thou heard of national inclinations of such people naturally jealous and such proud and the like Their soyls The soyles of the infected Air or the soyls of the Climes neither old Boy neither Men derive their Crimes from their Climes their in this Line refers to Men and why may not their in the next have the same priviledge The whole is thus Go to infected Air and there piss venome like a Toad till the contagion fills the soyls of their Climes with Venome and for the Letchery thou hast shown maist thou infect infected Places with all the Rapes and Murthers they want a most wise dâ—om Yes as Commentatour has worded it Since in your Kindoms limits I 'm deny'd A seat may your great Empire spread so wide Till its vast largness does reverse my doom And for my Banishment the World wants room These are the only Lines in the Play that have any tolerable fancy but like a Suiâ— sent to a Botcher to finish see how they are bungled together Since I am banisht your Kingdoms Heaven's blessing on your Empire What he drives at here I cannot tell unless he will not allow that Kingdoms may make an Empire for I may well guess he has the same understanding of Empires as he had before of Kings May your great Empire spread so wide till its vast largness Bombazeen in abundance May your great Empire grow so great till its great greatness or till its vast vastness or large largeness This indeed is Bombazeen in abundance thanks to the Courteous Laureat for his obliging kindness in helping us to it which in a Marginal Note is thanks to the Courteous Laureat for his courteous courtesie or kind kindness or obliging obligation Bombazeen in abundance too How harmlesly does this Cynick bite He Lives though he be banisht and the Great Are never fully darkned till they Set. That is great Links are never dark till they are out as if little Links were out before they were out Why must the great be meant great Links Why not a Christmas Candle Will in a Wisp Iack in a Lanthorn any thing 't is all alike to thee Did ever any man of parts Scrible at this rate Well he has been a Wit in his Time and so forth but see what Age can do 't is pitty his Mercury should be evaporated 't is huge pitty but Age Age as I told you before This work which we so roughly do begin Zeal and Religion may perhaps call Sin. No the more Barb'rous garb our Deeds assume We nearer to our first perfection come Since Nature first made Man wild savage strong And his Blood hot thâ—n when the world was Young If Infant-times such Rising valours bore Why should not Riper Ages now do more But whilst our Souls wax Tame and Spirits Cold We only shew th'unactive World grows old Now if infant times had such perfection why should not riper ages go beyond perfection that is if the World was so old and perfect whilst it was young why should it not grow younger and more perfect now it is old an ingenious inference It infant times had a great perfection why may not riper Ages have a greater he has never heard of greater or less perfection But marke his last observation If the World was so old and perfect when 't was young The Poet had told you in the Infancy of times men were Savage strong hot blooded c. that is as Bays has it were old and perfect I wonder how old got in Prithee do not flatter thy self dear heart old and perfect unless you mean mallice and nonsence be perfection will not go together in thy Sphear Then the Poet says when the World was young mankind was so or so But he looses Mankind on which the discourse is built and says when the World was young the World was so or so Was ever such a Rapsody of Impertinence Printed Nay and what 's worse own'd by the man that calls himself the greatest Wit in the Nation I am afraid the apparent magnitude of his Wit will dwindle like his Sun in Annus Mirabiliâ— stanza 100. That happy Sun said he will rise again Who twice Victorious did our Navy see And I alone must view him rise in vain Without one ray of all his Star for Me. I much suspect the Squire for I think that was his Title when his Annus Micaebilis came out was like his Silk-worm in Granada Lost in his own web of thought When he made the Sun a Star like Hamlets Cloud first a Whale and then a Wezel But perhaps this man of learning avoided the Reading Astronomy as Elkanah he says did reading the Bible for fear of spoyling his Fancy and indeed it had been pitty such a Fancy as this should have gone lame though Astronomy had been made a Cripple by it But no matter the Poet has heard the Sun and Moon are Planets and all Planets you know are Stars But laying aside his Astronomy and granting the Sun a Star the Sun has not one ray in all his Star for me if he makes this English or sense Mr. Settle shall resigne all interest in the Apollo over the Kings Box and compliment Bays his sweet face with the place To him who Climbs by Blood no track