mour of the critics against Mr. Dryden in that particular; but, however true it may be that Dryden did not succeed to any degree in comedy, I shall endeavour to support my assertion, that in tragedy, with all his faults, he is still the most excellent of his time. The end of tragedy is to instruct the mind as well as move the passions; and where there are no shining sentiments, the mind may be affected but not improved; and however prevalent the passion of grief may be over the heart of man, it is certain that he may feel distress in the acutest manner, and not be much the wiser for it. The tragedies of Otway, Lee, and Southern, are irresistibly moving, but they convey not such grand sentiments, and their language is far from being so poetical as Dryden's. Now, if one dramatic poet writes to move, and another to enchant and instruct, as instruction is of greater consequence than being agitated, it follows naturally that the latter is the most excellent writer, and possesses the greatest genius.

But perhaps our Poet would have wrote better in both kinds of the drama, had not the necessity of his circumstances obliged him to comply with the popular taste. He himself, in his Dedication to the Spanish Friar, insinuates as much. "I remember," says he, "some verses of my own Maximin and Almanzor, which cry vengeance upon me for their extravagance. All that I can say for those passages, which are I hope not many, is, that I knew they were bad when I wrote them. But I repent of them amongst my sins, and if any of their fellows intrude by chance into my present writings, I draw a veil over all these Dalilahs of the theatre, and am resolved I will settle myself no reputation upon the applause of fools. It is not that I am mortified to all ambition, but I scorn as much to take it from half-witted judges as I should to raise an estate by cheating of bubbles. Neither do I discommend the lofty style in tragedy, which is naturally pompous and magnificent; but nothing is truly sublime that is not just and proper." says in another place, "that his Spanish Friar was given to the people, and that he never wrote any thing in the dramatic way to please himself but his All for Love."

He

In 1671 Mr. Dryden was publicly ridiculed on the stage in the Duke of Buckingham's comedy called The Rehearsal, under the character of Bays. This character, we are informed in the Key to the Rehearsal, was originally intended for Sir Robert Howard, under the name of Bilboa; but the representation being put a stop to by the breaking out of the plague in 1665, it was laid by for several years, and not exhibited on the stage till 1671, in which interval, Mr. Dryden being advanced to the Laurel, the noble author changed the name of his poet from Bilboa to Bays, and made great alterations in his play, in order to ridicule several dramatic performances that appeared since the first writing it. Those of Mr. Dryden which fell under his Grace's lash were, The Wild Gallant, Tyrannic Love, The Conquest of Granada, Marriage à-la-Mode, and Love in a Nunnery. Whatever was extravagant, or too warmly expressed, or any way unnatural, the author has ridiculed by parody.

Mr. Dryden affected to despise the satire levelled at him in the Rehearsal, as appears from his Dedication of the translation of Juvenal and Persius, where speaking of the many lampoons and libels that had been written against him, he says, "I answered not to the Rehearsal, because I knew the author sat to himself when he drew the picture, and was the very Bays of his own farce; because also I knew my betters were more concerned than I was in that satire; and, lastly, because Mr. Smith and Mr. Johnson, the main pillars of it, were two such languishing gentlemen in their conversation, that I could liken them to nothing but their own relations, those noble characters of wit and pleasure about Town."

In 1679 came out an Essay on Satire, said to be written jointly by Mr. Dryden and the Earl of Mulgrave. This piece, which was handed about in manuscript, contained reflections on the Dutchess of Portsmouth and the Earl of Rochester; who suspecting, as Wood says, Mr. Dryden to be the author, hired three ruffians to cudgel him in Will's coffee house at eight o'clock at night. This short anecdote I think cannot be told without indignation. It proved Rochester was a malicious coward, and like other cowards cruel and insolent;

his soul was incapable of any thing that approached towards generosity; and when his resentment was heated, he pursued revenge, and retained the most lasting hatred: he had always entertained a prejudice against Dryden, from no other motive than envy. Dryden's plays met with success; and this was enough to fire the resentment of Rochester, who was naturally envious. In order to hurt the character, and shake the interest of this noble. Poet, he recommended Crown, an obscure _man, to write a Mask for the court, which was Dryden's province, as Poet-Laureate, to perform. Crown in this succeeded; but soon after, when his play, called The conquest of Jerusalem, met with such extravagant applause, Rochester, jealous of his new favourite, not only abandoned him, but commenced from that moment his enemy.

