8o Milton D. Baumgartner 



kind without a model in the early English literature, which won 

 the favor of those who did not prize Dryden's fables.^^ 



In a few instances the interest in Dryden in other European 

 countries is so closely related to Germany as to warrant brief con- 

 sideration. Simultaneously with Ramler's first translation of 

 Alexander's Feast, a French translation in verse appeared in 

 Paris.*^^ Since the French translator included this in his collec- 

 tion of Gessner's pastorals and Haller's poems, it would inevitably 

 attract the attention of the Germans. 



The close relation of Voltaire to Germany, and the high esteem 

 in which he was held by Frederick the Great and by the German 

 scholars and critics made his criticism potent in that country. 

 Contrary to his neighbor critics he did not give Pope the first rank, 

 but regarded Dryden superior to all English poets and equal to all 

 ancient.®* 



Like the Germans Voltaire greatly esteemed the ode, and his 

 enthusiasm for Alexander's Feast even surpassed that of Eschen- 

 burg and Herder."" In his estimation it was superior to that of 

 Pope and all modern odes, and a hundred times more admirable 

 than all of Pindar.«« 



62 Loco citato, VIII, pp. 34 and 51, 1810. 



''s " Traduction libri de I'ode — sur le pouvoir de la Musique; ou la Fete 

 d'Alexandre, en I'honneur de Sainte Cecile." See Brit. Mu. Cat. under 

 Dryden and Gessner (S). 



®* " Ses [Dryden's] ouvrages sont plein de details naturals a la fois et 

 brillians, animes, vigoureux, hardis, passiones, merite qu'aucum poete de 

 sa nation n'egale, et qu'aucun ancien n'a surpasse. Si Pope, qui est venu 

 apres lui, n'avait pas, sur la fin de sa vie fait son Essai sur rhomme, il 

 ne serait pas comparable a Dryden." See " Siecle de Louis XIV " in 

 Oeuvres Completes de Voltaire, Tome, XXIV, p. 248. De L'Imprimere 

 de La Societe Litteraire-Typographique, 1785. 



65 " De contes les odes modernes, celle ou il regne le plus enthusiasme 

 qui ne s'aflfaibloit jamais, et qui ne tombe ni dans le faux, ni dans I'am- 

 poule, est le Timothee, ou la Fete d'Alexandre par Dryden : elle est encore 

 regardee en Angleterre comme un chef-d'oeuvre inimitable, dont Pope 

 n'a pu approcher, quand il a voulu s'exercer dans le meme genre. Cette 

 ode fut chantee ; et si on avait en un musicien digne du poete, ce serait le 

 chef-d'oeuvre de la poesie lyrique." See the chapter on enthusiasm in 

 Dictionnaire Philosophique, loco citato, LI, p. 48. 



66 " Vous appelez Cowley le Pindare anglais; .... Le vrai Pindare est 



368 



