*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 50637 ***

  THE

  WORKS

  OF

  JOHN DRYDEN,

  NOW FIRST COLLECTED

  _IN EIGHTEEN VOLUMES_.

  ILLUSTRATED

  WITH NOTES,

  HISTORICAL, CRITICAL, AND EXPLANATORY,

  AND

  A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,

  BY

  WALTER SCOTT, ESQ.

  VOL. XVIII.

  LONDON:
  PRINTED FOR WILLIAM MILLER, ALBEMARLE STREET,
  BY JAMES BALLANTYNE AND CO. EDINBURGH.

  1808.




CONTENTS

OF

VOLUME EIGHTEENTH.


                                                 PAGE.

  Preface to a Dialogue concerning Women; being
  a Defence of the Sex,                              1

  Character of M. St Evremont,                       9

  The Character of Polybius,                        17

  The Life of Lucian,                               53

  Dryden’s Letters,                                 83

  Appendix,                                        183

  Index,                                             i




  PREFACE
  TO
  A DIALOGUE CONCERNING WOMEN;
  BEING
  A DEFENCE OF THE SEX,

  ADDRESSED TO EUGENIA, BY WILLIAM WALSH, ESQ.

  8VO, 1691.




PREFACE

TO

A DIALOGUE CONCERNING WOMEN.


The author of this Dialogue, as Dr Johnson has observed, was more
remarkable for his familiarity with men of genius, than for any
productions of his own. He was the son of Joseph Walsh of Abberley,
in Worcestershire, and was born to an easy fortune. This last
circumstance may have contributed something to the extreme respect in
which he seems to have been held by the most accomplished of his age.
Dryden, in the Postscript to “Virgil,” calls Walsh the best critic
of the English nation; and, in the following Preface, he is profuse
in his commendation. But though these praises may have exceeded the
measure of Walsh’s desert, posterity owe a grateful remembrance to
him, who, though a staunch Whig, respected and befriended Dryden in
age and adversity, and who encouraged the juvenile essays of Pope, by
foretelling his future eminence. Walsh’s own Poems and Essays entitle
him to respectable rank among the minor poets. His Essay on the
Pastorals of Virgil, which he contributed to our author’s version, may
be found Vol. XIII. p. 345.

The “Dialogue concerning Women,” contains a critical disquisition upon
the virtues and foibles of the sex. But though the pleasantry be stale,
and the learning pedantic, it seems to have excited some attention when
published; perhaps because, as an angry Defender of the ladies observes,

    ----“To begin with Dryden’s dreadful name,
    Should mark out something of no common fame.”

I cannot omit remarking, that the Dialogue concludes with a profuse
panegyric, upon a theme not very congenial to Dryden’s political
feelings, the character of Queen Mary.




PREFACE

TO

WALSH’S DIALOGUE

CONCERNING WOMEN.


The perusal of this Dialogue, in defence of the fair sex, written by
a gentleman of my acquaintance, much surprised me; for it was not
easy for me to imagine, that one so young[1] could have treated so
nice a subject with so much judgment. It is true, I was not ignorant,
that he was naturally ingenious, and that he had improved himself by
travelling; and from thence I might reasonably have expected that air
of gallantry, which is so visibly diffused through the body of the
work, and is indeed the soul that animates all things of this nature;
but so much variety of reading, both in ancient and modern authors,
such digestion of that reading, so much justness of thought, that it
leaves no room for affectation, or pedantry, I may venture to say,
are not over-common amongst practised writers, and very rarely to be
found amongst beginners. It puts me in mind of what was said of Mr
Waller, the father of our English numbers, upon the sight of his first
verses, by the wits of the last age; that he came out into the world
forty thousand strong, before they heard of him.[2] Here, in imitation
of my friend’s apostrophes, I hope the reader need not be told, that
Mr Waller is only mentioned for honour’s sake; that I am desirous of
laying hold on his memory, on all occasions, and thereby acknowledging
to the world, that unless he had written, none of us could write.

I know, my friend will forgive me this digression; for it is not only a
copy of his style, but of his candour. The reader will observe, that he
is ready for all hints of commending merit, and the writers of this age
and country are particularly obliged to him, for his pointing out those
passages which the French call _beaux endroits_, wherein they have
most excelled. And though I may seem in this to have my own interest in
my eyes, because he has more than once mentioned me[3] so much to my
advantage, yet I hope the reader will take it only for a parenthesis,
because the piece would have been very perfect without it. I may be
suffered to please myself with the kindness of my friend, without
valuing myself upon his partiality; he had not confidence enough to
send it out into the world, without my opinion of it, that it might
pass securely, at least amongst the fair readers, for whose service it
was principally designed. I am not so presuming to think my opinion
can either be his touchstone, or his passport; but I thought I might
send him back to Ariosto, who has made it the business of almost thirty
stanzas, in the beginning of the thirty-seventh book of his “Orlando
Furioso,” not only to praise that beautiful part of the creation, but
also to make a sharp satire on their enemies; to give mankind their
own, and to tell them plainly, that from their envy it proceeds, that
the virtue and great actions of women are purposely concealed, and the
failings of some few amongst them exposed with all the aggravating
circumstances of malice. For my own part, who have always been their
servant, and have never drawn my pen against them, I had rather see
some of them praised extraordinarily, than any of them suffer by
detraction; and that in this age, and at this time particularly,
wherein I find more heroines than heroes. Let me therefore give them
joy of their new champion. If any will think me more partial to him
than really I am, they can only say, I have returned his bribe; and
the worst I wish him is, that he may receive justice from the men, and
favour only from the ladies.




  CHARACTER
  OF
  M. ST. EVREMONT.




CHARACTER OF M. ST. EVREMONT.


CHARLES DE ST DENIS, Seigneur de St Evremont, was born in 1613, of a
noble Norman family, and was early distinguished by the vivacity of his
wit, as well as by his gallantry; for, like all the French noblesse, he
followed the profession of arms. The Duke D’Enghien, afterwards Prince
of Conde, was particularly attached to him, and gave him an appointment
in his household. This he lost by ill-timed raillery on his patron.
He was committed to the Bastile for a joke on cardinal Mazarine; and
afterwards forced to fly into Holland for writing a satirical history
of the peace of the Pyrenees. From Holland St Evremont retreated
to England, where, at the witty court of Charles, his raillery was
better understood than in Holland, and less likely to incur unpleasant
consequences than in France. St Evremont naturally addressed himself
to his fair countrywomen Louise de Querouaille Duchess of Portsmouth,
and the Duchess of Mazarine; and, though they were rivals in Charles’s
affections, they united in protecting the Norman _bel-esprit_. The
king conferred on him a thousand caresses, and a small pension; on
which he lived, amusing himself by the composition of lighter pieces of
literature, and despising the country which afforded him refuge so very
thoroughly, that he did not even deign to learn English. The people
of England did not, however, consider the labours of their foreign
guest with similar apathy. After several surreptitious editions of his
various tracts had appeared, there was published, in 1692, a collection
entitled, “Miscellaneous Essays, by Monsieur St Evremont, translated
out of French; with his character, by a person of honour here in
England, continued by Mr Dryden.” Desmaiseaux, by whom a complete
edition of St Evremont’s works was edited in 1705, mentions it as well
known, that Dr Knightly Chetwood, who died dean of Gloucester, was the
person of honour in the title-page of 1692. His connection with Dryden
makes this highly probable; although there is reason to believe, that
the title of “person of honour” was not strictly applicable, and was
probably assumed for the purpose of disguising the real translator.




CHARACTER OF M. ST. EVREMONT.


I know how nice an undertaking it is to write of a living author; yet
the example of Father Bouhours has somewhat encouraged me in this
attempt. Had not Monsieur St Evremont been very considerable in his
own country, that famous jesuit would not have ventured to praise a
person in disgrace with the government of France, and living here in
banishment. Yet, in his “_Pensees Ingenieuses_,” he has often cited our
author’s thoughts and his expressions, as the standard of judicious
thinking, and graceful speaking; an undoubted sign that his merit was
sufficiently established, when the disfavour of the court could not
prevail against it. There is not only a justness in his conceptions,
which is the foundation of good writing, but also a purity of language,
and a beautiful turn of words, so little understood by modern writers;
and which, indeed, was found at Rome but at the latter end of the
commonwealth, and ended with Petronius, under the monarchy. If I durst
extend my judgment to particulars, I would say, that our author has
determined very nicely in his opinion of Epicurus; and that what he
has said of his morals, is according to nature and reason.

It is true, that as I am a religious admirer of Virgil, I could wish
that he had not discovered our father’s nakedness.[4] But, after all,
we must confess, that Æneas was none of the greatest heroes, and that
Virgil was sensible of it himself. But what could he do? the Trojan on
whom he was to build the Roman empire, had been already vanquished;
he had lost his country, and was a fugitive. Nay more, he had fought
unsuccessfully with Diomedes, and was only preserved from death by
his mother-goddess, who received a wound in his defence. So that
Virgil, bound as he was to follow the footsteps of Homer, who had thus
described him, could not reasonably have altered his character, and
raised him in Italy to a much greater height of prowess than he found
him formerly in Troy. Since, therefore, he could make no more of him
in valour, he resolved not to give him that virtue, as his principal;
but chose another, which was piety. It is true, this latter, in the
composition of a hero, was not altogether so shining as the former; but
it entitled him more to the favour of the gods, and their protection,
in all his undertakings; and, which was the poet’s chiefest aim, made
a nearer resemblance betwixt Æneas and his patron Augustus Cæsar, who,
above all things, loved to be flattered for being pious, both to the
gods and his relations. And that very piety, or gratitude, (call it
which you please,) to the memory of his uncle Julius, gave him the
preference, amongst the soldiers, to Mark Antony; and, consequently,
raised him to the empire. As for personal courage, that of Augustus
was not pushing;[5] and the poet, who was not ignorant of that defect,
for that reason durst not ascribe it, in the supreme degree, to him
who was to represent his emperor under another name: which was managed
by him with the most imaginable fineness; for had valour been set
uppermost, Augustus must have yielded to Agrippa. After all, this is
rather to defend the courtier than the poet; and to make his hero
escape again, under the covert of a cloud. Only we may add, what I
think Bossu says, that the Roman commonwealth being now changed into a
monarchy, Virgil was helping to that design; by insinuating into the
people the piety of their new conqueror, to make them the better brook
this innovation, which was brought on them by a man who was favoured by
the gods. Yet we may observe, that Virgil forgot not, upon occasion, to
speak honourably of Æneas, in point of courage, and that particularly
in the person of him by whom he was overcome. For Diomedes compares him
with Hector, and even with advantage:

    _Quicquid apud duræ cessatum est mænia Trojæ,
    Hectoris Æneæque manu victoria Graiûm
    Hæsit, et in decimum vestigia retulit annum:
    Ambo animis, ambo insignes præstantibus armis;
    Hic pietate prior._

As for that particular passage, cited by Monsieur St Evremont, where
Æneas shows the utmost fear, in the beginning of a tempest,

    _Extemplo Æneæ solvuntur frigore membra_, &c.

why may it not be supposed, that having been long at sea, he might
be well acquainted with the nature of a storm; and, by the rough
beginning, foresee the increase and danger of it? at least, as a father
of his people, his concernment might be greater for them than for
himself: and if so, what the poet takes from the merit of his courage,
is added to the prime virtue of his character, which was his piety.
Be this said with all manner of respect and deference to the opinion
of Monsieur St Evremont; amongst whose admirable talents, that of
penetration is not the least. He generally dives into the very bottom
of his authors; searches into the inmost recesses of their souls,
and brings up with him those hidden treasures which had escaped the
diligence of others. His examination of the “_Grand Alexandre,_”[6] in
my opinion, is an admirable piece of criticism; and I doubt not, but
that his observations on the English theatre had been as absolute in
their kind, had he seen with his own eyes, and not with those of other
men. But conversing in a manner wholly with the court, which is not
always the truest judge, he has been unavoidably led into mistakes,
and given to some of our coarsest poets a reputation abroad, which
they never had at home. Had his conversation in the town been more
general, he had certainly received other ideas on that subject; and not
transmitted those names into his own country, which will be forgotten
by posterity in ours.

Thus I have contracted my thoughts on a large subject; for whatever has
been said falls short of the true character of Monsieur St Evremont,
and his writings: and if the translation you are about to read does
not every where come up to the original, the translator desires you to
believe, that it is only because that he has failed in his undertaking.




THE CHARACTER OF POLYBIUS.

FIRST PRINTED IN OCTAVO, IN 1692.




CHARACTER OF POLYBIUS.


The character of Polybius was prefixed to a translation executed by
Sir Henry Shere, or Sheers;[7] the same gentleman whom Dryden has
elsewhere classed among the “finer spirits of the age.”[8] Our author
had announced this work to the public in the preface to “Cleomenes.”[9]
It was probably at that time under the press, or at least subjected
to Dryden for his correction. The translation itself is of little
value. Sir Henry disclaims all extent of erudition, and frankly
confesses, he “has no warrant from his depth of learning whereof to
make ostentation; wherein, indeed, he who most abounds ever finds
least cause of boasting.” Accordingly, his preface is employed in an
attempt to convince the world, that mere scholars, or book-learned men,
have rather traduced than translated Polybius, and most authors of
his class; such being totally at a loss to discover the sense of many
passages in history, wherein matters military and naval are handled. He
therefore takes up the pen as a man of the world, of business, science,
and conversation, long intimate with such matters as are principally
treated of by the historian. Finally, he describes his undertaking as
an “employment, wherein he who performs best, traffics for small gain,
and it would be unfair and unconscionable to make the loss more than
the adventure; and, at the worst, it having been rather a diversion
than a task, helping me to while away a few winter hours, which is some
recreation to one who has led a life of action and business; and whose
humour and fortune suit not with the pleasures of the town. Wherefore I
shall have little cause of complaint, if my well-meaning in consenting
to its publication be not so well received: I have been worse treated
by the world, to which I am as little indebted as most men, who have
spent near thirty years in public trusts; wherein I laboured, and
wasted my youth and the vigour of my days, more to the service of my
country, and the impairment of my health, than the improvement of
my fortune; having stood the mark of envy, slander, and hard usage,
without gleaning the least of those advantages, which use to be the
anchor-hold and refuge of such as wrongfully or otherwise suffer the
stroke of censure.”

Our author, who seems to have had an especial regard for Sir Henry
Shere, contributed this preliminary discourse.

Mr Malone has fixed Sir Henry Shere’s death to the year 1713, when his
library was exposed to sale by advertisement in “The Guardian.”




THE CHARACTER OF POLYBIUS, AND HIS WRITINGS.


The worthy author of this translation, who is very much my friend, was
pleased to entrust it in my hands for many months together, before he
published it, desiring me to review the English, and to correct what I
found amiss; which he needed not have done, if his modesty would have
given him leave to have relied on his own abilities, who is so great a
master of our style and language, as the world will acknowledge him to
be, after the reading of this excellent version.

It is true, that Polybius has formerly appeared in an English
dress,[10] but under such a cloud of errors in his first translation,
that his native beauty was not only hidden, but his sense perverted
in many places; so that he appeared unlike himself, and unworthy of
that esteem which has always been paid him by antiquity, as the most
sincere, the clearest, and most instructive of all historians. He is
now not only redeemed from those mistakes, but also restored to the
first purity of his conceptions; and the style in which he now speaks
is as plain and unaffected as that he wrote. I had only the pleasure
of reading him in a fair manuscript, without the toil of alteration;
at least it was so very inconsiderable, that it only cost me the dash
of a pen in some few places, and those of very small importance. So
much had the care, the diligence, and exactness of my friend prevented
my trouble, that he left me not the occasion of serving him, in a work
which was already finished to my hands. I doubt not but the reader will
approve my judgement. So happy it is for a good author to fall into the
hands of a translator, who is of a genius like his own; who has added
experience to his natural abilities; who has been educated in business
of several kinds; has travelled, like his author, into many parts of
the world, and some of them the same with the present scene of history;
has been employed in business of the like nature with Polybius,
and, like him, is perfectly acquainted not only with the terms of
the mathematics, but has searched into the bottom of that admirable
science, and reduced into practice the most useful rules of it, to his
own honour, and the benefit of his native country; who, besides these
advantages, possesses the knowledge of shipping and navigation; and,
in few words, is not ignorant of any thing that concerns the tactics:
so that here, from the beginning, we are sure of finding nothing that
is not thoroughly understood.[11] The expression is clear, and the
words adequate to the subject. Nothing in the matter will be mistaken;
nothing of the terms will be misapplied: all is natural and proper;
and he who understands good sense and English, will be profited by the
first, and delighted with the latter. This is what may be justly said
in commendation of the translator, and without the note of flattery to
a friend.

As for his author, I shall not be ashamed to copy from the learned
Casaubon, who has translated him into Latin,[12] many things which I
had not from my own small reading, and which I could not, without great
difficulty, have drawn, but from his fountain; not omitting some which
came casually in my way, by reading the preface of the Abbot Pichon to
the Dauphin’s “Tacitus,” an admirable and most useful work; which helps
I ingenuously profess to have received from them, both to clear myself
from being a plagiary of their writings, and to give authority, by
their names, to the weakness of my own performance.

The taking of Constantinople, by Mahomet the Great, fell into the
latter times of Pope Nicholas the Fifth,[13] a pope not only studious
of good letters, and particularly of history, but also a great
encourager of it in others. From the dreadful overthrow of that city,
and final subversion of the Greek empire, many learned men escaped,
and brought over with them into Italy that treasure of ancient
authors,[14] which, by their unhappiness, we now possess; and, amongst
the rest, some of these remaining fragments of Polybius. The body of
this history, as he left it finished, was consisting of forty books,
of which the eighth part[15] is only remaining to us entire. As for
his negociations, when he was sent ambassador either from his own
countrymen,[16] the commonwealth of the Achaians, or afterwards was
employed by the Romans on their business with other nations, we are
obliged to Constantine the Great for their preservation; for that
emperor was so much in love with the dexterous management and wisdom
of our author, that he caused them all to be faithfully transcribed,
and made frequent use of them in his own dispatches and affairs with
foreign princes, as his best guides in his concernments with them.

Polybius, as you will find in reading of him, though he principally
intended the history of the Romans, and the establishment of their
empire over the greatest part of the world which was then known, yet
had in his eye the general history of the times in which he lived, not
forgetting either the wars of his own country with their neighbours
of Etolia, or the concurrent affairs of Macedonia and the provinces
of Greece, which is properly so called; nor the monarchies of Asia
and Egypt; nor the republic of the Carthaginians, with the several
traverses of their fortunes, either in relation to the Romans, or
independent to the wars which they waged with them; besides what
happened in Spain and Sicily, and other European countries. The time,
which is taken up in this history, consists of three-and-fifty years;
and the greatest part of it is employed in the description of those
events, of which the author was an eye-witness, or bore a considerable
part in the conduct of them. But in what particular time or age it was,
when mankind received that irrecoverable loss of this noble history,
is not certainly delivered to us. It appears to have been perfect in
the reign of Constantine, by what I have already noted; and neither
Casaubon, nor any other, can give us any further account concerning it.

The first attempt towards a translation of him, was by command of the
same Pope Nicholas the Fifth, already mentioned, who esteemed him the
prince of Greek historians; would have him continually in his hands;
and used to make this judgement of him,--that, if he yielded to one
or two, in the praise of eloquence, yet, in wisdom, and all other
accomplishments belonging to a perfect historian, he was at least equal
to any other writer, Greek or Roman, and perhaps excelled them all.
This is the author, who is now offered to us in our mother-tongue,
recommended by the nobility of his birth, by his institution in arts
and sciences, by his knowledge in natural and moral philosophy, and
particularly the politics; by his being conversant both in the arts
of peace and war; by his education under his father Lycortas, who
voluntarily deposed himself from his sovereignty of Megalopolis to
become a principal member of the Achaian commonwealth, which then
flourished under the management of Aratus; by his friendship with
Scipio Africanus, who subdued Carthage, to whom he was both a companion
and a counsellor; and by the good-will, esteem, and intimacy, which he
had with several princes of Asia, Greece, and Egypt, during his life;
and after his decease, by deserving the applause and approbation of all
succeeding ages.

This author, so long neglected in the barbarous times of Christianity,
and so little known in Europe, (according to the fate which commonly
follows the best of writers,) was pulled from under the rubbish which
covered him, by the learned bishop, Nicholas the Fifth; and some parts
of his history (for with all his diligence he was not able to recover
the whole) were by him recommended to a person knowing both in the
Greek and Roman tongues, and learned for the times in which he lived,
to be translated into Latin; and, to the honour of our Polybius, he was
amongst the first of the Greek writers, who deserved to have this care
bestowed on him; which, notwithstanding so many hindrances occurred
in this attempt, that the work was not perfected in his popedom,
neither was any more than a third part of what is now recovered in his
hands; neither did that learned Italian,[17] who had undertaken him,
succeed very happily in that endeavour; for the perfect knowledge of
the Greek language was not yet restored, and that translator was but
as a one-eyed man amongst the nation of the blind; only suffered till
a better could be found to do right to an author, whose excellence
required a more just interpreter than the ignorance of that age
afforded. And this gives me occasion to admire, (says Casaubon,) that
in following times, when eloquence was redeemed, and the knowledge
of the Greek language flourished, yet no man thought of pursuing
that design, which was so worthily begun in those first rudiments of
learning. Some, indeed, of almost every nation in Europe, have been
instrumental in the recovery of several lost parts of our Polybius,
and commented on them with good success; but no man before Casaubon
had reviewed the first translation, corrected its errors, and put the
last hand to its accomplishment. The world is therefore beholden to
him for this great work; for he has collected into one their scattered
fragments, has pieced them together, according to the natural order
in which they were written, made them intelligible to scholars, and
rendered the French translator’s task more easy to his hands.

Our author is particularly mentioned with great honour by Cicero,
Strabo, Josephus, and Plutarch; and in what rank of writers they are
placed, none of the learned need to be informed. He is copied in whole
books together, by Livy, commonly esteemed the prince of the Roman
history, and translated word for word, though the Latin historian
is not to be excused, for not mentioning the man to whom he had been
so much obliged, nor for taking, as his own, the worthy labours of
another. Marcus Brutus, who preferred the freedom of his country to
the obligations which he had to Julius Cæsar, so prized Polybius,
that he made a compendium of his works; and read him not only for
his instruction, but for the diversion of his grief, when his noble
enterprize for the restoration of the commonwealth had not found the
success which it deserved. And this is not the least commendation of
our author, that he, who was not wholly satisfied with the eloquence
of Tully, should epitomise Polybius with his own hand.[18] It was on
the consideration of Brutus, and the veneration which he paid him, that
Constantine the Great took so great a pleasure in reading our author,
and collecting the several treaties of his embassies; of which, though
many are now lost, yet those which remain are a sufficient testimony
of his abilities; and I congratulate my country, that a prince of
our extraction (as was Constantine,) has the honour of obliging the
Christian world by these remainders of our great historian.

It is now time to enter into the particular praises of Polybius, which
I have given you before in gross; and the first of them (following the
method of Casaubon,) is his wonderful skill in political affairs. I
had read him, in English, with the pleasure of a boy, before I was ten
years of age; and yet, even then, had some dark notions of the prudence
with which he conducted his design, particularly in making me know, and
almost see, the places where such and such actions were performed. This
was the first distinction which I was then capable of making betwixt
him and other historians which I read early. But when being of a riper
age, I took him again into my hands, I must needs say, that I have
profited more by reading him than by Thucydides, Appian, Dion Cassius,
and all the rest of the Greek historians together; and amongst all the
Romans, none have reached him, in this particular, but Tacitus, who is
equal with him.

