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Some circumstances, however, may seem to degrade so amiable a private,
so sublime a poetical character. The licence of his comedy, as we have
seen, had for it only the apology of universal example, and must be
lamented, though not excused. Let us, however, remember, that if in the
hey-day of the merry monarch's reign, Dryden ventured to maintain, that,
the prime end of poetry being pleasure, the muses ought not to be
fettered by the chains of strict decorum; yet in his more advanced and
sober mood, he evinced sincere repentance for his trespass, by patient
and unresisting submission to the coarse and rigorous chastisement of
Collier. If it is alleged, that, in the fury of his loyal satire, he was
not always solicitous concerning its justice, let us make allowance for
the prejudice of party, and consider at what advantage, after the laps
of more than a century, and through the medium of impartial history, we
now view characters, who were only known to their contemporaries as
zealous partisans of an opposite and detested faction. The moderation of
Dryden's reprisals, when provoked by the grossest calumny and personal
insult, ought also to plead in his favour. Of the hundreds who thus
assailed, not only his literary, but his moral reputation, he has
distinguished Settle and Shadwell alone by an elaborate retort. Those
who look into Mr. Luttrell's collections, will at once see the extent of
Dryden's sufferance, and the limited nature of his retaliation.
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