
Order, because they are the last Product of the Design, of the
16 End] J, M; Ends T. ao Profit. Rapin.] J; Profit. T, M.

29 another] or speaking, ano- T (sic); or another J; or speaking, one M.
34 Design,] J, M; ~A T.
Heads of an Answer to Rymer \93
Disposition or Connexion of its Parts, of the Characters, of the

Manners of those Characters, and of the Thoughts proceeding
from those Manners.
Rapin's Words are Remarkable:
'Tis not the admirable Intrigue, the surprizing Events, and
extraordinary Incidents that make the Beauty of a Tragedy,
'tis the Discourses, when they are Natural and Passionate.
So are Shakespear's.
2 Thoughts] J, M; Thoughts of T.
8 Shakespear's.] J; Shakespear's. Here Mr. Dryden breaks off. T; Shakespear's
Here Mr Dryden ends. N.D. This MS. is now at Tonson's M (cf. Tonson's
introductory note, p. 501),
His Majefties
DECLARATION
DEFENDED:
In a LETTER to a Friend.
BEING AN
A N S W E R
TO A
g>ctririous $kmpi)lefc
CALLED
A LETTER from a Perfon of Quality
to bis Friend:
CONCERNING
The Kings late Declaration touching the Reafons
which moved him to Diflblve
THE TWO LAST
PARLIAMENTS
AT
WESrMIWjSrEHtnAOXFOlCD.
LONDON:
Printed for T. Dtviti, 1481.
The Kings Declaration Defended
SIR,
S
INCE you are pleas'd to require my Opinion of the Kings
Declaration, and the Answer to it, which you write me
word was sent you lately, I shall obey you the more will-
ingly, because I know you are a lover of the Peace and Quiet-
ness of your Country; which the Author of this seditious
Pamphlet, is endeavouring to disturb. Be pleas'd to understand
then, that before the Declaration was yet published, and while
it was only the common news, that such an one there was in-
10 tended, to justifie the Dissolution of the two last Parliaments;
it was generally agreed by the heads of the discontented Party,
that this Declaration must be answer'd, and that with all the
ingredients of malice which the ablest amongst them could
squeeze into it. Accordingly, upon the first appearance of it in
Print, five several Pens of their Cabal were set to work; and the
product of each having been examin'd, a certain person of
Quality appears to have carried the majority of Votes, and to
be chosen like a new Matthias, to succeed in the place of their
deceas'd Judas.
20 He seems to be a man cut out to carry on vigorously the de-
signs of the Phanatique Party, which are manifestly in this
Paper, to hinder the King, from making any good impression
on his Subjects, by giving them all possible satisfaction.
And the reason of this undertaking is manifest, for if once
the goodness and equity of the Prince comes to be truly under-
stood by the People, the Authority of the Faction is extin-
guish'd; and the well meaning crowd who are misled, will no
longer gape after the specious names of Religion and Liberty;
much like the folly of the Jews, expecting a Messiah still to
so come, whose History has been written sixteen hundred years
ago.
15 Cabal] Cabal F.
196 Prose 1668-1691
Thus much in general: I will now consider the Cavils of my

Author against the Declaration.
He tells us, in the first place, That the Declaration seems to
him as a forerunner of another Parliament to be speedily call'd:
And indeed to any man in his right sences, it can seem no
other; for 'tis the business of its three last Paragraphs to inform
the People, that no irregularities in Parliament can make the
King out of love with them: but that he looks upon them as the
best means for healing the distempers of the publick, and for
10 preservation of the Monarchy.
Now if this seems clearly to be the Kings intention, I would
ask what need there was of the late Petition from the City, for
another Parliament; unless they had rather seem to extort it
from his Majesty, than to have it pass for his own gracious
action? The truth is, there were many of the Loyal Party ab-
sent at that Common Council: and the whole strength of the
other Faction was united; for it is the common failing of honest
men to trust too much in the goodness of their cause; and to
manage it too negligently. But there is a necessity incumbent
20 on such as oppose the establish'd Government, to make up with
diligence, what they want in the justice of their undertaking.
This was the true and only reason why the majority of Votes
was for the Petition: but if the business had not been carried
by this surprise, My Lord Mayor might have only been trou-
bled to have carried the Addresses of Southwark, &c. of another
nature: without his offering them with one hand, and the City
Petition with the other; like the Childrens play of, This Mill
grinds Pepper and Spice; that Mill grinds Ratts and Mice.
In the next place he informs us, That it has been long the
so practice of the Popish and Arbitrary Party, that the King
should call, frequent, short, and useless Parliaments, till the
Gentry grown weary of the great expences of Elections, should
sit at home, and trouble themselves no more but leave the
People expos''d to the practices of them, and of their Party; who
if they carry one House of Commons for their turn, will make
us Slaves and Papists by a Law.
Popish and Arbitrary, are words that sound high amongst
the multitude; and all men are branded by those names, who
are not for setting up Fanaticism and a Common-wealth. To
call short and useless Parliaments, can be no intention of the
Government; because from such means the great end of Settle-
ment cannot be expected. But no Physitian can command his
Physick to perform the effects for which he has prescrib'd it:
yet if it fail the first or second time, he will not in prudence lay
aside his Art, and despair of his Patient: but reiterate his Medi-
cines till he effect the cure. For, the King, as he declares him-
10 self, is not willing to have too hard an Opinion of the Repre-
sentatives of the Commons, but hopes that time may open their
eyes, and that their next meeting may perfect the Settlement
of Church and State. With what impudence can our Author
say, That an House of Commons can possibly be so pack'd, as
to make us Slaves and Papists by a Law? for my part I should
as soon suspect they would make themselves Arbitrary, which
God forbid that any Englishman in his right sences should
believe. But this supposition of our Author, is to lay a most
scandalous imputation upon the Gentry of England; besides,
20 what it tacitly insinuates, that the House of Peers and his
Majesty, (without whom it could not pass into a Law,) would
suffer it. Yet without such Artifices, as I said before, the Fanat-
ique cause could not possibly subsist: fear of Popery and Arbi-
trary power must be kept up; or the St. Georges of their side,
would have no Dragon to encounter; yet they will never per-
suade a reasonable man, that a King, who in his younger years,
when he had all the Temptations of power to pursue such a
Design, yet attempted it not, should now, in the maturity of
his Judgment, and when he sees the manifest aversion of his
so Subjects to admit of such a change, undertake a work of so
much difficulty, destructive to the Monarchy, and ruinous to
Himself, if it succeeded not; and if it succeeded, not capable of
making him so truly Great as he is by Law already. If we add to
this, his Majesties natural love to Peace and Quiet, which in-
creases in every man with his years, this ridiculous supposition
will vanish of it self; which is sufficiently exploded by daily
17 Englishman] Englishman F.
i g8 Prose 1668-1691
experiments to the contrary. For let the Reign of any of our

Kings be impartially examin'd, and there will be found in none
of them so many examples of Moderation, and keeping close
to the Government by Law, as in his. And instead of swelling
the Regal power to a greater height, we shall here find many
gracious priviledges accorded to the Subjects, without any one
advancement of Prerogative.
The next thing material in the Letter, is the questioning the
legality of the Declaration; which the Author sayes by the new
10 style of his Majesty in Council, is order'd to be read in all
Churches and Chappels throughout England, And which no
doubt the blind obedience of our Clergy, will see carefully per-
form'd; yet if it be true, that there is no Seal, nor Order of
Council, but only the Clerks hand to it, they may be call'd in
question as publishers of false news, and invectives against a
third Estate of the Kingdom.
Since he writes this only upon a supposition, it will be time
enough to answer it, when the supposition is made manifest in
all its parts: In the mean time, let him give me leave to suppose
20 too, that in case it be true that there be no Seal, yet since it is
no Proclamation, but only a bare Declaration of his Majesty,
to inform and satisfie his Subjects, of the reasons which induc'd
him to dissolve the two last Parliaments, a Seal in this case, is
not of absolute necessity: for the King speaks not here as com-
manding any thing, but the Printing, publishing and reading.
And 'tis not denyed the meanest Englishman, to vindicate him-
self in Print, when he has any aspersion cast upon him. This is
manifestly the case, that the Enemies of the Government, had
endeavour'd to insinuate into the People such Principles, as
BO this Answerer now publishes: and therefore his Majesty, who
is always tender to preserve the affections of his Subjects, de-
sir'd to lay before them the necessary reasons, which induc'd
him to so unpleasant a thing, as the parting with two successive
Parliaments. And if the Clergy obey him in so just a Design,
8-9 is ... [to] . . . sayes] in italics in F.
z6 Englishman] Englishman F.
His Majesties Declaration Defended igg
is this to be nam'd a blind Obedience? But I wonder why our

Author is so eager for the calling them to account as Accessaries
to an Invective against a third Estate of the Kingdom, while he
himself is guilty in almost every sentence of his discourse of
aspersing the King, even in his own Person, with all the Viru-
lency and Gall imaginable. It appears plainly that an House of
Commons, is that Leviathan which he Adores: that is his Sover-
eign in effect, and a third Estate is not only greater than the
other two, but than him who is presiding over the three.
10 But, though our Author cannot get his own Seditious Pam-
phlet to be read in Churches and in Chappels, I dare secure
you, he introduces it into Conventicles, and Coffee-houses of
his Faction: besides, his sending it in Post Letters, to infect the
Populace of every County. 'Tis enough, that this Declaration
is evidently the Kings, and the only true exception, which our
Answerer has to it, is that he would deny his Majesty the power
of clearing his intentions to the People: and finds himself ag-
griev'd, that his King should satisfie them in spight of himself
and of his party.
20 The next Paragraph is wholly spent, in giving us to under-
stand, that a King of England is no other thing than a Duke of
Venice; take the Parallel! all along: and you will find it true
by only changing of the names. A Duke of Venice can do no
wrong; in Senate he can make no ill Laws; in Council no ill
Orders, in the Treasury can dispose of no Money, but wisely,
and for the interest of the Government, and according to such
proportions as are every way requisite: if otherwise all Officers
are answerable, be. Which is in effect, to say he can neither do
wrong nor right, nor indeed any thing, quatenus a King. This
so puts me in mind of Sancho Panca in his Government of the
Island of Barataria, when he was dispos'd to eat or drink, his
Physitian stood up for the People, and snatch'd the dish from
him in their right, because he was a publick person, and there-
fore the Nation must be Judges to a dram and scruple what
was necessary for the sustenance of the Head of the Body poli-
i Obedience?] ~ I F. si King] ~ , F.
200 Prose 1668-1691
tique. Oh, but there is a wicked thing call'd the Militia in their
way, and they shew'd they had a moneths mind to it, at the first
breaking out of the Popish Plot. If they could once persuade
his Majesty, to part graciously with that trifle, and with his
power of making War and Peace; and farther, to resign all
Offices of Trust, to be dispos'd by their nomination, their Argu-
ment would be an hundred times more clear: for then it would
be evident to all the World, that he could do nothing. But if
they can work him to part with none of these, then they must
10 content themselves to carry on their new Design beyond Seas:
either of ingaging the French King to fall upon Flanders, or
encouraging the States General to lay aside, or privately to cut
off the Prince of Orange, or getting a War declared against
England and France conjoyntly: for by that means, either the
King can be but a weak Enemy, and as they will manage mat-
ters, he shall be kept so bare of Money, that Twelve Holland
Ships shall block up the River, or he shall be forc'd to cast him-
self upon a House of Commons, and to take Money upon their
Terms, which will sure be as easie, as those of an Usurer to an
20 Heir in want. These are part of the projects now afoot: and
how Loyal and conscionable they are, let all indifferent persons
judge.
In the close of this Paragraph, he falls upon the King for
appealing to the People against their own Representatives. But
I would ask him in the first place, if an Appeal be to be made,
to whom can the King Appeal, but to his People? And if he
must justifie his own proceedings to their whole Body, how
can he do it but by blaming their Representatives? I believe
every honest man is sorry, that any such Divisions have been
so betwixt the King and his House of Commons. But since there
have been, how could the King complain more modestly, or in
terms more expressing Grief, than Indignation? or what way
is left him to obviate the causes of such complaints for the fu-
ture, but this gentle admonishment for what is past?
'Tis easily agreed, he says, (and here I joyn issue with him)
That there were never more occasions for a Parliament, than
were at the opening of the last, which was held at Westminster.
But where he maliciously adds, never were our Liberties and

Properties more in danger, nor the Protestant Religion more
expos'd to an utter extirpation both at home and abroad, he
shuffles together Truth and Falshood: for from the greatness of
France, the danger of the Protestant Religion is evident; But
that our Liberty, Religion, and Property were in danger from
the Government, let him produce the instances of it, that they
may be answer'd; what dangers there were and are from the
Antimonarchical Party, is not my present business to enquire.
10 As for the growing terrour of the French Monarchy, the greater
it is, the more need of a supply to provide against it.
The Ministers tell us in the Declaration, That they asked of
that Parliament the supporting the Alliances they had made for
the Preservation of the general peace in Christendom, and had
deftr'd their advice and assistance for the preservation of Tan-
gier: had recommended to them, the farther examination of the
Plot; and that his Majesty had offer'd to concurr in any Reme-
dies for the security of the Protestant Religion, which might
consist with the preserving the Succession of the Crown, in its
20 due and legal course of descent, but to all this they met with
most unsuitable returns.
Now mark what the Gentleman infers, That the Ministers
well knew, that their demands of Money for the ends abovesaid,
were not to be complyed with, till his Majesty were pleas'd to
change the hands and Councils by which his Affairs were man-
aged—that is, nothing must be given but to such men in whom
they could confide, as if neither the King, nor those whom he
employed were fit any longer to be Trusted. But the supream
power, and the management of all things, must be wholly in
no their Party, as it was in Watt Tyler, and Jack Cade of famous
memory, when they had got a King into their possession: for
this Party, will never think his Majesty their own, till they have
him as safe, as they had his Father. But if they could compass
their Designs, of bringing the same Gentlemen into play once
more, who some years since were at the Helm; let me ask them,
12 The . . . [to] . . . Declaration] in italics in F,
25-26 managed—] ~/.— F.
2O2 Prose 1668-1691
when the Affairs of the Nation were worse manag'd? who gave
the rise to the present greatness of the French? or who coun-
sel'd the dissolution of the Tripple League? 'Tis a miracle to
me that the People should think them good Patriots, only be-
cause they are out of humour with the Court, and in disgrace.
I suppose they are far other principles, than those of Anger and
Revenge, which constitute an honest Statesman. But let men
be what they will before, if they once espouse their Party, let
them be touch'd with that Philosophers stone, and they are
10 turn'd into Gold immediately. Nay, that will do more for them,
than was ever pretended to by Chymistry; for it will raise up
the shape of a worthy Patriot, from the ashes of a Knave. 'Tis
a pretty juggle to tell the King they assist him with Money,
when indeed they design only to give it to themselves; that is,
to their own Instruments, which is no more, than to shift it
from one hand into another. It will be a favour at the long run,
if they condescend to acquaint the King, how they intend to
lay out his Treasure. But our Author very roundly tells his
Majesty, That at present they will give him no supplyes, be-
to cause they would be employ'd, to the destruction of his Person,
and of the Protestant Religion, and the inslaving the whole
Nation, to which I will only add, that of all these matters next
and immediately under God, he and his Party, constitute them-
selves the supream Judges.
The Duke of York, the Queen, and the two French Dutch-
esses are the great support and protectors of the Popish interest
in these Kingdoms.
How comes it to pass that our Author shuffles the two French
Dutchesses together? of which the one is an Italian, the other a
so French Woman, and an English Dutchess? Is he grown so
purblind, that he cannot distinguish Friends from Foes? Has he
so soon forgotten the memory of past benefits, that he will not
consider one of them as her, to whom all their applications
were so lately made? Is she so quickly become an old acquaint-
ance, that none of the politick assignations at her Lodgings
are remembred? After this, who will trust the gratitude of a
34 Judges.] ^ , F. 25 French] French F. 28 French] French F.
Common-wealth? or who will blame the Conduct of a silly

Court, for being over-reach'd by the whole French Council,
when the able part of the Nation, the designing heads, the gray
wisdom, and the Beaux Garcons are all foil'd by a single French
Woman, at their own Weapon, dissimulation? For the other
French Dutchess, since I perceive our Author is unacquainted
with her Character, I will give it him; she is one who loves her
ease to that degree, that no advantages of Fortune can bribe her
into business. Let her but have wherewithall to make Merry
10 adays, and to play at Cards anights, and I dare answer for her,
that she will take as little care to disturb their business, as she
takes in the management of her own. But if you will say that
she only affects idleness, and is a grand Intriguer in her heart,
I will only Answer, that I should shew you just such another
as I have describ'd her Grace, amongst the heads of your own
Party: indeed I do not say it is a Woman, but 'tis one who loves
a Woman.
As for the Dutchess of M. either she is a very sincere lover of
downright idleness, or she has cousen'd all parts of Christen-
20 dom, where she has Avandred for these last Ten years. I hope
our solid Author will pardon me this digression; but now we
have had our dance, let us to our serious business.
While these, and their Creatures are at the Helm, what can
we expect for the security of the Protestant Religion, or what
opposition to the ambitious designs of France?
I suppose more reasonably on the other side, that no such
persons are at the Helm, and that what he has assum'd is but
precarious. But I retort upon him, that if some of his Party
were the Ministers, the Protestant Religion would receive but
30 very cold assistance from them, who have none at all themselves.
And for the growth of the French Monarchy, I have already
told you, to whose Counsels we are beholden for it.
He goes on; you will tell me that the supplyes so given may
be appropriated, to these particular ends of supporting our
Alliances, and the relief of Tangier: And it may be so limited
4 Beaux Garfons] Beaux Garcons F. 5 For] for F.
33 He goes on] He goes on F.
204 Prose 1668-1691
by Act of Parliament, that it cannot be diverted to other uses.

But he answers that Objection by a Story of Monsieur de
Sully's telling of Henry the Fourth of France: let the States raise
the Money, and tye it as they please; when they are dissolved,
you may dispose of it as you please.
All this is to confirm his first unalterable principle, that the
King must be sure to finger nothing; but be us'd as Fishers do
their Cormorant, have his mouth left open, to swallow the
prey for them, but his throat gagg'd that nothing may go down.
10 Let them bring this to pass, and afterwards they will not need
to take away his Prerogative of making War: He must do that
at his own peril, and be sent to fight his Enemies with his hands
bound behind him. But what if he thinks not their Party fit to
be intrusted, least they should employ it against his Person?
why then, as he told you they will give him nothing. Now whose
will be the fault in common reason, if the Allyances be not
supported, and Tangier not relieved? If they will give him
nothing, before they bring him to a necessity of taking it upon
their terms, as much as in them lyes they dissolve the Govern-
20 ment: and the Interest of the Nation abroad must be left in the
Suds, till they have destroy'd the Monarchy at home. But since
God, and the Laws have put the disposing of the Treasury into
his Majesties hands, it may satisfie any reasonable Englishman,
that the same Laws have provided for the mispending of the
Treasury, by calling the publick Officers into question for it
before the Parliament. For God be thanked we have a House of
Commons, who will be sure, never to forgoe the least tittle of
their Priviledges, and not be so meal-mouth'd as the States of
France, of whom neither Monsieur Sully, nor any of his Sue-
so cessors, have ever had any cause of apprehension. But since the
wisdom of our Ancestors has thought this Provision sufficient
for our security, What has his present Majesty deserv'd from
his Subjects, that he should be made a Minor at no less than
fifty years of age? or that his House of Commons should Fetter
2 But . . . [to] . . . Story of] in italics in F.
2-3 de Sully's] de Sully's F.
3 telling of Henry the Fourth of France] telling of H. 4th of France F.
19 as much] asmuch F. 30 ever] never F. 31 has] have F.
him beyond any of his Predecessors? Where the Interest goes,

you will say, there goes the power. But the most ingenious of
your Authors, I mean Plato Redivivus, broaches no such prin-
ciple as that you should force this Prerogative from the King,
by undue courses. The best use which can be made of all, is
rather to support the Monarchy, than to have it fall upon your
Heads. If indeed there were any reasonable fear of an Arbitrary
Government, the adverse Party had somewhat to alledge in
their defence of not supplying it; but it is not only evident,
10 that the Kings temper is wholly averse from any such Design,
but also demonstrable, that if all his Council, were such as this
man most falsely suggests them to be, yet the notion of an ab-
solute power in the Prince is wholly impracticable, not only in
this Age, but for ought any wise man can foresee, at any time
hereafter. 'Tis plain, that the King has reduc'd himself already
to live more like a private Gentleman than a Prince; and since
he can content himself in that condition, 'tis as plain, that the
supplies which he demands are only for the service of the pub-
lick, and not for his own maintenance. Monsieur de Sully might
20 give what Council he thought convenient for Henry the
Fourth, who was then designing that Arbitrary power, which
his Successors have since compass'd, to the ruine of the Subjects
liberty in France; but I appeal to the Consciences of those men,
who are most averse to the present Government, if they think
our King would put his Peace and Quiet at this time of day,
upon so desperate an issue. What the necessities, which they are
driving him into, may make him part with on the other hand,
I know not. But how can they answer it to our Posterity, that
for private Picques, self Interest, and causeless jealousies, they
so would destroy the foundation of so excellent a Government,
which is the admiration and envy of all Europe?
The rest of my Authors Paragraph, is only laying more load
upon the Ministers, and telling us, That if a sum of Money
sufficient for those ends were given, while they were Managers
i Where] where F. 2 you will say] you will say F.

19 maintenance.] ,— , F.
32-33 The rest . . . [to] . . . us] in italics in F. 33 That] that F.
2o6 Prose 1668—1691
of Affairs, it would be only to set them free from any appre-

hensions of account to any future Parliament. But this Argu-
ment having only the imaginary fear of an Arbitrary power for
its foundation, is already answer'd. He adds in the close of it,
That the Prince has a cheap bargain, who gives Paper-Laws in
exchange of Money and Power. Bargains, he tells us, there have
always been, and always will be, betwixt Prince and People, be-
cause it is in the Constitution of our Government, and the chief
dependance of our Kings is in the love and liberality of their
10 People.
Our present King, I acknowledge has often found it so;
though no thanks I suppose to this Gentleman and his Party.
But though he cry down Paper and Parchment at this Rate,
they are the best Evidence he can have for his Estate, and his
friends the Lawyers will advise him to speak with less contempt
of those Commodities. If Laws avail the Subject nothing, our
Ancestors have made many a bad Bargain for us. Yet I can
instance to him one Paper, namely, that of the Habeas Corpus
bill; for which the House of Commons would have been con-
so tent to have given a Million of good English money, and which
they had Gratis from his Majesty. 'Tis true, they boast they got
it by a Trick; but if the Clerk of the Parliament had been bid-
den to forget it, their Trick of telling Noses might have fail'd
them. Therefore let us do right on all sides: The Nation is
oblig'd both to the Llouse of Commons for asking it, and more
especially to his Majesty, for granting it so freely.
But what can we think of his next Axiome, That it was never
known that Laws signified any thing to a People, who had not
the sole guard of their own Prince, Government and Laws?
so Here all our Fore-fathers are Arraign'd at once for trusting
the Executive power of the Laws in their Princes hands. And
yet you see the Government has made a shift to shuffle on for
so many hundred years together, under this miserable oppres-
sion; and no man so wise in so many ages to find out, that
4 answer'd. He] ~ , he F. 6 he tells us] he tells us F.
8 Government] Goverment F.
27 But . . . [to] . . . Axiome] in italics in F. 27 That] that F.
32 shuffle] shufllle F.
Magna Charta was to no purpose, while there was a King. I

confess in Countreys, where the Monarck governs absolutely,
and the Law is either his Will, or depending on it, this noble
maxim might take place; But since we are neither Turks, Rus-
sians, nor Frenchmen, to affirm that in our Countrey, in a
Monarchy of so temperate and wholsom a Constitution, Laws
are of no validity, because they are not in the disposition of the
People, plainly infers that no Government but that of a
Common-wealth can preserve our Liberties and Priviledges:
10 for though the Title of a Prince be allow'd to continue, yet if
the People must have the sole guard and Government of him
and of the Laws, 'tis but facing an whole hand of Trumps, with
an insignificant King of another sute. And which is worst of all,
if this be true, there can be no Rebellion, for then the People
is the supream power. And if the Representatives of the Com-
mons shall Jarr with the other two Estates, and with the King
it would be no Rebellion to adhere to them in that War: to
which I know that every Republican who reads this, must of
necessity Answer, No more it would not. Then farewell the
20 Good Act of Parliament, which makes it Treason to Levy Arms
against the present King, upon any pretences whatsoever. For
if this be a Right of Nature, and consequently never to be
Resign'd, there never has been, nor ever can be any pact be-
twixt King and People, and Mr. Hobbs would tell us, That we
are still in a state of War.
The next thing our Author would establish, is, That there is
nothing in Nature or in Story so ridiculous, as the management
of the Ministers, in the Examination of the Popish Plot, which
being prov'd by Coleman's and others Letters, and by both
so Houses by declaring the King's Life to be in danger, &c. yet
they have persuaded the King to believe nothing of this danger;
but to apprehend the Plot to be extreamly improv'd, if not
wholly contriv'd by the Presbyterians, and to think it more his
concernment to have an end of all, then to have it search'd to
17 it] it fit F. 26 The . . . [«o] ... establish, is] in italics in F.

*8 Plot, which] Plot. Which F. 30 yet] Yet F.
33-34 Presbyterians, and . . . all,] Presbyterians. And . . . all; F.
2o8 Prose 1668-1691
the bottom: and that this was the true reason, why four Parlia-
ments, during the Examination of the Plot have been dissolv'd.
Reasonable People will conclude, that his Majesty and his
Ministers have proceeded, not ridiculously, but with all that
caution which became them. For in the first heat and vehe-
mence of the Plot, the Avenues of White-Hall were more
strictly Guarded: His Majesty abstaining from Places of pub-
lick Entertainment, and the Ministers taking all necessary Care
in Council, both to discover Conspiracies and to prevent them.
10 So that simply considered, the Popish Plot has nothing to do
with the Dissolution of Four Parliaments. But the Use which
has been made of it by the House of Commons to Dis-inherit
the Duke, to deny the King Supplies, and to make some Votes,
which the King declares to be illegal, are the real and plain oc-
casions of dissolving those Parliaments. 'Tis only affirm'd, but
never will be prov'd by this Author, that the King or his Min-
isters have ever been desirous to stifle the Plot, and not to have
it search'd into the bottom. For to what end has his Majesty so
often offer'd the Popish Lords to be brought to their Trial, but
20 that their innocence or guilt, and consequently, that of the
whole party might be made manifest? Or why, after the execu-
tion of the Lord Stafford, did the House of Commons stop at
the other Lords, and not proceed to try them in their turns?
Did his Majesty stifle the Plot when he offered them, or did
they refuse to sound the depth of it, when they would not touch
upon them? If it were for want of Witnesses, which is all that
can be said, the case is deplorable on the part of the accused;
who can neither be bail'd, because impeach'd in Parliament,
nor admitted to be tryed, for fear they should be acquitted for
so want of evidence. I do not doubt but his Majesty, after having
done what in him lies for the utmost discovery of the Plot, both
by frequent Proclamations of Indemnity, and Reward, to such
as would come in, and discover more, and by several others too
long to repeat, is desirous (for what good man is not?) that his
care and trouble might be over. But I am much deceiv'd, if
the Antimonarchical Party be of the same opinion; or that they
a dissolv'd.] ~/: F.
desire the Plot should be either wholly discover'd, or fully

ended. For 'tis evidently their Interest to keep it on foot, as
long as possibly they can; and to give it hot water, as often as
'tis dying; for while they are in possession of this Jewel, they
make themselves masters of the people. For this very reason I
have often said, even from the beginning of the Discovery, that
the Presbyterians would never let it go out of their hands, but
manage it to the last inch upon a Save-all; and that if ever they
had tryed one Lord, they would value themselves upon that
10 Conquest, as long as ever it would last with the Populace: but
whatever came on't, be sure to leave a Nest Egg in the Tower:
And since I doubt not, but what so mean a Judge as I am could
so easily discover, could not possibly escape the vigilancy of
those who are at the Helm; I am apt to think, that his Majesty
saw at least as great a danger arising to him from the discon-
tented spirits of the popular Faction, as from the Papists. For is
it not plain, that ever since the beginning of the Plot, they have
been lopping off from the Crown whatever part of the Preroga-
tive they could reach? and incroaching into Sovereignty and
20 Arbitrary Power themselves, while they seem'd to fear it from
the King? How then could his Majesty be blam'd, if he were
forc'd to dissolve those Parliaments, which instead of giving
him relief, made their Advantages upon his Distresses; and
while they pretended a care of his Person on the one hand,
were plucking at his Scepter with the other?
After this, the Pamphleteer gives us a long Bead-roll of Dan-
gerfield's Plot, Captain Ely, young Tongue, Fitz-Gerard, and
Mr. Ray, rails at some, and commends others as far as his skill
in Hyperbole will carry him; which all put together, amounts
so to no more than only this, that he whom they called Rogue be-
fore, when he comes into their party, pays his Garnish, and is
adopted into the name of an honest man. Thus Ray was no
Villain, when he accus'd Colonel Sackvile, before the House of
Commons, but when he failed of the reward of godliness at
their hands, and from a Whig became a tearing Tory in new
8 Save-all; and] Save-all. And F. 89 him; which] him. Which F.
35 Whig] Wig F.
2io Prose 1668-1691
Cloaths, our Author puts him upon the File of Rogues, with
this brand, Than whom a more notorious and known Villian
lives not.
The next thing he falls upon, is the Succession: which the
King declares, He will have preserved in its due descent. Now
our Author despairing, it seems, that an Exclusion should pass
by Bill, urges, That the Right of Nature and Nations will im-
power Subjects to deliver a Protestant Kingdom from a Popish
King. The Law of Nations, is so undoubtedly, against him, that
10 I am sure he dares not stick to that Plea: but will be forc'd to
reply, that the Civil Law was made in favour of Monarchy:
why then did he appeal to it? And for the Law of Nature, I
know not what it has to do with Protestants or Papists, except
he can prove that the English Nation is naturally Protestant;
and then I would enquire of him what Countrymen our Fore-
fathers were? But if he means by the Law of Nature, self-
preservation and defence; even that neither will look but
asquint upon Religion; for a man of any Religion, and a man
of no Religion, are equally bound to preserve their lives. But I
20 answer positively to what he would be at; that the Law of self-
preservation impowers not a Subject to rise in Arms against his
Soveraign, of another Religion, upon supposition of what he
may do in his prejudice hereafter: for, since it is impossible
that a moral certainty should be made out of a future contin-
gency, and consequently, that the Soveraign may not extend
his Power to the prejudice of any mans Liberty or Religion:
The probability (which is the worst that they can put it) is not
enough to absolve a Subject who rises in Arms, from Rebellion,
in foro Gonscientice. We read of a divine Command to obey
so Superior Powers; and the Duke will lawfully be such, no Bill
of Exclusion having past against him in his Brother's life:
Besides this, we have the Examples of Primitive Christians,
even under Heathen Emperors, always suffering, yet never tak-
ing up Arms, during ten Persecutions. But we have no Text, no
Primitive Example encouraging us to rebel against a Christian
Prince, tho of a different Perswasion. And to say there were
14 English] English F. 18 asquint] a squint F.
then no Christian Princes when the New Testament was writ-

ten, will avail our Author little; for the Argument is a Fortiori:
if it be unlawful to rebel against a Heathen Emperor, then
much more against a Christian King. The Corollary is this,
and every unbiassed sober man will subscribe to it, that since
we cannot pry into the secret Decrees of God, for the knowl-
edge of future Events, we ought to rely upon his Providence,
for the Succession; without either plunging our present King
into necessities, for what may never happen; or refusing our
10 obedience to one hereafter, who in the course of nature may
succeed him; one, who if he had the will, could never have the
power to settle Popery in England, or to bring in Arbitrary
Government.
But the Monarchy will not be destroyed, and the Protestant
Religion will be preserved, if we may have a Protestant Suc-
cessor.
If his party had thought, that this had been a true Expedi-
ent, I am confident it had been mentioned in the last Parlia-
ment at Westminster. But there, ahum silentium, not one word
20 of it. Was it because the Machine was not then in readiness to
move, and that the Exclusion must first pass? or more truly
was it ever intended to be urged? I am not ashamed to say,
that I particularly honour the Duke of Monmouth: but
whether his nomination to succeed, would, at the bottom be
pleasing to the Heads of his Cabal, I somewhat doubt. To
keep him fast to them by some remote hopes of it, may be no
ill Policy. To have him in a readiness to head an Army, in
case it should please God the King should die before the Duke,
is the design; and then perhaps he has reason to expect more
so from a Chance Game, than from the real desires of his party
to exalt him to a Throne. But 'tis neither to be imagined, that
a Prince of his Spirit, after the gaining of a Crown, would be
managed by those who helped him to it, let his ingagements
and promises be never so strong before, neither that he would
be confin'd in the narrow compass of a Curtail'd Mungril Mon-
archy, half Commonwealth. Conquerors are not easily to be
a n] a F. 11 him; one] him. One F. 21 move,] ~ I F.
212 Prose 1668-1691
curbed. And it is yet harder to conceive, that his pretended

Friends, even design him so much as that. At present, 'tis true,
their mutual necessities keep them fast together; and all the
several Fanatick Books fall in, to enlarge the common stream:
But suppose the business compassed, as they design'd it, how
many, and how contradicting Interests are there to be satisfied!
Every Sect of High Shooes would then be uppermost; and not
one of them endure the toleration of another. And amongst
them all, what will become of those fine Speculative Wits, who
10 drew the Plan of this new Government, and who overthrew the
old? For their comfort, the Saints will then account them Athe-
ists, and discard them. Or they will plead each of them their
particular Merits, till they quarrel about the Dividend. And,
the Protestant Successor himself, if he be not wholly governed
by the prevailing party, will first be declared no Protestant;
and next, no Successor. This is dealing sincerely with him,
which Plato Redivivus does not: for all the bustle he makes
concerning the Duke of M. proceeds from a Commonwealth
Principle: he is afraid at the bottom to have him at the Head
20 of the party, lest he should turn the absolute Republick, now
designing, into an arbitrary Monarchy.
The next thing he exposes, is the project communicated at
Oxford, by a worthy Gentleman since deceased. But since he
avowed himself, that it was but a rough draught, our Author
might have paid more respect to his memory, than to endeavour
to render it ridiculous. But let us see how he mends the matter
in his own which follows.
// the Duke were only banished, during life, and the Admin-
istration put into the hands of Protestants, that would establish
so an unnatural War of Expediency, against an avowed Right and
Title. But on the other hand exclude the Duke, and all other
Popish Successors, and put down all those Guards are now so
illegally kept up, and banish the Papists, where can be the dan-
ger of a War, in a Nation unanimous?
1 will not be unreasonable with him; I will expect English
no where from the barrenness of his Country: but if he can
35 English] English F.
make sense of his Unnatural War of Expediency, I will forgive

him two false Grammars, and three Barbarisms, in every Period
of his Pamphlet; and yet leave him enow of each to expose his
ignorance, whensoever I design it. But his Expedient it self is
very solid, if you mark it. Exclude the Duke, take away the
Guards, and consequently, all manner of defence from the
Kings Person; Banish every Mothers Son of the Papists, whether
guilty or not guilty in particular of the Plot. And when Papists
are to be banished, I warrant you all Protestants in Masquer-
10 ade must go for company; and when none but a pack of Sec-
taries and Commonwealths-men are left in England, where in-
deed will be the danger of a War, in a Nation unanimous?
After this, why does not some resenting Friend of Marvel's,
put up a Petition to the Soveraigns of his party, that his Pen-
sion of four hundred pounds per annum, may be transferred
to some one amongst them, who will not so notoriously betray
their cause by dullness and insufficiency? As for the illegal
Guards, let the Law help them; or let them be disbanded; for
I do not think they have need of any Champion.
20 The next twenty Lines are only an illustration upon his Ex-
pedient: for he is so fond of his darling Notion, that he huggs
it to death, as the Ape did her young one. He gives us his
Bill of Tautology once more; for he threatens, that they would
not rest at the Exclusion; but the Papists must again be ban-
ish'd, and the Dukes Creatures put out of Office both Civil and
Military. Now the Dukes Creatures, I hope, are Papists, or little
better; so that this is all the same: as if he had been conning
over this ingenious Epigram;
There was a man who with great labour, and much pain,
so Did break his neck, and break his neck, and break his neck
again.
At the last, to shew his hand is not out in the whole Paragraph,
when the Duke is excluded, his Creatures put out of Office, the
Papists banished twice over; and the Church of England-men
delivered to Satan, yet still he says the Duke is the great Min-
ister of State; and the Kings Excellent Qualities give his
Brother still opportunities to ruine us and our Religion. Even
214 Prose 1668—1691
excluded, and without Friends and Faction he can do all this;

and the King is endued with most excellent Qualities to suf-
fer it.
Having found my man, methinks I can scarce afford to be
serious with him any longer; but to treat him as he deserves,
like an ill Bouffoon.
He defends the sharpness of the Addresses of which his Maj-
esty complains: but I suppose it would be better for him, and
me, to let our Principals engage, and to stand by our selves. I
10 confess, I have heard some members of that House, wish, that
all Proceedings had been carried with less vehemence. But my
Author goes further on the other hand; He affirms, That many
wise and good men thought they had gone too far, in assuring,
nay, in mentioning of money before our safety was fully pro-
vided for. So you see he is still for laying his hand upon the
penny. In the mean time I have him in a Praemunire for ar-
raigning the House of Commons; for he has tacitely confessed,
that the wise and good men were the fewer; because the House
carryed it for mentioning money in their Address. But it seems
20 they went too far, in speaking of a Supply, before they had
consulted this Gentleman, how far the safety of the Nation
would admit it. I find plainly by his temper, that if matters
had come to an accommodation, and a bargain had been a
bargain, the Knights of the Shire must have been the Protes-
tant Knights no longer.
As for Arbitrary Power of taking men into custody, for mat-
ters that had no relation to Privileges of Parliament, he says they
have erred with their Fathers. If he confess that they have
erred, let it be with all their Generation, still they have erred:
so and an error of the first digestion, is seldom mended in the
second. But I find him modest in this point; and knowing too
well they are not a Court of Judicature, he does not defend
them from Arbitrary Proceedings, but only excuses, and pal-
liates the matter, by saying, that it concern'd the Rights of the
People, in suppressing their Petitions to the Fountain of Jus-
7 He defends] He defends F. 12 He affirms, That} He affirms, that F.
16 Pramtmire] Prasmunire F. 27 he says] he says F.
tice. So, when it makes for him, he can allow the King to be
the Fountain of Justice; but at other times he is only a Cistern
of the People. But he knows sufficiently, however he dissembles
it, that there were some taken into custody, to whom that crime
was not objected. Yet since in a manner he yields up the Cause,
I will not press him too far, where he is so manifestly weak.
Tho I must tell him by the way, that he is as justly to be pro-
ceeded against for calling the Kings Proclamation illegal, which
concerned the matter of Petitioning, as some of those, who had
10 pronounced against them by the House of Commons, that ter-
rible sentence, of Take him, Topham.
The strange illegal Votes declaring several eminent persons
to be Enemies to the King and Kingdom, are not so strange,
he says, but very justifiable. 1 hope he does not mean, that il-
legal Votes are now not strange in the House of Commons:
But observe the reason which he gives: for the House of Com-
mons had before address'd for their removal from about the
King. It was his business to have prov'd, that an Address of the
House of Commons, without Process, order of Law, hearing
20 any Defence, or offering any proof against them is sufficient
ground to remove any person from the King: But instead of
this he only proves, that former Addresses have been made,
Which no body can deny. When he has throughly settled this
important point, that Addresses have certainly been made,
instead of an Argument to back it, he only thinks, that one may
affirm by Law, That the King ought to have no person about
him, who has the misfortune of such a Vote. But this is too
ridiculous to require an Answer. They who will have a thing
done, and give no reason for it, assume to themselves a mani-
30 fest Arbitrary Power. Now this Power cannot be in the Rep-
resentatives, if it be not in the People: or if it be in them, the
People is absolute. But since he wholly thinks it, let him injoy
the privilege of every Free Born Subject, to have the Bell clinck
to him what he imagines.
Well; all this while he has been in pain about laying his Egg:
at the last we shall have him cackle.
14 he says] he says F.
2i6 Prose 1668-1691
If the House of Commons declare they have just Reasons to

fear, that such a person puts the King upon Arbitrary Councils,
or betrays His and the Nations Interest, in such a Case, Order
and Process of Law is not necessary to remove him; but the
Opinion and Advice of the Nation is enough; because bare
removing neither fines him, nor deprives him of Life, Liberty,
or Offices, wherein State Affairs are not concern'd.
Hitherto, he has only prov'd, according to his usual Logick,
that bare removing, is but bare removing; and that to deprive
10 a man of a Publick Office is not so much as it would be to hang
him: all that possibly can be infer'd from this Argument, is
only that a Vote may do a less wrong, but not a greater. Let us
see how he proceeds.
// he be not remov'd upon such Address, you allow him time
to act his Villany; and the Nation runs the hazard.
I answer, if the House have just Reasons on their side, 'tis
but equitable they should declare them; for an Address in this
Case is an Appeal to the King against such a man: and no Ap-
peal is supposed to be without the Causes which induc'd it.
20 But when they ask a Removal, and give no reason for it; they
make themselves Judges of the Matter, and consequently they
appeal not, but command. If they please to give their Reasons,
they justifie their Complaint; for then their Address is almost
in the nature of an Impeachment: and in that Case they may
procure a hearing when they please: But barely to declare, that
they suspect any man, without charging him with particular
Articles, is almost to confess, they can find none against him.
To suppose a man has time to act his Villanies, must suppose
him first to be a Villain: and if they suspect him to be such,
30 nothing more easie than to name his Crimes, and to take from
him all opportunities of future mischief. But at this rate of
bare addressing, any one who has a publick profitable Employ-
ment might be remov'd; for upon the private Picque of a Mem-
ber he may have a party rais'd for an Address against him. And
if his Majesty can no sooner reward the Services of any one
who is not of their party, but they can vote him out of his Em-
ployment; it must at last follow, that none but their own party
must be employ'd, and then a Vote of the House of Commons,

is in effect the Government. Neither can that be call'd the Ad-
vice and Opinion of the whole Nation, by my Author's favour,
where the other two Estates, and the Soveraign are not con-
senting.
'Tis no matter, says this Gentleman; there are some things
so reasonable, that they are above any written Law: and will in
despite of any Power on Earth have their effect; whereof this
is one.
10 I love a man who deals plainly; he explicitly owns this is not
Law, and yet it is reasonable; and will have its effect as if it
were. See then, in the first place the written Law is laid aside:
that fence is thrown open to admit reason in a larger denomi-
nation. Now that reason which is not Law, must be either En-
thusiasm, or the head-strong will of a whole Nation combin'd:
because in despite of any Earthly Power it will have its effect:
so that, which way soever our Author takes it, he must mean
Fanaticism, or Rebellion: Law grounded on reason is resolv'd
into the Absolute Power of the People; and this is Ratio ultima
20 Reipublica.
Furthermore; The King is a publick Person: in his private
capacity, as we are told, he can only eat and drink; and perform
some other acts of nature which shall be nameless. But his act-
ings without himself, says my grave Author, are only as a King,
In his politick capacity he ought not to marry, love, hate, make
war, or peace, but as a King; and agreeable to the People, and
their Interest he governs.
In plain terms then, as he is a man he has nothing left to do:
for the Actions which are mention'd, are those only of an Ani-
80 mal, or which are common to Man and Beast. And as he is a
King he has as little Business, for there he is at the disposing
of the People: and the only use that can be made of such a
Monarch, is for an Innkeeper to set upon a Sign-Post to draw
custom. But these Letters of Instruction how he should behave
himself in his Kingly Office, cannot but call to mind how he
was school'd and tutor'd, when the Covenanters made just such
16 despite] depite F.
218 Prose 1668-1691
another Prince of him in Scotland. When the terrible fasting

day was come, if he were sick in bed, no remedy, he must up
and to Kirk; and that without a mouthful of Bread to stay his
Stomach; for he fasted then in his Politick Capacity. When he
was seated, no looking aside from Mr. John; not a whisper to
any man, but was a disrespect to the Divine Ordinance. After
the first Thunderer had spent his Lungs, no Retirement, the
first is reinforc'd by a second and a third: all chosen Vessels,
dieted for Preaching, and the best breath'd of the whole Coun-
10 try. When the Sun went down, then up went the Candles, and
the fourth arises to carry on the work of the night, when that
of the day was at an end.
'Tis true what he says, That our greatest Princes have often
hearkened to the Addresses of their People, and have remov'd
some persons from them; but it was when they found those
Addresses reasonable themselves. But they who consult the
manner of Addresses in former times, will find them to have
been manag'd in the House of Commons, with all the calm-
ness and circumspection imaginable. The Crimes were first
20 maturely weigh'd, and the whole matter throughly winnow'd
in Debates; after which, if they thought it necessary for the
publick wellfare, that such a person should be remov'd, they
dutifully acquainted the King with their opinion, which was
often favourably heard; and their desires granted. But now the
Case is quite otherwise; Either no Debate, or a very slight one
precedes Addresses of that nature. But a man is run down with
violent Harangues; and 'tis thought sufficient, if any member
rises up, and offers that he will make out the Accusation after-
wards: when things are carried in this heady manner, I suppose
BO 'tis no sign of a Great Prince, to have any of his Servants forc'd
from him. But such Addresses will insensibly grow into Presi-
dents: you see our Author is nibbling at one already. And we
know a House of Commons is always for giving the Crescent
in their Arms. If they gain a point, they never recede from it,
6 disrespect] disrepect F.
13-15 That . . . [to] . . . them] in romans in F (that).
21 Debates; after] Debates. After F.
they make sure work of every concession from the Crown, and
immediately put it into the Christmass Box: from whence there
is no Redemption.
In justification of the two Votes against lending or advanc-
ing Money to the King, he falls to railing, like a Sophister in
the Schools, when his Syllogisms are at an end. He arraigns the
Kings private manner of living, without considering that his
not being supplied has forc'd him to it. I do not take upon
me to defend any former ill management of the Treasury; but,
10 if I am not deceiv'd, the great grievance of the other party at
present, is, that it is well manag'd, and, that notwithstanding
nothing has been given for so many years, yet a competent pro-
vision is still made for all expences of the publick; if not so
large as might be wish'd, yet at least as much as is necessary.
And I can tell my Author for his farther mortification, that at
present no money is furnish'd to his Majesties Occasions, at
such unconscionable Usury as he mentions. If he would have
the Tables set up again, let the King be put into a condition,
and then let eating and drinking flourish, according to the
20 hearty, honest and greasie Hospitality of our Ancestors. He
would have the King have recourse to Parliaments, as the only
proper Supply to a King of England, for those things which the
Treasury in this low Ebb cannot furnish out: but when he
comes to the Conditions, on which this money is to be had,
they are such, that perhaps forty in the Hundred to a Jew
Banquer were not more unreasonable. In the mean time, if a
Parliament will not give, and others must not lend, there is a
certain story of the Dog in the Manger, which out of good
manners I will not apply.
so The Vote for not prosecuting Protestant Dissenters upon the
Penal Laws, which at this time is thought to be a Grievance to
the Subject, a weakning of the Protestant Religion, and an In-
couragement to Popery, is a matter more tenderly to be han-
dled. But if it be true what has been commonly reported since
the Plot, that Priests, Jesuits, and Friars, mingle amongst Ana-
baptists, Quakers, and other Sectaries, and are their Teachers,
11 manag'd, and] manag'd. And F.
22O Prose 1668-1691
must not they be prosecuted neither? Some men would think,

that before such an uniting of Protestants, a winnowing were
not much amiss; for after they were once sent together to the
Mill, it would be too late to divide the Grist. His Majesty is
well known to be an indulgent Prince, to the Consciences of
his dissenting Subjects: But whoever has seen a Paper call'd, I
think, An intended Bill for uniting, &c. which lay upon the
Table of every Coffee-House, and was modelling to pass the
House of Commons, may have found things of such dangerous
10 concernment to the Government, as might seem not so much
intended to unite Dissenters in a Protestant Church, as to draw
together all the Forces of the several Fanatick Parties, against
the Church of England. And when they were encouraged by
such a Vote, which they value as a Law; (for so high that Coin
is now inhaunc'd) perhaps it is not unreasonable to hold the
Rod over them. But for my own part, I heartily wish, that
there may be no occasion for Christians to persecute each other.
And since my Author speaks with some moderation, candor,
and submission to his Mother Church, I shall only desire him
20 and the dissenting Party, to make the use they ought, of the
King's Gracious Disposition to them, in not yet proceeding with
all the violence which the penal Laws require against them.
But this calm of my Author, was too happy to last long. You
find him immediately transported into a storm about the busi-
ness of Fill-Harris, which occasion'd the Dissolution of the
Parliament at Oxford: and accusing, according to his sawcy
Custom, both his Majesty, and the House of Lords, concerning
it. As for the House of Lords, they have already vindicated
their own right, by throwing out the Impeachment: and sure
so the People of England ought to own them as the Assertors of
the publick Liberty in so doing; for Process being before or-
dered against him at Common Law, and no particular Crime
being laid to his Charge by the House of Commons, if they
had admitted his Cause to be tryed before their Lordships,
this would have grown a President in time, that they must have
been forc'd to judge all those whom the House of Commons
21 King's] King F.
would thrust upon them, till at last the number of Impeach-

ments would be so increas'd, that the Peers would have no time
for any other business of the Publick: and the Highest Court of
Judicature would have been reduc'd to be the Ministers of
Revenge to the Commons. What then would become of our
ancient Privilege to be tryed per pares? which in process of
time would be lost to us and our posterity: except a proviso
were made on purpose, that this judgment might not be
drawn into farther President; and that is never done, but when
10 there is a manifest necessity of breaking rules, which here there
was not. Otherwise the Commons may make Spaniels of the
Lords, throw them a man, and bid them go judge, as we com-
mand a Dog to fetch and carry. But neither the Lords Reasons,
nor the King first having possession of the Prisoner, signifie
any thing with our Author. He will tell you the reason of the
Impeachment was to bring out the Popish Plot. If Fitz-Harris
really knew any thing but what relates to his own Treason, he
chuses a fine time of day to discover it now, when 'tis mani-
festly to save his Neck, that he is forc'd to make himself a
20 greater Villain; and to charge himself with new Crimes to
avoid the punishment of the old. Had he not the benefit of so
many Proclamations, to have come in before, if he then knew
any thing worth discovery? And was not his fortune necessitous
enough at all times, to catch at an impunity, which was baited
with Rewards to bribe him? 'tis not for nothing that Party has
been all along so favourable to him: they are conscious to
themselves of some other matters than a Popish Plot. Let him
first be tryed for what he was first accus'd: if he be acquitted,
his Party will be satisfied, and their strength increas'd by the
30 known honesty of another Evidence: but if he be condemn'd,
let us see what truth will come out of him, when he has Ty-
burn and another World before his Eyes. Then, if he confess
any thing which makes against the Cause, their Excuse is ready;
he died a Papist, and had a dispensation from the Pope to lie.
But if they can bring him silent to the Gallows, all their favour
will be, to wish him dispatch'd out of his pain, as soon as pos-
2 increas'd,] ~ ; F. 6 which] Which F. 17 knew] know F.
222 Prose 1668-1691
sibly he may. And in that Case they have already promis'd they
will be good to his Wife, and provide for her, which would be
a strong encouragement, for many a woman, to perswade her
Husband to digest the Halter. This remembers me of a certain
Spanish Duke, who commanding a Sea-Port-Town, set an Offi-
cer of his, underhand to rob the Merchants. His Grace you
may be confident was to have the Booty, and the Fellow was
assur'd if he were taken to be protected. It fell out, after some
time, that he was apprehended: His Master, according to Arti-
10 cles, brought him off. The Rogue went again to his vocation,
was the second time taken, delivered again, and so the third.
At last the matter grew so notorious, that the Duke found, it
would be both scandalous and difficult to protect him any
longer; But the poor Malefactor sending his Wife to tell him
that if he did not save him he must be hanged to morrow, and
that he must confess who set him on: His Master very civilly
sent him this Message; Prithee suffer thy self to be hanged this
once to do me a Gourtesie, and it shall be the better for thy
Wife and Children.
20 But that which makes amends for all, says our Author, is the
Kings resolution to have frequent Parliaments. Yet this, it
seems, is no amends neither: for he says Parliaments are like
Terms, if there be Ten in a Year, and all so short to hear no
Causes, they do no good.
I say on the other hand, If the Courts will resolve before-
hand to have no Causes brought before them, but one which
they know they cannot dispatch; let the Terms be never so
long, they make them as insignificant as a Vacation.
The Kings Prerogative, when and where they should be
so call'd, and how long they should sit, is but subservient, as our
Friend tells us, to the great design of Government; and must
be accommodated to it, or we are either denyed or deluded of
that Protection and Justice we are born to.
My Author is the happiest in one faculty, I ever knew. He is
5 Spanish] Spanish F.
20-24 ln F îs paragraph has no italics, but each line is preceded by a quo-
tation mark,
30-31 as ... [to] . . . us] in italics in F.
still advancing some new Position, which without proving, he

slurs upon us for an Argument: though he knows, that Doc-
trines without proofs will edifie but little. That the Kings Pre-
rogative is subservient, or in order to the ends of Government
is granted him. But what strange kind of Argument is this, to
prove that we are cheated of that Protection to which we are
born. Our Kings have always been indued with the power of
calling Parliaments, nominating the time, appointing of the
Place, and Dissolving them when they thought it for the pub-
10 lick good: And the People have wisely consulted their own
welfare in it. Suppose, for example, that there be a Jarring be-
tween the three Estates, which renders their sitting at that time
Impracticable; since none of them can pretend to Judge the
proceedings of the other two, the Judgment of the whole must
either reside in a Superiour power, or the discord must termi-
nate in the ruine of them all. For if one of the three incroach
too far, there is so much lost in the Balance of the Estates, and
so much more Arbitrary power in one; 'Tis as certain in Poli-
tiques, as in Nature, That where the Sea prevails the Land
20 loses. If no such discord should arise, my Authors Argument
is of no farther use: for where the Soveraign and Parliament
agree, there can be no deluding of the People; So that in short,
his quarrel is to the constitution of the Government.
And we see what nettles him, That the King has learnt from
the unhappy example of his Father, not to perpetuate a Parlia-
ment. But he will tell you, that they desire only a lasting Parlia-
ment, which may dispatch all causes necessary and proper for
the publick: And I Answer him, that it lyes in themselves to
make it so. But who shall Judge when it shall be proper to put
so an end to such a Parliament? there is no farther Answer left
him; but only, that the Reason of things is the only Rule: for
when all necessary causes are dispatch'd, then is the proper time
of Dissolution. But if you mark it, this Argumentation is still
running in a Circle. For the Parliament, that is the House of
Commons, would constitute themselves Judges of this reason
of things; and of what causes were necessary to be dispatch'd.
19 Nature,] ~ ; F. 22 So] ~ , F.
224 Prose 1668-1691
So that my Author had as good have laid down this Position

bare-fac'd, that a Parliament ought never to be Dissolved, till
an House of Commons would sit no longer.
My Author goes on scoffingly, That he has nothing to say
for those angry men (he means of his own Party) whose par-
ticular Designs are disappointed; only that they might have
kept their places; and that he can find no difference betwixt
them who are out, and those who are put in, but that the for-
mer could have ruin'd us, and would not: and these cannot if
10 they would.
I am willing to let them pass as lightly as he pleases: Angry
they are, and they know the Proverb. I hope I may have leave
to observe transiently, that none but angry men, that is, such
as hold themselves disobliged at Court, are the Pillars of his
Party. And where are then the principles of Vertue, Honour
and Religion, which they would persuade the World, have ani-
mated their endeavours for the publick? What were they be-
fore they were thus Angry? or what would they be, could they
make so firm an Interest in Court, that they might venture
20 themselves in that bottom? This, the whole Party cannot
choose but know; for Knaves can easily smell out one another.
My Author, an experienced man, makes but very little differ-
ence, betwixt those who are out, and those who are put in. But
the Nation begins to be awake: his party is mouldring away,
and as it falls out, in all dishonest Combinations, are suspect-
ing each other so very fast, that every man is shifting for him-
self, by a separate Treaty: and looking out for a Plank in the
common Shipwrack, so that the point is turn'd upon him;
those who are out, would have ruin'd us, and cou'd not; and
so those who are in, are endeavouring to save us if they can.
My Adversary himself, now drawing to a conclusion, seems
to be inclining to good opinions: and as dying men, are much
given to repentance, so finding his cause at the last gasp, he
unburthens his Conscience and disclaims the principles of a
Common-wealth, both for himself, and for both Houses of Par-
liament, which is indeed to be over-officious: for one of the
Houses will not think they have need of such a Compurgator.
But he wisely fears no change of Government from any, but
the Papists. Now I am of a better heart, for I fear it neither

from Papists nor Presbyterians. Whether Democracy will agree
with Jesuitical principles in England I am not certain; but I
can easily prove to him, that no Government but a Common-
wealth is accommodated to the Systeme of Church-worship in-
vented by John Calvin.
The Declaration concludes, That the King is resolv'd to gov-
ern in all things by the Laws: And here the Author of the
Answer, is for frisking out into a fit of Joy, which looks as
10 aukward with his gravity, as ever was King David's dancing
before the Ark. This similitude I hope has pleas'd him; if it
does not, Esop's Ass stands ready Sadled at the door. But a
melancholick consideration has already pour'd cold water in
his Porredge, for all promises he says are either kept or broken:
well-fare a good old Proverb. I could find in my heart to cap
it with another, that the old Woman had never look'd for her
Daughter in the Oven, if she had not been there her self be-
fore. But if the King should keep his word, as all but his Ene-
mies conclude he will, then we shall see Annual Parliaments
20 sit longer I hope; when they meddle only with their proper
business. They will lose their time no more, in cutting off the
Succession, altering the course of Nature, and directing the
providence of God, before they know it. We shall have no unit-
ing of Sects against the Church of England, nor of Counties
against the next Heir of the Crown. The King shall then be
advis'd by his Parliament, when both Houses concur in their
advice. There shall be no more need of Declarations about the
dissolving of Parliaments; and no more need of factious Fools
to answer them; But the People shall be happy, the King shall
so be supply'd, the Alliances shall be supported, and my suppos'd
Author be made a Bishop, and renounce the Covenant. That
many of these things may happen, is the wish of every loyal
Subject, and particularly of
Sir,
Your most humble Servant.
7-8 That . . . [to] . . . Laws] in romans in F (that).
11 him] hin F. 30 supply'd,] ~ A F. gg Servant.] ~ A F.
PLUTARCHS
LIVES.
Tranflated
From the GREEK
Br
S E V E R A L HANDS.
To which is prefixt the LIFE
of P L U T A R C H .
The Firft Volume.
L 0 N V 0 N,
Printed for "jutol Ton/on, at the Sign of
the fudges head in Chancery-lane near
Fktt-Jlrcctt 1683.
TITLE PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION (MACDONALD igiA)
Plu tarchs Lives 227

TO HIS GRACE
THE DUKE OF ORMOND, 8cC.
My Lord,
E
CRETIUS, endeavouring to prove from the principles of
his Philosophy, that the world had a casual beginning
from the concourse of A tomes; and that Men, as well as
the rest of Animals, were produc'd from the vital heat and
moisture of their Mother Earth; from the same principles is
bound to answer this objection, why Men are not daily form'd
after the same manner, which he tells us is, because the kindly
warmth, and procreative faculty of the ground is now worn
10 out: The Sun is a disabled Lover, and the Earth is past her
teeming time.
Though Religion has inform'd us better of our Origine, yet
it appears plainly, that not only the Bodies, but the Souls of
Men, have decreas'd from the vigour of the first Ages; that we
are not more short of the stature and strength of those gygan-
tick Heroes, than we are of their understanding, and their wit.
To let pass those happy Patriarchs, who were striplings at four-
score, and had afterwards seven or eight hundred years before
them to beget Sons and Daughters; and to consider Man in
20 reference only to his mind, and that no higher than the Age
of Socrates: How vast a difference is there betwixt the produc-
tions of those Souls, and these of ours! How much better Plato,
Aristotle, and the rest of the Philosophers understood nature;
Thucydides, and Herodotus adorn'd History; Sophocles, Eu-
ripides and Menander advanc'd Poetry, than those Dwarfs of
Wit and Learning who succeeded them in after times! That
Age was most Famous amongst the Greeks, which ended with
the death of Alexander; amongst the Romans Learning seem'd
again to revive and flourish in the Century which produc'd
22 ours!] ~ ? 01-4. 24-25 Euripides] Eurypides 01-4.
26 timcsl] ~ ? 01-4.
228 Prose 1668-1691
Cicero, Varro, Salust, Livy, Lucretius and Virgil; And after a

short interval of years, (wherein Nature seem'd to take a breath-
ing time for a second birth,) there sprung up under the Ves-
pasians, and those excellent Princes who succeeded them, a
race of memorable Wits; such as were the two Plinies, Tacitus,
and Suetonius; and as if Greece was emulous of the Roman
learning, under the same favourable Constellation, was born
the famous Philosopher and Historian Plutarch: Then whom
Antiquity has never produc'd a Man more generally knowing,
10 or more vertuous; and no succeeding Age has equall'd him.
His Lives both in his own esteem, and that of others, ac-
counted the Noblest of his Works, have been long since ren-
der'd into English: But as that Translation was only from the
French, so it suffer'd this double disadvantage, first that it was
but a Copy of a Copy, and that too but lamely taken from the
Greek Original: Secondly that the English Language was then
unpolish'd, and far from the perfection which it has since at-
tain'd: So that the first Version is not only ungrammatical and
ungraceful, but in many places almost unintelligible. For which
20 reasons, and least so useful a piece of History, shou'd lie op-
press'd under the rubbish of Antiquated words, some inge-
nious and learned Gentlemen, have undertaken this Task: And
what wou'd have been the labour of one Mans Life, will, by
the several endeavours of many, be now accomplish'd in the
compass of a year. How far they have succeeded in this laud-
able attempt, to me it belongs not to determine; who am too
much a party to be a Judge: But I have the honour to be Com-
mission'd from the Translators of this Volum, to inscribe their
labours and my own, with all humility, to your Graces Name
30 and Patronage. And never was any Man more ambitious of an
employment, of which he was so little worthy. Fortune has at
last gratify'd that earnest desire I have always had, to shew my
devotion to your Grace; though I despair of paying you my
acknowledgments. And of all other opportunities I have hap-
pen'd on the most favourable to my self; who, having never
8 Plutarch:] ~ . 01-4. 9 Antiquity] 62-4; An- / quity Oi.
i i Lives] Lives 01-4.
Plutarchs Lives 229
been able to produce any thing of my own, which cou'd be

worthy of your view, am supply'd by the assistance of my
friends, and honour'd with the presentation of their labours.
The Author they have Translated, has been long familiar to
you: Who have been conversant in all sorts of History both
Ancient and Modern; and have form'd the Idea of your most
Noble Life from the instructions and Examples contain'd in
them; both in the management of publick affairs, and in the
private Offices of vertue; in the enjoyment of your better for-
10 tune, and sustaining of your worse; in habituating your self to
an easie greatness; in repelling your Enemies, in succouring
your Friends, and in all traverses of fortune, in every colour
of your Life, maintaining an inviolable fidelity to your Sover-
aign. Tis long since that I have learn'd to forget the art of
praising; but here the heart dictates to the pen; and I appeal
to your Enemies, (if so much generosity and good nature can
have left you any) whether they are not conscious to them-
selves that I have not flatter'd.
Tis an Age indeed, which is only fit for Satyr; and the sharp-
20 est I have shall never be wanting to launce its Villanies, and
its ingratitude to the Government: There are few Men in it,
who are capable of supporting the weight o£ a just and de-
serv'd commendation: But amongst those few there must al-
ways stand excepted the Illustrious Names of Ormond and of
Ossory: A Father and a Son, only Worthy of each other. Never
was one Soul more fully infus'd into anothers breast: Never was
so strong an impression made of vertue, as that of your Graces
into him: But though the stamp was deep, the subject which
receiv'd it was of too fine a composition to be durable. Were
so not priority of time and nature in the case, it might have been
doubted which of you had been most excellent: But Heaven
snatch'd away the Copy to make the Original more precious.
I dare trust my self no farther on this subject; for after years
of mourning, my sorrow is yet so green upon me, that I am
ready to tax Providence for the loss of that Heroick Son: Three
Nations had a general concernment in his Death, but I had
one so very particular, that all my hopes are almost dead with
230 Prose 1668-1691
him; and I have lost so much that I am past the danger of a

second Shipwreck. But he sleeps with an unenvy'd commenda-
tion: And has left your Grace the sad Legacy of all those
Glories which he deriv'd from you: An accession which you
wanted not, who were so rich before in your own vertues, and
that high reputation which is the product of them. A long
descent of Noble Ancestors was not necessary to have made
you great: But Heaven threw it in as over-plus when you were
born. What you have done and suffer'd for two Royal Masters
10 has been enough to render you Illustrious; so that you may
safely wave the Nobility of your birth, and relie on your ac-
tions for your fame. You have cancell'd the debt which you
ow'd to your Progenitors, and reflect more brightness on their
memory than you receiv'd from them. Your native Country,
which Providence gave you not leave to preserve under one
King, it has given you opportunity under another to restore.
You cou'd not save it from the Chastisement which was due
to its Rebellion, but you rais'd it from ruin after its repen-
tance: So that the Trophies of War were the portion of the
20 Conquerour, but the Triumphs of peace were reserv'd for the
vanquished. The misfortunes of Ireland were owing to it self,
but its happiness and Restoration to your Grace. The Rebel-
lion against a Lawful Prince, was punish'd by an Usurping
Tyrant: But the fruits of his Victory were the rewards of a
Loyal Subject. How much that Noble Kingdom has flourish'd
under your Graces Government, both the Inhabitants and the
Crown are sensible. The riches of Ireland are increas'd by it,
and the Revenues of England are augmented. That which was
a charge and burden of the Government is render'd an advan-
so tage and support: The Trade and Interest of both Countries
are united in a mutual benefit; they conspire to make each
other happy; the dependance of the one is an improvement
of its Commerce, the preeminence of the other is not impair'd
by the intercourse, and common necessities are supply'd by
both. Ireland is no more a Cyon, to suck the nourishment
from the Mother Tree; neither is it overtop'd, or hinder'd
4 you:] ~ . 01-4. 35 Cyon] Cyon 01-4.
Plutarchs Lives 231
from growth by the superiour branches; but the Roots of

England, diving (if I may dare to say it,) underneath the Seas,
rise at a just distance on the Neighbouring Shore; and there
shoot up, and bear a product scarce inferiour to the Trunk
from whence they sprung. I may raise the commendation
higher, and yet not fear to offend the truth: Ireland is a better
Penitent than England: The Crime of Rebellion was com-
mon to both Countries; but the repentance of one Island has
been steady; that of the other, to its shame, has suffer'd a re-
10 lapse: Which shews the Conversions of their Rebels to have
been real, that of ours to have been but counterfeit. The Sons
of Guilty Fathers there have made amends for the disloyalty
of their Families: But here the descendants of pardon'd Rebels
have only waited their time to copy the wickedness of their
Parents, and if possible to outdo it: They disdain to hold their
Patrimonies by acts of Grace and of Indempnity: and by main-
taining their old Treasonable principles, make it apparent that
they are still speculative Traytors. For whether they are zealous
Sectaries or prophane Republicans, (of which two sorts they
20 are principally compos'd) both our Reformers of Church and
State, pretend to a power superiour to Kingship. The Fanaticks
derive their Authority from the Bible; and plead Religion to
be antecedent to any secular obligation: By vertue of which
Argument, taking it for granted that their own Worship is
only true, they arrogate to themselves the right of disposing
the Temporal power according to their pleasure; as that which
is subordinate to the Spiritual: So that the same Reasons, and
Scriptures, which are urg'd by Popes for the deposition of
Princes, are produc'd by Sectaries for altering the Succession.
so The Episcopal Reformation has manumiz'd Kings from the
Usurpation of Rome; for it preaches obedience and resigna-
tion to the lawful Secular power: but the pretended Reforma-
tion of our Schismaticks, is to set up themselves in the Papal
Chair; and to make their Princes only their Trustees: So that
whether they or the Pope were uppermost in England, the
5 whence] 02-4; whence Oi. 15 outdo] 02-4; out do Oi.
zi State] 02-4; Sate Oi. 34 Trustees:] ~ . 01-4.
232 Prose 1668-1691
Royal Authority were equally depress'd: The Prison of our

Kings wou'd be the same; the Gaolers only wou'd be alter'd. The
broad Republicans are generally Men of Atheistick principles,
nominal Christians, who are beholding to the Font, only that
they are so call'd, otherwise Hobbists in their politicks and
Morals: Every Church is oblig'd to them that they own them-
selves of none; because their Lives are too scandalous for any.
Some of the Sectaries are so proud, that they think they can-
not sin; those Common-wealth Men are so wicked, that they
10 conclude there is no sin. Lewdness, Rioting, Cheating and
Debauchery, are their work-a-day practise: Their more solemn
crimes, are unnatural Lusts, and horrid Murthers. Yet these
are the Patrons of the Nonconformists; these are the Swords
and Bucklers of Gods cause; if his cause be that of Separatists
and Rebells. Tis not but these Associates know each other at
the bottom, as well as Simeon knew Levi: The Republicans
are satisfy'd that the Schismaticks are Hypocrites, and the
Schismaticks are assur'd that the Republicans are Atheists:
But their common principles of Government are the chaines
20 that link them: For both hold Kings to be Creatures of their
own making, and by inference to be at their own disposing:
With this difference, notwithstanding, that the Canting party
face their pretences with a call from God, the debauch'd par-
ty with a Commission from the people: So that if ever this ill
contriv'd and equivocal association shou'd get uppermost,
they wou'd infallibly contend for the supream right; and as it
was formerly on their mony, so now it wou'd be in their
interests; God with us wou'd be set up on one side, and the
Common-wealth of England on the other. But I the less
so wonder at the mixture of these two natures, because two Salvage
beasts of different species and Sexes shut up together, will
forget their Enmity to satisfie their common lust; and 'tis no
matter what kind of Monster is produc'd betwixt them, so the
brutal appetite be serv'd. I more admire at a third party, who
were Loyal when Rebellion was uppermost, and have turn'd
11 work-a-day] 03-4; work a day Oi. 21 disposing:] ~ . 01-4.
24 people:] ~ . 01-4. 28 and] and 01-4.
Plutarchs Lives 233
Rebells (at least in principle,) since Loyalty has been Tri-

umphant. Those of them whose services have not been re-
warded, have some pretence for discontent; and yet they give
the World to understand, that their Honour was not their
principle, but their Interest. If they are old Royallists, 'tis a
sign their vertue is worn out; and will bear no longer; if Sons
to Royallists they have probably been grafted on Whig stocks,
and grown out of kind; like China Oranges in Portugal:
Their Mothers part has prevail'd in them, and they are de-
10 generated from the Loyalty of their Fathers.
But if they are such, as many of them evidently are, whose
service has been, not only fully but lavishly recompens'd, with
Honours and preferment, theirs is an ingratitude without
parallel; they have destroy'd their former merits, disown'd
the cause for which they fought, bely'd their youth, dishon-
our'd their age; they have wrought themselves out of present
enjoyments, for imaginary hopes, and can never be trusted by
their new friends, because they have betray'd their old. The
greater and the stronger ties which some of them have had,
20 are the deeper brands of their Apostacy: For Arch-Angels were
the first and most glorious of the whole Creation: They were
the morning work of God; and had the first impressions of his
Image, what Creatures cou'd be made: They were of kin to
Eternity it self; and wanting only that accession to be Deities.
Their fall was therefore more opprobrious than that of Man,
because they had no clay for their excuse: Though I hope and
wish the latter part of the Allegory may not hold, and that
repentance may be yet allow'd them. But I delight not to dwell
on so sad an object: Let this part of the Landschape be cast into
30 shadows, that the heightnings of the other may appear more
beautiful. For as Contraries the nearer they are plac'd are
brighter, and the Venus is illustrated by the Neighbourhood
of the Lazar, so the unblemish'd Loyalty of your Grace, will
shine more clearly, when set in competition with their stains.
When the Malady which had seiz'd the Nobler parts of Britain
threw it self out into the limbs, and the first sores of it appear'd
in Scotland, yet no effects of it reach'd your Province: Ireland
234 Prose 1668-1691
stood untainted with that pest: The care of the Physician

prevented the disease, and preserv'd the Country from in-
fection. When that Ulcer was rather stop'd than cur'd, (for
the causes of it still remain'd) and that dangerous Symptoms
appear'd in England; when the Royal Authority was here
trodden under foot, when one Plot was prosecuted openly, and
another secretly fomented, yet even then was Ireland free from
our contagion: And if some venemous Creatures were pro-
duc'd in that Nation, yet it appear'd they could not live there:
10 They shed their poyson without effect: They despair'd of being
successfully wicked in their own Country, and transported
their Evidence to another, where they knew 'twas vendible:
Where accusation was a Trade, where forgeries were coun-
tenanc'd, where perjuries were rewarded, where swearing went
for proof, and where the Merchandize of Death was gainful.
That their Testimony was at last discredited, proceeded not
from its incoherence: For they were known by their own party
when they first appear'd; but their folly was then manag'd by
the cunning of their Tutors; they had still been believ'd, had
20 they still follow'd their Instructors: But when their witness
fell foul upon their friends, then they were proclaim'd Villains,
discarded and disown'd by those who sent for them; they
seem'd then first to be discover'd, for what they had been known
too well before; they were decry'd as inventours of what only
they betray'd: Nay their very wit was magnified lest being taken
for fools, they might be thought too simple to forge an ac-
cusation. Some of them still continue here detested by both
sides, believ'd by neither: (for even their betters are at last
uncas'd,) and some of them have receiv'd their hire in their own
so Country: For perjury, which is malice to Mankind, is always
accompanied with other Crimes: and tho not punishable by
our Laws with death, yet draws a train of vices after it: The
Robber, the Murderer and the Sodomite, have often hung up
the forsworn villain: And what one sin took on trust, another
sin has pay'd. These travelling Locusts are at length swallow'd
up in their own Red-Sea. Ireland as well as England is deliver'd
from that flying Plague; for the Sword of Justice in your
Plutarchs Lives 235
Graces hand, like the Rod of Moses, is stretcht out against

them: And the third part of his Majesties Dominions is owing
for its peace to your Loyalty and vigilance.
But what Plutarch can this age produce to immortallize a life
so Noble? May some excellent Historian at length be found,
some Writer not unworthy of his Subject, but may his employ-
ment be long deferr'd: May many happy years continue you to
this Nation and your own; may your praises be celebrated late;
that we may enjoy you living rather than adore you dead.
10 And since yet, there is not risen up amongst us, any Historian
who is equal to so great an undertaking, let us hope that
Providence has not assign'd the workman, because his employ-
ment is to be long delay'd; because it has reserv'd your Grace
for farther proofs of your vmwearyed duty, and a farther enjoy-
ment of your fortune: In which tho no Man has been less
envy'd, because no other has more Nobly us'd it, yet some
droppings of the Ages venom have been shed upon you: The
Supporters of the Crown are plac'd too near it, to be exempted
from the storm which was breaking over it. 'Tis true you stood
20 involv'd in your own Vertue, and the Malice of your Libellers
cou'd not sink through all those folds to reach you. Your
Innocence has defended you from their attacks, and your pen
has so Nobly vindicated that Innocence, that it stands in need
of no other second. The difference is as plainly seen, betwixt
Sophistry and truth, as it is betwixt the stile of a Gentleman,
and the clumsy stifness of a Pedant. Of all Historians God
deliver us from Bigots; and of all Bigots from our Sectaries.
Truth is never to be expected from Authors whose understand-
ings are warp'd with Enthusiasm: For they judge all actions
so and their causes by their own perverse principles; and a crooked
line can never be the measure of a streight one. Mr. Hobbs
was us'd to say, that a Man was alwaies against reason, when
reason was against a Man: So these Authors are for obscuring
truth, because truth would discover them. They are not His-
torians of an Action, but Lawyers of a party: They are retain'd
by their principles, and brib'd by their interests: Their nar-
15 fortune:] ~ . Oi-vj.
236 Prose 1668—1691
rations are an opening of their cause; and in the front of their

Histories, there ought to be written the Prologue of a pleading,
/ am for the Plaintiff, or / am for the Defendant. We have al-
ready seen large Volumes of State Collections, and Church
Legends, stuff'd with detected forgeries in some parts, and gap-
ing with omissions of truth in others: Not penn'd I suppose
with so vain a hope as to cheat Posterity, but to advance some
design in the present Age: For these Legerdemain Authors, are
for telling stories, to keep their trick undiscover'd; and to make
10 their conveyance the more clean. What calumny your Grace
may expect from such Writers, is already evident: But it will
fare with them, as it does with ill Painters; a Picture so unlike
in all its features and proportions, reflects not on the original,
but on the Artist: For malice will make a piece more unre-
sembling than ignorance: And he who studies the life, yet
bungles, may draw some faint imitation of it; But he who
purposely avoids nature, must fall into grotesque, and make no
likeness. For my own part I am of the former sort: And there-
fore presume not to offer my unskillfulness for so excellent
20 a design as is your illustrious life: To pray for its prosperity
and continuance is my duty; as it is my Ambition to appear on
all occasions,
Your Graces most obedient
and devoted Servant,
JOHNDRYDEN.
3 or] or 01-4. 23 your] 02-4; Tour Oi.
Plutarchs Lives 237
THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER.
ou have here, the first Volume of Plutarchs Lives, turn'd

Y from the Greek into English; And (give me leave to say)
the first attempt of doing it from the Originalls. You may
expect the Remainder, in four more; One after another as fast
as they may conveniently be dispatch'd from the Press. It is not
my business, or pretence, to judge of a work of this quality,
neither do I take upon me to recommend it to the world any
farther, then under the Office of a fair, and a careful Publisher,
and in discharge of a trust deposited in my hands for the ser-
10 vice of my Country, and for a Common good. I am not yet so
insensible of the Authority and Reputation of so great a Name,
as not to consult the Honour of the Author, together with
the benefit, and satisfaction of the Bookseller, as well as of the
Reader, in this undertaking. In order to which ends, I have
with all possible Respect, and Industry, Besought, Sollicited,
and Obtain'd the Assistance of persons equal to the enterprize,
and not only Criticks in the Tongue, but Men of known fame,
and Abilities, for style and Ornament, but I shall rather refer
you to the Learned and Ingenious Translators of this first part,
20 (whose Names you will find in the next page) as a Specimen
of what you may promise your self from the Rest.
After this Right done to the Greek Author, / shall not need
to say what profit, and delight will accrue to the English Reader
from this version, when he shall see this Illustrious piece, in
his own Mother Tongue; and the very Spirit of the Original,
Transfus'd into the Traduction. And in one word; Plutarchs
Worthies made yet more famous, by a Translation that gives a
farther Lustre, even to Plutarch himself.
Now as to the Booksellers Part; I must justifie my self, that
so I have done all that to me belonged: That is to say, I have been
punctually Faithful to all my Commissions toward the Correct-
10 /]O2~4;IOi. ai Rest.] 03-4; ~ ? Oi-2.
238 Prose 1668—1691
ness, and the Decency of the Work, and I have said to my self,
that which I now say to the Publick;
It is impossible, but a Book that comes into the World
with so many circumstances of Dignity, usefulness, and es-
teem, must turn to account.
PLUTARCH
FROM Plutarchs Lives (1683)
Plutarchs Lives 239
The Life of Plutarch
know not by what Fate it comes to pass, that Historians,

I who give immortality to others, are so ill requited by
Posterity, that their Actions and their Fortunes are usually
forgotten; neither themselves incourag'd, while they live, nor
their memory preserv'd entire to future Ages. 'Tis the in-
gratitude of Mankind to their greatest Benefactors, that they,
who teach us wisdome by the surest ways, (setting before us
what we ought to shun or to pursue, by the examples of the
most famous Men whom they Record, and by the experience of
10 their Faults and Vertues,) should generally live poor and
unregarded; as if they were born only for the publick, and
had no interest in their own well-being; but were to be lighted
up like Tapers, and to waste themselves, for the benefit of
others. But this is a complaint too general, and the custom
has been too long establish'd to be remedied; neither does it
wholly reach our Author: He was born in an Age, which was
sensible of his vertue; and found a Trajan to reward him, as
Aristotle did an Alexander. But the Historians, who succeeded
him, have either been too envious, or too careless of his re-
20 putation; none of them, not even his own Country-men,
having given us any particular account of him; or if they have,
yet their Works are not transmitted to us; so that we are
forc'd to glean from Plutarch, what he has scatter'd in his
Writings, concerning himself and his Original: Which (ex-
cepting that little memorial, that Suidas, and some few others,
have left concerning him) is all we can collect, relating to this
great Philosopher and Historian.
He was born at Chceronea a small City of Bceotia in Greece,
between Attica and Phocis, and reaching to both Seas: The
so Climate not much befreinded by the Heavens; for the air is
thick and foggy; and consequently the Inhabitants partaking
of its influence, gross feeders, and fat witted; brawny, and
29 Seas:] ~ . 01-4.
240 Prose 1668-1691
unthinking, just the constitution of Heroes: Cut out for the

Executive and brutal business of War; but so stupid in the
designing part, that in all the revolutions of Greece they were
never Masters, but only in those few years, when they were led
by Epaminondas, or Pelopidas. Yet this foggy ayre, this Country
of fat weathers, as Juvenal calls it, produc'd three wits, which
were comparable to any three Athenians: Pindar, Epaminondas,
and our Plutarch, to whom we may add a fourth, Sextus Chce-
ronensis, the Prasceptor of the learned Emperour Marcus
10 Aurelius; and the Nephew of our Authour.
Cheeronea, (if we may give credit to Pausanias, in the ninth
Book of his description of Greece) was anciently call'd Arne;
from Arne the Daughter of Alolus; but being scituated to the
west of Parnassus in that low-land country, the natural unwhol-
somness of the Ayre was augmented by the evening Vapours
cast upon it from that Mountain, which our late Travellers
describe to be full of moisture and marshy ground inclos'd
in the inequality of its ascents: And being also expos'd to the
winds which blew from that quarter, the Town was perpetually
20 unhealthful, for which reason, sayes my Author, Chceron, the
Son of Apollo and Thero, made it be rebuilt, and turn'd it
towards the rising Sun; From whence the Town became health-
ful and consequently populous; in memory of which benefit
it afterwards retain'd his name. But as Etymologies are un-
certain, and the Greeks, above all Nations, given to fabulous
derivations of Names, especially, when they tend to the Hon-
our of their Country, I think we may be reasonably content
to take the denomination of the Town, from its delightful
or chearful standing; as the word Charon sufficiently implies.
so But to lose no time, in these grammatical Etymologies, which
are commonly uncertain ghesses, 'tis agreed that Plutarch was
here born; the year uncertain; but without dispute in the reign
of Claudius.
Joh. Gerrhard Vossius has assign'd his birth in the latter end
7 Pindar] 03-4; Pyndar Ol-2. 11 Charonea] Oib; Cheeronea Oia, 02-4.

14 low-land] 03-4; low land Oi-z.
34 Gerrhard] Oib; Gerrard Oia, 02-4.
Plutarchs Lives 241
of that Emperour: Some other Writers of his Life, have left it

undecided, whether then, or in the beginning of Nero's Em-
pire: But the most accurate Rualdus (as I find it in the Paris
Edition of Plutarch's Works) has manifestly prov'd him to be
born in the middle time of Claudius, or somewhat lower: For
Plutarch in the Inscription at Delphos, of which more here-
after, remembers that Ammonius his Master disputed with
him and his Brother Lamprias concerning it, when Nero made
his progress into Greece; which was in his twelfth year; and
10 the Question disputed cou'd not be manag'd with so much
learning as it was, by meer Boyes; therefore he was then six-
teen, or rather eighteen years of age.
Xylander has observ'd that Plutarch himself, in the Life of
Pericles, and that of Anthony, has mentioned both Nero and
Domitian, as his Contemporaries. He has also left it on Record
in his Symposiaques, that his Family was ancient in Cheeronea;
and that for many descents, they had born the most considerable
Offices in that petty Common-wealth: The cheifest of which
was known by the name of Archon amongst the Grecians; by
20 that of Prcetor Urbis among the Romans; and the Dignity and
Power was not much different from that of our Lord Mayor
of London. His Great Grand-Father Nicarchus perhaps injoy'd
that Office in the division of the Empire betwixt Augustus
Ctesar and Mark Anthony. And when the Civil Wars ensued
betwixt them, Charonea was so hardly us'd by Anthonies
Lieutenant or Commissary there, that all the Citizens without
exception, were servilely imployed to carry on their shoulders
a certain proportion of Corn from Cheeronea to the Coast over
against the Island of Antycira, with the Scourge held over
ao them, if at any time they were remiss: Which duty after once
performing, being enjoynd the Second time with the same
severity, just as they were preparing for their journey, the
welcom news arriv'd that Mark Anthony had lost the Battel
of Actium, whereupon both the Officers and Souldiers, belong-
6 Inscription at Delphos] inscription at Delphos Oi~4 (Inscription 02-4).

18 Common-wealth:] ~ . 01-4. 19 Grecians] 03-4; Grecians Oi-z,
20 Romans] 03-4; Romans Oi-2. »g Island] 03-4; Island Oi-2.
242 Prose 1668-1691
ing to him in Cheeronea, immediately fled for their own safety;

and the provisions thus collected, were distributed among the
Inhabitants of the City.
This Nicarchus, the Great Grand-Father of Plutarch, among
other Sons, had Lamprias, a Man eminent for his Learning;
and a Philosopher, of whom Plutarch has made frequent
mention in his Symposiaques, or Table Conversations, and
amongst the rest, there is this observation of him, that he
disputed best, and unravell'd the difficulties of Philosophy with
10 most success when he was at Supper, and well warm'd with
Wine. These Table Entertainments were part of the Edu-
cation of those times, their discourses being commonly the
canvasing and Solution of some question, either Philosophical
or Philological, alwayes instructive, and usually pleasant; for
the Cups went round with the debate; and Men were merry
and wise together, according to the Proverb. The Father of
Plutarch is also mention'd, in those Discourses, whom our
Author represents as arguing of several points in Philosophy;
but his name is no where to be found in any part o£ the works
20 remaining to us. But yet he speaks of him, as a Man not igno-
rant in Learning and Poetry, as may appear by what he says,
when he is introduc'd disputing in the Symposiaques; where
also his prudence and humanity are commended, in this follow-
ing Relation. Being yet very young (says Plutarch) I was joyn'd,
in Commission with another in an Embassy to the Proconsul,
and my Collegue falling sick was forc'd to stay behind, so that
the whole business was Transacted by me alone. At my return,
when I was to give account to the Common-wealth of my pro-
ceedings, my Father, rising from his Seat, openly enjoyn'd me
so not to name my self in the singular Number, I did thus, or
thus, I say'd to the Proconsul, but thus we did and thus we
say'd, alwaies associating my Companion with me, though
absent in the management. This was done to observe, as I
2
4~33 Being . . . management] italics and romans reversed in Oi-j except
within the parentheses and as noted below.
a8 / was] I was Oib, 02-4; / was Oia. 30-31 or thus] or thus, 01-4.
31 the Proconsul] the Proconsul 01-4. 31 but thus] out thus 01-4.
33 management. This] management: this 01-4 (This 03-4).
Plutarchs Lives 243
suppose, the point of good manners with his Collegue, that

of respect to the Government of the City, who had com-
mission'd both, to avoid envy, and perhaps more especially,
to take off the forwardness of a pert young Minister, com-
monly too apt to overvalue his own services, and to quote him-
self on every inconsiderable occasion. The Father of Plutarch
had many Children besides him; Timon and Lamprias, his
Brothers, were bred up with him, all three instructed in the
Liberal Sciences, and in all parts of Philosophy. 'Tis Manifest
10 from our Author that they liv'd together in great friendliness,
and in great veneration to their Grand-father and Father.
What affection Plutarch bore in particular to his Brother
Timon may be gather'd from these words of his. As for my
self, though fortune on several occasions has been favourable
to me, I have no obligation so great to her, as the kindness, and
entire friendship, which my Brother Timon has alwayes born,
and still bears me: and this is so evident that it cannot but be
noted, by every one of our acquaintance. Lamprias, the young-
est of the three, is introduc'd by him in his Morals, as one of a
20 sweet and pleasant Conversation, inclin'd to Mirth and Rail-
lery; or, as we say in English, a well humour'd man, and a good
Companion. The whole Family being thus addicted to Phil-
osophy, 'tis no wonder if our Author was initiated betimes in
Study, to which he was naturally inclin'd: In pursuit of which
he was so happy, to fall into good hands at first; being recom-
mended to the care of Ammonius an Egyptian, who, having
taught Philosophy with great Reputation at Alexandria, and
from thence travelling into Greece, settled himself at last in
Athens, where he was well receiv'd, and generally respected.
30 At the end of Themistocles his Life, Plutarch relates, that
being young, he was a Pentioner in the house of this Am-
monius; and in his Symposiaques he brings him in disputing
with his Scholars, and giving them instruction. For the custom
of those times was very much different from these of ours,
12 particular] Oib, 02-4; parricular Oia.
13-18 As . . . acquaintance.] romans and italics reversed in Oi-j.
19 Morals] Morals 01-4. 21 English] English 01-4.
24 inclin'd:] ~ . 01-4. 26 Egyptian] 03-4; Egyptian Oi-2.
244 Prose 1668-1691
where the greatest part of our Youth is spent in learning the

words of dead languages: The Grecians, who thought all
Barbarians but themselves, despis'd the use of Forreign tongues;
so that the first Elements of their breeding was the knowledge
of Nature, and the accommodation of that knowledge by
Moral precepts, to the service of the publick, and the private
offices of vertue: The Masters imploying one part of their time
in reading to, and discoursing with their Scholars, and the rest
in appointing them their several Exercises either in Oratory or
10 Philosophy; and setting them to declaim and to dispute amongst
themselves. By this liberal sort of Education, study was so far
from being a burden to them, that in a short time, it became
a habit, and Philosophical questions, and criticisms of hu-
manity, were their usual recreations at their Meals. Boyes
liv'd then, as the better sort of Men do now; and their conversa-
tion was so well bred and Manly, that they did not plunge out
of their depth into the World, when they grew up; but slid
easily into it, and found no alteration in their Company.
Amongst the rest, the Reading and Quotations of Poets were
20 not forgotten at their Suppers, and in their Walks; but Homer,
Euripides, and Sophocles, were the entertainment of their
hours of freedom. Rods and Ferula's were not us'd by Am-
monius, as being properly the punishment of slaves, and not
the correction of ingenuous free-born Men; at least to be only
exercis'd by parents, who had the power of life and death over
their own Children; as appears by the Example of this Am-
monius, thus related by our Author.
Our Master (sayes he) one time, perceiving, at his afternoon
Lecture; that some of his Scholars had eaten more largely than
so became the moderation of Students, immediately commanded
one of his Free-Men to take his own Son, and Scourge him in
our sight; because, sayd the Philosopher, my young Gentleman
cou'd not eat his Dinner, without Poynant sauce, or Vinegar;
and at the same time he cast his eye on all of us: So that every
Criminal was given to understand, that he had a share in the
7 vertue:] ~ . Oi-,j. 10 setting] 62-4; seting Oi.
24-26 Men; at ... Children; as] Men. At ... Children. As 01-4.
38-33 because . . . Vinegar;] italics and romans reversed in Oi-<f.
Plutarchs Lives 245
reprehension, and that the punishment was as well deseru'd

by all the rest, had the Philosopher not known, that it exceeded
his Commission to inflict it.
Plutarch therefore having the assistance of such a Master, in
few years advanc'd to admiration in knowledge: And that with-
out first Travelling into Forreign parts, or acquiring any For-
reign tongue; though the Roman Language at that time was
not only vulgar in Rome it self, but generally through the
extent of that vast Empire, and in Greece, which was a Member
10 of it, as our Author has remark'd towards the end of his
Platonick Questions. For like a true Philosopher, who minded
things, not words, he strove not even to cultivate his Mother
Tongue with any great exactness: And himself confesses in
the beginning of Demosthenes his life, that during his abode
in Italy, and at Rome, he had neither the leisure to study, nor
so much as to exercise the Roman language; (I suppose he
means to write in it, rather than to speak it,) as well by reason
of the affairs he manag'd, as that he might acquit himself to
those who were desirous to be instructed by him in Philosophy:
20 In so much that till the declination of his age, he began not
to be conversant in Latin books; in reading of which it hap
pened somewhat oddly to him, that he learnt not the knowledge
of things by words; but by the understanding and use he
had of things, attain'd to the knowledge of words which
signified them: Just as Adam (setting aside divine illumination)
call'd the Creatures by their proper Names, by first understand-
ing of their natures. But for the delicacies of the Tongue, the
turns of the Expression, the figures and connexions of words,
in which consist the beauty of that language, he plainly tells
so us, that tho he much admir'd them, yet they requir'd too
great labour for a Man in Age, and plung'd in business, to
attain perfectly: Which Complement I shou'd be willing to
2 Philosopher] Oib, 02-4; Phylosophe.r Oia.

it Question*] questions Oi; Questions 02-4.
13 exactness:] ~. 01-4. 19 Philosophy:] ~ . 01-4.
21 Latin] Latin 01-4. 25 them:] ~ . 61-4.
31 business,] 03-4; ~A Oi-z. 32 perfectly:] ~ . 01-4.
32 Complement] 02-4; Comple- / plement Oi.
246 Prose 1668-1691
believe from a Philosopher, if I did not consider, that Dion

Cassius, nay even Herodian, and Appian after him, as well as
Polybius before him, by writing the Roman History in the
Greek language, had shewn as manifest a contempt of Latin,
in respect of the other, as French Men now do of English,
which they disdain to speak, while they live among us: But
with great advantage to their trivial conceptions, drawing
the discourse into their own language, have learnt to despise
our better thoughts, which must come deform'd and lame
10 in conversation to them, as being transmitted in a Tongue
of which we are not Masters. This is to arrogate a superiority
in nature over us, as undoubtedly the Grecians did over their
Conquerours, by establishing their language for a Standard;
it being become so much a mode to speak and write Greek
in Tully's time, that with some indignation I have read his
Epistles to Atticus, in which he desires to have his own consul-
ship written by his friend in the Grecian language; which he
afterwards perform'd himself:; a vain attempt in my opinion,
for any Man to endeavour to excel in a Tongue which he was
20 not born to speak. This, tho it be digression, yet deserves to be
consider'd at more leisure; for the honour of our Wit and
Writings, which are of a more solid make than that of our
Neighbours, is concern'd in it. But to return to Plutarch, as it
was his good fortune to be moulded first by Masters the most
excellent in their kind, so it was his own vertue, to suck in
with an incredible desire, and earnest application of mind,
their wise instructions; and it was also his prudence so to
manage his health by moderation of diet and bodily exercise,
as to preserve his parts without decay to a great old age; to be
so lively and vigorous to the last, and to preserve himself to his
own enjoyments, and to the profit of Mankind: Which was not
difficult for him to perform, having receiv'd from nature a
constitution capable of labour; and from the Domestick ex-
ample of his Parents, a sparing sobriety of diet, a temperance
in other pleasures, and above all an Habitude of command-
ing his passions in order to his health. Thus principled, and
4 Latin] Latin 01-4. 21 of] 03-4; of of Oi.
31 Mankind:] ~. 01-4.
Plutarchs Lives 247
grounded, he consider'd with himself, that a larger Com-

munication with learned Men was necessary for his accomplish-
ment; and therefore, having a Soul insatiable of knowledge,
and being ambitious to excell in all kinds of Science, he took
up a resolution to Travel. Egypt was at that time, as formerly
it had been, famous for learning; and probably the Mysterious-
ness of their Doctrine might tempt him, as it had done
Pythagoras and others, to converse with the Priest-hood of
that Country, which appears to have been particularly his
10 business by the Treatise of his and Osiris, which he has left us:
In which he shews himself not meanly vers'd, in the ancient
Theology and Philosophy of those wise Men. From Egypt re-
turning into Greece, he visited in his way all the Academies, or
Schools of the several Philosophers, and gather'd from them
many of those observations with which he has enrich'd Pos-
terity.
Besides this, he applyed himself, with extream diligence, to
collect not only all books which were excellent in their kind,
and already published, but also all sayings and discourses of wise
20 Men, which he had heard in conversation, or which he had
receiv'd from others by Tradition, as likewise the Records and
publick Instruments, preserv'd in Cities, which he had visited
in his Travels; and which he afterwards scatter'd through his
works: To which purpose he took a particular Journy to
Sparta, to search the Archives of that famous Commonwealth,
to understand throughly the model of their ancient Govern-
ment, their Legislators, their Kings, and their Ephori, digest-
ing all their memorable deeds and sayings, with so much care,
that he has not omitted those even of their Women, or their
so private Souldiers; together with their Customes, their Decrees,
their Ceremonies, and the manner of their publick and private
living, both in peace and war. The same methods he also took
in divers other Commonwealths, as his Lives, and his Greek
and Roman Questions sufficiently testilie. Without these helps
it had been impossible for him to leave in writing so many
10 Osiris] Osyris 01-4. 10 us:] ~ . 01-4.

