Notes upon Mr. Dryden's poems in four letters / by M. Clifford .... ; to which are annexed some Reflections upon the Hind and panther, by another hand.

THE Second Letter. (Book 2)

I Have written to you within the Time to which I was by my promise engaged, and you may perceive by this Letter with what care I have read over your Conquest of Granada, a dull heavy Task, which few but my self, except some Choice Fe∣male Spirits, and Peculiar Friends of yours at Court (as your Brother Bayes has it in the Rehearsal) would have undertaken. You have therefore, to use one of your own Compliments, the more grand obligement to me, for going through with a Work of that diffi∣culty. I must confess I did not make an end of it without twenty Stops, forty Oaths, and at least an

hundred and fifty Resolutions at every Page to give it over, and truly

—I did dare To be so impudent as to despair—* 1.1

that I should ever finish it. In this vexation of mind I frequently threw the paltry Book to the ground, I scratch'd my Head, I rubb'd my Forehead, put up my Black Lead Pen, and exprest all the postures that men use, when they are troubled with an Impertinent. Yet after all this, with much strugling Opus exegi, and send you the Fruits of my Labour, to whom of right they are most due; being beforehand assured that you will not be concern'd for any thing I say, since the com∣mon Opinion (how unjust soever) has been to your ad∣vantage;* 1.2 and having swept the stakes, you can be con∣tent to sit quietly, to hear your Fortune curs'd by some, and your Faults arraigned by others. The plain and natural construction of which words as they lie be∣fore us, is, that having received your Money from the Door-keepers, having pick'd the Pockets of your Auditors, you care not a Rush with what Contempt and Nauseousness the Judicious speak of your Bauble; yet you grant that a severe Critick is the greatest help to a good Wit. He does the Office of a Friend, whilst he designs that of an Enemy;* 1.3 and his malice keeps a Poet within those Bounds which the Luxuriancy of his Wit and Fancy would tempt him to over-leap. How luxuri∣ant your Wit and Fancy is, will presently appear without any need of great severity in the Critick, who has omitted at least a hundred good thumping substantial Faults, for one he has taken notice of.

To begin with your Character of Almanzor, which you avow to have taken from the Achilles in Homer;

pray hear what Famianus Strada says of such Takers as Mr. Dryden, Ridere soleo cum video homines▪ ab Ho∣meri virtutibus strenuè declinantes, si quid vero irrepsit vitii, id avid•• arripientes. But I might have spared this Quotation, and you your avowing: For this Character might as well have been borrowed from some of the Stalls in Bedlam, or any of your own hair-brain'd Coxcombs, which you call Heroes, and Persons of Honour. I remember just such another fu∣ming Achilles in Shakespear, one Ancient Pistol, whom he qvows to be a man of so fiery a temper, and so impatient of an injury, even from Sir Iohn Falstaff his Captain, and a Knight, that he not onely disobeyed his Commands about carrying a Letter to Mrs. Page, but return'd him an answer as full of contumely, and in as opprobrious terms as he could imagine.* 1.4

Let Vultures gripe thy guts, for gourd and Fullam holds, And high and low beguiles the rich and poor. Tester I'll have in pouch, when thou shall lack, Base Phrygian Turk, &c.

Let's see e'er an Abencerrago fly a higher pitch. Take him at another turn quarrelling with Corporal Nym, an old Zegri: The difference arose about mine Hostess. Quickly (for I would not give a Rush for a man un∣less he be particular in matters of this moment) they both aimed at her body, but Abencerrago Pistol defies his Rival in these words:

Fetch from the Powdring-Tub of Infamy That Lazar-Kite of Cressids kind, Doll Tearsheer, she by name, and her espouse: I have and I will hold

The quondam Quickly for the onely she. And pauca—

There's enough. Does not Quotation sound as well as

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

But the Four Sons of Ammon, the Three bold Bea∣chams, the Four London Prentices, Tamerlain the Scy∣thian Shepherd, Muleasses, Amurath, and Bajazet, or any raging Turk at the Red Bull and Fortune, might as well have been urged by you as a Pattern of your Almanzor, as the Achilles in Homer, but then our Laureat had not pass'd for so Learned a man as he de∣sires his unlearned Admirers should esteem him.

But I am strangely mistaken if I have not seen this very Almanzor of yours in some disguise about this Town, and passing under another Name. Prethee tell me true, was not this Huff-cap once the Indian Emperour, and at another time did not he call him∣self Maximine? Was not Lyndaraxa once called Al∣meria, I mean under Montezuma the Indian Empe∣rour? I protest and vow they are either the same, or so alike, that I can't for my heart distinguish one from the other. You are therefore a strange unconsci∣onable Thief, that art not content to steal from others, but do'st rob thy poor wretched Self too.

I have thus far made bold with you out of meer Cha∣rity;* 1.5 for you say that observing your Errors is a great step to the correcting them.

But pray give me leave without any offence, to ask you why it was a Fault in Shakespear, that his Plays were grounded upon Impossibilities, and so meanly writ∣ten, that the Comedy neither caused your Mirth, nor

the serious part your Concernment? This you say in your Postscript, and in your Preface, you tell us, that a Poet was not tied to a bare Representation of what is possible, but might let himself loose: For he has only his Fancy for his Guide, which sees farther in its own Empire, and produces more satisfactory notions.

I understand not well your meaning, but my dear Friend, thou may'st remember Aristotle was of another opinion.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

I was about six years since a little acquainted with a Name-sake and Countreyman of yours,* 1.6 who pilfer'd out of Monsieur Hedelin, Menardiere, and Corneille, an Essay of Dramatick Poetry, wherein he tells us a∣nother tale, and says, a Play ought to be a just and live∣ly Image of Humane Nature, Representing its Passions and Humours, &c.

—Si sic omnia dixisset.

You shall hear further from me e're it be long.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Alman. Page ••.
• * 1.2

  Preface to Alman∣zor.
• * 1.3

  Preface.
• * 1.4

  Merry Wives of Windsor.
• * 1.5

  Preface.
• * 1.6

  Essay of Drama¦tick Poe∣try.