two personages. He devotes his whole
play, also, to those relations; only what bears upon them is admitted.
In Shakespeare's play we get a certain historical perspective, in which
the love of Antony and Cleopatra appears in its true proportions
beneath the firmament that overhangs human affairs. In Dryden's play
this love is our universe; all the other concerns of the world retire
into a shadowy, indistinct background. If we rise from a comparison of
the plays with an impression that the Elizabethan drama is a higher type
of drama, taking Dryden's own definition of the word as "a just and
lively image of human nature," we rise also with an impression of
Dryden's power such as we get from nothing else that he had written
since his _Heroic Stanzas_, twenty years before.

It was twelve years before Dryden produced another tragedy worthy of the
power shown in _All for Love_. _Don Sebastian_ was acted and published
in 1690. In the interval, to sum up briefly Dryden's work as a
dramatist, he wrote _Oedipus_ (pr. 1679) and _The Duke of Guise_ (pr.
1683) in conjunction with Nathaniel Lee; _Troilus and Cressida_ (1679);
_The Spanish Friar_ (1681); _Albion and Albanius_, an opera (1685);
_Amphitryon_ (1690). In _Troilus and Cressida_ he follows Shakespeare
closely in the plot, but the dialogue is rewritten throughout, and not
for the better. The versification and the language of the first and the
third acts of _Oedipus_, which with the general plan of the play were
Dryden's contribution to the joint work, bear marked evidence of his
recent study of Shakespeare. The _Duke of Guise_ provided an obvious
parallel with contemporary English politics. Henry III. was identified
with Charles II., and Monmouth with the duke. The lord chamberlain
refused to license it until the political situation was less disturbed.
The plot of _Don Sebastian_ is more intricate than that of _All for
Love_. It has also more of the characteristics of his heroic dramas; the
extravagance of sentiment and the suddenness of impulse remind us
occasionally of _The Indian Emperor_; but the characters are much more
elaborately studied than in Dryden's earlier plays, and the verse is
sinewy and powerful. It would be difficult to say whether _Don
Sebastian_ or _All for Love_ is his best play; they share the palm
between them. Dryden's subsequent plays are not remarkable. Their titles
and dates are--_King Arthur_, an opera (1691), for which Purcell wrote
the music; _Cl