21 Tradition, as] ~ . As 01-4. 24 works:] ^/. 01-4.
33-34 Lives . . . Questions] Lives . . . Questions 01-4.
248 Prose 1668—1691
particular observations of Men and manners, and as impossible

to have gatherd them, without conversation and commerce
with the learned Antiquaries of his time. To these he added a
curious Collection of Ancient Statues, Medals, Inscriptions,
and Paintings, as also of proverbial sayings, Epigrams, Epitaphs,
Apothegmes, and other Ornaments of History, that he might
leave nothing unswept behind him. And as he was continually
in Company with Men of learning, in all professions, so his
memory was always on the stretch, to receive and lodge their
10 discourses; and his Judgment perpetually employ'd in separat-
ing his notions, and distinguishing which were fit to be pre-
serv'd, and which to be rejected.
By benefit of this, in little time he inlarg'd his knowledge
to a great extent in every Science; himself in the beginning of
the Treatise which he has compos'd of Content, and Peace
of mind, makes mention of those Collections, or Common
places, which he had long since drawn together for his own
particular occasions: And 'tis from this rich Cabinet that
he has taken out those excellent peices, which he has dis-
20 tributed to Posterity, and which give us occasion to deplore
the loss of the residue, which either the injury of time, or the
negligence of Coppiers have denyed to us. On this account,
tho we need not doubt to give him this general commendation,
that he was ignorant of no sort of learning, yet we may justly
add this farther, that whoever will consider through the whole
body of his Works, either the design, the method, or the con-
texture of his Discourses, whether Historical or Moral, or
Questions of natural Philosophy, or Solutions of Problems
Mathematical, whether he arraigns the opinions of other Sects,
BO or establishes the Doctrines of his own, in all these kinds there
will be found, both the harmony of order and the beauty of
easiness: His reasons so solid and convincing, his inductions so
pleasant and agreeable to all sorts of Readers, that it must be
acknowledged he was Master of every Subject which he treated,
and treated none but what were improveable to the benefit of
a8 Solutions] 02-4; So- / Solutions Oi.
29 other] 03-4; others 61-2. 38 easiness:] ~ . 01-4.
Plutarchs Lives 249
Instruction. For we may perceive in his Writing the desire he

had to imprint his Precepts in the Souls of his Readers; and to
lodge Morality in Families, nay even to exalt it to the Thrones
of Soveraign Princes, and to make it the Rule and measure of
their Government. Finding that there were many Sects of Phi-
losophers then in vogue, he search'd into the foundation of all
their principles and opinions; and not content with this dis-
quisition, he trac'd them to their several fountains: So that the
Pythagorean, Epicurean, Stoick and Peripatetick Philosophies
10 were familiar to him. And tho it may be easily observ'd that he
was chiefly inclin'd to follow Plato (whose memory he so much
reverenc'd, that Annually he celebrated his Birth-day, and also
that of Socrates;) yet he modestly contain'd himself within the
bounds of the latter Academy, and was content, like Cicero,
only to propound and weigh opinions, leaving the Judgment
of his Readers free without presuming to decide Dogmatically.
Yet it is to be confess'd, that in the midst of this moderation,
he oppos'd the two extreams of the Epicurean and Stoick Sects:
Both which he has judiciously combatted in several of his Trea-
20 tises, and both upon the same account, because they pretend too
much to certainty, in their Dogma's; and to impose them with
too great arrogance; which he, who (following the AcademistSj)
doubted more and pretended less, was no way able to support.
The Pyrrhonians, or grosser sort of Scepticks, who bring all
certainty in question, and startle even at the notions of Com-
mon sense, appear'd as absurd to him on the other side; for
there is a kind of positiveness in granting nothing to be more
likely on one part than on another, which his Academy avoided
by inclining the ballance to that hand, where the most weighty
so reasons, and probability of truth were visible. The Moral
Philosophy therefore was his chiefest aym; because the prin-
ciples of it admitted of less doubt; and because they were most
conducing to the benefit of human life. For after the Example
of Socrates he had found, that the speculations of Natural
Philosophy, were more delightful than solid and profitable;
8 fountains:] /—< . 01-4. 9 Philosophies] Philosophy 01-4.
22 Academists] Academists 01-4.
250 Prose 1668-1691
that they were abstruce and thorny, and much of Sophism in

the solution of appearances; that the Mathematicks indeed,
cou'd reward his pains with many demonstrations, but tho
they made him wiser, they made him not more vertuous, and
therefore attain'd not the end of happiness: For which reason
tho he had far advanc'd in that study, yet he made it but
his Recreation, not his business. Some Problem of it, was his
usual divertisement at Supper, which he mingled also with
pleasant and more light discourses. For he was no sowr Phil-
10 osopher; but pass'd his time as merrily as he cou'd, with ref-
erence to vertue: He forgot not to be pleasant while he in-
structed; and entertain'd his friends with so much chearfulness
and good humour, that his learning was not nauseous to them;
neither were they affraid of his Company another time. He was
not so Austere as to despise Riches, but being in possession of
a large Fortune, he liv'd tho not splendidly, yet plentifully;
and suffer'd not his friends to want that part of his Estate,
which he thought superfluous to a Philosopher.
The Religion he profess'd, to speak the worse of it, was
20 Heathen. I say the Religion he profess'd; for 'tis no way prob-
able, that so great a Philosopher, and so wise a Man, should
believe the Superstitions and Fopperies of Paganism: But that
he accommodated himself to the use and receiv'd Customes of
his Country. He was indeed a Priest of Apollo, as himself
acknowledges, but that proves him not to have been a Poly-
theist.
I have ever thought, that the Wise-men in all Ages, have
not much differ'd in their opinions of Religion; I mean as it
is grounded on human Reason: For Reason, as far as it is
so right, must be the same in all Men; and Truth being but one,
they must consequently think in the same Train. Thus it is
not to be doubted, but the Religion of Socrates, Plato, and
Plutarch was not different in the main: Who doubtless be-
leiv'd the identity of one Supream Intellectual Being, which
we call GOD. But because they who have written the Life of
2 appearances; that] m . That 01-4. 24 Priest of] Priest of 01-4.
Plutarchs Lives 251
Plutarch in other languages, are contented barely to assert

that our Authour believ'd one God, without quoting those
passages of his which wou'd clear the point; I will give you
two of them, amongst many, in his Morals. The first is in his
Book of the Cessation of Oracles; where arguing against the
Stoicks (in behalf of the Platonists,) who disputed against the
plurality of Worlds with this Argument; That if there were
many Worlds, how then cou'd it come to pass, that there was
one only Fate, and one Providence to guide them all? (for it
10 was granted by the Platonists that there was but one:) and why
should not many Jupiters or Gods be necessary, for Govern-
ment of many Worlds? To this Plutarch answers, That this
their captious question was but trifling: For where is the
necessity of supposing many Jupiters, for this plurality of
Worlds; when one excellent being, indued with mind and
reason, such as he is, whom we acknowledge to be the Father
and Lord of all things, is sufficient to direct and Rule these
Worlds; whereas if there were more Supream Agents, their
decrees must still be the more absurd and contradictious to
20 one another. I pretend not this passage to be Translated word
for word, but 'tis the sence of the whole, tho the order of the
Sentence be inverted. The other is more plain: 'Tis in his
Comment on the Word El or those two Letters inscrib'd on
the Gates of the Temple at Delphos: Where having given the
several opinions concerning it, as first that el signifies if, be-
cause all the questions which were made to Apollo began with
//; as suppose they ask'd, if the Grecians should overcome the
Persians; if such a Marriage shou'd come to pass, &c.; and
afterwards that d might signifie thou art, as the second person
30 of the present tense of el/u intimating thereby the being or per-
petuity of being belonging to Apollo, as a God; in the same
sense that God express'd himself to Moses, I am hath sent thee;
9-10 (for . . . one:)] romans and italics reversed in Oi-j.
n Gods] 03-4; Gods Oi-2. 22 'Tis] ~ , 01-4.
24 Delphos:] ~ . 01-4. 25 e(] 02-4; ei Oi.
28 to] 02-4; to to Oi. 28 ire.; and] ifrc. And 01-4.
29 el] 02-4; iiOi. 30 ef/ii] 02-4; Itut Oi.
252 Prose 1668-1691
Plutarch subjoyns, (as inclining to this latter opinion) these

following words, d iv sayes he, signifies thou art one, for there
are not many Deities; but only one: Continues, / mean not
one in the aggregate sense, as we say one Army, or one Body
of Men, constituted of many individuals; but that which
is, must of necessity be one; and to be, implies to be One.
One is that which is a simple being, uncompounded, or free
from mixture: Therefore to be One in this sense, is only
consistent with a Nature, pure in it self, and not capable of
10 alteration, or decay.
That he was no Christian is manifest: Yet he is no where
found to have spoken with contumely of our Religion, like the
other Writers of his Age, and those who succeeded him.
Theodoret says of him, that he had heard of our holy Gospel;
and inserted many of our Sacred Mysteries in his Works, which
we may easily believe, because the Christian Churches were
then spread in Greece; and Pliny the younger was at the same
time conversant amongst them in Asia, tho that part of our
Authors Workes is not now extant, from whence Theodoret
20 might gather those passages. But we need not wonder that a
Philosopher was not easie to embrace the divine Mysteries of
our Faith. A modern God, as our Saviour was to him, was of
hard digestion to a Man, who probably despis'd the vanities
and fabulous Relations of all the old. Besides a Crucify'd Sav-
iour of Mankind, a Doctrine attested by illiterate Disciples, the
Author of it a Jew, whose Nation at that time was despicable,
and his Doctrine but an innovation among that despis'd people,
to which the Learned of his own Country gave no credit, and
which the Magistrates of his Nation punish'd with an ig-
ao nominious death; the Scene of his Miracles acted in an obscure
Corner of the world; his being from Eternity, yet born in time,
his Resurrection and Ascension, these and many more particu-
lars, might easily choke the Faith of a Philosopher, who be-
liev'd no more than what he cou'd deduce from the principles
g ef<?i<] it tv Oi; el ii> Oa-/}. 3 one:] ~ . 01-4.
17 the younger] the younger 01-4.
84 Crucify'd] 03-4; Crucfy'd Oi.
Flu tarchs L ives 253
of Nature; and that too with a doubtful Academical assent, or

rather an inclination to assent to probability: which he judg'd
was wanting in this new Religion. These circumstances con-
sider'd, tho they plead not an absolute invincible ignorance in
his behalf, yet they amount at least to a degree of it; for either
he thought them not worth weighing, or rejected them when
weigh'd; and in both cases he must of necessity be ignorant,
because he cou'd not know without Revelation, and the Reve-
lation was not to him. But leaving the Soul of Plutarch, with
10 our Charitable wishes, to his Maker, we can only trace the
rest of his opinions in Religion from his Philosophy: Which
we have said in the General to be Platonick; tho it cannot also
be denyed, that there was a tincture in it of the Electick Sect,
which was begun by Potamon under the Empire of Augustus,
and which selected from all the other Sects, what seem'd most
probable in their opinions, not adhering singularly to any of
them, nor rejecting every thing. I will only touch his belief of
Spirits. In his two Treatises of Oracles, the one concerning the
reason of their Cessation, the other enquiring why they were
20 not given in verse, as in former times; he seems to assert the
Pythagorean Doctrine of Transmigration of Souls. We have
formerly shewn, that he own'd the Unity of a Godhead; whom
according to his Attributes, he calls by several names, as Jupiter
from his Almighty Power, Apollo from his Wisdom, and so of
the rest; but under him he places those beings whom he styles
Genii, or Damons, of a middle nature, betwixt Divine and
Human: for he thinks it absurd that there shou'd be no mean
betwixt the two extreams, of an Immortal and a Mortal Being:
That there cannot be in nature so vast a flaw, without some
so intermedial kind of life, partaking of them both; as therefore
we find the intercourse betwixt the Soul and body, to be made
by the Animal Spirits, so betwixt Divinity and humanity there
is this species of Damons: Who, having first been Men, and
following the strict Rules of vertue had purg'd off the gross-
ness and faeculency of their earthly being, are exalted into these
Genii; and are from thence either rais'd higher into an vEthe-
22 the] 02-4; the the Oi. 27 absurd] 02-4; absur'd Oi.
254 Prose 1668-1691
rial life, if they still continue vertuous, or tumbled down

again into Mortal Bodies, and sinking into flesh after they
have lost that purity, which constituted their glorious being.
And this sort of Genii, are those, who, as our Author imagines,
presided over Oracles: Spirits which have so much of their ter-
restrial principles remaining in them, as to be subject to pas-
sions and inclinations; usually beneficent, sometimes Malevo-
lent to Mankind, according as they refine themselves, or gather
dross, and are declining into Mortal Bodies. The Cessation, or
10 rather the decrease of Oracles, (for some of them were still re-
maining in Plutarchs time) he Attributes either to the death
of those Damons, as appears by the story of the Egyptian
Thamus, who was Commanded to declare that the great God
Pan was dead, or to their forsaking of those places, where they
formerly gave out their Oracles; from whence they were driven
by stronger Genii, into banishment for a certain Revolution of
Ages. Of this last nature, was the War of the Gyants against
the Gods, the dispossession of Saturn by Jupiter, the banish-
ment of Apollo from Heaven, the fall of Vulcan, and many
20 others; all which according to our Author, were the battles of
these Genii or Damons amongst themselves. But supposing, as
Plutarch evidently does, that these Spirits administer'd, under
the Supream Being, the affairs of Men, taking care of the ver-
tuous, punishing the bad; and sometimes communicating with
the best, as particularly the Genius of Socrates always warn'd
him of approaching dangers, and taught him to avoyd them.
I cannot but wonder that every one, who has hitherto writ-
ten Plutarchs Life, and particularly Rualdus, the most know-
ing of them all, should so confidently affirm that these Oracles,
so were given by bad Spirits according to Plutarch: As Christians,
indeed we may think them so; but that Plutarch so thought, is
a most apparent falshood: 'Tis enough to convince a reasonable
Man that our Author in his old age, (and that then he doted
not, we may see by the Treatise he has written, that old Men
ic-Ji remaining] 02-4; remaing Oi. 20 Author] Authors 01-4.

25 Genius] Genius 01-4. 25 Socrates] ~ , 01-4.
28 Life] Life 01-4.
Plutarchs Lives 255
ought to have the management of publick Affairs) I say that

then he initiated himself, in the Sacred Rites of Delphos; and
dyed, for ought we know, Apollo's Priest. Now it is not to be
imagin'd, that he thought the God he serv'd a Cacodeemon, or
as we call him a Devil. Nothing cou'd be farther from the opin-
ion and practice of this holy Philosopher than so gross an im-
piety. The story of the Pythias, or Priestess of Apollo, which he
relates immediately before the ending of that Treatise concern-
ing the Cessation of Oracles, confirms my assertion, rather then
10 shakes it: For 'tis there deliver'd, 'That going with great reluc-
tation, into the Sacred place to be inspir'd; she came out, foam-
ing at the mouth, her eyes gogling, her breast heaving, her
voice undistinguishable, and shrill, as if she had an Earthquake
within her, labouring for vent; and in short, that thus tor-
mented with the God, whom she was not able to support, she
died distracted in few dayes after.' For he had sayd before,
'That the Divineress ought to have no perturbations of mind,
or impure passions at the time when she was to consult the
Oracle, and if she had, she was no more fit to be inspir'd, than
20 an instrument untun'd, to render an harmonious sound.' And
he gives us to suspect, by what he says at the close of this Rela-
tion, that this Pythias had not liv'd Ghastly for some time be-
fore it. So that her death appears more like a punishment in-
flicted for loose living by some holy power, than the meer
malignancy of a Spirit delighted naturally in mischief. There
is another observation which indeed comes nearer to their pur-
pose, which I will digress so far, as to relate, because it some-
what appertains to our own Country. 'There are many Islands
(says he) which lie scattering about Britain, after the manner
so of our Sporades: They are unpeopled, and some of them are
call'd the Islands of the Heroes, or the Genii. One Demetrius
2 Rites] 02-4; Rities Oi. 3 Priest) Priest 01-4.
7 Priestess of] Priestess of 01-4. 8 Treatise] ~ , 01-4.
13 shrill] 02-4; shril Oi.
16-17 after.' . . . 'That] after. . . . that 01-4.
17 Divineress] Devineress 01-4. 19 to] 02-4; to to Oi.
ao sound.'] ~ :A 01-4.
22-25 that . . . mischief] marked as quotation in Oi-j ('That).
31 Genii.] quotation ends here in 01-4.
256 Prose 1668-1691
was sent by the Emperour (who by computation of the time

must either be Caligula or Claudius) to discover those parts, and
arriving at one of the Islands next adjoyning to the foremen-
tion'd, which was inhabited by some few Britains, (but those
held Sacred and inviolable by all their Country-men,) imme-
diatly after his arrival, the air grew black and troubled, strange
Apparitions were seen, the winds rais'd a Tempest, and fiery
spouts or Whirlwinds appear'd dancing towards the Earth.
When these prodigies were ceas'd the Islanders inform'd him,
10 that some one of the aerial Beings, superior to our Nature,
then ceas'd to live. For as a Taper while yet burning, affords
a pleasant harmless light, but is noysome and offensive when
extinguished, so those Hero's shine benignly on us, and do us
good, but at their death turn all things topsie turvy, raise up
tempests, and infect the air with pestilential vapours.' By
those holy and inviolable men, there is no question but he
means our Druydes, who were nearest to the Pythagoreans of
any Sect; and this opinion of the Genii might probably be one
of theirs: Yet it proves not that all Damons were thus mali-
20 cious; only those who were to be Condemn'd hereafter into
human bodies, for their misdemeanours in their aerial Being.
But 'tis time to leave a subject, so very fanciful, and so little
reasonable as this: I am apt to imagine the natural vapours,
arising in the Cave where the Temple afterwards was Built,
might work upon the Spirits of those who enter'd the holy
place, as they did on the Shepherd Goretas, who first found it
out by accident; and encline them to Enthusiasm and pro-
phetick madness: That as the strength of those vapours di-
minish'd, (which were generally in Caverns as that of Mopsus,
so of Trophonius, and this of Delphos,) so the inspiration de-
creas'd by the same measures: That they happen'd to be
stronger, when they kill'd the Pythias, who being conscious of
this, was so unwilling to enter: That the Oracles ceas'd to be
given in Verse, when Poets ceas'd to be the Priests, and that
1-2 who . . . Claudius] romans and italics reversed in Oi-j.

26 Shepherd] 02-4; Shaphard Oi. 28 madness:] ~ , 01-4.
50-31 decreas'd] 02-4; decrea'd Oi. 33 enter:] ~ . 01-4.
Plutarchs Lives 257
the Genius of Socrates, (whom he confess'd never to have seen,

but only to have heard inwardly, and unperceiv'd by others,)
was no more than the strength of his imagination; or to speak
in the Language of a Christian Platonist, his Guardian Angel.
I pretend not to an exactness of method in this Life, which
I am forc'd to collect by patches from several Authors; and
therefore without much regard to the connection of times
which are so uncertain.
I will in the next place speak of his Marriage. His Wifes
10 name, her Parentage, and Dowry are no where mention'd by
him, or any other, nor in what part of his age he Married:
Tho 'tis probable, in the flower of it: But Rualdus has in-
geniously gather'd from a convincing circumstance, that she
was called Timoxena: Because Plutarch in a Consolatory Let-
ter to her, occasion'd by the Death of their Daughter in her
Infancy, uses these words: Your Timoxena is deprived (by
death) of small enjoyments; for the things she knew were of
small moment, and she cou'd be delighted only with triffles.
Now it appears by the Letter, that the Name of this Daughter
20 was the same with her Mothers, therefore it cou'd be no other
than Timoxena. Her knowledge, her conjugal vertues, her ab-
horrency from the vanities of her Sex, and from superstition,
her gravity in behaviour and her constancy in supporting the
loss of Children, are likewise Celebrated by our Author. No
other wife of Plutarch is found mention'd; and therefore we
may conclude he had no more: By the same reason for which
we Judge that he had no other Master than Ammonius, be-
cause 'tis evident he was so grateful in his nature, that he
would have preserv'd their Memory.
so The number of his Children was at least five; so many being
mention'd by him. Four of them were Sons; of the other Sex
only Timoxena, who died at two years old, as is manifest from
the Epistle above-mention'd. The French Translater Amiot,
from whom our old English Translation of the Lives was
i Genius] Genius 01-4. 16-17 by death] by death 01-4.

36 he] 02-4; he he Oi. 33 French] French 01-4.
34 English] English 01-4. 34 Lives] Lives 01-4.
258 Prose 1668-1691
made, supposes him to have had another Daughter, where he

speaks of his Son-in-Law Crato. But the word ya^pot, which
Plutarch there uses, is of a larger signification; for it may as
well be expounded Father-in-law, his Wifes Brother, or his
Sisters Husband, as Budceus notes: This I the rather mention,
because the same Amiot is task'd for an infinite number of
mistakes, by his own Country-men of the present Age; which
is enough to recommend this Translation of our Authour into
the English tongue, being not from any Copy, but from the
10 Greek Original. Two other Sons of Plutarch were already de-
ceas'd, before Timoxena: His eldest Autobulus, mention'd in
his Symposiaques, and another whose Name is not Recorded.
The youngest was called Charon, who also dyed in his In-
fancy: The two remaining are suppos'd to have surviv'd him.
The Name of one was Plutarch, after his own; and that of the
other Lamprias, so call'd in memory of his Grand-father. This
was he, of all his Children, who seems to have inherited his
Fathers Philosophy: And to him we owe the Table or Cata-
logue of Plutarchs Writings, and perhaps also the Apothegms.
20 His Nephew, but whether by his Brother or Sister remains un-
certain, was Sextus Chteroneus, who was much honour'd by
that learned Emperour Marcus Aurelius, and who taught him
the Greek tongue, and the principles of Philosophy: This Em-
perour professing Stoicism, (as appears by his Writings,) in-
clines us to believe, that our Sextus Chceroneus, was of the
Stoick Sect; and consequently, that the World has generally
been mistaken, in supposing him to have been the same man
with Sextus Empiricus the Sceptick; whom Suidas plainly tells
us to have been an African: Now Empiricus cou'd not but be a
so Sceptick, for he opposes all Dogmatists, and particularly them.
But I heard it first observ'd by an ingenious and Learned old
Gentleman lately deceas'd, that many of Mr. Hobbs his seem-
ing new opinions, are gather'd from those which Sextus Em-
piricus expos'd. The Book is extant, and I refer the curious
to it, not pretending to arraign, or to excuse him. Some think
2 yanfipbs] 7aM/3p6s 01-4. 9 English] English 01-4.
11 Timoxena:] ~ . 01-4. 11 His] 02-4; Ms Oi.
Plutarchs Lives 259
the Famous Critick Longinus was of Plutarchs Family, de-

scended from a Sister of his; but the proofs are so weak, that
I will not insert them: They may both of them rely on their
proper merits; and stand not in want of a Relation to each
other. Tis needless to insist on his behaviour in his Family:
His Love to his Wife, his Indulgence to his Children, his care
of their Education are all manifest in that part of his Works
which is call'd his Morals. Other parts of his disposition have
been touch'd already; as that he was courteous and humane to
10 all Men; free from inconstancy, anger, and the desire of re-
venge; which qualities of his, as they have been prais'd by the
Authority of other Writers, may also be recommended from
his own Testimony of himself. / had rather, says he, be for-
gotten in the memory of Men, and that it shou'd be said, there
neither is, nor was a Man call'd Plutarch, then that they should
report, this Plutarch was unconstant, changeable in his temper,
prone to anger and revenge on the least occasions. What he
was to his Slaves you may believe from this, that in general he
accuses those Masters of extream hardness and injustice, who
20 use Men like Oxen; sell them in their age when they can
drudge no longer. A Man says he, of a merciful disposition,
ought not to retrench the fodder from his Cattle, nor the pro-
vender from his Horses when they can work no longer, but to
cherish them when worn out and old. Yet Plutarch, tho he
knew how to moderate his anger, was not on the contrary, sub-
ject to an insensibility of wrongs; not so remiss in exacting
duty, or so tame in suffering the disobedience of his Servants,
that he cou'd not correct when they deserv'd it: As is mani-
fest from the following story, which Aulus Gellius had from
30 the mouth of Taurus the Philosopher concerning him. Plutarch
had a certain Slave, a saucy stubborn kind of fellow; in a word,
one of those pragmatical Servants, who never make a fault, but
they give a reason for it; his justifications one time wou'd not
serve his turn, but his Master commanded him to be strip'd;
and that the Law should be laid on his backside. He no sooner
felt the smart, but he mutter'd that he was unjustly punish'd,
8 Morals] Morals 01-4.
260 Prose 1668—1601
and that he had done nothing to deserve the Scourge. At last

he began to bawl out lowder; and, leaving off his groaning, his
sighs and his lamentations, to argue the matter with more
shew of reason: And, as under such a Master, he must needs
have gain'd a smattering of learning, he cryd out that Plutarch
was not the Philosopher he pretended himself to be, That he
had heard him waging War against all the passions; and main-
taining that anger was unbecoming a wise Man: Nay, that he
had written a particular Treatise, in commendation of Clem-
10 ency: That therefore he contradicted his precepts by his prac-
tises, since abandoning himself over to his Choler, he exercis'd
such inhumane cruelty on the body of his fellow Creature.
How's this, Mr. Varlet, (answered Plutarch,) by what signes
and tokens, can you prove I am in passion? Is it by my Coun-
tenance, my voice, the colour of my face, by my words, or by
my gestures, that you have discover'd this my fury? I am not
of opinion, that my eyes sparkle, that I foam at mouth, that I
gnash my teeth, or that my voice is more vehement, or that my
colour is either more pale or more red than at other times; that
20 I either shake or stamp with madness, that I say or do any thing
unbecoming a Philosopher: These, if you know them not, are
the Symptoms of a Man in rage: In the mean (turning to the
Officer who scoured him) while he and I dispute this matter,
mind you your business on his back.
His love to his Friends and his gratitude to his Benefactors
are every where observable in his dedications of his several
Works, and the particular Treatises he has written to them on
several occasions are all suitable either to the characters of
the Men, or to their present condition, and the circumstances
so under which they were. His love to his Country, is from hence
conspicuous, that he professes to have written the Life of Lu-
cullus, and to have preserv'd the memory of his actions, be-
cause of the favours he conferr'd on the City of Charonea;
3 sighs and] Oa-4; ^ , Oi. 9-10 Clemency:] ~ . 01-4.
13-24 How's . . . back] italics and romans reversed in Oi-j except within the
second pair of parentheses.
13 Mr. Varlet, (answered Plutarch,)] (Mr. Varlet,) answered Plutarch, 01-4.
26 observable] ~ , 01-4. 28 occasions] ~ , 01-4.
Plu tarchs L ives 2 61
which tho his Country receiv'd so long before, yet he thought

it appertain'd to him to repay them, and took an interest in
their acknowledgment: As also that he vindicated the Boeotians
from the calumnies of Herodotus the Historian in his Book
concerning the malignity of that Author, in which tis observ-
able, that his zeal to his Country transported him too far; for
Herodotus had said no more of them, than what was generally
held to be true in all Ages, concerning the grossness of their
wits, their voracity, and those other national vices, which we
10 have already noted on this account; therefore Petrarch has ac-
cus'd our Authour of the same malignity, for which he tax'd
Herodotus: But they may both stand acquitted, on different
accounts: Herodotus for having given a true Character of the
Thebans, and Plutarch for endeavouring to palliate the vices
of a people from whom he was descended. The rest of his man-
ners without entering into particulars, were unblameable, if we
excuse a little proneness to superstition: And regulating his
actions by his dreams: But how far this will bear an accusa-
tion I determine not, tho Tully has endeavour'd to shew the
20 vanity of Dreams, in his Treatise of Divinations, whether I
refer the curious.
On what occasion he repair'd to Rome; at what time of his
age he came thither; how long he dwelt there; how often he
was there, and in what year he return'd to his own Country,
are all uncertain: This we know, that when Nero was in
Greece, which was in his eleventh and twelfth years, our Au-
thor was at Delphos, under Ammonius, his Master; as appears
by the disputation then manag'd, concerning the Inscription
of the two letters El. Nero not living long afterwards, 'tis al-
so most indisputable that he came not to Rome in all his Reign.
'Tis improbable that he wou'd undertake the Voyage during
the troublesome times of Galba, Otho and Vitellius; and we
are not certain that he liv'd in Rome in the Empire of Ves-
pasian: Yet we may guess that the mildness of this Emperours
3 acknowledgment:] ~ . 01-4. '3 Been/mm] Rreotians 01-4.

5 Author, in] ~ . In 01-4. 29 E]~.Oi-4.
33~34 Vespasian] Vespatian 01-4.
262 Prose 1668-1691
Dominion, his fame and the vertues of his Son Titus assum'd
into the Empire afterwards by his Father, might induce Plu-
tarch, amongst other considerations, to take this Journy in his
time. Tis argu'd from the following story, related by himself;
that he was at Rome either in the joynt Reign of the two Ves-
pasians, or at least in that of the survivour Titus. He says then,
in his last Book concerning Curiosity: 'Reasoning, or rather
reading once, at Rome, Arulenus Rusticus, the same Man
whom afterwards Domitian put to death out of envy to his
10 Glory, stood hearkning to me amongst my Auditors: It so hap-
pen'd, that a Souldier, having Letters for him, from the Em-
perour,' (who was either Titus or his Father Vespasian, as
Rualdus thinks) 'broke through the crowd, to deliver him those
Letters from the Emperour. Observing this, I made a pause in
my dissertation, that Rusticus might have the leisure to read
the Mandate which was sent him; but he absolutely refus'd to
do it, neither wou'd he be intreated to break the Seals till I
had wholly made an end of my Speech, and dismiss'd the Com-
pany.' Now I suppose the stress of the Argument, to prove that
20 this Emperour was not Domitian, lies only in this clause (whom
Domitian afterwards put to death:') but I think it rather leaves
it doubtful, for they might be Domitians Letters which he then
receiv'd, and consequently he might not come to Rome till the
Reign of that Emperour. This Rusticus was not only a learned
but a good Man: He had been Tribune of the people under
Nero, was Prcetor in the time of Vitellius, and sent Ambas-
sadour to the Forces, rais'd under the Name of Vespasian, to
perswade them to a peace. What Offices he bore afterwards we
know not, but the cause of his death, besides the envy of Domi-
so tian to his fame, was a certain Book, or some Commentaries of
his, wherein he had prais'd too much the Sanctity of Thrasea
P&tus whom Nero had Murther'd: And the praise of a good
Citizen was insupportable to the Tyrant; being, I suppose, ex-
asperated farther by some reflections of Rusticus, who could
5-6 Vespnsians] Vespatians 01-4. 7 Curiosity:] — . 01-4.

12 Vespasian] Vespatian 01-4. 16 absolutely] 02-4; absolutly Oi.
27 Vespasian] 03-4; Vespatian Oi-a.
Plutarchs Lives 263
not commend Thrasea, but at the same time he must inveigh

against the oppressour of the Roman Liberty. That Plutarch
was Married in his own Country, and that before he came to
Rome is probable; that the fame of him was come before him,
by reason of some part of his works already publish'd, is also
credible, because he had so great resort of the Roman Nobility,
to hear him read immediately, as we believe, upon his coming:
That he was invited thither by the correspondence he had with
Sossius Senecio, might be one reason of his undertaking that
10 Journey, is almost undeniable. It likewise appears he was di-
vers times at Rome; and perhaps, before he came to inhabit
there, might make acquaintance with this worthy Man Senecio,
to whom he Dedicated almost all these Lives of Greeks and
Romans. I say almost all, because one of them, namely that of
Aratus, is inscrib'd in most express words to Polycrates the
Sicyonian the great Grand-Son of the said Aratus. This worthy
Patron and friend of Plutarch, Senecio, was four times Consul;
the first time in the short Reign of Cocceius Nerva, a vertuous
and a learned Emperour; which opinion I rather follow than
20 that of Aurelius Cassiodorus, who puts back his Consulship
into the last of Domitian, because it is not probable that vitious
Tyrant should exalt to that Dignity a Man of Vertue. This
year falls in with the year of Christ ninety nine.
But the great inducement of our Authour to this journy was
certainly, the desire he had to lay in materials for his Roman
Lives; that was the design which he had form'd early, and on
which he had resolv'd to build his fame. Accordingly we have
observ'd that he had travell'd over Greece to peruse the Ar-
chives of every City; that he might be able to write properly,
so not only the Lives of his Grecian Worthyes, but the Laws, the
Customs, the Rites, and Ceremonies of every place: Which that
he might treat with the same Mastery of skill, when he came
to draw his Parallels of the Romans he took the invitation of
his friends, and particularly of our Sossius Senecio to visit this
23 ninety] O«~4; ninty Oi. 85 Roman] 03-4; Roman Oi-2.

30 Worthyes] Worthyes 01-4. 31 place:] 01-4.
33 Parallels] Parallels 01-4.
264 Prose 1668—1691
Mistress of the World, this imperial City of Rome; and, by the

favour of many great and learned men then living, to search
the Records of the Capitol, and the Libraries, which might
furnish him with instruments for so noble an undertaking. But
that this may not seem to be my own bare opinion, or that of
any modern Author, whom I follow, Plutarch himself has de-
liver'd it as his motive, in the life of Demosthenes: The words
are these, 'Whosoever designs to write an History, (which tis
impossible to form to any excellency from those materials, that
10 are ready at hand, or to take from common report, while he
sits lazily at home in his own Study, but must of necessity be
gather'd from Forreign observations and the scatter'd writings
of various Authours) it concerns him to take up his Habitation
in some renoun'd and populous City, where he may Command
all sorts of Books, and be acquainted also with such particulars
as have escap'd the pens of Writers, and are only extant in the
memories of Men. Let him inquire diligently, and weigh judi-
ciously, what he hears and reads, lest he publish a lame Work,
and be destitute of those helps which are requir'd to its perfec-
20 tion.' Tis then most probable, that he pass'd his days at Rome,
in reading Philosophy of all kinds, to the Roman Nobility, who
frequented his House, and heard him, as if there were some-
what more than humane in his words; and his nights (which
were his only hours of private Study) in searching and exam-
ining Records, concerning Rome. Not but that he was in-
trusted also with the management of publick affairs in the Em-
pire, during his residence in the Metropolis: Which may be
made out by what Suidas relates of him. Plutarch (says he)
liv'd in the time of Trajan, and also before his Reign: That
BO Emperour bestow'd on him the Dignity of Consul, (tho the
Greek, I suppose, will bear, that he made him Consul with
himself, at least transferr'd that honour on him:) An Edict was
also made in favour of him, that the Magistrates or Officers of
Illyria should do nothing in that Province without the knowl-
edge and approbation of Plutarch. Now 'tis my particular guess
(for I have not read it any where) that Plutarch had the affairs
21 in] either in 01-4.
Plutarchs Lives 265
of Illyria (now call'd Sclavonic?) recommended to him, because

Trajan, we know, had Wars on that side the Empire with De-
cebalus King of Dacia; after whose defeat and death, the Prov-
ince of Illyria might stand in need of Plutarchs Wisdom to
compose and civilize it: But this is only hinted, as what pos-
sibly might be the reason of our Philosophers superintendency
in those quarters; which the French Author of his Life, seems
to wonder at, as having no relation either to Chceronea, or
Greece.
10 When he was first made known to Trajan is like the rest
uncertain, or by what means, whether by Senecio, or any other,
he was introduc'd to his acquaintance: But 'tis most likely, that
Trajan, then a private Man, was one of his Auditors, amongst
others of the Nobility of Rome. Tis also thought, this wise Em-
perour made use of him in all his Councils, and that the happi-
ness which attended him in his undertakings, together with the
administration of the Government, which in all his Reign was
just and regular, proceeded from the instructions which were
given him by Plutarch. Johannes Sarisberiensis, who liv'd above
20 six hundred years ago, has transcrib'd a Letter written, as he
suppos'd, by our Author to that Emperour; whence he had it is
not known, nor the original in Greek to be produc'd; but it
pass'd for Genuine in that age, and if not Plutarchs, is at least
worthy of him, and what might well be suppos'd a Man of his
Character would write; for which reason I have here Trans-
lated it.
Plutarch to Trajan.
I am satisfied that your modesty sought not the Empire,
which yet you have always studied to deserve by the excellency
30 of your manners. And by so much the more are you esteem'd
worthy of this honour, by how much you are free from the
Ambition of desiring it. I therefore congratulate both your
vertue, and my own good fortune, if at least your future Gov-
ernment shall prove answerable to your former merit: Other-
13 Trajan,} 03-4; ~A Oi-x.
266 Prose 1668-1691
wise you have involv'd your self in dangers, and I shall infalli-
bly be subject to the Censures of detracting Tongues; because
Rome will never support an Emperour unworthy of her, and
the faults of the Scholar will be upbraided to the Master. Thus
Seneca is reproach'd, and his fame still suffers for the Vices of
Nero. The miscarriages of Quintilians Scholars, have been
thrown on him, and even Socrates himself is not free from the
imputation of remissness on the account of his Pupil (Alcibi-
ades.) But you will certainly administer all things as becomes
10 you, if you still continue what you are, if you recede not from
your self, if you begin at home, and lay the foundation of Gov-
ernment on the command of your own passions, if you make
vertue the scope of all your actions, they will all proceed in
harmony and order: I have set before you the force of Laws
and Civil constitutions of your Predecessours; which if you imi-
tate and obey, Plutarch is then your Guide of living; if other-
wise, let this present Letter be my Testimony against you, that
you shall not ruine the Roman Empire, under the pretence of
the Counsel and Authority of Plutarch.
20 It may be conjectur'd, and with some shew of probability,

from hence, that our Author not only collected his materials,
but also made a rough draught of many of these parallel Lives
at Rome; and that he read them to Trajan for his instruction
in Government; and so much the rather I believe it, because
all Historians agree, that this Emperour, tho naturally prudent
and inclin'd to vertue, had more of the Souldier than the
Scholar in his Education, before he had the happiness to know
Plutarch; for which reason the Roman Lives, and the inspec-
tion into ancient Laws might be of necessary use to his direc-
80 tion. And now for the time of our Authors abode in the Im-
perial City, if he came so early as Vespasian, and departed not
till after Trajan's death, as is generally thought, he might con-
tinue in Italy near forty years. This is more certain, because
gather'd from himself, that his Lives were almost the latest
of his Works; and therefore we may well conclude, that having
31 Vespasian] Vespatian 01-4. 34 Lives] Lives Oi; Lives 02-4.
Plutarchs Lives 267
model'd, but not finish'd them at Rome, he afterwards resum'd

the work in his own Country; which perfecting in his old age,
he dedicated to his friend Senecio still living, as appears by
what he has written in the Proem to his Lives.
The desire of visiting his own Country, so natural to all
Men, and the approaches of old age, (for he could not be
much less than sixty,) and perhaps also the death of Trajan,
prevail'd with him at last to leave Italy; or if you will have
it in his own words, he was not willing his little City, shou'd
10 be one the less by his absence: After his return he was, by the
unanimous consent of his Citizens, chosen Archon, or Chief
Magistrate of Chceronea; and not long after admitted himself
in the number of Apollo's Priests; in both which employments
he seems to have continued till his death: Of which we have
no particular account, either as to the manner of it, or the
year; only tis evident that he liv'd to a great old age, always
continuing his Studies; that he dyed a natural death, is only
presum'd, because any violent accident to so famous a Man
would have been recorded: And in whatsoever Reign he de-
20 ceas'd, the days of Tyranny were over-pass'd, and there was
then a Golden Series of Emperours, every one emulating his
Predecessours vertues.
Thus I have Collected from Plutarch himself, and from the
best Authors, what was most remarkable concerning him: In
performing which I have labour'd under so many uncertain-
ties, that I have not been able to satisfie my own curiosity, any
more than that of others. 'Tis the Life of a Philosopher, not
varyed with accidents to divert the Reader: More pleasant for
himself to live, than for an Historian, to describe. Those Works
so of his, which are irrecoverably lost, are nam'd in the Catalogue
made by his Son Lamprias, which you will find in the Paris
Edition, dedicated to King Lewis the thirteenth: But 'tis a
small comfort to a Merchant, to peruse his bill of fraight, when
he is certain his Ship is cast away: Mov'd by the like reason I
4 written] ~ , 01-4. 4 Lives] Lives 01-4.
24 best Authors] best Authors 01-4.
24 him:] »~ . 01-4. 32 Edition] Edition 01-4.
32 King Lewis the thirteenth] 03-4; King Lewis the thirteenth Oi-a.
268 Prose 1668-1691
have omitted that ungrateful task: Yet that the Reader may
not be impos'd on, in those which yet remain, tis but reason-
able to let him know, that the Lives of Hannibal and Scipio,
tho they pass with the ignorant for Genuine, are only the Forg-
ery of Donate Acciaiolo a Florentine. He pretends to have
Translated them from a Greek Manuscript, which none of the
Learned have ever seen, either before or since. But the cheat
is more manifest from this reason which is undeniable, that
Plutarch did indeed write the Life of Scipio, but he compar'd
10 him not with Hannibal, but with Epaminondas: As appears
by the Catalogue, or Nomenclature of Plutarchs Lives, drawn
up by his Son Lamprias, and yet extant. But to make this out
more clearly, we find the Florentine, in his Life of Hannibal,
thus relating the famous Conference betwixt Scipio and him.
'Scipio at that time being sent Ambassadour from the Romans,
to King Antiochus, with Publius Villius: It happen'd then,
that these two great Captains met together at Ephesus, and
amongst other discourse, it was demanded of Hannibal by
Scipio, whom he thought to have been the greatest Captain?
20 To whom he thus answer'd; In the first place Alexander of
Mace don, in the second Pyrrhus of Epyrus, and in the third
himself: To which, Scipio smileing thus reply'd; And what
wou'd you have thought, had it been your fortune to have van-
quish'd me? To whom Hannibal, I should then have adjudgd
the first place to my self: Which answer was not a little pleas-
ing to Scipio, because by it, he found himself not disesteem'd,
nor put into comparison with the rest, but by the delicacy and
gallantry of a well turn'd compliment, set like a Man divine
above them all.'
so Now this relation is a meer compendium of the same con-
ference, from Livy. But if we can conceive Plutarch to have
written the Life of Hannibal, tis hard to believe, that he
should tell the same story after so different, or rather so con-
11 Lives] 02-4; Lifes Oi. 14 relating] ,~ , 01-4.
22 reply'd] 02-4; re- / reply'd Oi.
22-24 An& • • • me?] ln romans in Oi-j, which end the quotation at me?
24 To] 04; to 01-3.
24-25 1 ... my self] in romans in Oi-j, which begin a new quotation at I.
Plutarchs Lives 269
trary a manner, in another place. For, in the life of Pyrrhus,

he thus writes. 'Hannibal adjudg'd the preeminence to Pyrrhus
above all Captains, in conduct, and Military skill: Next to
Pyrrhus he plac'd Scipio, and after Scipio, himself; as we have
declar'd in the Life of Scipio.' Tis not that I wou'd excuse
Plutarch, as if he never related the same thing diversely; for
'tis evident, that through want of advertency he has been often
guilty of that errour; of which the Reader will find too fre-
quent Examples in these Lives; but in this place, he cannot be
10 charg'd with want of memory or care, because what he says
here is relating to what he had said formerly: So that he may
mistake the story, as I believe he has done, (that other of Livy,
being much more probable,) but we must allow him to remem-
ber what he had before written. From hence I might take oc-
casion to note some other lapses of our Author, which yet
amount not to falsification of truth, much less to partiality, or
envy, (both which are manifest in his Country-man Dion Cas-
sius who writ not long after him,) but are only the frailties of
humane nature; mistakes not intentional, but accidental. He
20 was not altogether so well vers'd either in the Roman language,
or in their coyns, or in the value of them; in some Customes,
Rites, and Ceremonies, he took passages on trust from others,
relating both to them and the Barbarians, which the Reader
may particularly find recited in the Animadversions of the
often prais'd Rualdus on our Author. I will name but one to
avoyd tediousness, because I particularly observ'd it, when I
read Plutarch in the Library of Trinity Colledge in Cam-
bridge, (to which foundation I gratefully acknowledge a great
part of my Education;) 'tis that Plutarch in the life of Cicero,
BO speaking of Verres, who was accus'd by him, and repeating a
miserable jeast of Tullys, says that Verres, in the Roman lan-
guage, signifies a barrow Pig, that is one which has been
guelded. But we have a better account of the signification
from Varro, whom we have more reason to believe, that the
Male of that kind, before he is cut, is called Verres; after cut-
3 skill:] the upper dot of the colon jailed to print in some copies of Or.
9 Lives] Lives 61-4. 25 I] 02-4; / Oi. 27 Colledge in] Colledge in 01-4.
270 Prose 1668—1691
ting Majalis, which is perhaps a diminitive of Mas, tho gen-

erally the reason of the Etymology is given from its being a
Sacrifice to the Goddess Ma/a. Yet any Man, who will candidly
weigh this and the like errours, may excuse Plutarch, as he
wou'd a stranger mistaking the propriety of an English word:
And besides the humanity of this excuse, 'tis impossible in
nature, that a Man of so various learning, and so covetous of
ingrossing all, should perfectly digest such an infinity of no-
tions in many Sciences, since to be excellent in one is so great
10 a labour.
It may now be expected, that having written the Life of an
Historian, I should take occasion to write somewhat concern-
ing History it self: But I think to commend it is unnecessary:
For the profit and pleasure of that study are both so very ob-
vious, that a quick Reader will be before hand with me, and
imagine faster than I can write. Besides that the post is taken
up already, and few Authors have travell'd this way, but who
have strewed it with Rhetorick, as they pass'd. For my own
part, who must confess it to my shame, that I never read any
20 thing but for pleasure, it has alwayes been the most delightful
Entertainment of my life. But they who have employ'd the
study of it as they ought, for their instruction, for the regula-
tion of their private manners, and the management of publick
affairs, must agree with me, that it is the most pleasant School
of Wisdom.
Tis a familiarity with past Ages, and an acquaintance with
all the Heroes of them. 'Tis, if you will pardon the similitude,
a Prospective-Glass carrying your Soul to a vast distance, and
taking in the farthest objects of Antiquity. It informs the un-
so derstanding by the memory: It helps us to judge of what will
happen, by shewing us the like revolutions of former times.
For Mankind being the same in all ages, agitated by the same
passions, and mov'd to action by the same interests, nothing
can come to pass, but some President of the like nature has al-
ready been produc'd, so that having the causes before our eyes,
5 stranger] ~- , 01-4. 5 English] English 01-4.
26 Tis] indented in 02-4; not indented in Oi.
Plu tarchs L ives z 71
we cannot easily be deceiv'd in the effects, if we have Judg-

ment enough but to draw the parallel.
God, tis true with his divine Providence, over-rules and
guides all actions to the secret end he has ordain'd them; but
in the way of humane causes, a wise Man may easily discern,
that there is a natural connection betwixt them; and tho he
cannot foresee accidents, or all things that possibly can come,
he may apply examples, and by them foretell, that from the
like Counsels will probably succeed the like events: And
10 thereby in all concernments, and all Offices of life, be in-
structed in the two main points, on which depend our happi-
ness, that is, what to avoid and what to choose. The Laws of
History in general are truth of matter, method, and clearness
of expression. The first propriety is necessary to keep our un-
derstanding from the impositions of falshood: For History is
an Argument fram'd from many particular examples, or in-
ductions: If these Examples are not true, then those measures
of life, which we take from them, will be false, and deceive us
in their consequence: The second is grounded on the former,
20 for if the method be confus'd: if the words or expressions of
thought are any way obscure, then the Idea's which we receive
must be imperfect; and if such, we are not taught by them
what to elect, or what to shun. Truth therefore is requir'd, as
the foundation of History, to inform us; disposition and per-
spicuity, as the manner to inform us plainly: One is the being,
the other the well-being of it. History is principally divided
into these three species: Commentaries or Annals; History
properly so called; and Biographia, or the Lives of particular
Men.
so Commentaries or Annals are (as I may so call them) naked
History: Or the plain relation of matter of fact, according to
the succession of time, devested of all other Ornaments. The
springs and motives of actions are not here sought, unless they
offer themselves, and are open to every Mans discernment. The
method is the most natural that can be imagin'd, depending
only on the observation of months and years, and drawing, in
4 ordain'd] Oz-4; or- / ordain'd Oi, 87 species:] ^ . 01-4.
2 <7 3 Prose 1668-1691
the order of them, whatsoever happen'd worthy of Relation.

The stile is easie, simple, unforc'd, and unadorn'd with the
pomp of figures; Counsels, guesses, politick observations, sen-
tences, and Orations are avoyded: In few words a bare Narra-
tion is its business. Of this kind the Commentaries of Ccesar
are certainly the most admirable; and after him the Annals of
Tacitus may have place. Nay even the Prince of Greek His-
torians, Thucydides, may almost be adopted into the number.
For tho he instructs every where by Sentences, tho he gives the
10 causes of actions, the Counsels of both parties, and makes Ora-
tions where they are necessary; yet it is certain, that he first
design'd his work a Commentary; every year writing down like
an unconcern'd spectator as he was, the particular occurrences
of the time, in the order as they happen'd, and his Eighth book
is wholly written after the way of Annals; tho, out-living the
War, he inserted in his others those Ornaments, which render
his work the most compleat, and most instructive now extant.
History properly so call'd may be describ'd by the addition
of those parts, which are not requir'd to Annals: And there-
20 fore there is little farther to be said concerning it: Only that
the dignity and gravity of stile is here necessary. That the
guesses of secret causes, inducing to the actions, be drawn at
least from the most probable circumstances, not perverted by
the malignity of the Author to sinister interpretations, (of
which Tacitus is accus'd;) but candidly laid down, and left to
the Judgment of the Reader. That nothing of concernment be
omitted, but things of trivial moment are still to be neglected,
as debasing the Majesty of the Work. That neither partiality
or prejudice appear: But that truth may every where be Sacred,
ao (ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat Histori-
cus.) That he neither incline to superstition, in giving too
much credit to Oracles, Prophecies, Divinations, and Prodigies;
nor to irreligion, in disclaiming the Almighty Providence: But
where general opinion has prevail'd of any miraculous acci-
dent or portent, he ought to relate it as such, without impos-
ing his opinion on our belief. Next to Thucydides in this kind,
5 of] of 01-4. 18 History] History 01-4.
Plutarchs Lives 273
may be accounted Polybius amongst the Grecians; Livy, tho

not free from superstition, nor Tacitus from ill nature, amongst
the Romans: Amongst the modern Italians, Guicchiardine, and
D'Avila, if not partial; but above all Men in my opinion, the
plain, sincere, unaffected, and most instructive Philip de Corn-
mines amongst the French; tho he only gives his History the
humble Name of Commentaries. I am sorry I cannot find in
our own Nation (tho it has produc'd some commendable His-
torians) any proper to be ranked with these. Buchanan indeed
10 for the purity of his Latin, and for his learning, and for all
other endowments belonging to an Historian, might be plac'd
amongst the greatest, if he had not too much lean'd to preju-
dice, and too manifestly declar'd himself a party of a cause,
rather than an Historian of it. Excepting only that, (which I
desire not to urge too far, on so great a Man, but only to give
caution to his Readers concerning it,) our Isle may justly boast
in him, a Writer comparable to any of the Moderns, and ex-
cell'd by few of the Ancients.
Biographia, or the History of particular Mens Lives, comes
20 next to be consider'd; which in dignity is inferiour to the other
two; as being more confm'd in action, and treating of Wars
and Counsels, and all other publick affairs of Nations, only as
they relate to him, whose Life is written, or as his fortunes
have a particular dependance on them, or connection to them:
All things here are circumscrib'd, and driven to a point, so as
to terminate in one: Consequently if the action, or Counsel
were manag'd by Collegues, some part of it must be either
lame or wanting; except it be supply'cl by the Excursion of
the Writer: Herein likewise must be less of variety for the
so same reason; because the fortunes and actions of one Man are
related, not those of many. Thus the actions and atchievements
of Sylla, Lucullus, and Pompey are all of them but the suc-
cessive parts of the Mithridatich War: Of which we cou'd have
no perfect image, if the same hand had not given us the whole,
tho at several views, in their particular Lives.
Yet, tho we allow, for the reasons above alledg'd, that this
10 Latin] Latin 01-4. 14 of] some copies of Oi read o.
274 Prose 1668-1691
kind o£ writing is in dignity inferiour to History and Annalls,

in pleasure and instruction it equals, or even excells both of
them. 'Tis not only commended by ancient practice, to cele-
brate the memory of great and worthy Men, as the best thanks
which Posterity can pay them; but also the examples of vertue
are of more vigor, when they are thus contracted into indi-
viduals. As the Sun beams, united in a burning-glass to a point,
have greater force than when they are darted from a plain
superficies; so the vertues and actions of one Man, drawn to-
10 gether into a single story, strike upon our minds a stronger
and more lively impression, than the scatter'd Relations of
many Men, and many actions; and by the same means that
they give us pleasure they afford us profit too. For when the
understanding is intent and fix'd on a single thing, it carries
closser to the mark, every part of the object sinks into it, and
the Soul receives it unmixt and whole. For this reason Aris-
totle Commends the unity of action in a Poem; because the
mind is not capable of digesting many things at once, nor of
conceiving fully any more than one Idea at a time. Whatso-
ao ever distracts the pleasure, lessens it. And as the Reader is more
concern'd at one Mans fortune, than those of many; so likewise
the Writer is more capable of making a perfect Work, if he
confine himself to this narrow compass. The lineaments, fea-
tures, and colourings of a single picture may be hit exactly;
but in a History-piece of many figures, the general design, the
ordinance or disposition of it, the Relation of one figure to
another, the diversity of the posture, habits, shadowings, and
all the other graces conspiring to an uniformity, are of so diffi-
cult performance, that neither is the resemblance of particular
so persons often perfect, nor the beauty of the piece compleat:
For any considerable errour in the parts, renders the whole
disagreeable and lame. Thus then the perfection of the Work,
and the benefit arising from it are both more absolute in Biog-
raphy than in History: All History is only the precepts of
Moral Philosophy reduc'd into Examples: Moral Philosophy
is divided into two parts, Ethicks and Politicks; the first in-
structs us in our private offices of vertue; the second in those
Plutarchs Lives 275
which relate to the management of the Common-wealth. Both

of these teach by Argumentation and reasoning: Which rush
as it were into the mind, and possess it with violence: But His-
tory rather allures than forces us to vertue. There is nothing of
the Tyrant in Example; but it gently glides into us, is easie
and pleasant in its passage, and in one word reduces into prac-
tise, our speculative notions. Therefore the more powerful the
Examples are, they are the more useful also: And by being
more known they are more powerful. Now unity, which is de-
10 fin'd, is in its own nature more apt to be understood, than
multiplicity, which in some measure participates of infinity.
The reason is Aristotles.
Biographia, or the Histories of particular Lives, tho circum-
scrib'd in the subject, is yet more extensive in the stile than
the other two: For it not only comprehends them both, but
has somewhat superadded, which neither of them have. The
stile of it is various, according to the occasion. There are
proper places in it, for the plainness and nakedness of narra-
tion, which is ascrib'd to Annals; there is also room reserv'd
20 for the loftiness and gravity of general History, when the ac-
tions related shall require that manner of expression. But there
is withal, a descent into minute circumstances, and trivial pas-
sages of life, which are natural to this way of writing, and which
the dignity of the other two will not admit. There you are
conducted only into the rooms of state; here you are led into
the private Lodgings of the Heroe: you see him in his undress,
and are made Familiar with his most private actions and con-
versations. You may behold a Scipio and a Lelius gathering
Cockle-shells on the shore, Augustus playing at bounding
so stones with Boyes; and Agesilaus riding on a Hobby-horse
among his Children. The Pageantry of Life is taken away; you
see the poor reasonable Animal, as naked as ever nature made
him; are made acquainted with his passions and his follies;
and find the Demy-God a Man. Plutarch himself, has more
than once defended this kind of Relating little passages. For
in the Life of Alexander he says thus. In writing the Lives of
9-10 defin'd,] 03-4; ~/A Oi. 30 Boyes] Boyes 01-4.
276 Prose 1668-1691
Illustrious Men I am not tyed to the Laws of History: Nor

does it follow, that because an action is great, it therefore
manifests the greatness and vertue of him who did it; but on
the other side sometimes a word, or a casual jest, betrays a
Man more to our knowledge of him, than a Battel fought
wherein ten thousand Men were slain, or sacking of Cities, or
a course of Victories. In another place he quotes Xenophon on
the like occasion: 'The sayings of great Men, in their familiar
discourses and amidst their Wine, have somewhat in them,
10 which is worthy to be transmitted to Posterity.' Our Author
therefore needs no excuse, but rather deserves a commenda-
tion, when he relates, as pleasant, some sayings of his Heroes,
which appear, (I must confess it) very cold and insipid mirth
to us. For 'tis not his meaning to commend the jest, but to
paint the Man; besides, we may have lost somewhat of the
Idiotism of that Language in which it was spoken; and where
the conceit is couch'd in a single word, if all the significations
of it are not critically understood, the grace and the pleasantry
are lost. But in all parts of Biography, whether familiar or
20 stately, whether sublime, or low, whether serious or merry,
Plutarch equally excell'd: If we compare him to others, Dion
Cassius is not so sincere, Herodian, a lover of truth, is often
times deceiv'd himself, with what he had falsly heard reported;
then the time of his Emperours exceeds not in all above sixty
years; so that his whole History will scarce amount to three
Lives of Plutarch. Suetonius and Tacitus may be call'd alike,
either Authors of Histories, or Writers of Lives: But the first
of them runs too willingly into obscene descriptions, which he
teaches while he relates; the other, besides what has already
so been noted of him, often falls into obscurity; and both of them
have made so unlucky a choice of times, that they are forc'd
to describe rather Monsters than Men; and their Emperours
are either extravagant Fools, or Tyrants, and most usually
both. Our Author on the contrary, as he was more inclin'd to
commend than to dispraise, has generally chosen such great
Men as were famous for their several vertues; at least such
12 Heroes] Heroes 01-4. 30 of him] by him 01-4.
Plu tarchs L ives 277
whose frailties or vices were over-pois'd by their excellencies;

such from whose Examples we may have more to follow than
to shun. Yet, as he was impartial, he disguis'd not the faults
of any Man: An Example of which is in the Life of Lucullus;
where, after he has told us, that the double benefit which his
Country-men, the Cheeroneans, receiv'd from him, was the
chiefest motive which he had to write his Life, he afterwards
rips up his Luxury, and shews how he lost, through his mis-
management, his Authority, and his Souldiers love. Then he
10 was more happy in his digressions than any we have nam'd.
I have alwayes been pleas'd to see him, and his imitator, Mon-
taign, when they strike a little out of the common road: For
we are sure to be the better for their wandring.
The best quarry lies not always in the open field: And who
would not be content to follow a good Huntsman over Hedges
and Ditches when he knows the Game will reward his pains?
But if we mark him more narrowly, we may observe, that the
great reason of his frequent starts, is the variety of his Learn-
ing: He knew so much of Nature, was so vastly furnish'd with
20 all the treasures of the mind, that he was uneasie to himself,
and was forc'd, as I may say, to lay down some at every pas-
sage, and to scatter his riches as he went: Like another Alex-
ander or Adrian, he built a City, or planted a Colony in every
part of his progress; and left behind him some memorial of
his greatness. Sparta, and Thebes, and Athens, and Rome, the
Mistress of the World, he has discover'd in their foundations,
their institutions, their growth, their heigth, the decay of the
three first, and the alteration of the last. You see those several
people in their different laws, and policies, and forms of Gov-
BO ernment, in their Warriours, and Senators, and Demagogues.
Nor are the Ornaments of Poetry, and the illustrations of si-
militudes forgotten by him; in both which he instructs as well
as pleases: Or rather pleases that he may instruct.
This last reflection leads me naturally, to say somewhat in
general of his stile, tho after having justly prais'd him for
copiousness of learning, integrity, perspicuity, and more than
4 Man:] ~ . 01-4.
278 Prose 1668-1691
all this for a certain air of goodness which appears through all
his Writings, it were unreasonable to be critical on his Elocu-
tion: As on a tree which bears excellent fruit, we consider not
the beauty of the blossoms: For if they are not pleasant to the
eye, or delightful to the scent, we know at the same time that
they are not the prime intention of Nature, but are thrust out
in order to their product; so in Plutarch, whose business was
not to please the ear, but to charm and to instruct the mind, we
may easily forgive the cadences of words, and the roughness of
10 expression: Yet for manliness of Eloquence, if it abounded not
in our Author, it was not wanting in him: He neither studyed
the sublime stile, nor affected the flowry. The choice of words,
the numbers of periods, the turns of Sentences, and those other
Ornaments of speech, he neither sought, nor shun'd. But the
depth of sence, the accuracy of Judgment, the disposition of the
parts and contexture of the whole, in so admirable and vast a
field of matter, and lastly the copiousness, and variety of words,
appear shining in our Author. Tis indeed, observ'd of him,
that he keeps not always to the stile of prose, but if a Poetical
20 word, which carries in it more of Emphasis or signification,
offer it self at any time, he refuses it not because Homer or
Euripides have us'd it: But if this be a fault I know not how
Xenopkon will stand excus'd. Yet neither do I compare our
Author with him, or with Herodotus in the sweetness and
graces of his stile, nor with Thucydides in the solidity and
closeness of expression. For Herodotus is acknowledg'd the
Prince of the lonick, the other two of the Attick eloquence.
As for Plutarch, his stile is so particular, that there is none of
the Ancients, to whom we can properly resemble him. And
so the reason of this is obvious; for being conversant in so great
variety of Authors, and collecting from all of them, what he
thought most excellent, out of the confusion, or rather mixture
of all their stiles, he form'd his own, which partaking of each,
was yet none of them; but a compound of them all, like the
Corinthian metal, which had in it Gold, and Brass, and Silver,
21 at] failed to print in some copies oj Oi.
88 Euripides] Eurypides 01-4. 45 Thucydides] 02-4; Thuyidides Oi.
Plutarchs Lives 279
and yet was a species by its self. Add to this, that in Plutarchs
time, and long before it, the purity of the Greek Tongue was
corrupted, and the native splendour of it had taken the tarnish
of Barbarism, and contracted the filth and spots of degen-
erating Ages. For the fall of Empires always draws after it
the language and Eloquence of the people: They, who labour
under misfortunes or servitude, have little leisure to cultivate
their mother Tongue: To conclude, when Athens had lost her
Soveraignity to the Peloponnesians, and her liberty to Philip,
10 neither a Thucydides, nor a Demosthenes were afterwards
produc'd by her.
I have formerly acknowledg'd many lapses of our Author,
occasion'd through his inadvertency, but he is likewise tax'd
with faults, which reflect on his Judgment in matters of fact,
and his Candour in the comparisons of his Greeks and Romans:
Both which are so well vindicated by Montaign, that I need
but barely to translate him. 'First then he is accus'd of want of
Judgment, in reporting things incredible: For proof of which
is alledg'd the story he tells of the Spartan boy, who suffer'd
20 his bowels to be torn out by a young Fox which he had stolen,
choosing rather to hide him under his Garment till he died,
then to confess his robbery. In the first place this example is ill
chosen, because tis difficult to set a bound to the force of our
internal faculties, tis not defm'd how far our resolution may
carry us to suffer: The force of bodies may more easily be
determin'd than that of Souls: Then of all people the Lacede-
monians, by reason of their rigid institution, were most har-
den'd to undergo labours, and to suffer pains. Cicero, before
our Authors time, tho then the Spartan vertue was degenerated,
so yet avows to have seen himself some Lacedemonian boys, who
to make tryal of their patience, were plac'd before the Altar of
Diana, where they endur'd scourging, till they were all over
bloody, and that not only without crying, but even without a
sigh or groan: Nay, and some of them so ambitious of this
reputation, that they willingly resign'd their Lives under the
hands of their tormentors. The same may be said of another
15 Romans:] ~ . 01-4.
280 Prose 1668-1691
story, which Plutarch vouches with an hundred witnesses, that

in the time of Sacrifice, a burning coal by chance, falling into
the sleeve of a Spartan boy, who held the Censer, he suffer'd
his Arm to be scorch'd so long without moving it, that the
scent of it reak'd up to the Noses of the Assistants.
Tor my own part, who have taken in so vast an Idea of the
Lacedemonian magnanimity, Plutarchs story, is so far from
seeming incredible to me, that I neither think it wonderful
nor uncommon: For we ought not to measure possibilities or
10 impossibilities by our own standard, that is, by what we our
selves cou'd do or suffer. These, and some other slight ex-
amples, are made use of, to lessen the opinion of Plutarchs
Judgment: But the common exception against his candor, is,
that in his parallels of Greeks and Romans, he has done too
much honour to his Country-men in matching them with
Heroes, with whom they were not worthy to be compar'd. For
instances of this, there are produc'd the comparisons of De-
mosthenes and Cicero, Aristides and Cato, Lysander and Sylla,
Pelopidas and Marcellus, Agesilaus and Pompey: Now the
20 ground of this accusation is most probably the lustre of those
Roman names, which strikes on our imagination. For what pro-
portion of glory is there betwixt a Roman Consul, or Procon-
sul of so great a Common-wealth, and a simple Citizen of
Athens? But he who considers the truth more nearly, and weighs
not honours with honours, but Men with Men, which was
Plutarchs main design, will find in the Ballance of their man-
ners, their vertues, their endowments and abilities, that Cicero
and the Elder Cato, were far from having the overweight
against Demosthenes and Aristides. I might as well complain
so against him in behalf of his own Country-men: For neither
was Camillus so famous as Themistocles; nor were Tiberius
and Cajus Gracchus comparable to Agis and Cleomenes in re-
gard of dignity: Much less was the wisdome of Numa to be
put in Ballance against that of Lycurgus, or the modesty and
temperance of Scipio, against the solid Philosophy and perfect
vertue of Epaminondas: Yet the disparity of victories, the
reputation, the blaze of Glory, in the two last were evidently
Plu tarchs Lives 281
on the Roman side. But as I said before, to compare them this

way, was the least of Plutarchs aim; he openly declares against
it: For speaking of the course of Pompeys fortune, his exploits
of War, the greatness of the Armies which he commanded, the
splendour and number of his Triumphs, in his comparison be-
twixt him and Agesilaus, I believe, says he, that if Xenophon
were now alive, and would indulge himself the liberty to write
all he could to the advantage of his Heroe Agesilaus, he would
be asham'd to put their acts in competition. In his comparison
10 of Sylla and Lysander; there is, says he, no manner of equality,
either in the number of their victories, or in the dangef of
their Battels; for Lysander only gain'd two naval fights, Sec.
Now this is far from partiality to the Grecians. He who wou'd
convince him of this vice, must shew us in what particular
Judgment he has been too favourable to his Countrymen, and
make it out in general where he has faild in matching such a
Greek with such a Roman; which must be done by shewing
how he could have pair'd them better; and naming any other
in whom the resemblance might have been more perfect. But
20 an equitable Judge who takes things by the same handle which
Plutarch did, will find there is no injury offer'd to either party,
tho there be some disparity betwixt the persons: For he weighs
every circumstance by it self, and judges separately of it: Not
comparing Men at a lump, nor endeavouring to prove they
were alike in all things, but allowing for disproportion of
quality or fortune, shewing wherein they agreed or disagreed,
and wherein one was to be preferr'd before the other.'
I thought I had answer'd all that cou'd reasonably be ob-
jected against our Authors judgement; but casually casting my
so eye on the works of a French Gentleman, deservedly famous for
Wit and Criticism, I wonder'd, amongst many commendations
of Plutarch, to find this one reflection. 'As for his Comparisons,
they seem truly to me very great; but I think he might have
6 I believe] romans in 01-4.
6-g that . . . competition] romans and italics reversed in Oi-j.
10 there is] romans in Oi-<f.
10-12 no ... &c.] romans and italics reversed in Oi-j.
30 French] French 01-4.
282 Prose 1668-1691
carried them yet farther, and have penetrated more deeply

into humane nature: There are folds and recesses in our minds
which have escap'd him; he judges man too much in gross;
and thinks him not so different, as he is often from himself:
The same person being just, unjust, merciful, and cruel;
which qualities seeming to bely each other in him, he Attri-
butes their inconsistences to forreign causes: In fine, if he had
discrib'd Catiline, he wou'd have given him to us, either
prodigal or Covetous: That alieni appetens sui profusus, was
10 above his reach. He could never have reconcil'd those con-
trarieties in the same subject, which Salust has so well un-
folded, and which Montaign so much better understood.'
This Judgment, cou'd not have proceeded, but from a man
who has a nice taste in Authors; and if it be not altogether just
'tis at least delicate, but I am confident, that if he please to
consider this following passage taken out of the life of Sylla,
he will moderate, if not retract his censure.
'In the rest of his manners he was unequal, irregular, dif-
ferent from himself: dvol/taAos -us eoi/ce, Kai Siac/>0f>09 TT/DOS tauTcy.
20 He took many things by rapine, he gave more: Honour'd
men immoderately, and us'd them contumeliously: was sub-
missive to those of whom he stood in need, insulting over
those who stood in need of him: So that it was doubtful,
whether he were more form'd by nature to arrogance or
flattery. As to his uncertain way of punishing, he would some-
times put men to death on the least occasion; at other times
he would pardon the greatest Crimes: So that judging him
in the whole, you may conclude him to have been naturally
cruel, and prone to vengeance, but that he could remit of his
so severity, when his interests requir'd it.'
Here methinks our Author seems to have sufficiently under-
stood the folds and doubles of Sylla's disposition; for his
Character is full of variety, and inconsistences. Yet in the
conclusion, 'tis to be confess'd that Plutarch has assign'd him
a bloody nature: The clemency was but artificial and assum'd,
18 irregular,] comma failed to print in some copies of Oi.
19 acw/iaAiir] 04; dvu/J.a\lis Oi-g. 19 iavriii] ia.vr&i' 01-4.
Plutarchs Lives 283
the cruelty was inborn: But this cannot be said of his rapine,
and his prodigality; for here the alieni appetenSj sui profusus
is as plainly describ'd, as if Plutarch had borrow'd the sense
from Salust: And as he was a great Collector, perhaps he did.
Nevertheless he judg'd rightly of Sylla, that naturally he was
cruel: For that quality was predominant in him; and he was
oftener revengeful than he was merciful. But this is sufficient
to vindicate our Authors Judgment from being superficial,
and I desire not to press the Argument more strongly against
10 this Gentleman, who has Honour'd our Country by his long
Residence amongst us.
It seems to me, I must confess, that our Author has not been
more hardly treated by his Enemies, in his comparing other
Men, than he has been by his friends, in their comparing
Seneca with him. And herein, even Montaign himself is
scarcely to be defended. For no man more esteem'd Plutarch,
no man was better acquainted with his excellences, yet this
notwithstanding, he has done too great an honour to Seneca,
by ranking him with our Philosopher and Historian, him, I say,
20 who was so much less a Philosopher, and no Historian: Tis a
Reputation to Seneca, that any one has offer'd at the com-
parison: The worth of his Adversary makes his defeat advan-
tagious to him; and Plutarch might cry out with Justice; Qui
cum victus erit, mecum certasse feretur. If I had been to find
out a parallel for Plutarch, I should rather have pitch'd on
Varro the most learned of the Romans, if at least his Works
had yet remain'd; or with Pomponius Atticus, if he had written.
But the likeness of Seneca is so little, that except the ones be-
ing Tutor to Nero, and the other to Trajan, both of them
30 strangers to Rome, yet rais'd to the highest dignities in that
City, and both Philosophers tho of several Sects, (for Seneca
was a Stoick, Plutarch a Platonician, at least an Academick,
that is, half Platonist half Sceptick:) besides some such faint
resemblances as these, Seneca and Plutarch seem to have as
little Relation to one another, as their native Countries, Spain
and Greece. If we consider them in their inclinations or hum-
12 confess,] 02-4; ~A Oi. 32 Academick] Academick 01-4.
284 Prose 1668-1691
ours, Plutarch was sociable, and pleasant, Seneca morose, and

melancholly: Plutarch a lover of conversation, and sober feasts:
Seneca reserv'd; uneasie to himself when alone, to others when
in Company. Compare them in their manners, Plutarch every
where appears candid, Seneca often is censorious. Plutarch, out
of his natural humanity, is frequent in commending what he
can; Seneca, out of the sowrness of his temper, is prone to Satyr,
and still searching for some occasion to vent his gaul. Plutarch
is pleas'd with an opportunity of praising vertue; and Seneca,
10 (to speak the best of him,) is glad of a pretence to reprehend
vice. Plutarch endeavours to teach others, but refuses not to be
taught himself; for he is always doubtful and inquisitive: Sen-
eca is altogether for teaching others, but so teaches them, that he
imposes his opinions; for he was of a Sect too imperious and
dogmatical, either to be taught or contradicted. And yet Plu-
tarch writes like a man of a confirm'd probity, Seneca like one
of a weak and staggering vertue. Plutarch seems to have van-
quish'd vice, and to have triumph'd over it: Seneca seems only
to be combating and resisting, and that too but in his own de-
20 fence. Therefore Plutarch is easie in his discourse, as one who
has overcome the difficulty: Seneca is painful, as he who still
labours under it. Plutarchs Vertue is humble and civiliz'd:
Seneca's haughty and ill bred. Plutarch allures you, Seneca
commands you. One wou'd make Vertue your Companion, the
other your Tyrant. The style of Plutarch is easie and flowing;
that of Seneca precipitous and harsh. The first is even, the
second broken. The Arguments of the Grecian drawn from
reason, work themselves into your understanding, and make a
deep and lasting impression in your mind: Those of the Roman
ao drawn from wit, flash immediately on your imagination, but
leave no durable effect. So this tickles you by starts with
his arguteness, that pleases you for continuance, with his pro-
priety. The course of their fortunes seems also to have partaken
of their stiles; for Plutarchs was equal, smooth, and of the same
tenour: Seneca's was turbid, unconstant and full of revolu-
tions. The Life of Plutarch was unblameable, as the Reader
2 melancholly:] /~ . 01-4.
Plutarchs Lives 285
cannot but have observ'd; and of all his Writings there is

nothing to be noted as having the least tendency to vice; but
only that little Treatise, which is intituled 'EpomKos, wherein he
speaks too broadly of a sin, to which the Eastern and Southern
parts of the World are most obnoxious: But Seneca is said to
have been more libertine than suited with the gravity of a
Philosopher, or with the austerity of a Stoick. An ingenious
Frenchman esteems, as he tells us, his person rather than his
works; and values him more as the Preceptor of Nero, a Man
10 ambitious of the Empire, and as the gallant of Agrippina, than
as a teacher of Morality. For my part I dare not push the com-
mendation so far: His courage was perhaps praise worthy, if he
endeavour'd to deliver Rome from such a Monster of Tyranny,
as Nero was then beginning to appear: His ambition too was
the more excusable, if he found in himself an ability of govern-
ing the World, and a desire of doing good to human kind: But
as to his good fortunes with the Empress, I know not what
value ought to be set on a wise Man for them: Except it be
that Women generally liking without Judgment, it was a
20 Conquest for a Philosopher once in an age, to get the better of
a fool. However methinks there is something of aukward in the
adventure: I cannot imagine without laughter, a Pedant, and
a Stoick, making love in a long gown; for it puts me in mind
of the civilities which are us'd by the Cardinals and Judges in
the dance of the Rehearsal: If Agrippina wou'd needs be so
lavish of her favours, since a Sot grew nauseous to her, because
he was her Husband, and nothing under a Wit cou'd attone for
Claudius, I am half sorry that Petronius was not the Man:
We cou'd have born it better from his Character, than from
so one who profess'd the severity of vertue, to make a Cuckold
of his Emperour and Benefactour. But let the Historian answer
for his own Relation: Only, if true, 'tis so much the worse,
that Seneca, after having abus'd his bed, cou'd not let him
8 Frenchman esteems,] 04; ~>, ~/A Oi; ~A ^-A Oz-g.
12 perhaps] 02-4; perhas Oi. 18 them:] ^ . 61-4.
25 Rehearsal] Rehearsal 01-4.
26 grew nauseous] 03-4; grewn auscous Oi-z.
27 Wit] ~ , 01-4.
286 Prose 1668-1691
sleep quiet in his grave. The Apocolocyntosis, or mock deifi-

cation of Claudius was too sharp and insulting on his memory:
And Seneca tho he could Preach forgiveness to others, did not
practice it himself in that Satyr: Where was the patience and
insensibility of a Stoick, in revenging his Banishment with a
Libel? Where was the Morality of a Philosopher, in defaming
and exposing of an harmless fool? And where was common
humanity, in railing against the dead? But the tallent of his
malice is visible in other places: He censures Mecenas, and I
10 believe justly, for the looseness of his manners, the voluptuous-
ness of his life, and the effeminacy of his style; but it appears
that he takes pleasure in so doing; and that he never forc'd
his nature, when he spoke ill of any Man. For his own stile,
we see what it is, and if we may be as bold with him, as he has
been with our old Patron, we may call it a shatter'd Eloquence,
not vigorous, not united, not embodied; but broken into frag-
ments; every part by it self pompous, but the whole confus'd
and unharmonious. His Latin, as Monsieur St. Evremont has
well observ'd, has nothing in it of the purity, and elegance of
20 Augustus his times; and 'tis of him and of his imitators, that
Petronius said; pace vestrd liceat dixisse, primi omnium elo-
quentiam perdidistis. The Controversies sententiis vibrantibus
pictce, and the vanus Sententiarum strepitus, make it evident
that Seneca was tax'd under the person of the old Rhetorician.
What quarrel he had to the Unckle and the Nephew, I mean
Seneca and Lucan, is not known; but Petronius plainly points
them out; one for a bad Orator, the other for as bad a Poet:
His own essay of the Civil War is an open defiance of the
Pharsalia; and the first Oration of Eumolpus, as full an arraign-
so ment of Seneca's false Eloquence. After all that has been said,
he is certainly to be allowed a great wit, but not a good Phi-
losopher: Not fit to be compar'd with Cicero, of whose repu-
tation he was emulous, any more than Lucan is with Virgil: To
sum up all in few words, consider a Philosopher declaiming
against riches, yet vastly rich himself; against avarice, yet put-
i Apocolocyntosis] Apocolocynthuis 01-4.
35 putting] 03-4; puting Oi-z.
Plutarchs Lives 287
ting out his Mony at great Extortion here in Britain; against

honours, yet aiming to be Emperour; against pleasure, yet
enjoying Agrippina, and in his old age married to a beautiful
young Woman: And after this, let him be made a Parallel to
Plutarch.
And now, with the usual vanity of Dutch Prefacers, I could
load our Author with the praises and commemorations of
Writers: For both Ancient and Modern have made Honour-
able mention of him. But to cumber pages with this kind of
10 stuff were to raise a distrust in common Readers that Plutarch
wants them. Rualdus indeed has Collected ample Testimonies
of them; but I will only recite the names of some, and refer
you to him for the particular quotations. He reckons Gellius,
Eusebius, Himerius the Sophister, Eunapius, Cyrillus of Alex-
andria, Theodoret, Agathias, Photius and Xiphilin Patriarchs
of Constantinople, Johannes Sarisberiensis, the famous Pe-
trarch, Petrus Victorius, and Justus Lipsius.
But Theodorus Gaza, a Man learned in the Latin Tongue,
and a great restorer of the Greek, who liv'd above two hundred
20 years ago, deserves to have his suffrage set down in words at
length: For the rest have only commended Plutarch more
than any single Author, but he has extoll'd him above all to-
gether.
Tis said that having this extravagant question put to him
by a friend, that if learning must suffer a general Shipwrack,
and he had only his choice left him of preserving one Author,
who should be the Man he would preserve; he answer'd Plu-
tarch; and probably might give this reason, that in saving him,
he should secure the best Collection of them all.
so The Epigram of Agathias, deserves also to be remember'd:
This Author flourish'd about the year five hundred, in the
Reign of the Emperour Justinian: The Verses are extant in
the Anthologia, and with the Translation of them, I will con-
clude the praises of our Author; having first admonish'd you,
that they are suppos'd to be written on a Statue erected by the
Romans to his memory.
4 Parallel to] Parallel to 01-4. 18 Latin] Latin 01-4.
288 Prose 1668-1691
Chceronean Plutarch, to thy deathless praise,

Does Martial Rome this grateful Statue raise:
Because both Greece and she thy fame have shar'd;
10 (Their Heroes written, and their Lives compar'd:)
But thou thy self cou'dst never write thy own;
Their Lives have Parallels but thine has none.
8 01-4.
3 01-4.
4 01-43
5 01-4. 6 01-4.
7 Cheronian 01-4.
A
DEFENCE
OF THE
P A P E R S
Written by the Late
K I N G
iSf $lc(tcfc jHWtmo$,
AND
Duchefs of York,
AGAINST
The ANSWER made to Them.
25? Command
LONDON,,
Printed by H. Hills, Printer to the King's Moft
Excellent Majefty for His Hou(hold and
ChappeL 1686.
Defence of the Duchess's Paper 291
Contribution to A Defence of the Papers:

A Defence of the Third [Duchess's] Paper
I
dare appeal to all unprejudic'd Readers, and especially to
those who have any sense of Piety, whether upon perusal of
the Paper written by Her late Highness the Duchess, they
have not found in it somewhat which touch'd them to the very
Soul; whether they did not plainly and perfectly discern in it the
Spirit of Meekness, Devotion, and Sincerity, which animates the
whole Discourse; and whether the Reader be not satisfied, that
she who writ it has open'd her Heart without disguise, so as
not to leave a Scruple that she was not in earnest. I am sure I
10 can say, for my own particular, that when I read it first in
Manuscript, I could not but consider it as a Discourse extremely
moving, plain, without Artifice, and discovering the Piety of
the Soul from which it flow'd. Truth has a Language to it self,
which 'tis impossible for Hypocrisie to imitate: Dissimulation
could never write so warmly, nor with so much life. What less
than the Spirit of Primitive Christianity could have dictated
her Words? The loss of Friends, of worldly Honours, and
Esteem, the Defamation of ill Tongues, and the Reproach of
the Cross, all these, though not without the struglings of
20 Flesh and Blood, were surmounted by her; as if the Saying of
our Saviour were always sounding in her Ears, What will it
profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his Soul!
I think I have amplified nothing in relation either to this
Pious Lady, or her Discourse: I am sure I need not. And now
let any unbiass'd and indifferent Reader compare the Spirit
of the Answerer with hers. Do's there not manifestly appear
in him a quite different Character? Need the Reader be in-
form'd, that he is disingenuous, foul-mouth'd, and shuffling;
and that, not being able to answer plain Matter of Fact, he
so endeavours to evade it, by Suppositions, Circumstances, and
Conjectures; like a cunning Barreter of Law, who is to manage
292 Prose 1668—1691
a sinking Cause, the Dishonesty of which he cannot otherwise

support, than by defaming his Adversary? Her only Business
is, to satisfie her Friends of the inward Workings of her Soul,
in order to her Conversion, and by what Methods she quitted
the Religion in which she was educated. He, on the contrary,
is not satisfied, unless he question the Integrity of her Pro-
ceedings, and the Truth of her plain Relation, even so far as to
blast, what in him lies, her Blessed Memory, with the impu-
tation of Forgery and Deceit; as if she had given a false Ac-
10 count, not only of the Passages in her Soul, and the Agonies of
a troubl'd Conscience, only known to God and to her self, but
also of the Discourses which she had with others concerning
those Disquiets. Every where the Lie is to be cast upon her,
either directly, in the Words of the Bishop of Winchester,
which he quotes; or indirectly, in his own, in which his spiteful
Diligence is most remarkable.
In his Answer to the two former Papers there seems to have
been some restraint upon the virulence of his Genius, though
even there he has manifestly past the Bounds of Decency and
20 Respect: But so soon as he has got loose from disputing with
Crown'd Heads, he shews himself in his pure Naturals, and is
as busie in raking up the Ashes of their next Relations, as if
they were no more of kin to the Crown, than the New Church
of England is to the Old Reformation of their Great-Grand-
fathers. But God forbid that I should think the whole Episcopal
Clergy of this Nation to be of his Latitudinarian Stamp; many
of them, as Learn'd as himself, are much more Moderate: And
such, I am confident, will be as far from abetting his Ir-
reverence to the Royal Family, as they are from the jugling
so Designs of his Faction, to draw in the Nonconformists to their
Party, by assuring them they shall not be prosecuted (as in-
deed, upon their Principles, they cannot be by them); but in
the mean time this is to wrest the Favour out of the King's
Hands, and take the Bestowing it into their own; and to re-
assume to themselves that Headship of the English Church,
which their Ancestors gave away to King Henry the Eighth.
And now let any Loyal Subject but consider, whether this
new way of their Proceeding do's not rather tend to bring the
Church of England into the Fanatics, than the Fanatics into
the Church of England.
These are the Arts which are common to him and his Fellow-
labourers; but his own peculiar Talent is that of subtle
Calumny and sly Aspersion, by which he insinuates into his
Readers an ill Opinion of his Adversaries, before he comes
to Argument; and takes away their Good Name rather by
Theft than open Robbery. He lays a kind of accumulative
10 Dishonesty to their Charge, and touches 'em here and there
with Circumstances, in stead of positive Proofs, till at last he
leaves a bad Impression of 'em; like a Painter who makes
Blotches of hard Colouring in several Parts of the Face, which
he smooths afterwards into a Likeness. After this manner he,
or one of his Brethren in Iniquity, has us'd Monsieur de Con-
dom, by picking up Stories against him in his Preface, which
he props up with little Circumstances, but seldom so positive
that he cannot come off, when their Falsity shall be detected.
In the mean time, his Cause go's forward with the Common
20 Reader; who, prepossest by the Preface, is made partial to his
Answer. The same kind of Artifice, with some little variation,
has been us'd in other of their Books, besides this present
Libel against the Duchess.
But, the Cloven-foot of this our Answerer, appears from
underneath the Cassock, even in the first step he makes towards
his Answer to the present Paper: Which, he tells us, is said
to be written by a great Lady. How doubtfully he speaks, as if
there were no certainty of the Author. But surely 'tis more
than barely said; for 'tis Publish'd by the same Authority,
BO which order'd the two other Papers written by His late Majesty
to the Press; and the Original of it, is still remaining in the
Hands of the present King. Indeed the Bishop of Winchester
may seem to have given him some encouragement for this
in the Preface to his Treatises, where he tells us, That Maim-
bourg the Jesuite recites something which he says was written
by the late Duchess; and which he afterwards calls the Papers
15 Monsieur] Monsieur Q.
2 94 Prose 1668-1691
pretended to be written by Her. But if that Bishop had liv'd

to see what our Answerer has seen, Her Paper Printed and Pub-
lish'd by His Majesty, I cannot think he wou'd have been so
incredulous as to have made that doubt. It may be allow'd him
to suspect a Stranger of Forgery; but with what face can this
Son of the Church of England suspect the Integrity of his
King? In the mean time, observe what an excellent Voucher he
has got of this dead Bishop, and what an excellent Argument
he has drawn from him. Because he would not believe what
10 he did not think she said, we must not believe what we know
she did say. Let our Author therefore come out of his Mists
and Ambiguities, or give us some better Authority for his
unreasonable Doubts: For, at this rate, if it be already sus-
pected, whether what she writes be Matter of Fact, and indeed,
whether she writ it at all; it may be doubted hereafter, whether
she chang'd, and perhaps, whether there were ever such a
Woman.
After he had thus begun, That this Paper was said to be
written by a Great Lady, for the satisfaction of her Friends;
20 he shuffles in commodious Words for an Answerer, and which
afford him Elbow-room: For he talks of the Reasons and
Motives which she had, for her leaving the Communion of the
Church of England, ire. and of the Right which all Readers
have to judge of the strength of them. Now, as Luck will have
it, none of those Motives and Reasons are to be found in the
Paper of her Highness: She expresses her self clearly to write
for the Satisfaction of her Friends, not as to the Reasons she
had her self for changing, but as to the Censures which she
might expect from them for so doing: and her whole Paper
so shews this was only her Design. So that, against the Law of all
Romances, he first builds the Enchanted Castle, and then sets
up to be the Doughty Knight who conquers it. It seems he
found, that a bare Denial, which is the proper Answer to
Matter of Fact, was a dry Business, and would make no sport;
and therefore he would be sure to cut himself out sufficient
Work. But it is not every Mans Talent to force a Trade; for a
Customer may chuse whether he will buy or not.
18 That} That Q.
This Great Person chang'd not lightly, nor in haste; but

after all the Endeavours which could be us'd, by a Soul which
was true to it self, and to its Eternal Interest. She was sensible,
as I before hinted, that she should lose her Friends and Credit,
and what to her Condition at that time was more sharply
piercing, expose the Catholics of England to the danger of
suffering for her sake. On these Considerations she makes a
plain Relation of all the Passages in her Change; and expecting
severe Censures from the World, took care to satisfie her
10 Friends concerning it. As for the Reasons of it, they were only
betwixt God and her own Soul, and the Priest with whom she
spoke at last. What a wonderful Art has this Gentleman, to
turn a bare Narrative into Motives and Inducements? When
he is arriv'd to the Perfection of calling down a Saint from
Heaven, he may examine her concerning them; in the mean
time he must be content with the Relation which she has left
behind her here on Earth; and if he will needs be mistaking
her Scruples for her Motives, who can help it?
His Design, as he tells us a little after the beginning, is to
20 vindicate the Honour of the Church of England, so far as it
may be thought to suffer by the Paper of her late Highness. 1
might here tell him, that he has an Obligation antecedent to
the Honour of his Community, which is that to God and his
own Conscience. But the Honour of the Church of England
is no farther concern'd in the Paper of her Highness, than in
relation to the Persons of two or three Prelates; and those he
leaves at last to shift for themselves as they are able, with this
melancholy Farewell, That God be thanked, the Cause of our
Church do's not depend upon the singular Opinion of one or
so two Bishops in it, wherein they apparently recede from the
establish'd Doctrine of it.
In the next place, he is sensible how nice and tender a thing
it is to meddle in a Matter wherein the Memory of so Great a
Lady is concern'd.
Here he is sensible, once for all; for after this one Civility,
you hear no more of his Good Manners to the end of the
Chapter; but the Honour of the Church of England so wholly
s8 That] That Q.
296 Prose 1668-1691
takes up his thoughts, that he forgets the Respect which is due

to her Sex, her Quality, her Memory, her Relations, and con-
futes her as coursly as the Parson did Bellarmine.
He go's on to inform us, how hard a Task he has under-
taken in answering these Papers, wherein such Circumstances
are mention'd as cannot fully be clear'd, the Parties themselves
having been many years dead; yet he shall endeavour to keep
within due Bounds, &c.
These due Bounds either are, or ought to be, Respect to the
10 Great Lady, and Caution in regard of Circumstances, which I
hope he will not put upon his Readers for Arguments, the
Parties being dead so long ago.
But let the Reader here take notice, that in this very Place
he is clapping his Cups together, and shuffling his Balls from
Hand to Hand, to lay the Foundation of his Jugling, and to
prepare the way for all the Tricks which he is to play here-
after.
For the Parties being dead long since, that is, the Duchess,
in the first place, not being alive to justifie the several Con-
20 ferences which she had with the Bishops; nor they, in the
second, to answer as in the sight of God, whether she had such
Discourse with them, the Field is open for him, as he vainly
imagines, by laying Circumstances of Time and Place to-
gether, and racking her own Paper till it seemingly speaks
against her, to render it suspected to his good Friends the
Rabble, that she has falsified the whole Matter.
Well, we shall see what he builds upon this Foundation: Let
him speak for himself.
The way of her Satisfaction was very extraordinary; for
ao towards the Conclusion she confesses she was not able, nor
would she enter into Disputes with any body.
Commend me to him for a Man of quick dispatch. At the
first dash he is bringing the two Ends of her Paper together;
for he says, Towards the Conclusion she confesses. 'Twas well
search'd of him, however, to hunt counter, and run to the End
of her Discourse for the Beginning of his own. He will lose no
Advantages, I warrant him. Press that home, Doctor. She
modestly owns, that she was neither able nor willing to enter
into Disputes; therefore she had no other way to satisfie her
self: When the whole drift of this Pious and sincere Discourse
is to inform her Friends of the Methods by which God Al-
mighty brought her into his Church; her Paper being a plain
and short History of her Conversion.
The Answerer is of Opinion, there is nothing to be done,
no satisfaction to be had in Matters of Religion without
Dispute; that's his only Receipt, his Nostrum for attaining
10 a true belief. But Doctors differ in this Point. For another
*Witty Gentleman of his Church desir'd no other Epitaph
upon his Tomb than this; Here lies the Author of this
Sentence, Disputandi pruritus, scabies Ecclesias The itch
of Disputation is the Scab or Tetter of the Church. Now if the
Learned avail themselves so little of Dispute, that it is as rare
as a Prodigie for one of them to convince another, what shall
become of the Ignorant, when they are to deal with those
fencers of Divinity, who can hit them in Tierce and Quart at
pleasure, while they are ignorant how to stand upon their guard?
20 And yet such poor People have Souls to save as precious in the
sight of God as the grim Logicians. Must they be damned un-
less they can make a regular approach to Heaven, in Mood and
Figure? Is there no entring there without a Sillogism? or
Ergoteering it with a nego, concedo, & distinguo? The best on't
is, Our Saviours Disciples were but poor Fishermen, and we
read but of one of his Apostles who was bred up at the Feet
of Gamaliel. I would beseech our Answerer to consider whether
he has argued upon his own Principles, in affirming, that none
can be satisfied as to the grounds of leaving one Church and
so going to the other without entring into Dispute? Has he not
allow'd, that every Man is to Interpret the Scripture for him-
self, in reference to his own Salvation? With what Face then can
he positively say, That this Lady, who had not only read the
Scriptures, but found them in her Judgment plainly to decide
the great Controversie betwixt Catholics and Protestants, might
» Sir. Hen. Wootton.
18-ig Divinity, who . . . guard?] Divinity? Who . . . guard. Q.
2g8 Prose 1668-1691
not leave his Church, and enter into that of Christ, by Inter-
preting this is my Body, in the Litteral and Obvious meaning
If from a Catholic she had become a Protestant by expounding
those Words in a Figurative Sense, he would have applauded
her for not discerning the Lords Body, and said she was in the
right to Interpret for her self. But she, it seems, must be an
exception to his General Rule, and not have that priviledge
allow'd her which he dare not deny to any Sectary of the
Nonconformists. The Phanatics think the Scripture is clear
10 in all Matters of Salvation, and if so, what need, say they, of
those Spiritual Directours? Even the Pillars of the Church by
Law establish'd, from their own Concessions are found to be
but broken Staffs: For after all their undertaking to heal a
wounded Conscience, when the Arrows of the Almighty are
stuck into it, they leave their Proselytes finally to the Scripture;
as our Physicians, when they have emptied the Pockets of their
Patients without curing them, send them at last to Tunbridge
Waters, or the Air of Montpelliers.
But if Persons be resolv'd before hand what to do, says our
20 Answerer, there is no such way as to declare they will not enter
into Dispute.
Here he would make us believe, that she swallow'd a new
Religion without chewing it, because she Disputed not. I have
shew'd already what is the common fate of Disputation: But
had she no other way of satisfying her Conscience? (as he im-
mediately infers she had not.) If he were not obstinately blind,
or rather had not an intention to blind his Reader, he might
have observ'd the Methods and Gradations of her change, and
that tho' she Disputed not; yet she Discoursed (which is entring
so into Matter of Dispute) with some of the ablest of the English
Clergy, even with him particularly who was left by the Bishop
of Winchester to be her Spiritual Directour; by which it plainly
appears, notwithstanding all the jugglings and glosses of our
Answerer, that the better part even of his own Prescription was
put in practice by her, though without effect, as to her satis-
18 Waters] Waters Q. 23 not.] ~ , Q.
faction. Why then do's he ask so many idle Questions? Had

she no Divines of the Church of England about her? none able
and willing to afford her their utmost assistance, when she takes
care to inform the World, that she had such Divines, that she
imparted her Scruples, and after all, remain'd unsatisfied with
their Answers.
Persons of Learning, indeed he says, may possibly be satisfied
without entring into Disputes of Matters which she had neither
the leisure to examine, nor the capacity to judge of.
10 Then as I said before, the Kingdom of Heaven is chiefly, if
not only, for the Wise and Learned of this World, though our
Saviour was not of this Judgment. But is not every Man to be
satisfied pro modulo suof according to the measure of his own
Understanding? Can an ignorant Person enter into the Knowl-
edge of the Mysteries of our Faith, when even the most Learned
cannot understand them? Can the Answerer himself unriddle
the secrets of the Incarnation, fadom the undivided Trinity?
Or the Consubstantiality of the Eternal Son with all his Read-
ings and Examinations? From whence comes it then that he be-
20 lieves them? since neither the Scripture is plain about them, nor
the Wit of Man can comprehend them? As for her comparing
the Doctrines of both Churches, no question she did it to the
best of her Ability; for if he will believe her in any thing, she
both read the Scriptures, and conferr'd with the most Learned
Protestants before she had any Discourses with a Catholic Priest:
But if she had not, as he rudely says, the capacity of judging
in deep Controversies, 'tis very probable she might want that
of understanding the instructions of her Guides: For if I may
similize in my turn, a dull fellow might ask the meaning of a
so Problem in Euclide from the Bishop of Salisbury, without
being ever the better for his Learned Solution of it: So then,
her Capacity will break no squares, at least from the Doctrine
of the English Church, and the Presbyterians, put them both
together as they now stand united; for either the Scriptures
1i only,] ~A Q. 30 Euclide] Euclide Q.
33 English] English Q.
300 Prose 1668-1691
are clear, and then a mean Capacity will serve to understand

them, or though they are never so obscure, yet the upshot of
all is that every Man is to Interpret for himself.
What farther quarrel he can have against the Lady in
this particular I know not, unless it be upon the Bishop
of Winchesters account; namely, That she refus'd to advise
with him, and admitted the two others to a Conference, and
what reason she had for so doing, if I were as penetrating
as my Author I should undertake to demonstrate by the In-
10 fallible Evidence of Circumstances and Inferences; but since
the parties are dead, and so long since, I will not give my own
Opinion why she refus'd him, and of what Principles she might
possibly have thought him: At present I will not trouble my
self farther with that Prelate of rich Memory, whom I warrant
you our Author would not commend so much for his great
Abilities and willingness to resolve the Ladies doubts, if he
had not some Journey-work for him to do hereafter: neither
will I meddle much with the long Impertinent Story of his
Letter to the Duchess, and her silence at Farnham, where she
20 would not consult him in any of her doubts: Whatever great
matters are made of these by our Answerer, she had a very
sufficient reason for not asking his Advice, as will instantly
be made appear: but now our Author is at another of his
dodging tricks, comparing Times and Dates of Letters, the
Bishops bearing Date the Twenty fourth of January, that very
Year in which she chang'd; but that he may not puzzle himself
too much in reckoning, I will unriddle the Matter of Fact to
him, which I have from a most Authentic Hand; the Duke
and Duchess were at Farnham in the beginning of September,
so where they continued about three Days, in the Year 1670.
Her Highnesses Paper bears Date the Twentieth of August
1670 by which it is manifest, that it was written twelve or
fourteen Days before her visit to the Bishop. Now where, I
beseech you, is the wonder, that she spoke nothing to him
concerning any points of a Religion in which she was already
satisfied? Wou'd any Man ask another what's a Clock, after he
33 i67o]~.Q.
had been just looking upon a Sun-dial? So that all his ag-
gravations, dwindle at length into this poor Inference, that
it is evident she did not make use of the ordinary means for
her own Satisfaction; at least (mark how he mollifies for fear
of being trap'd) as to those Bishops who had known her long-
est.
Now this is so pitiful, that it requires no Answer: for it
amounts to no more than that she lik'd not the Bishop, and
therefore, from the beginning conceal'd her Scruples from him;
10 and she chang'd her Religion the same Year (tho1 before he writ
to her) because she was satisfied of another; but do's it follow
from hence, as he infers, that in the mean while she did not
use the ordinary means for her satisfaction? supposing she had
lik'd the other two Bishops, as little as she did him, had she no
other ordinary means but by those two, or even by any other
Bishops? Satisfied, to be sure, she was, or she had not chang'd;
and if the means had been wholly extraordinary from the In-
spirations of Gods Holy Spirit only, she had thereby receiv'd
the greater favour; but not omitting to give God thanks for his
20 Supernatural Assistance, she us'd also, the ordinary means.
It appears that her first Emotions were from her observing
the Devotions of the Catholics in France and Flanders, and
this is no news to any Traveller; ask even our Protestant
Gentlemen at their return from Catholic Countries, and they
cannot but confess, that the Exercises of their Devotion, their
Mortifications, their Austerities, their Humility, their Charity,
and in short, all the ways of good living are practis'd there in a
far greater measure than they are in England: But these are the
Vertues from which we are blessedly reform'd by the Example
so and Precept of that Lean, Mortified Apostle, St. Martin Luther.
Her first Scruples were rais'd in her by reading Doctor Hey-
lins History of the Reformation, and what she found in it we
shall see hereafter; it appears, that History had given her some
new apprehensions, and to satisfie them, she consider'd of the
Matters in difference betwixt the Catholics and Protestants,
and so considered them as to examine them the best she could
19 his] according to Errata, some copies read that.
goa Prose 1668-1691
by Scripture, which she found to speak clearly for the Catho-

lics, and she upon our Authors Principles, was Judge of this:
after which she spoke with two of the best Bishops in England,
and their doubtful, or rather favourable Answers did but add
more to the desire she had to be a Catholic: All these ordinary
ways she took, before she could persuade her self to send for a
Priest, whose endeavours it pleas'd the Almighty so to bless
that she was reconcil'd to his Church, and her troubled Con-
science was immediately at rest.
10 I have been forc'd to recapitulate these things, and to give
them the Reader at one view; for our Answerer is so cunning
at his Trade, that he shews them only in Parcels and by Retail,
that it might not be thought she us'd the ordinary Means. One
thing I had omitted, which was, that the Bishop affirms in his
Letter to her Highness, that she had made him a Promise, in
case any Writing were put into her Hand by those of the
Roman Church, she would send it either to him, or the Bishop
of Oxford.
Why do's our Author put down that Promise thus at large?
20 If he means any thing more by it, besides a Justification of his
Bishop for having done his part, which signifies just nothing,
he would tacitely insinuate, that she broke her Word, by not
sending any such Writing to him. If so, he is at his Legerde-
main again. He would have it thought, she kept not her Prom-
ise, but do's not positively affirm it: But since it is manifest,
by the order of time in her Paper, that she neither sent for
any Priest, nor conferr'd with any Learn'd Catholic, till after
she had done with the two Bishops, it may, and ought to be
suppos'd, that she receiv'd no Writings from any of that Re-
BO ligion; for if she had she would certainly have mention'd them.
If then the Bishop of Winchester would insinuate, that she
had such Papers, which she sent not to him, according to her
Engagement, I may at least answer with my Author, That the
Lady was dead long before the Bishop published his Letter, so
that the Circumstances therein mention'd cannot be so fully
clear'd.
But to return to our Answerer: He has brought us at length
to the several Discourses which her Highness had with the two
Bishops, his Grace of Canterbury, and the Bishop of Worcester;
and since he has thought fit to put all that concern'd this Mat-
ter into one long Paragraph, quoted from the Duchess, I must
follow his Example. These are her Words. After this, I spoke
severally to two of the best Bishops we have in England, who
both told me, there were many things in the Roman Church
which it were very much to be wish'd we had kept; as Confes-
sion, which was no doubt commanded of God; that Praying for
10 the Dead was one of the ancient things in Christianity; that
for their parts, they did it daily, tho' they would not own it:
And afterwards pressing one of them very much upon the other
Points, he told me, That if he had been bred a Catholic, he
would not change his Religion; but that being of another
Church, wherein he was sure were all things necessary to Sal-
vation, he thought it very ill to give that Scandal, as to leave
that Church wherein he had receiv'd his Baptism. All these
Discourses did but add more to the desire I had to be a Cath-
olic, and gave me the most terrible Agonies in the world, ire.
20 This, he confesses, seems to be to the purpose: And where he
confesses the least Advantage on our side, the Reader may
swear there is somewhat more than ordinary in the matter:
But he retrenches immediately, and kicks down the Pail, by
adding this Restriction, // there were not some Circumstances
and Expressions very much mistaken in the Representation of
it. Yet in the next Line again, as if he were asham'd of his
own tearfulness, he is for making a bold Sally, and putting all
to the push: For, supposing the utmost to be allow'd, says he,
there could be no Argument from hence drawn for leaving the
so Communion of our Church: But he restrains that too with this
Caution, // the Bishops Authority and Example did signifie
any thing with her. Thus from yielding at first he comes to
modifie his Concession, and from thence to strike out mag-
nanimously.
But then he retreats again with another (if.) 'Tis a sign he
is uneasie, when he tosses and turns so often in a Breath; and
19 &c.] be, Q.
304 Prose 1668-1691
that he is diffident of his Cause, when he shifts his Plea. 'Tis

evident that the Duchess laid a great stress on these Conces-
sions; and well she might: for what a startle would it give to
a doubting Soul, which already had taken the Alarm, to hear
two Bishops, whereof one was Primate of All England, re-
nouncing and condemning two of the establish'd Articles of
their Church? But 'tis well known, that those two Prelates were
not, nor, if they were now living, would be the only Clergy-
men of the Church of England who are of opinion they have
10 over-reform'd themselves, in casting off Prayers for the Dead
and consequently, the Doctrine of a Third Place: But these
are Church of England Men of the old stamp, betwixt whom,
and the Faction of this Answerer, there is just as much differ-
ence, as betwixt a true Episcopal Man, and a Latitudinarian:
and this latter, in plain terms, is no otherwise different from a
Presbyterian, than by whatsoever Titles and Dignities he is
distinguish'd. So that our Answerer was much in the right, to
skip over the first half of this Paragraph without answering in
this place, and to gallop to the last Sentence of it, which begins
20 with Bishop Blandford's saying, That if he had been bred in
the Communion of the Roman Church, he would not change
his Religion: Whither, as in Duty bound, I follow him.
To over-ballance the weight of these Concessions, our Au-
thor would have us think, that the subsequent Words of the
Bishop ought to have had greater force to have kept her in the
Communion of the Protestant Church, than the former to have
drawn her from it; for the Bishop comes off with this Excuse,
That being of another Church, wherein he was sure were all
things necessary to Salvation, he thought it very ill to give that
30 Scandal, as to leave that Church wherein he receiv'd his Bap-
tism.
First, take notice, That the Duchess says, the Bishop was
pressed by her very much, before he made the Concession;
That if he had been bred a Catholic, he would not have
chang'd: Which shews, that a Truth was forc'd out of him,
14-16 Latitudinarian . , . Presbyterian] Latitudinarian . . . Presbyterian O.
so That] That Q.
which he would willingly have conceal'd. For, both in regard

to his own Credit, and the retaining of so Great a Person in
his Church, it was not his Interest to have yielded that a Cath-
olic might be saved, at least on as easie Terms as a Protestant.
But he goes farther, when he confesses, That if he had been
bred a Catholic, he would not have alter'd his Religion: For
therein he seems even to regret his being bred a Protestant; at
least he yields, that all things necessary to Salvation were in
the Roman Catholic Church; for otherwise, had he been edu-
10 cated in it, he ought in conscience to have chang'd, which he
owns he would not have done. Now this is manifestly more
than what he said for the Church of England; for his following
Words are rather an Excuse for his Continuance in his Church,
than an Argument to dissuade her Highness from turning
Catholic. He thought it very ill to give that Scandal to leave
the Church, wherein he was Baptiz'd. Now the Word Scandal
plainly relates to his own Person, and signifies no more, than
that he was asham'd to change: For it was impossible for him
to think he should sin against his Conscience in changing, who
20 had declar'd, That he would not have chang'd, in case he had
been bred a Catholic. And the Reason he gives is made of the
same yielding Metal, (viz.) That he had his Baptism in the
Protestant Church; for that Argument in it self is of no weight,
since the Right Reverend well knew, that the Baptism even of
Heretics is good; so that if he had been Christn'd in the Lu-
theran, the Abyssine, or the Russian Church, he must for that
reason have continu'd in it: But he timerously pleads his fear
of giving Scandal; which is, as I said, no Justification of him-
self, no Dissuasive to Her, but only a mean, interessed Apology
so for his not changing.
As for his intimating, That all things necessary to Salvation
were to be had in the Church of England, let any reasonable
Man be Judge, whether he could possibly have said less in de-
fence of himself, for continuing in it: For this only shew'd,
that he thought Salvation was to be had in both Churches, as
even this Author himself is forc'd to confess afterwards, in
these words: The utmost that can be made of this, is, That a
306 Prose 1668-1691
certain Bishop of our Church (who in the mean time has

prov'd himself an uncertain one) held both Churches so far
Parts of the Catholic Church, that there was no necessity of
going from one Church to another.
That which he calls the utmost we can make of it, is in truth
the least which the Bishop's Words will naturally bear; and I
may safely put the Cause upon this Issue, Whether such a Dis-
course might not reasonably add more to the desire she had to
be a Catholic?
10 Let us hear now what he has to answer; and I will reply
briefly, because I have taken away the Strength of his Argu-
ment already.
First, He says in effect, That the Bishops Authority and Ex-
ample ought to have prevail'd with her on the one side, more
than his Concessions on the other.
I reply; Not his Authority, because he spoke more for the
Church of Rome, than against it: Nor his Example; for he
gave her no encouragement to follow it, by saying, That if he
had been bred a Catholic, he would not have chang'd. His
20 Example of Praying daily for the Dead, shew'd his Opinion at
the bottom; but his not publicly owning that he did so, has
prov'd him little better than a Black Bishop, who was enter'd
privately into the White ones Walk.
Our Author asks in the second place, Why any Person should
forsake the Communion of the Protestant Church, wherein the
Bishop affirm'd were all things necessary to Salvation? And I en-
quire, How she could be bound to believe him, since Confes-
sion, and Prayers for the Dead are wanting in it; one of which
he had before acknowledg'd to be commanded of God; the
so other, to be one of the ancient things in Christianity?
Thirdly, He urges, That the Bishop had told her it was an
ill thing to leave the Church of England. And I reply, That
the Answerer has falsified his Words. The Bishop only thought
it very ill to give that Scandal, as to leave the Church wherein
he was Baptiz'd. First, he spoke of himself only, not of her.
Mark that Fallacy. And then he said not, It was ill to leave
the Church; but, very ill to give that Scandal, as to leave the
Church; relating again to his own particular.
Defence of the Duchess's Paperer 307
Fourthly, He says, "Tis evident that the Bishops Concessions

could have no influence upon her (tho' she positively says,
those Discourses, in which were those Concessions, did but
add more to the desire she had to be a Catholic.) This is full
upon the Vizor; but the Dead are to take all things patiently.
Well! How if he can convince her of Falsity from her own
Words? Why, then he will carry his Argument, as well as his
Good Manners, to the height; and how broad soever the Word
may be which he has slily given her, yet he will tell you, That
10 Freedom ought to be permitted him, as sustaining the Honour
of the Church of England.
His Argument is this: She declares afterwards, That she
would not have chang'd, if she had thought it possible other-
wise to have saved her Soul: But the Bishop had told her, That
all things necessary for Salvation were in the English Church:
Therefore the Bishop contributed nothing to her Change.
So the Miter be safe in its Reputation, no matter what be-
comes of the Ducal Coronet. Now I can be very well content
that the Bishop should have no part in the Honour of her Con-
20 version; for, 'tis plain, that he desir'd it not: and why should
he do good against his will?
I wish my Author would have furnish'd me with an Argu-
ment to have brought him wholly off; but I will bring him on
his way as far as by the help of the Answerer's Scarf I can fairly
drag him. I say therefore, That tho' her Highness chang'd not
her Belief upon the Concessions of the Bishop, yet his Conces-
sions were an occasion of her farther Scruples, in order to her
Change: For, she says, they added to the desire she had to be a
Catholic.
so The Bishop did indeed tell her, That all things necessary to
Salvation were in the English Church; but tell me, Sir, I be-
seech you, was that all he told her? By your favour, you have
left out the better half of what he said: for he told her also,
That if he had been bred a Catholic, he would not have
chang'd. And she had reason to believe what he said to the
advantage of a Church of which he was no Member, as being
sure he would say no more than scanty Truth. And he acknowl-
34 That] That Q.
308 Prose 1668-1691
edges into the Bargain, That Concession was commanded of

