"commend. He ventures to write for the Play"Houses, but having his ftol'n, ill-patch'd fuftian Plays Damn'd upon the Stage, he ranfacks Boffu,

Rapin, and Dacier, to arraign the ill-tafte of the Town. To compleat himself in the Formalities of Parnaffus, he falls in Love, and tells his Miftrefs in a very pathetick Letter, he is oblig'd to her bright Beauty for his Poetry; but if this Damfel prove no more indulgent than his Mufe, his Amour is like to conclude but unluckily.

Σ

Demetrius before the Curse of Poetry had feiz'd him, was in a pretty way of Thriving Business, but having lately fold his Chambers in one of the Inns of Court, and taken a Lodging near the Play-house, is now in a fair way of Starving. This Gentleman is frequently poffeft with Poetick Raptures ;and all the Family complains, that he difturbs 'em at Midnight, by reciting fome incomparable fublime Fuftian of his own Compofing. When he is in Bed, one wou'd imagine he might be quiet for that Night, but 'tis quite otherwife with him; for when a new Thought, as he calls it, comes into his Head, up he gets, fets it down in Writing, and fo gradually encreases the detefted Bulk of his Poetick Fooleries, which, Heaven avert it! he threatens to Print. Demetrius having had the misfortune of mifcarrying upon the Stage, endeavours to preferve his unlawful Title to Wit, by bringing all the Dramatick Poets down to his own Level. And wanting Spirit to fet up for a Critick, turns Spy and Informer of Parnaffus. He frequents Apollo's Court at Will's, and picks up the fresheft Intelligence, what Plays are upon the Stocks, what ready to be Launch'd; and if he can be inform'd, from the Establish'd Wits, of any remarkable Fault in the new Play upon the Bills, he is indefatiga

bly

bly induftrious in whispering it about, to bespeak its Damnation before its Reprefentation.

Curculio is a Semi-Wit, that has a great Vene vation for the Moderns, and no lefs a Contempt for the Ancients: But his own ill Compofures destroy the force of his Arguments, and do the Ancients full Juftice. This Gentleman having had the good Fortune to write a very taking, undigested medly of Comedy and Farce, is fo puff'd up with his Succefs, that nothing will ferve him, but he must bring this new fantaftick way of writing, into Efteem. To compass this Noble Defign, he tells you what a Coxcomb Ariftotle was with his Rules of the three Unities; and what a Company of Senfelefs Pedants the Scaligers, Rapins, Boffu's, and Daciers are. He proves that Ariftotle and Horace, knew nothing of Poetry; that Common Senfe and Nature were not the fame in Athens, and Rome, as they are in London; that Incoherence, Irregularity and Nonfenfe are the Chief Perfections of the Drama, and, by a neceffary Confequence that the Silent woman, is below his own Performance.

"No new Doctrine in Religion, ever got any confiderable Footing except it was grounded on Miracles; Nor any new Hypothefis was ever establifhed in natural Philofophy, unless it was confirm'd "by Experience. The fame Rule holds,in fome mea"fure, in all Arts and Sciences, particularly in "Dramatick Poetry. It will be a hard matter

for any Man to trump up any new fet of Pre"cepts, in oppofition to thofe of Ariftotle and "Horace, except by following them, he writes "feveral approv'd Plays. The great fuccefs of "the first Part of the T---p was fufficient I muft "confefs, to juftifie the Authors Conceit; But then "the Explofion of the fecond ought to have cur'd him

"of it.

Writers

"Writers like Women feldom give one alnother a good Word that's most certain. Now if the "Poets and Criticks of all Ages have allowed Sophocles, Euripides, and Terence to have been good "Dramatick Writers, and Ariftotle and Horace "to have been judicious Criticks, ought not their "Cenfure to weigh more with Men of Senfe, than "the Fancies, of a Modern Pretender. To be "plain, whoever Difputes Ariftotle and Horace, "Rules does as good as call the Scaligers, Voffii, "Rapins, Boffu's, Daciers Corneilles, Rofcommons, Normanby's and Rymers, Blockheads: A man muft have a great deal of Affurance, to be fo free with fuch illuftrious Judges.

