[77] A learned physician of Dryden's time.
[78] There can be, I think, little doubt, that in both these passages the poet has detected the true and poetical sense of the author, which has escaped the mere commentator.
[79] All of whom had made slight and partial attempts as translators from Virgil.
[80] This comparison our author has detailed in his preface to Fresnoy's "Art of Painting."
"I am now come, though with the omission of many likenesses, to the third part of Painting, which is called cromatic, or colouring. Expression, and all that belongs to words, is that in a poem which colouring is in a picture. The colours well chosen in their proper places, together with the lights and shadows which belong to them, lighten the design, and make it pleasing to the eye. The words, the expressions, the tropes and figures, the versification, and all the other elegancies of sound, as cadences, turns of words upon the thought, and many other things which are all parts of expression, perform exactly the same office, both in dramatic and epic poetry. Our author calls colouring--_lena sororis_; in plain English, the bawd of her sister, the design or drawing: she clothes, she dresses her up, she paints her, she makes her appear more lovely than naturally she is, she procures for the design, and makes lovers for her; for the design of itself is only so many naked lines. Thus in poetry, the expression is that which charms the reader, and beautifies the design, which is only the outlines of the fables."
[81] This river, which flows past Madrid, is distinguished by the splendour of its bridge, and the scantiness of its waters.
[82] Now more commonly called an Alexandrine. Pope had perhaps this passage in his memory, when he composed the famous triplet descriptive of Dryden's versification:
Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to join The varying verse, the full resounding line, The long majestic march, and energy divine.
[83] He alludes to Cowley, who was forced abroad by the ill fate of the royal party in the civil wars.
[84] Our author has, however, availed himself of this licence in his earlier poetry.
[85] The confusion occasioned by the rules of the mint, then recently adopted, created great inconvenience and distress to individuals. It is often mentioned in the correspondence between Tonson and Dryden.