THE Public is here obliged with the Poetical Works of Mr. Dryden, detached from the compositions of inferior writers, with which most of them have been hitherto blended in the Miscellanies *. It was thought but justice to the productions of so excellent a Poet, to set them free, at last, from so disadvantageous, if not unnatural, an union; which, like the cruelty of Mezentius in Virgil, was no less than a junction of living and dead bodies. We say this in respect to numberless pieces in Mr. Dryden's Miscellanies, without derogating from that praise which is justly due to others among them. But, not to enter into the merit of Mr. Dryden's fellow undertakers + in that Collection, or the motives which induced him to write in conjunction with others, we may venture to say it is now high time the partnership should be dissolved, and Mr. Dryden left to stand upon his own bottom. His credit, as a Poet, is out of all danger, though the withdrawing his stock may probably expose many of his copartners to the hazard of a poetical bankruptcy. There is, indeed, a Collection of original poems and translations by Mr. Dryden, published for J. Tonson in 1701, in a thin folio; and another by J. and R. Tonson, in two volumes duodecimo, in 1733; Those published by Mr. Dryden himself in Six Parts, and others. but the first does not contain much above half the pieces, and the last is not complete, several of the Prologues, Epilogues, Songs, and Epitaphs, being entirely omitted; so that neither the one nor the other did fully answer the design of the present Collection, which is meant to include the whole of Mr. Dryden's original Poems, upon which, as has been observed by one of his biographers, (Biograph. Dict. vol. IV. p. 228) his poetical reputation is chiefly built. In all the editions we have seen of Mr. Dryden's original Poems, the second part of his Absalom and Achithophel has been printed imperfect, the lines wrote by Mr. Tate, upwards of 300 in number, being entirely omitted. In order to connect the reading and sense of the Poem, thus interrupted, these lines we have restored, as well as the desultory Prologues, Epilogues, Songs, &c. and, by the restoration, offer to the Reader, in the present Edition, not a mutilated, but a perfect poem; not a partial, but a complete Collection of Mr. Dryden's original poetical pieces. IN PRAISE OF MR. DRYDEN. ON MR. DRYDEN's RELIGIO LAICI. BY THE EARL OF ROSCOMMON. BE gone, you slaves, you idle vermin go, Fly from the scourges, and your master know What can you (Rev'rend Levi) here take ill? Must be an angel; but what's that to you? While mighty Lewis finds the Hope too great, 5 10 15 And would for scorpions change the rods of Rome; 20 Whatever councils have approv'd his creed, More wretched than the vilest insects are? 25 O! how much happier and more safe are they? If helpless millions must be doom'd a prey To yelling furies, and for ever burn ვი 35 In that sad place from whence is no return, (For he declares what he resolves to say) 40 45 Hath too much mercy to send men to hell, To what stupidity are zealots grown, Whose inhumanity profusely shown 50 In damning crowds of souls, may damn their own! A convert free from malice and from pride. FROM MR. ADDISON's ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH POETS. BUT see where artful Dryden next appears, Grown old in rhyme, but charming ev'n in years, Great Dryden next! whose tuneful Muse affords The sweetest numbers, and the fittest words. Whether in comic sounds, or tragic airs, She forms her voice, she moves our smiles and tears. If satire or heroic strains she writes, Her hero pleases, and her satire bites. From her no harsh unartful numbers fall, She wears all dresses, and she charms in all: 10 1.5 |