they convey not such grand sentiments, and their language is far from
being so poetical as Dryden's; now, if one dramatic poet writes to
move, and another to enchant and instruct, as instruction is of greater
consequence than being agitated, it follows naturally, that the latter
is the most excellent writer, and possesses the greatest genius.

But perhaps our poet would have wrote better in both kinds of the drama,
had not the necessity of his circumstances obliged him to comply with
the popular taste. He himself, in his dedication to the Spanish Fryar,
insinuates as much. 'I remember, says he, some verses of my own Maximin
and Almanzor, which cry vengeance upon me for their extravagance. All
that I can say for those passages, which are I hope not many, is, that
I knew they were bad when I wrote them. But I repent of them amongst my
sins, and if any of their fellows intrude by chance, into my present
writings, I draw a veil over all these Dalilahs of the theatre, and am
resolved, I will settle myself no reputation upon the applause of fools.
'Tis not that I am mortified to all ambition, but I scorn as much to
take it from half witted judges, as I should to raise an estate by
cheating of bubbles. Neither do I discommend the lofty stile in tragedy,
which is naturally pompous and magnificent; but nothing is truely
sublime that is not just and proper.' He says in another place, 'that
his Spanish Fryar was given to the people, and that he never wrote any
thing in the dramatic way, to please himself, but his All for Love.'

In 1671 Mr. Dryden was publicly ridiculed on the stage, in the duke of
Buckingham's comedy, culled the Rehearsal, under the character of Bays:
This character, we are informed, in the Key to the Rehearsal, was
originally intended for Sir Robert Howard, under the name of Bilboa;
but the representation being put a stop to, by the breaking out of the
plague, in 1665, it was laid by for several years, and not exhibited on