And Hart of grece killed Hercules.
[87] Malone's Prose Works of Dryden, Vol. III. p. 250.
[88] Sir Robert Howard was son to the Earl of Berkshire, and brother to Lady Elizabeth Dryden, our author's wife. This epistle is dated from Charlton, the seat of Lord Berkshire.
[89] Probably "The Indian Queen," which was a joint production of Dryden and Howard.
[90] The author alludes to the privilege, anciently used, of throwing an accentuation on the last syllable, of such a word as noble, so as to make it sound nobley. An instance may be produced from our author's poem on the Coronation:
Some lazy ages, lost in sleep and ease,
No action have to busy chronicles.
[91] These translations are, however, in fourteen, not twelve syllables; a vile hobbling sort of measure, used also by Phayr, and other old translators.
[92] This is one of Dryden's hasty and inaccurate averments. The ancient dramatic authors were particularly well acquainted with nautical terms, and applied them with great accuracy. See a note in Gifford's excellent edition of Massinger, vol. II. p. 229.
[93] We need not here suppose, that Dryden speaks particularly of those to whom he had offered panygyricks: undoubtedly, he had written poems on many subjects, which, remaining unpublished, have not descended to us.