The style is somewhat too
pompous, being more that of the orator than of the historian, and
containing long and parenthetic periods. Sir Walter Scott says: "His
characters may match those of the ancient historians, and one thinks he
would know the very men if he were to meet them in society." Macaulay
concedes to him a strong sense of moral and religious obligation, a
sincere reverence for the laws of his country, and a conscientious regard
for the honor and interests of the crown; but adds that "his temper was
sour, arrogant, and impatient of opposition." No one can rightly
understand the great rebellion without reading Clarendon's history of it.
CHAPTER XXI.
DRYDEN, AND THE RESTORED STUARTS.
The Court of Charles II. Dryden's Early Life. The Death of Cromwell.
The Restoration. Dryden's Tribute. Annus Mirabilis. Absalom and
Achitophel. The Death of Charles. Dryden's Conversion. Dryden's Fall.
His Odes.
THE COURT OF CHARLES II.
The antithetic literature which takes its coloring from the great
rebellion, was now to give place to new forms not immediately connected
with it, but incident to the Restoration.
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