In any general statement about the relative inferiority of this portion of Dryden's work, however, exception must be made in favour of one essay-the noble preface to the Fables (" On translating the Poets"). This comes from the very last year of his life; and we might therefore have expected to find traces in it of flagging energies and a hesitating hand. On the contrary, in strength and dexterity alike it holds its place secure beside, if not above, the "Essay of Dramatic Poesy." To these two splendid examples of his powers-the one from nearly the beginning, the other from quite the end of his long and strenuous career as a man of letters—we may well turn if we want to realise the greatness of Dryden as a critic and prose-writer. His defects were many and obvious; his inability to distinguish between the essential and the nonessential is frequently very marked; he sometimes wrote from insufficient knowledge and blundered sadly in consequence; he was often hasty in judgment, and was habitually careless about details. He was also emphatically a man of his time; as his views of literature were circumscribed by the limitations and prejudices of that time, they are now in many cases quite obsolete; much of his writing has, therefore, to-day an historical interest only. Yet the more carefully we consider his criticism the more we are likely to be impressed by its substantial and permanent qualities: by the massive good sense which he brings to bear upon every subject he touches; by his honesty, sagacity, and penetration; by the clearness, manly vigour, and fine felicity of his style. WILLIAM HENRY HUDSON. The following is a list of the works of John Dryden: DRAMATIC WORKS.-The Wild Gallant, acted 1663; published 1669; The Rival Ladies, acted 1663 (?), published 1664; The Indian Queen (in part attributed to Dryden), acted 1664, printed 1665; The Indian Emperor, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards (a sequel to the Indian Queen), acted 1665, published 1667; second edition 1668, to which was added A Defence of an Essay of Dramatic Poesy; Secret Love, or, The Maiden Queen, acted 1667, published 1668; Sir Martin_Mar-all, or, The Feigned Innocence, acted 1667, published 1668; The Tempest, or, The Enchanted Island - alteration of Shakespeare's play by Sir William Davenant in which Dryden had a share- acted 1667, published 1670; An Evening's Love, or, The Mock Astrologer, acted 1668, published 1671; Tyrannic Love, or, The Royal Martyr, acted 1668-9, published 1670, revised 1672; Almanzor and Almahide, or, The Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards (two parts), acted 1669 or 1670, published 1672; The Essay on Heroic Plays, and The Defence of the Epilogue, or, An Essay on the Dramatic Poetry of the Last Age, were published with this play. Marriage à la Mode, acted 1672, published 1673; The Assignation, or, Love in a Nunnery, acted 1672, published 1673; Amboyna, or, The Cruelties of the Dutch to the English Merchants, acted and published 1673; The State of Innocence and the Fall of Man: an opera, published 1674, with The Author's Apology for Heroic Poetry and Poetic Licence; Aurengzebe, acted 1675, published 1676; All for Love, or, The World Well Lost, acted and printed 1678; Mr. Limberham, or, The Kind Keeper, acted and published 1678; Edipus (in collaboration with Nat. Lee), acted and published 1679; Troilus and Cressida, or, Truth_Found Too Late, acted and published 1679; The Spanish Friar, or, The Double Discovery, acted and published 1681; The Duke of Guise (in collaboration with Nat. Lee), acted 1682, published 1683; The Vindication of the Duke of Guise was published separately, 1683; Albion and Albanius, acted and published 1685; Don Sebastian, acted and published 1690; Amphitryon, or, The Two Sosias, acted and published 1690; King Arthur, or, The British Worthy: an opera, acted and published 1691; Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero, acted and published 1692 (with Life of Cleomenes by T. Creech); Love Triumphant, or, Nature will Prevail, acted and published 1693-94; Secular Masque, with Prologue, Song, and Epilogue, written for Beaumont and Fletcher's Pilgrim, when revised in 1700. The Mall, or, The Modish Lovers, and The Mistaken Husband are doubtful plays. POETICAL WORKS.