The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Volume 2 - With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by John Dryden
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page 17 of 458 (03%)
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spirit and energy it is quite equal. In "MacFlecknoe," the mock-heroic
is sustained with unparalleled vigour from the first line to the last. Shadwell is a favourite of Dryden's ire. He _fancies_ him, and loves to empty out on his head all the riches of his wrath. What can be more terrible than the words occurring in the second part of "Absalom and Achitophel"-- "When wine hath given him courage to blaspheme, He curses God--but _God before curst him_!" He has written two pieces, which may be called didactic or controversial poems--"Religio Laici" and "The Hind and Panther." The chief power of the former is in its admirable combination of two things, often dissociated--reason and rhyme; and its chief interest lies in the light it casts upon Dryden's uncertainty of religious view. The thought has little originality, the versification less varied music than is his wont, and no passage of transcendent power occurs. Far more faulty in plan, and far more unequal, is "The Hind and Panther;" but it has, on the other hand, many passages of amazing eloquence--some satirical pictures equal to anything in "Absalom and Achitophel"--some vivid natural descriptions; and even the absurdities of the fable, and the sophistries of the argument add to its character as the most exquisitely perverted piece of ingenuity in the language. Nothing but high genius, very vigorously exerted, could reconcile us to a story so monstrous, and to reasoning so palpably one-sided and weak. His Epistles are of divers merit, but all discover Dryden's usual sense, sarcastic observation, and sweeping force of style. The best are that to Sir Godfrey Kneller--remarkable for its knowledge of, and graceful tribute to, the "serene and silent art" of painting; and the very noble |
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