The other person, against whom this satire was levelled, was not superior in virtue to the former; and all the nation over, two better subjects for satire could not have been found than Lord Rochester and the Dutchess of Portsmouth. As for Rochester, he had not genius enough to enter the lists with Dryden, so he fell upon another method of revenge, and meanly hired bravoes to assault him.

In 1680 came out a translation of Ovid's Epistles in English verse, by several hands, two of which were translated by Mr. Dryden, who also wrote the preface. In the year following our author pubfished Absalom and Achithophel. It was first printed without his name, and is a severe satire against the contrivers and abettors of the opposition against King Charles II. In the same year that Absalom and Achithophel was published, the Medal, a satire, was likewise given to the public. This piece is aimed against sedition, and was occasioned by the striking of a medal, on account of the indictment against the Earl of Shaftsbury for high treason, being found ignoramus by the grand jury at the Old Bailey, November 1681; for which the Whig party made great rejoicings by ringing of bells, bon-fires, &c. in all parts of London. The poem is introduced with a very satirical epistle to the Whigs, in which the Author says, "I have one favour to desire you at parting, that when you think of answering this poem, you would employ the same pens against it who have combated with so much success against Absalom and Achithophel, for then you may assure yourselves of a clear victory without the least reply. Rail at me abundantly, and not break a custom to do it with wit. By this method you will gain a considerable point, which is wholly to wave the answer of my arguments. If God has not blessed you with the talent of rhyming, make use of my poor stock, and welcome; let your verses run upon my feet, and for the utmost refuge of notorious blockheads, reduced to the last extremity of sense, turn my own lines against me, and, in utter despair, of my own satire make me satirize myself." The whole poem is a severe invective against the earl of Shaftsbury, who was uncle to that Earl who wrote the Characteristics. Mr. Elkanah Settle wrote an answer to this poem, entitled The Medal Reversed. However contemptible Settle was as a poet, yet such was the prevalence of parties at that time, that, for some years he was Dryden's rival on the stage. In 1682 came out his Religio Laici; or, A Layman's Faith. This piece is intended as a defence of revealed religion, and the excellency and authority of the Scriptures, as the only rule of faith and manners, against Deists, Papists, and Presbyterians. He acquaints us in the Preface, that it was written for an ingenious young gentleman, his friend, upon his translation of Father Simon's Critical History of the Old Testament, and that the style of it was epistolary.

In 1684 he published a translation of M. Maimbourgh's History of the League, in which he was employed by the command of King Charles II. on account of the plain parallel between the troubles of France and those of Great Britain. Upon the death of Charles II. he wrote his Threnodia Augustalis, a poem sacred to the happy memory of that prince. Soon after the accession of James II. our Author turned Roman Catholic, and by this extraordinary step drew upon himself abundance of ridicule from the wits of the opposite faction; and in 1689 he wrote a Defence of the Papers written by the late King, of blessed memory, found in his strong box. Mr. Dryden, in the above mentioned

