denied to Dryden a poetical eye for
nature, quoting in proof some inflated passage or another from his rhyming
plays. Pope, too, according to them, was blind, and had never seen the
moon and stars. Where, we ask, in all the poetry of the Lakes and Tarns,
is there such a strain--so rich and so sustained--as that yet ringing in
your ears? And "the ancient woman seated on Helmcrag" answers--"where?"
True, the imagery is all in Chaucer. But had not Dryden's heart 'rejoiced
in nature's joy,' not thus could he have caught the spirit of his master.
Ay--the spirit; for there it is, in spite of the difference of
manner--transfused without evaporation or other loss, from the 'rhime
roial' in which Chaucer rejoiced, into the couplet in which Dryden, in his
old age, moved like a giant refreshed with gulps of the dewy morn.
Again:--

"The ladies left their measures at the sight,
To meet the chiefs returning from the fight,
And each with open arms embraced her chosen knight.
Amid the plain a spreading laurel stood,
The grace and ornament of all the wood;
That pleasing shade they sought, a soft retreat
From sudden April showers, a shelter from the heat.
Her leafy arms with such extent were spread,
So near the clouds was her aspiring head,
That hosts of birds, that wing the liquid air,
Perch'd in the boughs, had nightly lodging there:
And flocks of sheep beneath the shade from far
Might hear the rattling hail, and wintry war;
From heaven's inclemency here found retreat,
Enjoy'd the cool, and shunn'd the scorching heat;
A hundred knights might there at ease abide,
And every knight a lady by his side:
The trunk itself such odours did bequeath
That a Moluccan breeze to these was common breath.
The lords and ladies here, approaching, paid
Their homage, with a low obeisance made,
And seem'd to venerate the sacred shade.
These rites perform'd, their pleasures they pursue,
With songs of love, and mix with measures new:
Around the holy tree their dance they frame,
And ev'ry champion leads his chosen dame.
"I cast my sight upon the farther field,
And a fresh object of delight beheld.
For from the region of the west I heard
New music sound, and a new troop apppear'd,
Of knights and ladies mix'd, a jolly band,
But all on foot they march'd, and hand in hand
"The ladies dressed in rich symars were seen,
Of Florence satin, flower'd with white and green,
And for a