New-York tribune., 1900-08-26


student to possess the complete works OF Dry
den. We are not sure that he wants or needs
them There is much In the big collection, both
+ in verse and in prose whicn it is quite pos
sible to get along without But when Dryden
was critical he generally worth reading.
and the pleasure he gave his contemporaries
could hardly have been greater than the pleas
ure he gives to the modern reader In fact. the
latter is perhaps in a better position 20 enjoy
the famous prefaces. The art OF criticism,
which Dryden did so much clarity and build
up. has no living practitioner who may be com
pared with him for originality and force; but
its history is now well understood and as We
/ look back at the author Of the papers collected
in Professor Kers two volumes We appreciate
him the more through seeing him in a right
perspective. through grasping his significance
in the broad development Of English literature
/ Professor Ker is a good editor and cOmmenta-
tor. He has selected the right things; his In
PRODUCTION and notes are as instructive as they
are readable. The Clarendon Press has not
only given excellent print to the essays but
sends them forth in two volumes Of Just the
right size and weight for comfortable reading
Dryden is a comfortable writer. Much learn
ing failed to make him merely bookish. What
ever might be said Of his personality. his crit
icaI writings provoke but one reflection:
The elements
So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world This was a mani"
His prose has the free movement OF speech
One seems TO hear him laying down the law as
I though to listeners who his familiar friends:
and the voice is clear. the intonation is fear
less. the gesture with which each period is
rounded out can only imagine as vigorous
and artless. Professor Ker notes his hero's re-
spect for received authorities The respect is
sincere. but it never degenerates into timorous
routine Witness ont NJ hundred eyarnDfes
this passage on Shakespeare:
| He was the man who of all modern and per
! haps ancient poets had the largest and most
| comprehensive soul All the images OF Nature
| not laboriously, but luckily; when he describes
anything you more than il. ysU feel
| it. too Those who accuse him 10 have
| wanted learning give him the greater com
meEdatiOn; he was naturally learned: ne need
| ed not the spectacles Of books 70 read Nature:
ne iooked lnWarus, ana round her there can
not say he is everywhere alike; were he so.
| should do him injury TO compare him with the
! greatest of all mankind He is many times
| fiat. insipd. his comic Wit deSeneratins into
/ clenches Iplays upon wOrdsI. his serious swell
ing into bOmbast: but he is always great when
| some great occasion is presented to him
He is not blind to the shortcomings Of aBv
writer. matter how dear to him that writer
may be. He is delightful on Jonson. whom he
immensely admired. and never more so than
/ when he is taxing the pattern of elaborate
writing" with bold borrowings from the an
GENTS But with what generous words does he
state the fact, He invades authors like q
monarch; and what be theft in other poets is
only victory in him. The secret OS his i'm
partiality lies partly in the robust amplitude OF
his genius. partly in his wholesome sanity OF
mind Common sense. he says. in the immortal
+ Preface TO the Fables lis a rule in everything
I but matters of Faith and Revelation" II is
/ interesting to see how this common sense acts
/ as a constant check upon the growth in him
of anything like literary Journalism. He blamed
Hobbies for beginning to praise Homer where he
should have ended. for putting diction in the
first place He thought the design the dis
position" should be first applauded and when
/ he tells US that Homer is more according to
my genius" than Virgil. ne seems to point to
his sympathy for whatever is constructive in
the Greek poet But form with Dryden was az
its best when it sprang simply from a natural
ordering of things. When he compares French
plays with English in the Essay Of Dramatic
POesy' he does full justice to the stage across
the channel but he comes back with most sat
iSfaction to his own. whereon he finds less ex-
cellent artifce. but human nature. In
DR. JOhnsOns words; He may be thought TO
mention himself too frequently but this OBJ
servatiOn really does than indicate one
OF Drydens prime merits, his faculty for dis
cussins question with precisely the personal