...Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire, 1693) that Donne "affects the metaphysics, not only in his satires, but in his amorous verses, where...hearts, and entertain them with the softnesses of love." He thus ridicules Donne and takes him to task for supposedly dwelling on philosophical speculations...

...convincing. Dryden, following William Walsh, criticized Donne because he "affects the metaphysics, not only in his satires, but in his amorous verses, where nature only should reign." 58 Johnson, similarly, says in his Life ofCowley that the metaphysicals' "thoughts are often new, but...

...their successors, such as John Dryden (1651-1700).48 For Dryden, Donne 'affects the Metaphysics ... in his amorous verses, where nature only should reign;...of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts'. While Dryden's point primarily concerns the task of poetry, rather than the intellectual legitimacy...

...should be (such as John Donne, whose lyrics John Dryden, in his opaque misreading, saw as "perplex [ing] the Minds of the Fair Sex with nice Speculations of Philosophy, when he shou'd ingage their hearts, and entertain them with the softnesses of Love"2). The effect of this underlying...

...is illuminating. In a famous passage in his Discourse Concerning Satire, Dryden complains that Donne 'perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, where he should engage their hearts and entertain them with the softness of love.' Badawi continues...

...written in 1693, more than 60 years after Donne's death: Donne, he said, affects the metaphysics, not only in his satires, but in his amorous verses, where...hearts, and entertain them with the softnesses of love. (Gardner, 1957, 15) As the Oxford English Dictionary documents, 'metaphysics' was defined by one Renaissance...

...metaphysical poets as a group. Dryden spoke first, saying of Donne that "he affects the metaphysics . . . and perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice...hearts, and entertain them with the softnesses of love."31 While lacking the misogyny of Dryden, Johnson's judgement is hardly softer in criticism: The...