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[1] In Mr. Saintsbury's admirable monograph on Dryden (English Men of Letters) we have, for the first time, the truth told about the origins of the so-called "heroic" drama in England—a semi-operatic creation of Sir W. Davenant under the Protectorate. But though the rhyme may have come from France, it seems to me that for the rant our Restoration playwrights need not have looked so far as the Scudéry romance, or the Spanish poetry; they had examples nearer home, which is equally true of the "conceits." Dryden is the father of modern prose, and the father of didactic verse, even, one may say, of modern satire also. Now, if a man achieve a reputation for eminence in one department, his eminence in another, however indisputable, is sure to be disputed. It has seemed evident to critics (and consequently to bookmakers) that since he was a critic he could not be a poet. Yet he was certainly both. He is more than what Matthew Arnold names him, a "classic of our prose."

[2] Shall we find such things in the modern creations of Scott, George Sand, Thackeray, Charlotte Brontë (possibly we may in Emily Brontë), Thomas Hardy, or Tolstoi?

[3] Respecting Otway's life, my chief authority is Thornton, who has prefixed the best sketch I know of to the best edition of the poet's works; but I have also consulted other authorities, and read Mr. Gosse's interesting essay in his "Seventeenth Century Studies," &c. Thornton's text has been usually followed in the present volume; with, however, numerous emendations, the result of collation with the early editions.

[4]

Tom Otway came next, Tom Shadwell's dear Zany,

And swears for heroics he writes best of any;

Don Carlos his pockets so amply had filled That his mange was quite cured and his lice were all killed; But Apollo had seen his face on the stage, And prudently did not think fit to engage The scum of a playhouse for the prop of an age.

Wood mentions that it was reported the poet came back from Flanders "mangy, and covered with vermin."