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own, afterwards, to fhow that we fucceed: if lefs in dignity, yet on the fame foot and title, which we think too we can maintain against the infolence of our own janizaries. If I am the man, as I have reason to believe, who am feemingly courted, and fecretly undermined; I think I fhall be able to defend myfelf, when I am openly attacked. And to fhew befides that the Greek writers only gave us the rudiments of a stage which they never finished: that many of the tragedies in the former age amongst us, were without comparison beyond thofe of Sophocles and Euripides. But at prefent, I have neither the leifure nor the means for fuch an undertaking. It is ill going to law for an estate, with him who is in poffeffion of it, and enjoys the prefent profits, to feed his cause. But the quantum mutatus may be remembered in due time. In the mean while, I leave the world to judge, who gave the provocation.

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This, my Lord, is, I confefs, a long digreffion, from Mifcellany Poems to Modern Tragedies: but I have the ordinary excufe of an injured man, who will be telling his tale unfeasonably to his betters; though, at the fame time, I am certain you are fo good a friend, as to take a concern in all things which belong to one who fo truly honours you. And befides, being yourself a critick of the genuine fort, who have read the beft authors in their own languages, who perfectly diftinguifh of their feveral merits, and in general prefer them to the moderns, yet, I know, you judge for the English tragedies, against the Greek and Latin, as well as against the French, Italian, and Spanish, of these latter ages. Indeed there is a vast difference betwixt arguing like Perault in behalf of the French poets, against Homer and Virgil, and betwixt giving the English poets their undoubted due of excelling Efchylus, Euripides, and Sophocles. For if we, or our greater fathers, have not yet brought the drama to an abfolute perfection, yet at least we have carried it much farther than those ancient Greeks; who, beginning from a Chorus, could never totally. VOL. III.

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exclude it, as we have done; who find it an unprofitable incumbrance, without any neceffity of entertaining it amongft us; and without the poffibility of establishing it here, unless it were fupported by a publick charge. Neither can we accept of those laybishops, as fome call them, who, under pretence of reforming the stage, would intrude themselves upon us, as our fuperiors, being indeed incompetent judges of what is manners, what religion, and least of all, what is poetry and good fenfe. I can tell them in behalf of all my fellows, that when they come to exercife a Jurifdiction over us, they fhall have the stage to themselves, as they have the laurel. As little can grant, that the French dramatick writers excel the English: our authors as far furpass them in genius, as our foldiers excel theirs in courage: it is true, in conduct they surpass us either way: yet that proceeds not fo much from their greater knowledge, as from the difference of taftes in the two nations. They content themselves with a thin defign, without episodes, and managed by few perfons. Our audience will not be pleased but with variety of accidents, an underplot, and many actors. They follow the ancients too fervilely, in the mechanick rules, and we affume too much licence to ourselves, in keeping them only in view, at too great a distance. But if our audience had their taftes, our poets could more eafily comply with them, than the French writers could come up to the fublimity of our thoughts, or to the difficult variety of our defigns. However it be, I dare establish it for a rule of practice on the stage, that we are bound to please those whom we pretend to entertain; and that at any price, religion and good manners only excepted; and I care not much, if I give this handle to our bad illiterate poetafters, for the defence of their Scriptions, as they call them. There is a fort of merit in delighting the spectators; which is a name more proper for them, than that of auditors: or else Horace is in the wrong, when he commends Lucilius for it. But these common places I mean to treat at greater leifure: in the mean

time, fubmitting that little I have faid, to your Lordship's approbation, or your cenfure, and chufing rather to entertain you this way, as you are a judge of writing, than to opprefs your modesty with other commendations; which, though they are your due, yet would not be equally received in this fatirical and cenforious age, That which cannot without injury be denied to you, is the eafinefs of your converfation, far from affectation or pride: not denying even to enemies their just praises. And this, if I would dwell on any theme of this nature, is no vulgar commendation to your Lordship. Without flattery, my Lord, you have it in your nature, to be a patron and encourager of good poets, but your fortune has not yet put into your hands the opportunity of expreffing it. What you will be hereafter, may be more than guess'd, by what you are at prefent. You maintain the character of a nobleman, without that haughtiness which generally attends too many of the nobility, and when you converfe with gentlemen, you forget not that you have been of their order. You are married to the daughter of a king*, who, amongst her other high perfections, has derived from him a charming behaviour, a winning goodness, and a majestick perfon. The Mufes and the Graces are the ornaments of your family; while the Muse fings, the Grace accompanies her voice: even the fervants of the Mufes have fometimes had the happiness to hear her; and to receive their infpirations from her.

