John Dryden, low farce in Volpone - 1683
Literary Record 112
[From Nicholas Boileau, The Art of Poetry, transl. W. Soame
(1683).]
From the portions added by Dryden to Soame's translation.
A note to Jacob Tonson's 1708 edition of the translation states that the idea of giving
examples from English writers was Dryden's, as was its execution (the note is reprinted
in
Macdonald, 1939, 36.) Soame had apparently asked Dryden to revise his translation.
The extract
below is from Canto iii; it corresponds to Chant iii, ll. 389-400 in the original.
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Your Actors must by Reason be control'd;
Let young men speak like young, old men like old:
Observe the Town, and study well the Court;
For thither various Characters resort:
Thus 'twas great Johnson purchas'd his renown,
And in his Art had born away the Crown;
If less desirous of the Peoples praise,
He had not with low Farce debas'd his Playes;
Mixing dull Buffoonry with Wit refin'd,
And Harlequin with noble Terence joyn'd.
When in the Fox I see the Tortois hist,
I lose the Author of the Alchymist.
(51-2)