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Johnson's Life of Dryden, With Intr. and Notes by F. Ryland
Johnson's Life of Dryden With Intr and Notes by F Ryland Author:Samuel Johnson General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1895 Subjects: Literary Criticism / General Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Literary Criticism / Poetry Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and ther... more »e may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: When the king was restored, Dryden, like the other panegyrists of usurpation, changed his opinion, or his profession, and published " Astrea Redux, a poem on the happy restoration and return of his most sacred Majesty King Charles the Second." The reproach of inconstancy was, on this occasion, shared with such numbers, that it produced neither hatred nor disgrace; if he changed, he changed with the nation. It was, however, not totally forgotten when his reputation raised him enemies. 10 The same year he praised the new king in a second poem on his restoration. In the " Astrea " was the line, " An horrid stillness first invades the ear, And in that silence we a tempest fear," for which he was persecuted with perpetual ridicule, perhaps with more than was deserved. Silence is indeed mere privation ; and, so considered, cannot invade; but privation likewise certainly is darkness, and probably cold; yet poetry has never been refused the right of ascribing effects or agency to them as to positive powers. No man scruples to 20 say that darkness hinders him from his work ; or that cold has killed the plants. Death is also privation, yet who has made any difficulty of assigning to Death a dart and the power of striking ? In settling the order of his works, there is some difficulty ; for, even when they are important enough to be formally offered to a patron, he does not commonly date his dedication; the time of writing and publish...« less