John Dryden
John Dryden
John Drydenwas an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668...
angel drew mortal raised
He raised a mortal to the skies; / She drew an angel down.
blood distant dull flesh joy joys present prospect
For present joys are more to flesh and blood than a dull prospect of a distant good.
base free laws nature noble savage servitude wild woods
I am as free as nature first made man, / Ere the base laws of servitude began, / When wild in woods the noble savage ran.
free nature
I am as free as nature first made man.
beautiful latin expression
It is almost impossible to translate verbally and well at the same time; for the Latin (a most severe and compendious language) often expresses that in one word which either the barbarity or the narrowness of modern tongues cannot supply in more. ...But since every language is so full of its own proprieties that what is beautiful in one is often barbarous, nay, sometimes nonsense, in another, it would be unreasonable to limit a translator to the narrow compass of his author's words; it is enough if he choose out some expression which does not vitiate the sense.
woe pity my-own
I learn to pity woes so like my own.
arms trumpets loud
The trumpet's loud clangor Excites us to arms.
excellence safe creeps
And he, who servilely creeps after sense, Is safe, but ne'er will reach an excellence.
fall thinking make-you-think
Virgil is so exact in every word, that none can be changed but for a worse; nor any one removed from its place, but the harmony will be altered. He pretends sometimes to trip; but it is only to make you think him in danger of a fall, when he is most secure.
men order voice
From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began: When nature underneath a heap Of jarring atoms lay, And could not heave her head, The tuneful voice was heard from high, 'Arise, ye more than dead!' Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry, In order to their stations leap, And Music's power obey. From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began: From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in Man.
fate past sorrow
An hour will come, with pleasure to relate Your sorrows past, as benefits of Fate.
nature art tails
By viewing nature, nature's handmaid art, Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow: Thus fishes first to shipping did impart, Their tail the rudder, and their head the prow.
blow hands dying
And, dying, bless the hand that gave the blow.
play unity three
[T]he Famous Rules which the French call, Des Trois Unitez , or, The Three Unities, which ought to be observ'd in every Regular Play; namely, of Time, Place, and Action.