God; and, that Praying for the Dead was one of the ancient
things in Christianity. What a shameful way of arguing is this,
to make a general Negative Conclusion from half the Premises?
Or, in other Words, to maintain that the Bishops Concessions
could have no influence upon her, because they had not the
greatest influence? And you in a manner have confessed it be-
fore you were aware, in the close of your Argument, where you
say, There must therefore have been some more secret Reason,
10 which increas'd her desire to be a Catholic after these Dis-
courses. Now some more secret Reason do's not hinder the
Bishops Concessions from being one; nay, it argues, that they
were one of the Reasons, though not the most prevalent, be-
cause there was one more secret. You have now contradicted
your self so plainly, that you have wholly justified the Duchess,
and the broad Word, without naming it, is fairly brought back
to your own door.
After this, our Answerer do's but piddle, and play at small
Game, as if her Highness might possibly take encouragement
20 from the Bishop's calling the Church of Rome the Catholic
Religion: But she was too much in earnest to lay hold upon
a Word. Neither is more advantage to be taken from his call-
ing the Church of Rome the Catholic Religion, than we re-
ceive disadvantage from the playing upon the Word of Roman
Catholic.
Next, for want of a Quarrel, he is falling on his late dear
Friend the Bishop: Was he, says our Answerer, so weak, to
mean the Word Catholic in the strictest sense, he must then
have contradicted himself, there was an inconsistency in his
so Words, and so forth.
From the inconsistency of the Bishop's Words, in this and
other Places, our Answerer, perhaps, would make a secret In-
ference, That he never said them; and obliquely draw the
Duchess into the Statute of Coining: So that the two Spiritual
Hectors may make a Sham-duel of it, for ought we know. For
'tis a common trick with Robbers to clash their Swords to-
1-2 That . . . that] That . . . that Q. 7 have confessed] confess Q.
gether in the dark, to draw Company together, and then some

third Person pays for it. Take it in this manner, and then the
Argument against her Highness will stand thus: The Sayings
which she relates are inconsistent, and therefore she must not
be believ'd, though she affirms she heard them. Why, do not as
many as have Ears hear inconsistent things said every day? and
must every body needs lie who reports them again? That In-
consistency of the Words is, in truth, an Argument that the
things were said: For what bids fairer for adding to the desire
10 she had of being a Catholic, and of giving her the terrible
Agonies she felt? But after all, if the Answerer's Quarrel be in
earnest with the Bishop, 'tis pity they should fall out for such
a Trifle: As weak as the Bishop was, and as strong as our An-
swerer makes his Inconsistencies appear, I dare answer for him,
he meant nothing less than to convert her.
You do ill therefore to play the Bully with a peaceable Old
Gentleman, who only desir'd to possess his Conscience and his
Bishopric in peace, without offence to any Man, either of the
Catholic Church, or that of England.
20 But if he held, that both Churches were so far Parts of the
Catholic, that there was no necessity of going from one Church
to another to be sav'd, if he asserted that you say, he must over-
throw the Necessity of your Reformation; and then down go's
his Belief of your Homilies and Articles (Thirty nine at a Tip),
and consequently he could be no true Member of the Church
of England.
And now what can I do more for the poor Bishop? For most
certainly he did imply thus much in saying, That if he had
been bred a Catholic, he would not change his Religion. There-
so fore, Take him Topham; there's no help, but he must be
turn'd out of the Church of England, even so long after he
has been dead.
In the mean time, let us a little examine this Proposition.
Our Answerer affirms, That he cannot be a true Member of
the Church of England, who asserts both Churches to be so
far Parts of the Catholic Church, that there is no necessity
28 That] That Q.
31 o Prose 1668-1691
of going from one Church to another to be sav'd. If this be

true, then, to be a Member of the Church of England, one
must assert, That either both Churches are not Parts of the
Catholic, or, That they are so Parts, that there is a necessity of
going from one to another. Of these two, the first is not for
the Honour of one of the Churches, and the second is direct
Nonsence. A Necessity of Change consists not with their being
both Parts; for Parts constitute one Whole, and leave not one
and another, to go to or from. There is no Church in France
10 or Italy, to which a Spanish Catholic can go, but what he left
in Spain; nor can he leave his own, by going to either of them.
He may be under other Governours in the same Church; but
let him go wheresoever he shall please, he cannot be of an-
other, so long as he remains a Catholic. In short, Necessity of
Change makes it absolutely impossible for both Churches to
be Parts of the Catholic, and forces the Church of England to
maintain, either that she is a Part, and the Roman Catholic
none; or else, that 'tis no matter whether she be a Part or no;
to which, I wish, they may not, with the Pretence of Zeal for
20 her Honour, desire to drive her, who have nothing better to
say in their own behalf.
But though our Answerer has laid one Bishop flat, I war-
rant you he has another in reserve: For now the Bishop of
Winchester (who, as I said formerly, was not commended so
much for nothing) is brought back in Triumph from his Pal-
ace of Farnham, to make a short end of the Dispute. At first
he doubts, whether ever there were any such Bishops who
made such Answers; and then affirms, that he believes there
never was in rerum naturd such a Discourse as is pretended to
so have been betwixt this Great Person, and two of the most
Learned Bishops in England.
This is downright indeed; for our Answerer, to do him Jus-
tice, has often collaterally accus'd the Duchess for her good
Invention at making Stories: but here is plain English upon
the Point. What pity is it in the mean time, that my Lord of
Winton gives not so much as one single Reason either for his
33 often] often Q.
Doubt, or his contrary Belief? So that having only his Lord-

ship's Opinion, and her Highness's Affirmation before me, I
might say, with at least as much Good Manners as that Prelate,
That I believe as little of his pretended Letter sent to the
Duchess so long after her Decease, as he do's of her pretended
Discourse with the two Bishops.
In the mean time, what use would my Gentleman here make
of his Lordships doubts, his belief, or his affirmation? Are the
Embers too hot for him, that he uses the Bishops Foot to pull
10 out the Chesnut? Suppose our Prelate had believ'd there were
no Antipodes, is this a time of Day to give him credit? But
I wonder the less, why our Author attributes so much to his
ipse dixit upon all occasions; for the whole body of his Answer,
to this Paper, is in effect a Transcript from the Bishops Pref-
ace: He purloyns his Arguments, without altering, sometime,
so much as the property of his words. He has quoted him five
times only in the Margent, and ought to have quoted him in al-
most every line of his Pamphlet. In short, if the Master had
not eaten, the Man (saving Reverence) could not have vom-
20 ited. But it is easie to be seen through all the grimaces of that
Bishop, that he found himself aggriev'd, he was not thought
on, when her Highness spoke o£ the two best, or most Learned
Bishops of England; and that his Opinion was not consulted,
when, indeed, he had offer'd it, though unask'd.
I know his Defender will reply, That his Lordship has mod-
estly disclaim'd any such Pretence to Learning, in his Preface,
where he says, No, I am not, I know I am not, I am sure I am
not the most Learned Bishop. See how he mounts in his Ex-
pressions at three several Bounds. 'Tis true, all these Assevera-
30 tions, like his three Nolo's, needed not; for any reasonable
Man, who had read his Works, would have taken his bare
word, without Repetition. Yet this notwithstanding, he might
have some inward grudgings, that his Pupil thought him not
so great a Doctor.
But it is not fit that a Matter of such importance should end
2 Opinion] Opinion Q. 11 Antipodes] Antiphodes Q.
21 was] has Q (but corrected in Errata).
g 12 Prose 1668-1691
in a bare Ay and No on either side; for though the Parties have

been so long dead, yet there is a Witness still alive, and such
a one, that all Loyal Subjects are bound to joyn with me in
Prayers for the long continuance of His Life, and even for His
continuance in the True Religion, as far as the English Liturgy
can oblige them.
The Duchess thought her self bound to make his Royal
Highness acquainted with every one of these several Confer-
ences, which she had either with Archbishop Sheldon, or
10 Bishop Blandford, and that account was the very same in sub-
stance with what she communicates to her Friends in this pres-
ent Paper, as he is pleas'd to permit me to assure the World
after having had the Honour to hear him solemnly affirm it
which puts an end to the whole Matter of Dispute, and this
which follows is as Authentic.
The Day it pleased Almighty God to call her Highness to
his Mercy, some Relations of hers, who are yet living, were de-
sirous that she should speak with the Bishop of Worcester;
which the Duchess did not absolutely refuse upon their im-
20 portunity; but requested the then Duke to stop the Bishop a
little in the Anti-chamber and prepare him, according to her
directions, before he enter'd the Bed-chamber: accordingly His
Highness having met the Bishop acquainted him, That she was
actually reconcil'd to the Catholic Church; he then enquir'd,
Whether she were fully satisfied in all Points of the Doctrine
which she had embrac'd, and the Duke answer'd, that she was
entirely satisfied in the Doctrine of the Catholic Church; at
length the Bishop ask'd, Whether she had already receiv'd the
last Sacraments of the Church, naming particularly those of the
so Blessed Eucharist, and the Extreme Unction; and it being re-
ply'd by the Duke that she had receiv'd them, the Bishop an-
swered, That then he doubted not but that her Soul was in a
very safe condition; before they parted, His Royal Highness
told him, That it was the desire of the Duchess, he would not
trouble her with any Matter of Dispute, nor offer to Pray with
her, but if he had any Spiritual Counsel fitting for a Person in
5-6 Liturgy can] Liturgyc an Q.
her condition, in order to prepare her for her Death, he might

freely tender it; upon this he was admitted to her Bed-chamber,
and made her a brief Exhortation; after which, his stay there
was very short.
This being matter of Fact, and of unquestionable Truth, I
hope the Answerer will acquiesce in it, What he will think of
his Bishop concerns not me, but as a Protestant he has reason
for his thanking God, that the Cause of his Church do's not
depend on the singular Opinion of one Bishop in it. It ap-
10 pears plainly by this Relation, that the Bishop of Worcester
was ignorant, almost to the last, of her Conversion; so that, if
that will serve our Authors turn, he is acquitted from intending
any such Act of Charity, but that he contributed to it without
any such intention is apparent.
Yet our Author will not so sit down; he will condemn her
Highness from her own words again; and prove from her say-
ing, that she ow'd the Blessing of her Conversion wholly to
God Almighty, that therefore the Bishop could have no hand
in it.
20 What obligation has he to defend the Honour of his Church
by a piece of Sophistry? She ow'd it wholly to Almighty God;
for of our selves we can do nothing: but as the Answerer con-
fesses this excluded not her own endeavours; God inspir'd her
with a desire of being reconcil'd to his Church, in answer to
her frequent Prayers, not by immediate illumination, or shew-
ing her the right belief miraculously, but by affording her the
ordinary means, and conducting her by his good Spirit in the
use of them: If she had been immediately enlightn'd she
needed not to have recourse to any of the Bishops, but it
30 pleas'd God, who often works Good out of Evil, that the Argu-
ments they us'd, or rather, the Answers which they made, pro-
duc'd a contrary effect, and added more to the desire she had
to be a Catholic; in this sense, therefore it may be said, that
the Bishops sent her to the Priest; for an unresistable, over-
ruling Power, made them contribute to her change by oppos-
ing it; and the very hands which labour'd to hold her fast in
17 wholly to] to Q (some copies) (but corrected in Errata).
314 Prose 1668-1691
the Protestant Perswasion, carried her half Seas over, and put
her into other Hands, which carried her the other half. Truly
they would have receiv'd hard measure, if they had been found
guilty on the Statute of Perswasion, who far from endeavour-
ing to make her change, disswaded her from changing, tho' the
Protestant Flints happen'd to strike Catholic Fire: So that I
cannot but think there was an extraordinary Hand of Provi-
dence in her Case; and of which she had reason to be extraor-
dinary sensible. But we must have, I perceive, a care of Pray-
10 ing, and owning benefits from God; for that, or nothing made
her pass for an Enthusiast with the Answerer: She did nothing
besides Praying, which our Author do's not acknowledge it her
duty to have done. She read the History which was put into
her Hands, to confirm her in her first belief; she examin'd the
Scripture, she conferr'd with her Divines; and yet he can make
an obstinate Woman of her for doing that very thing, to which
he wou'd advise her. But, says our Author, All pretenders to
Enthusiasm do as solemnly and wholly ascribe the Blessing to
Almighty God, and look on it as the effect of such Prayers, as
20 she made to him in France and Flanders.
They ascribe it indeed wholly to God in our Authors Sense,
but not in hers; for she meant not immediate illumination by
the word wholly, as I have already prov'd; they may look on
their false light, as the effect of their Prayers, but she looks on
her Conversion as the effect of hers, after having used the
means.
He had thought, he says, that the pretence to a private Spirit,
or Enthusiasm (for he joyns them both afterwards) had not
been at this time allowed in the Church of Rome.
30 Somebody once thought otherwise, or he had never diverted
the young Gallants of the Town, with his merry Book con-
cerning the Fanaticism of the Church of Rome.
He next enquires what need she had of an infallible Church,
if she owed her Change so wholly to Almighty God?
Wholly is already explain'd to him, and then his Argument
is of no more force against her, then against all Catholics who
28 (for . . . [to] . . . afterwards)] italics in Q.
have once been Protestants; which is a new Subject of Dispute,

and forrein to the Argument in hand.
Her Conclusion, as he tells us, is, That she would never have
chang'd, if she could have sav'd her Soul otherwise; Where-
upon he infers, // this were true, she had good reason for her
change; if it were not true (as most certainly it was not) she
had none.
But her words (which he hath falsifi'd in this place) are
these, / would never have chang'd, if I had thought it possible
10 to have sav'd my Soul otherwise. He never misquotes without
design. Now by altering these words, // / had thought it pos-
sible to save my Soul, into these, // I could have sav'd my Soul,
he would shuffle off her true meaning; which was, That her
Conscience oblig'd her to this change. And that's a Point he
would not willingly have touch'd: for he cannot deny upon his
own Principles, but that after having examin'd the Scriptures,
as she professes to have done as well as she was able, concern-
ing the Points in dispute, and afterwards using the assistance
of her Spiritual Guides, the two Bishops, she was to judge for
20 her self, in the last resort; and the Judgment she made accord-
ing to her Conscience, was, That the Scripture spoke clearly
in behalf of the Catholic Church, (or Church of Rome, as he
calls it:) Therefore according to his Principles, and her Con-
science, she was to be of that Church, of whose Truth she was
thus convinc'd; so that whether she could be otherwise sav'd
or no, was not the Proposition to be advanc'd, but whether she
thought it possible to be otherwise sav'd. And therefore though
it were true, that she could otherwise be sav'd, yet she had a
sufficient reason for her change (though he says she had none)
so which was her Conscience; and supposing that were erroneous,
yet upon his Principles she must be the Judge of it without
appeal.
Her Scruples began upon reading Dr. Heylin'i History of
the Reformation; and there she found such abominable Sacri-
ledge upon Harry the Eighth's Divorce, King Edward's Mi-
2 Argument] Aigu- / guraent Q.
34 Reformation] Reformation Q.
gi6 Prose 1668-1691
nority, and Queen Elizabeths Succession, that she could not

believe the Holy Ghost could ever be in such Councils, Thus
he compendiously quotes her Paper, as being it seems asham'd
of the Particulars therein mention'd; but for once I will follow
him his own way.
To read Dr. Heylin's History in order to settle her, he con-
fesses, was none of the best Advices given to such a Person. He
is much in the right on't, as appears by the success; and I add,
nor any other, either Protestant or Catholic Writer then ex-
10 tant: for no Paint is capable of making lovely the hideous Face
of the pretended Reformation. But, says he, there are two dis-
tinct Parts in the History of it, the one Ecclesiastical, the other
Political; the first built on Scripture, Antiquity, and the Rights
of particular Churches; the other on such Maxims as are com-
mon to Statesmen at all Times, and in all Churches, who la-
bour to turn all Revolutions and Changes to their own Ad-
vantage.
But why might not her Highness consider it her own way,
which is that of Nature, in the Causes which produc'd it, and
20 the Effects which it produc'd; though I doubt not but she con-
sider'd it his way too, because a Child could not have mist it,
that very Distinction being inserted into the History by the
Author himself. Now the immediate Cause which produc'd the
Separation of Harry the Eighth from the Church of Rome, was
the refusal of the Pope to grant him a Divorce from his first
Wife, and to gratifie his Desires in a Dispensation for a second
Marriage. Neither the Answerer, nor I, nor any Man, can carry
it so high as the original Cause with any certainty: for the King
only knew whether it was Conscience and Love, or Love alone,
so which mov'd him to sue for a Divorce: But this we may say,
that if Conscience had any part in it, she had taken a long Nap
of almost Twenty years together before she awaken'd, and per-
haps had slept on till Doomsday, if Anne Bullen, or some other
fair Lady, had not given her a Jog; so the satisfying of an in-
ordinate and a brutal Passion cannot be deny'd to have had a
great share at least, in the production of that Schism which
led the very way to our pretended Reformation: for breaking

the Unity of Christ's Church was the Foundation of it.
I pass over the manner of those first Proceedings, and the
Degrees by which they came to terminate in Schism, though I
doubt not but her Highness was sufficiently scandaliz'd in both,
and could not also but observe some of the concomitant Causes,
as Revenge, Ambition, and Covetousness; all which, and others,
drew with a strong Biass towards it. But the immediate Effects
even of this Schism, were Sacriledge, and a bloody Persecution
10 of such as deny'd the King's Supremacy in Matters wholly Spir-
itual, which no Layman, no King of Israel ever Exercis'd, as is
observ'd by my *Lord Herbert. As for the Reformation it self,
what that produc'd is full as obvious in the Sequel of History,
where we find, that Chanteries and Hospitals undevour'd by
Henry the Eighth, were left only to be Morsels for Edward the
Sixth, or rather for his Ministers of State; and the Reason was
given, That the Revenues of them were fruitlesly spent on
those who said Prayers for the Dead. Now this was as naturally
produc'd from the Reformation, as an Effect is from the Cause;
20 so that as it is observ'd by some, had that young King Reign'd
any considerable time longer, the Church of England had
been left the poorest of any one in Christendom; the rich
Bishoprick of Duresme having been much retrench'd by him,
and 'tis probable those of Rochester and Westminster. Harry
the Eighth had indeed eaten so much of the Churches Bread
out of his Son's Mouth beforehand, that even Calvin com-
plains of it in a Letter to Granmer, (concerning the paucity of
good Pastors in England) in these words: Unum apertum ob-
staculum esse intelligo quod praedce expositi sunt Ecclesice red-
BO ditus; One open obstacle I find to this, (he meaneth the in-
crease of good Pastors) is, That your Church Revenues are
expos'd to Rapine.
Besides these things, what an Usurpation this change of Re-
ligion caus'd, is most notorious; that of the Lady Jane Gray
* Herbert Hen. 8. pag. 402.
I Reformation] Reformation Q (and similarly through jry.j).
318 Prose 1668-1691
being evidently grounded on the Testament of Edward the

Sixth, by which she was made his Successor, because she was
of the Protestant Religion.
As for the Title of Queen Elizabeth to the Crown, the His-
tories lie open, and I shall not be over forward to meddle with
the Rights of Princes, especially since the Answerer has avoided
that Dispute. 'Tis enough in general to say, that her Interest
carry'd her against the Pope, whose Power, if good, she was
Illegitimate: She had also been inform'd by the English Resi-
10 dent at Rome, that the Pope expected she shou'd acknowledge
her Crown from him, and not take upon her to be Queen with-
out his leave. These were strong Solicitations in a new un-
settled Succession, for her to shake off a Religion, whereof his
Holiness is Head on Earth. What matter of Conscience was in
the case, I say not, but her Temporal Interest lies bare-fac'd
and uppermost to view, in reassuming of the Supremacy, and
(to make the Breach yet wider) in subverting the Foundations
of the Faith. For the Affront is the same to turn round a mans
Hat, and to strike him on the Face; but the advantage is the
20 greater in a lusty Blow.
But the Handle by which our Answerer would have the Ref-
ormation taken, is not by the Causes and Effects, the Means
and Management, and indeed the whole Series of History;
these are nothing to concern his present Enquiry, though they
rais'd such Scruples in the Duchess, and will do in any other
conscientious Reader; he will have the Reformation consider'd
his own way, that is, in the Political part of it, and the Ecclesi-
astical. Now the Political part (if you observe him) he gives
for gone at the first dash; It was grounded (he says) on such
so Maxims as are common to Statesmen at all Times, and in all
Churches, who labour to turn all Revolutions and Changes to
their own Advantage.
That is, 'tis common for Statesmen to be Atheists at the bot-
tom; To be seemingly of that Religion which is most for their
Interest; To crush and ruine that from which they have no
future prospect of Advantage, and to joyn with its most in-
veterate Enemies, without consideration of their King's In-
terest; and this was the Case of the Duke of Somerset. All
which together amounts to this, That 'tis no matter by what
Means a Reformation be compass'd, by what Instruments it
be brought to pass, or with what Design, though all these be
never so ungodly, 'tis enough if the Reformation it self be
made by the Legislative Power of the Land. The matter of
Fact then is given up, only 'tis fac'd with Recriminations; That
Alexander the Sixth (for example) was as wicked a Pope as
King Henry was a King: As if any Catholic deny'd that God
10 Almighty, for Causes best known to his Divine Wisdom, has
not sometimes permitted impious Men to sit in that supream
Seat, and even to intrude into it by unlawful Means. That
Alexander the Sixth was one of the worst of Men, I freely
grant, which is more then I can in Conscience say of Henry
the Eighth, who had great and Kingly Vertues mingled with
his Vices. That the Duke of Somerset rais'd his Estate out of
Church Lands, our Author excuses no other ways than by re-
torting, that Popes are accustom'd to do the like in considera-
tion of their Nephews, whom they would greaten. But though
20 'tis a wicked thing for a Pope to mispend the Church Revenues
on his Relations, 'tis to be consider'd he is a Secular Prince,
and may as lawfully give out of his Temporal Incomes what
he pleases to his Favourite, as another Prince to his. But as
our Author charges this Miscarriage home upon some late
Popes of the former, and the present Age; so I hope he will
exempt his present Holiness from that Note: no Common
Father of God's Church, from St. Peter even to him, having
ever been more bountiful, in expending his Revenues for the
Defence of Christendom; or less interessed, in respect of his
30 Relations, whom he has neither greatn'd, nor so much as suf-
fer'd to enter into the least Administration of the Government.
But, after all, what have these Examples to do with this
Ladies Conversion? Why, our Author pretends that these bad
Popes, and their ill Proceedings, ought as reasonably to have
hindred the Duchess from entring into the Catholic Church,
as the like Proceedings under Henry the Eighth, Edward the
26 Note: no] Note. No Q.
g20 Prose 1668-1691
Sixth, and Queen Elizabeth, might move her Highness to leave

the Protestant.
The Subject in hand was the Pretended Reformation; The
Duchess observ'd the scandalous and abominable Effects of it;
that an inordinate Lust was one principal Cause of the Sep-
aration; that the Reformation it self was begun by worldly In-
terests in the Duke of Somerset, and carried on by the Ambi-
tion of Queen Elizabeth. Have the Examples produc'd by our
Author on the contrary side any thing to do with a Reforma-
10 tion? Suppose in the first place, that she had never read nor
heard any of those things concerning Pope Alexander, or the
advancing of Nephews by profusion of the Church-Treasure;
the first is very possible, and she might interpret candidly the
latter. But make the worst of it; on the one side there was
only a Male-administration of a settled Government, from
which no State, either Spiritual or Temporal, can always be
exempt; on the other side, here is a total Subversion of the
Old Church in England, and the setting up a New; a chang-
ing of receiv'd Doctrines, and the Direction of God's Holy
20 Spirit pretended for the Change; so that she might reasonably
judge, that the Holy Ghost had little to do with the Practices
of ill Popes, without thinking the worse of the Establish'd
Faith: but she could never see a new one erected on the Foun-
dations of Lust, Sacrilege, and Usurpation, without great
Scruples whether the Spirit of God were assisting in those
Councils.
As for his Method of Enquiry, Whether there was not a suf-
ficient Cause for the Reformation in the Church? Whether the
Church of England had not sufficient Authority to reform it
so self? and, Whether the Proceeding of the Reformation were
not justifiable by the Rules of Scripture and the Ancient
Church? I may safely joyn Issue with him upon all three Points
and conclude in the Negative, That there was no sufficient
Cause to reform the Church in Matters of Faith, because there
neither were, nor can be, any such Errours embrac'd and own'd
by it. The Church of England has no Authority of Reforming
her self, because the Doctrine of Christ cannot be reformed,
nor a National Synod lawfully make any Definitions in Matters

of Faith, contrary to the Judgment of the Church Universal
of the present Age, shewn in her Public Liturgies; that Judg-
ment being equivalent to that of a General Council of the
present Age. And for the third Point, The Proceedings of the
Reformation were not justifiable by the Rule of Scripture, ac-
cording to the right Interpretation of it by the Fathers and
Councils, which are the true Judges of it; nor, consequently,
by the Rules of the Ancient Church. But Calvin's Excuse must
10 be your last Refuge, Nos discessionem a toto mundo facere
coacti sumus: We are compell'd to forsake the Communion,
or to separate from all the Churches of the World.
These (says our Author) she confesses were but Scruples. Ac-
cording to his mannerly way of arguing with the King, I might
ask him, These what? Do's he mean, these Scruples were but
Scruples? For the Word (these) begins a Paragraph. But I am
asham'd of playing the Pedant, as he has done. I suppose he
means these Passages of Heylyn only rais'd some Scruples in
her, which occasion'd her to examine the Points in difference
20 by the Holy Scripture. And now (says he) she was in the right
way for Satisfaction, provided she made use of the best Helps
and Means for understanding it, and took in the Assistance of
her Spiritual Guides.
That she did take in those Guides, is manifest by her own
Papers; though both of them (the more the pity) did but help
to mislead her into the Enemies Country: But then, for our
comfort, neither of them were true Church of England Men,
though they were both Bishops, and one of them no less than
Primate of All England.
so And now for a relishing bit before we rise, he has kept in
store for us, the four Points which about the midst of her
Paper, the Duchess told us, she found so easie in the Scripture,
that she wondered she had been so long without finding them.
He will needs fall into Dispute with her about them, tho he
knows before hand, that she will not Dispute with him. This
is a kind of Petition to her, that she will permit him to make
that difficult, which she found easie: for every thing becomes
g22 Prose 1668-1691
hard by chopping Logic upon it. I am sure enough, that the

Wall before me is White, and that I can go to it: but put me
once upon unriddling Sophisms, I shall not be satisfied of
what colour the Wall is, nor how 'tis possible for me to stir
from the place in which I am. Alas, if People would be as
much in earnest as she was, and read the Scriptures with the
same disposition, the same unprejudic'd sincerity in their
Hearts, and docility in their Understanding, seeking to bend
their Judgments to what they find, not what they find to their
10 Judgments, more I believe would find things as easie as she
did, and give the Answerer more frequent occasion for his
derision of a willing mind.
But not to dilate on that matter, I presume he will not pre-
tend by his Disputing, to make any thing plainly appear
against her: If he can, let him do it, and end Controversie in
a moment; for every one can see plain things, and all Chris-
tians must be concluded by the Scripture. But he knows well
enough there is no such thing to be perform'd. A Mist may
be raised, and interposed, through which the Eye shall not
20 discern what otherwise it would, if nothing but the due
medium were betwixt, and the Object before it. And that is
all the fruit of this sort of Disputation, and all the Assistance,
for which the Answerer was so earnest. Upon the whole, his
mortal quarrel to the Duchess, is, that she would not become
an Experiment of the perfection to which the Art of Learned
Obscurity is improv'd in this our Age. And the Honour he
has done to the Church of England, is, that he has us'd her
Name to countenance the Defamation of a Lady, I suspected
whether he would bring it, when I saw that Honour pre-
so tended, in the beginning of his Pamphlet: If he thinks his
Bishops have reflected a Scandal on his Church by their Dis-
courses with the Duchess, he ought to have proceeded a more
reasonable way, than to insinuate that she forg'd them, with-
out proving it. If she had been living, and he had subscrib'd
his Name to so infamous a Libell, he knows the English of a
Scandalum Magnatum; for an Innuendo is considered in that
33~34 without] witout Q.
case: and three indirect insinuations, will go as far in Law,

towards the giving a downright Lie, as three Foils will go to-
wards a Fall in Wrastling.
To Conclude, I leave it to the Judgment of the Impartial
Reader, what occasion our Answerer has had for his Song of
Triumph at the end of his Scurrilous, Sawcy Pamphlet; I have
treated him as one single Answerer, tho' properly speaking his
Name is Legion; but tho the Body be possessed with many
evil Spirits, 'tis but one of them who talks; let him disguise
10 his defeat by the ringing of his Bells: 'Twas an old Dutch
Pollicy when the Duke had beaten them to make Bonfires,
for that kept the Populace in Heart. Our Author knows he
has all the Common People on his side, and they only read
the Gazetts of their own Writers; so that every thing which is
called an Answer is with them a Confutation, and the Turk
and Pope are their Sworn Enemies ever since Robin Wisdom
was Inspir'd to joyn 'em together in a Godly Ballad: In the
mean time the Spirit of Meekness and Humble Charity would
become our Author better than his boasts for this imaginary
20 Victory, or his Reflections upon Gods Anointed; but it is the
less to be admir'd that he is such a Stranger to that Spirit, be-
cause, among all the Volumes of Divinity written by the Prot-
estants, there is not one Original Treatise, at least, that I have
seen, or heard of, which has handled distinctly and by it self,
that Christian Vertue of Humility.
324 Prose 1668—1691
Epistle Dedicatory for The Vocal and

Instrumental Musick of the Prophetess
OUR Grace has been pleasd, so particularly to favour

Y the Composition of the Musique In Diocletian, that
from thence I have been incouragd to this presumption
of Dedicating not onely it, but also the unworthy Authour of it,
to your protection. All arts and Sciences have receivd their
first encouragement from great persons; and owe their prop-
agation and successe to their esteeme: like some sort of fruit
trees, which being of a tender constitution, and delicate in their
nature, require the shadow of the Cedar to shield their Infancy,
10 from blites and Stormes. Musick and poetry, have ever been
acknowledgd Sisters, which walking hand in hand, support
each other: As poetry is the harmony of words, so musick is
that of notes: and as poetry is a rise above prose and oratory, so
is Musick the exaltation of poetry. Both of them may excell
apart, but sure they are most excellent when they are joind;
because nothing is then wanting to either of their perfections:
for thus they appeare like wit & beauty in the same person.
[Painting is, indeed, another Sister, being like them, an Imi-
tation of Nature: but I may venture to say she is a dumb Lady,
20 whose charmes are onely to the eye: a Mute actour upon the
Stage, who can neither be heard there nor read afterwards.
Besides, that she is a single piece; to be seen onely in one place,
at once: but the other two, can propagate their species; and as
many printed or written copyes as there are of a poem or a
composition of Musick, in so many severall places, at the same
time the poem & the Musick, may be read, & practisd and
admir'd. Thus painting is a confind, & solitary Art, the other
two are as it were in consort, & diffus'd through the world;
5 receivd] F; had M.
7 esteeme:] F; ~ . M (inserted above deleted favour.).
10 blites and Stormes] F; originally Stormes and Tempests M (Stormes was
crossed out and blites inserted above a following caret).
Dedication for Purcell's Prophetess 325
partakeing somewhat of the Nature of the Deity, which at

once is in all places. This is not sayd in disparagement of that
noble Art; but onely to give the due precedence to the others,
which are more noble; & which are of nearer kindred to
the soule; have less of the matter, & more of the forme; less
of the manuall operation, & more of the spiritual! part, in
humane nature. Yet let it allwayes be acknowledgd,
that painting and Statuary can express both our actions &
our passions: that if they neither speake nor move, they
10 seem to do both: and if they impose on the eye, yet they
deceive nobly: when they make Shadows pass for Substances,
and even animate the brass fc Marble.] Poetry and painting
have arriv'd to their perfection in our own Country: Musick
is yet but in its Nonage: a forward child which gives hope of
what it may be heerafter in England, when the masters of it
shall find more encouragement. Tis now learning Italian which
is its best Master, and studying a little of the French ayre, to
give it somewhat more of gayety and fashion. Thus being
farther from the Sun, we are of later growth, than our Neigh-
20 bour Countryes; and must be content to shake off our bar-
barity by degrees; The present age seemes already disposd to
be refind; and to distinguish betwixt wild fancy, and a just,
numerous composition. So far the Genius of your Grace, has
already prevaild on us: Many of the Nobility and Gentry,
have followd your Illustrious Example, in the patronage of
Musick. Nay, even our Poets begin to grow ashamd, of their
harsh & broken Numbers: and promise to file our uncouth
Language, into smoother words. [By their pardon, I may be
bold to say that hetherto they have not enough considerd, the
so sweetness & Majesty of Sound: and that the little paines which
they have employd on their ragged verses, has been the
occasion of our great labour 8c trouble in the composition of
them. And therefore I will presume to tell them, that he who
has not naturally a good eare, is not over fit for his own trade,
12 Poetry] F; poetry M.
25 the patronage] F; this protection M (protection above a caret after deleted
encouragement).
326 Prose 1668-1691
but is a very judgment and Flayle to ours. But I am too

sensible of my own imperfections to expose the failings of
other men, in an Art, which I pretend not to understand; at
least not more than Nature teaches me, to abhorre the grating
of unharmonious Soundes.] Once more therefore I presume to
offer my selfe, & this composition with all humility to your
Graces protection; at least till I can redeeme so meane a present
by one which may better deserve your acceptation. Be pleasd
to pardon my Ambition, which had no other meanes to obtaine
10 the honour of being made known to you, but onely this. The
Toun, which has been so indulgent to my first Endeavours
in this kind, has encouragd me to proceed in the same attempt,
and Your favour to this triffle, will be a good Omen not onely
to the success of the next, but also to all the future perfor-
mances of
Your Graces most Obedient
& most Obliged Servant
Henry Purcell.
6 this] F; this present M. 7 protection] F; favour, & protection M.
COMMENTARY
Abbreviated References 329
List of Abbreviated References

Absalom: Absalom and Achitophel
Astraea: Astraea Redux
Bacon, Works: The Works of Francis Bacon, ed. James Spedding, Robert
Ellis, and Douglas Heath, 1857-1874
BH: Samuel Johnson, Lives of the English Poets, ed. George Birkbeck
Hill, Oxford, 1905
Catalogue: A Catalogue of the Collection of Tracts for and Against
Popery, ed. Thomas Jones, Remains, Chetham Society, XLVIII (1859),
LXIV (1865)
Clough: Plutarch's Lives. The Translation Called Dryden's. Corrected
from the Greek and Revised by A. H. Clough, 1859
Corneille, (Euvres: (Euvres de P. Corneille, ed. Ch. Marty-Laveaux, Paris,
1863-1922
Discourse of Satire: A Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of
Satire, 1693
DNB: Dictionary of National Biography
HLQ: Huntington Library Quarterly
HMC: Historical Manuscripts Commission
Hobbes, English Works: Thomas Hobbes, The English Works, ed. William
Molesworth, 1839-1845
JEGP: Journal of English and Germanic Philology
Jonson, Works: Ben Jonson, ed. C. H. Herford and Percy Simpson, Ox-
ford, 1925-1952
Ker: Essays of John Dryden, ed. W. P. Ker, Oxford, 1926
Kinsley: The Poems of John Dryden, ed. James Kinsley, Oxford, 1958
Les Vies: Les Vies des Hommes Illustres Grecs el Remains, Comparees
I'une avec I'autre par Plutarque de Chaeronee. Translatees par M.
Jaques Amyot . . . .Geneva, 1610
Luttrell: Narcissus Luttrell, A Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs,
16^8-1^14, 1857
Macdonald: Hugh Macdonald, John Dryden: A Bibliography of Early
Editions and of Drydeniana, Oxford, 1939
Malone: Critical and Miscellaneous Prose Works of John Dryden, ed.
Edmond Malone, 1800
MLN: Modern Language Notes
MLR: Modern Language Review
MP: Modern Philology
N&Q: Notes and Queries
North 1676: The Lives of the Noble Grecians b Romans . . . Translated
. . . out of French into English, By Sir Thomas North . . . , 1676
Noyes: Poetical Works of Dryden, ed. George R. Noyes, Cambridge, Mass.,
rev. ed., 1950
OCD: Oxford Classical Dictionary
ggo Commentary
OED: Oxford English Dictionary

PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America
PQ: Philological Quarterly
Religio: Religio Laid
RES: Review of English Studies
Royal Papers: Copies of Two Papers Written by the Late King Charles II.
Together with a Copy of a Paper written by the late Dutches! of York,
1686
Rualdus: Plutarchi Chaeronensis Omnium Quae Exstant Operum . . .
Accedit Nunc primum Plutarchi Vita, ex ipso, et aliis utriusque linguae
Scriptoribus, a JOAN. RUALDO collecta digestaque . . . , Paris, 1624
Rualdus, I, VPC: Vita Plutarchi Chaeronensis, Rualdus' life of Plutarch
in Rualdus, Volume I
Rymer, Critical Works: The Critical Works of Thomas Rymer, ed. Curt A.
Zimansky, New Haven, Conn., 1956
Saint-£vremond: Charles de Marguetel de Saint-Denis, Seigneur de Saint-
fivremond, (Euvres en Prose, ed. Rene1 Ternois, Paris, 1962
SEL: Studies in English Literature
Settle: Elkanah Settle, Notes and Observations on The Empress of Morocco
Revised, 1674
Smith: Elizabethan Critical Essays, ed. G. Gregory Smith, Oxford, 1904
SP: Studies in Philology
Spingarn: Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, ed. J. E. Spingarn,
reissue, Bloomington, Ind., 1957
S-S: The Works of John Dryden, ed. Sir Walter Scott and George Saints-
bury, 1882-1893
Summers: Dryden's Dramatic Works, ed. Montague Summers, 1931
Tilley: M. P. Tilley, A Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Six-
teenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Ann Arbor, 1950
TLS: Times Literary Supplement
Van Lennep: The London Stage, 1660-1800, Part i: 1660-1700, ed.
William Van Lennep, with Critical Introduction by Eminett L. Avery
and Arthur H. Scouten, Carbondale, 111., 1965
Ward, Letters: The Letters of John Dryden, ed. Charles E. Ward, Durham,
N.C., 1942
Ward, Life: Charles E. Ward, The Life of John Dryden, Chapel Hill, 1961
Watson: John Dryden: Of Dramatic Poesy and Other Critical Essays, ed.
George Watson, 1962
Works: Dryden's works in the present edition
Of Dramatick Poesie, An Essay

In the dedication to Buckhurst, Dryden says he wrote Of Dramatick Poesie
"when the violence of the last Plague had driven me from the Town" (p.
3, 11. 5-6). The theaters, to which Dryden's literary efforts were then chiefly
devoted, had been closed by the plague in late May or early June 1665
and were not to open again until the autumn of 1666. Like most of those
who could do so, Dryden left the town for the country. It is not certain
how long he stayed at Charlton, Wiltshire, the seat of his Catholic father-
in-law, Thomas Howard, first Earl of Berkshire, but some conjectures may
be advanced. If we tentatively accept Neander as in some sense a faithful
embodiment of Dryden, we may infer that Dryden was in town on 3 June
1665, "that memorable day" of victory in the second Dutch war. (Whether
or not an actual gathering of four men, as described in the Essay, took
place on that date or any other, Dryden may have chosen a day when
Buckhurst, to whom the work is dedicated, knew him to have been in
London.) It seems more certain that Dryden was in the country a few
weeks later. By 25 June a payment on the grant to Lady Elizabeth was
ordered, and on 14 August Dryden sent from Charlton to the Treasury
an acquittal for the payment.1 It is possible, then, that Dryden left London
between 3 June and 25 June. He stayed in the country more than a year,
for he dated the "Account" prefixed to Annus Mirabilis from Charlton
on 10 November 1666; it is uncertain how much longer he was there.2
An Essay of Dramatick Poesie (to use the more familiar title and the
printer's running head) was, then, a product of leisure forced upon a man
who was at once a rising dramatist and a gentleman of modest means.
Entered in the Stationers' Register on 7 August 1667, the Essay was
probably published the same year, although the first edition bears the
date 1668. In the first sentence of the dedication Dryden implausibly sug-
gests that after returning to London he discovered the manuscript among
his "loose Papers," and he seems to suggest that a lengthy period had
elapsed since he had first drafted it: "I find many things in this discourse
which I do not now approve; my judgment being not a little alter'd since
the writing of it" (3:9-11). There are, however, signs that Dryden had
indeed revised this major work of prose. In the first sentence of the essay
proper he speaks of "the late War"; since the second Dutch war was con-
cluded by the Treaty of Breda in July 1667, it seems clear that Dryden
'Ward, Life, pp. 41-42; Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1665-1666, p. 459.
'James M. Osborn (John Dryden: Some Biographical Facts and Problems
[ad ed., 1965], p. 215) suggests that Dryden returned to London before the
performance of Secret Love on 2 March 1666/7, but Ward (Life, p. 47) states
equally plausibly that the birth of Dryden's eldest son and the disordered state
of London after plague and fire may well have protracted his stay in the
country.
3g2 Commentary
was revising just prior to publication. And that the revision was a more
pondered effort than the single detail in the first sentence would indicate
is clear from a phrase of Neander's. After speaking of plays written "since
His Majesties return," Neander identifies them as "all those Playes which
have been made within these seven years" (64:1-2). Such careful attention
to a work presumably already complete also characterizes the second edi-
tion (1684), in which Dryden corrected some printer's errors and modified
his grammar and syntax along stricter lines.
Both the number and the total effect of the changes for the second
edition have sometimes been exaggerated. The best-known alteration is
reconstruction of sentences so that they do not end with a so-called
preposition; "some of those impertinent people you speak of" becomes
"some of those impertinent people of whom you speak." It would, how-
ever, require a nice ear to distinguish the greater formality supposedly
achieved by such changes, since there are only some fifteen of them in
the seventy-two pages of the first edition. It is likely that the new
formality supposed to be so obtrusive in the second edition is better known
to editors with their collation sheets before them than to the innocent
reader. Some of the altered passages actually prove to be more effective. In
the first edition (1668, p. 5), for example, we read: "there is no man who
writes well, but would think himself very hardly dealt with." In the
second edition (1684, p. 4) the clause runs: "there is no man who writes
well, but would think he had hard measure." The true significance of
the corrections for the second edition is that to Dryden in 1684 the
Essay was still alive and worth the trouble of icvision. Or rather, it was a
piece that might be brought to attention again as a contribution to the
essays on poetry, satire, and translation being produced at that time. By
republishing it, Dryden reminded his contemporaries that he had antic-
ipated the Mulgraves and Roscommons by his own art of dramatic
poetry. No emendations were made for the third edition (1693), whose
appearance did not have the contemporary significance of its two prede-
cessors.
The enduring literary or critical importance of the essay Of Dramatick
Poesie arises from the very issues that may seem at first glance to be most
dated. The three topics of debate are all concerned with superiority: of
ancient versus modern writers; of French versus English drama; of blank
verse versus rhymed verse for serious plays. Dryden has so arranged the
subjects of discussion that he begins with the most historical (the ancients)
and ends with the most topically immediate (rhyme). He is also careful
to give the last word to the proponents of the moderns, of English
dramatists, and of rhyme, and indeed to have them speak at somewhat
greater length. One sign of Dryden's understanding of the classical
dialogue is that he introduces the argument for rhymed verse only after
the advocate of blank verse, Crites, has been more or less defeated in
claiming superiority for the ancients, and after Neander has been patrioti-
cally arguing English superiority over the French. Or, to consider what is
not said, we understand that the superiority of the moderns over the
ancients is a position better sustained when the drama alone is being
discussed. Even had Dryden known, as he revised those "loose Papers,"
that Paradise Lost was about to appear, he would perhaps have hesitated
in preferring the moderns for their epic poetry.
What may seem at first glance to be cut-and-dried literary issues were,
then, matters requiring the most careful handling, not least because they
were the visible tips, as it were, of much larger questions beneath the
surface. What are the norms for judging drama? What is the proper
relation of a writer to his tradition, whether ancient, French, or native?
How can a writer achieve creative vitality without falling into formless-
ness, or how can he achieve unity without stiffness? Most important of all,
what is the nature of artistic illusion? Is it best gained by a faithful and
technically close imitation of reality? Or does not artistic mimesis itself
imply heightening and enhancement by the imagination? Well might
Dryden think in 1684 that the essay Of Dramatick Poesie had raised
literary problems fundamental enough to justify a reprinting and even to
necessitate what seems to have been for him the unusual step of careful
revision.
It is difficult to appreciate Dryden's daring in the i66o's in venturing
to pronounce upon ancient, French, and English drama, or his originality
of method, total purpose, and artistic stance. Only Davenant's preface to
Gondibert preceded Of Dramatick Poesie as a seventeenth-century English
work of sustained criticism. When in 1693 Dryden dedicated The Satires
to the Earl of Dorset and Middlesex (Buckhurst in 1668), he recalled
the problems he had faced several decades before, and his boldness in
facing them:
When I was my self, in the Rudiments of my Poetry,
without Name, or Reputation in the World, having
rather the Ambition of a Writer, than the skill; when I
was Drawing the Out-Lines of an Art without any Living
Master to Instruct me in it; an Art which had been better
Prais'd than Study'd here in England, wherein Shake-
spear who Created the Stage among us, had rather Writ-
ten happily, than knoxvingly and justly; and Johnson,
who by studying Horace, had been acquainted with the
Rules, yet seem'd to envy to Posterity that Knowledge,
and like an Inventer of some useful Art, to make a
Monopoly of his Learning: When thus, as I may say,
before the use of the Loadstone, or knowledge of the
Compass, I was sailing in a vast Ocean, without other
help, than the Pole-Star of the Ancients, and the Rules
of the French Stage amongst the Moderns, which are
extreamly different from ours, by reason of their opposite
taste; yet even then, I had the presumption to Dedicate
to your Lordship: A very unfinish'd Piece, I must Con-
fess, and which can only be excus'd, by the little Experi-
ence of the Author, and the Modesty of the Title, An
Essay.3
' The Satires (1693), p. ii; Watson, II, 73-74.

334 Commentary
Although the eloquent combination of periodicity and a loose style here
makes it difficult, as often with Dryden, to distinguish between modesty
and pride, passion and assurance, the sentence is at once unmistakably
Dryden's and yet wholly different in effect from the altogether more
inquiring and relaxed style of the Essay.
The sentence also makes clear that Dryden, as he considered what he
might say, had reviewed the practice and the theory of the ancients, of
continental writers, and of English writers. It is plain that he draws from
Aristotle and Horace, whom he often quotes or refers to, and from the
Aristotelian, or Neo-Aristotelian, and Neo-Horatian traditions of Renais-
sance criticism in Italy and France.4 In the classical tradition, the most
fully articulated of the literary traditions inherited by the seventeenth
century, Dryden had available to him that approach, at once closely
normative and often practical, which is best represented by the phrase
"the rules." What had been in the main descriptive in Aristotle's Poetics
had become partly prescriptive in Horace's Ars Poetica and largely rigid
in Castelvetro's formulation of the Neo-Aristotelian unities of time, place,
and action. Dryden's procedure was to draw upon the descriptive parts of
Aristotle and to pay formal respect to Neo-Aristotelianism as an impor-
tant current in contemporary thought. Crites, Lisideius, and Eugenius
sometimes use Horace descriptively and sometimes prescriptively, but
Neander employs the Ars Poetica to altogether different ends. Horace is
somewhat surprisingly made to advocate inspired creation, the imaginative
bursting through restraint. Neander may simply drop a Horatian phrase,
quidlibet audendi (daring anything), into a sentence: "if no latitude is
to be allow'd a Poet, you take from him not onely his license of quidlibet
audendi, but you tie him up in a straighter compass than you would a
Philosopher" (76:19-21). Or he may put what is an unquestioned Hora-
tian doctrine to his own radical use and cap his argument for imaginative
freedom with two lines from the same font of classical orthodoxy, Horace
(74:16-25):
. . . a serious Play . . . is indeed the representation of
Nature, but 'tis Nature wrought up to an higher pitch.
The Plot, the Characters, the Wit, the Passions, the De-
scriptions, are all exalted above the level of common
converse, as high as the imagination of the Poet can
carry them, with proportion to verisimility. Tragedy
we know is wont to image to us the minds and fortunes
of noble persons, and to portray these exactly, Heroick
Rhime is nearest Nature, as being the noblest kind of
modern verse.
Indignatur enim privatis, if prope socco,
Dignii carminibus narrari ccena Thyestte.5
* For the significance of Aristotle and Horace in Renaissance critical thought,

see Bernard Weinberg, A History of Literary Criticism in the Italian Renaissance
(1961).
°P. 74, 11. S&-87, quoting Ars Poelica, 11. 90-91. See notes for a translation.
Dryden has Neander stress admiratio, or wonder, which the Renaissance

felt that Horace had justly added to pity and fear as a third tragic
emotion (some critics had gone so far as to substitute admiratio for fear
as the second emotion). To justify both poetic freedom and rhyme,
Dryden combines the stress on wonder with an affirmation of the imagina-
tion and an insistence on the need for artistic heightening. It is not merely
a question, then, of which classical critics have been called upon, but,
more important, of the uses to which they have been put.
Each of the four men debating dramatic canons calls upon the ancients.
They would not have been critics of their time, or of any period from
the Middle Ages through the eighteenth century, if they had not been
convinced that their arguments were strengthened by reference to such
authorities as Aristotle, Horace, and Cicero. What Dryden sought by
quoting the ancients was the illumination of his position as a dramatist,
the justification for theories he held independently of them, and the
means of creating a new drama. The first two aims are evident in Nean-
der's two speeches. The third is best illustrated by the fact that each of
the four speakers refers once (and Neander twice) to the Roman History
of Velleius Paterculus. By no means the best known of Roman historians,
Paterculus was an odd choice for Dryden to make. Nevertheless, by having
Crites introduce Paterculus in his only quotation of any length,8 Dryden
establishes a concept of crucial importance to the Essay, a concept so
natural that we pass it by as if it were found throughout pre-Dryden
criticism. It is the concept of an age and its achievements, of a literary
period, and of periods within Roman, as well as English, literary history.
In giving Crites this historical sense, upon which so much of the Essay
is founded, Dryden establishes Crites' significance from the outset: if
different periods of literature can be distinguished and characterized,
then a new age may transcend an earlier one. Crites grants that in
modern times men may surpass the ancients—but in science rather than in
literature (pp. 15-16)—and he seems to question the moral capacity of
men in his own day. Eugenius, however, who is to argue for the moderns,
takes for his first Latin quotation, as Crites did for his only quotation of
any length, a passage7 from Paterculus. Different from Crites' passage,
it vindicates the right of posterity to judge those who have gone before.
Lisideius draws upon Paterculus for the quotation concluding his dis-
course.8 He has of course been arguing for the superiority of French over
English drama. But in fact his conclusion and the rather lengthy quotation
from the Roman History work together as an argument for rhyme, a
stand on which Lisideius and Neander are at one. The point of the quo-
tation is that earlier writers cannot be surpassed in their own medium
and that a new area (i.e., rhymed serious plays) must be sought out. It is
in the same spirit that Neander concludes his reply to Lisideius with
'Roman History, I, 17; Dryden, 16:13-14.

' Roman History, II, 92; Dryden, 22:24-27.
'Roman History, I, 17; Dryden, 44:1-5. Lisideius quotes at length the passage
Crites quotes in part.
336 Commentary
another remark from Paterculus,9 laying stress on the undervalued claims
"of the living." In fact, Neander's context distorts Paterculus even more
than had the context of Crites, who had made the opposite point. The
classical historian is advanced to confirm the right of poets in any
generation to move in new directions and perhaps to surpass their
predecessors.
By using a lesser-known classical historian in this way, Dryden shows
that he drew upon critics and other writers not only as sources or models
but also as witnesses in a literary inquiry. From the handling of Pater-
culus it is easy to see that similar free use is made of modern critics. Italian
and French Neo-Aristotelians have their arguments put by Crites and
Lisideius. Eugenius, however, is a kind of reformer; he tries to get behind
Neo-Aristotelianism to Aristotle himself. He is, moreover, enough of a
skeptic to inquire whether the ancients obeyed in practice the rules later
propounded as derived from their writings. But it is not so simple as that.
Dryden, or in any event Eugenius, seems to conflate the Poetics of
Aristotle with the Poetices of J. C. Scaliger.i° Yet, although ancient
dramatists and ancient rules are the subject of discussion, much of the
impetus and many of the guidelines are taken by Eugenius from
Corneille.
So intricate a network of writers illustrates the extreme difficulty of
identifying in any meaningful way Dryden's indebtedness for specific
points made in the Essay. Dryden's enemy, Martin Clifford, charged that
the work was "pilfer'd out of Monsieur H(klelin [i.e., Abb6 d'Aubignac],
Mesnardiere, and Corneille."11 Joseph Spence quoted Bolingbroke as
telling him that "Dryden has assured me that he got more from the
Spanish critics alone than from the Italian and French and all other
critics put together." 12 Third-hand remarks of this kind have not notably
lightened the burden of students of Dryden.13 Dryden's debt to Corneille
for the Essay is the only major one specifiable to a contemporary con-
tinental critic, but Clifford and Spence point to the larger issues and to
important currents in continental criticism and writing.
One of the most important critical issues of the Renaissance was indeed
that of the rules and, with them, related topics like decorum and genre.
Both in Italy and in France theoretical preferences issued in debate over
specific literary works. Some seventy-five years before Dryden was writ-
ing the Essay, Battista Guarini was completing his tragicomic pastoral,
II Pastor Fido (1590). The controversy that followed the publication
of Pastor Fido echoed earlier Italian debates over genre,14 yet differed in
10
'Roman History, II, 36; Dryden, 64:15-16. See 23:1-21 and n.
"Martin Clifford, Notes upon Mr. Dryden's Poems in Four Letters (1687),
p. 8.
"Joseph Spence, Observations, Anecdotes, and Characters of Boohs and Men,
ed. James M. Osborn (1966), I, 317 (no. 781).
18
See F. L. Huntley, On Dryden's "Essay of Dramatic Poesy" (1951), pp. «-6.
"See Weinberg, "The Quarrel over Guarini's Pastor Fido," in History of
that the questions raised concerned the mingling of tragedy and comedy
or of drama and pastoral. Here, if anywhere, the Poetics should apply.
Such at least seemed to be the conservative reaction then, and again some
forty years later in France after publication of Le Cid (1636). Corneille
felt the full force of a Neo-Aristotelianism sponsored by a conservative
Academy. It was not so much that his play was tragicomic, although the
debate over // Pastor Fido was in the minds of the participants, but that
the play did not observe the three unities.
It is in the light of this continuing European debate, not so much
over a single work as over conceptions of the nature and standards of
literature, that Dryden's extensive use of Corneille is to be understood.
By considering Corneille and Dryden in isolation from other critics one
could justifiably argue that Dryden closely depended on Corneille, espe-
cially on his Trois Discours and his examens.16 On the other hand, by
viewing Dryden's dramatic practice and his other critical writings in the
context of the English situation, one might conclude that Dryden sent
his disputants to Corneille for debating points and facts but that neither
the method nor the general result of the Essay is Cornelian.10 It is also
possible to examine Dryden's use of Corneille in terms of the rules,17 of
Dryden's rhetorical strategy in timing his introductions of the French
dramatist,18 of the natural affinity between the two dramatists,ifl or of the
dramatic and critical problems shared by them.20
The numerous points of contact between Dryden and Corneille require
that the French dramatist and critic be assigned a prominent part in any
discussion of Dryden's Essay. It would do both writers an injustice to
consider the author of Le Cid as a mere source. Each of Dryden's dispu-
tants feels free to call upon Corneille, as each does, though less signifi-
cantly, upon Velleius Paterculus. To Crites, Corneille demonstrates the
excellence of the liaison des scenes and the necessity of observing the uni-
ties (pp. 17-19).21 Eugenius takes the same Discours des trois unite's to
show the absurdity of strict adherence to the unity of time (26:5-25). The
same discourse is used again by Lisideius to argue for decorum
Literary Criticism, II, 1074 ff. Weinberg's table of contents and index point to
discussions of similar debates.
"See James Routh, "The Classical Rule of Law in English Criticism of the
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries," JEGP, XII (1913), 612-630.
"John M. Aden, "Dryden, Corneille, and the Essay of Dramatic Poesy," RES,
n.s., VI (1955), 147-156.
" Hoyt Trowbridge, "The Place of Rules in Dryden's Criticism," MP, XLIV
(1946), 84-96.
18 ie
Huntley, On Dryden's "Essay," pp. 28 ff. Ker, I, xxxviii.
20
Pierre Legouis, "Corneille and Dryden as Dramatic Critics," in Seventeenth
Century Studies Presented to Sir Herbert Grierson (1938), pp. 269-291. On the
various points referred to, see R. V. LeClercq, "Corneille and An Essay of
Dramatic Poesy," Comparative Literature, XXII (1970), 319-327.
" R. V. LeClercq, "John Dryden: An Essay of Dramatic Poesy" (Ph.D. disser-
tation. University of California, Los Angeles, 1968).
gg8 Commentary
(40:34-41:7). Not to be outdone, Neander also draws on this by now

protean source, translating a crucial passage (51:26-32):
'Tis easie for speculative persons to judge severely; but
if they would produce to publick view ten or twelve
pieces of this nature, they would perhaps give more
latitude to the Rules then I have done, when by experi-
ence they had known how much we are limited and
constrain'd by them, and how many beauties of the Stage
they banish'd from it.
The significant phrase is "more latitude to the Rules." Neither Corneille
nor Dryden was inclined to reject the rules out of hand, but neither
wanted to be fettered by them. Leaving aside for a moment Neander's
conclusions, we can see that Crites could in good faith regard Corneille
as a modern critic and practicing dramatist who confirmed Aristotle's
belief in the necessity of unity of action. Equally, Eugenius could argue
with Corneille (or almost with Aristotle) that there was no need to adhere
to an exact rule of time. In the contexts of their arguments Crites and
Eugenius may seem somewhat to distort Corneille's constellation of ideas
by putting one of his stars, as it were, in an overprominent position. In
the whole of Dryden's Essay the intellectual constellation is similar to
Corneille's, because like his French predecessor Dryden argues for "more
latitude to the Rules" and for a distinction between what is essential to
dramatic art and what is merely advisable or adventitious in doctrines of
regulation. For example, even in regard to unity of action, Corneille,
although holding to the desirability of "une action complete," admits
that other smaller, less perfect actions may also be allowed: "II n'est pas
besoin qu'on sache pre'cise'ment tout ce que font les acteurs durant les
intervalles qui les se'parent, ni meme qu'ils agissent lorsqu'ils ne paroissent
point sur le theatre." 22 Even the liaison des seines that means so much
to Crites and Lisideius is rather an ornament and an aid to unity of
action, a means instead of an end in itself or a rule:
La liaison des scenes qui unit toutes les actions parti-
culieres de chaque acte 1'une avec 1'autre, et dont j'ai
parle1 en 1'examen de la Suivante, est un grand ornement
dans un poeme, et qui sert beaucoup a former une
continuity d'action par la continuity de la repr&enta-
tion; mais enfin ce n'est qu'un ornement et non pas une
regie."
A rule is a norm that is almost always to be observed; a given beauty
may be sought when it does not entail the sacrifice of matters with
weightier claim. Corneille argues so at some length in his Examen du
Cid.M There is no need to create an absurdity by rendering what is an
optional good into a rule; "c'est 1'incommodite de la regie," he blandly
concludes.
It is also true, however, that Corneille's search for "more latitude to
M w
Corneille, (Euvres, I, 99. Ibid., p. 101.
84
Theatre de Corneille (Paris, 1893), I, 129-130.
the Rules" does not imply any thoroughgoing antipathy to them. It is

in large measure a question of taste. In his Examen du Menteur he
acknowledges that the original Spanish plot he drew on required regula-
tion for French performance: "J'ai tach£ de la r£duire a notre usage et
dans nos regies: mais il m'a fallu forcer non aversion pour les apart^s,
dont je n'aurais pu la purger sans lui faire perdre une bonne partie de
ses beauteV' 25 This attitude comes close to that of Restoration drama-
tists, or of Dryden at least, toward Shakespeare and Beaumont and
Fletcher. Dryden's examen of The Silent Woman reveals yet another
debt to Corneille's examens. It seems significant, if perhaps also regret-
table, that it is only in Of Dramatick Poesie, with its close attention to
the position and methods of Corneille, that Dryden made use (for the
first time in English) of such an analysis or examen of a single play.
When Thomas Rymer took up the method, it was with a conservatism
alien to the Cornelian temper. It is difficult to imagine Dryden's Essay
possessing anything like its present emphasis and detail if there had been
no Corneille.
Yet Of Dramatick Poesie is finally too English and patriotic (and too
wide-ranging) for us to say that it simply affirms the stand taken by
Corneille. The brief note "To the Reader" states that the purpose of the
work "was chiefly to vindicate the honour of our English Writers, from
the censure of those who unjustly prefer the French before them." The
setting of the dialogue on the day of an English naval victory also implies
national pride, and Neander's rejoinder to Lisideius contains numerous
gestures against French dramatic practice. Neander makes what is in
effect a judgment on the passage quoted from the Examen du Menteur
(45:25-46:6):
I grant the French have performed what was possible
on the groundwork of the Spanish Playes; what was
pleasant before, they have made regular; but there is
not above one good Play to be writ on all those Plots;
they are too much alike to please often, which we need
not the experience of our own Stage to justifie. As
for their new way of mingling mirth with serious Plot
I do not with Lisideius condemn the thing, though I
cannot approve their manner of doing it.
It seems that neither French nor Spanish playwrights had struck the
proper balance, although in itself Neander's remark expresses a pref-
erence for the former. At this point Spence's story is relevant: according
to Bolingbroke, Dryden had said that Spanish critics were of more use
to him than French and Italian critics. Ker thought that Tirso de Molina
might have given Dryden suggestions for the Essay; in particular it has
been said that Tirso's miscellany of drama and prose writings, Los
cigarrales de Toledo (1624),
includes a conversation piece in which gentlemen who
have seen a performance of Tirso's own El vergonzoso
33
Ibid., p. 446.
340 Commentary
en palacio discuss the "comedia" with reference to the

drama of antiquity. Tirso establishes an antithesis be-
tween a traditionalist, who criticizes the moderns for de-
parting from the rules of the ancients, and a defender
of Lope and his followers, an antithesis similar to that
between Dryden's Crites and Neander.28
The resemblance of form and emphasis is striking, although in fact
Crites and Neander do not confront each other on the issue mentioned.
There are also no known verbal echoes of Tirso in Dryden's Essay, and,
whatever may be supposed, no proof that Dryden had read such Spanish
criticism as Tirso's.
There is ample evidence, however, that Dryden had read the plays
of Lope de Vega and Calderdn. Quite apart from Neander's somewhat
grudging praise of the beauty and variety of "Spanish plots," Dryden
knew that some of the plots he had adapted from French sources had
come originally from Spanish writers, and it is clear that Dryden drew
directly on Spanish plays as well.27 Above all, what the Spanish dra-
matists offered was a creativity giving rise not merely to plots that
French and English playwrights might seize upon, with or without ac-
knowledgment, but also to variety, that literary quality so precious to
Dryden, specifically the variety of serious and comic elements which
the French to their loss had refined away. In Neander's words:
As for their new way of mingling mirth with serious Plot
I do not with Lisideius condemn the thing, though I
cannot approve their manner of doing it: He tells us we
cannot so speedily recollect our selves after a Scene of
great passion and concernment as to pass to another of
mirth and humour, and to enjoy it with any relish:
but why should he imagine the soul of man more heavy
than his Sences? Does not the eye pass from an un-
pleasant object to a pleasant in a much shorter time then
is requir'd to this? and does not the unpleasantness of
the first commend the beauty of the latter? The old Rule
of Logick might have convinc'd him, that contraries when
plac'd near, set off each other. A continued gravity keeps
the spirit too much bent; we must refresh it sometimes,
as we bait in a journey, that we may go on with greater
ease. A Scene of mirth mix'd with Tragedy has the same
M
Ker, I, xxxv-xxxvi; for the quotation, see John Loftis, "Dryden's Criticism
of Spanish Drama," in The Augustan Milieu: Essays Presented to Louis A.
Landa, ed. H. K. Miller, E. Rothstein, and G. S. Rousseau (1970), p. 26.
"Loftis, "Dryden's Criticism of Spanish Drama," pp. 19-21. Loftts also dis-
cusses (ibid., n. 13) Dryden's knowledge of Calder6n's El Astrologo Fingido and
his modification of it for An Evening's Love; see also Works, X, 378, 435, 436,
471, 477. For evidence that Dryden read Spanish see John Loftis, "The Hispanic
Element in Dryden," Emory University Quarterly, XX (1964), 90-100; Works,
IX, 310; N. D. Shergold and Peter Ure, "Dryden and Calderdn: A New Spanish
Source for 'The Indian Emperour,' " MLR, LXI (1966), 369-383.
effect upon us which our musick has betwixt the Acts,

which we find a relief to us from the best Plots and
language of the Stage, if the discourses have been long.
I must therefore have stronger arguments ere I am
convinc'd, that compassion and mirth in the same sub-
ject destroy each other; and in the mean time cannot
but conclude, to the honour of our Nation, that we have
invented, increas'd and perfected a more pleasant way
of writing for the Stage then was ever known to the
Ancients or Moderns of any Nation, which is Tragi-
comedie.
Although this passage (46:4-27) is best known for its defense of English
drama, it is of greater importance for its attempt to analyze the psychology
of aesthetic experience and for its exploration of the complex problem
of the desirable limits of unity in art. The passage also suggests in the
larger context of the Essay "an implied comparison of the Spanish to
the Renaissance English drama and the French to Restoration drama." 28
On this view the earlier English drama, like the Spanish, possessed an
admirable copiousness and variety; French and Restoration drama
achieved greater unity and beauty. And yet, as Neander's reply to
Lisideius shows, earlier English drama surpassed the Spanish in quality,
and that of the Restoration excelled the French. (The latter was an
empty claim in 1667, which Drydcn redeems only by the expedient of
bringing in Jonson and the examen of The Silent Woman at a crucial
juncture.) Ultimately Of Dramatick Poesie is a statement of hope and
ideals, a program for action rather than a historical description.
In his hopes and plans Dryden looked back upon what had been
achieved by the foremost modern dramatists of several nations, and
such reflection, with his own personal and patriotic pride, led him to
present two antitheses. The first one was between Spanish "drama of
action, exciting perhaps, but diffuse," and French "drama of character,
sometimes tedious, but orderly and at best concentrated and moving." 29
The happy mean lay in the English tradition running from Shakespeare
and Jonson (both of whom conveniently represented the best of the
Spanish and French traditions while possessing their own distinct quali-
ties) to the Restoration. The second was an antithesis between earlier
English drama, again exciting but often diffuse, and a conception of
what Restoration drama would become if it followed the example of
Crites' ancients or Lisideius' French writers: an orderly but in the end
tedious drama. The mean between these two extremes was another
conception that had only partly taken shape in practice: a rhymed
serious drama more unified than the plays of Dryden's great English
predecessors but giving fuller play to the imagination than the tamer
principles of Crites and Lisideius would allow. Although Dryden tends
to treat this ideal as an accomplished fact, he emulates the Plato of
The Republic and the Cicero of De Republica in creating an ideal state
21
Loftis, "Dryden's Criticism of Spanish Drama," p. 27. "Ibid., p. 29.
34S Commentary
for the English theater, a new state funded by a rich inheritance from
the native past.
Dryden's passages praising Shakespeare, Jonson, and Beaumont and
Fletcher are rightly among the most familiar parts of the essay Of
Dramatick Poesie. However strained it might have been during the
interregnum, by Dryden's day there was a definable English dramatic
tradition, with some playwrights of "the former age" still living and
writing. A concurrent tradition of English criticism, though much less
developed, was concerned in part with the issue of "latitude to the
Rules." Behind the rules, which meant specifically the three Neo-Aristo-
telian unities, lay a view of literature which found expression in certain
emphases given to the dominant mimetic theory of art. It is not difficult
to find earlier English writers assuming that the artistic imitation of
nature must closely resemble nature, and that nature must be considered
in the ideal terms suggested by the word "decorum."30 Yet the very
critics who held such opinions often laid claim to latitude.31 Perhaps
the mixed English temper can best be conveyed by Jonson's remark in
Timber, on "the utmost bound of a fable," that
every bound, for the nature of the Subject, is esteem'd
the best that is largest, till it can increase no more; so
it behooves the Action in a Tragedy or a Comedy to be
let grow till the necessity aske a Conclusion; wherein
two things are to be considered: First, that it exceed not
the compasse of one Day; Next, that there should be
place left for digression and Art.32
This passage is plainly less latitudinarian with the rules than is Dryden;
perhaps it comes near to anticipating the spirit of Corneille.
There is, however, yet another line of English criticism. If the descrip-
tive-prescriptive line can be termed Neo-Aristotelian, a coexisting Neo-
Platonic criticism considered the poet as votes33 or emphasized the re-
semblances between poetry and rhapsody or "an heavenly gift," 34 an
exercise of the fancy or imagination. 35 As the arguments of Crites and
Lisideius show, some Restoration writers argued for a stricter adherence
to the rules; among them were such critics as Davenant, Hobbes, Flecknoe,
Milton, and Rymer.3« At about the time he was writing Of Dramatick
80
See Jonson's prologue to Every Man in His Humour on the unities and
credibility, and the dedication of Volpone (Spingarn, I, 15) on his aim "to
imitate justice and instruct to life." Sidney had made the same point about
the unities and credibility in Defence of Poesie (Smith, I, 197).
31
For Jonson, see Timber (Spingarn, I, 56); for Sidney, see the defense of his
concept of the visionary poet (Smith, I, 159).
M
Spingarn, I, 61-62. 33 Sidney, Defence of Poesie (Smith, I, 159).
** Henry Peacham, The Compleat Gentleman, ch. x (Spingarn, I, 116 ff.). See
ibid. (Spingarn, I, 123-124) for the appropriate praise of "varietie."
"George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie (Smith, II, 191-198).
"See Davenant on "credibility" and "proportion" in the preface to Gondibert
(Spingarn, II, 11); Hobbes on the "limit of Poeticall Liberty" being "the con-
Poesie, Dryden could himself make a virtue of the rules, if the prologue
to Secret Love is to be accepted at face value:
He who writ this, not without pains and thought
From French and English Theaters has brought
Th' exactest Rules by which a Play is wrought:
The Unities of Action, Place, and Time;
The Scenes unbroken; and a mingled chime
Of Johnsons humour, with Corneilles rhyme.
Lisidcius, or perhaps a Lisideius existing in Dryden's own heart, would
have agreed with these largely, if not entirely, conservative lines. In the
preface to the same play, however, Dryden concedes that the "regular"
character of such a work, though it may conduce with "beauty," may also
lead to a want of "air and spirit." 37 With this passage Dryden is moving
away from Lisideius and toward Neander; in the nearly contemporaneous
"Account" prefixed to Annus Mirabilis38 he is at his most liberal in
making imagination central to art. Thus Dryden himself reflects to some
extent a quality that marks the English tradition: the division of mind,
or tendency to compromise, between regulation and freedom. He in-
herited a tradition concerned on the one hand with accurate imitation
of nature and, on the other, -with the heavenly gift of vatic poesy. He
transformed this tradition partly by a superior critical understanding of
the issues and partly by a largely liberal stance. Moreover, he understood
that the rules, as canons of unity, were in some sense symptomatic of the
unity required by art, yet he believed that unity itself was a sterile
beauty unless it was exalted and given life by a vigorous and unfettered
(though to some unspecified degree regulated) imagination. Dryden was
also conscious of what other contemporary critics sometimes forgot:
apart from critical theory itself, one could appeal to the latitudinarian
practice of Shakespeare and other English dramatists.
Dryden was obliged to defend with critical theory the latitude in
English practice because of a severe attack from abroad. In 1664 Samuel
Sorbiere published Relation d'un Voyage en Angleterre,39 describing
his visit to England in 1663. Although treated as a distinguished guest,
being introduced to eminent scholars and admitted into the Royal Society,
Sorbi&re wrote an uninformed and highly critical account of England.
With its strictures on English manners and the English stage, his book
seems to have aroused a good deal of resentment. In 1665 Thomas
Sprat, historian of the Royal Society, attacked the French traveler in
ceived possibility of nature" (Spingarn, II, 62); Flecknoe on English faults in

variety and decorum (Spingarn, II, 93-94); Milton on the necessity for strict
unity of time (Spingarn, I, 197); and Rymcr, passim.
"For the prologue to Secret Love see Works, IX, 119; for the quotations
from the preface see ibid., p. 115.
33
Works, I, 53.
w
George Williamson, "The Occasion of An Essay of Dramatic Poesy," MP,
XUV (1946), 1-9.
344 Commentary
Observations on Mons. de Sorbier's Voyage into England for his criticism

of English drama. Sorbiere had blamed the poets for ignoring the unities,
lacking decorum, and preferring blank verse to rhyme:
La Comedie est bien plus divertissante, & plus commode
aux entretiens. . . . Mais les Comedies n'auroient pas
en France toute 1'approbation qu'elles ont en Angle-
terre. Les Poe'tes se mocquent de I'uniformit6 du lieu,
& de la regie des vingt-quatre heures. Us font des com-
edies de vingt-cinq ans, & apres avoir represent^ au
premier acte le mariage d'un Prince, ils representent
tout d'une suite les belles actions de son fils, & luy font
voir bien du pays. Ils se picquent sur tout de faire
d'excellens characteres des passions, des vices, 8c des
vertus; Et en cela ils rdussissent assez bien. Pour de-
peindre un avare, ils en font faire a un homme toutes les
plus basses actions qui se prattiquent en divers Ages, en
diverses rencontres, & en diverses professions; Et il ne
leur importe que ce soil un potpourry; parce qu'ils n'en
regardent disent-ils, qu'une partie apres 1'autre, sans
se soucier du total. . . . Les Comedies sont en prose
mesure-e, qui a plus de rapport au langage ordinaire
que nos vers, &: qui rend quelque melodic. Ils ne peuvent
s'imaginer que ce ne soil une chose importune, d'avoir
continuellement 1'oreille frappde de la mesme cadence;
&: ils disent, que d'entendre parler deux ou trois heures
en vers Alexandrins, 8c voir sauter de cesure en cesure;
est une manier de s'exprimer moins naturelle, 8c moins
divertissante.40
Sprat replied vigorously to these criticisms, maintaining that English
drama was superior to French drama. He pointed out that the gross
irregularities Sorbiere attributed to English drama belonged to the age
of Elizabeth, not to that of Charles II, and that modern English plays
were as regular as those of other countries. In an extended comparison
of the French and the English stage, Sprat anticipated the central features
of Neander's patriotic defense of his country's drama. After asserting that
the French have drawn most of their plots from the Spanish, whereas the
English have been original, he continues:
But I will fetch the grounds of my persuasion, from the
very nature, and use, of the Stage it self. It is beyond
all dispute, that the true intention of such Representa-
tions, is, to give mankind a Picture of themselves; and
thereby to make Virtue belov'd, Vice abhor'd, and the
little irregularities of mens tempers, call'd humors,
expos'd to laughter. The Two first of these are the
proper subjects of Tragedy, and Trage-Comedy. And
40
[Samuel Sorbiere], Relation d'un Voyage en Angleterre (Paris, 1664), pp.
166-170.
in these I will first try to shew, why our way ought to

be preferr'd before theirs. The French, for the most
part, take only one, or two Great Men, and chiefly in-
sist on some one remarkable accident of their Story:
To this end, they admit no more Persons, then will
barely serve to adorn that: And they manage all in
Rhythme [rhyme], with long Speeches, almost in the way
of Dialogues, in making high Ideas of Honor, and in
speaking Noble things. The English, on the other side,
make their chief Plot to consist of a greater variety of
Actions, and besides the main design, add many other
little contrivances. By this means, their Scenes are shorter,
their Stage fuller, many more Persons of different
Humors are introduc'd. And in carrying on of this, they
generally do only confine themselves to blanck Verse.
This is the difference. And hence the English have these
advantages. By the liberty of Prose, they render their
Speech, and Pronuntiation, more natural, and are never
put to make a contention between the Rhythm, and
the Sence. By their underplots, they often change the
minds of their Spectators: which is a mighty Benefit,
seeing one of the greatest Arts of Wit and persuasion,
is the right ordering of Digressions. By their full Stage,
they prevent men's being continually tyr'd with the
same Objects: and so they make the Doctrine of the
Scene to be more lively, and diverting, then the precepts
of Philosophers, or the grave delight of Heroick
Poetry: which the French Tragedies do resemble. Nor
is it sufficient to object against this, that it is undecent
to thrust in men of mean condition, amongst the actions
of Princes. For why should that misbecome the Stage,
which is always found to be acted on the True Theatre
of the World? There being no Court, which only con-
sists of Kings, and Queens, and Counsellors of State.
Upon these accounts, Sir, in my weak judgment, the
French Drama ought to give place to the English, in
the Tragical and lofty part of it. And now having ob-
tain'd this, I suppose they will of their own accord re-
signe the other excellence, and confess that we have
far exceeded them in the representation of different
Humors. The Truth is, the French have alwaies seem'd
almost asham'd of the true Comedy: making it not much
more then the subject of their Parses: whereas the
English Stage has so much abounded with it, that per-
haps there is scarce any sort of extravagance of which
the minds of men are capable, but they have in some
measure express'd. It is in Comedies, and not in
Solemn Histories, that the English use to relate the
346 Commentary
Speeches of Waggoners, of Fencers, and of Common

Souldiers.*1
The emphasis on the liveliness and the variety of English drama adum-
brates the essay Of Dramatick Poesie.
Sprat's Observations contained the first extended native comparison
between English and French drama, and its tone of justification fits well
with Neander's pride in English dramatic achievement. At the same time,
Neander and Lisideius, the proponent of French drama, agree on the
merit of using rhymed verse in serious plays. This feature of French
drama, which was not a dominant characteristic of English drama, is not
only the concluding issue in Dryden's essay, but also part of a larger dis-
cussion in which the Essay is the central one of five stages. What became
a controversy had apparently begun as an admission Dryden made in the
dedication of The Rival Ladies (1664), when he mentioned his "fear
least . . . I shall be accus'd for following the New way, I mean, of
writing Scenes in Verse." 42 He proceeded to argue that rhymed verse
was not new in English drama, and that it had the sanction of practice
in Italy, Spain, and France. Dryden also claimed that rhymed verse, if
well handled, could be as natural as blank verse. Finally, he buttressed
his opinion by theoretical arguments and the authority of Sir Philip
Sidney. In the epistle to the reader prefixed to Four New Plays (1665),
Sir Robert Howard treated the issue of rhymed verse in serious plays as
a "dispute betwixt many ingenious Persons."43 The phrasing suggests
the existence of genuine disagreement, but of a theoretical kind. It
should be stressed that the proponents of rhymed verse argued for its use
only in serious, not in comic, plays, and that the supporters of blank
verse admitted the propriety of using rhyme in serious nondramatic verse.
The issue was narrowly defined.
Howard centered his argument on the second of Dryden's three points,
the naturalness of rhyme on the stage, which is of course the central
theoretical issue. Although the mimetic theory of art is no longer the
single dominant theory, as it was then, it is an issue retaining considerable
theoretical importance. The central practical issue, which inevitably
clouded arguments on both sides, was the merit of individual plays then
being written in rhymed or blank verse. It cannot be said that Howard
won out either in theory or in practice. He took his stand on the simple
mimetic theory that writing that was least removed from reality or
"Nature" was the most natural. (Of course concepts of Nature also in-
volved an idealizing, which in art was represented as decorum.) To Dry-
den the matter was not so simple. The act of writing, the dramatic art
"Thomas Sprat, Observations on Mons. de Sorbier's Voyage into England

(1665), pp. 248-255.
a
Works, VIII, 98-99.
"The Dryden-Howard pronouncements on rhyme are concisely summarized
in Works, VIII, 274-275. In Sir Robert Howard (1626-1698) (1963), pp. 88-120,
H. J. Oliver, as a partisan of Howard, discusses "The Controversy with Dryden"
at length.
itself, and the act of understanding a play all required an exercise of the
imagination permitting author and listener alike to shift places, to pass
from mirth to gravity, and indeed to admit the dramatic illusion in the
first instance. It is not always realized that Neander's answer to Lisideius
and his answer to Crites are alike founded on the capacity of the imagina-
tion. In replying to Lisideius, who had argued against the unconvincing
character of a stage battle, Neander asks (50:15-21): "why may not our
imagination as well suffer it self to be deluded with the probability of it,
as with any other thing in the Play? For my part, I can with as great ease
perswade my self that the blowes are given in good earnest, as I can, that
they who strike them are Kings or Princes, or those persons which they
[the actors] represent." To Crites, Neander replies that the imagination
is variously engaged and variously functioning in different genres of
literature (74:11-22):
It has been formerly urg'd by you, and confess'd
by me, that since no man spoke any kind of verse ex
tempore, that which was nearest Nature was to be pre-
ferr'd. I answer you therefore, by distinguishing betwixt
what is nearest to the nature of Comedy, which is the
imitation of common persons and ordinary speaking,
and what is nearest the nature of a serious Play: this
last is indeed the representation of Nature, but 'tis Na-
ture wrought up to an higher pitch. The Plot, the Char-
acters, the Wit, the Passions, the Descriptions, are all
exalted above the level of common converse, as high as
the imagination of the Poet can carry them, with pro-
portion to verisimility.
The essential unity of Dryden's Essay can be seen in his advocacy of a
dramatic art giving "more latitude to the Rules" and rising "as high as
the imagination of the Poet can carry them [the elements of a play], with
proportion to verisimility." Neander believed that all the artistic features
implied by rhyme constituted the only major area left, after the triumphs
of earlier playwrights (72:33-73:16), in which writers of his day could excel.
Howard was in some sense aided in the debate by having fewer literary
ambitions than Dryden, though he was hindered (as Crites was not) by an
inferior historical sense. In the dedication of The Great Favourite, or,
The Duke of Lerma (1668), Howard returned to his simpler sense of
Nature and the rules. The discussion was now taking a turn at once
personal, in being directed (or in being believed to be directed) ad
hominem, and public in the spectacle of two men, related by marriage,
arguing out a literary issue. To the second edition of The Indian Em-
perour (1668) Dryden added, but soon suppressed, A Defence of an Essay
of Dramatique Poesie. There he mustered for the first time his formidable
powers of irony and satire. Apparently nettled less by Howard's argument
than by his notorious self-importance, Dryden mercilessly exposed his
brother-in-law's vulnerability in the use of Latin, in the writing of
dramatic verse, and, above all, in the concept of drama. The lesson that
Dryden drove home has been characterized as the proposition that "it
348 Commentary
is not truth but the impression of truth which the dramatist attempts to
achieve." •** In a word, it is imagination that governs both the creation
and the appreciation of artistic versions of reality. With this mordant and
soon to be regretted dissection of the ideas of a friend, the theoretical
controversy over rhyme came to an end. It was left to Dryden, the greatest
and the most versatile serious dramatist of the age, to discover for himself
what kinds of dramatic illusion were in fact suitable to rhymed verse.
The personal flurry over Crites' and Neander's arguments has suggested
to most readers that Dryden intended Crites to represent Howard and
Neander to represent himself. On the other hand, Howard's actual stand
for the moderns over the ancients (argued in the preface to Four New
Plays) has seemed to some readers to make such reference to Sir Robert
Howard impossible. The identification of all the characters cannot be
properly discussed, however, until a prior question has been answered:
What is the nature of Dryden's dialogue form? The implications of this
question extend far beyond the identity of the four speakers; what is
involved is a long tradition, the history, indeed, of a philosophical and
artistic form. In the Defence o/ an Essay Dryden said his "whole Discourse
was Sceptical, according to that way of reasoning which was used by
Socrates, Plato, and all the Academiques of old, which Tully and the best
of the Ancients followed, and which is imitated by the modest Inquisitions
of the Royal Society." *B
Dryden's words are modest in disclaiming dogmatism or conclusive force,
but they are very bold indeed in describing himself as the inheritor, with
the Royal Society, of the classical tradition of dialogue. The problematical
word "Sceptical" has its origin in aKev- (in aKtirrfaBaC), implying inquiry,
consideration. That Dryden intended precisely this meaning can be judged
from his phrase, "the modest Inquisitions of the Royal Society." When
Dryden attributes the skeptical method, "that way of reasoning," to
Socrates and Plato, he obviously implies no form of Pyrrhonism or fideism,
but clearly relates the reasoning to that of the Academy from Plato to
Cicero. The Academic tradition came to mean many things and to em-
ploy many methods for arriving at truth or probability, but its dom-
inant method was inquiry rather than dogmatism, and its characteristic
literary form was the dialogue.
The dispute whether Dryden's dialogue form is basically Platonic or
Ciceronian is in large measure irrelevant. He took up, as it were, the
form as it existed at the death of Cicero, but in full consciousness of
variations employed by Plato, Cicero, and others. Only a review of the
history of the Academy and the major practitioners of dialogue can ex-
plain and justify the exactitude of Dryden's description.
The Academy began at the place where Plato taught for about fifty
years. When Aristotle entered the Academy he first espoused Platonic
" Works, IX, 299.

"Ibid., p. 15. See the discussion by Phillip Harth, Contexts of Dryden's
Thought (1968), pp. 1-31, esp. pp. g-0, on this passage.
philosophy, but later developed his own distinctive ideas. Arcesilaus

severely attacked the principle of certainty, but the next outstanding
Academic figure, Carneades, modified his predecessor's extreme agnosti-
cism. Among the last important Academic figures, Philo, his pupil An-
tiochus, and the latter's pupil Cicero advocated skepticism as a method
of probabilism which might occasionally be receptive to the ideas of
Stoics but seldom to those of dogmatic Epicureans. In short, Dryden is
perfectly correct in seeing philosophical continuity from Plato to Cicero
and in identifying the dialogue form as the distinctive artistic method of
Academic philosophy.
Extensive study of the philosophical tradition of the Academy and of
the use of dialogue within the Academy 40 has revealed that "Platonic
dialogue" is no single thing. The maieutic or "obstetric" technique of the
earlier Platonic dialogues was employed, not for purely literary purposes,
but to "show the philosopher in the dramatic instant of seeking and
finding, and to make the doubt and conflict visible." 4T Beginning with
the Theaetetus, "the equilibrium between the aesthetic and the philosophi-
cal elements in Plato's mind" was destroyed "for the sake of the latter." 4S
The Sophist abandons the Socratic method altogether, leaving the dia-
logue form little more than "an unessential stylistic ornament"; the
Laws is "a solemn address or proclamation" by Plato himself, the figure
of Socrates having finally been dropped.49 Aristotle studied under Plato,
and although he developed a distinct philosophy, Platonic elements and
features of Plato's style remain in his mature philosophical writing.
Aristotle's method of dialogue was, in effect, midway in form between the
early and late Platonic techniques:
. . . while Plato in his later days was tending to replace
dialogue by dogmatic lecture, Aristotle set speech against
speech, thus reproducing the actual life of research in
the later Academy. One of the speakers took the lead,
gave the subject, and summed up the results at the
end. . . . Instead of the arena of arguments, with the
dramatic thrust and counterthrust of eristical duels, there
"See Rudolf Hirzel, Der Dialog (Leipzig, 1895); Werner Jaeger, Aristotle:
Fundamentals of the History of His Development (ad ed.; 1948); Arthur Stanley
Pease, ed., M. Tulli Ciceronis De Divinatione (ad ed.; 1963), and M. Tulli
Ciceronis De Natura Deorum (1955); Michel Ruch, Le Preambule dans les
(Euvres Philosophiques de Cicdron (1958); Philip Levine, "The Original Design
and the Publication of the De Natura Deorum," Harvard Studies in Classical
Philology, LXII (1957), 7-36. See also Eugene R. Purpus, "The Dialogue in
English Literature, 1660-1725" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California,
Los Angeles, 1943); LeClercq, "John Dryden: An Essay of Dramatic Poesy"; and
Elizabeth Merrill, The Dialogue in English Literature (1911).
"Jaeger, Aristotle, p. 24. Jaeger adds (p. 25) that "Plato was writing the
philosopher's tragedy." As Ruch says, "Les dialogues sont une serie de duels
entre Socrate et ses adversaires" (Prfambule de Cictron, p. 37).
"Jaeger, Aristotle, p. 25. "Ibid., p. 26.
ggo Commentary
were long theoretical examinations and demonstrations,

conducted according to strict method.80
Yet Aristotle modeled particular dialogues and even his style on Plato.61
Plato often employed Socrates as the central figure of his dialogues,
and because Socrates was at once a historical person and a mouthpiece for
Plato's ideas, it is evident that a character in a dialogue need not cor-
respond at all points to his actual historical counterpart. The kinds of
artistic effect Plato could achieve were narrative as well as dramatic.62
Placing himself as the central figure in the dialogue, Aristotle dropped
the introductory or dramatic setting of situation and went at once to
the philosophical issue."3 He had "an especially powerful influence on
Cicero," M who
In a very important letter . . . reviews his own practice
in dialogues, saying that he had originally intended,
like Heraclides Ponticus, to include in them only per-
sons no longer living, but at the desire of Varro to re-
ceive notice from him he had decided to revise the
Academlca, giving a part to Varro and answering it
himself, so that he might not be a mere KU^V irpiauiror
[bystander], as he had been in De Orators, the scene
of which was laid in his boyhood.65
Cicero, then, wrote dialogues both Heraclidean (e.g., De Republica, set
in 129 B.C.) and Aristotelian (e.g., DC Divinations, c. 44 B.C.).68 In De
Natura Deorum, Cicero as a young man takes a small part, assigning
the major roles to older contemporaries who were dead as Cicero wrote.
In a sense, Cicero followed the Aristotelian middle road between early
and late Platonic dialogues, but he reintroduced something of the
Platonic sense of scene, change of locations, and semifictional handling of
historical characters. Three of his dialogues—De Republica, De Oratore,
'"Ibid., p. 38. Dryden, in his account of the dialogue tradition, does not men-
tion Aristotle by name, probably because Aristotle's works in the dialogue form
survive only in fragments that give little information concerning the form to
any but the ablest classicists. Jaeger shows, however, what Dryden implies, the
continuity
n
from Plato to later members of the Academy.
Ibid., p. 30.
M
Hirzel, Der Dialog, I, 211-216 ("narrative" rendering eniihlende). Hirzel
amusingly and revealingly remarks that "Sokrates in Mitten seiner Schiller
niemals fehlen konnte" and distinguishes three kinds of Platonic dialogue: that
in which Socrates sets all forth; that which is dramatic; and that in which
drama emerges at the end. The Laws would seem to provide a fourth kind,
although Hirzel (perhaps rightly) does not consider that work a dialogue.
53
Ibid., pp. 273-295. "Jaeger, Aristotle, p. 28.
Tease, ed., De Natura Deorum, I, 23; the letter (Ad Atticum, XIII, 19) is
discussed later in this headnote.
"Dryden's title, Of Dramatick Poesie, An Essay—which his printer for the
running heads, and subsequent generations for easy reference, have reversed to
follow the more natural English syntax—seems a Latinisin if not specifically
an imitation of Ciceronian titles beginning with "De."
and De Natura Deorum—are set in the festive scene of the Latin holidays
(Ferine Latinae). The festivals provided an occasion for Romans responsi-
ble for matters of state to intermit their public duties and, like the Greeks,
engage in philosophical discussion. For all its length, a dialogue like
De Republica recalls, in situation and in a lively and at times sublime
style, the early Platonic dialogues, although it specifically vies with that
late Platonic dialogue, The Republic. Cicero's Scipio recalls Socrates, both
as a central figure and as a mask for the author himself.67 These features
reconstituted by Cicero out of Plato to enliven the Aristotelian form ob-
viously foreshadow Dryden's dialogue. So, too, do such other Ciceronian
features as patriotism, the friendship among the speakers, and a sense of
political atmosphere.58 Cicero's dedications, like the dedication of De
Natura Deorum to M. Junius Brutus, are also not alien to Dryden; nor
is the basic structure of this dialogue, which allows one speaker the de-
cisive role of replying to those representing other views. Velleius, setting
forth the Epicurean position on the gods, is answered by Cotta with
Academic doctrine (Book I). Balbus then advances the Stoic position
(Book II), to which Cotta again replies with the Academic (Book III).
To a considerable extent Dryden's dialogue form is an adaptation of
the Ciceronian dialogue along both pre-Ciceronian and original lines.
Dryden returns to Plato in developing the mise en scene, especially for
the initial dramatic scene, to lengths further than those favored by Cicero.
Dryden's scene on "that memorable day" is unforgettable, and he is at
pains to see that it is not forgotten: he stops the dialogue to reintroduce
the scene (e.g., 15:8-11; 64:23-25), and at the end interrupts the loquacious
Neander to bring the four men at last to their destination, the Somerset
Stairs. Moreover, Plato as well as Cicero had written dialogues like Dry-
den's with essayistic overtones: Socrates' speeches sometimes take on the
discursive characteristics of the essay; and the accidental occasion for the
dialogue is commonly seized upon by Plato as a means to direct and
express his thoughts.59
Before discussing Dryden's innovations it is necessary to consider, how-
ever briefly, postmedieval uses of the dialogue, even if only to show that
Dryden's debts are classical. Dryden obviously knew the frame provided
for the Decameron and probably was aware of the settings of Tasso's
dialogues and of Castiglione's The Courtier, but he almost certainly did
not know the framework of Jean Bodin's Colloquium Heptaplomeres. The
last would have interested him particularly, but although its existence and
something of its character were fairly well known in the seventeenth cen-
tury, it was not published for another two centuries.60 Renaissance
dialogues were of little use to Dryden because they were, with the ex-
"Hirzel, Der Dialog, I, 460-467. This is not to say that Dryden used De
Republica, which, except for the Somnium Scipionis, had been lost for centuries.
M
Ibid., pp. 465, 485-486, 499. 59 Paraphrasing ibid., p. 245.
60
George H. Sabine, "The Colloquium Heptaplomeres of Jean Bodin," in Perse-
cution and Liberty: Essays in Honor of George Lincoln Burr (1931), pp. 271-309.
352 Commentary
ception of Bodin's, basically didactic rather than skeptical or inquiring.

