ot to be endured. I leave him
to interpret this by the benefit of his French version on the other
side, and without farther considering him, than I have the rest of my
illiterate censors, whom I have disdained to answer, because they are
not qualified for judges. It remains that I acquaint the reader, that
I have endeavoured in this play to follow the practice of the
ancients, who, as Mr Rymer has judiciously observed, are and ought to
be our masters[9]. Horace likewise gives it for a rule in his art of
poetry.

--_Vos exemplaria Graeca
Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna._

Yet, though their models are regular, they are too little for English
tragedy; which requires to be built in a larger compass. I could give
an instance in the "Oedipus Tyrannus," which was the master piece of
Sophocles; but I reserve it for a more fit occasion, which I hope to
have hereafter. In my style, I have professed to imitate the divine
Shakespeare; which that I might perform more freely, I have
disincumbered myself from rhyme. Not that I condemn my former way, but
that this is more proper to my present purpose. I hope I need not to
explain myself, that I have not copied my author servilely: Words and
phrases must of necessity receive a change in succeeding ages; but it
is almost a miracle that much of his language remains so pure; and
that he who began dramatic poetry amongst us, untaught by any, and, as
Ben Jonson tells us, without learning, should by the force of his own
genius perform so much, that in a manner he has left no praise for any
who come after him. The occasion is fair, and the subject would be
pleasant to handle the difference of styles betwixt him and Fletcher,
and wherein, and how far they are both to be imitated. But since I
must not be over-confident of my own performance after him, it will be
prudence in me to be silent. Yet, I hope, I may affirm, and without
vanity, that, by imitating him, I have excelled myself throughout the
play; and particularly, that I prefer the scene betwixt Antony and
Ventidius in the first act, to any thing which I have written in this
kind.

Footnotes:
1. That the reader may himself judge of the justice of Dryden's
censure, I subjoin the argument on this knotty point, as it is
stated by Hippolytus and his mistress in the 5th act of the
"Phedre" of Racine.

Aricie.

_Quoi vous pouves vous taire en ce peril extreme?
Vous laisses d