University of Virginia Library

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ROBERT EARL OF Sunderland, Principall Secretary of State, One of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council, &c.

My Lord,

Since I cannot promise you much of Poetry in my Play, 'tis but reasonable that I shou'd secure you from any part of it in my Dedication. And indeed I cannot better distinguish the exactness of your taste from that of other men, than by the plainness and sincerity of my Address. I must keep my Hyperboles in reserve for men of other understandings: An hungry Appetite after praise: and a strong digestion of it, will bear the grossnesse of that diet: But one of so criticall a judgement as your Lordship, who can set the bounds of just and proper in every subject, would give me small encouragement for so bold an undertaking. I more than suspect, my Lord, that you wou'd not do common Justice to your self: and therefore, were I to give that Character of you, which I think you truly merit, I wou'd make my appeal from your Lordship to the Reader, and wou'd justify my self from flattery by the publique voice, whatever protestation you might enter to the contrary But I find am to take other measures with your Lordship; I am to stand upon my guard with you, and to approach you as warily as Horace did Augustus.

Cui male si palpere, recalcitrat undique tutus.

An ill tim'd, or an extravagant commendation, wou'd not pass upon you: but you wou'd keep off such a Dedicator at arms end; and send him back with his Encomiums, to this Lord, or that Lady, who stood in need of such triffling merchandise. You see, my Lord, what an awe you have upon me, when I dare not offer you that incense, which wou'd be acceptable to other Patrons: but am forc'd to curb my self, from ascribing to you those honours, which even an Enemy cou'd not deny you. Yet I must confess I never practis'd that virtue of moderation (which is properly your Character) with so much reluctancy as now. For it hinders me from being true to my own knowledge, in not witnessing your worth; and deprives me of the only means which I had left to shew the world that true honour and uninteressed respect which I have always payed you. I would say somewhat, if it were possible, which might distinguish that veneration I have for you, from the flatteries of those who adore your fortune. But the eminence of your condition, in this particular, is my unhappiness: for it renders whatever I would say suspected. Professions of Service, submissions, and attendance, are the practise of all men to the great: and commonly they who have the least sincerity, perform them best; as they who are least ingag'd in love, have their tongues the freest to counterfeit a passion: for my own part, I never cou'd shake off the rustique bashfulness which hangs upon my nature; but valluing my self, at as little as I am worth, have been affraid to render even the common duties of respect to those who are in power. The Ceremonious visits which are generally payed on such occasions, are not my tallent. They may be real even in Courtiers; but they appear with such a face of interest, that a modest man wou'd think himself in danger of having his sincerity mistaken for his design. My congratulations keep their distance, and pass no farther than my heart. There it is, that I have all the joy imaginable when I see true worth rewarded; and virtue uppermost in the world.

If therefore there were one to whom I had the honour to be known; and to know him so perfectly, that I could say without flattery, he had all the depth of understanding that was requisite in any able Statesman, and all that honesty which commonly is wanting; that he was brave without vanity, and knowing without positiveness: that he was loyall to his Prince, and a lover of his Country; that his principles were full of moderation, and all his Councils such as tended to heal and not to widen the breaches of the Nation: that in all his conversation there appear'd a native candour, and a desire of doing good in all his actions; if such

on one whom I have describ'd, were at the helm, if he had risen by his merits, and were chosen out in the necessity and pressure of affairs, to remedy our confusions by the seasonableness of his advice, and to put a stop to our ruine, when we were just rowling downward to the precipice, I shou'd then congratulate the Age in which I liv'd, for the common safety; I should not despair of the Republique though Hannibal were at the gates; I should send up my vows for the success of such an action as Virgil did on the like occasion for his Patron, when he was raising up his country from the desolations of a civill war.

Hunc saltem everso juvenem succurrere seclo,
Ne superi prohibete.

I know not whether I am running, in this extasy which is now upon me: I am almost ready to reassume the ancient rights of Poetry; to point out, and Prophecy the man, who was born for no lesse an undertaking; and whom posterity shall bless for its accomplishment. Methinks I am already taking fire from such a Character, and making room for him, under a borrow'd name amongst the Heroes of an Epique Poem. Neither could mine, or some more happy Genius, want encouragement under such a Patron.

