SELECTIONS, FROM DRYDEN CHOSEN AND EDITED BY G. E. HADOW TUTOR IN ENGLISH LITERATURE, LADY MARGARET HALL OXFORD OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS MCM VIII 15435.14 Taylor fund HENRY FROWDE, M.A. PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD LONDON, EDINBURGH NEW YORK AND TORONTO INTRODUCTION 6 THE student who wishes to know something of the development of English literature during the seventeenth century, can hardly find a book more suited to his purpose than the works of John Dryden. No great poet ever more faithfully reflected the exact spirit of the age in which he wrote. Defoe, who could never forgive his change of politics, writes bitterly of the genius flung and pitched upon a swivel', which would turn round as fast as the times, and instruct him how to write elegies to O(liver) C(romwell) and King Charles) the Second with all the coherence imaginable'. Unjust as such criticism is, the fact remains that Dryden always takes his inspiration from the prevailing fashion of the moment. His earlier poems contain conceits worthy of Donne or Cowley in their worst moments; 1 his later lyrics are the most perfect examples of the graceful, artificial love-song of the Restoration. Waller's flowing couplets replace the rougher verse of the metaphysical' poets; and Dryden writes in the heroic couplet: Butler delights the town with the satiric wit of Hudibras; and Dryden produces Absalom and Achitophel. Whatever other men are doing, Dryden does. and-with the one great exception of epic blank versedoes better. The Annus Mirabilis has its conceits, but it has also a dignity and simplicity far beyond the power of Donne or Cowley. The description of the sea-fight is admirable in its vigour and restraint. It appeals to us 1 See Annus Mirabilis, stanza 281 |