To Erasmus the dialogue was an agreeable method of teaching boys.81
Izaak Walton, to -whom Dryden no doubt owed something on other
grounds, shared this common belief, writing that he used the form to
provide information in an entertaining way. He also hinted that the
dialogue, however suited to instruction and delight, was a kind of self-
protection for the author, a suggestion Dryden would have understood.62
Such examples confirm Dryden's bold claim to have written a dialogue
along the lines developed from Plato to Cicero. After some seventeen
centuries Dryden revived and adapted the form to purposes of inquiry
among equals rather than to the pleasant teaching of inferiors and semi-
equals. Although numerous dialogues were to follow in England and
France—Sir Roger L'Estrange alone must have produced more of them
for the Observator than had previously been published in English—only
Dryden could make the claim of having fully understood the classical
dialogue and of having revived its spirit to new ends.
Consideration of Dryden's purposes must begin with certain basic
features of his Essay. Examples from antiquity show that dialogues may
be conceived without a dramatic setting, without give-and-take among
the characters, and even with very little suggestion of actual speech, though
by definition no dialogue is possible without at least two speakers. Since
Edmond Malone, the question traditionally posed about Of Dramatick
Poesie has been the identity of the real men hidden behind the four
characters. It can scarcely be doubted that in his second paragraph Dryden
was inviting readers to make identifications: "it was the fortune of
Eugenius, Crites, Lisideius and Neander, to be in company together: three
of them persons whom their witt and Quality have made known to all the
Town." Malone felt that Charles Sackville, Lord Buckhurst (later Earl
of Dorset), was "hid under the feigned name of Eugenius"; Wentworth
Dillon, Earl of Roscommon, under Crites; John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave
(later Duke of Buckingham and Normanby), under Lisideius; and Dryden
himself, under Neander.03 By the time he began to edit Crites' second
speech, however, Malone had had second thoughts; he then believed that
Crites was speaking for Sir Robert Howard. And when Malone wrote his
life of Dryden (which appears in the first part of the first volume, though
written later), he changed the identification of Lisideius, at last seeing
him as Sir Charles Sedley.84 It is difficult to resist the force of Malone's
inspired guess that Lisideius is an anagram of Sedleius or Sedleyius, the
Latinized version of Sedley.
Malone's changes of opinion show that, however persuasive his final
61
See "To the Reader" in The Colloquies of Erasmus, trans. Craig R.
Thompson (1965), p. 625.
""See The Compleat Angler (1653). In the second paragraph of "To the
Reader" Walton speaks of making "a recreation, of a recreation" for himself
and the reader; in the fourth paragraph he suggests that the dialogue form
protects an author who wishes to teach an art requiring practice.
M
Malone, I, ii, 34, 41 (second pagination).
"•Ibid., pp. 116-117 (second pagination); I, i, 62-68.
judgments may have seemed for more than a century, 85 it is very difficult
to identify the characters in Dryden's essay with any degree of assurance.
Doubts about Malone's identifications became serious when certain dis-
crepancies were pointed out. Howard, for example, whatever his stand on
rhymed verse, had argued (in the preface to Four New Plays) that modern
drama surpasses ancient drama, a view definitely not espoused by Crites.66
Malone had two reasons for claiming that Eugenius represented Buckhurst:
first, Prior had said so in dedicating his poems to Buckhurst's son, Lionel,
Earl of Dorset and Middlesex; second, Eugenius and Buckhurst shared a
deep respect for Ben Jonson. According to Crites, Eugenius preferred
Jonson "above all other Poets" (21:21); and Buckhurst had written a
"high eulogy on Ben Jonson . . . about the year 1668." °7 Neither reason
can be judged compelling; besides, the dramatic practice of Act IV of
Pompey, which Dryden attributes to Buckhurst (3:21-25), differs some-
what from the strict principles expressed by Eugenius. Even the anagram-
matic identification of Lisideius with Sedley may be challenged, because
Sedley's play, The Mulberry Garden (1668), hardly follows the French
ideas of regulation propounded by Lisideius. Since the identification of
Neander with Dryden has also been questioned, more than one critic in
recent years has come to believe that Dryden's speakers are wholly "dra-
matic" characters.68
Nevertheless, Dryden clearly implied that he had hidden three well-
known persons under his "borrowed names," and we are left with reasons
for accepting as well as for rejecting the traditional identifications. Ex-
amination of classical evidence, however, once again elucidating Dryden's
method, reveals that there was no need to have a character expound only
his own beliefs. In De Divinatione, for example, Cicero gives his brother
Quintus the usual Stoic arguments in favor of divination, although
Quintus' philosophical sympathies lay rather with the Peripatetics.09 The
standard edition of De Divinatione very plausibly suggests that Cicero's
reason was simply "a desire . . . to compliment his brother by making him
a character in the dialogue, regardless of whether the views ascribed to
him were his own or not." 70 Dryden's second paragraph suggests a
similar wish to compliment and a similar freedom in tampering with the
views held by his real "persons":
Amongst the rest, it was the fortune of Eugenius,
Crites, Lisideius and Neander, to be in company to-
gether: three of them persons whom their witt and
M
Scott hesitated over Crites for the reasons given by George R. Noyes
(" 'Critcs' in Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy," MLN, XXXVHI [1923], 333-337).
«Ibid. " Malone, I, ii, 35, 52 (second pagination).
68
See F. L. Huntley, "On the Persons in Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy,"
MLN, LXIII (1948), 88-95; Huntley, On Dryden's "Essay"; Louis C. Gatto, "An
Annotated Bibliography of Critical Thought Concerning Dryden's Essay of
Dramatic Poesy," Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Theatre Research, V
(1966),
TO
18-29.
On Quintus' enthusiasm for the Aristotelian tradition, see De Finibus, V, 96.
70
Pease, ed., De Divinatione, p. 17.
354 Commentary
Quality have made known to all the Town: and whom

I have chose to hide under these borrowed names, that
they may not suffer by so ill a relation as I am going to
make of their discourse.
There can be little doubt that most of Dryden's contemporaries would
have accepted with good grace depictions of themselves talking wittily of
the drama of many nations and sprinkling their remarks with quotations
in three languages, even if the views they propounded were not pre-
cisely their own. It has usually been assumed that Dryden's difficulty was
to represent accurately the views of four real men of his day. In reality,
his problems were to express his own ideas about contemporary English
drama—about its possibilities, its forms, its relations to French or classical
drama, its artistic principles—and to choose a dialogue form that would
satisfy his critical purposes. He had necessarily to choose from among his
friends if he planned an "Aristotelian" rather than a "Heraclidean"
dialogue; as a consequence, his fictional speakers, though expressing in
part the actual views of their real prototypes, were shaped to accord with
Dryden's overall structuring of his work.
The realities of employing contemporaries as speakers in a dialogue
are illustrated by Cicero's experience. Atticus had written Cicero that
Varro wished to appear in one of his dialogues. As he explained in his
reply to Atticus,71 Cicero, in revising the Academica, then transferred
the "arguments . . . collected by Antiochus . . . to Varro" and gave to
himself the arguments advanced by other Academics. He replaced Cotta
so that he would himself be more than a bit player (KW<£&>> irp&awirov).
We seem to glimpse Neander from afar in Cicero's remark: "I follow
Aristotle's practice: the conversation of the others is so put forward as to
leave him the principal part." Cicero was quite capable of assigning his
speakers roles inappropriate to them in real life, but he tried to give
them, whenever possible, the beliefs of their originals:
This present work, the Academica, as you know, I had
shared between Catulus, Lucullus and Hortensius. I
must admit that the work did not suit the characters;
for it was far too philosophical for them to have even
dreamt of such things. So, when I read your note about
Varro, I jumped at it as a godsend. Nothing could
have been more appropriate for expounding the sys-
tem of philosophy in which he seems specially interested,
and for introducing a part which prevents me from
seeming to give my own cause the superiority. For the
views of Antiochus are very persuasive, and I have put
them carefully with all Antiochus' acuteness and my own
polished style, if I possess one.
We may well believe that the concerns that weighed on Cicero occupied
Plato, Aristotle, and Dryden far more than the exact fitting of views to
n
Ad Atticum, XIII, 19. The translation is taken from the Loeb edition. It is
clear from the last paragraph of the dedication that Dryden had been reading
in Cicero's letters.
those actually held by a real person, such as the one represented by Crites.
Sir Robert Howard, obviously acquainted with the formal characteristics
of the dialogue, implicitly acknowledged in his reply to Dryden's Essay
that he was shadowed under Crites. Although he did not object to express-
ing in the dialogue views on the ancients which were not his own, he did,
touchy person that he was, take as a personal slur Dryden's comment about
those who dislike rhyme: "none are very violent against it, but those who
either have not attempted it, or who have succeeded ill in their attempt"
(3:19-20). Howard recognized, though in disinterested fashion, that the
genuine literary issue between himself and Dryden, as between Crites
and Neander, concerned the use of rhymed verse.
Howard's responses to the Neander-Crites debate are the best, and
sufficient, evidence for believing that these two characters cloak Dryden
and Howard. Although the evidence for believing that Lisideius and
Eugenius represent Sedley and Buckhurst is not so clear, Cicero's actual
practice (and no doubt Plato's, though there is too little evidence)
nullifies the objection that such identifications are inconsistent with the
literary principles and practices of Sedley and Buckhurst. What does bear
on our understanding of the characters is their "borrowed names." In
1667 Dryden, evidently lacking the confidence of the experienced Cicero,
did not feel free to introduce a Howard by name into his dialogue. Even
Cicero followed the Aristotelian procedure until relatively late in his
career and whenever dealing with controversial issues. There is something
appealing about Dryden's self-portrayal as a talkative "New Man" (Ne-
ander), a mere country gentleman, university graduate, and poet, not a
person allied by birth to the nobility like Howard (and Buckhurst) or a
man of fashion like Sedley and Buckhurst (and others of his time). By
protecting his speakers under borrowed names Dryden was in fact pro-
tecting himself. The name "Crites" is apparently derived from KpT7-T/«Ss,
"able to discern," the "critical one"; and "Eugenius" is the "well
born." "Lisideius" may well be the anagram that Malone thought it
and, in view of Sedley's French inclinations, may also be a play on
Le Cid, Corneille's play.72 The fact that on such readings Lisideius alone
has a Latin name suggests also a glance at Lysias, one of the Ten Attic
Orators, renowned for the correctness and purity of his writings. The
classical form of the characters' names, together with Dryden's curious
expression, "borrowed names," implies that he took the names from
classical times and wanted his essay to have the air of the classical dialogue.
Antiquity, however, lends little authority for the use of made-up names
for real men in dialogues. Dryden may have found a precedent in
Burton's pose as Democritus Junior or, more likely, in some of the names
in The Compleat Angler. Such examples are not wholly germane, how-
ever, and the best analogy is to be found in Dryden's own later practice.
The characters in Mac Flechnoe, Absalom and Achitophel, and The
Medall are based upon real men and women, but they are given "bor-
rowed names" or appellations and have existences independent of their
sources. Shaftesbury lay behind both Achitophel and the very different
™ Huntley, "Persons in Dryden's Essay," p. 93.

356 Commentary
unnamed chief of The Medall. Mac Flecknoe was perhaps first intended
to represent Settle before the name came to imply Shadwell,73 but as a
character Mac Flecknoe is different from Doeg-Settle and Og-Shadwell
in The Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel. The re-creation of real
individuals under borrowed names clearly affected the literary characteris-
tics of the speaker and of the dialogue as a whole. It was one thing for
Plato to use the authority of Socrates to lend conviction to his own argu-
ments, or for Cicero to compliment a friend by having him voice philo-
sophical ideas borrowed from men then dead. It was yet another for
Dryden to suggest the existence of real men behind his characters, because
the made-up names lent his dialogue a fictional air from the outset.
Spenser, in his historical allegorizing, perhaps provides a better precedent
than any character in a dialogue.
Dryden's major innovation—speakers at once related to historical per-
sonalities and free characters in a fabricated situation—alters the classical
dialogue and creates a species of semifiction. Dryden started from the
tradition of the classical dialogue as it was at the time of Cicero. The
patriotism, the debate over theoretical questions in terms of practical
applications, the use of lengthy discourses to set forth complex issues,
the use of a decisive speaker who is given the last speech of importance, the
sense of occurrence on a special day, the device of having "real" people
debate issues that were on the author's mind, employment of the dialogue
as a medium of inquiry or skeptical examination—all these Dryden may
be said to have developed from Cicero. It is also true, however, that these
features of the dialogue were adumbrated in Plato. Those who regard
Dryden's Essay as a Ciceronian dialogue based on De Oratore have given
too little consideration to Cicero's other dialogues or to Dryden's con-
sciousness of writing in the lengthy tradition of the Academy.74 Those
who see Of Dramatick Poesie as a Platonic dialogue have forgotten how
varied Plato is, how much of Plato can be found in Cicero's dialogues, and
how the form developed naturally from Plato to Cicero as the Academy
method of representing the inquiry into truth. The features of Dryden's
Essay owing most to the earlier Plato within the classical dialogue tradi-
tion are the fully developed situation at beginning and end, the definition
of the issue to be debated, and, of lesser importance, the borrowing of
names from the Greek.
Dryden's use of dramatic scene and his dedication permit us to judge
his easy development of a dialogue form at once his own and yet wholly
in the classical line. The earlier Platonic dialogues possess a remarkable
78
George McFadden, "Elkanah Settle and the Genesis of Mac Flecknoe," PQ,
XLIII (1964), 55-72.
"Of Cicero's major dialogues, De Oratore is not the most likely model for
Dryden. Dryden's repeating a phrase from it (70:6) is no sign that he was
intimately acquainted with a dialogue separately published in England only
twice between the introduction of printing and the publication of Dryden's
Of Dramatick Poesie. If a model must be given, De Legibus would seem a
better choice: Dryden alludes to it in the dedication (6:3); it is livelier; it
boasts a river scene; it was more easily available.
sense of drama; there is more interplay of characters, both developing from

and leading to a particularity of situation, than Dryden allows himself.
Dryden moves a step further by making the situation a historical event
complementary to the debate, for both the naval triumph and Neander's
arguments serve English patriotic interests. Moreover, the discussion in
the Essay begins and ends so as to coincide with the start and finish of the
boat ride on the Thames. The boat on the Thames corresponds to the
naval action at sea; an English victory emerges from both, and the inquiry
into the drama is in itself a kind of literary voyage on the first river of
England. In such fashion has the Platonic convention been freely and
significantly adapted. Dryden has also adapted Cicero's form of compli-
mentary address, a unit that is separate from his initial sketch of situation.
In the revised version of De Divinatione Cicero inserted before the second
part (II, 1-7) a kind of personal preface such as readers of Dryden would
recognize at once. For Of Dramatick Poesie Dryden combined these ele-
ments in a separate dedication and a brief epistle to the reader. The effect
is to make the essay proper an independent piece, like a Platonic dialogue,
although the units themselves are borrowed from Cicero. In other words,
Dryden has heightened the fictional element in the dialogue.
At first the essay proper creates a sensation very unlike that aroused by
the epistle dedicatory and the note to the reader. The use of the narrative
past tense gives the reader a sudden feeling of distance, a feeling of a
make-believe time and place and of fictional characters. Yet the date and
place were real—3 June 1665, London—and the sense of fiction gradually
fades as the speakers talk at successively greater length. Without evidence
that such a discussion ever took place, however, the sense of fiction never
completely disappears, and its return at the end of the Essay does not jar
the reader. Dryden shows great skill in making a transition from the
dramatic or (early) Platonic beginning of a dialogue to a sustained
Ciceronian inquiry and back again. He maintains a kind of illusion found
in a number of seventeenth-century works not usually considered fictional:
portions of The Anatomy of Melancholy, especially "Dcmocritus Junior
to the Reader"; both parts of The Compleat Angler; many of the more
sustained passages of Aubrey's Brief Lives; and the vignettes of Evelyn's
and, more markedly, of Pepys's diaries.
The essay Of Dramatick Poesie is, then, not only an essay on the drama
but also an inquiry into drama by the use of dialogue. More than that,
the dialogue verges on narrative at beginning and end, a narrative by a
self-designated narrator:
It was that memorable day, in the first Summer of the
late War, when our Navy ingag'd the Dutch. . . . the
noise of the Cannon from both Navies reach'd our ears
about the City: so that all men, being alarm'd with it,
and in a dreadful suspence of the event, which they knew
was then deciding, every one went following the sound
as his fancy led him; and leaving the Town almost empty,
some took towards the Park, some cross the River, others
down it; all seeking the noise in the depth of silence.
358 Commentary
Amongst the rest, it was the fortune of Eugenius,

Crites, Lisideius and Neander, to be in company to-
gether: three o£ them persons . . . whom I have chose
to hide under these borrowed names, that they may not
suffer by so ill a relation as I am going to make of
their discourse.
The price of presuming that the "I" in the above passage is John Dryden
himself is to assume also that there actually had been a meeting of four
real men to discuss the drama. The narrator, however, is more like Dryden
than the fictional Neander, who is included in such an expression as
"All of them" (14:10). There is one instance, moreover, of an intriguing
narrative intrusion. At the point where Crites is about to break in with
his "joynt quarrel" with Lisideius and Neander over rhyme, the first
edition reads: "This, my Lord, was the substance of what was then spoke
on that occasion." In the second edition the passage was emended to
read: "This, was the substance of what was then spoke on that occasion."
It is possible that the alteration was an omission by the printer (as the
comma after This may imply), or it may have been an effort by Dryden
(who forgot to take out the comma) to cancel the authorial intrusion (see
64:23 and textual footnote).
No small part of the success of the essay-dialogue-narrative is owing to
the naturalness and the ease of Dryden's prose style, and to his capacity
for sudden brilliance. The cohesiveness of this work is in part attributable
to the fact that a single subject is discussed, to the use of the dialogue
form, and to the presence of an element of fiction, but certainly Dryden's
remarkable prose style contributes to the singleness of effect, or illusion.
And yet there are numerous differences in shading, tone, and nuance, and
in characterization. Crites is marked by his interest in science and in the
spirit of the age, and by his tendency to asperity. Both Lisideius and
Eugenius are given a wit at times coruscating, but Lisideius is distinguished
from Eugenius (and the others) by his use of French expressions or Gal-
licisms, and Eugenius from the others by the range of his allusions. Not
only does he quote from Greek, Latin, and French, but he also drops
remarks about the Elizabethans, Italian architecture, and Renaissance
humanists. Moreover, he has the distinction of being the only character
to quote from an English poet, Cleveland (30:18-23; it is no less remark-
able that Cleveland is the only English poet quoted than that what is
quoted is admired). The name Eugenius, as noted, means "well born";
Dryden's Eugenius is also well read, and he is the confessed friend of
Neander (33:18-19). Neander is the least witty of the group, the most
serious-minded, and the most given to affirmation. He would share the
preferences of the others for Ben Jonson if he did not at heart place
Shakespeare, for all his faults, above other writers. So serious is Neander
that he is still talking after they have landed at Somerset Stairs. Neander's
wide-eyed, solemn air among three gentlemen of wit and social standing
diminishes in some degree the feeling that he has been given the best
arguments, although it does not minimize their effect.
The appropriateness of the dialogue form to Dryden's subject should
Notes to Pages 2-3 359
also be emphasized. No other form would permit so much of the semi-

fictional give-and-take which mirrors the theme of the discussion, drama.78
What form might Dryden have chosen for his unwritten, or at all events
unpublished, "second part" of the Essay, "wherein I shall more fully treat
of the Vertues and Faults of the English Poets, who have written either
in this [the dramatic], the Epique, or the Lyrique way"? 78 Whatever the
answer to that question, the dialogue form clearly suited a discussion of
the drama as no other form was likely to have done.
The Essay is in many ways Dryden's most ambitious work of critical
prose, not least because it combines a clear discursive line with a semi-
fictional form well fitted to the topic discussed. To find anything at all
comparable in English critical writing one would have to go back to
Sir Philip Sidney's Defence of Poesie. Sidney's essay is, however, less
fictional than Dryden's; its emphases tend toward the rhetorical, the
abstract, and the moral. Dryden had the advantage of a developed
dramatic tradition to look back upon. And because he was himself a
dramatist as well as a critic, he was able for the first time in English to
absorb theoretical considerations into practical literary issues and to see
the issues of the moment in the context of a living tradition, without
bowing abjectly before that tradition. We may feel that Dryden, in his
later critical prose, has penetrated more deeply into aesthetic issues, or
that his style and outlook have become more mellow and persuasive. But,
if we must mark the moment when Dryden became, in Dr. Johnson's
phrase, "the father of English criticism," 77 there can be no doubt that
it was when he wrote Of Dramatick Poesie.
TITLE PAGE
Epigraph. Fungar vice cotis etc. Ars Poetica, 11. 304-305. (Loeb trans.:
"I'll play a whetstone's part, which makes steel sharp, but of itself cannot
cut.")
DEDICATORY EPISTLE
P. 3 Charles Lord Buckhurst. Charles Sackville, Lord Buckhurst (1643-
1706), later fourth Earl of Middlesex (1675) and sixth Earl of Dorset
(1677), was one of the young wits of Charles IPs court and was destined
to become famous as a patron of poets from Dryden to Prior. Dryden
" T. S. Eliot's "Dialogue on Dramatic Poetry" (in Selected Essays, 1917-19)1

[1932]), imitating Dryden, fails precisely because it lacks dramatic force. Eliot's
dialogue, with shorter speeches, should in theory be livelier than Dryden's or
Cicero's; it does not realize this potentiality because Eliot is less successful than
his predecessors were in sustaining an illusion.
" "To the Reader." The "I" of this remark may be contrasted with the "I" in
the second paragraph of the essay proper.
"BH, I, 410.
360 Commentary
had already paid him a graceful compliment in the dedication of The

Rival Ladies (1664). In the preface to Don Sebastian (1690) Dryden
states that Dorset had read the play in manuscript and had sent him
words of praise for it. Dryden's fullest acknowledgment of Dorset's kind-
ness and greatness appears in the dedication of the translation of Juvenal
and Persius, where he recalls the Earl's financial aid in the trying days
after the accession of William and Mary. More important for present
purposes is Dryden's summary statement there about the circumstances
in which he composed and dedicated Of Dramatick Poesie. In the DM-
course of Satire (1693, p. ii; Watson, II, 73), he writes:
'Tis true, I have one Priviledge which is almost par-
ticular to my self, that I saw you in the East at your first
arising above the Hemisphere: I was as soon Sensible as
any Man of that Light, when it was but just shooting out,
and beginning to Travel upwards to the Meridian. I made
my early Addresses to your Lordship, in my Essay of Dra-
matick Poetry; and therein bespoke you to the World:
Wherein, I have the right of a First Discoverer.
For the interesting sentence that follows the one just quoted, see headnote,
P- 333-
3:6 driven me from the Town. Dryden seems to have left London in
the summer of 1665 for his father-in-law's home at Charlton in Wiltshire.
There he and his family remained for a period of twelve to eighteen
months. For a literary chronology, see Works, I, 260.
3:15 laid the Practice of it aside. Perhaps a reference to Secret Love,
which is written in prose and a very loose kind of blank verse (see Works,
IX, 336). The play seems to have been written during the sojourn in the
country, probably after the essay Of Dramatick Poesie.
3:24 fourth Act of Pompey. Corneille's Pompee was translated into
pentameter couplets by Waller, Buckhurst, perhaps Sedley, and others.
The date of production is uncertain (probably late 1663 or early 1664);
it was published by Herringman in the winter of 1664. Apparently
Waller was responsible for Act I and Buckhurst for Act IV. Katherine
Philips (the "Matchless Orinda"), who did a translation of Pompee at
about the same time as the "persons of honor" were writing theirs, was
much agitated over being in competition with them. After reading the
second and fourth acts of the rival translation, she commented un-
favorably on the looseness of the couplets: "their Rhymes are frequently
very bad, but what chiefly disgusts me is, that the Sence most commonly
languishes through three or four Lines, and then ends in the middle of
the fifth: For I am of Opinion, that the Sence ought always to be confin'd
to the Couplet, otherwise the Lines must needs be spiritless and dull"
(Letters from Orinda to Poliarchus [1705], pp. 179-180). The following
passage illustrates the occasional languishing of the sense in Buckhurst's
fourth act (Pompey the Great [1664], p. 36):
Love, my most powerfull Passion made me hate
Success and Greatness, Curse the Cruel fate
That rais'd me, since thus great I cannot spare
My self one hour of Joy, but some new Care

Still calls me from you, yet I straight again
Am reconcil'd to Fortune, and restrain
My Causeless passion, nay, adore my Bays,
Since they my Hopes as well as Person raise
To that Auspicious height from whence I see,
So fair a Prospect of Felicity,
That I dare hope Requital of my Flame,
Though my Ambitious Love make you his Aim.
Possibly Dryden, unlike Orinda, found the flexible couplets appealing.
4:5 Spurina. Malone refers to Valerius Maximus, IV, v, Ext. i (Romae
Antiquae Descriptio . . . Written in Latine by that famous Historian
Quintus Valerius Maximus [1678], p. 184): "There was in that Country
one Spurina, a young man of surpassing beauty; whose lovely aspect,
alluring the eyes of the most Illustrious Ladies, and who therefore be-
lieving himself to be suspected of unchastity by the Husbands and
Parents of those women; with many wounds gash'd and spoyl'd the
beauty of his Countenance; choosing rather deformity for the Guardian
of his fidelity, than that his beauty should be the Incitement of others
Lust." Ker suggests that Dryden may have found the anecdote in Mon-
taigne, II, 33.
4:12-13 Pars, indocili etc. Horace, Epodes, XVI, 37-38. (Loeb trans.:
"the portion better than the ignorant herdl Let the weak and hopeless
remnant rest on their ill-fated couches!")
4:15 Pratortan Bands. Imperial bodyguard in Rome, upon occasion
able to make and unmake emperors.
4:16 The Court, Charles II and some of the young wits who gathered
around him liked to discuss dramatic theory, particularly the French use
of rhymed alexandrines. Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery, seems to have taken
part in such a discussion in late 1660. In a memoir of him Thomas
Morrice wrote: "King Charles was the first, who put my lord upon
writing plays, which his majesty did upon occasion of a dispute, that
arose in his royal presence about writing plays in rhyme: some affirmed
it was not to be done; others said it would spoil the fancy to be so
confined, but lord Orrery was of another opinion; and his majesty being
willing a trial should be made, commanded his lordship to employ some
of his leisure that way, which my lord readily did" (A Collection of the
State Letters of the Right Honourable Roger Boyle [Dublin, 1743], I,
81). Writing to the Duke of Ormonde in January 1661, Orrery declared:
"When I had the Honnor, & unhappy ness the Last Time to Kiss his
majts hande, he Commanded me, to write a Play for him. . . . And there-
fore som months [sic] I Presumed to lay at his majts Feete, a Trage-Comedi,
All in Ten Feet verse, fe Ryme. I write it, in that manner upon two
accounts; First, because I thought it was not fit, a Command soe Extraor-
dinary, should have bin obeyd in a way that was Common; Secondly,
because I found his majty Relish'd rather, the French Passion of Playes,
then the English" (The Dramatic Works of Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery,
ed. W. S. Clark [1937], I, 25; see also Clark's discussion, pp. an &.). Like
362 Commentary
Orrery, Buckhurst had probably debated dramatic theory in the King's

circle.
4:17 allow'd of. Approved of.
4:22 French Poet. The poet as well as the poem remains unidentified.
5:9 Poem to the King. Sir William Davenant's Poem to the Kings most
Sacred Majesty, first published in 1663. The passage, slightly misquoted,
appears on page 23. Perhaps Dryden also recalled that Davenant, in his
panegyric, had commented on the achievement of English drama under
the tutelage of Charles II (ibid., pp. 24-27):
The Theatre (the Poeis Magick-Glass
In which the Dead in vision by us pass;
Where what the Great have done we do again,
But with less loss of time and lesser pain)
Is in the Scene so various now become,
That the Dramatick Plots of Greece, and Rome,
Compar'd to ours, do from their height decline.
And shrink in all the compass of design.
Where Poets did large Palaces intend,
The spacious purpose narrowly did end
In Houses, where great Monarchs had no more
Removes than Two low Rooms upon a Floor:
Whose thorow lights were so transparent made,
That Expectation (which should be delai'd
And kept a while from being satisfi'd)
Saw, on a sodain, all that Art should hide;
Whilst at the plain contrivance all did grieve;
For it was there no trespass to deceive.
If we the antient Drama have refin'd,
Yet no intrigues, like Lab'rinths, are design'd,
In Counterturns so subtle as but few,
When entred, can get forth without a Clue:
Where Expectation may in tangled be,
But not so long, as never to get free:
Where Love throughout the Character does last;
And such unblemis'd love as all the chaste
May still endure with publick confidence,
And not at vanquish'd Beauty take offence;
Where Valour we so possible express,
That we should wrong the Great to make it less.
If to reform the publick Mirrour (where
The Dead, to teach their living Race, appear)
May to the People useful prove, even this
(Which but the object of your leisure is
To respite Care, and which successivelie
Three of our last wise Monarchs wish'd to see,
And in a Century could not be wrought)
You, in Three years, have to perfection brought.
If 'tis to height of Art and Virtue grown,

The form and matter is as much your own
As is your Tribute with your Image coin'd:
You made the Art, the Virtue You enjoyn'd.
5:18 Homer tells us. See Iliad, XVI, 124 ft.
5:25-26 first made publick. In the dedication of The Rival Ladies
(1664), where Dryden first publicly advocated the use of rhyme in
dramatic dialogue.
6:2 candour. Freedom from malice (OED).
6:3 one of his Dialogues. Cicero's DC Legibus. In this splendid dialogue
Cicero dramatizes a disagreement between himself and Atticus and, even
more, his brother Quintus. The allusion to De Legibus seems to suggest
that Buckhurst is a character in the dialogue, and perhaps also Sir Robert
Howard, who was almost as closely related to Dryden by marriage as
Quintus was to Marcus Cicero by blood. On Dryden's use of Cicero, see
the headnote and, in particular, n. 74 to the headnote.
6:9-10 as to praise Cicero. Cf. Cicero, Ad Atticum, XII, 40; Plutarch,
The Life of Julius Caesar, LIV.
6:20 Sine studio partium aut ira. Tacitus, Annals, I, i: sine ira et studio,
quorum causas procul habeo. (Loeb trans.: "Without anger and without
partiality, from the motives of which I stand sufficiently removed.")
TO THE READER
7:9-10 Vertues and Faults of the English Poets. Dryden never wrote
such a treatise, but his critical writings contain many passages that might
have been included in it.
ESSAY
8:1-2 that memorable day, in the first Summer of the late War etc.
The "late War" was the second Dutch war; the memorable day was 3
June 1665, when the battle between the English and Dutch navies took
place off Lowestoft. Dryden also wrote of the engagement in Annus
Mirabilis, 11. 73-92 (see Works, I, 62-63, and notes). The treaty of peace
ending the war was signed at Breda 011 21 July 1667. Since Of Dramatick
Poesie was entered in the Stationers' Register on 7 August of the same
year, the opening sentence probably represents a late addition or revision.
In his poem to the Duchess of York published with Annus Mirabilis
(Works, I, 57), Dryden also commented on the Duke of York's victory
off Lowestoft. Under date of 3 June 1665 Pepys recorded the uneasiness
of Londoners over the sounds of the battle: "All this day by all people
upon the River, and almost every where else hereabout were heard the
guns, our two fleets for certain being engaged; which was confirmed by
letters from Harwich, but nothing particular."
8:17-18 Eugenius, Crites, Lisideius and Neander. For identification,
see headnote, pp. 352-355.
364 Commentary
8:24 shoot the Bridge. That is, pass quickly under it. Pepys used the
phrase several times; under date of 8 August 1662 he described the feat
of going under London Bridge:
Thence by boat; I being hot, he put the skirt of his
cloak about me; and it being rough, he told me the
passage of a Frenchman through London Bridge, where,
•when he saw the great fall, he began to cross himself and
say his prayers in the greatest fear in the world, and
soon as he was over, he swore "Morbleul c'est le plus
grand plaisir du monde," being the most like a French
humour in the world.
H. B. Wheatley (Diary of Samuel Pepys, II [1924], joi-gozn) quotes
Braybrooke's note on the entry: "Before the erection of the present
London Bridge the fall of water at the ebb tide was great, and to pass
at that time was called 'Shooting the bridge.' It was very hazardous for
small boats."
9:2 like the noise of distant Thunder. Cf. "Verses to Her Highness
the Dutchess" (11. 30-31), inserted in the "Account" prefixed to Annus
Mirabilis:
While, from afar, we heard the Canon play,
Like distant Thunder on a shiny day.
10:6-7 as well silenc'd as seditious Preachers. A reference to recently
enacted repressive laws directed at dissent and especially at dissenting
clergymen, notably the Conventicle Act (1664) and the Five-Mile Act
(1665).
10:12-16 Quern in condone etc. Pro Archia, X, 25. (Loeb trans.: "It
will be remembered that once at a public meeting some poetaster from
the crowd handed up to that great man a paper containing an epigram
upon him, improvised in somewhat unmetrical elegiacs. Sulla immediately
ordered a reward to be paid him out of the proceeds of the sale which
he was then holding, but added the stipulation that he should never
write again.")
10:20 two Poets. Malone first suggested that the reference is probably
to Robert Wild (1609-1679) and Richard Flecknoe (d. c. 1678). By the
time Of Dramatick Poesie was published they had both printed poems
celebrating the naval victory. The ejection of Wild from his living in
1662 gives point to the comparison of ill poets and seditious preachers,
though Wild was in fact a royalist. His Iter Boreale, Attempting some-
thing upon the Successful and Matchless March of the Lord General
Georg Monck, From Scotland to London, published in 1660, was ex-
tremely popular. It is perhaps the "famous Poem" referred to at 12:4-5.
Wild's poetic powers may be judged from the opening lines of An Essay
Upon the late Victory obtained by His Royal Highness the Duke of
York, Against the Dutch, upon June 3, 1665 (Iter Boreale With Large
Additions [1668], p. 64):
GOUTI I conjure thee by the powerful Names
Of CHARLES and JAMES, and their victorious Fames,
On this great Day set all thy Prisoners free.
(Triumphs command a Goal-Delivery)

Set them all free, leave not a limping Toe
From my Lord Chancellors to mine below;
Unless thou giv'st us leave this day to dance,
Thou'rt not th'old Loyal Gout, but com'st from France.
'Tis done, my grief obeys the Sovereign Charms,
I feel a Bonfire in my joynts, which warms
And thaws the frozen jelly; I am grown
Twenty years younger; Victory hath done
What puzled Physick: Give the Dutch a Rout,
Probatum est, 'twill cure an English Gout.
Flecknoe composed two poems on the victory, addressing one of them to
the Duke of York and the other to Prince Rupert. The first sixteen
lines of "To His Highness Prince Rupert" (A Farrago of several Pieces
[1666], p. 6) illustrate his pedestrian mode:
Great and Magnanimous Prince, surpassing far
Him who was stil'd the Thunder-bolt of war.
The Belgick-Lyon trembles for to see,
A mightier Lyon then it self in thee.
And quite abandoning the Seas command,
Roaring for fear, does hide it self on land,
And Zeland one no more dares to appear
But sinks into the waves, and hides it there:
Lyons no more but rather Wolves of pray,
Whom all men hate, and all men chase away.
Their Navy shatter'd, and their courage lost,
What's now become of all their glorious boast
Of conquering us? themselves now conquered.
Nor daring more for shame to shew their head:
Or if they do, 'twill only be to add,
A second victory to the first we had.
In view of the artistic nature of the dialogue and the quasi-fictional
character of even the named people who appear in it, the two poets
described in the passage need not be identified as Wild and Flecknoe,
or indeed with any contemporary scribblers. The significance in the larger
purpose of the essay is the analysis of false wit and nonwit in poetry.
10:23 clenches. Plays on words, puns (OED).
10:25 Catachresis or Clevelandism. Ker cites part of the following defini-
tion of catachresis by John Smith (The Mysterie of Rhetorique Unvail'd
[1657], pp. 48-49):
It is an improper kinde of speech, somewhat more
desperate than a Metaphor, and is the expressing of one
matter by the name of another which is incompatible
with, and sometimes clean contrary to it: and is when the
change of speech is hard, strange and unwonted: or,
It is the abuse of a Trope, when words are too far
wrested from their native signification, or when one word
is abusively put for another, for lack of the proper word.
366 Commentary
Clevelandism refers to the manner of John Cleveland. See below,

3o:i8-ign.
11:13 ten liMe words in every line etc. Cf. Pope, Essay on Criticism,
11. 346-347:
While Expletives their feeble Aid do join,
And ten low Words oft creep in one dull Line.
11:20 Pauper videri etc. Epigrams, VIII, xix, 17. (Loeb trans.: "Cinna
wishes to appear poor, and he is poor.")
12:2 Withers. George Wither (1588-1667), a prolific poet, was the butt
of royalist wit both because he published a large amount of doggerel and
because he took the parliamentary side in the Civil War.
12:6 Change-time. The Change or Exchange was the center of commer-
cial transactions.
12:7 by the Candles ends. At an auction a piece of candle was lighted,
and bidding continued until it burned itself out.
12:13 qui Bavium non odit, &c. Virgil, Eclogues, III, 90. (Loeb trans.:
"Let him who hates not Bavius love your songs, Mavius.")
12:16-17 Nam quos contemnimus etc. Quotation unidentified. (For we
disdain those who praise what we despise.)
12:22-23 Pace vestra liceat etc. Satyricon, a. (Loeb trans.: "With your
permission I must tell you the truth, that you teachers [of rhetoric] more
than anyone have been the ruin of true eloquence.") Cf. Life of Plutarch,
286:21-24 and n.
13:3-4 Jndignor quidquam etc. Epistles, II, i, 76-77. (Loeb trans.: "I am
impatient that any work is censured, not because it is thought to be
coarse or inelegant in style, but because it is modern.")
13:6-7 Si meliora dies etc. Epistles, II, i, 34-35. (Loeb trans.: "If poems
are like wine which time improves, I should like to know what is the
year that gives to writings fresh value.")
14:9 the Drama is wholly ours. "Imitated from the phrase of Quin-
tilian, X: 'Satira quidem tota nostra est' " (Ker). See Institutes of Oratory,
X, i, 93.
14:14-15 Writers yet living. No doubt Waller and Denham are meant.
In the dedication of The Rival Ladies (Works, VIII, 100) Dryden had
already noted their contributions to English prosody.
15:7 a genere & fine. Of class and end. That is, the definition is im-
perfect in dealing with literature as a whole, in terms of its purpose, not
distinguishing the drama from other kinds.
15:20 It has been observed etc. Malone cites Velleius Paterculus,
Roman History, I, 16-17.
15:22-23 every Age has a kind of Universal Genius. As suggested in the
headnote, the idea of the spirit of an age is novel and helps explain
the importance to Dryden of Velleius Paterculus.
15:26 Is it not evident etc. Dryden, a member of the Royal Society,
was well aware of the scientific movement of his day. He is thinking of
such men as Bacon, Harvey, Galileo, and Descartes.
15:27 Philosophy. That is, natural science.
15:29 School. Meaning the scholastic philosophers.
16:8 Lycophron. A tragic poet of Alexandria in the third century B.C.

16:13-14 Alit eemulatio etc. Roman History, I, 17.
17:13 concerning Comedy. In the Poetics, Aristotle mentions his inten-
tion to discuss comedy, but the discussion itself has been lost. Although
Horace's Ars Poetica is not a commentary on the Poetics, the idea that
it was had been widespread during the Renaissance.
17:15 Des Trois Unitez. The first of many allusions to Pierre Corneille's
third discourse, published in 1660. The use of Des for Les is a slip. The
third discourse is entitled Discours des trois unite's.
17:15-16 The Three Unities. The three unities were not extracted
from Aristotle's Poetics. Aristotle discusses unity of action and observes
that Greek tragedy "endeavors as far as possible to confine itself to a
single revolution of the sun, or but slightly to exceed this limit" (V, 8),
but says nothing of unity of place. It was Lodovico Castelvetro who in
1570 announced the dogma of the three unities.
19:10 La Liaison des Scenes. For Corneille's definition see headnote,
p. 338. It should be noted that Corneille wrote of the technique of linking
the scenes in connection with unity of action, not of place, and that he
speaks of the linking as an ornament, not a requirement.
19:25 in his Discoveries. In Timber, or Discoveries (Jonson, Works,
VIII, 647): "Now, that it should be one, and intire. One is considerable
two waies: either, as it is only separate, and by it self: or as being
compos'd of many parts, it beginnes to be one, as those parts grow, or
are wrought together."
19:32 sayes Corneille. In his discourse on the unities (CEuvres, I, 99):
"II n'y doit avoir qu'une action complete, qui laisse 1'esprit de 1'auditeur
dans le calme; mais elle ne peut le devenir que par plusieurs autres
imparfaites, qui lui servent d'acheminements, et tiennent cet auditeur dans
une agrâble suspension."
20:16 Ceecillus, Affranius and Varius. Caecilius Statius (fl. zd century
B.C.) was a Roman writer of comedy who borrowed freely from Menan-
der; sixteen of his titles are taken from that source. Ker cites Paterculus,
Roman History, I, 17: dulcesque Latini leporis facetiae per Caecilium
Terentiumque et Afranium subpari aetate nituerunt. (Loeb trans.: "And
the sweet pleasantry of Latin humour reached its zenith in practically
the same age under Caecilius, Terentius, and Afranius.") Possibly Dryden
was subtly undercutting Crites' praise of the ancients by recalling that
Cicero faulted Caecilius for defective Latinity and that Aulus Gellius
(Attic Nights, II, xxiii) noted his inferiority to Menander. Lucius Afranius
(fl. c. 100 n.c.) was another Latin writer of comedies on the model of
Menander. Lucius Varius Rufus, friend of Horace and Virgil, was an
epic and tragic poet. See Horace, Odes, I, vi, i; Satires, I, ix, 23; Ars
Poelica, 1. 55; and Martial, Epigrams, VIII, xviii, 7. As Ker notes, Patercu-
lus does not mention Varius.
20:20 Half-Menander. Ker cites Suetonius, Life of Terence, V, quoting
Gaius Caesar:
Tu quoque, tu in summis, o dimidiate Menander,
Poneris, et merito, puri sermonis amator.
368 Commentary
(Loeb trans.: "Thou too, even thou, art ranked among the highest, thou
half-Menander, and justly, thou lover of language undefiled.")
21:4-5 Macrobius. Books III-VI of his Saturnalia contain criticism of
Virgil.
21:19 wore their deaths. See Dryden's prologue (1. 10) to Albumazar
for a revival early in 1668: "He lik'd the fashion well, who wore the
Cloaths" (Works, I, 141, 344). The prologue claims that Jonson borrowed
from Albumazar when he wrote The Alchemist.
21:20-21 you, Eugenius, prefer him above all other Poets. According
to Malone, Buckhurst wrote a "high eulogy on Ben Jonson" about 1668.
Buckhurst's poem, an epilogue to Every Man in His Humour, was
apparently written for a revival of the play about 1670 (Van Lennep,
p. 169). Since records on the productions of Every Man in His Humour
in the Restoration are scanty, it is possible that the epilogue was written
earlier than 1670 (see R. Gale Noyes, Ben Jonson on the English Stage,
1660-1776 [1935], p- 247). Hardly a "high eulogy," it is nevertheless, in its
ironic way, a commendation of Jonson the writer; further, if Eugenius is
to be identified with Buckhurst, the poem has some significance as a
gloss on this passage from the Essay. The following version is taken
from A Collection of Poems Written upon several Occasions by several
Persons (1673), pp. 29-32:
Intreaty shall not serve nor violence,
To make me speak in such a Playes defence.
A Play where Wit and Humour do agree
To break all practis'd Laws of Comedy:
The Scene (what more absurd) in England lies,
No Gods descend, nor dancing Devils rise;
No captive Prince from nameless Country brought,
No battel, nay, there's not a duel fought.
And something yet more sharply might be said.
But I consider the poor Author's dead;
Let that be his excuse—Now for our own,
Why— Faith, in my opinion, we need none.
The parts were fitted well; but some will say,
Pox on 'em Rogues what made 'em chuse this Play?
I do not doubt but you will credit me,
It was not choice, but meer necessity;
To all our writing friends, in Town, we sent,
But not a Wit durst venture out in Lent;
Have patience but till Easter-Term, and then
You shall have Jigg and Hobby-horse agen.
Here's Mr. Matthew, our domestique Wit,
Does promise one of the ten Plays h'as writ;
But since great bribes weigh nothing with the just,
Know, we have merits, and in them we trust;
When any Fasts, or Holy-days, defer
The publick labours of the Theatre,
We ride not forth although the day be fair,

On ambling Tit to take the Suburb-air,
But with our Authors meet, and spend that time
To make up quarrels between sence and rhyme.
Wednesdays and Fridays constantly we sate
Till after many a long and free debate,
For divers weighty reasons 'twas thought fit,
Unruly sence shu'd still to rhyme submit.
This the most wholesom Law we ever made,
So strictly in this Epilogue obey'd,
Sure no man here will ever dare to break.
Enter Johnson's Ghost.
Hold, and give way, for I my self will speak,
Can you encourage so much insolence,
And add new faults still to the great offence
Your Ancestors so rashly did commit
Against the mighty Powers of Art and Wit?
When they condemn'd those noble works of mine,
Sejanus, and my best lov'd Cataline:
Repent, or on your guilty heads shall fall
The curse of many a rhyming Pastoral:
The three bold Beauchamps shall revive again,
And with the London Prentice conquer Spain.
All the dull follies of the former age
Shall rise and find applause upon this Stage.
But if you pay the great arrears of praise,
So long since due to my much injur'd Plays,
From all past crimes I first will set you free,
And then inspire some one to write like me.
28:24-27 Audita visis etc. Roman History, II, 92. In Dryden's quotation
admiratione should read veneratione. (Loeb trans.: "We are naturally
more inclined to praise what we have heard than what has occurred
before our eyes; we regard the present with envy, the past with veneration,
and believe that we are eclipsed by the former, but derive instruction
from the latter.")
23:1-21 Aristotle indeed divides etc. The division is not Aristotle's.
Ker points out the parallel with J. C. Scaliger, Poetices libri septem, I,
ix: Protasis est, in qua proponitur et narratur summa rei sine declara-
tione exitus. . . . Epitasis, in qua turbae aut excitantur, aut intenduntur.
Catastasis, est vigor, ac status Fabulae, in qua res miscetur in ea fortunae
tempestate, in quam subducta est. . . . Catastrophe, conversio negotii
exagitati in tranquillitatem non expectatam. (The Protasis is that part in
which the chief elements are presented and related without revealing their
outcome. . . . The Epitasis is that part in which the conflicts are either
kindled or intensified. The Catastasis provides the force, and the essential
issue of the story, the part in which the matter is embroiled in that
370 Commentary
storm of fortune into which it has been drawn. . . . the Catastrophe,

the conversion of the troubled affair into an unexpected tranquillity.)
83:87-28 Neu brevior quinto etc. Ars Poetica, 1. 189. Modern texts
read: Neve minor neu sit quinto produuior actu. (Loeb trans.: "Let no
play be either shorter or longer than five acts.") On Dryden's divergences
from the usual text in his "quotations," see 29:30-3in.
24:1-2 three Acts, which they call Jornadas. Spanish plays were divided
into three acts chiefly because of the influence of Lope cle Vega (1562-
1635), though he used acto instead of jornado, the word popularized by
Calder6n. See Corneille's third discourse (CEuvres, I, 107): "Aristote n'en
present point le nombre; Horace le borne a cinq; et bien qu'il deiende
d'y en mettre moins, les Espagnols s'opiniatrent £ 1'arreter a trois, et les
Italiens font souvent la meme chose."
24:9-10 TWV irpa.yna.rwv avpOeffa. The ordering of events.
24:11 a late Writer. Possibly Gilles Manage, according to Ker, who
further comments on the assertion about the worn plots of the Greeks:
"Compare the quotation from Antiphanes the Comic Poet, in Athenaeus,
Book Vl.i (Meineke, Com. Frag. III.106), which is probably the source,
direct or indirect, of this passage of the Essay. Dryden might possibly
have had his attention called to it by Menage, who quotes it in his
Osservationi sopra I'Aminta, p. 102 (Paris, 1654), and gives an Italian
translation."
24:15-16 Talkative Greeklings. See Timber (Jonson, Works, VIII, 641):
"Which of the Greekelings durst ever give precepts to Demosthenes?"
Ker traces "talkative" to Cicero, De Oratore, I, xxii, 102: Graeculo otioso
et loquaci. (Loeb trans.: "idle talkative Greekling.")
25:5 Juno Lucina etc. Terence, Andria, III, i, 15. (Loeb trans.: "Our
Lady of childbirth, help me.") Ker notes that Scaliger quoted the line
in Poetices, I, 13, and VI, 3.
26:1 Unity of Place. Corneille was aware, however, that neither
Aristotle nor Horace had prescribed unity of place. See CEuvres, I, 117:
"Quant a I'unit6 de lieu, je n'en trouve aucun precepte ni dans Aristote
ni dans Horace."
26:7-8 sayes Scaliger. Scaliger first summarizes criticism leveled at Ter-
ence's Heautontimorumenos and then defends it (Poetices, VI, 3): Alterum
hoc, Vasta, inquiunt, et hians, atque inanis Comoedia est: tola namque
intercedit nox. Nam per initia coenam curant; postea Chremes ait,
lucescit. Sane igitur abiit nox. Haec est illorum obiectio: quam sic
diluimus, Datam actamque fabulam ludis Megalensibus. Itaque dimidium
fabulae actum vesperi; noctem transfactam ludis; alterum dimidium re-
liquum sub lucem. (Another objection is this: the comedy is desolate,
vacuous, and empty, because a whole night intervenes in it. At the be-
ginning they make arrangements for dinner, and afterward Chremes says,
"It grows light." Night, then, has of course passed. Such is their objection,
and in answer to it I reply as follows: this is a play produced and per-
formed on the festival of Cybele. And so half the play was performed in
the evening; the night was spent on the games; and the other half is left
until just before dawn.)
26:9 and Euripides etc. Corneille, the "French poet" quoted in 26:22,
has this comment to make on Euripides (GEuvres, I, 112):
Euripide, dans les Suppliantes, fait partir The'se'e
d'Athenes avec une arme'e, donner une bataille devant
les murs de Thebes, qui en 6toient e'loigne's de douze
ou quinze lieues, et revenir victorieux en 1'acte suivant;
et depuis qu'il est parti jusqu'a I'arrive'e du messager
qui vient faire le re'cit de sa victoire, fithra et le choeur
n'ont que trente-six vers a dire. C'est assez bien employe'
un temps si court.
27:12 Chremes and Pythias were gone off. See Corneille, (Euvres, I,
101-102:
Les anciens ne s'y sont pas toujours assujettis, bien que
la plupart de leurs actes ne soient charges que de deux
ou trois scenes; ce qui la rendoit bien plus facile pour
eux que pour nous, qui leur en donnons quelquefois
jusqu'a neuf ou dix. Je ne rapporterai que deux ex-
emples du me'pris qu'ils en ont fait: 1'un est de
Sophocle dans VAjax, dont le monologue, avant que de
se tuer, n'a aucune liaison avec la scene qui le precede,
ni avec celle qui le suit; 1'autre est du troisieme acte de
YEunuque, de Te'rcnce, ou celle d'Antiphon seul n'a
aucune communication avec Chre'mes et Pythias, qui
sortent du the'itre quand il y entre.
27:15-16 inartificial. Without art or skill; clumsy (OED).
29:1-2 Tandem ego non etc. Eunuch, II, i, 17-18. (Loeb trans.: "Pray,
can't I go without her, if necessary, even for three days running?")
Parmeno's reply, Hui, universum triduum, is, as Eugenius remarks, diffi-
cult to render into English without losing the wit of the original.
29:11-13 Sed Proavi nostri etc. Ars Poelica, 11. 270-272. In modern
texts, for Sed Proavi nostri read at vestri proavi, and for stolide read
stulte. {Loeb trans.: "Yet your forefathers, you say, praised both the
measures and the wit of Plautus. Too tolerant, -not to say foolish.") On
Dryden's divergences from the usual text in his "quotations," see
89:3°-3ln-
29:17-19 Multa renascentur etc. Ars Poelica, 11. 70-72. (Loeb trans.:
"Many terms that have fallen out of use shall be born again, and those
shall fall that are now in repute, if usage so will it, in whose hands lies
the judgment, the right and the use of speech.")
29:24 Mistaque ridenti etc. Eclogues, IV, 20. (Loeb trans.: "And the
Egyptian bean blended with the smiling acanthus.")
29:26-28 Mirantur A- undee etc. Dryden's memory failed him. The
passage is in the eighth Aeneid (11. 91-93), not the seventh. (Loeb trans.:
"In wonder the unwonted woods view the far gleaming shields of war-
riors and the painted hulls floating on the stream.")
29:30-31 Si verbo audacia etc. Metamorphoses, I, 175-176. Malone ob-
serves that for verbo should be read verbis and for metuam summi should
be read timeam magni. ([This is a place] which, if boldness of expression
372 Commentary
be allowed, I shall not hesitate to call the Palace of High Heaven.) See
Dryden, "The First Book of Ovid's Metamorphoses," 11. 227-228 (Examen
Poeticum):
This Place, as far as Earth with Heav'n may vie,
I dare to call the Loovre of the Skie.
It should be observed that Oryden's versions of certain classical passages
(see also 23:27-28^ 29:11-13^, though conforming to no known manu-
script tradition, yet make sense and even scan. Deliberate negligence
seems to be involved, an elaborate pose like that of Plato, who misquotes
Homer but keeps sense and prosody. What seems to be implied is a
gentlemanly disdain for pedantic accuracy and yet a talent for quoting
poetically and meaningfully while talking about literature during a boat
ride on the Thames.
30:2 Et longas visent etc. Metamorphoses, I, 561. (And the Capitol
will see long processions.)
30:18-19 Had Cain been Scot etc. John Cleveland, The Rebel Scot,
11. 63-64. Although Cleveland is ridiculed in the Essay, it is ironic that
he is the only English poet quoted and that the passages cited from
him are praised.
30:20 Si sic, omnia dixisset. Juvenal, Satires, X, 123-124. (If he had
always spoken thus.)
30:22-23 For Beauty like etc. Cleveland, To P. Rupert, 11. 39-40. White
powder was reputedly a species of gunpowder which exploded without
noise. Sir Thomas Browne writes of it in Pseudodoxia Epidemica, II, v, 5.
30:30 the Stage, was Ovid. In the "Account" prefixed to Annus Mirabi-
lis Dryden had already discussed the dramatic quality of Ovid's art (see
Works, I, 53-54).
31:5 Omne genus etc. Tristia, II, 381. (Tragedy surpasses every kind of
writing in gravity.)
31:9 he most endeavour"d it. Dr. Johnson commented on this passage
(BH, I, 416-417):
He might have determined the question upon surer evi-
dence, for it [the Medea] is quoted by Quintilian as the
work of Seneca; and the only line which remains of
Ovid's play, for one line is left us, is not there to be
found. There was therefore no need of the gravity of
conjecture, or the discussion of plot or sentiment, to find
what was already known upon higher authority than
such discussions can ever reach.
31:10 Scene in the Troades. See 11. 524 ff.
31:28 M «al <t>vi£/i, Juvenal, Satires, VI, 195. (My life and my love.)
32:21 Sum plus etc. A compression of Aeneid, I, 378-379. (Loeb trans.:
"I am Aeneas the good; . . . my fame is known in the heavens above.")
On Dryden's divergences from the usual text in his "quotations," see
29:30-31^
32:22-23 Fanfaron or Hector. A swaggerer or blusterer.
32:30 Si foret hoc etc. Satires, I, x, 68. (Loeb trans.: "Had he fallen
by fate upon this our day."
33:3 Quos Libitina sacravit. Horace, Epistles, II, i, 49. (Loeb trans.:
"what the goddess of funerals has hallowed.")
33:30-31 then leaving the world. Beaumont died in 1616, Fletcher in
1625, and Jonson in 1637.
34:5-6 reform'd their Theatre. Shortly after the formation of the French
Academy, Richelieu prescribed the observance of the three unities in
French drama. Corneille's Le Cid (1636) was condemned by the Academy
for its irregularities.
34:8 prevented. Anticipated.
34:13 dispute among their Poets. See Corneille who, after quoting
Aristotle on time, wrote (CEuvres, I, 111-112):
Ces paroles donnent lieu a cette dispute fameuse, si
elles doivent £tre entendus d'un jour nature! de vingt-
quatre heures, on d'un jour artificiel de douze: ce sont
deux opinions dont chacune a des partisans conside'r-
ables; et pour moi, je trouve qu'il y a des subjets si
malaise's a renfermer en si peu de temps, que non-
seulement je leur accorderois les vingt-quatre heures
entieres, mais je me servirois meme de la licence que
donne ce philosophe de les exc^der un peu, et les
pousserois sans scruple jusqu'a trente.
35:12 mal a propos. One of Dryden's borrowings from the French (see
E. A. Horsman, "Dryden's French Borrowings," RES, n.s., I [1950], 346-
350-
35:15 Red-Bull. This popular theater in Clerkenwell survived raids by
the government during the Commonwealth and was used in the early
years of the Restoration. It was notorious for rant, spectacle, and disorders.
35:16 Atque ursum etc. Horace, Epistles, II, i, 185-186: media inter
carmina poscunt / aut ursum aut pugiles. (Loeb trans.: "Call in the
middle of a play for a bear or for boxers.")
35:18 to beget admiration etc. Aristotle speaks only of pity and fear
("compassion" and "concernment"). Sixteenth-century critics had added
admiration (wonder or awe). In his Defence of Poesie Sidney dropped
fear and substituted admiration. In Heads of an Answer to Rymer Dry-
den was to question the assumption that tragedy raises only pity and fear.
35:29-30 Ex noto etc. Ars Poetica, 1. 240. (Loeb trans.: "My aim shall
be poetry, so moulded from the familiar.")
36:4-5 Atque ita mentitur etc. Ars Poetica, 11. 151-152. (Loeb trans.:
"And so skilfully does he invent, so closely does he blend facts and fiction,
that the middle is not discordant with the beginning, nor the end with
the middle.")
36:13 the death of Cyrus. See Justinus, Historiarum Philippicarum et
Totius Mundi Originum, I, 8; II, 3; XXXVII, 3; Xenophon, Cyropaedia,
VIII, 7.
36:25-29 to draw her in miniature etc. Pierre Legouis ("Corneille and
Dryden as Dramatic Critics," in Seventeenth Century Studies Presented
to Sir Herbert Grierson [1938]) has suggested that this passage was prompted
by Corneille (CEuvres, I, 113): "Si nous ne pouvons la renfermer dans ces
374 Commentary
deux heures, prenons-en quatre, six, dix, mais ne passons pas de beaucoup
les vingt-quatre, de peur de tomber dans le de're'glement, et de rdduire
tellement le portrait en petit, qu'il n'aye plus ses dimensions propor-
tionnês, et ne soil qu'imperfection."
36:27 Perspective. Telescope.
36:31 Quodcunque ostendis etc. Horace, Ars Poetica, 1. 188. (Loeb
trans.: "Whatever you thus show me, I discredit and abhor.")
36:33-37:1 TO. Src/ia, (The truth.) Mourw diua. (Resembling truth.) Cf.
Odyssey, XIX, 203; Theogony, \. 27.
37:4 embarass. A borrowing from the French. Pepys had used the word
as a noun in the entry of 15 July 1664.
37:18 Spanish Plotts. Dryden has in mind Sir Samuel Tuke's highly
successful comedy, The Adventures of Five Hours (produced 8 January
1662/3), an adaptation of Antonio Coello's Los Empenos de Sets Horas
(c. 1641). Tuke's play started a vogue for adaptations of Spanish comedies
which lasted for a decade. Dryden himself furnished a Spanish plot in-
directly through An Evening's Love, or The Mock-Astrologer (1668), an
adaptation of Thomas Corneillc's Le Feint Astrologue, itself derived
from Calder6n's El Astr6logo Fingido. On Dryden's response to Spanish
drama, see comments in the headnote and especially footnote 27; see also
the discussion of An Evening's Love (Works, X, headnote).
37:21 Rollo. The extremely popular tragedy, The Bloody Brother, or
the Tragedy of Rollo, Duke of Normandy, first published in 1639. The
latest editor of the play, J. D. Jump, assigns it to Fletcher, Massinger,
Jonson, and Chapman. It is one of the plays attacked by Thomas Rymer
in his Tragedies of the Last Age (1677). The source is Herodian, III-IV.
37:30 Oleo. From the Spanish olla podrida, a stew of meats and vege-
tables, hence a mixture.
38:1 Golia's. Golias episcopus or archipoeta, in whose name some of
the poetry of the Goliards was written (OED). Poems in which he appears
have been attributed to Walter Map, the twelfth-century cleric.
38:1-6 In Sejanus . . . and Fulvia etc. The scenes here referred to
appear in Act II in each play. Catiline was revived in December 1668,
but the production had been talked about for a year (see Noyes, Ben
Jonson on the English Stage, pp. 302-303). Herford and Simpson (Jonson,
Works, II, 20, 127) maintain that Dryden was wrong in holding that comic
scenes contribute to an oleo of a play. It should be noted, however, that
it is Lisideius, a character defending the French, and not Dryden the
critic, who makes the assertion.
38:10 an ingenious person. Thomas Sprat, who wrote (in Observations
on Mons. de Sorbier's Voyage into England [1665], pp. 249-250): "The
French, for the most part, take only one, or two Great Men, and chiefly
insist on some one remarkable accident of their Story." Dryden and Sprat
were fellow members of the Royal Society (see George Williamson, "The
Occasion of An Essay of Dramatic Poesy," MP, XLIV [1946], 4).
38:33 protatick persons. Characters appearing only in the protasis, or
first part of a play. W. T. Arnold (Dryden: An Essay of Dramatic Poesy,
ed. Thomas Arnold; rev. W. T. Arnold [1903]) notes Corneille's use of
the technical term in Discours du poeme dramatique (CEuvres, I, 46):

"pour ouvrir son sujet, il [Terence] a introduit une nouvelle sorte de
personnages, qu'on a appeles protatiques, parce qu'ils ne paroissent que
dans la protase, oil se doit faire la proposition et 1'ouverture du sujet."
It is likely, however, that Dryden took the term from Scaliger, Poetices, I,
xiii (as indeed Corneille may have also), since Scaliger there cites Sosia in
Terence's Andria as an example of a Protactica Persona and shortly there-
after gives the quotation, Juno Lucina fer opem, serva me obsecro, which
Dryden also quotes from Andria (see 25:5^.
39:2 interested. Concerned (OED).
39:16-17 what was done . . . ten or twenty years ago. W. T. Arnold
(Dryden: An Essay) refers to Corneille ((Euvres, I, 104-105):
Le noeud ddpend entierement du choix et de 1'imagina-
tion industrieuse du poete; et Ton n'y peut donner de
regie, sinon qu'il y doit ranger toutes choses selon le
vraisemblable ou le necessaire, dont j'ai parld dans le
second Discours; a quoi j'ajoute un conseil, de s'em-
barrasser le moins qu'il lui est possible de choses ar-
rivdes avant 1'action qui se repre'sente. Ces narrations
importunent d'ordinaire, parce qu'elles ne sont pas at-
tendues, et qu'elles genent 1'esprit de 1'auditeur, qui
est oblige? de charger sa nuSmoire de ce qui s'est fait dix
ou douze ans auparavant, pour comprendre ce qu'il voit
repr<5senter; mais celles qui se font des choses qui arrivent
et se passent derriere le theatre, depuis 1'action com-
mencee, font toujours un meilleur effet, parce qu'elles
sont attendues avec quelque curiosite, et font partie de
cette action qui se reprdsente.
39:24 fight Prizes. To engage in prizefights.
39:25 Drum and five men. Ker notes Henry V, Act IV, Chorus:
And so our scene must to the battle fly;
Where, O for pityl we shall much disgrace
With four or five most vile and ragged foils,
Right ill-dispos'd in brawl ridiculous,
The name of Agincourt. Yet sit and see;
Minding true things by what their mock'ries be.
39:31 laughing when the Actors are to die. Ker quotes Samuel Chap-
puzeau, Le Theatre Francois (1674):
Estant i Londres il y a six ans, j'y vis deux fort belles
troupes des Comediens, 1'une du Roy, 8c 1'autre du Due
D'Yorc, & je fus a deux representations, a la mort de
Montezume Roy de Mexique, & a celle de Mustapha,
qui se defendoit vigoureusement sur le Theatre centre
les muets qui le vouloient elrangler; ce qui faisoit rire,
8c ce que les Francois n'auroient represent^ que dans un
recit.
40:24 What the Philosophers say of motion. Watson cites and translates
Descartes's Prindpia Philosophiae (London ed. of 1664, II, 37): "The first
376 Commentary
[law of nature], that each individual thing continues as it is, and never
changes except by encountering other things. . . . Once it begins to
move, we have no reason to think it will ever cease to move with the
same force, so long as it encounters nothing to retard it." Cf. also Hobbes,
De Corpore (English Works, I, 115): "In like manner, whatsoever is
moved, will always be moved, except there be some other body besides it,
which causeth it to rest."
40:32 if one part of the Play may be related. See Sir Robert Howard's
preface to Four New Plays (1665), sig.[a3]v: "By which he [Horace] directly
declares his Judgment, That every thing makes more impression Presented
than Related: Nor indeed can any one rationally assert the contrary; for
if they affirm otherwise, they do by consequence maintain, That a whole
Play might be as well Related as Acted."
40:34 Corneille sayes. See (Euvres, I, joo:
le poete n'est pas tenu d'exposer a la vue toutes les
actions particulieres qui amenent a la principale: il doit
choisir celles qui lui sont les plus avantageuses a faire
voir, soil par la beaute- du spectacle, soil par 1'eclat et
la vehemence des passions qu'elles produissent, soil
par quelque autre agreement qui leur soit attach^, et
cacher les autres derriere la scene, pour les faire con-
noitre au spectateur, ou par une narration, ou par
quelque autre adresse de 1'art.
41:15-16 Segnius irritant etc. Ars Poetica, 11. 180-181. (Loeb trans.:
"Less vividly is the mind stirred by what finds entrance through the ears
than by what is brought before the trusty eyes.")
41:18-20 Non tamen intus etc. Ars Poetica, 11. 182-184. (Loeb trans.:
"Yet you will not bring upon the stage what should be performed behind
the scenes, and you will keep much from our eyes, which an actor's ready
tongue will narrate anon in our presence.")
41:22-23 Nee pueros etc. Ars Poetica, 11. 185, 187. (Loeb trans.: "so that
Medea is not to butcher her boys before the people, . . . nor Procne be
turned into a bird, Cadmus a snake.")
41:33 Magnetick Lady. Ill, ii.
42:3 Eunuch. IV, iii.
42:6 Sejanus's death. Ben Jonson, Sejanus, V, ix.
42:9-10 excellent Play the King and no King. The play, a favorite in
the early years of the Restoration, was performed five times in the period
1660-1662 (see Van Lennep, p. 12 and passim).
42:21 simple change of will. W. T. Arnold (Dryden: An Essay) notes
Corneille's statement in his first discourse ((Euvres, I, 27-28):
nous devons toutefois prendre garde que ce consente-
ment ne vienne pas par un simple diangement de
volonte1, mais par un eVdnement qui fournisse 1'occasion.
Autrement il n'y auroit pas grand artifice au denouement
d'une piece, si, apres 1'avoir soutenue durant quatre
actes sur I'autorite' d'un pere qui n'approuve point les
inclinations amoureuses de son fils ou de sa fille, il y

consentoit tout d'un coup au cinquieme, par cette seule
raison que c'est le cinquieme, et que 1'auteur n'oseroit
en fair six.
42:29 the Scornful Lady. This Beaumont and Fletcher play was popu-
lar in the i66o's (see Van Lennep, p. 21 and passim).
43:19 sayes Corneille. Cf. CEuvres, I, 108: "II faut, s'il se peut, y rendre
raison de 1'entrê et de la sortie de chaque acteur; surtout pour le sortie
je tiens cette regie indispensable, et il n'y a rien de si mauvaise grace
qu'un acteur qui se retire du theatre seulement parce qu'il n'a plus de
vers i dire."
43:33 an ancient Authour. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, I, 17.
(Loeb trans.: "And as in the beginning we are fired with the ambition to
overtake those whom we regard as leaders, so when we have despaired of
being able either to surpass or even to equal them, our zeal wanes with
our hope; it ceases to follow what it cannot overtake, and abandoning the
old field as though pre-empted, it seeks a new one. Passing over that in
which we cannot be pre-eminent, we seek for some new object of our
effort.") In Dryden's quotation, for Sed ut primo read et ut primo; for
eos quos priores read quos priores; for quod, scilicet, assequi read et quod
adsequi. Between sequi desinit and prteteritoq Dryden omitted the follow-
ing passage: et velut occupatam reliquens materiam, quaerit novam.
44:33-45:1 Dorant acted to so much advantage etc. The 1668 edition
adds "by Mr. Hart," a reference to Charles Hart (d. 1683), a popular and
accomplished actor who had begun his career before the closing of the
theaters. The frequent assertion that he was a relative of Shakespeare's
is apparently unfounded (see G. E. Bentley, The Jacobean and Caroline
Stage, 11 [1941], 468-463). Dorant is the hero of The Mistaken Beauty, or
the Lyar (published 1685), an anonymous translation of Corneille's Le
Menteur. Under date of 28 November 1667, Pepys recorded: "So I away to
the King's playhouse, and there sat by my wife, and saw 'The Mistaken
Beauty,1 which I never, I think, saw before, though an old play; and
there is much in it that I like, though the name is but improper to it—
at least, that name, it being also called 'The Lyar,' which is proper
enough." The play had probably been acted before the production Pepys
saw; see Van Lennep, p. 17, who quotes Dryden's statement as evidence.
45:4-5 he tells you himself. See Corneille, (Euvres, I, 30: "Ainsi dans les
comedies de ce premier volume, j'ai presque toujours eiabli deux amants
en bonne intelligence; je les ai brouilles ensemble par quelque fourbe, et
les ai r£unis par 1'eclaircissement de cette meme fourbe qui les separoit."
45:9 the younger Corneille, Quinault. Thomas Corneille (1625-1709),
brother of Pierre, and Philippe Quinault (1635-1688).
45:15 Most of their new Playes. See H. C. Lancaster, A History of
French Dramatic Literature in the Seventeenth Century, V (1942), 30:
"Spanish influence was largely confined to French plays that appeared
between 1629 and 1670. It was felt by few tragedies and tragi-comedies,
but was at one time of great importance in comedy." Ker observes that
378 Commentary
the gracioso or comic servant was a stock character in Spanish comedy and
in French imitations of it. Diego, in Tuke's The Adventures of Five Hours,
is such a figure.
46:13 Rule of Logick. Watson quotes and translates Franco Bur-
gersdijck, Institutionem Logicarum Libre Duo (1626), I, xxii: "De Op-
positione Rerum," Theorem V: Opposita juxta se posita, magis elu-
cescunt. (Contraries, when placed together, shine the more.) He adds that
Burgersdijck's book was well known in Cambridge during Dryden's time
there and that Dryden quotes the Latin of Theorem V in A Parallel
betwixt Painting and Poetry.
46:16-17 bait in a journey. "To make a brief stay or sojourn" (OED).
46:19 musick has betwixt the Acts. Both instrumental and vocal music
came to be popular on the Restoration stage as entr'acte entertainment
(see Van Lennep, pp. cxiii-cxviii).
47:4-7 as they say etc. The figure is drawn from the Old Astronomy but
is qualified from the outset by "they say." In the Ptolemaic system the
outermost, containing orb of the primum mobile carried with it the sphere
of the fixed stars and those of the seven planets in one complete diurnal
revolution from east to west. At certain times, however, the spheres of
the planets displayed apparent retrograde motions of their own from
west to east. Dryden voices a measure of doubt about the actuality of this
phenomenon because the New Astronomy offered a different and less
paradoxical explanation of these apparent retrograde motions. He was not
alone in remaining poised among the leading cosmological systems. As
late as 1686, the year that saw the publication of the first book of New-
ton's Principia, Joseph Moxon's popular text, A Tutor to Astronomy and
Geography, carried an advertisement (p. 272) for "Spheres according to
the Ptolomean, Tychonean, Copernican Systemejs]." (The editors are
indebted for this note to Professor Hugh G. Dick of the University of
California, Los Angeles.)
48:6-7 Cinna . . . Pompey . . . Polieucte. By Pierre Corneille. For
English taste, Cinna and Pompie were indeed flawed by excessively long
speeches.
48:10 by the Hour-glass. Preaching by an hourglass was a common prac-
tice in seventeenth-century England.
49:22 the Maids Tragedy. By Beaumont and Fletcher. The Alchemist,
The Silent Woman, and The Fox are, of course, by Ben Jonson.
50:23 Andromede. Although designating it a tragedy, in this play
Corneille used spectacular machines more often associated with opera than
with tragedy. In the third act Perseus rides in the air on Pegasus and
kills the monster on stage. In the argument to the play Corneille de-
clared (CEuvres, V, 298): "mon principal but ici a &6 de satisfaire la vue
par I'e'clat et la diversity du spectacle, et non pas de toucher 1'esprit par
la force du raisonnement, ou le coeur par la ddlicatesse des passions."
51:11 for the same fault. See prologue to Every Man in His Humour
(11. 8-16), where Jonson censures such "ill customs of the age" as
To make a child, now swadled, to proceede
Man, and then shoote up, in one heard, and weede,
Past threescore yeeres: or, with three rustic swords,

And helpe of some few foot-and-half-foote words,
Fight over Yorke and Lancasters long jarres:
And in the tyring-house bring wounds, to scarres.
He rather prayes, you will be pleas'd to see
One such, to day, as other playes should be.
Where neither Chorus wafts you oer the seas;
Nor creaking throne comes downe, the boyes to please.
51:24 Corneille's words. See CEuvres, I, 132: "II est facile aux sp&ulatifs
d'etre seVeres; mais s'ils vouloient donner dix ou douze poemes de cette
nature au public, ils elargiroient peut-etre les regies encore plus que je ne
fais, sitdt qu'ils auroient reconnu par I'expdrience quelle contrainte
apporte leur exactitude, et combien de belles choses elle bannit de notre
theatre."
52:25 one of their newest Playes. Ker points out that Dryden seemed to
be remembering Thomas Corneille's L'Amour it la Mode (publ. 1653) and
Quinault's L'Amant Indiscret (publ. 1656):
Thomas Corneille's L'Amour a la Mode (1651), A. iii,
not quite accurately remembered. Scene, a street; enter
Oronte (the Lover a la Mode) and his man Cliton. Lucie
talks to Oronte from the balcony, but withdraws as
Florame enters (his friend); then (sc. 4) comes the break
of which Dryden is speaking: Dorotee has an appoint-
ment with Oronte, in her father's house, and she and her
maid Lysette are discovered in their room; the change of
place from the street to the room is to be understood
from their dialogue. Enter Eraste, another lover, who has
to be got out of the way; then Oronte, wanting to know
who the other man might be. Lysette, to pacify him,
pretends a lover; Cliton at the door overhears, and
comes in jealous; Arganie, Dorotês father, is roused;
his voice is heard within crying "thievesl" And so forth.
Dryden's recollection seems to have confused this with
a similar scene in Quinault L'Amant Indiscret (A. ii,
sc. 4), where the servant is Philipin, and where he is
heard "drolling within":
"Lisipe. Ha que ne tiens-je ici ce maudit Philipin!
Philipin. Je ne me vis jamais si proche de ma fin.
Lisipe. Qu'avez vous repondu, belle et chere Lucresse?
Lucresse. J'ai tromp£ ce valet.
Philipin. Ha la bonne traitressel" fee.
53:17 less in vogue. Corneille's popularity declined after the failure
of Pertharite (1651).
53:26 English Loomes. Neander exaggerates for the sake of his argu-
ment; Restoration dramatists did not hesitate to borrow from the French.
A case in point is Sir Martin Mar-all (acted in August 1667), in which
Dryden and Newcastle leaned heavily on Quinault's L'Amant Indiscret
and Moliere's L'&tourdi (see Works, IX, 364 ff.).
380 Commentary
54:3 or Alexandra's. This statement is inaccurate. Some early comedies

were written in rhymed doggerel—for instance, Nicholas Udall's Ralph
Roister Doister (c. 1553) and Gammer Gurton's Needle (c. 1575)—but
Peele and Greene had used pentameter verse before Shakespeare.
54:5-13 Catiline and Sejanus etc. Again Neander overstates his case.
It is true that Sejanus contains several rhymed passages of thirty to forty
lines, but in Catiline, save for the "Chorus, or the Monologues," there
is not a single one. On the other hand, the witty simile about the verse in
The Sad Shepherd is entirely justified. Jonson wrote a commendatory
poem, "To the worthy authour M. John Fletcher" (in Jonson, Works, III,
371), for the first quarto of The Faithfull Shepheardesse. After castigating
the audience that had damned the play, he concluded:
I, that am glad, thy Innocence was thy Guilt,
And wish that all the Muses blood were spilt,
In such a Martirdome; To vexe their eyes,
Do crowne thy murdred Poeme: which shall rise
A glorified worke to Time, when Fire,
Or moathes shall eate, what all these Fooles admire.
54:25-86 Merry Wives of Windsor, and the Scornful Lady. Both plays
are comparatively regular, though The Scornful Lady has a double plot.
It was played often during the early years of the Restoration, but its
popularity was doubtless attributable to qualities other than regularity.
55:7 Examen. Dryden borrows the word from Corneille, whose Thidtre
(1660) contains an examen of each play.
55:25 wanted learning. Cf. Ben Jonson's reference to Shakespeare's
"small Latine, and lesse Greeke" in his poem "To the memory of my
beloved, The Author" in the First Folio of Shakespeare (1623). By 1668
the notion that Shakespeare was an untutored natural genius was a
commonplace.
56:2 Quantum lenta etc. Virgil, Eclogues, I, 25. (Loeb trans.: "as
cypresses oft do among the bending osiers.")
56:3 Mr. Hales. John Hales (1584-1656), known as "the ever memorable
Mr. John Hales of Eton College." Nicholas Rowe in "Some Account of
the Life . . . of Mr. William Shakespear" (The Works of Mr. William
Shakespear [1709], I, xiii-xiv) first recounts in detail the story of the
defense of Shakespeare by Hales:
Johnson was certainly a very good scholar, and in that
had the advantage of Shakespear; tho' at the same time I
believe it must be allow'd, that what Nature gave the
latter, was more than a Ballance for what Books had
given the former; and the Judgment of a great Man
upon this occasion was, I think, very just and proper. In
a Conversation between Sir John Suckling, Sir William
D'Avenant, Endymion Porter, Mr. Hales of Eton, and
Ben Johnson; Sir John Suckling, who was a profess'd
Admirer of Shakespear, had undertaken his Defence
against Ben Johnson with some warmth; Mr. Hales, who
had sat still for some time, hearing Ben frequently re-
proaching him with the want of Learning, and Ignorance
of the Antients, told him at last, That if Mr. Shakespear

had not read the Antients, he had likewise not stollen
any thing from 'em; (a Fault the other made no Con-
science of) and that if he would produce any one Topick
finely treated by any of them, he would undertake to
shew something upon the same Subject at least as well
written by Shakespear.
56:19 Verses he writ to him. I.e., Epigram LV (Jonson, Works, VIII, 44):
How I doe love thee Beaumont, and thy Muse,
That unto me dost such religion usel
How I doe feare my selfe, that am not worth
The least indulgent thought thy pen drops forthl
At once thou mak'st me happie, and unmak'st;
And giving largely to me, more thou tak'st.
What fate is mine, that so it selfe bereaves?
What art is thine, that so thy friend deceives?
When even there, where most thou praysest mee,
For writing better, I must envie thee.
56:27 wilde debaucheries. See Flecknoe's statement in A Short Dis-
course of the English Stage, printed with Love's Kingdom in 1664:
"Besides, Fletcher was the first who introduc't that witty obscenity in his
Playes, which like poison infused in pleasant liquor is alwayes the more
dangerous the more delightful" (Spingarn, II, 94).
57:3 frequent entertainments. As Van Lennep points out (pp. cxxviii-
cxxix), the extant records bear out Neander's assertion. Sixteen of Beau-
mont and Fletcher's plays were produced in the season of 1660-61 and
fifteen in the next. Shakespeare was not nearly so popular.
57:25 Mechanick. "Vulgar, low" (OED).
57:25-32 He was deeply conversant etc. Similar points were made with
similar imagery by Jasper Mayne in his elegy in Jonsonus Virbius (Jonson,
Works, XI, 454), where, speaking of Jonson's efforts to "translate" ancient
"learning" into English, Mayne wrote:
Indeed this last, if thou hadst been bereft
Of thy humanitie, might be cal'd Theft.
The other was not; whatsoere was strange
Or borrow'd in thee did grow thine by th'change.
Who without Latine helps had'st been as rare
As Beaumont, Fletcher, or as Shakespeare were:
And like them, from thy native Stock could'st say,
Poets and Kings are not borne every day.
58:14 his Discoveries. Again Neander exaggerates somewhat. In Tim-
ber, or Discoveries (1640), Jonson is far from giving his readers a whole
art of the stage.
58:22-23 limits of three hours and an half. Not quite; the action
"occupies some twelve hours, from morning till nightfall" (see Jonson,
Works, II, 71).
58:26 Five Hours. In Tuke's The Adventures of Five Hours the time
of the action almost coincides with the acting time.
59:1 two Houses. The action of The Silent Woman is limited to five
g8s Commentary
places, not to two "Houses," but they are all close to one another. After
the second act, not the first, the scene continues to be Morose's house.
59:6 interrupted once. The rule requiring the linking of scenes is
violated more than once in Lc Cid. In his discourse on the unities
Corneille wrote (CEuvres, I, 120): "Le Cid multiplie encore davantage les
lieux particuliers sans quitter Seville; et, comme la liaison de scenes n'y
est pas garde"e, le theatre, de-s le premier acte, est la maison de Chimene,
1'appartement de 1'Infante dans le palais du Roi, et la place publique; le
second y ajoute la chambre du Roi; et sans doute il y a quelque exces
dans cette licence." In his examen of Cinna, Corneille explained why it
was necessary to violate the liaison des scenes in the fourth act (ibid.,
Ill, 379-380): "Je aurois e'te' ridicule si j'avois pr^tendu que cet empereur
de'libe'rat avec Maxime et Cinna s'il quitteroit 1'empire ou non, pre'cise'-
ment dans la meme place ou ce dernier vient de rendre compte a
£milie de la conspiration qu'il a forme'e centre lui, C'est ce qui m'a fait
rompre la liaison des scenes au quatrieme acte."
59:21 acquainted with such a man. According to Herford and Simpson
(Jonson, Works, II, 70), it was early assumed that Jonson was ridiculing
particular persons in The Silent Woman and that Morose was a portrait
of a man of the day. In the second prologue to the play, Jonson rejected
such an interpretation:
If any, yet, will (with particular slight
Of application) wrest what he doth write;
And that he meant or him, or her, will say:
They make a libell, which he made a play.
59:28-29 humour is the ridiculous extravagance. Cf. Jonson's descrip-
tion of a humour in the induction to Every Man Out of His Humour,
11. 105-109:
As when some one peculiar quality
Doth so possesse a man, that it doth draw
All his affects, his spirits, and his powers,
In their confluctions, all to runne one way,
This may be truly said to be a Humour.
60:11 r4 7«Xoio«. The laughable. See Aristotle, Poetics, V, 2.
60:21-22 'itfos . . . irdSot. The terms are especially difficult to translate.
Dryden's association of Was with Greek New Comedy and Latin comedy,
and of 7r<i0os with classical tragedy, perhaps owes something to Scaliger's
discussion of the terms (Poetices, III, i). Scaliger introduces the terms to
explain Nature and Fate, and after attempts of his own to distinguish
•?0os from irdfloj he brings in the explanations of Theophrastus as an
alternative. To the Greek writer, although ir&Oos made Was very intense,
$8os was the principle of acting and irdtfos was the principle of enduring.
Dryden perhaps means "character" by the former, "passion" by the
latter. See also the preface to Edward Phillips, Theatrum Poetarum
(1675), in Spingarn, II, 269-270.
60:28 Ex homine etc. Terence, The Eunuch, I. 460. "Do you call him
a human being?"
61:22 Xuffts. In Poetics, XVIII, i, Aristotle wrote that in every tragedy
there is tying or complication (S<f<ris) and a loosing or denouement

(X0<m).
62:3-5 Creditur ex media etc. Epistles, II, i, 168-170. (Loeb trans.:
" 'Tis thought that Comedy, drawing its themes from daily life, calls for
less labor; but in truth it carries a heavier burden, as the indulgence
allowed is less.")
62:12 choice of some signal and long-expected day etc. Dryden was
apparently referring to the 1660 edition of Corneille's discourse on the
unities (see L. E. Padgett, "Dryden's Edition of Corneille," MLN, LXXI
[1956], 173-174). In that discourse Corneille wrote, referring to the three
volumes of the 1660 edition of his Theatre ((Euvres, I, 116 and n):
mais je ne puis oublier que c'est un grand ornement
pour un poe'me que le choix d'un jour illustre et attendu
depuis quelque temps. II ne s'en pr^sente pas toujours
des occasions; et dans mes deux premiers volumes, vous
n'en trouverez de cette nature que celui d'Horace, ou
deux peuples devoient decider de leur empire par une
bataille; ce dernier en a trois, celui de Rodogune,
d'Andromede, et de Don Sanche.
Corneille says, of course, that four of his plays use the device, not three,
as Neander remarks. In a revision of the passage Corneille makes this
point unmistakably clear: "et dans tout ce que j'ai fait jusqu'ici, vous n'en
trouverez de cette nature que quatre." Dryden apparently remembered
the reference to the three plays in the third volume of Theatre and forgot
the single example in the first two volumes.
63:10 and Otter. Otter does not appear until the third act.
63:31-32 many Dramatick Poems. In the heat of debate Neander
exaggerates the quality of the plays written since the Restoration.
64:8-9 Ubi plura nitent etc. Horace, Ars Poelica, 11. 351-352. (Loeb
trans.: "When the beauties in a poem are more in number, I shall not
take offence at a few blots.")
64:15-16 Vivorum, ut magna etc. Roman History, II, 36. (Loeb trans.:
"For living writers, while we admire them greatly, a critical list is
difficult to make.")
65:6-7 transportation from Holland. Many people thought the plague
of 1665 had been introduced into England from Holland, among them
Dr. Nathaniel Hodges: "After a most strict and serious Inquiry, by
undoubted Testimonies, I find that this Pest was communicated to us
from the Netherlands by way of Contagion; and if most probable Rela-
tions deceive me not, it came from Smyrna to Holland in a parcel of
infected Goods" (An Account of the First Rise, Progress, Symptoms, and
Cure of the Plague [1666], reprinted in A Collection of Very Valuable
and Scarce Pieces Relating to the Last Plague in the Year 1665 [1721],
pp. 14-15). Watson calls the reference to the plague an anachronism
because the dialogue took place in June 1665, when the plague had
scarcely started. In point of fact, the London authorities were already
alarmed in May 1665 (see W. G. Bell, The Great Plague of London in
1665 [1924], p. 24), but it is useless to argue such details in Dryden's
384 Commentary
essay. Following Cicero, Dryden could indulge in anachronism as the

occasion for realistic detail demanded.
65:33-24 Etiam favente etc. See Saturnalia, II, 7: Favente tibi me
victus es Laberi a Syro. (Even though I was favoring you, Laberius, you
have been defeated by Syrus.)
66:3-4 sayes Aristotle. See Poetics, IV, 18.
66:20 nicking. "Fitting, suiting exactly" (OED).
66:23 Arcades omnes etc. Virgil, Eclogues, VII, 4-5. For otnnes read
ambo. (Loeb trans.: "Arcadians both, ready in a match to sing, as well
as to make reply.")
66:24-25 quicquid conabar dicere. Ker cites Ovid, Trislia, IV, 10.25-26:
sponte sua carmen numeros veniebat ad aptos, / et quod temptabam
scribere versus erat. (Loeb trans.: "Yet all unbidden song would come
upon befitting numbers and whatever I tried to write was verse.")
67:5-6 Scenes which represent Cities and Countries. See the preface to
Four New Plays (1665), sig. [34], where Howard objects to the improba-
bility of spontaneous rhymed dialogue and adds: "Some may object,
That this Argument is trivial, because, whatever is shew'd, 'tis known
still to be but a Play; but such may as well excuse an ill Scene, that is not
naturally painted, because they know 'tis only a Scene, and not really a
City or Country."
67:18 quick and luxuriant fancy. See dedication of The Rival Ladies
(Works, VIII, 101): "But that benefit which I consider most in it
[rhyme], because I have not seldome found it, is, that it Bounds and
Circumscribes the Fancy."
67:28 sayes Seneca. Watson points out that Dryden has confused two
Senecas. Marcus Seneca, the rhetorician, citing Metamorphoses, XIII,
503-505 (Controversiae, IX, 5), said of Ovid: nescit quod bene cessit
relinquere. It was Lucius Seneca, the philosopher, who quoted and
praised Metamorphoses, I, 292 (Quaestiones Naturales, III, 27), in Dryden's
line. Later, in the preface to Ovid's Epistles (1680), Dryden again quoted
the censure Nescivit quod, etc., following it with a translation and
comment: "he never knew how to give over, when he had done well: but
continually varying the same sence an hundred waies, and taking up in
another place, what he had more than enough inculcated before, he
sometimes cloys his Readers instead of satisfying them" (Works, I, 112).
68:17-18 both to that person. The syntax here is clouded. Watson
thinks both may refer to respect and deference. Nichol Smith suggests
the reading "both to you and to that person." Boulton sees the meaning
as possibly "both to you [Crites] and to that person [Howard]." Inasmuch
as the speech Crites has just concluded follows the published statement
by Howard in the preface to Four New Plays (1665), Boulton's interpreta-
tion is attractive.
70:1 Virgil had in Latine. Dryden apparently shared with some Renais-
sance classicists the mistaken notion that the hemistichs in the Aeneid
were a mark of Virgil's artistry. He was later to insert several such lines
in Absalom and Achitophel.
70:6 perpetuo tenore fluere. Ker cites Cicero, Orator, VI, 21: isque uno
tenore, ut aiunt, in dicendo fluit nihil afferens praeter facultatem et

aequalitatem. (Loeb trans.: "This style keeps the proverbial 'even tenor
of its way,' bringing nothing except ease and uniformity.") Cicero was
speaking of the middle style.
70:22-23 Preface to the Rival Ladies. See Works, VIII.
71:4-5 Vid. Dan. his Defence of Rhyme. See Smith, II, 361:
Georgieuez de Turcarum moribus hath an example of
the Turkish Rymes just of the measure of our verse of
eleven sillables, in feminine Ryme; never begotten I am
perswaded by any example in Europe, but borne no
doubt in Scythia, and brought over Caucasus and Mount
Taurus. The Sclauonian and Arabian tongs acquaint a
great part of Asia and Affrique with it; the Muscovite,
Polacke, Hungarian, German, Italian, French, and Span-
iard use no other harmonic of words.
71:13-16 Neither do the Spanish, French, Italians etc. "Dryden seems
not to have known any of the regular Italian tragedies in blank verse
(versi idoltf); it is strange that he should have neglected the blank verse
of Tasso's Aminta" (Ker). Or perhaps Neander conveniently forgot the
Italian plays in blank verse.
71:24-25 Pindarique way, practis'd in the Siege of Rhodes. Since The
Siege of Rhodes was an operatic entertainment, Davenant was more con-
cerned to fit his lines to music than to avoid the chiming about which
Neander speaks. In the first edition of the play (1656) Davenant wrote in
the prefatory address to the reader (sig. A$v):
You may inquire, being a Reader, why in an heroick
Argument my numbers are so often diversify'd and fall
into short fractions; considering that a continuation of
the usual length of English verse would appear more
Heroical in reading. But when you are an Auditor, you
will find in this, I rather deserve approbation than need
excuse; for frequent alterations of measure (which cannot
be so unpleasant to him that reads as troublesome to
him that writes) are necessary to Recitative Musick for
variation of Ayres.
Davenant may have been influenced by Cowley's pindarics (see Arthur
H. Nethercot, Sir William D'Avenant [1938], p. 313), but Neander exag-
gerates when he says that the rhymes are "far from often chymeing."
73:10-11 Tentanda via est etc. Virgil, Georgia, III, 8-9:
temptanda via est, qua me quoque possim
tollere humo victorque virum volitare per ora.
(Loeb trans.: "I must essay a path whereby I, too, may rise from earth
and fly victorious on the lips of men.")
73:15 the Faithful Shepherdess, and Sad Shepherd. The first is a play
by Beaumont and Fletcher; the second, an incomplete play by Ben
Jonson.
73:24-25 Hopkins and Sternholds Psalmes . . . Sandys his Translation.
Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins were the sixteenth-century authors
386 Commentary
of an immensely popular and influential metrical version of the Psalms.

George Sandys's paraphrase of the Psalms was first published in 1636.
Dryden was later to praise Sandys again as a poet and to speak with
contempt on several occasions of Sternhold's verses.
73:28-29 Est ubi plebs etc. See Horace, Epistles, II, i, 63: Interdum
volgus rectum videt, est ubi peccat. (Loeb trans.: "At times the public
see straight; sometimes they make mistakes.")
74:1 the Seige of Rhodes etc. All these heroic plays had indeed met
with the approval of the gentry.
74:26-27 Indignaltir enim etc. Ars Poetica, 11. 90-91. For enim read
item. (Loeb trans.: "Likewise the feast of Thyestes scorns to be told in
strains of daily life that well nigh befit the comic sock.")
74:29 Effutire levels etc. Ars Poetica, 1. 231. (Loeb trans.: "Tragedy,
scorning to babble trivial verses.")
74:31-32 Sonnet. That is, any short poem.
76:20 quidlibet audendi. Horace, Ars Poelica, 11. 9-10: pictoribus atque
poetis / quidlibet audendi semper fuit aequa potestas. (Loeb trans.:
" 'Painters and poets,' you say, 'have always had an equal right in
hazarding anything.'")
76:22 Musas colere severiores. Martial, Epigrams, IX, xi, 16-17: nobis
non licet esse tarn disertis / qui Musas colimus severiores. (Loeb trans.:
"We cannot be so versatile, who court Muses more unbending.")
78:2 Water Poet's Rhymes. John Taylor (1580-1653), a voluminous and
facetious rhymer, called himself the water poet. As Ker notes, Dryden
probably remembered Jonson's comment in Timber (Jonson, Works,
VIII, 582): "Nay, if it were put to the question of the Water-rimers
workes, against Spencers; I doubt not, but they would find more Suffrages;
because the most favour common vices, out of a Prerogative the vulgar
have, to lose their judgements, and like that which is naught."
78:6 Delectus verborum etc. Cicero, Brutus, LXXII, 253: verborum
dilectum originem esse eloquentiae. (The choice of words is the origin of
eloquence.) In Defence of an Essay Dryden rallied Sir Robert Howard
for misconstruing this Latin quotation and the next one (Works, IX, 8,
320).
78:12-13 Reserate clusos etc. Seneca, Hippolytus, 1. 863. "N.B. clusos
for clauses in all editions of the Essay, and in the references of both
Dryden and Howard later in the controversy" (Ker). See Works, IX, 320.
79:20-21 a most acute person. In the preface to Four New Plays (1665),
Howard had written (sig. [a4]r-v):
It may be said, That Rhime is such a confinement to a
quick and luxuriant Phansie, that it gives a stop to its
speed, till slow Judgment comes in to assist it; but this
is no Argument for the Question in hand; for the
dispute is not which way a Man may write best in,
but which is most proper for the Subject he writes upon;
and if this were let pass, the Argument is yet unsolv'd
in it self; for he that wants Judgment in the liberty of
his Phancy, may as well shew the defect of it in its
Confinement; and to say truth, he that has Judgment

will avoid the errors, and he that wants it will commit
them both.
80:27 Somerset-Stairs. Stairs that led up from the river to Somerset
Yard, just west of Somerset House. It was a popular place for watermen
to land their passengers.
81:2 the Piazze. John Strype, in his continuation of John Stow's
A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster (1720), says in the
account of Covent Garden (VI, 89): "On the North and East Sides are
Rows of very good and large Houses, called the Piazzo's, sustained by
Stone Pillars, to support the Buildings. Under which are Walks, broad
and convenient, paved with Freestone."

