The Dramatic Works of John Dryden Vol. I. by ith a Life of the Author

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THE

DRAMATIC WORKS

OF

JOHN DRYDEN

WITH A

LIFE OF THE AUTHOR

BY

SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.

EDITED BY GEORGE SAINTSBURY

_VOL. I._

EDINBURGH: WILLIAM PATERSON

_1882_

[Illustration: _M' John Dryden._]

THE DRAMATIC WORKS

OF

JOHN DRYDEN

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

The best-edited book in the English language is, according to Southey,
Wilkin's edition of Sir Thomas Browne. If Sir Walter Scott's "Dryden"
cannot challenge this highest position, it certainly deserves the credit
of being one of the best-edited books on a great scale in English, save
in one particular,--the revision of the text. In reading it long ago,
with no other object than to make acquaintance with Dryden; again, more
recently and more minutely, for the purpose of a course of lectures
which I was asked to deliver at the Royal Institution; and
again, more recently and more minutely still, for the purposes of a
monograph on the same subject in Mr. Morley's series of _English
Men of Letters_, I have had tolerably ample opportunities of
recognising its merits. It was therefore with pleasure that I found,
on being consulted by the publisher of these volumes as to a re-issue of
it, that Mr. Paterson was as averse as I was myself to any attempt to
efface or to mutilate Scott's work. Neither the number, the order, nor
the contents of Scott's eighteen volumes will be altered in any way. The
task which I propose to myself is a sufficiently modest one, that of
re-editing Scott's "Dryden," as--putting differences of ability out of
question--he might have re-edited it himself had he been alive to-day;
that is to say, to set right errors into which he fell either by
inadvertence or deficiency of information, to correct the text in
accordance with modern requirements, and to add the results of the
students of Dryden during the last three quarters of a century in matter
of text as well as of comment.

The first part of the plan requires no further remarks, and the last not
much. No literary work of Dryden's of any great importance has been
discovered since Scott's edition appeared. A few letters will have to be
added, though I am sorry to say that I cannot promise my readers the
satisfaction which Dryden students chiefly desire,--the satisfaction of
reading, or at least knowing the contents of, the Knole correspondence.
In reply to a request of mine, Lord Sackville has positively, though
very courteously, refused to lift the embargo which his predecessors
have placed on this, nor have my inquiries succeeded as yet in
discovering any hitherto unpublished letters, though the present
collection will for the first time present those which have been
published in a complete form. I think that it may not be uninteresting
for readers to have an opportunity of comparing with the undoubted work
two plays, "The Mistaken Husband," and "The Modish Lovers," which good
authorities have suspected to be possibly Dryden's. These will
accordingly be given in the last volume of the plays. A bibliography of
Dryden, and writers on Dryden, and a certain number of _pieces
justificatives_ of various kinds, will also be added, as well as
notes, and where the subject seems to demand them, appendices on points
of importance. These additional notes and appendices will be bracketed
and signed ED., Dryden's own notes, which are rare, will be indicated by
a D., and Scott's will stand without indication.

The principles upon which I have proceeded in re-editing the text
require somewhat fuller explanation. Dryden never superintended any
complete edition of his works, but on the other hand there is evidence
in his letters that he bestowed considerable pains on them when they
first passed through the press. The first editions have therefore in
every case been followed, though they have been corrected in case of
need by the later ones. But the adoption of this standard leaves
unsettled the problem of orthography, punctuation, etc. I have adopted a
solution of this which will not, I fear, be wholly agreeable to some of
my friends. Capital letters, apostrophes, and the like, will be looked
for in vain. It would, I need hardly say, have been much less trouble to
put copies of the original editions into the hands of the printers, to
bid them "follow copy," and to content myself with seeing that the
reprint was faithful. The result would have been, to a very small number
of professed students of English literature, an interesting example of
the changes which printers' spelling underwent in the last forty years
of the seventeenth century. But it would have been a nuisance and a
stumbling-block to the ordinary reader, in whose way it is certainly not
the business of the editor of a great English classic to throw stones of
offence. Where a writer has written in a distinctly archaic form of
language, as in the case of all English writers before the Renaissance,
adherence to the original orthography is necessary and right. Even in
the so-called Elizabethan age, where a certain archaism of phrase
survives, the appreciation of temporal and local colour may be helped by
such an adherence. But Dryden is in every sense a modern. His list of
obsolete words is insignificant, of archaic phrases more insignificant
still, of obsolete constructions almost a blank. If any journalist or
reviewer were to write his to-morrow's leader or his next week's article
in a style absolutely modelled on Dryden, no one would notice anything
strange in it, except perhaps that the English was a good deal better
than usual There can therefore be no possible reason for erecting an
artificial barrier between him and his readers of to-day, especially as
that barrier would be not only artificial but entirely arbitrary. I
shall however return to this point in some prefatory remarks to the
dramas.

