UPON CRITICS Who judge of MODERN PLAYS Precisely by the RULES of the ANTIENTS. WH HO ever will regard poetic Fury, And every pert and arbitrary Fool Can all poetic Licence over-rule; This warm Invective was very probably occafioned by Mr. Rymer, Hiftoriographer to Charles II. who cenfured Three Tragedies of Beaumont's and Fletcher's, viz. Rollo Duke of Normandy, The King and no King, and The Maid's Tragedy, in a Piece intitled-The Tragedies of the laft Age confidered and examined, by the Practice of the Antients, and by the common Confent of all Ages: In a Letter to Fleetwood Shepherd, Efq. The cold fevere Critic may perhaps find fome few Inaccuracies to cenfure in this Compofition; but the Reader of Taste will either overlook or pardon them, for the Sake of the Spirit, that runs through it. 2. When it is once found Idiot by a Jury.] The Poet here very wittily confiders the Mufe under the tyrannous Direction of Critics, as a Perfon found Idiot or Lunatick by a Jury, who is not at Liberty to act for himself, but as his Guardians shall order. 5 Affume a barbarous Tyranny to handle That forges old Records and Ordinances To th' Hundredth Atom of the lightest Fea ther, 15 Or measuring of Air upon Parnaffus Roads 20 Of reverend Chorus's, and Episodes; 27, 28. No Pudding shall be fuffer'd to be witty-Unless it be in order to raife Pity] Butler, in thele and the following Lines fneeringly alludes to Ariftotle, who, in his Art of Poetry, afferts, that the grand and principal Object of Tragedy is, to excite Terror and Pity: And 'tis upon this Authority, that Rymer forms his most confiderable Objection to Beaumont and Fletcher. 31, 32. Unless fome God or Demon chance t have Piques-Againft an antient Family of Greeks.] Those who are vers'd in the Greek Story need not to be inform'd, that many of the tragical Events, which are related by their Poets and Hiftorians to have happened among them, are imputed to the Refentment of fome touchy of fended 25 Reform and regulate a Puppet-play, According to the true and ancient way; Nor Devil in the Puppet-play b'allow'd 30 To roar and fpit Fire, but to fright the Crowd, 35 Unless fome God or Dæmon chance ť' have Against an ancient Family of Greeks; That other Men may tremble, and take How fuch a fatal Progeny th' are born in. to err. fended Deity. So Euripides's Hyppolitus is to be destroyed, because Venus took Pet at his being too chafte. 37, 38. And only thofe held proper to deter-Who've had th' ill Luck against their Wills to err.] Our Author might fairly infer this from its being made effential to Tragedy to excite Pity; but it is very probable, that he had in his Eye Sophocles's famous Tragedy of Oedipus, whofe Banishment and Mifery was owing entirely to his having unknowingly and accidentaly kill'd his Father Laius in a Tumult, and afterwards married his Mother Jocafta. Ma Whence only fuch as are of middling Sizes, 40 Between Morality and venial Vices, Are qualify'd to be destroy'd by Fate, Did with our own Municipal agree; 45 And ferv'd, like Cobwebs, but t'enfnare the Weak, And give Diverfion to the Great to break; To make a lefs Delinquent to be brought To answer for a greater Perfon's Fault, And fuffer all the worst, the worst Approver 50 Can, to excuse and fave himself, difcover. No longer fhall Dramatics be confin'd To draw true Images of all Mankind; To punish in Effigy Criminals, Reprieve the Innocent, and hang the False; 55 But a Club-law to execute and kill, For nothing, whomfoe'er they please, at will, The Crimes they did, and fuffer'd for un- 63, 64. No better than the Laws of British Plays-Confirm'd in th' ancient good King Howel's Days, &c.] In Spelman's Concilia, B. 1. p. 383, there is mention made of one Hovel, King of Glevifficg in Wales, who lived in the ninth Century; and to this Name Butler probably alludes; but as to his general Council, and the Regulation, which, it must be own'd, he rather too waggifhly defcribes, they are mere Inventions of his own, to give an archer and more ludicrous Turn These are the Reformations of the Stage, 60 Like other Reformations of the Age, On Purpose to destroy all Wit and Senfe, 65 Who made a general Council regulate 70 Mens catching Women by the----you know And fet down in the Rubric, at what Time And on what Days it went out, or came in. As Butchers are forbid to b' of a Jury; 75 Besides the most intolerable Wrong To try their Matters in a foreign Tongue, Turn to his Banter. What he grounds this joking Fiction upon, was an old fuperftitious Cuftom of Marriage's being look'd upon as allowable at certain times, and not allowable at others, or coming in. or going out, as it is ufually expreffed; and though it was founded upon the Authority of no Canon, yet is mentioned by ecclefiaftical Writers as a thing practifed-Thus Lyndswood, in his Glof, speaking of Matrimony" Solemnizatio non poteft fieri a prima domi "nica adventus ufque ad octavas epiphanie exclufive, et a dominica feptuagefima ufque ad primam dominicam poft pafcham inclufive; et a prima die rogationis ufque ad feptimum diem pente"coftes inclufive." |