Truft on and think, to Morrow will repay; To Morrow's falfer than the former Day; Lies more; and whilst it fays we shall be bleft With fome new Joy cuts off what we poffeft; Strange Cozenage! none wou'd live paft Years again, Yet all hope Pleasure in what yet remain, And from the Dregs of Life think to receive What the first sprightly Running could not give. I'm tir'd with waiting for this chymic Which fools us young, and beggars us when old. I shall now give you my Tranflation. De deffeins en regrets & d'erreurs en defirs Les Mortels infenfes promenent leur Fo lie. Dans Dans des malheurs presents, dans l'espoir des plaifirs Nous ne vivons jamais, nous attendons la vie. Demain, demain, dit-on, va combler tous nos vœux. Demain vient, & nous laiffe encore plus malheureux. Qu'elle est l'erreur, helas! du foin qui nous dévore, Nul de nous ne voudroit recommencer fon cours. De nos premiers momens nous maudiffons l'aurore, Et de la nuit qui vient, nous attendons encore Ce qu'ont en vain promis les plus beaux de nos jours, &c. "TIS in thefe detach'd Paffages that the English have hitherto excell'd. Their dramatic Pieces, most of which are barbarous and without Decorum, Order or Verifimilitude, dart fuch refplendent Flashes, thro' this Gleam, as amaze and aftonish, The Style is too much inflated, N too too unnatural, too clofely copied from the Hebrew Writers, who abound fo much with the Afiatic Fustian. But then it must be alfo confefs'd, that the Stilts of the figurative Style on which the English Tongue is lifted up, raises the Genius at the fame Time very far aloft, tho' with an irregular Pace. The first English Writer who compos'd a regular Tragedy and infus'd a Spirit of Elegance thro' every Part of it, was the illuftrious Mr. Addifon. His CATO is a Master-piece both with regard to the Diction, and to the Beauty and Harmony of the Numbers. The Character of Cato is, in my Opinion, vaftly fuperiour to that of Cornelia in the POMPEY of Corneille: For Cato is great without any Thing like Fuftian, and Cornelia, who befides is not a neceffary Character, tends fometimes to bombaft. Mr. AddiJon's Cato appears to me the greatest Character that was ever brought upon any Stage, but then the rest of them don't correfpond to the Dignity of it: And this dramatic Piece fo excellently well well writ, is disfigur'd by a dull LovePlot, which spreads a certain Languor over the whole, that quite murders it. THE Custom of introducing Love at random and at any rate in the Drama, pafs'd from Paris to London about 1660. with our Ribbons and our Peruques. The Ladies who adorn the Theatrical Circle, there, in like Manner as in this City, will fuffer Love only to be the Theme of every Converfation. The judicious Mr. Addison had the effeminate Complaifance to foften the Severity of his dramatic Character fo, as to adapt it to the Manners of the Age; and from an Endeavour to please, Mafter-Piece in its kind. Since his Time, the Drama is become more regular, the Audience more difficult to be pleas'd, and Writers more correct and lefs bold. I have seen some new Pieces that were written with great Regularity, but which at the same Time were very flat and infipid. One would think that the English had been hitherto form'd to produce irregular Beauties only. The fhining MonN 2 quite ruin'd a fters fters of Shakespear, give infinite more Delight than the judicious Images of the Moderns. Hitherto the poetical Genius of the English resembles a tufted Tree planted by the Hand of Nature, that throws out a thousand Branches at random, and spreads unequally, but with great Vigour. It dies if you attempt to force its Nature, and to lop and dress it in the fame Manner as the Trees of the Garden of Marli. LETTER |