piece, takes occasion to vindicate the authority of, the Catholic Church, in decreeing matters of faith upon this principle, that the church is more visible than the Scriptures, because the Scriptures are seen by the church; and to abuse the Reformation in England, which he affirms was erected on the foundation of lust, sacrilege and usurpation. Dr. Stillingfleet hereupon answered Mr. Dryden, and treated him with some severity. Another author affirms, that Mr. Dryden's tract is very light, in some places ridiculous: and observes, that his talent lay towards controversy no more in prose than, by the Hind and Panther, it appeared to do in verse. This poem of the Hind and Panther, is a direct defence of the Romish Church, in a dialogue between a Hind, which represents the Church of Rome, and a Panther, which supports the character of the Church of England. The first part of this poem consists most in general characters and narration," which," says he," I have endeavoured to raise, and give it the majestic turn of heroic poetry. The second, being matter of dispute, and chiefly concerning church authority, I was obliged to make as plain and perspicuous as possibly I could, yet not wholly neglecting the numbers, though I had not frequent occasion for the mag nificence of verse. The third, which has more of the nature of domestic conversation, is, or ought to be more free and familiar than the two former, There are in it two episodes or fables, which are interwoven with the main design, so that they are properly parts of it, though they are also distinct stories of themselves. In both of these I have made use of the common places of satire, whether true or false, which are urged by the members of the one church against the other."

This poem was attacked by Mr. Charles Montague, afterwards Earl of Halifax, and Mr. Matthew Prior, who joined in writing the Hind and Panther transversed to the Country Mouse and City Mouse, Lond. 1678, 4to. In the preface to which the authors observe, "that Mr. Dryden's poem naturally falls into ridicule; and that in this burlesque nothing is represented monstrous and unnatural that is not equally so in the original." They afterwards remark, that they have this comfort, under the severity of Mr. Dryden's satire, to see his abilities equally lessened with his opinion of them, and that he could not be a fit champion against the Panther till he had laid aside his judg

ment.

Mr. Dryden is supposed to have been engaged in translating M. Varilla's History of Heresies, but to have dropped that design. This we learn from a passage in Burnet's Reflections on the ninth book of the first volume of M. Varilla's History, being a reply to his answer.

When the Revolution was completed, Mr. Dry. den, having turned Papist, became disqualified for holding his place, and was accordingly dispossessed of it; and it was conferred on a man to whom he had a confirmed aversion; in consequence whereof he wrote a satire against him, called Macflecnoe, which is one of the severest and best-written satires in our language.

In the year wherein he was deprived of the Laurel he published the life of St. Francis Xavier, translated from the French of Father Dominic Bouhours. In 1693 came out a translation of Juvenal and Persius; in which the first, third, sixth, tenth, and sixteenth satires of Juvenal, and Persius entire, were done by Mr. Dryden, who prefixed a long and ingenious discourse, by way of dedication, to the Earl of Dorset. In this address our author takes occasion a while to drop his reflections on Juvenal, and to lay before his Lordship a plan for an epic poem. He observes, that, his genius never much inclined him to the stage, and that he wrote for it rather from necessity than inclination. He complains that his circumstances are such as not to suffer him to pursue the bent of his own genius, and then lays down a plan upon which an epic poem might be written: to which, says he, I am more inclined. Whether the plan proposed is faulty or not we are not at present to consider: one thing is certain, a man of Mr. Dryden's genius would have covered, by the rapidity of the action, the art of the design, and the beauty of the poetry, whatever might have been defective in the plan, and produced a work which might have been the boast of the nation; and we cannot help regretting on this occasion, that Dryden's fortune

was not easy enough to enable him, with convenience and leisure, to pursue a work that might have proved an honour to himself, and reflected a portion thereof on all who should have appeared his encouragers on this occasion.

In 1695 Mr. Dryden published a translation in prose of Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting, with a preface containing a parallel between painting and poetry; and Mr. Pope has addressed a copy of verses to Mr. Jervas in praise of this translation. In 1697 his translation of Virgil's works came out. This translation has passed through many editions, and, of all the attempts which have been made to render Virgil into English, the critics, I think, have allowed that Dryden best succeeded; notwithstanding, as he himself says, when he began it, he was past the grand climacteric! so little influence it seems age had over him, that he retained his judg ment and fire in full force to the last: Mr. Pope, in his Preface to Homer, says, if Dryden had lived to finish what he began of Homer, he (Mr. Pope) would not have attempted it after him, "no more (says he) than I would his Virgil, his version of whom (notwithstanding some human errors) is the most noble and spirited translation I know in any language."

