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calmed a mutiny with a word, but have presented themselves single before an army of their enemies; which, upon sight of them, has revolted from their own leaders, and come over to their trenches. In the rest of Almanzor's actions, you see him for the most part victorious; but, the same fortune has constantly attended many heroes who were not imaginary. Yet, you see it no inheritance to him; for, in the first part, he is made a prisoner, and, in the last, defeated, and not able to preserve the city from being taken. If the history of the late Duke of Guise be true, he hazarded more, and performed not less in Naples, than Almanzor is feigned to have done in Granada."

7 "The two parts of THE CONQUEST OF GRANADA," says Dr. Johnson, "are written with a seeming determination to glut the publick with dramatick wonders; to exhibit, in its highest elevation, a theatrical meteor of incredible love and impossible valour, and to leave no room for a wilder flight to the extravagance of posterity. All the rays of romantick heat, whether amorous or warlike, glow in ALMANZOR by a kind of concentration. He is above all laws; he is exempt from all restraints; he ranges the world at will, and governs wherever he appears. He fights without enquiring the cause, and loves in spite of the obligations of justice, of rejection by his mistress, and of prohibition from the dead. Yet the scenes are for the most part delightful; they exhibit a kind of illustrious depravity and majestick madness: such as if it is sometimes despised, is often reverenced, and in which the ridiculous is often mingled with the astonishing.'

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I have been too tedious in this apology; but to make some satisfaction, I will leave the rest of my play exposed to the criticks, without defence.

The concernment of it is wholly passed from me, and ought to be in them who have been favourable to it, and are somewhat obliged to defend their own opinions. That there are errours in it, I deny not;

Ast opere in tanto fas est obrepere somnum.8

But I have already swept the stakes; and, with the common good fortune of prosperous gamesters, can be content to sit quietly,-to hear my fortune cursed by some, and my faults arraigned by others; and to suffer both without reply.

* Horace's line is,

Verum opere in longo fus est obrepere somnum.

1

DEFENCE OF THE EPILOGUE

TO THE SECOND PART OF THE

CONQUEST OF GRANADA:

FIRST PRINTED IN QUARTO, IN 1672.

VOL. I.

TO THE SECOND PART OF

THE CONQUEST OF GRANADA. THEY who have best succeeded on the stage, Have still conform'd their genius to their age. Thus Jonson did mechanick humour show, When men were dull, and conversation low. Then comedy was faultless, but 'twas coarse: Cobb's tankard was a jest, and Otter's horse. And, as their comedy, their love was mean; Except by chance, in some one labour'd scene, Which must atone for an ill-written play. They rose-but at their height could seldom stay. Fame then was cheap, and the first comer sped; And they have kept it since, by being dead: But, were they now to write, when criticks weigh Each line, and every word, throughout a play, None of them, no not Jonson in his height, Could pass, without allowing grains for weight. Think it not envy, that these truths are told;' Our Poet's not malicious, though he's bold. 'Tis not to brand them, that their faults are shown, But, by their errours, to excuse his own. If love and honour now are higher rais'd, 'Tis not the poet, but the age is prais'd. Wit's now arriv'd to a more high degree; Our native language more refin'd and free: Our ladies and our men now speak more wit In conversation, than those poets writ. Then, one of these is, consequently, true; That what this poet writes, comes short of you, And imitates you ill, (which most he fears,) Or else his writing is not worse than theirs. Yet, though you judge (as sure the criticks will) That some before him writ with greater skill, In this one praise he has their fame surpass'd, To please an age more gallant than the last.

DEFENCE

OF

THE EPILOGUE:

OR

AN ESSAY ON THE DRAMATICK POETRY OF THE

LAST AGE.

THE promises of Authors, that they will

write again, are, in effect, a threatening of their readers with some new impertinence; and they who perform not what they promise, will have their pardon on easy terms. It is from this consideration that I could be glad to spare you the trouble which I am now giving you, of a Postscript,' if I were not obliged by many reasons to write somewhat concerning our present Plays, and those of our predecessors on the English stage.'

9 It appears from the original copy, which here reads— Preface, instead of Postscript, that the author at first intended to prefix this Essay to his play as a preliminary discourse. As it relates to the Epilogue, it was with more propriety subjoined to it.

"In the Epilogue to the Second Part of THE CONQUEST OF GRANADA, Dryden indulges his favourite pleasure in

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