In the publication in 1674 of Notes and Observations on The Empress of
Morocco, John Crowne and Thomas Shadwell joined with John Dryden
in a lengthy attack upon the literary reputation of a young playwright,
Elkanah Settle. Because of the success of his two tragedies, Cambyses
(1671) and The Empress of Morocco (1673), Settle was enjoying the
applause of the court, the City, and the universities. Notes and Observa-
tions probably contributed to the eventual decline in Settle's popularity,
even though his reply to it in Notes and Observations on the Empress of
Morocco Revised. With some Few Errata's to Be Printed Instead of the
Postscript, with the Next Edition of the Conquest of Granada, published
either at the end of 1674 or at the beginning of 1675, was widely con-
sidered a better piece of criticism than the work it was designed to
answer.1 "Mr. Dryden found him [Settle] smart enough, and cou'd ha'
wish'd himself safe out of his Hands," wrote John Dunton at the
beginning of the eighteenth century.2 Dunton, like John Dennis some
years later, may have forgotten the issues involved, but his remark rep-
resented the general opinion about this literary encounter.8
The immediate cause of the quarrel was the publication of Settle's
rhymed heroic play, The Empress of Morocco. Announced for publication
in the Term Catalogues for 24 November 1673 with the description,
"A Tragedy. With Sculptures. The Like never done before," it had as
frontispiece an engraving by William Sherwin, depicting the Duke's
Theatre at Dorset Garden, and five other illustrations by William Dolle.
Although The Empress of Morocco was not the first play to be published
'See F. C. Brown, Elkanah Settle: His Life and Works (1910), pp. 14-15.
Settle's reply, though dated 1674, was not announced in the Term Catalogues
until 15 February 1675.
1
The Life and Errors of John Dunton Late Citizen of London (1705), p. 243.
'See John Dennis, Critical Works, ed. Edward Nilcs Hooker (1939-1943), II,
118; Luke Milbourne, Notes on Dryden's Virgil (1698), p. 175.
388 Commentary
in England with illustrations, such adornments, suggesting that Settle's

play was special enough to deserve a deluxe edition, may well have
affronted the three rival playwrights. Equally irritating—at least to
Dryden—must have been the words that followed Settle's name on the
title page, "Servant to his Majesty," a designation usually reserved for
the laureate.* Dryden, the laureate, might well have been offended by
this liberty, but he must surely have been outraged by Settle's sneerings,
in the epistle dedicatory of the Empress, at Dryden's dedication of his
own play, The Assignation, published in the spring of 1673.
The Assignation had been a failure, as Dryden acknowledged in one of
his most genial dedications, where he praised Sir Charles Sedley and
recalled social evenings among the wits and men of letters, a group
bound together by friendship and a love of literature. In his dedication,
however, Dryden had implied that the circle of true wits and poets was
limited to a few men of genius, that The Assignation was actually a good
play which failed on the stage because of a cabal of Dryden's enemies,
and that "two wretched Scribblers," who had attacked him for what they
thought were "Errors," were picking on "little Faults" because they
were incapable of appreciating the "greater Excellencies" of the play.8 In
the dedication of The Empress of Morocco to the Earl of Norwich,
Settle in his turn apologized for the impudent "Scriblers" who had
corrupted dedications. Such writers, he said, insist on publishing plays
that have not survived three days on the stage, and they blame the
actors, the time of year, and the critics; they insinuate that the person
to whom the work is dedicated is the only one at court who might be
foolish enough to appreciate it, "not doubting but [his] good Nature
will excuse what all the World (except the Author) has justly con-
demned." 8 Even if Dryden could have read these remarks as not "design'd
for a particular reflection," he could hardly have failed to take personal
insult at what followed:
'See Eleanore Boswell, The Restoration Court Stage (1932), p. 134. Shadwell
commented on this designation in the preface to The Libertine: "he is no more
a Poet than Servant to his Majesty, as he presumes to write himself; which I
wonder he will do, since Protections are taken off; I know not what Place he is
Sworn into in Extraordinary, but I am sure there is no such thing as Poet in
Extraordinary" (The Complete Works of Thomas Shadwell, ed. Montague
Summers [1927], III, aa).
"The Assignation (1673), sigs. A4t)-Ag; S-S, IV, 376. In "Elkanah Settle and
the Genesis of Mac Flecknoe" (PQ, XLIH [1964], 63) George McFadden argues
that the concept of a small circle of true wits and poets, introduced in the dedi-
cation of The Assignation, reappears as a major theme in Notes and Observa-
tions, Settle and Ravenscroft have been suggested (see, e.g., Summers, III, 552)
as candidates for the "two wretched Scribblers" mentioned in Dryden's dedica-
tion of The Assignation, but Richard Leigh and Martin Clifford, hesitantly
offered by Malone, have gradually won general acceptance, though Malone
merely guessed at Clifford and questioned his own suggestion of Leigh (Malone,
I. ii. 377-378; S-S, IV, 376; Watson, I, 188).
• The Empress of Morocco (1673), sig. Az.
Thus they esteem their Plays as the Fanaticks do their

Religion, the better for suffering Persecution; and to
disguise their Shame, and prop their Feeble Writings,
they make Dedications when their Playes are Damn'd,
as the Dutch do Bonefires, when their Navies are beaten;
be their Success never so bad, they still write themselves
Conquerors: And thus a Dedication which was formerly
a Present to a Person of Quality, is now made a Libel
on him, whilst the Poet either supposes his Patron to be
so great a Sot, to defend that in Print, which he hist off
the Stage: Or else makes himself a greater, in asking a
Favour from him which he ne're expects to obtain.
However, that which is an abuse to the Patron, is a Com-
plement to the Book-seller, who whispers the Poet,
and tells him, Sir, Your Play had misfortune, and all
that—but if you'd but write a Dedication, or Preface—
The Poet takes the hint, picks out a person of Honour,
tells him he has a great deal of Wit, gives us an account
who writ Sense in the last Age, supposing we cannot be
Ignorant who writes it in This; Disputes the nature of
Verse, Answers a Cavil or two, Quibles upon the Court,
Huffs the Critiques, and the work's done. 'Tis not to be
imagin'd how far a Sheet of this goes to make a Book-
seller Rich, and a Poet Famous.7
In view of this attack, there is little need to ask why Dryden directed
a literary barrage at Settle. What is not entirely clear is why Settle, who
was usually very timid, 8 should have attacked Dryden so harshly, and
why Dryden, Crowne, and Shadwell should have joined forces against
him.
Dr. Johnson suggested a psychological explanation for Settle's attack
on Dryden: buoyant over the popular success of his two tragedies, John-
son wrote, Settle fell victim to a self-deluding pride and thought himself
as worthy a poet as Dryden.0 Certainly Settle seems to have overrated
his slender talents, but other explanations are possible. He may have
resented Dryden's attacks on his friend, Edward Ravenscroft, in the
prologue to The Assignation. Ravenscroft had replied to Dryden in the
7
Ibid., sigs. Aa-Agv.
"The author of The Session of the Poets (1676) described Settle as "modest,"
and about the same time there was a rumor that Settle had refused to fight a
duel with Thomas Otway. Whether or not there was any truth in the rumor,
Settle was considered a coward by his contemporaries. His hesitancy about
publishing a preface to Ibrahim which contained an attack on Shadwell (see
Poems on Affairs of State, ed. George deF. Lord [1963], I, 354) did not help
to dispel this opinion. If Settle actually wrote The Session of the Poets, as was
sometimes thought, he deliberately pictured himself as timid and inoffensive
(see Poems on Affairs of State, ed. Howard H. Schless [1968], III, 3o4n; Roswell
G. Ham, Otway and Lee [1931], pp. 110-112).
»BH, I, 34«.
ggo Commentary
epistle and the prologue of his play The Careless Lovers (1673), for which
Settle had supplied an epilogue. The epilogue makes no direct reference
to Dryden, but it is possible that some of Ravenscroft's remarks in the
epistle are intended for Dryden, and that they may well have been
written in collaboration with Settle.10
In the preface to Notes and Observations Dryden confesses that he
had earlier "strain'd a point of Conscience to cry up some passages" in
The Empress of Morocco. If so, there is no printed evidence to show it.
What is apparent from the taunts of Ravenscroft and Settle is that long
before this literary battle between established playwrights—Dryden,
Crowne, and Shadwell—and their successful younger rivals broke into
print, provocative remarks had been made and sides had been chosen.
As Crowne himself noted in the dedication of The Country Wit (1675),
"Wit-Adventurers, contend for the breath of the multitude, and think
themselves becalm'd if any one has a gale. In short, a Writer is lookt
upon as an invader of the World; and all Mankind are in Arms against
him."
The participation of Crowne and Shadwell in the attack on Settle has
usually been ascribed to jealousy, and Dr. Johnson's assessment of
Dryden's feelings may perhaps be applied to all the collaborators: "Dry-
den could not now repress these emotions, which he called indignation,
and others jealousy; but wrote upon the play and the dedication such
criticism as malignant impatience could pour out in haste." n According
to the Lord Chamberlain's registers of the household, Settle had been
made "Sewer in ordinary to His Ma tle being one of the poettes in His
Mat8 Theatre Royall ffeb. 27: 1671 [1672]." ^ Although the position
M
At any rate, Ravenscroft's remarks foreshadow some of Settle's later com-
ments. The epistle, for instance, satirizes playwrights who, "if they see another
Man's Play take, Sware and Bluster, and bite their Nails," resenting the competi-
tion of younger writers:
This sort of Men you shall hear say in the Pit, and at the
Coffee-House (speaking of an Author) Dam me! How can he
Write! He's a Raw Young Fellow newly come from the Univer-
sity; How can he understand Humour or Character that is just
come from a Colledge? . . . But if they can neither Talk, nor
Write a Young Poet out of the Humour of Making Playes, they
give him o're for a peremptory Fop; and so fall to writing
Siedges and Opera's.
Ravenscroft may have been speaking only for himself, but the parodied remarks
would apply almost equally well to Settle, who attended Trinity College,
Oxford, in 1666-67. These remarks, moreover, bear a resemblance to some made
in Notes and Observations Revised, where Settle calls Dryden a "Coffee-House
Oracle" (p. 38) and repeatedly reminds him of the difference in their ages.
Settle says, for example, that he himself began to "Cruise upon the Coasts of
Poetry at twenty" (p. 51), whereas Dryden not only had started late but was
fast approaching senility. "Well," Settle continues, "he has been a Wit in his
Time, and so forth, but see what Age can do; 'tis pitty his Mercury should be
evaporated, 'tis huge pitty, but Age Age as I told you before" (p. 47).
u
BH, I, 342. See also Brown, Elkanah Settle, p. 14.
"Quoted in Boswcll, Restoration Court Stage, p. 134.
probably was a sinecure, Settle may have had some part in the staging
of plays at court. Moreover, his play, The Empress of Morocco, was first
performed at court, and among its four prologues were one written by
Rochester and another probably by Mulgrave.13 To use Crowne's own
image, Shadwell and Crowne may have felt themselves becalmed because
Settle was experiencing a gale.
The rival playwrights may also have been disturbed by Settle's attempts
to have The Empress of Morocco performed by the King's Company,
despite a contract with the Duke's Company which guaranteed him a
payment of "fifty Pounds a Year upon Condition they might have the
Acting of all the Plays he made." J4 Settle's play Cambyses (1671), like all
his plays before 1680, was performed by the Duke's Company, but for the
public production of The Empress of Morocco only the Duke of York's
intervention kept him from breaking his contract.15 In the Lord Cham-
berlain's registers Settle is listed as a poet in the Theatre Royal, and his
name is linked with that of Killigrew.10 Seemingly Settle was trying to
benefit from an association with both theaters; or, as the collaborators
put it, "both the Play-houses contended for him, as if he had found out
some new way of eating fire. No doubt their design was to entertain
the Town with a rarity" (117:30-33). Crowne and Shadwell must have
feared that Settle was going to monopolize patronage both from the
court and from the theaters.
Crowne was the only one of the three collaborators to acknowledge
his part in Notes and Observations, and then almost twenty-five years
later. In the "Epistle to the Reader" prefixed to Caligula (1698) Crowne
wrote: "In my notes on a play call'd the Empress of Morocco I call 'em
mine because above three parts of four were written by me, I gave vent
to more ill-nature in me than I will do again." 1T There is no reason,
however, to think that the project was a secret, for Settle obviously
knew who his enemies were:
Casting my Eye upon a Pamphlet entitled Notes and
Observations on the Empress of Morocco; and finding no
Authors name to it, I used my best indeavour to get
that knowledge by my Examination of the Style, which
the unkind Printer had denied me. . . . And thereupon
with very little Conjuration, by those three remarkable
Qualities of Railing, Boasting and Thieving I found a
"Brown (Elkanah Settle, p. 11) suggests that there may have been two per-
formances at court. In the first setting of the 1673 edition of The Empress of
Morocco, "The first Prologue at Court," later assigned to Mulgrave, was given
as having been written by Lord Lumley (see Anne Doyle, "The Empress of
Morocco: A Critical Edition of the Play and the Controversy Surrounding It"
[Pli.D. dissertation, University of Illinois, Urhana, 1963], pp. 525-526).
51
Reflexions upon a Late Pamphlet, Intituled, A Narrative Written by
E. Settle (1683), p. 2.
« Elkanah Settle, A Narrative (1683), sig. Azf.
"Boswell, Restoration Court Stage, p. 134.
" John Crowne, The Dramatick Works, ed. James Maidment and W. H. Logan
(Edinburgh, 1873-1874), IV, 353.
392 Commentary
Dryden in the Frontispiece. Then going through the

Preface, I observ'd the drawing of a Fools Picture to be
the design of the whole piece, and reflecting on the
Painter I consider'd, that probably his Pamphlet might
be like his Plays, not to be written without help. And
according to expectation I discovered the Author of
Epsome-Wells, and the author of Pandion and Amphi-
genia lent their assistance. Howl Three to One thought
I? and Three Gentlemen of such disagreeing Qualifica-
tions in one Club: The First a Man that has had wit,
but is past it; the Second that has it, if he can keep it,
and the Third that neither has, nor is ever like to have
it. ... The first of these is the only person that pre-
tends an injury receiv'd from a Satyrick Line or two in
the Epistle to Morocco: Such as the Author never de-
sign'd for a particular reflection. . . . And consequently
I conclude him the promoter of so Ill-natur'd, and so
scurrulous a retort.18
To assume that Settle actually deduced who the authors were by analyzing
their styles would be a mistake. His pretense at literary detective work is
merely an elaborate irony designed to provide an excuse for the insulting
identifications of his opponents. Settle was so confident of his information
concerning the authorship that in the preface to his play, Ibrahim The
Illustrious Bassa (1677), although continuing to attack Dryden as the
"promoter" of the work, he ascribed the severe remarks on the fourth act
of the Empress directly to Shadwell, at whom he clearly aimed several of
his retorts.19
Crowne's later claim to "three parts of four" actually does little to
shake Settle's statements about the authorship of Notes and Observations,
for during his lifetime and afterward, Dryden was generally assigned the
role of promoter. Narcissus Luttrell identified the book as the work of
Dryden,20 and Gerard Langbaine called Notes and Observations "Dryden's
pamphlet." 21 The participation of Shadwell and Crowne, however, was
not forgotten. In his Remarks upon Pope's Homer, John Dennis used
Settle as an example of how easily a bad poet may gain a reputation:
"Well! but what was the Event of this great Success? Mr. SETTLE began
to grow Insolent, as any one may see who reads the Epistle Dedicatory
to the Empress of Morocco. Mr. DRYDEN, Mr. SHADWELL, and Mr. CROWN
M
Settle, sigs. [Az-Aat/].
"Settle (p. 68) mentions Shadwell's comedy Epsom Wells and hints (p. 69) at
Shadwell's part in the "operatic Tempest." Settle was probably aware of whom
he was writing when he accused the writer of the commentary on Act IV
(p. 52) of being drunk while writing his criticism and "never sober afterwards
to peruse it" (see Elkanah Settle, Ibrahim The Illustrious Bassa [1677], sig. as;
Maximillian E. Novak, "Elkanah Settle's Attacks on Thomas Shadwell and the
Authorship of the 'Operatic Tempest,'" Ate-Q, CCXIH [1968], 863-265).
w
McFadden, "Settle and the Genesis of Mac Flechnoe," p. 62.
*Mn Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691), p. 440.
began to grow Jealous; and They Three in Confederacy, wrote Remarks

on the Empress of Morocco." 22
Edmond Malone, the first critic who tried to determine the extent of
Dryden's contribution to Notes and Observations, assumed that Dr. John-
son did not know that Crowne and Shadwell had joined in the attack on
Settle.28 While Johnson may not have known of Crowne's claim to have
written the bulk of the pamphlet, he probably would have come upon a
discussion of the joint authorship in Giles Jacob's The Poetical Register
(1719), in the second edition of Anthony a Wood's Athenae Oxonienses
(1721), or in Theophilus Gibber's The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain
and Ireland (1753). Whether Johnson forgot or whether, like most writers
before him, he accepted Settle's insistence that Dryden was the moving
force behind the project is less important than the sections he chose to
quote: two passages from the preface, two from the commentary on Act I,
and the parody on the beginning speech of Act II of Settle's play. Malone
rejected the commentary on Act I as Dryden's but accepted the preface,
the parody with the commentary surrounding it, and the postscript. Al-
though expressing some doubt about the postscript, he nevertheless con-
cluded that "Our author, like a skilful general, placed his weakest force
in the centre, and made his front, and perhaps his rear, as strong as he
could." 24 Sir Walter Scott included these three sections—preface, parody,
and postscript—in his edition as the work of Dryden, but added a wish
that Dryden "could be exculpated from any share in the coarse and il-
liberal invective" with which they were filled.25
Scott's obvious distaste in discussing Dryden's part in Notes and Ob-
servations has been shared by many later biographers and critics. Saints-
bury suggests that "Dryden allowed himself to be drawn by Crowne and
Shadwell into writing with them."28 One twentieth-century biographer
quotes approvingly Scott's comment that "Dryden gained no more by his
dispute with Settle, than a well-dressed man who should condescend to
wrestle with a chimney-sweeper";27 another dismisses the work as "a
pamphlet of vulgar abuse" not worth discussing.28 The feeling that Dry-
den's part in Notes and Observations is somehow shameful has probably
influenced discussions of ascription, which have ranged from complete
denial of Dryden's participation to inclusion of "Errata's in the Epistle"
and additional parts of the commentary on Act II.29
a
Critical Works, ed. Hooker, II, 118. * Malone, II. 273.
a
lbid., p. 274.
""S-S, XV, 396. Saintsbury made no additions to Scott's remarks when he
revised the edition.
" George Saintsbury, Dryden (1916), p. 53.
" Kenneth Young, John Dryden (1954), p. 85. See also Scott's life of Dryden
in S-S, I, id. Between the time of Notes and Observations and Scott's life, an
element of social snobbery marked the attacks on Settle, who was the son of a
barber. Pope, o£ course, made Settle the symbol of the plebeian poet.
28
Christopher Hollis, Dryden (1933), p. 74.
'"Ward (Life, pp. 101, 328-329) has argued that Dryden had no part in
writing Notes and Observations; Anne Doyle ("Dryden's Authorship of Notes
394 Commentary
If, as all the external evidence suggests, Dryden did indeed contribute
to Notes and Observations, it is likely that his major assignment in the
joint effort comprised the preface and the postscript, where the basic
critical argument against Settle was stated. Crowne spoke of Dryden with
reverence in the address to the reader prefixed to Calisto, and Shadwell,
however little he may have thought of Dryden's comedies, would hardly
have disputed Dryden's preeminence as a critic. The preface and the
postscript, then, should reflect Dryden's critical thinking at the time, and
such can indeed be demonstrated.30 Because Dryden may have contributed
to other sections of Notes and Observations, the entire work is printed in
this edition. The parody, as Johnson, Malone, and Scott believed, may
well be the work of Dryden, even though, compared with Mac Flecknoe,
it seems the work of a novice. The discussions of poetry and of the
nature of the true poet are, however, unmistakably Dryden's.
The preface and the postscript present Settle as a writer with some
claim to powers of fancy, a quality that the commentators concede to be
of importance in a poet, although hardly a sufficient one in itself. Settle's
fancy, in any event, is said to be more nearly related to that of a madman
or a religious enthusiast than to that of a poet. The discussion of poetica
licentia in the postscript strongly recalls one of Dryden's major critical
preoccupations between the dedication of The Rival Ladies (1664) and
The Authors Apology for Heroique Poetry and Poetique Licence (1677):
the interaction of fancy and judgment in the creative process. In the
former, his very first piece of critical theory, Dryden had spoken of fancy
"in its first Work, moving the Sleeping Images of things towards the
Light, there to be Distinguish'd, and then either chosen or rejected by
the Judgment." He went on to suggest that mere fancy created a "dis-
orderly kind of Beauty," which he attributed to "eagerness of Imagina-
tion." 81 In the same essay he used the familiar image of the ranging
spaniel to represent the "Wild and Lawless" faculty of imagination.82
In A Defence of an Essay of Dramatique Poesie (1668) Dryden said that
reason, though willingly hoodwinked by imagination, was not destroyed
by it: "reason . . . is never so wholly made a captive, as to be drawn
and Observations on The Empress of Morocco (1674)," SEL, VI [1966], 421-445)

has presented a case for Dryden's hand in the "Errata's in the Epistle" and
in the notes on Act II. See also H. H. R. Love, "The Authorship of the Post-
script of Notes and Observations on the Empress of Morocco," NirQj CCXI
(1966), 27-28; Noyes, p. 913.
80
The many parallels between Notes and Observations and Dryden's critical
essays are bolstered by resemblances in Dryden's prologues and epilogues. See,
for example, Dryden's attack on "Arlequin" and "Scaramoucha" in "Epilogue
to the University of Oxon." (Works, I, 148); the complaint about "worn Plays
and Fustian Stuff / Of Rhyme, more nauseous than three Boys in Buff" in
"Epilogue Spoken at the Opening of the New House" (Works, 1, 151); and the
echo of the quotation from Martial which closes Notes and Observations in
"Prologue
81
to the University of Oxford, 1674" (Works, 1, 152, 356-357).
Works, VIII, 95. •" Ibid., p. 101.
head-long into a perswasion of those things which are most remote from
probability." 88
Similar statements on the same subject abound in Dryden's criticism.
In the preface to An Evenings Love (1671) he compared fancy's appetite
for the surprising with the unnatural appetite of a pregnant woman. In
The Authors Apology for Heroique Poetry and Poetique Licence, written
three years after Notes and Observations, Dryden was still stressing the role
of judgment in poetic creation: "there are limits to be set betwixt the
boldness and rashness of a Poet." He also warned that "It requires
Philosophy as well as Poetry, to sound the depth of all the Passions; what
they are in themselves, and how they are to be provok'd: and in this
Science the best Poets have excell'd." 3* From this discussion of the limits
of bold strokes emerges Dryden's final definition of wit as a "propriety of
Thoughts and Words; or in other terms, Thought and Words, elegantly
adapted to the Subject." 85 This not very inspiring definition is illuminated
by the statement, in the postscript to Notes and Observations, that poetry
"ought to be so far Mathematicall, as to have likeness, and Proportion"
(182:24-25). Presumably Dryden meant something of the same kind by
the "propriety of Thoughts and Words." In the postscript to Notes and
Observations he also says that the poet should "have experience in all
sorts of humours and manners of men: should be thoroughly skil'd in
conversation, and should have a great Knowledge of mankind in generall"
(182:9-11).38 The postscript, then, presents the ideal of the learned poet,
an ideal that Dryden had discussed in his early critical essays.
Dryden's ideal poet would be capable of creating characters who were
both consistent and distinct, and because he would understand the
springs of art and nature he might be given license to use figures like
hyperbole and catachresis. In the preface to An Evening's Love Dryden
confesses to lacking Jonson's "judgement" in creating character and, after
speaking of his preference in comedy, goes on: "/ would have the charac-
ters well chosen, and kept distant from interfaring with each other;
which is more than Fletcher or Shakespear did."87 In the preface to
Notes and Observations much the same ideas appear in the criticism of
Settle's play (84:10-85:7):
His Plot is incoherent and full of absurdities; and the
Characters of his Persons so ill chosen, that they are all
either Knaves or Fools; only his Knaves are Fools into
the Bargain: and so must be of necessity while they are
"Ibid., IX, 18. " The State of Innocence (1677), sig. by, Watson, I, 199, 200.
35
The State of Innocence (1677), sig. caw; Watson, I, 207.
80
For a similar discussion of the relationship between "fancy" and "Philoso-
phy" in the makeup of the ideal poet, see Thomas Hobbes, Answer to Dave-
nant (Spingam, II, 59-64). Cf. also Discourse of Satire (1693), p. xx; Watson,
II, 90.
37
Works, X, 205, 206. As can be seen from Ravenscroft's parody of Dryden
quoted in n. 10 above, such comments on character were even then considered
to be typical of Dryden.
396 Commentary
in his Management. They all speake alike, and without
distinction of Character: That is, every one Rants and
Swaggers, and talks Non-sense abundantly. . . . What
a beastly Pattern of a King, whom he intends vertuous,
has he shown in his Muley Labasl Yet he is the only
person who is kept to his Character; for he is a per-
petual Fool.
In the section entitled "Of the Plott and Conduct of the Play," the
critics pursue the point of Settle's inability to create character: "What
pictures of Man-kind is such a Creature like to draw, who is never
admitted into the conversation of Gentlemen" (168:7-8).
Settle is pictured as dangerous, moreover, because in resembling a
real poet he is likely to cast shame on the entire profession. For this
reason much of Notes and Observations is devoted to demonstrating
the meaninglessness of Settle's use of similes and metaphors. In The
Authors Apology for Heroique Poetry and Poetique Licence Dryden
admits that some "flights of Heroique poetry" may appear as "mere
•madness" unless controlled by the "coolness and discretion, which is
necessary to a Poet."38 Under the influence of Boileau's translation of
Longinus, Dryden in The Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy, prefixed to
Troilus and Cressida (1679), became even more rigid in the limitations
he placed on the use of tropes: "'Tis not that I would explode the use
of Metaphors from passions," he wrote in criticizing the "fury" of
Shakespeare's fancy, "for Longinus thinks 'em necessary to raise it; but
to use 'em at every word, to say nothing without a Metaphor, a Simile,
an Image, or description, is I doubt to smell a little too strongly of the
Buskin." 3» In The Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel Dryden
presents Settle exactly as he does in Notes and Observations, as a man
possessed whose mind must be emptied of all sense before he can be
inspired (11. 412-417):
Doeg, though without knowing how or why,
Made still a blund'ring kind of Melody;
Spurd boldly on, and Dash'd through Thick and Thin,
Through Sense and Non-sense, never out nor in;
Free from all meaning, whether good or bad,
And in one word, Heroically mad.
The strong connections between Notes and Observations and Mac
Flecknoe also suggest that Settle may well have held Shadwell's place
in early drafts of the latter as the absolute monarch of the land of
dullness.40
M
The State of Innocence (1677), sigs. baf, b4t;; Watson, I, 199, 803.
" Troilus and Cressida (1679), sig. bzv; Watson, I, 257. See also Dryden's
criticism of Sylvester's translation of Guillaume du Bartas in the dedication to
Lord Haughton prefixed to The Spanish Fryar (1681, sig. A3; Watson, I, 277).
" McFadden, "Settle and the Genesis of Mac Flecknoe," pp. 55-72; Doyle,
"Dryden's Authorship of Notes and Observations," pp. 430-432. There is always
the possibility, of course, that Dryden drew heavily on Notes and Observations
for inspiration in composing the portraits.
Although Dryden's hand appears most clearly in the preface and the
postscript to Notes and Observations, most of the line-by-line analysis
that constitutes the bulk of the pamphlet seems to proceed from the
theoretical grounds laid down at beginning and end. The close examina-
tion of Settle's "heap of false Grammar, improper English, strain'd
Hyperboles, and downright Bulls" (84:9-10) has given Notes and Obser-
vations the reputation of being one of the most tedious pieces of criticism
in the English language and has lent force to Settle's comment: "If a
man should tell me that any Creature living had patience to read thy
Pamphlet out at once sitting, I should swear the story of the Famous
Grizil were nothing to him. Nay he deserves to be Canonized as much
as she." 41 Despite the tedium, one strain in the work—the remarks that
concern the use of figurative language in poetry, or what the writers call
Settle's "metaphoricall non-sense" and "unlike similes"—is of considerable
interest, particularly in view of Settle's stout defense of his position on
imagery.
Settle's imagery was often far removed from the object he was de-
scribing. Sometimes he liked to achieve an effect similar to Cowley's; at
other times he affected the sentimental, pr^cieuse style that was thought
to be pleasing to the women in the audience. Duffet travestied the
latter element in Settle's style in the prologue to The Empress of
Morocco, A Farce (1674, sig. Ag):
As when some dogrel-monger raises
Up Muse, to flatter Doxies praises,
He talks of Gems and Paradises,
Perfumes and Arabian Spices:
Making up Phantastick Posies
Of Eye-lids, Fore-heads, Cheeks and Noses,
Calling them Lillies, Pinks and Roses.42
A typical example of what Dryden and his collaborators regarded as
"metaphoricall non-sense" was the description of a hailstorm which
Settle put into the mouth of a character pretending to be a holy man:
Some aery Demon chang'd its form, and now
That which look't black Above look'd white below.
The Clouds dishevel'd from their crusted Locks,
Something like Gems coin'd out of Chrystal Rocks.43
Such imagery is hardly strange to the modern reader familiar with
Shelley's Ode to the West Wind, but the commentators find "crusted
" Settle, p. 68.

"Settle continued using the pr6cicuse style long after the parodies by Duffet
and the three critics had appeared. In The Heir of Morocco (1682, p. 7) Altomar
speaks of his love as follows:
I breath'd such Sighs as might have melted Rocks,
Offcr'd such Prayers as might have woo'd a Deity.
From my drown'd Eyes made a long Deluge rowl,
And bath'd her Feet before I mov'd her Soul.
" The Empress of Morocco (1673), p. 39 (IV, ii).
gg8 Commentary
Locks of Clouds" complete nonsense and refuse to accept either the use
of dishevel as a verb or the concept of "coined gems."
Settle defended himself on the ground that poetic imagery depends on
certain conventions that cannot be squared with logic. He objected that
the kind of literal reading to which the authors of Notes and Observations
had subjected his play would make "the best Simile that can be writ
Nonsense," *4 and that no poetry, not Virgil's or Cowley's, could be free
of the type of image so offensive to them. To prove his point, however,
Settle turned neither to Virgil nor to Cowley but to Dryden's poetry
and plays. For the passage about hail he referred to a passage in The In-
dian Emperour describing the arrival of the Spanish ships. And in de-
fending himself against the critics' "strict laws of Similes" he quoted
stanzas 151-153 of Annus Mirabilis, where Dryden had used a variety of
similes to describe a ship. "What a wonderful pudder is here," wrote
Settle, "to make all these Poetical Beautifications of a Ship; that is a
Phoenix in the first Stanza, and but a Wasp in the last."4S Settle's
analysis concedes a great deal to Dryden's subtlety as a poet, but con-
cludes that Dryden, judged by the standards set by the commentators, does
not hold up.48 "Did ever any man take such freedom in Poetry and
allow so little," Settle asked at one point, and with some justification. 47
In fact, Settle was deliberately imitating many of Dryden's techniques
and individual speeches, and in the process he was making them appear
crude.
Dryden and his fellow authors had complained that Settle was de-
stroying tragedy by making it into farce; Settle's interpretation, put into
a parody of the opening lines of Dryden's Tyrannick Love, presents a
different picture. Bays (Dryden) confesses:
His faults in slippery Fatnesses inclosed,
Him I've in Print to the whole Town exposed.
Did first the depth of every Sentence sound,
And Play'd the Critick on unfaithful Ground.
By force of Nibling, Quibling, Scribling Wit,
Made t' unknown Reasons, unknown faults submit.
And now for my Reward th' ungrateful Town,
For must'ring up His Nonsense, cryes Mine down.^s
Settle's Notes and Observations Revised may have completed a process
that the three critics had inadvertently set in motion: a critical demolition
of the rhymed heroic play, far more devastating to it than the laughter
raised by The Rehearsal. As Gerard Langbaine put it, Settle's answer
"Settle, p. 22. Dryden had said the same thing in the dedication of The
Assignation and also suggested that, if he wanted to, he could make even the
best poets appear bad by ridiculing them for little faults.
« Settle, pp. 55, 74-75.
"Settle was sometimes out of his depth in discussing Dryden's language and
imagery (e.g., pp. 6-7).
"Ibid., p. 55. "Ibid., p. 25.
"shewed Mr. Dryden was not Infallible; but that notwithstanding his
Bravadoes, he himself was as faulty as others." 49
Although Shadwell continued the literary warfare against Settle in
the preface to The Libertine (1676) and in the portrait of Settle as
Crambo in The Triumphant Widow (1677), Dryden himself waited eight
years; then, in The Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel, he pictured
Settle as lacking both "human soul and reason" and therefore as not even
eligible for hanging. Settle was indeed guilty of many of the worst sins
that critics like T. E. Hulme and T. S. Eliot were to associate with bad
romantic verse. If he did not write directly from an illusory inspiration,
as both Notes and Observations and The Triumphant Widow claimed,
he certainly paid very little attention to the exact meaning of words and
images, relying instead upon poetic cliches and stock responses to
emotionally charged words. Lines from The Triumphant Widow capture,
in parody, some of the features of Settle's verse, as, for example, when
Codshead enters, trying to learn by heart a scene by Crambo (Settle)
which will change him into a perfect lover:
Yo'are like the new sprung Lilies of the field,
Whose native colour, hum
Darkening the milkie way, hum
Then says she,
Your Phrases make my modesty to blush.
Then I again,
Then you appear like the new-budden Rose,
With modest blushes of Vermilion, hum-
Vegetables hum hum odoriferous lustre. . . .
Then says she,
Oh, if this Love were constant.
Then I,
Constant as Rocks, that stand great Neptunes floods.80
Crambo's lines underscore one element in Settle's poetry—an addiction
to dead metaphor and cliche1—to which Settle seemed completely insen-
sitive as critic and poet.
No one would argue against Dryden's insistence that the poet should
be a genuine craftsman, but Settle was surely correct in thinking that
the verse that both he and Dryden wrote for their heroic plays could not
withstand the close textual analysis of the kind practiced by the authors
of Notes and Observations. In the course of the debate, the rhymed
heroic play, with its imaginative conjuring scenes, its eccentric heroes
and heroines, and its occasionally splendid passages of verse, fell out of
fashion. Settle, whose pre"cieuse style was probably better suited to blank
verse, noted its departure, without regret, in an epilogue:
"An Account of the English Dramatick Poets, p. 440. Roswell G. Ham ("Dry-
den versus Settle," MP, XXV [1928], 409) argues that "Settle was by all odds
the most potent adversary in Dryden's field."
"Thomas Shadwell and William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, The Trium-
phant Widow (1677), pp. 58-59 (IV, I).
4oo Commentary
Rhiming, which once had got so much your passion,
When it became the Lumber of the Nation,
Like Vests, your seaven years Love, grew out of fashion.
Great Subjects, and Grave Poets please no more:
Their high strains now to humble Farce must lower.51
On the other hand, Dryden, the acknowledged master of the rhymed
heroic play, expressed real regret in announcing, in the prologue to
Aureng-Zebe, the abandonment of "his long-lov'd Mistris, Rhyme." Com-
paring himself with a "losing Gamester," Dryden nonetheless could not
resist a mild boast:
Let him retire, betwixt two Ages cast,
The first of this, and hindmost of the last.62
Settle, who was to die in poverty and was to be drawn as one of the
master fools in Pope's Dunciad, was hardly a notable winner in his battle
with the rival playwrights; still, insofar as Dryden's favorite dramatic
form was concerned, Settle, as Charles Gildon remarked, "had evidently
the better of him." S3
TITLE PAGE
SCULPTURES. Although French plays were often illustrated, it was
unusual for English plays to reproduce engravings. Suckling's Aglaura,
however, had been published with cuts in 1638. See Anne Doyle, "The
Empress of Morocco: A Critical Edition of the Play and the Controversy
Surrounding It" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois, Urbana, 1963),
p. xiv.
Epigraph. Dryden quotes in part Juvenal, SatireSj I, 1-2. (Loeb trans.:
"What? Am I to be a listener only all my days? Am I never to get my
word in 1 that have been so often bored by the Theseid of the
ranting Cordus?")
PREFACE
P. 83: 11. 9-10 ill report . . . Whitehall. Everything suggests that the
performance at court was a huge success. Eleanore Boswell (The Restora-
tion Court Stage [1932], p. 133) dates the performance sometime in April
1673 and says: "Whenever the Court performance took place, it must have
been a brilliant affair."
83:12 a Dancing Tree. The stage directions for Act I, scene i, of
The Empress of Morocco (1673, p. 13) read: "A State is presented, the
King, Queen and Mariamne seated, Muley-Hamet, Abdelcador and At-
tendants, a Moorish Dance is presented by Moors in several Habits, who
bring in an artificial Palm-tree, about which they dance to several antick
Instruments of Musick." An illustration facing page 13 shows the
n
Pastor Fido (1677), p. [67]. " 1676, sig. as; S-S, V, soi.
** Gerard Langbaine, The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatich Poets,
rev. Charles Gildon (1699), p. izz.
dancers, the drumbeaters, and the members of the court, but the large
palm tree in the center looks stable enough. Perhaps the tree was brought
in and moved to the music by the dancers.
83:12-13 the Ludgate Audience. The City audience. The phrase does,
however, have larger connotations. Dorset Garden, where the play was
performed, faced the Thames but it was located near the malodorous
Fleet Ditch and also near Water Lane, along which dung was transported
to the Thames. Ludgate Hill was not far away. The odor from the bogs
caused the mob in Pope's Dunciad (11. 359-366) to halt momentarily.
See John Stow, A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, rev.
John Strype (1720), I, 278-279.
83:13 ill success. Aside from the court performance, Van Lennep (pp.
206, 213, 310) lists only three productions, the first on 3 July 1673, but
information is scanty for this period.
83:19 illiterate Scribler. Settle may have been an "upstart" because he
was descended from a family of barbers, but he was far from illiterate.
He went to Westminster as a King's Scholar and spent a year at Trinity
College, Oxford.
83:21 Earth-born Brethren. The men born of the dragon's teeth sowed
by Cadmus. They immediately began to fight among themselves, and all
but five were killed (see Ovid, Metamorphoses, III, 26-130).
84:16-17 He steals notoriously. Particularly from Dryden's heroic plays.
Cf. 173:33-174:28, above.
84:19-20 Male dum recitas incipit esse tuus. See Martial, Epigrams,
I, xxKviii, 1-2: sed male cum recitas, incipit esse tuus. (Loeb trans.:
"Your vile recitation begins to make it your own.")
84:24 excuse of Aretine. A reference to an epitaph on Pietro Aretino
(1492-1556):
Here Aretin enterr'd doth lye
Whose Satire lash'd both High and Low:
His God alone It spared; and why?
His God, he said, he did not know.
This English version is printed by Pierre des Maizeaux in his translation
of Pierre Bayle's Dictionary (2d ed.; 1734-1738), I, 437-441, along with
several in Italian and one in Latin. Bayle, who takes his predecessor,
Moreri, to task for suggesting that there actually was an epitaph on Are-
tino's tomb, provides a learned discussion of various versions of the
mock epitaph, which may have been written years before Aretino's death.
Most scholars accept the following version:
Qui giace 1'Aretin poeta tosco,
Che disse mal d'ognun fuorchfe di Cristo,
Scusandosi col dir: non lo conosco.
See James Cleugh, The Divine Aretino (1965), pp. 246-247; John Adding-
ton Symonds, Renaissance in Italy (1935), II, 408.
84:29 Boisterous. Coarse in quality (OED).
84:30 lewd. Bad, bungling (OED).
84:31-85:3 Fancy . . . Wit . . . Judgment. For attempts at defining
what these critical terms meant to Dryden, see Watson, II, 298-300, 304;
402 Commentary
The Critical Opinions of John Dijden, ed. John M. Aden (1963), pp.
106-108, 133-135, 145, 277-279; and H. James Jensen, A Glossary of
John Dryden's Critical Terms (1969), pp. 50-52, 63-64, 69, 122-128. See
also John M. Aden, "Dryden and the Imagination: The First Phase,"
PMLA, LXXIV (1959), 28-40; Robert Hume, "Dryden on Creation:
Imagination in the Later Criticism," RES, n.s., XXI (1970), 295-314. For
a detailed account of Dryden on wit and the imagination, see the com-
mentary on The Authors Apology for Heroique Poetry and Poetique
Licence in Works, Vol. XIII.
84:32 Pudder. Pother.
84:33 Still-born. This image is central to the preface and the postscript,
and the fact that it is also used in Mac Flecknoe (11. 147-148) has been
seen as evidence that Dryden composed these parts of Notes and Observa-
tions (see George McFadden, "Elkanah Settle and the Genesis of Mac
Flecknoe," PQ, XLIII [1964], 66).
85:6 Muley Labas. This son of the Emperor of Morocco is in prison
at the beginning of the play. He assumes the throne on the death of his
father and, through the contrivances of his mother and her lover, is
murdered by his queen, Morena.
85:8-9 Nokes . . . Mackbeth. This is a puzzling reference. Nokes's
name does not appear in the cast of Macbeth listed in the edition of
1673. Nathaniel Lee played the King of Scotland and Betterton played
Macbeth. Nokes almost always acted comic parts, sometimes taking a
woman's role like that of the nurse in Romeo and Juliet or in Otway's
Caius Marias. He did occasionally accept a part like Norfolk in Henry
VIII or Polonius in Hamlet, and he may have played Macbeth after the
first night if Lee was, as Downes suggests, as much of a failure as Otway
had been as an actor. Nokes may also have acted the part of one of the
witches or he may have spoken a prologue or an epilogue that has been
lost. Another possibility is that he played the Porter, the one character
in Macbeth who would qualify as a "perpetual Fool," Unfortunately for
this theory, it seems likely that the Porter's part had been eliminated in
the spectacular versions of Macbeth performed in 1673. See ân Lennep,
p. 203; Allardyce Nicoll, A History of Restoration Drama, 1660-1700
(4th ed., rev.; 1952), p. 134; Montague Summers, The Playhouse of Pepys
(1935), pp. 158-160, 295, 335; Christopher Spencer, Davenant's Macbeth
from the Yale Manuscript (1961), pp. 5-16.
85:10 Devils. A reference to the masque of Orpheus and Eurydice in
The Empress of Morocco (IV, iii). Dolle's illustration depicting the
masque shows devils in the foreground rising from the earth and others
flying in the air.
85:11 Laula. Mother of Muley Labas and archvillainess of Settle's play.
85:14-15 poisoning Woman. Probably the Marquise de Brinvilliers,
who was executed in 1676 for poisoning several members of her family.
Scandals involving poisonings had been rocking France from 1668 on,
but when the Marquise's lover, Sainte-Croix, died in 1672, a box of
poisons was found among his effects. Numerous murders were revealed in
the ensuing investigation. The Marquise herself fled to England, leaving
for the Continent only when arrangements for extradition were begun
and eventually returning to France. Her trial led to that of Catherine
Deshayes, called "La Voisin," and to the establishment of the Chambre
Ardente, a special tribunal to handle cases of poisoning. See Gilette
Ziegler, At the Court of Versailles, trans. Simon Watson Taylor (1966),
pp. 137-145; Nancy Mitford, The Sun King (1966), pp. 83-93; Hugh
Stokes, Madame de Brinvilliers and Her Times, i6ô-i6j6 (1912), pp.
194-196; Frantz Funck-Brentano, Le Drame des Poisons (Paris, 1899),
pp. 1-91; and A Narrative of the Process against Madame Brinvilliers
(1676).
85:29 both the great Vulgar and the small (as Mr. Cowly calls them).
See Abraham Cowley's imitation of Horace, Odes, III, i (Essays, Plays
and Sundry Verses, ed. A. R. Waller [1905], p. 434):
Hence ye Profane; I hate ye all;
Both the Great, Vulgar and the Small.
85:30-31 omne . . . magnifico. Tacitus, Agricola, sec. 30. (Loeb trans.:
"The unknown is ever magnified.")
ERRATA S IN THE EPISTLE

88:9 his Accusation. Settle was probably attacking Dryden's dedication
of The Assignation.
89:33-34 Admiration and Passion. For a similar statement see A Defence
of an Essay of Dramatique Poesie (Works, IX, 6).
90:3 Tautology. Cf. Mac Flecknoe (I. 30): "Thou last great Prophet
of Tautology." If Dryden did have Settle in mind when he began
Mac Flecknoe, as has been maintained, he could have drawn on the
numerous repetitions in Notes and Observations of this charge against
Settle.
90:5-6 merry Tragedy. Settle did not mix comedy with tragedy, but
some of the speeches in his play may have produced what Gibber called
"a Laugh of Approbation." Eric Rothstein notes that Dryden, as well as
Settle, used this technique for "controlling the decorum of ... heroic
plays." It would be an error, however, to confuse speeches intended to
arouse admiration with entirely comic speeches. See Colley Gibber, An
Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Gibber, ed. Robert W. Lowe (1889),
I, 121-125; Eric Rothstein, Restoration Tragedy (1967), p. 134; Bruce
King, Dryden's Major Plays (1966), pp. 10-13, 38-43-
94:5-6 give a Babboon Brandy. Related to the proverb, "As drunk
as an Ape" (Tilley, Aa6e,). See also Ramona and Desmond Morris, Apes
and Men (1968), pp. 38-39.
96:10 Kings Bounties. See The Empress of Morocco, p. 34 (IV, i).
96:15 return his Simile. This is the first mention of what Settle called
the commentators' "strict laws of Similes" (see Settle, p. 55).
404 Commentary
EXAMEN OF THE PLAY

102:29 Breath. In his response to this section Settle missed the point
about the commentator's objection to "breath," but he did point out
Dryden's excessive use of "Host" (Settle, p. 7).
103:33 Mamamouchi. A nonsense version of a Turkish title of nobility
in Moliere's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and in the subtitle of Ravens-
croft's adaptation of the Moliere play, The Citizen Turn'd Gentleman
(1672).
104:30 the Poets Broth that I promised. The speech so referred to was
of a type very popular in the plays of the period, and no one had
mastered it so well as Dryden himself. Ironically enough, Settle's speech
was probably an imitation of the one Dryden used near the end of Act
III of Tyrannick Love (Works, X, 146 and n), to which Settle (p. 10)
refers.
107:6 Jacob Behmen. Jakob Bohme (1575-1624), a German mystic.
The father of Settle's friend, Samuel Pordage, was indeed a disciple of
Bohme.
109:25 Scaramouche. Scaramouche was one of the commedia dell'arte
figures usually grouped under the general heading of "The Captain."
Jacques Callot's illustrations reveal the character's dual nature—fiercely
earnest one moment, laughing the next. Tiberio Fiorelli, the most famous
Scaramouche, played the part without a mask, using grimaces to suggest
the nature of the role. See Pierre Louis Ducharte, The Italian Comedy,
trans. Randolph Weaver (1966), pp. 236-247; Allardyce Nicoll, The
World of Harlequin (1963), pp. 101-103.
110:11 Dust. Settle (p. 13) protested that this circumlocution for death
was common enough and that it was a necessary type of diction for
tragedy. He quoted Dryden's similar practice in The Indian Emperour.
112:26 Conforme a smile to Lightning. Settle (p. 16) defended this
phrase as "a pardonable Metaphor," arguing that his critics were refusing
to accept metaphor as a poetic principle. Quoting Dryden's simile in
The Conquest of Granada, where the hero Almanzor is compared to a
gem shining in a quarry. Settle protested: "If he will admit of no Alle-
gories why does he make "em."
113:22 Will. Doll. William Dolle (fl. 1670-1680) engraved five scenes,
one for each act of the Empress. Dolle's engravings are "weakly and stiffly
executed, and show little merit or originality" (DNB), a judgment borne
out by a glance at his portraits for Walton's Lives (1670) and his portrait
of Milton for Paradise Lost (1674). The scene here referred to shows four
ships at varying distances from the shore and what appears to be a boat
filled with people approaching the shore. The illustrations for Settle's
play have value for historians of the theater because they all show the
proscenium arch of the Duke's Theatre as a surrounding frame. As early
as 1935, however, W. J. Lawrence ("The Plates in Settle's 'The Empress
of Morocco/" TLS, 11 July 1935, p. 448) warned against regarding
Dolle's representations of scenes within the arch as anything more than
"pictorial." More recently it has been suggested (Edward A. Langhans,

"The Dorset Garden Theatre in Pictures," Theatre Survey, VI [1965],
135) that Dolle's engravings show the proscenium arch as higher and
narrower than it actually was. Certainly Dolle, a poor draftsman, was
fully capable of distorting the shape of things, but there can be no
question of the accuracy of such details as the position of the musicians'
gallery, the figures on the side walls (see below, 167:23-25^, and the
carvings supposed to have been executed by Grinling Gibbons. The
critics' remarks on Dolle's artistry, then, are accurate enough, but in
representing the interior of a theater that was the scene of so many of
the spectacular productions of the Restoration, Dolle's engravings are
invaluable.
116:15 Emperour and King. The insistence that Settle be more exact
in his choice of words led him to defend his use of synonyms and to
protest (p. 20): "I believe he means to bring Poetry to the rules of the
Law, and having once spoke of a King we must cry at next occasion to
name him the aforesaid, or abovenamed King party to those presents."
117:29 Cambises. Settle's play Cambyses, King of Persia, performed at
the beginning of January 1671, was a great success (see Van Lennep, pp.
clxi, 179).
117:30-31 both the Play-houses. Settle explained that his animus against
the Duke of York began when James refused to allow Settle's play to be
performed at the Theatre Royal: "About ten years since I writ a Play
call'd, The Empress of Morocco, and some time after I carryed it to His
Majesties Theatre, where in the height of Mr. Harts Health and Ex-
cellence, I flatter'd my self with assurance of wonderful success from the
performance of then so able a Company: but upon former Treaties with
His Highnesses Servants, they made a complaint to their Royal Master, 8c
got the Play commanded back again to their own Play-House" (Elkanah
Settle, A Narrative [1683], sig. Asv). According to one of Settle's enemies,
"the Duke's House allowed Mr. Settle fifty Pounds a Year upon Condition
they might have the Acting of all the Plays he made. But he expecting a
greater third day, if acted by the King's-Servants, notwithstanding his
Pension, put his Play into their Hands" (Reflexions upon a Late Pamphlet,
Intituled, A Narrative Written by E. Settle [1683], p. a).
118:26-119:17 Great Boy etc. Both Dr. Johnson and Edmond Malone
assumed that this parody of the opening speech of Act II was done by
Dryden, although it is hardly a brilliant example of parody. It should be
read along with Settle's original:
Great Sir, Your Royal Fathers General
Prince Muley Hamet's Fleet does homewards sail,
And in a solemn and triumphant Pride
Their Course up the great River Tensift guide,
Whose guided Currents do new Glories take
From the Reflection his bright Streamers make:
The Waves a Masque of Martial Pageants yield,
A flying Army on a floating Field.
Order and Harmony in each appear,
406 Commentary
Their lofty Bulks the foaming Billows bear.

In state they move, and on the Waves rebound,
As if they danc'd to their own Trumpets sound:
By Winds inspired, with lively Grace they roul
As if that Breath and motion lent a Soul.
And with that Soul, they seem taught Duty too.
Their Topsails lowr'd, their Heads with Reverence bow;
As if they would their Generals Worth enhance,
From him, by instinct, taught Allegiance.
Whilst the loud Cannons eccho to the shore,
Their flaming Breaths salute You Emperour.
From their deep Mouths he does your Glory sing:
With Thunder, and with Light'ning, greets his King.
Thus to express his Joys, in a loud Quire
And Consort of wing'd Messengers of fire
He has his Tribute sent, and Homage given,
As men in Incense send up Vows to Heaven.
Noyes (p. 913) regards as doubtful the ascription of this parody ex-
clusively to Dryden. Dryden's attack on Settle as Doeg in The Second Part
of Absalom and Achitophel repeats some ideas found here, but if Dryden
did indeed write this parody, the lameness of the verse and the lack of
his usual wit must be explained. Settle's parody (p. 25) of Maximin's
opening speech in Tyrannick Love is probably better. The epithet "Great
Boy" was used again to describe Settle by the author of The Session of the
Poets. See Poems on Affairs of State, ed. George deF. Lord (1963), I, 354;
and Malone, II, 271-290.
118:29 Ballet-singers. Ballad singers (OED).
119:20 Gotham. "The name of a village, proverbial for the folly of its
inhabitants" (OED).
119:34 Mulyhamet. A general of Morocco and Settle's hero, in love
with Mariamne.
121:27 Mariamne's love. Mariamne, daughter of Laula, the queen
mother, was in love with Muly Hamet.
122:2 Optique Glass. Telescope (OED).
123:8 Consort of Hearts. The first stanza of Settle's song, performed
by a Moor "and two Moorish Women," begins:
No Musick like that which Loyalty sings,
A Consort of Hearts at the Crowning of Kings.
125:17 Mock-Pompey. A title applied to Act V of William Davenant's
The Play-house To Be Let, first produced in August 1663. Davenant was
parodying Katherine Philip's Pompey, which had been performed in the
spring of that year (Van Lennep, pp. 64, 67). Davenant's play probably
influenced the style of Thomas Duffel's The Empress of Morocco, A Farce,
produced in December 1673. See Maximillian E. Novak, ed., "The Em-
press of Morocco" and Its Critics, Augustan Reprint Society (1968), pp.
viii-ix.
125:17-18 old Simpleton the Smith. This droll, written or adapted by
Robert Cox and performed between 1650 and 1655, was included in
Notes to Pages 118-14$ 4«7
Francis Kirkman's collection, The Wits, or Sport upon Sport (1662) (see
Annals of English Drama, ed. Alfred Harbage, rev. S. Schoenbaum [1964],
pp. 148, 158).
128:15-16 tell the Truth. Settle (p. 37) takes the opportunity to attack
Dryden at this point for his realistic treatment of sex in both his com-
edies and his heroic plays: "to give the reason why he lay with her, is not
the description of the Circumstances how he lay with her; to have de-
scribed those indeed had been perfect Drydenism."
128:31 Looks upon his Brow. Settle (p. 38), here recognizing an attack
upon synecdoche as a permissible figure of speech, points to Dryden's use
of a similar figure in The Indian Emperour (V, ii, 332, in Works, IX, 109).
131:24 principal huff of his Play. Settle (p. 39) reminds Dryden of some
of his extravagant speeches in The Conquest of Granada: "O thou Great
Master of little wit, if all were Nonsense that persons in plays say more
than they can do, I am afraid thy Granada must suffer a great Lop to
be squared into sense. Thy beloved Almanzors rants would dwindle
much to come within the compass of possibility; nay his large actions
too, which the Poet will force the audience to believe performed, would
suffer much correction, to be brought to standard measure."
136:22 Bombazeene. Raw cotton (OED). The word had already been
used figuratively in the sense of "bombastic."
138:16 ijo Miles. Settle, pointing out (p. 49) that the "skirts of Atlas
come within 12 leagues of Morocco," says his geography is better than
that of his opponents.
140:10 predestination. Settle (p. 53) quotes similar passages from The
Conquest of Granada; particularly apt is Zulema's remark, "Man makes
his fate according to his mind" (Conquest of Granada, 1672, p. 19; S-S,
IV, 57)-
142:25 cartyed upon Wings of zeal etc. Settle (p. 56) cannot resist re-
minding Dryden of the song of Nakar and Damilcar in Tyrannick Love
"with ne're a word of sense in it." Dryden had already been parodied
mercilessly for this passage in The Rehearsal (1671).
143:18 it should be Nam, Although Settle makes a sturdy effort to de-
fend his use of grammar, metaphor, and meaning, he simply ignores the
terrible rhymes the commentators are continually pointing out.
143:29 C<eca facultas. A blind faculty. See Thomas Aquinas, Summa
Theologica, I, Ixxxii, iv.
144:9 proximum antecedens. Nearest antecedent.
145:8-9 The Clouds dishevel'd etc. In defending his fanciful use of
language, Settle (p. 59) compares his image witli Guyomar's description
of the Spanish fleet in Dryden's The Indian Emperour (Works, IX, 35),
particularly the description of the clouds:
But distant skies that in the Ocean set:
And low hung clouds that dipt themselves in rain
To shake their fleeces on the earth again.
Although there is no direct borrowing, and although Settle's metaphors
tend to stray further from the visual image than Dryden's, the resemblance
between the two passages is obvious.
408 Commentary
147:9-10 in that Countrey. Settle (p. 62) objects that the demand for
literal realism on the stage at a time when plays were acted in con-
temporary dress is unfair: "How ill and foolish would the dressing a
Roman with naked Arms and Legs, be, or making a Solyman or an
Almanzor, and Almahide, sit Cross Leg'd like Taylors. . . . All Heroick
actions of Virtue or Gallantry on the Stage, being rated and valued by the
rules of the place and Age they are presented in, not by the sense of the
Age or place when and where they were first perform'd." Settle was so
obviously right in this observation and the commentators were so ob-
viously wrong that one is forced to sympathize with his comment (p. 57):
"I'm certain that he ... that reads this Pamphlet and believes there went
three head pieces towards the production of this Rarity, will infer that
one rational soul will o're stock twenty such Scriblers."
151:8 Westminster School. Settle was a King's Scholar at Westminster
(F. C. Brown, Elkanah Settle: His Life and Works [1910], p. 8).
156:10-11 similes, . . . the most unlike things. Settle (p. 74) remarks on
Dryden's tendency toward somewhat strained similes in Annus Mirabilis,
focusing particularly on Dryden's description of the ship London in
stanza 153:
With roomy decks, her Guns of mighty strength,
(Whose low-laid mouthes each mounting billow laves:)
Deep in her draught, and warlike in her length,
She seems a Sea-wasp flying on the waves.
How, asks Settle, can this image fit with that in stanza 151, where the
ship is compared to a phoenix: "But perhaps his Similitude has more in
it than we imagine. This Ship had a great many Guns in her, and they put
all together, made the sting in the Wasps tail; for this is all the reason
I can guess why it seem'd a Wasp. But because we will allow him all we
can to help out, let it be a Phoenix Sea-Wasp, and the rarity of such an
Animal may do much towards the heightening of the fancy."
160:5 false Allusion. Settle (pp. 80-83) takes this opportunity not only
to defend himself but to show some of Dryden's mistakes in fact, and
also some of his inaccurate imagery. He strikes Dryden in a weak spot in
parodying a passage from the first edition of Tyrannick Love to which
he has referred sarcastically several times before. The Dryden passage is
Placidius' soliloquy on his hopeless love for Valeria (see Works, X, i73n,
430):
He, like a secret Worm, has eat his way;
And, lodg'd within, does on the kernal prey:
I creep without; and hopeless to remove
Him thence, wait only for the husk of Love.
Settle turned this quatrain, which Dryden had already removed from the
second edition of his play, into
He like a subtle Rat has eat his way,
And log'd within does on the Venison prey.
I creep without, and hopeless to remove
Him hence, wait only for the Crust of Love.
160:14 Numps. A silly or stupid person (OED).
160:32 retrive. Settle (p. 83) claimed that this word was a misprint for
"reprive" or reprieve.
161:8 Crimalhazzes Gaunches. A reference to the means used to exe-
cute Crimalhaz as illustrated in the final plate of The Empress of
Morocco, showing a number of bodies impaled on hooks.
164:32 Euphonies Gratia. For the sake of euphony.
16
5=33-34 How could Story write. Settle (p. 86) defends this use of
"Story" as personification, just as Fame is personified: "Fame can no more
speak than story can write; for Fame is not what speaks, but what is
spoken of a man: As story is not what writes, but is written of a man."
167:23-25 Apollo . . . poets heads, A reference to the decorations at
Dorset Garden. Dolle's engravings reveal figures on both sides of the
theater. Dryden, in his "Epilogue Spoken at the Opening of the New
House," 26 March 1674, mentioned the "Poets Heads" as he contrasted
the glittering theater of the Duke's Company with the modest building
but superior talent of the King's Company (Works, 1, 151, 355):
Though in their House the Poets Heads appear,
We hope we may presume their Wits are here.
167:30-168:1 nil malo securius Poeta. Martial, Epigrams, XII, Ixiii, 12-
13. (Loeb trans.: "Nothing more safe than a bad poet.") Martial complains
of a poet who has been reciting Martial's own poems without paying a
fee. Had the poet written anything good enough, Martial adds, he might
be willing to retaliate in kind, but he cannot bring himself to recite bad
verses. Montaigne quotes the line from Martial in his essay, "Of Pre-
sumption," and the commentator's remarks on Settle's arrogance ("because
he saw not his own mistakes") may owe something to Montaigne's attack
on the presumption of bad poets.
168:4-5 Harlequin and Scaramoucha. This reference to commedta
dell'arte figures was probably connected with visiting continental troupes.
Dryden ridiculed one such troupe in late 1672 and 1673 in his pro-
logue to Arviragus Reviv'd. Another troupe performed an opera and
ballet on 30 March 1674. See Dryden's references to "Troops of famisht
Frenchmen" and "frisking Monsieurs" in his "Prologue and Epilogue
Spoken at the Opening of the New House" (Works, I, 149, 151) and to
"Scaramoucha" and "Arlequin" in his "Epilogue to the University of
Oxon.," 1673 (ibid., p. 148). See also Van Lennep, p. 209; Ward, Life,
PP- 347-348-
170:5-6 poet in extraordinary. The title page of The Empress of
Morocco names Settle "Servant to His Majesty," but see the London
Gazette, 11-15 December 1673:
His majesty in Councel taking into consideration the
great Numbers of extraordinary Servants, that have been
Sworn and admitted into His Majesties Service, who
making use of the Protection they receive, thereby to
obstruct the due course of Law, to the grieveance of
many of his good Subjects; It is Ordered therefore by His
Majesty in Counsel, That all Persons whatsoever, that
are Sworn and Admitted His Majesties Servants, to at-
410 Commentary
tend His Majesty or Royal Consort, in Extraordinary

or Ordinary, without Fee, and that do not by vertue of
their Places receive either Fee, Wages, Salary, Dyet,
Boardwages, or Livery, be from the first day of January
next, absolutely disabled from making use of the same,
for any pretence of Priviledge or Protection from their
Creditors, bearing of Offices, or any other Priviledge or
Protection from the due course of Law whatsoever.
171:26 were it none at all. Imitation of a line that probably parodied
the extravagant dialogue of rhymed heroic plays. As Spence reported it,
an actress paused, looking very distressed, after delivering the following
line, supposedly in a play by Dryden: "My wound is great, because it is
so smalll" The Duke of Buckingham, sitting in the audience, was then
supposed to have supplied the burlesque conclusion: "Then 'twould be
greater, were it none at alll" (For further details see James M. Osborn's
commentary in his 1966 edition of Joseph Spence, Observations, Anecdotes,
and Characters of Books and Men, I, 275-276 [no. 665].) Montague Sum-
mers, noting that no such line is to be found in Dryden, suggests (Play-
house of Pepys, pp. 284-285) that the two lines were "probably burlesque
in the first instance."
173:33-174:1 Maximin. I.e., Tyrannick Love, which was sometimes
known by the name of its most impressive character.
174:7 Placidius. A character in Tyrannick Love, Settle complains (p. 91):
"Does this grave Scribbler that talks so much of judgment, make an
expression of two lines a Character? at that rate I may say all men have
one Character; for 'tis ten to one but you shall hear 'em at one time or
other say the same thing." Settle then shows that by the same method
he can demonstrate that Sir Martin Mar-all and Almanzor are one and the
same character.
180:9 In a note to the errata (see the text, p. 98, above), Dryden
called attention to the fact that the final sheet, which would have con-
tinued this section on the plot and conduct of the play, covering the
fourth and fifth acts, had been lost in the press.
181:19 Sooterkin. "An imaginary kind of afterbirth formerly attributed
to a Dutch woman" (OED). A similar image in the preface (84:31-33), as
well as a comparable attitude toward judgment and fancy, has often led
scholars to regard the preface and the postscript as a single piece and as
the sections most likely to have been written by Dryden (see McFadden,
"Settle and the Genesis of Mac Flecknoe," pp. 62, 65-66).
182:21 Santons. "Santon" is a European designation for a madman or
hermit regarded by Muhammadans as religiously inspired (OED).
182:27 distance. For a similar theory see Roger de Piles, ed., L'Art de
Peinture, by Charles Du Fresnoy (1668), pp. 94-95. See also Horace, Ars
Poetica, 11. 361-362:
Ut pictura poesis: erit quae, si proprius stes,
Te capiat magis, et quaedam, si longius abstes.
(Loeb trans.: "A poem is like a picture: one strikes your fancy more, the
nearer you stand; another, the farther away.")
183:11 Vera . . . Verisimilia. Dryden makes a similar comment on

verisimilitude in Of Dramatick Poesie (36:32-37:2, above).
184:4-5 Nobis non Licet etc. Martial, Epigrams, IX, xi, 16-17.
(Loeb trans.: "We cannot be so versatile, who court Muses more unbend-
ing.") Martial is speaking of the freedom permitted the Greek poets in
using quantities for a line of verse.

In the late summer—perhaps August—of 1677 the critic and antiquarian,
Thomas Rymer, published The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider'd and
Examin'd by the Practice of the Ancients, and by the Common sense of
all Ages, in the form of an epistle to Fleetwood Shepheard. The opening
paragraphs of this attack on English tragedy of the earlier seventeenth
century promise a critique of Beaumont and Fletcher's Rollo, A King
and No King, and The Maid's Tragedy, as well as of Shakespeare's
Othello and Julius Caesar and Jonson's Catiline. Since Rymer deferred
his comment on the last three plays until later, The Tragedies of the
Last Age, as is commonly known, deals only with the three Beaumont and
Fletcher tragedies. Rymer wittily and mercilessly ridicules them, con-
trasting the management of plot and the decorum of characters with
those of the Greek tragic poets. Rymer had already earned himself a
place among the critics of the age by translating (in 1674) Rene1 Rapin's
Reflexions sur la poetique d'Aristote; in the preface he praises Dryden's
description of night at the beginning of Act III, scene ii, of The Indian
Emperour as holding first place among similar descriptions in Greek,
Latin, Italian, and French poetry.
In The Tragedies of the Last Age Rymer's critical norm is derived
from "common sense" and from the "rules" that he considered the in-
evitable result of a commonsense approach to the construction of plot. In
his scrupulous examination of the three Beaumont and Fletcher plays,
Rymer is especially concerned with "fable" or plot, the "soul" of tragedy
(which of course includes the actions of the chief characters), with
probability, with decorum of character, and with "poetic justice," a phrase
he invented to distinguish the justice of historical events from the
justice of the ideal realm of dramatic and heroic poetry. Taking quite
literally Aristotle's dictum that poetry is more philosophical and more
accurate than history, Rymer expounds a theory of dramatic poetry which
insists on the ideality of action and character in tragedy. This approach
leads to his own rules of decorum, which stipulate that all kings in
tragedy must be heroes, that no king can be an accessory to a crime, and
that no woman can kill a man unless she is superior to him in social rank.
Judging the probability of plots by such rules and in the light of common
sense, Rymer found no difficulty in subjecting to destructive ridicule
three of the most popular revivals on the Restoration stage. His notorious
attack on Othello and his brief reviews of Julius Caesar and Catiline were
412 Commentary
delayed until late 1693, when he published his last critical work, A Short
View of Tragedy. Before that time, however, The Tragedies of the Last
Age had given Rymer the reputation of being an astute and learned, if
rather coarsely witty, critic.1 The "Heads of an Answer to Rymer"
originally were manuscript notes written by Dryden in his presentation
copy of The Tragedies of the Last Age late in 1677 or early in 1678,2
and were first printed in 1711. (For details on the textual problem, see
textual headnote.)
Dryden's relations with Rymer pose intriguing questions. As noted
above, Rymer had paid Diyden a handsome compliment in the preface
to his translation of Rapin's Reflexions sur la podtique d'Aristole, and
the two must have been on good teims in 1677 when Rymer sent Dryden
a copy of his book. Writing from the country to the Earl of Dorset before
the end of the year, Dryden said:
Mr. Rymer sent me his booke, which has been my best
entertainment heiherto: tis certainly very learned, 8c the
best piece of Criticism in the English tongue; perhaps
in any other of the modern. If I am not altogether of
his opinion, I am so, in most of what he sayes: and
thinke my selfe happy that he has not fallen upon me,
as severely and as wittily as he has upon Shakespeare,
and Fletcher. For he is the only man I know capable
of finding out a poets blind sides: and if he can hold
heere without exposeing his Edgar [Rymer's heroic trag-
edy just then published] to be censurd by his Enemyes;
I thinke there is no man will dare to answer him, or can.3
Although not convinced by Rymer's attack, Dryden evidently respected
his learning and feared his satirical wit. The fear of ridicule may very
well explain why Dryden outlined an answer to The Tragedies of the
Last Age which he never wrote, or at least never published. In fact, he
paid Rymer a compliment in print in the following year in his preface
to All for Love: "It remains that I acquaint the Reader that I have en-
deavoured in this Play to follow the practice of the Ancients, who, as
Mr. Rymer lias judiciously observ'd, are and ought to be our Masters." 4
Two further deferential references to Rymer appear in Dryden's preface
to Troilus and Cressida: "But my fiiend Mr. Rymer has so largly, and
with so much judgement describ'd this Scene [the quarrel between
Melantius and Amintor in The Maid's Tragedy, Act III, sc. i], that it is
superfluous to say more of it," and "How defective Shakespear and
Fletcher have been in all their Plots, Mr. Rymer has discovered in his
1
The best discussion of Rymer as a critic is Curt Zimansky's in Rymer,
Critical Works. Zimansky's introduction and notes are indispensable for an
understanding of Rymer's criticism and of its influence on Dryden, as well as
on other critics of the last quarter of the seventeenth century.
a
Because they so strongly give the impression of being first thoughts on reading
a book that had both interested Dryden and stirred him to attempt a refutation,
the notes seem unlikely to have been written later than the winter of 1677-78.
3
Ward, Letters, pp. 13-14. • 1678, sig. b±v; Watson, I, ago.
Criticisms."B There can be no doubt that Dryden, although he had

serious reservations about The Tragedies of the Last Age, had little desire
to enter into public controversy with so formidable a critic.8
By 1693 the situation had altered: a decade of political and religious
controversy had changed friendship into enmity. Dryden had lost his
offices, and Rymer had been appointed historiographer-royal. An anony-
mous attack on Dryden, An Epistle to Mr. Dryden, published in 1688,
was later attributed to Rymer in Volume IV of Poems on Affairs of State
(1707); Dryden may very well have known or suspected the identity of the
author.7 Late in 1692 Rymer published his last and most notorious critical
work, A Short View of Tragedy, with its sneer at the Oedipus of Dryden
and Lee, its unpleasant reference to The Rehearsal, and its vicious attack
on Othello. The next year, not unnaturally, Dryden attacked Rymer in-
directly, but unmistakably, in the dedication of Examen Poeticum (1693):
111 Writers are usually the sharpest Censors: For they (as
the best Poet, and the best. Patron said), when in the full
perfection of decay, turn Vinegar, and come again in
Play. Thus the corruption of a Poet, is the Generation
of a Critick.
In referring briefly to Rymer's critique of Othello, Dryden added:
If I am the Man, as I have Reason to believe, who am
seemingly Courted, and secretly Under-min'd: I think
I shall be able to defend my self, when I am openly
Attacqu'd. And to shew besides, that the Greek Writers
only gave us the Rudiments of a Stage, which they never
finish'd. That many of the Tragedies in the former Age
amongst us, were without Comparison beyond those
of Sophocles and Euripides.6
Dryden's ultimate attitude toward Rymer is expressed in a private letter
of March 1693/4 to John Dennis. Rymer had come to represent the
Ancients in contrast with the Moderns, and Dryden, from O/ Dramatick
Poesie onward, had expressed the Modern temper in most of his criticism
8
1679, sig. aiw; Watson, I, 242. The second quotation is in The Grounds of
Criticism in Tragedy, contained in the preface, sig. 33; Watson, I, 246.
• Opinions of Dryden's attitude toward Rymer range from those of Watson,
who thought of Heads of an Answer as a kind of momentary insurrection against
Rymer, and of Fred G. Walcott ("John Dryden's Answer to Thomas Rymer's
The Tragedies of the Last Age," PQ, XV [1936], 194-214), who detected a dis-
guised reply to Rymer in the preface to Troilus and Cressida, to that of
Robert D. Hulmc ("Dryden's 'Heads of an Answer to Rymer': Notes toward a
Hypothetical Revolution," RES, n.s., XIX [1968], 373-386), who feels that Dry-
den's position was basically like that of Rymer all along. Discussions of Dryden's
full dramatic theory, however, must encompass both Of Dramatick Poesie and
the evidence supplied by his later comments on Rymer.
'See Zimansky's discussion of An Epistle to Mr. Dryden in Rymer, Critical
Works, p. 281.
'Examen Poeticum, sigs. A4, A6i»-A7; Watson, II, 157, 160.
414 Commentary
(although he never lost sympathy with ancient writers or with features of

Renaissance neoclassicism). Despite Rymer's attacks, Shakespeare still
stood as a great dramatic poet, not of course without faults, but possessed
of the qualities that only genius can attain. As Dryden put it to Dennis,
I cannot but conclude with Mr. Rymfer], that our
English comedy is far beyond anything of the Ancients.
And notwithstanding our irregularities, so is our Trag-
edy. Shakespear had a Genius for it; and we know, in
spite of Mr. R that Genius alone is a greater Virtue
(if I may so call it) than all other Qualifications put
together. You see what success this Learned Critick has
found in the World, after his Blaspheming Shakespear.
Almost all the Faults which he has discover'd are truly
there; yet who will read Mr. Rym or not read
Shakespear? For my own part I reverence Mr. Rym s
Learning, but I detest his 111 Nature and his Arrogance.
I indeed, and such as I, have reason to be afraid of
him, but Shakespear has not. 0
Thus Dryden avoided open controversy with Rymer but maintained his
own independent views on the virtues of earlier English dramatists. He
was impressed by Rymer's historical learning and critical ability but not
by his conclusions. While refraining from open attack, he outlined in
Heads of an Answer the reply he might have made.
Heads of an Answer is a valuable document in showing how skeptical
Dryden was of the Neo-Aristotelianism of the late Renaissance, whether
Italian or French. Fundamentally his approach was that of the practicing
playwright whose chief concern is the effect of his dramatic technique on
the audience. More than once Dryden appealed to experience in order
to brush aside the authority of orthodox critical theory. Of course he had
many affinities with Aristotelian critics such as Ren£ Rapin and Le Bossu,
and he often expressed admiration for their work and even agreement
with many of their ideas. In Heads of an Answer, for example, Dryden
holds to the doctrine of the genres; he thinks of tragedy and of heroic
poetry as having the traditional five "parts": plot or fable, order, char-
acters, thoughts, and diction. He grants the "correctness" of tragedies
written by the ancients more or less in accordance with the rules, and of
tragedies written after the model of Sophocles or Euripides. He readily
concedes to Rymer that the Greeks contrived their plots more "regularly,"
and followed decorum of character more scrupulously, than did Fletcher
and Shakespeare. Dryden recognizes that Elizabethan and Jacobean writ-
ers, judged by Neo-Aristotelian standards, are defective.
Despite these concessions Dryden does not agree that Aristotle and the
Greek poets have given the only model of tragedy. Sophocles and
Euripides have written great plays, but theirs is not the only way. The
theories and laws of Neo-Aristotelian criticism are largely irrelevant in
judging modern English tragedy. Fletcher and Shakespeare did not follow
the ancients; rather, they wrote to the age and to the nation in which
• Ward, Letters, pp. 71-7*.
they lived. They thus produced a form of tragedy unlike that of the
ancients but nonetheless valid and, in important ways, superior to the
older tragic poetry.
In Heads of an Answer Dryden takes a number of unorthodox positions.
While granting that the fable is the foundation of tragedy, he insists that
the superstructure—which he here and earlier 10 calls the "writing" of the
play—is more important, and that English dramatists have excelled in
this respect. The superstructure, as he elsewhere describes it, includes
the manners, the thoughts, and the expressions of a play.11 These features
he regarded as contiibuting more to the total effect of a play than does
a regular plot, though the latter, when achieved, might be an additional
beauty. If the plays of the ancients are better plotted, those of the
English dramatists, he maintains here, are better written, and he con-
cludes that if the English, on a faulty foundation, can raise the passions
as high as did the Greeks, the English genius for tragedy must surpass
theirs. Indeed, even the irregular plots of the English have beauties
superior to those of the Greeks' regular plots. The addition of subplots
closely related to the main action, the surprising turns and counterturns
of actions, the wider variety of characters—all these make English tragedy
more delightful than ancient drama, in which the characters are few and
the plots thin. Dryden had made these points as early as a decade before,
in Of Dramatick Poesie, and he had apparently never altered his opinion.
Although he does not stress the point here, clearly he does not doubt that
the English plays imitate nature. Climate, the age, and national character
(i.e., historical and geographic forces) account for the different tastes of
ancient and of modern English audiences. Nature is basically the same,
to be sure, but superficial alterations take place in time, and these are
reflected in the structure and the content of works of art. Thus Dryden
escapes the rigidities of Neo-Aristotelian formulas.
Moreover, Dryden denies that pity and terror are the only ends of
tragedy. Greek tragedy, he holds, is best suited to raise these passions, but
others, such as love (a heroic passion), indignation, anger, joy, are equally
appropriate to the genre. Shakespeare raises passions more from the
excellence of his words and thoughts than from his plots, and in evoking
passions so effectively he achieves the chief purpose of the tragic poet.
Dryden's definition of tragedy in Heads of an Answer is moralistic.
At no time in these notes does he consider the Aristotelian doctrine of
catharsis in any of its possible interpretations. For him, tragedy exists
"to reform Manners by delightful Representation of Human Life in great
Persons, by way of Dialogue" (186:24-26). Thus pity is aroused by the
sufferings of the good, fear by the punishment of the wicked. Tragedy
makes us love virtue and hate evil, an end that is best met by English
"See the "Account" prefixed to Annus Mirabilis (Works, I, 53): "wit writing
. . . is no other then the faculty of imagination in the writer, which . . .
searches over all the memory for the species or Idea's of those things which
it designs to represent."
11
The Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy, prefixed to Troilus and Cressida
(1679, sig. 33; Watson, I, 247-248).
416 Commentary
tragedy because it pleases more. In a characteristic passage Dryden dis-

tinguishes between the goal of the poet and the purpose o£ the poem.
The chief end of the poet is to please, of the poem to instruct. Thus the
poet must consider such matters as fullness of plot and variety of char-
acters, of affecting thoughts and affective language. In short, the greatness
of the Greeks consists in their ordered plots which evoke pity and terror;
the greatness of the English lies in their rich variety and in their conse-
quent capacity to arouse various passions and to teach love of virtue and
hatred of vice. The moderns have finished what the Greeks began, filling
in their bare designs with intricacies and color; their "writing" has been
superior to their plotting, but the excellence of their achievement is not
thereby diminished.
In Heads of an Answer Dryden permits himself a few irreverent glances
at Aristotle's authority. Consider, he suggests, "whether Aristotle has made
a just Definition of Tragedy, of its Parts, of its Ends, of its Beauties;
and whether he having not seen any others but those of Sophocles,
Euripides, &c. had or truly could determine what all the Excellencies
of Tragedy are, and wherein they consist" (186:1-5); and again, " 'Tis not
enough that Aristotle has said so, for Aristotle drew his Models of Tragedy
from Sophocles and Euripides; and if lie had seen ours, might have
chang'd his Mind" (191:13-15). Implicit in such statements is a point of
view that Dryden had expressed through Eugenius and Neander in Of
Dramatick Poesie. Thus Heads of an Answer throws light back on the
Essay and helps us to realize—what indeed few can have doubted—that
Eugenius and Neander express Dryden's fundamental position as a reader,
a theorist, and a practicing dramatist.
Rymer's book rested on his firmly held conviction that in "common
sense" and in the practice of the Greek dramatic poets are to be found
the rules that alone enable a writer to follow nature. Dryden, a "skeptic,"
and in important ways a "modern," knew that only in freedom could
the English poet continue to write the works that would reveal nature as
it had been modified by place, time, climate, and the national character.
He concluded that Aristotelian tragedy was as clearly limited by place and
time as English tragedy had been enriched by them and by freedom from
the authority of any one critic or any code of rules. What pleased the
ancients in regard to the superstructure of a dramatic work need not
please the modern Englishman, who might, therefore, fairly stand up
and admit his preference for modern plays.
P. 185: 1. i. Critick. A common spelling for critique during the late sev-
enteenth and eighteenth centuries.
185:16 Aristotle places the Fable first. See Poetics, VI. Rymer (Critical
Works, p. 18): "I have chiefly consider'd the Fable or Plot, which all
conclude to be the Soul of a Tragedy."
186:10-11 or whether ivhat they did was not very easie to do. In Of
Dramatick Poesie (see 25:23-27, above) Eugenius charges that the plots
of the ancients are threadbare and that the characters are "indeed the
Imitations of Nature, but so narrow as if they had imitated onely an Eye

or an Hand, and did not dare to venture on the lines of a Face, or the
Proportion of a Body."
i8G:iG how short they were of Fletcher. Cf. Eugenius in Of Dramatick
Poesie (31:16-17, above): "for Love-Scenes you will find few among them,
their Tragique Poets dealt not with that soft passion."
186:20 in Friendship. See the preface to Troilus and Cressida (1679,
sig. b$v; Watson, I, 260): "Shakespear writ better betwixt man and man;
Fletcher, betwixt man and woman: consequently, the one described
friendship better; the other love."
187:15 seems unjust. Rymer (Critical Works, p. 19), speaking of A King
and No King, writes that not the play but the actor pleases: "I say that
Mr. Hart pleases; most of the business falls to his share, and what he
delivers, every one takes upon content; their eyes are prepossest and
charm'd by his action, before ought of the Poets can approach their ears;
and to the most wretched of Characters, he gives a lustre and brilliant
which dazles the sight, that the deformities in the Poetry cannot be per-
ceiv'd."
187:31 the general Taste is deprav'd. Rymer (Critical Works, p. 19):
"But were it to be suppos'd that Nature with us is a corrupt and deprav'd
Nature, that we are Barbarians, and humanity dwells not amongst us;
shall our Poet therefore pamper this corrupt nature, and indulge our
barbarity?"
188:3 the same in all Places. Rymer (Critical Works, p. 19): "Certain it
is, that Nature is the same, and Man is the same, he loves, grieves, hates,
envies, has the same affections and passions in both places, and the same
springs that give them motion. What mov'd pity there, will here also
produce the same effect."
188:13-14 or with Bread, is the next Question. Rymer (Critical Works,
p. 20): "I cannot be perswaded that the people are so very mad of Acorns,
but that they could be well content to eat the Bread of civil persons."
189:5 an Horror of his Crimes. Rymer (Critical Works, p. 32): "When
Rollo has murder'd his Brother, he stands condemn'd by the Laws of
Poetry; and nothing remains but that the Poet see him executed, and the
Poet is to answer for all the mischief committed afterwards. But Rollo we
find has made his escape, and wo be to the Chancellor, to the School-
master, and the Chancellors Man; for those are to be men of this world
no longer."
190:6 run upon the Tendre. See Ren£ Rapin, Reflexions sur la poetique
d'Aristote (1674), II, xx.
190:31 a beginning, middle, and an end. See Aristotle, Poetics, VII.
192:27-30 Sophocles perfected Tragedy . . . Dancing. Rymer (Critical
Works, p. 22): "But Sophocles adding a third Actor, and painted Scenes,
gave (in Aristotle's opinion,) the utmost perfection to Tragedy." See
Aristotle, Poetics, IV.
193:7 when they are Natural and Passionate. See Rapin, Reflexions,
II, xxi.
418 Commentary
His Majesties Declaration Defended

In 1935, largely on the basis of internal evidence, the pamphlet entitled
His Majesties Declaration Defended (1681) was attributed to Dryden in his
capacity as Historiographer-Royal.1 Since then it has been accepted as
Dryden's work and has held its place in the Dryden canon.
External evidence of Dryden's authorship is slight, but not entirely
lacking. A copy of the pamphlet with a contemporary ascription to Dryden
was once owned by Percy J. Dobell. Laurence Eachard, who assigned the
work to Dryden in his History of England (1718), may well have known
Dryden: a statement from 1718 asserts that Dryden revised the first volume
of Eachard's Roman History.2 The internal evidence is substantial. A
large number of parallels exist between His Majesties Declaration De-
fended and works that are unquestionably by Dryden, near it in time,
and concerned with the same political questions: Absalom and Achitophel,
The Medall, the prologue to The Duke of Guise, The Vindication of The
Duke of Guise, and the dedication of and the postscript to The History
of the League.5 The similarities of ideas and phrasing are entirely con-
vincing and support the impression that the manner and style are
thoroughly Drydenic. No objection has ever been made to the attribution.
In Charles's fourth Parliament, held at Westminister between 21
October 1680 and 18 January 1680/1, the House of Commons grew
steadily more bitter toward the crown and increasingly anxious to ex-
clude the Duke of York from the succession; its members believed such
exclusion was the sole method of preserving limited monarchy and the
Protestant religion in England.* During this Parliament the Commons
voted the Bill of Exclusion (it was rejected by the Lords), impeached the
plotter Edward Fitzharris for high treason (the House of Lords rejected the
impeachment), and passed a number of resolutions, many of them de-
signed to force Charles to submit to the will of the Commons. Several of
the resolutions were particularly obnoxious to the King. One of them,
for example, declared that until a bill of exclusion was enacted "this House
cannot give any Supply to His Majesty, without danger to His Majesties
Person, extream hazard to the Protestant Religion, and unfaithfulness to
those by whom the House is intrusted." Another resolved that all persons
who advised the King against exclusion were "Promoters of Popery, and
Enemies to the King and Kingdom." Measures were passed, moreover, de-
l
Roswell G. Ham, "Dryden as Historiographer-Royal: The Authorship of
His Majesties Declaration Defended, 1681," RES, XI (1935), 284-298. Dryden's
pamphlet was not reprinted until 1950 when it appeared with an introduction
by Godfrey Davies as Augustan Reprint Society publication no. 23.
' Ham, "Dryden as Historiographer-Royal," pp. 288-290. 3 Ibid., pp. 291-297.
'For a complete account of the struggle between Charles and the House of
Commons over the exclusion of the Duke of York see the commentary on
Absalom and Achitophel in Works, Volume II.
manding that the Marquis of Halifax (who had led the fight against
exclusion in the Lords), as well as Laurence Hyde and others designated
as "ill men," should be removed from the King's councils. The Commons
further voted that anyone who advanced loans to Charles on the customs,
excise taxes, or hearth money, or who accepted or bought "any Tally
of Anticipation upon any part of the King's Revenue," was to be "ad-
judged to hinder the sittings of Parliament." Finally the Commons voted
that "the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws, is,
at this time, grievous to the Subject, a weakening of the Protestant In-
terest, an Encouragement to Popery, and dangerous to the Peace of the
Kingdom." B The break with the King was all but complete.
Charles opened what proved to be his last Parliament at Oxford on 21
March 1680/1. Apparently he had hoped to gain a new parliament through
the elections and, by summoning it to meet in the loyal city of Oxford,
to remove it from the pressures of the extreme Whiggism of London. Thus
he might find the Commons less recalcitrant than heretofore. In his
opening speech the King sharply criticized the "unwarrantable" proceed-
ings of the House of Commons during the preceding Parliament and
indirectly accused the members of seeking to impose their own arbitrary
government on the country. Declaring his love of frequent parliaments, he
reminded his hearers that liberty and property can be secured only when
crown and parliament respect each other's rights. Charles reiterated his
opposition to exclusion and suggested that the Commons find some expe-
dient for keeping the government in Protestant hands when James should
come to the throne.6
Charles's effort was futile. Most of the members of the preceding House
of Commons had been returned, and they soon showed that they had
not altered their principles. The sist and 22d of March were spent in
choosing a speaker and presenting him to the King. On 23 March routine
matters and the quarrel with the Lords over the impeachment of Fitz-
harris occupied the house. In the morning of Saturday, 26 March, the
Exclusion Bill was passed, and in the afternoon the house angrily resumed
the matter of Fitzharris. Tempers were high, and the Commons were
resolute for exclusion and determined in their hostility to the upper
house. On Monday, 28 March, Charles suddenly dissolved the Oxford
Parliament,7 and after that blow Whig opposition steadily disintegrated.
On 8 April 1681 Charles, sensing that the country as a whole was
growing hostile to the Whigs, published and caused to be read in all
churches and chapels an appeal to the people against the Commons:
His Majesties Declaration to all His Loving Subjects, Touching the
Causes if Reasons That moved Him to Dissolve the Two last Parliaments.
In this very effective piece of propaganda Charles puts the blame for the
• Votes of the House of Commons, 1680, pp. 141-146.
'His Majesties Most Gracious Speech to Both Houses of Parliament, at the
Opening of the Parliament at Oxford Monday the 21 day of March, 1680/1
(Oxford, n.d.).
7
David Ogg, England in the Reign of Charles H (1934), II, 606-619.
420 Commentary
dissolution of the two parliaments on the factious spirit of the Whiggish

Commons.
Beginning with an expression of his disappointment with the conduct
of the last two parliaments and declining to be held responsible for their
failure, Charles refers to his opening speech to the last Westminster
Parliament. He had asked it to support his alliances with Spain and
Holland, to help provide funds for the preservation of Tangier, and to
find remedies short of exclusion for securing Protestantism. In return he
had received from the Commons "Addresses, in the nature of Remon-
strances, rather than of Answers; Arbitrary Orders for taking Our Subjects
into Custody, for Matters that had no relation to Priviledges of Parliament,
Strange illegal Votes, declaring divers eminent Persons to be enemies to
the King and Kingdom, without any Order or Process of Law, any hearing
of their Defence, or any Proof so much as offer'd against them" (see App.
A, 513:27-33). The King recalls the resolutions against anticipating his
revenues and laments that such measures reduce him to a more helpless
condition than the meanest of his subjects. He cites the vote against
prosecuting Dissenters under the penal laws as an example of the arro-
gance of the Commons in assuming the right to suspend acts of Parlia-
ment. All these actions he declares unwarrantable.
Charles points out that he had speedily called a new parliament at
Oxford and recalls his admonitions to its members in his opening speech
of 21 March, especially his urging them to follow the laws of the land and
to seek an expedient that would avoid exclusion, in which he discerns the
seeds of civil war and an attempt to change the nature of the monarchy.
Although siding with the Lords in their rejection of the impeachment
of Fitzharris, Charles says the quarrel between the two houses had ren-
dered the transaction of business impossible, thus necessitating the early
dissolution.
In a persuasive paragraph Charles manages to reveal the Whigs as
rebels against monarchical government and as a pack of men ambitious
for high place and disappointed over their failure to achieve it (App. A,
5»5:43-5i6:6):
But notwithstanding all this, let not the restless
Malice of ill Men, who are labouring to poyson Our
People, some out of fondness of their Old Beloved Com-
monwealth-Principles, and some out of anger at their
being disappointed in the particular Designs they had for
the accomplishment of their own Ambition and Great-
ness, perswade any of Our Good Subjects, that We intend
to lay aside the use of Parliaments: For We do still De-
clare, That no Irregularities in Parliaments, shall ever
make Us out of Love with Parliaments, which We look
upon as the best Method for healing the Distempers of
the Kingdom, and the onely Means to preserve the
Monarchy in that due Credit and Respect which it ought
to have both at home and abroad.
The King concludes by promising frequent parliaments and by reminding

his subjects that "Religion, Liberty and Property were all lost and gone,
when the Monarchy was shaken off, and could never be reviv'd till that
was restored" (App. A, 5i6:ai-23).8
Charles had struck an effective blow against his enemies as well as in
defense of his own prerogatives. The effect of the declaration was almost
immediate. Loyal addresses of thanks poured in from all over the country
during the late spring and summer of 1681, and the number of Whig
petitions for a new parliament diminished.9 By midsummer it was evi-
dent to Charles that he had won his gamble and that he could begin to
move against his powerful adversary, the Earl of Shaftesbury.
The flood of addresses to the King was accompanied by a rush of Whig
and Tory pamphlets, as described by Narcissus Luttrell 10 on or about
20 April 1681:
About this time the presse abounds with all sorts
of pamphlets and libells; one side running down the
papists and upholding the dissenters; the other side
cryeing down both, asperseing the two last houses of
commons and ridiculing their proceedings, and sound-
ing nothing but 41; publick intelligencers or pamphlets
of news abounding, every day spawning two, sometimes
three, filling the town and country with notorious false-
hoods.
The pamphlet warfare was to continue throughout the year.
Some of the pamphlets attacked Charles's declaration. About 19 May
Luttrell recorded n the publication of a treasonous and seditious libel
which he named An Answer to his Majesties late Declaration. The piece
has not survived, at least under its original title, but it is likely that
Luttrell was referring to the pamphlet that Dryden was to answer, the
anonymous A Letter from a Person of Quality to his Friend concerning
His Majesties late Declaration touching the Reasons which moved him to
dissolve the Two last Parliaments at Westminster and Oxford (1681). This
identification is further strengthened by the fact that Sir Roger L'Estrange
launched an attack on A Letter from a Person of Quality in the Observator
of 28 May 1681 and continued it through the issue dated 4 June 1681.
Charles's declaration was also assailed in a masterly tract that was clearly
the work of a learned and gifted debater: A Just and Modest Vindication
of the Proceedings of the two last Parliaments (i68z).12
8
For the relationship between Charles's declaration and David's concluding
speech in Absalom and Achitophel see Godfrey Davies, "The Conclusion of
Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel," HLQ_, X (1946), 69-82.
"The Whigs took the numerous Tory addresses very seriously, as seen from
the violent attack on them in An Impartial Account of the Nature and Tendency
of the Late Addresses (1681).
10
Luttrell, I, 76. " Ibid., p. 87.
12
Wing ascribes this tract to Robert Ferguson, the "Plotter," but has an entry
for it also under Sir William Jones. The DNB assigns it to Jones in one place
422 Commentary
A Letter from a Person of Quality was singled out by the Tories as

especially dangerous. Besides being dealt with promptly by L'Estrange,
it was answered by the Historiographer-Royal and later by the Marquis
of Halifax in a suave and witty pamphlet entitled Observations upon a
late Libel (n.p., 1681).13 The latter pamphlet was advertised in the
Observator on 30 July 1681, along with Dryden's defense of Charles's
declaration, which L'Estrange had first noticed by title on 22 June in the
midst of his attack, on A Just and Modest Vindication. It seems, then, that
A Letter from a Person of Quality was published about the middle of
May, and that Dryden's answer to it was in print four or five weeks later.
The tenor of the argument of A Letter from a Person of Quality is that
the king's prerogatives must be curtailed and that the crown must submit
in all important matters to the judgment and will of the House of
Commons. The specific arguments as well as the whole intention of the
work caused Tories to label it a seditious and libelous piece of writing.
The pamphlet, a vigorous and characteristic piece of Whig apologetics,
expresses not for the first time Whig doctrines regarding the role of
Parliament in government, the nature of the monarchy, and the limits to
the prerogatives of the crown. It answers Charles's declaration point by
point, attacking the King indirectly through his supposed advisers,
assumed to be one and all subservient to the Duke of York and his minions
and hence to the interests of France and Roman Catholicism. The King is
presented as the witless and helpless creature of his ministers, all formi-
dable enemies of England and Protestantism, of which the Commons are
the loyal champions.14 The specious loyalty and tenderness toward Charles
mask a bold attack on the crown and on the King as a person, well
calculated to alienate the people from their sovereign.
The pamphlet attributes to the King's advisers the trickery of fre-
quently calling and dissolving parliaments so as to weary the gentry with
the expenses of elections and of futile trips to London, and thereby
eventually to get the power of governing into their own seditious hands.
Such a government, under the guidance of the Duke, the Queen, and the
"two French Dutchess's," would, according to the pamphleteer, serve the
interests of the Louvre and Rome. The author, a true Whig playing on
the fears aroused by the Popish Plot, charges the King's advisers with
hindering the discovery of the plot by having four parliaments dissolved,
by corrupting witnesses, and by advancing the idea of a Presbyterian plot
in place of a Catholic plot. The rights of Parliament on the one hand, and
the dangers from a court clique of Catholic absolutists on the other, are
the two principal grounds of his argument.
and to Ferguson in another. Both are likely candidates for authorship. A Just
and Modest Vindication was not answered until 1683, when Edmund Bohun
published his reflections on it.
"Halifax's pamphlet was reprinted and edited by Hugh Macdonald with
introduction and notes in 1940.
"L'Estrange, in answering "that Scandalous Letter," exclaims: "What a
Puppet does this Fellow make of Majesty? as if it were to move only upon
Wires" (Observator, i June 1681).
The "Person of Quality" is wholly a Parliament man, if "Parliament"

means the House of Commons. He states stubbornly and without qualifi-
cation (Letter, p. 2) that the ministers' "demands of Money for supporting
the Alliances, and Preservation of Tangier, was [sic] not to be complyed
with, till His Majesty was pleased to change the Hands and Councils,
by which his Affairs were Administered," because the French-Papist in-
terest at court would misappropriate the funds to the destruction of
government and religion in England.
On exclusion the pamphlet is equally firm. Although the King declares
that he will not agree to exclusion, the laws of nature and of nations, he
states, will free the English from allegiance to a popish successor. Such a
successor, in the view of the pamphleteer, must in the nature of things
alienate half his power to the pope and inevitably prove to be a brutal
tyrant. Only a Protestant succession can save limited monarchy and the
Established Church. The writer attacks the expedient, offered in the
Oxford Parliament, of a Protestant regency, which would leave a banished
James with the title of king but with none of the power, and advances
the extreme solution proffered by the Whigs in the House of Commons:
"exclude the Duke and all Popish Successors, and put down all those
Guards [i.e., the King's guard, detested by the extreme Whigs as being a
possible defense of the monarch against their ambitions] are now so
illegally kept up, and Banish the Papists" (Letter, p. 4). This solution,
he says rightly enough, would make the nation "unanimous." A bill of
exclusion would alter the structure of the government only so far as to
bring in new ministers and advisers satisfactory to the Commons.
As for the votes against some of the King's present ministers, the
writer asks truculently: "is it possible the King can expect supplies of
Men, Money, Hearts, and all which is due to the Father of the People"
if he employs ministers whom the Commons distrust? Then he states the
extreme Whig view of the nature and powers of a monarch (Letter,
pp. 5-6).
Besides the King is a publick person, in his private capac-
ity as a Man, he can only eat, and drink, and perform
some other Acts of nature; but all his actings without
himself are only as a King, and in his Politick capacity he
ought not to Marry, Love, Hate, make War Friendship
or Peace, but as a King and agreeable to the People, and
their Interest he governs. The wisest and greatest of
our Princes have always hearkned to the Addresses of
their People and have removed sometimes a great many
Persons at once in pursuance of them.
With the same conviction of parliamentary supremacy, the "Person of
Quality" defends the several addresses sent to the King by the last
Westminster House of Commons, to which Charles had taken exception
in his opening speech at Oxford; the numerous arrests of "abhorrers" of
petitioning by the sergeants at arms of the House of Commons; and the
votes against those who might lend the King money on his expected
revenues. He also upholds the House of Commons in its anger against
434 Commentary
the Lords for rejecting the impeachment of Fitzharris. He expresses the
Commons' irritation at Charles's habit o£ frequenting the debates of the
House of Lords and thus influencing the members' votes.
The writer denies that the Commons (i.e., the Whigs) are motivated
by "old beloved Common-wealth Principles," as the King had charged in
his declaration. Only the Papists, he declares, wish to alter the govern-
ment to either an absolute monarchy or a democracy, for both are
tyrannies, and "the Priest hates only truth and liberty." Annual parlia-
ments are required by law, and the "Kings Prerogative at what time of
the year and place, they should be called, and how long they should last,
is but subservient . . . to the great end and design of the Government,
and must be accommodated to it; or we are either denied or deluded of
that protection or justice we are born to" (Letter, p. 8). The last idea
was radical indeed, for it would deprive the king of the right to dissolve
parliaments, thus making for very long parliaments in the future.
In concluding, the "Person of Quality" almost drops his mask of
courtesy to and respect for the King in order to state the position of the
Whig-dominated parliaments of 1680 and 1681. To the King's promise of
frequent parliaments in his declaration, the pamphleteer replies (Letter,
p. 8) that
we have had many promises before, and they have been
all either broke or kept; if this be of the latter sort, we
shall see annual Parliaments sit until the necessary busi-
ness be dispatch'd; IB we shall have the reverend Pre-
lates, Lords Temporal, and Court Members, left free to
Vote and advise as they shall in their own reasons, and
Judgments think best, and not commanded before hand
how to Vote or turned out of their places if they do
other; . . . the King shall then be advised by his Parlia-
ment, and not his Parliament commanded what to advise
what not: We shall have no more Declarations against
his Parliament, read in Churches without lawful Author-
ity, for the publishing or color of reason for the com-
plaint; but we shall be happy and the King be himself.
Although in 1681 such sentiments were seditious to a Tory, within eight
years they would be among the commonplaces of the political settlement
that followed the abdication of James II. The ideas survived in the minds
and hearts of the scattered and disorganized Whigs to reappear trium-
phantly after the Revolution. Meanwhile Charles, to the end of his
reign, was free to govern without Parliament.
Dryden's defense of the King's declaration is written with spirit. It
states the Tory position with logic and clarity, and from Dryden's im-
mediately subsequent writings it is clear that it expresses many of his
15
In the Whigs' desire for parliaments to sit until all grievances were re-
dressed, the Tories saw a hunger for the tyranny of the Long Parliament of the
interregnum; grievances are always at hand or can be invented, thus prolonging
indefinitely the life of any parliament.
own mature political convictions. The method that Dryden uses is similar
to the method he employed in the controversy with Elkanah Settle over
The Empress of Morocco and later used again in the debate with Thomas
Hunt over The Vindication of The Duke of Guise: he quotes or para-
phrases passages from his adversary, printing them in italics and answer-
ing them with banter, caviling, and quibbling over false grammar, with
irony, logical analysis, and sober argument. Dryden follows the King
in seeing the entire Whig cause as one motivated by frustrated ambition
and by love of Commonwealth principles. While denigrating the King's
enemies, Dryden is at pains with both argument and insinuation to con-
vince his readers of Charles's mildness and of the intransigence of the
Commons in seeking to make their will supreme. The Commons are pre-
sented as desirous of grasping arbitrary power—which they fear in the
monarch—in their own hands. Dryden's lively mind is quick with argu-
ments that counter A Letter from a Person of Quality, In short, inventive-
ness, nimbleness of argument, and steady Tory principles reveal, in the
author of His Majesties Declaration Defended, the poet of Absalom and
Achitophel.
P. 195:1. 19. deceas'd Judas. Andrew Marvell. See Acts, i, 23-26.

