While Ent keeps all the honor that he gave. Nor are you, learned friend, the least renown'd;

Whose fame, not circumscrib'd with English ground,

Flies like the nimble journeys of the light;
And is, like that, unspent too in its flight.
Whatever truths have been, by art or
chance,

Redeem'd from error, or from ignorance,
Thin in their authors, like rich veins of ore,
Your works unite, and still discover more. 40
Such is the healing virtue of your pen,
To perfect cures on books, as well as men.
Nor is this work the least: you well may
give

To men new vigor, who make stones to live. Thro' you, the Danes, their short dominion lost,

A longer conquest than the Saxons boast. Stonehenge, once thought a temple, you have found

A throne, where kings, our earthly gods, were crown'd;

[This, Dryden's first play, was produced on February 5, 1663, as is evident from the Prologue, line 15, and from an entry in Evelyn's Diary of that date. It was unsuccessful: see note before the poem To the Lady Castlemaine, p. 20, below. It was later revived, with some changes by the author, probably in 1667, since it was entered on the Stationers' Register for publication on August 7 of that year (Malone, I, 1, 69). The first edition, dated 1669, contains both the original prologue and epilogue and those written for the revival. See p. 52, below.]

wrong.

30

1 Astrol. Why then the life's not very short, nor long.

2 Astrol. The luck not very good, nor very ill.

Prolo. That is to say, 't is as 't is taken still.

1 Astrol. But, brother, Ptolemy the learned says,

'Tis the fifth house from whence we judge of plays.

Venus, the lady of that house, I find Is peregrine: your play is ill design'd; It should have been but one continued song, Or at the least a dance of three hours long. 2 Astrol. But yet the greatest mischief does remain,

40

And his occasion having brought you here,
You are too grateful to become severe.
There is not any person here so mean
But he may freely judge each act and

scene;

But if you bid him choose his judges then, He boldly names true English gentlemen; For he ne'er thought a handsome garb or dress

So great a crime to make their judgment less;

And with these gallants he these ladies joins,

To judge that language their converse re

But if their censures should condemn his play,

Far from disputing, he does only pray
He may Leander's destiny obtain:
Now spare him, drown him when he comes

again.

TO THE LADY CASTLEMAINE, UPON HER INCOURAGING HIS FIRST PLAY

[In his preface to The Wild Gallant Dryden says that it had "but indifferent success in the action. Yet it was receiv'd at court; and was more than once the divertisement of his Majesty, by his own command." This probably does not refer to the revival of 1667; but, in part at least, to a court performance on February 23, 1663, which Pepys attended, and which may well have been procured for Dryden by the influence of the Countess of Castlemaine, then at the height of her power as the favorite mistress of Charles II. This woman was born Barbara Villiers, daughter of William Villiers, second Viscount Grandison; in 1670 she was created Duchess of Cleveland.

This poem was first printed in Examen Poeticum, 1693.]

As seamen, shipwrack'd on some happy

Like them are good, but from a nobler

cause,

From your own knowledge, not from nature's laws.

Your pow'r you never use but for defense, To guard your own, or others' innocence: 30 Your foes are such, as they, not you, have made,

And virtue may repel, tho' not invade. Such courage did the ancient heroes show, Who, when they might prevent, would wait the blow;

With such assurance as they meant to say: "We will o'ercome, but scorn the safest

way."

What further fear of danger can there be ? Beauty, which captives all things, sets me

free.

40

Posterity will judge by my success,
I had the Grecian poet's happiness,
Who, waiving plots, found out a better way;
Some God descended, and preserv'd the play.
When first the triumphs of your sex were

2.

A second PROLOGUE enters.

Hold; would you admit For judges all you see within the pit ?

1. Whom would he then except, or on what score?

2. All who (like him) have writ ill plays before;

For they, like thieves condemn'd, are hangmen made,

To execute the members of their trade.
All that are writing now he would disown,
But then he must except-ev'n all the town;
All chol'ric, losing gamesters, who, in spite,
Will damn to-day, because they lost last
night;

32

All servants, whom their mistress' scorn

upbraids;

All maudlin lovers, and all slighted maids;
All who are out of humor, or severe;
All that want wit, or hope to find it here.

PROLOGUE, EPILOGUE, AND SONG FROM THE INDIAN EMPEROR

OR, THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO BY THE SPANIARDS

[This, Dryden's first independent heroic play, was acted late in 1664 or early in 1665. It was entered on the Stationers' Register

TRAJAN IMPERATOR ad Plin.