PREFACE TO TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (1679). P. 202, 1. 3. Longinus: on Aeschylus, c. 15. 1. 6. Quintilian, Inst. x. i. 66: Tragoedias primus in lucem Aeschylus protulit, sublimis et gravis et grandiloquus saepe usque ad vitium, sed rudis in plerisque et incompositus.' P. 203, 1. 14. one Lollius. On Chaucer's mystification with regard to Lollius, his professed authority for Troilus and Cressida, see Ten Brink, Chaucer-Studien, and Skeat, Chaucer (1894), vol. ii. p. liii. sqq. 1. 18. the name Cressida. The name is from Boccaccio's Griseida (i. e. Chryseis), substituted for the Briseide of the French poet, who wrote the story of Troilus in his Roman de Troie. 1. 35. and that there appeared. A common use of that as pro-adverb: see Kellner, Historical Syntax, § 448. a P. 204, 1. 11. to keep them all unbroken. For liaison des scènes, see above, Essay, p. 40, l. 27, and note. 1. 33. Mr. Betterton. Thomas Betterton (c. 1635-1710), a member of the Duke's Company, which was organized by Davenant in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, 1661, moved to Dorset Garden (Salisbury Court) 1671, united to the King's 1682. There is a fine description of Betterton's acting in Cibber's Apology, c. 4. P. 205, 1. 4. Amintor and Melantius: in The Maid's Tragedy. 1. 6. Iphigenia: in Aulis. P. 206, 1. 10. my friend Mr. Rymer. Thomas Rymer (1641-1713), Historiographer 1692, editor of the Fadera 1704, &c., had at this time written a heroic play, Edgar (1677), and a critical Essay, The Tragedies of the Last Age Considered and Examined by the Practice of the Ancients (1678). Dryden's notes on this latter work were printed in an edition of Beaumont and Fletcher, 1711, and by Johnson in his Life of Dryden. In 1693 Rymer published his second Essay, A Short View of Tragedy: its Original Excellency and Corruption, with some Reflections on Shakespeare and other Practitioners for the Stage. Dryden's relations with Rymer were not constant; 'For Tom the Second reigns like Tom the First' in the Epistle to Congreve, 1693; and in the Third Miscellany, 1693, 'the corruption of a Poet is the generation of a Critic'; but in the Preface to the Fables he is our learned Mr. Rymer.' 1. 18. Longinus; c. 13. P. 208, 1. 6. Marriage à la Mode; printed 1673. 1. 8. Edipus; printed 1679. 1. 35. Spanish plots; see the Essay of Dramatic Poesy, p. 60, l. 17, and note. P. 209, 1. 5. The Slighted Maid: a comedy by Sir Robert Stapylton, 4o, 1663; acted at Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. Pepys, Feb. 23, 1663; May 29, 1663; Aug. 28, 1668; 'but a mean play.' 1. 9. Mustapha. See above, p. 1 and note, and p. 63 and note. P. 210, 1. 1. Rapin, a judicious critic. Reflexions sur la Poëtique en particulier, c. 17: 'Ce Philosophe avoit reconnu deux défauts importans a regler dans l'homme, l'orgueil et la dureté, et il trouva le remede a ces deux défauts dans la Tragedie.' P. 211, 1. 6. Bossu, the best of modern critics. The Reverend Father Bossu wrote a discourse, Du Poëme Epique, 1675, which was translated into English (1695) and had great favour among English critics. A summary of it was prefixed to Pope's Odyssey. 1. 14. Rapin writes more particularly, &c.; op. cit., c. 18. 1. 16. fear and pity. Compare the Epilogue to Edipus, ll. 9, 10, quoted above in note on p. 192, l. 20. P. 212, 1. 28. the mechanic beauties. As distinguished from 'the living beauties of a play' (Prologue to the Maiden Queen, above, p. 109). P. 214, 1. 9. by complexion. According to the old distinction of humours, for which see Ben Jonson, Prologue to Every Man out of his Humour. P. 215, 1. 13. Notandi sunt. A. P. 156. Aut famam, ibid. 119. 1. 14. Servetur ad imum, ibid. 126. P. 217, 1. 12. Rollo, Otto. The brothers, Dukes of Normandy, in Fletcher's Rollo. P. 219, 1. 