196:12 late Petition from the City. According to Narcissus Luttrell (I,
84, 87-88), the Common Council of the City of London drew up on 13
May 1681 a petition for a meeting of Parliament. When it was presented
to the King in Council on the igth, the Lord Mayor, the sheriffs, and the
aldermen were severely rebuked by the Lord Chancellor (see The Humble
Petition and Address of the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, Aldermen
and Commons of the City of London in Common-Council Assembled
[1681]).
196:25 Addresses of Southwark. After publication of His Majesties
Declaration, numerous loyal addresses of thanks were sent to Charles from
towns, boroughs, and corporations all over England (for a selection of
these addresses see [John Oldmixon], The History of Addresses [1709]).
On 19 May, when the City's petition was giving grave offense, the Lord
Mayor also presented a loyal address from the borough of Southwark
(Luttrell, I, 87). These addresses, which plainly revealed the shift in
popular feeling from the Whigs to the court, were violently attacked in
An Impartial Account of the Nature and Tendency of the Late Addresses
(1681).
196:28 Ratts and Mice. Roswell G. Ham ("Dryden as Historiographer-
Royal: The Authorship of His Majesties Declaration Defended, 1681,"
RES, XI [1935], 291) points out that this reference to a children's game is
repeated in The Vindication of The Duke of Guise (1683).
198:1 experiments. Experiences (OED).
199:7 Leviathan. The reference is to Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan.
199:12 Conventicles. A conventicle is a meeting for the exercise of
religion otherwise than as sanctioned by the law (OED).
199:21-22 Duke of Venice. Dryden had recently read the republican
426 Commentary
Henry Neville's Plato Redivivus (1681), which in several passages praises
the wisdom of the Venetian republic in severely limiting the power of
the doge.
199:29 quatenus. In the quality or capacity of (OED).
199:31 Island of Barataria. See Don Quixote, Pt. II, ch. xlvii.
200:1 Militia. In Parliament, as well as in their writings, the Whigs often
expressed jealousy of the King's control of the militia.
200:2 moneths mind. Inclination (OED).
201:15-16 Tangier. On opening his fourth and last Westminster Parlia-
ment, Charles asked for parliamentary support of his alliances with Spain
and Holland and for funds to supply and strengthen Tangier, the African
port that had come to England as part of the dowry of Catherine of
Braganza. Charles abandoned the port in 1683.
201:30 Watt Tyler, and Jack Cade. Wat Tyler led the Peasants' Revolt
of 1381; Jack Cade was leader of the bloody rebellion of Kentish men
in 1450 against the extortions practiced by Henry VI's officers.
202:3 Tripple League. Dryden refers to the notorious Cabal, composed
of Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley (later Shaftesbury), and
Lauderdale. Shaftesbury was instrumental in breaking up the Triple
Alliance of England, Holland, and Sweden. Charles then allied himself
with Louis XIV and declared war on Holland in 1672. Dryden correctly
held that these intrigues had increased the power of France.
202:11 Chymistry. Alchemy.
202:13 juggle. An act of deception, an imposture (OED).
202:25-26 the two French Dutchcsscs. Louise Rene'e de Ke'roualle,
Duchess of Portsmouth, and Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin, both
mistresses of Charles. The giddy wildness of the Duchess of Mazarin was
notorious.
202:35-36 her Lodgings are remembred. Gilbert Burnet amply docu-
ments the support the Duchess of Portsmouth gave to exclusion and to
the cause of Monmouth (History of My Own Time, cd. Osmond Airy
[1897-1900], II, 266-268).
203:16-17 one who loves a Woman. Evidently George Villiers, Duke of
Buckingham, the Zimri of Absalom, 11. 544-568.
204:28 meal-mouth''d. Soft-spoken (OED).
205:3 Plato Redivivus. See 199:2i-22n.
206:18 Habeas Corpus. The Habeas Corpus Act, for which Shaftesbury
was largely responsible, was passed in 1679 when one of the tellers, as a
joke, counted a fat lord as ten instead of one (Burnet, History, ed. Airy,
II, 263-264).
207:25 a state of War. The reference is to Hobbes's Leviathan, I, xiii.
207:29 Coleman's. Edward Coleinan, a convert to Rome, was at one
time secretary to the Duke of York and later to the Duchess of York. His
correspondence (discovered in 1678) with Pere la Chaise, confessor of
Louis XIV, discussing the likelihood of reestablishing Roman Catholicism
in England, helped prove to the nation the reality of the Popish Plot.
207:33 Presbyterians. In 1679 Thomas Dangerfield claimed to have
discovered a Whig or Presbyterian plot, the false evidence of which was
found concealed in a meal tub belonging to the Catholic midwife, Mrs.
Celier. Dangerfield later charged that the plot was actually contrived by
prominent Catholics and that the papers discovered were to have been
planted on various eminent Whigs. (See Sir John Pollock, The Popish
Plot [1944], pp. 204-213.) Quite aside from Dangerfield's spurious plotting,
the conduct of Shaftesbury and the Whigs lent credence to the notion
that a republican and Presbyterian plot was afoot.
208:13 Votes. See headnote, p. 420 above.
208:12 Lord Stafford. Viscount Stafford, one of the five Catholic lords
imprisoned in the Tower on the false testimony of Titus Oates and Stephen
Dugdale, was tried for high treason before the House of Lords and be-
headed in 1680.
209:8 a Save-all. A contrivance to hold a candle end in a candlestick
so that it can burn all the way to the end (OED).
209:26-28 Dangerfield's Plot . . . Mr. Ray. For Dangerfield, see 207:gsn.
Captain Ely is mentioned by Luttrell (I, 76) as "quartermaster Ely, a
grand agent in the popish plott in Ireland." Simpson Tonge was the son
of Israel Tonge, who, with Titus Oates, had "invented" the Popish Plot.
Simpson was jailed in 1680 for having declared that the plot was fabri-
cated by his father and Oates, but he changed his evidence and swore
that Sir Roger L'Estrange had bribed him to make the accusation. Captain
David Fitzgerard is said by Luttrell (I, 89) to be one of the witnesses
brought over from Ireland. Luttrell also mentions (I, 101) "one Ray,
a notorious villain about town," who, with Edward Fitzharris, falsely
charged Lord Howard of Escrick with high treason.
209:31 Garnish. Money extorted from a new prisoner, either as the
jailer's fee or as drink money for other prisoners (OED).
212:7 High Shooes. A "high-shoe" was a rustic or countryman (OED).
212:13 Dividend. Anything to be divided among a number of people
(OED).
212:21 arbitrary Monarchy. For Neville's arguments against giving the
throne to Monmouth, see Plato Redivivus, pp. 202-207.
212:23 Gentleman since deceased. Presumably Sir Thomas Littleton,
who died in 1681. The Oxford Parliament of 1681 debated exclusion on
26 March. As an expedient that would satisfy Charles, Sir John Ernly
proposed the establishment of a Protestant regency to govern during the
life of James II. Littleton, taking up the hint, argued for banishing James
and putting the regency into the hands of James's Protestant daughter,
Mary, Princess of Orange. Thus James would be king in title only.
(Debates of the House of Commons . . . Collected by the Honourable
Anchitell Grey [1763], VIII, 315-320.)
212:36 barrenness of his Country. An insinuation that the writer of
A Letter from a Person of Quality was a Scot, consequently a Presby-
terian, and therefore an adherent of the Good Old Cause.
213:9-10 Protestants in Masquerade. I.e., all high church Anglicans.
213:15 four hundred pounds per annum. There is no record of MarvelPs
having enjoyed a pension of 400 pounds, although Aubrey recalls that
the borough of Hull "gave him an honourable pension to maintain him."
He seems to have been paid 6s. 8d. a day as M.P. for Hull.
213:22 as the Ape did her young one. An allusion to Aesop's fable,
428 Commentary
"The Ape and her two Brats" (Sir Roger L'Estrange, Fables of Aesop
[1692], p. 215, Fable CCXLVIII).
214:16 Pramunire. Predicament (OED).
214:24 Knights of the Shire. Members of Parliament.
214:31 second. Physicians recognized three digestions or concoctions:
the first, in the stomach and intestines; the second, when the chyme so
formed passes into the blood; the third, secretion.
215:11 Topham. As petitions for the summoning of Parliament poured
in upon the King, the Tories began to send in addresses "abhorring"
petitioning. During the sittings of Parliament in 1679 and 1680, many of
the abhorrers were ordered into the custody of the sergeant at arms of
the House of Commons. Roger North (in Examen [1740], II, 561-562)
writes: "The Searjeant's Name was Topham, and the much Work he had
upon his Hands, at this Time, ad terrorem populi Regis, had made it
proverbial, on all Discourse of peremptory Commitments, to say take him
Topham. . . . Whatever the Commitments were, the Dread was almost
universal; for after the Vote, that traducing Petitioning should be pun-
ished as a Breach of Privilege, who could say his Liberty was his own?
For, being named in the House for an Abhorrer, take him Topham."
217:14-15 Enthusiasm. Inspiration.
218:1 in Scotland. Charles was in Scotland from midsummer of 1650
until he led his army into England and to defeat at Worcester on 3
September 1651. Although crowned king of Scotland, Charles was allowed
little or no freedom of action by the Covenanters and the Duke of
Argyll. He often recalled the tyrannical religious discipline to which he
was forced to submit. Ham ("Dryden as Historiographer-Royal," p. 297)
points out that a briefer allusion to Charles's misery while in the power
of the Scottish Presbyterians is to be found in Dryden's postscript to
The History of the League.
218:5 Mr. John. The clergyman.
218:34-35 Crescent in their Arms. Expressed somewhat awkwardly.
Dryden seems to be comparing the House of Commons with the Turks,
enemies of Christendom, whose flag showed a crescent moon as a symbol
of increasing power and empire.
219:2 Chrislmass Box. A box in which apprentices collected money at
Christmas (OED).
219:11 well manag'd. The Treasury was in the competent hands of
Laurence Hyde, later Earl of Rochester. One of the last acts of the House
of Commons during the Oxford Parliament was to call for his removal.
219:20 of our Ancestors. The author of A Letter from a Person of
Quality charged (p. 6) that the bankers lent Charles money at the
usurious rate of 20 or 25 percent. He also complained that the King no
longer set up tables at which all visitors at court could be fed.
219:29 I will not apply. On Friday, 7 January 1680/1, the Commons
resolved that anyone who advanced loans on the King's revenues or in
any way anticipated such revenues should be "adjudged to hinder the
Sittings of Parliament."
219:31 Penal Laws. In His Majesties Declaration Charles referred
Plutarchs Lives 429
directly to the vote of the Commons on 10 January 1680/1 against the

persecution of Dissenters as being ''a weakening of the Protestant In-
terest, an Encouragement to Popery, and Dangerous to the Peace of the
Kingdom." With a Roman Catholic monarch a possibility, the Whigs
were eager to gain the support of the sects in order to unite all English
Protestants.
230:7 An intended Bill for uniting. This pamphlet remains unidentified.
220:25 Fitz-Harris. One reason Charles gave for the abrupt dissolution
of the Oxford Parliament was the anger generated in the Commons by
the refusal of the Lords to act on the Commons' impeachment for high
treason of Edward Fitzharris, an Irish Roman Catholic. Fitzharris, who
had written a pamphlet, probably designed to be planted on some
Protestant, which advocated the deposition of Charles and the exclusion
of James, was betrayed by an accomplice. Charles removed him from
Newgate to the Tower, presumably to keep him out of the hands of the
Commons, for Fitzharris seems to have been aware of certain intrigues,
knowledge of which could have been damaging to the court. He was
eventually tried before the King's Bench, found guilty of high treason,
and executed in 1681.
221:9 President. Precedent.
222:23 Terms. Periods appointed for the sitting of certain courts of
law (OED).
224:12 know the Proverb. Perhaps Dryden refers to the proverb found
in John Ray's A Collection of English Proverbs (published anonymously
in 1670) and elsewhere: "Angry men seldom want woe."
224:37 Compurgator. One who vouches for, or clears from, any charge
(OED).
225:2 Democracy. For Dryden this word always connotes mob rule.
225:11 before the Ark. II Samuel, vi, 14-16.
225:12 Esop's Ass stands ready Sadled. Dryden seems to refer to Fable
XXIV, "Of the Dog and the Asse" (John Ogilby, The Fables of Aesop
Paraphras'd in Verse [1651]). An ass, seeing how the dog wins his master's
affection and favor by frisking and fawning, attempts to use the same
means to gain an easier life. He is beaten for his pains.
225:31 Covenant. "The name given to certain bonds of agreement
signed by the Scottish Presbyterians for the defence and furtherance
of their religion and ecclesiastical polity. The National Covenant was
signed at Edinburgh on 28 Feb. 1638" (OED).

Dryden's Life of Plutarch is the preface to Plutarchs Lives. Translated
from the Greek by Several Hands, which was entered in the Stationers'
Register 25 April 1683 and advertised in the Observator on a May and in
the London Gazette from 30 April to 3 May. This translation of the
Lives has always been called "Dryden's," even though Dryden contributed
430 Commentary
nothing beyond the preface and the dedicatory epistle to the Duke of
Ormonde.
Unknown still are the exact circumstances that led to the translation
and to Dryden's preface. Until more facts appear we must accept the
account given in the advertisement, "The Publisher to the Reader,"
ostensibly written by Jacob Tonson, the bookseller, but—as Malone,
sensitive to Dryden's prose, divines a —very probably composed by Dryden
himself.2 Judging from this advertisement, Tonson seems to have seen a
market for a new translation of Plutarch's Lives and to have rounded up
some forty translators to provide it.3 The translation was to be made
directly from the original Greek, rather than secondhand from the
French of Jacques Amyot, as Sir Thomas North had done in the only
other English translation (1579). The first volume, which included the
advertisement, the dedication to the Duke of Ormonde, and The Life of
Plutarch, appeared in 1683, four other volumes following between then
and 1686.
Criticism of The Life of Plutarch has ranged from censure to praise,
but for the most part it has been unfavorable, refusing to consider the
essay significant. Since the eighteenth century Dryden's remark—"I read
Plutarch in the Library of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge, (to which
foundation I gratefully acknowledge a great part of my Education;)"
(269:26-29)—has repeatedly prompted the comment that his essay has the
value of affording, if nothing else, an illuminating glimpse into his educa-
tion.4 Since the Scott-Saintsbury edition, moreover, The Life of Plutarch
has not been reprinted in full in Dryden collections.0 Through the years
1
Malone, II, 424.
""The Publisher to the Reader" follows Dryden's dedicatory epistle to
Ormonde and precedes the table o£ contents, Dryden's Life of Plutarch, and
the Lives.
3
The translators are listed in Tonson's volumes as R. Duke, James Smalwood
[or Smallwood], Knightly Chetwood, Paul Rycaut, Thomas Creech, Mr. Dodswell,
Edward Brown, Mich. Payne [or Pain], Adam Littleton, John Caryl [or Carryl],
Joseph Arrowsmith, Thomas Blomer, Walter Charlton, John Cooper, John
Lytcott, Thomas Short, Charles Whitaker, William Croune, Miles Stapleton,
William Leman, William Davies, Mat. Morgon, Giles Thornburgh, Thomas
Rymer, Mr. Amhurst, Wai. Needham, William Oldys, Mr. Evelyn, Thomas
Allen, Ph. Fowke, Sir Robert Thorold, John Warren, John Nalson, Charles
Frazer, Tho. Fuller, John Bateman, Mr. Oakley, Robert Uvedale, Andrew Taylor,
and Tho. Beaumont. (No translator is listed for The Life of Alcibiades, but
Malone [II, 331-3320] attributes the translation to "Mr. Somers, afterwards Lord
Somers, . . . though his name is not prefixed to it.")
'BH, I, 333; A. W. Vcrrall, Lectures on Dryden (1963; first publ., 1914), pp.
13-14; James M. Osborn, John Dryden: Some Biographical Facts and Problems
(2d ed., 1965), p. 61. For Professor Verrall (Lectures, p. 24) even this glimpse
"proves nothing as to his scholarship in Greek." Dr. Johnson tends, furthermore,
to pass off all of Dryden's Life of Plutarch as publicity to promote the sales of
the Plutarch translation (BH, I, 372).
"Watson (II, 1-13) includes some excerpts.
Plutarchs Lives 431
Dryden's judgment and method in the work have incurred rebuke,6 but
recently, in sharp contrast, the essay has been hailed for its literary criti-
cism, its assessment of Plutarch, its contribution to historiography, and its
prose style.7 Between the extreme positions, other critics have assumed
neutrality, either alluding noncommittally to Dryden's essay 8 or balancing
defect and merit. 9
The judgments on Dryden's essay by those critics, few in number, who
were aware that he borrowed material for his Life of Plutarch are sig-
nificant, since the borrowings and the use Dryden made of them provide
the only basis for a precise judgment of the work.10 For what, on the
other hand, can we finally make of such claims as that Dryden was
"original" in giving us "the first deliberate examination in English of an
author's prose style" n when we discover that he took the passage on
Plutarch's prose style (277:34-279:11), including the tree simile, from
Rualdus,12 one of his chief sources?
No one can accuse Dryden of failing to acknowledge sources: he alludes
to them no less than thirty-five times. Sometimes he acknowledges them
generally as "several Authors" (257:6), as those "who have written the Life
of Plutarch in other languages" (250:35-251:1), or as "other Writers"
(259:12) on Plutarch, "modern Authorfs], whom I follow" (264:6), and the
"best Authors" (267:24). He also identifies specific sources such as Suidas,
Pausanias, Gerhard Johannes Vossius, Xylander, Theodoret, Guillaume
Bude1 (Budaeus), Montaigne, Saint-fivremond, Teodoro Gaza, Agathias,
and Plutarch himself. One source above all others Dryden acknowledges
early, continuously, and emphatically: "the most accurate" (241:3), "the
'Plutarch's Lives, Translated from the Original Greek: With Notes Critical
and Historical and a Life of Plutarch, trans. John and William Langhorne (1853;
first publ., 1770), p. vi; Richard Chenevix Trench, Plutarch: His Life, His
Parallel Lives, and His Morals. Five Lectures (1874), pp. 63-64; Noyes, p. Hi.
'David Nichol Smith, John Dryden (1950), pp. 2, 84; Ward, Life, pp. 196-198.
"Sir Walter Scott, The Life of John Dryden, ed. Bernard Kreissman (1963;
first publ., 1834), pp. 248-249.
"Plutarch's Lives. The Translation Called Dryden's. Corrected from the Greek
and Revised by A. H. dough (1859), I, xxii; see also pp. xxi, xxiii, xxiv-xxviii.
As the title indicates, dough undertook a revision of the translation of
Plutarch's Lives for which Dryden had written The Life of Plutarch. See also
Watson, II, i.
M
Clough (I, xxii), Ward (Life, p. 196), and Watson (II, i), though knowing
that Dryden had borrowed material for his Life of Plutarch, do not identify
the precise sources or comment on the extent and the significance of his
borrowings.
11
Watson, II, i; Smith, John Dryden, p. 84.
"Rualdus (or Joannes Rualdus or Jean Ruault) was a French scholar, widely
read and of immense erudition, born at Coutances about 1570 (according to
Nouvelle Biographie Gdndrale) or 1580 (according to Biographic Universelle
Ancienne el Moderns}. He mastered Latin and Greek, taught in the universities
at Rouen and Paris, and was twice rector of the University of Paris. He died in
Paris in 1636.
432 Commentary
most knowing" (254:28-29) Rualdus. Dryden defers to Rualdus repeatedly

and rests content when he can conclude his discussion of a controversial
point with "as Rualdus thinks" (262:12-13), "Rualdus indeed has Col-
lected ample Testimonies" (387:11), or "Rualdus has ingeniously gather'd"
(257:12-13).
Rualdus, indeed, seems to loom as Dryden's chief authority, particularly
when one discovers that a majority of the sources just listed—specifically
Suidas, Xylander, Theodoret, Bud6, Gaza, and Agathias—are cited by
Rualdus himself. In 1624 Rualdus brought out in Paris the massive edition
of Plutarch's works which Dryden used, two volumes in Latin and Greek.13
A preface of some two hundred pages includes the entry on Plutarch
from the Suidas lexicon, Xylander's life of Plutarch, the Lamprias cata-
logue, commentary by Hermannus Cruserius (i5io-'575) and Phillipus
Jacobus de Maussac (c. 1590-1650), Rualdus' own life of Plutarch—
Vita Plutarchi Chaeronensis (some sixty-five pages)—and his Animad-
versiones (some eighty pages).
While Rualdus is a major source for Dryden's Life of Plutarch, a sec-
ond source, not acknowledged so directly, supplied Dryden with virtually
as much information: a life of Plutarch compiled by one S. G. S.u To
his editions of Amyot's French translation of Plutarch's Lives, S. G. S.
added more lives and comparisons (none of them by Plutarch),18 in-
cluding a life of Plutarch himself. The third edition of North's English
translation of Plutarch's Lives, which appeared in i6o3,18 took over the
S. G. S. additions to Amyot, including the life of Plutarch,17 and the
editions of 1631, 1657, anc' '676 retained everything.
™ Plutarchi Chaeronensis Omnium Qtiae Exstant Operum . . , (Paris, 1624).

" Simon Goulart or Goulard, or Simon Goulart Senlisien (1543-1628), born
at Senlis, was a French Protestant theologian, a poet, and a prolific translator,
annotator, and compiler.
15
For a general picture of S. G. S.'s additions to Amyot, see George Wyndham,
"North's Plutarch," in Essays in Romantic Literature (1919), pp. 135-136; and
The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romanes . . . (1928), VIII, 370-371. See
also "Simon Goulart" in Memoires Pour Servir a I'Histoire des Hommes Illustres
dans la Republique des Lettres . . . (Paris, 1734), XXIX, 363-374.
M
Sir Thomas North's English translation of Plutarch's Lives first appeared in
1579. Amyot's French translation first appeared in 1559; a second edition came
out in 1565, and a third in 1567. North probably used the third edition for his
translation. (See Plutarch's Lives [1928], VIII, 371.) For an account of Amyot's
translation of Plutarch's Lives, see Rene Sturel, Jacques Amyot: Traducteur des
Vies Paralleles de Plutarque (1908), passim. For a discussion of Amyot, North,
and other English translations of Plutarch's Lives, see R. H. Barrow, Plutarch
and His Times (1967), pp. 162-172.
"The letter of dedication to Queen Elizabeth suggests that Sir Thomas
North, who died about 1601, translated the additional lives. S. G. S.'s responsi-
bility for the life of Plutarch which North translated and which Dryden followed
is unmistakable. According to the title page of Amyot's translation of Plutarch's
Lives (see Les Vies), the life of Plutarch and the other additional lives were
drawn from good authors and arranged by S. G. S. (see Auguste de Blignieres,
Essai sur Amyot [Paris, 1851], pp. 183, 184 and nn. x, 3). The title page com-
Plutarchs Lives 433
Dryden never mentions S. G. S., not even on the two occasions when
he comments on North's and Amyot's translations of Plutarch's Lives.18
Indeed, whether he read either of these versions is not perfectly clear.
Yet when Dryden refers at one point to "the French Author of his
[Plutarch's] Life," he very likely means S. G. S. (see 265:7^. Whether this
remark is an acknowledgment or not, our notes identifying all the
parallels between the two writers demonstrate Dryden's indebtedness to
S. G. S.i»
Rualdus and S. G. S., then, constitute Dryden's two major sources. His
method of following and sometimes of splicing them makes for illogical
organization, but the way in which he gives compelling direction to each
borrowing, joins all the borrowings, and imparts to the whole a lucidity
and inexorable momentum results in a finally satisfying form that testifies
to his consummate mastery of prose.
There is no blinking the inconsequentiality of the organization. Be-
ginning with the second paragraph of the essay (239:28) and ending some
pages later with the words "his Guardian Angel" (257:4), Dryden, with
supplements from Rualdus, in the main follows S. G. S. At that point
Dryden abruptly drops S. G. S. and follows Rualdus almost exclusively
until he reaches the paragraph ending with "afterwards produc'd by her"
(279:10-11). For a number of pages thereafter he uses Montaigne and
Saint-Evremond and then returns for the rest of the essay (pp. 287-288)
to Rualdus. The structure of the essay is determined, not by a compre-
hensive rhetorical intention that decrees a function for each detail, but
by the accident of the sequence of details, first in S. G. S. and then in
Rualdus. As a consequence, there are elementary faults in organization.
For example, between two different discussions of Plutarch's family (pp.
242-243, 257-259) intervene such topics as his schooling under Am-
monius, his philosophy, and his religion.20 Moreover, Dryden deals in one
posed especially for North's translation of the additional S. G. S. material ex-

plains that S. G. S. "added [the life] of Plutarch" and that he "Gathered . . . ,
Disposed, and Enriched [it] as the others" that he added (see North 1676, p. 913).
"In the dedication Dryden alludes to North, questioning the worth of his
translation (p. za8); in the essay itself he alludes to Amyot, charging him with
faults (pp. 257-258).
"Whether Dryden followed S. G. S. in French or in English is an open
question, but the logic behind his disapproval of Amyot and of North—increas-
ing faultiness in their translations as they receded from the original Greek—
suggests that he might have translated S. G. S. rather than paraphrased North.
North always translates S. G. S. closely, following him word for word and
sentence element for sentence element. Dryden, on the other hand, whether
he is translating S. G. S. or paraphrasing North's translation of S. G. S., frees
himself to shape his own prose, as seen in the comparisons of North and
Dryden passages in the annotations below. In Les Vies, S. G. S.'s life of Plutarch
in French extends from page 762 [767] to page 780.
"It is arguable that the focus differs in the two discussions of Plutarch's
family: in the first it is on the family from which Plutarch came; in the second
it is on the family whose father he was.
434 Commentary
place (pp. 268-270) with some of Plutarch's lapses and later on (pp. 279-
283), with more of them.21
Dryden's Life of Plutarch, however, achieves a design and commands
attention by means other than the sequence of items. First, although he
has been "forc'd to collect [his material] by patches from several Authors"
(257:6), Dryden nonetheless has exercised choice in his use of S. G. S. and
Rualdus. His own essay is less than half as long as Rualdus' Vita Plutarchi
Chaeronensis (to say nothing of the other material in Rualdus' edition
which Dryden drew upon); it is considerably shorter than S. G. S.'s life
of Plutarch; and it is less than a third the length of S. G. S. and Rualdus
combined. Attentive reading shows that Dryden has been purposefully
selective. Each paragraph and each section of his biographical essay makes
a point, interestingly and inexorably. Thus Dryden does not simply give
perfunctory details about Plutarch's birthplace, Chaeronea, but impresses
on his reader (p. 240) that this unattractive and unpromising place has
produced four great men: Pindar, Epaminondas, Sextus Chaeronensis, and
Plutarch. Again, in discussing Plutarch's family (pp. 242-243) Dryden does
not aimlessly list his immediate ancestors—great-grandfather, grandfather,
father—and his brothers, but by emphasizing that the family had been
prominent in politics, steeped in philosophy, tightly knit, and affectionate,
he sharpens the sense given by the essay as a whole of the magnificent
breadth and depth of Plutarch's mind and spirit. All the arguments that
Dryden uses are in his sources, but by condensing them and focusing
directly on his purpose he presents them with compelling force.
Second, Dryden is absolute master of the art of transition. With seeming
artlessness he links topics that, on detached consideration, are found to
exist in a random rather than in a reasoned rhetorical relationship. He
does not hesitate to juxtapose two points from one segment of a source,
even though he does not subscribe to or wish to reproduce the whole
pattern of that segment. Thus he moves easily, by means of a series of
dependent clauses (p. 243), from a portrait of Plutarch's affectionate,
lively family—specifically from a sharply etched description of Plutarch's
youngest brother, mischievous and wonderfully companionable—to a
discussion of Plutarch's education under Ammonius. Each clause lifts the
unsuspecting reader from one absorbing little resting spot to another
until the transition is made. Nothing but a vague, tenuous chronology
is the rationale behind the juxtaposition of the two points, but Dryden
succeeds without violating good sense. If it had no other purpose, Dry-
den's Life of Plutarch might \vell serve as a textbook on the subtle and,
for literary masterpieces, essential art of transition. Not the least trium-
phant transition is the sentence that links the two parts of the essay,
which can be regarded as separate parts only in the sense that the first
relies heavily on S. G. S. and the second on Rualdus. Here (257:5-8)
disarming candor immobilizes all possible objections: "I pretend not to
"Dryden distinguishes, it is true, between the former as excusable inad-

vertences and the latter as unwarranted charges against Plutarch.
Plutarchs Lives 435
an exactness of method in this Life, which I am forc'd to collect by

patches from several Authors; and therefore without much regard to the
connection of times which are so uncertain."
Third, Drydcn enlivens his borrowed material through digressions,
like the one concerning French disdain for the English language, a thought
prompted by Greek contempt for Latin (p. 246), or the one revealing the
inspiration behind Hobbes's skepticism (p. 258). Each of these topics was
burningly contemporary. Through such linkage of past and present, the
entire essay became immediately meaningful to readers of Dryden's day.
Fourth, in recasting his sources, Dryden gives amplitude to his Life of
Plutarch. Introduced by the self-possessed march of ten of the commonest
English monosyllables—"I know not by what Fate it comes to pass"—the
very first sentence instantly lifts the reader into spacious contemplation.
The first word evokes the greatest argument of classical oratory, the ar-
gument from character; the word "Fate" suddenly pushes thought to the
outer reaches of speculation; and the words "it comes to pass" echo the
simple truth and inevitability of the King James Bible. In the rest of the
sentence a moving paradox begins a stately particularization of the topic
of the essay: "I know not by what Fate it comes to pass, that Historians,
who give immortality to others, are so ill requited by Posterity, that their
Actions and their Fortunes are usually forgotten; neither themselves in-
courag'd, while they live, nor their memory preserv'd entire to future
Ages." To what in other hands might have remained an aimless com-
pilation of commentaries Dryden has given vigorous statement and mag-
nificent conception.
Finally, The Life of Plutarch, after all is said, is not a forlorn and
embarrassing patchwork, but an engaging, spirited, and resilient preface
written according to a principle that accommodated Dryden's spacious and
nimble intelligence, a principle that he was to set down seventeen years
later in his preface to Fables Ancient and Modern (1700). There he char-
acterized a preface as "rambling; never wholly out of the Way, nor in
it"; 22 that is, he demanded the freedom to press issues in the way that an
exploring mind, changing its vantage point with time and thought, finds
them. Underlying his view of the preface as a form was a psychologically
realistic conception of the way ihe human mind—wandering here and
there, forward -and back, as interest, leads it—ends with perception and
detailed understanding. The Life of Plutarch early exemplified such a
preface. Seemingly at first glance a gross appropriation of sources, it was
really a transmutation of those sources into a cumulatively illuminating
and supple preface directed to the Restoration readers of the newest
translation of Plutarch's Lives.
Just as one can respond to The Life of Plutarch as the product of
John Dryden's intellectual and artistic forces, so too can one perceive,
despite constant derivativeness, certain ideas that interested the author
in 1683. Paramount among them are some of Dryden's thoughts about
"Sig. Bit>; Watson, II, 278.
436 Commentary
history. The Life of Plutarch alone cannot, of course, be taken as a

definition of Dryden's total view of history. One of his works, The Char-
acter of Polybius (1693), deals directly with history; others from all
periods of his career contain explicit and implicit observations about
history. To draw all relevant comments together and derive from them
his view of history is beyond the scope of this commentary, but The Life
of Plutarch reveals what Dryden at this time thought about history, con-
sidered both as a view of human destiny and as a form of writing.
The first indication of the former is a slight bit of evidence suggesting
that Dryden at this time regarded accident as negligible to a thoughtful
man bent on shaping events (271:5-9): although "a wise Man," he says,
"cannot foresee accidents, or all things that possibly can come, he may
apply examples, and by them foretell, that from the like Counsels will
probably succeed the like events." Second, Dryden reveals the attitude
that he held until about 1687 or 1688 toward Providence. Putting it with
unknowable first causes, like Bacon, he soberly respected a mysterious
Providence and even forbade "disclaiming the Almighty Providence"
(272:33) in history, but he was really concerned with "humane causes,"
which he scrutinized intently (271:3-6): "God, tis true with his divine
Providence, over-rules and guides all actions to the secret end he has
ordain'd them; but in the way of humane causes, a wise Man may easily
discern, that there is a natural connection betwixt them." 23 Third, and
most dramatic, is Dryden's denial of progress in his own time. The evi-
dence suggests that in the i66o's and early 1670*5 he had acknowledged
M
Cf. the dedication o£ The Duke of Guise (1683, sig. Azv; S-S, VII, 15) where
Dryden expresses gratitude for "the merciful Providence of God" but is quick
to notice other, human factors contributing to a more felicitous political situa-
tion: the ebbing of the Monmouth faction's "Tyde of Popularity," the return of
"the natural Current of Obedience," the "unshaken Resolution, and prudent
Carriage of the King, and the inviolable Duty, and manifest Innocence of his
Royal Highness," and the "prudent Management of the Ministers." Dryden does
proclaim, of course, that God works through second causes—"We are to trust
firmly in the Deity, but so as not to forget that he commonly works by second
causes, and admits of our endeavours with his concurrence" (1683, sig. Ay, S-S,
VII, 16)—but he slides out of the reverential mood ever so quietly to return to
the world of contest and tension so familiar to him. From about 1688 on, Dryden
seems to have accorded more than lip service to Providence. In The Life of
St. Francis Xavier (1688, p. 406; S-S, XVI, 292), which, although a translation,
doubtless reflects some of Dryden's religious temper, occurs the statement: "the
Designs of Men, and Power of Devils, can do nothing against the Decrees of
Providence." In the dedication of the same work to James's queen, Mary of
Este and Modena, Dryden remarks that the "ways of Divine Providence are
incomprehensible, and we know not in what times, or by what methods, God
will restore his Church in England" (1688, sig. A4; S-S, XVI, 4). In The Char-
acter of Polybius (1693, sig. D2; S-S, XVIII, 47), Dryden, refuting Casaubon for
attributing to Polybius a belief in Providence, asserts that the historian did not
believe "with us Christians, [that] God administei'd all humane Actions and
Affairs."
Plutarchs Lives 437
progress24 but that in the late 1670*3 he questioned its likelihood.26 In

1683, unless his scornful deploring of contemporary achievement was no
more than a device to praise Plutarch, he totally denied the possibility of
progress in this world. Perhaps a Christian pessimism about the cumulative
effects of the Fall on man's character, dejection over the present, and
admiration for the ancients which was revived by his composition of
The Life of Plutarch overcame his belief in progress. At any rate, in
powerful periods that roll over the reader like tidal waves, he put into
the dedication one of the most fervent manifestos in English literature for
believers in a golden age of the past and one of the most magnificent
admissions of individual and corporate inferiority in his contemporary
world (227:12-228:10):
Though Religion has inform'd us better of our Ori-
gine, yet it appears plainly, that not only the Bodies,
but the Souls of Men, have decreas'd from the vigour
of the first Ages; that we are not more short of the
stature and strength of those gygantick Heroes, than we
are of their understanding, and their wit. To let pass
those happy Patriarchs, who were striplings at fourscore,
and had afterwards seven or eight hundred years before
them to beget Sons and Daughters; and to consider Man
in reference only to his mind, and that no higher than
the Age of Socrates: How vast a difference is there be-
twixt the productions of those Souls, and these of oursl
How much better Plato, Aristotle, and the rest of the
Philosophers understood nature; Thucydides, and Hero-
dotus adorn'd History; Sophocles, Euripides and Menan-
der advanc'd Poetry, than those Dwarfs of Wit and
Learning who succeeded them in after timesl That Age
was most Famous amongst the Greeks, which ended with
the death of Alexander; amongst the Romans Learning
seem'd again to revive and flourish in the Century
"See, e.g., To My Honored Friend, Dr. Charleton (Works, I, 43), where Dryden
applauds the corrective scholarship of his contemporary, Dr. Charleton, the
triumph of Baconian science and the Royal Society over medieval scholasticism
employing a formalized Aristotle, and English genius manifesting itself in
natural science and in the arts of government of the restored monarchy; and
Defence of the Epilogue, in which Dryden claims "An improvement of our Wit,
Language, and Conversation, or, an alteration in them for the better" (Conquest
of Granada [1678], p. 162; Watson, I, 170).
55
E.g., in the prologue to Aureng-Zebe (1676) Dryden confesses that in "spite
of all his pride a secret shame, / Invades his breast at Shakespear's sacred name"
(11. 13-14); in the prologue to Oedipus (1678) he advises his audience not to
be "more Wise than Greece" (I. 22); and in The Grounds of Criticism in
Tragedy, prefixed to Troilus and Cressida, he is compelled again to confess that
"we who Ape [Shakespeare's] sounding words, have nothing of his thought, but
are all out-side" (1679, sig. b3«; Watson, I, 260).
438 Commentary
which produc'd Cicero, Varro, Salust, Livy, Lucretius

and Virgil: And after a short interval of years, (wherein
Nature seem'd to take a breathing time for a second
birth,) there sprung up under the Vespasians, and those
excellent Princes who succeeded them, a race of mem-
orable Wits; such as were the two Plinies, Tacitus, and
Suetonius; and as if Greece was emulous of the Roman
learning, under the same favourable Constellation, was
born the famous Philosopher and Historian Plutarch:
Then whom Antiquity has never produc'd a Man more
generally knowing, or more vertuous; and no succeeding
Age has equall'd him.28
Whatever Dryden's ultimate view of progress, in this passage his own
skill as a writer contradicts any abject capitulation to the past. So too
does his conception ot the writing of history. If he concluded that all
mankind had deteriorated, he demonstrated that he at least had pro-
gressed in The Life of Plutarch to his own most advanced conception
of the writing of history. Before that time he had equated histories with
chronicles—"busie Chronicles," as he had said in Astraea (1. 106)—to be
filled with annalistic details after the manner of the writers of universal
history. Now he could classify histories as "Commentaries or Annals;
History properly so called; and Biographia, or the Lives of particular
Men" (271:27-29), and he could draw detailed and radical distinctions
among the three kinds. 27 No longer mere desultory chronicle, the best
history in each of the three categories called for acute, painstaking
analysis of men and events and for discovery of relationships. Along with
eminent predecessors and contemporaries, Dryden now regarded history
as "an Argument fram'd from many particular examples, or inductions"
(271:16-17); 28 history required the study of "Books, and . . . [of] particu-
lars . . . only extant in the memories of Men," and enjoined the historian
"Although Dryden's remarks here echo the traditional statements of the

exponents of the ancients and might be little more than a bow toward Plutarch,
his major works at this time expressed grave doubts concerning the spirit and
capacity of his own times. For example, in discussing the composition of Absalom
and Achitophel (1681) in the preface, he explains that he was not prepared to
include as part of the poem "the Reconcilement of Absalom to David"—that is,
the staving off of civil strife (Kinsley, I, 216); in The Medall (1682) he sees
"Rebellious Rage" (1. 292) and "Tyrant Pow'r" (1. 303)—that is, the repetition
of civil war and a dictatorship—as imminent, should Shaftesbury prevail; and
as he defines his religious position in Religio Laid (1682), he appeals to
"Mankind's concern," namely "Common quiet" (1. 450).
"Dryden picked up these three categories from Rualdus. See below, 27i:26-2gn.
28
Cf. Bacon, History of Henry VII (Bacon, Works, VIII, 419): "Above all
things . . . . I wish events to be coupled with their causes"; and Edmund
Bolton, who favored history organized in terms of "several Actions" rather
than "by the Order of Times and Sequences of Events . . . because the first
way is absolutely best for presenting to the Mind the whole State of every
particular great Business" (Hypercritica, in Spingam, I, ioz).
Plutarchs Lives 439
to "inquire diligently, and weigh judiciously, what he hears and reads"

(264:15-18); 29 it demanded that "the guesses of secret causes, inducing
to the actions, be drawn at least from the most probable circumstances,
not perverted by the malignity of the Author to sinister interpretations,
. . . but candidly laid down, and left to the Judgment of the Reader"
(272:22-26).30 Besides commenting on objective and method, Dryden re-
stated the venerable functions of history. History provides ethical in-
struction: historians "teach us wisdome by the surest ways, (setting before
us what we ought to shun or to pursue, by the examples of the most
famous Men whom they Record, and by the experience of their Faults
and Vertues,)" (zsgiy-io).31 History also offers political instruction: it
"helps us to judge of what will happen, by shewing us the like revolutions
of former times" (27o:3o~3i).32 Finally, like others deeply concerned about
the state of English history,33 Dryden called for a great English historian;
10
See Milton's letter of 15 July 1657 to Henry de Brass: "He who would write
woithily of worthy deeds must write with as noble a spirit and with as much
experience of affairs as his subject possessed, in order to be able not only to
comprehend and measure even the greatest of actions with equal mind, but also,
having comprehended them, to relate them distinctly and impressively in a pure
and chaste style" (quoted in William Riley Parker, Milton: A Biography [1968],
I, 504).
"° Burnet demanded copious documentation to circumvent partisan "Interest or
Malice" and to open up "the secretest Causes and Beginnings o£ great Changes
or Revolutions" (see preface to The Memoires of the Lives and Actions of James
and William Dukes of Hamilton and Castleherald [1677], sig. any).
81
Polyclore Vergil said that history "displays eternally to the living those events
which should be an example and those which should be a warning" (The
Anglica Historia of Polydore Vergil, ed. Denys Hay, Camden Miscellany, 3d ser.,
LXXIV [1950], quoted on p. xxviii); Jean Bodin urged that history incited
"some men . . . to virtue" and frightened others "away from vice" (Method for
the Easy Comprehension of History, trans. Beatrice Reynolds [1945], p. 9).
82
Bodin said that "episodes in human life sometimes recur as in a circle"
(Method, trans. Reynolds, p. 17); Hobbes claimed that history enabled men "to
bear themselves prudently in the present and providently towards the future"
(English Works, VIII, vii).
"E.g., Roger Ascham had commended Sir Thomas More for contributing to
"our story of England" which desperately needed good historians (The Whole
Works of Roger Ascham, ed. J. A. Giles [1864], III, 5-6); Polydore Vergil was
astonished that England could boast no great historian (Anglica Historia, ed.
Hay, p. xxviii); Bolton, plaintive and angry, reiterated "the common wish:
THAT THE MAJESTY OF HANDLING OUR HISTORY MIGHT ONCE EQUAL THE MAJESTY OF
THE ARGUMENT" (Hypercritica, in Spingarn, I, gf>); and the great Clarendon de-
plored the fact that it had been the "Fate of our Country, which hath in all
Ages been the Field of great and noble Actions in Peace and in War, and hath
contributed so much to the Growth and Improvement of Arts and Sciences (all
which are the most proper Subjects of History) to have its Transactions de-
rived to Posterity by Men, who have had no other Excuse for their Presumption
but their good Will" (Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, "On an Active and on a
Contemplative Life . . . ," in A Collection of Several Tracts of the Right
Honourable Edward, Earl of Clarendon [1727], p. 182).
440 Commentary
he nominated Buchanan (see 273:9^ below) as the best, but knew that
in doing so he was straining to give England recognition.
Yet his faint trumpet blast for Buchanan signifies that Dryden, despite
granting superiority to the ancients in The Life of Plutarch, looked
expectantly for the flowering of modern excellence. If, as he proclaimed,
his age fell appallingly below the golden years of Greece and Rome, he
himself acted to reverse the trend. For his Life of Plutarch turned dis-
parate, unexceptional Latin, French, and English materials into unified
and forward-moving prose (see 246:23-249:10, below) with magnificent
power to clarify and please. From prose of the highest order one can ask
no more.
The hitherto unexamined evidence presented above and in the anno-
tations to follow points, then, to two conclusions: first, The Life of
Plutarch, in its conversion of borrowed materials into a self-sufficient
prose essay, is a remarkable achievement of Dryden's genius; and, second,
it affords a glimpse into Dryden's view of history in 1683.
EPISTLE DEDICATORY
P. 227 Duke of Ormond. James Butler, twelfth Earl and first Duke of
Ormonde (1610-1688); the name was spelled "Ormonde" after 1642 by
the Duke. An aristocrat of unblemished character and utter integrity,
with a deep feudal sense of loyalty, Ormonde inflexibly upheld the
cause of Charles I, then shared the exile of Charles II, serving him
loyally, courageously, and uncomplainingly (see Brian FitzGerald, The
Anglo-Irish; Three Representative Types: Cork, Ormonde, Swift, 1602-
X
745 t'QS2]' P- n6). Ormonde became, at the Restoration, a commissioner
for the Treasury, lord steward of the household (an office he held
throughout the reign of Charles II), a privy councillor, lord lieutenant
of Somerset, high steward of Westminster, Kingston, and Bristol, chan-
cellor of Dublin University, Baron Butler of Llanthony and Earl of
Brecknock in the English peerage, and, on 30 March 1661, Duke of
Ormonde in the Irish peerage (in November 1682 in the English peerage).
Three times—in 1643/4, l6 6i, and 1677—he accepted appointment to the
lord lieutenancy of Ireland. His eldest surviving son, Thomas, Earl of
Ossory (1634-1680), was distinguished for military prowess and loftiness of
character. In Absalom Dryden celebrated Ormonde, with fully warranted
praise, as the King's friend Barzillai, concluding the portrait with a
lament for the death a year earlier of Ossory (11. 817-859). On 21 July
1688 Ormonde died, and on 4 August he was buried beside his wife in
Westminster Abbey.
In addressing the Duke of Ormonde, Dryden speaks truly when he
asserts that "the heart dictates to the pen" (229:15). "Once in a quarter
of a year," Carte tells us, the Duke "used to have the marquis of Halifax,
the earls of Mulgrave, Dorset, and Danby, Mr. Dryden, and others of
that set of men at supper, and then they were merry, and drank hard"
(Thomas Carte, The Life of James Duke of Ormond . . . [1851], IV, 699).
For details on Ormonde see, besides the monumental Carte, Lady Burgh-
clere, The Life of fames First Duke of Ormonde, 1610-1688 [1912], and
HMC, Ormonde, for material not in Carte; see Edward Hyde, Earl of
Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, ed.
W. D. Macray (1958), for the judgment of one of Ormonde's contem-
poraries.
227:2-11 Lucretius . . . time. See Titus Lucretius Cams His Six Books
of Epicurean Philosophy, Done into English Verse, with Notes, [by
Thomas Creech] (1683), pp. 164-165:
Next Beasts, and thoughtful Man receiv'd their birth,
For then much vital heat in Mother Earth
Much moisture lay; and where fit place was found
There wombs were form'd, and fastned to the ground. . . .
The Earth, when new, produc'd no raging Cold,
No Heats, nor Storms: these grew, as she grew old.
Well then, our Parent Earth deserves to bear
The name of Mother, since all rose from Her.
Thus for a certain time Mankind she bore,
And Beasts, that shake the Woods with dreadful Roar,
And various kinds of Birds; and as they flew,
The Sun with curious Skill the figures drew
On all their Plumes; he well the Art did know,
He us'd to paint the like on his own Bow:
But wearied now, and tir'd by length of time,
Grows old, and weak, as Women past their Prime.
Time changes all; and as with swiftest Wings
He passes forward on, He quickly brings
A different face, a different sight of Things.
And Nature alters; this grows weak, this strong,
This dies, this newly made is firm and young.
Thus altering Age leads on the World to Fate,
The Earth is different from her former state;
And what in former times with ease she bore,
Grown feeble now, and weak, she bears no more,
And now doth that she could not do before.
227:18-19 seven or eight hundred years before them. Methuselah, the
oldest biblical patriarch, is represented as having lived 969 years (Genesis,
v, 27).
227:26-28 That Age . . . which ended with the death of Alexander.
Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. Strictly speaking, Menander does not
belong within the period defined by Dryden, for he wrote his first play
in 321 B.C., and some hundred comedies thereafter.
227:29-228:1 the Century which produc'd Cicero, Varro etc. The first
century B.C.
228:1-6 after a short interval . . . Tacitus, and Suetonius. Roughly
A.D. 23 to 140.
228:7-8 was born . . . Plutarch. Born c. A.D. 46; died c. 127.
228:12-13 rendered into English. That is, by Sir Thomas North.
228:16-18 the English language . . . attain'd. See the similar opinion
442 Commentary
Dryden expresses fully in Defence of the Epilogue, prefixed to The

Conquest of Granada (1672).
228:19 m many places almost unintelligible. In the nineteenth century
Dryden was chastised for this remark (see Malone, II, 335 n. 4; Richard
Chenevix Trench, Plutarch: His Life, His Parallel Lives, and His Morals.
Five Lectures [1874], pp. 63-64), but he was right. See a sobering collec-
tion of unintelligible passages and the explanations given for them by
Paul Turner in Selected Lives from the Lives of the Noble Grecians and
Romans (1963), I, xi-xiii.
228:24-25 in the compass of a year. An overly optimistic estimate. The
complete translation was not finished until 1686.
229:4-6 The Author they have Translated . . . Modern. University
men deeply respected the Duke of Ormonde. Dr. Gilbert Sheldon, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, successor to Clarendon as chancellor of Oxford, in a
letter to the vice-chancellor on 31 July 1669 warmly recommended Or-
monde as his own successor. Among the Duke's highest qualifications
Dr. Sheldon stressed his "love of letters and learned men" (Carte, Life of
Ormond, V, 105).
229:14-15 Tis long since . . . art of praising. "Not very long," Malone
reminds us, "for in 1681 he had dedicated The Spanish Fryar to Lord
Haughton, and early in ... 1683 in conjunction with Lee, he dedicated
The Duke of Guise to Lord Rochester [Laurence Hyde]" (Malone, II,
337n).
229:15-17 and I appeal to your Enemies etc. Intriguers against the
Duke of Ormonde always abounded (see Carte, Life of Ormond, IV,
275-277. S^-Si*. 341-352- 555- 557- 607-609, 612).
229:19-21 Tis an Age . . . Government. Dryden reiterated this apologia
for severe satire ten years later in his Discourse of Satire (pp. xxxv-xxxvi;
Watson, II, 126-127), where he examined the moral right to deliver
lampoons.
229:24-25 the Illustrious Names . . . Worthy of each other. See Dry-
den's tribute to Ormonde and to the older of Ormonde's two sons,
Thomas, the Earl of Ossory, in Absalom, 11. 817-859.
229:35-36 Three Nations. Almost certainly England, Scotland, and
Ireland. Dryden particularizes the number that Ormonde's comforters
left general in their condolences over Ossory's death. For example, Sir
Thomas Wharton wrote to Ormonde on 6 August 1680 from Edlington:
"I scarcely remember that ever I writ to your Grace in trouble before, nor
should I now if I did not more consider the public loss that the King
and these kingdoms and myself in particular have had by the late death
of your excellent son than anything as to himself by it" (HMC, Ormonde,
V, 368-369).
230:14 Your native Country. Ireland. The Duke of Ormonde's ancestors,
the Butlers, were Norman-Irish. Born in England, Ormonde himself spent
his first years in Ireland, grew up in London, and returned to Ireland
in his twenties. To Ormonde, an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, Ireland "might
not be [his] nation; but it was very definitely [his] country" (FitzGerald,
The Anglo-Irish, p. 116). A letter written sometime in 1684 relates some
arresting gossip, but it was no more than gossip. No corroboration exists:

Dryden certainly never changed his words, and he and the Ormonde
family remained on the warmest of terms. The letter was written by
Richard Thompson to his brother Henry: "I suppose you have seen ye
lives of Plutarch, i.e. ye first volume of ye translation, to which is prefix'd
an epistle to ye D. of Ormond by J. Dryden, which is ye most nauseous
satyr yl was ever penn'd, and they say y° Duke himself is extreamly
offended with it, because he makes him an Irishman, whereas he was
born in London; this nettles ye Duke devilishly, and I hope he may
have ye grace to bring an action of scandalum [i.e., scandalum magnatum]
agat him for't. We may expect ye next volume to be much better done
than this. Dr. Sprat and T. Rymer have each of 'em a life in't. Sed
quousque tandem, say you. Well, I'll abuse yr patience no longer, and
only add my sincere protestations of being all my life, / Dear bro. /
Your most affect, bro. and humble serv4, / R. Thompson" (Letters of
Richard Thompson to Henry Thompson . . . , ed. James J. Cartwright,
Camden Miscellany, ad ser., XXXI [1883], 3).
230:23-24 Usurping Tyrant. When the Irish rebellion broke out in
1641, Charles I appointed Ormonde, who had returned in 1633 to live
in Ireland, lieutenant general of his army. The Lords Justices, however,
who corresponded to the English Commons, hampered him. Nonetheless
his victories over the rebels in 1641/2 impressed the English Parliament,
whose members recommended the Garter for him. Moreover, the King
ruled in Ormonde's favor on disputes with Lord Leicester, the lord
lieutenant of Ireland, and on 16 September 1642 appointed Ormonde to
the lieutenant-generalship under the crown instead of, as up to then,
under the lord lieutenant. In January 1643/4 îe King made Ormonde
lord lieutenant. Ormonde strove manfully to check the rebels, to thwart
the plots that harassed his government, to reconcile the King and the
rebels, to cope with the Glamorgan episode, and to secure a peace.
(Glamorgan, with a roving commission from the shifty King, had signed
a treaty with the Irish agents and had promised ten thousand men for
England under his leadership. Charles had repudiated Glamorgan's
warrant, but not without gravely weakening Ormonde's position.) In
London, in the late summer of 1647, Ormonde's conduct was fully ap-
proved by the King. Ormonde returned to Ireland and by 17 January
1649 had secured a general peace between the royalists and the Irish
rebels. On the execution of Charles I, Ormonde proclaimed Charles II
king. But Ormonde lost military control and all hopes of reconquering
Ireland on 15 August 1649, when Cromwell landed and began his bloody
pacification of the country. In the late summer of 1650 Charles II urged
Ormonde, for his own safety, to leave Ireland. He did so in December,
departing for France to share the King's exile.
230:26 your Graces Government etc. Although overly sanguine in
describing a fruitful Anglo-Irish interdependence, Dryden properly cele-
brates Ormonde's very real and ceaseless efforts—in economics, education,
medicine, and religion—to aid the Irish against English indifference and
self-interest.
444 Commentary
230:35 Cyon. That is, scion, a sucker (O£D).

231:9-10 suffered a relapse. To Dryden, the Whig attempts to pass an
exclusion bill in the years 1679-1681, aimed at setting aside the legal
succession and limiting the king's prerogative, seemed to move England
perilously near to the chaos and horror of another civil war.
231:18 speculative. "Given to pry or search into something," according
to OED, which cites Bacon: "Councellors should not be too speculative
into their Soveraignes person" (OED).
231:21-29 The Fanaticks . . . the Succession. Dryden's fear of disrup-
tion of the state by the sectaries (i.e., in the early i68o's all who refused
to conform to the rites and order of the Church of England and later, in
1687, all who were outside the Roman Catholic church) and his search
for authority in religion profoundly affected the composition of his
major poems of the i68o's.
231:30-32 The Episcopal Reformation . . . Secular power. In Of the
Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Book VIII, Hooker defines the Church of
England's position: "When therefore Christian Kings are said to have
Spiritual Dominion or Supream Power in Ecclesiastical affairs and causes,
the meaning is, that within their own Precincts and Territories, they have
an authority and power to command even in matters of Christian Re-
ligion, and that there is no higher nor greater that can in those cases
over-command them, where they are placed to reign as Kings. . . . Where
the King hath power of Dominion or Supream power, there no forrain
State, or Potentate, no State or Potentate Domestical, whether it con-
sisteth of one or many, can possibly have in the same affairs and causes
Authority higher than the King" (The Works of that Learned and
Judicious Divine, Mr. Richard Hooker . . . , ed. John Gauden [1682],
pp. 442-443).
231:30 manumiz'd. Manumitted (OED).
232:4 beholding to the Font. Malone has "font"; S-S has "front." The
"Font" of the first edition certainly seems correct; that is, the republicans
are merely "nominal Christians," and such only by virtue of having once
been presented at the baptismal font.
232:5 Hobbisls. Dryden here reflects both monarchists' and republicans'
distrust of and hatred for Hobbes, whose materialistic view of man
spelled atheism to them.
232:10-12 Lewdness . . . and horrid Murthers. "Lord Howard [of
Escrick], Sir Thomas Armstrong, Ford Lord Grey, and others among the
opposers of government, notorious for being libertines even beyond the
license of that age, seem to be here pointed at" (S-S).
232:16 as well as Simeon knew Levi. "Simeon and Levi are brethren;
instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. . . . in their anger they
slew a man. . . . Cursed be their anger" (Genesis, XLIX, 5-7).
232:28-29 God with us . . . England on the other. "The Regicides,
after the murder of Charles the First, coined various pieces of money,
with the words—THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND on one side; and on
the other—GOD WITH us" (Malone). For an illustration of such a Common-
wealth coin, see Sir Geoffrey Duveen and H. G. Stride, The History of
the Gold Sovereign (1962), p. 10 of illustrations.
832:34-233:10 a third party . ... of their Fathers. Dryden probably
had in mind men like the two Capel brothers—Arthur, the Earl of
Essex, and Sir Henry Capel—and Charles Mordaunt, known at this time
as Lord Mordaunt (in 1697 Earl of Peterborough). The father of the
Capels, Arthur, Lord Capel of Hadham, had been executed on 9 March
1649 for his loyalty to Charles I; the father of Charles Mordaunt, Baron
Mordaunt of Reigate in Surrey and Viscount Mordaunt of Avalon in
Somerset, had been a bold intriguer for Charles II during the interregnum
and had welcomed him at Dover on 25 May 1660. The sons of these two
royalists had served Charles II—the Capels in high offices, Charles Mor-
daunt at sea—until 1679 and 1680, respectively, when the Capels became
cxclusionist leaders in Parliament and Mordaunt, on taking his seat in
the Lords, sided at once with Shaftcsbury.
233:8 out of kind. Out of their original nature.
233:8 like China Oranges in Portugal. The Portuguese sweet orange
enjoyed its reputation as the finest orange until the middle of the seven-
teenth century, when the "China orange," far sweeter and more fragrant,
brought from China into Portugal, replaced it in popular favor (S. Tol-
kowsky, Hesperides: A History of the Culture and Use of Citrus Fruits
[1938], pp. 240-249). Early in the Restoration, England began to import
China oranges from Portugal in large quantities: "The Orange of China
being of late brought into Portugal, has drawn a great Revenew every
year from London alone" (Thomas Sprat, The History of the Royal-
Society of London, For the Improving of Natural Knowledge [1667],
p. 387). Cf. Letter to Etherege, 1. 22 (Works, III, 224).
233:33 Lazar. See Works, I, 274-276.
233:35-37 When the Malady . . . appear'd in Scotland. Charles I's
attempt in 1637 to force a revised Book of Common Prayer and uniformity
of service on Scotland aroused Scottish patriotism and Presbyterianism,
and prompted the Covenant of 1638, which resisted innovations unwar-
ranted by the Word of God. When civil war broke out, the English
desired a military alliance with Scotland, but the Scots demanded a
religious covenant, securing in September 1643 the Solemn League and
Covenant (Godfrey Davies, The Early Stuarts, 1603-1660 [zd ed.( 1959],
pp. 86-88, 136), which forty years later still spelled stubborn rebellion to
Dryden, the royalists, and the Church of England.
234:6-7 one Plot was prosecuted . . . fomented. The Popish Plot was
"prosecuted openly," i.e., carried on and given notoriety by Titus Gates
and his followers; also it resulted in prosecutions of innocent people.
The general underground republican (Whig) plot against the monarchy
was "secretly fomented" by, for example, the groups that Dryden de-
picted in Absalom, 11. 492-542.
234:8-11 And if some venemous Creatures . . . . own Country. Play-
ing on the legend of St. Patrick's expulsion of the snakes from Ireland,
Dryden alludes to the Irish witnesses or informers whom Shaftesbury
446 Commentary
brought in boatloads from Ireland to swear, for small sums of money, to

anything that would establish popular belief in the Popish Plot. Soon
the court paid some of the same perjurers to swear against Shaftesbury.
(See David Ogg, England in the Reign of Charles II [1934], II, 393. 596
and nn.)
234:35-36 These travelling Locusts , . . Red-Sea. See Exodus, x, 3-19.
235:1 the Rod of Moses. See Exodus, iv, 1-5 and passim.
235:4-15 But what Plutarch . . . your fortune. Cf. the persistent call
for an English historian alluded to above in the headnote, p. 439 and
n. 33-
235:20 involv'd. Wrapped up in.
235:20 Libellers. See 229:15-17^
235:29 Enthusiasm. See George Williamson, "The Restoration Revolt
against Enthusiasm," SP, XXX (1933), 571-603.
236:10 conveyance. "Stealing . . . [by] sleight of hand" (OED).
The Life of Plutarch

239:7-10 setting before us . . . Vertues. See above, headnote, p. 439
and n. 31.
239:17 found a Trajan to reward him. Modern scholarship is not sure
of Plutarch's association with Trajan. Plutarch may have been a consul
under Trajan. To Dryden following his sources, however, there was no
doubting a glorious association. For instance, one of his chief sources,
S. G. S. (see headnote, pp. 432-433 and nn. 14, 15, 17, and 19), begins his
life of Plutarch (North 1676, p. 979) with the quatrain:
Thy precepts are a Crown of purest gold
To Trajan deem'd the glory of mankind.
In hands, and hearts, if great men would thee hold,
Vertue should rule, and Vice should go behind.
Also "that little memorial, that Suidas [see following note] . . . left con-
cerning him" fixed in the minds of Dryden and his readers the close
association between Plutarch and Trajan.
239:25 Suidas. See 2OYIAA2- Suidae Lexicon, Graece el Latine . . .
(Cambridge, 1705), III, 133. Dryden almost certainly, however, did not go
to the original Suidae Lexicon, for the "little memorial" appears, with a
few variants, in the Rualdus edition (see headnote, pp. 431-432 above) of
Plutarch. See Rualdus, I, 10: EX SUIDA. PLUTARCHUS Chaeronensis Boeotius,
fuit Traiani Caesaris temporibus, & ante. Traianus autem dignitate con-
sular! eum ornavit; edixitque ne quisquam Illyriae magistratuum quic-
quani absque consensu eius ageret. Scripsit multa. (From Suidae. Plutarch
of Chaeronea, Boeotian, belonged in the times of Trajan Caesar and
earlier. Trajan honored him with the rank of consul and issued an edict
that none of the magistrates of Illyricum should take any action without
his consent. His writings were numerous.) See also Rualdus, I, VPC, p. 29.
Judging from his phrase "some few others," Dryden fell into the error
common down to the twentieth century of supposing Suidas an author,
as in "whom Suidas plainly tells us" (258:28-29) and "what Suidas
relates of him" (264:28). In 1936 Franz Dolger ("Der Titel des sogenannten
Suidaslexikons," Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissen-
schaften philosopliisch-historische Abteilung [1936], Heft 6, esp. pp. 21-27)
showed that the word "Suidas" was borrowed from the Latin and meant,
in the tenth century A.D., when the Suidas lexicon was compiled, fortress
or stronghold; i.e., "Suidas" metaphorically signified an "armory" of texts,
statements, quotations. The lexicon is faulty, based often on corrupt
sources and containing interpolations, but it does preserve much that is
ultimately derived from the earliest and best authorities in ancient
scholarship (OCD).
239:29-240:2 The Climate . . . business of War. As a subtopic in the
headnote to chapter iii of his Vita Plutarchi Chaeronensis indicates—
Boeotia crasso acre, incola hebete (Boeotia with its thick atmosphere
and dull inhabitants)—Rualdus deals with the climate-character phenom-
enon (Rualdus, I, VPC, p. 6). At one point (ibid., p. 7) he cites this
uncomplimentary description of the Boeotians' character, a description
essentially repeated by Dryden: Boeotos nos Attici pingues appellaverunt,
8c stupidos, & stolidos, atque adeo sues, maxima ob voracitatem. (The
Athenians have dubbed us Boeotians fat, stupid, and stolid, even calling
us pigs, especially because of our voracity.)
See also S. G. S.: "Boeotius . . . left his name to all the territory which
is near neighbour to ATTICA, but in a thicker air because it standeth
betwixt two mountains, and that the Countrey is more Northwards. So
that the ATHENIANS were ever thinner in body, and of livelier spirit: and
the BOEOTIANS to the contrary, fuller of flesh, and duller of wit also. From
whence came many slents of laughter against the masse and weight of
their understandings. . . . Yea the Poets themselves, and Ebulus among
others, do flout the BOEOTIANS, that they are great feeders, and love to
speak much: which agreeth very well with the rest of their manners.
. . . out of a Countrey accustomed to bring forth fat men, as they say,
and fitter for War then learning, came Plutarch . . ." (North 1676, p.
981).
240:5 Epaminondas, or Pelopidas. Theban generals of the fourth cen-
tury B.C.
240:5-8 Yet this foggy ayre . . . our Plutarch. Rualdus (I, VPC, p. 8)
has elaborated the point for Dryden: Sic inustam genti suae i}Xi0u5T7)Tos
& Aitovotas ingenitae labem hi tresuiri longe praestantissimi, Epaminondas,
Pindarus & Plutarchus facile absterserunt, & illustri fuere documento,
Summos posse viros, & magna exempla daturos
Veruecum in patria, crassoque sub acre nasci:
Sicut ex persona Democriti natione Thracis, Abderae nati, evicit x.
Satyra Juvenalis. (When their nationality was stained with the disgraceful
charge of folly and stupidity, these three most illustrious men, Epaminon-
das, Pindar, and Plutarch, easily removed the stain and furnished a
splendid proof that "the greatest men, destined to set a noble example,
may be born in a land of muttonheads and in a thick atmosphere." So
448 Commentary
Satire X by Juvenal proved from the case of Democritus, a Thracian by

nationality and a native of Abdera.) The lines cited are Juvenal, Satires,
X, 49-50.
240:8-9 a fourth, Sextus Chceronensis. Sextus was but one of the
teachers of Marcus Aurelius, and, according to modern scholarship, he
was Plutarch's grandson rather than his nephew: "Sextus, a grandson of
Plutarch, Junius Rusticus, who when Marcus became Emperor held the
office of City Prefect, and Claudius Maximus, seem to have taught him
[Marcus Aurelius] what they may have called ethics or Stoic philosophy,
but what we might call lessons upon life or lessons of wisdom" (H. D.
Sedgwick, Marcus Aurelius [1921], p. 46; see also ibid., p. 112; The Medi-
tations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, trans. George Long
[New York, n.d.], p. 3). Dryden, of course, could choose to translate
nepos (which could be as general as "descendant" or as particular as
"grandson" or "nephew") in Plutarchus if Sextus eius nepos (Rualdus, I,
VPC, p. 5) as "nephew." (See also Rualdus, I, VPC, pp. 11-12.)
240:11-13 Chceronea . . . Aiolus. If Dryden in fact consulted Pausanias,
he would have found the detail in Book IX, ch. xl, par. 3. But every
indication is that Rualdus was Dryden's source here for the name
"Chaeronea" (Rualdus, I, VPC, p. 4) and that S. G. S. provided the detail
concerning "Arne, the daughter of Aeolus" (North 1676, p. 981).
240:20 my Author. Pausanias, mentioned at the beginning of the para-
graph, is not "my Author" here (see Pausanias's Description of Greece,
trans. J. G. Frazer [1898], I, 496). The "Author" is either S. G. S. or
Rualdus. The source of the immediate context of "my Author" (from
"for which reason" to "populous") could be S. G. S., who writes: "after-
wards because it stood evil, and looked towards the West, Charon the son
of Apollo, and of Thero the daughter of Phylas, caused it to be new
built, and turned to the East, to make it more wholesome and habitable"
(North 1676, p. 981). The source of the details in the preceding part of
the passage (from "but being scituated" to and including the immediate
context of "my Author") could be Rualdus, for the details lie scattered
across a couple of pages of that author's life of Plutarch (Rualdus, I,
VPC, pp. 4-5).
240:29 as the word Charon sufficiently implies. From xa'P", gaudeo
(Malone).
240:34-241:1 Joh. Gerrhard Vossius . . . that Emperour. Cf. Gerardi
Joannis Vossius, Ars Historica: De Historicis Graecis Libri Quatuor, De
Historicis Latinis Libri Tres, Historiae Universalis Epitome: Opuscula
et Epistolae (Amsterdam, 1699), pp. 120-121: Turn etiam, ac diu postea,
claruit Plutarchus. Fuit natione Boeotus, patria Chaeronensis, ut de se
non uno scribit loco. Sub Caesare Claudio natus fuit. Sub Nerone est
Ammonio usus praeceptore. . . . Cum Vespasianus coepit imperare, fuisse
videtur XVII, aut XVIII annorum. (Even then, and long afterward,
Plutarch was famous. By nationality he was a Boeotian and his hometown
was Chaeronea, as he tells of himself in more than one passage. He was
born under Claudius Caesar. In the time of Nero he had Ammonius as
his teacher. At the beginning of Vespasian's reign he appears to have
been seventeen or eighteen years old.) That is, since Vespasian became
emperor in A.D. 69, Vossius puts Plutarch's birth around 51 or 58, two
or three years before the end of Claudius' reign in 54.
241:3-5 But the most accurate Rualdus . . . lower. Cf. Rualdus, I,
VPC, p. 9: Censere namque vel potius statuere nihil dubitem, Plutarchi
natalia in medium Claudii principatum, hoc est, ultimi temporis annum
circiter quinquagesimum incurrisse. (For I should have no hesitation in
stating or rather affirming that Plutarch's birth took place in the middle
of the principate of Claudius, that is, about the fiftieth year of our era.)
841:13 Xlyander has observ'd. Dryden doubtless picked up Xylander's
Vita Plutarchi printed in Rualdus, where (p. 11, in Rualdus, I) he could
read: Ipse quidem Plutarchus Neronis fe Domitiani, ut quorum tempore
vixerit, in Antonio, Pericle, 8c alibi meminit. (Plutarch himself in his lives
of Antony and Pericles and elsewhere mentions Nero and Domitian, in
whose time he lived.)
241:15-22 He has also left . . . London. In the Symposiacon, VI, viii,
Plutarch alludes familiarly to a major problem he had to deal with
when he was archon (Rualdus, II, 693-694). S. G. S. says that "Plutarch['s]
. . . ancestors, men of a noble race, maintained themselves from father
to the son in honourable office and place of charge in their little Common-
wealth" (North 1676, p. 981).
241:22-242:3 His Great Grand-Father . . . Inhabitants of the City.
Although he does not recount this incident, Rualdus could have put
Dryden on to it (Rualdus, I, VPC, p. 10) through citing the page number
in his edition (Rualdus, I, 948), where Nicarchus is mentioned and where
this incident is related in the life of Antony. Dryden, however, probably
took the material from S. G. S., who repeats the story (North 1676, pp.
981-982). Certain wording, notably the way the incident is introduced,
suggests S. G. S. as the source. Plutarch, when he mentions Nicarchus
in the life of Antony, says simply that this ancestor of Plutarch recalled
the incident, whereas S. G. S., when he mentions Nicarchus, alludes
to Plutarch's family's long involvement in government. (See preceding
note, which quotes S. G. S. on this point.) Dryden's reference to Nicarchus
echoes S. G. S.'s allusion to the public service of Plutarch's family.
241:33-34 the Battel of Actium. Fought in 31 B.C.
242:4-7 This Nicarchus . . . Table Conversations. Cf. S. G. S: "Ni-
carchus, amongst other children had Lamprias, a learned man amongst
those of his time, and of whom Plutarch inaketh often mention in his
books, where he speaketh of talk at the table" (North 1676, p. 982).
242:8-11 this observation . . . Wine. Rualdus (I, VPC, p. 10) gives
the source of the observation—Symposiacon, I, v—and then quotes the
passage: Avus noster Lamprias inter potandum inveniendi ac disputandi
facultate seipsum superabat: solebatque dicere, a vini calore, quod de
thure fertur, suffitu quodam se afflari. (My grandfather Lamprias when
in his cups outdid himself in the facility for broaching subjects of dis-
cussion and carrying on the argument; and he used to say that the heat
of the wine put him in a kind of glow—just like frankincense.)
242:14 Philological. Dryden gives the word the large sense of his times:
a love of learning and literature in all their relations.
242:16 according to the Proverb. Here Dryden translates, or paraphrases,
450 Commentary
freely, condensing the opening remarks of the Symposiacon where Plutarch

recalls the genesis of the work (see Rualdus, II, 612).
242:16-20 The Father of Plutarch . . . remaining to us. Cf. S. G. S.:
"He speaketh also of his father, the son of Lamprias, not expressing his
name although he represented! him discoursing of many points of
Philosophy, and namely in the books above mentioned" (North 1676,
p. 982; see also Rualdus, I, VPC, p. 10).
242:82-33 he is introduc'd . . . management. This passage does not
appear in the Symposiacon. S. G. S. indicates, however, that it exists in
the essay "Instructions for them that manage affairs of State." Dryden
probably took the material from Rualdus, who gives in Latin the follow-
ing excerpt from Plutarch's essay (Rualdus, I, VPC, p. 10; Rualdus'
wording varies somewhat from his wording in the essay itself [see Rualdus,
II, 816]): Memini me adhuc iuvenem legatum ad Proconsulem missum
cum collega: hoc autem in via forte relicto, solum ivisse et negotium
confecisse. Regressus igitur Chaeroneam, cum acta in legatione renuncia-
turus essem, exurgens pater praecepit seorsim, ne dicerem, Profectus sum,
sed Profecti sumus: neque, Dixi, sed Diximus. Eodemque modo caetera
referrem, quasi adea mecum socius ex aequo incubuisset. (I remember that
when I was still a young fellow I was sent with a colleague on an embassy
to the proconsul. When the colleague happened to be left behind on the
way, I went on alone and accomplished the mission. Now when I returned
to Chaeronea and was about to report on the actions of the embassy, my
father got up and privately told me not to say "I went" but "We went"
and not "I said" but "We said," etc., just as if my colleague had exerted
himself equally with me.) Dryden evidently adds the detail "falling sick,"
for Rualdus does not give it; neither does S. G. S. (North 1676, p. 982).
Also Dryden says "did" (in "I did thus . . . thus we did") instead of
"went."
242:33-243:6 This was done . . . inconsiderable occasion. Dryden elab-
orates on the suggestion in Rualdus (I, VPC, pp. 10-11): Id enim qui scit
facere, non tantum ^JTICIKTJ KO.I tptKavOpwirov, modestum se ac beneficum
adprobat, sed etiam, (quod statim subiungit Plutarchus) rii \vvovv Kal rbv
ê&nov &</>aipd rrjs S6^s; suam gloriam ab aliorum aegritudine & invidia
vendicat. (For a person who knows how to do this not only proves him-
self modest and benevolent, but also, as Plutarch immediately adds, has
his glory free from the vexation and envy of others.)
243:6-11 The Father of Phitarch . . . Grand-father and Father. Cf.
S. G. S.: "Of this Philosopher then the son of Lamprias were born many
children, and amongst others Plutarch, Timon, and Lamprias: all which
three were very carefully brought up and instructed in the liberal sciences,
and in all the parts of Philosophy: unto the which, they shall ever see an
humble reverence toward their grandfather and father joyned together,
and amongst themselves a fast and pleasant friendship, as may be gathered
in many places out of their table talk" (North 1676, p. 982; see also
Rualdus, I, VPC, p. 11).
243:13-18 these words of his. . . . acquaintance. Rualdus (I, VPC, p.
11) cites the source for Dryden's quotation, namely Plutarch's treatise
De Fraterno Amore: Praecipue vero Timonem habuit carissimum, eique

haesit arctissime in visceribus: ex eius verbis ad Nigrinum 8c Quintum lib.
ir«p! 0(XoSeX0ias, p. cccclxxxvii.d. (He was especially fond of Timon and
clung to him in the closest bonds of affection, according to his own
words to Nigrinus and Quintus in the book, "On Brotherly Love.") In-
stead of going to the page cited by Rualdus, however, Dryden probably
continued to follow S. G. S.: "We see in the treaty of brotherly love, how
heartily he loved his brother Timon, when he said in these words: For my
self, although fortune hath shewed me many favours, which deserve that I
should be thankfull to her for them, yet there is none that maketh me
so much bound to her, as the love and good will my brother Timon hath
born, and doth bear unto me in all things: the which no man can deny
to be true, that hath but a little frequented our company" (North 1676,
P- 982)-
243:18-22 Lamprias . . . Companion. In the Symposiacon, VIII, vi
(Rualdus, II, 726), Plutarch alludes affectionately to his brother Lamprias:
Lamprias frater noster . . . erat dicax et risus captator. (Lamprias, my
brother, . . . was a witty fellow and fond of raising a laugh.) Dryden
might have relied on S. G. S., as is suggested by certain words (e.g.,
"sweet," "pleasant") and by an emphasis conveyed by S. G. S.'s wording:
"he [Plutarch] represented! men that with a grounded knowledge had
joyned a sweet behaviour, and a wonderfull good understanding, and
namely the young Lamprias, who was of a pleasant nature, and loved to
be merry" (North 1676, p. 982).
243:22-24 The whole Family . . . indin'd. Cf. S. G. S.: "Plutarch then
having a father that loved learning and vertue, was in a good hour put
out to learning, whereunto he was wholly inclined" (North 1676, p. 982).
243:24-244:20 In pursuit . . . in their Walks. Cf. S. G. S.: "And
amongst other good masters, he met with Ammonius, an AEGYPTIAN born,
saith Eunapius, who having with great praise taught in ALEXANDRIA, he
did also visit the Cities of GREECE, wherein learning did yet flourish, and
tarried a great time in ATHENS, respected and well beloved of every man.
In the latter end of Themistoclcs life, Plutarch sheweth that he was a
boarder and lying in Ammonius house, and in talk at the table he brought
him in, either disputing, or teaching his Scholars. So the custom to teach
the youth at that time was very fine and easie, to give children a last
and learning of vertue: for as the Tutors imployed part of their time to
discourse in the presence of their disciples, they occupied them in the
same exercise afterwards, and made them declare, and say their opinion
of divers matters: so that in few weeks, by way of sport and recreation,
they had run through the secrets of Philosophy. Unto the which they
joyned also, besides their compositions and particular exercises, their
familiar talk and recreative disputations in their walks, at their suppers
and feasts, where nothing else could be heard but that which made the
young men wise and vertuous in a short space" (North 1676, p. 982).
243:26 care of Ammonius. For his account of Ammonius' instruction
of Plutarch, Dryden draws on Rualdus (I, VPC [ch. vii], pp. 13-14) in
general and on S. G. S. in particular.
452 Commentary
244:26-245:3 the Example. Rualdus gives the anecdote (I, VPC, p. 14):
Praeceptor noster Ammonius in schola pomeridiana, cum ex discipulis
aliquos non simplice prandio usos esse animadvertisset, iussit proprius
filius plagis a liberto exciperetur: Non potuit, inquit, prandere sine
aceto. Et simul in nos respexit, ita ut haec eius obiurgatio reos tetigerit.
(Our teacher Ammonius in an afternoon lecture, noticing that some of the
students had enjoyed something more than a simple luncheon, ordered
his own son to be beaten by a freedman. "A person can't have a lunch
without sour wine," said he. And so saying he looked at us, so that his
rebuke came home to those who were to blame.) The anecdote is from
Plutarch's treatise, Quomodo possit adulator ab amico internosci (Rualdus,
II, 70). S. G. S. also recounts the story: "Our master Ammonius, saith he,
perceiving in his lecture he made after dinner, that some of his disciples
and familiars had made a larger dinner then was fit for Students, he
commanded one of his servants, a freeman to beat his own son: he could
not (saith he) dine without vinegar. When he had spoken that, he cast
his eyes upon us: so that they which were indeed culpable, found that
he meant it by them" (North 1676, p. 982).
245:4-11 Plutarch therefore . . . Platonick Questions. Cf. S. G. S.:
"Thus therefore Plutarch having so good a help, in few years he profited
greatly in the knowledge of all the parts of Philosophy, and never went
out of his Countrey, nor travelled to understand strange languages,
although the Latine tongue was common in ROME, and in divers places
of the ROMAN Empire: which extended it self into GREECE, and beyond,
as Plutarch noteth in the end of his Platonicall questions" (North 1676,
p. 982).
245:11-25 like a true Philosopher . . . signified them. Dryden seems
to recall Sprat's famous remarks that "the Royal Society . . . did not
regard the credit of Names, but Things: rejecting or approving nothing,
because of the title, which it bears," and that the Royal Society was
effecting a return "back to the primitive purity, and shortness, when
men deliver'd so many things, almost in an equal number of words"
(Sprat, History of the Royal-Society, pp. 105, 113). In all likelihood,
Dryden was reminded of the words-things issue by S. G. S.: "He doth
also confess in the beginning of the life of Demosthenes, that whilest
he was in ITALY and in ROME, he had no leisure to study, nor to exercise
the Latin tongue, as well for the business he had then in hand, as to
satisfie those that frequented him to learn Philosophy of him. So that
very late being well stepped on in years, he began to take Latin books
in hand, wherein there happened a strange thing unto him, but yet
true notwithstanding: that is, that he did not learn nor understand
things so much by the words, as by a certain use and knowledge he had
of things, he attained to the understanding of the words" (North 1676,
p. 982; cf. S. G. S. in French: "il n'aprint ni n'entendit pas tant les
choses par les paroles, comme par quelque usage et conoissance qu'il
avoit des choses, il parvint a quelque intelligence des mots" [Les Vies,
p. 770]). Rualdus (I, VPC, p. 24) also makes the words-things point.
S. G. S., however, is the likelier source, for his passage is continuous
with the material cited in preceding notes, material that, we see. Dry-
den's essay at this point parallels in substance and sequence, whereas
Rualdus' remark appears ten pages beyond the last segment of his
material drawn on by Dryden and in a different chapter.
245:12-13 he strove . . . exactness. Cf. S. G. S.: "Without notwith-
standing that he ever profited much in the knowledge of any other
tongue, saving in the knowledge of the GREEKS: the which also hath a
last of his Philosophy of BOEOTIA" (North 1676, p. 982).
245:25-27 Just as Adam . . . natures. See Genesis, n, 19-20; cf. Milton,
Paradise Lost, VIII, 349-354.
245:27-32 But for the delicacies . . . attain perfectly. Cf. S. G. S.: "But
furthermore (they are his own words) to know how to judge well, wherein
consisteth the beauty of the Latin tongue, or to speak it readily, or to
understand the figures, translations, and the fine knitting of simple
sayings one with the other, which do adorn and beautifie the tongue, I
think well (said he) that it is a goodly thing and pleasant: but withall
it requireth a long and laboursome exercise, fit for those that be at
better leisure then I am, and that be yet able for age to attend such
fineness" (North 1676, pp. 982-983). Cf. also Rualdus (I, VPC, p. 25):
Venustatern autem elocutionis Romanae &: celeritatem capere, 8c transla-
tionem verborum 8c concinnitudinem, aliaque, quibus exornatur oratio,
elegans quidem hoc arbitramur, neque iniucundum; verum ad id non
est facilis meditatio & usus, qui duntaxat eorum est, quibus 8c otii
plurimum, & commoda aetas ad ea studia adhuc suppetit. (Now we do
indeed think it an elegant thing and not without delight to perceive the
beauty and swiftness of Roman speech and the metaphors and harmony
and other adornments of style. But for this purpose the practice and
training are not easy; it is for those who still have abundant leisure and
a time of life suited to these studies.) Again, Dryden here probably used
S. G. S. rather than Rualdus (see 245:11-25^.
245:32-246:23 Which Complement . . . concern'd in it. Both Dryden
and S. G. S. moralize here for the good of their immediate contemporaries.
S. G. S. points out that Plutarch and his kind from the cradle on
"learned Sciences in their Mother Tongue, . . . pierced into the good-
liest secrets of the . . .[Muses], having in their own Tongue the Arts
and goodly disciplines discovered even to the bottom: whereas presently
the best of our age stealeth away in learning of words . . . when we
should enter into the knowledge of things" (North 1676, p. 983). Dryden
takes the opportunity to deplore French contempt for the English
language and to assert the superiority of English "Wit and Writings"
over continental counterparts. Ignorance of the English language on the
part of French residents in England was commonplace. The Comte de
Cominges, ambassador to England from 1662 to 1665, "as well as most
among his predecessors and successors for a long time . . . , made not the
faintest approach to an understanding of the simplest words. He and
his successors write of the Dukes of Boquinquan and Momous, of the
Milords Ladredel, Pitrebaro, and Fichardin . . . ; meaning the not un-
known names of Buckingham, Monmouth, Lauderdale, Peterborough,
454 Commentary
Fitzhardin" (J. J. Jusserand, A French Ambassador at the Court o/
Charles the Second [1892], pp. 52-53).
246:15-18 his Epistles . . . perform'd himself. See Cicero, Ad Atticum,
II, i (Watson).
246:23-249:1 But to return to Plutarch . . . benefit of Instruction.
The substance of S. G. S., which North, as always, translates very closely
(cf. Les Vies, pp. 770 ft.), Dryden here follows without deviation, but
with a distinguished prose style. He achieves his style by a sentence struc-
ture no less elaborated than North's, but given a continuous forward
movement within and among the sentences by a strategic use of the periodic
sentence, by a cause-to-effect sequence of clauses and sentences, and by
a continuous interdependence and simultaneity of argument and example.
His prose manner contrasts most interestingly with the relaxed stateliness
of North, a style gained through a tiered sentence structure (North
1676, p. 983):
Now, as his good fortune made him meet with ex-
cellent masters, and men very carefull to manure so
noble a spirit: so he for his part answered their hope
very sufficiently, shewing himself even from his infancy
to the end of his life wholly given to study, with an
earnest desire (but well governed) to keep his body in
health, to content his mind, and to make himself profit-
able a long time to himself, and to others also. Which
was no hard matter for him, having been carefully
brought up, even from his cradle, and so well governed,
as was requisite to maintain himself long in strength:
his fathers house and table being a School of temperance
and of frugality. Considering furthermore that talk
with learned men was very necessary for him to attain
to that which he pretended: and having a mind desirous
to excell in all things, he travelled into AECYPT, and
talked there of all the ancient doctrine with the wisest
men, whereof afterwards he made a collection and in-
tituled it, of Isis, and Osiris: which is yet left unto us,
where he sheweth himself to be well studied in the
divinity and Philosophy of the AEGYPTIANS. From thence
he returned again into GREECE, and visited the Towns
and Universities where there were any Philosophers,
and frequented them all, to gather together the goodly
instructions which he hath left us. Moreover he began
to make collections, and culled out remembrances not
onely out of the books already published, but also of
the notable talk and discourse which he understood of
the one and the other: also of Registers and Authentical
instruments kept in the Towns where he came, whereof
afterwards he did most artificially frame the most part of
his works. And pretending such a laudable end, the
better to establish his conceits, and to speak with a
Notes to Page 246 455
more commendable authority and good manner: he

made a journey unto the City of SPARTA, of purpose to
see the papers and memories of all the government of
this goodly Commonwealth, and of their Law-makers,
Kings, and Ephores, and gathered together all their
notable deeds and sayings so carefully as could be pos-
sible even to the least words of the simple souldiers and
women of SPARTA, together with all their customs,
ordinances, ceremonies, and fashions to live in common,
and particularly, in War and in Peace. He did the like
in divers other Commonwealths, as his Lives, and the
Demands of things pertaining to the CREEKS and ROMANS
doth amply prove it: without which collections also it
was unpossible for him to have left in writing such
particularities, and he could not but of necessity have
had communication with a great number of men
lovers of Antiquities. Unto that he joyned a curious
search of Statues, Mettals, Inscriptions, Paintings, Ta-
bles: also of Proverbs, Epigrams, Epitaphs, Apoph-
thegms, and other ornaments of History, to leave
nothing behind him. And being continually almost in
the company of learned men in all professions, it
seemeth his memory was always bent to gather, and his
judgement occupied to discern that which was to be re-
jected or retained. By which means he saw himself in
a short time advanced to the knowledge of all things:
moreover he had in his hand goodly briefs and collec-
tions, with the which he finely holp himself, and after-
wards made a good part unto his friends and posterity.
He himself at the beginning of his book treating of
the contentment and quietness of the mind, makes
mention of the memories which he had of long time
made for his own use. So that out of this rich closet he
hath drawn the excellent pieces which have remained
unto us, and which shew how much we have lost being
deprived of them that are no more to be found, and
the which time hath dispersed, or utterly consumed.
Now though that in generall it may be said, that this
man was ignorant in no Learning, nor of the goodly
secrets of Nature: yet this word we must add to it, that
whosoever shall duly consider the entrance, continuance,
composition, binding and inclosing of his Discourse, be
it that he Write an History, or that he by any Treaty
apart will put back vice, and make Vertue to be be-
loved: be it that he sport himself in clearing the diffi-
culties of natural Philosophy, or of the Mathematicks:
be it that he beginneth to commence some disputation
against those whose opinions he disproveth: we shall
456 Commentary
find in his writings an exact and easie method both

together, his proofs sound, and his inductions pleasant
and agreeable to all sorts of wits, and of such pithy
discourses, so that of force we must confess, that this
person had been most excellently directed in his studies,
considering that in speaking after such an easie man-
ner, he presenteth so profound instructions, and I can-
not tell what, where there is always somewhat to be
learned.
247:27 Ephori. In Sparta, five magistrates popularly chosen each year
to exercise controlling power over the king.
249:1-5 For we may perceive . . . Government. Cf. S. G. S.: "Where-
upon may be discerned, that having received in himself a singular pleas-
ure of such study, he always sought to print the same desire and con-
tentment in the thought of all men, leaving the speculations and
pricking questions: onely tending to this good, to bring wisdom into
the houses, to establish it in the Thrones of Kings, to make it go in the
streets, to lodge it in the eyes and ears, upon the tongues, and in the
bottom of the hearts of all men" (North 1676, p. 984).
249:5-23 Finding . . , able to support. Cf. S. G. S.: "Furthermore,
seeing divers Sects in credit in his time, it seemeth he had a good will
to sound into the depth of the value and error of them. Then reaching
higher yet, he hath searched out the opinions of the first Sages. So that
the Pythagoreans, Platonians, Epicureans, Stoicks, and Peripateticians,
with their precepts have been very familiar with him" (North 1676, pp.
983-984). Dryden here skips a passage in S. G. S. (\vhich praises Plutarch's
interrogations of philosophers and his continual reading, muses on the
happy results of these actions, and reflects on the various states of
Plutarch's works, from unpolished school exercises to the mature Lives),
apparently because it interrupts the discussion of Plutarch's judgments
of the philosophers. Dryden resumes a paraphrase of his source when it
resumes discussion of Plutarch's choices among philosophies and provides
him with the following (North 1676, p. 984):
Now, though he had tasted of all the Sects of the
Philosophers, yet you may perceive that inclining to the
Platonians (for he greatly reverenced Socrates and Plato,
whose birth-days he did yearly celebrate) he nevertheless
shut himself within the bounds of modesty of certain
ACADEMICKS, being content simply to propound the
things, but to leave them to the judgement of the
Readers, forcing no man. Furthermore, we see with
what diligence he had turned over the leaves of the
Writings of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks; against
whom he stoutly opposed himself.
Dryden was probably reminded of Cicero by Rualdus. Here he follows
Rualdus as well as S. G. S., and fuses one of Rualdus' sentences (Rualdus,
I, VPC, p. 18) with the account in S. G. S.: Igitur a Stoicis immane
quantum dissidebant, qui alia constanter admittebant, alia reiiciebant

innixi Scitis quibusdam, sive Placitis aut Decretis (?<5waTo ea vocabant)
quae stabilia, fixa, rataque esse volebant, neque moveri ulla ratione, aut
prodi sine scelere posse arbitrabantur, ut docet M. Tullius in IV. Quaes-
tionura Academicarum, eoque AoynaTiKol nominabantur. (Therefore they
were mightily at odds with the Stoics, who consistently admitted some
things and rejected others, relying upon certain principles or decisions
or degrees [dogmas, they called them], which they insisted are stable, fixed,
and ratified, believing that they cannot be altered in any way or betrayed
without a crime. So M. Tullius teaches us in Book IV of the Academics;
and for that reason the Stoics are called "Dogmatics.")
249:24-30 The Pyrrhonians . . . visible. Dryden condenses and rather
sobers up Rualdus' lengthy and mercilessly playful passage on the
Pyrrhonians. Typical sentences (Rualdus, I, VPC, p. 18) include: Contra
vero Sceptic! sive Pyrrhonii sectae suae vel alptacut velut principia et
fundamenta haec posuerunt: . . . nihil definimus: . . . considerantes
perseveramus: . . . non potius illo modo ilia res habet, quam isto, aut
alio. Nihil enim decernebant, nihil constituebant, sed in quaerendo
semper considerandoque erant, quidnam esset omnium rerum, de quo
decerni constituique posset. Ac ne videre quoque plane quicquam, neque
audire sese putabant, sed ita pati afficique, quasi viderent vel audirent.
(On the other hand the Skeptics or Pyrrhonians laid down the following
as principles and foundations of their sect: "We define nothing. We
persevere in considering the problem. A given matter is no more this
way than it is that way or another way." For they decided nothing and
affirmed nothing, but were forever inquiring and considering what there
was of all things about which one could decide and affirm. And they
also thought they didn't absolutely see anything or hear anything, but
had an experience and an impression as if they saw or heard.) Consider
also, relative to Dryden's approving remark about the "Academy,"
Rualdus' penultimate sentence in his chapter on Plutarch's philosophical
position (Rualdus, I, VPC, pp. 18-19): Igitur medii quodammodo
Stoicos inter atque Pyrrhonios Academic! sive Platonici philosophati
sunt, neque cum illis scire se omnia, et Non opinari, et quidlibet vel
adnuere vel abnuere iactitantes: neque cum his avavra T&, irtidava, omnia
probabilia tollentes, et nihil posse definiri, nee hoc ipsum, Nihil posse
definiri, obstinate asserentes. (So the Academics or Platonists took a
philosophical stance about midway between the Stoics and the Pyrrho-
nians, neither vaunting with the former that they knew everything and
did not just think it and they either accepted or rejected anything
whatever, nor joining with the latter in discarding all the probabilities,
and obstinately asserting that nothing can be defined, not even the
assertion that nothing can be defined.)
For the significance of Dryden's remarks here on Pyrrhonism, with
particular reference to the place of skepticism in his thought, see A. E.
Wallace Maurer, "Dryden and Pyrrhonism," NtrQ, n.s., IV (1957), 251-252;
Phillip Harth, Contexts of Dryden's Thought (1968), p. 8.
458 Commentary
249:30-250:18 The Moral Philosophy . . . to a Philosopher. Dryden

picks up just a few sentences from the relevant paragraph in S. G. S.
(North 1676, p. 984):
But Morall Philosophy was his chiefest end: for the
Rational, the Natural, and Mathematicks (the which he
had greatly studied) they were but simple pastimes in
comparison of the other. . . . Furthermore he loved to
talk at the table, and to mingle pleasant grave matters
with some new device: so wittily and sweetly to enterlace
and divide the course of his life, being no crabbed nor
sullen person, but pleasant, and whose company was
troublesom to none: and otherwise as sober and discreet
in his talk, as he was in drinking and eating.
Dryden omits the discussion in one third or so of S. G. S.'s paragraph
on Plutarch's concern with physical exercise and well-being.
250:19-257:4 The Religion he prof ess'd . . . his Guardian Angel.
Both S. G. S. and Dryden next consider Plutarch's religion, but part
company over it. To S. G. S., Plutarch is a lost soul. He grants that
Plutarch was a good man in everything he did, that he was led astray
by his teachers, who did not follow "Eternal Truth," and that he was
"miserably environed with . . . darkness." But these are no mitigating
circumstances. Because Plutarch never knew the true God and could
never know him through his own wit, he is doomed, and deservedly so
(North 1676, pp. 984-986). Dryden rejects this self-righteous exclusion
of Plutarch from the grace of God. Doubtless one reason for doing so
is that a year before, in 1682, he had pointedly argued in Religio Laid
for the distinct possibility of salvation for heathens, including the mighty
ancients who had never encountered Christian Revelation. He based his
argument on God's "boundless Wisedom" and "boundless Mercy" (1.
188) and on an explication of Romans, 11, 14-15 (see Religio, 11. 188-311,
and the preface, 11. 38-66 [Kinsley, I, 303]). That Dryden had his Religio
in mind is clear from line 197 o£ the poem, "Or Ignorance invincible
may plead," and his statement in The Life of Plutarch, "These circum-
stances consider'd, tho they plead not an absolute invincible ignorance
in his behalf, yet they amount at least to a degree of it" (253:3-5).
While Dryden rejects S. G. S.'s exclusion of Plutarch from the possi-
bility of salvation, he picks up for discussion from the same source the
points and the sources in Plutarch which to S. G. S. reveal Plutarch's
"absurd opinions": "the default of Oracles, . . . the Religion of the
JEWS, . . . the inscriptions of the letter E' C in the Temple of DELPHOS;
why the Prophetess Pythia doth no more give her Oracles in Verse; and
. . . many places of the Lives and works, in the which he openly in-
clineth to the superstitions and Atheisms of the PAGANS" (North 1676,
P- 985)-
250:27-35 I have ever thought . . . . call GOD. Cf. Religio, 11. 12-14.
251:20-22 / pretend not . . . be inverted. Dryden, led by Rualdus
(I, VPC, p. 16) to the source containing the passage, gives a free para-
phrase in which the last part (from "whereas" to "another") of his
second quotation appears, in the original, in a preceding sentence. Dryden

could see the original in Rualdus, II, 425.
258:3-10 / mean . . . or decay. Dryden translates freely (see Rualdus,
H. 393)-
253:14-15 Theodoret says . . . his Works. Theodoret was a church
historian and a Christian theologian of the fifth century. Dryden takes
the passage from Rualdus (I, VPG, pp. 15-16).
253:13-14 the Electich Sect, which was begun by Potamon. Potamon
of Alexandria flourished probably at the end of the first century B.C. and
the beginning of the first century A.D. He attempted a synthesis of
Platonic, Peripatetic, and Stoic tenets, without much originality, con-
sistency, or influence.
253:20-254:9 he seems to assert . . . declining into Mortal Bodies.
Dryden derives these observations from a section of Plutarch's essay, De
Oraculorum Defectu, which he could read in Rualdus, II, 414-419 and
passim.
253:35 faculency. Dross.
254:12-13 the story of the Egyptian Thamus. See Rualdus, II, 419
(De Oraculorum Defectu).
254:25 the Genius of Socrates. See Plutarch's De Genio Socratis (Rual-
dus, II, 580, 588).
254:27-30 / cannot but wonder . . . according to Plutarch. See Rual-
dus, I, VPG, p. 16.
255:7-25 The story of the Pythias . . . mischief. See Rualdus, II, 438.
255:25-256:15 There is another observation . . . . pestilential vapours.
See Rualdus, II, 419.
255:30 Sporades. Cf. "many little Deserts and desolate Isles there were
lying dispersed and scattering in the sea about Britain, like unto those
which the Greeks call Sporades" (The Philosophy, Commonly Called, the
Morals Written by the Learned Philosopher Plutarch of Chaeronea.
Translated . . . by Philemon Holland . . . Newly Revised and Cor-
rected [1657], p. 1083).
256:2 Caligula or Claudius. Emperors of Rome: Caligula, A.D. 37-41;
Claudius, A.D. 41-54. Clough (I, xxvi) says "undoubtedly much later,"
but does not explain.
256:26 as they did on the Shepherd Coretas. See Rualdus, II, 433-435.
256:29 Mopsits. See Rualdus, II, 434.
257:1 the Genius of Socrates. See 254:25^
257:5 / pretend. Although he deals in the following pages with some
of the details (of Plutarch's family, his residence in Rome, his relation-
ship with the emperor Trajan, his return to Greece, and occasional errors
in his work) which S. G. S. presents in the rest of his life of Plutarch,
Dryden drops this source here and draws much more heavily on Rualdus.
257:9-29 / will in the next place . . . their Memory. See Rualdus, I,
VPC, p. 12.
257:33-258:5 The French Translator Amiot . . . as Budceus notes.
Amyot (at the beginning of his version of the Symposiacon, I, iv) trans-
lates yap/lpts as "gendre," or son-in-law (Les CEuvres Morales de Plutarque
460 Commentary
. . . [Paris, 1612], II, 16). Dryden gets the correction by Budaeus (Guil-
laume Bud£, 1467-1540, a French scholar of vast erudition) from Rualdus
(I, VPC, p. 12): Nee enim ya.iJ.pp6s duntaxat filiae maritum vel generum
significat, ut vertit Gallicus interpres; sed & socerum, & uxoris fratrem,
et maritum sororis, ut eruditissimus Budaeus adnotat. (For the word
yapppts means not only a daughter's husband or son-in-law, as the French
translator has it, but also father-in-law and a wife's brother and a sister's
husband, as the very learned Budaeus notes.)
258:7 by his own Country-men of the present Age. Malone alludes to
one such countryman, Claude-Caspar Bachet, Sieur de Meziriac (1581-
1638), who "could point out two thousand gross errours in Amiot's
translation" (Malone, II, 378n).
258:9-10 from the Greek Original. Rend Sturel shows the Greek, Latin,
and French versions of Plutarch's Lives which Amyot probably had before
him (Jacques Amyot: Traducteur des Vies Paralleles de Plutarque
[1908], pp. 155-187).
258:10-11 Two other Sons . . . Timoxena. Dryden takes this state-
ment from Rualdus (I, VPC, p. 12), where he also finds (pp. 12-13) the
other details about Plutarch's children.
258:11-12 His eldest . . . Symposiaques. In the Symposiacon, IV, iii,
Plutarch alludes to his son's marriage (Rualdus, II, 666): In nuptiis
Autobuli filii. (At the marriage of my son Autobulus.) See also the
dialogue in VIII, x (Rualdus, II, 735).
258:20-23 His Nephew. See 24o:8-gn.
258:28-29 Suidas plainly tells us. See Suidae Lexicon, III, 300. Inci-
dentally, the Suidae Lexicon (III, 299-300) says that Sextus Chaeronensis
was a nephew of Plutarch by his brother. Probably Dryden simply picked
up Rualdus' allusion (natione Afer, ut notat Suidas [African by nation-
ality, as Suidas notes]) to the note in the Suidae Lexicon (Rualdus, I,
VPC, p. 11).
258:31-34 an ingenious and Learned old Gentleman . . . The Book.
The "old Gentleman" is as yet unidentified. "The Book" may be the
Greek text of the treatises of Sextus Empiricus first printed at Geneva
in 1621.
259:1 Longinits. Dryden could have picked up an allusion to a
Longinus-Plutarch kinship in Rualdus (I, VPC, p. 12): sororem ei fuisse
nomine Frontinidem (igitur neptem Plutarchi) ex eaque Longinum,
Criticum clarissimum, nepotem (igitur Plutarchi pronepotem) accipimus.
(We learn that he had a sister named Frontinis [therefore a grand-
daughter of Plutarch] and from her a grandson named Longinus, the
very famous critic [therefore a great-grandson of Plutarch].) Dryden's
dubiousness, however, contrasting with the certainty of Rualdus' accipi-
mus, suggests a source other than Rualdus. For the reputation of Di-
onysius Cassius Longinus (c. 210-273), formerly thought the author of
On the Sublime, and of his work and its significance to neoclassical
writers in England, see Samuel H. Monk, The Sublime: A Study of
Critical Theories in XVIII-Cenlury England (1960).
259:9-17 he was courteous . . . occasions. Dryden takes this observation

as well as the quoted passage from Rualdus (I, VPC, p. 19).
859:17-24 What he was . . . out and old. See Rualdus, I, VPC, p. 19.
259:29-260:24 the following story . . . on his back. Both Rualdus (I,
VPC, pp. 19-20) and S. G. S. (North 1676, p. 986) give this anecdote. Since,
as the evidence strongly suggests (see 259:9-17^, Dryden here follows
Rualdus on Plutarch's disposition, he probably takes the anecdote from
that editor, for it follows immediately upon the material that Dryden has
just borrowed from him.
260:31-32 the Life of Lucullus. See Plutarch's life of Cymon in Rualdus,
I, 479. If Dryden did not himself recall Plutarch's claim that the life of
Lucullus was a labor of gratitude, Rualdus reminded him (Rualdus, I,
VPC, p. 21).
261:4 calumnies of Herodotus. See Plutarch's De Herodoti Malignitate
(Rualdus, II, 854). More likely, however, Dryden is reminded by Rualdus
(I, VPC, p. 21) of Plutarch's treatment of Herodotus: Et quo denique
Boeotiam terram natalem ab ignominiae labe, quam ei Herodotus, Jure
an iniuria? impressum iuerat, liberaret, ei praestantissimo auctori, ac nihil
alias de se male merito, literarium bellum indixit, contraque ilium volumen
composuit, cuius est inscriptio ™pl TTJJ KaKoyeelas 'HpoS6rov. (And finally
in order to clear his native land of Boeotia from the ignominious stain
that Herodotus, rightly or wrongly, had put upon it, he declared literary
war on that distinguished author, who had in no other way deserved ill
of him, and composed against him the volume entitled "On the Malice of
Herodotus.")
261:7 Herodotus had said no more. For a discussion of Herodotus'
motives and of Plutarch's reactions to Herodotus, see Plutarch's Moralia
(Loeb trans.), XI, 2-6.
261:10-11 Petrarch has accus'd. Dryden's source for this statement about
Petrarch is Rualdus (I, VPC, p. 21): Etsi ob hunc librum in invidiae ac
maledicentiae crimen apud nonnullos incurrit, quod alibi nos ostendimus:
sicut quod Latinis ingeniis nunquam nimis indulserit, hoc ei vitio vertit
& Ka.Koti6ela eius tribuit Petrarcha. (And yet because of this book he incurs
with some the accusation of spite and abusiveness, as we demonstrate
elsewhere. Similarly, because he was never overkind to the characters of
the Romans, Petrarch accounted this a fault in him and attributed it to
his malice.) As Arnaldo Momigliano has shown ("The Place of Herodotus
in the History of Historiography," in Studies in Historiography [1966],
pp. 127-128), Petrarch objected to Cicero's calling Herodotus a liar. So
far, however, we have been unable to discover that Petrarch reproached
Plutarch for taxing Herodotus with malice.
261:22-262:6 On what occasion . . . the suruivour Titus. Dryden fol-
lows Rualdus here (I, VPC, p. si).
261:32 Galba, Otho and Vitellius. Galba (Servius Sulpicius Galba)
was emperor from A.D 68 to 69; Otho (Marcus Salvius Otho), briefly in
69; and Vitellius (Aulus Vitellius), in 69. Cf. Astraea, 11. 67-70.
261:33-34 Vespasian. Emperor from A.D. 69 to 79.
462 Commentary
262:1 his Son Titus. Emperor from A.D. 79 to 81.

