" It is equally certain, let us add, that morals would not have
been correspondingly relaxed. The revulsion was terrible. In no period of
English history was society ever so grossly immoral; and the drama, which
we now come to consider, displays this immorality and license with a
perfect delineation.
The English people had always been fond of the drama in all its forms, and
were ready to receive it even contaminated as it was by the licentious
spirit of the time. An illiterate and ignorant people cannot think for
themselves; they act upon the precepts and example of those above them in
knowledge and social station: thus it is that a dissolute monarch and a
subservient aristocracy corrupt the masses.
DRYDEN'S PLAYS.--Although Dryden's reputation is based on his other poems,
and although his dramas have conduced scarcely at all to his fame, he did
play a principal part in this department of literary work. Dryden made
haste to answer the call, and his venal muse wrote to please the town. The
names of many of his plays and personages are foreign; but their vitality
is purely English.
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