“But to return, from whence I have digressed.  I dare boldly affirm these two things of the English Drama,

    “First.  That we have many Plays of ours as regular as any of theirs;
    and which, besides, have more variety of Plot and Characters.  And

“Secondly.  That in most of the irregular Plays of SHAKESPEARE or FLETCHER (for BEN.  JOHNSON’s are for the most part regular), there is a more masculine Fancy, and greater Spirit in all the Writing, than there is in any of the French.

“I could produce, even in SHAKESPEARE’s and FLETCHER’s Works, some Plays which are almost exactly formed; as the Merry Wives of Windsor and the Scornful Lady.  But because, generally speaking, SHAKESPEARE, who writ first, did not perfectly observe the laws of Comedy; and FLETCHER, who came nearer to perfection [in this respect], yet, through carelessness, made many faults:  I will take the pattern of a perfect Play from BEN.  JOHNSON, who was a careful and learned observer of the Dramatic Laws; and, from all his Comedies, I shall select the Silent Woman [p. 597], of which I will make a short examen [examination], according to those Rules which the French observe.”

As NEANDER was beginning to examine the Silent Woman:  EUGENIUS, looking earnestly upon him, “I beseech you, NEANDER!” said he, “gratify the company, and me in particular, so far, as, before you speak of the Play, to give us a Character of the Author:  and tell us, frankly, your opinion! whether you do not think all writers, both French and English, ought to give place to him?”

“I fear,” replied NEANDER, “that in obeying your commands, I shall draw a little envy upon myself.  Besides, in performing them, it will be first necessary to speak somewhat of SHAKESPEARE and FLETCHER his Rivals in Poesy; and one of them, in my opinion, at least his Equal, perhaps his Superior.

“To begin then with SHAKESPEARE.  He was the man, who, of all Modern and perhaps Ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive Soul [p. 540].  All the Images of Nature [pp. 528, 533] were still present [apparent] to him [p. 489]:  and he drew them not laboriously, but luckily [felicitously].  When he describes anything; you more than see it, you feel it too.  Those who accuse him to have wanted learning; give him the greater commendation.  He was naturally learned.  He needed not the spectacles of books, to read Nature; he looked inwards, and found her there.  I cannot say, he is everywhere alike.  Were he so; I should do him injury to compare him [even] with the greatest of mankind.  He is many times flat, insipid:  his comic wit degenerating into clenches; his serious swelling, into bombast.

“But he is always great, when some great occasion is presented to him.  No man can say, he ever had a fit subject for his wit, and did not then raise himself as high above the rest of poets,