Howard’s mistranslation of this passage seems to have been inadvertent.  In the Essay it is rendered,

“Set wide the palace gates.”]

The author of the Duke of Lerma proceeds to attack the unities; arguing, because it is impossible that the stage can represent exactly a house, or that the time of acting can be extended to twenty-four hours; therefore it is needless there should be any limitation whatever as to time or place, since otherwise it must be inferred, that there are degrees in impossibility, and that one thing may be more impossible than another.

The whole tone of the preface is that of one who wished to have it supposed, that he was writing concerning a subject rather beneath his notice, and only felt himself called forth to do so by the dogmatism of those who laid down confident rules or laws in matters so trifling.  This affectation of supercilious censure appears deeply to have provoked Dryden, and prompted the acrimony of the following Defence, which he prefixed to a second edition of the Indian Emperor published in 1668, probably shortly after the offence had been given.  The angry friends were afterwards reconciled; and Dryden, listening more to the feelings of former kindness than of recent passion, cancelled the Defence, which was never afterwards reprinted, till Congreve collected our author’s dramatic works.  It is worthy of preservation, as it would be difficult to point out deeper contempt and irony, couched under language so temperate, cold, and outwardly respectful.

A
DEFENCE
OF AN
ESSAY OF DRAMATIC POESY;
BEING
AN ANSWER TO THE PREFACE
OF THE
GREAT FAVOURITE, OR THE DUKE OF LERMA.

The former edition of “the Indian Emperor” being full of faults, which had escaped the printer, I have been willing to overlook this second with more care:  and though I could not allow myself so much time as was necessary, yet by that little I have done, the press is freed from some errors which it had to answer for before.  As for the more material faults of writing, which are properly mine, though I see many of them, I want leisure to amend them.  It is enough for those who make one poem the business of their lives, to leave that correct:  yet, excepting Virgil, I never met with any which was so in any language.

But while I was thus employed about this impression, there came to my hands a new printed play, called, “The Great Favourite, or, The Duke of Lerma;” the author of which, a noble and most ingenious person, has done me the favour to make some observations and animadversions upon my Dramatic Essay.  I must confess he might have better consulted his reputation, than by matching himself with so weak an adversary.  But if his honour be diminished in the choice of his antagonist, it is sufficiently recompensed in the election of his cause:  which being the weaker, in all appearance, as combating the received opinions of the best ancient and modern authors, will add to