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How far it may be permitted to carefs the maid› in order to fucceed with the mistress.

What conftructions a man may put upon a fmile, and in what cafes a frown goes for nothing.

On what occafions a fheepish look may do fervice, &c.

As a farther proof of his skill, he has alfo fent me several maxims in love, which he affures me are the refult of a long and profound reflexion, fome of which I think myself obliged to communicate to the publick, not remembering to have feen them before in any author.

There are more calamities in the world, arifing from love than from hatred.

Love is the daughter of Idleness, but the mother • of Difquietude.j

• Men of grave natures (fays Sir Francis Bacon) · are the most constant; for the fame reason men fhould be more conftant than women.

The gay part of mankind is most amorous, the ferious moft loving.

A coquette often lofes her reputation, while the preferves her virtue.

A prude often preferves her reputation when fhe has loft her virtue.

Love refines a man's behaviour, but makes a woman's ridiculous.

Love is generally accompanied with good-will. in the young, intereft in the middle-aged, and a paffion too grofs to name in the old.

The endeavours to revive a decaying paffion generally extinguifh the remains of it.

A woman, who from being a flattern becomes over-neat, or from being over-neat becomes a flattern is moft certainly in love.'

I fhall make use of this gentleman's fkill, as I fee occafion; and fince I am got upon the fubject of love, fhall conclude this paper, with a copy of verses which were lately fent me by an unknown hand,

as

as I look upon them to be above the ordinary run of fonneteers.

The author tells me they were written in one of his defpairing fits; and, I find, entertains fome hope, that his miftrefs may pity fuch a paffion as he has described, before the knows that the is herfelf Corinna.

Conceal, fond man, conceal the mighty fmart,
Nor tell Corinna fhe has fir'd thy heart.

In vain would ft thou complain, in vain pretend
To afk a pity which he must not lend.
She's too much thy fuperior to comply,
And too too fair to let thy paffion die.
Languifh in fecret, and with dumb surprise
Drink the refiftless glances of her eyes.
At awful distance entertain thy grief,
Be ftill in pain, but never afk relief.
Ne'er tempt her fcorn of thy confuming ftate;
Be any way undone, but fly her hate.
Thou must fubmit to fee thy charmer bless
"Some happier youth that shall admire her lefs;
Who in that lovely form, that heav'nly mind,
Shall mifs ten thousand beauties thou could't find.
Who with low fancy fhall approach her charms,
While half enjoy'd fhe finks into his arms.
She knows not, must not know, thy nobler fire,
Whom fhe, and whom the mufes do inspire;
Her image only fball thy breaft employ,
And fill thy captiv'd foul with fhades of joy;
Direct thy dreams by night, thy thoughts by day;
And never, never, from thy bofom ftray.

FRIDAY,

No 592. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBR 10.

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Studium fine divite venâ.

Art without a vein.

HOR. Ars Poet. ver. 409.

ROSCOMMON.

Look upon the playhoufe as a world within itfelf. They have lately furnished the middle region of it with a new set of meteors, in order to give the fublime to many modern tragedies. I was there laft winter at the first rehearsal of the new thunder, which is much more deep and fonorous than any hitherto made ufe of. They have a Salmoneus behind the fcenes who plays it off with great fuccefs. Their lightnings are made to flash more briskly than heretofore; their clouds are alfo better furbelowed, and more voluminous; not to mention a violent storm locked up in a great cheft, that is defigned for the Tempeft. They are alfo provided with above a dozen fhowers of fnow, which, as I am informed, are the plays of many unfuccesful poets artificially cut and thredded for that use. Mr. Rymer's Edgar is to fall in fnow at the next acting of King Lear, in order to heighten, or rather to alleviate, the diftrefs of that unfortunate Prince; and to ferve by way of decoration to a piece which that great critic has written against.

I do not indeed wonder that the actors should be fuch profeffed enemies to thofe among our nation who are commonly known by the name of Critics, fince it is a rule among thefe gentlemen to fall upon a play, not because it is ill written, but because it takes. Several of them day it down as a maxim, that whatever Dramatic performance has a long run, must of neceffity be good for nothing; as though the firft precept in poetry were not to pleafe.

Whether

Whether this rule holds good or not, I fhall leave to the determination of those who are better judges than myself; if it does, I am fure it tends very much to the honour of those gentlemen who have established it; few of their pieces having been difgraced by a run of three days, and most of them being fo exquifitely written, that the town would never give them more than one night's hearing.

I have a great efteem for a true critic, fuch as Ariftotle and Longinus among the Greeks, Horace and Quintilian among the Romans, Boileau and Dacier among the French. But it is our misfortune, that fome who fet up for profeffed critics among us are so stupid, that they do not know how to put ten words together with elegance or common propriety, and withal fo illiterate that they have no tafte of the learned languages, and therefore criticife upon old authors only at fecond hand. They judge of them by what others have written, and not by any notions they have of the authors themfelves. The words unity, action, fentiment, and diction, pronounced with an air of authority, give them a figure among unlearned readers, who are apt to believe they are very deep becaufe they are unintelligible. The ancient critics are full of the phrafes of their contemporaries; they difcover beauties which efcaped the obfervation of the vulgar, and very often find out reafons for palliating and excuting fuch little flips and overfights as were committed in the writings of eminent authors. On the contrary, most of the fmatterers in criticifm who appear among us, make it their bulinefs to vilify and depreciate every new production that gains applaufe, to defcry imaginary blemishes, and to prove by far-fetched arguments, that what pafs for beauties in any celebrated piece are faults and errors. In fhort, the writings of thefe critics compared with thofe of the ancients, are like the works VOL. VIII.

of

of the fophifts compared with those of the old philofophers.

Envy and cavil are the natural fruits of laziness and ignorance; which was probably the reason, that in the heathen mythology Momus is faid to be the fon of Nox and Somnus, of darkness and fleep. Idle men, who have not been at the pains to accomplish or diftinguish themfelves, are very apt to detract from others; as ignorant men are very fubject to decry those beauties in a celebrated work which they have not eyes to difcover. Many of our fons of Momus, who dignify themselves by the name of critics, are the genuine defcendents of thefe two illuftrious ancestors. They are often led-into those numerous abfurdities, in which they daily inftruct the people, by not confidering that, First, There is fometimes a greater judgment fhewn, in deviating from the rules of art, than in adhering to them; and, 2dly, That there is more beauty in the works of a great genius who is ignorant of all the rules of art, than in the works of a little genius, who not only knows, but fcrupuloufly obferves them.

First, We may often take notice of men who are perfectly acquainted with all the rules of good writing, and notwithstanding chufe to depart from them on extraordinary occafions. I could give inftances out of all the tragic writers of antiquity who have fhewn their judgment in this particular; and purpofely receded from an established rule of the drama, when it has made way for a much higher beauty than the observation of fuch a rule would have been. Those who have furveyed the nobleft pieces of architecture and ftatuary both ancient and inodern, know very well that there are frequent deviations from art in the works of the greatest mafters, which have produced a much nobler effect than a more accurate and exact way of proceeding could have done. This often arifes from what

the

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