"Her march is o'er the mountain wave,
Her home is on the deep,"
and they are his forevermore. His "leviathans afloat" he lifted from the "Annus Mirabilis"; but in what court could Dryden sue? Again, Waller in another poem calls the Duke of York's flag
"His dreadful streamer, like a comet's hair";
and this, I believe, is the first application of the celestial portent to this particular comparison. Yet Milton's "imperial ensign" waves defiant behind his impregnable lines, and even Campbell flaunts his "meteor flag" in Waller's face. Gray's bard might be sent to the lock-up, but even he would find bail.
"C'est imiter quelqu'un que de planter des choux."
[44] Corneille's tragedy of "Pertharite" was acted unsuccessfully in 1659. Racine made free use of it in his more fortunate "Andromaque."
[45] Dryden's publisher.
[46] Preface to the Fables.
[47] I interpret some otherwise ambiguous passages in this charming and acute essay by its title: "On the artificial comedy of the last century."
[48] See especially his defence of the epilogue to the Second Part of the "Conquest of Granada" (1672).