seems hard The sense of crimes is lost in the reward A spirers neither Guilt nor danger dread No path so rough Ambition dares not tread These lines he has little to say to but that they are tag'd with hard words and end the act ACT The Fourth HOw Crimalhaz up to the Mountains fled And with him the Morocco Forces led Oh Rebel Oh Rebel being all he says of him is as Comical as if he had call'd him arch wag Well but as I take it the King and his Lords said a great deal more of this arch wag then these two lines Aye but they had as good have held their tongues for they said nothing to the purpose his King should have gone on if our Billinsgate Friend had the Instructing of him With oh damn'd Son of a Whore run away with my Army you Dog you Rascal you Rogue bring it back again when on the Contrary our Poet makes him leave off his Quarrel to Crimalhaz and abuse poor Innocent Gold Inhumanely The nameless Lord. Sir he only does persue That Treason which you lent him Pow'r to do He was your Treasurer and has made bold To be too strict a Guardian of your Gold. He makes a Thief a Guardian I wonder he did not persue his hint in the second act and affirm that Muly Labas his Gold was as great a fool as himself and so chose this arch wag for its Guardian It had been very witty but no matter thy Pamphlet is so well stockt with Wit already that it does not want it Encamped on Atlas skirts he by your Gold Has Rais'd new Forces and Confirm'd the Old. In the last Scene of the last act Crimalhaz was in Morocco A pretty leap Elkanah makes
His Eyes met Skies then they were like Elkanâ—â—'â— Pilgrims Pilgrims whose zeal's more blest though less divine Go meet their Saints but I must fly from mine I thought the Saints had staid for them in their shrines but Mr. Settles Saints aâ—â— civiller than any other But then why distant skies which in the Ocean set If the Indians believ'd the Skies to terminate where they seem to do I 'm sure the extremity of a mans sight on the Sea cannot be 40. Miles and if the Sky had set where it appears to do Gyomar who had travelled above 1000 Miles by his Fathers command for no other reason but to view the limits of the Land which Journy the Poet found out for a Prince of his Quality for no other cause than putting his description in a Principal Characters mouth this Gyomar of all Mankind should never have call'd the Skies but at Fourty Miles off distant skies And low-hung Clouds that dipt themselves in Rain To shake their fleeces on the Earth agen Clouds that dipt themselves in Rain I thought it had never been rain till it felâ— from the Clouds This is the greatest piece of Drydenian Nonsense that I have met with yet to call the exhalation of watry vapours which makes rain Rain before 't is made But Mr. Dryden is a Scholar and can tell you it was Rain in potentia and that he meant it for pluvia pluvians not pluvia pluviata as a learnd Commentatour once prated of natura naturans and natura naturata p. 40. To shake their fleeces on the Earth again Why did they ever shake e'm before Be like his Clouds were good three-piled lasting Clouds that could hold wetting and shaking so often and neither wear out nor grow thred bare like Pag. 31. Unravel their own Scenes of Love This implyes the Scenes were knit These Clouds were stronger sure than Pâ—tchers for they come not so often to the Well but they are broken at last But then why Fleeces were they Woollen Clouds Sure the Authors Brains went a Wool-gathering Like page 13. To Flattering Lightning our feign'd smiles conform Which backt with Thunder does but guild a storm Sure the Poet wrote these two Lines aboard some sâ—â—â—ch in a storm and being Sea-sick spued up a good Lump of clotted Nonsense at once At last as far as I could cast my Eyes Upon the Sea At first then his Eyes were for meeting of Objects but now at last for fear of not reaching them soon enough he casts his Eyes at e'm But then how did he get at e'm again when they were cast upon the Sea sure Gyomar was an excellent swimmer for such an exploit and like Mr. Settles ships a rare instinct animal to find his Eyes agen But when he had found e'm could he put them in agen and see with them I have heard of glass Eyes being taken out of peoples heads and put in agen but never of natural Eyes before p. 39. She is a Beauty and that names her guard I have heard of a Hound-bitch but never of a Princess so call'd before something methought did rise Like blewish Mists which still appearing more Took dreadful shapes and mov'd towards the shore Why something like Blewish mists Why did he not think e'm really blewish mists by his own confession at first he thought they look'd like mists and how could he tell they were other than what they appeared at that distance Oh but Gyomar was a Conjurer and had the spirit of Prophecy he knew before hand there was somthing