him? I would not give this just
encomium to the _Jew of Venice_, if I were not convinc'd, from a long
experience of the penetration and force of your judgment, that no
exaltation can make you asham'd of your former noble art."

In 1693 Dennis had published the _Impartial Critick_, a reply to Rymer's
_Short View of Tragedy_; but there is little about Shakespeare in its five
dialogues, their main purpose being to show the absurdity of Rymer's plea
for adopting the Greek methods in the English drama. Dennis had, however,
great respect for Rymer's ability. In the first letter to the _Spectator_
he says that Rymer "will always pass with impartial posterity for a most
learned, a most judicious, and a most useful critick"; and in the
_Characters and Conduct of Sir John Edgar_ he says that "thereraises his
fancy to a flight above mankind and the limits of the visible world. Such
are his attempts in _The Tempest_, _Midsummer Nights Dream_, _Macbeth_,
and _Hamlet_. Of these, _The Tempest_, however it comes to be plac'd the
first by the former publishers of his works, can never have been the first
written by him: It seems to me as perfect in its kind, as almost any thing
we have of his. One may observe, that the Unities are kept here, with an
exactness uncommon to the liberties of his writing; tho' that was what, I
suppose, he valu'd himself least upon, since his excellencies were all of
another kind. I am very sensible that he do's, in this play, depart too
much from that likeness to truth which ought to be observ'd in these sort
of writings;