The Works of John Dryden, vol. 20, Prose: 1691-1698, De Arte Graphica and Shorter Works.

With the appearance of volume XX, the California edition of Dryden (the first instalment of which appeared over thirty-five years ago) comes within four volumes of completion. The latest volume contains six prose works of the 1690s, none of which is likely to be high on the general reader's list of priorities, but all of which are of considerable interest to the serious student of Dryden. Three of them are pieces of |character' writing, designed to preface a work, or a collection of works, by a particular author. The |Character of Saint-Evremond' (1692) accompanied an English edition of the Works of that celebrated emigre French libertin. The |Character of Polybius' was included in Sir Henry Sheeres' translation of Polybius' History (1693). The |Life of Lucian' was written, probably in 1696, for a new translation of Lucian's works which did not, in the event, appear until 1711. The volume also includes a short Preface written for A Diololzue Concerning Women (1691) by Dryden's young friend, the poet and critic William Walsh, a translation of …