23. Plato. According to the Platonic theory of Daemons, as explained by Apuleius and St. Augustine; see below. P. 220, 1. 9. that strange mixture of a man; Bessus. 1. 21. to write pathetically, says Longinus, cannot proceed but from a lofty genius. Longinus says what is rather different from this, that nothing in language is more lofty than noble passion, c. 8: Θαρρῶν γὰρ ἀφορισαίμην ἄν, ὡς οὐδὲν οὕτως ὡς τὸ γενναῖον πάθος μεγαλήγορον, ὥσπερ ὑπὸ μανίας τινὸς καὶ πνεύματος ἐνθουσιαστικῶς ἐκπνέον καὶ οἱονεὶ φοιβάζον τοὺς λόγους. P. 221, 1. 18. animadverts severely upon Æschylus. De Sublim, c. 3 (after a quotation from the Orithyia): οὐ τραγικὰ ἔτι ταῦτα, ἀλλὰ παρατράγῳδα . . . τεθόλωται γὰρ τῇ φράσει καὶ τεθορύβηται ταῖς φαντασίαις μᾶλλον ἢ δεδείνωται. Cf. De Sublim. c. 15. 1. 26. a learned critic. Bossu, du Poëme Epique, i. 348. 1. 35. Εὐφυοῦς, &c. This is from Rapin, Reflexions sur la Poëtique en general, c. 5 (t. ii. p. 120, ed. 1686): Il est vray qu' Aristote reconnut quelque chose de divin dans le caractere du Poëte : mais il n'y reconnoît bien de furieux, selon que Castelvetro interprete' and Rapin quotes here, in the margin, evpvoûs † wointikń EσTIV OỶ μAVIKOû. Cf. Hor. A. P. 295 sq., and the commentators there. Arist. Poet. c. 1η (1455 a 32), διὸ εὐφυοῦς ἡ ποιητική ἐστιν ἢ μανικοῦ· τούτων γὰρ οἱ μὲν εὔπλαστοι οἱ δὲ ἐξεταστικοί εἰσιν. P. 222, 1. 34. Ovid. Metamorph. xiii. 5: "... Agimus proh Jupiter inquit Ante rates causam et mecum confertur Ulixes.' P. 223, 1. 15. ibid. 123: 'Finierat Telamone satus vulgique secutum Ultima murmur erat.' 1. 19. Mota manus, &c. Ibid. 382. 1. 31. sentences and similes. Cf. The Rehearsal, Act ii. sc. 3: 'you must ever make a simile when you are surprised; 'tis the new way of writing,' &c. Cf. vol. ii. p. 140, l. 10. P. 224, 1. 10. Sed nunc non erat his locus. Hor. A. P. 19. P. 225, 1. 37. 'tis well there are no solid orbs to stop it on the way, or no element of fire to consume it: the Ptolemaic system has been given up since Dryden last referred to the heavenly spheres. See above, p. 70, l. 28. In 1662 (To My Lord Chancellor) Dryden made use of both systems impartially. P. 227, 1. 18. Bristol stone, or Bristol diamond; 'a kind of transparent rock crystal found in the Clifton limestone.' N. Engl. Dict. s. v. Cf. Ed. Benlowes, Theophila, 1652, sig. B 3: 'Garnish no Bristows with rich Mine'; i. e. do not set Bristol stones in gold. P. 228, 1. 27. Rapin. For this deduction of the rules of Poetry, compare J. Dennis to Walter Moyle in Letters upon several Occasions, 1696, p. 125: 6 Nothing can please in a Play but Nature, no not in a Play which is written against the Rules; and the more there is of Nature in any Play the more that Play must delight. Now the Rules are nothing but an observation of Nature. For Nature is Rule and Order itself. There is not one of the Rules but what might be us'd to evince this. But I shall be contented with showing some instances of it, even in the Mechanical Rules of the Unities.' OVID'S EPISTLES (1680). I have not seen the first edition: the British Museum has none earlier than the third (1683). P. 230, 1. 4. Mr. Sandys; see p. 100, 1. c. 2, and note, and Dedication of Third Miscellany, vol. ii. p. 10. P. 231, 1. 5. epigram. Martial, Epig. xi. 21. 1. 10. in that author's life; the Life of Horace by Suetonius. P. 232, 1. 6. Cur aliquid vidi, &c. Ovid, Trist. ii. 103. P. 233, 1. 16. his own life. Trist. iv. El. 10. But Tibullus is there spoken of along with Virgil: 'Virgilium vidi tantum nec avara Tibullo Tempus amicitiae fata dedere meae.' 1. 9. Arethusa to Lycotas. P. 237, 1. 1. by divers hands. Propertius, iv. (v.) 3. Dryden translated Canace to Macareus, Helen to Paris (with Lord Mulgrave), and Dido to Æneas. The other hands are Mr. Cooper, Mrs. Behn, Mr. Rymer, Mr. Settle, Mr. Tate, and Mr. Butler. 