It is wonderful to consider with how much care and application he
instructs, counsels, warns, admonishes, and advises, whensoever he
can find a fit occasion. He performs all these sometimes in the
nature of a common parent of mankind; and sometimes also limits his
instructions to particular nations, by a friendly reproach of those
failings and errors to which they were most obnoxious. In this last
manner he gives instructions to the Mantinæans, the Elæans, and several
other provinces of Greece, by informing them of such things as were
conducing to their welfare. Thus he likewise warns the Romans of their
obstinacy and wilfulness, vices which have often brought them to the
brink of ruin. And thus he frequently exhorts the Greeks, in general,
not to depart from their dependence on the Romans; nor to take false
measures, by embroiling themselves in wars with that victorious people,
in whose fate it was to be masters of the universe. But as his peculiar
concernment was for the safety of his own countrymen, the Achaians, he
more than once insinuates to them the care of their preservation, which
consisted in submitting to the yoke of the Roman people, which they
could not possibly avoid; and to make it easy to them, by a cheerful
compliance with their commands, rather than unprofitably to oppose them
with the hazard of those remaining privileges which the clemency of the
conquerors had left them. For this reason, in the whole course of his
history he makes it his chiefest business to persuade the Grecians in
general, that the growing greatness and fortune of the Roman empire was
not owing to mere chance, but to the conduct and invincible courage of
that people, to whom their own virtue gave the dominion of the world.
And yet this counsellor of patience and submission, as long as there
was any probability of hope remaining to withstand the progress of the
Roman fortune, was not wanting to the utmost of his power to resist
them, at least to defer the bondage of his country, which he had long
foreseen. But the fates inevitably drawing all things into subjection
to Rome, this well-deserving citizen was commanded to appear in that
city,[19] where he suffered the imprisonment of many years; yet even
then his virtue was beneficial to him, the knowledge of his learning
and his wisdom procuring him the friendship of the most potent in the
senate; so that it may be said with Casaubon, that the same virtue
which had brought him into distress, was the very means of his relief,
and of his exaltation to greater dignities than those which he lost;
for by the intercession of Cato the Censor, Scipio Æmilianus, who
afterwards destroyed Carthage, and some other principal noblemen, our
Polybius was restored to liberty. After which, having set it down as a
maxim, that the welfare of the Achaians consisted, as I have said, in
breaking their own stubborn inclinations, and yielding up that freedom
which they no longer could maintain, he made it the utmost aim of his
endeavours to bring over his countrymen to that persuasion; in which,
though, to their misfortunes, his counsels were not prevalent, yet
thereby he not only proved himself a good patriot, but also made his
fortunes with the Romans. For his countrymen, by their own unpardonable
fault, not long afterwards drew on themselves their own destruction;
for when Mummius, in the Achaian war, made a final conquest of that
country, he dissolved the great council of their commonwealth.[20]
But, in the mean time, Polybius enjoyed that tranquillity of fortune
which he had purchased by his wisdom, in that private state, being
particularly dear to Scipio and Lælius, and some of the rest, who were
then in the administration of the Roman government. And that favour
which he had gained amongst them, he employed not in heaping riches
to himself, but as a means of performing many considerable actions;
as particularly when Scipio was sent to demolish Carthage,[21] he
went along with him in the nature of a counsellor and companion of
his enterprize. At which time, receiving the command of a fleet from
him, he made discoveries in many parts of the Atlantic Ocean, and
especially on the shores of Africa; and[22] doing many good offices
to all sorts of people whom he had power to oblige, especially to the
Grecians, who, in honour of their benefactor, caused many statues of
him to be erected, as Pausanias has written. The particular gratitude
of the Locrians in Italy is also an undeniable witness of this truth;
who, by his mediation, being discharged from the burden of taxes which
oppressed them, through the hardship of those conditions which the
Romans had imposed on them in the treaty of peace, professed themselves
to be owing for their lives and fortunes, to the interest only and good
nature of Polybius, which they took care to express by all manner of
acknowledgment.

Yet as beneficent as he was, the greatest obligement which he could lay
on human kind, was the writing of this present history; wherein he has
left a perpetual monument of his public love to all the world in every
succeeding age of it, by giving us such precepts as are most conducing
to our common safety and our benefit. This philanthropy (which we have
not a proper word in English to express,) is every-where manifest in
our author; and from hence proceeded that divine rule which he gave
to Scipio,--that whensoever he went abroad, he should take care not
to return to his own house, before he had acquired a friend by some
new obligement. To this excellency of nature we owe the treasure which
is contained in this most useful work: this is the standard by which
all good and prudent princes ought to regulate their actions. None
have more need of friends than monarchs; and though ingratitude is too
frequent in the most of those who are obliged, yet encouragement will
work on generous minds; and if the experiment be lost on thousands,
yet it never fails on all: and one virtuous man in a whole nation is
worth the buying, as one diamond is worth the search in a heap of
rubbish. But a narrow-hearted prince, who thinks that mankind is made
for him alone, puts his subjects in a way of deserting him on the
first occasion;[23] and teaches them to be as sparing of their duty,
as he is of his bounty. He is sure of making enemies, who will not be
at the cost of rewarding his friends and servants; and by letting his
people see he loves them not, instructs them to live upon the square
with him, and to make him sensible in his turn, that prerogatives are
given, but privileges are inherent. As for tricking, cunning, and
that which in sovereigns they call king-craft, and reason of state in
commonwealths, to them and their proceedings Polybius is an open enemy.
He severely reproves all faithless practices, and that κακοπραγμὁσυνη,
or vicious policy, which is too frequent in the management of the
public. He commends nothing but plainness, sincerity, and the common
good, undisguised, and set in a true light before the people. Not but
that there may be a necessity of saving a nation, by going beyond
the letter of the law, or even sometimes by superseding it; but then
that necessity must not be artificial,--it must be visible, it must
be strong enough to make the remedy not only pardoned, but desired,
to the major part of the people; not for the interest only of some
few men, but for the public safety: for otherwise, one infringement
of a law draws after it the practice of subverting all the liberties
of a nation, which are only entrusted with any government, but can
never be given up to it. The best way to distinguish betwixt a
pretended necessity and a true, is to observe if the remedy be rarely
applied, or frequently; in times of peace, or times of war and public
distractions, which are the most usual causes of sudden necessities.
From hence Casaubon infers, that this our author, who preaches virtue,
and probity, and plain-dealing, ought to be studied principally by
kings and ministers of state; and that youth, which are bred up to
succeed in the management of business, should read him carefully, and
imbibe him thoroughly, detesting the maxims that are given by Machiavel
and others, which are only the instruments of tyranny. Furthermore,
(continues he,) the study of truth is perpetually joined with the
love of virtue; for there is no virtue which derives not its original
from truth; as, on the contrary, there is no vice which has not its
beginning from a lie. Truth is the foundation of all knowledge, and the
cement of all societies; and this is one of the most shining qualities
in our author.

I was so strongly persuaded of this myself, in the perusal of the
present history, that I confess, amongst all the ancients I never found
any who had the air of it so much; and amongst the moderns, none but
Philip de Commines.[24] They had this common to them, that they both
changed their masters. But Polybius changed not his side, as Philip
did: he was not bought off to another party, but pursued the true
interest of his country, even when he served the Romans. Yet since
truth, as one of the philosophers has told me, lies in the bottom of
a well, so it is hard to draw it up: much pains, much diligence, much
judgment is necessary to hand it us; even cost is oftentimes required;
and Polybius was wanting in none of these.

We find but few historians of all ages, who have been diligent enough
in their search for truth: it is their common method to take on
trust what they distribute to the public; by which means a falsehood
once received from a famed writer becomes traditional to posterity.
But Polybius weighed the authors from whom he was forced to borrow
the history of the times immediately preceding his, and oftentimes
corrected them, either by comparing them each with other, or by the
lights which he had received from ancient men of known integrity
amongst the Romans, who had been conversant in those affairs which were
then managed, and were yet living to instruct him. He also learned
the Roman tongue; and attained to that knowledge of their laws, their
rights, their customs, and antiquities, that few of their own citizens
understood them better: having gained permission from the senate to
search the Capitol, he made himself familiar with their records, and
afterwards translated them into his mother-tongue. So that he taught
the noblemen of Rome their own municipal laws, and was accounted more
skilful in them than Fabius Pictor, a man of the senatorian order, who
wrote the transactions of the Punic wars. He who neglected none of the
laws of history, was so careful of truth, (which is the principal,)
that he made it his whole business to deliver nothing to posterity
which might deceive them; and by that diligence and exactness, may
easily be known to be studious of truth, and a lover of it. What
therefore Brutus thought worthy to transcribe with his own hand out
of him, I need not be ashamed to copy after him: “I believe,” says
Polybius, “that nature herself has constituted truth as the supreme
deity, which is to be adored by mankind, and that she has given it
greater force than any of the rest; for being opposed, as she is on all
sides, and appearances of truth so often passing for the thing itself,
in behalf of plausible falsehoods, yet by her wonderful operation
she insinuates herself into the minds of men; sometimes exerting her
strength immediately, and sometimes lying hid in darkness for length of
time; but at last she struggles through it, and appears triumphant over
falsehood.” This sincerity Polybius preferred to all his friends, and
even to his father: “in all other offices of life,” says he, “praise
a lover of his friends, and of his native country; but in writing
history, I am obliged to divest myself of all other obligations, and
sacrifice them all to truth.”

Aratus, the Sicyonian, in the childhood of our author, was the chief
of the Achaian commonwealth; a man in principal esteem, both in his
own country and all the provinces of Greece; admired universally for
his probity, his wisdom, his just administration, and his conduct: in
remembrance of all which, his grateful countrymen, after his decease,
ordained him those honours which are only due to heroes. Him our
Polybius had in veneration, and formed himself by imitation of his
virtues; and is never wanting in his commendations through the course
of his history. Yet even this man, when the cause of truth required
it, is many times reproved by him for his slowness in counsel, his
tardiness in the beginning of his enterprises, his tedious and more
than Spanish deliberations; and his heavy and cowardly proceedings are
as freely blamed by our Polybius, as they were afterwards by Plutarch,
who questionless drew his character from this history. In plain terms,
that wise general scarce ever performed any great action but by night:
the glittering of a sword before his face was offensive to his eyes:
our author therefore boldly accuses him of his faint-heartedness;
attributes the defeat at Caphiæ wholly to him; and is not sparing to
affirm, that all Peloponnesus was filled with trophies, which were set
up as the monuments of his losses. He sometimes praises, and at other
times condemns the proceedings of Philip, king of Macedon, the son of
Demetrius, according to the occasions which he gave him by the variety
and inequality of his conduct; and this most exquisite on either side.
He more than once arraigns him for the inconstancy of his judgment,
and chapters even his own Aratus on the same head; shewing, by many
examples, produced from their actions, how many miseries they had both
occasioned to the Grecians; and attributing it to the weakness of
human nature, which can make nothing perfect. But some men are brave
in battle, who are weak in counsel, which daily experience sets before
our eyes; others deliberate wisely, but are weak in the performing
part; and even no man is the same to-day, which he was yesterday,
or may be to-morrow. On this account, says our author, “a good man
is sometimes liable to blame, and a bad man, though not often, may
possibly deserve to be commended.” And for this very reason he severely
taxes Timæus, a malicious historian, who will allow no kind of virtue
to Agathocles, the tyrant of Sicily, but detracts from all his actions,
even the most glorious, because in general he was a vicious man. “Is
it to be thought,” says Casaubon, “that Polybius loved the memory of
Agathocles, the tyrant, or hated that of the virtuous Aratus?” But it
is one thing to commend a tyrant, and another thing to overpass in
silence those laudable actions which are performed by him; because it
argues an author of the same falsehood, to pretermit what has actually
been done, as to feign those actions which have never been.

It will not be unprofitable, in this place, to give another famous
instance of the candour and integrity of our historian. There had
been an ancient league betwixt the republic of Achaia and the kings
of Egypt, which was entertained by both parties sometimes on the
same conditions, and sometimes also the confederacy was renewed on
other terms. It happened, in the 148th Olympiad,[25] that Ptolomy
Epiphanes, on this occasion, sent one Demetrius, his ambassador, to
the commonwealth of Achaia. That republic was then ruinously divided
into two factions; whereof the heads on one side were Philopœmen, and
Lycortas, the father of our author; of the adverse party, the chief
was Aristænus, with some other principal Achaians. The faction of
Philopœmen was prevalent in the council, for renewing the confederacy
with the king of Egypt; in order to which, Lycortas received a
commission to go to that court and treat the articles of alliance.
Accordingly, he goes, and afterwards returns, and gives account to his
superiors, that the treaty was concluded. Aristænus, hearing nothing
but a bare relation of a league that was made, without any thing
belonging to the conditions of it, and well knowing that several forms
of those alliances had been used in the former negociations, asked
Lycortas, in the council, according to which of them this present
confederacy was made? To this question of his enemy, Lycortas had not
a word to answer; for it had so happened by the wonderful neglect of
Philopœmen and his own, and also that of Ptolomy’s counsellors, (or, as
I rather believe, by their craft contrived,) that the whole transaction
had been loosely and confusedly managed, which, in a matter of so great
importance, redounded to the scandal and ignominy of Philopœmen and
Lycortas, in the face of that grave assembly. Now these proceedings
our author so relates, as if he had been speaking of persons to whom
he had no manner of relation, though one of them was his own father,
and the other always esteemed by him in the place of a better father.
But being mindful of the law which himself had instituted, concerning
the indispensable duty of an historian, (which is truth,) he chose
rather to be thought a lover of it, than of either of his parents. It
is true, Lycortas, in all probability, was dead when Polybius wrote
this history; but, had he been then living, we may safely think, that
his son would have assumed the same liberty, and not feared to have
offended him in behalf of truth.

Another part of this veracity is also deserving the notice of the
reader, though, at the same time we must conclude, that it was also an
effect of a sound judgment, that he perpetually explodes the legends of
prodigies and miracles, and instead of them, most accurately searches
into the natural causes of those actions which he describes; for, from
the first of these, the latter follows of direct consequence. And
for this reason, he professes an immortal enmity to those tricks and
jugglings, which the common people believe as real miracles; because
they are ignorant of the causes which produced them. But he had made
a diligent search into them, and found out, that they proceeded either
from the fond credulity of the people, or were imposed on them by the
craft of those whose interest it was that they should be believed.
You hear not in Polybius, that it rained blood or stones; that a
bull had spoken; or a thousand such impossibilities, with which Livy
perpetually crowds the calends of almost every consulship.[26] His new
years could no more begin without them, during his description of the
Punic wars, than our prognosticating almanacks without the effects of
the present oppositions betwixt Saturn and Jupiter, the foretelling of
comets and coruscations in the air, which seldom happen at the times
assigned by our astrologers, and almost always fail in their events.
If you will give credit to some other authors, some god was always
present with Hannibal or Scipio to direct their actions; that a visible
deity wrought journey-work under Hannibal, to conduct him through
the difficult passages of the Alps; and another did the same office
of drudgery for Scipio, when he besieged New Carthage, by draining
the water, which otherwise would have drowned his army in their rash
approaches; which Polybius observing, says wittily and truly, that the
authors of such fabulous kind of stuff write tragedies, not histories;
for, as the poets, when they are at a loss for the solution of a plot,
bungle up their catastrophe with a god descending in a machine, so
these inconsiderate historians, when they have brought their heroes
into a plunge by some rash and headlong undertaking, having no human
way remaining to disengage them with their honour, are forced to have
recourse to miracle, and introduce a god for their deliverance. It is
a common frenzy of the ignorant multitude, says Casaubon, to be always
engaging heaven on their side; and indeed it is a successful stratagem
of any general to gain authority among his soldiers, if he can persuade
them, that he is the man by fate appointed for such or such an action,
though most impracticable. To be favoured of God, and command (if it
may be permitted so to say,) the extraordinary concourse of Providence,
sets off a hero, and makes more specious the cause for which he fights,
without any consideration of morality, which ought to be the beginning
and end of all our actions; for, where that is violated, God is only
present in permission; and suffers a wrong to be done, but not commands
it. Light historians, and such as are superstitious in their natures,
by the artifice of feigned miracles captivate the gross understandings
of their readers, and please their fancies by relations of things which
are rather wonderful than true; but such as are of a more profound and
solid judgment, (which is the character of our Polybius), have recourse
only to their own natural lights, and by them pursue the methods at
least of probability, if they cannot arrive to a settled certainty. He
was satisfied that Hannibal was not the first who had made a passage
through the Alps, but that the Gauls had been before him in their
descent on Italy; and also knew, that this most prudent general, when
he laid his design of invading that country, had made an alliance with
the Gauls, and prepossessed them in his favour; and before he stirred a
foot from Spain, had provided against all those difficulties which he
foresaw in his attempt, and compassed his undertaking, which indeed
was void of miracles, but full of conduct, and military experience.
In the same manner, Scipio, before he departed from Rome, to take
his voyage into Spain, had carefully considered every particular
circumstance which might cross his purpose, and made his enterprize
as easy to him as human prudence could provide; so that he was
victorious over that nation, not by virtue of any miracle, but by his
admirable forecast, and wise conduct in the execution of his design.
Of which, though Polybius was not an eye-witness, he yet had it from
the best testimony, which was that of Lælius, the friend of Scipio,
who accompanied him in that expedition; of whom our author, with great
diligence; enquired concerning every thing of moment which happened in
that war, and whom he commends for his sincerity in that relation.

Whensoever he gives us the account of any considerable action, he never
fails to tell us why it succeeded, or for what reason it miscarried;
together with all the antecedent causes of its undertaking, and the
manner of its performance; all which he accurately explains: of which I
will select but some few instances, because I want leisure to expatiate
on many. In the fragments of the seventeenth book he makes a learned
dissertation concerning the Macedonian phalanx, or gross body of foot,
which was formerly believed to be invincible, till experience taught
the contrary by the success of the battle which Philip lost to the
commonwealth of Rome; and the manifest and most certain causes are
therein related, which prove it to be inferior to the Roman legions.
When also he had told us in his former books, of the three great
battles wherein Hannibal had overthrown the Romans, and the last at
Cannæ, wherein he had in a manner conquered that republic, he gives
the reasons of every defeat, either from the choice of ground, or the
strength of the foreign horse in Hannibal’s army, or the ill-timing of
the fight on the vanquished side. After this, when he describes the
turn of fortune on the part of the Romans, you are visibly conducted
upwards to the causes of that change, and the reasonableness of the
method which was afterwards pursued by that commonwealth, which raised
it to the empire of the world. In these and many other examples,
which for brevity are omitted, there is nothing more plain than that
Polybius denies all power to fortune, and places the sum of success in
Providence; συμβαινογγων τὑχην ἁιτιασθι φαυλον, indeed, are his words,
It is a madness to make fortune the mistress of events, because in
herself she is nothing, can rule nothing, but is ruled by prudence. So
that whenever our author seems to attribute any thing to chance, he
speaks only with the vulgar, and desires so to be understood.

But here I must make bold to part company with Casaubon for a moment.
He is a vehement friend to any author with whom he has taken any
pains; and his partiality to Persius, in opposition to Juvenal, is too
fresh in my memory to be forgotten.[27] Because Polybius will allow
nothing to the power of chance, he takes an occasion to infer, that
he believed a providence; sharply inveighing against those who have
accused him of atheism. He makes Suidas his second in this quarrel; and
produces his single evidence, and that but a bare assertion, without
proof, that Polybius believed, with us Christians, God administered
all human actions and affairs. But our author will not be defended
in this case; his whole history reclaims to that opinion. When he
speaks of Providence, or of any divine admonition, he is as much in
jest, as when he speaks of fortune; it is all to the capacity of the
vulgar. Prudence was the only divinity which he worshipped, and the
possession of virtue the only end which he proposed. If I would have
disguised this to the reader, it was not in my power. The passages
which manifestly prove his irreligion are so obvious that I need not
quote them. Neither do I know any reason why Casaubon should enlarge so
much in his justification; since to believe false gods, and to believe
none, are errors of the same importance. He who knew not our God, saw
through the ridiculous opinions of the heathens concerning theirs; and
not being able without revelation to go farther, stopped at home in
his own breast, and made prudence his goddess, truth his search, and
virtue his reward. If Casaubon, like him, had followed truth, he would
have saved me the ungrateful pains of contradicting him; but even the
reputation of Polybius, if there were occasion, is to be sacrificed to
truth, according to his own maxim.

As for the wisdom of our author, whereby he wonderfully foresaw the
decay of the Roman empire, and those civil wars which turned it down
from a commonwealth to an absolute monarchy, he who will take the pains
to review this history will easily perceive, that Polybius was of the
best sort of prophets, who predict from natural causes those events
which must naturally proceed from them. And these things were not to
succeed even in the compass of the next century to that wherein he
lived, but the person was then living who was the first mover towards
them; and that was that great Scipio Africanus, who, by cajoling the
people to break the fundamental constitutions of the government in
his favour, by bringing him too early to the consulship,[28] and
afterwards by making their discipline of war precarious, first taught
them to devolve the power and authority of the senate into the hands
of one, and then to make that one to be at the disposition of the
soldiery; which though he practised at a time when it was necessary
for the safety of the commonwealth, yet it drew after it those fatal
consequences, which not only ruined the republic, but also in process
of time, the monarchy itself. But the author was too much in the
interests of that family, to name Scipio; and therefore he gives other
reasons, to which I refer the reader, that I may avoid prolixity.

By what degrees Polybius arrived to this height of knowledge, and
consummate judgment in affairs, it will not be hard to make the reader
comprehend; for presupposing in him all that birth or nature could give
a man, who was formed for the management of great affairs, and capable
of recording them, he was likewise entered from his youth into those
employments which add experience to natural endowments; being joined in
commission with his father Lycortas, and the younger Aratus, before the
age of twenty, in an embassy to Egypt: after which he was perpetually
in the business of his own commonwealth, or that of Rome. So that it
seems to be one part of the Roman felicity, that he was born in an age
when their commonwealth was growing to the height; that he might be the
historian of those great actions, which were performed not only in his
lifetime, but the chief of them even in his sight.

I must confess, that the preparations to his history, or the
Prolegomena, as they are called, are very large, and the digressions in
it are exceeding frequent. But as to his preparatives, they were but
necessary to make the reader comprehend the drift and design of his
undertaking: and the digressions are also so instructive, that we may
truly say, they transcend the profit which we receive from the matter
of fact. Upon the whole, we may conclude him to be a great talker; but
we must grant him to be a prudent man. We can spare nothing of all he
says, it is so much to our improvement; and if the rest of his history
had remained to us, in all probability it would have been more close:
for we can scarce conceive what was left in nature for him to add, he
has so emptied almost all the common-places of digressions already; or
if he could have added any thing, those observations might have been as
useful and as necessary as the rest which he has given us, and that are
descended to our hands.

I will say nothing farther of the “Excerpta,” which (as Casaubon
thinks,) are part of that epitome which was begun to be made by Marcus
Brutus, but never finished; nor of those embassies which are collected
and compiled by the command of Constantine the Great; because neither
of them are translated in this work. And whether or no they will be
added in another impression, I am not certain; the translator of these
five books having carried his work no farther than it was perfect. He,
I suppose, will acquaint you with his own purpose, in the preface which
I hear he intends to prefix before Polybius.

Let us now hear Polybius himself describing an accomplished historian,
wherein we shall see his own picture, as in a glass, reflected to him,
and given us afterwards to behold in the writing of this history.

Plato said of old, that it would be happy for mankind, if either
philosophers administered the government, or that governors applied
themselves to the study of philosophy. I may also say, that it would
be happy for history, if those who undertake to write it, were men
conversant in political affairs; who applied themselves seriously
to their undertaking, not negligently, but as such who were fully
persuaded that they undertook a work of the greatest moment, of the
greatest excellency, and the most necessary for mankind; establishing
this as the foundation whereon they are to build, that they can never
be capable of performing their duty as they ought, unless they have
formed themselves beforehand to their undertaking, by prudence, and
long experience of affairs; without which endowments and advantages,
if they attempt to write a history, they will fall into a various and
endless labyrinth of errors.

When we hear this author speaking, we are ready to think ourselves
engaged in a conversation with Cato the Censor, with Lælius, with
Massinissa, and with the two Scipios; that is, with the greatest heroes
and most prudent men of the greatest age in the Roman commonwealth.
This sets me so on fire, when I am reading either here, or in any
ancient author, their lives and actions, that I cannot hold from
breaking out with Montagne into this expression: “It is just,” says he,
“for every honest man to be content with the government and laws of his
native country, without endeavouring to alter or subvert them; but if I
were to choose, where I would have been born, it should have been in a
commonwealth.” He indeed names Venice, which, for many reasons, should
not be my wish; but rather Rome in such an age, if it were possible,
as that wherein Polybius lived; or that of Sparta, whose constitution
for a republic, is by our author compared with Rome, to which he justly
gives the preference.

I will not undertake to compare Polybius and Tacitus; though, if I
should attempt it upon the whole merits of the cause, I must allow to
Polybius the greater comprehension, and the larger soul; to Tacitus,
the greater eloquence, and the more close connection of his thoughts.
The manner of Tacitus in writing is more like the force and gravity
of Demosthenes; that of Polybius more like the copiousness and
diffusive character of Cicero. Amongst historians, Tacitus imitated
Thucydides, and Polybius, Herodotus. Polybius foresaw the ruin of the
Roman commonwealth, by luxury, lust, and cruelty; Tacitus foresaw in
the causes those events which would destroy the monarchy. They are
both of them, without dispute, the best historians in their several
kinds. In this they are alike, that both of them suffered under the
iniquity of the times in which they lived; both their histories are
dismembered, the greatest part of them lost, and they are interpolated
in many places. Had their works been perfect, we might have had longer
histories, but not better. Casaubon, according to his usual partiality,
condemns Tacitus that he may raise Polybius; who needs not any sinister
artifice to make him appear equal to the best. Tacitus described the
times of tyranny; but he always writes with some kind of indignation
against them. It is not his fault that Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, and
Domitian, were bad princes. He is accused of malevolence, and of taking
actions in the worst sense: but we are still to remember, that those
were the actions of tyrants. Had the rest of his history remained to
us, we had certainly found a better account of Vespasian, Titus, Nerva,
and Trajan, who were virtuous emperors; and he would have given the
principles of their actions a contrary turn. But it is not my business
to defend Tacitus; neither dare I decide the preference betwixt him
and our Polybius. They are equally profitable and instructive to the
reader; but Tacitus more useful to those who are born under a monarchy,
Polybius to those who live in a republic.

What may farther be added concerning the history of this author, I
leave to be performed by the elegant translator of his work.[29]




THE LIFE OF LUCIAN.

FIRST PRINTED IN 8VO, IN 1711.




THE LIFE OF LUCIAN.


The Dialogues of Lucian were translated by Walter Moyle, Sir Henry
Shere, Charles Blount, and others, and seem to have been intended
for publication about 1696, when our author supplied the following
prefatory life. The design was, however, for a time laid aside, and
the work did not appear until 1711 several years after Dryden’s death.
Hence the preface wants those last corrections, which, I suspect,
Dryden contented himself with bestowing upon the proof sheets, as they
came from press. I have followed several of Mr Malone’s judicious, and
indeed indispensable, corrections of the printed copy.




THE LIFE OF LUCIAN.


