The Age of Pope: 1700-1744 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Age of Pope: 1700-1744

The death of John Dryden, on the first of May, 1700, closed a period of no small significance in the history of English literature. His faults were many, both as a. Man and as a poet, but he belongs to the race of the giants, and the impress of greatness is stamped upon his works. No student of Dryden can fail to mark the force and sweep of an intellect impatient Of restraint. His long-resounding march reminds us of a turbulent river that overflows its banks, and if order and perfection Of art are sometimes wanting in his verse, there is never the lack of power. Unfortunately many of the best years Of his life were devoted to a craft in which he was working against the grain. His dramas, with one or two noble exceptions, are comparative failures, and in them he too Often.

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