This is not very decent; yet this is one of the pages in which criticifm prevails most over brutal fury. He proceeds: "He

has à heavy hand at fools, and a great 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 fol"ly was born and bred in them, and fome"thing of the Elkanah will be vifible."

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

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

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

"Conform a fmile to lightning, make a smile imitate lightning, and flattering lightning : lightning fure is a threatening thing. "And this lightning must gild a form. Now "if I must conform my fmiles to lightning,

"then

"then my smiles must gild a storm too: "to gild with fmiles 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. 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 fmiles look like a flattering "ftone-horse, which, being backed with a 66 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 nonsense 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 the bleeds,

He no feverer a damnation needs,

That

That dares pronounce the fentence 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; 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 ir catch the difeafe of that fentence, and this infecting of others will torment a te man's felf. The whole is thus; when She 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, $56 indigestible stuff. But this is but a taste

rr

36.8

3

to ftay the ftomach; we fhall have a more "plentiful mefs prefently.

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

For when we're dead, and our freed fouls en larg'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 steal into our cruel fathers breafts,

22

There read their fouls, and track each paffion's fphere: 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 breasts 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 mess, I will "refer myself to the ftomach of any mo"derate guest. And a rare mess it is, far

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

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 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 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