Besides the original pieces and translations hitherto mentioned, Mr. Dryden wrote many others. They consist of translations from the Greek and Latin poets, Epistles to several persons, Prologues and Epilogues to several plays, Elegies, Epitaphs, and Songs. His last work was his Fables, ancient and modern, translated into verse from Homer, Ovid, Boccace, and Chaucer. To this work is prefixed, by way of preface, a critical account of the authors from whom the fables are translated.

As to our Author's performances in prose, besides his Dedications and Prefaces, and controversial writings, they consist of the Lives of Plutarch and Lucian, prefixed to the translation of those authors by several hands; the Life of Polybius, before the translation of that historian by Sir Henry Sheers, and the Preface to the Dialogue concerning Women, by William Walsh, Esq.

Mr. Dryden died the 1st of May 1701, and was interred in Westminster-Abbey. On the 19th of April he had been very bad with the gout and erysipelas in one leg; but he was then somewhat recovered, and designed to go abroad. On the Friday following he ate a partridge for his supper, and going to take a turn in the little garden behind his house in Gerard-street, he was seized with a violent pain under the ball of the great toe of his right foot. Unable to stand, he cried out for help, and was carried in by his servants, when, upon sending for surgeons, they found a small black spot in the place affected. He submitted to their present applications, and, when gone, called his son Charles to him, using these words; "I know this black spot is a mortification; I know also that it will seize my head, and that they will attempt to cut off my leg; but I command you, my son, by your filial duty, that you do not suffer me to be dismembered." As he foretold the event proved, and his son was too dutiful to disobey his father's commands.

He married the Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Earl of Berkshire, who survived him about eight years, and by whom he had three sons, Charles, John, and Henry. Charles became Usher of the palace to Pope Clement XI.; and, returning to England, was drowned in the Thames near Windsor in 1704. He was the author of several things, and translated the sixth satire of Juvenal. John translated the fourteenth satire of Juvenal; was the author of a comedy called The Husband his own Cuckold, printed in 1696, and died of a fever at Rome. Henry entered into religious orders.

The day after Mr. Dryden's death, the Dean of Westminster sent word to Mr. Dryden's widow, that he would make a present of the ground, and all other Abbey-fees, for the funeral. The Lord Halifax likewise sent to the Lady Elizabeth, and to Mr. Charles Dryden, offering to defray the expenses of our Poet's funeral, and afterwards to bestow £500 on a monument in the Abbey, which generous offer was accepted. Accordingly, on Sunday following the company being assembled, the corpse was put into a velvet hearse, attended by eighteen mourn. ing coaches. When they were just ready to move, Lord Jeffreys, son of Lord Chancellor Jeffreys, a name dedicated to infamy, with some of his rakish

companions, riding by, asked whose funeral it was? and being told it was Mr. Dryden's, he protested he should not be buried in that private manner; that he would himself, with the Lady Elizabeth's leave, have the honour of the interment, and would bestow a thousand pounds on a monument in the Abbey for him. This put a stop to their procession; and the Lord Jeffreys, with several of the gentlemen, who had alighted from their coaches, went up stairs to the lady, who was sick in bed. His Lordship repeated the purport of what he had said below; but the Lady Elizabeth refusing her consent, he fell on his knees, vowing never to rise till his request was granted. The lady, under a sudden surprise, fainted away, and Lord Jeffreys, pretending to have obtained her consent, ordered the body to be carried to Mr. Russel's, an undertaker in Cheapside, and to be left there till further orders. In the meantime the Abbey was lighted up, the ground opened, the choir attending, and the Bishop waiting some hours to no purpose for the corpse. The next day Mr. Charles Dryden waited on my Lord Halifax and the Bishop, and endeavoured to excuse his mother by relating the truth. Three days after, the undertaker, having received no orders, waited on the Lord Jeffreys, who pretended it was a drunken frolic; that he remembered nothing of the matter, and he might do what he pleased with the body. Upon this the undertaker waited on the Lady Elizabeth, who desired a day's respite, which was granted. Mr. Charles Dryden immediately wrote to the Lord Jeffreys, who returned for answer, that he knew nothing of the matter, and would be troubled no more about it. Mr. Dryden hereupon applied again to the Lord Halifax and the Bishop of Rochester, who absolutely refused to do any thing in the affair.

