Poet ever found
out.

And as we have scarce found one Man in the World that equals him in
his Characters, so we find but very few that cou'd come up to him in
the Management (we mean his Art and Contrivance) of his +Plots+. We
are sensible that many have been so foolish as to count his Plays a
+bare Bundle of Dialogues dress'd up in a neat Stile+, and there all
his Excellency to consist, or at least that they are very ordinary
and mean; but such senseless Suppositions will soon vanish upon
giving an Account of the Nature and Perfection of 'em. He well
understood the Rules of the Stage, or rather those of +Nature+; was
perfectly +Regular+, wonderful exact and careful in ordering each
+Protasis+ or Entrance, +Epitasis+ or working up, +Catastasis+ or
heighth, and +Catastrophe+ or unravelling the Plot; which last he
was famous for making it spring necessarily from the Incidents, and
neatly and dextrously untying the Knot, whilst others of a grosser
make, would either tear, or cut it in pieces. In short (setting
aside some few things which we shall mention by and by) +Terence+
may serve for the best and most perfect +Model+ for our +Dramatick+
Poets to imitate, provided they exactly observe the different
Customs and Manners of the +Roman+ and +English+ People; and upon
the same account we beg leave to be a little more particular in this
Matter, which dispos'd us very much to this Translation.

The Nature of his +Plots+ was for the most part grave and solid,
and sometimes passionate a little, resembling our Modern
+Tragy-Comedies+; only the Comical parts were seldom so merry;
the Thinness and clearness of 'em somewhat resembling our Modern
+Tragedies+, only more perfect in the latter, and not crouded
with too many Incidents. They were all double except the +Hecyra+,
or +Mother-in-Law+, yet so contriv'd that one was always an
+Under-plot+ to the other: So that he still kept perfectly to the
first great Rule of the Stage, the +Unity of Action+. As for the
second great Rule the +Unity of Time+ (that is, for the whole Action
to be perform'd in the compass of a Day) he was as exact in that as
possible, for the longest Action of any of his Plays reaches not
Eleven hours. He was no less careful in the third Rule, +The Unity
of Place+, for 'tis plain he never shifts his Scene in any one of
his Plays, but keeps constantly to the same place from the beginning
to the end. Then for the +Continuance in the Action+, he never fails
in