This poem furnished the hint to Mr. Pope to write his Dunciad; and it must be owned the latter has been more happy in the execution of his defign, as having more leifure for the performance; but, in Dryden's Mac Flecknoe there are some lines fo extremely pungent, that I am not quite certain if Pope has any where exceeded them.

In the year wherein he was deprived of the laurel, he published the life of St. Francis Xavier, tranflated from the French of father Dominic Bouchorus. In 1693, came out a tranflation of Juvenal and Perfius; in which the firft, third, fixth, tenth, and fixteenth, fatires of Juvenal, and Perfius entire, were done by Mr. Dryden, who prefixed a long and ingenious difcourfe, by way of dedication, to the earl of Dorfet. In this addrefs, our author takes occafion a while to drop his reflexions on Juvenal, and to lay before his lordship a plan for an epic poem. He obferves that his genius never much inclined him to the ftage; and that he wrote for it rather from neceffity than inclination. He complains, that his circumftances are fuch as not to suffer him to pursue the bent of his own genius, and then lays down the plan on which an epic poem might be written: "to wnich," fays he, "I am more inclined."

Whether the plan propofed is faulty or no, we are not, at prefent, to confider; one thing is certain, a man of Mr. Dryden's genius would

would have covered, by the rapidity of the action, the art of the defign and the beauty of the poetry, whatever might have been defective in the plan; and produced a work which would have been the boast of the nation.

We cannot help regretting on this occafion, that Dryden's fortune was not easy enough to enable him, with convenience and leifure, to pursue a work that might have proved an honour to himself, and reflected a portion thereof on all who should have appeared his encouragers on this occafion.

In 1695, Mr. Dryden published a tranflation in profe of Du Frefnoy's Art of Painting, with a preface containing a parallel between painting and poetry. Mr. Pope has addreffed a copy of verfes to Mr. Jervas in praise of Dryden's tranflation.

In 1697, his tranflation of Virgil's works came out. This tranflation has paffed through many editions; and, of all the attempts which have been made to render Virgil into English, the critics, I think, have allowed that Dryden beft fucceeded *; notwithstanding, as he himself fays, when he began it, he was paft the grand climacteric !-So little influence, it feems, age had over him, that he retained his judgment and fire in full force to

This was written before Mr. Dodfley's edition of Virgil in English appeared.

the

the laft. Mr. Pope, in his preface to Homer. fays, If Dryden had lived to finish what he began of Homer, he (Mr. Pope) would not have attempted it after him, "No more,' fays he," than I would his Virgil; his verfion of whom, notwithstanding fome human errors, is the most noble and spirited translation I know in any language."

Dr. Trap charges Mr. Dryden with grofly miftaking his author's fenfe in many places; with adding or retrenching, as his turn is beft ferved with either; and with being leaft a tranflator where he fhines moft as a poet 5whereas it is a juft rule, laid down by lord Rofcommon, that a tranflator, in regard to his author, fhould

Fall as he falls, and as he rifes rise..

Mr. Dryden, he tells us, frequently acts the very reverse of this precept, of which he produces fome inftances; and remarks, in general, that the first fix books of the Æneis, which are the best and most perfect in the ori ginal, are the leaf fo in the translation. Dr. Trap's remarks may poffibly be true; but, in this, he is an inftance, how eafy it is to difcover faults in other men's works, and how dif ficult to avoid them in our own.

Dr. Trap's tranflation is clofe, and conveys the author's meaning literally; fo, confequently, may be fitter for a fchool-boy;

but

but men of riper judgment, and fuperior taste, will hardly approve it: if Dryden's is the moft fpirited of any tranflation, Trap's is the dullest that ever was written; which proves, that none but a good poet is fit to tranflate the works of a good poeti

Befides the original pieces and translations hitherto mentioned, Mr. Dryden wrote many others, published in fix volumes of Mifcellanies, and in other collections. They consist of tranflations from the Greek and Latin poets; epiftles to feveral perfons; prologues and epilogues to feveral plays; elegies, epitaphs, and fongs. His laft work was his Fables, Ancient and Modern, translated into verfe from Homer, Ovid, Boccace, and Chaucer. To this work, which is, perhaps, one of his moft imperfect, is prefixed, by way of preface, a critical account of the authors from whom the fables are tranflated.

Among the original pieces, the Ode to St. Cecilia's day is justly esteemed one of the most elevated in any language. It is impoffible for a poet to read this without being filled with that fort of enthusiasm which is peculiar to the infpired tribe, and which Dryden largely felt when he compofed it. The turn of the verse is noble; the tranfitions furprifing; the language and fentiments juft, natural, and heightened. We cannot be too lavish in praise of this ode; had Dryden never wrote any thing besides, his name had been immortal. Mr.

Pope

Pope has the following beautiful lines in its praise*.

Hear how Timotheus' varied lays furprize,
And bid alternate paffions fall and rise!
While, at each change, the fon of Lybian
Jove

Now burns with glory, and then melts with love:

Now his fierce eyes with sparkling fury glow;
Now fighs fteal out, and tears begin to flow;
Perfians and Greeks like turns of nature found,
And the world's victor stood fubdued by found:
The power of mufic all our hearts allow;
And what Timotheus was, is Dryden now.

As to our author's performances in profe, besides his dedications and prefaces, and controverfial writings, they confift of the Lives of Plutarch and Lucian, prefixed to the tranflation of those authors, by feveral hands; the Life of Polybius, before the translation of that hiftorian by Sir Henry Sheers; and the preface to the Dialogue concerning Women, by William Walsh, efquire.

Before we give an account of the dramatic works of Dryden, it will be proper here to infert a story concerning him, from the life of Congreve, by Charles Wilfon, efquire, which that gentleman received from the lady whom

Effay on Criticism.

Mr. Dry