In February 1685, the Catholic James II ascended the throne. During the same year Dryden became a Catholic. For this conver sion he has been denounced by judges whose opinion commands our respect as a• hypocritical time-server. Perhaps he himself could not tell whether he changed his religion from convic tion. Brought up a Puritan, he was by nature a sceptic. His morals were probably little bet ter than those of the dissolute young noblemen whose associate he was proud to proclaim him self. Stich a man could have no clinging at tachment to the Church of England. On the other hand, with his strongly logical, scholastic temperament, once he had admitted the element of mystery in religion, he could find it possible to accept any of the Catholic dogmas. He would probably not have become a Catholic except for the pressure of external circum stances; on the other hand, in accepting the king's religion he probably was guilty of no moral obliquity. All his work shows a steadily increasing acceptance of the principle of au thority, in literature as in religion. He gained no new offices or pensions as the price of his adoption of Catholicism: whether, without this change of faith he would have been deprived of those that he already possessed, it would be idle to discuss. After the revolution he was steadfast in his adherence to his new faith.
Dryden's conversion bore fruit in 'The Hind and the Panther' (1687), his longest original poem. The scheme of the work, a polemic dia logue between the Hind, representing the Cath olic Church, and her adversary, the Panther, or Church of England, is absurd enough; but the book contains some of Dryden's best poetry. His defense of his own sincerity shows fervor and pathos, almost sublimity; it is his nearest approach to the ((grand style.* The revolution of 1688 brought ruin to Dry den's wordly prosperity. Already an old man, he was deprived of his salary and his pension and except for a wholly inadequate income from his landed property, was thrown back on his pen for support. He met the situation with dignity, making no attempt to conciliate the new government, but refraining from any at tack on it. He returned to play-writing, on which since 1681 he had done almost nothing. But his latest dramas, though one of them, 'Don Sebastian' (1689), rivals 'All for Love) in po etic merit, had comparatively small popular success. He found a surer support in work as a translator. This he had begun in 1680 with three pieces in a small volume of 'Ovid's Epis tles,' and had continued by various contribu tions to poetical' miscellanies. He now under took, with aid from other ueminent hands,' a complete version of Juvenal and Persius, which was published in Dryden himself trans lated five satires of Juvenal and the whole of Persius, and wrote a long prose preface on 'The Original and Progress of Satire,' compiled from Casaubon and other scholars. He next turned to what is perhaps his greatest single achievement, a complete translation of Virgil, which he began in 1693 and which ap peared in a stately folio volume in 1697. This
work was hailed with enthusiasm on its appear ance, and has never been superseded as the standard English version of the greatest Latin poet. Dryden's (Virgil) has indeed none of the grace, tenderness and Thigh seriousness* of the original; in the 'Bucolics> and 'Georgics' it is markedly inferior. But his is a masterpiece of animated narrative; the easy, buoyant verse carries the reader forward with no thought of constraint.
In the same year Dryden produced his great ode, 'Alexander's Feast,' the finest lyric poem of the period between Milton and Wordsworth. He adopts the irregular ((Pindaric* structure made fashionable by Cowley, but transforms it by his own genius. The poem is not easily appreciated by modern readers, who in lyric poetry instinctively look for either the expres sion of moral ideas (Wordsworth), of intense passion (Shelley), or of sensuous beauty (Keats). •Dryden gives none of these, but in stead a rapid series of flashlight pictures, each expressed in verse that by its music suggests the scene described. No poem has a more youthful vigor than this ode by the weary dramatist and satirist of sixty-six.
Dryden next set to work on a volume of translations and adaptations from Chaucer, Boccaccio, Ovid and Homer that was published in 1700 under the title of 'Fables, Ancient and Modern.) This last product of his pen has an enduring charm. Here the old poet is a teller of tales in clear, simple, melodious language, such as was not to reappear during the whole century that followed him.
Dryden died on 1 May 1700. After an im pressive funeral he was laid to rest in West minster Abbey, in the ((Poets' Corner,* near the grave of Chaucer.
After the death of Milton in 1674 Dryden was the acknowledged chief of English men of letters. During the 18th century his fame even increased, so that when Scott wrote in 1808 that Dryden left °a name second only to those of Milton and Shakespeare," he merely echoed a received opinion. With the rise of roman ticism, Dryden's reputation sank, until to-day he is probably the least read of the greater Eng lish poets; certainly far less than Pope, with whom it is most natural to compare him. He indeed lacks the highest poetic qualities. He expresses no great moral or social ideas; he had little sympathetic or intuitive knowledge of human nature,— hence the comparative weak ness of his dramas,—and no feeling for the beauty of the external world. His greatness is primarily one of technique. He had a sense of style, a literary temperament, an ardent love for good literature, which increased in him with advancing years. Owing to this he gradually developed a poetic diction of his own, which, with its clearness, strength and genuine, though restricted melody, became the model for Pope, and so, directly and indirectly, for the whole 18th century.