Terence
speaks, in Opposition to the little artificial Cavillers of his Time;
Quorum æmulari exoptat negligentiam
Potiùs, quàm istorum obscuram diligentiam.
A Critick may have the same Consolation in the ill Success of his Play, as Dr.
South
tells us a Physician has at the Death of a Patient, That he was killed
secundum artem
. Our inimitable
Shakespear
is a Stumbling-Block to the whole Tribe of these rigid Criticks. Who would not rather read one of his Plays, where there is not a single Rule of the Stage observed, than any Production of a modern Critick, where there is not one of them violated?