In this distress Dr. Garth, who had been Mr. Dryden's intimate friend, sent for the corpse to the College of Physicians, and proposed a subscription; which succeeding, about three weeks after Mr. Dryden's decease Dr. Garth pronounced a fine Latin oration over the body, which was conveyed from the College, attended by a numerous train of coaches to Westminster-Abbey, but in very great disorder. At last the corpse arrived at the Abbey, which was all unlighted. No organ played, no Anthem sung; only two of the singing boys preceded the corpse, who sung an ode of Horace, with each a small candle in their hand. When the funeral was over, Mr. Charles Dryden sent a challenge to Lord Jeffreys, who refusing to answer it, he sent several others, and went often himself; but could neither get a letter delivered, nor admittance to speak to him; which so incensed him, that finding his Lordship refused to answer him like a gentleman, he resolved to watch an opportunity, and brave him to fight, though with all the rules of honour; which his Lordship hearing, quitted the Town, and Mr. Charles never had an opportunity to meet him, though he sought it to his death with the utmost application.

The character of Mr. Dryden has been drawn by various hands; some have done it in a favourable, others in an opposite manner. The Bishop of Sarum, in the History of his own Times, says, that the stage was defiled beyond all example; "Dryden, the great master of dramatic poetry, being a monster of immodesty and impurities of all sorts."* The late Lord Lansdowne took upon himself to vindicate Mr. Dryden's character from this severe imputation, which was again answered, and apologies for it, by Mr. Burnet, the Bishop's son. But not to dwell on these controversies about his character, let us hear what Mr. Congreve says, in the Dedication of Dryden's works to the Duke of Newcastle. Congreve knew him intimately; and as he could have no motive to deceive the world in that particular, and being a man of untainted morals, none can suspect his authority. By his account it appears that Dryden was indeed as amiable in private life as a Man, as he was illustrious in the eye of the public as a Poet.

"Mr. Dryden (says Congreve) had personal qua

In Millar's edition of the Bishop's work we have the following note upon this passage. "This (says the editor) must be understood of his performances for the stage; for as to his personal character, there was nothing remarkably vicious in it: but Jis plays are, some of them, the fullest of obscenity of any now extant."

