Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/245

Rh, cried out, addreſſing himſelf to the ſuſpected perſon, ‘Now ſir, Bailiff, or no Bailiff, I don’t care a farthing for you, you have no power now.’ The man was aſtoniſhed at this behaviour, and when it was explained to him, he was ſo much affronted with the ſuſpicion, that had not Mr. Dennis found his protection in age, he would have ſmarted for his miſtaken opinion of him.

In the year 1705 a comedy of Mr. Dennis’s called Gibraltar, or The Spaniſh Adventure, was acted unſucceſsfully at Drury-Lane Theatre. He was alſo author of a maſque called Orpheus and Euridice.

Mr. Dennis, conſidered as a dramatic writer, makes not ſo good a figure as in his critical works; he underſtood the rules of writing, but it is not in the power of every one to carry their own theory into execution. There is one error which he endeavoured to reform, very material for the intereſt of dramatic poetry. He ſaw, with concern, that love had got the entire poſſeſſion of the tragic ſtage, contrary to the authority of the ancients, and the example of Shakeſpear. He reſolved therefore to deviate a little from the reigning practice, and not to make his heroes ſuch whining ſlaves in their amours, which not only debaſes the majeſty of tragedy, but confounds moſt of the principal characters, by making that paſſion the predominant quality in all. But he did not think it ſafe at once to ſhew his principal characters wholly exempt from it, leſt ſo great and ſudden a tranſition ſhould prove diſagreeable. He rather choſe to ſteer a middle courſe, and make love appear violent, but yet to be ſubdued by reaſon, and give way to the influence of ſome other more noble paſſion; as in Rinaldo, to Glory; in Iphigenia, to Friendſhip; and in Liberty Aſſerted, to the Public Good. He thought by theſe means an audience might