The VOLPONE is a fubject fo manifeftly fitted for the entertainment of all times, that it ftands in need of no vindication. Yet neither, I am afraid, is this Comedy, in all respects, a complete model. There are even fome Incidents of a farcical invention particularly, the Mountebank Scene, and Sir Politique's Tortoife, are in the tafte of the old comedy; and without its rational pur pofe. Besides, the bumour of the dialogue is fometimes on the point of becoming inordinate, as may be feen in the pleasantry of Corbaccio's mistakes through deafness, and in other inftances. And we fhall not wonder, that the best of his plays are liable to fome objections of this fort, if we attend to the character of the writer. For his nature was severe and rigid; and this, in giving a strength and manliness, gave at times too an intemperance to his fatyr. His tafte for ridicule was ftrong, but indelicate; which made him not over-curious in the choice of his topics. And, lastly, his Style in picturing characters, though masterly, was without that elegance of band which is required to correct and allay the force

of

of fo bold a colouring. Thus, the biafs of his nature leading him to Plautus, rather than Terence, for his model, it is not to be wondered, that his wit is too frequently cauftic, his raillery coarfe, and his humour exceffive.

Some later writers for the ftage have, no doubt, avoided these defects of the exacteft of our old dramatifts. But do they reach his excellencies? Pofterity, I am afraid, will judge otherwise, whatever may bẹ now thought of fome more fashionable comedies. And, if they do not, neither the ftate of general manners, nor the turn of the public taste, appears to be fuch as countenances the expectation of greater improvements. To thofe, who are not overfanguine in their hopes, our forefathers will perhaps be thought to have furnished (what in nature feem linked together). the fairest example of dramatic, as of real

manners.

...But here it will probably be faid, an affected zeal for the honour of our old poets has betrayed their unwary advocate into a conceffion which difcredits his whole pains

7.

on

on this fubject. For to what purpose, may it be afked, this wafte of dramatic criticifm, when, by the allowance of the idle fpeculatift himself, his theory is likely to prove fo unprofitable, at leaft, if it be not illfounded? The only part I can take i in this nice conjuncture is, to screen myself behind the authority of a much abler critical theorist, who had once the misfortune to find himself in these unlucky circumstances, and has apologized for it. The objection is fairly urged by this fine writer; and, in fo profound and fpeculative an age as the prefent, I prefume to fuggeft no other answer than he has thought fit to give to it. "Speculations of this fort, fays he, do not beftow genius on those who have it not; they do not perhaps afford any great affiftance to those who have; and most "commonly the men of genius are even "incapable of being affifted by speculation. "To what ufe then do they ferve? why, "to lead up to the first principles of beauty "fuch perfons as love reafoning, and are "fond of reducing, under the controul of "philofophy, fubjects that appear the

"moft

moft independent of it, and which are generally thought abandoned to the caprice of tafte [p]."

[p] "Ces fortes de fpeculations ne donnent point de genie à ceux qui en manquent; elles n'aident beaucoup ceux qui en ont: et le plus fouvent même les gens de génie font incapables d'être aidées par "les fpeculations. A quoi donc font-elles bonnes ? A faire remonter jusqu'aux premieres idées du beau quelques gens qui aiment la raifonnement, et se plaifent à reduire fous l'empire de la philofophie les chofes qui en paroiffent le plus indépendantes, et que l'on croit communément abandonnées à la bizarrerie des goûts." M. DE FONTENELLE.

The END of the SECOND VOLUME.