employed in the purfuit, we can furely have no right to complain, and have only to with that every elevated character in every province, relative to the interefts of morality and the welfare of fociety, could be illuftrated with equal affiduity. Copious as this life of Mr. Malone is, it is not well adapted for an extract in our review, as it, in a great measure, and, in-, deed, almost entirely, refers to dates and is accompanied with multiplicity of notes; and though we might be tempted to take paffages from fome of Dryden's exquifite compofitions, yet they must be generally known to his admirers, and they prefent iucn a variety that we should find it a difficult matter to determine upon proper grounds of preference. We fhall, therefore, merely infert Mr. Malone's ADVERTISEMENT, by which our readers will be able to form an adequate notion of what he has done, and what his volumes contain, not doubting that every man, who is not poffeffed of Dryden's Profe Works, will thank Mr. Malone for the trouble he has taken, and eagerly refort to fuch a TREASURY OF CRITICAL LITERATURE.

"ADVERTISEMENT.

The great author of the following works has long had the honour of being ranked in the first clafs of English poets; for to the names of Shikfpeare, Spencer, and Milton, we have now for near a century been in the habit of annexing those of Dryden, and his scholar, Pope. The prefent publication will fhew, that he is equally entitled to our admiration as a writer of profe; and that among his various merits, that of having cultivated, refined, and improved our language, is not the leaft. In making, therefore, this collection of his critical and mifcellaneous effays, which are found difperfed in a great variety of books, many of them now not eafily to be procured, I trust that, while I have done an acceptable fervice to good letters and to the publick, I have at the fame time in fome degree contributed to the fame of the author; a confiderable portion of whofe valuable writings will thus become acceffible and familiar to a more numerous class of readers than the votaries of the Mufes, and whofe reputation, high as it is at prefent, will confequently be extended to a ftill wider circle than that within which it has hitherto been confined.

"In the arrangement of the various pieces contained in these volumes, chronological order has been attended to, as far as was confiftent with other ftill more important objects. With a view to mutual illuftration, I have placed together all the effays refpecting the stage; from which I have felected and given precedence to the feven principal, both in value and bulk, as forming one great body of dramatick criticism. Thefe are, the Effay of Dramatick Poefy, the Defence of that Effay, the Preface to the Mock Aftrologer, the Effay on Heroick Plays, the Defence of the Epilogue to the Second Part of the Conqueft of Granada, the Grounds of Criticifm in Tragedy, and

the

the Anfwer to Rymer. All our author's dramatick dedications and prefaces, not comprifed in the foregoing lift, then follow, in the order of time in which they were written; and to thefe fucceed all his other critical prefaces, dedications, lives, and mifcellaneous effays, chronologically arranged; with the exception of the Preface to the Tranflation of Ovid's Epiftles, which, for the fake of juxtaposition, is placed in the fame volume with the Preface to the Second Mifcellany, nearly the fame topicks being difcuffed in both.

"The first edition of each piece has in general been followed: but here alfo fome deviation was neceffary; for on collating the fecond edition of the Essay of Dramatick Poefy, printed in 1684, with the first of 1668, I found that the author had corrected it with great care. From his revised copy, therefore, that effay has been printed. In a letter to his bookfeller he mentions, that, previously to his Tranf lation of Virgil being fent a fecond time to the prefs, he had spent nine days in reviewing it. As it was probable, therefore, that fome alterations and amendments were made in the effays prefixed to that work, (though I now believe his revifion was confined to the poetry,) I thought it fafeft, in printing those effays, to follow the fecond edition; here, however, as well as in the former inftance, availing myfelf occafionally of fuch aid as the earlier copies afforded, by which fome literal errors of the prefs, both in thofe differtations and the dramatick effay, have been corrected. Of every other piece in these volumes the first edition has been followed, excepting only the Defence of that Effay; of which the original copy is fo rare, that I have never met with it.

