author of Gondibert, i'd ave an aunt write better. I say nothing against your favourite, though some censure him for writing too cooly; but he had a rival whose happier genius made him stand like a wall or a pillar against censure.
During the usurpation, we fell into burlesque; and I think whoever reads Hudibras, cannot but leer. I have cot one more, who travestied Virgil, though not equal to the former.
After the Restoration, poets became very numerous: the chief, whose fame is louder than a mill-tone, must never be forgot. And here I must observe, that poets in those days loved retirement so much, that sometimes they lived in dens. One of them in a dry-den: another called his den his village, or den-ham; and I am informed that the sorry fellow, who is now laureat, affects to use-dens still: but, to return from this digression, we were then famous for tragedy and comedy; the author of Venice Preserved is seldom o't away; yet he who wrote the Rival Queens, before he lost his senses, sometimes talked mad-lee. Another, who was of this kingdom, went into England, because it is more southern; and he wrote tolerably well. I say nothing of the Satirist, with his old-dam' verses. As for comedy, the Plain Dealer, w'ich early came into credit, is allowed on all hands an excellent piece: he had a dull contemporary, who sometimes showed humour; but his colouring was bad, and he could not shade-well. Sir George, in my opinion, outdid them all, and was sharp at either-edge. The duke is also excellent, who took a book in game, and turned into ridicule, under the name of The Rehearsal. It
is,
