there is no other way to poffefs himself of her but by furprize.

Though the author undoubtedly meant his villain should in the end outwit himself, yet he did not mean him to attempt impoffibilities, and the abfurdities of this contrivance are so many, that I know not which to mention firft. How was Mafkwell to poffefs himself of Cynthia by this fcheme? By what force or fraud is he to accomplish the object of marrying her? We must conclude he was not quite fo defperate as to facrifice all his hopes from Lord Touchwood by any violence upon her perfon; there is nothing in his character to warrant the conjecture. It is no less unaccountable how Mellafont could be caught by this project, and induced to equip himself in the chaplain's gown to run off with a lady, who had pledged herself to him never to marry any other man: There was no want of confent on her part; a reconciliation with Lord Touchwood was the only object he had to look to, and how was that to be effected by this elopement with Cynthia ?

The jealoufy of Lady Touchwood was another rock on which Mafkwell was fure to fplit: It would have been natural for him to have provided against this danger by binding my lord to fecrecy, and the lady's pride of family was a ready plea for that purpose; when he was talking to himself for the purpose of being overheard by Lord Touchwood, he had nothing to do but to throw in this observation amongst the rest to bar that point against discovery.

The reader will not fuppofe I would fuggeft a plan of operation for The Double Dealer to fecure him against discovery; I am only for adding probability and common precaution to his projects: I allow that it is in character for him to grow wanton with fuccefs; there is a moral in a villain outwitting himself; but the catastrophe would in my opinion have been far more brilliant, if his fchemes had broke up with more force of contrivance; laid as they are, they melt away and diffolve by their own weaknefs and inconfiftency; Lord and Lady Touchwood, Careless and Cynthia, all join in the discovery; every one but Mellafont

fees

fees through the plot, and he is blindness itself.

Mr. Congreve, in his dedication above mentioned, defends himself against the objection to foliloquies; but I conceive he is more open to criticism for the frequent ufe he makes of liftening; Lord Touchwood three times has recourfe to this expedient.

Of the characters in this comedy Lady Touchwood, though of an unfavourable caft, feems to have been the chief care of the poet, and is well perferved throughout; her elevation of tone, nearly approaching to the tragic, affords a ftrong relief to the lighter fketches of the epifodical perfons, Sir Paul and Lady Pliant, Lord and Lady Froth, who are highly entertaining, but much more loose than the stage in its present state of reformation would endure : Nothing more can be faid of Carelefs and Brifk, than that they are the young men of the theatre, at the time when they were in reprefentation. Of Maskwell enough has been faid in these remarks, nor need any thing be added to what has been already observed upon Meliafont and Cynthia. As for the moral of the play, which the author fays he defigned

M 3

figned in the first place, and then applied the fable to it, it should seem to have been his principal object in the formation of the comedy, and yet it is not made to reach feveral characters of very libertine principles, who are left to reform themselves at leifure and the plot, though fubordinate to the moral, feems to have drawn him off from executing his good intentions fo compleatly, as thofe profeffions may be understood to engage for.

No. LXXXI.

Citò fcribendo non fit ut bene fcribatur; bene fcribendo fit ut citò. (QUINTIL. LIB. X.)

HE celebrated author of the Rambler in

THE

his concluding paper says, I have laboured to refine our language to grammatical purity, and to clear it from colloquial barbarifms, licentious idioms and irregular combinations: fomething perhaps I have added to the elegance of its conftruction, and something to the harmony of its cadence. I hope our language hath gained all the profit, which the labours

of

of this meritorious writer were exerted to produce in ftile of a certain defcription he undoubtedly excels; but though I think there is much in his effays for a reader to admire, I should not recommend them as a model for a difciple to copy.

Simplicity, eafe and perfpicuity fhould be the first objects of a young writer: Addifon and other authors of his clafs will furnish him with examples, and affift him in the attainment of thefe excellencies; but after all, the ftile, in which a man shall write, will not be formed by imitation only; it will be the ftile of his mind; it will affimilate itself to his mode of thinking, and take its colour from the complexion of his ordinary discourse, and the company he conforts with. As for that distinguishing characteristic, which the ingenious effayist terms very properly the harmony of its cadence, that I take to be incommunicable, and immediately dependant upon the ear of him who models it. This harmony

of cadence is fo ftrong a mark of difcrimination between authors of note in the world of letters, that we can depofe to a stile, whose modulation we are familiar with, almost as