"Of Dryden's Letters, very few of which have ever been printed, I wished to form as ample a collection as could be procured; and am highly indebted to William Baker, Efq. reprefentative in parliament for the county of Hertford, who most obligingly has furnished me with all the correspondence, now extant, which paffed between our author and his bookfeller, Jacob Tonfon, from whom thefe papers defcended to that gentleman: which, befide exhibiting a lively portrait of this great poet, contain fome curious documents refpecting the price of his works, and fome other interefting particulars concerning them. To this feries I have added a letter written in his youth to Mrs. Honour Driden, from the original in the hands of the Rev. Mr. Blakeway, of Shrewsbury; a letter to John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, from a manufcript copy in the Museum; one to Samuel Pepys, Efq. from the original in the Pepyfian Collection in Magdalene College, Cambridge; one to Charles Montague, afterwards Earl of Halifax, from the original in my poffeffion; and fixteen letters addreffed, at a late period of life, to his kinfwoman, Mrs. Steward, or her husband; which have been obligingly communicated to me by her grand-daughter, Mrs. Gwillim, of Whitchurch, near Rofs, in Herefordshire, by the hands of Mrs. Ord, of Queen Annestreet. Some others have been found fcattered in miscellaneous volumes; and many more, I have no doubt, are in the poffeffion of various perfons, which might eafily be difcovered, if they would but

Dd4

fearch

fearch their family papers. With the hope that fuch an examination may be made, I fhall give, in a fubfequent page, a lift of thofe perfons in whose cabinets Dryden's letters are likely to be found.

"My warmest acknowledgements are alfo due to my friend James Bindley, Efq. Firft Commiflioner in the Stamp-Office, whofe urba nity, claffical tafte, and various knowledge, are only exceeded by his great liberality in the communication of the very curious materials for literary hiftory, and the illuftration of temporary allufions, which his valuable library contains. By the aid of fome very rare tracts and poems in his poffeflion, feveral of which are wanting in my own collection, I have been enabled to throw fome new light on our author's hiftory, as well as on many of his writings; as I have more particularly mentioned in the proper places.-I have also to exprefs my acknowledgments to the Lord Bishop of Salisbury and the Lord Bishop of Peterborough, for the facility and aid which they very readily afforded to my researches in their refpective diocefes; and to request that the various clergymen in Northamptonshire, in Wiltshire, in Oxford, and in Cambridge, to whom I have had occafion to apply, will accept my fincere thanks for the very obliging attention they were pleafed to pay to my inquiries, concerning each of which they furnished me with the moft fatisfactory information. The prefent Lady Dryden alfo, great grand-daughter of Erafmus Dryden, the poet's younger brother, and widow of the late Sir John Turner Dryden, Bart. will, I hope, allow me thus publickly to thank her for having taken the trouble to infpect her family papers, by which the precife value of our author's Northamptonshire eftate has been afcertained. Zealous to contribute every aid in her power to illuftrate the hiftory of her great kinfman, this lady entered with ardour on the inquiry which I took the liberty to fuggeft to her, and purfued it with fuch diligence and fagacity as to remove all doubt on a point of fore importance, which had eluded the refearches of all his biographers.

On reviewing the received accounts of his Life and Writings, I found fo much, inaccuracy and uncertainty, that I foon refolved to take nothing upon truft, but to confider the subject as wholly new; and I have had abundant reason to be fatisfied with my determination on this head; for by inquiries and researches in every quarter where information was likely to be obtained, I have procured more materials than my mot fanguine expectations had promifed; which, if they do not exhibit fo many particulars concerning this great poet as could be defired, have yet furnished us with fome curious and interefting notices, and cleared away much confufion and error; and enabled me to afcertain feveral circumftances of his life and fortunes, which were either unknown, or for almoft a century the subject of uncertain fpeculation and conjecture.

"The profe of Dryden has been fo long and fo juftly admired for its copiousness, harmony, richness, and variety, that to adduce any teftimony in its favour feems unneceflary. To the high eulogy of Congreve on this head, which will be found in a fubfequent page,

and

and the printed encomiums of Dr. Warton,* Mr. Mason,+ and Dr. Beattie, I may however add the authority of the late Mr. Burke, who had very diligently read all his mifcellaneous effays, which he held in high eftimation, not only for the inftruction which they contain, but on account of the rich and numerous profe in which that inftruction is conveyed. On the language of Dryden, on which perhaps his own ftyle was originally in fome meafure formed, I have often heard him expatiate with great admiration; and if the works of Burke be examined with this view, he will, I believe, be found more nearly to refemble this great author than any other English writer.