more in e'm than mists and though he had a mist before his Eyes yet his understanding was clear Oh foolish Poet that did not take the hint and pursue Gyomar's Character of a Conjurer he lost a good opportunity of gracing his Play with flyings and Machins But then why something like mists why not something like a mist. Then gentle as a happy Lovers sigh pag. 7. They two like one sigh Which still appearing more Took dreadful shapes and moved towards the shore Appearing more More what more misty or more blewish no that 's impossible for the nearer they came they appeard less blew and less like mists Thou wretched Blunderhead how confoundedly dost thou intangle thy Brain and cannot wind off it one clear thred of sense Took dreadful shapes Why took dreadful shapes If they could take dreadful shapes we must suppose they had not dreadful shapes before and therefore this was but a Copy of their countenance they did it only to look grim upon Gyomar to put him in a fright and make him beray himself page 24. I can no less then shrink at horrours which my honour stain How could his horrours stain his honour perhaps it might make him stain his Breeches I doubt not but the Poet gave Cortez his Ships this power of taking what shapes they pleased that like his friend the King of Brandfords Army they might go in disguise And moved towards the shore Was his moving towards the shore like Mr. Settles guide their course Did they steer themselves And why moved No doubt motion may be pleasant like Mr. Settles rouling page 15. As the posture may be managed At this insipid rate the most wretched Scribler in the World nay one that had the Soul but of a Pandion and Amphigenia might write Volumes of Errata on a Virgil or a Cowley Nay and better than on a Polish Princess at the same rate as Beauty and Majesty may be Libeld The greatness of the Subject heightens the profanation but then at the same time the profanation does not lessen their Divinity I could have gone through his description of Ships at this sensless Rate but I confess my self not so bold a writer as Mr. Dryden And though he had the impudence to trouble you with a Comment on a whole Play in this Style I think the examination of 20. Lines with such dull idle and impertinent Remarks upon e'm would tire you But Mr. Dryden has past the Rubicon and has over and over agen in his Prefaces told you he has had the happiness to please an age and though as he declares he loves to spread his Gold thin Witness his Love in a Nunnery yet you are bound to like whatever he writes But after all his Gigantick Arguments against Mr. Settles Ships he has daubd him with his own puddle as he calls it that is with a Witless parcel of Rhimes in imitation of his description and because Mr. Dryden shall say he is Aped for something I 'le give him such another on the first speech of Maximin which I assure him is much more to his purpose and though perhaps it has less Poetry in it then His that is more Truth yet If I should not be thought to play booty I would bestow it on him and desire him to place it as a supplement to the other Maxim. Thus far my Arms have with success been Crown'd And found no stop or vanquisht what they found The
German Lakes my Legions have e're past With all the Bars that Art or Nature cast My Foes in watry Fastnesses inclosed I sought alone to their whole War exposed Did first the depth of trembling Marshes sound And fixt my Eagles in unfaithful ground By force submitted to the Roman sway Fierce Nations and unknowing to obey And now for my Reward ungrateful Rome For which I fought abroad Rebels at home Bays Thus far my Pamplet with success is Crownd And found no stop or vanquisht what it found My Mighty Notes Morocco have o're past With all the Bars that Sense or Reason cast His faults in slippery Fatnesses inclosed Him I 've in Print to the whole Town exposed Did first the depth of every Sentence sound And Play'd the Critick on unfaithful Ground By force of Nibling Quibling Scribling Wit Made t' unknown Reasons unknown faults submit And now for my Reward th' ungrateful Town For must'ring up His Nonsense cryes Mine down But now for a greater blow than this man of words has given yet Morocco is an Inland City and Tensift never bore any Ships c. Therefore the Poet has cut this passage up to Morocco for no other reason than to make an idle description of Ships c. And how likely is it that a General should bring home his Land-forces in a Fleet Sailing up a River c. If Morocco be an Inland City so is London too and yet the River Thames which runs by it as Tensift does by Morocco a River held as great as the Thames and as Navigable can bear Ships and bring up a Fleet near enough to be seen from any Tower in London and why Tensift must be prohibited from doing the like Mr. Notes must resolve us But then why a Fleet for Land-forces