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Show IO _An__E SS AT __ true,in lomepiace^ c^ ^ ^ ^ ^/^ /,,,., thanfdhsJocm, Not foreW him wander, but confn'd him home. Sifc, omniaLffl' This is Wit in all Languages: 'lis like Mercury, never to be loft or kill'd; and fo that other; For Beauty like White Powder makes no Noife, And yet the filcnt Hypocrite deflroys. . . You fee the laft line is highly Metaphorical, but it is fo foft and gentle, that it WiStaital I-e digrefs'd, to the confideration of the Ancients Wrring and their Wit, (of which by this time you will grantusin fome measure to be fiffudges; Though I fee many excellent Thoughts inSeneca, yet he of them W h o had a Genius molt proper for the Stage, was Ovid, he had a way ot Writing fo fit to ftir up a pleafing admiration and concernment, which are theObjefts of agTraaedy, and t o W v the various movements of a Soul combating betwixt two different Paffions, that had he liv'd in our Age, or m his own could have Writ with our advantages, no M a n but muft have yielded to him ^ and therefore l a m confident the Medea is none of his: For,tho' I efteem it for the Gravity and Senten-tioufnefsofit, which he himfelf concludes to be fuitabletoa Fragedy, Omne genus fcriptt gravitate Tra^dia vincit, yet it moves not m y Soul enough, to judge that he who in the Epick way wrote things fo near the Dra i the Story o Myrrh a, of Caunm and BibHs, and the reft, fhould ftir up no more concernment where he moft endeavour'd it. The Mafter-Piece of Seneca I hold to be that Scene in the 1 roa I to the OKcellent Scenes of Paffion in Shxkefpear , or in Vletcher : For Loye-Sccncs on -ig them, their Tragick Poets dealt not with that foft Paffion, jutwithLuft, Cruelty, Revenge, Ambition, and thofe Bloody Actions they produe'd ; whichwheremorecapabIeofraifinghorroi.tr than compafKon m a n Audience: Leaving Love untouch'd, whofe gentlenefs would have temper'd them, which is the moft frequent of all the Paffions, and which being the private concernment of every Perfon, is footh'd by viewing its o w n Image in a publick Entertainment. Among their Comedies, w e find a Scene or two of tendernefs, and that where you w ould leaft expect it, in Plautus ; but to fpeak generally, their Lovers fay little, when they fee each other , but amma mea, vita mea ; £&>» $ 4y2J" as ^ Women inJuvenal's time us'd to cry out in the fury of their kindnefs: 'then indeed to fpeak fenfe were an offence. Any fuddenguft of Paffion (as anextafieof Love in an unexpected meetings cannot better be exprefs'd than in a W o r d and a figh, breaking one another. Nature is dumb on fuch occafions, and to make her fpeakr would be to reprefent her unlike her felf. But there are a thoufand other concernments of Lovers, as jealoufies, 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, w h o watch the movements of their Minds, as much as the changes of their Fortunes. For the imaging ofthe firft is properly the Work of a Poet, the latter he borrows ofthe Hiftonan. Eugemus was proceeding in that part of his Difcourfe, when Crites interrupted him. I fee, faid he, Eugenim and I are never like to have this Queftion decided betwixt us; for he maintains the Moderns have acquir'd a new perfection in Writing, I can only grant they have alter'd the Mode of it. Homer defcrib'd his Heroes Men of great Appetites, Lovers of Beef broil'd upon the Coals, and Good- Pel lows; contrary to the pradice ofthe French Romances, whofe Heroes neither hat, nor Drink, nor Sleep, for Love. Virgil makes JEneas a bold Avower of his own Virtu Sum pins _4:neas fama fuper athranotus-which m the Civility of our Poets is the Character of a Fanferon or Heftor : For w itn: us the Knight takes occafion to walk out, or fleep, to avoid the Vanity of ttl-ri i r n /-'',-V llch the trulty S^lire is ever t0 P e r f o r m for him. So "in their ^I^JT^^^^^ the A n ™ s ^ e r e more hearty, we Z s m „ h ^ «^nd I will grant thus much to Eugenu* that perhaps one of their Poets, had he liv'd in our Age, Silorethocmflrumjatoddapfiisinavum (asHoracefcysofLucilius) he of Dramatick^ Poefie. \ i he had alter'd many things; not that they were not as natural before, but that he might accommodate himfelf to the Age he liv'd in: Yet in the mean time w c are not to conclude any thing rafhly againft thofe great M e n ; but preferve to them the dignity of Matters, and give that honour to their memories, {guos libit in