A play thus written, in professed defiance of probability, naturally drew upon itself the vultures of the theatre. One of the criticks that attacked it was Martin Clifford, to whom Sprat addressed the Life of Cowley, with such veneration of his critical powers as might naturally excite great expectations of instructions from his remarks. But let honest credulity beware of receiving characters from contemporary writers. Clifford's remarks, by the favour of Dr. Percy, were at last obtained; and, that no man may ever want them more, I will extract enough to satisfy all reasonable desire. In the first Letter his observation is only general; "You do live," says he, "in as much ignorance "and darkness as you did in the womb; your wri tings are like a Jack-of-all-trade's shop; they have "a variety, but nothing of value; and if thou art "not the dullest plant-animal that ever the earth produced, all that I have conversed with are "strangely mistaken in thee." In the second he tells him that Almanzor is not more copied from Achilles than from Ancient Pistol. "But I am," says he, "strangely mistaken if I "have not seen this very Almanzor of yours in some 66 disguise about this town, and passing under an"other name. Pr'ythee tell me true, was not this Huffcap once the Indian Emperor? and at another "time did he not call himself Maximin? Was not Lyndaraxa once called Almeria? I mean under "Montezuma the Indian Emperor. I protest and "vow they are either the same, or so alike, that I "cannot, for my heart, distinguish one from the "other. You are therefore a strange unconscionable "thief; "thief; thou art not content to steal from others, "but dost rob thy poor wretched self too." Now was Settle's time to take his revenge. He wrote a vindication of his own lines; and, if he is forced to yield any thing, makes his reprisals upon his enemy. To say that his answer is equal to the censure, is no high commendation. To expose Dryden's method of analysing his expressions, he tries the same experiment upon the same description of the ships in the Indian Emperor, of which however he does not deny the excellence; but intends to shew, that by studied misconstruction every thing may be equally represented as ridiculous. After so much of Dryden's elegant animadversions, justice requires that something of Settle's should be exhibited. The following observations are therefore extracted from a quarto pamphlet of ninety-five pages: "Fate after him below with pain did move, "These two lines, if he can shew me any sense or thought in, or any thing but bombast and noise, " he shall make me believe every word in his obser"vations on Morocco sense. "In The Empress of Morocco were these lines: "I'll travel then to some remoter sphere, "Till I find out new worlds, and crown you On which Dryden made this remark: there." "I believe our learned author takes a sphere for a country; the sphere of Morocco; as if Morocco "were the globe of earth and water; but a globe is "no sphere neither, by his leave, &c. "So sphere "must must not be sense, unless it relates to a circular "motion about a globe, in which sense the astronomers use it. I would desire him to expound those "lines in Granada: 66 "I'll to the turrets of the palace go, "And add new fire to those that fight below. } "I wonder, if he be so strict, how he dares make "so bold with sphere himself, and be so critical in "other men's writings. Fortune is fancied standing on a globe, not on a sphere, as he told us in the "first act. 66 "Because Elkanah's Similies are the most unlike things to what they are compared in the world, "I'll ventuve to start a simile in his Annus Mirabilis: "he gives this poetical description of the ship called "the London: "The goodly London in her gallant trim, "The Phonix-daughter of the vanquisht old, "Like a rich bride does on the ocean swim, "And on her shadow rides in floating gold. "Her flag aloft spread ruffling in the wind, "And sanguine streamers scem'd the flood to fire: "The weaver, charm'd with what his loom design'd, "Goes on to sea, and knows not to retire. "With roomy decks her guns of mighty strength "Whose low-laid mouths each mounting billow laves, "Deep in her draught, and warlike in her length, "She seems a sea-wasp flying in the waves. "What 66 "What a wonderful pother is here, to make all these "poetical beautifications of a ship; that is, a phe"nix in the first stanza, and but a wasp in the last; nay, to make his humble comparison of a wasp more ridiculous, he does not say it flies upon the "waves as nimbly as a wasp, or the like, but it "seemed a wasp. But our author at the writing of "this was not in his altitudes, to compare ships to floating palaces: a comparison to the purpose, was "a perfection he did not arrive to till the Indian Emperor's days. But perhaps his similitude has "more in it than we imagine; this ship had a great many guns in her, and they, put all together, "made the sting in the wasp's tail: for this is all the "reason I can guess, why it seem'd a wasp. But, "because we will allow him all we can to help out, "let it be a phenix sea-wasp, and the rarity of such an animal may do much towards heightening the "fancy. 66 "It had been much more to his purpose, if "he had designed to render the senseless play little, to have searched for some such pedantry "as this: "Two ifs scarce make one possibility. If justice will take all, and nothing give, "Justice, methinks, is not distributive. "To die or kill you is the alternative. "Rather than take your life, I will not live. "Observe how prettily our author chops logick "in heroic verse. Three such fustian canting words "as distributive, alternative, and two ifs, no man "but himself would have come within the noise of. "But "But he's a man of general learning, and all comes "into his play. ""Twould have done well too if he could have "met with the rant or two, worth the observation : "such as, "Move swiftly, Sun, and fly a lover's pace, "Leave months and weeks behind thee in thy race. "But surely the Sun, whether he flies a lover's "or not a lover's pace, leaves weeks and months, nay years too, behind him in his race. "Poor Robin, or any other of the Philo-mathe"maticks, would have given him satisfaction in the point. 66 "If I could kill thee now, thy fate's so low, "Piled on thy back, can never pull it down. "Now where that is, Almanzor's fate is fixt, I "cannot guess: but, wherever it is, I believe Al"manzor, and think that all Abdalla's subjects, 66 piled upon one another, might not pull down his "fate so well as without piling: besides I think "Abdalla so wise a man, that, if Almanzor had "told him piling his men upon his back might do "the feat, he would scarcely bear such a weight, "for the pleasure of the exploit; 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. VOL. IX. Z " But |