if he had ever read Geography he had found some of the places which the Poet makes Muly Hamet Conquer Maritime Towns as Salli for example a place which our Coffee-house friend with no greater reading than a Gazet by the name of Salli men of War might have guest had been near the Sea. Nor indeed are any that the Poet mentions very far from the Sea. But then the prettiest of aâ—l is he 's angry the General comes not home by Land that indeed had been very Comical to have deserted a Fleet and set his Ships a Float that his Forces might travel so many Miles home by Land and in so hot a Country too as Morocco But granting Ships could not come so near Morocco 'T is very likely the King of Morocco might have a Fleet which Notes find fault with him for having since his whole Kingdom lay on one side upon the Atlantick Ocean though his Metropolis granting Mr. Commentatours assertion true had been a hundred miles farther from the Sea than ' t is I 'le give him as good an argument as this nearer home in his own Style The French have no Ships for Paris is an Inland City and some hundred miles from Sea. But now For the Land of Gotham where we meet nothing but Fools and Nonsense Saies the King to his Victorious General Welcome true owner of that Fame you bring A Conquerour is a Guardian to a King. Conquest and Monarchy consistent are 'T is Victory secures the Crowns we wear Welcome true owner As if a man could be a false owner or have a wrong right to a thing A wrong right to a thing He takes all the care possible to twist contradictions together to make every thing appear Nonsense Nay confutes the opinion he desires you to have of his high conversation when he wilfully seems not to understand expressions that a man must meet every day in discourse Has not he heard of the true or right owner of such or such a thing For my part I blush for him to think what great structures his malice has designed where his foundations are so shallow A Conquerour is a Guardian to a King. Poor King The Poet makes thee here confess thy self fit to be beg'd for a Fool and so chuse Muly Hamet for thy Guardian And so with a great deal of oâ—her stuff in pursuance of Estate Fool and Guardian he mawls the Poet aâ—d his King. If none but Fools have estates as hiâ— argument implyes Mr. Dryden has politickly given you to understand the chief Reason why he is a Wit and whether or no it abuses the Poet 't is no matter it flatters the Commentatour And the last two Lines he saies rise and are more foolish one than the other But how Heaven knows for he has so hâ—dled together a parcel of stuff in which contrary to all his former objections he neither aims at argument 〈◊〉 wit as A Conquerour is a brave fellow and serves his King and 't is possibâ—e he may be an honest fellow and his King and him to agree c. which no body denyes that I cannot tell what he would be at Then I must answer to what I think he meant and since his business is to make every thing Nonsense we must suppose that Victory cannot secure Crowns nor had Muly Hamets Conquests and Muly Labas his Monarchy any consistence Muly Hamet is returned from Reducing some revolved places to their obedience from retaking Towns from the Usurper Gayland and after the vanquishing of the Kings enemies says Notes he neither serves his Crown nor has the establishing of a Kings Right and suppression of usurpation nor the enlarging his Dominions any consistence with Monarchy I am very glad our dear friend has got stage preferment and that thâ— State has mist him as for a Play wright he may pass but God bless him for a Statesman My Actions all are on your name enrol'd What 't is t'enroul upon Parchment I know but not upon names The meanest Citizen in Town and the poorest Servitour in the University would tell him that putting so much upon a mans name had signified placing so much to his account With burning ships made Beacons on the Sea. He fired Beacons after the Victory Preethy take the fore-going Line along with thee I made their Fleet to Conquest light my way With burning ships made cacons on the Sea. To light his way to Conquâ—st is in Notes his Observations to light his way after Conquest Whose very looks so much your foes surprize That you like beauty conquer with your Eyes Here he gives Eyes to a Notion c. and so on he runs for half a dozen Lines with the Eyes of Features the Eyes of ones Nose the Eyes of ones Mouth But then he checks himself and says no perhaps he means you like a Beauty conquer c. and then 't is an Heroick Epithite to call a General a beauty and tell him he conquerd with his Eyes like a pretty Wench How Beauty is a Eâ—iâ—hiâ—e here he should have told us 'T is his usual way of making a great many Lines to shâ—w how such a thing taken in such a sense would be Nonsense But then he
