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 illus. trious 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.' 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.3 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 fas est obrepere somnum. DEFENCE OF THE EPILOGUE TO THE SECOND PART OF THE CONQUEST OF GRANADA: PIRST PRINTED IN QUARTO, IN 1672. VOL. I. TO THE SECOND PART OF THE CONQUEST OF GRANADA. They rose ;-but at their height could seldom stay. DEFENCE OF THE EPILOGUE: OR AN ESSAY ON THE DRAMATICK POETRY OF THE LAST AGE. THE promises of Authors, that they will write again, arc, 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.' " 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 |