It would be easier to find illustrations of shrewdness than of subtlety among his notes, but his discriminations are often effective and satisfying.

His discussion, for example, of prologues and epilogues considered in relation to the theatrical conditions which determined their character is admirable.[174] A note on "the cant of supposing that the _Iliad_ contained an obvious and intentional moral"[175] is also full of sense and vigor, but these qualities are so thoroughly diffused through the work that there is no need of particularizing.

His praise of _Alexander's Feast_ may be referred to, however, as showing his characteristic delight in objective poetry.[176] As a lyric poet, he says, Dryden "must be allowed to have no equal."[177] The peculiarly congenial qualities of the subject may have had something to do with the fact that the style in which the _Life of Dryden_ is written is noticeably better than that of Scott's ordinary work.

It is marked with a care and accuracy that were not, unfortunately, habitual to him.

Perhaps it was an advantage that when he wrote the book he had not yet become altogether familiar with his own facility; certainly the substance and the manner of treatment unite in making this the most important of his critical biographies.
Various references indicate that Scott was acquainted in at least a general way with English writers throughout the whole of Dryden's century.