draws his Sword to defend himself and offend his enemy must be afraid of him For her killing and damning to fill Hell till there 's no room for her is her Guard against the Power of Hell as a mans sword is his against an enemy And so why she is not afraid of Hell she proves in the following Lines for she shews that she need not fear it but then this mighty man of morals disputes the dimensions of Hell and the cause of damnation and says she is the liker to come to Hell her self than send others thither Oh! then the Queen Mother tells a lye and threatens to do what she cannot do and therefore the Poet writes Nonsense O thou Great Master of little wit if all were Nonsense that persons in plays say more than they can do I am afraid thy Granada must suffer a great Lop to be squared into sense Thy beloved Almanzors rants would dwindle much to come within the compass of possibility nay his large actions too which the Poet will force the audience to believe performed would suffer much correction to be brought to standard measure And so his Picture of Achilles would be much de faced by it But 't were no great matter Achilles would be but a little sufferer for the execution that was done him in effigie for like the piece of painting with the superscription of this is the Dog and this is the Hare had he not told us he meant Achilles the features and lineaments he has made of him like Hugh Clod pates representing the King would never have discovered the original without a marginal note As I take it I have heard that Tamberlane and Baâ—azet at the Red Bull the four London Prentices and the seven Champions of England Club'd their Talents to make up an Almanzor But I rather think he had a more modern Original and that Sir Arthur Addies Masty Dog was his sire for hee 's veâ—y like him when hee 's let loose he flies upon all persons without distinction and where he lays hold he worries but this is his lest fault in pretending Aâ—hilles was his Almanzors pattern for he might read in Iuvenals first Satyr Nulli gravis est percussus Achilles But his impudent profanation in his Epistle to that play has arrogated a greater Divinity for the production of so unshap'd a Monster Next he says Betray and kill and damn to that degree There he puts degree for number and for Rhime sake makes it palpable nonsence For whatever there is in betraying and damning in killing there is no degree no man can be more or less kill'd In betraying and damning there may be degrees but then it relates not to the number of the damned but to the excess of their punishment Observe what artifice he has used to cheat you with an argument he leaveâ— out the line that follows Hell No of that I scorn to be afraid I 'le send such throngs to the infernal shade viz. For that ruin'd his objection I 'le send such throngs which was as good as numbers in any Poetical Dictionary would have spoil'd all for then to that degree would have related to the excess of the aforesaid throngs and not to the excess of Punishment But then why must all she kills be damned c. Poor innocent People would be hardly deals with to be kill'd and damn'd too c. suppose here agen she says more than she can do So did Catiline I 'le Plough the Alps to dust and lave the Tyrrhene Ocean into Clouds c. And yet â—en did not write nonsence in this expression But 't is possible that his Empress might murder and damn too but not innocent people as commentator thrusts in to help on with the Impossibility How often the great Designers of Treason have seduced other inferiour Ministers to their assistance and when their ends have been accomplisht have for their own defence betray'd and cut off the instruments of their design he need not fly far to History to defend him and if the making People Traytors and cutting them off in the height of their Treason do not give a great stroak towards their damnation too I am much out Monarchs do nothing ill unless when they By their own Acts of Grace their Lives betray When favours they too genrously afford And in a Treacherous Hand misplace their Sword Their Bounties in their Ruine are employ'd Kings only by their Vertues are destroy'd They do not ill then it seems to betray their Lives provided they do not do it by Acts of Grace Ingeniously infer'd Prethee Mr. Dryden why wouldst thou have Alkanahs Heroe tell his King to his face that a King may be a Knave and can do ill things Pray how ungentleman like is it in thy sense of honour for a perfect Character to say to his Prince Kings can commit no faults but where their excess of Virtue is their crime In the last Act our good Friends is angry at Kings are Immortal and from Life remove From their lower Thrones to wear new Crowns above And says that Abdelcador who says this to Muly Hamet his King and Friend in saying that all Kings go to Heaven speaks ill Divinity Then to have spoken better Divinity he should have told his