Page:The school of Pantagruel (1862).djvu/18

 Rh by dint of life-long labour, to write six large volumes of impure songs, which he styled Pills to purge Melancholy The melancholy which they could purge must have been of a peculiar kind,

In a well-regulated mind, indeed, they would tend rather to create than to dissipate that feeling. Mere quack medicines, I fear, these pills must turn out; melancholic minds finding relief from them must be of a nature very different from his who cried out of the depths of his broken spirit, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." This is the purgation of him "whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor."

Sir Charles Sedley may be named here as the author of two volumes of Miscellanies, of which the distinguishing characteristic is their licentiousness;—though the song beginning

shows that he was capable of better things. The particulars of the disgraceful prank which history records of him are very generally known: it is unnecessary to repeat them here. Of Sir George Etherege, another knightly versifier of the same order, it will suffice to give only the name. These were not chevaliers sans reproche.

The dramatists of this period must not pass without mention: I will first notice Wycherley and Congreve. Each of these authors wrote four comedies, all of which were acted and applauded; and their representation was witnessed not only by the fathers, but by the mothers and daughters of that time. And yet throughout these eight dramas there are not two consecutive pages which even a male audience of the present day would suffer. They are full of allusions which would excite indignation in every virtuous mind, and bring a blush to every modest cheek.