"Of all the modern Dramatick Poets the Author "of the Trip to the Jubilee has the leaft Reason "to turn into Ridicule Ariftotle and Horace, fince "'tis to their Rules which he has, in fome measure "followed, that he owed the great fuccefs of that Play. Thofe Rules are no thing but a ftrict imita"tion of Nature, which is ftill the fame in all Ages "and Nations: And because the Characters of "Wildair, Angelica, Standard and Smuggler are natu"ral, and well purfued, They have juftly met with Applaufe; but then the Characters of Lurewell and "Clincher Sen, being out of Nature they have as juftly been condemn'd by all the Good Judges.

66

* Some Scholars, tho' by their conftant Converfation with Antiquity, they may know perfectly the fenfe of the Learned dead, and be perfect mafters of the Wisdom, be throughly informed of the State, and nicely skill'd in the Policies of Ages long fince paft, yet by their retired and unactive Life, and their neglect of Bufinefs, they are fuch ftrangers to the Domeftick Affairs and manners

of

of their own Country and Times, that they ap pear like the Ghofts of old Romans rais'd by Magick. Talk to them of the Affyrian or Perfian Monarchies of the Grecian or Roman Commonwealths, they answer like Oracles; They are fuch finished Statesmen that we should scarce take 'em to have been lefs than Privy-Councellors to Semiramis, Tutors to Cyrus the Great, and old Cronies of Solon, Licurgus, and Numa Pompilius. But ingage them in a difcourfe that concerns the prefent Times, and their Native Country, and they hardly fpeaks the language of it; Ask them how many Kings there have been in England fince the Conqueft, or in what Reign the Reformation happened,and they'll be puzzled with the Queftion; They know all the minutest Circumftances of Catiline's Confpiracy, but are hardly acquainted with the late Plot. They'll tell you the Names of fuch Romans as were called to an Account by the Senate for their Briberies, Extortions and Depredations, but know nothing of the four impeached Lords; They talk of the ancient way of Fighting, and warlike Engines, as if they had been Lieutenant Generals under Alexander, Scipio, Annibal or Julius Cafar; but are perfectly ignorant of the modern military Difcipline, Fortification and Artillery; and of the very names of Naffau, Condé, Turenne, Luxembourg, Eugene, Villeroy and Catinat. They are excellent Guides, and can direct you to every Alley, and Turning in old Rome yet lofe their way home in their own Parish. They are mighty Admirers of the Wit and Eloquence of the Ancients; Yet had they lived in the Time of Demofthenes, and Cicero, would have treated them with as much fupercilious Pride, and difrefpect as they do now the Moderns. They are great Hunters of Ancient Manufcripts, and have in

great

great Veneration any thing that has efcaped the Teeth of Time, and if Age has obliterated the Characters, 'tis the more valuable for not being legible. Thefe Superftitious bigotted idolaters of time paft, are children in their Understanding all their lives, for they hang fo inceffantly upon the leading-strings of Authority, that their Judgments like the Limbs of fome Indian Penitents, become altogether crampt and motionlefs forwant of ufe.In fine, they think it a difparagemeut of their Learning to talk what other Men underftand, and will fcarce believe that two and two make four, under a Demonftration from Euclid, or a Quotation from Ariftotle.

The World fhall allow a Man to be a wife Man, a good Naturalift, a good Mathematician, Politician or Poet, but not a Scholar, or Learned Man, unless he be a Philologer and underftands Greek and Latin. But for my part I take thefe Gentlemen have just inverted the Ufe of the Term, and given that to the Knowledge of Words, which belongs more properly to Things. I take Nature to be the Book of Univerfal Learning, which he that reads beft in all or any of its Parts, is the greateft Scholar, the moft Learned Man; and 'tis as ridiculous for a Man to count himself more learned than another, if he have no greater Extent of Knowledge of things, becaufe he is more vers'd in Languages, as it would be for an old fellow to tell a young One, his own Eyes were better than the other's becaufe he reads with fpectacles,

the other without.

*Impertinence is a Failing that has its Root in Nature, but is not worth laughing at, till it has received the finishing strokes of Art. A man thro' natural Defects may do abundance of incoherent

foolish