As for Mr. Shadwell, he hath mixt his Tragedy call’d the Libertine with so much Comedy, that the Play is rather tragi-comical than tragical; tho’ there is Blood enough spilt in it which might, with good Husbandry, serve very well for two or three Tragedies: But to make Don John the Libertine talk of a Soul in Act I. when an Atheist believes no such Thing existing in a Man, it is very absurd, as you may see in the following Lines, which plainly describe the Person’s Character.
Let’s on, and live the nobler Life of Sense;
To all the Powers of Love and mighty Lust,
In spite of formal Fops I will be just.
What Ways soe’er conduce to my Delight,
My Sense instructs me, I must think ’em right.
On, on my Soul, and make no Stop in Pleasure,
They’re dull insipid Fools, who live by Measure.
Was I to criticise on all the Errors occurring in the Greek, Latin and English Dramatists, I should swell my Criticisms to a Bulk exceeding these swelling Expressions of Seneca, in the first Act of his Hercules Oetæus, whom he makes to speak in these bragging, bouncing, and ranting Strains.
Vel si times ne terra concipiat feras,