"Now where that is, Almanzor's fate is "fixt, I cannot guefs; but wherever it "is, I believe Almanzor, and think that all "Abdalla's fubjects, piled upon one another,

might not pull down his fate fo well as "without piling: befides, I think Abdal"lah so wife a man, that if Almanzor had "told him piling his men upon his back 66 might do the feat, he would scarce bear "fuch a weight, for the pleasure of the ex"ploit: but it is a huff, and let Abdalla "do it if he dare.

"The people like a headlong torrent go,
And every dam they break or overflow.
"But, unoppos'd, they either lofe their force,
"Or wind in volumes to their former course.

"A very pretty allufion, contrary to all fenfe

or reafon. Torrents, I take it, let them "wind never fo much, can never return to "their former courfe, unless he can. fup"pose that fountains can go upwards, which "is impoffible: nay more, in the foregoing page he tells us fo too. A trick of unfaithful memory,

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a very

"But can no more than fountains upward flow.

"Which of a torrent, which fignifies a rapid ftream, is much more impoffible. Be

fides, if he goes to quibble, and say that "it is poffible by art water may be made "return, and the fame water run twice in "one and the fame channel: then he quite "confutes what he fays; for, it is by being

opposed, that it runs into its former "courfe: for all engines that make water "fo return, do it by compulfion and oppo"fition. Or, if he means a headlong tor"rent for a tide, which would be ridiculous, yet they do not wind in volumes, but come fore-right back (if their upright lies straight "to their former courfe), and that by oppofition of the fea-water, that drives them "back again.

"And for fancy, when he lights of any thing like it, 'tis a wonder if it be not "borrowed. As here, for example of, I find "this fanciful thought in his Ann. Mirab.

"Old father Thames raifed up his reverend head; "But fear'd the fate of Simoeis would return;

Deep in his ooze he fought his fedgy bed; "And fhrunk his waters back into his urn.

"This is ftolen from Cowley's Davideis, p. 9:

" Swift

"Swift Jordan started, and ftrait backward fled, Hiding amongst thick reeds his aged head. "And when the Spaniards their affault begin, "At once beat thofe without and thofe within.

"This Almanzor speaks of himself; and sure "for one man to conquer an army within the city, and another without the city, at once, "is fomething difficult; but this flight is pardonable, to fome we meet with in Gra"nada, Ofmin, speaking of Almanzor:

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"Who, like a tempeft that outrides the wind, "Made a juft battle, ere the bodies join'd. "Pray what does this honourable perfon "mean by a tempeft that outrides the wind! "A tempeft that outrides itself. To fuppofe

a tempeft without wind, is as bad as fup

posing a man to walk without feet: for "if he supposes the tempeft to be something "diftinct from the wind, yet as being the ef"fect of wind only, to come before the cause " is a little prepofterous: fo that, if he takes "it one way, or if he takes it the other, "those two ifs will scarce make one pofibility." Enough of Settle.

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Marriage Alamode is a comedy, dedicated to the Earl of Rochefter; whom he acknowledges not only as the defender of his

D 4

poetry,

but

but the promoter of his fortune. Langbaine places this play in 1673. The earl of Rochester therefore was the famous Wilmot, whom yet tradition always reprefents as an enemy to Dryden, and who is mentioned by him with some difrefpect in the preface to Juvenal.

The Affignation, or Love in a Nunnery, a comedy, was driven off the stage, against the opinion, as the author fays, of the best judges. It is dedicated, in a very elegant address, to Sir Charles Sedley; in which he finds an opportunity for his ufual complaint of hard treatment and unreasonable cenfure.

Amboyna is a tiffue of mingled dialogue in verse and profe, and was perhaps written in less time than the Virgin Martyr; though the author thought not fit either oftentatioufly or mournfully to tell how little labour it cost him, or at how short a warning he produced it. It was a temporary performance, written in the time of the Dutch war, to inflame the nation against their enemies; to whom he hopes, as he declares in his Epilogue, to make his poetry not less destructive than that by which Tyrtaus of old animated

the

the Spartans. This play was written in the fecond Dutch war in 1673.

Troilus and Creffida, is a play altered from Shakspeare; but fo altered that even in Langbaine's opinion, the laft fcene in the third act is a masterpiece. It is introduced by a difcourfe on the grounds of criticism in tragedy; to which I fufpect that Rymer's book had given occafion.

The Spanish Fryar is a tragi-comedy, eminent for the happy coincidence and coalition of the two plots. As it was written against the Papists, it would naturally at that time have friends and enemies; and partly by the popularity which it obtained at first, and partly by the real power both of the serious and rifible part, it continued long a favourite of the publick.

It was Dryden's opinion, at least for some time, and he maintains it in the dedication of this play, that the drama required an alternation of comick and tragick fcenes, and that it is neceffary to mitigate by alleviations of merriment the preffure of ponderous events, and the fatigue of toilfome

paffions.