_Pour lui_, the Docteur of the Sorbonne: _pour moi_,—every reader will, in the exercise of that sovereign judgement whereof every reader is possessed, determine for himself whether in composing the present work I am to be deemed _bien sage_, or _bien fou_. I know what Mr. Dulman thinks upon this point, and that Mr. Slapdash agrees with him. To the former I shall say nothing; but to the latter, and to Slenderwit, Midge, Wasp, Dandeprat, Brisk and Blueman, I shall let Cordara the Jesuit speak for me. _O quanti, o quanti sono, a cui dispiace Vedere un uom contento; sol per questo Lo pungono con stile acre e mordace, Per questi versi miei chi sa che presto Qualche zanzara contro me non s'armi, E non prenda di qui qualche pretesto. Io certo me l'aspetto, che oltraggiarmi Talun pretenderà sol perchè pare, Che di lieti pensier' sappia occuparmi. Ma canti pur, lo lascerò cantare E per mostrargli quanto me ne prendo, Tornerò, se bisogna, a verseggiare._ Leaving the aforesaid _litterateurs_ to construe and apply this, I shall proceed in due course to examine and decide whether Dr. Daniel Dove ought, or ought not to have been an author,—being the first of two questions, propounded in the present chapter, as arising out of the last. CHAPTER CCXXVI. THE AUTHOR DIGRESSES A LITTLE, AND TAKES UP A STITCH WHICH WAS DROPPED IN THE EARLIER PART OF THIS OPUS.—NOTICES CONCERNING LITERARY AND DRAMATIC HISTORY, BUT PERTINENT TO THIS PART OF OUR SUBJECT. _Jam paululum digressus a spectantibus, Doctis loquar, qui non adeo spectare quam Audire gestiunt, logosque ponderant, Examinant, dijudicantque pro suo Candore vel livore; non latum tamen Culmum (quod aiunt) dum loquar sapientibus Loco movebor._ MACROPEDIUS. The boy and his schoolmaster were not mistaken in thinking that some of Textor's Moralities would have delighted the people of Ingleton as much as any of Rowland Dixon's stock pieces. Such dramas have been popular wherever they have been presented in the vernacular tongue. The progress from them to the regular drama was slow, perhaps not so much on account of the then rude state of most modern languages, as because of the yet ruder taste of the people. I know not whether it has been observed in literary history how much more rapid it was in schools, where the Latin language was used, and consequently fit audience was found, though few.