through which he has immortalized himself, was written in short-hand, and was first deciphered and published in 1825. It extends over the nine years from 1660 to 1669, and is the gossipy chronicle of a gay and profligate time. We have no other book which gives so life-like a picture of that extraordinary decade. Pepys by nature was as curious as a magpie, and somewhat convivial in his tastes withal; and his official duties brought him into contact with every class, from the king and his ministers down to the poor, half-starved sailors whose pay he distributed. He chronicles with ludicrous naïveté the successive details of his own rise in wealth and importance, all the minutiæ of his domestic affairs, and of the dress, manners, and social amusements of himself and his associates. King, statesmen, courtiers, players, live again in his pages, and Pepys's own character an interesting compound of shrewdness, vanity, worldly wisdom, and simplicityenhances the piquancy of his revelations.*

Edward Hyde, first Earl of Clarendon (1608-1674), was one of the prominent figures in the Long Parliament and in the age of the Restoration. He was educated for the profession of law; but at an early age he quitted the bar, and engaged in the more exciting political struggles of that time. He sat in the Short Parliament of 1640, and was also a conspicuous orator in the Long Parliament, at first supporting the Opposition, but gradually transferring his support to the royalists. Upon the outbreak of civil war he fled from London to join the king at York; and became a member of his government. In 1645 he was made principal attendant upon Prince Charles, whom he accompanied to Jersey, and whose exile and misfortunes he shared from the execution of Charles I. until the Restoration. After the throne of the Stuarts had been reëstablished, Hyde was made Lord Chancellor of England. His policy offended the Puritans; his austere manners were unwelcome to the profligate courtiers; his great wealth made him an object of envy; and in six years he became obnoxious at Court and in the realm. Finally he was impeached for high treason, was exiled, and died in France.

* See H. B. Wheatley's Samuel Pepys and the World he Lived in (1880).

Clarendon's principal work is the one-sided History of the Great Rebellion, as he, a royalist, designated the history of the Civil War. It comprises a detailed account of that struggle, together with a narrative of the circumstances which brought about the Restoration. As much of the material as was derived from the author's personal experience gives the work value; while stateliness, fullness of anecdote, and the weight of the style lend an imposing literary flavor to the book. Impartial, Clarendon is not; but he is prejudiced rather than dishonest. He is skilled in the delineation of character. Natural penetration and knowledge of the world combine to make him an acute observer of human nature; and we are indebted to him for lifelike portraits of distinguished contemporaries. He left also a History of the Civil War in Ireland and an autobiography.*

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was a metaphysician, whose works belong to this period of our literature. He had the acquaintance of the most intellectual men of the day, among them Bacon, Ben Jonson, Galileo, and Descartes.

His earliest literary work was a translation of Thucydides. The first hints of his philosophical system were conveyed in two political treatises, published in 1642 and in 1650, for the avowed purpose of quelling the spirit of republicanism in England. They were both incorporated into his most celebrated work, the Leviathan; or the Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil. Therein he asserts that the primary motive of all human action is selfish interest; that human nature is therefore essentially ferocious and corrupt, requiring the restraint of arbitrary power to bridle its passion. From these premises the expediency of despotic rule is deduced. The Behemoth, a history of the Civil War, embracing the period between 1640 and 1660, was finished shortly before his death. The doctrines promulgated by Hobbes influenced English speculation for a century, and, midway between Bacon and Locke, laid the foundation of the Utilitarian school. His style is a model of clear, nervous,

* See Lister's Life of Clarendon (3 vols., 1838); and Peter Bayne's essay in Chief Actors of the Puritan Revolution (1878). The History has often been reprinted.

and cogent reasoning. He is known as "the Selfish Philosopher of Malmesbury."*

In this chapter we have considered

The literature of the Restoration.

1. Samuel Butler. -2. John Bunyan.—3. Izaak Walton. 4. John Evelyn.-5. Samuel Pepys.-6. Edward Hyde. 7. Thomas Hobbes.

* See Croom Robinson's Hobbes, in "Philosophical Classics" (1886).

CHAPTER XX.

JOHN DRYDEN.

"Without either creative imagination or any power of pathos, he is in argument, in satire, and in declamatory magnificence, the greatest of our poets." G. L. Craik.

"His plays, excepting a few scenes, are utterly disfigured by vice or folly or both. His translations appear too much the offspring of haste and hunger; even his fables are ill-chosen tales conveyed in an incorrect though spirited versification. Yet midst this great number of loose productions, the refuse of our language, there are found some small pieces, his Ode to St. Cecilia, the greater part of Absalom and Achitophel, and a few more which discover so great genius, such richness of expression, such pomp and vanity of numbers, that they leave us equally full of regret and indignation on account of the inferiority, or rather great absurdity, of his other writings." - David Hume.

"I admire Dryden's talents and genius highly; but his is not a poetical genius. The only qualities I can find in Dryden that are essentially poetical are a certain ardor and impetuosity of mind with an excellent ear. . . . There is not a single image from nature in the whole of his works."— William Wordsworth.

In the last year of the fourteenth century Chaucer died. Just three hundred years later John Dryden (1631-1700) dropped his pen and ended his writings and his life. As poets, the great masters were unlike. Chaucer's muse delighted to roam the fields and the highways, addressing itself to the leaves, the flowers, the birds, and the people. The retirement and the conveniences of the library gave inspiration to the muse of Dryden. He was educated at Westminster and Cambridge, whence he went in 1657 to London, having inherited a meager estate from his father. The revival of the drama just then opened a lucrative field for the professional author, and Dryden devoted himself to the stage. He worked with energy and tact,

choosing subjects suited to the public taste, and, after the custom of the times, dedicating his efforts to those whose patronage had value.

His Non-dramatic Works. One of Dryden's earliest productions was Heroic Verses, in eulogy of the Protector, who died in 1658; but he early shifted to the royal party in Astræa Redux, welcoming Charles II. to the throne. The Annus Mirabilis (1667) was written to commemorate the terrible Plague and Fire of London, and the war with the Dutch. Its dignity of style and its harmonious verse merited praise; and the fact that it was filled with eulogy of the worthless king by no means detracted from the popularity of its author. The subject of Dryden's next production was equally fortunate. In an elaborate prose

Essay on Dramatic Poetry, he upheld the use of rhyme in tragedy, and ranged himself with those who were trying to engraft French dramatic rules upon the English stage. From this time the rise of his fortunes was rapid. In 1670 he was appointed poet laureate and royal historiographer. The King's Company of Players contracted with him to supply them with three dramas a year. We owe several powerful efforts of his genius to his participation in political intrigues. Absalom and Achitophel, his first and best satire, appeared in 1681, assailing the leading statesmen of the day. It gave Dryden an opportunity to revenge himself upon his personal foes and literary rivals, the Duke of Buckingham and the poets Settle and Shadwell. It is full of masterpieces of character-painting, not always just, but always vigorous. The enthusiasm with which it was received confirmed Dryden's poetical supremacy.*

The attack upon Shaftesbury was

* In this satire, names from the Old Testament indicate the leaders of the Whigs, in Dryden's day. The Duke of Monmouth was Absalom; the Earl of