The writing a life is at all times, and in all circumstances, the most
difficult task of an historian; and, notwithstanding the numerous tribe
of biographers, we can scarce find one, except Plutarch, who deserves
our perusal, or can invite a second view. But if the difficulty
be so great where the materials are plentiful, and the incidents
extraordinary, what must it be when the person, that affords the
subject, denies matter enough for a page? The learned seldom abound
with action, and it is action only that furnishes the historian with
things agreeable and instructive. It is true, that Diogenes Laertius,
and our learned countryman Mr Stanley,[30] have both written the “Lives
of the Philosophers;” but we are more obliged to the various principles
of their several sects, than to any thing remarkable that they did,
for our entertainment.

But Lucian, as pleasing and useful as he was in his writings, in the
opinion of the most candid judges, has left so little of his own
affairs on record, that there is scarce sufficient to fill a page, from
his birth to his death.

There were many of the name of Lucian among the ancients, eminent
in several ways, and whose names have reached posterity with honour
and applause. Suidas mentions one, as a man of singular probity,
who, having discharged the administration of the chief prefect of
the Oriental empire,[31] under Arcadius, with extraordinary justice
and praise of the people, drew on himself the envy and hate of the
courtiers, (the constant attendant of eminent virtue and merit,)
and the anger of the emperor himself; and was at last murdered by
Rufinus.[32]

Among those, who were eminent for their learning, were some divines
and philosophers. Of the former, we find one in St Cyprian, to whom
the fourth and seventeenth epistles are inscribed. There was another,
priest of the church of Antioch, who, as Suidas assures us, reviewed,
corrected, and restored to its primitive purity, the Hebrew Bible; and
afterward suffered martyrdom, at Nicomedia, under Maximilian.[33] A
third was a priest of Jerusalem, who not only made a figure among the
learned of his own age,[34] but, as Gesnerus observes, conveyed his
reputation to posterity by the remains of his writings.

But none of this name has met with the general applause of so many
ages, as Lucian the philosopher and eminent sophist, who was author of
the following Dialogues, of whose birth, life, and death, I shall give
you all I could collect of any certain and historical credit.

He had not the good fortune to be born of illustrious or wealthy
parents, which give a man a very advantageous rise on his first
appearance in the world; but the father of our Lucian laboured under
so great a straitness of estate, that he was fain to put his son
apprentice to a statuary, whose genius for the finer studies was
so extraordinary and so rare; because he hoped from that business,
not only a speedy supply to his own wants, but was secure that his
education in that art would be much less expensive to him.

He was born in Samosata, a city of Syria, not far from the river
Euphrates; and for this reason, he calls himself more than once an
Assyrian, and a Syrian; but he was derived from a Greek original, his
forefathers having been citizens of Patras in Achaia.

We have nothing certain as to the exact time of his birth. Suidas
confirms his flourishing under the Emperor Trajan; but then he was
likewise before him. Some mention the reign of Adrian; but it cannot
be fixed to any year or consulate.[35]

The person he was bound to was his uncle, a man of a severe and morose
temper, of whom he was to learn the statuary’s and stone-cutter’s
art; for his father observing our Lucian, now a boy, of his own head,
and without any instructor, make various figures in wax, he persuaded
himself, that if he had a good master, he could not but arrive to an
uncommon excellence in it.

But it happened, in the very beginning of his time, he broke a model,
and was very severely called to account for it by his master. He, not
liking this treatment, and having a soul and genius above any mechanic
trade, ran away home.

After which, in his sleep, there appeared to him two young women, or
rather the tutelar goddesses of the statuary art, and of the liberal
sciences, hotly disputing of their preference to each other; and on a
full hearing of both sides, he bids adieu to statuary, and entirely
surrenders himself to the conduct of virtue and learning. And as his
desires of improvement were great, and the instructions he had, very
good, the progress he made was as considerable, till, by the maturity
of his age and his study, he made his appearance in the world.

Though it is not to be supposed, that there is any thing of reality in
this dream, or vision, of Lucian, which he treats of in his works, yet
this may be gathered from it,--that Lucian himself, having consulted
his genius, and the nature of the study his father had allotted him,
and that to which he found a propensity in himself, he quitted the
former, and pursued the latter, choosing rather to form the minds of
men than their statues.

In his youth, he taught rhetoric in Gaul, and in several other places.
He pleaded likewise at the bar in Antioch, the capital of Syria;
but the noise of the bar disgusting, and his ill success in causes
disheartening him, he quitted the practice of rhetoric and the law, and
applied himself to writing.

He was forty years old, when he first took to philosophy. Having a
mind to make himself known in Macedon, he took the opportunity of
speaking in the public assembly of all that region. In his old age, he
was received into the imperial family, and had the place of intendant
of Egypt,[36] after he had travelled through almost all the known
countries of that age to improve his knowledge in men, manners, and
arts; for some writers make this particular observation on his travel
into Gaul, and residence in that country, that he gained there the
greatest part of his knowledge in rhetoric, that region being in
his age, and also before it, a nursery of eloquence and oratory, as
Juvenal, Martial, and others, sufficiently witness.[37]

The manner of his death is obscure to us, though it is most probable
he died of the gout. Suidas alone tells a story of his being worried
to death, and devoured by dogs, returning from a feast; which being so
uncommon a death, so very improbable, and attested only by one author,
has found little credit with posterity. If it be true, that he was once
a Christian, and afterwards became a renegade to our belief, perhaps
some zealots may have invented this tale of his death, as a just and
signal punishment for his apostacy. All men are willing to have the
miracle, or at least the wonderful providence, go on their side, and
will be teaching God Almighty what he ought to do in this world, as
well as in the next; as if they were proper judges of his decrees,
and for what end he prospers some, or punishes others, in this life.
Ablancourt, and our learned countryman Dr Mayne,[38] look on the story
as a fiction: and, for my part, I can see no reason either to believe
he ever professed Christianity, or, if he did, why he might[39] not
more probably die in his bed at so great an age as fourscore and ten,
than be torn in pieces and devoured by dogs, when he was too feeble to
defend himself. So early began the want of charity, the presumption of
meddling with God’s government, and the spirit of calumny amongst the
primitive believers.

Of his posterity we know nothing more, than that he left a son behind
him, who was as much in favour with the Emperor Julian, as his father
had been with Aurelius the philosopher. This son became in time a
famous sophist; and among the works of Julian we find an epistle of
that great person to him.[40]

I find that I have mingled, before I was aware, some things which are
doubtful with some which are certain; forced indeed by the narrowness
of the subject, which affords very little of undisputed truth. Yet I
find myself obliged to do right to Monsieur d’Ablancourt,[41] who is
not positively of opinion, that Suidas was the author of this fable;
but rather that it descended to him by the tradition of former times,
yet without any certain ground of truth. He concludes it, however, to
be a calumny, perhaps a charitable kind of lie, to deter others from
satirizing the new dogmas of Christianity, by the judgment shown on
Lucian. We find nothing in his writings, which gives any hint of his
professing our belief; but being naturally curious, and living not
only amongst Christians, but in the neighbourhood of Judea, he might
reasonably be supposed to be knowing in our points of faith, without
believing them. He ran a muck, and laid about him on all sides with
more fury on the heathens, whose religion he professed; he struck at
ours but casually, as it came in his way, rather than as he sought it;
he contemned it too much to write in earnest against it.

We have indeed the highest probabilities for our revealed religion;
arguments which will preponderate with a reasonable man, upon a long
and careful disquisition; but I have always been of opinion, that we
can demonstrate nothing, because the subject-matter is not capable of a
demonstration. It is the particular grace of God, that any man believes
the mysteries of our faith; which I think a conclusive argument against
the doctrine of persecution in any church. And though I am absolutely
convinced, as I heartily thank God I am, not only of the general
principles of Christianity, but of all truths necessary to salvation
in the Roman church, yet I cannot but detest our inquisition, as it
is practised in some foreign parts, particularly in Spain and in the
Indies.

Those reasons, which are cogent to me, may not prevail with others, who
bear the denomination of Christians; and those which are prevalent with
all Christians, in regard of their birth and education, may find no
force, when they are used against Mahometans or heathens. To instruct
is a charitable duty; to compel, by threatenings and punishment, is the
office of a hangman, and the principle of a tyrant.

But my zeal in a good cause, as I believe, has transported me beyond
the limits of my subject. I was endeavouring to prove, that Lucian had
never been a member of the Christian church; and methinks it makes
for my opinion, that, in relating the death of Peregrinus, who, being
born a Pagan, pretended afterwards to turn Christian, and turned
himself publicly at the Olympic games, at his death professing himself
a cynic philosopher, it seems, I say, to me, that Lucian would not
have so severely declaimed against this Proteus, (which was another of
Peregrinus his names,) if he himself had been guilty of that apostacy.

I know not that this passage has been observed by any man before
me;[42] and yet in this very place it is, that this author has more
severely handled our belief, and more at large, than in any other part
of all his writings, excepting only the Dialogue of Triephon and
Critias,[43] wherein he lashes his own false gods with more severity
than the true; and where the first Christians, with their cropped hair,
their whining voices, melancholy faces, mournful discourses, and nasty
habits, are described with a greater air of Calvinists or Quakers, than
of Roman Catholics or Church of England men.

After all, what if this discourse last mentioned, and the rest of the
dialogues wherein the Christians are satirized, were none of Lucian’s?
The learned and ingenious Dr Mayne, whom I have before cited, is
of this opinion, and confirms it by the attestation of Philander,
Obsobœus, Mycillus, and Cognatus, whom since I have not read, or two of
them but very superficially, I refer you for the faith of his quotation
to the authors themselves.[44]

The next supposition concerning Lucian’s religion is, that he was of
none at all. I doubt not but the same people, who broached the story of
his being once a Christian, followed their blow upon him in this second
accusation.

There are several sorts of Christians at this day reigning in the
world, who will not allow any man to believe in the Son of God, whose
other articles of faith are not in all things conformable to theirs.
Some of these exercise this rigid and severe kind of charity, with
a good intent of reducing several sects into one common church; but
the spirit of others is evidently seen by their detraction, their
malice, their spitting venom, their raising false reports of those
who are not of their communion. I wish the ancientness of these
censorious principles may be proved by better arguments, than by any
near resemblance they have with the primitive believers. But till I am
convinced that Lucian has been charged with atheism of old, I shall be
apt to think that this accusation is very modern.

One of Lucian’s translators pleads in his defence, that it was very
improbable a man, who has laughed paganism out of doors, should believe
no God; that he, who could point to the sepulchre of Jupiter in Crete,
as well as our Tertullian, should be an atheist. But this argument, I
confess, is of little weight to prove him a deist, only because he was
no polytheist. He might as well believe in none, as in many gods; and
on the other side, he might believe in many, as Julian did, and not in
one. For my own part, I think it is not proved that either of them were
apostates, though one of them, in hopes of an empire, might temporize,
while Christianity was the mode at court. Neither is our author cleared
any thing the more, because his writings have served, in the times of
the heathens, to destroy that vain, unreasonable, and impious religion;
_that_ was an oblique service, which Lucian never intended us; for his
business, like that of some modern polemics, was rather to pull down
every thing, than to set up any thing. With what show of probability
can I urge in his defence, that one of the greatest among the fathers
has drawn whole homilies from our author’s dialogue, since I know that
Lucian made them not for that purpose? The occasional good which he has
done, is not to be imputed to him. St Chrysostom, St Augustin, and many
others, have applied his arguments on better motives than their author
proposed to himself in framing them.

These reasons therefore, as they make nothing against his being an
atheist, so they prove nothing of his believing one God; but only leave
him as they found him, and leave us in as great an obscurity concerning
his religion as before. I may be as much mistaken in my opinion as
these great men have been before me; and this is very probable, because
I know less of him than they; yet I have read him over more than once,
and therefore will presume to say, that I think him either one of the
Eclectic[45] school, or else a Sceptic: I mean, that he either formed
a body of philosophy for his own use out of the opinions and dogmas of
several heathen philosophers, disagreeing amongst themselves, or that
he doubted of every thing; weighed all opinions, and adhered to none
of them; only used them as they served his occasion for the present
dialogue, and perhaps rejected them in the next. And indeed this last
opinion is the more probable of the two, if we consider the genius of
the man, whose image we may clearly see in the glass which he holds
before us of his writings, which reflects him to our sight.

Not to dwell on examples, with which his works are amply furnished,
I will only mention two. In one, Socrates convinces his friend
Chærephon of the power of the gods in transformations, and of a supreme
Providence which accompanies that power in the administration of the
world. In another, he confutes Jupiter, and pulls him down from heaven
to earth, by his own Homerical chain; and makes him only a subservient
slave to blind eternal fate. I might add, that he is, in one half of
his book, a Stoic, in the other an Epicurean; never constant to himself
in any scheme of divinity, unless it be in despising his gentile gods.
And this derision, as it shews the man himself, so it gives us an idea
of the age in which he lived; for if that had been devout or ignorant,
his scoffing humour would either have been restrained, or had not
passed unpunished; all knowing ages being naturally sceptic, and not at
all bigotted; which, if I am not much deceived, is the proper character
of our own.

To conclude this article: He was too fantastical, too giddy, too
irresolute, either to be any thing at all, or any thing long; and in
this view I cannot think he was either a steady atheist, or a deist,
but a doubter, a sceptic, as he plainly declares himself to be, when he
puts himself under the name of Hermotimus the Stoic, in the dialogue
called the “Dialogue of the Sects.”

As for his morals, they are spoken of as variously as his opinions.
Some are for decrying him more than he deserves; his defenders
themselves dare not set him up for a pattern of severe virtue. No
man is so profligate, as openly to profess vice; and therefore it is
no wonder, if under the reign of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two
Antonines, of which the last was his patron and benefactor, he lived
not so much a libertine as he had it to be in his nature. He is more
accused for his love of boys than of women. Not that we have any
particular story to convince us of this detestable passion in him; but
his own writings bear this record against him, that he speaks often of
it, and I know not that ever he condemns it. Repeated expressions, as
well as repeated actions, witness some secret pleasure in the deed, or
at least some secret inclination to it. He seems to insinuate, in his
“Dialogue of Loves,” that Socrates was given to this vice; but we find
not that he blames him for it, which, if he had been wholly innocent
himself, it became a philosopher to have done. But as we pass over a
foul way as hastily as we can, so I will leave this abominable subject,
which strikes me with horror when I name it.

If there be any who are guilty of this sin, we may assure ourselves
they will never stop at any other; for when they have overleaped the
bounds of nature, they run so fast to all other immoralities, that the
grace of God, without a miracle, can never overtake them.

Lucian is accused likewise for his writing too lusciously in his
“Dialogue of the Harlots.”[46] It has been the common fault of all
satirists, to make vice too amiable, while they expose it; but of all
men living, I am the most unfit to accuse Lucian, who am so little
able to defend myself from the same objection. We find not, however,
that Lucian was charged with the wantonness of his “Dialogues” in his
own life-time. If he had been, he would certainly have answered for
himself, as he did to those who accused him for exposing Socrates,
Plato, Diogenes, and other great philosophers, to the laughter of the
people, when Jupiter sold them by an inch of candle. But, to confess
the truth, [as] I am of their opinion, who think that answer of his not
over-ingenuous, viz. that he only attacked the false philosophers of
their sects, in their persons whom he honoured; so I am persuaded, that
he could not have alleged more in his excuse for these “Dialogues,”
than that as he taught harlots to deceive, so, at the same time, he
discovered their deceits to the knowledge of young men, and thereby
warned them to avoid the snare.

I find him not charged with any other faults, than what I have already
mentioned. He was otherwise of a life as unblameable as any man, for
aught we find to the contrary: and I have this probable inducement to
believe it, because he had so honourable an employment under Marcus
Aurelius, an emperor as clear-sighted as he was truly virtuous; for
both which qualities we need not quote Lucian, who was so much obliged
to him, but may securely appeal to Herodian, and to all the historians
who have written of him,--besides the testimony of his own admirable
works, which are yet in the hands of all the learned.

As for those who condemn our author for the too much gall and virulency
of his satires, it is to be suspected, says Dr Mayne, that they
themselves are guilty of those hypocrisies, crimes, and follies, which
he so sharply exposes, and at the same time endeavours to reform. I
may add, that, for the most part, he rather laughs like Horace, than
bites like Juvenal. Indeed his genius was of kin to both, but more
nearly related to the former. Some diseases are curable by lenitives;
to others corrosives are necessary. Can a man inveigh too sharply
against the cruelty of tyrants, the pride and vanity of the great,
the covetousness of the rich, the baseness of the Sophists, and
particularly of the Cynics, (who while they preach poverty to others,
are heaping up riches, and living in gluttony,) besides the wrangling
of the sects amongst themselves about supreme happiness, which he
describes at a drunken feast, and calls it the battle of the Lapithæ.

Excepting what already is excepted, he seems to me to be an enemy
to nothing but to vice and folly. The pictures which he draws of
Nigrinus and of Demonax are as fair as that of virtue herself, if,
as the philosopher said, she could wear a body. And if we oppose to
them the lives of Alexander the false prophet, and of Peregrinus, how
pleasingly, and with how much profit, does the deformity of the last
set off the beauty of the first!

Some of his censurers accuse him of flatness and want of wit in many
places. These I suppose have read him in some Latin translations, which
I confess, are generally dull; and this is the only excuse I can make
for them. Otherwise they accuse themselves too manifestly for want
of taste or understanding. Of this number is the wretched author of
the _Lucien en Belle Humeur_, who being himself as insipid as a Dutch
poet, yet arraigns Lucian for his own fault; introduces the ghost of
Ablancourt, confessing his coldness in many places, the poorness of
his thoughts, and his want of humour; represents his readers tired
and yawning at his ill buffoonery and false mirth, and sleeping
over his melancholic stories, which are every where stuffed with
improbabilities. He could have said no worse of a Leyden slip.[47]

The best on it is, the jaundice is only in his own eyes, which makes
Lucian look yellow to him. All mankind will exclaim against him for
preaching this doctrine; and be of opinion when they read his Lucian,
that he looked in a glass when he drew his picture. I wish I had the
liberty to lash this frog-land wit as he deserves; but when a speech
is not seconded in parliament, it falls of course; and this author has
the whole senate of the learned to pull him down: _incipient omnes pro
Cicerone loqui_.

It is to be acknowledged, that his best translator, Ablancourt, thinks
him not a profound master in any sort of philosophy; but only that
he skimmed enough from every sect, to serve his turn in rhetoric,
which was his profession. This he gathers from his superficial way of
arguing. But why may not another man reply in his defence, that he
made choice of those kinds of reasons which were most capable of being
made to shine in his facetious way of arguing; and those undoubtedly
were not the most knotty, nor the deepest, but the most diverting by
the sharpness of the raillery. Dr Mayne, so often praised, has another
opinion of Lucian’s learning, and the strength of his witty arguments,
concluding on that subject in these words, or near them: “For my part,
I know not to whose writings we owe more our Christianity, where the
true God has succeeded a multitude of false,--whether to the grave
confutation of Clemens Alexandrinus, Arnobius, Justin Martyr, St.
Augustin, Lactantius, &c. or the facetious wit of Lucian.”--I cannot
doubt but the treacherous translator would have given his hand to
what the Englishman has said of their common author. The success has
justified his opinion in the sight of all the world. Lucian’s manner
of convincing, was certainly more pleasant than that of the Christian
writers, and we know the effect was full as powerful; so easily can the
Eternal Wisdom draw good out of evil, and make his enemy subservient to
the establishment of his faith.

I will not enlarge on the praises of his oratory. If we compare his
style with the Greek historians, his contemporaries, or near his time,
we shall find it much more pure than that of Plutarch, Dion, or Appian,
though not so grave; because his subjects and theirs required to be
treated after a different manner. It was not of an uniform web, says
Mayne, like Thucydides, Polybius, and some others whom he names, but
was somewhat peculiar to himself; his words well chosen, his periods
round, the parts of his sentences harmoniously divided, a full flood
or even a torrent of persuasion, without inequalities or swellings;
such as might be put in equal comparison with the best orations of
Demosthenes or Isocrates; not so dry as the first, nor so flowery as
the last. His wit, says Ablancourt, was full of urbanity, that attic
salt, which the French call, fine raillery; not obscene, not gross,
not rude, but facetious, well mannered, and well bred: only he will
not allow his love the quality last mentioned, but thinks it rustical,
and according either to his own genius, or that of the age in which he
lived.

If wit consists in the propriety of thoughts and words, (which I
imagined I had first found out, but since am pleasingly convinced that
Aristotle has made the same definition in other terms,) then Lucian’s
thoughts and words are always proper to his characters and his subject.
If the pleasure arising from comedy and satire be either laughter, or
some nobler sort of delight, which is above it, no man is so great a
master of irony as our author. That figure is not only a keen, but a
shining weapon in his hand; it glitters in the eyes of those it kills;
his own gods, his greatest enemies, are not butchered by him, but
fairly slain: they must acknowledge the hero in the stroke, and take
the comfort which Virgil gives to a dying captain:

    _Æneæ magni dextrâ cadis._

I know not whom Lucian imitated, unless it might be Aristophanes; (for
you never find him mentioning any Roman wit, so much the Grecians
thought themselves superior to their conquerors;) but he, who has best
imitated him in Latin, is Erasmus; and in French, Fontenelle, in his
“Dialogues of the Dead,” which I never read but with a new pleasure.

Any one may see, that our author’s chief design was to dis-nest heaven
of so many immoral and debauched deities; his next, to expose the mock
philosophers; and his last, to give us examples of a good life in the
persons of the true.

The rest of his discourses are on mixed subjects, less for profit than
delight; and some of them too libertine.

The way which Lucian chose of delivering these profitable and pleasing
truths, was that of dialogue: a choice worthy of the author; happily
followed, as I said above, by Erasmus, and Fontenelle particularly, to
whom I may justly add a triumvir of our own,--the reverend, ingenious,
and learned Dr Eachard,[48] who, by using the same method, and the same
ingredients of raillery and reason, has more baffled the philosopher of
Malmesbury, than those who assaulted him with blunt heavy arguments,
drawn from orthodox divinity; for Hobbes foresaw where those strokes
would fall, and leaped aside before they could descend; but he could
not avoid those nimble passes, which were made on him by a wit more
active than his own, and which were within his body, before he could
provide for his defence.

I will not here take notice of the several kinds of dialogue, and the
whole art of it, which would ask an entire volume to perform. This
has been a work long wanted, and much desired, of which the ancients
have not sufficiently informed us; and I question whether any man now
living can treat it accurately. Lucian, it seems, was very sensible
of the difficult task, which he undertook in writing dialogues, as
appears in his discourse against one who had called him Prometheus.
He owns himself, in this particular, to be like to him, to whom he
was resembled, to be the inventor of a new work, attempted in a new
manner,--the model of which he had from none before him; but adds
withal, that if he could not give it the graces which belong to so
happy an invention, he deserves to be torn by twelve vultures, instead
of one, which preys upon the heart of that first man-potter. For,
to quit the beaten road of the ancients, and take a path of his own
choosing, he acknowledges to be a bold and ridiculous attempt, if it
succeed not. “The mirth of dialogue and comedy in my work,” says he,
“is not enough to make it pleasing, because the union of two contraries
may as well produce a monster as a miracle; as a centaur results from
the joint natures of a horse and man. It is not but that from two
excellent beings a third may arise of perfect beauty; but it is what I
dare not promise to myself; for dialogue being a solemn entertainment
of grave discourse, and comedy the wit and fooling of a theatre, I
fear that through the corruption of two good things, I have made one
bad. But whatever the child be, it is my own at least; I beg not with
another’s brat upon my back. From which of the ancients should I have
stolen or borrowed it? My chimeras have no other being than my own
imagination; let every man produce who can; and whether this be a
lawful birth, or a misshapen mass, is left for the present age, and for
posterity, to judge.”

This is the sense of my author’s words contracted in a narrow compass;
for, if you will believe Ablancourt, and others, his greatest fault is,
that he exhausts his argument,--like Ovid, knows not when to give over,
but is perpetually galloping beyond his stage.

But though I cannot pursue our author any farther, I find myself
obliged to say something of those translators of the following
Dialogues, whom I have the honour to know, as well as of some other
translations of this author; and a word or two of translation itself.

As for the translators, all of them, that I know, are men of
established reputation, both for wit and learning, at least
sufficiently known to be so among all the finer spirits of the age.
Sir Henry Sheers has given many proofs of his excellence in this kind;
for while we, by his admirable address, enjoy Polybius in our mother
tongue, we can never forget the hand that bestowed the benefit. The
learning and judgment above his age, which every one discovers in Mr
Moyle,[49] are proofs of those abilities he has shewn in his country’s
service, when he was chose to serve it in the senate, as his father
had done. The wit of Mr Blount,[50] and his other performances, need
no recommendation from me; they have made too much noise in the world
to need a herald. There are some other persons concerned in this
work, whose names deserve a place among the foremost, but that they
have not thought fit to be known, either out of a bashful diffidence
of their own performance, or out of apprehension of the censure of
an ill-natured and ill-judging age; for criticism is now become mere
hangman’s work, and meddles only with the faults of authors; nay, the
critic is disgusted less with their absurdities than excellence; and
you cannot displease him more than in leaving him little room for his
malice, in your correctness and perfection; though that indeed is what
he never allows any man; for, like the bed of Procrustes, they stretch
or cut off an author to its length. These spoilers of Parnassus are
a just excuse for concealing the name, since most of their malice is
levelled more at the person than the thing; and as a sure mark of their
judgment, they will extol to the skies the anonymous work of a person
they will not allow to write common sense.

