Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/211

Rh Mr. Oldmixon’s next piece was entitled the Grave, or Love’s Paradiſe; an Opera repreſented at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, 1700. In the preface, the author acquaints the critics, ‘That this play is neither tranſlation, nor parody; that the ſtory is intirely new; that ’twas at firſt intended for a paſtoral, tho’ in the three laſt acts the dignity of the character raiſed it into the form of a tragedy.’ The ſcene a Province of Italy, near the Gulph of Venice. The Epilogue was written by Mr. Farquhar.

Our author’s next dramatic piece is entitled; The Governor of Cyprus, a Tragedy, acted at the Theatre-Royal in Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields, dedicated to her grace the ducheſs of Bolton.

Mr. Oldmixon, in a Proſe Eſſay on Criticiſm, unjuſtly cenſures Mr. Addiſon, whom alſo, in his imitation of Bouhour’s Arts of Logic and Rhetoric, he miſrepreſents in plain matter of fact: For in page 45 he cites the Spectator, as abuſing Dr. Swift by name, where there is not the leaſt hint of it; and in page 304 is ſo injurious as to ſuggeſt, that Mr. Addiſon himſelf wrote that Tatler, Numb. XLIII. which ſays of his own ſimile, ‘That it is as great as ever entered into the mind of man.’ This ſimile is in Addiſon’s poem, entitled the Campaign. Where, ſays the author of the Letter, ‘The ſimile of a miniſtering Angel, ſets forth the moſt ſedate, and the moſt active courage, engaged in an uproar of nature, a confuſion of elements, and a ſcene of divine vengeance.’ ’Twas then great Marlbro’s mighty ſoul was prov’d, That, in the ſhock of charging hoſts unmov’d, Amidſt confuſion, horror, and deſpair, Examin’d all the dreadful ſcenes of war; In