-Heroic Stanzas to the Memory of Oliver Cromwell: one of three poems upon the death of the Protector, the two others being by Edmund Waller and Mr. Sprat, two editions in 1659; Astræa Redux, 1660; A Panegyric on the Coronation, 1661; Address to Lord Chancellor Hyde, New Year's Day, 1662; Annus Mirabilis, the Year of Wonders, 1666; prefixed by An Account of the Ensuing Poem addressed to Sir Robert Howard; Absalom and Achitophel, part I., 1681; part II. in collaboration with Nahum Tate, 1682; The Medal, a Satire against Sedition, 1682; Mac-Flecknoe, or, A Satire upon the True Blue Protestant Poet, 1682; Religio Laici, or, A Layman's Faith, 1862; Threnodia Augustatis (to the memory of Charles II.), 1685; The Hind and the Panther, 1687; Britannia Rediviva, a poem on the Birth of the Prince, 1688; Eleonora: a Panegyrical Poem, dedicated to the Memory of the late Countess of Abingdon, 1692; Alexander's Feast, or, The Power of Music, 1697. Prologues and epilogues (to the number of nearly a hundred), epistles, elegies, and epigrams, odes, lyrical pieces, and hymns are included in Dryden's verse. Among these are a poem on the Death of Lord Hastings, first printed in Lachrymæ Musarum, 1649, and an Ode to the Pious Memory of the Accomplished Young Lady, Mrs. Anne Killigrew, first printed with her collected poems, 1686; Introductory poems to Hoddesden's Sion and Parnassus, to Sir R. Howard's poems, Charleton's Chorea Gigantum, Lee's Alexander, Roscommon's Essay on Translated Verse, and Congreve's Double Dealer. A few, with Satires and Translations, were published in volumes of the Miscellany Verse, which came out in six volumes from 1684-1706; vol. 2 had additional title of Sylvæ and vol. 3 of Examen Poeticum. Dryden is believed to have contributed poems to the New Court Songs and Poems, 1672, and to the Covent Garden Drollery, 1672. His Te Deum and hymn on St. John's Eve were first printed in Scott's edition of his works; other hymns have been recently attributed to him. TRANSLATIONS AND ADAPTATIONS.-Ovid: Epistles (Preface and two epistles by Dryden), 1680; Metamorphoses, published in the Third Miscellany (Examen Poeticum), 1693; Juvenal and Persius, prefixed by Essay on Satire, 1693; Virgil: works (Pastorals, Georgics, Aeneid), 1697, fol. and later editions, revised and corrected by J. Carey, 1803, and later editions; The Aeneid, edited with Introduction by H. Morley (Morley's Universal Library), 1884, and in Lubbock's Hundred Best Books, 1891; edited with Introduction by A. J. Church, 1910. Fables, Ancient and Modern, translated into verse from Homer, Ovid, Boccace, and Chaucer, with original poems (Palamon and Arcite, Meleager and Atalanta, Sigismonda and Guiscardo, Baucis and Philemon, Pigmalion and the Statue, Ciniras and Myrrha, ist Book of Homer's Iliad, The Cock and the Fox, or, The Nun's Priest's Tale, Theodore and Honoria, Ceyx and Alcyone, The Flower and the Leaf, Alexander's Feast, 12th book of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Speeches of Ajax and Ulysses, The Wife of Bath, Of the Pythagorean Philosophy, The Character of a Good Parson, The Monument of a Fair Maiden Lady, Cymon and Iphigenia), 1700; edited by H. Morley (The Companion Poets), 1891. PROSE WORKS.