68 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE 



"As also (to let the world see how wide of their mark they are like 

 to run that as boldly as ignorantly dare adventure on physic Avith- 

 out the knowledge of astrology) I resolve the ensuing astrological 

 questions. The sick, whether they shall recover or not; the party 

 absent, whether living or dead. How many husbands or children 

 a woman shall have, etc. etc., (Signed) A servant of God, and 

 Secretary of Nature, latros latrophilus Mopus".^° This character 

 has some of the meaningless jargon that imposed upon the ignor- 

 ant. To him a watch is a "trachleal horodeixe", an inkstand be- 

 comes a "ligneous pixid accommodated with two plumbeous re- 

 cepticles or stormeous repositories for ink and sand".^^ " 'Tis 

 the way of the learned. Term is three-quarters of the Art". The 

 claims of his ability are unlimited. "I wonder my boy comes not. 

 I have sent him for a rosycrucian preparation has fetcht a man 

 again after he has been dead a day and a half ".^^ Mopus is plain- 

 ly intended for a charlatan of the worse sort. 



John Dryden used two astrologers most cleverly in the pro- 

 logue to The Wild Gallant (1663), to forecast the success of the 

 play. Again, taking freely of foreign material, he produced his 

 comic situation in An Evening's Love (1665) by means of a "mock 

 astrologer". His skillful use of the technical terms of this pseudo- 

 science caused Sir Walter Scott to comment; — "Our author's use 

 of the terms and technical phrases of judicial astronomy intimate 

 his acquaintance with that pretended science, in which he is known 

 to have placed some confidence ".^^ But whatever Dryden 's pri- 

 vate belief, he does not here defend or satirize this pretended 

 science, nor does he in any way connect it with the new science. 

 The author knew well enough that astrological studies were not 

 pursued by the members of the Royal Society. 



In all of these comedies the new science is not represented ; nor 

 in any instance is the material new or from contemporary English 

 life. The interests of the new philosophers lay elsewhere, and only 

 through ignorance of their designs and work could these characters 

 be classed with them. There was one phase of their interest, how- 



" Wilson, John, The Cheats, Act III, sc. I. 



^Ibid. Act III, sc. 4. 



" Ibid. Act V, EC. 4. 



"Dryden, John, Complete Works, Scott and Saintshurj/, vol. Ill, p. 237-8. 



