mies, or ministers of state, as any the most renowned in story *."

We now approach an author of distinguished fame. DRYDEN, in prose as in verse, has attained to great excellence. No writer, indeed, seems to have studied the genius of our language with happier success. If in elegance and grammatical precision he has since been exceeded, to none need he give way, in point of vigour, variety, richness, and spirit. There is a raciness and a mellow tinting in his composition, which, with a felicitous selection of vernacular idiom, stamp upon his style a peculiar and pleasing originality.

"His prose," observes Congreve," had all the clearness imaginable, together with all the nobleness of expression; all the graces and ornaments proper and peculiar to it, without deviat ing into the language or diction of poetry. I make this observation only to distinguish his style from that of many poetical writers, who, meaning to write harmoniously in prose, do in truth often write mere blank verse.

"I have heard him frequently own with pleasure, that if he had any talent for English prose, it was owing to his having often read the writings of the great Archbishop Tillotson."

To Tillotson, however, he is, in many respects, far superior; in fact, there is little similarity be* Miscellanea, p. 320, 521, 322.

tween their styles; for whilst the Archbishop, as we have already remarked, is frequently remiss and feeble, nothing languid or nerveless can be found in Dryden.

The highest compliment ever paid to his diction has been recorded by Mr. Malone; namely, the imitation of Edmund Burke, who," says the critic, "had very diligently read all his miscellaneous essays, which he held in high estimation, not only for the instruction which they contain, but on acount of the rich and numerous prose in which that instruction is conveyed. On the language of Dryden, on which, perhaps, his ownstyle was originally in some measure formed, I have often heard him expatiate with great admiration; and if the works of Burke be examined with this view, he will, I believe, be found more nearly to resemble this great author than any other English writer *."

In confirmation of this idea, Mr. Malone appeals to a passage in the beginning of Dryden's Discourse on Satire, and which, therefore, it will be necessary to quote:

"It is true, I have one privilege which is almost particular to myself, that I saw you † in the East, at your first arising above the hemisphere: I was as soon sensible as any man of that light,

* Malone's Dryden, vol. i. Advertisement, p. 7.
† Charles, Earl of Dorset and Middlesex.

when it was but just shooting out, and beginning to travel upwards to the meridian. I made my early addresses to your Lordship in my Essay of Dramatic Poetry, and therein bespoke you to the world; wherein I have the right of a first discoverer. When I was myself in the rudiments of my poetry, without name or reputation in the world, having rather the ambition of a writer than the skill; when I was drawing the outlines of an art, without any living master to instruct me in it; an art which had been better praised than studied here in England; wherein Shakspeare, who created the stage among us, had rather written happily, than knowingly and justly; and Jonson, who by studying Horace had been acquainted with the rules, yet seemed to envy to posterity that knowledge, and like an inventor of some useful art, to make a monopoly of his learning; when thus, as I may say, before the use of the loadstone, or knowledge of the compass, I was sailing in a vast ocean, without other help than the pole-star of the ancients, and the rules of the French stage amongst the moderns, which are extremely different from ours, by reason of their opposite taste; yet even then, I had the presumption to dedicate to your lordship-a very unfinished piece, I must confess, and which only can be excused by the little experience of the

author, and the modesty of the title, AN ESSAY. Yet I was stronger in prophecy than I was in criticism: I was inspired to foretell you to mankind, as the restorer of poetry, the greatest genius, the truest judge, and the best patron *.

دو

To this extract, which is uncommonly rich, I shall add our author's opinion of the merits of Chaucer and Cowley, an example of his more subdued and usual style.

"In the first place, as he is the father of English poetry, so I hold him in the same degree of veneration as the Grecians held Homer, or the Romans Virgil. He is a perpetual fountain of good sense; learned in all sciences; and therefore speaks properly on all subjects. As he knew what to say, so he knows also when to leave off; a continence which is practised by few writers, and scarcely by any of the ancients, excepting Virgil and Horace. One of our late great poets + is sunk in his reputation, because he could never forgive any conceit which came in his way; but swept, like a drag-net, great and small. There was plenty enough, but the dishes were ill-sorted; whole pyramids of sweet-meats for boys and women, but little of solid meat for men. this proceeded not from any want of knowledge, but of judgment. Neither did he want that in

All

* On the Origin and Progress of Satire. Malone's Dryden, vol. iii. p. 75, 76. + Cowley.

discerning the beauties and faults of other poets, but only indulged himself in the luxury of writing; and perhaps knew it was a fault, but hoped the reader would not find it. For this reason, though he must always be thought a great poet, he is no longer esteemed a good writer; and for ten impressions, which his works have had in so many successive years, yet at present a hundred books are scarcely purchased once a twelvemonth; for, as my last Lord Rochester said, though somewhat profanely, Not being of God, he could not stand.

"Chaucer followed nature every where; but was never so bold to go beyond her and there is a great difference of being poeta, and nimis poeta, if we may believe Catullus, as much as betwixt a modest behaviour and affectation. The verse of Chaucer, I confess, is not harmonious to us; but it is like the eloquence of one whom Tacitus commends S -it was auribus istius temporis accommodata. They who lived with him, and sometime after him, thought it musical; and it continues so even in our judgment, if compared with the numbers of Lydgate and Gower, his contemporaries there is the rude sweetness of a Scotch tune in it, which is natural and pleasing, though not perfect. It is true, I cannot go so far as he