ney to Northamptonshire to examine the present state of Rushton, where Dryden often resided, and of Mr Finlay' of Glasgow, who favoured the Editor with the use of some original editions, are here gratefully acknowledged.2
1 [John Finlay, author of Wallace, or the Vale of Ellerslie, and other poems, died in his twenty-eighth year, in 1810.]
2 [The Biography of Dryden was not composed by any of his contemporaries. Dr Johnson, who wrote the first authentic life of the poet, complained that nothing could be known of Dryden beyond what casual mention and uncertain tradition supplied. Since that time many mistakes have been rectified, and omissions supplied, by the diligent researches of Malone; and we are now probably in possession of all the information which it is possible to produce. Sir Walter Scott has justly founded his narrative on the facts recorded in Malone's biography; while he has taken a more comprehensive view of the genius and writings of the poet, and the influence which he exercised on the Literature of the age. When we therefore consider the fairness and felicity of Johnson's critical disquisitions; the truth elicited, or errors rectified by Malone's diligence; and the lively, interesting, and instructive narrative of Scott, we may justly consider that Dryden has been fortunate in his biographers."-MITFORD'S Life of Dryden, 1832.]