I will not give myself the liberty of going farther; for it is fo fweet to wander in a pleafing way, that I fhould never arrive at my journey's end. To keep myself from being belated in my letter, and tiring your attention, I must return to the place where I was fetting out. I humbly dedicate to your Lordship, my own labours in this Mifcellany: at the fame time, not arrogating to myfelf the privilege of infcribing

*Mary Tudor, daughter of King Charles II. by Mrs. Mary Davis. She was born October 16, 1673, and married in Auguft, 1687.

to you, the works of others who are joined with me in this undertaking, over which I can pretend no right. Your lady and you have done me the favour to hear me read my tranflations of Ovid; and you both feemed not to be difpeased with them. Whether it be the partiality of an old man to his youngest child, I know not: but they appear to me the best of all my endeavours in this kind. Perhaps this poet is more eafy to be translated than fome others, whom I have lately attempted: perhaps too, he was more according to my genius. He is certainly more palatable to the reader, than any of the Roman wits, though fome of them are more lofty, fome more inftructive, and others more correct. He had learning enough to make him equal to the best. But as his verfe came eafily, he wanted the toil of application to amend it. He is often luxuriant both in his fancy and expreffions, and as it has lately been obferved, not alwaysnatural. If wit be pleafantry, he has it to excefs; but if it be propriety, Lucretius, Horace, and above all, Virgil are his fuperiors. I have faid fo much of him already, in my preface to his Heroical epiftles, that there remains little to be added in this place: for my own part, I have endeavoured to copy his character what I could in this translation, even, perhaps, farther than I fhould have done; to his very faults. Mr. Chapman, in his tranflation of Homer, profeffes to have done it somewhat paraphraftically, and that on fet purpofe; his opinion being, that a good poet is to be tranflated in that manner. I remember not the reafon which he gives for it: but I fuppose it is, for fear of omitting any of his excellencies: fure I am, that if it be a fault, it is much more pardonable than that of thofe, who run into the other extreme of a literal and close translation, where the poet is confined fo ftreightly to his author's words, that he wants elbowroom to exprefs his elegancies. He leaves him obfcure; he leaves him profe, where he found him verfe and no better than thus has Ovid been served by the fo much admired Sandys. This is at leaft the

idea which I have remaining of his tranflation; for I never read him fince I was a boy. They who take him upon content, from the praises which their fathers gave him, may inform their judgment by reading them again, and fee (if they underftand the original) what is become of Ovid's poetry, in his verfion; whether it be not all, or the greatest part of it, evaporated: but this proceeded from the wrong judgment of the age in which he lived. They neither knew good verfe nor loved it; they were scholars, it is true, but they were pedants. And for a juft reward of their pedantick pains, all their translations want to be tranflated into English.

If I flatter not myself, or if my friends have not flattered me, I have given my author's fenfe, for the moft part truly: for to mistake fometimes is incident to all men, and not to follow the Dutch commentators always, may be forgiven to a man who thinks them in the general, heavy grofs-witted fellows, fit only to glofs on their own dull poets. But I leave a farther fatire on their wit, till I have a better opportunity to fhew how much I love and honour them. I have likewife attempted to reftore Ovid to his native sweetness, eafinefs, and smoothnefs; and to give my poetry a kind of cadence, and, as we call it, a run of verfe, as like the original, as the English can come up to the Latin. As he feldom ufes any Synalephas, fo I have endeavoured to avoid them, as often as I could: I have likewife given him his own turns, both on the words and on the thought, which I cannot fay are inimitable, because I have copied them; and fo many others, if they use the fame diligence: but certainly they are wonderfully graceful in this poet. Since I have named the Synalepha, which is the cutting off one vowel immediately before another, I will give an example of it from Chapman's Homer, which lies before me; for the benefit of those who understand not the Latin Profodia. It is in the first line of the argument to the first Iliad. Apollo's prieft to th' Argive fleet doth bring, &c. T 3

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