chief poet of the Opposition. At about the same time he produced “Religio Laici," a didactic poem explaining his religious opinions and defending the Church of England against dissenters, atheists, and Catholics. Not long after the accession of James II., Dryden, true to his policy of being always on the side of the ruling party, became a Catholic, and wrote "The Hind and the Panther,” in which he eulogized many things that, in the former poem, he had ridiculed. His political career ended with the overthrow of James II., in 1688; but his literary activity continued unabated. The last years of his life were occupied in translating the works of Persius and Juvenal and the Æneid of Virgil. In 1697 he wrote "Alexander's Feast"; and his “modernizations" of some of Chaucer's poems appeared in 1700, the year of his death. "If there is grandeur in the pomp of kings and the march of hosts," says A. W. Ward, "in the 'trumpet's loud clangor' and in tapestries and carpetings of velvet and gold, Dryden is to be ranked with the grandest of English poets. The irresistible impetus of an invective which never falls short or flat, and the savor of a satire which never seems dull or stale, give him an undisputed place among the most glorious of English wits." "Our "His descriptive power was of the highest," says Hales. literature has in it no more vigorous portrait-gallery than that he has bequeathed it. His power of expression is beyond praise. There is always a singular fitness in his language: he uses always the right word. He is one of our greatest masters of metre: metre was, in fact, no restraint to him, but rather it seems to have given him freedom. It has been observed that he argues better in verse than in prose; verse was the natural costume of his thoughts." Professor Masson says: "Not only is Dryden the largest figure in one era of our literature; he is a very considerable figure also in our literature as a whole. Of all that he wrote, however, there is but a comparatively small portion that has won for itself a permanent place in our literature." Other Poems to be Read: Absalom and Achitophel; Mac Flecknoe; Religio Laici; Threnodia Augustalis. REFERENCES: Johnson's Lives of the Poets; Hazlitt's English Poets; Lowell's Among My Books; Macaulay's Essay on John Dryden; Taine's English Literature; Masson's Three Devils and Other Essays; Thackeray's English Humorists. John Milton. ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY. I. THIS is the month, and this the happy morn, That he our deadly forfeit should release,1 II. The glorious form, that light unsufferable, Wherewith he wont2 at Heav'ns high council-table He laid aside; and, here with us to be, Forsook the courts of everlasting day, And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.3 III. Say, heav'nly muse, shall not thy sacred vein Afford a present to the Infant God? Hast thou no vers, no hymn, or solemn strein Now while the Heav'n by the suns team untrod And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright? IV. See how from far upon the eastern rode 4 The star-led Wisards haste with odours sweet; O run, prevent them with thy humble ode, And lay it lowly at his blessed feet; Have thou the honour first thy Lord to greet, While the Heav'n-born childe All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies; Nature in aw of him Had doff't her gaudy trim, With her great Master so to sympathize. To wanton with the sun her lusty paramour.7 II. Onely with speeches fair She woo's the gentle air To hide her guilty front with innocent snow, Pollute with sinfull blame, The saintly veil of maiden white to throw : Confounded that her Makers eyes Should look so near upon her foul deformities. III. But he, her fears to cease, Sent down the meek-eyed Peace, She, crown'd with olive green, came softly sliding His ready harbinger,10 With turtle 11 wing the amorous clouds dividing, And, waving wide her mirtle wand, She strikes a universall peace 12 through sea and land. IV. No war, or battails sound, Was heard the world around; The idle spear and shield were high up hung; Unstain'd with hostile blood: The trumpet spake not to the armed throng; As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. V. But peacefull was the night Wherein the Prince of Light His raign of peace upon the earth began; Whispering new joyes to the milde ocean, While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave. VI. The stars, with deep amaze, Stand fixt in stedfast gaze, Bending one way their precious influence,1 For 17 all the morning light 16 Or Lucifer 18 that often warn'd them thence; Untill their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go. VII. And, though the shady Gloom Had given day her room, The sun himself withheld his wonted speed, And hid his head for shame, As his inferiour flame The new-enlightn'd world no more should need; He saw a greater sun appear Than his bright throne or burning axle-tree 19 could bear. VIII. The shepherds on the lawn 20 Sate simply chatting in a rustick row; Full little thought they than That the mighty Pan 22 Was kindly com to live with them below; Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep, Was all that did their silly 23 thoughts so busie keep, |