Such as Sir Martin and Sir Arthur Addle[5],
Be flocked unto, as the great heroes now
In plays of rhyme and noise, with wondrous show:--
Then shall the house, to see these Hectors kill and slay,
That bravely fight out the whole plot of the play,
Be for at least six months full every day.

Langbaine, who quotes the lines from the prologue to Ravenscroft's
"Careless Lovers," is of opinion, that he paid Dryden too
great a compliment in admitting the originality of "The Assignation,"
and labours to shew, that the characters are imitated from
the "Romance Comique" of Scarron, and other novels of the
time. But Langbaine seems to have been unable to comprehend,
that originality consists in the mode of treating a subject, more
than in the subject itself.

"The Assignation" was acted in 1672, and printed in 1673.

Footnotes:

1. In the prologue to this beautified edition, Ravenscroft modestly
tells us:

Like other poets, he'll not proudly scorn
To own, that he but winnowed Shakespeare's corn:
So far was he from robbing him of's treasure,
That he did add his own, to make full measure.

2. This looks as if there had been some ground for Dryden's censure
upon the actors.

3. A flat parody on the lines in Dryden's prologue, referring to
Mamamouchi:

Grimace and habit sent you pleased away:
You damned the poet, but cried up the play.

4. It is somewhat remarkable, that the censure contained in what is
above printed like verses, recoils upon the head of the author, who
never wrote a single original performance. Langbaine, the
persecutor of all plagiarism, though he did not know very well in
what it consisted, threatens to "pull off Ravenscroft's disguise,
and discover the politic plagiary that lurks under it. I know,"
continues the biographer, "he has endeavoured to shew himself
master of the art of swift writing, and would persuade the world,
that what he writes is _extempore_ wit, and written _currente
calamo_. But I doubt not to shew, that though he would be thought
to imitate the silk-worm, that spins its web from its own bowels,
yet I shall make him appear like the leech, that lives upon the
blood of other men, drawn from the gums; and, when he is rubbed
with salt, spews it up again."

5. Sir Martin Mar-all we are acquainted with. Sir Arthur Addle is a
similar character, in a play called "Sir Solomon, or, The Cautious