that humility to the judgments of heaven, and at the fame time to raise yourselves with that vigor above all human enemies; to be combated at once from above, and from below, to be ftruck down and to triumph: I know not whether fuch trials have been ever paralleled in any nation: the refolution and fucceffes of them never can be. Never had prince or people more mutual reason to love each other, if fuffering for each other can endear affection. You have come together a pair of matchlefs lovers, through many difficulties; he, through a long exile, various traverses of fortune, and the interpofition of many rivals, who violently ravished and with-held from him and certainly you you have had your fhare in fufferings. But Providence has cast upon you want of trade, that you might appear bountiful to your country's neceffities; and the rest of afflictions are not more the effects of God's difpleasure (frequent examples of them having been in the reign of the moft excellent princes) than occafions for the manifefting of your chriftian and civil virtues. To you therefore this Year of Wonders is justly dedicated, because you have made it fo. You, who are to ftand a won

your

:

der to all years and ages; and, who have built
yourselves an immortal monument on your own
ruins. You are now a Phoenix in her ashes, and,
as far as humanity can approach, á great em-
blem of the suffering Deity: but heaven never
made fo much piety and virtue to leave it mifer-
able. I have heard, indeed, of fome virtuous
perfons who have ended unfortunately, but never
of
any virtuous nation: Providence is engaged
too deeply, when the cause becomes fo general,
and I cannot imagine it has resolved the ruin of
that people at home, which it has bleffed abroad
with fuch fucceffes. I am therefore to conclude,
that
your fufferings are at an end; and that one
part of my poem has not been more an history
of your destruction, than the other a prophecy
of your restoration.
restoration. The accomplishment of
which happiness, as it is the wifh of all true
Englishmen, fo is it by none more paffionately
defired, than by,

The greatest of your admirers,

And most humble of

your

fervants,

JOHN DRYDEN.

AM fo many ways obliged to you, and fo

I A

of

little able to return your favours, that, like those who owe too much, I can only live by getting farther into your debt. You have not only been careful of my fortune, which was the effect your noblenefs, but you have been folicitous my reputation, which is that of your kindness. It is not long fince I gave you the trouble of perufing a play for me, and now, instead of an acknowledgment, I have given you a greater, in the correction of a poem. But fince you are to bear this perfecution, I will at least give you the

of

encouragement of a martyr; you could never fuffer in a nobler caufe. For I have chosen the most heroic subject, which any poet could defire: I have taken upon me to defcribe the motives, the beginning, progrefs, and fucceffes, of a most just and necessary war; in it, the care, management, and prudence of our king; the conduct and valour of a royal admiral, and of two incomparable generals; the invincible courage of our captains and feamen; and three glorious victories, the refult of all. After this, I have, in the Fire, the most deplorable, but withal the greatest, argument that can be imagined: the deftruction being fo fwift, fo fudden, so vast and miferable, as nothing can parallel in story. The former part of this poem, relating to the war, is buta due expiation for my not ferving my king and country in it. All gentlemen are almoft obliged to it and I know no reason we fhould give that advantage to the commonalty of England, to be foremost in brave actions, which the nobles of France would never fuffer in their peasants. I should not have written this but to a perfon, who has been ever forward to appear in all employments, whither his honour and generofity have

called him. The latter part of my poem, which

defcribes the Fire, I owe, first to the piety and fa therly affection of our monarch to his fuffering fubjects; and, in the fecond place, to the courage, loyalty, and 'magnanimity of the city; both which were fo confpicuous, that I have wanted words to celebrate them as they deserve. I have called my poem Hiftorical, not Epic, though both the actions and actors are as much heroic as any poem can contain. But fince the action is not properly one, nor that accomplished in the last fucceffes, I have judged it too bold a title for a few ftanzas, which are little more in number than a fingle Iliad, or the longest of the Æneids. For this reafon (I mean not of length, but broken action, tied too feverely to the laws of history) I am apt to agree with thofe, who rank Lucan, rather among hiftorians in verfe, than Epic poets: in whose room, if I am not deceived, Silius Italicus, though a worse writer, may more justly be admitted. I have chofen to write my poem in quatrains, or ftanzas of four in alternate rhyme, because I have ever judged them more noble, and of greater dignity, both for the found and number, than any other verse in use amongst us; in