horrid, the laws of justice are more strictly to be observ'd: and exam∣ples of punishment to be made to deterre mankind from the pursuit of vice. Faults of this kind have been rare amongst the Ancient Poets: for they have punish'd in Oedipus, and in his posterity, the sinne which he knew not he had committed. Medea is the only example I remem∣ber at present, who escapes from punishment after murder. Thus Tra∣gedie fulfils one great part of its institution; which is by example to instruct. But in Comedy it is not so; for the chief end of it is diver∣tisement and delight: and that so much, that it is disputed, I think, by Heinsius, before Horace his art of Poetry, whether instruction be any part of its employment. At least I am sure it can be but its secondary end: for the business of the Poet is to make you laugh: when he writes humour he makes folly ridiculous; when wit, he moves you, if not al∣wayes to laughter, yet to a pleasure that is more noble. And if he works a cure on folly, and the small imperfections in mankind, by ex∣posing them to publick view, that cure is not perform'd by an immedi∣ate operation. For it works first on the ill nature of the Audience; they are mov'd to laugh by the representation of deformity; and the shame of that laughter, teaches us to amend what is ridiculous in our manners. This being, then, establish'd, that the first end of Comedie is delight, and instruction only the second; it may reasonably be inferr'd that Comedy is not so much oblig'd to the punishment of the faults which it represents, as Tragedy. For the persons in Comedy are of a lower quality, the action is little, and the faults and vices are but the sallies of youth, and the frailties of humane nature, and not premeditated crimes: such to which all men are obnoxious, not such, as are attemp∣ted only by few, and those abandonn'd to all sense of vertue: such as move pity and commiseration; not detestation and horror; such in short as may be forgiven, not such as must of necessity be punish'd. But, lest any man should think that I write this to make libertinism amiable; or that I car'd not to debase the end and institution of Comedy, so I might thereby maintain my own errors, and those of better Poets; I must farther declare, both for them and for my self, that we make not vicious persons happy, but only as heaven makes sinners so: that is by reclaiming them first from vice. For so 'tis to be suppos'd they are, when they resolve to marry; for then enjoying what they desire in one, they cease to pursue the love of many. So Chaerea is made happy by 0