The Works of John Dryden, Vol. II | Page 4

be destroyed. Take his verses and divest

them of their rhymes, disjoint them in their numbers, transpose their
expressions, make what arrangement and disposition you please of his
words, yet shall there eternally be poetry, and something which will be
found incapable of being resolved into absolute prose; an incontestible
characteristic of a truly poetical genius.
I will say but one word more in general of his writings, which is, that
what he has done in any one species, or distinct kind, would have been
sufficient to have acquired him a great name. If he had written nothing
but his prefaces, or nothing but his songs or his prologues, each of them
would have entitled him to the preference and distinction of excelling
in his kind.
But I have forgot myself; for nothing can be more unnecessary than an
attempt to say any thing to your Grace in commendation of the writings
of this great poet; since it is only to your knowledge, taste, and
approbation of them, that the monument, which you are now about to
raise to him, is owing. I will, therefore, my Lord, detain you no longer
by this epistle; and only entreat you to believe, that it is addressed to
your Grace from no other motive than a sincere regard to the memory
of Mr Dryden, and a very sensible pleasure which I take in applauding
an action, by which you are so justly and so singularly entitled to a
dedication of his labours, though many years after his death, and even
though most of them were produced by him many years before you
were born. I am, with the greatest respect,
MY LORD,
Your Grace's most obedient,
And most humble servant,
WILLIAM CONGREVE.

THE WILD GALLANT, A COMEDY.

THE WILD GALLANT.

The Editor may be pardoned in bestowing remarks upon Dryden's plays,
only in proportion to their intrinsic merit, and to the attention which
each has excited, either at its first appearance, or when the public
attention has been since directed towards them. In either point of view,
little need be said on the "Wild Gallant." It was Dryden's first theatrical
production, and its reception by no means augured his future
pre-eminence in literature; nor was it more than tolerated, when
afterwards revived under the sanction of his increasing fame. It was
brought upon the stage in February 1662-3, according to the conjecture
of Mr Malone, who observes, that the following lines in the prologue.
It should have been but one continued song; Or, at the least, a dance of
three hours long;
must refer to D'Avenant's opera, called the "Siege of Rhodes," acted in
1662; and that the expression, "in plays, he finds, you love
_mistakes_," alludes to the blunders of Teague, an Irish footman, in Sir
Robert Howard's play of the "Committee." The "Wild Gallant" was
revived and published in 1669, with a new prologue and epilogue, and
some other alterations, not of a nature, judging from the prologue, to
improve the morality of the piece. That the play had but indifferent
success in the action, the poet himself has informed us, with the
qualifying addition, that it more than once was the divertisement of
Charles II., by his own command. This honourable distinction it
probably acquired by the influence of the Countess of Castlemaine,
then the royal favourite, to whom Dryden addresses some verses on her
encouraging this play.--See Vol. XI p. 18.--The plot is borrowed
avowedly from the Spanish, and partakes of the unnatural incongruity,
common to the dramatic pieces of that nation, as also of the bustle and
intrigue, with which they are usually embroiled. Few modern audiences
would endure the absurd grossness of the deceit practised on Lord
Nonsuch in the fourth act; nor is the plot of Lady Constance, to gain
her lover, by marrying him in the disguise of a heathen divinity, more
grotesque than unnatural.--Yet, in the under characters, some liveliness
of dialogue is maintained; and the reader may be amused with
particular scenes, though, as a whole, the early fate of the play was
justly merited.
These passages, in which the plot stands still, while the spectators are
entertained with flippant dialogue and repartee, are ridiculed in the

scene betwixt Prince Prettyman and Tom Thimble in the Rehearsal; the
facetious Mr Bibber being the original of the latter personage. The
character of Trice, at least his whimsical humour of drinking, playing at
dice by himself, and quarrelling as if engaged with a successful
gamester, is imitated from the character of Carlo, in Jonson's "Every
Man out of his Humour," who drinks with a supposed companion,
quarrels about the pledge, and tosses about the cups and flasks in the
imaginary brawl. We have heard similar frolics related of a bon-vivant
of the last generation, inventor of