P. 131, 1. 35. Poussin.

P. 132, 1. 20. kermis; a fair (Dutch).

1. 21. snick or snee. The subject is noted by Sir Joshua Reynolds at Amsterdam, a picture by Jan Steen in the cabinet of M. Gart (Works, ed. Malone, ii. p. 365). Compare Marvell, The Character of Holland, 1. 96:

When, stagg'ring upon some land, snick and sneer,

They try like statuaries if they can

Carve out each other's Athos to a man;

And carve in their large bodies where they please,

The arms of the United Provinces.'

1. 23. Lazar. Above, vol. i. p. 18, 1. 18.

P. 133, 1. 12. Covent Garden fops. A fop was more of a booby and less of a dandy in Dryden's time.

1. 23. As Sir William D'Avenant observes: 'and he that means to govern so mournfully (as it were, without any Musick in his Dominion) must lay but light burdens on his Subjects; or else he wants the ordinary wisdom of those who, to their Beasts that are much loaden, whistle all the day to encourage their Travail' (Preface to Gondibert, p. 18, in the folio).

P. 134, 1. 3. an eminent French critic. Not identified.

P. 136, 1. 20. The principal and most important :

'Praecipua imprimis Artisque potissima pars est
Nosse quid in rebus Natura creavit ad Artem
Pulchrius, idque Modum iuxta Mentemque Vetustam.'`

De Arte Graph. v. 37 sqq.

P. 138, 1. 4. Mr. Walter Moyle (1672-1721). His writings were edited, with an account of his life, by Anthony Hammond, in 1727. 'From a set of Company of Learned and Ingenious Gentlemen, who frequented Manwayring's Coffee-house in Fleet-street, he fell much into the Conversation of Gentlemen at the Grecian Coffee-house near the Temple. . . . To be nearer the more entertaining part of the Town, he removed to Covent-Garden. Here it was (as Mr. Dryden declares) that the Learning and Judgement, above his Age, which every one discovered in Mr. Moyle, were Proofs of those Abilities he has shewn in his Country's Service, when he was chose to serve it in the Senate, as his Father, Sir Walter, had done. A footnote here refers to Dryden's Life of Lucian. There are letters to Mr. Walter Moyle in Dennis's collection of Letters, 1696.

P. 139, 1. 15. Lopez de Vega. Lopez is a frequent mistake for Lope; the patronymic for the Christian name. Corneille, however, and generally the French before Voltaire, write accurately Lope. The reference is to Lope's Nuevo Arte de hacer Comedias (Obras Sueltas, iv. p. 405), his apology for neglecting the rules, and his

account of the best rules to be followed by the authors who wish to succeed with the public. None of them all can I reckon more barbarian than myself, since I am daring to give precepts all counter to Art, and letting myself swim with the vulgar tide, for Italy and France to call me ignorant. But what can I do, when I have written (counting the one finished this week) four hundred and eighty-three comedies, and all but six of them heinous offenders against Art? I stand by what I have written, and recognize that though the other way were better, yet they would not have pleased as well; for often that which breaks the rules is thereby pleasant to the taste.' P. 140, 1. 10. similes. See p. 202, l. 13.

P. 142, 1. 9. Another. Lee.

1. 17. Let every member:

6 Singula membra suo capiti conformia fiant.'

De Arte Graph. v. 126.

1. 28. Morecraft is the usurer in the Scornful Lady, whose conversion is referred to in the Essay of Dramatic Poesy, p. 66, 1. II: 'Cutting,' i.e. swaggering; a cutter is a 'roaring blade.'

'He's turn'd gallant.'
'Gallant!'

'Ay, gallant, and is now call'd Cutting Morecraft.'

'Is Pompey grown so malepert, so frampel?
The only cutter about ladies' honours,
And his blade soonest out?'

Act v. sc. 4.

Wit at Several Weapons, Act iii. sc. I.

1. 33. The principal figure:

'Prima Figurarum seu Princeps Dramatis ultro
Prosiliat media in Tabula sub lumine primo

Pulchrior ante alias, reliquis nec

operta Figuris.'
De Arte Graph. v. 129.

