The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 13Dryden, John
General
The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 13
Dryden, John
Poetry
And, besides all this, it is your lordship's particular talent to
lay your thoughts so close together, that, were they closer, they
would be crowded, and even a due connection would be wanting. We are
not kept in expectation of two good lines, which are to come after a
long parenthesis of twenty bad; which is the April poetry of other
writers, a mixture of rain and sunshine by fits: you are always bright,
even almost to a fault, by reason of the excess. There is continual
abundance, a magazine of thought, and yet a perpetual variety of
entertainment; which creates such an appetite in your reader, that he
is not cloyed with any thing, but satisfied with all. It is that which
the Romans call, _cæna dubia_; where there is such plenty, yet withal
so much diversity, and so good order, that the choice is difficult
betwixt one excellency and another; and yet the conclusion, by a due
climax, is evermore the best; that is, as a conclusion ought to be,
ever the most proper for its place. See, my lord, whether I have not
studied your lordship with some application; and, since you are so
modest that you will not be judge and party, I appeal to the whole
world, if I have not drawn your picture to a great degree of likeness,
though it is but in miniature, and that some of the best features are
yet wanting. Yet what I have done is enough to distinguish you from any
other, which is the proposition that I took upon me to demonstrate.
And now, my lord, to apply what I have said to my present business. The
Satires of Juvenal and Persius appearing in this new English dress,
cannot so properly be inscribed to any man as to your lordship, who are
the first of the age in that way of writing. Your lordship, amongst
many other favours, has given me your permission for this address; and
you have particularly encouraged me by your perusal and approbation of
the Sixth and Tenth Satires of Juvenal, as I have translated them. My
fellow-labourers have likewise commissioned me, to perform, in their
behalf, this office of a dedication to you; and will acknowledge, with
all possible respect and gratitude, your acceptance of their work.
Some of them have the honour to be known to your lordship already;
and they who have not yet that happiness, desire it now. Be pleased
to receive our common endeavours with your wonted candour, without
entitling you to the protection of our common failings in so difficult
an undertaking. And allow me your patience, if it be not already tired
with this long epistle, to give you, from the best authors, the origin,
the antiquity, the growth, the change, and the completement of satire
among the Romans; to describe, if not define, the nature of that poem,
with its several qualifications and virtues, together with the several
sorts of it; to compare the excellencies of Horace, Persius, and
Juvenal, and show the particular manners of their satires; and, lastly,
to give an account of this new way of version, which is attempted in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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