guage of the age of Elizabeth is, without reason, always represented by them. Pope indeed carried the matter still farther; for whenever he found a word or phrase in the works of Shakspeare that was not the current language of his own day, he supposed the text to be corrupt, and modernized it accordingly. 8 The pieces written by our author, which appeared in this Miscellany, were-A translation of the first book of Ovid's METAMORPHOSES; Iphis and Ianthe from the ninth book, and Acis and Galatea from the fourteenth; Ode for St. Cecilia's day (1687); Verses to the Duchess of York (1682); Song to a Young Lady, (" Ask not the cause, &c."); Verses to Lady Castlemaine (written long before); Prologue to the University of Oxford, (1681); another Prologue to some play exhibited between 1690 and 1693, the title of which I have not been able to discover ("Gallants, to-night," &c.); Veni, Creator Spiritus; Ode to the memory of Mrs. Anne Killgrew, first printed in 1686; Roundelay (" Chloe found Amyntas," &c.); Epitaphs on Lady Whitmore, and Sir Palmes Fairborne; and the Parting of Hector and Andromache, from the Iliad. To the FOURTH MISCELLANY, which was published in 1694, without a Dedication or Preface, the only pieces which our author contributed, were-a Translation of the third Georgick, and Verses addressed to Sir Godfrey Kneller. Ir may be reasonably expected that I should say something on my own behalf, in respect to my present undertaking. First then, the reader may be pleased to know, that it was not of my own choice that I undertook this work. Many of our most skilful painters, and other artists, were pleased to recommend this author to me, as one who perfectly understood the rules of painting; who gave 9 This Essay was prefixed to our author's prose translation of Mons. Du Fresnoy's Latin poem, De Arte GRAPHICA, and was first published in quarto in 1695. In the Dedication of the second edition of that work in 8vo. in 1716, Mr. Richard Graham observes to Lord Burlington, that the misfortune which attended Dryden in his translation was, "that for want of a competent knowledge in painting, he suffered himself to be misled by an unskilful guide. Mons. de Piles told him in his preface, that his French version was made at the request of the author himself; and altered by him, till it was wholly to his mind. This Mr. Dryden taking upon content, thought there was nothing more incumbent on him, than to put it into the best English he could; and |