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his stand even more firmly on Aristotle, Longinus, and Horace; sets out at length the commonplaces of the classic school of criticism; upholds the "rules," which are now treated (in a phrase of Rapin's afterwards adopted by Pope) as made only to reduce Nature into method;" and finds fault with Shakespeare and Fletcher for defects in technique. This decisive utterance in favour of the classic doctrine dates from the year after "All for Love" had marked the swing of the critic's mind towards the Shakespearean type of play. Two years later, in the preface to "The Spanish Friar" (“Nature and Dramatic Art"), he so far abandons the classic ideal as to defend double-plots and the mixed drama, or tragi-comedy, of the romantic stage. Then, in an "Examen Poeticum " prefixed to the third part of a Miscellany published in 1693, he enters the lists as the champion of the English drama against all comers; repeats some of Neander's arguments regarding the poverty of the French playwrights and their too servile dependence on "mechanic rules"; and yet at the same time enters a protest against those who pay lip-service to the "Manes of Shakespeare, Fletcher, and Jonson in order only that they may "throw dirt on the writers of this age." This last particular suggests an interesting point in connection with Dryden's critical position. In the Battle of the Books he is so far a modern that, however much he may himself find to blame in the older English drama, he is in general solicitous to protect it against its detractors. But he is equally solicitous to defend the achievements of his own day against those who regarded the efforts of the greater preRestoration playwrights as the high-water mark of English dramatic genius. This opinion he boldly challenged in the Epilogue to the second part of his "Conquest of Granada." The rather reckless language which he there used exposed him to severe attack; he found himself compelled in cold blood to make good assertions which he had flung out in hot blood; and the "Defence of the Epilogue, or an Essay on the Dramatic Poetry of the Last age was the result. On the whole, this essay is disappointing; too much space is wasted upon verbal criticisms of a singularly petty and profitless kind. Yet a larger purpose is apparent in the argument; the writer is anxious to show that if the modern dramatist cannot compare with the great pre-Restoration men in mere quality of genius, he gains greatly from the superior culture and taste of his time, and that therefore he has a right to work independently.

This contention is closely associated with Dryden's belief (already incidentally set forth in his preface to "An Evening Love"), that there was at least one special achievement in which the modern dramatists might justly claim precedence of those of the foregoing period-the Heroic Play. Hence the significance of Dryden's concern with this extraordinary form of over-blown tragedy or melodrama which, arising from the combined influences of the older English theatre, the epic poem, French heroic romance, and French rhyming tragedy, enjoyed for a time immense popularity on the London boards. For his own exposition of the theory and principles of this curious type of drama we may turn to his essays "Of Heroic Plays" prefixed to the first part of "The Conquest of Granada," and "On Heroic Poetry and Heroic Licence," published with his operatic version (or perversion) of "Paradise Lost," The State of Innocence." Of course we cannot now accept Dryden's estimate of the Heroic Drama. As a matter of detail, therefore, it should be remembered that he himself finally grew tired of it. In his preface to "The Spanish Friar" he repents, among his other sins, the monstrous extravagances into which it had temporarily scduced him.

Between Dryden's essays on dramatic and those on nondramatic subjects, the connection is very close. In particular, the problems of what constitutes the heroic whether in tragedy or epic, of how the "heroic " should be treated, and of the relations of Art and Nature, are common to both; while more broadly, the questions which otherwise come up for consideration, being products of the same literary interests and conditions, belong to the same general class and are regarded from the same point of view. Dryden's pre-occupation with the elements of heroic poetry in the preface to "Annus Mirabilis; with the principles of translation in the prefaces to "Ovid's Epistles" and "Sylvæ;" with the characteristics of leading classic writers in the last-named essay and elsewhere; with the moral functions of epic and tragedy in the discourse on "Virgil and the Æneid; " and other similar topics, is thus explained. It is rarely that in these nondramatic writings Dryden reaches his highest level as a critic. His treatment of the epic, for example, is on the whole rather tame and conventional; the learning which he parades is for the most part second-hand learning; and, except in his analysis of the character of Æneas, which may still be read with profit, there is little that is fresh or striking in the opinions expressed.

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;