66 66 66 Observe, how prettily our author chops logick in heroick verse. Three fuch fustian canting words as diftributive, alternative, "and two ifs, no man but himself would have come within the noife of. But he's "a man of general learning, and all comes * into his play. ""Twould have done well too, if he "could have met with a rant or two, worth "the observation: fuch as, "Move fwiftly, Sun, and fly a lover's pace, "Leave months and weeks behind thee in thy << race. "But furely the Sun, whether he flies a "lover's or not a lover's pace, leaves weeks " and months, nay years too, behind him in his race. "Poor Robin, or any other of the Philo"mathematicks, would have given him fa"tisfaction in the point. "If I could kill thee now, thy fate's fo low, "That I muft ftoop, ere I can give the blow. "But mine is fixt so far above thy crown, "That all thy men, "Piled on thy back, can never pull it down. "Now "Now where that is, Almanzor's fate is "fixt, I cannot guess; but wherever it "is, I believe Almanzor, and think that all "Abdalla's fubjects, piled upon one another, might not pull down his fate fo well as "without piling: befides, I think Abdal"lah fo wife a man, that if Almanzor had "told him piling his men upon his back might do the feat, he would scarce bear "fuch a weight, for the pleasure of the exploit but it is a huff, and let Abdalla "do it if he dare. "The people like a headlong torrent go, “A very pretty allufion, contrary to all sense 66 pofe that fountains can go upwards, which "is impoffible: nay more, in the foregoing page he tells us fo too. A trick of " a very unfaithful memory, "But can no more than fountains upward flow. "Which D 3 "Which of a torrent, which fignifies a rapid "ftream, is much more impoffible. Be"fides, if he goes to quibble, and say that "it is poffible by art water may be made "return, and the fame water run twice in "one and the fame channel: then he quite "confutes what he fays; for, it is by being oppofed, that it runs into its former "course for all engines that make water "fo return, do it by compulfion and oppo"fition. Or, if he means a headlong tor"rent for a tide, which would be ridiculous, "yet they do not wind in volumes, but comę fore-right back (if their upright lies straight "to their former courfe), and that by op"pofition of the fea-water, that drives them "back again. "And for fancy, when he lights of any "thing like it, 'tis a wonder if it be not "borrowed. As here, for example of, I find "this fanciful thought in his Ann. Mirab. "Old father Thames raifed up his reverend head; "But fear'd the fate of Simoeis would return; "Deep in his ooze he fought his fedgy bed; "And fhrunk his waters back into his urn. "This is stolen from Cowley's Davideis, p.9: << Swift "Swift Jordan started, and strait backward fled, This Almanzor speaks of himself; and fure "for one man to conquer an army within the city, and another without the city, at once, is fomething difficult; but this flight is "pardonable, to fome we meet with in Gra"nada, Ofmin, speaking of Almanzor: "Who, like a tempest that outrides the wind, "Made a juft battle, ere the bodies join'd. "Pray what does this honourable person mean by a tempeft that outrides the wind! "A tempeft that outrides itself. To suppose "a tempeft without wind, is as bad as sup"pofing a man to walk without feet: for "if he supposes the tempeft to be fomething "diftinct from the wind, yet as being the ef"fect of wind only, to come before the cause " is a little prepofterous: fo that, if he takes "it one way, or if he takes it the other, "those two ifs will scarce make one pofibility." Enough of Settle. Marriage Alamode is a comedy, dedicated to the Earl of Rochefter; whom he acknowledges not only as the defender of his poetry, Ꭰ 4 but but the promoter of his fortune. Langbaine places this play in 1673. The earl of Rochefter therefore was the famous Wilmot, whom yet tradition always represents as an enemy to Dryden, and who is mentioned by him with fome difrefpect in the preface to Juvenal. The Affignation, or Love in a Nunnery, a comedy, was driven off the ftage, against the opinion, as the author fays, of the best judges. It is dedicated, in a very elegant address, to Sir Charles Sedley; in which he finds an opportunity for his ufual complaint of hard treatment and unreasonable cenfure. Amboyna is a tiffue of mingled dialogue in verfe and profe, and was perhaps written in lefs time than the Virgin Martyr; though the author thought not fit either oftentatioufly or mournfully to tell how little labour it coft him, or at how short a warning he produced it. It was a temporary performance, written in the time of the Dutch war, to inflame the nation against their enemies; to whom he hopes, as he declares in his Epilogue, to make his poetry not lefs deftructive than that by which Tyrtaus of old animated the |