"If he urge, that the general taste is depraved, his arguments to prove this can at "best but evince that our poets took not the 66 best way to raise those paffions; but experience proves against him, that, these means, which they have ufed, have been "fuccefsful, and have produced them. my "And one reason of that fuccefs is, in opinion, this, that Shakspeare and Fletcher "have written to the genius of the age and "nation in which they lived; for though nature, as he objects, is the fame in all places, and reafon too the fame; yet the "climate, the age, the difpofition of the people, to whom a poet writes, may be fo different, that what pleased the Greeks "would not fatisfy an English audience. "And if they proceeded upon a founda"tion of truer reason to please the Athe"nians than Shakspeare and Fletcher to please the English, it only fhews that the "Athenians were a more judicious people; "but the poet's bufinefs is certainly to please the audience. 66 * Whether "Whether our English audience have "been pleased hitherto with acorns, as "he calls it, or with bread, is the next 66 question; that is, whether the means "which Shakspeare and Fletcher have used "in their plays to raise those paffions 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 granted that a writer is not to run down with the ftream, or to please "the people by their own ufual methods, "but rather to reform their judgements, it "still remains to prove that our theatre "needs this total reformation. "The faults, which he has found in their "defigns, are rather wittily aggravated in many places than reasonably urged; and " as much may be returned on the Greeks, by one who were as witty as himself. 66 66 66 2. They deftroy not, if they are granted, "the foundation of the fabrick; only take away from the beauty of the fymmetry: "for example, the faults in the character of "the King and No-king are not as he makes "them, " them, such as render him deteftable, but only imperfections which accompany hu→ 66 man nature, and are for the most part ex"cused by the violence of his love fo "that they destroy not our pity or con "cernment for him: this anfwer may be applied to most of his objections of that * kind. "And Rollo committing many murders, " when he is anfwerable but for one, is too "feverely arraigned by him; for it adds to 46 our horror and deteftation of the crimi"nal and poetick justice is not neglected "neither; for we ftab him in our minds "for every offence which he commits; and "the point, which the poet is to gain on the "audience, is not fo much in the death "of an offender as the raifing an horror of " his crimes. "That the criminal fhould neither be wholly guilty, nor wholly innocent, but "fo 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 `" 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 paffions as high on worse foundations, it fhews our genius in tragedy is greater; for, in all other parts of "it, the English have manifeftly excelled "them.' THE THE original of the following letter is preserved in the Library at Lambeth, and was kindly imparted to the publick by the reverend Dr. Vyse. Copy of an original Letter from John Dryden, Efq; to his fons in Italy, from a MS in the Lambeth Library, marked N° 933. P. 56. (Superfcribed) "Dear Sons, Being now at Sir William Bowyer's in "the country, I cannot write at large, be"cause I find myself somewhat indisposed "with a cold, and am thick of hearing, ra"ther worse than I was in town. I am glad "to find, by your letter of July 26th, your ftyle, that you are both in health; but "wonder you should think me so negligent as to forget to give you an account of the ship in which your parcel is to come. I ❝ have ' P 2 |