Each little pimple had a tear in it,To wail the fault its rising did commit,Who, rebel-like, with their own lord at strife,Thus made an insurrection ’gainst his life.Or were these gems sent to adorn his skin,The cabinet of a richer soul within?No comet need foretell his change drew on,Whose corpse might seem a constellation.Upon the Death of the Lord Hastings
Each little pimple had a tear in it,To wail the fault its rising did commit,Who, rebel-like, with their own lord at strife,Thus made an insurrection ’gainst his life.Or were these gems sent to adorn his skin,The cabinet of a richer soul within?No comet need foretell his change drew on,Whose corpse might seem a constellation.Upon the Death of the Lord Hastings
Each little pimple had a tear in it,To wail the fault its rising did commit,Who, rebel-like, with their own lord at strife,Thus made an insurrection ’gainst his life.Or were these gems sent to adorn his skin,The cabinet of a richer soul within?No comet need foretell his change drew on,Whose corpse might seem a constellation.Upon the Death of the Lord Hastings
Each little pimple had a tear in it,
To wail the fault its rising did commit,
Who, rebel-like, with their own lord at strife,
Thus made an insurrection ’gainst his life.
Or were these gems sent to adorn his skin,
The cabinet of a richer soul within?
No comet need foretell his change drew on,
Whose corpse might seem a constellation.
Upon the Death of the Lord Hastings
8. Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to joinThe varying verse, the full resounding line,The long majestic march, the energy divine.Pope
8. Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to joinThe varying verse, the full resounding line,The long majestic march, the energy divine.Pope
8. Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to joinThe varying verse, the full resounding line,The long majestic march, the energy divine.Pope
8. Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to join
The varying verse, the full resounding line,
The long majestic march, the energy divine.
Pope
From the passages already quoted give extracts to show the truth of the above statement.
9. Use the following quotation to sketch the development of English prose from the death of Shakespeare to the death of Dryden:
When we find Chapman, the Elizabethan translator of Homer, expressing himself in his preface thus: “Though truth in her very nakedness sits in so deep a pit, that from Gades to Aurora and Ganges few eyes can sound her, I hope yet those few here will so discover and confirm, that, the date being out of her darkness in this morning of our poet, he shall now gird his temples with the sun,”—we pronounce that such a prose is intolerable. When we find Milton writing: “And long it was not after, when I was confirmed in this opinion, that he, who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem,”—we pronounce that such a prose has its own grandeur, but that it is obsolete and inconvenient. But when we find Dryden telling us: “What Virgil wrote in the vigour of his age, in plenty and at ease, I have undertaken to translate in my declining years; struggling with wants, oppressed with sickness, curbed in my genius, liable to be misconstrued in all I write,” then we exclaim that here at last we have the true English prose, prose such as we would all gladly use if we only knew how. Yet Dryden was Milton’s contemporary.Matthew Arnold
When we find Chapman, the Elizabethan translator of Homer, expressing himself in his preface thus: “Though truth in her very nakedness sits in so deep a pit, that from Gades to Aurora and Ganges few eyes can sound her, I hope yet those few here will so discover and confirm, that, the date being out of her darkness in this morning of our poet, he shall now gird his temples with the sun,”—we pronounce that such a prose is intolerable. When we find Milton writing: “And long it was not after, when I was confirmed in this opinion, that he, who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem,”—we pronounce that such a prose has its own grandeur, but that it is obsolete and inconvenient. But when we find Dryden telling us: “What Virgil wrote in the vigour of his age, in plenty and at ease, I have undertaken to translate in my declining years; struggling with wants, oppressed with sickness, curbed in my genius, liable to be misconstrued in all I write,” then we exclaim that here at last we have the true English prose, prose such as we would all gladly use if we only knew how. Yet Dryden was Milton’s contemporary.
Matthew Arnold
10. “A good deal of the unconquerable individuality of the earlier part of the century survives in it, and prevents monotony. After Addison everybody tries to write like Addison; after Johnson almost everybody tries to write like Johnson. But after Dryden everybody dare not yet try to write like Dryden.” (Saintsbury.) Show how far this statement applies to the prose style of the age.
11. “The characteristic feature ofThe Pilgrim’s Progressis that it is the only work of its kind which possesses a strong human interest.” (Macaulay.) Show howBunyan, in plot, characters, and style, arouses this “strong human interest” in his allegory. From this point of view compare him with Spenser, who, Macaulay says, does not arouse this interest.
12. The period of Dryden is often called “the Age of Satire.” Account for the prominence of satire in this period, and point out some of the effects it had on current and the succeeding writing.
13. What are the main features of Restoration drama?
14. “No man exercised so much influence on the age. The reason is obvious. On no man did the age exercise so much influence.” (Macaulay.) How far is this statement true of Dryden?