Spaniards; and the
affairs of his son-in-law, the Elector Palatine, appeared to render an
union with Holland so peremptorily necessary, that the massacre of
Amboyna was allowed to remain unrevenged.

But the Dutch war, which was declared in 1672, the object of which
seems to have been the annihilation of the United Provinces as an
independent state, a century sooner than Providence had decreed that
calamitous event, met with great opposition in England, and every
engine was put to work to satisfy the people of the truth of the Lord
Chancellor Shaftesbury's averment, that the "States of Holland were
England's eternal enemies, both by interest and inclination." Dryden,
with the avowed intention of exasperating the nation against the
Dutch, assumed from choice, or by command, the unpromising subject of
the Amboyna massacre as the foundation of the following play.
Exclusive of the horrible nature of the subject, the colours are laid
on too thick to produce the desired effect. The monstrous caricatures,
which are exhibited as just paintings of the Dutch character,
unrelieved even by the grandeur of wickedness, and degraded into
actual brutality, must have produced disgust, instead of an animated
hatred and detestation. For the horrible spectacle of tortures and
mangled limbs exhibited on the stage, the author might plead the
custom of his age. A stage direction in Ravenscroft's alteration of
"Titus Andronicus," bears, "A curtain drawn, discovers the heads and
hands of Demetrius and Chiron hanging up against the wall; their
bodies in chairs, in bloody linen." And in an interlude, called the
"Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru," written by D'Avenant, "a doleful
pavin is played to prepare the change of the scene, which represents a
dark prison at a great distance; and farther to the view are discerned
racks and other engines of torment, with which the Spaniards are
tormenting the natives and English mariners, who may be supposed to be
lately landed there to discover the coast. Two Spaniards are likewise
discovered sitting in their cloaks, and appearing more solemn in
ruffs, with rapiers and daggers by their sides; the one turning a
spit, while the other is basting an Indian prince, who is roasted at
an artificial fire[1]." The rape of Isabinda is stated by Langbaine to
have been borrowed from a novel in the Decamerone of Cinthio Giraldi.

This play is beneath criticism; and I can hardly hesitate to term it
the worst production