Another problem which presented itself was the question of retaining the
irregular stichometric division in some plays and passages which are not
in verse. Scott has in such case generally printed them in prose, and
with some hesitation I have, though not uniformly, followed him.

I have already received much help from divers persons, and I trust,
_dis faventibus_, to acknowledge this and more at the end of my
journey, in (to use a word for which a great writer of French fought
hard) a "postface." In a work of magnitude such as the present, which
can only be proceeded with _pedetentim_, the proverb about the
relations of beginner and finisher is peculiarly applicable. For the
present I shall confine myself to mentioning with the utmost
thankfulness the kindness of Mr. E.W. Gosse, who has placed at my
disposal an almost complete set of first editions of the plays and
poems. One word must be said as to the Life which fills this first
volume. Except in minor details, there is little to add to it. Any
biographer of Dryden who is not carried away by the desire to magnify
his office, must admit that Johnson's opening sentence as to the paucity
of materials is still applicable.

In conclusion, I have but to repeat that in this edition it is not my
ambition to put myself or my own writing forward, even to the extent
ordinarily possible to an editor. In particular, my plan excludes
indulgence in critical disquisitions, however tempting they may be. For
such I must refer my readers to the monograph already mentioned.
Occasionally where critical opinions of Scott's are advanced which seem
demonstrably erroneous or imperfect, something of this nature will be
found, but on the whole my object is to give the reader my author, and
not what I have to say about him. The office of [Greek: neokoros] is a
comparatively humble one in itself, but it is honourable enough when the
shrine is at once the work and the monument of two such masters of
English as Scott and Dryden.

GEORGE SAINTSBURY.

LONDON, _July 8_, 1882.

ADVERTISEMENT.

[_Prefaced to Edition issued in_ 1808, _edited by Sir Walter
Scott_.]

After the lapse of more than a century since the author's death, the
Works of Dryden are now, for the first time, presented to the public in
a complete and uniform edition. In collecting the pieces of one of our
most eminent English classics,--one who may claim at least the third
place in that honoured list, and who has given proofs of greater
versatility of talent than either Shakespeare or Milton, though justly
placed inferior to them in their peculiar provinces,--the Editor did not
feel himself entitled to reject any part of his writings; even of those
which reflect little honour on the age, by whose taste they were
dictated. Had a selection been permitted, he would have excluded several
of the Comedies, and some part of the Translations: but this is a
liberty which has not lately been indulged to editors of classical
poetry. Literary history is an important step in that of man himself;
and the unseductive coarseness of Dryden is rather a beacon than a
temptation.

