John Dryden
John Dryden
John Drydenwas an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668...
sex grace vain
To so perverse a sex all grace is vain.
men virtue crime
Men's virtues I have commended as freely as I have taxed their crimes.
mind virtue weak
Repentance is the virtue of weak minds.
women heart sorrow
A woman's counsel brought us first to woe, And made her man his paradise forego, Where at heart's ease he liv'd; and might have been As free from sorrow as he was from sin.
truth lying evil
Truth is the object of our understanding, as good is of our will; and the understanding can no more be delighted with a lie than the will can choose an apparent evil.
art oxford london
So poetry, which is in Oxford made An art, in London only is a trade.
kind imitation cattle
Imitators are but a servile kind of cattle.
care
Music, Music for a while Shall all your cares beguile. Alexander's Feast
law indictment gentiles
That, if the Gentiles, (whom no Law inspir'd,) By Nature did what was by Law requir'd; They, who the written Rule and never known, Were to themselves both Rule and Law alone: To Natures plain Indictment they shall plead; And, by their Conscience, be condemn'd or freed.
heart numbers grows
Courage from hearts and not from numbers grows.
women hunting design
And that one hunting, which the Devil design'd For one fair female, lost him half the kind.
sweet flower sun
All flowers will droop in the absence of the sun that waked their sweets.
imagination might shut-up
Imagination in a poet is a faculty so wild and lawless that, like a high ranging spaniel, it must have clogs tied to it, lest it outrun the judgment. The great easiness of blank verse renders the poet too luxuriant. He is tempted to say many things which might better be omitted, or, at least shut up in fewer words.
memories reading insolent
I am reading Jonson's verses to the memory of Shakespeare; an insolent, sparing, and invidious panegyric...