Excerpt from John Dryden: The Poet, the Dramatist, the Critic Has - the importance of his influence. It is this nice ques tion of influence that I wish to investigate first, in relation to what I may call the filjmternawrymglmipwta tor, that is, in our history, we to say that poets like Shakespeare and Milton 'were without influence? Certainly not, but in fluence, in the sense in which we can cope with the term, is something more limited. The dis proportion between Shakespeare and his imme diate followers, among the dramatists, is so great that the influence of Shakespeare is a triflingthing in comparison with Shakespeare himself; and as for Milton, that was so peculiar a genius that although he had plenty of mimics during the eighteenth century, he can hardly be said to have any followers. For influence, as Dryden had influence, a poet must not be so great as to overshadow all followers. Dryden was followed' by Pope, and a century later, by Samuel John son; borh men of great original genius, who developed the medium left them by Dryden, in ways which cast honour both on them and on him. It should seem then no paradox to say that Dryden was the great influence upon English verse that he was, because he was not too great to have any influence at all. He was neither the consummate poet of earlier times, nor the eccen tric poet of later. He was happy both in his predecessors and in his successors. A hundred years rs a long time for the stamp of one man to remain upon a literature 5 poets' influence and reputation cannot last so long in our days; and 6' that makes Dryden a central, a typical figurein English letters. He is in himself the Malherbe, the Boileau, the Corneille and almost the Moliere (almost, because Congreve refined and surpassed him in comedy) of the seventeenth century in England; and to him, as much as to any indi vidual, we owe our civilisation.

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