"Dryden's performances were always hasty, either excited by some external occasion, or extorted by domestic necessity; he composed without consideration, and published without correction. What his mind could supply at call, or gather in one excursion, was all that he sought, and all that he gave."

"The rectitude of Dryden's mind was sufficiently shown by the dismission of his poetical prejudices, and the rejection of unnatural thoughts and rugged numbers. But Dryden never desired to apply all the judgment that he had. He wrote, and professed to write, merely for the people; and when he pleased others, he contented himself. He spent no time in struggles to rouse latent powers; he never attempted to make that better which was already good, nor often to mend what he must have known to be faulty. He wrote, as he tells us, with very little consideration; when occasion or necessity called upon him, he poured out what the present moment happened to supply, and, when once it had passed the press, ejected it from his mind; for, when he had no pecuniary interest, he had no further solicitude."

"Of Dryden's works it was said by Pope, that he "could select from them better specimens of every mode of poetry than any other English writer could supply." Perhaps no nation ever produced a writer that enriched his language with such variety of models. To him we owe the improvement, perhaps the completion, of our metre, the refinement of our language, and much of the correctness of our sentiments. By him we are taught "sapere et fari," to think naturally and express forcibly. [...] it may be, perhaps, maintained that he was the first who joined argument with poetry. He showed us the true bounds of a translator's liberty. What was said of Rome, adorned by Augustus, may be applied by an easy metaphor to English poetry, embellished by Dryden, "lateritiam invenit, marmoream reliquit." He found it brick, and he left it marble."

"None of his prefaces were ever thought tedious. They have not the formality of a settled style, in which the first half of the sentence betrays the other. The clauses are never balanced, nor the periods modelled; every word seems to drop by chance, though it falls into its proper place. Nothing is cold or languid; the whole is airy, animated, and vigorous: what is little is gay; what is great is splendid. [...] Though all is easy, nothing is feeble; though all seems careless, there is nothing harsh; and though since his earlier works more than a century has passed they have nothing yet uncouth or obsolete."

"O gracious God! how far have we Profaned thy heavenly gift of poesy!"

"Oft the drudging ass is driven with toil; Returning late and loaden home with gain Of barter’d pitch, and handmills for the grain."

"The low’ring spring, with lavish rain, Beats down the slender stem and bearded grain."

"Mark well the flow’ring almonds in the wood: If od’rous blooms the bearing branches load, The glebe will answer to the sylvan reign: Great heats will follow, and large crops of grain."

"Some steep their seeds, and some in cauldrons boil O’er gentle fires; the exuberant juice to drain, And swell the flatt’ring husks with fruitful grain."

"The vineyard must employ thy sturdy steer To turn the glebe; besides thy daily pain To break the clods, and make the surface plain."

"In shallow furrows vines securely grow."

"She in pens his flocks will fold."

"On a short pruning-hook his head reclines, And studiously surveys his gen’rous vines."

"If a wood of leaves o’ershade the tree, In vain the hind shall vex the threshing floor, For empty chaff and straw will be thy store."

"In vain the hinds the threshing floor prepare, And exercise their flails in empty air."

"Delve of convenient depth your threshing floor; With temper’d clay then fill and face it o’er."

"Moist earth produces corn and grass, but both Too rank and too luxuriant in their growth. Let not my land so large a promise boast, Lest the lank ears in length of stem be lost."

"Your hay it is mow’d, and your corn it is reap’d; Your barns will be full, and your hovels heap’d; Come, my boys, come, Come, my boys, come, And merrily roar out harvest-home."

"The bearded corn ensued From earth unask’d; nor was that earth renew’d."

"Tough thistles choked the fields, and kill’d the corn, And an unthrifty crop of weeds was born."

"No fruitful crop the sickly fields return; But oats and darnel choke the rising corn."

"Thou king of horned floods, whose plenteous urn Suffices fatness to the fruitful corn, Shalt share my morning song and evening vows."

"He burns the leaves, the scorching blast invades The tender corn, and shrivels up the blades,"

"His corn and cattle were his only care, And his supreme delight a country fair."

"The lab’ring swain Scratch’d with a rake a furrow for his grain, And cover’d with his hand the shallow seed again."

"Who can cease to admire The ploughman consul in his coarse attire?"

"An ox that waits the coming blow, Old and unprofitable to the plough."

"The sweating steers unharness’d from the yoke Bring back the crooked plough."

"The teeming earth, yet guileless of the plough, And unprovoked, did fruitful stores allow."

"No plough shall hurt the glebe, no pruning-hook the vine."

"The field is spacious I design to sow, With oxen far unfit to draw the plough."

"Men plough with oxen of their own Their small paternal field of corn."

"The royal husbandman appear’d, And plough’d, and sow’d, and till’d; The thorns he rooted out, the rubbish clear’d, And blest th’ obedient field."

"From ploughs and harrows sent to seek renown, They fight in fields, and storm the shaken town."

"Quintius here was born, Whose shining ploughshare was in furrows worn, Met by his trembling wife, returning home, And rustically joy’d, as chief of Rome."

"Pales no longer swell’d the teeming grain, Nor Phœbus fed his oxen on the plain."

"When the fiery suns too fiercely play, And shriyell’d herbs on with’ring stems decay, The wary ploughman, on the mountain’s brow, Undams his wat’ry stores; huge torrents flow; Temp’ring the thirsty fever of the field."

"’Tis good for arable; a glebe that asks Tough teams of oxen; and laborious tasks."

"The crooked plough, the share, the tow’ ring height Of wagons, and the cart’s unwieldy weight; These all must be prepared."

"Next, fenced with hedges and deep ditches round, Exclude th’ encroaching cattle from the ground."

"That the spent earth may gather heart again, And, better’d by cessation, bear the grain."

"When the Nile from Pharian fields is fled, The fat manure with heay’nly fire is warm’d."

"Better gleanings their worn soil can boast Than the crab vintage of the neighb’ring coast,"

"Of the same soil their nursery prepare With that of their plantation, lest the tree Translated should not with the soil agree."

"Much labour is required in trees; Well must the ground be digg’d, and better dress’d, New soil to make, and meliorate the rest."

"Apulian farms, for the rich soil admired, And thy large fields, where falcons may be tired."

"No fences parted fields, nor marks nor bounds Distinguish’d acres of litigious grounds."

"These are the effects of doting age, Vain doubts, and idle cares, and over caution."