This Satyr being Truth and Matter of Fact, how well it pleas’d the _Irish_ Collegians may be easily guess’d, however taking leave of my learned Company, I went out to look about me in the City, where I star’d and gap’d around, like our Country Hicks upon the Signs in _London_, the Monument, or Tombs in _Westminster-Abby_. _Ringsend_ Coaches, so call’d from a Place of that Name about a Mile or two out of the _Dublinian_ Suburbs, I saw were more numerous than Hackney or Gentlemen’s Coaches; and which being a sort of Carts made with a Seat before, wherein People may be jolted 3 or 4 Miles for 2 Pence, your topping City Cuckolds and their Wives very often ride out of Town in ’em, to make a Demolition of Cakes and Ale. Being mounted next upon _Lousie-Hill_, and asking whence the Place deriv’d its Name, some knowing People inform’d me, that an old Woman once dwelling there, to whom honest St. _Patrick_, a Swineherd, and tutelary Patron of that Kingdom promis’d to clear that Nation of Lice, she fell a weeping, and humbly besought the good old Man not to destroy them, because the Inhabitants had no other Diversion on _Sundays_, than to sit at home and louse themselves; whereupon her Request being granted, the _Irish_ enjoy the Company of their native Cattle to this Day, in Memory of which peculiar Favour this Street ever since bears the Name of _Lousie-Hill_. At last I rambled into _Smock-Alley_, where the _Irish_ Theatre is situated; Curiosity led me soon into it, when _Dryden_’s Opera, call’d King _Arthur_, was to be acted, which is a Play I lik’d well enough, excepting these two Lines in Act I. Scene I.
_On yon proud Towers, before the Day be done, My glittering Banners shall be wav’d against the setting Sun._
For tho’ the _Greek_ and _Latin_ Poets, in their Compositions, made their _Hexameter_ or _Heroick_ Verse, compos’d of _Dactyls_ and _Spondees_, yet always observing to have each Line to end with an _Adonick_ likewise, it runs smoother than what our Language will with 15 or more Syllables, for we cannot exceed 10 Feet, or 12 at the most, without offending a delicate Ear.
Farther, let me observe, that the _Irish_ Stage is now as much cumber’d as the _English_ Stage, with Inventions not used in former Ages; I mean with _Opera_’s and _Farce_; the first stupifying the Audience in such a quivering Manner in their Songs, that the Words and Sense too are both lost in the Tune: And the other is a Representation of Things not natural, and is but one, or 3 Acts at most; contrary to the Rule of dramatick Poetry, which, _Horace_ says in his Book _de Arte Poetica_, must have no more or less than 5 Acts. As for _Comedy_, it is as much, nay more corrupted in _Ireland_, than in _England_, _France_ or _Italy_, in too much admitting the _Mimick_ in the _Drama_: And let me tell you (tho’ a Pilgrim) that since I am enter’d upon this Discourse, I must take Notice, that tho’ _Comedy_ is an Imitation of inferior People in Ridicule, yet ought not the Ridicule to be extravagant, but gracefully and slightly touch’d, as by _Terence_ in his Pieces. Again, altho _Comedy_ represents low Persons, yet are they not the meanest, since it brings eminent Citizens and Magistrates on the Stage; nay, _Plautus_ in his _Amphytrio_ introduces Gods and Kings, but nevertheless it is a true _Comedy_, because he hath turn’d the Subject of _Tragedy_ into Ridicule; and it looks beautiful enough, if the Actors have a Regard to their Pronunciation and Gesture, according to _Quintilian_’s Rule, in the 11th Chapter of his First Book which is this: _Debet etiam docere comœdus quomodo narrandum_, &c. That is, a _Comedian_ ought to teach how we should speak, with what Authority we should persuade, with what Emotion Anger should be rais’d, and with what Change of Voice we may excite Pity: I can’t blame those who spend some Time with the Masters of the palestrick Art; that is, those who form the Gestures and Motions, teach how to hold the Arms, and the Hands, that we seem not to be rustick, or ignorant, to have no unseemly Carriage, no unbecoming Posture of the Feet, and that the Head and Eyes don’t differ from the other Motions of the Body. But these Rules are no where strictly observ’d by Players: Moreover, as the Design of _Comedy_ is to rectify the Manners of Men and Women, nothing ought to be represented which may vitiate the Audience, for the People being generally the same, they obstinately retain the most licentious and obscene Things; especially when they are impiously joyn’d to Religion. Indeed _Ben Johnson_ is often guilty of this Fault in his _Volpone_, especially where he brings in Sir _Politick Would be_ talking thus prophanely to _Peregrine_.