It is passages like these, recognising the resources of a chastened imagination and the influence of true poetry upon individual happiness, that have won for George Wither, neglected as his memory has been, a fine tribute, which, in closing this lecture, I desire to leave in your thoughts:-"The praises of poetry have been often in ancient and modern times; strange powers have sung been ascribed to it of influence over animate and inanimate auditors; its force over fascinated crowds has been acknowledged; but before Wither no one ever celebrated its power at home, the wealth and the strength which this divine gift confers upon its possessor. Fame-and that, too, after death, was all which hitherto the poets had promised themselves from their art. It seems to have been left to (George) Wither to discover that poetry was a present possession as well as a rich reversion, and that the Muse had promise of both lives,—of this and of that which is to come."

LECTURE VIII.

The Age of the Restoration: Dryden.

Ambiguities in the general titles adopted to designate particular literary eras-The last quarter of the seventeenth century the age of Dryden-The degraded tastes of his times-The alliance of high poetry with virtue - The true standard of poetic meritDryden's poetry a reflection of the times of Charles II.- Profigacy of that age Character of Charles Stuart - The spirit of Poetry is a spirit of enthusiasm - The debasing effects of the Civil Wars- Shaftesbury as Lord-Chancellor - Reception of the Paradise Lost-Winstanley's Lives of the English Poets-Milton's exposition of kingly duty - The Drama during the Age of the Restoration-Dryden's Plays - Defects of rhyming Tragedies"The Fall of Innocence"-Dryden's alteration of "The Tempest" -"Absalom and Achitophel"--Buckingham-Literary larcenySir Egerton Brydges's Lines on Milton-"The Hind and the Panther"-"Alexander's Feast"-Ode for St. Cecilia's Day-Dryden's later poetry.

IN studying the literature of a nation it is necessary to bear in mind that general titles adopted to designate particular eras will almost inevitably be liable to ambiguities, which are calculated to suggest, imperceptibly, erroneous impressions. The employment of the title of the sovereign, as is usual, in marking the periods of English literature, is manifestly attended with this confusion: -that the reign may not be found to correspond, as to time, with the age in which the writers flourished. For instance, the literary age of Queen Elizabeth is not the

political reign of Queen Elizabeth; for half of the reign was spent before the glory of its poetry was developed. Again: if we employ the name of the most illustrious author to indicate a period of literary history, the mind unconsciously adopts an opinion which may be greatly erroneous :—that his fame had gained in his own times, the influence and authority it has received only from posterity. In this respect, there would be an absurdity were we to speak of "the age of Milton," or even of Shakspeare; for many years rolled over the graves of each of those poets before the might of their genius was realized. Especially may this be said with regard to Milton, between whom and the spirit of the times in which his great poem was published there was so great an uncongeniality that, to refer the favourite poets of those days, with all their poetical heresies, their low morality, and their sins against the laws of pure and disciplined imagination, to the age of Milton, would be an incongruity as flagrant as the Roman usage of dating the age of their casks of wine by a reference to the date of the magistracy of a consul,-a cask of Falernian stamped with a name, perhaps, as stern as Caius Marius.

The period I am about entering upon in this lecture forms a striking exception to these remarks; for, if we seek a title to designate the last quarter of the seventeenth century, there need not be a moment's hesitation in appropriating to it the name of Dryden. From the year 1674, when the death of Milton took place, down to the year 1700, the date of Dryden's death,-Dryden held in English poetry an absolute and exclusive supremacy. He and the age were suited to each other. fit representative of the times of Charles II.

He was the

With ta

ALLIANCE OF HIGH POETRY WITH VIRTUE. 269

lents which might, by moral chastening and intellectual discipline, have secured to him a pure fame, he prostituted the poet's sacred endowment to unholy and base purposes. Now, this is lamentable. It would be so in the annals of the poetry of any people; but in those of English poetry it is doubly, deeply deplorable. Think for a moment of the mighty minds I have been contemplating in the previous lectures,―mighty, I mean, in their purity as well as in their power, indeed, their purity was part of their power; think of Spenser's spotless spirit, knowing no debasement in years either of prosperity or adversity; of Shakspeare's gentle and gigantic genius, uncontaminated even by the courses into which his life was cast; and of Milton, with all his partisanship in a fierce warfare, still keeping his imagination insphered in regions of serene air,

"Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot

Which men call earth."

What mortal monarch seated on earthly throne, though, like Satan's throne in Pandemonium, it

"Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind,

Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand,
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,"-

What king, I say, could, either by kingly power or by kingly frown, have extorted from John Milton a single line profaning the sacred trust of his precious talent, held "ever in his great Taskmaster's eye"? Remember how, as we have been considering one great name after another on the register of England's mighty poets, we have thus far found the genius of all of them enlisted in the cause

of virtue, militant on the side of truth, nobly fulfilling their destiny, and leaving behind them undying words which wing their flight over each generation as it rises and passes away; so that we, I hope, may have caught some enthusiasm from their sound, centuries after those words were first uttered :

"Blessings be with them, and eternal praise,

Who gave us nobler loves and nobler cares,—
The poets who, on earth, have made us heirs
Of truth and pure delight by heavenly lays."

This benediction is not due to all, however rightfully they may claim the title of poet. There is one principle I shall cling to at every part of these lectures, because I am deeply convinced of its truth, and because, too, the annals of English poetry will sustain me in it :—that one inseparable attribute of all the highest poetry is alliance with virtue; that its tendency, mute though it be to the sensual and the dark, is to make the wise and the good still wiser, still better, still happier. Has it not been so, even after making full allowance for all violations of propriety in less refined states of society, with every one of the great poets we have been considering? Let their pure, imaginative morality be remembered, both because I do not wish to lead you unadvised into a different poetic atmosphere, and because, before this course is closed, I must apply this principle to other eminent names besides that of Dryden.

I am anxious to render justice to Dryden's powers, and shall strive to do so. Neither do I wish to limit literary research or taste to the productions of the great masters; for English poetry abounds with poems of unnumbered degrees of merit: its secondary poetry is rich;