: And, as the
excellency of his nature forgave the one, so the excellency of his
manners reformed the other. The desire of imitating so great a pattern
first awakened the dull and heavy spirits of the English from their
natural reservedness; loosened them from their stiff forms of
conversation, and made them easy and pliant to each other in
discourse. Thus, insensibly, our way of living became more free; and
the fire of the English wit, which was before stifled under a
constrained, melancholy way of breeding, began first to display its
force, by mixing the solidity of our nation with the air and gaiety of
our neighbours[6]. This being granted to be true, it would be a wonder
if the poets, whose work is imitation, should be the only persons in
three kingdoms who should not receive advantage by it; or, if they
should not more easily imitate the wit and conversation of the present
age than of the past.

Let us therefore admire the beauties and the heights of Shakespeare,
without falling after him into a carelessness, and, as I may call it,
a lethargy of thought, for whole scenes together. Let us imitate, as
we are able, the quickness and easiness of Fletcher, without proposing
him as a pattern to us, either in the redundancy of his matter, or the
incorrectness of his language. Let us admire his wit and sharpness of
conceit; but let us at the same time acknowledge, that it was seldom
so fixed, and made proper to his character, as that the same things
might not be spoken by any person in the play. Let us applaud his
scenes of love; but let us confess, that he understood not either
greatness or perfect honour in the parts of any of his women. In fine,
let us allow, that he had so much fancy, as when he pleased he could
write wit; but that he wanted so much judgment, as seldom to have
written humour, or described a pleasant folly. Let us ascribe to
Jonson, the height and accuracy of judgment in the ordering of his
plots, his choice of characters, and maintaining what he had chosen to
the end: But let us not think him a perfect pattern of imitation,
except it be in humour; for love, which is the foundation of all
comedies in other languages, is scarcely mentioned in any of his
plays: And for humour itself, the poets of this age will be more wary
than to imitate the meanness of his persons. Gentlemen will now be
entertained with the follies of each other; and, though they allow
Cobb and Tib to speak properly, yet they are not m