P. 144, 1. 8. Esther, 1689; written at the suggestion of Madame de Maintenon for the pupils of her foundation of St. Cyr: 'La célèbre maison de Saint-Cyr ayant été principalement établie pour élever dans la piété un fort grand nombre de jeunes demoiselles rassemblées de tous les endroits du royaume,' &c. (Racine, in the Preface to Esther). Racine had begun to attract English playwrights: Otway, Titus and Berenice, 1677; Crowne, Andromache, 1675.

P. 145, 1. 13. The Slighted Maid, by Sir R. Stapylton; see above, vol. i. p. 209, l. 5.

1. 30. Venice Preserved, or a Plot Discovered, 1682. Acted at the Duke's Theatre.

P. 146, 1.13. says Aristotle. Poet. c. 25 (p. 1460, 1. 33): olov kal Σοφοκλῆς ἔφη αὐτὸς μὲν οἵους δεῖ ποιεῖν, Εὐριπίδην δὲ οἷοι εἰσί.

1. 15. drew them worse: this case is not considered by Aristotle in the passage of which Dryden is thinking.

1. 20. that part of Edipus: the first and third Acts.

1. 31. the Gothic manner.

De Arte Graph., 1. 240 :

'Denique nil sapiat Gotthorum barbara trito

Ornamenta modo, saeclorum et monstra malorum,' &c.

P. 147, l. 11. Du Fresnoy tells us; op. cit., l. 137 sqq.

1. 30. turns of words upon the thought. See p. 108, and note.
1. 33. lena sororis. De Arte Graph., 1. 261 :

'Haec quidem ut in Tabulis fallax sed grata Venustas

Et complementum Graphidos (mirabile visu)

Pulchra vocabatur, sed subdola Lena Sororis.'

P. 149, 1. 26. the first verses of the Sylva; quoted by Dryden already in the Dedication of the Spanish Friar.

P. 151, 1. 4. the pencil thrown luckily—a favourite commonplace: it appears, e. g. at the beginning of the Preface to Ibrahim ou l'Illustre Bassa, 1641. The painter was Nealces.

1. 11. Bristol-stone; see p. 227, l. 18, and note.

1. 28. manum de tabula. Another commonplace, from Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxv. 10: 'Protogenes curae supra modum anxiae qui manum de tabula nesciret tollere '; quoted by Rapin, Reflexions sur la Poëtique: 'C'est un grand défaut que de ne pouvoir finir, dont Apelle blâmoit si fort Protogene.' Nocere nimiam diligentiam, from the same context, is also quoted here by Rapin, in the margin.

DEDICATION OF THE ÆNEIS (1697).

P. 154, 1. A Heroic Poem, truly such. See p. 181, 1. 6, and note. P. 155, 1. 5. the trifling novels; the episodic stories in the Orlando Furioso. Novel (accented on the last syllable) had of course still the meaning of the Italian novella, French nouvelle-a short story generally of love.'

P. 156, ll. 10–15. [I can think of nothing ... Jove was born there]. All this is left out in the third edition; I have not been able to find a copy of the second.

Hor. Sat. ii. 2, l. 79.

P. 157, 1. 9. divinæ particulam auræ. 1. 33. Corneille himself. . . was inclined to think. The troubles of Corneille have been alluded to already, in the Essay of Dramatic Poesy. Compare his Third Discourse: pour moi je trouve qu'il y a des sujets si mal-aisés à renfermer en si peu de tems, que non seulement je les accorderois les vingt-quatre heures entières, mais je me servirois même de la licence que donne ce philosophe de les

excéder un peu, et les pousserois sans scrupule jusqu'à trente.' See also Corneille et la Poétique d'Aristote, by M. Jules Lemaître.

P. 158, 1. 20. Chymical medicines; essences, strong medicines given in small doses; e. g. opium, arsenic, tartar emetic.

1. 23. Galenical decoctions; of simples, generally of many herbs together, in a large drench, as prescribed by the qualified physicians. The terms belong to a controversy (more furious than any battles of the books) between the Spagirists or Paracelsians, who used chemical medicines, and the School of Paris which imposed an oath on its pupils never to use anything of the kind. I am indebted for information on this subject to Professor John Ferguson of Glasgow. P. 159, 1. 1. orbs = orbits.

