Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/95

Rh deſcriptions, without any regard to the plot, fable, or ſubſerviency of the parts; for this reaſon he formed a new model, and gave an example how works of that kind ſhould be written. He purſued a regular plan, obſerved a general moral, and carried on a connexion, as well as diſtinction, between his characters.

This performance is entitled Incognita, or Love and Duty Reconciled; it has been aſſerted that this is a real hiſtory, and though the ſcene is laid in Italy, the adventures happened in England; it is not our buſineſs to enter into the ſecret hiſtory of this entertaining piece, or to attempt giving the reader a key to what the writer took ſo much pains to conceal. It appears from this piece, that Mr. Congreve aimed at perfection from the very beginning, and his deſign in writing this novel, was to ſhew, how novels ought to be written. Let us hear what he ſays himſelf, and from thence we ſhall entertain a higher opinion of his abilities, than could poſſibly be raiſed by the warmeſt commendations. After very judiciouſly obſerving, that there is the ſame relation between romances and novels as between tragedy and comedy, he proceeds thus: ‘Since all traditions muſt indiſputably give glace to the drama, and ſince there is no poſſibility of giving that life to the writing, or repetition of a ſtory, which it has in the action; I reſolved in another beauty to imitate dramatic writing, namely, in the deſign, contexture, and reſult in the plot. I have not obſerved it before in a novel. Some I have ſeen begin with an unexpected accident, which has been the only ſurprizing part of the ſtory, cauſe enough to make the ſequel look flat, tedious, and inſipid; for ’tis but reaſonable the reader ſhould expect, if not to riſe, at leaſt, to keep upon a level in the entertainment, for ſo he may be kept on, in hopes, that ſome time, or