With the high eulogies on Dryden's odes, especially "Alexander's Feast," I confess myself unable to sympathize. While there is much of lyrical rapidity in it, there is an absence of lyrical dignity both in thought and language: it has somewhat too much of the bacchanalian strain and too much of the pettiness of a mere song to come up to the standard of a true ode.

In the course of this lecture I have had occasion to condemn the perversion of Dryden's genius to low and unhallowed purposes. There was not only the native licentiousness in many of his dramas, but a borrowed iniquity in not a few of his translations from ancient authors. His imagination did not, like Milton's, travel into Greek and Roman poetry to feed on the purity and wisdom to be found there, but gloated over its corruptions and obscenity, as if it were better to go to the Eternal City and there to delve in the tombs or beneath the mouldering arches of its sewers than to stand on the Capitoline and breathe the pure air under an Italian sky and blowing across the seven hills of Rome.

It was my intention to have attempted to draw a contrast between the old age of Milton and Dryden, to each of them a season of solitude and worldly misfortune:- Milton's the noble, placid closing of a life spent ever in his great Taskmaster's eye,”—the very darkness of blindness sanctified to his meditative spirit, as he sublimely imagined it, "the shadows of heavenly wings" falling upon his footsteps;-Dryden's old age the remnant of a life worn out in his Egyptian bondage, embittered by the memory of talents

DRYDEN'S AGE.

spent in the thankless services of the sordid and grovelling of earthly kings.

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meanest, most This contrast was in my thoughts; but, when I reflect on the lines I now in conclusion read, I find myself disarmed of the intention :

"If joys hereafter must be purchased here
With loss of all that mortals hold so dear,
Then welcome infamy and public shame,
And, last, a long farewell to worldly fame!
'Tis said with ease; but oh, how hardly tried
By haughty souls to human honour tied!
Oh, sharp convulsive pangs of agonizing pride!
Down then, thou rebel, never more to rise!
And what thou didst, and dost, so dearly prize,—
That fame, that darling fame,-make that thy sacrifice;
'Tis nothing thou hast given; then add thy tears
For a long race of unrepenting years:

'Tis nothing yet, yet all thou hast to give;

Then add those may-be years thou hast to live:
'Tis nothing still; then poor and naked come;
Thy Father will receive his unthrift home,

And thy blest Saviour's blood discharge the mighty sum."

LECTURE IX.

The Age of Queen Anne: Pope;

AND

Poets of the later part of the Eighteenth Century: Cowper.

The Age of Pope-Change in the social relations of Authors— Language of Dedications-Periodical publications-State of British parties-Lord Mahon's illustrations of the age-Spirit of that age-Alexander Popé-His aspirations—His want of sympathy with his predecessors - Imitation of French poetry - Pope's edition of Shakspeare-Pope's Pastorals-Corruptions of the English tongue -John Dennis's Emendations of Shakspeare-Pope's versification -The "Town"-The Moonlight Scene in the Iliad - Pope and Milton contrasted-"Eloisa to Abelard"-The "Rape of the Lock”— Pope's Satires-The "Essay on Criticism"-The "Essay on Man" - Lord Bolingbroke - Orthodoxy of the "Essay on Man"- His appreciation of Female Character-William Cowper- His insanity “The Task” — “John Gilpin”—“The Dirge”—“The Castaway"-" Cowper's Grave."

THE lecture on Dryden has brought our studies down to the close of the seventeenth century, his death having its date in the year 1700. A literary era of great brilliancy soon followed in the early years of the eighteenth century, the age of Queen Anne, as it has been styled, of the poetry of which Pope stands, by universal admission, the representative-enjoying very

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THE AGE OF POPE.

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much the same exclusive supremacy as had been attained by his immediate predecessor, Dryden, in his days. The age has its distinctive traits, political, moral, and social, affecting its literature; and Pope lived in close and strong sympathy with the times. He was, though devoted to the prime pursuit of literary fame, intimately associated with the actors and the scenes of public life. His reputation was speedy and brilliant. The real worth of it has been much discussed within the last few years, -a discussion, however, in which, except with a few ultraists, there is less real difference of opinion than zeal of controversy.

Before entering upon any statement of these opinions, I wish to notice a change which, at this time, was taking place in the social relations of authors,―their position in the community. The condition of literature has in different moods of society, by this consideration, been materially controlled, taking a character from outward agencies. In the earlier ages of English authorship, the poets, when seeking the favour and countenance of men of rank, conciliated their patronage by tributes which were no less honourable to him that gave than to him who received; for the language of dedication was a manly language, wholly free from servility. What, for instance, could be finer than the magnificent series of dedications of Spenser's "Fairy Queen,"-the affectionate and dutiful homage of a heart- a true poet's heart-forever seeking the good and the honourable and the beautiful, wherever his imagination dwelt? The poet and the man of true nobility appear not to have been separated by any strongly-marked line of social demarcation: there was equal and honourable intimacy. Coming down to a

later period, writers are seen pitiably fawning upon the great, the rich, and the powerful; an adulation poisonous to the love of truth and independence becomes a deep-seated and wide-spread disease. The boundless extravagance of Dryden's flattery is one of the moral blots upon his memory. What was a poet's function, in that sensual generation, but to feed an impure and palsied taste, forever demanding stronger and stronger stimulants? His position had scarce more of moral elevation than that of a court buffoon, rising higher only when called to render a vassal's service in some fugitive quarrel of his master's, and to provide weapons from the arsenal of poetic satire. A better state of things was brought about in the succeeding period. The press was beginning to acquire an influence over public opinion which greatly affected the circumstances of men who were competent to write. The introduction of periodical publications may be referred to the reign of Queen Anne; and political leaders soon felt how great must be the sway upon public measures, and the policy of the two great parties, of discussion thus circulated. It has been well remarked, in reference to the fact of Lord Bolingbroke and the Lord-Chancellor Cowper having contributed to certain periodical publications, that two such statesmen, taking such a course, must have perceived the full extent of this influence. The power of a partypress was realized, and Whigs and Tories, Ministry and Opposition, rallied men of letters in their respective ranks. The man of letters, of course, rose in estimation; his social position was a better one. His attitude was not indeed as advantageous-not as propitious, I mean— to the genial activity of his powers, as that which ex