The Dramatic Works of John Dryden Vol. I. - With a Life of the Author | Page 5

and Persius--Smaller Pieces--Eleanora--Third
Miscellany--Virgil--Ode to St. Cecilia--Dispute with Milbourne--with
Blackmore--Fables--The Author's Death and Funeral--His Private
Character--Notices of his Family
SECT. VIII. The State of Dryden's Reputation at his Death, and
afterwards--The general Character of his Mind--His Merit as a
Dramatist --As a Lyrical Poet--As a Satirist--As a Narrative Poet--As a
Philosophical and Miscellaneous Poet--As a Translator--As a Prose
Author--As a Critic

THE LIFE OF JOHN DRYDEN.
VOL. I.
THE LIFE OF JOHN DRYDEN.
* * * * *

SECTION I.
_Preliminary Remarks on the Poetry of England before the Civil
Wars-- The Life of Dryden from his Birth till the Restoration--His early
Poems, including the "Annus Mirabilis."_
The Life of Dryden may be said to comprehend a history of the
Literature of England, and its changes, during nearly half a century.
While his great contemporary Milton was in silence and secrecy laying
the foundation of that immortal fame, which no poet has so highly
deserved Dryden's labours were ever in the eye of the public; and he
maintained, from the time of the Restoration till his death, in 1700, a
decided and acknowledged superiority over all the poets of his age. As
he wrote from necessity, he was obliged to pay a certain deference to
the public opinion; for he, whose bread depends upon the success of his
volume, is compelled to study popularity; but, on the other hand, his
better judgment was often directed to improve that of his readers; so
that he alternately influenced and stooped to the national taste of the
day. If, therefore, we would know the gradual changes which took
place in our poetry during the above period, we have only to consult the
writings of an author, who produced yearly some new performance
allowed to be most excellent in the particular style which was
fashionable for the time. It is the object of this memoir to connect, with
the account of Dryden's life and publications such a general view of the
literature of the time, as may enable the reader to estimate how far the
age was indebted to the poet, and how far the poet was influenced by
the taste and manners of the age. A few preliminary remarks on the
literature of the earlier part of the seventeenth century will form a
necessary introduction to this biographical memoir.
[1]When James I. ascended the throne of England he came to rule a
court and people, as much distinguished for literature as for commerce
and arms. Shakespeare was in the zenith of his reputation, and England
possessed other poets inferior to Shakespeare alone; or, indeed, the
higher order of whose plays may claim to be ranked above the inferior
dramas ascribed to him. Among these we may reckon Massinger, who
approached to Shakespeare in dignity; Beaumont and Fletcher, who

surpassed him in drawing female characters, and those of polite and
courtly life; and Jonson, who attempted to supply, by depth of learning,
and laboured accuracy of character, the want of that flow of
imagination, which nature had denied to him. Others, who flourished in
the reign of James and his son, though little known to the general
readers of the present age even by name, had a just claim to be
distinguished from the common herd of authors. Ford, Webster,
Marston, Brome, Shirley, even Chapman and Decker, added lustre to
the stage for which they wrote. The drama, it is true, was the branch of
poetry most successfully cultivated; for it afforded the most ready
appeal to the public taste. The number of theatres then open in all parts
of the city, secured to the adventurous poet the means of having his
performance represented upon one stage or other; and he was neither
tired nor disgusted by the difficulties, and disagreeable observances,
which must now be necessarily undergone by every candidate for
dramatic laurels.[2] But, although during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth
and James I, the stage seems to have afforded the principal employment
of the poets, there wanted not many, who cultivated, with success, the
other departments of Parnassus. It is only necessary to name Spenser,
whose magic tale continues to interest us, in despite of the languor of a
continued allegory; Drayton, who, though less known, possesses
perhaps equal powers of poetry; Beaumont the elder, whose poem on
Bosworth Field carries us back to the days of the Plantagenets; Fairfax,
the translator of Tasso, the melody of whose numbers became the
model of Waller; besides many others, who ornamented this era of
British literature.
Notwithstanding the splendour of these great names, it must be
confessed, that one common fault, in a greater or less degree, pervaded
the most admired poetry of Queen Elizabeth's age. This was the fatal
propensity to false wit; to substitute, namely, strange and unexpected
connections of sound, or of