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HANDBOOKS

OF

ENGLISH LITERATURE

EDITED BY PROFESSOR HALES

THE AGE OF DRYDEN

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GEORGE BELL & SONS

LONDON: YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN

AND NEW YORK: 66, FIFTH AVENUE

CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL & CO.

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THE
AGE OF DRYDEN

BY

R. GARNETT, LL.D.

LONDON

GEORGE BELL AND SONS

1895

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CHISWICK PRESS:—CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.

TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

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PREFACE.

The plan of a general history of English literature in aseries of introductory manuals, each dealing with a well-definedperiod and individually complete, as set forth inthe preface to Mr. Dennis’s Age of Pope, is advanced astage further by the present volume.

The period described, from its chief literary figure, asThe Age of Dryden, and which might with equal proprietyhave been entitled The Age of the Restoration,extends from 1660 to 1700. Some very important writers,such as Milton and Clarendon, the composition or publicationof whose principal works falls within this epoch, havebeen passed over as belonging in style and spirit to the precedingage; and in a few instances this procedure has beenreversed. In the main, however, the last forty years of theseventeenth century constitute the period of literaryactivity represented, and will be found to be demarcatedwith unusual precision from both the preceding and theensuing era.

The writer of a literary history embracing works on agreat variety of topics will soon discover that he is expectedto impart more information than he possesses. If in any[Pg vi]measure endowed with the grace of modesty, he willfrequently feel compelled to acknowledge with Mr. EdwardGibbon Wakefield, when, after having overcome every otherdifficulty in the foundation of his colony, he came to provideit with a bishop: ‘I fear I do not very well understandthis part of the subject myself.’ Trusty guides,however, fortunately are not wanting. The author’swarmest acknowledgments are due for the assistance hehas derived from personal communication with ProfessorHales, and from the writings of Macaulay, MatthewArnold, Mr. Gosse, Professor Saintsbury, Mr. ChurtonCollins, and Dr. Fowler. He is indebted for the Indexto Mr. J. P. Anderson, of the Reading Room of theBritish Museum.

R. G.

October, 1895.

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CONTENTS.