In commencing this task, the Editor had hopes of friendly assistance,
which might have rendered his toil more easy, and the result more
accurate. Deprived of this by a concurrence of unlucky circumstances, he
has both to dread the imperfection of his labours, and the consequence
of perhaps an over-zeal to render his edition complete. In the first
respect, although he has many thanks to return for information readily
afforded, it has sometimes been received after the irrevocable
operations of the printer had taken place.[1] On the second point, he
may have been too lavish in historical notes, and entered too deeply
into the secret history of the persons and times to which Dryden's
satirical poems refer. But he has endeavoured to avail himself of all
information, so soon as communicated, whether corrective or
corroborative of his prior opinions; and the wish, not only to render
intelligible, blanks, allusions, and feigned names, but to present, if
possible, the very spirit and political character of Dryden's
contemporaries, must be the excuse for intruding a few pages of
political history and personal anecdote; which, after all, they, whose
memory does not require such refreshment, may easily dispense with
reading. In this last part of his task, the Editor has been greatly
assisted by free access to a valuable collection of the fugitive pieces
of the reigns of Charles II., James II., William III., and Queen Anne.
This curious collection was made by Narcissus Luttrell, Esq., under
whose name the Editor usually quotes it The industrious collector seems
to have bought every poetical tract, of whatever merit, which was hawked
through the streets in his time, marking carefully the price and date of
the purchase. His collection contains the earliest editions of many of
our most excellent poems, bound up, according to the order of time, with
the lowest trash of Grub Street. It was dispersed on Mr. Luttrell's
death; but a number of the volumes, referring chiefly to the latter part
of Charles the Second's reign, have fortunately become the property of
Mr. James Bindley of Somerset Place, who, with the utmost urbanity,
permitted the Editor the unlimited use of these, and other literary
curiosities in his valuable library.--It is so much a matter of course,
with every adventurer in the field of antiquities, to acknowledge the
liberality and kindness of Mr. Richard Heber, that the public would
probably be surprised had his extensive literary treasures escaped
contribution on this occasion, particularly as it contains several
additional volumes of the Luttrell collection. To both gentlemen the
Editor has to offer his public thanks; nor will he be tempted to dilate
further on the liberality of the one, and the tried friendship of the
other. It is possible, that these researches may, by their very nature,
have in some degree warped the Editor's taste, and induced him to
consider that as curious which was only scarce, and to reprint
quotations, from the adversaries or contemporaries of Dryden, of a
length more than sufficient to satisfy the reader of their unworthiness.
But, as the painter places a human figure, to afford the means of
computing the elevation of the principal object in his landscape, it
seemed that the giant-height of Dryden, above the poets of his day,
might be best ascertained by extracts from those who judged themselves,
and were sometimes deemed by others, his equals, or his superiors. For
the same reason, there are thrown into the Appendix a few indifferent
verses to the poet's memory; which, while they show how much his loss
was felt, point out, at the same time, the impossibility of supplying
it.

In the Biographical Memoir, it would have been hard to exact, that the
Editor should rival the criticism of Johnson, or produce facts which had
escaped the accuracy of Malone. While, however, he has availed himself
of the labours of both, particularly of the latter, whose industry has
removed the cloud which so long hung over the events of Dryden's life,
he has endeavoured to take a different and more enlarged view of the
subject than that which his predecessors have presented. The general
critical view of Dryden's works being sketched by Johnson with
unequalled felicity, and the incidents of his life accurately discussed
and ascertained by Malone, something seemed to remain for him who should
consider these literary productions in their succession, as actuated by,
and operating upon, the taste of an age, where they had so predominant
influence; and who might, at the same time, connect the life of Dryden
with the history of his publications, without losing sight of the fate
and character of the individual. How far this end has been attained, is
not for the Editor to guess, especially when, as usual at the close of a
work, he finds he is possessed of double the information he had when he
commenced it. The kindness of Mr. Octavius Gilchrist, who undertook a
journey to Northamptonshire to examine the present state of Rushton,
where Dryden often lived, and of Mr. Finlay of Glasgow, who favoured the
Editor with the use of some original editions, falls here to be
gratefully acknowledged.

In collecting the poetry of Dryden, some hymns translated from the
service of the Catholic Church were recovered, by the favour of Captain
MacDonogh of the Inverness Militia.[2] As the body of the work was then
printed off, they were inserted in the Life of the Author; but should a
second impression of this edition be required by the public, they shall
be transferred to their proper place. To the Letters of Dryden,
published in Mr. Malone's edition of his prose works, the Editor has
been enabled to add one article, by the favour of Mrs. White of
Bownanhall, Gloucestershire. Those preserved at Knowles were examined at
the request of a noble friend, and the contents appeared unfit for
publication. Dryden's translations of Fresnoy's Art of Painting, and of
the Life of Xavier, are inserted without abridgment, for reasons which
are elsewhere alleged.[3] From the version of Maimbourg's "History of
the League," there is an extract given, which may be advantageously read
along with the Duke of Guise, and the Vindication of that play. The
prefaces and dedications are, of course, prefixed to the pieces to which
they belong; but those who mean to study them with reference to
theatrical criticism, will do well to follow the order recommended by
Mr. Malone.[4]

Several pieces published in Derrick's edition of Dryden's poetry, being
obviously spurious, are here published separately from his authentic
poetry, and with a suitable note of suspicion prefixed to each. They
might indeed have been altogether discarded without diminishing the
value of the work. Some account might be here given of the various
editions of Dryden's poems; but notices of this kind have been liberally
scattered through the Life and preliminary matter.

Upon the whole, it is hoped, that as the following is the first complete
edition of the Works of Dryden, it will be found, in accuracy of text
and copiousness of illustration, not altogether unworthy of the time,
labour, and expense which have been ungrudgingly bestowed upon an object
so important to English literature.

