This Author writ a ſmall Piece, called, The Poet’s Complaint to his Muſe, 4 to. 1680, alſo a Paſtoral on King Charles the Second, which is publiſh’d in Mrs. Behn’s Lycidas, 8 vo. p. 81. and ſince his Death, is printed a Tranſlation of his from the French, called, The Hiſtory of the Triumvirates, 8 vo. 1686.
THis Gentleman is of an ancient Family of Oldmixon, near Bridgewater in Somerſetſhire. As for the particulars of his Life, I can ſay little of them, only that he has given the World a Paſtoral, called,
Amintas, acted at the Theatre Royal. The Title Page lets us know, that it is taken from the Aminta of Taſſo, and the Preface informs us of the ill Succeſs it met with on the Stage: which indeed cannot be attributed to the Engliſh Author’s Performance, which is as well as the original wou’d allow; but, with Submiſſion to our Author’s better Judgment, I muſt needs ſay, that Paſtoral it ſelf, tho’ never ſo well writ, is not a Subject fit for ſo long an Entertainment as that of the Stage. This the Ancients very well knew, and therefore they wiſely confin’d it to a narrower Compaſs, as is evident from the Idyllia of Theocritus, and the Bucolics of Virgil: For the ſedater Paſſions (which our Author himſelf attributes to a Shepherd’s Life) of theſe Innocent People repreſented in a Paſtoral, cannot afford ſo lively Pleaſure to an Audience, as may ballance the Length of their Attention, that muſt of necessity grow languid, and tyr’d, with ſo very calm an Emotion, which is ſtill kept active by the more violent Paſſions, proper for Tragedy. This extending of the ancient Paſtoral to ſo unreaſonable a length was, as well as Farce, an Italian Invention, and not one jot the better, becauſe cover’d with ſo great a Name as Taſſo’s. I cou’d never find that Authority would ſilence the Sentiments of Nature and Reaſon; and Taſſo, that has been guilty of Abſurdeties enough in his Epic Poem, muſt not be ſuppos’d infallible in his Paſtoral. After all, I am of Opinion, that it is but a weak Refuge to fly to the Opinion or Taſte of a Foreign Nation, from the Judgment of our own; for I’m ſatisfy’d that there are not fewer Men of Sence, in England, and a great many more of Learning, than Italy affords us. Aminta might pleaſe there, but if we judge by our Taſte of Poetry, and with ours by the Ancients, it pleas’d without Reaſon, and only perhaps for the Novelty, or, which is yet moſt likely, becauſe it was ſung in Italy, that Muſical Nation minding more the Performance of the Compoſer, than Poet. All that can be ſaid for our Author is, that in an ill Choice, he has equal’d his Original, and in ſome Places improv’d it.
