"For _the lively Imitation of Nature_ being the Definition of a Play [p.
513]; those which best fulfil that law, ought to be esteemed superior to
the others, 'Tis true those beauties of the French Poesy are such as will
raise perfection higher where it is; but are not sufficient to give it
where it is not. They are, indeed, the beauties of a Statue, not of a
Man; because not animated with the Soul of Poesy, which is _Imitation of
Humour and Passions_.

"And this, LISIDEIUS himself, or any other, however biased to their
party, cannot but acknowledge; if he will either compare the Humours of
our Comedies, or the Characters of our serious Plays with theirs.

"He that will look upon theirs, which have been written till [within]
these last ten years [_i.e._, 1655, _when MOLIERE began to write_], or
thereabouts, will find it a hard matter to pick out two or three passable
Humours amongst them. CORNEILLE himself, their Arch Poet; what has he
produced, except the _Liar_? and you know how it was cried up in France.
But when it came upon the English Stage, though well translated, and that
part of _DORANT_ acted to so much advantage by Mr. HART, as, I am
confident, it never received in its own country; the most favourable to
it, would not put it in competition with many of FLETCHER's or BEN.
JOHNSON's. In the rest of CORNEILLE's Comedies you have little humour. He
tells you, himself, his way is first to show two lovers in good
intelligence with each other; in the working up of the Play, to embroil
them by some mistake; and in the latter end, to clear it up.

"But, of late years, DE MOLIERE, the younger CORNEILLE, QUINAULT, and
some others, have been imitating, afar off, the quick turns and graces of
the English Stage. They have mixed their serious Plays with mirth, like
our Tragi-Comedies, since the death of Cardinal RICHELIEU [_in_ 1642]:
which LISIDEIUS and many others not observing, have commended that in
them for a virtue [p. 531], which they themselves no longer practise.

"Most of their new Plays are, like some of ours, derived from the Spanish
novels. There is scarce one of them, without a veil; and a trusty _DIEGO_,
who drolls, much after the rate of the _Adventures_ [pp. 533, 553]. But
their humours, if I may grace them with that name, are so thin sown; that
never above One of them comes up in a Play. I dare take upon me, to find
more variety of them, in one play of BEN. JOHNSON's, than in all theirs
together: as he w