"Dr. Johnfon has faid, that whoever wishes to attain an Englifh ftyle, familiar but not coarfe, and elegant but not oftentatious, muft give his days and nights to the volumes of Addifon.' He who has this object in view, may furely, with equal propriety, be counfelled to study the pages of Dryden; for in them, with the eafe, fimplicity, and familiar language of Addison, will be found conjoined more fervour, more strength, and more variety. The great characteristic of Addifon is his frequent ufe of vernacular idiom; of which Dryden was fo fond, that having one occafion employed the Anglo-Latin word, diction, he makes a kind of apology, by tranf lating it in this refpect, therefore, he is entitled to the encomium given to the ancient bard whofe TALES he has fo happily modernized, and may with equal truth be called- the well of English undefiled.' But his beft praife is found in the following obfervations of Dr. Johnfon, which contain fo judicious an account of the pieces comprifed in thefe volumes, that not to prefix them to this collection of his profe works, would be great injuftice to our author."

"Effay on the Genius and. Writings of Pope, 8vo. 1782, vol. ii. PP. 8-403."

+ "Works of Sir J. Reynolds, 8vo. 1798, vol. iii. p. 216.” "Effays on Poetry, &c. 8vo. 1778, PP. 16–533.'

"See particularly a paffage in the beginning of Dryden's Difcourfe on Satire, vol. iii. P. 75: It is true I have one privilege,' &c. which has a strong resemblance to the ftyle of Mr. Burke. I may add, that Dr. Johnson's general character of Dryden's writings in P. 16.-- His works abound with knowledge' to-′ intellectual wealth,' might be justly affixed as a motto to the volumes of Burke.”

ART. IV. The Effence of Malone, or, the " Beauties" of that fafcinating Writer, extracted from his immortal Work, in five hundred, fixty-nine pages, and a quarter, just published, and (with his accustomed felicity) entitled, "fome Account of the Life and Writings of John Dryden!!" 8vo. Pr. 116. 2s. 6d. Becket. London. 1800.

T is a very eafy matter to turn things into ridicule which are entitled to ferious refpect. Our great fatirical poet has faid:

"All

1

"All fools have ftill an itching to deride,
And fain would be upon the laughing fide."

And though we will not apply thefe lines to the author of the
article before us, if the term author be not too weighty for
the compiler of fuch a whimfical jeu d'esprit, yet we cannot
but think that, with all his humour, all his knowledge, and
all his fpirit, he does not feel that degree of poetical enthu-
siasm which it is neceffary for every man to feel who would
properly appreciate the labour which Mr. Malone has under-
gone in his zeal to illuftrate the life and character of fuch a
man as Dryden. This pamphlet confifts of a fort of ludicrous
analysis of Mr. Malone's work, which we have noticed in the
preceding article, in which the analyfer has certainly pointed
out fome trifles, fome apparent inconfiftencies, and fome paf-
fages that like Falftaff's body, not his mind, have "an alacrity
in finking," but we will beg leave to ask this facetious analyser,
whether he was not obliged to take very great pains in the
examination of the work which he has thus endeavoured to
bring into ridicule and contempt? and, if he cannot avoid an-
fwering in the affirmative, whether, upon his own principles,
Mr. Malone was not more excufeable for being fo minute and
elaborate in the investigation of whatever related to Dryden,
than he, the analyfer, for exerting an equal industry and
perfeverance (proportioned to the object) merely to raise a
laugh at the meritorious folicitude of LITERARY DILIGENCE?
After all, however, the author of this pamphlet has certainly
attained his object, for it is difficult to avoid fmiling at the
oddity of his humour, and the ludicrous peculiarity of his
remarks. In three or four places the author feems to resent
the contemptuous manner in which Mr. Malone has ex-
preffed himself refpecting the celebrated poem entitled, The
Purfuits of Literature, and hence it might be inferred that this
pamphlet comes from the author of that poem. It is, how-
ever, generally understood to be the avowed work of Mr.
HARDINGE, the counfel;-though we fhould have inclined to
afcribe it to a different pen.

ART. V. Bevan's Refutation of Modern Mifreprefentations. (Continued from P. 265.)

T would appear that J. Bevan had lefs fear for the detection of his friends in their practifes against THE STATE, than for the exposure of their attacks upon the church, fince he artfully omits the latter, (though immediately after his quotation from Mofheim,) and dwells upon the first with boast and

exultation.