Note 134 — THE ART OF PAINTING;
Reading edition
Mr Malone thinks this alludes to the translation of Virgil, in which Dryden was now engaged. But I conceive it has a general reference to his situation as a suspected and discountenanced person; restrained from free exertion of his genius, by the necessity of considering that he was exposed to misconstruction. He must have recollected the suppression of “Cleomenes,” and the offence taken by government at the prologue to the “Prophetess.” In truth, the very expression in the text is elsewhere hitched into rhyme:
The labouring bee, when his sharp sting is gone, Forgets his golden work, and turns a drone; Such is a satire when you take away That rage in which his noble vigour lay. ... How can he show his manhood if you bind him, To box like boys with one hand tied behind him? Prologue to Amphitryon, Vol. VIII. p. 12.