, sometimes in
the wrong. Their judgement is a mere lottery. _Est ubi plebs recte putat,
est ubi peccat_. HORACE says it of the Vulgar, judging Poesy. But if you
mean, the mixed Audience of the Populace and the Noblesse: I dare
confidently affirm, that a great part of the latter sort are already
favourable to Verse; and that no serious Plays, written since the King's
return [_May_ 1660], have been more kindly received by them, than the
_Siege of Rhodes_, the _MUSTAPHA_, the _Indian Queen_ and _Indian
Emperor_. [_See_ p. 503.]

"But I come now to the Inference of your first argument. You said, 'The
dialogue of Plays is presented as the effect of sudden thought; but no
one speaks suddenly or, _ex tempore_, in Rhyme' [p. 498]: and you
inferred from thence, _that Rhyme_, which you acknowledge to be proper to
Epic Poesy [p. 559], _cannot equally be proper to Dramatic; unless we
could suppose all men born so much more than poets, that verses should be
made_ in _them, not_ by _them_.

"It has been formerly urged by you [p. 499] and confessed by me [p. 563]
that 'since no man spoke any kind of verse _ex tempore_; that which was
_nearest_ Nature was to be preferred.' I answer you, therefore, by
distinguishing betwixt what is _nearest_ to the nature of Comedy: which
is the Imitation of common persons and Ordinary Speaking: and, what is
_nearest_ the nature of a serious Play. This last is, indeed, the
Representation of Nature; but 'tis Nature wrought up to an higher pitch.
The Plot, the Characters, the Wit, the Passions, the Descriptions are all
exalted above the level of common converse [_conversation_], as high as
the Imagination of the Poet can carry them, with proportion to
verisimility [_verisimilitude_].

"Tragedy, we know, is wont to Image to us the minds and fortunes of noble
persons: and to pourtray these exactly, Heroic Rhyme is _nearest_ Nature;
as being the noblest kind of Modern Verse.

"_Indignatur enim privatis, et prope socco,
Dignis carminibus narrari coena THYESTOE._

"says HORACE. And in another place,

"_Effutire leveis indigna tragoedia versus._

"Blank Verse is acknowledged to be too low for a Poem, nay more, for a
paper of Verses [pp. 473, 498, 559]; but if too low for an ordinary
Sonnet, how much more for Tragedy! which is, by ARISTOTLE, in the dispute
between the Epic Poesy and the Dramatic, (for many reasons he there
alleges) ranked above it.

"But setting this defence aside, your ar