_That very name of Wife And Marriage Is poyson to the dearest sweets of Love._[356] I would give the _Reader_ some more of these fine Sentences, but that they are too much out of Order to appear. The truth is, Our _Stage-Poets_ seem to fence against Censure by the excess of Lewdness; And to make the overgrown size of a Crime, a Ground for Impunity. As if a Malefactor should project his Escape by appearing too scandalous for Publick Tryal. However, This is their Armour of Proof, this is the Strength they retreat to. They are fortified in Smut, and almost impregnable in Stench, so that where they deserve most, there's no coming at them. To proceed. I desire to know what Authority Mr. _Dryden_ has for this extraordinary Representation? His Original _Plautus_, is no President. Indeed _Plautus_ is the only bold Heathen that ever made _Jupiter_ tread the _Stage_. But then he stops far short of the Liberties of the _English Amphitrion. Jupiter_ at _Rome_, and _London_, have the same unaccountable Design; but the Methods of pursuit are very different. The First, does not solicit in scandalous Language, nor flourish upon his Lewdness, nor endeavours to set it up for the Fashion. _Plautus_ had some regard to the Height of the Character, and the Opinion of his Country, and the Restraints of Modesty. The Sallies of _Aristophanes_ do not come up to the case; And if they did, I have cut off the Succours from that Quarter already. _Terence's Chærea_. is the next bold Man:[357] However, here the Fable of _Jupiter_ and _Danae_ are just glanced at, and the Expression is clean; and He that tells the Story, a Young Libertine. These are all circumstances of extenuation, and give quite another Complexion to the Thing. As for the _Greek Tragedians_ and _Seneca_, there's no Prescription can be drawn from them. They mention _Jupiter_ in Terms of Magnificence and Respect, and make his Actions, and his Nature of a piece. But it may be the Celebrated _Homer_, and _Virgil_ may give Mr. _Dryden_ some Countenance. Not at all. _Virgil's Jupiter_ is alwaies great, and solemn, and keeps up the port of a Deity. 'Tis true, _Homer_ does not guard the Idea with that exactness, but then He never sinks the Character into Obscenity. The most exceptionable passage is that where _Jupiter_ relates his Love Adventures to _Juno_. Here this pretended Deity is charm'd with _Venus_'s Girdle, is in the height of his Courtship, and under the Ascendant of his Passion. This 'tis confess'd was a slippery Place, and yet the Poet makes a shift to keep his Feet. His _Jupiter_ is Little, but not nauseous; The Story, tho' improper, will bear the telling, and look Conversation in the Face. However; These Freedoms of _Homer_ were counted intolerable: I shall not insist on the Censures of _Justin Martyr_, or _Clemens Alexandrinus_: Even the Heathen could not endure them. The Poets are lashed by _Plato_ upon this Score; For planting Vice in Heaven, and making their Gods infectious; If Mr.