'Rymer, the worst critic that ever lived.' Macaulay's Essay on Boswell's Life of Johnson.
'Dryden has executed a description of Night in one of his tragedies.... Dryden's lines are vague, bombastic, and senseless.' Wordsworth, Supplement to the Preface.
The lines alluded to are:-
All things are hushed, as Nature's self lay dead,
The mountains seem to nod their drowsie head;
The little birds in dreams their songs repeat,
And sleeping Flowers, beneath the night dew sweat;
Even Lust and Envy sleep, yet Love denies
Rest to my soul and slumber to my eyes.'