Pollio amat nostram, quamvis sit rustica Musam.

But these are considerations afar off my Lord: the former part of the Prophecy must be first accomplish'd: the quiet of the Nation must be secur'd; and a mutuall trust, betwixt Prince and people be renew'd: and then this great and good man will have leisure for the ornaments of peace: and make our language as much indebted to his care, as the French is to the memorie of their famous Richelieu. You know My Lord, how low he lay'd the foundations of so great a work: That he began it with a Grammar and a Dictionary; without which all those Remarques and Observations, which have since been made, had been perform'd to as little purpose as it wou'd be to consider the furniture of the Rooms before the contrivance of the House. Propriety must first be stated, ere any measures of elegance can be taken. Neither is one Vangelas sufficient for such a work. 'Twas the employment of the whole Academy for many years, for the perfect knowledge of a Tongue, was never attain'd by any single person. The Court, the Colledge, and the Town, must be joyn'd in it. And as our English is a composition of the dead and living Tongues, there is requir'd a

perfect knowledge, not onely of the Greek and Latine, but of the Old German, the French and the Italian: and to help all these, a conversation with those Authours of our own, who have written with the fewest faults in prose and verse. But how barbarously we yet write and speak, your Lordship knows, and I am sufficiently sensible in my own English. For I am often put to a stand, in considering whether what I write be the Idiom of the Tongue, or false Grammar, and nonsence couch'd beneath that specious Name of Anglicisme. And have no other way to clear my doubts, but by translating my English into Latine, and thereby trying what sence the words will bear in a more stable language. I am desirous if it were possible, that we might all write with the same certainty of words and purity of phrase, to which the Italians first arriv'd, and after them the French: At least that we might advance so far, as our Tongue is capable of such a standard. It wou'd mortify an English man to consider, that from the time of Boccace and of Petrarche, the Italian has varied very little: And that the English of Chaucer their contemporary is not to be understood without the help of an Old Dictionary. But their Goth and Vandall had the fortune to be graffed on a Roman stock: Ours has the disadvantage, to be founded on the Dutch. We are full of Monosyllables, and those clog'd with consonants, and our pronunciation is effeminate. All which are enemies to a sonnding language: 'Tis true that to supply our poverty, we have trafficqued with our Neighbour Nations; by which means we abound as much in words, as Amsterdam does in Religions; but to order them, and make them usefull after their admission is the difficulty. A greater progress has been made in this, since his Majesties return, then perhaps since the conquest to his time. But the better part of the work remains unfinish'd: And that which has been done already, since it has only been in the practise of some few writers, must be digested into Rules and Method; before it can be profitable to the General. Will your Lordship give me leave to speak out at last? and to acquaint the world, that from your encouragement and patronage, we may one day expect to speak and write a language, worthy of the English wit, and which foreigners may not disdain to learn. Your birth, your Education, your naturall endowments, the former Employments which you have had abroad, and that which to the joy of good men you now exercise at home, seem all to conspire to this design: the Genius of the Nation seems to call you out as it were by name, to polish and adorn your native language, and to take from it the reproach of its barbarity. 'Tis upon this encouragement that I have adventur'd on the following Critique, which I humbly present you together with the Play: In which, though I have not had the leisure, nor indeed the encouragement to proceed to the Principal Subject of it, which is the words and thoughts that are sutable to Tragedie; yet the whole discourse has a tendency that way, and is preliminary to it. In what I have already done, I doubt not but I have contradicted some of my former opinions, in my loose Essays of the like nature: but of this, I dare affirm, that it is the fruit of my riper age and experience, and that self-love, or envy have no part in it. The application to English Anthours is my own, and therein perhaps I may have err'd unknowingly: But the foundation of the rules is reason, and the authority of those living Critiques who have had the honour to be known to you abroad, as well as of the Ancients, who are not lesse of your acquaintance. Whatsoever it be, I submit it to your Lordships Judgment, from which I never will appeal, unlesse it be to your good nature, and your candour. If you can allow an hour of leisure to the perusal of it, I shall be fortunate that I cou'd so long entertain you; if not, I shall at least have the satisfaction to know, that your time was more usefully employ'd upon the publique. I am,

My Lord,
Your Lordships most Obedier
Humble Servant,