CURRENT LITERATURE. •
Dryden. Elited by W. D. Christie, MA. (Clarendon Press Series.) —We noticed at length in the course of last year Mr. Christie's com- plete edition of the poetical works of Dryden, published in Messrs. Macmillan's "Globe Series." The volume before us, one of the admirable series of English class-books for which we are indebted to the Oxford University Press, contains a selection of the poems ("Stanzas on the Death of Oliver Cromwell ;" " Astra3a Redux ;" " Annus Mirabilis ;" " Absolom and Achitophel ;" " Roligio Laiei ;" and "The Hind and the Panther "). We miss, of course, while we quite acknowledge the propriety of the omission in a volume having such a purpose, what is certainly the most pleasant reading of anything that Dryden wrote, "Mac Flecknoe ;" but the selection is doubtless judicious. Both the "Annus Mirabilis " and "Absalom and Achitophel " afford excellent illustrations of English history ; the " Stanzas on Oliver Crom- well' deserve a place as the poet's first important effort; the other two are perhaps his finest works. Mr. Christie has prefixed a memoir, which is a shorter form of that which appeared in the " Globe " edition, and he has added a body of notes, marked by the industry and learning which he has brought to bear upon all that concerns the poet.
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