Gerard Langbaine

“ After all, I am of Opinion, that it is but a weak Refuge to fly to the Opinion or Taste of a Foreign Nation, from the Judgment of our own; for I’m satisfy’d that there are not fewer Men of Sence, in England, and a great many more of Learning, than Italy affords us. Aminta might please there, but if we judge by our Taste of Poetry, and with ours by the Ancients, it pleas’d without Reason, and only perhaps for the Novelty, or, which is yet most likely, because it was sung in Italy, that Musical Nation minding more the Performance of the Composer, than Poet. ”

“ For the sedater Passions (which our Author himself attributes to a Shepherd’s Life) of these Innocent People represented in a Pastoral, cannot afford so lively Pleasure to an Audience, as may ballance the Length of their Attention, that must of necessity grow languid, and tyr’d, with so very calm an Emotion, which is still kept active by the more violent Passions, proper for Tragedy. ”