Effay on Maffinger. 125 



infipid fneer of Anthony Wood*;) and Cart- 

 wright, who was confefTedly a man of great eru- 

 dition, is not more attentive to the unities, than 

 any other poet of that age. But our author, 

 like Shakefpeare, wrote for bread : it appears, 

 from different parts of his works f, that much of 

 his life had pafied in flavifh dependence, and 

 penury is not apt to encourage a defire of fame. 



One obfervation, however, may be rifked, on 

 our irregular and regular plays ; that the former 

 are more pleating to the tafte, and the latter to 

 the underftanding : readers muft determine, then, 

 whether it is better to feel, or to approve. Maf- 

 finger's dramatic art is too great, to allow a 

 faint fenfe of propriety to dwell on the mind, in 

 perufing his pieces ; he inflames or fooths, ex- 

 cites the ftrongeft terror, or the fofteft pity, with 

 all the energy and power of a true poet. 



But if we muft admit, that an irregular plot 

 fubjeds a writer to peculiar difadvantages, the 

 force of Maflinger's genius will appear more evi- 

 dently, from this very conceflion. The interell 

 of his pieces is, for the moft part, ftrong and 

 well defined ; the ftory, though worked up to a 

 ftudied intricacy, is, in general, refolved with as 

 much eafe and probability as its nature will per- 



* Athenae Oxon. vol. I. 



f See particularly the Dedication of the Maid of Honour, 

 and Great Duke of Florence. 



mit ; 



