THE modern reader seldom realizes that most Elizabethan, Jacobein, and Restoration lyrics were written to be sung; and as a result, he misses much of their intrinsic charm and beauty. This volume of the songs of John Dryden, collected together for the first time, includes the original music by Purcell, Grabu, and Draghi, never before made available to the public. In it one can now study the poems as they were originally presented, as Restoration audiences heard them first.

The songs represent something of an anomaly: Dryden, the greatest of English neo-classic writers has excelled himself as a lyric poet; and further he wrote the best of them, "Alexander's Feast," at the age of sixty-six, when the fire of most songsters has long since died. Dryden's lyric gift was constant throughout his long and varied literary career. The songs are some of them in the tradition of Catullus and Robert Herrick, some in that of the popular English plain-song. They are most exquisite when most indecent, and very beautiful both when sad and gay.

The notes and introduction contain much hitherto inaccessible information on the history, inspiration, and criticism of the songs, and on the varying popular appeal they have made to the generations that have intervened. Their publication in this form is a real contribution to the scholarship and appreciation of Dryden.