But this consideration of our modern critics has led me astray, and
made me insensibly deviate from the subject before me; the modesty or
caution of the anonymous translators of the following work. Whatever
the motive of concealing their names may be, I shall not determine; but
it is certain, nothing could more contribute to make a perfect version
of Lucian, than a confederacy of many men of parts and learning to do
him justice. It seems a task too hard for any one to undertake; the
burden would indeed be insupportable, unless we did what the French
have done in some of their translations, allow twenty years to perfect
the work, and bestow all the brightest intervals, the most sprightly
hours, to polish and finish the work.[51]

But this has not been the fate of our author hitherto; for Lucian, that
is the sincere example of attic eloquence, as Grævius says of him, is
only a mass of solecism, and mere vulgarisms in Mr Spence.[52] I do
not think it worth my while to rake into the filth of so scandalous a
version; nor had I vouchsafed so much as to take notice of it, had it
not been so gross an affront to the memory of Lucian, and so great a
scandal to our nation. D’Ablancourt has taken a great deal of pains to
furnish this intruder into print, with Lucian, in a language more known
to him than Greek; nay, he has left him not one crabbed idiom to study
for, since he has admirably clothed him in a garb more familiar to the
moderns, still keeping the sense of his author in view. But in spite of
all these helps, these leading-strings were not sufficient to keep Mr
Spence from falling to the ground every step he made; while he makes
him speak in the style and language of a jack-pudding, not a master of
eloquence, admired for it through all the ages since he wrote. But too
much of this trifler.

I have said enough already of the version of the learned Dr Mayne, to
shew my approbation of it; but it is only a select parcel of Lucian’s
Dialogues which pleased him most, but far from the whole. As for any
other translation, if there be any such in our language, it is what I
never saw,[53] and suppose it must be antiquated, or of so inferior a
degree, as not even to rival Spence.

The present translation, as far as I can judge by what I have seen, is
no way inferior to Ablancourt’s, and in many things is superior. It
has indeed the advantage of appearing in a language more strong and
expressive than French, and by the hands of gentlemen who perfectly
understand him and their own language.

This has brought me to say a word or two about translation in general;
in which no nation might more excel than the English, though, as
matters are now managed, we come so far short of the French. There may
indeed be a reason assigned, which bears a very great probability;
and that is, that here the booksellers are the undertakers of works
of this nature, and they are persons more devoted to their own gain
than the public honour. They are very parsimonious in rewarding the
wretched scribblers they employ; and care not how the business is done,
so that it be but done. They live by selling titles, not books; and if
that carry off one impression, they have their ends, and value not the
curses they and their authors meet with from the bubbled chapmen. While
translations are thus at the disposal of the booksellers, and have no
better judges or rewarders of the performance, it is impossible that
we should make any progress in an art so very useful to an enquiring
people, and for the improvement and spreading of knowledge, which is
none of the worst preservatives against slavery.

It must be confessed, that when the bookseller has interest with
gentlemen of genius and quality, above the mercenary prospects of
little writers, as in that of Plutarch’s Lives,[54] and this of Lucian,
the reader may satisfy himself that he shall have the author’s spirit
and soul in the traduction. These gentlemen know very well, that they
are not to creep after the words of their author, in so servile a
manner as some have done; for that must infallibly throw them on a
necessity of introducing a new mode of diction and phraseology with
which we are not at all acquainted, and would incur that censure which
my Lord Dorset made formerly on those of Mr Spence, viz. that he was
so cunning a translator, that a man must consult the original, to
understand the version. For every language has a propriety and idiom
peculiar to itself, which cannot be conveyed to another without
perpetual absurdities.

The qualification of a translator, worth reading, must be, a mastery
of the language he translates out of, and that he translates into; but
if a deficience be to be allowed in either, it is in the original;
since if he be but master enough of the tongue of his author, as to
be master of his sense, it is possible for him to express that sense
with eloquence in his own, if he have a thorough command of that.
But without the latter, he can never arrive at the useful and the
delightful; without which reading is a penance and fatigue.

It is true that there will be a great many beauties, which in every
tongue depend on the diction, that will be lost[55] in the version of a
man not skilled in the original language of the author; but then on the
other side, first it is impossible to render all those little ornaments
of speech in any two languages; and if he have a mastery in the sense
and spirit of his author, and in his own language have a style and
happiness of expression, he will easily supply all that is lost by that
defect.

A translator that would write with any force or spirit of an original,
must never dwell on the words of his author. He ought to possess
himself entirely, and perfectly comprehend the genius and sense of his
author, the nature of the subject, and the terms of the art or subject
treated of; and then he will express himself as justly, and with as
much life, as if he wrote an original; whereas, he who copies word for
word, loses all the spirit in the tedious transfusion.

I would not be understood that he should be at liberty to give such a
turn as Mr Spence has in some of his; where for the fine raillery and
attic salt of Lucian, we find the gross expressions of Billingsgate, or
Moorfields and Bartholomew Fair. For I write not to such translators,
but to men capacious of the soul and genius of their authors, without
which all their labour will be of no use but to disgrace themselves,
and injure the author that falls into their slaughter-house.

I believe I need give no other rules to the reader than the following
version, where example will be stronger than precept, to which I now
refer them; in which a man justly qualified for a translator will
discover many rules extremely useful to that end. But [to] a man who
wants these natural qualifications which are necessary for such an
undertaking, all particular precepts are of no other use, than to make
him a more remarkable coxcomb.




DRYDEN’S LETTERS.




LETTERS OF DRYDEN.


The Letters of Dryden, so far as hitherto given to the public,
are, with a few exceptions, singularly uninteresting. To the
publication of some, which are known to exist, there were found to
occur still stronger objections. I have been only able to add one
to those collected by Mr Malone; and I was strongly tempted to omit
several. There is, however, a satisfaction in seeing how such a man
expressed himself, even upon the most trivial occasions; and I have
therefore retained those complimentary acknowledgments of turkeys,
marrow-puddings, and bacon, which have nothing but such a consideration
to recommend them.




DRYDEN’S LETTERS.


LETTER I.

TO THE FAIRE HANDS OF MADAME HONOR DRYDEN THESE CRAVE ADMITTANCE.[56]

  MADAME,       Camb. May 23, 16[55.]

If you have received the lines I sent by the reverend Levite, I doubt
not but they have exceedingly wrought upon you; for beeing so longe
in a clergyman’s pocket, assuredly they have acquired more sanctity
than theire authour meant them. Alasse, Madame! for ought I know, they
may become a sermon ere they could arrive at you; and believe it,
haveing you for the text, it could scarcely proove bad, if it light
upon one that could handle it indifferently. But I am so miserable a
preacher, that though I have so sweet and copious a subject, I still
fall short in my expressions; and, instead of an use of thanksgiving, I
am allways makeing one of comfort, that I may one day againe have the
happinesse to kisse your faire hand; but that is a message I would not
so willingly do by letter, as by word of mouth.

This is a point, I must confesse, I could willingly dwell longer
on; and, in this case, what ever I say you may confidently take for
gospell. But I must hasten. And indeed, Madame, (_beloved_ I had almost
sayd,) hee had need hasten who treats of you; for to speake fully to
every part of your excellencyes, requires a longer houre than most
persons[57] have allotted them. But, in a word, your selfe hath been
the best expositor upon the text of your own worth, in that admirable
comment you wrote upon it; I meane your incomparable letter. By all
that’s good, (and you, Madame, are a great part of my oath,) it hath
put mee so farre besides my selfe, that I have scarce patience to
write prose, and my pen is stealing into verse every time I kisse your
letter. I am sure, the poor paper smarts for my idolatry, which, by
wearing it continually neere my brest, will, at last, be burnt and
martyrd in those flames of adoration, which it hath kindled in mee. But
I forgett, Madame, what rarityes your letter came fraught with, besides
words. You are such a deity that commands worship by provideing the
sacrifice. You are pleasd, Madame, to force me to write, by sending me
materialls, and compell me to my greatest happinesse. Yet, though I
highly value your magnificent presente, pardon mee, if I must tell the
world, they are imperfect emblems of your beauty; for the white and red
of waxe and paper are but shaddowes of that vermillion and snow in your
lips and forehead; and the silver of the inkehorne, if it presume to
vye whitenesse with your purer skinne, must confesse it selfe blacker
then the liquor it containes. What then do I more then retrieve your
own guifts, and present you with that paper adulterated with blotts,
which you gave spotlesse?

    For, since ’twas mine, the white hath lost its hiew,
    To show ’twas n’ere it selfe, but whilst in you:
    The virgin waxe hath blusht it selfe to red,
    Since it with mee hath lost its maydenhead.
    You, fairest nymph, are waxe: oh! may you bee
    As well in softnesse, as in purity!
    Till fate, and your own happy choice, reveale,
    Whom you so farre shall blesse, to make your seale.

Fairest Valentine, the unfeigned wishe of your humble votary,

  JO. DRYDEN.


LETTER II.

TO [JOHN WILMOT,] EARL OF ROCHESTER.

  MY LORD,          Tuesday. [July, 1673.][58]

I have accused my selfe this month together, for not writing to you.
I have called my selfe by the names I deserved, of unmannerly and
ungratefull. I have been uneasy, and taken up the resolutions of a man,
who is betwixt sin and repentance, convinc’d of what he ought to do,
and yet unable to do better. At the last, I deferred it so long, that
I almost grew hardened in the neglect; and thought I had suffered so
much in your good opinion, that it was in vain to hope I could redeem
it. So dangerous a thing it is to be inclin’d to sloath, that I must
confess, once for all, I was ready to quit all manner of obligations,
and to receive, as if it were my due, the most handsome compliment,
couch’d in the best language I have read, and this too from my Lord
of Rochester, without shewing myself sensible of the favour. If your
Lordship could condescend so far to say all those things to me, which I
ought to have say’d to you, it might reasonably be concluded, that you
had enchanted me to believe those praises, and that I owned them in my
silence. ’Twas this consideration that moved me at last to put off my
idleness. And now the shame of seeing my selfe overpay’d so much for an
ill Dedication, has made me almost repent of my address. I find, it is
not for me to contend any way with your Lordship, who can write better
on the meanest subject, then I can on the best. I have only engaged
my selfe in a new debt, when I had hoped to cancell a part of the old
one; and should either have chosen some other patron, whom it was in
my power to have obliged by speaking better of him then he deserv’d,
or have made your Lordship only a hearty Dedication of the respect and
honour I had for you, without giving you the occasion to conquer me, as
you have done, at my own weapon.

My only relief is, that what I have written is publique, and I am so
much my own friend as to conceal your Lordship’s letter; for that which
would have given vanity to any other poet, has only given me confusion.

You see, my Lord, how far you have push’d me; I dare not own the honour
you have done me, for fear of shewing it to my own disadvantage. You
are that _rerum natura_ of your own Lucretius;

    _Ipsa suis pollens opibus, nihil indiga nostri._[59]

You are above any incense I can give you, and have all the happiness
of an idle life, join’d with the good-nature of an active. Your
friends in town are ready to envy the leisure you have given your
selfe in the country, though they know you are only their steward, and
that you treasure up but so much health as you intend to spend on
them in winter. In the mean time, you have withdrawn your selfe from
attendance, the curse of courts; you may think on what you please,
and that as little as you please; for, in my opinion, thinking it
selfe is a kind of pain to a witty man; he finds so much more in it to
disquiet than to please him. But I hope your Lordship will not omitt
the occasion of laughing at the great Duke of B[uckingham,] who is
so uneasy to him selfe by pursuing the honour of lieutenant-general,
which flyes him, that he can enjoy nothing he possesses,[60] though, at
the same time, he is so unfit to command an army, that he is the only
man in the three nations, who does not know it; yet he still picques
himself, like his father, to find another Isle of Rhe in Zealand;[61]
thinking this disappointment an injury to him, which is indeed a
favour, and will not be satisfied but with his own ruin and with ours.
’Tis a strange quality in a man to love idleness so well as to destroy
his estate by it; and yet, at the same time, to pursue so violently the
most toilsome and most unpleasant part of business. These observations
would soon run into lampoon, if I had not forsworn that dangerous
part of wit; not so much out of good-nature, but lest from the inborn
vanity of poets I should shew it to others, and betray my selfe to a
worse mischief than what I do to my enemy. This has been lately the
case of Etherege, who, translating a satyr of Boileau’s, and changing
the French names for English, read it so often, that it came to their
ears who were concern’d, and forced him to leave off the design, e’re
it were half finish’d. Two of the verses I remember:

    I call a spade, a spade; Eaton,[62] a bully;
    Frampton,[63] a pimp; and brother John, a cully.

But one of his friends imagin’d those names not enough for the dignity
of a satyr, and chang’d them thus:

    I call a spade, a spade; Dunbar,[64] a bully;
    Brounckard,[65] a pimp; and Aubrey Vere,[66] a cully.

Because I deal not in satyr, I have sent your Lordship a prologue and
epilogue, which I made for our players, when they went down to Oxford.
I hear they have succeeded; and by the event your Lordship will judge
how easy ’tis to pass any thing upon an university, and how gross
flattery the learned will endure.[67] If your Lordship had been in
town, and I in the country, I durst not have entertained you with three
pages of a letter; but I know they are very ill things which can be
tedious to a man, who is fourscore miles from Covent Garden. ’Tis upon
this confidence, that I dare almost promise to entertain you with a
thousand _bagatelles_ every week, and not to be serious in any part of
my letter, but that wherein I take leave to call myself your Lordship’s

  Most obedient servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.


LETTER III.

_The following Note and Letter contains the determination of a dispute,
and probably of a wager, which had been referred to our author by the
parties. It concerns a passage in Creech’s “Lucretius,” and probably
was written soon after the publication of that translation in 1682,
when it was a recent subject of conversation. The full passage in
“Lucretius” runs thus_:

    Præterea quæcunque vetustate amovet ætas,
    Si penitus perimit, consumens materiam omnem,
    Unde animale genus generatim in lumina vitæ
    Redducit Venus?----

_Which Creech thus renders_:

    _Besides, if o’er whatever years prevail
    Should wholly perish, and its matter fail,
    How could the powers of all kind Venus breed
    A constant race of animals to succeed?_

_The translation of Creech is at least complicated and unintelligible;
and I am uncertain whether even Dryden’s explanation renders it
grammatical. Dryden speaks elsewhere with great applause of Creech’s
translation._

_The original of this decision (in Dryden’s hand-writing) is in the
possession of Mrs White of Bownham-hall, Gloucestershire, and was most
obligingly communicated to the editor by that lady, through the medium
of Mr Constable of Edinburgh._

       *       *       *       *       *

The two verses, concerning which the dispute is rais’d, are these:

    Besides, if o’re whatever yeares prevaile
    Shou’d wholly perish, and its matter faile.

The question arising from them is, whether any true grammatical
construction can be made of them? The objection is, that there is
no nominative case appearing to the word _perish_, or that can be
understood to belong to it.

I have considered the verses, and find the authour of them to have
notoriously bungled; that he has plac’d the words as confus’dly as if
he had studied to do so. This notwithstanding, the very words, without
adding or diminishing in theire proper sence, (or at least what the
authour meanes,) may run thus:--_Besides, if what ever yeares prevaile
over, should wholly perish, and its matter faile._

I pronounce therefore, as impartially as I can upon the whole, that
there _is_ a nominative case, and that figurative, so as Terence and
Virgil, amongst others, use it; that is, the whole clause precedent
is the nominative case to _perish_. My reason is this, and I think
it obvious; let the question be ask’d, what it is that should wholly
perish, or that perishes? The answer will be, That which yeares
prevaile over. If you will not admit a clause to be in construction a
nominative case, the word _thing_, _illud_, or _quodcunque_, is to be
understood, either of which words, in the femine gender, agree with
_res_, so that he meanes what ever _thing_ time prevails over shou’d
wholly perish, and its matter faile.

Lucretius, his Latine runs thus:

    _Prætereà, quæcunque vetustate amovet ætas,
    Si penitus perimit, consumens materiam omnem,
    Unde animale genus, generatim in lumina vitæ
    Redducit Venus? &c._

which ought to have been translated thus:

    Besides, what ever time removes from view,
    If he destroys the stock of matter too,
    From whence can kindly propagation spring,
    Of every creature, and of every thing?

I translated it _whatever_ purposely, to shew, that _thing_ is to
be understood; which, as the words are heere plac’d, is so very
perspicuous, that the nominative case cannot be doubted.

The word, _perish_, used by Mr Creech, is a verb neuter; where
Lucretius puts _perimit_, which is active; a licence which, in
translating a philosophical poet, ought not to be taken; for some
reason, which I have not room to give. But to comfort the loser, I am
apt to believe, that the cross-grain confused verse put him so much out
of patience, that he wou’d not suspect it of any sence.

       *       *       *       *       *

  SIR,

The company having done me so great an honour as to make me their
judge, I desire from you the favour of presenting my acknowledgments
to them; and shou’d be proud to heere from you, whether they rest
satisfyed in my opinion, who am,

  Sir,

  Your most humble servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.[68]


LETTER IV.

TO THE REV. DR BUSBY.

  HONOUR’D SIR,          Wednesday Morning, [1682.]

We have, with much ado, recover’d my younger sonn,[69] who came home
extreamly sick of a violent cold, and, as he thinks him selfe, a
chine-cough. The truth is, his constitution is very tender; yet
his desire of learning, I hope, will inable him to brush through
the college. He is allwayes gratefully acknowledging your fatherly
kindnesse to him; and very willing to his poore power, to do all things
which may continue it. I have no more to add, but only to wish the
eldest may also deserve some part of your good opinion; for I believe
him to be of vertuous and pious inclinations; and for both, I dare
assure you, that they can promise to them selves no farther share of my
indulgence, then while they carry them selves with that reverence to
you, and that honesty to all others, as becomes them. I am, honour’d
Sir,

  Your most obedient servant and scholar,

  JOHN DRYDEN.[70]


LETTER V.

TO THE REV. DR BUSBY.

  SIR,              [1682.]

If I could have found in my selfe a fitting temper to have waited
upon you, I had done it the day you dismissed my sonn[71] from the
college; for he did the message: and by what I find from Mr Meredith,
as it was delivered by you to him; namely, that you desired to see
me, and had somewhat to say to me concerning him. I observ’d likewise
somewhat of kindnesse in it, that you sent him away, that you might not
have occasion to correct him. I examin’d the business, and found, it
concern’d his having been _custos_[72] foure or five dayes together.
But if he admonished, and was not believed, because other boyes
combined to discredit him with false witnesseing, and to save them
selves, perhaps his crime is not so great. Another fault, it seems,
he made, which was going into one Hawkes his house, with some others;
which you hapning to see, sent your servant to know who they were, and
he onely returned you my sonn’s name; so the rest escaped.

I have no fault to find with my sonn’s punishment; for that is, and
ought to be, reserv’d to any master, much more to you, who have been
his father’s. But your man was certainly to blame to name him onely;
and ’tis onely my respect to you, that I do not take notice of it
to him. My first rash resolutions were, to have brought things past
any composure, by immediately sending for my sonn’s things out of
college; but upon recollection, I find, I have a double tye upon me
not to do it: one, my obligations to you for my education; another, my
great tendernesse of doeing any thing offensive to my Lord Bishop of
Rochester,[73] as cheife governour of the college. It does not consist
with the honour I beare him and you to go so precipitately to worke;
no, not so much as to have any difference with you, if it can possibly
be avoyded. Yet, as my sonn stands now, I cannot see with what credit
he can be elected; for, being but sixth, and (as you are pleased to
judge,) not deserving that neither, I know not whether he may not go
immediately to Cambridge, as well as one of his own election went to
Oxford this yeare[74] by your consent. I will say nothing of my second
sonn, but that, after you had been pleased to advise me to waite on my
Lord Bishop for his favour, I found he might have had the first place,
if you had not opposed it; and I likewise found at the election, that,
by the pains you had taken with him, he in some sort deserved it.

I hope, Sir, when you have given your selfe the trouble to read thus
farr, you, who are a prudent man, will consider, that none complaine,
but they desire to be reconciled at the same time: there is no mild
expostulation, at least, which does not intimate a kindness and respect
in him who makes it. Be pleas’d, if there be no merit on my side, to
make it your own act of grace to be what you were formerly to my sonn.
I have done something, so far to conquer my own spirit as to ask it;
and, indeed, I know not with what face to go to my Lord Bishop, and
to tell him I am takeing away both my sonns; for though I shall tell
him no occasion, it will looke like a disrespect to my old master, of
which I will not be guilty, if it be possible. I shall add no more, but
hope I shall be so satisfyed with a favourable answer from you, which
I promise to my selfe from your goodnesse and moderation, that I shall
still have occasion to continue,

  Sir,

  Your most obliged humble servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.[75]


LETTER VI.

TO LAURENCE HYDE, EARL OF ROCHESTER[76]

  MY LORD,          [Perhaps August 1683.]

I know not whether my Lord Sunderland has interceded with your Lordship
for half a yeare of my salary; but I have two other advocates, my
extreme wants, even almost to arresting, and my ill health, which
cannot be repaired without immediate retireing into the country.
A quarter’s allowance is but the Jesuit’s powder to my disease;
the fit will return a fortnight hence. If I durst, I would plead a
little merit, and some hazards of my life from the common enemyes; my
refuseing advantages offered by them, and neglecting my beneficiall
tudyes, for the King’s service: but I only thinke I merit not to
sterve. I never apply’d myselfe to any interest contrary to your
Lordship’s; and on some occasions, perhaps not known to you, have
not been unserviceable to the memory and reputation of my Lord, your
father.[77] After this, my Lord, my conscience assures me, I may write
boldly, though I cannot speake to you. I have three sonns growing
to man’s estate; I breed them all up to learning, beyond my fortune;
but they are too hopefull to be neglected, though I want. Be pleased
to looke on me with an eye of compassion. Some small employment would
render my condition easy. The King is not unsatisfied of me; the Duke
has often promised me his assistance; and your Lordship is the conduit
through which they passe, either in the Customes, or the Appeals of
the Excise,[78] or some other way, meanes cannot be wanting, if you
please to have the will. ’Tis enough for one age to have neglected Mr
Cowley, and sterv’d Mr Butler; but neither of them had the happiness to
live till your Lordship’s ministry. In the meane time, be pleased to
give me a gracious and speedy answer to my present request of halfe a
yeare’s pention for my necessityes. I am going to write somewhat by his
Majesty’s command,[79] and cannot stir into the country for my health
and studies, till I secure my family from want. You have many petitions
of this nature, and cannot satisfy all; but I hope, from your goodness,
to be made an exception to your general rules,[80] because I am, with
all sincerity,

  Your Lordship’s

  Most obedient humble servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.


LETTER VII.

TO MR JACOB TONSON.

_The letters to Tonson are without dates. I have retained those which
Mr Malone has attached to them, from circumstances of internal evidence
which it seems unnecessary to detail, but which appear in general
satisfactory, though not given as absolutely conclusive._

  MR TONSON,        Monday Morning, [1684.]

The two melons you sent I received before your letter, which came
foure houres after: I tasted one of them, which was too good to need
an excuse; the other is yet untouched. You have written diverse things
which give me great satisfaction; particularly that the History of the
League is commended: and I hope the onely thing I feared in it is not
found out.[81] Take it all together, and I dare say without vanity,
’tis the best translation of any history in English, though I cannot
say ’tis the best history; but that is no fault of mine. I am glad
my Lord Duke of Ormond has one: I did not forget him; but I thought
his sorrows were too fresh upon him to receive a present of that
nature.[82] For my Lord Roscommon’s Essay,[83] I am of your opinion,
that you should reprint it, and that you may safely venture on a
thousand more. In my verses before it, pray let the printer mend his
errour, and let the line stand thus:

    That heer his conqu’ring ancestors were nurs’d;--[84]

Charles his copy[85] is all true. The other faults my Lord Roscommon
will mend in the booke, or Mr Chetwood[86] for him, if my Lord be gone
for Ireland; of which, pray send me word.

Your opinion of the Miscellanyes[87] is likewise mine: I will for
once lay by the “_Religio Laici_,” till another time. But I must also
add, that since we are to have nothing but new, I am resolved we will
have nothing but good, whomever we disoblige. You will have of mine,
four Odes of Horace, which I have already translated; another small
translation of forty lines from Lucretius; the whole story of Nisus and
Eurialus, both in the fifth and the ninth of Virgil’s Æneids: and I
care not who translates them beside me; for let him be friend or foe, I
will please myself, and not give off in consideration of any man. There
will be forty lines more of Virgil in another place, to answer those
of Lucretius: I meane those very lines which Montagne has compared
in those two poets; and Homer shall sleep on for me,--I will not now
meddle with him. And for the Act which remains of the Opera,[88] I
believe I shall have no leysure to mind it, after I have done what I
proposed; for my business here is to unweary my selfe after my studyes,
not to drudge.

I am very glad you have pay’d Mr Jones, because he has carryed him
selfe so gentlemanlike to me; and, if ever it lyes in my power, I will
requite it. I desire to know whether the Duke’s House are makeing
cloaths, and putting things in a readiness for the singing Opera, to be
played immediately after Michaelmasse.[89] For the actors in the two
playes[90] which are to be acted of mine this winter, I had spoken with
Mr Betterton by chance at the Coffee-house the afternoon before I came
away; and I believe that the persons were all agreed on, to be just
the same you mentioned; only Octavia was to be Mrs Butler, in case Mrs
Cooke were not on the stage; and I know not whether Mrs Percival, who
is a comedian, will do well for Benzayda.