lities to challenge love and esteem from all who were truly acquainted with him. He was of a na ture exceeding humane and compassionate, easily forgiving injuries, and capable of a prompt and sincere reconciliation with those who had offended him. His friendship, where he professed it, went much beyond his professions.-As his reading had been very extensive, so was he very happy in a memory tenacious of every thing he had read. He was not more possessed of knowledge than he was communicative of it; but then his communication of it was by no means pedantic, or imposed upon the conversation, but just such, and went so far as, by the natural turns of the discourse in which he was engaged, it was necessarily prompted or required. He was extremely ready and gentle in the correction of the errors of any writer who thought fit to consult him, and full as ready and patient to admit of the reprehension of others in respect of his own oversight or mistakes. He was of a very easy, I may say, of very pleasing, access, but something slow, and, as it were, diffident in his advances to others. He had something in his nature that ab. horred intrusion in any society whatsoever; and indeed it is to be regretted that he was rather blameable on the other extreme. He was of all men I ever knew the most modest, and the most easy to be discountenanced in his approaches either to his superiors or his equals.-As to his writings1 may venture to say in general terms, that no man hath written in our language so much, and so various matter, and in so various manners, so well. Another thing I may say was very peculiar to him, which is, that his parts did not decline with his years, but that he was an improving writer to the last, even to near seventy years of age, improving even in fire and imagination as well as in judgment: witness his Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, and his Fables, his latest performances. He was equally excellent in verse and prose: his prose had all the clearness imaginable, without deviating to the language or diction of poetry; and I have heard him frequently own with pleasure, that if he had any talent for writing prose, it was owing to his frequently having read the writings of the great Archbishop Tillotson. In his Poems his diction is, wherever the subject requires it, so sublime and so truly poetical, that its essence, like that of pure gold, cannot be destroyed. Take his verses, and divest them of their rhymes, disjoint them of their numbers, transpose their expressions, make what arrangement to disposition you please in his words, yet shall there eternally be poetry, and something which will be found incapable of being reduced to absolute prose. What he has done in any one species, or distinct kind of writing, would have been sufficient to have acquired him a very great name. If he had written nothing but his Prefaces, or nothing but his Songs, or his Prologues, each of them would have entitled him to the preference and distinction of excelling in its kind."

Besides Mr. Dryden's numerous other performances, we find him Author of the twenty-six dramatic pieces following, viz.

1. The Wild Gallant, a Comedy, 1669.

2. The Indian Emperor; or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards.

3. An Evening's Love; or, The Mock Astrologer, a Comedy, 1671.

4. Marriage à-la-Mode, a Comedy, 1673.
5. Amboyna, a Tragedy, 1673.

6. The Mistaken Husband, a Comedy, 1675. 7. Aurenge-zebe; or, The Great Mogul, a Tragedy, 1676.

8. The Tempest; or, The Enchanted Island, a Comedy, 1676.

9. Feigned Innocence; or, Sir Martin Mar-all, a Comedy, 1678.

10. The Assignation; or, Love in a Nunnery, a Comedy, 1678.

11. The State of Innocence; or, The Fall of Man, an Opera, 1678.

12. The Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards, in two parts, two Tragi-Comedies, 1678.

13. All for Love; or, The World well Lost, a Tragedy, 1678.

14. Tyrannic Love; or, The Royal Martyr, a Tragedy, 1679.

15. Troilus and Cressida; or, Truth found too late, a Tragedy, 1679.

16. Secret Love; or, The Maiden Queen, a Tragi-Comedy, 1679.

17. The Rival Ladies, a Tragi-Comedy, 1679.

18. The Kind Keeper; or, Mr. Limberham, a Comedy, 1680.

19. The Spanish Friar; or, The Double Discovery, a Tragi-Comedy, 1681.

20. Duke of Guise, a Tragedy, 1688.

21. Albion and Albanius, an Opera, 1685.

22. Don Sebastian King of Portugal, a Tragedy, 1690.

23. King Arthur; or, The British Worthy, a Tragedy, 1691.

24. Amphytrion; or, The two Sosias, a Comedy, 1691.

25. Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero, a Tragedy, 1692.

26. Love Triumphant; or, Nature will prevail, a Tragi-Comedy, 1694.

Mr. Dryden had no monument erected to him for several years; to which Mr. Pope alludes, in his epitaph intended for Mr. Rowe, in this line:

Beneath a rude and nameless stone he lies.

In a note upon which we are informed, that the tomb of Mr. Dryden was erected upon this hint, by Sheffield Duke of Buckingham, to which was ori ginally intended this epitaph:

This Sheffield raised-The sacred dust below Was Dryden once; the rest who does not know? Which was since changed into the plain inscription now upon it, viz.

J. DRYDEN,

NATUS AUG. 9. 1631.

MORTUS MAII 1. 1701.

Johannes Sheffield, Dux Buckinghamiensis fecit.