Excerpt from The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Vol. 1 of 3: Containing His Astraea Redux, Annus Mirabilis, Britannia Rediviva, Religio Laici, Threnod. Augustalis, Stanzas to Cromwell, &C., &C., &C Ingenuous confession of inability, one would e, were sufficient to silence the clamour of the against Mr. Dryden in that particular; but, zr true it may be that Dryden did not succeed degree in comedy, I shall endeavour to support rrtion, that in tragedy, with all his faults, he the most excellent of his time. The end of 'is to instruct the mind as well as move the s; and where attre'are no shining sentiments, ind may be affected, but not improved; and er prevalent the passion of grief may be over in of man, it is certain that he may feel distress rentest manner, and not be much the wiser for re tragedies of Otway, Lee, and Southern, are my moving, but they convey not such grand ents, and their language is far from being so il as Dryden's. Now, if one dramatic poet to move, and another to enchant and instruct, truction is of greater consequence than being 'd, it follows naturally that the latter is the most. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.