I came hither for health, and had a kind of hectique feavour for a
fortnight of the time: I am now much better. Poore Jack[91] is not yet
recovered of an intermitting feavour, of which this is the twelfth day;
but he mends, and now begins to eat flesh: to add to this, my man,
with over care of him, is fallen ill too, of the same distemper; so
that I am deep in doctors, ’pothecaries, and nurses: but though many
in this country fall sick of feavours, few or none dye. Your friend,
Charles,[92] continues well. If you have any extraordinary newes, I
should be glad to heare it. I will answer Mr Butler’s letter next week;
for it requires no hast.

  I am yours,

  JOHN DRYDEN.


LETTER VIII.

FROM JACOB TONSON TO JOHN DRYDEN, ESQ.

  SIR,      [Probably written in Jan. or Feb. 1692-3.][93]

I have here returned y^e Ovid, w^{ch} I read w^th a great deal of
pleasure, and think nothing can be more entertaining; but by this
letter you find I am not soe well satisfied as perhaps you might think.
I hope at y^e same time the matter of fact I lay down in this letter
will appear grounds for it, and w^{ch} I beg you wou’d concider of; and
then I believe I shall at least bee excused.

You may please, S^r, to remember, that upon my first proposal about y^e
3^d Miscellany, I offer’d fifty pounds, and talk’d of several authours,
without naming Ovid. You ask’d if it shou’d not be guynneas, and said
I shou’d not repent it; upon w^{ch} I imediately comply’d, and left
it wholy to you what, and for y^e quantity too: and I declare it was
the farthest in y^e world from my thoughts that by leaving it to you
I shou’d have the less. Thus the case stood when you went into Essex.
After I came out of Northamptonshire I wrote to you, and reseived a
letter dated Monday Oct. 3^d, 92, from w^{ch} letter I now write word
for word what followes:

“I am translating about six hundred lines, or somewhat less, of y^e
first book of the Metamorphoses. If I cannot get my price, w^{ch} shall
be twenty guynneas, I will translate the whole book; w^{ch} coming out
before the whole translation, will spoyl Tate’s undertakings. ’Tis one
of the best I have ever made, and very pleasant. This, w^{th} Heroe and
Leander, and the piece of Homer, (or, if it be not enough, I will add
more,) will make a good part of a Miscellany.”

Those, S^r, are y^e very words, and y^e onely ones in that letter
relating to that affair; and y^e Monday following you came to
town.--After your arrivall you shew’d Mr Motteaux what you had done,
(w^{ch} he told me was to y^e end of y^e story of Daphnis,) [Daphne,]
and demanded, as you mention’d in your letter, twenty guyneas, w^{ch}
that bookseller refus’d. Now, S^r, I the rather believe there was
just soe much done, by reason y^e number of lines you mention in yo^r
letter agrees w^{th} y^e quantity of lines that soe much of y^e first
book makes; w^{ch} upon counting y^e Ovid, I find to be in y^e Lattin
566, in y^e English 759; and y^e bookseller told me there was noe more
demanded of him for it.--Now, S^r, what I entreat you wou’d please to
consider of is this: that it is reasonable for me to expect at least
as much favour from you as a strange bookseller; and I will never
believe y^t it can be in yo^r nature to use one y^e worse for leaveing
it to you; and if the matter of fact as I state it be true, (and upon
my word what I mention I can shew you in yo^r letter,) then pray,
S^r, consider how much dearer I pay then you offered it to y^e other
bookseller; for he might have had to y^e end of y^e story of Daphnis
for 20 guynneas, w^{ch} is in yo^r translation

                                                        759 lines;
  And then suppose 20 guyneas more for the same number  759 lines,
                                                        ---------
  that makes for 40 guyneas                            1518 lines;

and all that I have for fifty guyneas are but 1446; soe that, if I have
noe more, I pay 10 guyneas above 40, and have 72 lines less for fifty,
in proportion, than the other bookseller shou’d have had for 40, at
y^e rate you offered him y^e first part. This is, Sir, what I shall
take as a great favour if you please to think of. I had intentions of
letting you know this before; but till I had paid y^e money, I would
not ask to see the book, nor count the lines, least it shou’d look like
a design of not keeping my word. When you have looked over y^e rest of
what you have already translated, I desire you would send it; and I own
y^t if you don’t think fit to add something more, I must submit: ’tis
wholly at yo^r choice, for I left it intirely to you; but I believe you
cannot imagine I expected soe little; for you were pleased to use me
much kindlyer in Juvenall, w^{ch} is not reckon’d soe easy to translate
as Ovid. S^r, I humbly beg yo^r pardon for this long letter, and upon
my word I had rather have yo^r good will than any man’s alive; and,
whatever you are pleased to doe, will alway acknowledge my self, S^r,

  Yo^r most obliged humble Serv^t,

  J. TONSON.


LETTER IX.

TO MR JACOB TONSON.[94]

  MR TONSON,                 August 30. [1693.]

I am much asham’d of my self, that I am so much behind-hand with you
in kindness. Above all things I am sensible of your good nature, in
bearing me company to this place, wherein, besides the cost, you must
needs neglect your own business; but I will endeavour to make you some
amends; and therefore I desire you to command me something for your
service. I am sure you thought my Lord Radclyffe[95] wou’d have done
something: I ghess’d more truly, that he cou’d not; but I was too far
ingag’d to desist, though I was tempted to it by the melancholique
prospect I had of it. I have translated six hundred lines of Ovid; but
I believe I shall not compasse his 772 lines under nine hundred or
more of mine.--This time I cannot write to my wife, because he who is
to carry my letter to Oundle, will not stay till I can write another.
Pray, Sir, let her know that I am well; and for feare the few damsins
shou’d be all gone, desire her to buy me a sieve-full, to preserve
whole, and not in mash.[96]

I intend to come up at least a week before Michaelmass; for Sir
Matthew[97] is gone abroad, I suspect a wooeing, and his caleche is
gone with him: so that I have been but thrice at Tichmarsh, of which
you were with me once. This disappointment makes the place wearysome to
me, which otherwise wou’d be pleasant.

About a fortnight ago I had an intimation from a friend by letter,
that one of the secretaryes, I suppose Trenchard,[98] had informed the
queen, that I had abus’d her government (those were the words) in my
Epistle to my Lord Radcliffe; and that thereupon she had commanded her
historiographer, Rymer, to fall upon my playes; which he assures me is
now doeing. I doubt not his malice, from a former hint you gave me; and
if he be employ’d, I am confident ’tis of his own seeking; who, you
know, has spoken slightly of me in his last critique:[99] and that gave
me occasion to snarl againe.[100] In your next, let me know what you
can learn of this matter. I am Mr Congreve’s true lover, and desire
you to tell him, how kindly I take his often remembrances of me: I wish
him all prosperity, and hope I shall never loose his affection; nor
yours, Sir, as being

  Your most faithfull,

  And much obliged Servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

I had all your letters.

Sir Matthew had your book when he came home last; and desir’d me to
give you his acknowledgements.


LETTER X.

MR JOHN DENNIS[101] TO MR DRYDEN.

  DEAR SIR,

You may see already by this presumptuous greeting, that encouragement
gives as much assurance to friendship, as it imparts to love. You may
see too, that a friend may sometimes proceed to acknowledge affection,
by the very same degrees by which a lover declares his passion. This
last at first confesses esteem, yet owns no passion but admiration.
But as soon as he is animated by one kind expression, his look, his
style, and his very soul are altered. But as sovereign beauties know
very well, that he who confesses he esteems and admires them, implies
that he loves them, or is inclined to love them: a person of Mr
Dryden’s exalted genius, can discern very well, that when we esteem
him highly, ’tis respect restrains us, if we say no more. For where
great esteem is without affection, ’tis often attended with envy, if
not with hate; which passions detract even when they commend, and
silence is their highest panegyrick. ’Tis indeed impossible, that I
should refuse to love a man, who has so often given me all the pleasure
that the most insatiable mind can desire: when at any time I have
been dejected by disappointments, or tormented by cruel passions, the
recourse to your verses has calm’d my soul, or raised it to transports
which made it contemn tranquillity. But though you have so often given
me all the pleasure I was able to bear, I have reason to complain of
you on this account, that you have confined my delight to a narrower
compass. Suckling, Cowley, and Denham, who formerly ravished me in
every part of them, now appear tasteless to me in most; and Waller
himself, with all his gallantry, and all that admirable art of his
turns, appears three quarters prose to me. Thus ’tis plain, that your
Muse has done me an injury; but she has made me amends for it. For
she is like those extraordinary women, who, besides the regularity
of their charming features, besides their engaging wit, have secret,
unaccountable, enchanting graces; which though they have been long and
often enjoyed, make them always new and always desirable.--I return
you my hearty thanks for your most obliging letter. I had been very
unreasonable, if I had repined that the favour arrived no sooner. ’Tis
allowable to grumble at the delaying a payment; but to murmur at the
deferring a benefit, is to be impudently ungrateful beforehand. The
commendations which you give me, exceedingly sooth my vanity. For you
with a breath can bestow or confirm reputation; a whole numberless
people proclaims the praise which you give, and the judgments of three
mighty kingdoms appear to depend upon yours. The people gave me some
little applause before; but to whom, when they are in the humour,
will they not give it? and to whom, when they are froward, will they
not refuse it? Reputation with them depends upon chance, unless they
are guided by those above them. They are but the keepers, as it were,
of the lottery which Fortune sets up for renown; upon which Fame is
bound to attend with her trumpet, and sound when men draw the prizes.
Thus I had rather have your approbation than the applause of Fame.
Her commendation argues good luck, but Mr Dryden’s implies desert.
Whatever low opinion I have hitherto had of myself, I have so great a
value for your judgment, that, for the sake of that, I shall be willing
henceforward to believe that I am not wholly desertless; but that you
may find me still more supportable, I shall endeavour to compensate
whatever I want in those glittering qualities, by which the world is
dazzled, with truth, with faith, and with zeal to serve you; qualities
which for their rarity, might be objects of wonder, but that men dare
not appear to admire them, because their admiration would manifestly
declare their want of them. Thus, Sir, let me assure you, that though
you are acquainted with several gentlemen, whose eloquence and wit may
capacitate them to offer their service with more address to you, yet
no one can declare himself, with greater chearfulness, or with greater
fidelity, or with more profound respect than myself,

  Sir,
  _March_ 3, [1693-4]       Your most, &c.

  JOHN DENNIS.


LETTER. XI.

TO MR JOHN DENNIS. [In answer to the foregoing.]

  MY DEAR MR DENNIS,    [Probably March 1693-4.]

When I read a letter so full of my commendations as your last, I cannot
but consider you as the master of a vast treasure, who having more than
enough for yourself, are forced to ebb out upon your friends. You have
indeed the best right to give them, since you have them in propriety;
but they are no more mine when I receive them than the light of the
moon can be allowed to be her own, who shines but by the reflexion of
her brother. Your own poetry is a more powerful example, to prove that
the modern writers may enter into comparison with the ancients, than
any which Perrault could produce in France: yet neither he, nor you,
who are a better critick, can persuade me, that there is any room left
for a solid commendation at this time of day, at least for me.

If I undertake the translation of Virgil, the little which I can
perform will shew at least, that no man is fit to write after him, in
a barbarous modern tongue. Neither will his machines be of any service
to a Christian poet. We see how ineffectually they have been tryed by
Tasso, and by Ariosto. It is using them too dully, if we only make
devils of his gods: as if, for example, I would raise a storm, and
make use of Æolus, with this only difference of calling him Prince of
the Air; what invention of mine would there be in this? or who would
not see Virgil thorough me; only the same trick played over again by
a bungling juggler? Boileau has well observed, that it is an easy
matter in a Christian poem, for God to bring the Devil to reason. I
think I have given a better hint for new machines in my preface to
Juvenal; where I have particularly recommended two subjects, one of
King Arthur’s conquest of the Saxons, and the other of the Black Prince
in his conquest of Spain. But the guardian angels of monarchys and
kingdoms are not to be touched by every hand: a man must be deeply
conversant in the Platonic philosophy, to deal with them; and therefore
I may reasonably expect, that no poet of our age will presume to handle
those machines, for fear of discovering his own ignorance; or if he
should, he might perhaps be ingrateful enough not to own me for his
benefactour.[102]

After I have confessed thus much of our modern heroic poetry, I cannot
but conclude with Mr Rymer, that our English comedy is far beyond any
thing of the ancients: and notwithstanding our irregularities, so is
our tragedy. Shakspeare had a genius for it; and we know, in spite
of Mr Rymer, that genius alone is a greater virtue (if I may so call
it) than all other qualifications put together. You see what success
this learned critick has found in the world, after his blaspheming
Shakspeare.[103] Almost all the faults which he has discovered are
truly there; yet who will read Mr Rymer, or not read Shakspeare? For my
own part I reverence Mr Rymer’s learning, but I detest his ill-nature
and his arrogance. I indeed, and such as I, have reason to be afraid
of him, but Shakspeare has not.[104]

There is another part of poetry, in which the English stand almost
upon an equal foot with the ancients; and it is that which we call
Pindarique; introduced, but not perfected, by our famous Mr Cowley: and
of this, Sir, you are certainly one of the greatest masters. You have
the sublimity of sense as well as sound, and know how far the boldness
of a poet may lawfully extend. I could wish you would cultivate this
kind of Ode; and reduce it either to the same measures which Pindar
used, or give new measures of your own. For, as it is, it looks like a
vast tract of land newly discovered: the soil is wonderfully fruitful,
but unmanured; overstocked with inhabitants, but almost all savages,
without laws, arts, arms, or policy.

I remember, poor Nat. Lee, who was then upon the verge of madness, yet
made a sober and a witty answer to a bad poet, who told him, “It was
an easie thing to write like a madman:” “No,” said he, “it is very
difficult to write like a madman, but it is a very easie matter to
write like a fool.” Otway and he are safe by death from all attacks,
but we poor poets militant (to use Mr Cowley’s expression) are at
the mercy of wretched scribblers: and when they cannot fasten upon
our verses, they fall upon our morals, our principles of state, and
religion. For my principles of religion, I will not justifie them to
you: I know yours are far different. For the same reason, I shall say
nothing of my principles of state. I believe you and yours follow the
dictates of your reason, as I in mine do those of my conscience. If
I thought myself in an errour, I would retract it. I am sure that I
suffer for them; and Milton makes even the Devil say, that no creature
is in love with pain. For my morals betwixt man and man, I am not to be
my own judge. I appeal to the world, if I have deceived or defrauded
any man: and for my private conversation, they who see me every day can
be the best witnesses, whether or no it be blameless and inoffensive.
Hitherto I have no reason to complain that men of either party shun
my company. I have never been an impudent beggar at the doors of
noblemen: my visits have indeed been too rare to be unacceptable; and
but just enough to testifie my gratitude for their bounty, which I have
frequently received, but always unasked, as themselves will witness.

I have written more than I needed to you on this subject; for I dare
say you justifie me to yourself. As for that which I first intended
for the principal subject of this letter, which is my friend’s passion
and his design of marriage, on better consideration I have changed my
mind; for having had the honour to see my dear friend Wycherly’s letter
to him on that occasion, I find nothing to be added or amended. But
as well as I love Mr Wycherly, I confess I love myself so well, that
I will not shew how much I am inferiour to him in wit and judgment,
by undertaking any thing after him. There is Moses and the Prophets
in his council. Jupiter and Juno, as the poets tell us, made Tiresias
their umpire in a certain merry dispute, which fell out in heaven
betwixt them. Tiresias, you know, had been of both sexes, and therefore
was a proper judge; our friend Mr Wycherly is full as competent an
arbitrator; he has been a bachelor, and marryed man, and is now a
widower. Virgil says of Ceneus,

    ----_Nunc vir, nunc fœmina, Ceneus,
    Rursus et in veterem fato revoluta figuram._

Yet I suppose he will not give any large commendations to his middle
state: nor, as the sailer said, will be fond after a shipwrack to put
to sea again.[105] If my friend will adventure after this, I can but
wish him a good wind, as being his, and,

  My dear Mr Dennis,

  Your most affectionate

  and most faithful Servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.


LETTER XII.

TO MR JACOB TONSON.

_The copy money for translating the Æneid was fifty pounds for each
Book. The rising of the second subscription seems, to allude to the
practice of fixing a day, after which no subscriptions were to be
received except on payment of an advanced price. The first subscribers
to Dryden’s Virgil paid five guineas; a plate was dedicated to each of
them, and ornamented with his arms. A second class paid two guineas
only, and were not so honoured. In the subsequent letters there occur
several allusions to these arrangements, and to the transference of
names from the higher to the lower class._

                  Wednesday morning.
  MR TONSON,     [Probably written in April 1695.]

It is now three dayes since I have ended the fourth Eneid; and I am
this morning beginning to transcribe it, as you may do afterwards; for
I am willing some few of my friends may see it, and shall give leave to
you, to shew your transcription to some others, whose names I will tell
you. The paying Ned Sheldon the fifty pounds put me upon this speed;
but I intend not so much to overtoil myself, after the sixth book is
ended. If the second subscriptions rise, I will take so much the more
time, because the profit will incourage me the more; if not, I must
make the more haste; yet always with as much care as I am able. But
however, I will not fail in my paines of translating the sixth Eneid
with the same exactness as I have performed the fourth: because that
book is my greatest favourite. You know money is now very scrupulously
receiv’d: in the last which you did me the favour to change for my
wife, besides the clip’d money, there were at least forty shillings
brass. You may, if you please, come to me at the Coffee-house this
afternoon, or at farthest to-morrow, that we may take care together,
where and when I may receive the fifty pounds and the guinneys; which
must be some time this week.

  I am your Servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

I have written to my Lord Lawderdail, for his decorations.[106]


LETTER XIII.

TO MR JACOB TONSON,

  MR TONSON.      Saturday, June the 8th. [f. 1695.]

’Tis now high time for me to think of my second subscriptions; for the
more time I have for collecting them, the larger they are like to
be. I have now been idle just a fortnight; and therefore might have
called sooner on you, for the remainder of the first subscriptions. And
besides, Mr Aston will be goeing into Cheshire a week hence, who is my
onely help, and to whom you are onely beholding for makeing the bargain
betwixt us, which is so much to my loss; but I repent nothing of it
that is passed, but that I do not find myself capable of translating
so great an author, and therefore feare to lose my own credit, and to
hazard your profit, which it wou’d grieve me if you should loose, by
your too good opinion of my abilities. I expected to have heard of you
this week, according to the intimation you gave me of it; but that
failing, I must defer it no longer than till the ensueing week, because
Mr Aston will afterwards be gone, if not sooner.

Be pleased to send me word what day will be most convenient to you; and
be ready with the price of paper, and of the books. No matter for any
dinner; for that is a charge to you, and I care not for it.[107] Mr
Congreve may be with us, as a common friend; for as you know him for
yours, I make not the least doubt, but he is much more mine; send an
immediate answer, and you shall find me ready to do all things w^{ch}
become

  Your Servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.


LETTER XIV.

TO MR JACOB TONSON.

  MY GOOD FRIEND,         [Wednesday the 13th of 7 ber f. 1695.]

This is onely to acquaint you, that I have taken my place in the Oundel
coach for Tuesday next; and hope to be at London on Wednesday night.
I had not confidence enough to hope Mr Southern and Mr Congreve woud
have given me the favour of their company for the last foure miles;
but since they will be so kind to a friend of theirs, who so truely
loves both them and you, I will please myself with expecting it, if the
weather be not so bad as to hinder them.

I assure you I lay up your last kindnesses to me in my heart; and the
less I say of them, I charge them to account so much the more; being
very sensible that I have not hitherto deserved them. Haveing been
obliged to sit up all last night almost out of civility to strangers,
who were benighted, and to resign my bed to them, I am sleepy all this
day; and if I had not taken a very lusty pike that day, they must have
gone supperless to bed, foure ladyes and two gentlemen; for Mr Dudley
and I were alone, with but one man and no mayd in the house.--This time
I cannot write to my wife; do me the favour to let her know I received
her letter, am well, and hope to be with her on Wednesday next, at
night. No more but that

  I am very much

  Your Friend and Servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.


LETTER XV.

TO MR JACOB TONSON.

  MR TONSON,                       October the 29h. [f. 1695.]

Some kind of intercourse must be carryed on betwixt us, while I am
translating Virgil. Therefore I give you notice, that I have done the
seaventh Eneid in the country;[108] and intend some few days hence,
to go upon the eight: when that is finished, I expect fifty pounds
in good silver; not such as I have had formerly. I am not obliged to
take gold,[109] neither will I; nor stay for it beyond four-and-twenty
houres after it is due. I thank you for the civility of your last
letter in the country; but the thirty shillings upon every book
remains with me. You always intended I should get nothing by the
second subscriptions, as I found from first to last. And your promise
to Mr Congreve, that you had found a way for my benefit, which was an
encouragement to my paines, came at last, for me to desire Sir Godfrey
Kneller and Mr Closterman to gather for me. I then told Mr Congreve,
that I knew you too well to believe you meant me any kindness: and he
promised me to believe accordingly of you, if you did not. But this is
past; and you shall have your bargain, if I live and have my health.
You may send me word what you have done in my business with the Earl of
Derby: and I must have a place for the Duke of Devonshyre. Some of your
friends will be glad to take back their three guinneys. The Countess
of Macclesfield gave her money to Will Plowden before Christmas; but
he remembered it not, and payd it not in. Mr Aston tells me, my Lord
Derby expects but one book. I find, my Lord Chesterfield and my Lord
Petre are both left out; but my Lady Macclesfield must have a place, if
I can possibly: and Will Plowden shall pay you in three guinneys, if I
can obtain so much favour from you.[110] I desire neither excuses nor
reasons from you: for I am but too well satisfyed already. The Notes
and Prefaces shall be short; because you shall get the more by saving
paper.[111]

  JOHN DRYDEN.


LETTER XVI.

TO MR JACOB TONSON.

  MR TONSON,                           Friday night. [f. Dec. 1695.]

Meeting Sir Robert Howard at the playhouse this morning, and asking him
how he lik’d my seaventh Eneid, he told me you had not brought it. He
goes out of town to-morrow, being Satturday, after dinner. I desire you
not to fail of carrying my manuscript for him to read in the country;
and desire him to bring it up with him, when he comes next to town. I
doubt you have not yet been with my Lord Chesterfield, and am in pain
about it.

  Yours,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

When you have leysure, I shou’d be glad to see how Mr Congreve and you
have worded my propositions for Virgil.[112] When my sonne’s play[113]
is acted, I intend to translate again, if my health continue. Some time
next week let me heare from you concerning the propositions.


LETTER XVII.

TO MR JACOB TONSON.

  SIR,                        Friday forenoon, [f. Feb, 1695-6.]

I receiv’d your letter very kindly,[114] because indeed I expected
none; but thought you as very a tradesman as Bentley,[115] who has
cursed our Virgil so heartily. I shall loose enough by your bill upon
Mr Knight;[116] for after having taking it all in silver, and not in
half-crowns neither, but shillings and sixpences, none of the money
will go; for which reason I have sent it all back again, and as the
less loss will receive it in guinneys at 29 shillings each. ’Tis
troublesome to be a looser, but it was my own fault to accept it this
way, which I did to avoyd more trouble.

I am not sorry that you will not allow any thing towards the notes;
for to make them good, would have cost me half a yeare’s time at
least. Those I write shall be only marginall, to help the unlearned,
who understand not the poeticall fables. The prefaces, as I intend
them, will be somewhat more learned. It wou’d require seaven yeares
to translate Virgil exactly. But I promise you once more to do my
best in the four remaining books, as I have hitherto done in the
foregoing.--Upon triall I find all of your trade are sharpers, and
you not more than others; therefore I have not wholly left you. Mr
Aston does not blame you for getting as good a bargain as you cou’d,
though I cou’d have gott an hundred pounds more; and you might have
spared almost all your trouble if you had thought fit to publish the
proposalls for the first subscriptions; for I have guynneas offered
me every day, if there had been room; I believe, modestly speaking, I
have refused already 25. I mislike nothing in your letter therefore,
but onely your upbraiding me with the publique encouragement, and my
own reputation concerned in the notes; when I assure you I cou’d not
make them to my mind in less than half a year’s time. Get the first
half of Virgil transcribed as soon as possibly you can, that I may put
the notes to it; and you may have the other four books which lye ready
for you when you bring the former; that the press may stay as little
as possibly it can. My Lord Chesterfield has been to visite me, but
I durst say nothing of Virgil to him, for feare there should be no
void place for him; if there be, let me know; and tell me whether you
have made room for the Duke of Devonshire. Haveing no silver by me, I
desire my Lord Derby’s money, deducting your own. And let it be good,
if you desire to oblige me, who am not your enemy, and may be your
friend,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

Let me heare from you as speedily as you can.


LETTER XVIII.

TO MR JACOB TONSON.

  May 26th, [1696.]

Send word, if you please, Sir, what is the most you will give for my
sonn’s play, that I may take the fairest chapman, as I am bound to do
for his benefit; and if you have any silver which will go, my wife will
be glad of it. I lost thirty shillings or more by the last payment of
fifty pounds, w^ch you made at Mr Knights.

  Yours,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

Sir Ro: Howard[117] writt me word, that if I cou’d make any advantage
by being paid in clipp’d money, he woud change it in the Exchequer.


LETTER XIX.

TO MR JACOB TONSON.

  MR TONSON,      Thursday Morning, [f. Aug. 1696.]