FOOTNOTES

[1] The octavo edition of the "_Annus Mirabilis_" did not fall into my
hands till the volume containing it was printed off. It contains two
important variations: as, stanza 4, _the year_, read THEIR _year_;
stanza 53, _their main_, read MEN; both of which the reader is requested
to correct. Also an _erratum_ in verse 104, line 2, where the word
_fortune_ should be VIRTUE.

[2] By the hands of Mrs. Jackson, who has honoured me with a note,
stating, that they are mentioned in Butler's "Tour through Italy;" that
after Butler's death, the translations passed into the hands of the
celebrated Dr. Alban, whence they were transferred to those of the
present possessor.

[3] Vol. i. p. 283; vol. xvii.

[4] Which is, the Essay of Dramatic Poesy, the Defence of that Essay,
the Preface to the Mock Astrologer, the Essay on Heroic Plays, the
Defence of the Epilogue to the Second Part of the Conquest of Granada,
the Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy, and the Answer to Rymer.

CONTENTS

OF

VOLUME FIRST.

The Life of John Dryden

SECT. I. Preliminary remarks on the Poetry of England before the Civil
Wars--The Life of Dryden from his Birth till the Restoration--His Early
Poems, including the Annus Mirabilis

SECT. II. Revival of the Drama at the Restoration--Heroic Plays--
Comedies of Intrigue--Commencement of Dryden's Dramatic Career--The Wild
Gallant--Rival Ladies--Indian Queen and Emperor--Dryden's Marriage--
Essay on Dramatic Poetry, and subsequent Controversy with Sir Robert
Howard--The Maiden Queen--The Tempest--Sir Martin Mar-all--The Mock
Astrologer--The Royal Martyr--The two Parts of the Conquest of Granada--
Dryden's situation at this period

SECT. III. Heroic Plays--The Rehearsal--Marriage a la Mode--The
Assignation--Controversy with Clifford--with Leigh--with Ravenscroft--
Massacre of Amboyna--State of Innocence

SECT. IV. Dryden's controversy with Settle--with Rochester--He is
assaulted in Rose Street--Aureng-Zebe--Dryden meditates an Epic Poem--
All for Love--Limberham--Oedipus--Troilus and Cressida--The Spanish
Friar--Dryden supposed to be in opposition to the Court

SECT. V. Dryden engages in Politics--Absalom and Achitophel, Part First
--The Medal--MacFlecknoe--Absalom and Achitophel, Part Second--The Duke
of Guise

SECT. VI. Threnodia Augustalis--Albion and Albanius--Dryden becomes a
Catholic--The Controversy of Dryden with Stillingfleet--The Hind and
Panther--Life of St. Francis Xavier--Consequences of the Revolution to
Dryden--Don Sebastian--King Arthur--Cleomenes--Love Triumphant

SECT. VII. State of Dryden's Connections in Society after the
Revolution--Juvenal and Persius--Smaller Pieces--Eleanora--Third
Miscellany--Virgil--Ode to St. Cecilia--Dispute with Milbourne--with
Blackmore--Fables--The Author's Death and Funeral--His Private
Character--Notices of his Family

SECT. VIII. The State of Dryden's Reputation at his Death, and
afterwards--The general Character of his Mind--His Merit as a Dramatist
--As a Lyrical Poet--As a Satirist--As a Narrative Poet--As a
Philosophical and Miscellaneous Poet--As a Translator--As a Prose
Author--As a Critic

THE
LIFE
OF
JOHN DRYDEN.

VOL. I.

THE LIFE OF JOHN DRYDEN.

* * * * *

SECTION I.

_Preliminary Remarks on the Poetry of England before the Civil Wars--
The Life of Dryden from his Birth till the Restoration--His early Poems,
including the "Annus Mirabilis."_

The Life of Dryden may be said to comprehend a history of the Literature
of England, and its changes, during nearly half a century. While his
great contemporary Milton was in silence and secrecy laying the
foundation of that immortal fame, which no poet has so highly deserved
Dryden's labours were ever in the eye of the public; and he maintained,
from the time of the Restoration till his death, in 1700, a decided and
acknowledged superiority over all the poets of his age. As he wrote from
necessity, he was obliged to pay a certain deference to the public
opinion; for he, whose bread depends upon the success of his volume, is
compelled to study popularity; but, on the other hand, his better
judgment was often directed to improve that of his readers; so that he
alternately influenced and stooped to the national taste of the day. If,
therefore, we would know the gradual changes which took place in our
poetry during the above period, we have only to consult the writings of
an author, who produced yearly some new performance allowed to be most
excellent in the particular style which was fashionable for the time. It
is the object of this memoir to connect, with the account of Dryden's
life and publications such a general view of the literature of the time,
as may enable the reader to estimate how far the age was indebted to the
poet, and how far the poet was influenced by the taste and manners of
the age. A few preliminary remarks on the literature of the earlier part
of the seventeenth century will form a necessary introduction to this
biographical memoir.

