CHAPTER IV.

DRYDEN AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.

Dead water in English Criticism 365 Milton 365 Cowley 366 The Prefatory matter of _Gondibert_ 367 The “Heroic Poem” 368 Davenant’s _Examen_ 369 Hobbes’s Answer 370 Dryden 371 His advantages 372 The early Prefaces 373 The _Essay of Dramatic Poesy_ 376 Its setting and overture 376 Crites for the Ancients 377 Eugenius for the “last age” 378 Lisideius for the French 378 Dryden for England and Liberty 379 _Coda_ on rhymed plays, and conclusion 380 Conspicuous merits of the piece 381 The Middle Prefaces 382

The _Essay on Satire_ and the _Dedication of the Æneis_ 385 The Parallel of Poetry and Painting 386 The _Preface to the Fables_ 386 Dryden’s general critical position 386 His special critical method 387 Dryden and Boileau 389 Rymer 391 The _Preface to Rapin_ 392 The _Tragedies of the Last Age_ 394 The _Short View of Tragedy_ 395 The Rule of Tom the Second 397 Sprat 398 Edward Phillips 398 His _Theatrum Poetarum_ 399 Winstanley’s _Lives_ 400 Langbaine’s _Dramatic Poets_ 400 Temple 401 Bentley 401 Collier’s _Short View_ 402 Sir T. P. Blount 404 Periodicals: _The Athenian Mercury_, &c. 406

INTERCHAPTER V. 407

BOOK VI.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ORTHODOXY.