thought, is yet worth a thousand crowns a year, (befides fome confiderable privileges) to the perfon who enjoys it. Our illuftrious Corneille had not fo much. To conclude. Do not defire me to defcend to particulars with regard to these English Comedies, which I am fo fond of applauding; nor to give you a fingle smart faying, or humourous ftroke from Wycherley or Congreve. We do not laugh in reading a translation. If you have a mind to understand the English Comedy, the only way to do this will be for you to go to England, to fpend three years in London, to make yourself mafter of the English tongue, and to frequent the Play-house every night. I receive but little pleafure from the perufal of Aristophanes and Plautus, and for this reason, because I am neither a Greek nor a Roman. The delicacy of the humour, the allufion, the à propos, all thefe are lost to a foreigner. BUT it is different with refpect to Tragedy, this treating only of exalted paffions and heroical follies, which the antiquated errors of fable or history have made facred. Oedipus, Elettra, and fuch like characters may, with as much propriety, be treated of by the Spaniards, the English, or Us, as by the Greeks. Greeks. But true Comedy is the speaking picture of the follies and ridiculous foibles of a nation; fo that he only is able to judge of the painting, who is perfectly acquainted with the people it reprefents. T HERE once was a time in France when the polite arts were cultivated by perfons of the highest rank in the state. The courtiers particularly were converfant in them, although indolence, a taste for trifles, and a paffion for intrigue, were the divinities of the country. The court, methinks, at this time feems to have given into. a tafte quite oppofite to that of polite literature, but perhaps the mode of thinking may be revived in a little time. The French are of fo flexible a disposition, may be moulded into fuch a variety of fhapes, that the monarch needs but command and he is immediately obeyed. The English generally think, and learning is had in greater honour among them than in our country; an advantage that refult natu rally rally from the form of their government. There are about eight hundred persons in England who have a right to speak in public, and to fupport the interest of the kingdom; and near five or fix thousand may, in their turns, afpire to the fame honour. The whole nation fet themselves up as judges over these, and every man has the liberty of publishing his thoughts with regard to public affairs; which fhews that all the people in general are indifpenfably obliged to cultivate their understandings. In England the governments of Greece and Rome are the fubject of every converfation, fo that every man is under a neceffity of perufing fuch authors as treat of them, how difagreeable foever it may be to him; and this ftudy leads naturally to that of polite literature. Mankind in general fpeak well in their refpective profeffions. What is the reason why our magiftrates, our lawyers, our phyficians, and a great number of the clergy are abler scholars, have a finer taste and more wit than perfons of all other profeffions? The reafon is, because their condition of life requires a cultivated and enlightened mind, in the fame manner as a merchant is obliged to be acquainted with his traf fick. Not long fince an English nobleman, who was very young, came to fee me at Paris in his return from Italy. He had H 5 writ writ a poetical defcription of that country, which, for delicacy and politenefs, may vie with any thing we meet with in the Earl of Rochester, or in our Chalieu, our Sarafin, or Chapelle. The tranflation I have given of it is fo inexpreffive of the strength and delicate humour of the original, that I am obliged seriously to ask pardon of the author, and of all who understand English. However, as this is the only method I have to make his lordship's verses known, I shall here present you with them in our tongue. Qu'ay je donc vu dans l Italie? L'extravagante Comedie La Nature en vain bienfaisante His lordship undoubtedly hints at the farces which certain preachers act in the open fquares. Les |