Yet, though their models are regular, they are too little for English tragedy; which requires to be built in a larger compass. I could give an instance in the "Oedipus Tyrannus," which was the master piece of Sophocles; but I reserve it for a more fit occasion, which I hope to have hereafter. In my style, I have professed to imitate the divine Shakespeare; which that I might perform more freely, I have disincumbered myself from rhyme. Not that I condemn my former way, but that this is more proper to my present purpose. I hope I need not to explain myself, that I have not copied my author servilely: Words and phrases must of necessity receive a change in succeeding ages; but it is almost a miracle that much of his language remains so pure; and that he who began dramatic poetry amongst us, untaught by any, and, as Ben Jonson tells us, without learning, should by the force of his own genius perform so much, that in a manner he has left no praise for any who come after him. The occasion is fair, and the subject would be pleasant to handle the difference of styles betwixt him and Fletcher, and wherein, and how far they are both to be imitated. But since I must not be over-confident of my own performance after him, it will be prudence in me to be silent. Yet, I hope, I may affirm, and without vanity, that, by imitating him, I have excelled myself throughout the play; and particularly, that I prefer the scene betwixt Antony and Ventidius in the first act, to any thing which I have written in this kind. Footnotes: 1. That the reader may himself judge of the justice of Dryden's censure, I subjoin the argument on this knotty point, as it is stated by Hippolytus and his mistress in the 5th act of the "Phedre" of Racine. Aricie. _Quoi vous pouves vous taire en ce peril extreme? Vous laisses dans l'erreur un pere qui vous uime? Cruel, si de mes pleurs meprisant le pouvoir, Vous consentez sans peine a ne me plus revoir, Partes, separes vous de la triste Aricie, Mais du moins en partaut assures votre vie. Defendes votre honneur d' un reproche honteux, Et forces votre pere a revoquer ses vaeux; Il en est tems encore. Pourguoi, par quel caprice, Laisses vous le champ libre a votre accusatrice? Ecclaircisses Thesee._ Hippolyte.