kept in subjection by the Poet, who he feared would ridicule his false taste. Pope availed himself of this, and used to borrow his chariot for three months at a time.—(The same.)
Conyers Middleton wrote a Treatise against Prayer, which he showed to Lord Bolingbroke, who dissuaded him from publishing it as it would set all the clergy against him. On this ground he counselled him to destroy the manuscript, but secretly kept a copy which is probably still in being.—(The same, from Mrs. Middleton.)
Congreve’s Double Dealer, says Dryden in a manuscript letter to Walsh, is much censured by the greater part of the town, and is defended only by the best judges, who you know are commonly the fewest. Yet it gains ground daily, and has been already acted eight times. The women think he has exposed their bitchery, and the gentlemen are offended with him for the discovery of their follies, and the way of their intrigue under the notion of friendship to their ladies’ husbands.
I am afraid you discover not your own opinion concerning my irregular way of tragi-comedy in my dappia favola. I will never defend that practice, for I know it distracts the hearers; but I know withal that it has hitherto pleased them for the sake of variety, and for the particular taste which they have to low comedy.—(MS. Letters from Dryden to Walsh, in the possession of Mr. Bromley, of Abberley Park, near Worcester.)
