DRAMATISTS.

Whither for sacred pleasures they retire:
Sacred, because you are the work of gods;
Your lofty looks boast your divine descent;
And the proud city which lies at your feet,
And would give place to nothing but to you,
Owns her original is short of yours.

And now a thousand objects more ride fast

On morning beams, and meet my eyes in throngs:
And see, all Argos meets me with loud shouts!
Philisthenes. O joyful sound!

Thy. But with them Atreus too

Phil. What ails my father that he stops, and shakes, And now retires?

Thy. Return with me, my son,

And old friend Peneus, to the honest beasts,
And faithful desert, and well-seated caves;
Trees shelter man, by whom they often die,
And never seek revenge; no villainy
Lies in the prospect of a humble cave.

Pen. Talk you of villainy, of foes, and fraud?
Thy. I talk of Atreus.

Pen. What are these to him?

Thy. Nearer than am, for they are himself.
Pen. Gods drive these impious thoughts out of your

mind.

Thy. The gods for all our safety put them there. Return, return with me.

Pen. Against our oaths?

I cannot stem the vengeance of the gods.
Thy. Here are no gods; they've left this dire abode.
Pen. True race of Tantalus! who parent-like
Are doomed in midst of plenty to be starved,
His hell and yours differ alone in this :
When he would catch at joys, they fly from him;
When glories catch at you, you fly from them.

Thy. A fit comparison; our joys and his
Are lying shadows, which to trust is hell.

Wishes for Obscurity.

How miserable a thing is a great man!
Take noisy vexing greatness they that please;
Give me obscure and safe and silent ease.
Acquaintance and commérce let me have none
With any powerful thing but Time alone :
My rest let Time be fearful to offend,
And creep by me as by a slumbering friend;
Till, with ease glutted, to my bed I steal,
As men to sleep after a plenteous meal.
Oh, wretched he who, called abroad by power,
To know himself can never find an hour!
Strange to himself, but to all others known,
Lends every one his life, but uses none;
So, ere he tasted life, to death he goes,
And himself loses ere himself he knows.

Passions.

We oft by lightning read in darkest nights ; And by your passions I read all your natures, Though you at other times can keep them dark.

Love in Women.

These are great maxims, sir, it is confessed; Too stately for a woman's narrow breast. Poor love is lost in men's capacious minds; In ours, it fills up all the room it finds.

Inconstancy of the Multitude.

I'll not such favour to rebellion shew,
To wear a crown the people do bestow;
Who, when their giddy violence is past,
Shall from the king, the adored, revolt at last;
And then the throne they gave they shall invade,
And scorn the idol which themselves have made.

Warriors.

I hate these potent madmen, who keep all
Mankind awake, while they, by their great deeds,
Are drumming hard upon this hollow world,
Only to make a sound to last for ages.

THOMAS SHADWELL-SIR GEORGE ETHEREGE-
WILLIAM WYCHERLEY-MRS APHRA BEHN.

A more popular rival and enemy of Dryden was THOMAS SHADWELL (1640–1692), who also wrote seventeen plays, chiefly comedies, in which Shadwell, he affected to follow Ben Jonson. though chiefly known now as the Mac-Flecknoe of Dryden's satire, possessed no inconsiderable comic power. His pictures of society are too coarse for quotation, but they are often true and well drawn. When the Revolution threw Dryden and other excessive royalists into the shade, Shadwell was promoted to the office of poet-laureate.-SIR GEORGE ETHEREGE (circa 1636-1689) gave a more sprightly air to the comic drama by his Man of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter, a play which contains the first runnings of that vein of lively humour and witty dialogue which were afterwards displayed by Congreve and Farquhar. Sir George was a gay libertine, and whilst taking leave of a festive party one evening at his house in Ratisbon -where he resided as British plenipotentiary— he fell down the stairs and killed himself.-The greatest of the comic dramatists was WILLIAM WYCHERLEY, born in the year 1640, in Shropshire, where his father possessed a handsome property. Though bred to the law, Wycherley did not practise his profession, but lived gaily 'upon town.' Pope says he had a true nobleman look,' and he was one of the favourites of the abandoned Duchess of Cleveland. He wrote various comedies -Love in a Wood (1672), the Gentleman Dancingmaster (1673), the Country Wife (1675), and the Plain Dealer (1677). His name stood high as a dramatist, and Pope was proud to receive the notice of the author of the Country Wife. published correspondence is well known, and is interesting from the marked superiority maintained in their intercourse by the boy-poet of sixteen over his Mentor of sixty-four. The pupil grew too great for his master, and the unnatural friendship was dissolved. At the age of seventy-five, Wycherley married a young girl, in order to defeat the expectations of his nephew, and died eleven days afterwards, January 1, 1715. subjects of most of Wycherley's plays were borHe rowed from the Spanish or French stage. wrought up his dialogues and scenes with great care, and with considerable liveliness and wit, but without sufficient attention to character or probability. Destitute himself of moral feeling or propriety of conduct, his characters are equally objectionable, and his once fashionable plays may be said to be 'quietly inurned' in their own corruption and profligacy. Leigh Hunt thinks some of the detached Maxims and Reflections written by Wycherley in his old age not unworthy of his reputation. One he considers to be a noble observation. The silence of a wise man is more wrong to mankind than the slanderer's speech.' -A female Wycherley appeared in MRS APHRA

