Poor poets thus the favour are denied

Even to make exceptions, when they're tried.
'Tis hard that they must every one admit;
Methinks I see some faces in the pit
Which must of consequence be foes to wit.
You who can judge, to sentence may proceed;
But though he cannot write, let him be freed
At least from their contempt who cannot read.

30

Insanire parat certa ratione modoque."

HORAT. lib. ii. Sat. 3. [184 and 271.]

1

LOVE FOR LOVE

Love for Love has remained deservedly the most popular of Congreve's comedies, having been staged from the date of its first performance at the new theatre of Betterton, in Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1695, up to the days of Lamb and Hazlitt, with no long intervals of discontinuance. Like the rest of Congreve's comedies, the success of Love for Love is dependent on its heightened and satirical representation of life, and not on the slender intrigue which, however, is sufficiently sustained by the brilliant wit and repartee of the dialogue. This comedy has bequeathed at least two stock personages to the latter drama, Jeremy, the witty "gentleman's gentleman," and Ben Legend, the bluff "sea monster" ashore.