You have all the advantages of mind and body, and an illustrious birth, conspiring to render you an extraordinary person. The Achilles and the Rinaldo are present in you, even above their originals; you only want a Homer or a Tasso to make you equal to them. Youth, beauty, and courage (all which you possess in the highest of their perfection) are the most desirable gifts of Heaven. (Dédicace de la Royale Martyre, au duc de Monmouth.)
[218]: «All men will join with me in the adoration which I pay you.»—Au comte de Rochester, il écrit: «I find it is not for me to contend any way with your Lordship, who can write better on the meanest subject, than I can on the best.... You are above any incense I give you.»—Dans la dédicace de ses fables, il compare le duc d'Osmond à Nestor, Joseph, Ulysse, Lucullus, etc.—Un autre jour, il compare la Castlemaine à Caton.
Why should a foolish marriage vow,
Which long ago was made,
Oblige us to each other now,
When passion is decay'd?
We lov'd, and we lov'd as long we cou'd,
'Till our love was lov'd out in us both.
But our marriage is dead when the pleasure is fled;
'Twas pleasure first made it an oath.
[220]: They are no more mine when I receive them, than the light of the moon can be allowed to be her own, who shines but by the reflection of her brother. (1693. Lettre à Dennis.)
[221]: Her weight made the horses travel very heavily; but to give them a breathing time, she would often stop us, and plead some necessity of nature, and tell us we were all flesh and blood.
[222]: This définition, though critics raised a logical objection against it—that it was only a genere et fine, and so not altogether perfect, was yet well received by the rest.
[223]: It is charged upon me that I make debauched persons my protagonists, or the chief persons of the drama, and that I make them happy in the conclusion of my play; against the law of comedy which is to reward virtue and punish vice. (Préface du Mock Astrologer.)
[224]: It is not that I would explode the use of metaphors from passion, for Longinus thinks them necessary to raise it.
[225]: Dissembling, though lawful in some cases, is not my talent. Yet, for your sake, I will struggle with the plain openness of my nature. In the mean time, I flatter not myself with any manner of hopes; but do my duty and suffer for God's sake.—You know the profits (of Virgil) might have been more; but neither my conscience nor my honour would suffer me to take them. But I can never repent my constancy, since I am thoroughly persuaded of the justice of the cause for which I suffer.