ndered it impressive, that
department of the drama was soon abandoned by the inferior class of
play-writers, to whom it presented multiplied difficulties, without a
single advantage. The new taste, which our author had now decidedly
adopted, was founded upon the stile of Shakespeare, of whose works he
appears always to have been a persevering student, and, at length, an
ardent admirer. Accordingly, he informs us, in the introduction, that
this play is professedly written in imitation of "the divine
Shakespeare." As if to bring this more immediately under the eye of
the reader, he has chosen a subject upon which his immortal original
had already laboured; and, perhaps, the most proper introduction to
"All for Love" may be a parallel betwixt it and Shakespeare's "Antony
and Cleopatra."

The first point of comparison is the general conduct, or plot, of the
tragedy. And here Dryden, having, to use his own language, undertaken
to shoot in the bow of Ulysses, imitates the wily Antinous in using
art to eke out his strength, and suppling the weapon before he
attempted to bend it.

Shakespeare, with the license peculiar to his age and character, had
diffused the action of his play over Italy, Greece, and Egypt; but
Dryden, who was well aware of the advantage to be derived from a
simplicity and concentration of plot, has laid every scene in the city
of Alexandria. By this he guarded the audience from that vague and
puzzling distraction which must necessarily attend a violent change of
place. It is a mistake to suppose, that the argument in favour of the
unities depends upon preserving the deception of the scene; they are
necessarily connected with the intelligibility of the piece. It may be
true, that no spectator supposes that the stage before him is actually
the court of Alexandria; yet, when he has once made up his mind to let
it pass as such during the representation, it is a cruel tax, not
merely on his imagination, but on his powers of comprehension, if the
scene be suddenly transferred to a distant country. Time is lost
before he can form new associations, and reconcile their bearings with
those originally presented to him, and if he be a person of slow
comprehension, or happens to lose any part of the dialogue, announcing
the changes, the whole becomes unintelligible confusion. In this
respect, and in discarding a number of uninteresting characters, the
plan of Dryden's play must be unequivocally preferred to that of
S