so flat, and
unaffecting a manner, that I am afraid of not being believed, when I
affirm it."--_Cibber's Apology_, 4to.

[67] [Transcriber's note: "See page 112" in original. This is to be
found in Section III.]

[68] Vol. xviii.

[69] "I find (says Gildon) Mr. Bayes, the younger [Rowe], has two
qualities, like Mr. Bayes, the elder; his admiration of some odd books,
as 'Reynard the Fox,' and the old ballads of 'Jane Shore,' etc."--
_Remarks on Mr. Rome's Plays_. "Reynard the Fox" is also mentioned in
"The Town and Country Mouse," as a favourite book of Dryden. And
Addison, in the 85th number of the Spectator, informs us, that Dorset
and Dryden delighted in perusing the collection of old ballads which the
latter possessed.

[70] Vol. xviii.

[71] It is now No. 43.

[72] Vol. vii.

[73] [The unfavourable accounts of Lady Elizabeth's temper after
marriage are not much better founded than those of her maidenly or
unmaidenly conduct before it. Dryden's supposed to almost all his
contemporaries in _belles-lettres_. There is no sign in his letters of
any conjugal unhappiness, and Malone's "respectable authority" is family
gossip a century after date.--ED.]

[74] [Transcriber's note: "P. 85" in original. This is to be found in
Section II.]

[75] These are--1. Latin verses prefixed to Lord Roscommon's Essay on
Translated Verse. 2. Latin verses on the Death of Charles II., published
in the Cambridge collection of Elegies on that occasion. 3. A poem in
the same language, upon Lord Arlington's Gardens, published in the
Second Miscellany. 4. A translation of the seventh Satire of Juvenal,
mentioned in the text. 5. An English poem, on the Happiness of a Retired
Life. 6. A pretty song, printed by Mr. Malone, to which Charles Dryden
also composed music.

[76] The prologue was spoken by the ghosts of Shakespeare and Dryden;
from which Mr. Malone selects the following curious quotation:--"Mr.
Bevil Higgons, the writer of it, _ventured_ to make the representative
of our great dramatic poet speak these lines!--

"These scenes in their rough native dress were mine;
_But now, improved, with nobler lustre shine_
The first rude sketches Shakespeare's pencil drew,
_But all the shining master strokes are new._
This play, ye critics, shall your fury stand,
Adorned and rescued by a faultless hand."

To which our author replies,

"I long endeavoured to support the stage,
With the faint copies of thy nobler rage