This is not very decent; yet this is one of the pages in which criticism prevails moft over brutal fury. He proceeds: "has a heavy hand at fools, and a great

"He

felicity in writing nonfenfe for them. "Fools they will be in spite of him. His

King, his two Empreffes, his villain, and "his fub-villain, nay his hero, have all a "certain natural caft of the father-their folly was born and bred in them, and fomething of the Elkanah will be vifible."

This is Dryden's general declamation; I will not withhold from the reader a particular remark. Having gone through the first act, he says, "To conclude this act with"the most rumbling piece of nonsense spoken yet,

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"To flattering lightning our feign'd smiles << conform,

"Which back'd with thunder do but gild a "ftorm.

Conform a smile to lightning, make a smile "imitate lightning, and flattering lightning.

lightning fure is a threatening thing. "And this lightning must gild a storm. Now "if I must conform my fmiles to lightning,

"" then

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"then my fmiles must gild a ftorm too : "to gild with smiles is a new invention of gilding. And gild a ftorm by being "backed with thunder. Thunder is part of "the ftorm; so one part of the storm must help to gild another part, and help by backing; as if a man would gild a thing "the better for being backed, or having a "load upon his back. his back. So that here is gilding by conforming, fmiling, lightning, "backing, and thundering. The whole is as "if I fhould fay thus, I will make my "counterfeit smiles look like a flattering "stone-horse, which, being backed with a trooper, does but gild the battle. I am "mistaken if nonfenfe is not here pretty "thick fown. Sure the poet writ these two " lines aboard fome fmack in a storm, and, being fea-fick, fpewed up a good lump "of clotted nonfenfe at once."

Here is perhaps a fufficient fpecimen; but as the pamphlet, though Dryden's, has never been thought worthy of republication, and is not eafily to be found, it may gratify curiofity to quote it more largely.. Whene'er fhe bleeds,

He no feverer a damnation needs,

That

That dares pronounce the sentence of her death,
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; σε and this fentence is not to be pronounced "till the condemned party bleeds; that is, "fhe must be executed firft, and fentenced "after; and the pronouncing of this fentence

will be infectious; that is, others will "catch the disease of that fentence, and "this infecting of others will torment a "man's felf. The whole is thus; when

jhe bleeds, thou needeft no greater bell or "torment to thyself, than infecting of others

by pronouncing a sentence upon her. What "hodge-podge does he make here! Never "was Dutch grout fuch clogging, thick, "indigeftible stuff. But this is but a taste "to stay the stomach; we shall have a more plentiful mefs presently.

cr

"Now to dish up the poet's broth, that "I promised:

For when we're dead, and our freed fouls enlarg'd,

Of nature's groffer burden we're discharg'd,

VOL. II.

C

Then

Then gently, as a happy lover's figh,
Like wandering meteors through the air we'll fly,
And in our airy walk, as fubtle guests,

We'll fteal into our cruel fathers breafts,

There read their fouls, and track each paffion's sphere:

See how Revenge moves there, Ambition here.
And in their orbs view the dark characters
Of fieges, ruins, murders, blood and wars.
We'll blot out all thofe hideous draughts, and
write

Pure and white forms; then with a radiant

light

Their breafts encircle, till their paffions be
Gentle as nature in its infancy :

Till foften'd by our charms their furies cease,
And their revenge refolves into a peace.
Thus by our death their quarrel ends,

Whom living we made foes, dead we'll make friends.

"If this be not a very liberal mefs, I will "refer myself to the ftomach of any mo"derate guest. And a rare mess it is, far

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excelling any Westminster white-broth. "It is a kind of gibblet porridge, made "of the gibblets of a couple of young geefe, ftodged full of meteors, orbs, fpheres, track, "hideous draughts, dark characters, white forms, and radiant lights, defigned not only "to please appetite, and indulge luxury;

"" but

but it is alfo phyfical, being an approved "medicine to purge choler: for it is pro

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pounded by Morena, as a receipt to cure "their fathers of their choleric humours: "and were it written in characters as bar"barous as the words, might very well

pafs for a doctor's bill. To conclude, it "is porridge, 'tis a receipt, 'tis a pig with "a pudding in the belly, 'tis I know not "what: for, certainly, never any one that

pretended to write sense, had the impu"dence before to put fuch ftuff as this,

into the mouths of thofe 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 expose it to the "examination of the world. But let us fee, what we can make of this stuff:

For when we're dead, and our freed fouls enlarg'd

"Here he tells us what it is to be dead'; it "is to have our freed fouls fet free. Now if

to have a foul fet free is to be dead, then "to have a freed foul fet free, is to have a "dead man die.

Then gentle, as a happy lover's figh