John Dryden (1631-1700)
To my Honor'd Friend, Dr. Charleton
On His Learned And Useful Works; And More Particularly This Of Stonehenge, By Him Restor'd To The True Founders
(excerpt)
1The longest tyranny that ever sway'd
2Was that wherein our ancestors betray'd
3Their free-born reason to the Stagirite,
4And made his torch their universal light.
5So truth, while only one supplied the state,
6Grew scarce, and dear, and yet sophisticate;
7Until 't was bought, like emp'ric wares, or charms,
8Hard words seal'd up with Aristotle's arms.
9Columbus was the first that shook his throne,
10And found a temp'rate in a torrid zone:
11The fev'rish air fann'd by a cooling breeze,
12The fruitful vales set round with shady trees;
13And guiltless men, who danc'd away their time,
14Fresh as their groves, and happy as their clime.
15Had we still paid that homage to a name,
16Which only God and Nature justly claim,
17The western seas had been our utmost bound,
18Where poets still might dream the sun was drown'd:
19And all the stars that shine in southern skies
20Had been admir'd by none but savage eyes.
21 Among th' asserters of free reason's claim,
22Th' English are not the least in worth, or fame.
23The world to Bacon does not only owe
24Its present knowledge, but its future too.
25Gilbert shall live, till loadstones cease to draw,
26Or British fleets the boundless ocean awe.
27And noble Boyle, not less in nature seen,
28Than his great brother read in states and men.
29The circling streams, once thought but pools, of blood
30(Whether life's fuel or the body's food),
31From dark oblivion Harvey's name shall save;
32While Ent keeps all the honour that he gave.
...
Notes
1] First published in 1663 as a prefatory poem in Dr. Walter Charleton's Chorea Gigantum, a book on Stonehenge; an early expression of Dryden's enthusiasm for natural science.
3] Stagirite. Aristotle, so named from his birthplace Stagira. The reaction against scholasticism resulted in the depreciation of Aristotle, whose authority scholasticism constantly invoked.
6] sophisticate. Not pure or genuine; specious.
7] emp'ric. An empiric is one who relies solely on observation and experiment; in the 17th century this connoted charlatanism and quackery, especially in medicine.
25] Gilbert. William Gilbert (1540-1603), whose treatise on the magnet (1600) was of great importance in 17th-century science.
27] Boyle. The Hon. Robert Boyle (1627-91), distinguished for his experimental researches in physics and chemistry and one of the founders of the Royal Society.
28] his great brother. Roger Boyle, afterwards Earl of Orrery, statesman and dramatist.
31] Harvey's. William Harvey (1578-1657), discoverer of the circulation of the blood.
32] Ent. Dr. George Ent, at whose request Harvey's last treatise was published in 1651.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Dr. Walter Charleton, Chorea Gigantum (London: Henry Herringman, 1663). Wing 3665
First publication date:
1663
RPO poem editor: N. J. Endicott
RP edition: 2RP 1.479.
Recent editing: 4:2002/3/21
Form: Heroic Couplets
Other poems by John Dryden