King that a King might be damn'd Indeed I confess Mr. Settâ—â— might have made his Heroes tell their Kings to their Faces that a King might be a Knave or damn'd or the like but then he must have intrencht upon Granada and have made all his Heroes Almanzors and his Kings Boabdelins 'T will seem Ridiculous to give you an instance out of his Granada because we all know 't is the foundation of his Play to have his King call'd fool sot and Puppy oâ— what is as bad by his sawcy and masterly Companion Almanzor Yet for once I 'le venture In Granada Page 14â— Boabd How chang'd and what a Monster am I maâ—e My Love and Honour ruin'd and betray'd Alman Your Love and Honour Mine are ruin'd worse Furies and Hell what right have you to curse Dull Husband as you are What can your Love or what your Honour be I am her Lover and shee 's false to me The King is aflicted for hearing his beloved Queen is strumpeted for which Almanzor calls him dull Husband what right have you to curse what Love or Honour have you No that only is my right I am her Humble Servant and shee 's false to Me. Mr. Dryden 't is true has told us in Print that his Almahide is a perfect Character and consequently no strumpet and the Audience had heard Almahide through the Play say She would be honest And of any downright debauchery I acknowledge she is Innocent making Love at first sight to Almanzor and Baudy Songs to entertain the King and Court being but a little harmless Gallantry and no hindrance to the perfection of her Character as you have been told before But then how much more guilty is Almanzor to abuse an
writes but is written of a man But a Proselyte is one that changes his Religion and he is the likest to make a Traytour A very Substantial Apothegme A man that out of a principle of Piety is converted from a Religion that he thinks erroneous to one he thinks the true is the likest to prove a Traytour which is as much as to say a man that does his best endeavour to be good and honest is the likest to be a Rogue Besides in Hametalhaz's case Love converted him from a Villain to an honest man Therefore says Notes he is the likest to be a Villain But his impertinence draws towards a conclusion and indeed 't is high time Ham. I from those Eyes for ever will remove I cannot stand the sight of hopeless love In his next Speech he says To what e're place my wandring steps incline I 'le fancy Empires for I 'le think her mine His Love is hopeless and yet he 'll think her his As if his Love were ever the less hopeless for his thinking her his If a mans thinking a woman his could make his Love cease to be hopeless there needs not be such a thing as a despairing Lover in Nature For if a Cobler were in Love with a Queen if thinking her his own would give him hopes who could hinder his thoughts But if Commentatour will have it otherwise I am his Humble Servant Raigning's a whole Lifes toyl the work of Years Raigning is neither a whole Lifes toyl if the King be not Crown'd in his Cradle nor the work of Years in case he raign but one Year How severely would Elkanah have been handled if he were really guilty and all Commentatours Objections were sense and reason How will he reconcile this expression in his preface This upstart and illiterate scribler comes amongst the Poets like one of the Earth-born Brethren and his first business in the world is to attacque and murder all his Fellows Now I am of belief that Elkanahs first business in the world if you 'l ask his Nurse was rather as Commentatour says in the Fourth Act To Bite stamp crie and roar then to murder Poets If he began to attacque and murder Poets in his Cradle he was no doubt an upstart scribler indeed My Iustice ended now I 'le meet a Crown Then it seems be intends to do Iustice no longer now he is King but to turn Rogue like Crimalhaz or Fool like Muly Labas His Iustice upon Crimalhaz I am of opinion was ended when Crimalhaz was Executed and yet he might be just still and neither Fool nor Rogue In Love a Day an Hour a Minutes bliss Is all flights rapture flame and Extasies Is and Extasies are of several numbers are they so If I were as thee I would not take it at the Poets hands More Extasies than one in a minutes happiness is too much Loves livelyer joys so quick and active move An Age in Empire 's but an hour in Love. How an Age in Empire is but an hour in Love I cannot understand And in troth I believe thee for why thy understanding should be any clearer here than it has been all along through the Play I can't imagine But to quicken thy apprehension that thou mayst understand this last Line of the Play I 'le beg the favour of thee to construe these two Lines in Cowley 'T is so with man when once a Crown he wears The Coronation day's more than a Thousand Years On the Conduct or Plot of the Play. THis being much of a piece with the Notes on the Play