On the crack'd fage the bedlam heroes roar'd, ably comply with their tafte by whofe approbation they fub.. fit; fome generous prince, or prime minifler like Richlieu, can only find a remedy. In his epiftle dedicatory to The Spanith Friar, this incomparable poet thus cenferes himself : 66 "I remember fome verfcs of my own Maximin and Almanzor which cry vengeance upon me for their extrava56 gance, c. All I can fay for thofe paffages, which are, hope, not many, is, that I knew they were bad enough to "pleafe even when I wrote them; but repent of them among my fins; and if any of their fellows intrude by chance. into my prefent writings, I draw a ftroke over thofe Dalilahs of the theatre, and am refolved I will fettle myself no "reputation by the applaufe of fools: it is not that I am mor<tified to all ambition, but I fcorn as much to take it from "half-witted judges as I fhould to raife an eftate by cheating "of bubbles: neither do I difcommend the lofty ftyle in tra"gedy, which is pompous and magnificent; but nothing is truly fublime that is not juft and proper." This may ftand as an unanswerable apology for Mr. Dryden against his critics; and likewife for an unquestionable authority to confirm thofe principles which the foregoing poem ;retends to lay down; for nothing can be just and proper but ..hat is built upon truth. Deem Deem then the people's, not the writer's, fin Almanzor's rage and rants of Maximin : He vies for fame with ancient Rome and Greece. light, To clear our darkness, and to guide our flight; Inform'd by them we need no foreign guide: That every line the test of truth endure: From pulpits banifh'd, from the court, from love, Forfaken Truth feeks fhelter in the grove: And take into your train th'abandon'd wanderer. Earl of Mulgrave's Effay upon Poetry, and Lord Rofcommon's upon Tranflated Verfe. ROW E. TICHOLAS ROWE was born NICH at Little Beckford in Bedfordfhire in 1673. His family had Jong poffeffed a confiderable eftate, with a good house, at Lambertoun* in Devonfhire. The ancestor from whom he defcended in a direct line, received the arms borne by his defcendants for his bravery in the Holy War. His father John Rowe, who was the first that quitted his paternal acres to practise any art of profit, profeffed the law, and *In the Villare, Lamerton. published Benlow's and Dallifon's Reports in the reign of James the Second, when, in oppofition to the notions then diligently propagated of difpenfing power, he ventured to remark how low his authors rated the prerogative. He was made a ferjeant, and died April 30, 1692. He was buried in the Temple Church. Nicholas was firft fent to a private fchool at Highgate; and being afterwards removed to Westminster, was at twelve years chofen one of the King's fcholars. His mafter was Bufby, who fuffered none of his fcholars to let their powers lie ufelefs, and his exercises in feveral languages are faid to have been written with uncommon degrees of ex cellence, cellence, and yet to have coft him very little labour. At fixteen he had in his father's opinion made advances in learning fufficient to qualify him for the ftudy of law, and was entered a student of the Middle Temple, where for fome time he read ftatutes and reports with proficiency proportionate to the force of his mind, which was already fuch that he endeavoured to comprehend law, not as a feries of precedents, or collection of pofitive precepts, but as a fyftem of rational government, and impartial juftice. When he was nineteen, he was by the death of his father left more to his own direction, and probably from that time fuffered law gradually to give way to poetry. A 2 |