Page:Lives of Poets-Laureate.djvu/167

Rh by it; the corruption of a poet is the generation of a statesman."

Before, however, these literary hostilities took place, Dryden had concluded the poem of "Annus Mirabilis," on which he had been employed at Charlton, and published it with an almost blasphemous dedication to the City of London, and a critical letter to Sir R. Howard. This is certainly the best of his earliest poems, and produced for him far more fame as a poet than any which had preceded it. He thought highly of the subject, and expressed himself with some confidence on the manner in which he had treated it. He writes to Sir Robert: "I have chosen the most heroic subject which any poet could desire; I have taken upon me to describe the motives, the beginning, progress and successes of a most just and necessary war; in it the care, management and presence of a King; the conduct and valour of a royal admiral, and of two incomparable generals; the invincible courage of our captains and seamen, and their glorious victories, the result of all. After this," he adds, "I have in the fire the most deplorable but withal the greatest argument that can be imagined, the destruction being so swift, so sudden, so vast and miserable as nothing can parallel in story." He next boasts, though with some slight misgivings, of his accuracy in the use he had made of naval terms. It is difficult to see what can have induced him against all rules of criticism, to have introduced technicalities into poetry; Johnson has censured them; and Scott has agreed with him in condemning "the dialect of the dockyard." In speaking of his execution of the work, Dryden says: "And I am well satisfied, as they are incomparably the best subject I ever had, so also, that this I have written of them is much better than what I have performed on any other." Towards the conclusion, he defends himself against an accusation which had been