Page:The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets.djvu/8

 this History of the Lives and Works of all the Dramatick Poets of your Native Country, of which few Nations have produc'd so great a Number under so very little Encouragements. But to shew them, Sir, the more Worthy your Patronage, I shall lay down a short Account of what Value their Art has been, in the most Polite and Politick, as well as most successful Government in the World.

Athens, Rome, and France will furnish me with the Proofs I want. Athens gave Birth and Perfection to the Art, and seems, like the true Mother, to have been most fond of it, and therefore gave its professors the greatest Encouragement. The Value that Government had for both is evident from these two Instances: Sophocles, as a Reward of his Antigone, had the Government of the City and Island of Samos confer'd upon him: And on the Death of Eupolis in a Sea-Fight, there was a Law publish'd, that no Poet for the Future shou'd go to the Wars; so great a Loss they thought the Death of one Poet to the Commonwealth.

Thus we see that Athens that was the most Populous and Trading City of Greece, and which produc'd braver, better, and more learned Men than all Greece besides, prove, by the Encouragement she gave Dramatick Poetry, that it was the Opinion of the Wisdom of that State, that Plays were