The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets/Mrs. Delarivier Manley
THis Lady has very happily distinguish'd her self from the rest of her Sex, and gives us a living Proof of what we might reasonably expect from Womankind, if they had the Benefit of those artificial Improvements of Learning the Men have, when by the meer Force of Nature they so much excel. Rules indeed are but the Leading-strings to support and carry the Weaker, and more unobserving Heads, and which those of a strong Genius and Penetration will have no need of, since a just Consideration of Nature will conduct them with more Ease and Success. Of this our present Authress is an evident Proof, for in the Two Plays she has already published, we find no part of Art wanting, but what is the Mechanick Part, and by much the least valuable. There is a Force and a Fire in her Tragedy, that is the Soul that gives it Life, and for want of which, most of our Modern Tragedies are heavy, languid, unmoving, and dull. In her Comedy there is an easy Freedom of adding, which confesses a Conversation in the Authress no less genteel and entertaining. This Lady was born in the Isle of Jersey, her Father, Sir Roger Manley, being then Governor of it; a Gentleman of a double Merit, both the Gown, and the Sword claiming no small share in his Glory, and the Republick of Learning ow'd as much to his Wit and Judgment, in those Books which he was pleased to publish, as his King and Country to his Loyalty, Valour, and Conduct. And well might our Delarivier prove a Muse, being begot by such a Father. She has as yet given us but two Plays, of which in their Order:
The Royal Mischief, a Tragedy, 4to. Acted by his Majesty's Servants, at the Theatre in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, 1696. and dedicated to his Grace, William, Duke of Devonshire, &c. The Story, as she owns, is originally taken from Sir John Chardin's Travels, but has receiv'd this Advantage, that the Criminals are here punish'd for their Guilt, who in the Story escape; a Poetick Justice, which ought ever to be observed in all Plays; for a Just Audience could never have been pleas'd with the Prosperity of Homais, and Leavan, after so very criminal an Amour. I cou'd here give the Reader a Proof how well the Rules of Aristotle are observ'd in this Tragedy, by a Lady who never read him; and how just all her Metaphors and Allegories are: but that wou'd exceed the Bounds I am prescribed by the Model I'm oblig'd to build on. I shall therefore proceed to
The Lost Lover; or, The Jealous Husband, a Comedy, 4to. acted at the Theatre Royal by his Majesty's Servants, 1696. To this Play is no Epistle Dedicatory, and the Preface informs us of its ill Success, which we cou'd never gather from the reading of it; and if we wou'd, as we ought, give any Allowance for the Sex that wrote it, the Time it was wrote in, and its being the first Essay of that Nature, we shou'd agree with her, that it met with a much severer Fate than it deserved.
This Lady has Publish'd several other Books, which have not her Name to 'em, and which, for that Reason, I shall forbear to mention their Titles.