-Essay on Dramatic Poesy, 1668 (see The Indian Emperor), 2nd edition, 1684; Essay on Heroic Plays, 1672 (see Conquest of Granada); Notes and Observations on the Empress of Morocco, 1674; Apology for Heroic Poetry, 1674 (see State of Innocence); Vindication of the Duke of Guise, 1683; see also under Annus Mirabilis, account of, etc.; Translations of Juvenal and Persius (Essay on Satire); and Translation of Art of Painting (Preface). Life of Plutarch, prefixed to the Translation of the Lives by various hands, 1683; Controversy between Dryden and Stillingfleet, 1686; Preface to a Dialogue concerning Women, being a Defence of the Sex, 1691; Character of St. Evremond, prefixed to the latter's Miscellaneous Essays, 1692; Character of Polybius, prefixed to Sir Henry Sheere's translation, 1693; Life of Lucian, not printed till 1711; Letters, published in editions of Works. PROSE TRANSLATIONS.-Maimbourg History of the League, 1684; Bohours Life of St. Francis Xavier, 1688; Dufresnoy Art of Painting, with Preface, A Parallel between Painting and Poetry, 1695. WORKS.-Edited by Sir Walter Scott, 18 vols., 1808, 1821; re-edited by G. Saintsbury, 1882-93; World's Classics, 1903, etc. Dramatic Works.-Published by Tonson, I vol. fol., 1701; 6 vols. edited by Congreve, 1717; Eight Plays, edited by G. Saintsbury (Mermaid Series), 1904; Selected Dramas, edited G. R. Noyes (with The Rehearsal by G. Villiers), 1910. Poetical Works.-See Miscellany Verse above; Poems on various occasions, published by Tonson, I vol. fol., 1701; 2 vols., 1742; in 4 vols., edited by S. Derrick (with Life), 1760, 1767; edited by Dr. Johnson, The Works of the English Poets, vols. 13-19, 1779; vols. 18-24, 1790; with Notes by J. Warton and others, and Johnson's Life, 4 vols., 1811; Aldine Edition (with Mitford's Life), vols. 21-25, 1832-3; and with Life by R. Hooper, 1865, 1866; Annotated Edition, with Life by R. Bell, 1854; Globe Edition, with Memoir, revised text, and notes by W. D. Christie, 1870; with Life and Critical Dissertation by G. Gilfillan (Cassell's Library Edition), edited by C. C. Clarke, 1874; Lubbock's Hundred Best Books, 1892; Albion Edition, with additional lyrics from the plays, and with Memoir, 1893; with Introduction and Textual Notes by J. Sargeaunt, 1910. Selections.-Edited by W. D. Christie (Clarendon Press), 1871; 5th edition revised by C. H. Firth, 1893; edited with Introduction by H. Morley (Cassell's National Library), 1905; Satires, edited by J. Churton Collins, 1893; Dryden Anthology, 1675-1700 (British Anthologies, No. 7), edited by E. Arber, 1901. Prose Works-Critical and Miscellaneous Prose Works, 4 vols., published by Malone, 1800; Discourses on Satire and on Epic Poetry, with Introduction by H. Morley (Cassell's National Library), 1888; Essays, selected and edited by W. P. Ker, 2 vols., 1900; Essays on the Drama, with Introduction and Notes by W. Strunk (English Readings), 1908; Selections, by G. E. Hadow, 1908. Dryden's chief poems were published singly in many later editions after their first appearance. The Hind and the Panther has been edited by W. H. Williams, 1900, and Palamon and Arcite by P. Chubb, 1908. (Macmillan Series of Classics.) LIFE.-In Cibber's Lives of the Poets, 1753; Derrick's edition of poems, 1760; Johnson's Lives of the Poets, 1779-81; Malone's edition of Prose Works, 1800; Scott's edition of Works, 1808; R. Bell's edition of Poems, 1854; W. D. Christie (Globe edition), 1870; G. Saintsbury (English Men of Letters), 1881; Alex. Beljame, Le public et les hommes de lettres en Angleterre (1660-1744), 1881. CRITICAL STUDIES.-M. P. Sherwood: Dryden's Dramatic Theory and Practice, 1898; Allardyce Nicoll: Dryden as an Adapter of Shakespeare, 1922; Allardyce Nicoll: Dryden and his Poetry, 1923; T. S. Eliot; Homage to John Dryden, 1924; Alan Lubbock: The Character of John Dryden, 1925; E. M. W. Tillyard and C. S. Lewis: The Personal Heresy, 1939; T. W. Russell: Voltaire, Dryden, and Heroic Tragedy, 1946. |