DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69603#0097
ENGLAND.] DRYDEN.
tized by the name of Og. Dryden could not decently
complain when he was deposed, but seemed very angry
that Shadwell succeeded him; and has therefore cele-
brated the intruder’s inauguration, in a poem exquisitely
satirical, called Mac Flecknoe, of which the Dunciad, as
Pope himself declares, is an imitation, though more ex-
tended in its plan, and more diversified in its incidents.
In 1693, appeared a new version of Juvenal and Persius.
Of Juvenal, he translated the first, third, sixth, and six-
teenth satires. On this occasion, he introduced his two
sons to the public, as nurselings of the muses. The four-
teenth of Juvenal was the work of John, and the seventh
of Charles Dryden. In 1694, he began the most laboripus
and difficult of all his works, the translation of Virgil,
from which he borrowed two months, that he might turn
Fresnoy’s Art of Painting into English prose. The pre-
face, which he boasts to have written in twelve mornings,
exhibits a parallel of poetry and painting, with a miscel-
laneous collection of critical remarks, such as cost a mind
stored like his no labour to produce. Dryden also pro-
jected an Epic Poem, but the parsimony of his patrons
caused him to abandon his design. Of the little encou-
ragement he received he sorely complains, in an “ Essay
on Satire,” addressed to the Earl of Dorset, and prefixed
to his translation of Juvenal; in which, after mentioning
an outline of his plan, he adds—“ This I had intended
chiefly for the honour of my native country, to which a
poet is particularly obliged. Of two subjects, both re-
lating to it, I was doubtful whether I should chuse—that
of King Arthur conquering the Saxons, which, being
farther distant in time, gives the greater scope to my
invention—or that of Edward the Black Prince, in sub-
duing Spain and restoring it to the lawful prince, though
tized by the name of Og. Dryden could not decently
complain when he was deposed, but seemed very angry
that Shadwell succeeded him; and has therefore cele-
brated the intruder’s inauguration, in a poem exquisitely
satirical, called Mac Flecknoe, of which the Dunciad, as
Pope himself declares, is an imitation, though more ex-
tended in its plan, and more diversified in its incidents.
In 1693, appeared a new version of Juvenal and Persius.
Of Juvenal, he translated the first, third, sixth, and six-
teenth satires. On this occasion, he introduced his two
sons to the public, as nurselings of the muses. The four-
teenth of Juvenal was the work of John, and the seventh
of Charles Dryden. In 1694, he began the most laboripus
and difficult of all his works, the translation of Virgil,
from which he borrowed two months, that he might turn
Fresnoy’s Art of Painting into English prose. The pre-
face, which he boasts to have written in twelve mornings,
exhibits a parallel of poetry and painting, with a miscel-
laneous collection of critical remarks, such as cost a mind
stored like his no labour to produce. Dryden also pro-
jected an Epic Poem, but the parsimony of his patrons
caused him to abandon his design. Of the little encou-
ragement he received he sorely complains, in an “ Essay
on Satire,” addressed to the Earl of Dorset, and prefixed
to his translation of Juvenal; in which, after mentioning
an outline of his plan, he adds—“ This I had intended
chiefly for the honour of my native country, to which a
poet is particularly obliged. Of two subjects, both re-
lating to it, I was doubtful whether I should chuse—that
of King Arthur conquering the Saxons, which, being
farther distant in time, gives the greater scope to my
invention—or that of Edward the Black Prince, in sub-
duing Spain and restoring it to the lawful prince, though