292 DRYDEN. 



poem.&quot;* And a very good poem, in some sort, it continues 

 to be, in spite of its amazing blemishes. We must always 

 bear in mind that Dryden lived in an age that supplied 

 him with no ready-made inspiration, and that big phrases 

 and images are apt to be pressed into the service when 

 great ones do not volunteer. With this poem begins the 

 long series of Dryden s prefaces, of which Swift made such 

 excellent, though malicious, fun that I cannot forbear to 

 quote it. &quot; I do utterly disapprove and declare against that 

 pernicious custom of making the preface a bill of fare to the 

 book. For I have always looked upon it as a high point 

 of indiscretion in monster-mongers and other retailers of 

 strange sights to hang out a fair picture over the door, 

 drawn after the life, with a most eloquent description 

 underneath ; this has saved me many a threepence. . 

 Such is exactly the fate at this time of prefaces. . . . This 

 expedient was admirable at first ; our great Dryden has 

 long carried it as far as it would go, and with incredible 

 success. He has often said to me in confidence, that the 

 world would never have suspected him to be so great a poet, 

 if he had not assured them so frequently, in his prefaces, 

 that it was impossible they could either doubt or forget it. 

 Perhaps it may be so ; however, I much fear his instruc 

 tions have edified out of their place, and taught men to 

 grow wiser in certain points where he never intended they 

 shouldn t The monster-mongers is a terrible thrust, when 

 we remember some of the comedies and heroic plays which 

 Dryden ushered in this fashion. In the dedication of the 

 &quot; Annus&quot; to the city of London is one of those pithy sen 

 tences of which Dryden is ever afterwards so full, and which 

 he lets fall with a carelessness that seems always to deepen the 

 meaning: &quot;I have heard, indeed, of some virtuous persons who 



* Diary, III. 390. Almost the only notices of Dryden that make 

 him alive to me I have found in the delicious book of this Polonius- 

 Montaigne, the only man who ever had the courage to keep a sincere 

 journal, even under the shelter of cipher. 



t Tale of a Tub, Sect. V. Pepys also speaks of buying the 

 &quot;Maiden Queen&quot; of Mr. Dryden s, which he himself, in his preface, 

 seems to brag of, and indeed is a good play. 18th January 1668. 



