Page:The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets.djvu/204

182 that a Poet is not to be a Hangman, he is not to rival Jack Ketch in his Office, and rob the publick Executioners of their Business, by ending a Criminal privately, who ought to have a Publick and most infamous Execution. Where the Laws condemn a Villain to the Gibbet, the Poet has nothing to do, such Characters are below the Stage, and ought to appear no where but on the Cart, and in the Ordinary's Paper. The Poets Court of Justice is more sublime, he examines and punishes Crimes that the Political Courts overlook. He is not to make Characters more deprav'd than Experience ever shew'd us; for I'm confident Callapeia never had her Fellow, on this side the Line at least, and for the Vices of those of the other, I know nothing that we have to do with them, (having Stock enough of our own) and 'tis with abundance of Reason, call'd, The Unnatural Mother; for sure there never was such an one in Nature. Bebbemeahs being put on the Couch with a Black Slave, and there found asleep, is borrowed from Mr. Settles Incident of Cleomira, and Oirantes, in the Princess of Persia.