. All
that I can say for those passages, which are I hope not many, is, that
I knew they were bad when I wrote them. But I repent of them amongst my
sins, and if any of their fellows intrude by chance, into my present
writings, I draw a veil over all these Dalilahs of the theatre, and am
resolved, I will settle myself no reputation upon the applause of fools.
'Tis not that I am mortified to all ambition, but I scorn as much to
take it from half witted judges, as I should to raise an estate by
cheating of bubbles. Neither do I discommend the lofty stile in tragedy,
which is naturally pompous and magnificent; but nothing is truely
sublime that is not just and proper.' He says in another place, 'that
his Spanish Fryar was given to the people, and that he never wrote any
thing in the dramatic way, to please himself, but his All for Love.'

In 1671 Mr. Dryden was publicly ridiculed on the stage, in the duke of
Buckingham's comedy, culled the Rehearsal, under the character of Bays:
This character, we are informed, in the Key to the Rehearsal, was
originally intended for Sir Robert Howard, under the name of Bilboa;
but the representation being put a stop to, by the breaking out of the
plague, in 1665, it was laid by for several years, and not exhibited on
the stage till 1671, in which interval, Mr. Dryden being advanced to the
Laurel, the noble author changed the name of his poet, from Bilboa to
Bays, and made great alterations in his play, in order to ridicule
several dramatic performances, that appeared since the first writing it.
Those of Mr. Dryden, which fell under his grace's lash, were the Wild
Gallant, Tyrannic Love, the Conquest of Granada, Marriage A la-Mode, and
Love in a Nunnery: Whatever was extravagant, or too warmly expressed, or
any way unnatural, the author has ridiculed by parody.

Mr. Dryden affected to despise the satire levelled at him in the
Rehearsal, as appears from his dedication of the translation of Juvenal
and Persius where speaking of the many lampoons, and libels that had,
been written against him, he says, 'I answered not to the Rehearsal,
because I knew the author sat to himself when he drew the picture, and
was the very Bays of his own farce; because also I knew my betters were
more concerned than I was in that satire; and lastly, because Mr. Smith
and Mr. Johnson, the main pillars of it, were two such languishing
gentlemen in their conversation, that I could liken them to nothing but
their ow