rested in astonishment The district of
metaphysical poetry was thus invaded by the satirists, who sought
weapons there to avenge the misfortunes and oppression which they had so
lately sustained from the puritans; and as it is difficult in a laughing
age to render serious what has been once applied to ludicrous purposes,
Butler and his imitators retained quiet possession of the style which
they had usurped from the grave bards of the earlier age.

A single poet, Sir William Davenant,[40] made a meritorious, though a
misguided and unsuccessful effort, to rescue poetry from becoming the
mere handmaid of pleasure, or the partisan of political or personal
disputes, and to restore her to her natural rank in society, as an
auxiliary of religion, policy, law, and virtue. His heroic poem of
"Gondibert" has, no doubt, great imperfections; but it intimates
everywhere a mind above those laborious triflers, who called that poetry
which was only verse; and very often exhibits a majestic, dignified, and
manly simplicity, equally superior to the metaphysical school, by the
doctrines of which Davenant was occasionally misled. Yet, if that author
too frequently imitated their quaint affectation of uncommon sentiment
and associations, he had at least the merit of couching them in stately
and harmonious verse; a quality of poetry totally neglected by the
followers of Cowley. I mention Davenant here, and separate from the
other poets, who were distinguished about the time of the Restoration,
because I think that Dryden, to whom we are about to return, was, at
that period, an admirer and imitator of "Gondibert," as we are certain
that he was a personal and intimate friend of the author.

With the return of the king, the fall of Dryden's political patrons was
necessarily involved. Sir Gilbert Pickering, having been one of
Charles's judges, was too happy to escape into obscurity, under an
absolute disqualification for holding any office, political, civil, or
ecclesiastical. The influence of Sir John Driden was ended at the same
time; and thus both those relations, under whose protection Dryden
entered life, and by whose influence he was probably to have been aided
in some path to wealth or eminence, became at once incapable of
assisting him; and even connection with them was rendered, by the change
of times, disgraceful, if not dangerous. Yet it may be doubted whether
Dryden felt this evil in its full extent. Sterne has said of a
character,