a man may start into the matter without the trouble of a formal introduction He tells you first On what foundation of nonsense this Play is built Morena runs away with Muly Labas from her Fathers Court for which they are both imprison'd by his Father and to be put to death for stealing one another Yet in the mean time her Father is so far offended that he is wageing War against His and coming with an Army against Morocco In the first place she relates a thing to one who knows it her self And upbraids him with what she suffered for his sake A pretty Character of his Heroine to make her an illnatur fool This is his first objection but in the next page he contradicts himself and says Morena gives him a reason for this relation and said it not to upbraid him Very well she does and she does not she is an illnatard and she is noâ— an illnatard fool Well argued Laureat But next says he why should Muly Labas steal her away she was her equal and therefore her Father ought to have given his consent to the Marriage At him agen Bays Because they were eqâ—â—â—'s must there be an absolute necessity of her Fathers consent What if he design'd her for some other Prince Muly Labas his superior and a person whose alliance miâ—â—â— be more for his interest Or how if she was contracted to some other Prince whom 〈◊〉 â—â—ked not and forced by state interest aâ— great Match-maker among Princes against her inclination and therefore for Love of Muly Labas ran away with him to avoid the other Where lyes the impossibility How many more reasons might there be for his stealing her which if the Poet had occasion to have mentiond you should have heard of But then why does Muly Labas his Father put his Son in Prison at his return Why did Solyman strangle Mustapha does not the Play tell him why for a suspition of an attempt againâ—t his Empire But why will he kill them both Yes mark the Poets reasons He will present her Father with her head a good way to pacifie him and make him withdraw the Siege Sending the Lady back might have avoided the inconveniency of the War. A very pretty King he would make of him the whilst to say Here Sir take your daughter agen I 'le rid my hands of the Baggage she shall come no more within my doores let us be friends for I do not like bloody noses and pray depart in peace if you love me and you will much oblige yours to command King of Morocco This is the Character Mr. Dryden likes But what if Elkanahs King is a little more rough and will fight him and cares neither for his Army nor him neither But will cut his Daughters head off and his too if he can come at it But why Muly Labas a Traytor he a Traytor I wonder his Father knew him no better then to suspect him of so much Wit as goes to the making one c. Muly Labas is a Fool a Fool a Fool the Parrat has so over and over agen repeated in the Play that 't is high time to clear him Muly Labas in the true story was but twelve years of age when he came to the Crown and through the whole Play the Author has made him though no great part yet a man that does nothing but what reason and Circumstances would convince a
Iuditious man ought to be don and if he has any fault 't is his believing his Mother Honest and if at any time he 's misled by her 't is by a credulity that might very probably be imposed by a Mother upon a Son she having to his knowledge acted nothing that should make him believe otherwise But I wonder of all objections how this came from him knowing how guilty he has been in the Character of a Boabdelin a man that is not only a Coward and one that in his Armies head dares not touch an insolent Fellow that he fears Cuckolds him nay one whom he is certain his Wife Loves better then himself and for sooth out of a fear of his subjects displeasure But that fear might be taken off a very pretty King the whilst by exposing Almanzors insolence to his Army who though they loved his Conduct and Courage would certainly consent or at lest pardon their dutiful and humble King for a peice of Justice don on so arrogant an abuser of Majesty But another fault he finds against Muly Labas his demonstration of his Innocence to Morena Can he think so soul A thought as Treason harbours in his Soul Which does Morena's Sacred Image bear No shape of ill can come within her Sphear He was in Love with Morena therefore Innocent What a mighty offender against sense and reason is his King for Complimenting his Mistress Then enters Queen Mother and tells Muly Labas his Father is dead suddenly and relates the manner of it with all the Circumstances yet afterwards being alone with Crimalhaz whom she procured to poyson her Husband she desires him to relate the manner of it of which she could not be ignorant She who was whored by him and set him on could not but know the Circumstances also Here in our Commentators Parase Impertinence is