I had yesterday morning two watches sent me by Mr Tompion,[118] which I
am to send my sonnes this week.[119] I cou’d not persuade him to take
gold at any rate: but he will take a goldsmiths bill for two and twenty
pounds, which is their price. I desire you wou’d give him such a bill,
and abate it out of the next fifty pounds which you are to pay me when
Virgil is finish’d. Ten Eneids are finish’d, and the ninth and tenth
written out in my own hand. You may have them with the eight, which is
in a foul copy, when you please to call for them, and to bring those
which are transcrib’d. Mr Tompion’s man will be with me at four o’clock
in the afternoon, and bring the watches, and must be payd at sight. I
desire you therefore to procure a goldsmiths bill, and let me have it
before that houre, and send an answer by my boy.

  Yours,

  JOHN DRYDEN.


LETTER XX.

TO MR JACOB TONSON.

                     Wednesday afternoon.
  MR TONSON,      From the Coffee-house. Nov. 25th.

I have the remainder of my Northamptonshyre rents come up this weeke,
and desire the favour of you to receive them for me, from the carrier
of Tocester, who lodges at the Castle in Smithfield. I suppose it is
the same man from whom you lately receiv’d them for my wife. Any time
before ten o’clock to-morrow morning will serve the turne. If I were
not deeply ingaged in my studyes, which will be finish’d in a day or
two, I would not put you to this trouble. I have inclos’d my tenant’s
letter to me, for you to shew the carrier, and to testify the sum,
which is sixteen pounds and about tenn shillings; which the letter sets
down. Pray, Sir, give in an acquittance for so much receiv’d, as I
suppose you did last time.

  I am,

  Your very faithful Servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.


LETTER XXI.

TO MR JACOB TONSON.

  SIR,                [f. Jan. 1696-7.]

According to my promise, I have sent you all that is properly yours
of my translation. I desire, as you offer’d, that it should be
transcrib’d in a legible hand, and then sent back to me for the last
review. As for some notes on the margins, they are not every where, and
when they are, are imperfect; so that you ought not to transcribe them,
till I make them compleat. I feare you can scarcely make any thing
of my foul copy; but it is the best I have. You see, my hand fails
me, and therefore I write so short a letter. What I wrote yesterday
was too sharp; but I doubt it is all true. Your boy’s coming upon so
unseasonable a visit, as if you were frighted for yourself, discomposed
me.

Transcribe on very large paper, and leave a very large margin.

Send your boy for the foul copies, and he shall have them; for it will
not satisfy me to send them by my own servant.

I cannot yet find the first sheet of the first Eneid. If it be lost, I
will translate it over againe: but perhaps it may be amongst the loose
papers. The fourth and ninth Eclogues, which I have sent, are corrected
in my wife’s printed Miscellany.[120]


LETTER XXII.

TO MR JACOB TONSON.

  MR TONSON,     Tuesday Morning, July the 6th, 1697.

I desire you wou’d let Mr Pate[121] know, I can print no more names of
his subscribers than I have money for, before I print their names. He
has my acknowledgment of ten guineas receiv’d from him; and, as I told
you, I owe him for above three yards of fine cloath: let him reckon for
it; and then there will remain the rest for me, out of the ten more
names w^{ch} he has given in. If he has not money by him, let him blott
out as many of his names as he thinks good; and print onely those for
which he pays or strikes off, in adjusting the accounts betwixt me and
him. This is so reasonable on both sides, that he cannot refuse it; but
I wou’d have things ended now, because I am to deal with a draper, who
is of my own perswasion,[122] and to whom I have promis’d my custome.

  Yours,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

I have sent to my tailour, and he sends me word, that I had three yards
and half elle of cloath from Mr Pate: I desire he would make his price,
and deduct so much as it comes to, and make even for the rest with
ready money; as also, that he would send word what the name was, for
whom Sam Atkins left him to make account for.


LETTER XXIII.

TO HIS SONS AT ROME.

  DEAR SONS,       Sept. the 3d. our Style, [1697.]

Being now at Sir William Bowyer’s,[123] in the country, I cannot write
at large, because I find my self somewhat indisposed with a cold, and
am thick of hearing, rather worse than I was in town. I am glad to
find, by your letter of July 26th, your style, that you are both in
health; but wonder you should think me so negligent as to forget to
give you an account of the ship in which your parcel is to come. I have
written to you two or three letters concerning it, which I have sent
by safe hands, as I told you; and doubt not but you have them before
this can arrive to you. Being out of town, I have forgotten the ship’s
name, which your mother will enquire, and put it into her letter, which
is joined with mine. But the master’s name I remember; he is called Mr
Ralph Thorp; the ship is bound to Leghorn, consigned to Mr Peter and Mr
Tho. Ball, merchants. I am of your opinion, that, by Tonson’s means,
almost all our letters have miscarried for this last year.[124] But,
however, he has missed of his design in the dedication, though he had
prepared the book for it;[125] for, in every figure of Æneas, he has
caused him to be drawn like King William, with a hooked nose.[126]

After my return to town, I intend to alter a play of Sir Robert
Howard’s, written long since, and lately put by him into my hands: ’tis
called the “Conquest of China by the Tartars.”[127] It will cost me six
weeks study, with the probable benefit of an hundred pounds. In the
mean time, I am writing a song for St Cecilia’s Feast, who, you know,
is the patroness of music. This is troublesome, and no way beneficial;
but I could not deny the stewards of the feast, who came in a body
to me to desire that kindness, one of them being Mr Bridgman, whose
parents are your mother’s friends. I hope to send you thirty guineas
between Michaelmass and Christmass, of which I will give you an account
when I come to town. I remember the counsel you give me in your letter;
but dissembling, though lawful in some cases, is not my talent; yet,
for your sake, I will struggle with the plain openness of my nature,
and keep in my just resentments against that degenerate order.[128] In
the mean time, I flatter not myself with any manner of hopes, but do
my duty, and suffer for God’s sake; being assured, beforehand, never
to be rewarded, though the times should alter. Towards the latter end
of this month, September, Charles will begin to recover his perfect
health, according to his nativity, which, casting it my self, I am sure
is true; and all things hitherto have happened accordingly to the very
time that I predicted them. I hope, at the same time, to recover more
health, according to my age. Remember me to poor Harry, whose prayers I
earnestly desire. My Virgil succeeds in the world beyond its desert,
or my expectation. You know, the profits might have been more; but
neither my conscience nor my honour would suffer me to take them;[129]
but I never can repent of my constancy, since I am thoroughly persuaded
of the justice of the cause for which I suffer. It has pleased God to
raise up many friends to me amongst my enemies, though they, who ought
to have been my friends, are negligent of me. I am called to dinner,
and cannot go on with this letter, which I desire you to excuse; and am

  Your most affectionate father,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

  _Superscribed_,

  Al illustrissimo Sig^{re}.

  Carlo Dryden,

  Camariere d’Honore A. S. S.

  Franca per Mantoua.       In Roma.

_To this Letter, Lady Elizabeth Dryden subjoined, on the same paper,
the following Postscript:--_

My dear sons, I sent your letter emediately to your father, after I
had read it, as you will find by his. I have not room to say much,
having writ former letters to you, datted the 27 of August, your father
being then out of town; he writes me word--he is much at woon as to
his health, and his defnese is not wosce, but much as he was when he
was heare. He expresses a great desire to see my dear Charlles; and
trully I see noe reason why you should not both come together, to be a
comfort to woon another, and to us both, if the King of France includ
Ingland in the peace;[130] for you doe but gust make shift to live
wheare you are, and soe I hope you may doe heare; for I will leaf noe
ston unturn’d to help my belov’d sonns. If I cane, I will send this
letter by the same way it came;[131] that is, it was brought me from
woon Mr Galowway, who corresponds with Rozie; I payd woon and sixpence
for it, and do offer to pay him what he demandes, so that he would
take ceare the [packet] might come safe to your handes. I long tell I
heare my deare Charlles is better. I have only room to tell you the
names of the merchantes your parcell went in; you are to demmand them
of Mr Robert Ball and Thommas Ball in Lindovino in Livorno. You are
not to pay any charges for the box, for the port of London. If the
have demanded any of you, send word to me what it is; for otherwayes
wee shall pay twice for them; and this Mr Walkeson telles me, with his
service to you both. Farwell, my deare children: God Almighty keep you
in his protection, for that is the wishes and prayers of your most
affec: mother, that sends her blessinge to you all; not forgetting my
sonn Harry, whose prayers I desire for a comfortable meetinge. I hope I
may have some better thinges against you come, than what is sent you in
that box; there being nothing considurabell but my deare Jackes play,
who I desire in his next to me to give me a true account how my deare
sonn Charlles is head dus; for I cane be at noe rest tell I heare he is
better, or rather thourely well, which I dally pray for.[132]


LETTER XXIV.

TO MR JACOB TONSON.

  MR TONSON,           [f. Dec. 1697.]

I thank you heartily for the sherry; it was, as you sayd, the best
of the kind I ever dranke. I have found the catalogue you desire, of
the subscribers’ names you left with me; and have sent them to you
inclosed. Remember, in the copy of verses for St Cecilia, to alter the
name of _Lais_, which is twice there, for _Thais_; those two ladyes
were contemporaryes, which causd that small mistake. I wish you coud
tell me how to send my sonns our Virgil, which you gave me; and should
be glad if you coud put me in a way of remitting thirty guineas to
Rome, which I woud pay heer, for my sonns to have the vallue there,
according as the exchange goes. Any time this fortnight will be soon
enough to send the money: the book, I know, will require a longer
space, because ships go not for Italy every day.

  I am

  Your humble servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

I hear Tom Brown is comeing out upon me.[133]


LETTER XXV.

TO MR JACOB TONSON.

  MR TONSON,                            Wednesday, [f. Dec. 1697.]

I have broken off my studies from the “Conquest of China,”[134] to
review Virgil, and bestowed nine entire days upon him. You may have
the printed copy you sent me to-morrow morning, if you will come for
it yourself; for the printer is a beast, and understands nothing I can
say to him of correcting the press. Dr Chetwood[135] claims my promise
of the Ode on St Cecilia’s Day, which I desire you to send to him
(according to the Parliament phrase) forthwith. My wife says you have
broken your promise about the picture, and desires it speedily; the
rest I will tell you when you come.

  Yours,

  JOHN DRYDEN.


LETTER XXVI.

TO MR JACOB TONSON.

  MR TONSON,                                  [f. Dec. 1697.]

You were no sooner gone, but I felt in my pocket, and found my Lady
Chudleigh’s[136] verses; which this afternoon I gave Mr Walsh to read
in the coffee-house. His opinion is the same with mine, that they are
better than any which are printed before the book: so thinks also Mr
Wycherly. I have them by me; but do not send them till I heare from
my Lord Clifford, whether my lady will put her name to them or not:
therefore I desire they may be printed last of all the copyes, and
of all the book. I have also written this day to Mr Chetwood, and let
him know, that the book is immediately goeing to the press again. My
opinion is, that the printer shou’d begin with the first Pastoral, and
print on to the end of the Georgiques; or farther, if occasion be,
till Dr Chetwood corrects his preface,[137] which he writes me word is
printed very false. You cannot take too great care of the printing this
edition exactly after my amendments; for a fault of that nature will
disoblige me eternally.

I am glad to heare from all hands, that my Ode[138] is esteem’d the
best of all my poetry, by all the town: I thought so myself when I writ
it; but, being old, I mistrusted my own judgment. I hope it has done
you service, and will do more. You told me not, but the town says you
are printing Ovid _de Arte Amandi_. I know my translation[139] is very
uncorrect; but at the same time I know, nobody else can do it better,
with all their paines. If there be any loose papers left in the Virgil
I gave you this morning, look for them, and send them back by my man:
I miss not any yet; but ’tis possible some may be left, because I gave
you the book in a hurry. I vow to God, if Everingham takes not care of
this impression, he shall never print any thing of mine heerafter: for
I will write on, since I find I can.

I desire you to make sure of the three pounds of snuff, the same
of which I had one pound from you. When you send it any morning,
I will pay for it all together. But this is not the business of
this letter.--When you were heer, I intended to have sent an answer
to poor Charles his letter; but I had not then the letter which my
chirurgeon promis’d me, of his advice, to prevent a rupture, which he
fears.[140] Now I have the surgeon’s answer, which I have inclosed in
my letter to my sonn. This is a business of the greatest consequence
in the world; for you know how I love Charles: and therefore I write
to you with all the earnestness of a father, that you will procure Mr
Francia[141] to inclose it in his packet this week: for a week lost
may be my sonn’s ruine; whom I intend to send for next summer, without
his brother, as I have written him word: and if it please God that I
must dye of over-study, I cannot spend my life better, than in saving
his. I vallue not any price for a double letter; let me know it, and
it shall be payd; for I dare not trust it by the post: being satisfy’d
by experience, that Ferrand will do by this, as he did by two letters
which I sent my sonns, about my dedicating to the king;[142] of which
they received neither. If you cannot go yourself, then send a note to
Signior Francia, as earnestly as you can write it, to beg that it may
go this day, I meane Friday. I need not tell you, how much herein you
will oblige

  Your friend and servant,

  J. D.


LETTER XXVII.

TO MRS STEWARD.[143]

  MADAM,                            Saturday, Octob. 1st--98.

You have done me the honour to invite so often, that it would look
like want of respect to refuse it any longer. How can you be so good
to an old decrepid man, who can entertain you with no discours which
is worthy of your good sense, and who can onely be a trouble to you in
all the time he stays at Cotterstock. Yet I will obey your commands
as far as possibly I can, and give you the inconvenience you are
pleas’d to desire; at least for the few days which I can spare from
other necessary business, which requires me at Tichmarsh. Therefore,
if you please to send your coach on Tuesday next by eleven o’clock
in the morning, I hope to wait on you before dinner. There is onely
one more trouble, which I am almost ashamed to name. I am obliged to
visit my cousin, Dryden of Chesterton,[144] some time next week, who
is nine miles from hence, and only five from you. If it be with your
convenience to spare me your coach thether for a day, the rest of my
time till Monday is at your service; and I am sorry for my own sake it
cannot be any longer this year, because I have some visits after my
return hether, which I cannot avoyd. But if it please God to give me
life and health, I may give you occasion another time to repent of your
kindness, by makeing you weary of my company. My sonn kisses your hand.
Be pleas’d to give his humble service to my cousin Steward, and mine,
who am,

  Madam,

  Your most obedient oblig’d servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

  _For my Honour’d Cousine,_

  _Mrs Steward, att Cotterstock,_

  _These_.


LETTER XXVIII.

TO ELMES STEWARD, ESQ.

  MY HONOUR’D COUSIN,               [Probably, Nov. 20. 1698.]

I shou’d have received your letter with too much satisfaction, if
it had not been allay’d with the bad news of my cousin your wife’s
indisposition; which yet I hope will not continue. I am sure, if care
and love will contribute to her health, she will want neither from so
tender a husband as you are: and indeed you are both worthy of each
other. You have been pleased, each of you, to be kind to my sonn[145]
and me, your poor relations, without any merit on our side, unless you
will let our gratitude pass for our desert. And now you are pleas’d
to invite another trouble on your self, which our bad company may
possibly draw upon you next year, if I have life and health to come
into Northamptonshire; and that you will please not to make so much a
stranger of me another time.--I intend my wife shall tast the plover
you did me the favour to send me. If either your lady or you shall at
any time honour me with a letter, my house is in Gerard-street, the
fifth door on the left hand, comeing from Newport-street. I pray God
I may hear better news of both your healths, and of my good cousin
Creed’s,[146] and my cousin Dorothy,[147] than I have had while I was
in this country. I shall languish till you send me word; and I assure
you I write this without poetry, who am, from the bottome of my heart,

  My honour’d cousin’s most obliged

  Humble servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

My sonn and I kiss my cousin Steward’s hand; and give our service to
your sister, and pretty Miss Betty.

  _For my Honour’d Cousin,_

  _Elmes Steward, Esq. Att Cotterstock._


LETTER XXIX.

TO MRS STEWARD.

  MADAM,                       Nov. 23d, 1698.

To take acknowledgments of favours for favours done you, is onely
yours. I am always on the receiving hand; and you, who have been
pleas’d to be troubled so long with my bad company, in stead of
forgiveing, which is all I could expect, will turn it to a kindness on
my side. If your house be often so molested, you will have reason to
be weary of it, before the ending of the year: and wish Cotterstock
were planted in a desart, an hundred miles off from any poet.--After I
had lost the happiness of your company, I could expect no other than
the loss of my health, which followed, according to the proverb, that
misfortunes seldome come alone. I had no woman to visite[148] but
the parson’s wife; and she, who was intended by nature as a help meet
for a deaf husband, was somewhat of the loudest for my conversation;
and for other things, I will say no more then that she is just your
contrary, and an epitome of her own country. My journey to London was
yet more unpleasant than my abode at Tichmarsh; for the coach was
crowded up with an old woman fatter than any of my hostesses on the
rode. Her weight made the horses travel very heavily; but, to give them
a breathing time, she would often stop us, and plead some necessity of
nature, and tell us, we were all flesh and blood: but she did this so
frequently, that at last we conspir’d against her; and that she might
not be inconvenienc’d by staying in the coach, turn’d her out in a very
dirty place, where she was to wade up to the ankles, before she cou’d
reach the next hedge. When I was ridd of her, I came sick home, and
kept my house for three weeks together; but, by advice of my doctour,
takeing twice the bitter draught, with sena in it, and looseing at
least twelve ounces of blood, by cupping on my neck, I am just well
enough to go abroad in the afternoon; but am much afflicted that I have
you a companion of my sickness: though I ’scap’d with one cold fit of
an ague, and yours, I feare, is an intermitting feavour. Since I heard
nothing of your father, whom I left ill, I hope he is recover’d of his
reall sickness, and that your sister is well of hers, which was onely
in imagination. My wife and sonn return you their most humble service,
and I give mine to my cousin Steward.--Madam,

  Your most obliged and

  most obedient servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

[_The superscription has not been preserved._]


LETTER XXX.

TO MRS STEWARD.

  MADAM,             Dec. 12th, --98.

All my letters being nothing but acknowledgements of your favours to
me, ’tis no wonder if they are all alike: for they can but express
the same thing, I being eternally the receiver, and you the giver. I
wish it were in my power to turn the skale on the other hand, that I
might see how you, who have so excellent a wit, cou’d thank on your
side. Not to name my self or my wife, my sonn Charles is the great
commender of your last receiv’d present; who being of late somewhat
indispos’d, uses to send for some of the same sort, which we call heer
marrow-puddings, for his suppers; but the tast of yours has so spoyl’d
his markets heer, that there is not the least comparison betwixt
them. You are not of an age to be a Sybill, and yet I think you are
a prophetess; for the direction on your basket was for him; and he
is likely to enjoy the greatest part of them: for I always think the
young are more worthy than the old; especially since you are one of the
former sort, and that he mends upon your medicine.--I am very glad to
hear my cousin, your father, is comeing or come to town; perhaps this
ayr may be as beneficiall to him as it has been to me: but you tell me
nothing of your own health, and I fear Cotterstock is too agueish for
this season.--My wife and sonn give you their most humble thanks and
service; as I do mine to my cousin Steward; and am, Madam,

  Your most oblig’d obedient servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

  _For Mrs Steward_,

    _Att Cotterstock, near Oundle,_

    _in the county of Northampton, These._

  _To be left with the Postmaster of Oundle._


LETTER XXXI.

TO MRS STEWARD.

  MADAM,          Candlemas-Day, 1698[-9.]

Old men are not so insensible of beauty, as it may be, you young
ladies think. For my own part, I must needs acknowledge, that your
fair eyes had made me your slave before I received your fine presents.
Your letter puts me out of doubt that they have lost nothing of their
luster, because it was written with your own hand; and not heareing
of a feavour or an ague, I will please my self with the thoughts that
they have wholly left you. I wou’d also flatter my self with the hopes
of waiting on you at Cotterstock some time next summer; but my want of
health may perhaps hinder me. But if I am well enough to travell as
farr northward as Northamptonshyre, you are sure of a guest, who has
been too well us’d not to trouble you again.

My sonn, of whom you have done me the favour to enquire, mends of his
indisposition very slowly; the ayr of England not agreeing with him
hetherto so well as that of Italy. The Bath is propos’d by the doctors,
both to him and me: but we have not yet resolved absolutely on that
journey; for that city is so close and so ill situated, that perhaps
the ayr may do us more harm than the waters can do us good: for which
reason we intend to try them heer first; and if we find not the good
effect which is promis’d of them, we will save our selves the pains of
goeing thether. In the mean time, betwixt my intervals of physique, and
other remedies which I am using for my gravel, I am still drudgeing
on: always a poet, and never a good one. I pass my time sometimes with
Ovid, and sometimes with our old English poet Chaucer; translating
such stories as best please my fancy; and intend, besides them, to add
somewhat of my own; so that it is not impossible, but ere the summer
be pass’d, I may come down to you with a volume in my hand, like a dog
out of the water, with a duck in his mouth. As for the rarities you
promise, if beggars might be choosers, a part of a chine of honest
bacon wou’d please my appetite more than all the marrow puddings; for I
like them better plain; having a very vulgar stomach. My wife, and your
cousin, Charles, give you their most humble service, and thanks for
your remembrance of them. I present my own to my worthy cousin, your
husband, and am, with all respect,

  Madam,

  Your most obliged servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

  _For_

  _Mrs Stewart, att Cotterstock_

  _near Oundle, in Northamptonshyre,_

  _These._

  _To be left with the Postmaster of Oundle._


LETTER XXXII.

TO MRS STEWARD.

  MADAM,         Thursday, Feb. 9th.--98[-9.]

For this time I must follow a bad example, and send you a shorter
letter than your short one: you were hinder’d by dancers, and I am
forc’d to dance attendance all this afternoon after a troublesome
business, so soon as I have written this, and seal’d it. Onely I can
assure you, that your father and mother, and all your relations, are
in health, or were yesterday, when I sent to enquire of their welfare.
On Tuesday night we had a violent wind, which blew down three of my
chimneys, and dismantled all one side of my house, by throwing down
the tiles. My neighbours, and indeed all the town, suffer’d more or
less; and some were kill’d. The great trees in St James’s Park are many
of them torn up from the roots; as they were before Oliver Cromwell’s
death,[149] and the late queen’s: but your father had no damage. I sent
my man for the present you designed me; but he return’d empty-handed;
for there was no such man as _Carter_ a carrier, inning at the Bear
and Ragged Staff in Smithfield, nor any one there ever heard of such
a person; by which I guess that some body has deceived you with a
counterfeited name. Yet my, obligations are the same; and the favour
shall be always own’d by,

  Madam,
  Your most humble servant,
  and kinsman,
  JOHN DRYDEN.

  _For Mrs Stewart_,
    _Att Cotterstock neare Oundle_, &c.


LETTER XXXIII.

TO MRS STEWARD.

  MADAM,          March the 4th, 1698[-9.]

I have reason to be pleas’d with writeing to you, because you are
daily giveing me occasions to be pleas’d. The present which you made
me this week, I have receiv’d; and it will be part of the treat I am
to make to three of my friends about Tuesday next: my cousin Driden,
of Chesterton, having been also pleas’d to add to it a turkey hen with
eggs, and a good young goose; besides a very kind letter, and the news
of his own good health, which I vallue more than all the rest; he
being so noble a benefactor to a poor and so undeserving a kinsman,
and one of another persuasion in matters of religion. Your enquiry of
his welfare, and sending also mine, have at once oblig’d both him and
me. I hope my good cousin Stewart will often visite him, especially
before hunting goes out,[150] to be a comfort to him in his sorrow
for the loss of his deare brother,[151] who was a most extraordinary
well-natur’d man, and much my friend. Exercise, I know, is my cousin
Driden’s life, and the oftner he goes out will be the better for his
health. We poor Catholics daily expect a most severe proclamation to
come out against us;[152] and at the same time are satisfyed that the
king is very unwilling to persecute us, considering us to be but an
handfull, and those disarmed; but the archbishop of Canterbury is our
heavy enemy, and heavy indeed he is in all respects.[153]

This day was played a revived comedy of Mr Congreve’s, called “The
Double Dealer,” which was never very takeing. In the play-bill was
printed--“Written by Mr Congreve; with severall expressions omitted.”
What kind of expressions those were, you may easily ghess, if you
have seen the Monday’s Gazette, wherein is the king’s order for the
reformation of the stage:[154] but the printing an author’s name in a
play-bill is a new manner of proceeding, at least in England. When
any papers of verses in manuscript, which are worth your reading,
come abroad, you shall be sure of them; because, being a poetess
yourself, you like those entertainments. I am still drudging at a book
of Miscellanyes,[155] which I hope will be well enough; if otherwise,
threescore and seven may be pardon’d.--Charles is not yet so well
recover’d as I wish him; but I may say, without vanity, that his
virtue and sobriety have made him much belov’d in all companies. Both
he and his mother give you their most humble acknowledgments of your
rememb’ring them. Be pleas’d to give mine to my cousin Stewart, who am
both his and your

  Most obliged obedient servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

You may see I was in hast, by writing on the wrong side of the paper.

_For Mrs Steward, etc. ut supra._


LETTER XXXIV.

TO MRS STEWARD.

  MADAM,         Tuesday, July the 11th, [1699.]

