, of Dryden the poet.
In preparing his poems for publication, how refreshing we found it to
pass from a needful although cursory perusal of his plays, and a
revision of his prologues, to these comparatively pure, right-manly, and
eloquent compositions--the fables of Dryden! We do not, because it would
be hardly fair, with Wordsworth, seek to compare them with the
Chaucerian originals--a comparison under which they would be infallibly
crushed. We prefer looking at them as bearing only the relation to
Chaucer which Macpherson's, did to the original, Ossian. And regarding
them in this light, as adaptations, where the original author furnishes
only the ground-work, they are surely masterpieces and models of
composition, if not exemplars of creative power and genius. How free and
majestic their numbers! How bold and buoyant their language! How
interesting the stories they tell! How perfect the preservation, and
artful the presentment, of the various characters! What a fine
chivalrous spirit breathes in "Palamon and Arcite!" What a soft yet
purple, pure yet gorgeous, light of love hovers over the "Flower and the
Leaf!"--the only poem of Dryden's in which--thanks perhaps to his
master, Chaucer--the poet discovers the slightest perception of that

"Love which spirits feel
In climes where all is equable and pure."

What gay and gallant badinage, exquisite irony, and interesting
narrative, in the story of "The Cock and Fox!" And what knowledge of
human nature and skilful construction in "The Wife of Bath's Tale!" We
are half inclined, with George Ellis, to call these fables the "noblest
specimen of versification to be found in any modern language." We
gather, too, from them a notion about Dryden's capabilities, which we
may state. It is, that had Dryden lived in a novel and romance-writing
age, and turned his great powers in that direction, he might have easily
become the best fictionist--next to Cervantes and Scott--that ever
lived, possessing, as he did, most of the qualities of a good
novelist--vigorous and facile diction; dramatic skill; an eye for
character; the power of graphic description, and rapid changeful
narrative; the command of the grave and the gay, the severe and the
lively; and a sympathy both with the bustling activities and the wild
romance of human life, if not with its more solemn aspects, its
transcendental references, and its aerial heights and giddy abysses of
imagination and poetry.

[We have foll