poffefs confiderable merit; being the productions of men of real genius, who, from the brevity rather than the inferiority of their writings, have been ufually ftyled Minor Poets."

66

"On Dryden's foundation the prefent fuperftru&ture is begun. In its progrefs, almost every undertaking of a fimilar nature has been confulted, and material parts incorporated. The Collections formed by Fenton and Steele have been epitomized; whilft Pope's,. Pemberton's, Lintot's, and C. Tooke's have occafionally contributed to embellishment.

"The Collection by Mr. R. Dodfley is allowed to be the completeft of the kind; and with this the prefent publication is fo far from interfering, that not a fingle poem is intended to be printed, which is either in "Dodfley's Collection," the Supplement to it by by Mr. Pearch, or in the Sixty Volumes of the "English Poets.' To all or either of thefe, therefore, this Selection wilt. be a fuitable appendage; and the more fo, as I have preserved. fome poems of merit, which before were not known to have ex-, ifted.

"The Reader will find in the e volumes fome of the earliest productions of Dryden; foine originals by Sir William Temple; an Ode by Swift, which had long been confidered as irrecover. able; a confiderable number of good poems by Steele, Parnell, Fenton, Broome, and Yalden, with a few pieces by Halifax, Dorfet, Rochefter, Sprat, Prior, Pope, Bolingbroke, Philips, King, Smith, Watts, Pitt, Hughes, A. Philips, and Tickell, which are not to be found in any edition of their works.

"The affiftance of fome intelligent friends has enabled me to add a biographical account of almost every Writer here selected; and their perfuafions have induced me to lay before the public four volumes, as part of the plan I have undertaken. Two others are actually in the paefs. There are still an infinite number of Collections, which, amidst a chaos of weeds, would afford a confiderable quantity of flowers well worth the tranfplanting. But the encouragement thefe meet with muft determine whether the publication hall ceafe at the end of the fixth volume, or be extended ftill farther. Without any great idea of emolument, which in this cafe is far from being the principal object, I am unwilling to facrifice the little leifare of a laborious life in a purfuit that I have not reafon to think will in fome fmall degree contribute to "the public ftock, of harmlefs pleafure." To my concluding volume fall be annexed a complete Poetical Index. J. N."

We doubt not but every admirer of the Mufes will join with us in wifhing that the number of these entertaining volumes may be carried on as far as the inclination and materials of the Editor may extend; we shall in that cafe have a valuable compact body of English fugitive poetry, on which the biographical notes will ftamp confiderable value.

As to the feveral poems in this Collection, it would be unreasonable to expect them all to be of equal excellence; VOL. XI.

F

and

and in fact fome which appear in the firft volume are inferior to those which fucceed them. But this circumftance is fo far from being an objection, that we look upon it as one of the advantages of this Selection. We fee by it the progrefs of poetry for a long period of years, and trace the fuc ceffive improvements it has received. We have obferved in our Review for December 1775, "that it is easier for a middling poet in thefe days, to make good rhymes, than it was formerly for a good one." Thefe volumes abundantly confirm the affertion; and we have fince met with a remark by a man of diftinguished quality and merit, at the beginning of this century, that "ill poets made better verfes then, than good ones did fifty years earlier; verfification having been to highly improved by Mr. Dryden, and fo well fudied by his immediate fucceffors, that it was looked-for even in those from whom little elfe was to be expected."

Where verfification, however, is defective, we fhall find the want atoned for, in fome cafes, by genius and fpirit, in others by nature and delicacy, or at leaft by art and pleafantry, and in all of them by fome degree of the true vis poetica.

As fome quotations will naturally be expected, we fhall felect a fpecimen or two, both of the poetry and the notes. The earliest poem of Dryden, with his Epilogue to the Duke of Guile, will not, we believe, be unacceptable.

