The Second Part of “Absalom and Achitophel” was followed by the “Religio Laici,” a poem which Dryden published in the same month of November 1682.  Its tendency, although of a political nature, is so different from that of the satires, that it will be most properly considered when we can place it in contrast to the “Hind and Panther.”  It was addressed to Henry Dickinson, a young gentleman, who had just published a translation of Simon’s “Critical History of the New Testament.”

As the publication of the two Parts of “Absalom and Achitophel,” “The Medal,” and “Mac-Flecknoe,” all of a similar tone, and rapidly succeeding each other, gave to Dryden, hitherto chiefly known as a dramatist, the formidable character of an inimitable satirist, we may here pause to consider their effect upon English poetry.  The witty Bishop Hall had first introduced into our literature that species of poetry; which, though its legitimate use be to check vice and expose folly, is so often applied by spleen or by faction to destroy domestic happiness, by assailing private character.  Hall possessed a good ear for harmony; and, living in the reign of Elizabeth, might have studied it in Spenser, Fairfax, and other models.  But from system, rather than ignorance or inability, he chose to be “hard of conceit, and harsh of style,” in order that his poetry might correspond with the sharp, sour, and crabbed nature of his theme.[31] Donne, his successor, was still more rugged in his versification, as well as more obscure in his conceptions and allusions.  The satires of Cleveland (as we have indeed formerly noticed) are, if possible, still harsher and more strained in expression than those of Donne.  Butler can hardly be quoted as an example of the sort of satire we are treating of.  “Hudibras” is a burlesque tale, in which the measure is intentionally and studiously rendered as ludicrous as the characters and incidents.  Oldham, who flourished in Dryden’s time, and enjoyed his friendship, wrote his satires in the crabbed tone of Cleveland and Donne.  Dryden, in the copy of verses dedicated to his memory, alludes to this deficiency, and seems to admit the subject as an apology:—­

  “O early ripe! to thy abundant store
  What could advancing age have added more! 
  It might (what nature never gives the young)
  Have taught the numbers of thy native tongue. 
  But satire needs not those, and wit will shine
  Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line.”

Yet the apology which he admitted for Oldham, Dryden disdained to make use of himself.  He did not, as has been said of Horace, wilfully untune his harp when he commenced satirist.  Aware that a wound may be given more deeply with a burnished than with a rusty blade, he bestowed upon the versification of his satires the same pains which he had given to his rhyming plays and serious poems.  He did not indeed, for that would have been pains misapplied, attempt to smooth his verses into the harmony of those in which he occasionally celebrates female beauty; but he gave them varied tone, correct rhyme, and masculine energy, all which had hitherto been strangers to the English satire.