Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 2.djvu/22

 that his Maid shou'd be refus'd a place with Helen and Lavinia. Spencer has a better plea for his Fairy-Queen, had his Action been finish'd, or had been one. And Milton, if the Devil had not been his Heroe, instead of Adam; if the Gyant had not foil'd the Knight, and driven him out of his strong hold, to wander through the World with his Lady Errant: and if there had not been more Machining Persons than Humane, in his Poem. After these, the rest of our English Poets shall not be mention'd. I have that Honour for them which I ought to have: but if they are Worthies, they are not to be rank'd amongst the three whom I have nam'd, and who are establish'd in their Reputation.

Before I quitted the Comparison betwixt Epick Poetry and Tragedy, I shou'd have acquainted my Judge with one advantage of the former over the latter, which now casually remember out of the Preface of  before his Translation of the Æneis, or out of Bossu, no matter which. The Stile of the Heroick Poem is and ought to be more lofty than that of the Drama. The Critick is certainly in the right, for the Reason already urg'd: The work of Tragedy is on the Passions, and in Dialogue, both of them abhor strong Metaphors, in which the Epopee delights. A Poet cannot speak too plainly on the Stage: for Volat irrevocabile verbum; the Sense is lost, if it be not taken flying: but what we read alone, we have leisure to digest. There an Author may beautifie his Sense by the boldness of his Expression, which if we understand not fully at the first, we may dwell upon it, till we find the secret force and excellence. That which cures the Manners by alterative Physick, as I said before, must proceed by insensible degrees; but that which purges the Passions, must do its business all at once, or wholly fail of its effect, at least in the present Operation, and without repeated Doses. We must beat the Iron while tis hot, but we