LITERARY PRODUCTIONS OF JOHN DRYDEN.

DRAMATIC WORKS. Twenty-seven in number, consisting of twelve tragedies, nine comedies, three tragi-comedies, and three operas, part of which were presented at the King's Theatre, part at the Duke's, and part by the united companies. The earlier tragedies were written in rhymed iambic pentameter, or heroic metre, an imitation of French plays, blank verse being impossible in the French language. Later Dryden changed to blank verse in his tragedies. His plays have many features of the Spanish in the way of rapid action, profusion of intrigue, and extravagance of language. They also contain many lyric passages after the Italian style, thus showing a mixed dramatic school, that prevailed until Garrick revived Shakespeare. All for Love, the only play, as Dryden says, that he wrote to please himself, is by far the best, and has genuine strength. Don Sebastian and The Spanish Friar are also praised by editors of Dryden. There are many bright things in nearly all these plays, and the melody of many of the songs scattered through them is exquisite; but unfortunately the coarseness which they share with the plays in general prevents their being used. Written, as they were, distinctly for their age, Dryden's plays as a whole have nothing to commend them to others than special students of dramatic progress. There is no call for an extended review here, as, had

Dryden's fame depended on the drama to which he gave so much of his life, he would be rated to-day as a third-rate author.

HEROIC STANZAS ON THE DEATH OF OLIVER CROMWELL (1658). A vigorous but crude eulogy. At the same time Saintsbury says that not three poets then living could have written its best lines.

ASTREA REDUX (The Return of Glory) (1660). In honor of the Restoration. This, while uneven, shows a master's use of the heroic couplet, and has touches of the "energy divine" with which Pope credited Dryden.

A PANEGYRIC UPON THE CORONATION (1661). A poem in heroic couplets like the preceding. Abundant in its flattery, as might be expected. It shows a gain in ease of writing, and a beginning of the analysis of human nature that marked his later writings.

ANNUS MIRABILIS (The Year of Wonders) (1667). A laudatory poem of three hundred and four stanzas describing the events and achievements of the year 1666. The first part treats of the Dutch wars, the last of the fire in London. Written, like the eulogy on Cromwell, in quatrains, after the style of Sir William Davenant, and Dryden's last use of this metre. The leading effort of his first poetical period.

ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL (1681). A satirical poem defending Charles II. against the Whig party upon the occasion of Monmouth's rebellion. The characters are drawn from the scriptural account of Absalom's insurrection against King David, 2 Sam. xiii.-xviii. Monmouth is Absalom; Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, the real instigator of the uprising, is Achitophel, or Ahithophel: while Charles is of course. David. The scriptural parallel, admirably adapted for the pur

pose, even if Charles did scant credit to his prototype, is sus tained in the reference to minor persons, as well as places, parties, and sects, by the aid of Biblical characters not necessarily contemporary with Absalom. Thus, Queen Catherine is Michal, the Duke of Buckingham is the wicked Zimri, the Duke of Ormond is the good Barzillai, France is Egypt, the Roman Catholics are Jebusites, etc. Popular interest was heightened by the effort to establish the identity of those alluded to, and the names used clung as nicknames. It forms the ablest poem of its kind in existence, and selections from it live as classics.

THE MEDAL (1682). For the circumstances of this, see Biographical Sketch. The personal satire in this is directed at Shaftesbury; but it incidentally traces the troubles of the country from the civil war through the stages of religious control and contention, a transient republic, and a military tyranny to the Restoration. Naturally of less general interest than the previous poem on account of its narrower scope, but its equal in withering power.

MAC-FLECKNOE (1682). A coarse, keen, mock-heroic poem directed at Thomas Shadwell, and in the form of an imaginary story in which Shadwell is made to take a prominent and mortifyingly ludicrous part. There had been an absurd Irish would-be poet named Flecknoe. Dryden represents him as absolute ruler of the realms of Nonsense, and as choosing Shadwell for his successor on the ground that Shadwell is the only one of his sons who is without sense at all times. The poem describes the coronation, and formed the model for Pope's Dunciad.

ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL, PART II. (1682). A continuation of the attack upon the Whigs, and introducing Dryden's

rivals, Shadwell and Settle, under the names of Og and Doeg. Written mainly by Nahum Tate with Dryden's revision, and two hundred lines of the latter's own, in which some most telling satirical work is done, as seen in such passages as :

"Doeg, though without knowing how or why,

Made still a blundering kind of melody."

RELIGIO LAICI (A Layman's Faith) (1682). An argument for the Church of England, but no less political than religious, inasmuch as sectarian controversy had a great deal to do with the party politics of Charles II.'s time. It was evidently designed to point a proper middle course for the Anglican church, between the Catholics on the one hand, and the Dissenters on the other, who were assailing both the Established Church and each other, and thus strengthen the king. The arguments are maintained with rare skill, and show Dryden's logical, clear-cut mind at its best. The name is copied from Sir Thomas Browne's Religio Medici. While not sublime as a poem, because the verse is but the vehicle for the argument, the use of the heroic couplet approaches more nearly the smoothness of Pope than much of his previous work.

ESSAY OF DRAMATIC POESY (revised in 1684, first published in 1668). The first regular treatise in our language on the art of writing, and a valuable contribution to prose development. The object was to free the honor of the English poets from the censure of their accusers. This and subsequent writings caused Johnson to style Dryden the "father of English criticism." The subject is treated in the form of a supposed dialogue, under fictitious names, between Dryden himself and three scholarly friends.

LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER (1685). A translation from

the French of Bouhours, to show Dryden's zeal for his new faith, and dedicated to Queen Mary of Este, wife of James II.

THRENODIA AUGUSTALIS (Elegy for an August Prince) (1685). An honorary ode following the death of Charles II. Written in Pindaric measure, which with its studied irregularity seems forced and unnatural in our language. A shrewd poetic expression of "The king is dead, long live the king!"

THE HIND AND THE PANTHER (1687). An allegorical poem to decide the controversy between Romanists and Protestants in favor of the former, whose faith Dryden had adopted. The Hind is the Church of Rome, milk-white and innocent; the Panther is the Church of England, spotted and cruel. Other denominations, classes, and individuals are denoted by the names of various beasts and birds. It is in three parts, the first of which aims at being lofty, while the second and third are designed for conversation and dispute. It shows the full power of Dryden and greater care than he usually gave to his work, but can be of little interest to us now; and in its own time the absurdity of making beasts discuss theology rendered it a fair mark for the ridicule it received in The Town and the Country Mouse, by Montague and Matthew Prior.

FIRST ODE FOR ST. CECILIA'S DAY (1687). Written for a musical society in London which began in 1683 to hold annual celebrations on St. Cecilia's Day, the twenty-second of November. This ode is only sixty-three lines in length, and is "lost in the splendour of the second," but is remarkable for the number of quotations it has supplied.

MISCELLANIES (1684, 1685, 1693, 1694). Collections comprising many translations and pieces of general work by Dryden and other authors. The later ones had a number of