Page:The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets.djvu/129

Rh This Author writ a mall Piece, called, The Poet’s Complaint to his Mue, 4 to. 1680, alo a Patoral on King Charles the Second, which is publih’d in Mrs. Behn’s Lycidas, 8 vo. p. 81. and ince his Death, is printed a Tranlation of his from the French, called, The Hitory of the Triumvirates, 8 vo. 1686. His Gentleman is of an ancient Family of Oldmixon, near Bridgewater in Somerethire. As for the particulars of his Life, I can ay little of them, only that he has given the World a Patoral, called,

Amintas, acted at the Theatre Royal. The Title Page lets us know, that it is taken from the Aminta of Tao, and the Preface informs us of the ill Succes it met with on the Stage: which indeed cannot be attributed to the Englih Author’s Performance, which is as well as the original wou’d allow; but, with Submiion to our Author’s better Judgment, I mut needs ay, that Patoral it elf, tho’ never o well writ, is not a Subject fit for o long an Entertainment as that of the Stage. This the Ancients very well knew, and therefore they wiely confin’d it to a narrower Compas, as is evident from the Idyllia of Theocritus, and the Bucolics of Virgil: For the edater Paions (which our Author himelf attributes to a Shepherd’s Life) of thee Innocent People repreented in a Patoral, cannot afford o lively Pleaure to an Audience, as may ballance the Length of their Attention, that mut of necessity grow languid, and tyr’d, with o very calm an Emotion, which is till kept active by the more violent Paions, proper for Tragedy. This extending of the ancient Patoral to o unreaonable a length was, as well as Farce, an Italian Invention, and not one jot the better, becaue cover’d with o great a Name as Tao’s. I cou’d never find that Authority would ilence the Sentiments of Nature and Reaon; and Tao, that has been guilty of Aburdeties enough in his Epic Poem, mut not be uppos’d infallible in his Patoral. After all, I am of Opinion, that it is but a weak Refuge to fly to the Opinion or Tate of a Foreign Nation, from the Judgment of our own; for I’m atisfy’d that there are not fewer Men of Sence, in England, and a great many more of Learning, than Italy affords us. Aminta might pleae there, but if we judge by our Tate of Poetry, and with ours by the Ancients, it pleas’d without Reaon, and only perhaps for the Novelty, or, which is yet mot likely, becaue it was ung in Italy, that Muical Nation minding more the Performance of the Compoer, than Poet. All that can be aid for our Author is, that in an ill Choice, he has equal’d his Original, and in ome Places improv’d it. P. John