Their

325

The

The comedies of Mrs Behn are grossly indelicate; and of the whole seventeen which she wrotebesides various novels and poems-not one is now generally read or remembered. The history of Mrs Behn is remarkable. She was daughter of the governor of Surinam, where she resided some time, and became acquainted with Prince Oroonoko, on whose story she founded a novel, that supplied Southerne with materials for a tragedy on the unhappy fate of the African prince. She was employed as a political spy by Charles II.; and, while residing at Antwerp, she was enabled, by the aid of her lovers and admirers, to give information to the British government as to the intended Dutch attack on Chatham,

Extract from Wycherley's Plain Dealer?

MANLY and LORD PLAUSIBLE.

Manly. Tell not me, my good Lord Plausible, of your decorums, supercilious forms, and slavish ceremonies! your little tricks, which you, the spaniels of the world, do daily over and over, for and to one another; not out of love or duty, but your servile fear.

Plausible. Nay, i' faith, i' faith, you are too passionate; and I must beg your pardon and leave to tell you they are the arts and rules the prudent of the world walk by.

Man. Let 'em. But I'll have no leading-strings; I can walk alone. I hate a harness, and will not tug on in a faction, kissing my leader behind, that another may do the like to me.

Plaus. What, will you be singular then? like nobody? follow, love, and esteem nobody?

Man. Rather than be general, like you, follow everybody; court and kiss everybody; though perhaps at the same time you hate everybody.

Plaus. Why, seriously, with your pardon, my dear friend

Man, With your pardon, my no friend, I will not, as you do, whisper my hatred or my scorn, call a man fool or knave by signs or mouths over his shoulder, whilst you have him in your arms. For such as you, like common women and pickpockets, are only dangerous to those you embrace.

Plaus. Such as I! Heavens defend me! upon my honour

Man. Upon your title, my lord, if you'd have me believe you.

Plaus. Well, then, as I am a person of honour, I never attempted to abuse or lessen any person in my life.

Man. What, you were afraid? Plaus. No, but seriously, I hate to do a rude thing; I speak well of all mankind."

Man. I thought so: but know, that speaking well of all mankind is the worst kind of detraction; for it takes away the reputation of the few good men in the world, by making all alike. Now, I speak ill of most men, because they deserve it; I that can do a rude thing, rather than an unjust thing.

Plaus. Well, tell not me, my dear friend, what people deserve; I ne'er mind that. I, like an author in a dedication, never speak well of a man for his sake, but my own. I will not disparage any man to disparage myself: for to speak ill of people behind their backs, is not like a person of honour, and truly to speak ill of 'em to their faces, is not like a complaisant person; but if I did

their backs, out of pure good manners.

Man. Very well, but I that am an unmannerly seafellow, if I ever speak well of people-which is very seldom indeed-it should be sure to be behind their backs; and if I would say or do ill to any, it should be to their faces. I would jostle a proud, strutting, overlooking coxcomb, at the head of his sycophants, rather than put out my tongue at him when he were past me; would frown in the arrogant, big, dull face of an overgrown knave of business, rather than vent my spleen against him when his back were turned; would give fawning slaves the lie whilst they embrace or commend me; cowards, whilst they brag; call a rascal by no other title, though his father had left him a duke's; laugh at fools aloud before their mistresses; and must desire people to leave me, when their visits grow at last as troublesome as they were at first impertinent.

[Manly thrusts out Lord Plausible. Freeman. You use a lord with very little ceremony, it

PROSE LITERATURE.

