Their breasts encircle, till their paffions be Till, foften'd by our charms, their furies cease, Thus by our death their quarrel ends, Whom living we made foes, dead we'll make friends. "If this be not a very liberal mefs, I will "refer myself to the stomach of any mo"derate guest. And a rare mefs it is, far 66 excelling any Westminster white-broth. "It is a kind of gibblet porridge, made of "the gibblets of a couple of young geese, 66 ftodged full of meteors, orbs, Spheres, "track, hideous draughts, dark characters, white forms, and radiant lights, defigned "not only to please appetite, and indulge "luxury; but it is alfo phyfical, being an 66 approved medicine to purge choler: for "it is propounded by Morena, as a receipt "to cure their fathers of their choleric hu"mours: and, were it written in charac"ters as barbarous as the words, might very well pafs for a doctor's bill. To conclude, it is porridge, 'tis a receipt, "'tis a pig with a pudding in the belly, 'tis I know not what; for, certainly, 66 4 ❝ never never any one that pretended to write "fenfe had the impudence before to put "fuch ftuff as this into the mouths of "those that were to fpeak it before an au"dience, whom he did not take to be all "fools; and after that to print it too, and expofe it to the examination of the "world. But let us fee what we can make "of this stuff: 66 For when we're dead, and our freed fouls en. larg'd "Here he tells us what it is to be dead; it "is to have our freed fouls fet free. Now if "to have a foul fet free, is to be dead; then "to have a freed foul fet free, is to have a "dead man die. 66 Then gentle, as a happy lover's figh- They two like one figh, and that one figh "like two wandering meteors, -Shall fly through the air "That is, they fhall mount above like fall"ing ftars, or elfe they fhall fkip like two jacks with lanthorns, or Will with a wifp, and Madge with a candle." 66 66 And in their airy walk fieal into their cruel fathers' breafts, like fubtle guests. So "that "their C 2 "their fathers' breasts must be in an airy “walk, an airy walk of a flier. And there they will read their fouls, and track the Spheres of their passions. That is, these walking fliers, Jack with a lanthorn, &c. "will put on his fpectacles, and fall a reading fouls, and put on his pumps and fall 66 66 a tracking of fpheres: fo that he will read "and run, walk and fly, at the same time! "Oh! Nimble Jack! Then he will fee, "how revenge here, how ambition there "The birds will hop about. And then view "the dark characters of fieges, ruins, mur"ders, blood, and wars, in their orbs: Track "the characters to their forms! Oh! rare fport for Jack! Never was place fo full of game as these breasts! You can"not stir, but flush a sphere, start a cha"racter, or unkennel an orb !" Settle's is faid to have been the first play embellished with fculptures; those ornaments seem to have given poor Dryden great disturbance. He tries however to ease his pain, by venting his malice in a parody. "The poet has not only been fo impru"dent to expose all this stuff, but so arro 66 gant to defend it with an epistle; like a faucy booth-keeper, that, when he had put a cheat upon the people, would 66 wrangle and fight with any that would "not like it, or would offer to discover it; "for which arrogance our poet receives "this correction; and, to jerk him a lit"tle the sharper, I will not transpose his "verse, but by the help of his own words "tranfnonfenfe fenfe, that, by the ftuff, "people may judge the better what his is ; "Great Boy, thy tragedy and sculptures done "From prefs, and plates in fleets do homeward "come: "And in ridiculous and humble pride, "Their course in ballad-fingers' baskets guide, "Whose greasy twigs do all new beauties take, "From the gay fhows thy dainty fculptures "make. "Thy lines a mefs of rhyming nonfenfe yield, "A fenfeless tale, with flattering fustian fill'd. "No grain of fenfe does in our line appear, "Thy words big bulks of boisterous bombaft "bear. "With noise they move, and from players "mouths rebound, "When their tongues dance to thy words empty "found. 66 66 66 By thee infpir'd the rumbling verfes roll, "As if that rhyme and bombaft lent a foul: "And with that foul they feem taught duty too, "To huffing words does humble nonfenfe bow, "As if it would thy worthlefs worth enhance, "To th' lowest rank of fops thy praise advauce; "To whom, by instinct, all thy ftuff is dear; "Their loud claps echo to the theatre. "From breaths thy fools thy commendation fpreads, 66 "Fame fings of praife with mouths of logger"heads. "With noife and laughing each thy fuftian "( greets, "Tis clapt by quires of empty-headed cits, "Who have their tribute fent, and homage given, "As men in whispers fend loud noife to heaven. "Thus I have daubed him with his own puddle; and now we are come from "aboard his dancing, mafking, rebounding, breathing flect; and, as if we had "landed at Gotham, we meet nothing but "fools and nonfenfe." Such was the criticism to which the genius of Dryden could be reduced, between rage and terrour; rage with little provocation, and terrour with little danger. To fee |