ve him--"originally Shakspeare's;
a poet for whom Sir William D'Avenant had particularly a high
veneration, and whom he first taught me to admire." So the two together,
to show their joint and judicious admiration, set about altering "The
Tempest." Fletcher had imitated it all in vain in his "Sea Voyage;" "the
storm, the desert island, and the woman who had never seen a man, are
all implicit testimonies of it." Few more delightful poets than
Fletcher; but in an evil hour, and deserted by his good genius, did he
then hoist his sail. But now cover your face with your hands--and then
shut your ears. "_Sir John Suckling, a professed admirer of our author,
has followed his footsteps_ in his '_Goblins_;' his Regmella being an
open imitation of Shakspeare's Miranda, and his spirits, _though
counterfeit_, yet are copied from Ariel." But Sir William D'Avenant, "as
he was a man of quick and piercing imagination, soon found that somewhat
might be added to the design of Shakspeare, of which neither Fletcher
nor Suckling had ever thought;" "and this excellent contrivance," he was
pleased, says Dryden with looks of liveliest gratitude, "to communicate
to me, and to desire my assistance in it." You probably knew what was
the "excellent contrivance" by which "the last hand"--the hand after
Suckling's--"was put to it;" so that thenceforth the "Tempest" was to be
let alone in its glory. "The counterpart to Shakspeare's plot, namely,
that of a man who had never seen a woman, that by this means these two
characters of innocence and love might the more illustrate and commend
each other. _I confess that from the very first moment it so pleased me,
that I never writ_ any thing with more delight." Sir Walter says it
seems to have been undertaken chiefly with a view to give room for
scenical decoration, and that Dryden's share in the alteration was
probably little more than the care of adapting it to the stage. But
Dryden's own words contradict that supposition, and he further tells us
that his writings received D'Avenant's daily amendments; "and that is
the reason why it is not so faulty as the rest, which I have done
without the help and correction of so judicious a friend." They wrote
together at the same desk. And Dryden found D'Avenant of "so quick a
fancy, that nothing was proposed to him on which he would not suddenly
produce a thought, extremely pleasant and surprising. * * His
imagination was such as could not easily enter into any other