John Dryden (1631 – 1700)
Influential English poet, literary critic, and playwright.
Since ev’ry man who lives is born to die,
And none can boast sincere felicity,
With equal mind, what happens, let us bear,
Nor joy nor grieve too much for things beyond our care.
[T]he Famous Rules which the French call, Des Trois Unitez, or, The Three Unities, which ought to be observ'd in every Regular Play; namely, of Time, Place, and Action.
The sword within the scabbard keep,
And let mankind agree.
Auspicious Prince! at whose nativity
Some royal planet rul'd the southern sky;
Thy longing country's darling and desire;
Their cloudy pillar, and their guardian fire:
Their second Moses, whose extended wand
Divides the seas, and shows the promis'd land:
Whose dawning day, in very distant age,
Has exercis'd the sacred prophet's rage:
The people's pray'r, the glad diviner's theme,
The young men's vision, and the old men's dream!
When beauty fires the blood, how love exalts the mind!
Sigh'd and look'd, and sigh'd again.
A brave man scorns to quarrel once a day;
Like Hectors in at every petty fray.
Men met each other with erected look,
The steps were higher that they took;
Friends to congratulate their friends made haste,
And long inveterate foes saluted as they passed.
War seldom enters but where wealth allures.
Too black for heav'n, and yet too white for hell.
An horrid stillness first invades the ear,
And in that silence we the tempest fear.
Thus in a pageant-show a plot is made;
And peace itself is war in masquerade.
What flocks of critics hover here to-day,
As vultures wait on armies for their prey,
All gaping for the carcase of a play!
With croaking notes they bode some dire event,
And follow dying poets by the scent.
Genius must be born, and never can be taught.
He was exhaled; his great Creator drew
His spirit, as the sun the morning dew.
For truth has such a face and such a mien
As to be loved needs only to be seen.
Of seeming arms to make a short essay,
Then hasten to be drunk — the business of the day.
Nor is the people's judgment always true:
The most may err as grossly as the few.
So over violent, or over civil,
That every man with him was God or Devil.
She feared no danger, for she knew no sin.