The productions of this period, possessing much of the nervous force and originality of the preceding era, make a nearer approach to that correctness and precision which have since been attained verted to some of the great names by which the in English composition. We have already adperiod is illustrated; and we may here note the formation of the Royal Society of London in 1662, for the promotion of mathematical and physical science. There had previously been associations and clubs of a similar character, but they were small and obscure. The incorporation by royal charter of a body of scientific men and stu dents of nature in England was a significant and memorable event. Following so soon after the

* Burns has versified part of this sentiment: The rank is but the guinea stamp, The man's the gowd for a' that,

consequence of the royal displeasure. As a member of parliament, both in this and in the subsequent reign, Selden continued to defend the liberty of the people, insomuch that on one occasion he was committed to the Tower on a charge of sedition. In 1640, when the Long Parliament met, he was unanimously elected one of the representatives of Oxford University; but though still opposing the abuses and oppressions of which the people complained, he was averse to extreme measures, and desirous to prevent the power of the sword from falling into the hands of either party. Finding his exertions to ward off a civil war unavailing, he seems to have withdrawn himself as much as possible from public life. While in parliament, he constantly employed his influence in behalf of learning and learned men, and performed great service to both universities. In 1643 he was

Meanwhile his political occupations were not allowed to divert his mind altogether from literary pursuits. Besides an account, published in 1628,

JOHN SELDEN.

One of the most learned writers, and at the same time conspicuous political characters of the time, was JOHN SELDEN, born December 16, 1584, of a respectable family at Sabington, near Tering, in Sussex. After being educated at Chichester and Oxford, he studied law in London, and published in the Latin language, between 1607 and 1610, several historical and antiquarian works relative to his native country. These acquired for him, besides considerable reputation, the esteem and friendship of Camden, Spelman, Sir Robert Cotton, Ben Jonson, Browne, and also of Drayton, to whose Polyolbion he furnished notes. By Milton he is spoken of as 'the chief of learned men reputed in this land.' His largest English work, A Treatise on Titles of Honour, was published in 1614, and still continues a standard authority respecting the degrees of nobility and gentry in England, and the origin of such distinctions in other countries. In 1617 his fame was greatly extended, both at home and on the continent, by the publication of a Latin work on the idolatry of the Syrians, and more especially on the heathen deities mentioned in the Old Testament. In his next production, A History of Tithes (1618), by leaning to the side of those who question the divine right of the church to that tax, he gave great offence to the clergy, at whose instigation the king summoned the author to his presence and reprimanded him. He was, moreover, called before several members of the formidable High Commission Court, who extracted from him a written declaration of regret for what he had done, without, however, any retractation of his opinion. Several replies appeared, but to these he was not allowed to publish a rejoinder. During the subsequent part of his life, Šelden evinced but little respect for his clerical contemporaries, whose conduct he deemed arrogant and oppressive. Nor did he long want an opportunity of shewing that civil tyranny was as little to his taste as ecclesiastical; for being consulted by the parliament in 1621, on occasion of the dispute with James concerning their powers and privileges, he spoke so freely on the popular side, and took so prominent a part in drawing up the spirited protestation of

been brought from Greece the previous year,* he gave to the world various works on legal and ecclesiastical antiquities, particularly those of the Jewish nation; and also an elaborate Latin treatise in support of the right of British dominion over the circumjacent seas. This last work appeared in 1635, and found great favour with all parties. A defence of it against a Dutch writer was the last publication before the death of Selden, which took place November 30, 1654. His friend, Archbishop Usher, preached his funeral sermon, and his valuable library was added by his executors to the Bodleian at Oxford. In 1689, a collection of his sayings, entitled Table-talk, was published by his amanuensis, who states that he enjoyed for twenty years the opportunity of hearing his master's discourse, and was in the habit of committing faithfully to writing 'the excellent things that usually fell from him. It is more by his Table-talk than by the works published in his lifetime, that Selden is now generally known as a writer; for though he was a man of great talent and learning, his style was deficient in ease and grace, and the class of subjects he selected was little suited to the popular taste. The following eulogy of him by Clarendon shews how highly Selden was respected even by his opponents: 'He was a person whom no character can flatter, or transmit any expressions equal to his merit and virtue. He was of so stupendous a learning in all kinds and in all languages-as may appear in his excellent writings-that a man would have thought he had been entirely conversant amongst books, and had never spent an hour but in reading and writing; yet his humanity, affability, and courtesy were such, that he would have been thought to have been bred in the best courts, but that his good-nature, charity, and delight in doing good exceeded that breeding. His style in all his writings seems harsh, and sometimes

the fine arts, sent agents into Italy and Greece to collect and *Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, who was a zealous patron of transmit to England interesting remains of antiquity. Among other relics so procured were the above-mentioned marbles, brought by Mr (afterwards Sir William) Petty from Smyrna, and on which were found certain Greek inscriptions-including that called the Parian Chronicle, from its being supposed to have been made in by furnishing the dates of many events in ancient history, proved the Isle of Paros, about 263 years before Christ. This Chronicle, of great use in chronological investigations.