/The  distress  in  this  tragedy  is  extremely  deep,  but  Congreve  does  not

/  succeed  in  touching  the  heart.     The  chief  merits  of  the  piece  consist  in

'  dignified  passages  of  declamation,  or  what  the  French  call  tirades;

and  there  are  several  descriptive  passages  of  considerable  power  and

mejody,  though  their  merit  is  rather  that  of  narrative  than  dramatic

1    poetry.     Of  this  kind  is  the  perpetually  quoted  description  of  a  temple,

which  the  extravagant  eulogy  of  Johnson,  by  absurdly  comparing  it  to

pictorial  passages  in  Shakspeare,  has  deprived  of  its  due  meed  of

applause.     If  "faint  praise"  "damns,"  exaggerated  laudation  damns

still  more  fatally.
§  8.  About  this  time  took  place  an  event  of  equal  importance  to
Congreve  and  to  the  literary  character  of  that  age.  This  was  the
attack  directed  by  Jeremy  Collier  (1650-1726),  an  ardent  nonjuring
clergyman,  against  the  profaneness  and  immorality  of  the  English
stage.  His  pamphlet  was  written  with  extraordinary  fire,  wit,  and
energy ;  and  the  evil  which  he  combated  was  so  general,  so  inveterate,
and  so  glaring,  that  he  immediately  ranged  upon  his  side  all  moral  and
thinking  men  in  the  nation.  He  anatomized  with  a  vigorous  and  un-
sparing scalpel  the  foul  ulcer  of  theatrical  immorality,  and  cauterized
it  with  such  merciless  satire  that  Dryden,  powerful  as  he  was  in  contro-
versy, remained  silent  out  of  shame.  The  gauntlet  thrown  down  by
Collier,  and  which  conscious  guilt  prevented  Dryden  from  lifting,  was
taken  up  by  Congreve ;  but  the  defence  he  made  was  poor,  and  the  vic-
tory remained,  both  as  regards  morality  and  wit,  on  the  side  of  Collier.
