But he needs not apprehend that I should
strictly examine those little faults, except I am called upon to do
it: I shall return therefore to that quotation of Seneca, and answer,
not to what he writes, but to what he means. I never intended it as
an argument, but only as an illustration of what I had said before
concerning the election of words; and all he can charge me with is
only this, that if Seneca could make an ordinary thing sound well in
Latin by the choice of words, the same, with the like care, might be
performed in English: If it cannot, I have committed an error on the
right hand, by commending too much the copiousness and well-sounding
of our language, which I hope my countrymen will pardon me; at least
the words which follow in my Dramatic Essay will plead somewhat in my
behalf; for I say there, that this objection happens but seldom in
a play; and then, too, either the meanness of the expression may be
avoided, or shut out from the verse by breaking it in the midst.
But I have said too much in the defence of verse; for, after all,
it is a very indifferent thing to me whether it obtain or not. I am
content hereafter to be ordered by his rule, that is, to write it
sometimes because it pleases me, and so much the rather, because he
has declared that it pleases him.
Pages:
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288