862:6-19 He says . . . dismiss'd the Company. Rualdus quotes this
passage. Dryden, as his parenthesis indicates, simply follows Rualdus, who
has a parenthesis (of identification referred to by Dryden) at the same
point (I, VPC, p. 22).
262:8-9 Arulenus Rusticus, the same Man . . . to death. Arulenus
Rusticus, a Stoic philosopher, was put to death about A.D. 93.
262:19-20 to prove that this Emperour was not Domitian. Domitian
was emperor from A.D. 81 to 96.
262:24-263:2 This Rusticus . . . oppressour of the Roman Liberty.
Dryden greatly compresses Rualdus here (I, VPC, pp. 22-23).
263:8-23 That he was invited . . . ninety nine. Dryden draws the
details concerning Sossius Senecio and Plutarch's association with him
from Rualdus (I, VPC, p. 21). Rualdus does not refer to the dedication of
the life of Aratus; he does refer to the opinion of Aurelius Cassiodorus.
263:8-10 That he was invited . . . undeniable. Scott says "This sen-
tence is ungrammatical, as has been observed by Mr. Malone. Perhaps
we ought to read, 'that he was invited thither; and that.' " The segment
of the sentence here involved is pitilessly complex but not ungrammatical:
"That he was invited thither by the correspondence" (with its adjective
clause "he had with Sossius Senecio") is a noun clause, the subject of
"might be." The words from "That he was invited" to "that Journey"
constitute a noun clause, the subject of "is." That is, it is practically un-
deniable that Sossius Senecio's invitation to Plutarch in correspondence
might have been one reason for Plutarch's undertaking the journey.
263:24-264:4 But the great inducement . . . 50 noble an undertaking.
Dryden's and Rualdus' sentiments are akin, though here Dryden elabo-
rates the point more than does Rualdus (I, VPC, p, 22).
264:7-20 Demosthenes . . . its perfection. Rualdus quotes this passage
(I, VPC, p. 22).
264:20-25 Tis then most probable . . . Records, concerning Rome. Cf.
Rualdus, I, VPC, p. 22.
264:28 Suidas. See Suidae Lexicon, III, 133, and 239:25^
264:29 Trajan. Trajan was emperor from 98 to 117.
265:7 the French Author of his Life. The author could be Rualdus,
Amyot, or S. G. S. Rualdus, who might seem the obvious candidate, makes
no remark like Dryden's. Amyot feels bound to explain Plutarch's ad-
vancement to this office ("the thing that maketh me most to believe it
true," etc.), but he says nothing that ties in with Dryden's phrase "as
having no relation either to Chceronea, or Greece" (North 1676, "Amiot
to the Readers," sig. A[5]r/). The meager evidence suggests that Dryden's
"French Author" is S. G. S., who does seem "to wonder at" (to use Dry-
den's words) the claim that Plutarch held office in Illyricum. He docs
not, however, connect the matter with Dryden's Chaeronea or Greece,
but he does with Italy and Greece (North 1676, p. 990):
besides the great honour he [Trajan] had done him
at ROME, having made him a Consull, he commanded
(as saith Suidas) that all the Magistrates and Officers
which were in the Province of SLAVONY, should do
nothing but under his Authority. If we had the Books
of Marius Maximus, of Fabius Marcellinus, of Aurelius
Verus, and of Statius Valens, which have written the
Life of Traian: we might easily draw on this matter
further, the which Suidas (according to his stile) is con-
tented to touch in one word. And Dion who was a
GREEK, a man very forgetfull for an Historian, and that
in some places shewed he had no great judgement: he
seemeth to have suppressed the name of Plutarch, as
though he had been offended with the fame obtained
by this man. Or else, if one will take things in good
part, as I incline unto it, it may be he thought he needed
make no mention of one whose Writings made him
to be known sufficiently. Yet furthermore, I do not
find that Plutarch was in SLAVONIE at all, and if so be
that he made any Journey thither, I think he tarried
not long there: because it appeareth in divers places
of his Works, that his abode was most in ITALY and in
GREECE.
Furthermore, Dryden could get the details just preceding the phrase in
question, on the defeat and death of Decebalus, king of Dacia, from
S. G. S. on the page preceding the passage just quoted (North 1676,
P- 989):
[Trajan] was so fortunate and brave a Chieftain of an
Army, so beloved of his Captains and Souldiers, that
there was never any mutiny or disorder in his Camp.
That made him dreadfull to those that troubled him
near or far off, of which the chiefest was Decebalus
King of the DACIANS: whom he pursued so hard, that
being unpossible for him to escape, he killed himself.
265:19-20 above six hundred years ago. It should be five hundred
years, as Saintsbury notes, for John of Salisbury died in 1180. Rualdus,
whose edition was published in 1624, made it "a little under five hundred
years" (quingentos paulo minus [Rualdus, I, VPG, p. 29]). John of
Salisbury, a twelfth-century scholar, philosopher, theologian, and human-
ist, was Bishop of Chartres.
265:25-266:19 / have here Translated . . . Authority of Plutarch.
Dryden translates the letter given in Latin by Rualdus (I, VPC, p. 29).
For a discussion of the tradition that Plutarch knew Trajan well and of
the place of this "letter" in the evidence, see R. H. Barrow, Plutarch and
His Times (1967), pp. 45-50.
266:32-33 he might continue in Italy near forty years. Dryden un-
dogmatically arrives at "near forty years." His speculations (261:22-263:2)
suggest that Plutarch arrived in Rome anytime between A.D. 69, when
Vespasian became emperor, and 81, when Domitian became emperor, or
even as late as 93, when Arulenus Rusticus was killed. If Plutarch left
at the time of or shortly after Trajan's death in 117, he had remained
464 Commentary
in Rome, by Dryden's reckoning, anywhere from twenty-five to forty-

eight years. Dryden's "near forty years" is judicious.
267:7 Trajan. Dryden could have taken the details for his account of
the relationship between Trajan and Plutarch given in this and pre-
ceding paragraphs from Rualdus (I, VPC, pp. 28-29) and from S. G. S.
(North 1676, pp. 987-990).
267:9 in his own words. Plutarch expresses his affection for Chaeronea
in this manner in the opening passage of his life of Demosthenes. Dry-
den, if he did not recall the source himself, could have picked it up from
Rualdus (I, VPC, p. 29), from whom he could also have acquired the
other details in this paragraph concerning Plutarch's return home.
267:16 great old age. Plutarch was born before A.D. 50, perhaps c. 47,
and died after 120, perhaps in 127.
267:30-32 Catalogue made by his Son . . . Paris Edition. See Lamprias
catalogue, pp. 16-19, m Rualdus, I. On the reliability of this source, see
Barrow, Plutarch, pp. 193-194.
268:4-5 the Forgery of Donato Acciaiolo. In relating the account of
this forgery, Dryden closely follows Rualdus, who gives the passage from
Acciaiolo's life of Hannibal, the passage from Livy (which Dryden does
not quote), and the passage from Plutarch's life of Pyrrhus (Rualdus, I,
VPC, pp. 40-41).
268:11 Nomenclature. "A catalogue, a register" (OED).
268:30-31 a meer compendium . . . from Livy. See Rualdus, I, VPC,
pp. 40-41, or see Livy, X, Bk. XXXV, xiv.
269:17-18 Dion Cassius. Dio Cassius Cocceianus (c. 155-0. 235) wrote a
Roman history (not all preserved) from the beginning to A.D. 229.
269:24-25 Animadversions of the often prais'd Rualdus. Rualdus
wrote fifty-two animadversions, which follow his Vita Plutarchi Chaeronen-
sis (see Rualdus, I, 67-150).
269:29 Plutarch in the life of Cicero. See Rualdus, I, 864 (the life
of Cicero).
269:34-270:1 Varro . . . Verres . . . Majalis. Varro (see Libri De Re
Rustica, M. Catonis Lib. I; M. Terentii Varronis Lib. HI . . . [Paris,
1543], p. 84°) writes: Castrantur verres commodissime anniculi, utique ne
minores, quam semestres: quo facto nomen mutant, atque e verribus
dicunter maiales. (The best time for castrating boars is when they are a
year old, or certainly not less than six months. When this is done, their
name is changed and they are called barrows instead of boars.) Dryden,
however, had no need to consult Varro. He doubtless had his memory
refreshed by Rualdus' Animadversio XXIX, which cites the passage from
Varro and marshals a detailed commentary on the issue (Rualdus, I,
Joannis Rualdi Animadversiones, pp. 117-119).
270:20-21 it has alwayes . . . of my life. Dryden enjoyed reading his-
tory very early in life. In The Character of Polybius he writes (1693, sigs.
Biw-Bs; S-S, XVIII, 32-33):
I had read him [Polybius] in English with the pleasure
of a Boy, before I was ten years of Age; and yet even
then, had some dark Notions of the prudence with
which he conducted his design; particularly in making

me know, and almost see the places where such and
such Actions were perform'd. This was the first dis-
tinction which I was then capable of making, betwixt
him and other Historians, which I read early. But when
being of a riper Age, I took him again into my hands;
I must needs say, that I have profited more by read-
ing him, than by Thucydides, Appian, Dion Cassius,
and all the rest of the Greek Historians together: And
amongst all the Romans, none have reach'd him in
this particular, but only Tacitus, who is equal to him.
Throughout his works Dryden referred to some fifty historians (see A. E.
Wallace Maurer, "Dryden's Knowldege of Historians, Ancient and Mod-
ern," NbQ, n.s., VI [1959], 264-266).
270:28 Prospective-Glass. Telescope.
271:3-12 God, tis true . . . to choose. See headnote, p. 436 and n. 23.
271:12-14 The Laws of History . . . clearness of expression. That is,
as the rest of the paragraph makes clear, there are two laws of history:
(i) truth of matter and (2) method and clearness of expression.
271:26-29 History is principally divided . . . particular Men. Rualdus
does not explicitly define these categories as Dryden does, but he talks
in much the same terms and defines the same hierarchical relationships
among them which Dryden accepts. From sentences such as the two
following (Rualdus, I, VPC, p. 47), one can infer Rualdus' view of the
tripartite division of historical writing: Hoc siquidem pacto fe gesta
publice literis commendantur, quod facere solum Annales recipiunt, &
acta privatim, alterum historiae munus, exquisite narrantur (In this way
both public affairs are entrusted to writing [the only thing that annals
undertake to do] and private affairs, the second task of history, are
elegantly told); Habemus illustrium Vitarum scriptores non minus (ne
quid amplius colligam) quam Annalium et maiorum Historiarum, generi
hominum contulisse (We hold that writers of illustrious lives have con-
tributed to mankind no less, not to say more, than writers of annals and
major histories). See also Rualdus, I, VPC, ch. xxv, xxvi-xxx passim. See
also below, 275'.«i-24n.
272:30-31 ne quid falsi . . . Historicus. Adapted from Cicero, De
Oratore, II, xv, 62: Nam quis nescit primam esse historiae legem, ne quid
falsi dicere audeat? deinde ne quid veri non audeat? (For who does not
know that the first law of history is this: not to dare to tell what is false?
And that the second is not to dare to refrain from telling what is
true?)
273:3-6 Guicchiardine, and D'Avila . . . Philip de Commines. Fran-
cesco Guicciardini (1483-1540), Italian statesman and historian, author
of Storia d'ltalia. Dryden may have alluded to him in two earlier works:
Heroique Stanzas to the Glorious Memory of Cromwell, 11. 63-64 (see
Works, I, 13, and n), and Astraea, 11. 201-202 (ibid., p. 27). Enrico
Caterino Davila (1576-1631), after serving in the French religious wars,
retired to Italy and wrote Historia delle guerre civili di Francia, a popular
466 Commentary
history of the French civil wars. Two English royalists, Sir Charles
Cotterell and William Aylesbury (whose sister married Clarendon), trans-
lated the woik into English (1647-48). Dryden used their translation as a
source for The Duke of Guise, and also used Davila in the prefatory
epistle to The Medall to chastise the Whigs (Kinsley, I, 251, 11. 58 ff.). Dry-
den's copy of Davila's Historic, is in the William Andrews Clark Memorial
Library. Philippe de Comraynes (c. 1447-1511) was a French statesman
and historian whose Memoires is one of the great works of medieval
history. Dryden consistently admired him. See The Character of Polybius
(1693, sig. E'jv; S-S, XVIII, 38) and the postscript to Dryden's translation
of Louis Maimbourg's The History of the League (1684, p. 38; S-S, XVII,
177)-
273:9 Buchanan. George Buchanan (1506-1582), first a moderate Cath-
olic, was later converted to Protestantism as a result of his biblical studies.
His history of Scotland, Rerum Scoticarum Historia, was violently anti-
Catholic, but its Latin won wide admiration, as Dryden here testifies. A
year later, in the postscript to his translation of Maimbourg's History of
the League, Dryden expresses contempt for Buchanan's antimonarchy
doctrines (1684, pp. 17-18; S-S, XVII, 164).
274:26-27 For this reason Aristotle . . . a Poem. See Poetics, VIII and
XXIII.
274:33-34 Biography. Although OED records no use of the word earlier
than Dryden's, it had been used in English as early as 1661 in the
anonymous Life of . . . Dr. Thomas Fuller (see Donald A. Stauffer,
English Biography before ijoo [1930], p. 219).
874:34-275:9 All History . . . they are more powerful. Dryden follows
Rualdus here on the differing effects of philosophical reasoning and his-
torical example (Rualdus, I, VPC, p. 47). As authority for his observations
Rualdus refers to but does not quote Aristotle, Problems, XVIII, 3. (Loeb
trans.: "Why is it that men prefer examples in speeches and tales rather
than enthymemes? Is it because they enjoy learning and learning quickly?
And they learn more easily by examples and tales; for what they learn in
this way is an individual fact, but enthymemes are a demonstration based
on generalities, which are less familiar than individual facts. Moreover,
we are more ready to believe in facts for which many bear witness, and
examples and tales resemble evidence; also proof supported by evidence
is easy to obtain. Again men gladly learn of similarities, and examples
and tales display similarities.")
274:34-35 All history . . . into Examples. Cf. Rualdus, I, VPC, p. 47:
Neque sit mihi dubium, quin antiqui sapientes hanc in animo pioypaiplaf
habuerint, quando Historian! nihil esse aliud, nisi exemplis utentem
Philosophiam, pronunciaverunt. (And I should have no doubt that the
sages of old had this biography in mind when they declared that history
is nothing but philosophy teaching by means of examples.)
275:9-12 Now unity . ... is Aristotles. Dryden translates from Rual-
dus' Greek quotation and Latin translation (Rualdus, I, VPC, p. 47) of
Aristotle, Problems, XVIII, g. (Loeb trans.: "Why do we enjoy listening to
accounts of a single episode more than to those which deal with many?
Is it because we pay greater attention to more comprehensible subjects

and listen to them with greater pleasure? But that which is limited in
time is better known than the unlimited. And the single thing is limited,
but a plurality partakes of the unlimited.")
275:21-24 But there is withal . . . not admit. The source for this
sentence is Rualdus, I, VPC, p. 53: Posse autem non Annalium quidem,
sed Vitarum scriptores ad minuta quaeque se demittere, ac levissima
interdum consectari, clare noster non uno loco docuit: qui propterea cum
Virorum illustrium vitas scribit, negat se proprie historian scribere, neque
iisdem, quibus qui scribunt historian!, legibus esse subiectum. (Our author
has clearly shown in more than one passage that the writers, not of
annals, to be sure, but of lives, may go down to all the details and some-
times pursue the most trivial matters; therefore when he is writing the
lives of illustrious men, he says he is not writing history, properly speak-
ing, and is not subject to the same rules as historians are.)
275:36-276:7 in the Life of Alexander . . . Victories. Following Rual-
dus on the argument that biography can illuminate with minute details,
Dryden does not need to go to the original. Rualdus quotes the passage in
Greek and gives a Latin translation (I, VPC, p. 53).
276:7-10 he quotes Xenophon . . . Posterity. Again Rualdus provides
Dryden with the passage (Rualdus, I, VPC, p. 53), actually an allusion
to Xenophon which Plutarch himself makes in his life o£ Agesilaus (see
Rualdus, I, 612).
276:16 Idiotism. "Idiomatic character" (OED).
276:21-34 // we compare him . . . most usually both. Suetonius, Taci-
tus, Dio Cassius, and Herodian are the first four of a group of historians
whom Rualdus compares with Plutarch. Dryden gives the gist of Rualdus'
comments on Suetonius and Tacitus, but he attributes faults to Dio
Cassius and Herodian which Rualdus in no way suggests (see Rualdus, I,
VPC, p. 48).
277:4 An Example of which is in the Life of Lucullus. Dryden is re-
minded of the example by Rualdus, who devotes a good part of a chapter
to it (Rualdus, I, VPC, pp. 49-50).
277:35 his stile. In this paragraph Dryden draws heavily on Rualdus
for his major points: the tree simile; the elements of style discussed and
what is said about them; the comparisons with Xenophon, Herodotus,
and Thucydides; and the allusion to the decay of the Greek language
during and before Plutarch's times. See Rualdus' ch. xxiv, "De Stylo
Plutarchi" (Rualdus, I, VPC, p. 46).
279:16-281:27 vindicated by Montaign , . . before the other. Dryden
condenses and paraphrases Montaigne's essay "Defence de Seneque et de
Plutarque" (Les Essais de Michel Seigneur de Montaigne [Paris, 1625], pp.
640-646).
281:30 the works of a French Gentleman. Charles de Marguetel de
Saint-Denis, Seigneur de Saint-fivremond (1614-1703). Dryden translates
Saint-fcvremond's judgment of Plutarch given in the essay "Jugement sur
Seneque, Plutarque et IVtrone" (Saint-fivremond, I, 163-164).
282:9 That alieni appetens stii profusus. Sallust, Catilina, V, 4. (Loeb
468 Commentary
trans.: "Covetous of others' possessions, he [Catiline] was prodigal of

his own.")
282:16 taken out of the life of Sylla. See Rualdus, I, 454-455 (life of
Sylla).
883:23-24 Qui cum victus erit, mecum certasse feretur. Ovid, Metamor-
phoses, XIII, 20 (Anyone conquered by me can at least say he strove
with me).
283:26 Varro. Marcus Teremius Varro (116-27 B.C.) is a happy choice.
His writings extending into all the major sciences and arts, he was per-
haps the most learned of the Romans. He was a pupil of the Greeks
in method but remained an independent collector of information and
provided vast materials for pagan and Christian authors.
283:27 Pomponius Atticus. Titus Pomponius Atticus (109-32 B.C.).
Again there is reason behind Dryden's suggestion. Pomponius Atticus was
an urbane and discreet neutralist capable of surviving the civil wars by
being a friend to all and an ally of none; he was a very able and wealthy
businessman, a discriminating patron of the arts who understood Greek
culture and whose home was a well-known literary center. A confidant of
Cicero, he published their correspondence. In 1690 Dryden hailed Philip
Sidney, the third Earl of Leicester, to whom he dedicated Don Sebastian,
as a second Pomponius Atticus (1690, sigs. Az-Aqv; S-S, VII, 298-305).
284:5 candid. "Kindly" (OED).
284:32 arguteness. "Mental sharpness, shrewdness" (OED).
285:3 that little Treatise. "The Dialogue on Love," part of which is a
debate on pederasty.
285:5 obnoxious. "Liable" (OED).
285:7-8 An ingenious Frenchman. Saint-£vremond, who at the begin-
ning of his essay "Jugement sur S^neque, Plutarque et Pdtrone" (Saint-
fivremond, I, 154-155) writes: "Je commenceray par Seneque, et vous
diray avec la derniere impudence que j'estime beaucoup plus sa personne
que ses Ouvrages. J'estime le Precepteur de Neron, 1'Amant d'Agripine,
un ambitieux qui pretendoit a 1'Empire; du Philosophe et de 1'Escrivain,
je n'en fais pas grand cas, et je ne suis touched ni de son stile, ni de ses
sentimens." Throughout the paragraph Dryden accepts—with a trace of
skepticism—Saint-£vremond's claim that Seneca was the lover of Agrip-
pina, the mother of Nero. Present-day scholarship offers no warrant for
such a claim, but Tacitus and especially Dio Cassius (Roman History,
VIII, Ixi) provided the Renaissance with the suggestion. S. G. S., who
also compiled a life of Seneca, writes that "Dion and others do accuse
him [Seneca], that he had been somewhat bold with Agrippina" (North
1676, p. 999).
285:14 as Nero was then beginning to appear. In a very unchrono-
logical discussion here, Dryden is assuming his readers' close familiarity
with the chronology of Seneca's relations with Nero, Claudius, and Agrip-
pina. Claudius, a notoriously weak figure, was proclaimed emperor in
A.D. 41, the year in which his third wife, Messalina, secured Seneca's ban-
ishment to Corsica. In 48 Claudius married Agrippina, his niece, who in
49 was influential in recalling Seneca from banishment and in appointing
him as Nero's tutor, and who in 50 persuaded Claudius to adopt her son
Nero as the guardian of his own son Britannicus (by Messalina), four
years Nero's junior. In 50 Seneca became a praetor. In 54 Claudius died,
it is thought murdered by Agrippina to make way for Nero. The
Apocolocyntosis, presumably by Seneca, satirized Claudius' consecration.
In 54 Seneca advanced from tutor to minister, and in 55 or 56 reached
his political peak, obtaining a suffect consulate. With Afranius Burrus he
wielded enormous influence. In 59 Seneca was a reluctant accessory to
Agrippina's murder; in 62, near seventy years old, he sought to retire,
the restraint he imposed on Nero having made his own position pre-
carious. He gradually withdrew from public affairs. In 65, charged with
being a member of the Pisonian conspiracy, he was ordered by Nero to
commit suicide.
285:17 the Empress. I.e., Agrippina.
285:21 a fool. I.e., Claudius, the husband of Agrippina.
285:22 a Pedant. Seneca, appointed Nero's tutor in A.D. 49.
285:23-25 for it puts me in mind . . . the Rehearsal. The play by
George Villiers, the second Duke of Buckingham (assisted by Samuel
Butler and Thomas Sprat), which burlesqued the heroic tragedy and
satirized Dryden. Dryden refers to the "grand Dance" in Act V and to
four cardinals and an unspecified number of judges who are mutes in
this scene. Cf. Letter to Etherege, 11. 74-77 (Works, HI, 226).
285:28 Claudius. I.e., Agrippina's husband.
285:28 Petronius. An able governor of Bithynia, Petronius rose in
Nero's favor, becoming the arbiter elegantiae, or authority in matters of
entertainment and good taste. Most authorities identify him as author
of the Satyricon, a work on the contemporary scene, full of wit, parody,
and satire.
285:31 But let the Historian. I.e., Saint-fivremond or possibly S. G. S.,
who compiled a life of Seneca which appears in Amyot and which, as
Rene1 Ternois points out, Saint-fivremond had read (Saint-fivremond, I,
150-151). Dryden must have been aware of S. G. S.'s life of Seneca,
which was both in Amyot and in North: it immediately followed the
life of Plutarch (see North 1676, pp. 997-1014; see also 285:7-8^.
286:1 Apocolocyntosis. Written just after Claudius' death in A.D. 54.
286:9 He censures Mecenas. See, e.g., Seneca, Ad Lucilium Epistulae
Morales, XIX, 9.
286:18-19 His Latin, as Monsieur St. Ewemont has well observ'd.
In "Jugement sur Seneque, Plutarque et Pe'trone" (Saint-fivremond,
I. 155)-
286:21-24 Petronius said . . . . the old Rhetorician. The "old Rhet-
orician" is the teacher of rhetoric, Agamemnon, in the Satyricon by
Petronius. To understand how Dryden makes that attribution, one must
see (i) his reading in Saint-£vremond and (2) the two places in the
Satyricon to which Saint-£vremond leads him. Saint-fivremond, Dryden
finds, denies the opinion of one Berville (unidentified; see Saint-fivre-
mond, I, 156 n. i) that Petronius portrayed Seneca in the charac-
ter of the poet Eumolpus (ibid., pp. 155-157); but Saint-£vremond
470 Commentary
nonetheless asserts that Petronius, in attacking the style of his time and
the corruption of eloquence and poetry, is attacking Seneca. As evidence
Saint-fivremond (I, 157-158) uses two of the phrases picked up by
Dryden: Controversies sententiis vibrantibus piclce (declamation adorned
with quivering epigrams) and vanus Sententiarum strepitus (loud empty
phrases). The latter phrase comes from Satyricon, i, which, with
Satyricon, 2, through Encolpius, the narrator, accuses the rhetoricians of
pedantry, isolation from the world, and cultivation of manner rather
than matter, all of which keep their students from appreciating true
eloquence. To sum up Encolpius' accusation Dryden adds the sentence
from Satyricon, 2: Pace vestra liceat dixisse, primi omnium eloquentiam
perdidistis. (Loeb trans.: "With your permission I must tell you the
truth, that you teachers more than anyone have been the ruin of true
eloquence.") In Satyricon, 3-5, the rhetorician Agamemnon answers En-
colpius, patiently explaining that not only rhetoricians are guilty but
also parents who urge their children on to careers too fast and students
who do not diligently study and prepare themselves for the stern de-
mands of art. The context of Satyricon, 1-5, therefore, reveals Agamem-
non as Dryden's "old Rhetorician" (see Petronius, Salyricon [Loeb ed.],
1-5). An obstacle to the acceptance of this interpretation might seem
to be one of the phrases—Controversies sententiis vibrantibus pictee—
picked up by Dryden from Saint-fivremond. It comes from Satyricon,
118, where not Agamemnon but the poet Eumolpus uses it to deride
those who think a poem easier to construct than a forensic oration.
Galled by a dilettantish attitude toward the art of poetry, Eumolpus
invests the phrase with deep scorn for preciousness and irrelevance in
oratory. The phrase, therefore, continues the theme of false oratory with
which Agamemnon earlier is "taxed" and against which he defends him-
self. Hence Dryden can use it here without obscuring the initial allusion
to Agamemnon.
286:25-30 What quarrel . . . Seneca's false Eloquence. Dryden's ref-
erence to Seneca and Lucan results also from his reading Saint-£vremond
and the Satyricon. Saint-£vremond (I, 158) leads Dryden from the phrase
per ambages et Deorum ministeria (through dark ways and the service of
the gods) to its context in Satyricon, 118, where Petronius apparently
attacks the Pharsalia. In Satyricon, 118-124, Dryden also evidently finds
"the first Oration of Eumolpus." For one thing, it is Eumolpus' longest
speech in the Satyricon; second, it is his most impassioned plea for
poetry; and third, in passing, while calling great only the poetry that is
steeped in all the great literature of the past, it derides false rhetoric.
(See z86:2i-24n.)
286:25-26 the Unckle and the Nephew . . . Seneca and Lucan. Seneca
the younger and Lucan's father (Marcus Annaeus Mela) were sons of
Seneca the elder. Saint-fivremond's "de 1'Oncle et du Nepveu" (I, 158)
reminds Dryden of the relationship.
286:35-287:1 yet putting . . . in Britain. According to Dio Cassius
(Roman History, VIII, Ixii), Seneca once lent the Britons 40 million
Notes to Pages 286-287 47 *
sesterces, then later "called in this loan all at once and . . . resorted to
severe measures in exacting it" (Loeb trans.).
287:3-4 in his old age . . . young Woman. About A.D. 50, Seneca
married the very young Pompeia Paulina (see Pierre Grimal, Seneque
[1948], pp. 22-23).
287:13-17 He reckons Gellius . . . Lipsius. In Rualdus (I, VPC, pp.
54-57) appear, in the order listed by Dryden, the tributes to Plutarch
expressed by all these post-Augustan and Renaissance writers: Aulus
Gellius (c. i23~c. 167), author of Nodes Atticae, a diverting miscellany
containing fragments of lost works and information on many areas of
classical learning; Eusebius of Pamphilus (c. s6o-c. 340), Bishop of
Caesarea; Himerius the Sophister (c. 3io-c. 386), Greek rhetorician; Eu-
napius (c. 345-?. 414), Greek rhetorician and historiographer; Cyrillus of
Alexandria (s87?-444), Patriarch of Alexandria, theologian, and politician;
Theodoret (see 252:14-15^; Agathias (c. 536-0. 582), Byzantine poet,
historian, and compiler of epigrams, including his own; Photius (c. 820-?.
891), Patriarch of Constantinople, 858-867 and 877-886, scholar, and
author of Bibliotheca, a collection of comments on 280 books read by
him; John Xiphilinus (c. 1010-1075), Patriarch of Constantinople, jurist,
and theologian; Johannes Sarisberiensis (see 265:19-20^; Petrus Victorius,
or Pietro Vettori (1499-1585), brilliant Florentine scholar of Greek and
Latin; Justus Lipsius (1547-1606), Belgian humanist, influential editor
of Latin texts, and essayist in moral and political theory.
287:18-29 Theodorus Gaza . . . of them all. Teodoro Gaza (b. at
beginning of fifteenth century, d. 1478) was a Greek who flourished in
Italy as a Latin and Greek scholar and humanist. Dryden doubtless
found the anecdote in Xylander's Vita Plutarchi (p. 11, in Rualdus, I):
Praeclara etiam est Theodori Gazae, hominis doctissimi, & antiqua Graecia
digni, sententia, qui interrogatus (ut accepimus) a familiaribus suis,
quemnam ex omnium scriptorum numero delecturus foret, si caeterorum
omnium amittendorum incumberet necessitas; Plutarchum respondit,
sentiens, a nemine quoquc plura, ac magis varia, utiliora etiam ad
oblectationem animi facientia edita esse volumina. (Splendid also is the
remark of Gaza, a great scholar and one worthy to be an ancient Greek:
when asked by his friends [so we hear] which one of all the writers he
would want to save if all the rest had to be lost, he answered "Plutarch,"
because he thought nobody ever published more volumes with greater
variety and more usefulness for the delight of the mind.)
287:20 suffrage. Token of approval (OED).
287:30 The Epigram of Agathias. The epigram appears three times in
Rualdus: (i) in Greek and in Xylander's Latin translation (p. 10, in
Rualdus, I); (2) in Xylander's Vita Plutarchi (p. 11, in Rualdus, I);
and (3) in Rualdus' collection of praises for Plutarch (Rualdus, I, VPC,
pp. 55-56). Agathias lived A.D. 536-582. (See Barrow, Plutarch, p. 7in.)
472 Commentary

On 2 October 1685 John Evelyn records that Pepys invited him home to
dinner after church and showed him copies of two papers which James II
had allowed Pepys to make from the originals. The original documents,
which were in the handwriting of Charles II, had been found among
Charles's private papers after his death. The papers examined the
claims of the Anglican church as against the Roman Catholic church,
reaching the conclusion that the Anglican church was built on sand and
was not safe. Evelyn was skeptical of the King's authorship. The papers,
he asserted, were "so well penn'd as to the discourse, as did by no means
seeme to me, to have been put together by the Late King: Yet written
all with his owne hand, blotted, & interlin'd, so as if indeede, it were
not given him by some Priest; they happly might be such Arguments
and reasons as had ben inculcated from time to time, & here recollected." l
Gilbert Burnet, also holding that the style of the papers did not suggest
Charles's "free Air," guessed that Charles had copied them lest their real
author be prosecuted for writing them. Burnet conceded, however, that
the King, in conversation with him, had raised several points that are
found in the papers.2
Early in 1686 James published these two documents, attesting to their
authenticity and adding to them a letter written by his first wife, Anne
Hyde, Duchess of York, concerning her conversion to Rome. The three
papers appeared in a handsome pamphlet entitled Copies of Two Papers
Written by the Late King Charles II. Together with a Copy of a Paper
written by the late Duchess of York. Printed by the royal printer, Henry
Hills, the pamphlet sold for the unusually low price of ad., presumably
in order to assure a wide distribution. Charles's papers, purporting to
show his conviction that the True Church was the Roman church,
not the Anglican, naturally aroused the Anglican clergy, as also, for
somewhat different reasons, did the paper of the Duchess of York. The
three papers were immediately attacked by Edward Stillingfleet in An
Answer to Some Papers Lately Printed, concerning the Authority of the
Catholick Church in Matters of Faith, and the Reformation of the
Church of England (1686). This vigorous, apparently hastily written
pamphlet was designed to undo any evil effects that the Royal Papers
might have in a Protestant nation under a Roman Catholic king. In it
'Evelyn, Diary, z October 1685.

2
Burnet, A Letter, containing some Remarks on the two Papers, written by
King Charles the Second concerning religion (n.p., n.d.). Thomas Jones (in
Catalogue, ch. ii, "Of the Royal Papers") lists the titles of eleven works that
deal with these papers. Despite much speculation about the two papers supposed
to have been written by Charles II, the meager evidence available offers no con-
vincing proof either for or against royal authorship.
Stillingfleet takes up each paper separately, replying to the arguments

point by point to justify the legitimacy of the Church of England as a
part of the Catholic church, as opposed to the Roman Catholic church,
and to defend the Reformation and the right of the Church of England
to reform itself.
Prompted, presumably, by James II, two official answers to Stillingfleet
appeared in 1686: the anonymous A Reply to the Answer Made upon
the Three Royal Papers, and the pamphlet to which Dryden contributed,
also anonymously printed, A Defence of the Papers Written by the Late
King of Blessed Memory, and Duchess of York, Against the Answer
made to Them. The following year Stillingfleet returned to the attack
with his anonymously published A Vindication of the Answer to Some
Late Papers Concerning the Unity and Authority of the Catholick
Church and the Reformation of the Church of England (1687). Dryden,
assumed by Stillingfleet to be the author of the entire Defence, is attacked
for his irreligion and jeered at as a nimble convert. The charges angered
Dryden, and it was not long before he replied, both in the preface to
and in Part III (11. 144-168) of The Hind and the Panther.3
Until recently it has been accepted without question that in A Defence
of the Papers Dryden wrote only the defense of the Duchess's paper. In
the preface to The Hind and the Panther he speaks of "that defence of
my self, to which every honest man is bound, when he is injuriously
attacqu'd in Print: and I refer my self to the judgment of those who
have read the Answer to the Defence of the late Kings Papers, and that
of the Dutchess, (in which last I was concerned) how charitably I have
been represented there." 4 From Dryden's own day to the present his
parenthetical comment has been taken to mean that he was concerned
in defending only the last of the three Royal Papers. In the anony-
mously printed Reflections upon the Hind and Panther annexed to
Martin Clifford's Notes upon Mr. Dryden's Poems in Four Letters
(1687), the author, Tom Brown, challenges Dryden to reply to Stilling-
fleet's Vindication, which he calls the answer to Dryden's pamphlet,
written "in Prose in the Case of the Duchess of Y." (p. zg).B Brown evi-
dently interpreted Dryden's statement as did Edmond Malone, who
assumed in his edition of Dryden's prose works (1800) that Dryden had
admitted writing only the defense of the Duchess's paper: "That the
words—in which last, mean, not the Defence in general as contradistin-
guished from Stillingfleet's Answer, but the Defence of the Duchess of
York's paper, as distinguished from those of the King, appears from
what he adds afterwards in that preface, which relates solely to the
paper of her Royal Highness." Malone found the style of the third paper
different from that of the first two, observed that it did not quote the
Church Fathers as did the former, and claimed that it was very much in
'For the Dryden-Stillingflcet debate see Works, III, 351-352; pp. 476-477,
below.
• Works, III, is i.
11
On the authorship of Reflections see Macclonald, p. 256 and n.
474 Commentary
Dryden's manner.6 The generally accepted view that Dryden defended

only the Duchess's paper has been put in question on the basis of a
passage from the defense of the first paper and of a rather strained
interpretation of Dryden's remark in the preface to The Hind and the
Panther. The evidence for rejecting the usual view seems, however, to be
insufficient, and there are a number of valid reasons for thinking that
Dryden was in fact the author of only the one paper.?
The facts of publication of the Duchess's paper are complicated. There
are two slightly different English versions: the official one published by
James in the Royal Papers in 1686, and a broadside that occasionally
differs in word order from James's version. Published with place and
date unspecified and entitled A Copy of a Paper written by the late
Dutches* of York, the broadside is dated 1671 in the British Museum
catalogue and 1670 by Wing. Neither date seems feasible, for the history
of the Duchess's paper and the controversy that it later aroused make it
difficult to believe that the broadside could have circulated in 1670 or
1671 without causing comment.
The Duchess's letter was, however, published before 1686, and its
appearance did cause a great stir in England. In i68a a French version
was printed in Louis Maimbourg's Histoire du Calvinisme under the
title, "Declaration de Madame la Duchesse d'York." s A loose paraphrase
of the English version, it is somewhat more elegant in style and has been
slightly expanded here and there, as if to clarify the Duchess's points for
French readers. The French version of the letter is dated 18 August
1670, two days earlier than the date that appears on the letter in the
English broadside. Although there is a remote possibility that it is a
French adaptation of the broadside, it is more probably an entirely
different version sent to France by someone in the English court.
In any event, the appearance of Maimbourg's book in England created
considerable excitement among the Anglican hierarchy. The two really
troublesome parts of the paper were the one in which Anne attributes the
origin of the Anglican church to the lust of Henry VIII, to the greed
of the Duke of Somerset, and to the ambition of Elizabeth I, and the one
in which she relates conversations with her spiritual advisers about her
religious scruples. The advisers, two bishops of the Church of England,
were unnamed in the French version, though they were later identified
both in the broadside and in the Royal Papers as Gilbert Sheldon, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, and Walter Blandford, Bishop of Worcester. The
Duchess says the bishops told her that the Church of England had over-
reformed itself; they regretted the loss of confession and of prayers for
• Malone, II, 475-476; Macdonald followed Malone.

'The case for Dryden's authorship of the defense of all three papers is made
by Ward (Life, pp. 219, 359 n. 13). For a reply stressing external evidence and
stylistic factors see Earl Miner, "Dryden as Prose Controversialist: His Role
in A Defence of the Royal Papers," PQ, XLIII (1964), 412-419.
8
Maimbourg, Histoire du Calvinisme (Paris, 1682), pp. 506-512.
the dead, the second of which they continued to practice. She was further
told by one of the hishops that had he been bred a Roman Catholic he
would not change his religion, "but that being of another Church,
wherein, he was sure, were all things necessary to Salvation, he thought
it very ill to give that Scandal as to leave that Church, wherein he has
receiv'd his Baptism." This admission, in addition to her own searching
of the Scriptures, she said, made her the more eager to become a Roman
Catholic.
Although the English versions of the Duchess's letter did identify the
two prelates, it was Maimbourg's version, lacking such identification,
which apparently first reached the English public. Obviously the
Duchess's account of how two Anglican bishops had furthered her con-
version by unorthodox admissions of sympathy for the Roman church
was calculated to scandalize the Church of England. The clergyman
most closely associated with Anne Hyde during her father's exile had
been George Morley, later Bishop of Winchester, who was chaplain to
Sir Edward Hyde, Anne's father, later Earl of Clarendon. After the
Restoration Morley had remained in close touch with the Duchess until
Clarendon's fall and exile. These facts, and the absence of any identifica-
tion by Maimbourg, might well have aroused suspicion that Morley had
helped to subvert the Duchess. Evelyn was evidently apprehensive about
the possibility, for in a letter to Morley about Maimbourg's book he
urged the bishop to vindicate himself.8 Morley had known through
Gilbert Burnet of the existence of the Duchess's paper since about iGys,10
but he could not then have foreseen that his integrity would be chal-
lenged and that he would be suspected of being popishly inclined.
In 1682, however, a malignant pamphlet, Elytnas the Sorcerer, was
published by Thomas Jones, "sometime Domestick and Naval Chaplain
to his R. Highness the Duke of York." In narrative and in a series of
letters and documents Jones set forth his claim that he had been hounded
out of the Duke's service and thereafter brutally persecuted for many
years by the Bishop of Winchester. And he strongly insinuated that his
misfortunes arose from his zeal for the Protestant religion while he was
in the household of the Duke and Duchess. Jones further intimated that
there had been a popish plot in the Duke's household and that Morley
had figured importantly in it. Since the bishops who had counseled the
Duchess were not named in Maimbourg, it was possible for Jones to
imply that the real renegade was that "Protestant in Masquerade," his
old enemy the Bishop of Winchester. Jones was answered by another
chaplain serving the Duke, Richard Watson, in An Answer to Elymas the
Sorcerer (1682) and in A Fuller Answer to Elimas the Sorcerer . . . with
Modest Reflections upon a Pretended Declaration (of the Late Dutchess)
for Changing her Religion (1683). Watson, attacking Jones as "a Pro-
fligate Person, and a most malicious Calumniator," claimed that the
'Evelyn, Diary, 29 May 1682.
10
Burnet, History of My Own Time, ed. Osmond Airy (1897-1900), II, 31.
476 Commentary
Duchess's paper was a forgery by Maimbourg. Nevertheless, he went on
to attack the paper, defending the Reformation and averring that the
Church of England was the reformed Roman Catholic church.11
Despite Watson's attack on Jones, Morley remained profoundly dis-
turbed. In order to defend himself against rumors that he had subverted
the Duchess, he published in 1683 Several Treatises, Written upon Sev-
eral Occasions . . . Both before and since the Kings Restauration:
Wherein His judgment is fully made known concerning the Church of
Rome and most of those Doctrines, which are controverted betwixt
Her and the Church of England. Among the documents Morley used
to establish his loyalty to the Church of England was "A Letter Written
by the Bishop of Winchester to her Highness the Dutchess of York Some
few Months before Her Death." Dated 24 January 1670, this letter, a long
remonstrance occasioned by rumors that the Duchess was inclining
toward Rome, urges her to consult him should she be approached by
Roman Catholics and advises her not to change her religion without
hearing arguments against such a step.
The preface to Several Treatises is an elaborate apologia in which
Morley reviews his conduct while in exile on the Continent with the
Hyde family. He recalls the rectitude with which, in the midst of Papists,
he held firm to the Anglican church, performing its ceremonies and
preaching its doctrines wherever he went. Recalling his association with
Anne Hyde, he speaks of her piety, her devotion to Canterbury, and the
regularity with which she performed her religious duties. He goes on to
trace in similar terms his relations with Anne after she became the
Duchess of York. When Clarendon fell in 1667, Morley turned her over
to the guidance of Blandford, then Bishop of Oxford, but, he asserts, he
left her steadfast in the Anglican faith.
The controversy stirred by Maimbourg's publication in 1683 of the
Duchess's "Declaration" strongly suggests that the broadside could not
have been published before 1682 or 1683. Had it appeared in print in
the 1670*5 it would surely have aroused a similar controversy. Clearly
Morley had not seen the broadside with its identification of the two
bishops who had advised the Duchess in her conversion, although Burnet
did claim that he had been shown the Duchess's letter by James before
i68a and that he had informed Morley of its existence.12 Morley's publica-
tion of Several Treatises ended the first phase of the controversy over the
Duchess's conversion.
The general drift of Stillingfleet's attack in An Answer to Some Papers
can be followed in Dryden's quotations from his adversary and in
Dryden's own arguments. Stillingfleet begins by casting doubt on the
authenticity of the Duchess's "Declaration," and then proceeds to answer
it point by point. She should have disputed with her spiritual advisers
before taking the final step. She had treated the Bishop of Winchester
with duplicity in not discussing her doubts with him when she visited
him at his palace at Farnham shortly after writing her letter. The
11
Watson, A Fuller Answer, pp. 2, 4-9. " Burnet, History, ed. Airy, I, 557.
Duchess, therefore, had been remiss in failing to use the means at her
disposal for resolving her scruples. Of her conversations with the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Worcester, which she stresses,
Stillingfleet can say only that they should not have unsettled her further,
indirectly leading her to Rome, if indeed they have been accurately
reported. Like other controversialists on both sides, Stillingfleet plays with
the word "Catholic," arguing that the Church of England is a part of the
Catholic church, but not of the Roman Catholic church, and that this
distinction must have been in Bishop Blandford's mind when he said he
would not change had he been bred a Catholic. Stillingfleet makes fun
of the Duchess's assertion that her conversion was not owing to human
agencies but was a "Blessing she wholly ows to Almighty God," twisting
her statement into an admission of enthusiasm and divine illumination,
which it clearly was not. He defends the Reformation against the inter-
pretation put upon it by the Duchess after she had read the account in
Peter Heylyn's Ecclesia restaurata; or, The History of the Reformation
of the Church of England (1661), recommended by the bishops, oddly
enough, as likely to resolve her scruples.13 Stillingfleet ends by attacking
the four points of faith the Duchess had deduced from her reading of
the Scriptures: the doctrine of the Real Presence; the use of confession;
the efficacy of prayers for the dead; and the infallibility of the Church.
He concludes that "the Publick will receive this Advantage by these
Papers, that thereby it appears, how very little is to be said by Persons
of the greatest Capacity, as well as Place, either against the Church of
England, or for the Church of Rome." 14
In his defense of the Duchess's paper, Dryden clearly displays the skill
in religious controversy which was to be fully developed a few months
later in The Hind and the Panther. In that apologia for his own con-
version, Dryden would not only confute Stillingfleet but would also com-
ment on the Dean's personal vilification of him as "a new Convert" of
little religion (Hind and Panther, III, 251-257):
With odious Atheist names you load your foes,
Your lib'ral Clergy why did I expose?
It never fails in charities like those.
In climes where true religion is profess'd,
That imputation were no laughing jest.
But Imprimatur, with a Chaplain's name,
Is here sufficient licence to defame.
With these dignified words of complaint the Hind closed the debate
between Dryden and Stillingfleet, a debate begun over a brief paper of
the Duchess's and conducted in the growing heat of an England approach-
ing its third revolution of the century.
"See the defense of the Duchess's interpretation of Heylyn's candid account
of the rougher "political" sides of the English Reformation in The Church of
England Truly Represented, According to Dr. Heylins History of the Reforma-
tion, in Justification of Her Royal Highness the Late Dutchess of Vorks Paper
(1686).
14
Edward Stillingfleet, An Answer to Some Papers Lately Printed (1686), p. 72.
478 Commentary
P. 291: 11. 21-22 What will it profit . . . lose his Soul. Mark, viir,
36.
291:31 Barreter of Law. The OED does not record this curious form
of barrister.
292:14 Bishop of Winchester. George Morley (1597-1684). See headnote,
p. 475, above.
292:21 his pure Naturals. In a purely natural condition; not altered
or improved in any way (OED).
292:26 of his Latitudinarian Stamp. Stillingfleet was one of the most
eminent of the Latitudinarian divines. Although loyal churchmen, they
held that particular creeds and forms of worship were not of the gravest
religious import. At this time the Latitudinarians were wooing Non-
conformists, as James was to do very soon by dispensing a general
toleration. Cf. The Hind and the Panther, III, 160-172.
293:12-14 like a Painter . . . afterwards into a Likeness. The allusion
to painting is characteristic of Dryden.
293:15-16 has us'd Monsieur de Condom. Jacques Bdnigne Bossuet
(1627-1704), Bishop of Condom and of Meaux, who in 1671 published
Exposition de la Doctrine de l'6glise Catholique sur les Matieres de
Controverse. An English translation was published in Paris in 1672. Wing
lists other "editions" in English which were published in London. Dryden
mistakenly ascribes to Stillingfleet Wfilliam] W[ake]'s An Exposition
of the Doctrine of the Church of England, in the several Articles Proposed
by Monsieur de Meaux, late Bishop of Condom, . . . To which is
prefix'd a particular account of Monsieur de Meaux's Book (1686).
Dryden's description fits the preface to Wake's pamphlet, which is made
up of brief anecdotes dealing with such derogatory matters as the refusal
of the doctors at the Sorbonne to approve Bossuet's book; the suppression
of the first edition; Bossuet's additions and corrections, which brought
his work closer in line with orthodox doctrine; and Bossuet's duplicity
in not acknowledging that the book had been suppressed.
293:34 Preface to his Treatises. Bishop Morley's Several Treatises,
Written upon Several Occasions (1683) (see headnote, p. 476, above).
293:34-35 Maimbourg the Jesuite. Louis Maimbourg (1610-1686) pub-
lished a French version of the Duchess's paper (see headnote, p. 474,
above).
296:3 as coursly as the Parson did Bellarmine. "This alludes to a story
of an Oxford divine, who imagined he had utterly confounded the grand
advocate of the Catholic Church, by the stout, though unsupported assev-
eration, 'Bellarmine, thou liestl" " (Scott). Robert Cardinal Bellarmine
(1542-1621) was the most distinguished Roman Catholic apologist for
the Counter-Reformation.
297:13 Disputandi pruritus, scabies Ecclesice. Quoted in Izaak Walton's
The Life of Sir Henry Wotton (Walton's Lives, ed. George Saintsbury
[1927], pp. 142-143).
297:18 Tierce and Quart. Third and fourth of the eight parries and
thrusts in fencing.
297:22-23 in Mood and Figure. In due logical form (OED).
297:24 Ergoteering. The OED lists a number of words based on Latin

ergo, such as ergotism, ergoism, ergotist. It does not record ergoteering.
297:26-27 one . . . bred up at the Feet of Gamaliel, That is, Saint
Paul. See Acts, xxn, 3.
297:32 in reference to his own Salvation. In his answer to the second
paper Stillingfleet had written: "But what is meant by being a Judge
of Scripture? If no more be understood, then that every Man must use
his understanding about it, I hope this is no Crime nor Heresie. The
Scripture must be believed in order to Salvation, and therefore it must
be understood; for how can a Man believe, what he understands not
the sense or meaning of? If he must understand the sense he must be
Judge of the sense; so that every Man, who is bound to believe the
Scripture in order to his Salvation, must be Judge of the sense of the
Scripture, so far as concerns his Salvation" (An Answer to Some Papers
Lately Printed [1686], pp. 31-32).
298:17-18 Tunbridge Waters . . . Montpelliers. Tunbridge Wells was
a famous watering place near London in Kent. The air of Montpellier
was considered especially efficacious in curing tuberculosis.
298:32 Spiritual Directour. Walter Blandford (1619-1675), Bishop of
Oxford and later Bishop of Worcester.
299:18 Consubstantiality. The doctrine that the persons of the Godhead
are identical in substance.
299:20-21 nor the Wit of Man can comprehend. Cf. The Hind and
the Panther, I, 80-149.
299:29 similize. Make a comparison.
299:30 Bishop of Salisbury. Dr. Seth Ward, an eminent mathematician
(Malone).
299:32 will break no squares. Will not matter.
300:19 Farnham. Farnham Castle, near Winchester, which Morley had
handsomely restored as the bishop's palace.
300:28 Authentic Hand. That of James II.
301:31-32 Doctor Heylins History of the Reformation. Peter Heylyn's
Ecclesia restaurata; or, The History of the Reformation of the Church
of England (1661) might very well have shocked a waverer into becoming
reconciled to Rome. It recounts with surprising freedom and detail some
of the forces that impelled Henry VIII to break with Rome, such as the
rapacity of his courtiers and of the Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector in
the reign of Edward VI.
302:3 two of the best Bishops in England. In a note to the Duchess's
paper (see App. B, p. 520), these are identified as Gilbert Sheldon,
Archbishop of Canterbury (1598-1677), and Walter Blandford, Bishop
of Worcester (1619-1675). Another note identifies Worcester as the
bishop who told the Duchess that had he been bred a Roman Catholic,
he would not change.
304:6 two of the establish'd Articles. Stillingfleet was technically right
in saying (A Vindication of the Answer to Some Late Papers [1687], p.
109) that none of the Thirty-nine Articles was directed against confession
or prayers for the dead; Dryden was exaggerating when he said that by
480 Commentary
advocating these Romish practices the two bishops had renounced and
condemned two of the Articles. Stillingfleet is morally wrong, however,
and Dryden is right. In rejecting the sacrament of penance as one that
had "grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles," Anglican
Article XXV necessarily rejects confession, which is part of that sacrament.
The Catalogue (ch. xxv, "Of Auricular Confession") shows the extent to
which confession was an issue. Similarly, in the seventeenth century the
issue of prayers for the dead was bound up with the Roman doctrine
of purgatory, which was specifically attacked by Article XXII. William
Wake, Two Discourses of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead (1687),
shows the difficulty the age felt in separating the two issues. Other works
given in the Catalogue, ch. xxxii, may be consulted.
304:11 the Doctrine of a Third Place. I.e., purgatory.
305:26 Abyssine . . . Church. The Abyssinian or Coptic church.
305:29 interested Apology. An apology based on self-interest.
306:23 into the White ones Walk. An allusion to chess, in which one
bishop on each side moves only on white (or red) spaces (Scott).
308:34 Statute of Coining. The law against counterfeiting.
309:30 Take him Topham. See above, His Majesties Declaration De-
fended, 2i5'.iin.
310:30-31 the most Learned Bishops in England. In the preface to
Several Treatises (p. ii), Bishop Morley mentioned the paper "pretended"
to have been written by the Duchess and quoted by Maimbourg. He
argued that "how learned soever those Bishops were (if there were any
such Bishops that made any such Answers) they were not Bishops of the
Church of England truly so called," and added (p. iv): "But why should
I say any more, or indeed so much as I have said of a Non-Ens, or of
what I believe never was in Rerum natura; I mean such a discourse, as
is pretended to have been betwixt the Dutchess of York, and two of
the most learned Bishops in England?" Morley does not, as Dryden says
he does, give the Duchess the lie direct. The implication of all his doubts
is that the letter published by Maimbourg is a Jesuit forgery. Cf. Stilling-
fleet's Answer to Some Papers, pp. 63-64.
311:14-15 a Transcript from the Bishops Preface. Dryden is not
entirely unfair here; Stillingfleet's hints that the Duchess's paper is a
pious forgery had been stated more baldly by Morley.
311:30 his three Nolo's. Nolo episcopare (Scott). Dryden's jibe at Mor-
ley's wounded vanity and assumed humility is justified in view of the fact
that neither the Duchess nor Maimbourg speaks of "wise" bishops.
312:2 a Witness still alive. James II.
313:27-28 that she ow'd . . . her Conversion wholly to God Almighty.
Stillingfleet does indeed deliberately pervert the Duchess's statement.
He pretends to find no possible meaning in her words other than a claim
to have been converted by "immediate Divine Illumination" (Answer to
Some Papers, p. 64). He proceeds to make merry at this discovery of
"Enthusiasm" in the Roman church.
314:4 Statute of Perswasion. Since passage of the Act to Retain the
Queen's Majesty's Subjects in their due Obedience in 1581, the law had
held it treason to persuade anyone to embrace the Roman Catholic re-
ligion (see A History of the English Church, ed. W. R. W. Stephens and
William Hunt [1924], V, 218).
314:31-32 merry Book concerning the Fanaticism of the Church of
Rome. Dryden refers to Stillingfleet's A Discourse Concerning the Idolatiy
Practiced in the Church of Rome (1671). Chapter iv, written in an un-
concealed spirit of levity, deals with the mystical experiences, revelations,
and ecstasies averred by many of the saints of the Church. Stillingfleet
was answered by Sferenus] Cfressy], O.S.B., in Fanaticism Fanatically im-
puted to the Catholick Church (n.p., 1672), and Cressy in turn was an-
swered by "A Person of Honour" (actually the Earl of Clarendon) in
Animadversions (1673). In A Vindication of the Answer Stillingfleet re-
turned to the attack by charging Dryden with excessive zeal (p. 102):
"Is this indeed the Spirit of a New Convert? . . . But Zeal in a new
Convert is a terrible thing; for it not only burns but rages, like the
Eruptions of Mount Aetna, it fills the Air with noise and smoak; and
throws out such a Torrent of liquid Fire, that there is no standing
before it."
317:8-12 But the immediate Effects . . . as is observ'd by my Lord
Herbert. Linda Van Norden has kindly traced for us this reference to
Edward Lord Herbert, The Life and Raigne of King Henry the Eighth
(1649), p. 402.
317:23 Duresme. Durham.
317:26-32 Calvin complains . . . Rapine. Joannis Calvini, Epistolae et
Responsa (Genevae, 1616), p. 136. Calvin wrote in French to the same
effect to the Duke of Somerset on 25 July 1551. See John Strype, Memori-
als of the Most Reverend Father in God, Thomas Cranmer (1694),
App., pp. 149-150.
319:26 his present Holiness. Innocent XI.
320:13 candidly. Without malice (OED).
322:17 concluded. Confirmed (OED).
322:36 Scandalum Magnatum. Uttering scandal or malicious reports
against persons holding positions of dignity (OED).
323:2 Foils. In wrestling a foil is a throw not resulting in a flat fall
(OED).
323:7-8 his Name is Legion. Mark, v, 9.
323:11 when the Duke had beaten them. James, Duke of York, was
appointed Lord High Admiral in 1660 and retained that office until
forced out by the Test Act of 1673. He won fame in the second (1665-
1667) and third (1672-1674) Dutch Wars.
323:16-17 Robin Wisdom . . . Ballad. The last poem in the long-
popular Sternhold and Hopkins's The Whole Book of Psalms, Collected
into English Metre (1640) is signed Rfobert] W[isdom], Dryden refers
to the following stanza:
Preserve us Lord by thy deare word,
From Turke and Pope defend us Lord:
482 Commentary
Who both would thrust out of his Throne,

Our Lord Jesus Christ thy dcare Sonne.
Wisdom (d. 1568) was Archdeacon of Ely.
323:31 admird. Wondered at.
323:22-25 Protestants . . . Vevtue of Humility. The debate whether or
not there was a Protestant book on humility was continued in The Hind
and the Panther (III, 328-340; see Works, III, 351-352). Stillingfleet
accused Dryden of "a bare-faced Assertion of a thing so well known
to be false" (Vindication of the Answer, p. 118), but he named no
Protestant works. On the ensuing debate see Earl Miner, "Dryden and
'The Magnified Piece of Duncomb,' " HLQ, XXVIII (1964), 93-98.

Dryden wrote this dedication for the purpose of presenting, to the Duke
of Somerset, Henry Purcell's The Vocal and Instrumental Musick of The
Prophetess, or The History of Dioclesian, published in 1691. A somewhat
longer manuscript version of the dedication was printed for the first
time in iggg.1 That the manuscript is a Dryden holograph cannot be
doubted; comparison with Dryden's known handwriting shows that the
dedication, including the signature "Henry Purcell," is in Dryden's own
hand. Clearly the manuscript is printer's copy prepared by Dryden for
the 1691 publication of Purcell's music.
The manuscript affords a unique opportunity to observe Dryden in
the act of composition, for it shows the revisions he made in the process
of readying the treatise for publication. The deletions and the substitu-
tion of synonyms demonstrate Dryden's concern to correct his prose in
the interests of harmony, clarity, and economy. Without exception, the
revisions are improvements, revealing how instinctively Dryden achieved
the cadences and harmonies that distinguish his mature prose style.
As the text and the textual collation show, the version of the dedication
actually printed in 1691 is substantially shorter than the manuscript
version. Between the writing and the printing Dryden deleted two
passages: one dealt with the parallel between painting and the "Sister"
arts of music and poetry; the second rebuked the poets of the day for
not sufficiently cultivating the native music of the English language as to
render their verse susceptible to musical setting. It may well be, as has
been suggested,2 that these interesting passages were stricken from the
'Roswell G. Ham, "Dryden's Dedication for The Music of The Prophetesse,

1691," PMLA, L (1935), 1065-1075. We are indebted to Ham's article for much
of our account here. The dedication was first noticed in HMC, Eighth Report
(1881), App. Ill, p. 8ft, item 24.
'Ham, "Dryden's Dedication," pp. 1065-1075.
Dedication for Purcell's Prophetess 483
manuscript so that the dedication would conform to ideas that might

reasonably be held or expressed by Henry Purcell. Reflections on paint-
ing would hardly be expected of Purcell, and perhaps it would have
been indecorous for him to chide contemporary poets for harshness of
language.
Dryden's association with the composer probably came about through
his interest in Purcell's first successful opera, The Prophetess (1690),
for which Dryden had written a prologue. There is some slight possibility
that Dryden revised the songs for the opera and that he may have had
an even larger share in its composition.8 In any event, his writing of the
dedication for the later publication of Purcell's music posits a close per-
sonal relationship between poet and composer. Dryden was clearly so
impressed by Purcell's achievements in The Prophetess that he com-
missioned the young man to compose an overture for, and music for the
songs in, Amphitryon (1690). In the dedication of that comedy Dryden
wrote:
But what has been wanting on my Part, has been
abundantly supplyed by the Excellent Composition of
Mr. Purcell; in whose Person we have at length found
an English-man, equal with the best abroad. At least
my Opinion of him has been such, since his happy and
judicious Performances in the late Opera [The Proph-
etess]; and the Experience I have had of him, in the
setting of my Three Songs in this Amphitryon.'1
In dedicating King Arthur in 1691 Dryden again praised Purcell:
There is nothing better, than what I intended, but
the Musick; which has since arriv'd to a greater Per-
fection in England, than ever formerly: especially pass-
ing through the Artful Hands of Mr. Purcel, who has
Compos'd it with so great a Genius, that he has nothing
to fear but an ignorant, ill-judging Audience.5
Dryden learned through self-discipline to compose words that could
be set to music. He was well aware of the problems that collaboration
with a composer presented to a poet, as the preface to Albion and Al-
banius shows. The nature of the English language, he knew, raised diffi-
culties for the lyric poet, and the potentialities of Italian, French, and
English for musical settings varied widely. In working with Purcell
Dryden learned to accommodate words to music, and the success of
King Arthur may well have been due in part to Dryden's increased skill
in a difficult task. His two great St. Cecilia odes—especially Alexander's
Feast—show how complete a mastery he attained in writing words for
baroque music.8 When, in one of the canceled passages of the dedication,
Dryden made Purcell complain of the dissonance of contemporary
8
Works, III, 507-508. ' 1691, sig. Ajr-t/; S-S, VIII, 9-10.
"1690, sig. Ag; S-S, p. 135.
'Ernest Brennecke, Jr., "Dryden's Odes and Draghi's Music," PMLA, XLIX
(1934), 1-36.
484 Commentary
English verse, he no doubt had in mind the turgid, pseudolyrical

"pindarick" verse so much affected by lesser poets in the iGgo's.
The other excised passage, dealing with the relationship of the "Sister"
arts, bears on a theme familiar in Dryden's works. As the notes in this
edition abundantly reveal, from his earliest writings on, in prose as in
verse, Dryden frequently touched on the commonplaces of the traditional
parallel of poetry and painting: poetry as a speaking picture and painting
as a silent poem. This doctrine, usually expressed in the phrase ut
pictura poesis, was developed from Simonides, Horace, Plutarch, and
others from antiquity through the Renaissance, and it remained widely
current in seventeenth-century England. 7
From the beginning of his career Dryden was familiar with the tech-
nique of painting and with the vocabulary of the studio, and he was
accustomed, almost to the point of a mannerism, to find illustrative
material for his critical observations in the sister art of painting. He was
very much aware of the parallel when he wrote his ode To the Pious
Memory of the Accomplish} Young Lady Mrs Anne Killigrew, Excellent
in the two Sister-Arts of Poesie, and Painting (1686). Dryden's most ex-
tended treatment of the subject is, of course, in A Parallel betwixt
Painting and Poetry, prefixed to his translation of Charles du Fresnoy's
De Arte Graphica (1695). There Dryden works out an elaborate parallel
not only between the genres in poetry and in painting but between the
"parts" of the two arts as well. His most graceful use of the idea is
doubtless in his verse address, To Sir Godfrey Kneller (1694). Dryden's
brief remarks on the parallel in the holograph dedication of the music
for Purcell's opera are an expression of his habitual way of thinking
about poetry and painting; the parallel between poetry and music did
not lend itself to the same kind of systematic treatment. Despite its
brevity, then, this dedication is valuable as a characteristic piece of
Dryden's criticism and as an example of his fluent, careful composition of
prose when he was at the height of his powers.
'For the lengthy tradition of relations between the arts see Rensselaer W.
Lee, "Ut Pictura Poesis: The Humanistic Theory of Painting," Art Bulletin,
XXII (1940), 197-269; Jean H. Hagstrum, The Sister Arts: The Tradition of
Literary Pictorialism from Dryden to Gray (1958); Works, I, 276. For Dryden's
poetic treatment of matters musical see the commentary on A Song for St.
Cecilia's Day (Works, III, 459-467) and on An Ode, on the Death of Mr. Henry
Purcell (Works, Vol. IV). For his poetic treatment of matters pictorial see the
commentary on the Anne Killigrew ode (Works, III, 317-324) and on To Sir
Godfrey Kneller (Works, Vol. IV); see also the commentary on Dryden's A
Parallel betwixt Painting and Poetry prefixed to his translation of Charles du
Fresnoy's De Arte Graphica (Works, Vol. XX).
TEXTUAL NOTES
Textual Notes 487
Introduction
CHOICE OF THE COPY TEXT
The copy text is normally the first printing, on the theory that its
accidentals are likely to be closest to the author's practice; but a manu-
script or a subsequent printing may be chosen when there is reasonable
evidence either that it represents more accurately the original manuscript
as finally revised by the author or that the author revised the acci-
dentals.
REPRODUCTION OF THE COPY TEXT

The copy text is normally reprinted literatim, but there are certain
classes of exceptions. In the first place, apparently authoritative variants
found in other texts are introduced as they occur, except that their purely
accidental features are made to conform to the style of the copy text.
These substitutions, but not their minor adjustments in accidentals, are
recorded in footnotes as they occur. Second, the editors have introduced
nonauthoritative emendations, whether found in earlier texts or not,
where the sense seems to demand them. These emendations are also listed
in the footnotes. Third, accidentals are introduced or altered where it
seems helpful to the reader. All such changes also are recorded in foot-
notes as they occur. Fourth, turned b, q, d, p, n, and u are accepted as q,
b, p, d, u, and n, respectively, and if they result in spelling errors are cor-
rected in the text and listed in footnotes. The textual footnotes show the
agreements among the texts only with respect to the precise variation
of the present edition from the copy text. For example, in The Life of
Plutarch at 11. 614-615, the footnote "fountains:] /—. 01-4" refers only
to the punctuation; Oa-4 actually read "Fountains."
Certain purely mechanical details have been normalized without spe-
cial mention. Long "s" has been changed to round "s," "VV" to "W";
swash italics have been represented by plain italics; captions, display
initials, and any accompanying capitalization have been made uniform
with the style of the present edition; stanza numbers have been corrected;
wrong font and turned letters other than q, b, p, d, u, and n have been
adjusted; italicized plurals in -'s have been distinguished (by italic final
"s") from possessive? (roman final "s"); quotations if marked with in-
verted commas have been marked at the beginning and end only and
always; spacing between words and before and after punctuation has
been normalized when no change in meaning results; the common con-
tractions have been counted as single words, but otherwise words ab-
breviated by elision have been separated from those before and after if
the apostrophe is present; if the elided syllable is written out as well as
marked by an apostrophe, the words have been run together (f'speak'it").
488 Textual Notes
TEXTUAL NOTES
The textual notes list the relevant manuscripts and printings, assign
them sigla, and give references to the bibliographies where they are
more fully described. The textual notes also outline the descent of the
text, indicate which are the authorized texts, and explain in each in-
stance how the copy text was selected. A list of copies collated follows.
If differences among variant copies are sufficient to warrant a tabular view
of them, it follows the list of copies collated.
The sigla indicate the format of printed books (F = folio, Q = quarto,
O = octavo, etc.) and the order of printing, if it is determinable, within
the format group (F may have been printed after Qi and before Qa).
If order of printing is in doubt, the numbers are arbitrary, and they
are normally arbitrary for the manuscripts (represented by M).
Finally, the variants in the texts collated are given. The list is not
exhaustive, but it records what seemed material, viz.:
All variants of the present edition from the copy text except in
the mechanical details listed above.
All other substantive variants and variants in accidentals markedly
affecting the sense. The insertion or removal of a period before a
dash has sometimes been accepted as affecting the sense; other punc-
tuational variants before dashes have been ignored. Failure of letters
to print, in texts other than the copy text, has been noted only
when the remaining letters form a different word or words, or when
a word has disappeared entirely.
All errors of any kind repeated from one edition to another, ex-
cept the use of -'s instead of -s for a plural.
Spelling variants where the new reading makes a new word (e.g.,
then and than being in Dryden's day alternate spellings of the con-
junction, a change from than to then would be recorded, since the
spelling then is now confined to the adverb, but a change from
then to than would be ignored as a simple modernization).
In passages of verse, variants in elision of syllables normally pro-
nounced (except that purely mechanical details, as had'st, hadst, are
ignored). Thus heaven, heav'n is recorded, but not denied, deny'd.
When texts generally agree in a fairly lengthy variation, but one or
two differ from the rest in a detail that it would be cumbrous to represent
in the usual way, the subvariations are indicated in parentheses in the
list of sigla. For example,
Inscription at Delphos] inscription at Delphos 01-4 (Inscription
02-4)
means that 02-4 agree with Oi in the use of italics and romans, but that
they have a capital which Oi lacks.
When variants in punctuation alone are recorded, the wavy dash is used
in place of the identifying word before (and sometimes after) the variant
punctuation. A caret indicates absence of punctuation.
As in the previous volumes, no reference is made to modern editions
Textual Notes 489
if the editor is satisfied that reasonable care on his part would have re-
sulted in the same emendations, even if he collated these editions before
beginning to emend.
Of Dramatick Poesie, An Essay

The first edition of Dryden's essay Of Dramatick Poesie is dated 1668
(Qi; Macd 1x73); the second, 1684 (Qa; Macd i27b); and the third, 1693
(Q3; Macd 1270). In the iGgo's copies of Qa and Q3 were bound up with
copies of Dryden's plays to make the first volume of his works (Macd
io6a-e) or of his dramatic works (Macd io6f). The essay was reprinted in
Dryden's Comedies, Tragedies, and Operas (1701), I, 1-29 (F; Macd
io7ai-ii [two issues, the differences not affecting the essay]), and in
Congreve's edition of Dryden's Dramatick Works (1717), I, 9-83 (D; Macd
logai-ii [two issues, with a cancel title for Vol. I in the second]).
Some copies of Qi have pages 30-31 numbered 40 and 14; and three
other press variants in the text are listed in the apparatus below. Mac-
donald records various states of the title page of Qa, but these are inde-
pendent of the text. Q3 was printed from Qa, F from Qi, D from Q3-
Three sheets of F were reset, 62.3, Ci.4, and 02.3. The first setting,
referred to as Fa in the apparatus, has a long-tailed k in the running
heads of the third and fourth rectos of all gatherings.
Dryden thoroughly revised the text for Qz, and some editors have
preferred it to Qi as a copy text. Watson and Ker took copies of Qa
or of a modern edition based on Qa and emended them more or less to
agree with Qi, so that where they failed to note differences between
Qi and Qa their texts agree with the latter. The practice of the present
edition is different. The Clark copy of Qi (*PR34i9.E7i) has been taken
as the copy text on the assumption that it is closest to Dryden's manu-
script in accidentals. It has been regularly emended from the substantive
changes in Qa which are attributable to Dryden (except for one or two
instances of what appear to be authorial mistakes) and occasionally
emended from the accidentals in Qa. The use of italics and romans in
the dedicatory epistle has been reversed from Qi. The use of italics has
elsewhere been variously adjusted: words reflective of places, such as
English, have been italicized in accordance with standard Restoration
usage, though only Q3 and D do so with any regularity and then only in
some parts of the text. Titles have been italicized, with any included
names in romans unless a title consists only of names, though Qi-3
italicize titles only sporadically and then only in the second half of the
work. Other italics and various spellings of names and technical terms
have been normalized to the standard usage of Qi or occasionally to
modern standards. Dryden probably used the spellings Eurypides and
Cornell, for instance, at least part of the time. Miscellaneous emendations
have been made in the dedicatory epistle at 4:10 and 6:19, and in the
essay proper at 10:21, 11:21, 13:3, ao:ai, 24:9, 28:5, 29:16, 29:24-25, 29:28,
4go Textual Notes
29:28-29, 29:31-32, 30:13, 31:28, 32:32, 33:3, 33:6, 33:26, 35:12, 36:5, 37:1,
39:5' 39:7- 4!:27, 43:33. 45 ; i2, 47 : 1 4> 5 l ; 26, 5>:32. 54=22, 56:7-8, 56:14,
56:28-29, 58:26, 59:8, 59:20, 60:11, 61:17, 64:8-9, 66:6, 66:7, 66:9, 67:30,
67:32, 69:2, 69:3, 69:6, 69:31, 70:19, 71:6, 71:14, 71:30, 73:15, 73:26, 74:27,
74:29, 75:29, 76:9, 77:28-29, 78:9, and 79:9. For possible emendations at
68:17-18 see the Commentary.
Tne following additional copies of the various editions have also been
examined: Qi: Harvard (*EC65.D8474.668o), Yale (Ij.0848.668), Folger
(02327, cop. i), Texas (Wj.D848.668o); Q2: Clark (*PR34i9.E7i.i684,
2 cop.; *PR34io.C93, v.i); Qs: Clark (*PR34i9.E7i.i6g3; *PR34io.C95a,
v.i; *PR34io.Cgi, v.i); F: Clark (*fPR34i2.i7oi [2 cop., of which cop.
i is Fb]; *fPR34i2.17013); D: Clark (*PR34i2.i7i7 [2 cop.]).
Dedicatory epistle: caption LORD BUCKHURST.] Qi-2, F; EARL of

Dorset and Middlesex, Lord Chamberlain of Their Majesties Houshold;
Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter, 8cc. Q3, D. 3:10 do
not now] Qi~3, D; do not F. 3:10-11 not a] Q2-3, D; a Qi, F.
3:20 succeeded ill] Qi-2, F; ;'// succeeded Q3, D. 3:24 those with
which the . . . me] Qa-3, D; the . . . me with, Qi, F. 4:7 sight]
Q2-3, D; lookers on Qi, F. 4:10 Poets,] Q2-3, D (~.); Writers. Qi,
F. 4:13 Inominata] Qi-g, F; Innominata D. 4:20 them] Q2-3,
D; it Qi, F. 4:22 French Poet] Qs, D; French Poet Qi-2, F. 4:25
were] Qi-g, D; where F. 4:26 Le jeune homme, a . . . grace,]
Q2-3, D; La jeunesse a ... grace. Qi, F. 4:29 n'est pas] Qa-3, D;
nest Qi, F. 4:30 C'est] Qa-3, D; Ce'st Qi, F. 5:9 King.] Qi-3,
F; ~ : D. 5:10-13 in same type face as prose in Qr. 5:17 me-
thinks] Q3, F, D; me thinks Qi-2. 5:18 on] Q2-3, D; upon Qi, F.
5:19 Greeks and Trojans] Qa-3, D; Greeks and Trojans Qi, F. 6:2
civility] Q2~3, F, D; Ciuility Qi. 6:6 Roman Senate] Q3, D; Roman
Senate Qi-2, F. 6:10 But] begins new paragraph in Qz-j, D.
6:13 on the same] Qa-3, D; upon this Qi, F. 6:19 that,] ~/\ Oi-j,
F, D.
To the Reader: 7:2 English] Q3, D; English Qi-2, F. 7:3
French Q3, D; French Qi-2, F. 7:9 wherein / shall more fully treat
of] Q2-3, D; wherein Qi, F. 7:10 English] Q3, D; English Qi-2, F.
7:11 way.] Q2-3, D; way, will be more fully treated of, and their several
styles impartially imitated. Qi, F.
Essay: 8:2 Dutch] D; Dutch Qi~3, F. 8:10 all] Q2-g, F, D;
al Qi. 8:12 they] Q2-3, D; we Qi, F. 8:13 led] Qi (corrected
state), Q2-3, F, D; ed Qi (uncorrected state}. 8:24 haste] Qi~3, D;
hast F. 9:1 to break] Q2-g, D; break Qi; breaking F. 9:4 seem-
ing] Q2-3, F, D; scemng Qi. 9:9 adding, that] Q2-3, D; adding,
Qi, F. 9:11 English] Qs, D; English Qi-2, F. 9:12 in the] Qi,
Q3, F, D; in the the Qa. 9:14 have] Qi-g, F; hath D. 9:17 he
must] Q2-3, D; must Qi, F. 9:19 on that Subject; adding] (£2-3, D
(Subject. Adding); upon it; adding Qi, F. 9:20 Rhimers] Qi-3, D;
Rhimes F. 9:24 desired] Q2-3, D; call'd for Qi, F. 9:25 There]
Q2~3, F, D; there Qi. 9:25-26 of whom you speak] Q2-3, D; you
Textual Notes 491
speak of Qi, F. 9:28 on] Qz-g, D; upon Qi, F. 9:29 wherein]

Qz-g, D; and Qi, F. 9:30 they will at] Qa-3, D; at Qi, F. 10:11-
ia one of their brethren was by Sylla the Dictator] Qz~3, D; Sylla the
Dictator did one of their brethren heretofore Qi, F. 10:12 Tully]
Qz-3, D; Tully speaking of him Qi, F. 10:14 longiusculis] Qz-g, D;
longiuculis Qi; longinculis F. 10:15 quas] Qz~3, D; qua Qi, F.
10:21 escape. 'Tis] D; escape; 'tis Qi~3, F. 10:25 offer] Qa-3, F,
D; osser Qi. 10:25 Catachresis or Clevelandism] Q3, D; Catecresis
or Clevelandism Qi-2, F. 10:27 French] Qg, D; French Qi-2, F.
10:28 who] Qz-g, D; that Qi, F. 10:28 Satire] Qi-2, F; Satyr Qg,
D. 10:29 intends, at least, to spare] Q2-3, D (intendsA Qz); spares
Qi, F. 10:30 ought] Qi, F; he ought Q2-g, D. 11:2 to be such]
Qz-3, D; so Qi, F. 11:18 in it] Qi-z, F; it Qg, D. 11:19
Martiall:] Qi, F, D; ~ . Q2-3- 11:21 he i°] ^He Qi-g, F, D. 11:21
affects] Qi-3, D; effects F. 12:1 him whom] Q2-3, D; him who Qi;
him F. 12:5 1660,] Qi-3, D; ~ . F. 12:8 great Persons?] Qz-g,
D (Persons; Qa); the great Ones? Qi, F. 12:9 he is, this day,] Qi-2,
F; this day, he is, Qg, D. 12:9 one] Qa-g, D; a great person Qi, F.
12:15 he had hard measure] Qz-g, D; himself very hardly dealt with
Qi,F. 12:26 on] Q2-3, D; upon Qi, F. 12:27 Greeks and Romans]
Q3, D; Greeks and Romans Qi-2, F. 12:29 in which I live] Q2-3,
D; I live in Qi, F. 13:1 themselves were] Q2-3, D; themselves Qi,
F. 13:3 crasse] Qg, D; crassd Qi-2, F. 13:10 an extent] Qz-g, D;
extent Qi, F. 13:19 that] Qz-3, D; he approv'd his Propositions,
and, Qi, F. 13:20 Dramatique] Q2; Dramatiqne Qi; Dramatick Q3,
F, D. 13:26 Greek or Roman] Qg, D; Greek or Roman Qi-z, F.
14:2 were] Q2-3, D; were so Qi, F. 14:7 Italian, French, and
Spanish] Q3, D; Italian, French, and Spanish Qi-2, F. 14:8 evident,]
type damaged so no comma appears in some copies of Q/. 14:11
English] Qg, D; English Qi-2, F. 14:21 that it] 0,2-3, D; it Qi, F.
14:26 or to] Qa-3, D; or Qi, F. '4 : 3 l na d writ] Qz-g, D; writ Qi,
F. 15:7 a] Qi-2; a Qg, F, D. 15:12 manner:] Qi, F; ~ , Q2; ~.
Qg, D. '5 :1 7 foundations] Qz-g, D; foundation Qi, F. 15:21 to]
Q2-g, D; to a Qi, F. 16:7 Mschylus] F, D; Eschylus Qi-g. 16:10
Asian] Q3, D; Asian Qi-2, F. 16:10 Grecian] Q3, D; Grecian Qi-2,
F. 16:13 says] Qi-z, F; saith Q3, D. i6:2Z that desire is] Qz-g,
D; is Qi, F. 16:28 the work] Q2-g, D; with it Qi, F. 17:2-5
(either . . . Play;)] Qz-g, D; A~ • • • ~ IA Qi. F. 17:5-6 Observa-
tions which] Q2-g, D; Observations that Qi, F. 17:6 Poets, who]
Qz-3, D; Poets, which Qi, F. 17:9 of which none boast in this]
Q2-3, D; which none boast of in Qi, F. 17:11 tcpl] Qz-g, D; irept
Qi, F. 17:11 Art of Poetry] Art of Poetry Qi-g, F, D. 17:14
have] Q2-3, D; has Qi, F. 17:15 French] Qg, D; French Qi-2, F.
17:28 are (as near as may be)] Q2-3, D; are Qi, F. 17:29 namely]
Qz-g, D; as namely Qi, F. 18:1 within] Qi-2, F, D; with Qg.
18:18 Course, they suffer you not to behold him] Qz-g, D; Course) you
behold him not Qi, F. 18:34 another;] Qi-g, F; ~ . D. 19:1
French] Qg, D; French Qi-2, F. 19:7 who enters] Q2-3, D; that
492 Textual Notes
enters the Qi, F. 19:10 Corneille] Q2-g, D; Cornell Qi, F. 19:25

Discoveries] discoveries Qi-2; Discoveries Qg, F, D. 19:32 Corneille]
Qz-3, D; Corneile Qi, F. 20:2 actions] Q2-3, D; ones Qi, F. 20:14
written] Q2-g, D; writ Qi, F. 20:14 better;] Qi-3, F; ~. D.
20:16 among] Qi-2, F; amongst Qg, D. 20:16 Greek] Qg, D;
Greek Qi-2, F. 20:17 Romans:] Qg, D (—'. D); Romans: Qi-2,
F. 20:17 at] Qz-3, D; of Qi, F. 20:18 them] Q2-g, D; his
Qi, F. 20:20 and may judge] Qa-g, D; and Qi, F. 20:21
Horace,] Qg, F, D; —TV Qi-2. 20:23 and Plautus] Q2-g, D; in
the old Comedy, and Plautus in the new Qi, F. 20:24 Euripides]
Qg, D; Eurypides Qi-2, F. 20:24-25 in our hands] Q2-g, D; to be
had Qi, F. 20:27 further] Qi-g, D; farther F. 20:29 the wit of
which depended] Q2-g, D; whose wit depended Qi, F. 21:1, 2 on]
Q2-g, D; upon Qi, F. 21:4 understand] Q2-g, D; know it Qi, F.
21:21 prefer him] Qi, Qg, F, D; prefer him him Q2. 21:22 argument]
Qi-2, F; Arguments Qg, D. 2i:22-2g before you Father Ben.] Q2-g, D;
Father Ben. to you, Qi, F. 21:26 good Plays] Q2-g, D; good ones
Qi, F. 21:27 admire] Q2-g, D; esteem Qi, F. 21:29 who had]
Q2-3, D; who Qi, F. 21:30 began:] Qi-3, D; ~ . F. 22:10 miss'd:]
Qi, F; ~ ; Q2-g; — . D. 22:30 Greek] Qg, D; Greek Qi-2, F.
23:1 times:] Qi-g, F; ~ . D. 23:5 Secondly] Q2~3, F, D; 2ly Qi.
23:8-10 call'd by the Romans, . . . properly the] Q2~3, D (Romans
Q2); or Qi, F. 23:11 action] Qi-g, D; Act F. 23:11 distant]
Q2-g, F, D; dsstant Qi. 23:13 round] Qi-g, D; rounds F. 23:15
on:] Qi-g, F; ~ . D. 23:15-16 Grecians] Q3, D; Grecians Qi-2, F.
23:16 Xiions] Q2-3, D; M<ru Qi; «<n F. 23:16 French] Qg, D; French
Qi-2, F. 23:16 denouement] denouement Qi-3, F, D. 23:24
Acts and] Qi, Qg, F, D; Acts Q2. 23:28 Grecians] Qg, D; Grecians
Qi-2, F. 23:29 to] Qi, Qg, F, D; to to Q2. 24:1 Spaniards] Qg,
D; Spaniards Qi-2, F. 24:2 Italians] Qg, D; Italians Qi-2, F. 24:9
a juCtfos] D; 76 nv9os Qi, F; r6 jiuflis Q2-g. 24:10 Romans] Qg, D;
Romans Qi-2, F. 24:14 thred-bare] Qi, Qg, D; thred bare Q2, F.
24:15-16 Greeklings] Qg, D; Greeklings Qi-2, F. 24:16 Ben.] Q2-3,
F, D; Ben Qi. 24:21 an Oracle] Qi-3, D; and Oracle F. 24:24
more] Q2-3, D; two of Qi, F. 24:32 Romans] D; Romans Qi-g, F.
25:1 Greek] D; Greek Qi-g, F. 25:3 City] Q2-3, D; same City
Qi, F. 25:8 taking] Q2-3, D; take Qi, F. 25:11 who] Q2-g, D;
that Qi, F. 25:13 Mistress] Q3, D; Wench Qi, F; Mistres Q2.
25:17 on whom the Story is built] Q2-g, D; whom all the Story is built
upon Qi, F. 25:20 way, which was] Q2-3, D; way, Qi, F. 25:23
Italian] D; Italian Qi-3, F. 26:4 French] D; French Qi-g, F. 26:5
Stage.] period failed to print in some copies of Q/. 26:7 Self-Punisher]
Self-Punisher Qi-g, F, D. 26:7 dayes,] Q2-3, D (~ ; Q2-3); dayes,
therefore Qi, F. 26:8 day,] Q2-3, D; day, were acted over-night; Qi,
F. 26:9 the day ensuing] Qa-g, D; on the ensuing day Qi, F.
26:9 Euripides] D; Eurypides Qi-g, F. 26:12 English] D; English
Qi-g, F. 26:16 which] Q2-3, D; that Qi, F. 26:17 Eunuch]
Eunuch Qi-g, F, D. 26:18 by mistake into] Qa-g, D; in a mistake
Textual Notes 493
Qi, F. 26:20 ample] (£2-3, D; an ample Qi, F. 26:20 Disorders]

Q2-3, D; Garboyles Qi, F. 26:22 employ!] Qi, F; employer Q2-3,
D. 26:23 French] D; French Qi-3, F. 27:2 English] Qs, D; Eng-
lish Qi-2, F. 27:4 is to] QI-S, F; is D. 27:5 not onely] Q2-3,
D; not Qi, F. 27:10 further] Qi~3, D; farther F. 27:11 Eunuch]
Eunuch Qi-3, F, D. 27:15-16 inartificial,] Q2~3, D (~)); inartificial
to do, Qi, F. 27:20 and] Qi, F; (~ Qa-3, D. 27:21 Phcedria]
D; Phcedria Qi-3, F. 27:23 Monologue] Monologue Qi-3, F, D.
27:25 Brothers] Brothers Qi-3, F, D. 27:28 same] Qi, Q3, F, D;
same in Q2. 27:28 interruption.] Q2-3, F, D; ~ : Qi. 27:29-30
in the management] Qa-3, D; managing of them Qi, F. 28:5 convey]
Qi-3, Fa, D; convay Fb. 28:5 punishment; a] punishment. A Qi-3,
Fa-b, D. 28:7 who] Q2~3, D; that Qi, Fa-b. 28:7 them:] Qi-3,
Fa-b; ~- . D. 28:7 there] Qi-3, D, Fa; their Fb. 28:16-17 Eurip-
ides] Q3, Fb, D; Eurypides Qi-2, Fa. 28:18 Poet:] QI-S, Fa-b; ~ . D.
28:32 Pheedria] Q3, D; Phcedria— Qi-2, Fa-b. 28:32 Eunuch} Eu-
nuch Qi-3, Fa-b, D. 29:6 on] Q2-3, D; of the wit upon Qi, Fa-b.
29:14 on] Q2-3, D; upon Qi, Fa-b. 29:16 writings:] <—. Qi-3,
Fa-b, D. 29:24-25 Acantho; in] Acantho. ^[In Qi-3, Fa-b, D. 29:25
Pollio: . . . AZneid;] ~, . . . ~ . Qi-2, Fa-b, D; ~ , . . . ~ , Q3-
29:38 Scuta] Q2-3, Fa-b, D; Scnta Qi. 29:28-29 carinas: and]
carinas. ^[And Qi-3, Fa-b, D. 29:31-32 cceli; calling] cceli. ^Calling
Qi~3, Fa-b, D. 30:5 know] some copies of Qi read know. 30:9
digested:] Qi~3, Fa-b; ~. D. 30:13 Satyres] Satyres Qi~3, Fa-b, D
(Satyrs Q3, D). 30:13 Donns] Qi, Q3, Fa-b, D; bonus Qa. 30:17
Rebel Scot] Rebel Scot Qi-3, Fa-b, D. 30:18 Cain been Scot] Q3,
D; Cain been Scot Qi-2, Fa-b. 30:19 home.] Qi, Q3, Fa-b, D; —',
Qz. 30:22 White-powder] Qi-3, D; White Powder Fa-b. 30:31
up a] Qi-3, Fa, D; up so Fb. 30:34 liv'd] Q2-3, Fa-b, D; live'd Qi.
31:3-4 sententiousness] Q2-3, Fa-b, D; sentiousness Qi. 31:5 Tra-
gcedia] Q3, D; Tragadia Qi-2, Fa-b. 31:10 Seneca] Q2-3, Fa-b, D;
Seneca Qi. 31:12 Andromache] Q2-3, Fa-b, D; Andromache Qi.
31:14-15 the Tragedies of the Ancients] Q2-3, D; their Tragedies Qi,
Fa-b. 31:19 were] Qi~3, Fb, D; where Fa. 31:27 say] Qi-2, D,
Fa-b; says Q3- 31:28 ?«') xa.1 tyvxj] ?"1 «&t ûxi Qi, Fa-b (tai Fa-b);
£«)> KO.I j>"xb Q2-3, D ($wxA Q2). 31:29 kindness:] Q2-3, D; kindness:
then indeed to speak sense were an offence. Qi, Fa-b. 32:5
where] Qi-3, Fa, D; were Fb. 32:8 imaging] Qi-2, Fa-b; imagin-
ing Q3, D. 32:9 borrows from] Q2~3, D; borrows of Qi,
Fa-b. 32:18 French] Q3, D; French Qi-2, Fa-b. 32:20 virtues,]
Qi-3, D; ~ . Fa-b. 32:28 thus] Qi-2, Fa-b; this Q3, D. 32:31
(as ... Lucilius)] on line above in Qi, Fa-b. 32:32 natural] Q2-3,
D; as natural Qi, Fa-b. 32:33 in which he liv'd] Q2-3, D; he liv'd
in Qi, Fa-b. 33:3 Libitina] D; libitina Qi~3, Fa-b. 33:6 which]
D; ~, Qi-3, Fa-b. 33:11 English] Q3, D; English Qi-2, Fa-b.
33:15 French] Qg, D; French Qi-2, Fa-b. 33:23 Lisideius] Q2-J,
Fa-b, D; Lysideius Qi. 33:24 French or English] (£3, D; French or
English Qi-2, Fa-b. 33:26 said] Fa-b; (~ Qi-3, D. 33:26 (turn-
494 Textual Notes
ing] Qi, Fa-b; A~ Q2~3, D. 33:27 Englishmen] Qj, D; Englishmen

