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heat, whether amorous or warlike, glow in Amanzor by a kind of concentration. He is above all laws; he is exempt from all restraints; he ranges the world at will, and governs wherever he appears. He fights without enquiring the caufe, and loves in fpight of the obligations of justice, of rejection by his mistress, and of prohibition from the dead. Yet the scenes are, for the most part, delightful; they exhibit a kind of illuftrious depravity, and majestic madnefs: fuch as, if it is fometimes defpifed, is often reverenced, and in which the ridiculous is mingled with the astonishing.

In the Epilogue to the fecond part of the Conqueft of Granada, Dryden indulges his favourite pleasure of difcrediting his predeceffors; and this Epilogue he has defended by a long poftfcript. He had promised a fecond dialogue, in which he fhould more fully treat of the virtues and faults of the English poets, who have written in the dramatick, epick, or lyrick way, This. promife was never formally performed; but, with refpect to the dramatick writers, he has given us in his prefaces, and in this poftfcript, fomething equivalent; but his purpose being to exalt himself by the comparifon, he fhews faults diftinctly, and only praifes excellence in general terms.

A play thus written, in profeffed defiance of probability, naturally drew upon itfelf the vultures of the theatre. One of the criticks that attacked it was Martin Clifford, to whom Sprat addreffed the Life of Cowley, with fuch yeneration of his critical powers as might naturally excite great expectations of inftruction from his remarks, But let honeft credulity beware of receiving characters from contemporary writers. Clifford's remarks, by the favour of Dr. Percy,

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were at laft obtained, and that no man may ever want them more, I will extract enough to fatisfy all reafonable defire.

In the first Letter his obfervation is only general: "You do live," fays he, "in as much ignorance and "darkness as you did in the womb: your writings are "like a Jack-of-all trades fhop; they have a variety, "but nothing of value; and if thou art not the dullest "plant-animal that ever the earth produced, all that "I have converfed with are ftrangely mistaken in

"thee."

In the fecond he tells him that Almanzor is not more copied from Achilles than from Ancient Pistol. "But I am," fays he, "ftrangely mistaken if I have "not feen this very Almanzor of yours in fome dif

guife about this town, and paffing under another "name. Pr'ythee tell me true, was not this Huffcap

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once the Indian Emperor, and at another time did "he not call himself Maximin? Was not Lyndaraxa "once called Almeira? I mean under Montezuma the "Indian Emperor. I proteft and vow they are either "the fame, or fo alike that I cannot, for my heart,

distinguish one from the other. You are therefore a "ftrange unconfcionable thief; thou art not content "to fteal from others, but doft rob thy poor wretched ❝ felf too,"

Now was Settle's time to take his revenge. He wrote a vindication of his own lines; and, if he is forced to yield any thing, makes reprifals upon his enemy. To fay that his anfwer is equal to the cenfure, is no high commendation, To expofe Dryden's ine.hod of analyfing his expreffions, he tries the fame experiment upon the fame defcription of the fhips in

the

the Indian Emperor, of which however he does not deny the excellence; but intends to fhew, that by ftudied mifconftruction every thing may be equally reprefented as ridiculous. After fo much of Dryden's elegant animadvertions, juftice requires that fomething of Settle's should be exhibited. The following obfervations are therefore extracted from a quarto pamphlet of ninety-five pages:

"Fate after him below with pain did move,

And victory could fcarce keep pace above. "These two lines, if he can fhew me any fense or "thought in, or any thing but bombaft and noife, he "fhall make me believe every word in his obferva❝tions on Morocco fenfe.

"In the Empress of Morocco were thefe lines:

"I'll travel then to fome remoter fphere,

"Till I find out new worlds, and crown you there. "On which Dryden made this remark:

"I believe our learned author takes a sphere for a country; the sphere of Morocco, as if Morocco were the. globe of earth and water; but a globe is no fphere nei"ther, by his leave," &c. So fphere must not be sense, "unless it relate to a circular motion about a globe, "in which fenfe the aftronomers ufe it. I would defire him to expound thofe lines in Granada:

"I'll to the turrets of the 'palace go,

"And add new fire to thofe that fight below.

"Thence, hero-like, with torches by my fide,

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(Far be the omen tho') my Love l'il guide.
"No, like his better fortune I'll appear,
"With open arms, loofe vail and flowing hair,
Juft Aying forward from my rowling fphere.

Y 4

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Į won

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"I wonder, if he be fo ftrict, how he dares make fo
"bold with sphere himself, and be fo critical in other
"men's writings. Fortune is fancied ftanding on a
5 globe, not on a Sphere, as he told us in the first A&t.
"Becaufe Elkanah's Similies are the most unlike things
"to what they are compared in the world, I'll venture to
"ftart a fimile in his Annus Mirabilis: he gives this
66 poetical defcription of the fhip called the London:
"The goodly London in her gallant trim,
"The Phenix-daughter of the vanquifht old,
"Like a rich bride does to the ocean fwim,
"And on her fhadow rides in floating gold.
"Her flag aloft spread ruffling in the wind,
"And fanguine ftreamers feem'd the flood to fire:
"The weaver, charm'd with what his loom defign'd.
"Goes on to fea, and knows not to retire.

"With roomy decks her guns of mighty ftrength,
"Whofe low-laid mouths each mounting billow laves,
"Deep in her draught, and warlike in her length,
"She feems a fea-wafp flying on the waves.

"What a wonderful pother is here, to make all these "poetical beautifications of a fhip! that is, a phenix "in the first stanza, and but a wasp in the last: nay, "to make his humble comparison of a wafp more ri"diculous, he does not fay it flies upon the waves as "nimbly as a wafp, or the like, but it feemed a

wafp. But our author at the writing of this was "not in his altitudes, to compare fhips to floating

66

palaces; a comparifon to the purpofe, was a per"fection he did not arrive to, till his Indian Emperor's "days. But perhaps his fimilitude has more in it "than we imagine; this fhip had a great many guns in her, and they, put all together, made the fting "in the wafp's tail: for this is all the reason I can

« guess,

329 guefs, why it feem'd a wafp. But, because we will "allow him all we can to help out, let it be a phenix "fea-wafp, and the rarity of fuch an animal, may "do much towards heightening the fancy.

"It had been much more to his purpose, if he had "defigned to render the fenfeless play little, to have "fearched for fome fuch pedantry as this:

"Two ifs fcarce make one poffibility.

"If justice will take all and nothing give,

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Juftice, methinks, is not diftributive.

"To die or kill you is the alternative,

"Rather than take your life, I will not live.

"Observe, how prettily our author chops logick "in heroick verfe. Three fuch fuftian 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 obfervation : "fuch as,

"Move fwiftly, Sun, and fly a lover's pace,

"Leave months and weeks behind thee in thy ràce.

"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 Philomathe"maticks, would have given him fatisfaction 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 fo far above thy crown,
"That all thy men,

Piled on thy back, can never pull it down.

"Now

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