A poet eyeing round the company,
Straight each-man for himself begins to doubt;
They shrink like seamen when a press comes out. 
Few of them will be found for public use,
Except you charge an oaf upon each house,
Like the train bands, and every man engage
For a sufficient fool, to serve the stage. 
And when, with much ado, you get him there,
Where he in all his glory should appear,
Your poets make him such rare things to say,
That he’s more wit than any man i’ th’ play: 
But of so ill a mingle with the rest,
As when a parrot’s taught to break a jest. 
Thus, aiming to be fine, they make a show,
As tawdry squires in country churches do. 
Things well considered, ’tis so hard to make
A comedy, which should the knowing take,
That our dull poet, in despair to please,
Does humbly beg, by me, his writ of ease. 
’Tis a land-tax, which he’s too poor to pay;
You therefore must some other impost lay. 
Would you but change, for serious plot and verse,
This motely garniture of fool and farce,
Nor scorn a mode, because ’tis taught at home,
Which does, like vests, our gravity become,
Our poet yields you should this play refuse: 
As tradesmen, by the change of fashions, lose,
With some content, their fripperies of France,
In hope it may their staple trade advance.

THE RIVAL LADIES,

A TRAGI-COMEDY

THE RIVAL LADIES.

This play, like that which preceded it, is a drama of intrigue, borrowed from the Spanish, and claiming merit only in proportion to the diversity and ingenuity of the incidents represented.  On this point every reader can decide for himself; and it would be an invidious task to point out blemishes, where, to own the truth, there are but few beauties.  The ease with which the affections of almost every female in the drama are engrossed by Gonsalvo, and afterwards transferred to the lovers, upon whom the winding up of the plot made it necessary to devolve them, will, it is probable, strike every reader as unnatural.  In truth, when the depraved appetite of the public requires to be gratified by trick and bustle, instead of nature and sentiment, authors must sacrifice the probable, as well as the simple, process of events.

The author seems principally to have valued himself on this piece, because it contains some scenes executed in rhyme, in what was then called the heroic manner.  Upon this opinion, which Dryden lived to retract, I have ventured to offer my sentiments in the Life of the Author.  In other respects, though not slow in perceiving and avouching his own merit, our author seems to consider the “Rival Ladies” as no very successful dramatic effort.

The “Rival Ladies” is supposed to have been first acted in 1663, and was certainly published in the year following.  Of its success we know nothing particular.  It is probable, the flowing verse, into which some part of the dialogue is thrown, with the strong point and antithesis, which distinguishes Dryden’s works, and particularly his argumentative poetry, tended to redeem the credit of the author of the “Wild Gallant.”