English poem
Under
by John Dryden
MR MILTON'S PICTURE,
BEFORE HIS PARADISE LOST.
This inscription appeared under the engraving prefixed to Tonson's folio edition of the Paradise Lost, published by subscription, under the patronage of Somers, in 1688. Dryden was one of the subscribers. Atterbury, afterwards Bishop of Rochester, was active in procuring subscribers. See a letter of his to Tonson, MALONE'S Life of Dryden, p. 203.
Mr Malone regards Dryden's hexastich as an amplification of Selvaggi's distich, addressed to Milton while at Rome:
Græcia Mœonidem, jactet sibi Roma Maronem, Anglia Miltonum jactat utrique parem.
* * * * *
Three poets, in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy, and England, did adorn. The first, in loftiness of thought surpassed; The next, in majesty; in both, the last. The force of nature could no further go; To make a third, she joined the former two.
ODES, SONGS,
More by John Dryden
- To The Pious Memory Of The Accomplished Young Lady Mrs Anne Killigrew,[1] Excellent In The Two Sister Arts Of Poesy And Painting.
- To The Pious Memory Of The Accomplished Young Lady Mrs. Anne Killigrew
- To the Unknown Author of this Admirable Poem
- To the Unknown Author of this Excellent Poem
- Under Mr Milton's Picture, Before His Paradise Lost.[1]
- Upon
- Upon His
- Upon The Death Of The Earl Of Dundee.[1]