J. Dryden, of Trinity College, to his Friend the Author, upon bis
Divine Epigrams. Not printed in his Works.

"Thou haft infpir'd me with thy foul; and I,
Who ne'er before could ken of poetry,

Prefixed to The Poems of John Hoddefon, London, 12mo. 1650'-Neither thefe verfes, nor the prologue and two epilogues to The Duke of Guife,' having yet found admittance among the Works of this great Poet; I am happy in being thus able to fupply the deficiency; and of obferving, that he was not the author of An Elegy on the Ufurper O. C. by the Author of Abfalom and Achitophel, published to fhew the Loyalty and Integrity of the Poet, 1681;' nor of The Addrefs of John Dryden, Laureat, to his Highness the Prince of Orange, 1689;' nor of the Familiar Epiffle to Julian,' (erroncoufly afcribed to him in the fixth volume of his Miscellanies published by Tonfon after the death of the person whofe name they bear, and fince continued in every edition of his Works. See vol. II. 1778, p. 157.) which was originally published about 1683, under the title of An Exclamation against Julian, Secretary of the Muses; with the Character of a Libeller [Sir Charles Scrope]. By a perfon of quality [Lord Mulgrave].'

Am

Am grown fo good proficient, I can lend
A line in commendation of my friend;
Yet 'tis but of the fecond hand; if aught
There be in this, 'tis from thy fancy brought.
Good thief, who dares Prometheus-like afpire,
And fill thy poems with celeftial fire:
Enliven'd by thefe fparks divine, their rays
Add a bright luftre to thy crown of bays,
Young eaglet, who thy neft thus foon forfook,
So lofty and divine a courfe has took
As all admire, before the down begin
To peep as yet upon thy fmoother chin;
And, making heaven thy aim, haft had the grace
To look the fun of righteoufnefs i' th' face.
What may we hope, if thou goeft on thus faft?
Scriptures at firft, enthufiafms at laft!

Thou hast commenc'd, betimes, a faint: go on,
Mingling diviner streams with Helicon ;
That they who view what Epigrams here be
May learn to make like, in juft praise of thee.
Reader, I've done, nor longer will with-hold
Thy greedy eyes: looking on this pure gold,
Thou 'it know adulterate copper, which like this,
Will only ferve to be a foil to his."

Epilogue to the Duke of Guife. By Mr. Dryden. Not in his Worksa

Much time and trouble this poor play has coft;
And, faith, I doubted once the caufe was loft.
Yet no one man was meant ; nor great nor fmall;
Our poets, like frank gamefters, threw at all.
They took no fingle aim-

But, like bold boys, true to their prince and hearty,
Huzza'd, and fir'd broadfides at the whole party.
Duels are crimes; but, when the caufe is right,
In battle every man is bound to fight.

For what should hinder

me to fell iny fkin

Dear as I could, if once my hand were in?

Se defendendo never was a fin.

'Tis a fine world, my masters; right or wrong,

The Whigs must talk, and Tories hold their tongue,
They must do all they can→→→→→

But we, forfooth, must bear a christian mind;

And fight, like boys, with one hand ty'd behind.

}

Nay, and when one boy's down, 't were wondrous nice,

To cry bax fair, and give him time to rife.

When fortune favours, none but fools will dally :
Would any of you fparks, if Nan or Mally
Tipt you the th' inviting wink, ftand fhall I; fhall I?

F 2

A trimmer

A trimmer cry'd (that heard me tell the ftory),
Fie, miftrefs Cooke! faith, you're too rank a Tory!
With not Whigs hang'd, but pity their hard cafes;
You women love to fee men make wry facet.
Pray fir, faid I, don't think me fuch a Jew;
I fay no more, but give the devil his due.
Lenitives, faid he, fuit beft with our condition.
Jack Kerch, fays I, 's an excellent phyfician.
I love no blood-Nor I, Sir, as I breathe;
But hanging is a fine dry kind of death.
We Trimmers are for holding all things even:

Yes juft like him that hung 'twixt hell and heaven.
Have we not had men's lives enough already?
Yes fure but you 're for holding all things fteady:
Now, fince the weight hangs all on our fide, brother,
You trimmers fhould, to poize it, hang on t'other.
Damn'd neuters, in their middle way of fleering,
Are neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red-herring;
Not Whigs nor Tories they; nor this, nor that;
Not birds, nor beafts; but just a kind of bat,
A twilight animal, true to neither caufe,

With Tory wings, but Whiggish teeth and claws "

We find feveral other poems by Mr. Dryden in this Colfection, particularly two fmall ones in Latin, one of them On the Death of Prince Henry and Princefs Mary,' the other On the Marriage of King Charles II.' which are accompanied with the following note.

