Thus the measure used by Rochester, Buckingham Sheffield,
Sedley, and other satirists, if not polished or harmonized, approaches
more nearly to modern verse, than that of Hall or Donne. In the "Elegy
on Cromwell," and the "_Annus Mirabilis_," Dryden followed Davenant, who
abridged, if he did not explode, the quaintnesses of his predecessors.
In "_Astroea Redux_" and his occasional verses to Dr. Charlton, the
Duchess of York, and others, the poet proposed a separate and simpler
model, more dignified than that of Suckling or Waller; more harmonious
in measure, and chaste in expression, than those of Cowley and Crashaw.
Much, there doubtless remained, of ancient subtlety, and ingenious
quibbling; but when Dryden declares, that he proposes Virgil, in
preference to Ovid, to be his model in the "_Annus Mirabilis_" it
sufficiently implies that the main defect of the poetry of the last age
had been discovered, and was in the way of being amended by gradual and
almost imperceptible degrees.
In establishing, or refining, the latter style of writing, in couplet
verse, our author found great assistance from his dramatic practice; to
trace the commencement of which is the purpose of the next Section.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] [The statements in this paragraph are somewhat rhetorical.
Massinger, for instance, was still at Oxford when James ascended the
throne, and though he began to write a few years later, his earliest
published play now extant appeared nearly twenty years afterwards.
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