bespeak its Damnation before its Representation.

* _Curculio_ is a Semi-Wit, that has a great _Veneration_ for the
_Moderns_, and no less a _Contempt_ for the _Ancients_: But his own ill
Composures destroy the force of his Arguments, and do the Ancients full
Justice. This Gentleman having had the good Fortune to write a very
taking, _undigested medly of Comedy_ and _Farce_, is so puff'd up with
his Success, that nothing will serve him, but he must bring this new
_fantastick way of writing_, into Esteem. To compass this Noble Design,
he tells you what a Coxcomb _Aristotle_ was with his Rules of the _three
Unities_; and what a Company of Senseless Pedants the _Scaligers_,
_Rapins_, _Bossu's_, and _Daciers_ are. He proves that _Aristotle_ and
_Horace_, knew nothing of _Poetry_; that Common Sense and Nature were
not the same in _Athens_, and _Rome_, as they are in _London_; that
_Incoherence_, _Irregularity_ and _Nonsense_ are the Chief Perfections
of the _Drama_, and, by a necessary Consequence that the _Silent woman_,
is below his own Performance.

"_No new Doctrine_ in _Religion_, ever got any considerable Footing
except it was grounded on _Miracles_; Nor any new _Hypothesis_ was ever
established in natural Philolqphy, unless it was confirm'd by
_Experience_. The same Rule holds, in some measure, in all Arts and
Sciences, particularly in Dramatick Poetry. It will be a hard matter for
any Man to trump up any new set of Precepts, in opposition to those of
_Aristotle_ and _Horace_, except by following them, he writes several
approved Plays. The great success of the _first Part_ of the _T---p_ was
sufficient I must confess, to justifie the Authors _Conceit_; But then
the _Explosion_ of the _Second_ ought to have cur'd him of it.

"_Writers_ like _Women_ seldom give one another a good Word; that's