the contest being who should go furthest in the most graceful way, and with the best turns of expression. He added, that Butler had well illustrated the principle on which they went, where he compares their endeavours to those of the archer, who draws his arrow to the head, whether his object be a swan or a goose. The plays, poems, and other productions which were issued from the press from the time of the Restoration to the reign of Queen Anne, fully confirm this remark.

The lines of HUDIBRAS alluded to by Mr. Burke, are these (P. II. c. i.):

"This has been done by some, who those

"They ador'd in rhyme, would kick in prose ; ...

"That have the hard fate to write best

"Of those still that deserve it least:

"It matters not how false or forc'd,

"So the best things be said o' the worst ;

"It goes for nothing when 'tis said,

"To set the same mark on the hip

"Both of their sound and rotten sheep."

Dr. Johnson, in the passage above quoted, has mentioned Afra Behn's Address to Nell Gwyn [prefixed to THE FEIGN'd CURTIZANS, 1679,] as the highest flight of hyperbolical adulation. Perhaps the force of flattery could no further go. That panegyrick, however, though not surpassed, has been equalled in an Address to the same lady, prefixed to a scarce little volume, entitled, " JANUA DIVORUM, or, the Lives and Histories of the Heathen Gods," &c. By Robert Whitcombe. 8vo. 1678.

On the exaggerated praises of Dedications written in what has been called the celestial style, Pope has an excellent paper in THE GUARDIAN, No. 4, March 16, 1713, at which time he was in his twenty-sixth year.

Ir has been the ordinary practice of the French poets, to dedicate their works of this nature to their king, especially when they have had the least encouragement to it by his approbation of them on the stage. But I confess I want the confidence to follow their example, though perhaps I have as specious pretences to it for this piece as any they can boast of; it having been owned in so particular a manner by his majesty, that he has graced it with the title of HIS play, and thereby rescued it from the severity (that I may not say malice) of its enemies. But, though a character so high and undeserved has not raised in me the presumption to offer such a trifle to his more serious view, yet I will own the vanity to say, that after this glory which it has received from a

This play was acted at the King't Theatre, and first printed in quarto, in 1668. It has no Dedication. p. 202, n. 7.

4 See

sovereign prince, I could not send it to seek protection from any subject. Be this poem then sacred to him without the tedious form of a dedication, and without presuming to interrupt those hours which he is daily giving to the peace and settlement of his people.'

For what else concerns this play, I would tell the reader that it is regular, according to the strictest of dramatick laws, but that it is a commendation which many of our poets now despise, and a beauty which our cominon audiences do not easily discern. Neither, indeed, do I value myself upon it, because with all that symmetry of parts, it may want an air and spirit, which consists in the writing, to set it off. It is a question variously disputed, whether an author may be allowed as a competent judge of his own works. As to the fabrick and contrivance of them certainly he may, for that is properly the employment of the judgment, which, as a master-builder, may determine, and that without deception, whether the work be according to the exactness of the model; still granting him to have a perfect idea of that pattern by which he works, and that he keeps himself always constant to the discourse of his judgment, without admitting self-love, which is the false surveyor of his fancy, to intermeddle in it. These qualifications

The author probably alludes to the frequent councils held at this time, (1668,) relative to the settlement of Ireland, at which the king was generally present.

granted, (being such as all sound poets are presupposed to have within them,) I think all writers, of what kind soever, may infallibly judge of the frame and contexture of their works; but for the ornament of writing, (which is greater, more various and bizarre in poesy than in any other kind,) as it is properly the child of fancy, so it can receive no measure, or at least but a very imperfect one, of its own excellencies or failures, from the judgment. Self-love, which enters but rarely into the offices of the judgment, here predominates; and fancy, if I may so speak, judging of itself, can be no more certain or demonstrative of its own effects, than two crooked lines can be the adequate measure of each other."

What I have said on this subject may perhaps give me some credit with my readers, in my opinion of this play, which I have ever valued above the rest of my follies of this kind; yet not thereby in the least dissenting from their judgment who have concluded the writing of this to be

6" In the Preface," [to THE MAIDEN QUEEN,] says Dr. Johnson, "Dryden discusses a curious question,—whether a poet can judge well of his own productions; and determines very justly, that, of the play and disposition, and all that can be reduced to principles of science, the author may depend upon his own opinion; but that, in those parts where fancy predominates, self-lové may easily deceive. He might have observed, that what is good only because it pleases, cannot be pronounced good till it has been found to please."Life of DRYDEN,