fuccefs it found*

was performed, I have not

The State of Innocence and Fall of Man (1675) is termed by him an opera: it is ra ther a tragedy in heroick rhyme, but of which the perfonages are fuch as cannot decently be exhibited on the ftage. Some fuch production was forefeen by Marvel, who writes thus to Milton

Or if a work fo infinite be fpann'd,
Jealous I was leaft fome lefs fkilful hand,
(Such as difquiet always what is well,
And by ill imitating would excel,)

Might hence prefume the whole creation's day,
To change in fcenes, and fhow it in a play.

It is another of his hafty productions; for the heat of his imagination raised it in a month.

This compofition is addreffed to the princefs of Modena, then dutchess of York, in

* Downes fays, it was performed on a very unlucky

day, viz. that on which the duke of Monmouth landed

reafon

in the Weft; and he intimates, that the confternation into which the kingdom was thrown by this event, was why it was performed but fix times, and was in gener

received.

H.

a ftrain

a ftrain of flattery which difgraces genius, and which it was wonderful that any man that knew the meaning of his own words could use without felf-deteftation. It is an attempt to mingle earth and heaven, by praising human excellence in the language of religion.

The preface contains an apology for heroick verfe and poetick licence; by which is meant not any liberty taken in contracting or extending words, but the use of bold fictions and ambitious figures,

The reafon which he gives for printing what was never acted, cannot be overpaffed: "I was induced to it in my own defence, 46 many hundred copies of it being difperfed abroad without my knowledge or confent; "and every one gathering new faults, it became at length a libel against me." Thefe copies, as they gathered faults, were apparently manufcript; and he lived in an unlike ours, if age very unlike

many

hundred co

pies of fourteen hundred lines were likely to be tranfcribed. An author has a right to print his own works, and need not feek an

apology

1

1

apology in falfehood; but he that could bear to write the dedication felt no pain in writing the preface.

Aureng Zebe (1676) is a tragedy founded on the actions of a great prince then reigning, but over nations not likely to employ their criticks upon the tranfactions of the English ftage. If he had known and difliked his own character, our trade was not in thofe times fecure from his refentment. His country is at fuch a diftance, that the manners might be fafely falfified, and the incidents feigned; for the remotenefs of place is remarked, by Racine, to afford the fame conveniencies to a poet as length of

time.

This play is written in rhyme; and has the appearance of being the most elaborate of all the dramas. The perfonages are imperial; but the dialogue is often domeftick, and therefore fufceptible of fentiments accommodated to familiar incidents. The complaint of life is celebrated, and there are many other paffages that may be read with pleasure.

This play is addreffed to the earl of Mulgrave, afterwards duke of Buckingham, himfelf, if not a poet, yet a writer of verses, and a critick. In this addrefs Dryden gave the first hints of his intention to write an epick poem. He mentions his defign in terms fo obfcure, that he feems afraid left his plan fhould be purloined, as, he says, happened to him when he told it more plainly in his preface to Juvenal. "The defign," fays he, 62 you know is great, the ftory English, and "neither too near the present times, nor too "diftant from them.”

All for Love, or the World well loft (1678), a tragedy founded upon the ftory of Antony and Cleopatra, he tells us, is the only play "which he wrote for himself;" the reft were given to the people. It is by univerfal confent accounted the work in which he has admitted the feweft improprieties of style or character; but it has one fault equal to many, though rather moral than critical, that by admitting the romantick omnipotence of Love, he has recommended, as laudable and worthy of imitation, that conduct which, through

7

all

all ages, the good have cenfured as vicious, and the bad despised as foolish.

Of this play the prologue and the epilogue, though written upon the common topicks of malicious and ignorant criticism, and without any particular relation to the characters or incidents of the draina, are deservedly celebrated for their elegance and fpritelinefs.

Limberham, or the kind Keeper (1680), is a comedy, which, after the third night, was prohibited as too indecent for the stage. What gave offence was in the printing, as the author fays, altered or omitted. Dryden confeffes that its indecency was objected to; but Langbaine, who yet feldom favours him, imputes its expulfion to refentment, because it fo much expofed the keeping part of the

Oedipus (1679) is a tragedy formed by Dryden and Lee, in conjunction, from the works. of Sophocles, Seneca, and Corneille. Dryden planned the scenes, and compofed the first and third acts.

Don