Gallowglass

John Dryden on Blogs

Segrais has distinguish’d the Readers of Poetry, according to their capacity of judging, into three Classes. (He might have said the same of Writers too if he had pleas’d). In the lowest Form he places those whom he calls Les Petits Esprits: such things as are our Upper-Gallery Audience in a Playhouse; who like nothing but the Husk and Rind of Wit; prefer a Quibble, a Conceit, an Epigram, before solid Sense, and Elegant Expression. These are Mob-Readers. … Their Authors are of the same level; fit to represent them on a Mountebank’s Stage, or to be Masters of the Ceremonies in a Bear-Garden. Yet these are they who have the most Admirers. …

From Dryden’s Dedication of the Aeneis.