not escape the malicious criticism of Settle,
who, besides noticing the extravagant egotism of the hero, questions,
with some probability, whether Abdalla would have chosen to scale
Almanzor's fate, at the risque of the personal consequences of having
all his men piled on his own back. In the same scene, Almanzor is so
unreasonable as to tell his rival,

--Thou shalt not dare
To be so impudent as to despair.

And again,

What are ten thousand subjects, such as they?
If I am scorned, I'll take myself away.

Dryden's apology for these extravagancies seems to be, that Almanzor
is in a passion. But, although talking nonsense is a common effect of
passion, it seems hardly one of those consequences adapted to shew
forth the character of a hero in theatrical representation.

It must be owned, however, that although the part of Almanzor contains
these and other bombastic passages, there are many also which convey
what the poet desired to represent--the aspirations of a mind so
heroic as almost to surmount the bonds of society and even the very
laws of the universe, leaving us often in doubt whether the vehemence
of the wish does not even disguise the impossibility of its
accomplishment.

Good heaven! thy book of fate before me lay,
But to tear out the journal of this day.
Or, if the order of the world below
Will not the gap of one whole day allow,
Give me that minute when she made her vow.
That minute, even the happy from their bliss might give,
And those, who live in grief, a shorter time would live.
So small a link, if broke, the eternal chain
Would, like divided waters, join again.
It wonnot be; the fugitive is gone,
Pressed by the crowd of following minutes on:
That precious moment's out of nature fled,
And in the heap of common rubbish laid,
Of things that once have been, and now decayed.

In the less inflated parts, the ideas are usually as just, as
ingenious and beautiful; for example.

No; there is a necessity in fate.
Why still the brave bold man is fortunate;
He keeps his object ever full in sight,
And that assurance holds him firm and right.
True, 'tis a narrow path that leads to bliss, }
But right before there is no precipice; }
Fear makes men look aside, and then their footing miss. }

The character of Almanzor is well known as the original of Drawcansir,
in "The Rehearsal," into whose mouth parodies of some o