ADVERTISEMENT. ΤΗ HE Bookfellers having determined to publish a Body of English Poetry, I was perfuaded to promise them a Preface to the Works of each Author; an undertaking, as it was then prefented to my mind, not very tedious or difficult. My purpose was only to have allotted to every Poet an Advertifement, like those which we find in the French Mifcellanies, containing a few dates and a general character; but I have been led beyond my intention, I hope, by the VOL. I. * b honeft honeft defire of giving ufeful pleafure. In this minute kind of Hiftory, the fucceffion of facts is not easily difcovered; and I am not without fufpicion that I have placed fome of Dryden's works in wrong years. I Ι have followed Langbaine, as the best authority for his plays; and if I fhall hereafter obtain a more correct chronology, will publifh it; but I do not yet know that my account is erroneous. I had been told, that in the College of Phyficians there is fome memorial of Dryden's funeral, but my intelligence was not true; the story therefore wants the credit which such a testimony would have given |