156 Effay on Maffinger, 



The melody, force, and variety of his verfifica- 

 tion are every where remarkable : admitting the 

 force of all the objeftions which are made to the 

 employment of blank verfe in comedy, Maffin- 

 ger's pofleffes charms fufficient to diflTipate them 

 all. It is indeed equally different from that 

 which modern authors are pleafed to ftile blank 

 verfe, and from the flippant profe fo loudly cele- 

 brated in the comedies of the day. The negled 

 of our old comedies feems to arife from other 

 caufes, than from the employment of blank verfe 

 in their dialogue; for, in general, its conftrudion 

 is fo natural, that in the mouth of a good ador 

 it runs into elegant profe. The frequent deli- 

 neations of perifhable manners in our old comedy, 

 have occafioned this negledl, and we may fore- 

 fee the fate of our prefent falhionable pieces, in 

 that which has attended Johnfon's, Fletcher's, 

 and Maffinger's : they are either entirely over- 

 looked, or fo mutilated, to fit them for reprefen- 

 tation, as neither to retain the dignity of the 

 old comedy, nor to acquire the graces of the 

 new. 



The changes of manners have neceflarily pro- 

 duced very remarkable efFeds, on theatrical 

 performances. In proportion as our beft writers 

 are farther removed from the prefent times, they 

 exhibit bolder and more diverfified charafters, 

 becaufe the prevailing manners admitted a fuller 

 difplay of fentiments, in the common intercourfe 



of 



