Effay on MaJJinger. 15^ 



by much the more numerous j and, what perhaps 

 had a greater effect than any of thefe, the 

 women's parts were performed by boys. So 

 powerful was the effe<5l of thofe circumftances, 

 that Cartwright is the only dramatift of that age 

 whofe works are tolerably free from indecency. 

 Maffinger's error, perhaps, appears more flirongly, 

 becaufe his indelicacy has not always the apology 

 of wit ; for, either from a natural deficiency in 

 that quality, or from the peculiar model on which 

 he had formed himfelf, his comic charafters 

 are lefs witty than thofe of his cotemporaries, 

 and when he attemps wit, he frequently degene- 

 rates into buffoonery. But he has fhewed in a 

 remarkable manner the juftnefs of his tafte, in 

 declining the pradlice of quibbling; and as wit 

 and a quibble were fuppofed, in that age, to be 

 infeparable, we are perhaps to feek, in his 

 averfion to the prevailing folly, the true caufe of 

 his fparing employment of wit. 



Our poet excells more in the defcription than 

 in the expreffion of paffion ; this may be afcribed 

 in fome meafure to his nice attention to the 

 fable : while his fcenes are managed with con- 

 fummate Ikill, the lighter fliades of charadler and 

 fentiment are loft in the tendency of each part to 

 the cataftrophe. 



The prevailing beauties of his productions are 

 dignity and elegance; their predominant fault is 

 want of paffion. 



The 