[1]When James I. ascended the throne of England he came to rule a court
and people, as much distinguished for literature as for commerce and
arms. Shakespeare was in the zenith of his reputation, and England
possessed other poets inferior to Shakespeare alone; or, indeed, the
higher order of whose plays may claim to be ranked above the inferior
dramas ascribed to him. Among these we may reckon Massinger, who
approached to Shakespeare in dignity; Beaumont and Fletcher, who
surpassed him in drawing female characters, and those of polite and
courtly life; and Jonson, who attempted to supply, by depth of learning,
and laboured accuracy of character, the want of that flow of
imagination, which nature had denied to him. Others, who flourished in
the reign of James and his son, though little known to the general
readers of the present age even by name, had a just claim to be
distinguished from the common herd of authors. Ford, Webster, Marston,
Brome, Shirley, even Chapman and Decker, added lustre to the stage for
which they wrote. The drama, it is true, was the branch of poetry most
successfully cultivated; for it afforded the most ready appeal to the
public taste. The number of theatres then open in all parts of the city,
secured to the adventurous poet the means of having his performance
represented upon one stage or other; and he was neither tired nor
disgusted by the difficulties, and disagreeable observances, which must
now be necessarily undergone by every candidate for dramatic laurels.[2]
But, although during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James I, the
stage seems to have afforded the principal employment of the poets,
there wanted not many, who cultivated, with success, the other
departments of Parnassus. It is only necessary to name Spenser, whose
magic tale continues to interest us, in despite of the languor of a
continued allegory; Drayton, who, though less known, possesses perhaps
equal powers of poetry; Beaumont the elder, whose poem on Bosworth Field
carries us back to the days of the Plantagenets; Fairfax, the translator
of Tasso, the melody of whose numbers became the model of Waller;
besides many others, who ornamented this era of British literature.

Notwithstanding the splendour of these great names, it must be
confessed, that one common fault, in a greater or less degree, pervaded
the most admired poetry of Queen Elizabeth's age. This was the fatal
propensity to _false wit_; to substitute, namely, strange and
unexpected connections of sound, or of idea, for real humour, and even
for the effusions of the stronger passions It seems likely that this
fashion arose at court, a sphere in which its denizens never think they
move with due lustre, until they have adopted a form of expression, as
well as a system of manners, different from that which is proper to
mankind at large. In Elizabeth's reign, the court language was formed on
the plan of one Lillie, a pedantic courtier, who wrote a book, entitled
"Euphues and his England, or the Anatomy of Wit;"[3] which quality he
makes to consist in the indulgence of every monstrous and overstrained
conceit, that can be engendered by a strong memory and a heated brain,
applied to the absurd purpose of hatching unnatural conceits.[4] It
appears, that this fantastical person had a considerable share in
determining the false taste of his age, which soon became so general,
that the tares which sprung from it are to be found even among the
choicest of the wheat. Shakespeare himself affords us too many instances
of this fashionable heresy in wit; and he, who could create new worlds
out of his own imagination descended to low, and often ill-timed puns
and quibbles. This was not an evil to be cured by the accession of our
Scottish James, whose qualifications as a punster were at least equal to
his boasted _king-craft._[5] The false taste, which had been
gaining ground even in the reign of Elizabeth, now overflowed the whole
kingdom with the impetuosity of a land-flood. These outrages upon
language were committed without regard to time and place. They were held
good arguments at the bar, though Bacon sat on the woolsack; and
eloquence irresistible by the most hardened sinner, when King or Corbet
were in the pulpit.[6] Where grave and learned professions set the
example, the poets, it will readily be believed, ran headlong into an
error, for which they could plead such respectable example. The
affectation "of the word" and "of the letter," for alliteration was
almost as fashionable as punning, seemed, in some degree, to bring back
English composition to the barbarous rules of the ancient Anglo-Saxons,
the merit of whose poems consisted, not in the ideas, but in the quaint
arrangement of the words, and the regular recurrence of some favourite
sound or letter.

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