Milton. See Milton's prefatory note to Samson Agonistes.
[46]. Veneration for Shakespear. Cf. Dennis's letter to Steele, 26th March, 1719: “Ever since I was capable of reading Shakespear, I have always had, and have always expressed, that veneration for him which is justly his due; of which I believe no one can doubt [pg 311] who has read the Essay which I published some years ago upon his Genius and Writings.”
Italian Ballad. Cf. Dennis's Essay on the Operas after the Italian Manner, 1706.
Alexander Pope.
[48]. His Characters. The same idea had been expressed by Gildon in his Essay on the Stage, 1710, p. li.: “He has not only distinguish'd his principal persons, but there is scarce a messenger comes in but is visibly different from all the rest of the persons in the play. So that you need not to mention the name of the person that speaks, when you read the play, the manners of the persons will sufficiently inform you who it is speaks.” Cf. also Addison's criticism of Homer, Spectator, No. 273: “There is scarce a speech or action in the Iliad, which the reader may not ascribe to the person that speaks or acts, without seeing his name at the head of it.”
[50]. To judge of Shakespear by Aristotle's rules. This comparison had appeared in Farquhar's Discourse upon Comedy: “The rules of English Comedy don't lie in the compass of Aristotle, or his followers, but in the Pit, Box, and Galleries. And to examine into the humour of an English audience, let us see by what means our own English poets have succeeded in this point. To determine a suit at law we don't look into the archives of Greece or Rome, but inspect the reports of our own lawyers, and the acts and statutes of our Parliaments; and by the same rule we have nothing to do with the models of Menander or Plautus, but must consult Shakespear, Johnson, Fletcher, and others, who by methods much different from the Ancients have supported the English Stage, and made themselves famous to posterity.” Cf. also Rowe, p. 15: “it would be hard to judge him by a law he knew nothing of.”—Is it unnecessary to point out that there are no “rules” in Aristotle? The term “Aristotle's rules” was commonly used to denote the “rules of the classical drama,” which, though based on the Poetics, were formulated by Italian and French critics of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
[51]. The Dates of his plays. Pope here controverts Rowe's statement, p. 4.
blotted a line. See note, p. [43]. Though Pope here controverts the traditional opinion, he found it to his purpose to accept it in the Epistle to Augustus, ll. 279-281:
And fluent Shakespear scarce effac'd a line.