1. 23. to run division. The common old term for executing variations on a musical theme. 1. 24. Mr. Cowley translated in his Pindarique Odes the second Olympic and first Nemean of Pindar, and Horace, Od. iv. 2 (Pindarum quisquis). 1. 29. Nec verbo verbum. Hor. A. P. 133. P. 238, 1. 1. Sir John Denham. Dryden has greatly improved his quotation by omitting four lines after the first couplet. 1. 17. Atque idem, &c. Heroid. vii: 'Certus es ire tamen miseramque relinquere Dido Atque iidem venti vela fidemque ferent.' P. 239, 1. 3. brevis esse laboro. Hor. A. P. 25. 1. 8. Dic mihi Musa. Hor. A. P. 141. 1. 18. Sir John Denham; in his Preface to The Destruction of Troy, an Essay on the second Book of Virgil's Æneis. P. 243, 1. 16. the author, who is of the fair sex: Mrs. Behn. DEDICATION OF THE SPANISH FRIAR (1681). John, Lord Haughton, eldest son of the Earl of Clare. P. 244, 1. 6. two plots. Addison in his criticism of Milton, Spectator, No. 267, speaking of the two stories in Paradise Lost (the fall of Man and the fall of the Angels), says: In short this is the same kind of beauty which the critics admire in the Spanish Frier, or the Double Discovery, where the two different plots look like counterparts and copies of one another.' Johnson, in his introductory note to the Merchant of Venice, also refers to Dryden's play. Compare Dedication of Third Miscellany: 'Our audience will not be pleased, but with variety of accidents, an underplot, and many actors.' And the Preface to Juvenal, vol. ii. p. 102: and though there be an underplot, or second walk of comical characters and adventures, yet they are subservient to the chief fable, and carried along under it and helping to it; so that the drama may not seem a monster with two heads.' P. 246, 1. 3. Bussy d'Amboys, by Chapman, 4o, 1607. The play was revived by D'Urfey (1691, 4o), who says that he saw Bussy acted by Hart about 1675. 1. 4. a fallen star. This jelly is frequent in the poets; cf. Tyrannic Love, Act iv. sc. I (Song of the Astral Spirits): 'And lest our leap from the sky should prove too far We slide on the back of a new-falling star, And drop from above In a jelly of love.' There is a simple and slimy plant (nostoc) which appears rather suddenly after rain in unexpected places as a little splotch of jelly; it is called 'falling stars' (F. W. Oliver). 1. 14. a famous modern poet. Malone traces this to Strada, Prolusiones, where it is told of Naugerius that he annually sacrificed a copy of Martial to the Manes of Virgil. Malone points out that the line quoted by Dryden from Statius a little further on is also quoted by Strada in the same prolusion. 1. 32. bubbles, dupes. P. 247, 1. 3. Quae superimposito, &c. Statius, Sylv. I. i. 1, referred to again in the Parallel of Poetry and Painting, vol. ii. p. 149. 1. 14. Sylvester's Dubartas. Du Bartas his Divine Weekes and Workes, &c., first published in 1598, and frequently since. In the original it is 'perriwig with wool.' From The Handicrafts, i. e. the Fourth Part of the First Day of the Second Week. Referred to again in the translation of Boileau's Art Poétique, written by Sir William Soame, and revised by Dryden. P. 248, 1. 14. the propriety of thoughts and words. See p. 190, and note. 1. 12, PREFACE TO THE SECOND MISCELLANY (1685). P. 251, 1. 4. History of the League; translated from Maimbourg, 1684. 1. 18. Lord Roscommon's Essay on Translated Verse, published in 1680. P. 253, 1. 14. Ogleby's. John Ogilby, 1600–1676, translated Virgil 1649 (second edition, 'adorn'd with Sculpture,' 1654), Iliad 1660, Odyssey 1665. 1. 17. many who understand Greek and Latin, &c. Cf. Chapman, Verses to the Reader, prefixed to his Iliads: But as great clerks can write no English verse |