A facra-vit; ) part of which w e expea may be paid to us in future times. This moderation of Crites^ as it was pleafing to all the Company, fo it put an end to that difpute ; which, Eugenius, whofeem'd to have the better of the Argument, would urge no farther: but Lifideius after he had acknowledg'd himfelf of Eugenius his Opinion concerning the Ancients ; yet told him he had fbrborn, till hisDifcourfe were ended, to ask him w h y he prefer'd theEnglifh Plays above thofe of other Nations ? And whether w e ought not to fubmit our Stage to the exactnefs of our next Neighbours ? Though, faid Eugenius, lam at all times ready to defend the honour of my Country againft the French, and to maintain, w e are as well able to vanquifh them with our Pens as our Anceftors have been with their Swords; yet, if you pleafe, added he, looking upon Meander, I. will commit this caufc to m y Friend's management; his Opinion of Our Pi he fame with mine : And befides, there is no reafon, that Criterand I, who have now left the Stage, fhould re-enter fo fuddenly upon it ; which is againft the Laws of Comedy. If the Queftion had been ftated, replied Lifideius, w h o had Writ belt the French or Englifh forty Years ago, 1 been of your Opinion, and adiudg'd the Honour to our o w n Nation ; but fince that time, faid he, (turning towards Ne-ander) w e have been lb long together bad Englifhmem, that w e had not leifure to be good Poets; Beaumor ind John/on (who were onlv capable of bringing us to that degre tion which w e have J were iuft then leaving the World; as if in an Age of fc much horror, Wit and^iofe milder ftudies of humanity, had no farther bufinefs among us. But the Mufes, who ever follow Peace, went to plant in another C ; it was then that the great Cardinal of Richlieu began to take them into his protection; and that, by his encouragement, Cornell and fome other Frenchmen reform'd their Theatre, (which before was as much below ours as it now furpaffes it and the reft of Europe; ) but becaufe Crites, in his Difcourfe for the Ancients , has prevented me, by touching upon many Rules ofthe Stage, which the Moderns hav^ borrow'd from them; Ifhallonly, in fhort, demand of you, whether you are not convincM that of all Nations the French have beft obferv'd them ? In the Unity of time you find them i'o fcrupulous, that it yet remains a difpute among their Poets, whether the Artificial Day of Twelve Hours more or left, be not meant by Arifiotle, rather than the Natural one to Twenty Four; and confequently whether all Plays ought not to be redue'd into that Compafs ? This I can tcftifie, that in all their Drama's Writ within thefe laft Twenty Years and upwards, I have not obferv'd any that have extended the time of 'thirty Hours: In the Unity ofpla are full as fcrupulous, for many of their Criticks limit it to "hat very fpot of ground where the Play is fuppos'd to begin ; none of them ex' fs of the fame T o w n or City. The Unity of Action in all tfo re confpicuoiiSj for they do not burden them withunder-plots, as the Englifh do ; which is the reafon w h y many Scenes of our Tragi-Comedk llgn that is nothing of kin to the main Plot; ahd that w e foe two diftinet: Webs in a Play ; like thofe in ill wrought fluffs} and twoactions) that is, two Plays carried on together, to the confounding ofthe Audience; who, before they are w arm in ucernments for one part, arc diverted to another ; and by that means efpoufethe intereft of neither. From hence likewife it arifes tlfat I ' of our Actors are not known to the other. They keep their dift • and Capulets, and feldom begin an acquaintan ;e of the Fifth Act, when they are all to meet upon the Stage. T no 'theatre in the World has any thing fo abfurd as the Englifh Tragi-Comedy, 'tis a Drama of our own Invention, and the fafhion of it is e-nough to Proclaim it fo ; here a courfe of Mirth, there another of Sadnefs and Paffion'; a third of H o h a DueF: Thus in two Hours and a half w e run through all the fits of Bedlam. The French affords you as much variety on the fame Day, but they do it not fo unfeafonably, or mal apropos as w e : Our Poets prefent y»u the CfoommTpehawefh faeitno dno, foo trfh i!C orn cerinnam.leo rnC P itlvf;aei rlyib otaunynts d o a frt ehts ehn em oF e,taRd refMicdaiaye-r s Bitt unohAltg rlaeei.ntrf hd iec oCrato;rlm maepin,and fa fi ospiu ootrfno c S tutbinaeltggien.egst s f A tIdinmlctlil ror Demaitptea aiirno- n, |