PREFACE.
Nigra μελίχροος est, immunda & fœtida ἄκοσμος.
Balba loqui non quit, τραυλίζει; muta pudens est, &c.
But to drive it, ad Æthiopem Cygnum is not to be indur'd. I leave him to interpret this by the Benefit of his French Version on the other side, and without farther considering him, than I have the rest of my illiterate Censors, whom I have disdain'd to Answer, because they are not qualified for Judges. It remains that I acquaint the Reader, that I have endeavoured in this Play to follow the practice of the Ancients, who, as Mr. Rymer has judiciously observ'd, are and ought to be our Masters. Horace likewise gives it for a Rule in his Art of Poetry,
———Vos exemplaria Græca
Nocturnâ versate manu, versate diurnâ.
Yet, though their Models are regular, they are too little for English Tragedy; which requires to be built in a larger compass. I could give an instance in the Oedipus Tyrannus, which was the Master-piece of Sophocles; but I reserve it for a more fit occasion, which I hope to have hereafter. In my Stile I have profess'd to imitate the Divine Shakespeare; which that I might perform more freely, I have disincumber'd my self from Rhyme. Not that I condemn my former way, but that this is more proper to my present Purpose. I hope I need not to explain my self, that I have not Copy'd my Author servilely: Words and Phrases must of necessity receive a Change in succeeding Ages: but 'tis almost a Miracle that much of his Language remains so pure; and that he who began Dramatique Poetry amongst us, untaught by any, and, as Ben. Johnson tells us, without Learning, should by the force of his own Genius perform so much, that in a manner he has left no Praise for any who come after him. The occasion is fair, and the Subject would be pleasant to handle the difference of Stiles betwixt him and Fletcher, and wherein, and how far they are both to be imitated. But since I must not be over-confident of my own performance after him, it will be prudence in me to be silent. Yet I hope I may affirm, and without vanity, that by imitating him, I have excell'd my self throughout the Play; and particularly, that I prefer the Scene betwixt Anthony and Ventidius in the first Act, to any thing which I have written in this kind.