P. 161, l. 16. Tryphon the stationer. Bibliopola Tryphon.

Martial, iv. 72, xiii. 3,

1. 18. in the ruelle; properly the space or 'lane' between the bed and the wall; later, the reception of visitors at the lady's toilette; then, generally, any party of ladies and gentlemen that pretended to wit. For the original sense, compare Chappuzeau, Le Cercle de Femmes, Act i. sc. 3 (about 1655):

'Et des Cartes tout proche, auecques Campanelle,

Que ie viens de laisser ouuerts dans ma ruelle.' For the later meaning, Sarasin, Discours de la Tragedie (Preface to Scudéry, L'Amour Tyrannique), 1639: 'Nous sommes en un temps où tout le monde croit avoir droit de juger de la Poësie, de laquelle Aristote a fait son chef d'œuvre; où les ruelles des femmes sont les Tribunaux des plus beaux ouvrages; où ce qui fut autrefois la vertu de peu de personnes devient la maladie du peuple, et le vice de la multitude.'

P. 162, l. 7. my two masters; Homer and Virgil.
First published in 1682.

1. 14. your Essay of Poetry.
1. 31. puny, i. e. puisné, junior.

P. 164, 1. 9. Scaliger the father. On the contrary, Scaliger in the Epistle before his Poetice, says: 'Nam et Horatius Artem quum inscripsit adeo sine ulla docet arte ut Satyrae propius totum opus illud esse videatur.'

1. 34. Maevius. The bad poet's opening line, Fortunam Priami, &c., was commonly attributed to Maevius. D. Heinsius quotes for this opinion the Anticlaudianus (i. c. 5), of Alanus de Insulis, the Universal Doctor, and supposes it derived from some old commentator-nam unde id illi in mentem saeculo tam barbaro?' Cf. Satirical Poets of the Twelfth Century, ed. T. Wright, Rolls Series: 'Illic pannoso plebescit carmine noster Ennius, et Priami fortunas intonat illic

Maevius; in coelos audens os ponere mutum.'

The place of Fortunam Priami is taken in Boileau's Art Poëtique by the opening line of Scudéry's Alaric :

'Je chante le vainqueur des vainqueurs de la terre.'

P. 165, l. 2. as Horace would tell you from behind, i. e. without himself joining in the epic competition.

1. 6. Saint Louis, &c. See the Preface to Juvenal, p. 28, and note.

1. 16. machining persons, i. e. supernatural agents like the gods in Homer.

1. 25. Segrais. His Preface is the source of a good deal of this Essay of Dryden's. Jean Regnauld de Segrais (1624-1701), some time in the service of Mademoiselle de Montpensier, admitted to the circle of the Hôtel de Rambouillet before he was elected to the Academy, is perhaps best known through his association with the novels of Madame de Lafayette. Zayde was published under his name in 1670. There is a collection of Segraisiana. His Éneïde was published in 1668.

P. 166, 1. 28. Macrobius: in the Saturnalia, books v. and vi.

1. 30. Tanneguy le Fevre, of Saumur, 'Tanaquillus Faber' (16151672), a well-known classical scholar, whom Gibbon mentions with respect, editor of Longinus, Lucretius, Aelian, Eutropius, Terence, Horace, Virgil, and others; father of Madame Dacier, Anna Tanaquilli Fabri filia.

1. 30. Valois. Dryden perhaps means the Valesiana (1694) ou les Pensées critiques, historiques et morales, et les Poësies Latines de Monsieur de Valois Conseiller du Roi et Historiographe de France. There are a few notes on Virgil in this collection; one on discrepancies about the age of Iulus. M. de Valois (Hadrianus Valesius) was born in 1607, and died in 1692.

St. Évremond is probably the

1. 31. another whom I name not. name which Dryden, out of respect, forbore to mention in this place. See pp. 184, 202, and notes.

P. 167, 1. 30. Persian; in later editions 'Assyrian or Median.'

P. 169, 1. 5. Stavo ben. Perhaps the first appearance in England of this quotation; repeated in the Spectator, No. 25.

1. 34. Dante. References to Dante are not frequent in this age; there is little to note between Davenant's disrespectful mention of him in the Preface to Gondibert, and Gray's temperate appreciation. Mr. Saintsbury thinks that the interpretation of his dantem jura Catonem, a little further on, is due to Dante's Cato at the beginning of the Purgatorio. Dryden, however, in his note on the passage mentions Montaigne and not Dante as his authority.

P. 172, 1. 15. Bochartus. His dissertation on the question' whether