306 DRY DEN. 



comedy, small accidents, and raillery, I will force my genius 

 to obey it, though with more reputation I could write in 

 verse. I know I am not so fitted by nature to write 

 comedy ; I want that gayety of humour which is requisite to 

 it. My conversation is slow and dull, my humour satur 

 nine and reserved : In short, I am none of those who 

 endeavour to break jests in company or make repartees. 

 So that those who decry my comedies do me no injury, 

 except it be in point of profit : Reputation in them is the 

 last thing to which I shall pretend.&quot;* For my own part, 

 though I have been forced to hold my nose in picking my 

 way through these ordures of Dryden, I am free to say that 

 I think them far less morally mischievous than that corps- 

 de-ballet literature in which the most animal of the passions 

 is made more temptingly naked by a veil of French gauze. 

 Nor does Dryden s lewdness leave such a reek in the mind 

 as the filthy cynicism of Swift, who delighted to uncover 

 the nakedness of our common mother. 



It is pleasant to follow Dryden into the more congenial 

 region of heroic plays, though here also we find him making 

 a false start. Anxious to please the king,f and so able a 

 reasoner as to convince even himself of the justice of what 

 ever cause he argued, he not only wrote tragedies in 

 the French style, but defended his practice in an essay 

 which is by far the most delightful reproduction of the 

 classic dialogue ever written in English. Eugenius (Lord 

 Buckhurst), Lisideius (Sir Charles Sidley), Crites (Sir R. 

 Howard), and Neander (Dryden) are the four partakers in the 

 debate. The comparative merits of ancients and moderns, 

 of the Shakespearian and contemporary drama, of rhyme and 

 blank verse, the value of the three (supposed) Aristotelian 

 unities, are the main topics discussed. The tone of the 

 discussion is admirable, midway between bookishness and 



* Defence of an Essay on Dramatick Poesy. 



t &quot;The favour which heroick plays have lately found upon our 

 theatres has been wholly derived to them from the countenance and 

 approbation they have received at Court.&quot; (Dedication of &quot; Indian 

 Emperor &quot; to Duchess of Monmouth.) 



