and eaſy, than that of our modern Dramatiſts.’ Though we cannot agree with Mr. Gildon, that the antient model of Tragedy is ſo natural as the modern; yet this piece muſt have very great merit, ſince we find Mr. Dryden addreſſing verſes to the author upon this occaſion, which begin thus,
Auſpicious poet, wert thou not my friend,
How could I envy, what I muſt commend!
But ſince ’tis nature’s law, in love and wit,
That youth would reign, and with’ring age ſubmit,
With leſs regret, thoſe laurels I reſign,
Which dying on my brow, revive on thine.
Our author wrote alſo a dramatic poem, called the Britiſh Enchanters,[1] in the preface to which he obſerves,
‘that it is the firſt Eſſay of a very infant Muſe, rather as a taſk at ſuch hours as were free from other exerciſes, than any way meant for public entertainment. But Mr. Betterton having had a caſual ſight of it, many years after it was written, begged it for the ſtage, where it met with ſo favourable a reception as to have an uninterrupted run of upwards of forty nights. To this Mr. Addiſon wrote the Epilogue.’
Lord Lanſdowne altered Shakeſpear’s Merchant of Venice, under the title of the Jew of Venice, which was acted with applauſe, the profits of which were deſigned for Mr. Dryden, but upon that poet’s death were given to his ſon.
In 1702 he tranſlated into Engliſh the ſecond Olynthian of Demoſthenes. He was returned member for the county of Cornwall, in the parliament which met in November 1710, and was ſoon after made ſecretary of war, next comptroller of the houſehold, and then treaſurer, and ſworn one of the
- ↑ It was called a Dramatic Opera, and was decorated at a great expence, and intermixed with Songs, Dances, &c.
