Synopsis
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This is an OCR edition with typos.
Excerpt from book:
AN ESSAY DRAMATIC POESY1. It was that memorable day2, in the first summer of 5 the late war, when our navy engaged3 the Dutch ; a day wherein the two most mighty and best appointed fleets which any age had ever seen, disputed the command of the greater half of the globe, the commerce of nations, and the riches of the universe: while 10 these vast floating bodies, on either side, moved against each other in parallel lines, and our countrymen, under the happy conduct of his royal highness5, went breaking, by little and little, into the line of the enemies; the noise of the cannon 15 from both navies reached our ears about the city, n so that all men being alarmed with it, and in a dreadful suspense of the event, which they knew6 was then deciding, every one went following the sound as his fancy led him ; and leaving the town almost empty, 1 Dramatick Poesie, A. a June 3, 1665 (Malone). 3 ingag'd, A. Universe. While, A. 5 James, duke of York, afterwards James II (Malone). 6 we knew, A. some took towards the park, some cross the river, others down it; all seeking the noise in the depth of silence. Among the rest, it was the fortune of Eugenius, Crites, Lisideius, and Neander, to be in company 5 together ; three of them persons whom their wit and quality have made known to all the town; and whom I have chose to hide under these borrowed names, that they may not suffer by so ill a relation as I am going to make of their discourse. 10 2. Taking then a barge, which a servant of Lisideius had provided for them, they made haste to shoot the bridge, and left behind them that great fall of waters which hindered them from hearing what they desired: after which, having disengagedl themselves from many 15 vessels which rode at anchor in the Thames, and almost blocked...