27 — Story English, and neither too far distant from the Fresent Age, nor too near approaching it. Such it is in my Opinion, that I could not have wish’d a nobler Occasion to do Honour by it to my King, my Country, and my Friends; most of our ancient Nobility being concern’d in the Aetion. And your Lordship has one particular Reason to promote this Undertaking, because you were the first who gave me the Opportunity of dicoursing it to his Majesty, and his Royal Highness. They were then pleas’d, both to commend the Design, and to encourage it by their Commands. Bnt the UnsettTdness of my Condition has hitherto put a stop to my Thoughts concerning it As I am no Successor to Uomer in his Wit, so neither do I desire to be in his Poverty. I can make no Rhapsodies, nor go a begging at the Grecian Doors, while I sing the Praises of their Ancestors. The Times of Virgil please me better, because he had an Augustus for his Patron. And to draw the Allegory nearer you, I am sure I shall not want a Mcecenas with him. ’Tis for your Lordship to stir up that Remembrance in his ITajesty, which his many Avocations of Business have caus’d him, I fear, to lay aside. And (as himself and his Royal Brother are the Heroes of the Poem) to represent to them the Images of their Warlike Predecessors; as Achilles is said to be rouz’d to Glory, with the sight of the Combat before the Ships’. Hieraus sieht man, dass Dryden aufgemuntert, aber auch unterstiitzt sein wollte, um sein heroisches Gedicht, sein Epos, zu schreiben. Was der Gegenstand dieses sein solite, erfahren wir aus einer andern Stelle 1 ). Zwei Themata hatte er fur ein Epos: das eine ist wiederum ‘Konig Arthur’, das andre ‘der schwarze Prinz.’ Die obige Stelle kann mit der Bemerkung, dass die Yorfahren der meisten Yornehmen bei den Kampfen, die Dryden besingen wolle, mitgekampft liatten, eher auf das zweite deuten. Dagegen spricht der Umstand, dass Konig Karl und sein Bruder Jakob ais ‘Helden des Gedichtes’ bezeichnet werden, eher fur ein Epos 'Konig Arthur’, das er wol, wie spater die Oper 'King Arthur’ durch das Yorspiel ‘Albion and 1) Vgl. Memoirs of John Dryden. By Sir Walter Scott. Ieh fiihre die Stellen an Dach der Ausgahe: Paris 1825. B. 1, S. 200. ■1*