_Middleton_, Thomas (1570?-1627), and _Rowley_, William (1585?-1642?). In the second lecture on the "Age of Elizabeth," Hazlitt associates these two names. "Rowley appears to have excelled in describing a certain amiable quietness of disposition and disinterested tone of morality, carried almost to a paradoxical excess, as in his Fair Quarrel, and in the comedy of A Woman Never Vexed, which is written, in many parts, with a pleasing simplicity and _naivete_ equal to the novelty of the conception. Middleton's style was not marked by any peculiar quality of his own, but was made up, in equal proportions, of the faults and excellences common to his contemporaries.... He is lamentably deficient in the plot and denouement of the story. It is like the rough draft of a tragedy with a number of fine things thrown in, and the best made use of first; but it tends to no fixed goal, and the interest decreases, instead of increasing, as we read on, for want of previous arrangement and an eye to the whole.... The author's power is _in_ the subject, not _over_ it; or he is in possession of excellent materials which he husbands very ill." Works, V, 214-5. For characters of other dramatists see notes to p. 326. _How lov'd_. Pope's "Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady." P. 3. _draw the curtain of time_. Cf. "we will draw the curtain and show you the picture." "Twelfth Night," i, 5, 251. _within reasonable bounds_. At this point Hazlitt digresses to reprove the age for its affectation of superiority over other ages and the passage, not being relevant, has been omitted. _less than smallest dwarfs_. "Paradise Lost," I, 779. _desiring this man's art_. Shakespeare's Sonnets, XXIX. _in shape and gesture_. "Paradise Lost," I, 590. _Mr. Wordsworth says_. See Sonnet entitled "London, 1802." P. 4. _drew after him_. "Paradise Lost," II, 692. _Otway_, Thomas (1652-1685), author of "Venice Preserved," the most popular post-Shakespearian tragedy of the English stage. Hazlitt notes in this play a "power of rivetting breathless attention, and stirring the deepest yearnings of affection.... The awful suspense of the situations, the conflict of duties and passions, the intimate bonds that unite the characters together, and that are violently rent asunder like the parting of soul and body, the solemn march of the tragical events to the fatal catastrophe that winds up and closes over all, give to this production of Otway's Muse a charm and power that bind it like a spell on the public mind, and have made it a proud and inseparable adjunct of the English stage." Works, V, 354-5. _Jonson's learned sock_. Milton's "L'Allegro."