[251] 'It is surely sufficient for an author of sixteen … to have obtained sufficient power of language and skill in metre, to exhibit a series of versification which had in English poetry no precedent, nor has since had an imitation.' Johnson's Works, viii. 326.
[252] See ante, i. 129.
[253] 'If the flights of Dryden are higher, Pope continues longer on the wing … Dryden is read with frequent astonishment, and Pope with perpetual delight.' Johnson's Works, viii. 325.
[254] Probably, says Mr. Croker, those quoted by Johnson in The Life of Dryden. Ib vii. 339.
[255] The Duke of Buckingham in Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel.
[256] Prologue to the Satires, I. 193.
[257]
Almeria.—'It was a fancy'd noise; for all is hush'd.
Leonora.—It bore the accent of a human voice.
Almeria.—It was thy fear, or else some transient wind
Whistling thro' hollows of this vaulted aisle;
We'll listen—