of composition; that, far from injuring a scene, in which quick repartee is necessary, it is the last perfection of wit to put it into numbers; and that, even where a trivial and common expression is placed, from necessity, in the mouth of an important character, it receives, from the melody of versification, a dignity befitting the person that is to pronounce it.  With this keen and animated defence of a mode of composition, in which he felt his own excellence, Dryden concludes the “Essay of Dramatic Poesy.”

The publication of this criticism, the first that contained an express attempt to regulate dramatic writing, drew general attention, and gave some offence.  Sir Robert Howard felt noways flattered at being made, through the whole dialogue, the champion of unsuccessful opinions:  and a partiality to the depreciated blank verse seems to have been hereditary in his family.[20] He therefore hasted to assert his own opinion against that of Dryden, in the preface to one of his plays, called the “Duke of Lerma,” published in the middle of the year 1668.  It is difficult for two friends to preserve their temper in a dispute of this nature; and there may be reason to believe, that some dislike to the alliance of Dryden, as a brother-in-law, mingled with the poetical jealousy of Sir Robert Howard.[21] The Preface to the “Duke of Lerma” is written in the tone of a man of quality and importance, who is conscious of stooping beneath his own dignity, and neglecting his graver avocations, by engaging in a literary dispute.  Dryden was not likely, of many men, to brook this tone of affected superiority.  He retorted upon Sir Robert Howard very severely, in a tract, entitled, the “Defence of the Essay on Dramatic Poesy,” which he prefixed to the second edition of the “Indian Emperor,” published in 1668.  In this piece, the author mentions his antagonist as master of more than twenty legions of arts and sciences, in ironical allusion to Sir Robert’s coxcombical affectation of universal knowledge, which had already exposed him to the satire of Shadwell.[22] He is also described in reference to some foolish appearance in the House of Commons, as having maintained a contradiction in terminis, in the face of three hundred persons.  Neither does Dryden neglect to hold up to ridicule the slips in Latin and English grammar, which marked the offensive Preface to the “Duke of Lerma.”  And although he concludes, that he honoured his adversary’s parts and person as much as any man living, and had so many particular obligations to him, that he should be very ungrateful not to acknowledge them to the world, yet the personal and contemptuous severity of the whole piece must have cut to the heart so proud a man as Sir Robert Howard.  This quarrel between the baronet and the poet, who was suspected of having crutched-up many of his lame performances, furnished food for lampoon and amusement to the indolent wits of the day.  But the breach between the brothers-in-law,