pretty thick sown First because the Queen gives her Son a forged relalation of her Husbands death therefore she must needs know the true circumstances and next because she set Crimalhaz a work therefore she must know all particularâ— of his dying within halfe an hour after his death The particulars of the contrivance I grant she understood but how could she know the particulars of the success of it unless she had singled out Crimalhaz privately for the knowledge But how if the publick concern for the sudden death of the King gave 'em no opportunity till now For as I take it the Queen did not ask him How did you contrive his death But. How died the King how did the poyson take But mark how ridiculously he contrives in the person of this great Plotter the Queen Mother First she makes a politick speech to say her Son is not ripe for ruine till they have undermind his absent General The General was absent his return uncertain That is his Navy came in disguise up the River Tensist for he enterd Morocco the next Morning which was more then they could know he would do so long before-hand Besides her Son being in Prison and the City at her disposing she and her Gallant had a much fairer game to play if they immediately possessed themselves of the Crown now in their reach then if they waited for the Generals return who was a friend to the King and whom they were not certain they could render suspected to him Oh wondeâ—ful Politician what does he mean by possessing themselves of the Crown now in their reach They might break open the old Emperors Closet and Seize his Turbat and his Robes and dress Crimalhaz in his habit is that setting up for a King If he means by the Crown the Imperial pow'r 't is nonsense How could he set himself up for a King when all the Forces of Morocco were under Muly Hamets Conduct and he entring into the City who besides his being Friend to Muly Labas was himself a nearer heir to the Crown then Crimalhaz and no doubt would have been far from complimenting him with what was his own right especially being so many thousand strong as he was to argue the case with him if occasion had been But our Commentators opinion of Kings and Crowns moves excentrick to every bodys eâ—se What Puppets does he make of them But the silliness of this remark shall be past by for the Introduction of another so much beyond it that nothing can be more ridiculous The second act he says has little business in it except Muly Hamets return with the â—leet But now for Elkanahs Thefts from his Cotemporaries as was urged against him in the Preface His Muly Hamets Character is an imitation of Porphirius And why because they both bring home an Army to their Kings aid Compare the verses and the These will be visible Maxim. Porphyrius whom you Aegypts Praetor made Is come from Alexandria to your aid Morocco Hearing whose force Morocco will invade I have brought home your Army to your aid c. His Hametalhaz is likewise as plainly stolâ— from Placidius Placidius envy'd Porphyrius Hametalhaz Muly Hamet Placid May all the Curses envy ever knew Or could invent Porphyrius persue Ham. But in Morocco his high pride may find His name less Glorious and his Stars less kind But by the way where lyes Hametalhaz his envy could not he conspire against Muly Hamet to make his name less Glorious but it must be done out of Envy Hametalhaz was but a Subminister to Crimalhaz and acted only for reward if there was Envy in the case twaâ— between Crimalhaz and Muly Hamet not him and Muly Hamet The Image of Morena is taken from Cydaria They both desire their Fathers should be spared in the Battel And Cortez and Muly Hamets answer are the same in effect Cortez The edge of War I 'le from the battel take And spare your Fathers Subjects for your sake Morocco But the rough hand of War more gentle make And spare his blood for his Morena's sake Muly H. We only do aspire to this great end To make your Father not our Prize but friend Muly Hamet will spare her Father for her sake And Cortez her Fathers Subjects But that 's the same thing sparing a King or his Subjects What a discovery has this Manslayer of a Critick found Because two Generals bring home their Kings Armies to their assistance and because Hametalhaz has a spight against Muly Hamet and Placidius against Porphyrius therefore Elkanahs Characters are stoln from Mr. Drydens And because Morena says pray Sir take care you hurt not my Father and Cydaria says the same therefore their Characters too are the same Does this grave Scribler that talks so much of judgment make an expression of two lines a Character at that rate I may say all men have one Character for 't is ten to one but you shall hear 'em at one time or other say the same thing Suppose one man should say what a Clock is it and another what time of day is it are their Characters the same then But to