ist upon _the care they take, that no
person, after his first entrance, shall ever appear; but the business
which brings upon the Stage, shall be evident_. Which, if observed, must
needs render all the events of the Play more natural. For there, you see
the probability of every accident, in the cause that produced it; and
that which appears chance in the Play, will seem so reasonable to you,
that you will there find it almost necessary: so that in the Exits of
their Actors, you have a clear account of their purpose and design in the
next Entrance; though, if the Scene be well wrought, the event will
commonly deceive you. 'For there is nothing so absurd,' says CORNEILLE,
'as for an Actor to leave the Stage, only because he has no more to say!'

"I should now speak of _the beauty of their Rhyme_, and the just reason I
have to prefer _that way of writing_, in Tragedies, _before ours, in Blank
Verse_. But, because it is partly received by us, and therefore, not
altogether peculiar to them; I will say no more of it, in relation to
their Plays. For our own; I doubt not but it will exceedingly beautify
them: and I can see but one reason why it should not generally obtain;
that is, because our Poets write so ill in it [pp. 503, 578, 598]. This,
indeed, may prove a more prevailing argument, than all others which are
used to destroy it: and, therefore, I am only troubled when great and
judicious Poets, and those who are acknowledged such, have writ or spoke
against it. As for others, they are to be answered by that one sentence
of an ancient author. _Sed ut primo ad consequendos eos quos priores
ducimus accendimur, ita ubi aut praeteriri, aut aequari eos posse
desperavimus, studium cum spe senescit: quod, scilicet, assequi non
potest, sequi desinit; praeteritoque eo in quo eminere non possumus,
aliquid in quo nitamur conquirimus_."

LISIDEIUS concluded, in this manner; and NEANDER, after a little pause,
thus answered him.

"I shall grant LISIDEIUS, without much dispute, a great part of what he
has urged against us.

"For I acknowledge _the French contrive their Plots more regularly;
observe the laws of Comedy, and decorum of the Stage_, to speak
generally, _with more exactness_ _than the English_. Farther, I deny not
but he has taxed us justly, in some irregularities of ours; which he has
mentioned. Yet, after all, I am of opinion, that neither our faults, nor
their virtues are considerable enough to place them above us.