* Curculio is a Semi-Wit, that has a great Veneration for the Moderns, and no less a Contempt for the Ancients:  But his own ill Composures destroy the force of his Arguments, and do the Ancients full Justice.  This Gentleman having had the good Fortune to write a very taking, undigested medly of Comedy and Farce, is so puff’d up with his Success, that nothing will serve him, but he must bring this new fantastick way of writing, into Esteem.  To compass this Noble Design, he tells you what a Coxcomb Aristotle was with his Rules of the three Unities; and what a Company of Senseless Pedants the Scaligers, Rapins, Bossu’s, and Daciers are.  He proves that Aristotle and Horace, knew nothing of Poetry; that Common Sense and Nature were not the same in Athens, and Rome, as they are in London; that Incoherence, Irregularity and Nonsense are the Chief Perfections of the Drama, and, by a necessary Consequence that the Silent woman, is below his own Performance.

“No new Doctrine in Religion, ever got any considerable Footing except it was grounded on Miracles; Nor any new Hypothesis was ever established in natural Philolqphy, unless it was confirm’d by Experience.  The same Rule holds, in some measure, in all Arts and Sciences, particularly in Dramatick Poetry.  It will be a hard matter for any Man to trump up any new set of Precepts, in opposition to those of Aristotle and Horace, except by following them, he writes several approved Plays.  The great success of the first Part of the T—–­p was sufficient I must confess, to justifie the Authors Conceit; But then the Explosion of the Second ought to have cur’d him of it.

“Writers like Women seldom give one another a good Word; that’s most certain.  Now if the Poets and Criticks of all Ages have allowed Sophocles, Euripides, and Terence to have been good Dramatick Writers, and Aristotle and Horace to have been judicious Criticks, ought not their Censure to weigh more with Men of Sense, than the Fancies, of a Modern Pretender.  To be plain, whoever Disputes Aristotle and Horace, Rules does as good as call the Scaligers, Vossii, Rapins, Bossu’s, Daciers, Corneilles, Roscommons, Normanby’s and Rymers, Blockheads:  A man must have a great deal of Assurance, to be so free with such illustrious Judges.