been worthily or fortunately employed; his muse
being lent to the court, who were at this time anxious to awake the
popular indignation against the Dutch. It is a characteristic of the
English nation, that their habitual dislike against their neighbours is
soon and easily blown into animosity. But, although Dryden chose for his
theme the horrid massacre of Amboyna, and fell to the task with such
zeal that he accomplished it in a month, his play was probably of little
service to the cause in which it was written. The story is too
disgusting to produce the legitimate feelings of pity and terror which
tragedy should excite: the black-hole of Calcutta would be as pleasing a
subject. The character of the Hollanders is too grossly vicious and
detestable to give the least pleasure. They are neither men, nor even
devils; but a sort of lubber fiends, compounded of cruelty, avarice, and
brutal debauchery, like Dutch swabbers possessed by demons. But of this
play the author has himself admitted, that the subject is barren, the
persons low, and the writing not heightened by any laboured scenes: and,
without attempting to contradict this modest description, we may dismiss
the tragedy of "Amboyna." It was dedicated to Lord Clifford of
Chudleigh, an active member of the Cabal administration of Charles II.;
but who, as a Catholic, on the test act being passed, resigned his post
of lord high treasurer, and died shortly afterwards. There is great
reason to think that this nobleman had essentially favoured Dryden's
views in life. On a former occasion, he had termed Lord Clifford a
better Maecenas than that of Horace;[27] and, in the present dedication,
he mentions the numerous favours received through so many years as
forming one continued act of his patron's generosity and goodness; so
that the excess of his gratitude had led the poet to receive those
benefits, as the Jews received their law, with mute wonder, rather than
with outward and ceremonious acclamation. These sentiments of obligation
he continued, long after Lord Clifford's death, to express in terms
equally glowing;[28] so that we may safely do this statesman's memory
the justice to record him as an active and discerning patron of Dryden's
genius.

In the course of 1673 our author's pen was engaged in a task, which may
be safely condemned as presumptuous, though that pen was Dryden's. It
was no other than that of new-modelling the "Paradise Lost" of Milton
into a dramatic poem