The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 10Dryden, John
Religion
The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 10
Dryden, John
English literature
[Footnote 330: Our author's several modes of coaxing or bullying the
audience in the prologues, are ridiculed in the "Rehearsal;" where
Bayes says, "You must know there is in nature but two ways of making
very good prologues;--the one is, by civility, by insinuation, good
language, and all that to ---- a ---- in a manner steal your plaudit
from the courtesy of the auditors: the other, by making use of some
certain personal things, which may keep a hank upon such censuring
persons as cannot otherwise, egad, in nature, be hindered from being
too free with their tongues."]
[Footnote 331: The following is the statement of the accusation in
Tom's peculiar style, being a sort of cant jargon, not void of low
humour:
"_Bayes._ Now, there being but three remarkable places in the whole
island; that is, the two universities, and the great metropolitan city;
I shall, consequently, confine my discourse only to them: But, first
of all, I must tell you, that I am altogether of my Lord Plausible's
opinion in the "Plain Dealer;" if I chance to commend any place, or
order of men, out of pure friendship, I choose to do it before their
faces; and if I have occasion to speak ill of any person or place,
out of a principle of respect and good manners, I do it behind their
backs. You cannot imagine, Mr Crites, when I visit either of the
two universities, in my own person, or by my commissioners of the
playhouse, how much I am taken with a college life: Oh, there's nothing
like a cheese cut out into farthings! and my Lord Mayor, amidst all
his brutal city luxury, does not dine half so well as a student upon
a single chop of rotten roasted mutton; nay, I can scarce prevail
with myself, for a month or two after, to eat my meat on a plate,
so great a respect have I for a university trencher; and then their
conversation is so learned, and withal so innocent, that I could sit a
whole day together at a coffee-house to hear them dispute about _actus
perspicui_, and _forma misti_. From this beginning I naturally fall a
railing at London, with as much zeal as a Buckingham-shire grazier, who
had his pocket picked at a Smithfield entertainment; or a country lady,
whose obsequious knight has spent his estate among misses, vintners,
and linen-drapers; and then I tell my audience, that a man may walk
farther in the city to meet a true judge of poetry, than ride his horse
on Salisbury Plain to find a house.
London likes grossly, but this nicer pit
Examines, fathoms, all the depths of wit.
You see here, Mr Crites, that scholars won't take Alderman Duncomb's
leaden halfpence for Irish half crowns, while dull Londoner swallows
every thing; and takes it with as little consideration, as a true
Romanist takes a spiritual dose of relicts, that are sealed up with the
council of Trent's coat-of-arms.
_Eugen._ How was that, Mr Bayes, about the council of Trent? Pray, let
us hear it again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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