JOHN DRYDEN. 1631-1701.

Above any Greek or Roman name.1

Upon the Death of Lord Hastings. Line 76.

And threat'ning France, plac'd like a painted Jove,
Kept idle thunder in his lifted hand.

Annus Mirabilis. Stanza 39.

Whate'er he did was done with so much ease,

In him alone 't was natural to please.

Absalom and Achitophel. Part i. Line 27.

A fiery soul, which, working out its way,
Fretted the pygmy-body to decay,

And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay."

A daring pilot in extremity;

Pleas'd with the danger, when the waves went high
He sought the storms.

Great wits are sure to madness near allied,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide.

Line 156.

3

Line 163.

And all to leave what with his toil he won
To that unfeather'd two-legged thing, a son.
Resolv'd to ruin or to rule the state.

Line 169.

Line 174.

And heaven had wanted one immortal song.

Line 197.

But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand,
And Fortune's ice prefers to Virtue's land.

Line 198.

1 Above all Greek, above all Roman fame. - POPE: epistle i. book ii. line 26.

2 See Fuller, page 221.

8 No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness. - ARISTOTLE : Problem, sect. 30.

Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementia (There is no great genius without a tincture of madness). SENECA: De Tranquillitate Animi, 15.

What thin partitions sense from thought divide ! POPE: Essay on Man, epistle i. line 226.

4 Greatnesse on Goodnesse loves to slide, not stand,
And leaves, for Fortune's ice, Vertue's ferme land.

KNOLLES: History (under a portrait of Mustapha I.).

The people's prayer, the glad diviner's theme,
The young men's vision, and the old men's dream!1
Absalom and Achitophel. Part i. Line 238.

Behold him setting in his western skies,
The shadows lengthening as the vapours rise."

Line 268.

Than a successive title long and dark,

Drawn from the mouldy rolls of Noah's ark.

Line 301.

Not only hating David, but the king.

Line 512.

Who think too little, and who talk too much.3

Line 534.

A man so various, that he seem'd to be
Not one, but all mankind's epitome;
Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong,
Was everything by starts, and nothing long;
But in the course of one revolving moon
Was chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon.*
So over violent, or over civil,

Line 545.

That every man with him was God or Devil.

Line 557.

His tribe were God Almighty's gentlemen."

Line 645.

Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense
Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence.

Line 868.

1 Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.— Joel ü. 28.

2 Like our shadows,

Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines.

YOUNG: Night Thoughts, night v. line 661.

8 They always talk who never think. PRIOR: Upon a Passage in the Scaligerana.

4 Grammaticus, rhetor, geometres, pictor, aliptes, Augur, schoenobates, medicus, magus, omnia novit (Grammarian, orator, geometrician; painter, gymnastic teacher, physician; fortune-teller, rope-dancer, conjurer, - he knew everything). —JUVENAL : Satire iii. line 76.

5 A Christian is God Almighty's gentleman. JULIUS HARE: Guesses at Truth.

A Christian is the highest style of man. - YoUNG: Night Thoughts, night iv. line 788.

Beware the fury of a patient man."

Absalom and Achitophel. Part i. Line 1005

Made still a blund'ring kind of melody;

Spurr'd boldly on, and dashed through thick and thin,2 Through sense and nonsense, never out nor in.

For every inch that is not fool is rogue.

Part ii. Line 413.

Line 463

Men met each other with erected' look,

The steps were higher that they took;

Friends to congratulate their friends made haste,
And long inveterate foes saluted as they pass'd.

Threnodia Augustalis. Line 124.

For truth has such a face and such a mien,
As to be lov'd needs only to be seen.

The Hind and the Panther. Part i. Line 33.

And kind as kings upon their coronation day.
For those whom God to ruin has design'd,
He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.*

But Shadwell never deviates into sense.

Line 271.

Part iii. Line 2387.

Mac Flecknoe. Line 20.

Our vows are heard betimes! and Heaven takes care
To grant, before we can conclude the prayer:
Preventing angels met it half the way,

And sent us back to praise, who came to pray.5

Britannia Rediviva. Line 1.

1 Furor fit læsa sæpius patientia (An over-taxed patience gives way to fierce anger. PUBLIUS SYRUS: Maxim 289.

2 See Spenser, page 28.

3 Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,

As to be hated needs but to be seen.

POPE: Essay on Man, epistle ii. line 217. 4 Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat (Whom God wishes to destroy he first deprives of reason). The author of this saying is unknown. Barnes erroneously ascribes it to Euripides.

5 And fools who came to scoff remain'd to pray. - GOLDSMITH: The Deserted Village, line 180.

And torture one poor word ten thousand ways.

Britannia Rediviva. Line 208.

Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace.

Epistle to Congreve. Line 19.

Be kind to my remains; and oh defend,
Against your judgment, your departed friend!
Better to hunt in fields for health unbought
Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught.
The wise for cure on exercise depend;
God never made his work for man to mend.

Line 72.

Epistle to John Dryden of Chesterton. Line 92. Wit will shine

Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line.

To the Memory of Mr. Oldham. Line 15.

So softly death succeeded life in her,

She did but dream of heaven, and she was there.

Since heaven's eternal year is thine.

Eleonora. Line 315.

Elegy on Mrs. Killegrew. Line 15.

O gracious God! how far have we
Profan'd thy heavenly gift of poesy!

Line 56.

Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child.1

He was exhal'd; his great Creator drew
His spirit, as the sun the morning dew.2

Line 70.

On the Death of a very young Gentleman.

Three poets, in three distant ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England did adorn.
The first in loftiness of thought surpass'd;
The next, in majesty; in both the last.

1 Of manners gentle, of affections mild,

In wit a man, simplicity a child.

POPE: Epitaph on Gay.

2 Early, bright, transient, chaste as morning dew,
She sparkl'd, was exhal'd, and went to heaven.

YOUNG: Night Thoughts, night v. line 600.

The force of Nature could no further go;
To make a third, she join'd the former two.1

Under Mr. Milton's Picture.

From harmony, from heavenly harmony,
This universal frame began:
From harmony to harmony

Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
The diapason closing full in Man.

A Song for St. Cecilia's Day. Line 11

Sooth'd with the sound, the king grew vain;

Fought all his battles o'er again;

And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the

slain.

Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,
Fallen from his high estate,

And welt'ring in his blood;
Deserted, at his utmost need,
By those his former bounty fed,
On the bare earth expos'd he lies,
With not a friend to close his eyes.

Line 66.

Line 77.

1 Græcia Mæonidam, jactet sibi Roma Maronem,
Anglia Miltonum jactat utrique parem
(Greece boasts her Homer, Rome can Virgil claim;
England can either match in Milton's fame).

SELVAGGI: Ad Joannem Miltonum.