As I cannot accuse myself to have receiv’d any letters from you without
answer, so, on the other side, I am oblig’d to believe it, because
you say it. ’Tis true, I have had so many fitts of sickness, and so
much other unpleasant business, that I may possibly have receiv’d
those favours, and deferr’d my acknowledgment till I forgot to thank
you for them. However it be, I cannot but confess, that never was any
unanswering man so civilly reproach’d by a fair lady. I presum’d to
send you word by your sisters[156] of the trouble I intended you this
summer; and added a petition, that you would please to order some small
beer to be brew’d for me without hops, or with a very inconsiderable
quantity; because I lost my health last year by drinking bitter beer
at Tichmarsh. It may perhaps be sour, but I like it not the worse, if
it be small enough. What els I have to request, is onely the favour of
your coach, to meet me at Oundle, and to convey me to you: of which I
shall not fail to give you timely notice. My humble service attends my
cousin Stewart and your relations at Oundle. My wife and sonn desire
the same favour; and I am particularly,

  Madam,

  Your most obedient servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

  _For Mrs Stewart, etc._


LETTER XXXV.

TO SAMUEL PEPYS, ESQ.[157]

  PADRON MIO,           July the 14th, 1699.

I remember, last year, when I had the honour of dineing with you, you
were pleased to recommend to me the character of Chaucer’s “Good
Parson.” Any desire of yours is a command to me; and accordingly I
have put it into my English, with such additions and alterations as
I thought fit. Having translated as many Fables from Ovid, and as
many Novills from Boccace and Tales from Chaucer, as will make an
indifferent large volume in folio, I intend them for the press in
Michaelmas term next. In the mean time, my Parson desires the favour
of being known to you, and promises, if you find any fault in his
character, he will reform it. Whenever you please, he shall wait on
you, and for the safer conveyance, I will carry him in my pocket; who am

  My _Padrons_ most obedient servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

  _For Samuel Pepys, Esq.

  Att his house in York-street, These._


LETTER XXXVI.

ANSWER TO THE FOREGOING BY MR PEPYS.

  SIR,                      Friday, July 14, 1699.

You truly have obliged mee; and possibly, in saying so, I am more in
earnest then you can readily think; as verily hopeing, from this your
copy of one “Good Parson,” to fancy some amends made mee for the hourly
offence I beare with from the sight of so many lewd originalls.

I shall with great pleasure attend you on this occasion, when ere you’l
permit it; unless you would have the kindness to double it to mee, by
suffering my coach to wayte on you (and who you can gayne mee y^e same
favour from) hither, to a cold chicken and a sallade, any noone after
Sunday, as being just stepping into the ayre for 2 days.

  I am, most respectfully,

  Your hono^{rd} and obed^{nt} servant,

  S. P.


LETTER XXXVII.

TO MRS STEWARD.

  MADAM,                   Saturday, Aug. 5th, 1699.

This is only a word, to threaten you with a troublesome guest, next
week: I have taken places for my self and my sonn in the Oundle coach,
which sets out on Thursday next the tenth of this present August; and
hope to wait on a fair lady at Cotterstock on Friday the eleventh. If
you please to let your coach come to Oundle, I shall save my cousin
Creed the trouble of hers. All heer are your most humble servants, and
particularly an old cripple, who calls him self

  Your most obliged kinsman,

  And admirer,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

  _For Mrs Stewart, Att_
    _Cotterstock, near Oundle,_
    _in Northamptonshire. These._
  _To be left with the Postmaster of Oundle._


LETTER XXXVIII.

TO MRS STEWARD.

  MADAM,                        Sept. 28th, 1699.

Your goodness to me will make you sollicitous of my welfare since I
left Cotterstock. My journey has in general been as happy as it cou’d
be, without the satisfaction and honour of your company. ’Tis true,
the master of the stage-coach has not been over civill to me: for he
turned us out of the road at the first step, and made us go to Pilton;
there we took in a fair young lady of eighteen, and her brother, a
young gentleman; they are related to the Treshams, but not of that
name: thence we drove to Higham, where we had an old serving-woman,
and a young fine mayd: we din’d at Bletso, and lay at Silso, six
miles beyond Bedford. There we put out the old woman, and took in
Councellour Jennings his daughter; her father goeing along in the
Kittering coach, or rideing by it, with other company. We all din’d
at Hatfield together, and came to town safe at seaven in the evening.
We had a young doctour, who rode by our coach, and seem’d to have a
smickering[158] to our youg lady of Pilton, and ever rode before to get
dinner in a readiness. My sonn, Charles, knew him formerly a Jacobite;
and now going over to Antigoo, with Colonel Codrington,[159] haveing
been formerly in the West Indies.--Which of our two young ladies was
the handsomer, I know not. My sonn liked the Councellour’s daughter
best: I thought they were both equal. But not goeing to Tichmarsh
Grove, and afterwards by Catworth, I missed my two couple of rabbets,
which my cousin, your father, had given me to carry with me, and cou’d
not see my sister by the way: I was likewise disappointed of Mr Cole’s
Ribadavia wine: but I am almost resolved to sue the stage coach, for
putting me six or seaven miles out of the way, which he cannot justify.

Be pleased to accept my acknowledgment of all your favours, and my
Cousin Stuart’s; and by employing my sonn and me in any thing you
desire to have done, give us occasion to take our revenge on our kind
relations both at Oundle and Cotterstock. Be pleas’d, your father,
your mother, your two fair sisters, and your brother,[160] may find my
sonn’s service and mine made acceptable to them by your delivery; and
believe me to be with all manner of gratitude, give me leave to add,
all manner of adoration,

  Madam,

  Your most obliged obedient Servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

  _For Mrs Stuart, Att_
    _Cotterstock near Oundle,_
    _In Northamptonshire,_
      _These._
  _To be left with the Postmaster
  of Oundle._


LETTER XXXIX.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES MONTAGUE.[161]

  SIR,                               [Octob. 1699.]

These verses[162] had waited on you with the former, but that they
wanted that correction which I have given them, that they may the
better endure the sight of so great a judge and poet. I am now in feare
that I purged them out of their spirit; as our Master Busby us’d to
whip a boy so long, till he made him a confirm’d blockhead. My Cousin
Driden saw them in the country; and the greatest exception he made to
them Avas a satire against the Dutch valour in the last war. He desir’d
me to omit it, (to use his own words) “out of the respect he had to his
Sovereign.” I obeyed his commands, and left onely the praises, which I
think are due to the gallantry of my own countrymen. In the description
which I have made of a Parliament-man,[163] I think I have not only
drawn the features of my worthy kinsman, but have also given my own
opinion of what an Englishman in Parliament ought to be; and deliver it
as a memorial of my own principles to all posterity. I have consulted
the judgment of my unbyass’d friends, who have some of them the honour
to be known to you: and they think there is nothing which can justly
give offence in that part of the poem. I say not this to cast a blind
on your judgment, (which I could not do, if I endeavoured it,) but
to assure you, that nothing relateing to the publique shall stand
without your permission; for it were to want common sence to desire
your patronage, and resolve to disoblige you. And as I will not hazard
my hopes of your protection, by refusing to obey you in any thing which
I can perform with my conscience or my honour, so I am very confident
you will never impose any other terms on me. My thoughts at present are
fix’d on Homer; and by my translation of the first Iliad, I find him
a poet more according to my genius than Virgil, and consequently hope
I may do him more justice in his fiery way of writeing; which, as it
is liable to more faults, so it is capable of more beauties, than the
exactness and sobriety of Virgil. Since ’tis for my country’s honour,
as well as for my own, that I am willing to undertake this task, I
despair not of being encourag’d in it by your favour, who am

  Sir,

  Your most obedient servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.


LETTER XL.

TO MRS STEWARD.

  MADAM,              Nov. 7th, [1699.]

Even your expostulations are pleasing to me; for though they shew you
angry, yet they are not without many expressions of your kindness; and
therefore I am proud to be so chidden. Yet I cannot so farr abandon my
own defence, as to confess any idleness or forgetfulness on my part.
What has hind’red me from writeing to you, was neither ill health,
nor, a worse thing, ingratitude; but a flood of little businesses,
which yet are necessary to my subsistance, and of which I hop’d to
have given you a good account before this time: but the court rather
speaks kindly of me, than does any thing for me, though they promise
largely; and perhaps they think I will advance as they go backward, in
which they will be much deceiv’d; for I can never go an inch beyond my
conscience and my honour.[164] If they will consider me as a man who
has done my best to improve the language, and especially the poetry,
and will be content with my acquiescence under the present government,
and forbearing satire on it, that I can promise, because I can perform
it; but I can neither take the oaths, nor forsake my religion; because
I know not what church to go to, if I leave the Catholique; they are
all so divided amongst them selves in matters of faith necessary to
salvation, and, yet all assumeing the name of Protestants. May God be
pleas’d to open your eyes, as he has open’d mine! Truth is but one; and
they who have once heard of it, can plead no excuse, if they do not
embrace it. But these are things too serious for a trifling letter.

If you desire to hear any thing more of my affairs, the Earl of
Dorsett, and your cousin Montague, have both seen the two poems, to the
Duchess of Ormond, and my worthy cousin Driden; and are of opinion,
that I never writt better. My other friends are divided in their
judgments, which to preferr; but the greater part are for those to my
dear kinsman; which I have corrected with so much care, that they will
now be worthy of his sight, and do neither of us any dishonour after
our death.

There is this day to be acted a new tragedy, made by Mr Hopkins,[165]
and, as I believe, in rhime. He has formerly written a play in verse,
call’d “Boadicea,” which you fair ladyes lik’d; and is a poet who
writes good verses without knowing how or why; I mean, he writes
naturally well, without art, or learning, or good sence. Congreve is
ill of the gout at Barnet Wells. I have had the honour of a visite from
the Earl of Dorsett, and din’d with him.--Matters in Scotland are in a
high ferment,[166] and next door to a breach betwixt the two nations;
but they say from court, that France and we are hand and glove. ’Tis
thought, the king will endeavour to keep up a standing army, and make
the stirr in Scotland his pretence for it; my cousin Driden,[167] and
the country party, I suppose, will be against it; for when a spirit is
rais’d, ’tis hard conjuring him down again.--You see I am dull by my
writeing news; but it may be my cousin Creed[168] may be glad to hear
what I believe is true, though not very pleasing. I hope he recovers
health in the country, by his staying so long in it. My service to my
cousin Stuart, and all at Oundle. I am, faire Cousine,

  Your most obedient servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

  _For Mrs Stuart, Att_
    _Cotterstock, near Oundle,_
      _In Northamptonshyre,_
        _These._
  _To be left at the Posthouse
  in Oundle._


LETTER XLI

TO MRS ELIZABETH THOMAS, JUN.[169]

  MADAM,                              Nov. 12, 1699.

The letter you were pleas’d to direct for me, to be left at the
coffee-house last summer, was a great honour; and your verses[170]
were, I thought, too good to be a woman’s; some of my friends, to whom
I read them, were of the same opinion. ’Tis not over-gallant, I must
confess, to say this of the fair sex; but most certain it is, that they
generally write with more softness than strength. On the contrary, you
want neither vigour in your thoughts, nor force in your expressions,
nor harmony in your numbers; and methinks I find much of Orinda[171]
in your manner; to whom I had the honour to be related, and also to
be known. But I continued not a day in the ignorance of the person to
whom I was oblig’d; for, if you remember, you brought the verses to a
bookseller’s shop, and enquir’d there, how they might be sent to me.
There happen’d to be in the same shop a gentleman, who heareing you
speak of me, and seeing a paper in your hand, imagin’d it was a libel
against me, and had you watch’d by his servant, till he knew both your
name, and where you liv’d, of which he sent me word immediately. Though
I have lost his letter, yet I remember you live some where about St
Giles’s,[172] and are an only daughter. You must have pass’d your time
in reading much better books than mine; or otherwise you cou’d not have
arriv’d to so much knowledge as I find you have. But whether Sylph or
Nymph, I know not: those fine creatures, as your author, Count Gabalis,
assures us,[173] have a mind to be christen’d, and since you do me the
favour to desire a name from me, take that of Corinna, if you please;
I mean not the lady with whom Ovid was in love, but the famous Theban
poetess, who overcame Pindar five times, as historians tell us. I
would have call’d you Sapho, but that I hear you are handsomer. Since
you find I am not altogether a stranger to you, be pleas’d to make me
happier by a better knowledge of you; and in stead of so many unjust
praises which you give me, think me only worthy of being,

  Madam,

  Your most humble servant,

  and admirer,

  JOHN DRYDEN.


LETTER XLII.

TO MRS ELIZABETH THOMAS, JUN.[174]

  MADAM,               [Nov. 1699.]

The great desire which I observe in you to write well, and those
good parts which God Almighty and nature have bestow’d on you, make
me not to doubt, that, by application to study, and the reading of
the best authors, you may be absolute mistress of poetry. ’Tis an
unprofitable art to those who profess it; but you, who write only for
your diversion, may pass your hours with pleasure in it, and without
prejudice; always avoiding (as I know you will,) the licence which
Mrs Behn[175] allow’d her self, of writeing loosely, and giveing, if
I may have leave to say so, some scandall to the modesty of her sex.
I confess, I am the last man who ought, in justice, to arraign her,
who have been my self too much a libertine in most of my poems; which
I shou’d be well contented I had time either to purge, or to see them
fairly burn’d. But this I need not say to you, who are too well born,
and too well principled, to fall into that mire.

In the mean time, I would advise you not to trust too much to Virgil’s
Pastorals; for as excellent as they are, yet Theocritus is far before
him, both in softness of thought, and simplicity of expression. Mr
Creech has translated that Greek poet, which I have not read in
English. If you have any considerable faults, they consist chiefly in
the choice of words, and the placeing them so as to make the verse run
smoothly; but I am at present so taken up with my own studies, that I
have not leisure to descend to particulars; being, in the mean time,
the fair Corinna’s

  Most humble and most

  faithful Servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

P.S. I keep your two copies[176] till you want them, and are pleas’d to
send for them.


LETTER XLIII.

TO MRS STEWARD.

  Saturday, Nov. 26, [1699.]

After a long expectation, Madam, at length your happy letter came
to your servant, who almost despair’d of it. The onely comfort I
had, was, my hopes of seeing you, and that you defer’d writeing,
because you wou’d surprise me with your presence, and beare your
relations company to town.--Your neighbour, Mr Price, has given me an
apprehension, that my cousin, your father, is in some danger of being
made sheriff the following yeare; but I hope ’tis a jealousy without
ground, and that the warm season only keeps him in the country.--If
you come up next week, you will be entertain’d with a new tragedy,
which the author of it, one Mr Dennis, cries up at an excessive rate;
and Colonel Codrington, who has seen it, prepares the world to give it
loud applauses. ’Tis called “Iphigenia,” and imitated from Euripides,
an old Greek poet.[177] This is to be acted at Betterton’s house; and
another play of the same name is very shortly to come on the stage
in Drury-Lane.--I was lately to visite the Duchess of Norfolk;[178]
and she speaks of you with much affection and respect. Your cousin
Montague,[179] after the present session of parliament, will be created
Earl of Bristoll.[180] and I hope is much my friend: but I doubt I am
in no condition of having a kindness done, having the Chancellour[181]
my enemy; and not being capable of renounceing the cause for which I
have so long suffer’d,--My cousin Driden of Chesterton is in town, and
lodges with my brother in Westminster.[182] My sonn has seen him, and
was very kindly received by him.--Let this letter stand for nothing,
because it has nothing but news in it, and has so little of the main
business, which is to assure my fair cousine how much I am her admirer,
and her

  Most devoted Servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

I write no recommendations of service to our friends at Oundle, because
I suppose they are leaveing that place; but I wish my Cousin Stuart a
boy, as like Miss Jem:[183] as he and you can make him. My wife and
sonn are never forgetfull of their acknowledgments to you both.

  _For Mrs Stuart, Att_
    _Cotterstock near Oundle,_
      _in the County of Northampton, These._
  _To be left at the Posthouse
  in Oundle_.


LETTER XLIV.

TO MRS STEWARD.

  MADAM,          Thursday, Dec. the 14, 1699.

When I have either too much business or want of health, to write to
you, I count my time is lost, or at least my conscience accuses me
that I spend it ill. At this time my head is full of cares, and my
body ill at ease. My book is printing,[184] and my bookseller makes
no hast. I had last night at bed-time an unwelcome fit of vomiting;
and my sonn, Charles, lyes sick upon his bed with the colique, which
has been violent upon him for almost a week. With all this, I cannot
but remember that you accus’d me of barbarity, I hope in jeast onely,
for mistaking one sheriff for another, which proceeded from my want of
heareing well. I am heartily sorry that a chargeable office is fallen
on my cousin Stuart.[185] But my Cousin Driden comforts me, that
it must have come one time or other, like the small-pox; and better
have it young than old. I hope it will leave no great marks behind
it, and that your fortune will no more feel it than your beauty, by
the addition of a year’s wearing. My cousine, your mother, was heer
yesterday, to see my wife, though I had not the happiness to be at
home.--Both the “Iphigenias” have been play’d with bad success;[186]
and being both acted one against the other in the same week, clash’d
together, like two rotten ships which could not endure the shock, and
sunk to rights. The King’s proclamation against vice and profaneness is
issued out in print;[187] but a deep disease is not to be cur’d with
a slight medicine. The parsons, who must read it, will find as little
effect from it, as from their dull sermons: ’tis a scare-crow, which
will not fright many birds from preying on the fields and orchards. The
best news I heare is, that the land will not be charg’d very deep this
yeare: let that comfort you for your shrievalty, and continue me in
your good graces, who am, fair cousin,

  Your most faithfull oblig’d servant,

  JO. DRYDEN.

  _For Mrs Stuart,_
    _Att Cotterstock, near Oundle,_
      _in Northamptonshyre, These._
  _To be left with the Postmaster
  of Oundle._


LETTER XLV.

TO MRS ELIZABETH THOMAS, JUN.

  MADAM,            Friday, Dec. 29, 1699.

I have sent your poems back again, after having kept them so long from
you; by which you see I am like the rest of the world, an impudent
borrower, and a bad pay-master. You take more care of my health than
it deserves; that of an old man is always crazy, and, at present, mine
is worse than usual, by a St Anthony’s fire in one of my legs; though
the swelling is much abated, yet the pain is not wholly gone, and I am
too weak to stand upon it. If I recover, it is possible I may attempt
Homer’s Iliad. A specimen of it (the first book) is now in the press,
among other poems of mine, which will make a volume in folio, of twelve
shillings’ price; and will be published within this month. I desire,
fair author, that you will be pleas’d to continue me in your good
graces, who am, with all sincerity and gratitude,

  Your most humble servant,

  and admirer,

  JOHN DRYDEN.


LETTER XLVI.

TO MRS STEWARD.

  MADAM,            Feb. 23d. [1699-1700.]

Though I have not leisure to thank you for the last trouble I gave
you, yet haveing by me two lampoons lately made, I know not but they
may be worth your reading; and therefore have presum’d to send them. I
know not the authours; but the town will be ghessing. The “Ballad of
the Pews,” which are lately rais’d higher at St James’s church,[188]
is by some sayd to be Mr Manwareing, or my Lord Peterborough. The
poem of the “Confederates” some think to be Mr Walsh: the copies
are both lik’d.[189] And there are really two factions of ladyes,
for the two playhouses. If you do not understand the names of some
persons mention’d, I can help you to the knowledge of them. You know
Sir Tho: Skipwith is master of the playhouse in Drury-Lane; and my
Lord Scarsdale is the patron of Betterton’s house, being in love with
somebody there. The Lord Scott is second sonn to the Duchess of
Monmouth. I need not tell you who my Lady Darentwater is; but it may
be you know not her Lord is a poet,and none of the best. Forgive this
hasty billet from

  Your most obliged servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

  _For Mrs Stewart_,
      _Att Cotterstock, near Oundle_,
        _in Northamptonshyre, These._
  _To be left with the Postmaster of Oundle_.


LETTER XLVII.

TO MRS STEWARD.

  MADAM,                    Tuesday, March 12th, 1699 [-1700.]

’Tis a week since I received the favour of a letter, which I have not
yet, acknowledg’d to you. About that time my new poems were publish’d,
which are not come till this day into my hands. They are a debt to
you, I must confess; and I am glad, because they are so unworthy to
be made a present. Your sisters, I hope, will be so kind to have them
convey’d to you; that my writeings may have the honour of waiting on
you, which is deny’d to me. The town encourages them with more applause
than any thing of mine deserves; and particularly, my cousin Driden
accepted one from me so very indulgently, that it makes me more and
more in love with him. But all our hopes of the House of Commons are
wholly dash’d. Our proprieties are destroy’d; and rather than we shou’d
not perish, they have made a breach in the Magna Charta;[203] for which
God forgive them! Congreve’s new play has had but moderate success,
though it deserves much better.[204] I am neither in health, nor do I
want afflictions of any kind; but am, in all conditions,

  Madam,

  Your most oblig’d obedient servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

  _For Mrs Stuart, att Cotterstock,_
    _near Oundle, These._
  _By the Oundle Carrier, with_
    _a book directed to her, These._
      _Northamptonshyre._


LETTER XLVIII.

TO MRS STEWARD.

  MADAM,                  Thursday, April the 11th, 1700.

The ladies of the town have infected you at a distance; they are all
of your opinion, and, like my last book of Poems,[205] better than any
thing they have formerly seen of mine. I always thought my verses to my
cousin Driden were the best of the whole; and to my comfort, the town
thinks them so; and he, which pleases me most, is of the same judgment,
as appears by a noble present he has sent me, which surprised me,
because I did not in the least expect it. I doubt not, but he receiv’d
what you were pleas’d to send him; because he sent me the letter, which
you did me the favour to write me. At this very instant, I heare the
guns, which, going off, give me to understand, that the King is goeing
to the Parliament to pass acts, and consequently to prorogue them; for
yesterday I heard, that both he and the Lords have given up the cause,
and the House of Commons have gained an entire victory.[206] Though
under the rose, I am of opinion, that much of the confidence is abated
on either side, and that whensoever they meet next, it will give that
House a farther occasion of encroaching on the prerogative and the
Lords; for they, who beare the purse, will rule. The Parliament being
risen, my cousin Driden will immediately be with you, and, I believe,
return his thanks in person. All this while I am lame at home, and have
not stirr’d abroad this moneth at least. Neither my wife nor Charles
are well, but have intrusted their service in my hand. I humbly add my
own to the unwilling High Sheriff,[207] and wish him fairly at an end
of his trouble.

The latter end of last week, I had the honour of a visite from my
cousine, your mother, and my cousine Dorothy, with which I was much
comforted. Within this moneth there will be play’d, for my profit, an
old play of Fletcher’s, call’d the “Pilgrim,” corrected by my good
friend Mr Vanbrook;[208] to which I have added a new masque; and am
to write a new prologue and epilogue. Southern’s tragedy, call’d the
“Revolt of Capua,” will be play’d at Betterton’s house within this
fortnight. I am out with that Company, and therefore, if I can help it,
will not read it before ’tis acted, though the authour much desires I
shou’d. Do not think I will refuse a present from fair hands; for I am
resolv’d to save my bacon. I beg your pardon for this slovenly letter;
but I have not health to transcribe it.[209] My service to my cousin,
your brother, who, I heare, is happy in your company, which he is not
who most desires it, and who is, Madam,

  Your most obliged obedient

  Servant,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

  _For Mrs Stuart,_
    _Att Cotterstock, near Oundle,_
      _in Northamptonshyre, These._
  _To be left with the_
    _Postmaster of Oundle._




APPENDIX.




APPENDIX.




No. I.

    DRYDEN’S _Degree as Master of Arts, granted by the Archbishop
    of Canterbury, preserved in the Faculty Book_, (Book 6. p. 236.
    b.)


“Dispensatio JOANNI DRYDEN, pro gradu Artium Magistri.

“GILBERTUS providentiâ divinâ Cantuariensis Archiepiscopus, &c. dilecto
nobis in Christo JOANNI DRYDEN, in Artibus Baccalaureo, perantiquâ
Dreydenorum familiâ in agro Northamptoniensi oriundo, salutem et
gratiam. QUUM in scholis rite constitutis mos laudabilis et consuetudo
invaluerit, approbatione tam ecclesiarum bene reformatarum, quam
hominum doctissimorum, à multis retrò annis, ut quicunque in aliqua
artium liberalium scientia cum laude desudaverint, insigni aliquo
dignitatis gradu decorarentur. Quum etiam, publicâ legum auctoritate
muniti, Cantuarienses Archiepiscopi gradus prædictos et honoris titulos
in homines bene merentes conferendi potestate gaudeant et jamdudum
gavisi sint, prout ex libro authentico de Facultatibus taxandis
Parlamenti auctoritate confirmato pleniùs apparet; Nos igitur prædictà
auctoritate freti, et antecessorum nostrorum exemplum imitati, te
Joannem prædictum, cujus vitæ probitas, bonarum literarum scientiá,
morumque integritas, vel ipsius domini Regis testimonio, perspectæ
sunt, MAGISTRI IN ARTIBUS titulo et gradu insigniri decrevimus, et
tenore presentium in Artibus Magistrum actualem creamus, pariterque
in numerum Magistrorum in Artibus hujusce regni aggregamus; juramento
infra scripto priùs per nos de te exacto, et a te jurato:--_Ego
Joannes Dryden, ad gradum et titulum Magistri in Artibus, per
Reverendissimum in Christo patron ac dominum, Gilbertum divinâ
providentiâ Cantuariensem Archiepiscopum, totius Angliæ Primatem
et Metropolitanum, admittendus, teste mihi conscientiâ testificor
serenissimum nostrum regem Carolum Secundum esse unicum et supremum
gubernatorem hujusce regni Angliæ, &c. sicut me Deus adjuvet, per sacra
Dei evangelia._--Proviso semper quod hæ literæ tibi non proficiant,
nisi registrentur et subscribantur per Clericum Regiæ Majestatis ad
Facultates in Cancellaria.

