produce, for examples, many of
our English plays, as the _Maid's Tragedy_, the _Alchemist_, the _Silent
Woman_.

"I was going to have named the _Fox_; but that the Unity of Design seems
not exactly observed in it. For there appear two Actions in the Play; the
first naturally ending with the Fourth Act, the second forced from it, in
the Fifth. Which yet, is the less to be condemned in him, because the
disguise of _VOLPONE_ (though, it suited not with his character as a
crafty or covetous person) agreed well enough with that of a voluptuary:
and, by it, the Poet gained the end he aimed at, the punishment of vice,
and reward of virtue; which that disguise produced. So that, to judge
equally of it, it was an excellent Fifth Act; but not so naturally
proceeding from the former.

"But to leave this, and to pass to the latter part of LISIDEIUS his
discourse; which concerns RELATIONS. I must acknowledge, with him, that
the French have reason, _when they hide that part of the Action, which
would occasion too much tumult on the Stage_; and choose rather to have
it made known by Narration to the audience [p. 535]. Farther; I think it
very convenient, for the reasons he has given, that _all incredible
Actions were removed_ [p. 537]: but, whether custom has so insinuated
itself into our countrymen, or Nature has so formed them to fierceness, I
know not; but they will scarcely suffer combats or other objects of horror
to be taken from them. And indeed the _indecency_ of tumults is all which
can be objected against fighting. For why may not our imagination as well
suffer itself to be deluded with the _probability_ of it, as any other
thing in the Play. For my part, I can, with as great ease, persuade
myself that the blows, which are struck, are given in good earnest; as I
can, that they who strike them, are Kings, or Princes, or those persons
which they represent.

"For _objects of incredibility_ [p. 537], I would be satisfied from
LISIDEIUS, whether we have any so removed from all appearance of truth,
as are those in CORNEILLE's _ANDROMEDE_? A Play that has been frequented
[_repeated_] the most, of any he has writ. If the _PERSEUS_ or the son of
the heathen god, the _Pegasus_, and the Monster, were not capable to choke
a strong belief? let him blame any representation of ours hereafter!
Those, indeed, were objects of delight; yet the reason is the same as to
the probability: for he makes it not a Ballette [_Ballet_] or Masque; but