1690, with alterations and additions, after the manner of an opera, by Mr. Betterton, and not by Dryden, as Langbaine, who is generally pretty exact, afferts. Our author only wrote the prologue, and that was forbid by the Earl of Dorset, then Lord Chamberlain, after the first day of its being spoken. King William was at this time profecuting the war in Ireland, which is alluded to in thefe lines: " "Till rich from vanquish'd rebels you return; "This prologue, fays Colley Cibber in his Apology, had "fome familiar metaphorical fneers at the Revolution itself; and 66 as the poetry of it was good, the offence of it was lefs par"donable. "Go, conqueror of your male and female foes, "Men without hearts, and women without hose." Thefe general reflections are illiberal and unworthy of fuch an inimitable pen: had Dryden confidered impartially the character of the men who, he fays, are without hearts, he would have talked in a very different ftrain of a nation which has produced as brave men as ever took the field; of a nation that gave as fignal proofs of valour and fidelity, even to the family of the Stuarts, as any that hiftory can produce. It is too often the fate of men of genius to be hurried away by the warmth of imagination, and to paint perfons and things not as they are, but as they appear, through the medium of prejudice, or prepoffeffion. And many characters both in hiftory and poetry are through these motives delivered down to us the very contrafts of reality. Prologue to the Miftakes, &c. 1690. The Mistakes, or Falfe Reports, was not written, but, according to G. Jacob, fpoiled by Jofeph Harris, a comedian, who de dicated it to Mr. afterwards Sir Godfrey Kneller. It was acted in 1690. Epilogue to Henry II. 1693. This play was acted in 1693. The author of it, Will. Mountford, was alfo a comedian, of whom Cibber, in his Apology, speaks very highly. Prologue to Albumazar. This was an old play, from which Ben. Johnfon took the hint of his Alchymist. Epilogue to the Husband his own Cuckold, &c. 1696. This comedy was written by John Dryden, jun, our author's fecond fon. It was acted at the theatre in Lincoln's-inn-fields in 1696, and afterwards published with a dedication, extremely well worded, to Sir Robert Howard, a preface by Dryden himself, and a prologue by Congreve. Prologue to the Pilgrim, &c. 1700. This play, with alterations by Sir John Vanbrugh, and a fecular mafque, together with this prologue and an epilogue written by our author, was revived for his benefit in 1700, his fortune being at that time in as declining a state as his health they were both spoken by Mr. Cibber, then a very young actor, much to Dryden's fatisfaction. See Cibber's Apology, p. 221, of the 8vo. edition. The Pilgrim was written by Beaumont and Fletcher. Quack Mauras, &c. : Sir Richard Blackmore the phyfician, &c. He wrote two long heroic poems of twelve books each, one entitled Prince, the other King Arthur, a paraphrase upon Job, the Song of Mofes and Deborah, and a new verfion of the Pfalms, which are all glanced at in this prologue; a piece written rather to fatirife him than to treat of the piece to be exhibited, or the occafion of its being now revived. In fhort, Dryden has taken care "to damn him to immortal fame." Nor has Pope neglected to confirm the anathema; for Blackmore is more than once brought on the carpet of the Dunciad. Epilogue to the Pilgrim. Dryden in this epilogue labors to throw the fault of the licentioufnefs of dramatic writers, which had been so feverely cenfured by the Rev. Dr. Jeremy Collier, upon the example of a court returned from banishment, accompanied by all the vices and follies of foreign climates; and whom to please was the poet's business, as he wrote to eat. While you have fill your Oates, and we our Haines. We have faid enough in a former volume of Dr. Oates. Jo. Haines is well known to all lovers of the ftage, as a good actor; but by this infinuation we are to fuppofe he was not fo good a chriftian. Cibber calls him a wicked wit. END OF THE SECOND VOLUME. |