[7] "Epistle to Augustus."

[8] The tradition as to Chaucer, Spenser, and Milton is almost equally
continuous. A course of what Lowell calls "penitential reading," in
Restoration criticism, will convince anyone that these four names already
stood out distinctly, as those of the four greatest English poets. See
especially Winstanley, "Lives of the English Poets," 1687; Langbaine, "An
Account of the English Dramatic Poets," 1691; Dennis, "Essay on the
Genius and Writings of Shakspere," 1712; Gildon, "The Complete Art of
Poetry," 1718. The fact mentioned by Macaulay, that Sir Wm. Temple's
"Essay on Ancient and Modern Learning" names none of the four, is without
importance. Temple refers by name to only three English "wits," Sidney,
Bacon, and Selden. This very superficial performance of Temple's was a
contribution to the futile controversy over the relative merits of the
ancients and moderns, which is now only of interest as having given
occasion to Bentley to display his great scholarship in his "Dissertation
on the Epistles of Phalaris," (1698), and to Swift to show his powers of
irony in "The Battle of the Books" (1704).

[9] Preface to the "Plays of Shakspere," 1765.


[10] Prologue, spoken by Garrick at the opening of Drury Lane Theater,
1747.

[11] "The Tragedies of the Last Age Considered and Examined," 1678.

[12] "Shakspere Illustrated," 1753.

[13] See Dryden's "Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy" and "Defence of the