EDITIONS OF DRYDEN AND SWIFT.
Sir Walter's next literary labour was the editorship of the Works of John Dryden, with Notes. Critical and Explanatory, and a Life of the Author: the chief aim of which appears to be the arrangement of the "literary productions in their succession, as actuated by, and operating upon, the taste of an age, where they had so predominating an influence," and the connexion of the Life of Dryden with the history of his publications. This he accomplished within a twelvemonth. Sir Walter subsequently edited, upon a similar plan, an edition of the Works of Swift.—Neither of these works can be said to entitle Sir Walter to high rank as a biographer.