" But, after all,
perhaps no man has summed him up so well as John Dennis, one of Pope's
typical dunces, a dull man outside of his own sphere, as men are apt to
be, but who had some sound notions as a critic, and thus became the
object of Pope's fear and therefore of his resentment. Dennis speaks of
him as his "departed friend, whom I infinitely esteemed when living for
the solidity of his thought, for the spring and the warmth and the
beautiful turn of it; for the power and variety and fulness of his
harmony; for the purity, the perspicuity, the energy of his expression;
and, whenever these great qualities are required, for the pomp and
solemnity and majesty of his style."[97]
Footnotes:
[1] The Dramatick Works of John Dryden, Esq. In six volumes. London:
Printed for Jacob Tonson, in the Strand. MDCCXXXV. 18mo.
The Critical and Miscellaneous Prose-Works of John Dryden, now first
collected. With Notes and Illustrations. An Account of the Life and
Writings of the Author, grounded on Original and Authentick
Documents; and a Collection of his Letters, the greatest Part of
which has never before been published. By Edmund Malone, Esq. London:
T. Cadell and W. Davies, in the Strand.
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