poetry a form of expression which was lucid and concise; a medium skilfully adapted to description, argument, or moral teaching, and a marvelous instrument for satire. So far, this new manner was a distinct gain to literature; but it was a gain that brought a great loss with it, for this new style became so supreme that, for a time, it almost altogether replaced the old. The serious limitations of Dryden and his followers, their deficient sense of beauty, their lack of spiritual vision, are reflected in their style. When men exchanged the noble eloquence of Jeremy Taylor for the sensible pedestrian gait of Dryden, when they replaced the rich and complex harmonies of Milton with the thinner melody and measured stroke of the rimed couplet, they were like men who should cease to cultivate the rose, because the potato is a useful article. JOHN DRYDEN (1631-1700) The changes in literature after the Restoration, in both its spirit and its style, are seen most perfectly in the work of John Dryden, a man of cold, logical intellect, and, in his own province, one of the great masters of our English tongue. Few men have so perfectly represented their age or so manifestly determined the course of literary history. From the Restoration to the end of the century, Dryden dominated English letters, "the greatest man of a little age ;" and long iambic lines, each containing ten syllables or five accents. For example, "On her white breast a sparkling Cross she wore, Which Jews might kiss, and Infidels adore." after his death the student of literature sees in both prose and poetry the impress of his powerful personality and literary skill. Dryden's Life. - John Dryden was born at Aldwinkle, a small village in the northeastern part of Northamptonshire, in 1631. He came of a highly respectable Puritan family, some of his relatives, both on his father's and his mother's side, being active supporters of the Parliamentary cause. He went to Westminster School, London, and in 1650 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge. Little is known of his life at school or college, but we find him in after years sending his two sons to Westminster that they might be under the instruction of his old master, and he speaks with gratitude of the solid foundation of learning he obtained there. Dryden took his degree at Cambridge in 1654, and for three years thereafter continued his studies within the walls of the old college. The beginning of Dryden's poetical career is practically contemporaneous with the Restoration. In 1659, when he was in his twenty-eighth year, he wrote his first important poem, Heroic Stanzas on the Death of Cromwell. This tribute to the great Puritan was followed a year later by the Astræa Redux, an effusive welcome to Charles II upon his "happy restoration and return." Dryden may have been honest in his sudden conversion; nevertheless, this poem, with its strain of absurd flattery, carries with it no conviction of sincerity. As a Dramatist. If we are ignorant of the motives which led Dryden to change his political faith, the reasons which led to his next step are only too clear. In spite of his Puritan ancestry, he was entirely lacking in that uncompromising independence which was so conspicuous a trait of the Puritan character. Milton felt that the true poet was God's prophet, bound to speak the truth delivered to him: but Dryden made writing a trade; he was quick to feel what the public wanted, and he showed no scruples in adapting his wares to the popular demand. After the Restoration, play-writing was the most lucrative branch of literature; and for about eighteen years (1663-1681) Dryden gave up nearly all his time and energy to writing plays, although he felt that in so doing he was sacrificing his higher success. He writes frankly: "I confess my chief endeavours are to delight the age in which I live. If the humour of this be for low comedy, small accidents and raillery, I will force my genius to obey it, though with more reputation I could write in verse." Dryden went so far in his efforts "to delight" his age that he produced some comedies whose license was marked even in that lax time. Yet, while he traded in vice, he kept a touch of the Puritan's conscience. In one of the most beautiful of his poems, he cries out in a rare burst of genuine feeling: "O gracious God! how far have we And towards the close of his life, he confesses with manly frankness, "I am sensible, as I ought to be, of the scandal I have given by my loose writings; and make what reparation I am able by this public acknowledgment." There is much that is pathetic and even tragic in this late realization that through the best years of his life his mental powers had largely been misspent. Of all his plays, only one, he says, was "written for himself; "All for Love"the rest were given to the people." One poem, Annus Mirabilis (1667), broke this period of dramatic activity. It deals with two events of the wonderful year 1666, the War with Holland, and the Great Fire of London. Satires and Other Works. At fifty, Dryden had made but a slight impression as a poet: his reputation rested almost entirely on his plays. Yet at fifty he entered suddenly upon the most splendid period of his career with the publication of his great political satire, Absalom and Achitophel (1681). Here Dryden takes the biblical story of Absalom's revolt against David the King as an allegory to disclose to the nation the traitorous intent and the evil character of Monmouth and Shaftesbury, who were plotting against King Charles. After years of apprenticeship, Dryden had come to his own, and we feel at last those distinctive qualities in which he has been seldom approached and never excelled the impetus of the rapid verse, the keen, discriminating intellect, the epigrammatic brilliancy, and the tireless vigor that animates the whole. Other satiric masterpieces followed, among which Mac Flecknoe (1682) is perhaps the best known. In the Religio Laici, or Religion of a Layman (1682), and in the Hind and the Panther (1687), Dryden showed his extraordinary power of arguing in verse. The first is a declaration of faith in the teachings of the Church of England, the second a lengthy argument in behalf of the doctrines of the Church of Rome, Dryden having changed his religion after the accession of the Roman Catholic King, James II. The "milk-white Hind" represents the Church of Rome, the Panther the Church of England, and the two oddly assorted beasts engage in a lengthy theological argument. But, in spite of the absurdity of its scheme, the poem has great melody, charm, and intellectual power, and shows us Dryden at his best. Later Years. In 1689, when the Protestant sovereigns, William and Mary, came to the throne, Dryden had many temptations to change his religion again, but this time he stood firm. This single act of constancy stands out in the midst of all the fluctuations of Dryden's career, and at no time of his life is he so worthy of our respect as in the years that followed. He toiled. manfully for his support; he wrote plays, translated Vergil and other classic poets, modernized Chaucer, and told some stories from Boccaccio in charming verse. He toiled, as he tells us a few years before his death, struggling with want, oppressed with sickness," and "curbed" in his genius, yet steady to his prin 66 |