Qi-2, Fa-b. 33:28 Beaumont,] Qa-3, Fa-b, D; <~A Qi- 33:3» in
an] Qi-3, Fa, D; an Fb. 34:3 Richelieu] Richlieu Qi-3, Fa-b, D.
34:5 Corneille] Q3, D; Cornell Qi-2, Fa-b. 34:5 Frenchmen] D;
Frenchmen Qi~3, Fa-b. 34:8 observing] Qa-g, D; touching upon Qi,
Fa-b. 34:11 French] D; French Qi-3, Fa-b. 34:15 one of] Qi-3,
D; one to Fa-b. 34:19 time to] Qi-3, D; time of Fa-b. 34:19
hours:] Qi-3, Fa-b; ~ . D. 34:26 English] D; English Qi-3, Fa-b.
34:28 two] Qi-3, Fa, D; too Fb. 35:6 English] D; English Qi-3,
Fa-b. 35:9 and a third] Q2-3, D; a third Qi, Fa-b. 35:9-10 and
a Duel] Qa-3, D; and fourth a Duel Qi, Fa-b. 35:11 Bedlam] period
failed to print in some copies of Qi. 35:11 French] D; French Qi-3,
Fa-b. 35:11 affords] Qi-2, Fa-b; afford Q3, D. 35:12 mal a]
Q3, D; mal a Qi-2, Fa; mala Fb. 35:15 Red-Bull;] Qi-s; ~ . Fa-b,
:
D- 35 23 into it] Q2-3, D (in to Q2-3); in Qi, Fa-b. 35:25
restringents] Q2-3, D; restringents upon it Qi, Fa-b. 36:3 the
French] D; the French Qi-3, Fa-b (the the Fa). 36:4 falsa] Qi-3, D;
falste Fa-b. 36:5 imum] Q3, D; ~ : Qi-2, Fa-b. 36:13 in the
death] Q2-3, D; the death Qi, Fa-b. 36:24-25 an half] Q2; a half
Qi> Q3. Fa-b, D. 37:1 *ru/*o] Q3, D; eru/«t Qi-2, Fa-b. 37:1
Greek] D; Greek Qi-3, Fa-b. 37:3-4 French . . . Spaniards] D;
French . . . Spaniards Qi~3, Fa-b. 37:6 whole and] Qi~3, D; whole
Fa-b. 37:10 Drama] Fa-b, D; Drama Qi-3- 3?:n closely] Q2-3,
D; close Qi, Fa-b. 37:12 French] D; French Qi-3, Fa-b. 37:13
:
on] Qz-g, D; upon Qi, Fa-b. 37 '8 Spanish] D; Spanish Qi~3, Fa-b.
37:20 French] D; French Qi-3, Fa-b. 37:22 Herodian;] Q2-3, D; ~ ,
Qi, Fa-b. 37:30 this] Qi-3, Fa, D; the Fb. 38:1 Golia's] Qi-a, Fa-b;
Goliah's Qs; Goliah D. 38:3 Satyre] Qi-2, Fa-b; Satyr Qs, D. 38:8
French] D; French Qi-3, F. 38:12 on] Q2-3, D; upon Qi, F.
38:26 exalting] Q2-3, D; exalting of Qi, F. 38:35 French] D;
French Qi-3, F. 39:1 narrations] Qi~3, D; Narration F. 39:4
French] D; French Qi-3, F. 39:5 a] a Qi-3, F, D. 39:5 English]
D; English Qi-3, F. 39:7 one,] ~A Qi-3, F, D. 39:9-10 as will
force us on] Q2-3, D; which will inforce us upon Qi, F. 39:18 that
is,] Qi-3, F; ~A D. 39:21 French] D; French Qi-3, F. 39:21-22
to which we are subject] (£2-3, D; which we are subject to Qi, F. 39:23
Theaters] Q2-3, D; ~ , Qi, F. 39:29 them?] D; ~ . Qi~3, F. 40:5
Roman] D; Roman Qi~3, F. 40:6 on] Q2-3, D; upon Qi, F. 40:7
do] Q2~3, D; naturally do Qi, F. 40:11 insinuate into us] Q2-3,
D; perswade us to Qi, F. 40:17 sleight] Qi-3, F; slight D. 40:18
on] Q2-3, D; upon Qi, F. 40:23 were] (£2-3, D; are Qi, F. 41:5
produce] Qi~3, D; produced F. 41:7 French] D; French Qi~3, F.
41:8 on] Q2-3, D; upon Qi, F. 41:11 the Players] Q2-3, D; they
Qi, F. 41:27 narration:] ~. Qi~3, F, D. 41:32 English] D;
English Qi-3, F. 41:33 Magnetick Lady] D; Magnetick Lady Qi-8,
F. 42:1 appearance] Q2-3, D; appearing Qi, F. 42:3 Eunuch]
Eunuch Qi-3, F, D. 42:6 remarkable] Q2-3, F, D; remakable Qi.
42:10 King and no King] (£3, D; King and no King Qi-2, F, 42:17
Textual Notes 495
management] Qz-3, D; managing Qi, F. 42:19 French] D; French

Qi-3, F. 42:21 way which] Qa~3, D; way Qi, F. 42:25 off their
design] Qz-3, D; off Qi, F. 42:29 Scornful Lady] Ojj, D; Scornful
Lady Qi-a, F. 43:5 up again what he had lost] Qs-3, D; it up
again Qi, F. 43:6 on] 0,2-3, D; upon Qi, F. 43:7 hear] Q2-3,
D; hear of Qi, F. 43:8 on] Qa~3, D; upon Qi, Fa-b. 43:11 which
rule] Qa-3, D; which Qi, Fa-b. 43:15-16 exit of the Actor] 0,2-3,
D; exits of their Actors Qi, Fa-b. 43:16 his] Qz-3, D; their Qi, Fa-b.
43:18 there] Qi-3, Fa, D; their Fb. 43:33 Authour:] ~ . 0,1-3,
Fa-b, D. 44:8 much] Qi-3, Fa, D; so much Fb. 44:9 that the]
Qa-3, D; the Qi, Fa-b. 44:10 French] D; French Qi~3, Fa-b. 44:10
and observe] Qz-3, D; observe Qi, Fa-b. 44:12 English] D; English
Qi-3, Fa-b. 44:12 Farther,] Q2-3, D; ~A Qi, Fa-b. 44:15 nor]
Qi-3, D; not Fa-b. 44:19-20 Frenc/j-poesie] D; French-poesie Qi-3,
Fa-b. 44:27 who] Q2-3, D; that Qi, Fa-b. 44:29 two] Qi~3, Fa,
D; too Fb. 44:31 The] Q3, D; the Qi-a, Fa-b. 44:32 English]
Q3, D; English Qi-2, Fa-b. 44:33-45:1 acted to] Qi-2, Fa-b; acted
Q3; acted with D. 45:1 as] Qz-3, D; by Mr. Hart, as Qi, Fa-b.
45:2 put it] Q2-3, D; put Qi, Fa-b. 45:8 it, and reconcile them]
Qz-j, D; it up Qi, Fa-b. 45:9 Moliere] Q2~3, D; de Moliere Qi,
Fa-b. 45:10 afar] Q2-3, D; of afar Qi, Fa; of a far Fb, 45:11
English] Q3, D; English Qi-2, Fa-b. 45:11 They have] Qi-3, D;
They Fa-b. 45:12 Tragicomedies,] Qs, Fa-b, D; /~vv Qi-2. 45:13
Richelieu] Q3, D; Richlieu Qi-2, Fa-b. 45:16 Spanish] Q3, D; Span-
ish Qi-z, Fa-b. 45:18 after] Qa-3, Fa-b, D; afer Qi. 45:23 Al-
chymist] Q3, D; Alchymist Qi-2, Fa-b. 45:23 Silent Woman] Q3, D;
silent Woman Qi-2, Fa-b (Silent Q2). 45:23 Bartholomew-Fair]
Qg, D; Bartholmew-Tair Qi-z, Fa-b. 45:25 French] Q3, D; French
Qi-2, Fa-b. 45:26 Spanish] (£3, D; Spanish Qi-a, Fa-b. 45:26
before,] Q2-3, D; ~/\ Qi. Fa-b. 46:2 on] Qa-3, D; upon Qi, Fa-b.
46:5 Lisideius] Q3, Fa-b, D; Lysideius Qi-2. 46:12 does not] Qi-3,
Fa, D; does Fb. 46:16 in] Q2-3, D; upon Qi, Fa-b. 46:19 which]
Qz-3, D; and that Qi, Fa-b. 46:21 ere] Qi-2; 'ere Q3, D; e'er Fa-b.
46:26 known] Qi-g, Fa, D; know Fb. 46:29 French] Q3, D; French
Qi-2, Fa-b. 46:30 English] Q3, D; English Qi-2, Fa-b. 47:1 Our
Playes] 0.2-3, D: Ours Q1- Fa'b- 47 : 4 as] Q2~3- D; just as Qi, Fa-b.
47:7 English] Q3, D; English Qi-2, Fa-b. 47:14 Crites] Eugenius
Qi-3, Fa-b, D. 47:15 French] Oj, D; French Qi-2, Fa-b. 47:19
grant that] Q2-3, D; grant Qi, Fa-b. 48:2 tedious] Qa-3, D; the
tedious Qi, Fa-b. 48:3 French] Oj, D; French Qi-2, Fa-b. 48:7
State] Qi, Oj, Fa-b, D; Sate Qa. 48:10 like our Parsons] 0,2-3, D:
as our Parsons do Qi, Fa-b. 48:13 hundred] Q2-3, D; hundred or
two hundred Qi, Fa-b. 48:14 French] Oj, D; French Qi-z, Fa-b.
48:16 so they] Q2-3, D; they Qi, Fa-b. 48:17 thither] Qi~3, D;
hither Fa-b. 48:18 Comedy's are] Qz-3, D; Comedy is Qi, Fa-b. 49:2
French] D; French Qi-3, Fa-b. 49:2 can, reasonably, hope to reach]
Qa-3, D; can arrive at Qi, Fa-b. 49:6 their] Qi-3, Fa, I); there Fb.
49:6 Playes] Qi, Qs, Fa-b, D; Pays Qa. 49:22 English] Qs, D;
496 Textual Notes
English Qi-2, Fa-b, 49:22-24 Maids Tragedy, the Alchymist, the

Silent Woman . . . Fox] Q3, Fa-b, D; Maids Tragedy, the Alchymist,
the Silent Woman . . . Fox Qi-2. 49:25 appear] Qz-3, D; appears
Qi, Fa-b. 49:30-31 at which he aym'd] Qz-3, D; he aym'd at Qi,
Fa-b. 50:1 both which] Q2-3, D; which Qi, Fa-b. 50:6 French]
Qs, D; French Qi-2, Fa-b. 50:6 to] Q2-3, D; when they Qi, Fa-b.
50:7 on] Q2-3, D; upon Qi, Fa-b. 50:7 and to] Q2-3, D; and Qi,
Fa-b. 50:19 blowes] Q2-3, D; blowes which are struck Qi, Fa-b.
50:23 Andromede, a] Andromedel A Qi~3, Fa-b, D. 50:24 writ?]
Qi-2, Fa-b; ~ . Q3, D. 51:8 on] Q2-g, D; upon Qi, Fa-b. 51:10
on] Q2-3, D; upon Qi, Fa-b. 51:13, 19 French] D; French Qi-g,
Fa-b. 51:23 bounded] Q2-3, D; ti'd up Qi, Fa-b. 51:84 English]
D; English Qi-3, Fa-b. 51:26 speculates . . . severes] speculates
. . . severes Qi-3, Fa-b, D. 51:30 limited] Q2-J, D; bound up Qi,
Fa-b. 51:32 said:] Q3, D; ~ , Qi, Fa-b; ~ ; Q2. 52:2 on] Q2-3,
D; upon Qi, Fa-b. 52:15 French] D; French Qi-3, Fa-b. 52:24
their] (£1-3, Fa, D; there Fb. 52:34-35 into a place of safety,]
Q2-3, D; in through a door Qi; through a door Fa-b. 53:3 French]
D; French (£1-3, Fa-b. 53:4-5 on the subject of] Q2-g, D; upon Qi,
Fa-b. 53:6 forward] Q2-3, D; on Qi, Fa-b. 53:9 French] D;
French Qi-3, Fa-b. 53:10 write] Qi~3, Fb, D; Writ Fa. 53:10
English] D; English Qi~3, Fa-b. 53:11 Shakespeare?] Q2-3, D; ~ .
Qi, Fa-b. 53:15 to rise] Q2-3, D; ro rise up Qi; to rise up Fa-b.
53:19 French] D; French Qi-3, Fa-b. 53:20 on] Q2-3, D; upon
Qi, Fa-b. 53:21, 24 English] D; English Qi-3, Fa-b. 53:25
French] D; French Qi~3, Fa-b. 53:26, 30 English] D; English Qi-3,
Fa-b. 54:1 Corneille's] Q3, Fa-b, D; Corneilles's Qi-2. 54:3
French] D; French Qi-3, Fa-b. 54:8 read] Q2-3, D; look upon Qi,
Fa-b. 54:8 Sad Shepherd] Q3, D; sad Shepherd Qi-2, Fa-b (Sad Q2).
54:9-10 on ... on ... on] Q2-3, D; upon . . . upon . . . upon Qi,
Fa-b. 54:10 Amble.] Qi~3, D; ~ , Fa; —• : Fb. 54:11-12 Faithful
Shepherdess] D; Faithful Shepherdess Qi-3, Fa-b. 54:15 French] D;
French Qi-3, Fa-b. 54:16 whence] (£2-3, D; from whence Qi, Fa-b.
54:17 English] D; English Qi-3, Fa-b. 54:22 in the] Q2-3, D; in
all the Qi, Fa-b. 54:23 French] D; French Qi~3, Fa-b. 54:25
Merry Wives of Windsor] Q3, D; Merry Wives of Windsor Qi-2, Fa-b.
54:25 and] Qa~3, Fa-b, D; and Qi. 54:26 Scornful Lady] Q3, D;
Scornful Lady Qi-2, Fa-b. 55:7 French] D; French Qi~3, Fa-b.
55:8 Silent Woman] Q2~3, D; Silent Woman Qi, Fa-b. 55:9 earn-
estly regarding] Q2-3, D; looking earnestly upon Qi, Fa-b. 55:13
French and English] D; French and English Qi-3, Fa-b. 55:16 some
envy on] Q2-3, D; a little envy upon Qi, Fa-b. 56:1 Poets,] Qi~3,
Fa, D; ~ . Fb. 56:2 viburna] Q2-3, Fa-b, D; viberna Qi. 56:5
done] Q2-3, D; treated of Qi, Fa-b. 56:7-8 him . . . Johnson,] ~ ,
. . . ~A Qi-3, Fa-b; ~, . . . ~ , D. 56:14 study,] ~ . Qi-3, Fa-b, D.
56:20 that] Q2-3, D; which Qi, Fa-b. 56:24 regular] Qi, Fa-b, D;
regularly Q2-3- 56:27 wilde] QI-S, D; wilded Fa-b. 56:28 before
them could] Q2~3, D (them, Q2-s); can ever Qi, Fa-b. 56:28-29 Hu-
Textual Notes 497
mour,] Qz-3, D (~A Qz); This Humour of Qi, Fa-b. 56:32 English]
D; English Qi-g, Fa-b. 57:2 ornamental] Q2-g, D; necessary Qi,
Fa-b. 57:4 Shakespeare's] Qz-g, Fa-b, D; Shakespheare's Qi. 57:7
humours] Qi-g, D; Humour Fa-b. 57:18 till] Qi~3, Fa-b; 'till D.
57:18 came. He] Qi (corrected state), Qz-g, Fa-b, D; came; he Qi
(uncorrected state). 57:26 Greek and Latine] Qg, D; Greek and
Latine Qi-2, Fa-b. 57:28 Roman] Qg, D; Roman Qi-2, Fa-b.
57:29 Catiline] Qi, Fa-b, D; Cataline Q2-g. 58:3 laboriously, . . .
Comedies especially] Q2-g, D; ~A • • • serious Playes Qi, Fa-b. 58:4
too much] Q2-3, Fa-b, D; to much Qi. 58:5 Latine] Qg, D; Latine
Qi-2, Fa-b. 58:6 their] Qz-g, D; the Idiom of their Qi, Fa-b. 58:7
the Idiom of ours] Qz-g, D; ours Qi, Fa-b. 58:14 Discoveries] Dis-
coveries Qi-g, Fa-b, D. 58:16 French] Qg, D; French Qi-2, Fa-b.
58:18 Woman] Qi-g, Fa, D; ~ , Fb. 58:19 Silent Woman] Qg, D;
Silent Woman Qi-z, Fa-b. 58:25 on] Qz-3, D; upon Qi, Fa-b.
58:25 Spanish] Qg, Fa-b, D; Spanish Qi-2. 58:26 Five Hours]
Fa-b; five hours Qi-3, D (Five Qg; Hours D). 59:3 except] Qz-g, D;
excepting Qi, Fa-b. 59:3~4 Fox and Alchymist] Qg, Fa-b, D; Fox
and Alchymist Qi-z. 59:6 once] Qa-g, D; once apiece Qi,
Fa-b (a piece Fb). 59:8 Morose's] Qg, D; Moreses's Qi-2,
Fa-b. 59:19 to this . . . allude] Qz-g, D; this . . . allude to Qi,
Fa-b. 59:19 Beside] Qz-3, D; Besides Qi, Fa-b. 59:20 divers]
Qz-g, D; diverse Qi, Fa-b. 59:27 Lying:] Qi-g. Fa-b; ~ .
D. 60:3 is his] Qz-g, D; in his Qi, Fa-b. 60:11 it in] Qi-g,
Fa-b; in it D. 60:11 TÔIOV] Fa-b, D; ~ , Qi-g. 60:25 'n their]
Qi-2, Fa-b; in the Qg, D. 61:4 from] Qz-g, D; from common Qi,
Fa-b. 61:12 in the] Q2-g, Fa-b, D; in the the Qi. 61:13 are all]
Qi-2, Fa-b; all Qg, D. 61:17 Besides that,] Besides, that Qi-3, Fa-b,
D. 61:22 Man] Q2-g, D; «<f°-« Qi, Fa-b. 61:22 of it] Qi-g, Fa-b;
it D. 61:25 have enter'd] Qi-g, Fa, D; enter'd Fb. 62:g res]
Q2-g, Fa-b, D; ret Qi. 62:4 tanto] Qi-g, D; tante Fa-b. 62:6-7
has made use] Q2-3, D; had prevail'd himself Qi, Fa-b. 62:12 long-
expected] Qz-g, D; long expected Qi, Fa-b. 62:17 True-Wit] Qz-g,
D; Truwit Qi, Fa-b. 6z:zz Coup] Qi-z, Fa-b, D; Coupe Qg.
6z:z7 Collegiate] Qz-g, Fa-b, D; Cellegiate Qi. 62:27 hear] Qi-g,
Fa, D; here Fb. 6g:7 while] Q2-g, Fa-b, D; whille Qi. 6g:i8
French] D; French Qi-g, Fa-b. 6g:2g spoken] Qi-g, D; spoke Fa-b.
63:23 English] Qg, D; English Qi-2, Fa-b. 63:33 English] D;
English Qi-g, Fa-b. 63:34 have had] Qi-g, Fa-b; have D. 64:8 Ubt]
Ubi Qi-3, F, D. 64:8-9 One line in Qn-j, D. 64:9 Not
indented in Qi. 64:12 French] D; French Qi-3, F. 64:17 up-
rightly] Qi, F; upright Q2-3, D. 64:23 This] Qz-g, D (~, Qz);
This, my Lord, Qi, F. 64:25^6 that the most] Qz-g, D; the most
Qi, F. 65:g French] D; French Qi-g, F. 65:4 late] Qz~3, D;
great Qi, F. 65:24 Labert] Qz-g, D; Liberi Qi, F. 66:5 amongst]
Qi~3, D; among F. 66:6 lambique] lambique Qi-g, F, D. 66:7
verse] ~, Qi-g, F, D. 66:8 paper] Qz-g, F, D; p per Qi. 66:9
Poem; blank] Qg, D; Poem. Blank Qi-z, F. 66:15 on] Qz-g, D; upon
498 Textual Notes
Qi, F. 66:19 imagine] Qa-g, D; light upon Qi, F. 66:26 like

the] Qi-3, D; like F. 66:34 persons] Qi-g, D; Person F. 67:8
them;] Qi-2, F; ~ ? Qg, D. 67:10 imagination?] Qi-2, F; ~ , Qg, D.
67:10 to] Q2-3, D; to, and seek after Qi, F. 67:11 Truth;] Qi, F;
<-- : Qz; ~ ? Qg, D. 67:17 you are often forc'd on this miserable
necessity] Q2-g, D; this miserable necessity you are forc'd upon Qi, F.
67:26 Latine] D; Latine Qi-g, F. 67:go Description] Q2-g, F, D;
Discription Qi. 67:30 Deluge,] Qg, D; < — . Qi-2, F. 67:32 Not
set of} as verse or italicized in Qi-j, F, D. 68:5 Corneille] Qi, Qg,
F, D; Corneile Q2. 68:7 on] Q2-g, D; upon Qi, F. 68:8 since]
Q2-g, D; being Qi, F. 68:26 produc'd, Rhyme] Qi, F, D; produc'd
Rhyme Qa; produc'd as Rhyme, Qg. 68:29 Crites,] Qi-g, D; <—. F.
69:2 verse,] ~ ? Qi-g, F, D. 69:3 / . . . make] in romans in Qi;
not set off as verse in Qi-), F, D. 69:6 it?] ~ : Qi-g, F, D. 69:12
on] Q2-g, D; upon Qi, F. 69:14-15 disposition] Q2-g, D; disposing
Qi, F. 69:21 then in] Qi (corrected state), Q2-g, F, D; then it Qi
(uncorrected state). 69:28 establishes] Qa-g, D; concludes upon Qi,
F. 69:31 farther off] D; farther of Qi-g, F. 70:1 English . . .
Latine,] D; English . . . Latine, Qi-3, F (Latine. Qi). 70:2 Hemi-
stich] D; Hemystich Qi-g, F. 70:3 makes] Qi-g, D; make F.
70:3-4 Playes . . . verse] Qi, F; ~A . . . ~ , Qa; ~ , . . . ~ , Qg, D.
70:12 unnatural in] Qa-g, D; improper to Qi, F. 70:19 All] all
Qi-g, F, D. 70:28 Greek and Latine] D; Greek and Latine Qi-g, F.
70:31 introduced] Q2-g, D; brought in Qi, F. 70:32 Latine] D;
Latine Qi-g, F. 71:2-5 Nations: at ... Dan. his Defence f>f
Rhyme.] Q2-g, D (Dan. his Q2; Dan. his Qg; Dan. his D); Nations. Qi,
F. 71:6 rhyme, the] rhyme. The Qi-g, F, D. 71:10 Greek and
Latine] D; Greek and Latine Qi-g, F. 71^4 Italians] Italian Qi-g,
F, D. 71:16 amongst] Qi-g, D; among F. 71:16-17 a Sermo]
Q2-3, D; a Sermo Qi, F. 71:18 acknowledge] Qi~3, D; knowledge F.
71:21 in an] Qa-g, F, D; in a Qi. 71:21 Hemistich] Hemistick Qi,
F; Hemystick Qa-g; Hemistich D. 71:25 Siege of Rhodes] Siege of
i:
Rhodes Qi-g, F, D. 7 3° lambiques] Qg, D; lambiques Qi-2, F.
72:1-2 Greek and Latine] D; Greek and Latine Qi~3, F. 72:3 of
Nations] Q2-g, D; of all Nations Qi, F. 72:3 the] Q2-g, D; All the
Qi, F. 72:6 to include] Qa-g, D; include Qi, F. 72:27 till]
Qi-g, F; 'till D. 73:5 us'd. All] Qa-3, D; blown upon: all Qi, F
(All F). 73:7 not now] Qa-g, D; not Qi, F. 73:10 Tentanda]
Qi-2, F, D; Tentandia Q3_ 73:11 possum] Qi-g, F; passim D.
73:15 Verse, as] F, D; Verse (as Qi-g. 73:25 Sandys his] Qi-g, F;
Sandys's D. 73:26 ol 7roXXo(, 'tis] /><. iro\\ol Tis Qi-g, F, D (TroXXoi. Q2;
n-oXXol, D; A -n-oXXoi. F; 'tis Qs). 73:28 wrong] Qa-g, F, D; wong Qi.
74:1 Seige of Rhodes] Seige of Rhodes Qi-g, F, D. 74:2 Indian
Queen, and Indian Emperour] Indian Queen, and Indian Emperour Qi-
3, F, D. 74:4 said that] Qa-3, D; said Qi, F. 74:7 proper to]
Qi-3, D; proper F. 74:23 exactly,] Qi, F; ~ ; Qa~3, D. 74:26
socco,} Q2-g; ~ . Qi, F; ~A D. 74:27 Thyesta (sayes] Thyeslce.
Textual Notes 499
(Sayes Qi-3, F, D (says D). 74:29 tragcedia] Qs, D; tragesdia Qi-2,

F. 75:1-2 Dramatick, . . . alledges,] Qz-g, D; ~ ; . . . <~A Qi, F.
75:29 said,] Qs, D; ~A Qi-a, F. 75:32 on] Q2-g, D; upon Qi, F.
76:5 mans] Qz~3, D; ones Qi, F. 76:9 Rhyme, the] ~ . The Qi-3,
F, D. 76:9-10 Hemistich] Hemystich Qi~s; Hemistich F, D. 76:12
Greek] D; Greek QI-S, F. 76:19 them.] Qi, Qs, F, D; ~ , Qz.
77:19 those which are most mean and] Q2-3, D; the most mean ones:
those Qi, F. 77:28-29 debas'd,] ~A Qi~3. F, D. 77:30 Hemistich]
Hemystich Qi-2; Hemystick Qs; Hemistich F, D. 78:1 English] Q3,
D; English Qi-2, F. 78:4 Latine] Qs; Latine Qi-a, F. 78:9
Unlock the door] D; unlock the door Qi-3, F. 78:11 Latine] Qs, D;
Latine Qi-2, F. 78:12-13 Laris. / Set . . . gates.] Q2-3, D; Laris. Qi,
F. 78:18-19 them. For ... Verse.] Q2-s, D; them. Qi, F. 78:24
on] Qz-3, D; upon Qi, F. 78:30 fancy, the] fancy, The Qi, F; ~ .
The QZ-S, D. 78:30 sence] Qi, F; scene QZ-S, D. 79:4-5 which
he] Qi-3, D; which F. 79:8 on] Q2-3, D; upon Qi, F. 79:9
Playes; which] Playes. Which Qi~3, F, D. 79:14-15 prove on that
supposition.] Q2-3, D; prove: Qi, F. 79:24 strong, or rather] Q2-3,
D; strong, Qi, F. 79:25 helps] QI-S, D; help F. 80:i is] QZ-S,
D; was Qi, F. 80:1 has] QZ-S, D; had Qi, F. 80:25 ere] Qi-z,
F; 'ere Qs; e'er D. 80:29 a while] Qi-z, F; a-while Qs, D. 80:30
on] QZ-S, D; upon Qi, F. 80:30 upon which the Moon-beams play'd]
Q2-3, D; which the Moon-beams play'd upon Qi, F. 80:32 French]
QS, D; French Qi-2, F. 81:2 Piazze] QI-S; Piazza F, D. 81:2
Lisideius] Qs, D; Lysideius Qi-2, F.

Notes and Observations was printed only once in Dryden's lifetime, in
1674 (Macd 128; Q). The copy text for the present edition is the Clark
copy of Q (*PRs4ig.N8i), with which the following additional copies
have been compared: Harvard (*EC65.08474.674^, Huntington (123070),
Folger (Dzszo, copy i), Newberry (Case ¥135.8496). The Huntington
copy lacks the cancel errata slip on 3411 (p. 98); the Folger copy has
an uncorrected state of the outer form of signature H.
Q is badly printed. Types and parts of types that failed to print have
been restored silently for the most part: for example, "But" on A4, line
zo (87:22), appears as "Put" in some copies, and the semicolon in the
last line on page 60 (169:23) appears as a comma in some copies. "Non-
sense," a very common word in this work, has been assumed to have the
hyphen even when none appears in any copy examined.
The errata slip pasted on 341* covers a shorter list that begins with
page 34, line 29 (138:4), does not include page 71, line 36 (183^2), and
gives a different correction for page 72, line 5 (184:1-2). The last sentence
500 Textual Notes
before the Postscript on page 69 (179:31-180:9) reads as though it had

been written to paper over the loss of the last sheet of the observations
proper.
The textual footnotes record the emendations introduced into the
present edition, except for the silent changes mentioned above. Only a
few are normalizations of the accidentals to the prevailing style of the
time. Q is very erratic in italicizing quotations that are not centered, and
it is indeed sometimes the reader's choice whether a quotation is in-
tended; this irregularity has generally been left unchanged. The spellings
Mulyhamet and Mulylabas, which do not begin to give way to the more
correct Muly Harriet and Muly Labas until page 30, line 38 (133:28), have
been let stand where they occur.
Misquotations of Settle have been let stand unless the result was
nonsense or obscurity. "S" in the footnotes represents the Clark copy of
Settle's The Empress of Morocco (1673) as photographically reproduced
in Maximillian E. Novak's edition (1968), which, incidentally, includes a
photo facsimile of our copy text of Notes and Observations.
Press Variants by Form
Q
Sheet H (outer form)
Uncorrected: Folger
Corrected: Clark, Harvard, Humington, Newberry
Sig. Hat/
page number 53] 52
158:32 confere] conferre
158:33 Seyze] Seize
159:5 poysond] poyson'd
»59:9 !] As »
159:12 poysondj poyson'd
159:13 murdre'd] murdered
159:15 alive] ~ ,
159:18 four dashes] one dash
159:21 poisn'ous] poisnous
Sig. H3
page number 52] 53
160:8 escape as] escape
Sig. H4V
163:21-22 Brest . . . kild] Breast . . . kil'd
163:22 her] ~ :
163:23 concernd] concern'd
163:31 Murderiug] Murdering
163:32 red] read
164:18 here of] here
Textual Notes 501

Edmond Malone gave Heads of an Answer its present title in his 1800
edition of Dryden's prose works. The "Heads" were first published with-
out title in the preface to Jacob Tonson's 1711 edition of The Works of
Mr. Francis Beaumont, and Mr. John Fletcher (I, xii-xxvi), after the
following statement:
. . . Mr. Rymer sent one of his Books as a Present to
Mr. Dryden, who on the Blank Leaves, before the Be-
ginning, and after the End of the Book, made several
Remarks, as if he design'd an Answer to Mr. Rymer's
Reflections; they are of Mr. Dryden's own Hand Writ-
ing, and may be seen at the Publisher's of this Book;
'tis to be wish'd he had put his last Hand to 'em, and
made the Connection closer, but just as he left them
be pleas'd to take them here verbatim inserted.
In fact, Tonson made at least one emendation, inserting "speaking" in
line 192:29.
The next publication was at the end of Johnson's life of Dryden, again
without title, after the following statement:
Mr. Dryden, having received from Rymer his Remarks
on the Tragedies of the last Age, wrote observations
on the blank leaves; which, being now in the possession
of Mr. Garrick, are by his favour communicated to the
publick, that no particle of Mr. Dryden may be lost.
Subsequently the original was burned in the fire that destroyed Sir John
Hawkins's library. A hasty transcript of Tonson's text by Walter Harte,
now in the Folger Shakespeare Library, was first published in Scott-
Saintsbury and lias the title, "An Essay on Tragedy: Being a MS of
Mr Dryden's against Mr Rymer &c."
Tonson's version differs radically from Johnson's in the order of
presentation, as well as in minor matters of spelling, punctuation, capitali-
zation, and, to an unimportant degree, wording. The differences in the
order of the paragraphs between Tonson's and Johnson's printings
divide the work into seven parts. If the parts are numbered serially in
Tonson, then the order in Johnson is IV, VII, V, I, III, VI, II. Since
Dryden's notes were written on the blank leaves before and after Rymer's
text (five at each end, as revealed by examination of a number of copies
of The Tragedies of the Last Age), a transcriber might naturally assume
that the notes began on the first blank leaf at the beginning of the
book; he would therefore start copying from the front leaves and go on
to the back leaves in order. It is possible, however, that Dryden began
his notes, not at the beginning of the book, but at the end, filling those
pages before turning to the front ones. Malone (I, ii, 300) first suggested
this possibility, and George Watson ("Dryden's First Answer to Rymer,"
RES, n.s., XIV [1963], 17-23) explored it in detail. Some additional
502 Textual Notes
possibilities are suggested by the relative lengths of the various sections

and their contents, (i) The leaves were loose in the book and, before
Johnson saw them, had been rearranged in order of the amount of
writing on each, half a page (IV, VII), a page (V, I, III), two pages (VI),
and five pages (II). (2) I and III, IV and VII, V and VI, respectively,
were on conjugate leaves, with VI on both sides of its leaf; when Tonson
examined the parts they were folded around each other and II as follows:
(I (II) III) (IV (V VI) VII). When Johnson examined them they were
folded around each other as follows: (IV VII) (V (I III) VI) (II). (3) The
original order was (V (III I) VI) (IV VII) with II either first or last.
Although inclining to the third hypothesis, for this edition the textual
editor lias chosen Tonson's text as the more satisfactory of the two printed
versions, emending it, usually from Johnson's text, in 185:5, 186:4, 187:28,
188:1, 189:8; 189:23, 190:14, 190:18, 190:34, 191:2, 191:11, 191:21, 191:24,
192:16, 192:20, 192:29, 192:34, and 193:2. The fullest discussion of the
history of the text is in James M. Osborn, John Dryden: Some Biographi-
cal Facts and Problems (ad ed., 1965), pp. 283-285.
In the apparatus, T — Tonson (Texas copy), J = Johnson (Hunting-
ton copy), and M = the Folger manuscript.
185:5 M80os] fivffo! T; MÔS J, M. 185:7 namely] T, J; viz. M.

185:10 First,] T, J; i. M. 185:13 Secondly,] T, J; 2. M. 185:16
not] T, J; non M. 185:18 his,] T, J; ~A M. 185:23 he has] T,
J; h'as M. 185:25 between] T, M; betwixt J. 185:26 Greek
Poets and the English in] T, J; Greek & Engl. M. 185:27 I] T, M;
first J. 185:27 a Tragedy.] T, J; Tragedy, M. 185:28 II] T, M;
Secondly J. 185:29 III] T, M; Thirdly J. 185:30 IV] T, M;
Fourthly J. 186:2 Parts,] T, J; parts, & M. 186:2 Ends,] T; ends,
and J, M. 186:4 Euripides, See.] J; Eurypides, &c. T; &c M. 186:6
what] T, J; wt y? M. 186:6-7 deficient; for Example,] T, J (deficient:
J); deficient, viz M. 186:8 Poets;] T, J; ~ . M. 186:12 on] T, J;
of M. 186:13 as for Example,] T, J; e.g. M. 186:14 as namely
, . . scarce] T, J; viz. . . . wc.h is scarce M. 186:16 Fletcher.] T, J;
~ ! M. 186:18 cannot] T, J; can't M. 186:18-19 Example al-
ledged] T, J; ex. out M. 186:20 Friendship, be.] T, J; Friendship M.
186:23 it will] T, J;'twill M. 186:24 it is] T, J; tis M. 186:24 by]
T, M; by a J. 186:27 but] T. J: to M- 186:29 by] T, M; by by J.
186:33 End] T, M; ends J. 186:34 only:] T, M; ~ . J. 187:4
large] T, M; larger J. 187:6 then let us] T, J; let us y» M. 187:7
thisEnd]T, J ; y ? e n d M . 187:9 Rymer's] T, J; R M. 187:10-11
see whether . . . Country-men.] T, J; see &c M. 187:12 Plays]
T, M; ~ , J. 187:12 he arraigns] 'I'; he arraigns, J; has arraign'd M.
187:13 upon] T, J; on M. 187:15 to place] T, J; place M. 187:17
that is,] T, J; i e. M. 187:19 Plays themselves] T, J; plays M.
187:20 those] T, M; these J. 187:20 Passions:] T, J; ~ . M. 187:
20-21 ever to have been] T, J; to have been ever so M. 187:22
cannot] T, J; can't M. 187:23 it is] T, J; 'tis M. 187:23 Sec-
ondly] T, J; 2 M. 187:24 those] T, M; these J. 187:26 Rymer's]
Textual Notes 503
T, J; R M. 187:27 by] T, J; in M. 187:28 says] J; say T;
shd say M. 187:28 when the] T, M; the J. 187:29 further] T;
farther J, M. 187:30 against him that it is] T, J; yt tis M. 187:32
this can] T, J; this M. 187:34 those] T, M; these J. 188:1
Shakespear] J, M; Skakespear T. 188:4 the Dispositions] T; the dis-
position J; & dispositions M. 188:4 whom] T, J; w^ M. 188:7-11
Paragraph omitted by M. 188:14 that is,] T, J; i e. M. 188:15
those] T, J; y? M. 188:15 before-named] T; before named J; above
nam'd M. 188:16-17 Poets than by them; and . . . grant him this
wholly. Let] T; poets than by them. And . . . grant him this wholly: let
J; Poets, & ... grant wholly. Let M. 188:18 yielded] T, M; granted
J. 188:18 down with] T, J; down M. 188:32 has] T, J; hath M.
188:24 °nfi who were] T, J; one M. 188:26 Secondly,] T, M; 2. J.
188:28 Symmetry: For Example:] T, J; Symetry. E.g. M. 188:29 no
King] T, M; No-king J. 188:29 not-] T: ~A J. M. 189 and]
T, M; and are J. 188:33 hi m- This] T, M; him: this J. 188:34
that] T, J; this M. 188:35 Rollo] T, J; Rollo's M. 189:4 upon]
T, M; on J. 189:5 of an] T, J; of ye M. 189:8 not] J, M; no T
(some copies may read not). 189:10 answered] T, J; avoided M.
189:11 conclude therefore] T, J; conclude M. 189:12 written; and]
T; written. And J; written, Sc M. 189:14 Genius in Tragedy] T, J;
genius M. 189:18 diverting; for] T, M; diverting. For J. 189:19-
20 Episode (i.e.) Under-plot] T, J; underplot M. 189:22-23 Catas-
trophe? . . . first.] J; ~ ? . . . ~ ? T; ~A . . . ~ . M. 189:24 many
nor so various] T, J; various M. 189:27 to us; Pity and Terror.] T,
J; viz. Terror &c M. 189:29 and] T, J; or M. 189:31 of] T, J;
of a M. 189:36 Pity and Terror] T, J; terror 8c pity M. 190:5
more] T, J; y? more M. 190:6 now all run upon] T, J (run on J);
are overun w'.1' M. 190:9 Thoughts] T, J; taste M. 190:10 Audi-
ence; but] T; audience. But J, M. 190:10 it is] T, J; 'tis M. 190:11
among the French so strongly] T, J (amongst J); so strongly among y?
French M. 190:12 Ancients:] T; ~ . J, M. 190:14 is] J; are T,
M. 190:18 Poetry in Writing,] J; Poetry, in Writing T; Poetry in
writing M. 190:18 has] T, J; hath M. 190:20 it self.] T, J; ^-/^
M. 190:21 Order or Manner] T, J; Order M. 190:24 what is]
T, J; wt's M. 190:27 those] T, J; y? M. 190:30 of these,] T, J;
viz M. 190:32 part] T, M; part, e.g. J. 190:33-34 are depending]
T, M; depend J. 190:34 one on] T; on one J, M. 190:34 Chain]
J, M; Chair T. 191:2 Sophocles'] J; Sophocles T, M. 191:2
Euripides's] ]; Euripedes's T; Euripides his M. 191:3-8 Example; but
. . . depress'd: both . . . Manners; but . . . Audience; tho'] T, J (ex-
ample: . . . audience: J); example. But . . . depress'd. Both . . . man-
ners. But . . . audience. Tho' M. 191:11 of] J, M; a T. 191:13
enough that] T, J; enough, M. 191:13-14 Aristotle . . . Models of
Tragedy] T, J; he . . . Models M. 191:16 And] / does not begin
a new paragraph (other variations in paragraphing have not been noted,
but this one affects the parenthetical reference in II. 16-17, which in J's
arrangement of the text is to 189:36-190:2). 191:16-17 say (what
504 Textual Notes
. . . one)] T, J; say M. 191:17-18 Punishment . . . Reward] T, J;

punishm*.8 . . . rewards M. 191:19-20 Life; now] T, M; life. Now J.
191:20 (as] T, M; and J. 191:21 its] J, M; his T. 191:21 such)]
T; such, J; as such) M. 191:24 contrarily] J; contrary T, M. 191:27
as of] T, J; as M. 191:31 upon] T; on J, M. 191:33 begun] T,
M; began J. 191:34 is this; that it is] T, J; is, yt 'tis M. 192:2
than in the] T, J; yo M. 192:3 Critick] T; critique J; critic M.
192:4-5 here given . . . extream] T, J; given . . . extremely M.
192:5-6 it is ... it is] T, J; tis . . . 'tis M. 192:6-7 Characters,
ire.} T, J; 8cc. M. 192:9 our own] T, J; our M. 192:15 thus] T,
J; this M. 192:16 End] J, M; Ends T. 192:18 great . . . Poem]
T, J; greater . . . poet M. 192:19 Poetry] T, M; poesy J. 192:20
Profit. Rapin.] J; Profit. T, M. 192:23 Tragedy:] T; ~ . J, M.
192:23 likewise] T, J; also M. 192:25 if] T, J; & if M. 192:28
that is, he meant] T, J; ie. M. 192:29 another] or speaking, ano- T
(sic); or another J; or speaking, one M. 192:30 a] T, J; & a M.
192:31 Dictio, that is] T, J; diction, ie. M. 192:32 Discourses] T,
M; discourse J. 192:34 Design,] J, M; ~/\ T. i93 :l °r] T, J; &
M. 193:2 Thoughts] J, M; Thoughts of T. 193:7-8 Passionate.
So] T, M; passionate: so J. 193:8 Shakespear's.] J; Shakespeare's.
Here Mr. Dryden breaks off. T; Shahespear's Here Mr Dryden ends.
N.B. This MS. is now at Tonson's M (cf. Tonson's introductory note,
p. 5oi).
His Majesties Declaration Defended

His Majesties Declaration Defended was printed only once in Dryden's
lifetime, in 1681 (F; Macd 129). The text in the present edition is
taken from the Clark copy (*fPR34ig.H7i), with emendations as
shown in footnotes to the text. The following additional copies have
also been examined: Harvard (*i5435.286F), Huntington (135261), Folger
(D2286), Texas (Aj.D848.+68ih).

Volume I of Plutarchs Lives, for which Dryden supplied the epistle
dedicatory, The Life of Plutarch, and perhaps "The Publisher to the
Reader," was first published in 1683 (Oi; Macd 1313). There are two
settings of signature B of The Life of Plutarch, represented in the ap-
paratus as Oia and Oib. Oib was set from Oia, or vice versa, since they
agree line for line except for six lines on page 15 and eight on page 16.
Oia has more of Dryden's spellings of about 1683 than Oib: ayre (twice),
boyes, cheifest, pentioner, and sayd, as opposed to wast (for waste) in Oib.
The running heads in Oib are related to those in signature I, a broken
F on 8311 recurring on 14^ and one on B8i> recurring on 131; (the first
broken F is found on 6711 of Oia, and also on C2^ D8n, E^v, F8v, G'jv,
Textual Notes 505
and Hgw; the second is not found elsewhere). The copies examined exhibit
one other difference in setting: some read "to endeavour to excel" in the
last line on page 19 (246:19), others "toendeavour to excell"; it is not
clear which state is first or whether the change was entirely accidental.
The second edition is dated 1688 (Oz; Macd igib); the third, 1693
(Og; Macd i3ic); the fourth, 1700 (04; Macd p. 170). Oa was printed
from a copy of Oi(a); 03, line for line and page for page from a copy of
Oa; 04, line for line and page for page from a copy of 03.
A rather disjointed abstract of "Dryden's preface before Plutarch's
Lives" in a turn-of-the-century hand is to be found in British Museum
MS Harley 4058, folios 215-216. The passages copied (with a certain
amount of rephrasing) are 227:7-11, 227:13-14, 227:17-18, 228:3-6,
328:7-8, 228:25-27, 228:34-229:3, 229:6-10, 229:31-32, 230:1-2, 230:3-4,
230:10-14, 230:35-231:2, 233:25-26, 234:35-235:2, 235:5-7, 235:8-9,
235:19-21, 235:31-34, 236:10-14. The variant readings, being of no in-
terest, have not been noted in the apparatus.
As Dryden appears to have had nothing to do with the text after the
first edition, the Yale copy of Oi(a) (Gfp7i.ng683) has been chosen as
the copy text for the present edition, with minor emendations as shown
in the textual footnotes. The clause "what Creatures cou'd be made,"
on Civ, lines 12-13 (233:23), of the dedication in Oi, defies explanation
or emendation and has perforce been allowed to stand; there is some
evidence that it resulted from imperfect emendation during proof cor-
rection, for line 12 is abnormally spaced out,
impressions of his Image , what
whereas line 10 is abnormally crowded:
wholeCreation-.They were the morn-
The fragmentary sentence beginning at page 40, line 20, and ending at
page 41, line 5 (254:21-26), has also had to be left dangling; it does
not fit either with the sentence ahead or with the one following.
The following copies of the various editions have also been examined:
Oi(a): Folger ^26350), Huntington (140965); Oi(b): Clark (*PR342i.
P73), Harvard (Gp86.364»); 02: Clark (*PR342i.P73.i688); 03: Clark
(*PR342i.P73.i6g3), Folger (P2&35E), Bodleian (Vet.As c.663); 04: Folger
(P2635F).
Epistle dedicatory: 227:22 oursl] ~ ? 01-4. 227:24-25 Eurip-

ides] Eurypidcs .01-4. 227:26 times!] /- ? 01-4. 228:8 Plu-
tarch:] ~ . 01-4. 228:9 Antiquity] 02-4; A n - / quity Oi. 228:11
Lives] Lives 01-4. 230:4 you:] ~ . 01-4. 230:35 Cyon] Cyan
01-4. 231:5 whence] 02-4; whence Oi. 231:15 outdo] 02-4;
out do Oi. 231:21 State] 02-4; Sate Oi. 231:24 granted] Oi;
^, 02-4. 23i : 34 Trustees:] — 01-4. 232:2 Gaolers] Oi-2;
Coalers 03-4. 232:11 work-a-day] 02-4; work a day Oi. 232:21
disposing:] ~ . 01-4. 232:24 people:] ~ . 01-4. 232:28 up on]
Oi-2; upon 03-4. 232:28 and] and 01-4. 235:15 fortune:] ~ .
01-4. 235:29 warp'd] 01-3; wrap'd 04. 236:3 or] or 61-4.
236:12 as] 01-3; and 04. 236:23 Your] 02-4; Tour Oi.
506 Textual Notes
Publisher to Reader: 237:10 /] 02-4; I Oi. 237:21 Rest.]

03-4; ~ ? Oi-2. 237:28 himself] Oi; himself 02-4. 237:30 me]
Oi; me 02-4. 238:3-5 In larger italic in Oi; in tomans in 02-4.
Life of Plutarch: 239:13 waste] Oia, 02-4; wast Oib. 239:29
Seas:] ~ . 01-4. 240:7 Pindar] 03-4; Pyndar Oi-2. 240:11
Chceronea] Oib; Chceronea Oia, 02-4. 240:14 low-land] 03-4; low
land Oi-2. 240:27 Country,] Oia, 02-4; ~. Oib. 240:34 Gen-
hard] Oib; Gerrard Oia, 02-4. 241:6 Inscription at Delphos] inscrip-
tion at Delphos 01-4 (Inscription 02-4). 241:16 Cheeronea] Oi;
Chceronea 02-4. 241:18 Common-wealth:] <~ . 01-4. 241:19 Gre-
cians} 03-4; Grecians Oi-2. 241:20 Romans] 03-4; Romans Oi-2.
241:29 Island] 03-4; Island Oi-2. 242:24-33 Being . . . manage-
ment] italics and romans reversed in Oi-<f except within the parentheses
and as noted below. 242:28 7 was] I was Oib, Oa-4; / was Oia.
242:30-31 or thus] or thus, 01-4. 242:31 the Proconsul] the Pro-
consul 01-4. 242:31 but thus] but thus 01-4. 242:33 manage-
ment. This] management: this 01-4 (This 03-4). 243:12 particular]
Oib, 02-4; parricular Oia. 243:13-18 As . . . acquaintance.] romans
and italics reversed in Oi-<f. 243:19 Morals} Morals 01-4. 243:21
English] English 01-4. 243:24 inclin'd:] ~ . 01-4. 243:26 Egyp-
tian] 03-4; Egyptian Oi-2. 244:7 vertue:] ~ . 01-4. 244:7 Mas-
ters] Oia, 02-4; Master Oib. 244:8 rest] Oi; ~ , 02-4. 244:10
setting] 02-4; seting Oi. 244:24-26 Men; at ... Children; as]
Men. At ... Children. As 01-4. 244:32-33 because . . . Vinegar;]
italics and romans reversed in Oi-j. 245:2 Philosopher] Oib, 02-4;
Phylosopher Oia. 245:11 Questions] questions Oi; Questions 02—4.
245:13 exactness:] < — . 01-4. 245:19 Philosophy:] ~ . 01-4.
245:21 Latin] Latin 01-4. 245:25 them:] — 01-4. 245:31
business,] 03-4; ~^ Oi-g. 245:32 perfectly:] /-<. 01-4. 245:32
Complement] 02-4; Comple- / plement Oi. 246:2 and] Oi, 03-4;
an O2. 246:4 Latin] Latin 01-4. 246:21 of] 02-4; of of Oi.
246:31 Mankind:] .~. 01-4. 247:10 Osiris] Osyris 01-4.
247:10 us:] ~ . 01-4. 247:12 Philosophy] Oi; Philology 02-4.
247:21 Tradition, as] -~. As 01-4. 247:24 works:] ~ . 01-4.
247:33-34 Lives . . . Questions] Lives . . . Questions 01-4. 248:28
Solutions] 02-4; So- / Solutions Oi. 248:29 other] 03-4; others
Oi-2. 248:32 easiness:] ~>. 01-4. 249:8 fountains:] < — . 01-4.
249:9 Philosophies] Philosophy 01-4. 249:22 Academists] Acade-
mists 01-4. 249:28 which] 01-3; of which 04. 249:33 human]
Oi; humane 02-4. 250:2 appearances; that] ~ . That 01-4. 250:20
profess'd] Oi-2; profess'd 03-4. 250:24 Priest of] Priest of 01-4.
250:29 human] Oi; humane 02-4. 250:29 as far] Oi-2, 04; as as
far 63. 251:9-10 (for . . . one:)] romans and italics reversed in
Oz-j. 251:11 Gods] 03-4; Gods Oi-2. 251:13 captious] Oi-2;
capatious 03; capacious 04. 251:22 'Tis] <~, 01-4. 251:24 Del-
phos:] /•"• . 01-4. 251:25 «'] 02-4; it Oi. 251:28 to] 62-4; to to
Oi. 251:28 be.; and] be. And 01-4. 251:29 f<] 02-4; it Oi.
251:30 ef/»i] 02-4; tt/ti Oi. 252:2 <f iv] i' l» Oi; tl iv 02-4. 252:3
Textual Notes 507
one:] ~. 01-4. 252:17 the younger] the younger 01-4. 252:24

Crucify'd] 02-4; Crucfy'd Oi. 253:1 too] Oi, 03-4; to O2. 253:22
the] 02-4; the the Oi. 253:27 Human] Oi; Humane 02-4. 253:27
absurd] 02-4; absur'd Oi. 254:10-11 remaining] 02-4; remaing
Oi. 254:20 Author] Authors 01-4. 254:25 Genius] Genius
01-4. 254:25 Socrates] ~, 01-4. 254:28 Life] Life 01-4.
255:2 Rites] 62-4; Rities Oi. 255:3 Priest] Priest 01-4. 255:7
Pythias] Oi-2; Pithias 03-4. 255:7 Priestess of] Priestess of 01-4.
255:8 Treatise] ~ , 01-4. 255:13 shrill] 02-4; shril Oi. 255:16-
17 after.' . . . 'That] after. . . . that 01-4. 255:17 Divineress] De-
vineress 01-4. 255:19 to] 02-4; to to Oi. 255:20 sound.'] <~ :A
01-4. 255:22-25 that . . . mischief] marked as quotation in Oi-<f
('That). 255:29 scattering] Oi; scattered 02-4. 255:31 Genii'.]
quotation ends here in Oi-j. 256:1-2 who . . . Claudius] romans
and italics reversed in Oi-<f. 256:17 were] 01-3; are 04. 256:26
Shepherd] 02-4; Shaphard Oi. 256:28 madness:] ~. 61-4.
256:30-31 decreas'd] 02-4; decrea'd Oi. 256:33 enter:] ~ . 01-4.
257:1 Genius} Genius 01-4. 257:9 Wifes] Oi, 03-4; Wives O2.
257:16-17 by death] by death 61-4. 257:26 he] 02-4; he he
Oi. 257:33 French] French 01-4. 257:34 English] English 01-4.
257:34 Lives] Lives 01-4. 258:2 7a/*/3/«Ss] 7a^/3p4s 01-4. 258:3
larger] 01-3; large 04. 258:9 English] English 01-4. 258:11 Tim-
oxena:] ~ . 01-4. 258:11 His] 02-4; Hs Oi. 259:8 Morals] Mor-
als 01-4. 260:3 sighs and] 02-4; ~ , Oi. 260:9-10 Clemency:]
~ . 01-4. 260:13-24 How's . . . back] italics and romans reversed in
Oi-j except within the second pair of parentheses. 260:13 Mr. Var-
let, (answered Plutarch,)] (Mr. Variety answered Plutarch, 01-4 (Mr
02-4). 260:26 observable] ~, 01-4. 260:28 occasions] ~<, 01-4.
261:3 acknowledgment:] ~ . 01-4. 261:3 Boeotians] Bceotians 01-4.
261:5 Author, in] ~ . In 01-4. 261:29 E] ~ . 01-4. 261:33-34
Vespasian] Vespatian 01-4. 262:1 Son] 01-3; Sou 04. 262:5-6
Vespasians] Vespatians 01-4. 262:7 Curiosity:] ~>. 01-4. 262:12
Vespasian] Vespatian 01-4. 262:16 absolutely] 02-4; absolutly Oi.
262:27 Vespasian] 03-4; Vespatian Oi-2. 263:23 ninety] 02-4;
ninty Oi. 263:25 Roman] 03-4; Roman Oi-a. 263:30 Worthyes]
Worthyes 01-4. 263:31 place:] ~ . Ch-4- 263:33 Parallels] Paral-
lels 01-4. 264:21 in] either in 01-4. 265:6 be the] Oi; be 02-4.
265:13 Trajan,] 03-4; ~v\ Oi-g. 266:31 Vespasian] Vespatian 01-4.
266:34 Lives] Lives Oi; Lives 02-4. 267:4 written] ~, 01-4.
267:4 Lives] Lives 01-4. 267:12 Chteronea] Oi-2; Caronea 03-4.
267:24 best Authors] best Authors 01-4. 267:24 him:] ~ . 01-4.
267:32 Edition] Edition 01-4. 267:32 King Lewis the thirteenth]
03-4; King Lewis the thirteenth Oi-2. 268:7 since] Oi-2, 04; sence
03. 268:11 Lives] 02-4; Lifes Oi. 268:14 relating] ~, 01-4.
268:22 reply'd] 02-4; re- / reply'd Oi. 268:22-24 And . . . me?]
in romans in 01-4, which end the quotation at me? 268:24 To] 04;
to 01-3. 268:24-25 / . . . my self] in romans in Oi-j, which begin
a new quotation at I. 269:3 skill:] the upper dot oj the colon jailed
508 Textual Notes
to print in some copies of Oi. 269:9 Lives] Lives 01-4. 269:25

I] 62-4; / Oi. 269:27 in 2°] in 01-4. 269:34 whom] Oi-2: who
03-4. 270:5 stranger] ~, 01-4. 270:5 English] English 01-4.
270:16 Besides] Oi; ^, 02-4. 270:26 Tis] indented in Oz-q; not
indented in Oz. 271:4 ordain'd] 02-4; or- / ordain'd Oi. 271:14-
15 understanding] 01-3; understandings 04. 271:27 species:] <~ .
01-4. 271:32 devested] Oi-2; divested 03-4. 272:2 unadorn'd]
Oi, 04; <-', 02-3. 272:5 of] of 01-4. 272:15 out-living] Oi-2,
04; out living 03. 272:18 History] History 01-4. 272:19 An-
nals:] 01-3; ~ . 04. 273:1 Polybius] Oi-2; Polibius 03-4. 273:10
Latin] Latin 01-4. 273:14 of] some copies of Oi read o. 274:20
lessens] Oi, 03-4; lessons O2. 275:9-10 defin'd,] 02-4; ~A Oi.
275:25 state] 01-3; sate 04. 275:29-30 bounding stones] Oi;
bounding-stones 02-4. 275:30 Boyes] Boyes 01-4. 276:12 He-
roes] Heroes 01-4. 276:30 of him] by him 01-4. 277:1 over-
pois'd] Oi-2, 04; over pois'd 03. 277:4 Man:] — 01-4. 278:21
at] jailed to print in some copies of Oi. 278:22 Euripides] Eurypides
01-4. 278:25 Thucydides] 02-4; Thuyidides Oi. 278:27 of the
lonick] Oi-2; of lonick 03-4. 279:15 Romans:] ^ . 01-4. 279:22
robbery.] Oi-2, 04; ~ , 63. 281:6 / believe] romans in Oi-<f.
281:6-9 that . . . competition] romans and italics reversed in 01-4.
281:10 there is] romans in Oi-^. 281:10-12 no ... 8cc.] romans
and italics reversed in Oi-q. 281:30 French] French 01-4. 282:7
inconsistences] Oi; inconsistencies 02-4. 282:8 Catiline] Oi-2;
Cataline 03-4. 282:18 irregular,] comma failed to print in some
copies of Oi. 282:19 dciipoXiis] 04; &v<an<>.\i>s Ol-3. 282:19 IO.VT(>V\
iavrlii> 01-4. 283:12 confess,] 02-4; —A Oi. 283:17 excellences]
Oi; Excellencies 62-4. 283:32 Academick] Academick 01-4.
284:2 melancholly:] / — . 01-4. 284:23 Seneca's] Oi; Seneca is
02-4. 284:35-36 revolutions] Oi-2; revolution 03-4. 285:8
Frenchman esteems,] 04; — , ~A Oi» ~A ~A Os-j. 885:18 perhaps]
02-4; perhas Oi. 285:16 human] Oi; humane 02-4. 285:18
them:] /—•. 01-4. 285:25 Rehearsal] Rehearsal 01-4. 285:26 grew
nauseous] 03-4; grewn auseotis Oi-2. 285:27 Wit] ~ , 01-4. 286:1
Apocolocyntosis] Apocolocynthisis 01-4. 286:21 Petronius] Oi, 03-4;
Patronius Oz. 286:35-287:1 putting] 03-4; puling Oi-2. 287:4
to] to 01-4. 287:18 Latin] Latin 01-4. 288:2 vUtt AfoovW]
uiêj 'Avaovtwv 01—4. 288:3 "Orri] Oi; "OTTI 02—4. 288:3 "EXXtypas]
"EXXijras 01—4, 288:4 eUTroX^/iois] emroXe/iois Ol—3; iviro\tnois 04.
288:5 /3ii5roio] ptoToio 61-4. 288:6 Ou& at y'] 'OvS <rvy 01-4.
288:7 Chesronian] Cheronian 01-4.

A Defence of the Third Paper was published only once in Dryden's life-
time, in A Defence of the Papers Written by the Late King of Blessed
Textual Notes 509
Memory, and Duchess of York, 1686 (Macd 133; Q). The copy text for the
present edition is the Clark copy of Q (*PRg4i9.D3i), with which the
following additional copies have been compared: Harvard ("ECGs.08474.
686d), Folger (02261), Texas (Aj. D848.686d), and Huntington (D/DzzGi/
28025). The Huntington copy has uncorrected Qi (p. 113) omitting
"wholly" from line 22 (313:17); lines 22 and 23 were reset to make the
necessary correction. The emendations introduced into the present edition
are listed in the footnotes. An anacoluthon on page 119, lines 13-15
(318:7-9), has been let stand.

Henry Purcell's The Vocal and Instrumental Musick of The Prophetess,
or The History of Dioclesian, 1691 (F; Macd 135), has on A2r-f a dedica-
tion that, though signed by Purcell, has also come down to us in a draft
in Dryden's handwriting in British Museum MS Stowe 755, folios 34-35
(M). The manuscript was first printed by Roswell G. Ham in PMLA
in December 1935.
The manuscript is the copy text for the present edition; it differs from
Professor Ham's transcript only in a few insignificant details. It has been
emended to conform to F in places that seem likely to represent further
authorial correction, but the large sections in the manuscript which are
marked for omission have been let stand within editorial brackets. The
following copies of F have been examined: Clark (*fMi5oo.Pg8); Harvard
(»5i-4i6F); Folger (P4223).
Title: Dedication M; To His GRACE CHARLES Duke of Somerset,
Earl of HARTFORD, Viscount Beauchamp of HATCH, Baron Seymour
of TROWBRIDGE, Chancellor of the University of CAMBRIDGE, Lord
High Steward of CH1CHESTER, And Knight of the most Noble Order
of the GARTER. F.
324:3 been incouragd to this] after deleted this M. 324:4 Dedi-
cating] above a caret after deleted dedicating M. 324:4 also] above
a caret M. 324:5 receivd] F; had M. 324:7 esteeme:] F; ~ . M
(inserted above deleted favour.). 324:9 require] the final e writ-
ten over 'd M. 324:10 blites and Stormes] F; originality Stormes
and Tempests M (Stormes was crossed out and blites inserted above
a following caret). 324:11 support] & grace deleted above a fol-
lowing caret M. 324:12 As] after deleted And M. 324:12 poetry
is] before deleted in M. 324:16 nothing is then] originally then,
nothing is M (then, was crossed out and then was inserted after is
above a caret). 324:17 thus] above a caret after deleted then
M. 324:18-325:12 Painting . . . Marble.] marked for deletion in M;
not present in F. 324:21 there nor read] after deleted nor read M.
324:24 or written] above a caret M. 324:24 or a] before deleted
510 Textual Notes
pie M. 324:25-26 at the same time] above the line (no caret) M.
325:1 Deity] above deleted Divinity M. 325:6 operation, & more of
the] before deleted rationall M. 325:6 in] before deleted our M.
325:12 Poetry] poetry after deleted But M. 325:14 yet but] before
deleted yet M. 325:14 a] before deleted prattling foreign M.
325:14 which] before deleted rather M. 325:15-16 when . . . en-
couragement] above deleted than what it has produced already hetherto
produc'd M. 325:17 a little] above deleted somewhat M. 325:21
degrees;] before deleted and leave the hedge notes of our homely An-
cestours. M. 325:23 So] after deleted Thus M. 325:23 Genius]
and example deleted above a following caret M. 325:24 us:] above
deleted them: M. 325:25 the patronage] F; this protection M (pro-
tection above a caret after deleted encouragement). 325:26 begin to
grow] after deleted grow M. 325:27 harsh] before deleted ness M.
325:28-326:5 By ... Soundes.] marked for deletion in M; not present
in F. 325:28 By] after deleted For M. 325:29 say] above deleted
tell them, M. 325:32 labour & trouble] after deleted trouble M.
325:33 them,] before deleted once for all, M. 325:33 that] before
deleted if they M. 325:34 naturally] above a caret M. 325:34
over] above deleted very M. 326:6 offer] above deleted dedicate M.
326:6 this] F; this present M. 326:6 with all humility] above a caret
M. 326:7 protection] F; favour, & protection M. 326:8 by] before
deleted offering you M. 326:12 encouragd] before deleted my M.
326:13 favour to] above deleted Graces acceptance of M. 326:13
not onely] above a caret M. 326:14 success of the next] after deleted
next M. 326:14 also] above a caret M.
APPENDIXES
His Majefties
DECLARATION
To dU H/J LoT/tfg Sub)e%*9
Touching
,The CAUSES & REASONS
| *Tbdt moved Him to $>iflbhe
The Two laft
PARLIAMENTS.
$ublf®eD Up i?ts âKftics CotnmanD.
jL 0 ^\C <D 0 J\C»

Printed by the Affigas of Jok #«//, 77x»M.«
Wtvcml, and Ho/ry H^, Printers to the
Kings mod Excellent Majefty. 1681.
TITLE PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION

Appendix A 513
Appendix A: His Majesties Declaration

It was with exceeding great trouble, that We were brought to the Dis-
solving of the Two last Parliaments, without more benefit to Our People
by the Calling of them: But having done Our part, in giving so many
opportunities of providing for their Good, it cannot be justly imputed to
Us, that the Success hath not answered Our Expectation.
We cannot at this time but take notice of the particular Causes of Our
Dissatisfaction, which at the beginning of the last Parliament, We did
recommend to their care to avoid, and expected We should have had no
new Cause to remember them.
10 We Open'd the last Parliament which was held at Westminster, with
as Gracious Expressions of Our readiness to satisfie the Desires of Our
Good Subjects, and to secure them against all their just Fears, as the
weighty Consideration, either of preserving the Established Religion, and
the Liberty and Property of Our Subjects at home, or of Supporting Our
Neighbours and Allyes abroad, could fill Our heart with, or possibly re-
quire from Us.
And We do solemnly Declare, That We did intend, as far as would have
consisted with the very Being of the Government, to have Comply'd with
any thing, that could have been propos'd to Us to accomplish those Ends.
20 We ask'd of them the Supporting the Alliances We had made for the
preservation of the General Peace in Christendom; We recommended to
them the further Examination of the Plot; We desir'd their advice and
assistance concerning the preservation of Tanger; We offer'd to concur
in any Remedies that could be proposed for the Security of the Protestant
Religion, that might consist with preserving the Succession of the Crown,
in its due and legal Course of Descent; to all which We met with most
unsuitable Returns from the House of Commons: Addresses, in the nature
of Remonstrances, rather than of Answers; Arbitrary Orders for taking
Our Subjects into Custody, for Matters that had no relation to Privileclges
30 of Parliament, Strange illegal Votes, declaring divers eminent Persons to
be enemies to the King and Kingdom, without any Order or Process of
Law, any hearing of their Defence, or any Proof so much as offer'd against
them.
Besides these Proceedings, they voted as followeth on the 7th of January
last;
Resolved, That whosoever shall Lend or cause to be Lent by way of
Advance, any Money upon the Branches of the Kings Revenue, arising by
Customs, Excise, or Hearth-money, shall be adjudged to hinder the Sitting
of Parliaments, and shall be responsible for the same in Parliament.
40 Resolved, That whosoever shall buy any Tally of Anticipation upon any
part of the Kings Revenue, or whosoever shall pay any such Tally here-
after to be struck, shall be adjudged to hinder the Sitting of Parliaments,
and shall be responsible for the same in Parliament.
514 Appendix A
Which Votes, instead of giving Us Assistance to support Our Allyes, or

enable Us to preserve Tanger, tended rather to disable Us from Con-
tributing towards either, by Our Own Revenue or Credit; not onely
exposing Us to all Dangers that might happen either at home, or abroad;
but endeavouring to deprive Us of the Possibility of Supporting the
Government it self, and to reduce Us to a more helpless Condition then
the meanest of Our Subjects.
And on the io th of the same Month they past another Vote, in these
words,
10 Resolved, That it is the Opinion of this House, That the Prosecution
of Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws, is at this time grievous to
the Subject, a weakening of the Protestant Interest, an Encouragement
to Popery, and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom.
By which Vote, without any regard to the Laws establish'd, they as-
sumed to themselves a Power of Suspending Acts of Parliament; whereas
Our Judges and Ministers of Justice neither can, nor ought, in reverence
to the Votes of either or both the Houses, break the Oathes they have
taken, for the due and impartial Execution of Our Laws; which by
Experience have been found to be the best Support, both of the Protes-
20 tant Interest, and of the Peace of the Kingdom.
These were some of the unwarrantable Proceedings of that House of
Commons, which were the occasion of Our parting with that Parliament.
Which We had no sooner Dissolv'd, but We caus'd another to be
forthwith Assembled at Oxford; at the Opening of which, We thought it
necessary to give Them warning of the Errors of the former, in hopes to
have prevented the like Miscarriages; and We requir'd of Them to make
the Laws of the Land their Rule, as We did, and do resolve, they shall
be Ours: We further added, That what We had formerly and so often
Declared concerning the Succession, We could not depart from: But to
30 remove all reasonable Fears that might arise from the Possibility of a
Popish Successor's coming to the Crown, if Means could be found, that
in such a Case, the Administration of the Government might remain in
Protestant Hands, We were ready to hearken to any Expedient, by which
the Religion Establish'd might be Preserv'd, and the Monarchy not
Destroy'd.
But contrary to Our Offers and Expectation, We saw, that no Expedient
would be entertain'd but that of a total Exclusion, which We had so often
declar'd, was a Point, that in Our Own Royal Judgment, so nearly con-
cern'd Us both in Honour, Justice, and Conscience, that We could never
40 consent to it: In short, We cannot, after the sad Experience We have had
of the late Civil Wars, that Murder'd Our Father of Blessed Memory,
and ruin'd the Monarchy, consent to a Law, that shall establish another
most Unnatural War, or at least make it necessary to maintain a Standing
Force for the Preserving the Government and the Peace of the Kingdom.
And We have reason to believe, by what pass'd in the last Parliament
at Westminster, that if We could have been brought to give Our Consent
to a Bill of Exclusion, the Intent was not to rest there, but to pass further,
Appendix A 515
and to attempt some other Great and Important Changes even in Present.
The Business of Fitz-Harris, who was Impeach'd by the House of Com-
mons of High Treason, and by the House of Lords referr'd to the ordinary
Course of Law, was on the sudden carried on to that extremity, by the
Votes which the Commons pass'd on the 26ltl of March last, that there
was no possibility left of a Reconciliation.
The Votes were these,
Die Sabbati 26° Martii, post Meridiem.
Resolved, That it is the undoubted Right of the Commons in Parlia-
10 ment Assembled, to Impeach before the Lords in Parliament any Peer or
Commoner, for Treason, or any other Crime or Misdemeanor; and that
the refusal of the Lords to proceed in Parliament upon such Impeachment,
is a denial of Justice, and a violation of the Constitution of Parliaments.
Resolved, That in the case of Edward Fitz-Harris, who by the Commons
hath been Impeach'd of High Treason before the Lords, with a Declara-
tion, That in convenient time they would bring up the Articles against
him for the Lords to Resolve, That the said Fitz-Harris should be pro-
ceeded with according to the course of Common Law, and not by way of
Impeachment at this time, is a Denial of Justice, and a Violation of the
20 Constitution of Parliaments, and an Obstruction to the further Discovery
of the Popish Plot, and of great danger to His Majesties Person, and the
Protestant Religion.
Resolved, That for any Inferiour Court to Proceed against Edward Fitz-
Harris, or any other Person lying under an Impeachment in Parliament,
for the same Crimes, for which he or they stand Impeach'd, is a high
Breach of the Priviledge of Parliament.
It was a Matter extremely sensible to Us, to find an Impeachment made
use of to delay a Tryal, that We had directed against a profess'd Papist,
charg'd with Treasons against Us of an extraordinary Nature: And cer-
80 tainly the House of Peers did themselves Right in refusing to give
countenance to such a Proceeding.
But when either of the Houses are so far transported, as to Vote the
Proceedings of the other to be a Denial of Justice, a Violation of the Con-
stitution of Parliaments, of Danger to Our Person and the Protestant
Religion, without Conferences first had to examine upon what Grounds
such Proceedings were made, and how far they might be justified; This
puts the two Houses out of capacity of transacting business together, and
consequently is the greatest Violation of the Constitution of Parliaments.
This was the Case, and every day's continuance being like to produce
40 new Instances of further Heat and Anger between the two Houses, to the
disappointment of all Publick Ends, for which they were Call'd, We
found it necessary to put an end to this Parliament likewise.
But notwithstanding all this, let not the restless Malice of ill Men,
who are labouring to poyson Our People, some out of fondness of their
Old Beloved Commonwealth-Principles, and some out of anger at their
being disappointed in the particular Designs they had for the accomplish-
ment of their own Ambition and Greatness, perswade any of Our Good
516 Appendix A
Subjects, that We intend to lay aside the use of Parliaments: For We do

still Declare, That no Irregularities in Parliaments, shall ever make Us out
of Love with Parliaments, which We look upon as the best Method for
healing the Distempers of the Kingdom, and the onely Means to preserve
the Monarchy in that due Credit and Respect which it ought to have
both at home and abroad.
And for this Cause We are Resolved, by the Blessing of God, to have
frequent Parliaments; and both in and out of Parliament, to use Our
utmost Endeavours to extirpate Popery, and to Redress all the Grievances
10 of Our good Subjects, and in all things to Govern according to the Laws
of the Kingdom.
And We hope that a little time will so far open the Eyes of all Our
good Subjects, that Our next meeting in Parliament, shall perfect all
that Settlement and Peace which shall be found wanting either in Church
or State.
To which, as We shall Contribute Our utmost Endeavours, so We
assure Our Self, That We shall be Assisted therein by the Loyalty and
good Affections of all those who consider the Rise and Progress of the
late Troubles and Confusions, and desire to preserve their Countrey from
20 a Relapse.
And who cannot but remember, That Religion, Liberty and Property
were all lost and gone, when the Monarchy was shaken off, and could
never be reviv'd till that was restored.
Given at Our Couit at Whitehall the Eighth day of April 1681.
COPIES Of Two
P A P E R S
Written by the Late
King Charles II.

TOGETHER
With a Copy of a Paper written by the
late Duchefs of Tork.
ftablittpto b? $i£ ^9a|eft»c3 Comiuant),
LONDON,
Printed by H.HUst Printer to the King's Moft
Excellent Majefty for His Houfhold and
Cbppcl i6$6.
TITLE PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION
Appendix B 519
Appendix B: Copy of a Paper

written by the late Duchess of York
It is so reasonable to expect, that a Person always Bred up in the Church
of England, and as well Instructed in the Doctrine of it, as the best Di-
vines, and her Capacity could make her, should be liable to many Cen-
sures, for leaving That, and making her self a Member of the Roman-
Catholick Church, to which, I confess, I was one of the greatest Enemies
it ever had; That I choose rather to endeavour to satisfie my Friends, by
reading this Paper, than to have the trouble to answer all the Questions
that may daily be asked me.
And First, I do protest in the Presence of Almighty God, That no Per-
10 son, Man or Woman, Directly nor Indirectly, ever said any thing to me
(since I came into England) or us'd the least Endeavour to make me
change my Religion: It is a Blessing I wholly owe to Almighty God, and
I hope the hearing of a Prayer I daily made him, ever since I was in
France and Flanders; Where seeing much of the Devotion of the Catho-
licks (tho' I had very little my self) I made it my continual Request to
Almighty God, That if I were not, I might before I died, be in the true
Religion. I did not in the least doubt but that I was so, and never had
any manner of Scruple till November last; When reading a Book, call'd
The History of the Reformation, by Doctor Heylyn, which I had heard
20 very much commended, and had been told, if ever I had any Doubt in my
Religion, that would settle me: Instead of which, I found it the Descrip-
tion of the horridest Sacriledges in the World; and could find no Reason
why we left the Church, but for Three the most Abominable ones that
were ever heard of amongst Christians: First, Henry the Eighth renounces
the Pope's Authority, because he would not give him leave to part with
his Wife, and Marry another in her life-time. Secondly, Edward the Sixth
was a Child, and govern'd by his Uncle, who made his Estate out of the
Church-Lands. And then Queen Elizabeth, who being no Lawful Heiress
to the Crown, could have no way to keep it, but by renouncing a
so Church that could never suffer so Unlawful a thing to be done by one
of Her Children. I confess, I cannot think the Holy Ghost could ever be
in such Counsels. And it is very strange, that if the Bishops had no
Design, but (as they say) the restoring us to the Doctrine of the Primitive
Church, they should never think upon it till Henry the Eighth made the
Breach upon so Unlawful a Pretence. These Scruples being rais'd, I
begun to consider of the Difference between the Catholicks and Us, and
Examin'd them as well as I could by the Holy Scripture; which tho' I do
not pretend to be able to understand, yet there are some things I found
so easie, that I cannot but wonder I had been so long without finding
40 them out: As the Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, the Infallibility
of the Church, Confession, and Praying for the Dead. After this, I spoke
520 Appendix B
severally to Two of the best *Bishops we have in England, who both

told me, there were many things in the Roman Church, which (it were
very much to be wish'd) we had kept; As Confession, which was, no
doubt, Commanded by God; That Praying for the Dead was one of the
Ancient things in Christianity: That for their parts, they did it daily,
tho' they would not own it. And afterwards, pressing one of them very
much upon the other Points, he told me, That if -j-he had been bred a
Catholick, he would not change his Religion; but, that being of another
Church, wherein, he was sure, were all things necessary to Salvation, he
10 thought it very ill to give that Scandal, as to leave that Church, wherein
he had receiv'd his Baptism.
All these Discourses did but add more to the Desire I had to be a
Catholick, and gave me the most terrible Agonies in the world, within
my self. For all this, feaiing to be rash in a Matter of that Weight, I did
all I could to satisfie my self; made it my daily Prayer to God to settle
me in the Right, and so went on Christmas-day to receive in the King's
Chappel; after which, I was more troubled than ever, and could never
be in quiet till I had told my Desire to a Catholick; who brought a Priest
to me, and that was the First I ever did Converse with, upon my Word.
20 The more I spoke to him, the more I was Confirm'd in my Design; and
as it is impossible for me to doubt of the Words of our Blessed Saviour,
who says, the Holy Sacrament is His Body and Blood; so I cannot be-
lieve, that He who is the Author of all Truth, and who has promis'd to be
with his Church to the End of the World, would permit them to give
that Holy Mystery to the Laity but in one Kind, if it were not Lawful
so to do.
I am not able, or if I were, would I enter into Disputes with any Body;
I only in short say this for the changing of my Religion, which I take
God to Witness I would never have done, if I had thought it possible
80 to Save my Soul otherwise. I think I need not say it is any Interest in this
World leads me to it; it will be plain enough to every body, that I must
lose all the Friends and Credit I have here, by it; and have very well
weighed which I could best part with, my share in this World, or the
next: I thank God, I found no difficulty in the Choice.
My only Prayer is, That the poor Catholichs of this Nation may not
suffer for my being of their Religion; That God would but give me
Patience to bear them, and then send me any Afflictions in this World,
so I may enjoy a Blessed Eternity hereafter.
St. James's Aug.

20. 1670.
» Sheldon A. B. of Cant. Blandford B. of Worcest.

^Blandjord B. of Worcest.
INDEX TO THE COMMENTARY
Index 523
Academy, Platonic, 356; dialogue forms Bui ton, Robert, 355, 357
in, 348-350 Butler, Samuel, 469
Afranius, Lucius, 367
Amyot, Jacques, 430, 43211, 43311, 459- Caccilius Statius, 367
460, 462, 469 Calderdn de la Barca, Pedro, 340, 370,
Answer to his Majesties late Declara- 374
tion, An. See Letter from a Person Callot, Jacques, 404
of Quality, A Calvin, John, 481
Antiochus, 349 Capel, Arthur. See Essex, Arthur Capel,
Arcesilaus, 349 Earl of
Aretino, Pietro, 401 Capel, Sir Henry, 445
Aristotle, 334, 335, 336, 338, 348, 349- Carneades, 349
35°. 354' 367- 369. 37°. 373- S8*- Castelvetro, Lodovico, 367
383, 466 Castiglione, Baldassare, 351
Aschani, Roger, 43911 Catachresis: definition of, 365
Atticus, Titus Pomponius, 468 Catherine of Braganza, 426
Aubrey, John, 357, 427 Chapuzeau, Samuel, 375
Aylesbury, William, 466 Charles I, 440, 443, 445
Charles II, 361, 418, 419, 420-421, 422,
Bacon, Sir Francis, 438n, 444 424, 425, 426, 428, 440, 443, 445,
Bayle, Pierre, 401 472
Beaumont, Francis, and John Fletcher, His Majesties Declaration, 419-421,
381 425, 428-429; attacks on, 421-424
King and No King, A, 376, 411, 417 Gibber, Theophilus, 393
Maid's Tragedy, The, 411 Cicero, 335, 349, 354n, 364, 370, 384-
Scoinful Lady, The, 377, 380. See 385, 386, 465; and use of dialogue
also Fletcher, John form, 348, 35<>-357 passim, 363
Bellarmine, Robert Cardinal, 478 Clarendon, Edward Hyde, ist Earl of,
Berkshire, Thomas Howard, 1st Earl 439". 475' 48i
of, 331 Cleveland, John, 358, 366, 372
Betterton, Thomas, 402 Clifford, Martin, 388n
Biography, 466-467 Notes upon Mr. Dryden's Poems in
Blandfovd, Walter, 474, 476, 477, 479 Four Letters, 336
Boccaccio, Giovanni, 351 Cocllo, Antonio, 374
Bodin, Jean, 351, 352, 43911 Coleman, Edward, 426
Bohnii, Edmund, 42211 Commedia dell'arte, 404, 409
Boileau, Nicolas, 396 Commynes, Philippe de, 465-466
Bolton, Edmund, 4s8n, 43gn Copies of Two Papers Written by the
Bossuet, Jacques Benigne, 478 Late King Charles II. Together
Brinvilliers, Marquise de, 402-403 with a Copy of a Paper written by
Brown, Tom the late Duchess of York, 472
Reflections upon the Hind and Pan- Copy of a Paper written by the late
ther, 473 Dutchess of York, A, 474
Browne, Sir Thomas, 372 Corneille, Pierre, 336, 337-339, 342,
Buchanan, George, 440, 466 367. 370, 37'. 373-374. 374-375.
Bnckhurst, Lord. See Dorset, Charles 377. 3791 anc' unity of action, 338,
Sackville, 6th Earl of 376; and liaison des scenes, 338,
Buckingham, George Villiers, 2d Duke 382; on dramatic characters, 376-
of, 410, 426 377; and use of stage machines,
The Rehearsal, 398, 407, 413, 469 378
Bude, Guillaume, 460 Andromede, 378
Burgersdijck, Franco, 378 Cid, Le, 337, 373, 38z
Btirnet, Gilbert, 426, 43gn, 472, 476 Cinna, 378, 382
524 Index
Corneille, Pierre (continued) Shakespeare, 414, 417; and theory
Discours ties trois unites, 337, 367 of tragedy, 415-416; and Pyrrhon-
Examen du Cid, 338 ism, 457; and Purcell, 483; as lyric
Examen du Menteur, 339 poet, 483-484. See also Biography;
Menteur, Le, 377 Dialogue; Drama; History; Poetry
Pompee, 360, 378 and painting
Theatre, 380, 383 Absalom and Achitophel, 355, 384,
Trois Discours, 337 418, 42in, 425, 43811, 442, 445
Corneille, Thomas, 374, 377, 379 Absalom and Achitophel, The Sec-
Cotterell, Sir Charles, 466 ond Part of, 356, 396; Settle pic-
Cowley, Abraham, 385, 398, 403 tured in, 399, 406
Cox, Robert, 406 Albion and Albanius, 483
Creech, Thomas, 441 Alexander's Feast, 483
Cressy, Serenus, 481 All for Love, 412
Crowne, John, 387, 389-394 passim Amphitryon, 483
Annus Mirabilis, 363, 398, 408; "Ac-
count" of, 331, 343, 364, 372, 4i5n
Dangerfield, Thomas, 436-427 Assignation, The, 388; prologue to,
Davenant, Sir William, 342 389; dedication of, 398, 403
Play-house To Be Let, The, 406 Astraea Redux, 438, 461, 465
Poem to the Kings most Sacred Maj- Aureng-Zebe: prologue to, 400, 437n
esty, 362-363 Authots Apology for Heroique Po-
Preface to Gondibert, 333, 34211 ehy and Poelique Licence, The,
Siege o} Rhodes, The, 385 394. 395. 396. 4°z
Davila, Enrico Caterino, 465 466 Character of Polybius, The, 436 and
Denham, John, 366 n, 464-465, 466
Dennis, John, 387, 392 Conquest of Granada, The, 404, 407
Descartes, Rene, 375-376 Defence of an Essay of Dramatique
Dialogue: as literary form, 348-357 Pocsic, A, 347-348, 386, 394, 403
Dolle, William, 387, 402, 404-405 Defence of the Epilogue, 437n, 442
Dorset, Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of, Defence of the Papers Written by
33>> 333. 35». 353, 355, 359-36°. the Late King . . . and Duchess
S61*. 363 of York, A. See Dryden, John, De-
Epilogue to Every Man in His Hu- fense of the Duchess's paper
mour, 368-369 Defense of the Duchess's paper: D's
Dorset Garden Theatre, 387, 401, 404- part in, 473, 47411
405- 4°9 Discourse of Satire, 360, 442
Drama: rules of, 334, 336-339, 342-343; Don Sebastian, 360
influence of Spanish, on French, Duke of Guise, The (with Nathaniel
377-378; influence of French, on Lee), 442, 466; prologue to, 418;
English, 379 dedication of, 436n
Dryden, John: whereabouts of, 1665- "Epilogue to the University of
1666, 331; on ancients and mod- Oxon.," 394n, 409
erns, 332-333, 335-336. 4"2. 4!3. Epistle Dedicatory for Musick of the
414-415, 416, 438n, 440; contro- Prophetess: revisions in, 482-483
versy of, with Howard, 346-348; Evening's Love, An, 374; preface to,
prose style of, 358, 433, 434- 395
435. 454. 482; on fancy and judg- Examen Poeticum, 413
ment, 394-395; on dramatic char- Fables, The, 435
acters, 395-396; on imagery, 396; Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy,
on rhymed heioic play, 400; and The, 396, 415^ 437n
Rymer, 411, 412-413, 414; and Heads of an Answer to Rymer, 373;
Neo-Aristotclianism, 414, 415; on on Aristotle, 416
Index 525
Heroique Stanzas, 465 the Opening of the New House,"
Hind and the Panther, The, 473, 39411, 409
477- 47g. 479- 48«: preface to, 474 Prologue to Carlell's Arviragus Re-
His Majesties Declaration Defended: viv'd, 409
attributed to D, 418; occasion of, "Prologue to the University of Ox-
418-424; debating techniques in, ford, 1674," 394n
424-425 Prologue to Tomkis's Albwnazar,
History of the League, The: dedica- 368
tion of, 418; postscript to, 418, Religio Laid, 438n, 458
428, 466 Rival Ladies, The: dedication of,
Indian Emperour, The, 398, 404, 346, 360, 363, 366, 384, 394
407 Satires, The, 333
Letter to Etherege, 445, 469 Secret Love, 343, 360
Life of Plutarch, The: sources of, Sir Martin Mar-all, 379
431-433. 447- 448, 449-45°. 45°- Song for St. Cecilia's Day, A, ^S^n
451, 452-453- 454. 456-457. 458- Spanish Fryar, The, 442
459, 460, 461, 462-463, 464, 465, To Mrs Anne Killigrew, 484 and n
466, 467, 469, 470, 471; organiza- To My Honored Friend, Dr. Charle-
tion of, 433-435 ton, 437n
Life of St. Francis Xavier, The, 436n To Sir Godfrey Kneller, 484 and n
Mac Flecknoe, 355, 394, 396, 402, 403 Troilus and Cressida, 417
Medall, The, 355, 356, 418, 438n, 466 Tyrannick Love, 398, 404, 406, 407,
Notes and Observations: occasion of, 408, 410
387-391; authorship of, 390, 391- Vindication of The Duke of Guise,
394; D's contributions to, 393-396, The, 418, 425
410; Settle portrayed in, 394, 395; Duffet, Thomas
postscript to, 395; preface to, 395- The Empress of Morocco, A Farce,
396; on Settle's imagery, 396, 397; 397. 406
parody of Settle in, ascribed to D, Du Fresnoy, Charles
405-406 L'Art de Peinture, 410
Ode, on the Death of Mr. Henry Dugdale, Stephen, 427
Purcell, An, 48411 Duke's Company, 391, 409
Oedipus (with Nathaniel Lee), 413; Diuiton, John, 387
prologue to, 43711
Of Dramatick Poesie, 411, 413 and n, Eacharcl, Laurence, 418
415, 416-417; revisions in, 331-332; Epistle to Mr. Dryden, An, 413
French vs. English drama in, 332; Erasmus, 352
rhyme vs. blank verse in, 332, 346- Essex, Arthur Capel, Earl of, 445
348; originality of, 333~334. 335! Evelyn, John, 357, 472, 475
and rules, 334; use o£ earlier critics Exclusion controversy, 418-419, 420,
in, 334-340; Corneille's influence 423, 427, 444
on. 337-339; patriotism in, 339;
examen of Silent Woman in, 339, Ferguson, Robert, 4zi~422n
341; and Sorbiere's attack on Eng- Fiorelli, Tiberio, 404
lish stage, 343-346; skepticism in, Fitzgerard, David, 427
348; nature of dialogue in, 351- Fitzharris, Edward, 418, 419, 420, 424,
358; identification of speakers in, 427. 489
353-354. 355- 363: fictional quality Flecknoe, Richard, 342, 343^ 364, 365,
of, 357; use of classics in, 372 38.
Ovid's Epistles, 384 Fletcher, John: Dryden on, 417
Parallel betwixt Painting and Po- Bloody Brother, or the Tragedy of
etry, A, 378, 484 and n Rollo, The (with others), 374, 411
"Prologue and Epilogue Spoken at Faithfull Shepheardesse, The, 380
526 Index
French Academy, 337, 373 Epigram LV, 381
Sod Shepherd, The, 380
Gibbons, Grinling, 405 Scjanus, 376, 380
Gildon, Charles, 400 Silent Woman, The, 381-382
Goulart, Simon, 432-433, 434, 446-454 Timber, 342, 367, 370, 381, 386
passim, 456-457, 458, 461, 462-463, Juvenal, 372, 400, 447-448
464, 468, 469
Guarini, Battista, 336-337 Keroualle, Louise Renee de, Duchess
Guicciardini, Francesco, 465 of Portsmouth, 426
Killigrew, Thomas, 391
Hales, John: defense of Shakespeare by, King's Company, 391, 409
380-381 Kirkman, Francis, 407
Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of,
419.422 Langbaine, Gerard, 392, 398-399
Hart, Charles, 377 Lc Bossu, Rene, 414
Hcylyn, Peter, 477, 479 Lee, Nathaniel, 402
History: and Providence, 436; D's con- Leicester, Philip Sidney, 3d Earl of, 468
cept of, 436, 438-439, 464-465; and Leigh, Richard, g88n
idea of progress, 436-438 L'Estrange, Sir Roger, 352, 421, 422
Hobbcs, Thomas, 342, 376, 395n, 425, and n, 427
426, 43gn,444 Letter from a Person of Quality, A,
Hodges, Nathaniel, 383 421,422-424,425,427,428
Hooker, Richard, 444 London Gazette, 409-410
Hopkins, John, 385 Longinus, Dionyshis Cassius, 396, 460
Horace, 334, 335, 359, 361, 366, 367, Lope dc Vega Carpio, Felix, 340, 370
37°. 37L 373. 374. 376- 383. 386, Lucan, 470
410 Luttrell, Narcissus, 392, 421, 425
Howard, Sir Robert, 347, 348, 352, 353,
355. 363, 386; on rhyme, 346, 384, Macrobius, 368
386-387; on dramatic action, 376 Maimbourg, Louis, 474, 478, 480
Howard, Thomas. See Berkshire, Mancini, Hortense, Duchess of Ma-
Thomas Howard, ist Earl of zarin, 426
Hunt, Thomas, 425 Martial, 366, 386, 401, 409, 411
Hyde, Anne, Duchess of York, 472, 474, Marvell, Andrew, 427
475, 480 Mayne, Jasper, 381
Menage, Gilles, 370
Impartial Account of the Nature and Menander, 367, 441
Tendency of the Late Addresses, Milton, 342, 343n, 404, 43911
An, 42in, 425 Mistaken Beauty, or the Lyar, The,
377
Jacob, Giles, 393 Molieie, Jean Baptiste Poquelin, 379,
James II, 405, 418, 419, 423, 426, 427, 404
472-476 passim, 478, 481 Monmouth, James Scott, Duke of, 426
Johnson, Samuel, 372, 389, 393, 405, Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de, 361.
43on; and D's Heads of an Answer, 409, 433. 467
501-502 Morley, George, 475, 476, 479, 480
Jones, Sir William, 42i~422n Morrice, Thomas, 361
Jones, Thomas, 475 Moxon, Joseph, 378
Jonson, Ben, 341, 342n, 380; on dra- Mulgrave, John Sheffield, 3d Earl of,
matic probability, 378-379; on hu- 352. 39»
mours, 382
Alchemist, The, 368 Neville, Henry, 426, 427
Catiline, 374, 380, 411 Newton, Sir Isaac, 378
Index 527
Nokes, James, 402 Rules. See Drama, rules of
North, Sir Thomas, 430, 438 and n, Rymer, Thomas, 339, 342, 343n, 374,
433". 454-456 411-417 passim; and theory of
tragedy, 411; and D, 411, 412-413
Gates, Titus, 427, 445 Short View of Tragedy, A, 412
Ogilby, John, 429 Tragedies of the Last Age, The, 411-
Ormonde, James Butler, ist Duke of, 417 passim
440-441,442-443
Orrery, Roger Boyle, ist Earl of, 361
Ossory, Thomas Butler, Earl of, 440, S. G. S. See Goulart, Simon
442 Saint-fivremond, Charles de Marguetel
Otway, Thomas, 402 de Saint-Denis de, 433, 467, 468,
Ovid, 368, 371-372, 384 469. 470
Sallust, 467
Parliament: at Westminster, 418, 420, Sandys, George, 386
426; at Oxford, 419, 423, 427, 429 Scaliger, J. C.
Pepys, Samuel, 357, 363, 364, 374, 377, Poctices libri septem, 336, 369-370,
472 375. 382
Peterborough, Charles Mordaunt, 3d Sedley, Sir Charles, 352, 355, 388
Earl of, 445 The Mulberry Garden, 353
Petronius, 366, 469-470 Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, 384, 386, 468-
Philips, Katherine, 360, 406 4G9. 47°
Philo, 349 Seneca, Marcus Annaeus, 384
Plato, 348, 349-35°. 35>. 352. 354, 356, Session of the Poets, The, 3890, 406
357 Settle, Elkanah, 356, 387, 38811, 38gn,
Poetry and painting, 484 39'- 392. 393. 394. 396. 397. 398.
Pope, Alexander, 366, 393n, 400, 401 400, 401, 403-410 passim, 425; on
Popish Plot, 422, 426, 427, 445-446 rhymed heroic play, 398, 399-400;
Presbyterian plot, 426-427 on imagery, 398, 404, 407, 408;
Purcell, Henry, 482, 483, 484, 509 parody of, ascribed to D, 405-406;
on dramatic realism, 408
Quinault, Philippe, 377, 379 Cambyses, 387, 391, 405
Quintilian, 366 Empress of Morocco, The, 387-392
passim, 400, 402
Rapin, Ren£, 411, 412, 414 Heir of Morocco, The, 397n
Ravenscroft, Edward, 388n, 389-390, Ibiahim, 38gn, 392
395" Notes and Observations Revised, 387,
The Citizen Turn'd Gentleman, 404 3gon, 392 and n, 397, 398, 403-410
Ray, John, 429 passim
Reply to the Answer Made upon the Shadwell, Thomas, 356, 387-394 pas-
Three Royal Papers, A, 473 sim, 399
Richelieu, Armand Jean du Plessis, Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper,
Cardinal, 373 ist Earl of, 355-356, 421, 426, 445
Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of, 391 Shakespeare, William, 341, 343, 381,
Rochester, Laurence Hyde, Earl of, 414,417
419, 428 Henry V, 375
Roscommon, Wentworth Dillon, 4th Julius Caesar, 411
Earl of, 352 Macbeth, 402
Rowe, Nicholas, 380 Merry Wives of Windsor, The, 380
Royal Papers, 472, 474 Othello, 411, 413
Rualdus, Joannes, 431, 432, 434, 438n, Romeo and Juliet, 402
446-453 passim, 456^-467 passim, Sheldon, Gilbert, 442, 474, 479
47' Shenvin, William, 387
5 28 Index
Sidney, Sir Philip Thompson, Richard, 443
Defence of Poesie, 34311, 359, 373 Tirso de Molina, 339-340
Smith, John, 365 Tonge, Israel, 427
Sorbiere, Samuel Tonge, Simpson, 427
Relation d'un Voyage en Angleterre, Tonson, Jacob, 430; and D's Heads o]
343-344 an Answer, 501-502
Spence, Joseph, 336, 410 Tiike, Sir Samuel
Sprat, Thomas, 452, 469 The Adventures of Five Hours, 374,
Observations on Mons. de Sorbier's 378. 38'
Voyage into England, 343-346,
374 tldall, Nicholas, 380
Stafford, William Howard, ist Vis- Unities. See Drama, rules of
count, 427
Sternhold, Thomas, 385, 386 Varius Rufus, Lucius, 367
Stillingficet, Edward, 472, 473, 478, Varro, 464, 468
479-480,481,482 Velleius Paterculus, Caius
Stow, John Roman History, 335-336, 337, 366,
A Survey of London, 387 367. 369. 377- 383
Strype, John, 387 Vergil, Polydorc, 43gn
Suckling, Sir John, 400 Virgil, 366, 371, 372, 380, 384, 385,
Suetonius, 367-368 398
Suidae Lexicon, 446-447, 460
Wake, William, 478, 480
Waller, Edmund, 366
Tacitus, 363, 403 Walton, Izaak, 352,404, 478
Tasso, Torquato, 351 Watson, Richard, 475-476
Taylor, John, 386 Wharton, Thomas, 442
Terence, 370, 371, 375, 382 Wild, Robert, 364, 465
Theatre Royal, 391, 405 Wither, George, 366
Tlicophrastus, 382 Wood, Anthony 4, 393

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THE WORKS OF JOHN DRYDEN

Associate General Editor

Associate Textual Editor

Samuel Holt Monk

R. V. LeClercq Maximillian E. Novak

University of California Press

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, LTD.

The copy texts of this edition have been drawn in

Copyright © 1971 by The Regents of the University of California

Dryden employed numerous prose styles, and they have been

Of Dramatick Poesie, An Essay 3

TITLE PAGE OF Of Dramatick Poesie, An Essay 2

AN ESSAY OF DRAMATICK POESIE

AND SHORTER WORKS

An Essay of Dramatick Poesie

nobleness of the thought; And wish you may be soon call'd to

10-13 In same type face as prose in Q/.

lence of words, and manag'd by others like Gentlemen, with

HE drift of the ensuing Discourse was chiefly to vindicate

An Essay of Dramatick Poesie

concluding that his courage deserv'd a better destiny. All the

malice of the action; as our Witches are justly hang'd because

a to be such] Qa-3, D; so Qi, F.

malicious and them injur'd: especially him whom you first

Ancients themselves were in reference to those who lived be-

i themselves were] Qz-3, D; themselves Qi, F.

one such amongst them, as we have many now living, or who

when he was to make a judgment of what others writ: that he

those times of writing well; which though it be found in all

remember you that all the Rules by which we practise the

other four are then to be straightned within the compass of the

Antients, the French are to be most commended. They tie

a actions] Q2-g, D; ones Qi, F. 14 written] Qa~3, D; writ Qi, F.

on some custome or story which never came to our knowledge,

have from them, and want neither veneration nor gratitude

reason to conjecture they sung more then five times: Aristotle

structive part they have err'd worse: instead of punishing Vice

lace, though in another place he is more bold, where he sayes,

a sigh, breaking one another. Nature is dumb on such occa-

time we are not to conclude any thing rashly against those

studies of humanity, had no farther business among us. But

of neither. From hence likewise it arises that the one half of

Fiction, such as under that consideration could move but little

3 French] D; French Qi-g, Fa-b. 5 imum.] Q3, D; ~ : Qi-z, Fa-b.

tory of David with the merry humours of Golia's. In Sejanus

represented on the Stage, if to the well-writing of them the

Poet is not oblig'd to expose to view all particular actions

disorders of it to save the undecent appearance of them on the

has represented him) the account • he gives for the sudden

Sed ut primo ad consequcndos eos quos priores ducimus

to so much advantage as I am confident it never receiv'd in its

1 as] Qz-3, D; by Mr. Hart, as Qi, Fa-b.

i Our Playes] Qa-g, D; Ours Qi, Fa-b.

imaginary Heroes, we are concern'd for our own trouble, as we

2 tedious] Qz~3, D; the tedious Qi, Fa-b.

had in Fletchers Playes, to a much higher degree of perfection

2 French} D; French Qi-g, Fa-b.

both which that disguise produc'd. So that to judge equally of

servile observations of the unities of time and place, and in-