"The Reader will not be difpleafed at being prefented with two Latin poems (though perhaps of no fuperior excellence) by fo capital a writer. By the fecond of them it appears that in 1662 he had the degree of B. A. and had obtained a fellowship; though neither of thofe academical honours attended his name in 1661. One of his earlieft productions (written in 1650, the year he went to college) is already printed in vol. I. p. 181. with a prologue and two epilogues to The Duke of Guife, none of which are in any edition of his works. If thefe poems had come to light betore the publication of Dr. Johnfon's excellent Life of Dryden, that judicious Biographer would certainly have made fome alteration in the following paragraph: At the univerfity he does not appear to have been eager of poetical diftinction, or to have lavished his early wit either on fictitious subjects or public occafions. He probably confidered that he who purpofed to be an author, ought first to 'be a ftudent. He obtained, whatever was the reafon, no fellowShip in the College. Why he was excluced, cannot now be known, and it is vain to guefs; had he thought himself injured, he knew how to complain. In the Life of Plutarch he mentions

The actress who fpake the epilogue.

his education in the College with gratitude; but in a prologue at Oxford, he has thefe lines:

Oxford to him a dearer name fhall be
Than his own mother-university;

Thebes did his rude unknowing youth engage:
He chooses Athens in his riper age.

It was not till the death of Cromwell, in 1658, that he became a public candidate for fame, by publishing Heroick Stanzas on the latą Lord Protector, which, compared with the verfes of Sprat and Waller on the fame occafion, were fufficient to raife great expectations of the rifing poet.'

Of George Chapman we have the following anecdote:

"This writer, who obtained much applaufe in his time, and was greatly praised by his contemporaries, was born at Hitchinghill, in the county of Hertford, fome time in the year 1557. After being well grounded in fchool-learning, he was fent to the University, but whether to Oxford or Cambridge was unknown to Anthony Wood, who declares himself certain he refided fome time at the former, where he was obferved to be most excellent in the Latin and Greek tongues, but not in Logic or Philofophy, which may be prefumed to be the reafon, he took no degree there. He appears to have been a man of a very refpectable character, being countenanced and patronized by feveral eminent perfons, particularly Sir Thomas Walfyngham and his fon, and by Prince Henry, fon of James the Firft. Wood imagines that he was a fworn fervant either to James the First or his Queen, and fays he was highly valued, but not fo much as Ben Johnson. The fame writer adds, that he was a perfon of most reverend afpect, religious and temperate qualities, rarely meeting in a poet.' After Hving to the age of 77 years, he died on the 12th day of May, 1634, in the parish of St. Giles in the Fields, and was buried on the South-fide of the Church-yard there. His friend Inigo Jones erected a monument to his memory near the place of his interment. His tranflation of Homer acquired him a considerable degree of reputation. Mr. Dryden tells us, that Waller used to fay be never could read it without incredible transport. It is much cenfured by Mr. Pope, who, notwithstanding, acknowledges that there is a daring, fiery fpirit, which animates it, fomething like what one might imagine Honer himself would have writ before he arrived at years of discretion. He tranflated alfo the Batrachomyomachia, and all the Hymns of Homer, to which he annexed the verses here printed: finished Marlow's Tranflation of Mufæus produced feveral original Poems, and fome other Tranilations; was the author of feventeen dramatick performances, and affifted Shirley in two others. For this note I am indebted to the new edition of Dodfley's Old Plays, vol. IV. p. 113, where the feader

3.

will

1