After the Revolution, when he was driven from his public appointments, Dryden occupied himself chiefly with translations. He once more used the couplet medium, turning Virgil, Ovid, and Boccaccio into English, and adapting Chaucer to the taste of his time. The translation is so free that much of it is Dryden’s own, and all of it teems with his own individuality. We give a passage to illustrate both the latest phase of his couplet and his power as a narrative poet: Scarce the third glass of measured hours was run, When like a fiery meteor sunk the sun, The promise of a storm; the shifting gales Forsake by fits and fill the flagging sails; Hoarse murmurs of the main from far were heard, And night came on, not by degrees prepared, But all at once; at once the winds arise, The thunders roll, the forky lightning flies. In vain the master issues out commands, In vain the trembling sailors ply their hands; The tempest unforeseen prevents their care, And from the first they labour in despair. The giddy ship betwixt the winds and tides, Forced back and forwards, in a circle rides, Stunned with the different blows; then shoots amain, Till counterbuffed she stops, and sleeps again. _Cymon and Iphigenia_ Though it is small in bulk, Dryden’s lyrical poetry is of much importance. The longest and the best-known pieces of this class are his _Song for St. Cecilia’s Day_ (1687) and _Alexander’s Feast_, written for the same anniversary in 1697. Both show Dryden as a master of melodious verse and of a varied and powerful style. The numerous lyrics that appear in his plays are charming. One stanza will illustrate this sweetly facile phase of the poet’s art: On a bank, beside a willow, Heaven her covering, earth her pillow, Sad Amynta sighed alone; From the cheerless dawn of morning Till the dews of night returning, Singing thus she made her moan: “Hope is banished, Joys are vanished, Damon, my beloved, is gone!” His numerous prologues and epilogues, written in couplets, show abundant wit and vivacity, yet they habitually appeal to the worst instincts of his audiences, being very often coarse and unmannerly. =3. His Drama.= In his dramatic work, as elsewhere, Dryden is a faithful reflex of his time. His methods and objects vary as the public appreciation of them waxes and wanes, with the result that he gives us a historical summary of the popular fancy. His first play was a comedy, _The Wild Gallant_ (1663), which had but a very moderate success. It has the complicated plot of the popular Spanish comedies and the “humors” of Jonson’s. After this unsuccessful attempt at public favor Dryden turned to tragedy, which henceforth nearly monopolizes his dramatic work. His tragedies fall into two main groups: