text:  "The State of Innocence" is AN OPERA! "Had the subject been of a nature which admitted its being actually represented we might conceive that Dryden who was under engagements to the theatre with which it was not always easy to comply might have been desirous to shorten his own labour _by adopting the story sentiments and language of a poem_" (how kind and cool) "which he so highly esteemed and which might probably have been new to the generality of his audience