Si sint molliculi et parum pudici.
But I dare not make that apology for myself; and therefore have taken a becoming care, that those things which offended on the stage, might be either altered, or omitted in the press; for their authority is, and shall be, ever sacred to me, as much absent as present, and in all alterations of their fortune, who for those reasons have stopped its farther appearance on the theatre. And whatsoever hindrance it has been to me in point of profit, many of my 011 friends can bear me witness, that I have not once murmured against that decree. The same fortune once happened to Moliere, on the occasion of his "Tartuffe;" which, notwithstanding, afterwards has seen the light, in a country more bigot than ours, and is accounted amongst the best pieces of that poet. I will be bold enough to say, that this comedy is of the first rank of those which I have written, and that posterity will be of my opinion. It has nothing of particular satire in it; for whatsoever may have been pretended by some critics in the town, I may safely and solemnly affirm, that no one character has been drawn from any single man; and that I have known so many of the same humour, in every folly which is here exposed, as may serve to warrant it from a particular reflection. It was printed in my absence from the town, this summer, much against my expectation; otherwise I had over-looked the press, and been yet more careful, that neither my friends should have had the least occasion of unkindness against me, nor my enemies of upbraiding me; but if it live to a second impression, I will faithfully perform what has been wanting in this. In the mean time, my lord, I recommend it to your protection, and beg I may keep still that place in your favour which I have hitherto enjoyed; and which I shall reckon as one of the greatest blessings which can befall,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient,
Faithful servant,
John Dryden.
Footnotes:
- John, Lord Vaughan, was the eldest surviving son of Richard, Earl of Carbery, to which title he afterwards succeeded. He was a man of literature, and president of the Royal Society from 1686 to 1689. Dryden was distinguished by his patronage as far back as 1664, being fourteen years before the acting of this play. Lord Vaughan had thus the honour of discovering and admiring the poet's genius, before the public applause had fixed his fame; and, probably better deserved the panegyric here bestowed, than was Usual among Dryden's patrons. He wrote a recommendatory copy of verses, which are prefixed to "The Conquest of Granada." Mr Malone informs us, that this accomplished nobleman died at Chelsea, on 16th January, 1712-13.
- The great popish plot, that scene of mystery and blood, broke out in August 1678.
- Flecknoe was a Roman Catholic priest, very much addicted to
scribbling verses. His name has been chiefly preserved by our
author's satire of "Mack-Flecknoe;" in which he has depicted
Shadwell, as the literary son and heir of this wretched poetaster. A
few farther particulars concerning him may be found prefixed to
that poem. Flecknoe, from this dedication, appears to have been
just deceased. The particular passage referred to has not been
discovered; even Langbaine had never seen it: but Mr Malone points
out a letter of Flecknoe to the Cardinal Barberini, whereof the
first sentence is in Latin, and the next in English. Our author, in
an uncommon strain of self-depreciation, or rather to give a neat
turn to his sentence, has avouched himself to be a worse poet than
Flecknoe. But expressions of modesty in a dedication, like those
of panegyric, are not to be understood literally. As in the latter,
Dryden often strains a note beyond Ela, so, on the present occasion,
he has certainly sounded the very base string of humility. Poor
Flecknoe, indeed, seems to have become proverbial, as the worst
of poets. The Earl of Dorset thus begins a satire on Edward
Howard:
- Those damned antipodes to common sense,
- Those toils to Flecknoe, pr'ythee, tell me whence
- Does all this mighty mass of dulness spring,
- Which in such loads thou to the stage dost bring?
- There is a very flat and prosaic imitation of this sentiment in
the Duke of Buckingham's lines to Pope:
- And yet so wondrous, so sublime a thing
- As the great Iliad, scarce could make me sing;
- Except I justly could at once commend
- A good companion, and as firm a friend;
- One moral, or a mere well-natured deed,
- Does all desert in sciences exceed.
- Thus prose may be humbled, as well as exalted; into poetry.