“Dat. sub sigillo de Facultatibus, decimo septimo die mensis Junii,
Anno Domini 1668, et nostræ translationis anno quinto.”




No. II.

DRYDEN’S PATENT.

_Pat. 22. Car. II. p. 6. n. 6._


CHARLES THE SECOND, by the grace of God, of England, Scotland,
France, and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, &c. to the lords
commissioners of our treasury, treasurer, chancellor, under-treasurer,
chamberlaines, and barons of the exchequer, of us, our heires and
successors, now being, and that hereafter shall bee, and to all other
the officers and ministers of our said court and of the receipt there,
now being and that hereafter shall bee; and to all others to whom these
presents shall come, greeting.

Know yee, that wee, for and in consideration of the many good and
acceptable services by John Dryden, Master of Arts, and eldest sonne of
Erasmus Dryden, of Tichmarsh, in the county of Northampton, esquire,
to us heretofore done and performed, and taking notice of the learning
and eminent abilities of him the said John Dryden, and of his great
skill and elegant style both in verse and prose, and for diverse
other good causes and considerations us thereunto especially moving,
have nominated, constituted, declared, and appointed, and by these
presents do nominate, constitute, declare, and appoint him, the said
John Dryden, our POET LAUREAT and HISTORIOGRAPHER ROYAL; giving and
granting unto him, the said John Dryden, all and singular the rights,
privileges, benefits, and advantages thereunto belonging, as fully and
amply as Sir Geoffery Chaucer, knight, Sir John Gower, knight, John
Leland, esquire, William Camden, esquire, Benjamin Johnson, esquire,
James Howell, esquire, Sir William D’Avenant, knight, or any other
person or persons having or exercising the place or employment of Poet
Laureat or Historiographer, or either of them, in the time of any of
our royal progenitors, had or received, or might lawfully claim or
demand, as incident or belonging unto the said places or employments,
or either of them. And for the further and better encouragement of
him, the said John Dryden, diligently to attend the said employment,
we are graciously pleased to give and grant, and by these presents,
for us, our heirs and successors, do give and grant, unto the said
John Dryden, one annuity or yearly pension of two hundred pounds of
lawful money of England, during our pleasure, to have and to hold, and
yearly to receive the said annuity or pension of two hundred pounds
of lawful money of England by the yeare, unto the said John Dryden
and his assigns, from the death of the said Sir William D’Avenant
lately deceased, for and during our pleasure, at the receipt of the
exchequer, of us, our heirs and successors, out of the treasure of
us, our heirs and successors, from time to time there remaining, by
the hands of the treasurer or treasurers and chamberlains of us, our
heirs and successors, there for the time being, at the four usual
terms of the year, that is to say, at the feast of the nativity of
St John the Baptist, St Michael the Archangel, the birth of our Lord
God, and the annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by even and
equal portions to be paid, the first payment thereof to begin at the
feast of the nativity of St John the Baptist next and immediately
after the death of the said Sir William D’Avenant, deceased. Wherefore
our will and pleasure is, and we do by these presents, for us, our
heirs and successors, require, command, and authorize the said lords
commissioners of our treasury, treasurer, chancellor, under-treasurer,
chamberlains, and barons, and other officers and ministers of the said
exchequer now and for the time being, not only to pay, or cause to
be paid, unto the said John Dryden and his assigns, the said annuity
or yearly pension of two hundred pounds of lawful money of England,
according to our will and pleasure herein before expressed, but also
from time to time to give full allowance of the same, according
to the true meaning of these presents. And these presents, or the
inrolment thereof, shall be unto all men whom it shall concern a
sufficient warrant and discharge for the paying and allowing of the
same accordingly, without any further or other warrant procured or
obtained. And further, know ye, that we, of our especial grace,
certain knowledge, and mere motion, have given and granted, and by
these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, do give and grant,
unto the said John Dryden and his assigns, one butt or pipe of the
best canary wine, to have, hold, receive, perceive, and take the said
butt or pipe of canary wine unto the said John Dryden and his assigns,
during our pleasure, out of our store of wines yearly and from time to
time remaining at or in our cellars within or belonging to our palace
of Whitehall. And for the better effecting of our will and pleasure
herein, we do hereby require and command all and singular our officers,
and ministers whom it shall or may concern, or who shall have the care
or charge of our said wines, that they, or some of them, do deliver, or
cause to be delivered, the said butt or pipe of wine yearly, and once
in every year, unto the said John Dryden or his assigns, during our
pleasure, at such time and times as he or they shall demand or desire
the same. And these presents, or the inrolment thereof, shall be unto
all men whom it shall concern, a sufficient warrant and discharge in
that behalf, although express mention, &c. In witness, &c.

Witness the King at Westminster, the eighteenth day of August. [1670.]

  _Per breve de privato sigillo._




No. III.

THE AGREEMENT CONCERNING THE FABLES


I doe hereby promise to pay John Dryden, Esquire, or order, on the
25th of March, 1699, the sume of two hundred and fifty guineas, in
consideration of ten thousand verses, which the said John Dryden,
Esquire, is to deliver to me Jacob Tonson, when finished, whereof
seaven thousand five hundred verses, more or lesse, are already in
the said Jacob Tonson’s possession. And I do hereby further promise
and engage my selfe to make up the said sume of two hundred and fifty
guineas, three hundred pounds sterling, to the said John Dryden,
Esquire, his executors, administrators, or assigns, att the beginning
of the second impression of the said ten thousand verses. In witnesse
whereof, I have hereunto sett my hand and seal this twentieth day of
March, 1698-9.

  JACOB TONSON.

  Sealed and delivered, being first
    stampt pursuant to the acts of
    Parliament for that purpose,
    in the presence of
      Benj. Portlock,
      Will Congreve.

  March the twenty-fourth, 1698.

Received then of Mr Jacob Tonson the sum of two hundred sixty-eight
pounds fifteen shillings, in pursuance of an agreement for ten thousand
verses to be delivered by me to the said Jacob Tonson, whereof I have
already delivered to him about seven thousand five hundred, more or
less: he the sayd Jacob Tonson being obliged to make up the foresayd
sum of two hundred sixty-eight pounds fifteen shillings, three hundred
pounds, at the beginning of the second impression or the foresayd ten
thousand verses.

  I say, received by me,

  JOHN DRYDEN.

Witness, Charles Dryden.

_The following receipt is written on the back of_ JACOB TONSON’S
_Agreement, dated March_ 20, 1698-9.

June 11, 1713. Received of the within-named Jacob Tonson, thirty-one
pounds five shillings, which, with two hundred sixty-eight pounds
fifteen shillings paid Mr John Dryden the 24th of March 1698, is in
full for the copy of a book intituled “Dryden’s FABLES,” consisting of
ten thousand verses, more or lesse: I say received as administratrix to
the said John Dryden, of such effects as were not administered to by
Charles Dryden.

  ANN SYLVIUS.

  Witnesses, Eliz. Jones.
             Jacob Tonson, Jun^r.

Paid Mr Dryden, March the 23d, 1698.

                                  L.  s.  d.
  In a bag in silver             100   0   0
  In silver besides               21  15   6
  66 Lewis d’ores at 17s. 6d.     57  15   0
  83 Guyneas at [1] 1 6           89   4   6
                               -------------
                                 268  15   0
                               =============

  250 Guyneas at L. 1 1s. 6d. are 268  15   0

    L.  s.  d.
   268  15   0
    31   5   0
   ===========
   300   0   0




No. IV.

MR RUSSEL’s BILL FOR MR DRYDEN’S FUNERALLS.


For the funerall of Esq^{re} Dryden.

                                                 L. s. d.
  A double coffin covered with cloath, and
  sett of [off] with work gilt with gold         5  0  0

  A herse with six white Flanders horses         1 10  0

  Covering the herse with velvet, and
  velvet housings for the horses                 1  0  0

  17 plumes of feathers for herse and horses     3  0  0

  Hanging the Hall[210] with a border of bays    5  0  0

  6 dozen of paper escucheons for the Hall       3 12  0

  A large pall of velvet                         0 10  0

  10 silk escucheons for the pall                2 10  0

  24 buck: escucheons for herse and horses       2  8  0

  12 shields and six shaffroones for ditto       2  8  0

  3 mourning coaches with six horses             2  5  0

  Silver dish and rosemary                       0  5  0

  8 scarves for musicioners                      2  0  0

  8 hatbands for ditto                           1  0  0

  17 yds of crape to cover their instruments     1 14  0

  4 mourning cloakes                             0 10  0

  Pd 6 men moveing the corps to the Hall         0  6  0

  8 horsemen in long cloakes to ride before
  the herse                                      4  0  0
                                              -----------
  Carried over                                  38 18  0
                                                L.  S.  d.

  Brought over                                 38  18    0

  13 footmen in velvet capps, to walk on
  each side the herse                           1  19    0

  6 porters that attended at the doores, and
  walked before the herse to the Abby,
  in mourning gowns and staves                  1  10    0

  An atchievement for the house                 3  10    0

                                               -----------
                                                45 17   0
                                               -----------

    We may add to these accounts the Description of the Funeral
    itself, extracted from the London Spy of WARD, who was
    doubtless a spectator.

“A deeper concern hath scarce been known to affect in general the
minds of grateful and ingenious men, than the melancholy surprise
of the worthy Mr Dryden’s death hath occasioned through the whole
town, as well as in all other parts of the kingdom, where any persons
either of wit or learning have taken up their residence. Wheresoever
his incomparable writings have been scattered by the hands of the
travellers into foreign nations, the loss of so great a man must needs
be lamented amongst their bards and rabbies; and ’tis reasonable
to believe the commendable industry of translations has been such,
to render several of his most accurate performances into their own
language, that their native country might receive the benefit, and
themselves the reputation of so laudable an undertaking: and how far
the wings of merit have conveyed the pleasing fruits of his exuberant
fancy, is a difficult conjecture, considering what a continual
correspondence our nation has with most parts of the universe. For
it is reasonable to believe all Christian kingdoms and colonies at
least, have been as much the better for his labours, as the world is
the worse for the loss of him. Those who were his enemies while he
was living, (for no man lives without,) his death has now made such
friends to his memory, that they acknowledge they cannot but in justice
give him this character, that he was one of the greatest scholars, the
most correct dramatic poet, and the best writer of heroic verse, that
any age has produced in England. And yet, to verify the old proverb,
that poets, like prophets, have little honour in their own countries,
notwithstanding his merits had justly entitled his corpse to the most
magnificent and solemn interment the beneficence of the greatest
spirits could have bestowed on him; yet, ’tis credibly reported, the
ingratitude of the age is such, that they had like to have let him
pass in private to his grave, without those funeral obsequies suitable
to his greatness, had it not been for that true British worthy, who,
meeting with the venerable remains of the neglected bard passing
silently in a coach, unregarded to his last home, ordered the corpse,
by the consent of his few friends that attended him, to be respited
from so obscure an interment, and most generously undertook, at his
own expence, to revive his worth in the minds of a forgetful people,
by bestowing on his peaceful dust a solemn funeral answerable to his
merit; which memorable action alone will eternalize his fame with the
greatest heroes, and add that lustre to his nobility, which time can
never tarnish, but will shine with equal glory in all ages, and in
the very teeth of envy bid defiance to oblivion. The management of
the funeral was left to Mr Russel, pursuant to the directions of that
honourable great man the lord Jefferies, concerned chiefly in the pious
undertaking.

“The first honour done to his deserving relics, was lodging them in
Physicians College, from whence they were appointed to take their
last remove. The constituted day for the celebration of that office,
which living heroes perform in respect to a dead worthy, was Monday
the 13th of May, in the afternoon; at which time, according to the
notice given, most of the nobility and gentry now in town assembled
themselves together at the noble edifice aforesaid, in order to honour
the corpse with their personal attendance. When the company were met,
a performance of grave music, adapted to the solemn occasion, was
communicated to the ears of the company, by the hands of the best
masters in England, whose artful touches on their soft instruments
diffused such harmonious influence amongst the attentive auditory, that
the most heroic spirits in the whole assembly were unable to resist
the passionate force of each dissolving strain, but melted into tears
for the loss of so elegant and sweet a ravisher of human minds; and,
notwithstanding their undaunted bravery, which had oft scorned death
in the field, yet now, by music’s enchantment at the funeral of so
great a poet, were softened beneath their own natures, into a serious
reflection on mortality.

“When this part of the solemnity was ended, the famous Doctor G----th
ascended the pulpit where the physicians make their lectures, and
delivered, according to the Roman custom, a funeral oration in Latin
on his deceased friend, which he performed with great approbation and
applause of all such gentlemen that heard him, and were true judges of
the matter; most rhetorically setting forth those elegies and encomiums
which no poet hitherto, but the great Dryden, could ever truly deserve.
When these rites were over in the College, the corpse, by bearers for
that purpose, was handed into the hearse, being adorned with plumes
of black feathers, and the sides hung round with the escutcheons of
his ancestors, mixed with that of his lady’s; the hearse drawn by six
stately Flanders horses; every thing being set off with the most useful
ornaments to move regard, and affect the memories of the numberless
spectators, as a means to encourage every sprightly genius to attempt
something in their lives that may once render their dust worthy of
so public a veneration. All things being put in due order for their
movement, they began their solemn procession towards Westminster Abbey,
after the following manner:

“The two beadles of the College marched first, in mourning cloaks and
hat-bands, with the heads of their staffs wrapt in black crape scarfs,
being followed by several other servile mourners, whose business
was to prepare the way, that the hearse might pass less liable to
interruption; next to these moved a concert of hautboys and trumpets,
playing and sounding together a melancholy funeral-march, undoubtedly
composed upon that particular occasion; (after these, the undertaker
with his hat off, dancing through the dirt like a bear after a bagpipe.
I beg the reader’s pardon for foisting in a jest in so improper a
place, but as he walked by himself within a parenthesis, so I have here
placed him, and hope none will be offended;) then came the hearse, as
before described, most honourably attended with abundance of quality
in their coaches and six horses; that it may be justly reported to
posterity, no ambassador from the greatest emperor in all the universe,
sent over with the welcome embassy to the throne of England, ever made
his public entry to the court with half that honour as the corpse of
the great Dryden did its last exit to the grave. In this order the
nobility and gentry attended the hearse to Westminster Abbey, where the
quire, assisted with the best masters in England, sung an Epicedium;
and the last funeral rites being performed by one of the prebends, he
was honourably interred between Chaucer and Cowley; where, according to
report, will be erected a very stately monument, at the expence of some
of the nobility, in order to recommend his worth, and to preserve his
memory to all succeeding ages.”




No. V.

MRS THOMAS’S LETTERS CONCERNING DRYDEN’S DEATH AND FUNERAL;

_Extracted from Wilson’s Life of Congreve, 1730._


    [As tales of wonder are generally acceptable to the public, I
    insert these memorable Epistles, with the necessary caveat,
    that they are full of every kind of blunder and inconsistency.]

“These Memoirs were communicated to me by a lady, now living, with whom
Mr Dryden corresponded under the name of Corinna, and which name he
himself gave her.

’SIR,

’Mr Dryden was son of -------- Dryden, of an ancient and good family
in Northamptonshire, by a sister of Sir Gilbert Pickering, Bart. of
the same county; who has a handsome monument at Tichmarsh, erected
in 1721, by the late widow Creed of Oundle, the daughter of another
sister of Sir Gilbert’s, and niece to the famous Earl of Sandwich,
who was killed in the Dutch war, 1667, being then admiral. He married
Lady Elizabeth Howard, (a celebrated beauty) daughter to the old Earl
of Berkshire, sister to Sir Robert Howard, Colonel Philip Howard, and
Mr Edward Howard: (who wrote “The British Prince,” &c.;) she bore him
three sons, Charles, John, and Harry. He lived many years in a very
good house in Gerrard street, the 5th or 6th door on the left-hand from
Newport-market. On the 19th of April, 1700, he said he had been very
bad with the gout, and an erysipelas in one leg; but he was then very
well, and designed to go soon abroad: but on the Friday following, he
had eat a partridge for his supper; and going to take a turn in the
little garden behind his house, was seized with a violent pain under
the ball of the great-toe of his right-foot, that, 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,” says he,
“this black spot is a mortification; I know also, that it will seize
my head, and that they will 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, too truly, foretold, the event proved; and his son was too dutiful
to disobey his father’s commands. On the Wednesday morning following,
being May-day, 1700, under the most excruciating dolours, he died.
Dr Sprat, then bishop of Rochester, sent, on the Thursday, to Lady
Elizabeth, that he would make a present of the ground, which was 40l.
with all the other abbey-fees, &c. to his deceased friend. Lord Halifax
sent also to my lady and Mr Charles, that if they would give him leave
to bury Mr Dryden, he would inter him with a gentleman’s private
funeral, and afterwards bestow 500l. on a monument in the Abbey;
which, as they had no reason to refuse, they accepted. On the Saturday
following the company came, the corpse was put into a velvet hearse,
and eighteen mourning coaches, filled with company, attending. When,
just before they began to move, Lord Jefferies, with some of his rakish
companions, coming by, in wine, asked, whose funeral? and being told,
“What!” cries he, “shall Dryden, the greatest honour and ornament of
the nation, be buried after this private manner? No, gentlemen; let
all that loved Mr Dryden, and honour his memory, alight, and join
with me in gaining my lady’s consent, to let me have the honour of
his interment, which shall be after another manner than this, and I
will bestow 1000l. on a monument in the Abbey for him.” The gentlemen
in the coaches not knowing of the bishop of Rochester’s favour, nor
of Lord Halifax’s generous design, (these two noble spirits having,
out of respect to the family, enjoined Lady Elizabeth and her son to
keep their favour concealed to the world, and let it pass for her own
expence, &c.), readily came out of the coaches, and attended Lord
Jefferies up to the lady’s bed-side, who was then sick, He repeated the
purport of what he had before said; but she absolutely refusing, he
fell on his knees, vowing never to rise till his request was granted.
The rest of the company, by his desire, kneeled also; she being
naturally of a timorous disposition, and then under a sudden surprise,
fainted away. As soon as she recovered her speech, she cried, no, no.
Enough, gentlemen, replied he, (rising briskly,) my lady is very good;
she says, go, go. She repeated her former words with all her strength,
but, alas! in vain, her feeble voice was lost in their acclamations of
joy; and Lord Jefferies ordered the hearsemen to carry the corpse to
Russell’s, the undertaker, in Cheapside, and leave it there, till he
sent orders for the embalment, which, he added, should be after the
royal manner. His directions were obeyed, the company dispersed, and
Lady Elizabeth and Mr Charles remained inconsolable. Next morning Mr
Charles waited on Lord Halifax, &c. to excuse his mother and self, by
relating the real truth: but neither his lordship, nor the bishop,
would admit of any plea; especially the latter, who had the Abbey
lighted, the ground opened, the choir attending, an anthem ready set,
and himself waiting, for some hours, without any corpse to bury,
Russel, after three days expectance of orders for embalment, without
receiving any, waits on Lord Jefferies, who, pretending ignorance of
the matter, turned it off with an ill-natured jest, saying, “Those who
observed the orders of a drunken frolic, deserved no better; that he
remembered nothing at all of it, and he might do what he pleased with
the corpse.” On this Mr Russell waits on Lady Elizabeth and Mr Dryden;
but, alas! it was not in their power to answer. The season was very
hot, the deceased had lived high and fast; and being corpulent, and
abounding with gross humours, grew very offensive. The undertaker, in
short, threatened to bring home the corpse, and set it before their
door. It cannot be easily imagined, what grief, shame, and confusion,
seized this unhappy family. They begged a day’s respite, which was
granted. Mr Charles wrote a very handsome letter to Lord Jefferies, who
returned it, with this cool answer, “He knew nothing of the matter,
and would be troubled no more about it.” He then addressed the Lord
Halifax and bishop of Rochester, who were both too justly, though
unhappily, incensed, to do any thing in it. In this extreme distress,
Dr Garth, a man who entirely loved Mr Dryden, and was withal a man of
generosity and great humanity, sends for the corpse to the College of
Physicians in Warwicklane, and proposed a funeral by subscription,
to which himself set a most noble example; Mr Wycherley, and several
others, among whom must not be forgotten, Henry Cromwell, Esq. Captain
Gibbons, and Mr Christopher Metcalfe, Mr Dryden’s apothecary and
intimate friend, (since a collegiate physician,) who, with many others,
contributed most largely to the subscription; and at last a day, about
three weeks after his decease, was appointed for the interment at
the Abbey. Dr Garth pronounced a fine Latin oration over the corpse
at the College; but the audience being numerous, and the room large,
it was requisite the orator should be elevated, that he might be
heard; but, as it unluckily happened, there was nothing at hand but
an old beer-barrel, which the doctor, with much good-nature, mounted;
and, in the midst of his oration, beating time to the accent with
his foot, the head broke in, and his feet sunk to the bottom, which
occasioned the malicious report of his enemies, that he was turned a
tub-preacher: However, he finished the oration with a superior grace
and genius, to the loud acclamations of mirth, which inspired the
mixed or rather mob-auditors. The procession began to move, a numerous
train of coaches attended the hearse; but, good God! in what disorder,
can only be expressed by a sixpenny pamphlet, soon after published,
entitled, “Dryden’s Funeral.” 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. The butchers and other mob broke
in like a deluge, so that only about eight or ten gentlemen could get
admission, and those forced to cut the way with their drawn swords.
The coffin, in this disorder, was let down into Chaucer’s grave, with
as much confusion, and as little ceremony, as was possible; every one
glad to save themselves from the gentlemen’s swords, or the clubs of
the mob. When the funeral was over, Mr Charles sent a challenge to Lord
Jefferies, 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 justly incensed him, that he resolved, since
his lordship refused to answer him like a gentleman, he would watch an
opportunity to meet him, and fight off hand, though with all the rules
of honour; which his lordship hearing, left the town; and Mr Charles
could never have the satisfaction to meet him, though he sought it till
his death with the utmost application. This is the true state of the
case, and surely no reflection to the manes of this great man.

“Thus it is very plain, that his being buried by contribution, was
owing to a vile drunken frolic of the Lord Jefferies, as I have
related. Mr Dryden enjoyed himself in plenty, while he lived, and the
surplusage of his goods paid all his debts. After his decease, the
Lady Elizabeth, his widow, took a lesser house in Sherrard-street,
Golden-square, and had wherewithal to live frugally genteel, and keep
two servants, to the day of her death, by the means of a small part of
her fortune, which her relations had obliged Mr Dryden to secure to
her on marriage. This was 80l. per annum, and duly paid at 20l. per
quarter; so that, I can assure you, there was no want to her dying-day.
He had only three sons, and all provided for like gentlemen. Mr Charles
had served the Pontiff of Rome above nine years, in an honourable
and profitable post, as usher to the palace, out of which he had an
handsome stipend remitted by his brother John, whom, by the pope’s
favour, he left to officiate, while he came to visit his father, who
dying soon after his arrival, he returned no more to Italy, but was
unhappily drowned at Windsor in swimming cross the river. Mr John died
in his post at Rome, and Harry the youngest was a religious; he had
30l. a year allowed by his college in Flanders, besides a generous
salary from his near relation the too well-known Duchess of Norfolk,
to whom he was domestic chaplain. Behold the great wants of this
deplorable family!

  I am, Sir,

  Your’s, &c.

  CORINNA.

_May_ 15, 1729.

P. S. ‘Mr Dryden was educated at Westminster school, under the great Dr
Bushby, being one of the king’s scholars upon the royal foundation.’

       *       *       *       *       *

’SIR,

’Upon recollection, I think it must have been that remarkably fine
gentleman, Pope Clement XI., to whom Mr Charles Dryden was usher of the
palace. His brother John died of a fever at Rome, not many months after
his father, and was buried there; whether before the pope or after
I cannot say; but the difference was not much. Mr Charles, who was
drowned at Windsor, 1704, was doubtless buried there. Lady Elizabeth
lived about eight years after her spouse, and for five years of the
time, without any memory, which she lost by a fever in 1703; she was a
melancholy object, and was, by her son Harry, as I was told, carried
into the country, where she died. What country I never heard. I cannot
certainly say where Mr Harry died, or whether before his mother or
after.

’Mr Dryden never had any wife but Lady Elizabeth, whatever may have
been reported.

’As he was a man of a versatile genius, he took great delight in
judicial astrology; though only by himself. There were some incidents
which proved his great skill, that were related to Lady Chudleigh at
the Bath, and which she desired me to ask Lady Elizabeth about, as I
after did; which she not only confirmed, by telling me the exact matter
of fact, but added another, which had never been told to any; and which
I can solemnly aver was some years before it came to pass. I purposely
omitted these Narratives in the Memoirs of Mr Dryden, lest that this
over-witty age, which so much ridicules prescience, should think the
worse of all the rest; but, if you desire particulars, they shall be
freely at your service.

  I am, Sir,

  Your’s, &c.

  CORINNA.

_16th June_, 1729.

       *       *       *       *       *

_The Narratives referred to in the foregoing Letter, viz._

’Notwithstanding Mr Dryden was a great master of that branch of
astronomy, called judicial astrology, there were very few, scarce any,
the most intimate of his friends, who knew of his amusements that way,
except his own family. In the year 1707, that deservedly celebrated
Lady Chudleigh being at the Bath, was told by the Lady Elizabeth of a
very surprising instance of this judgement on his eldest son Charles’s
horoscope. Lady Chudleigh, whose superior genius rendered her as
little credulous on the topic of prescience, as she was on that of
apparitions; yet withal was of so candid and curious a disposition,
that she neither credited an attested tale on the quality or character
of the relater, nor did she altogether despise it, though told by the
most ignorant: Her steady zeal for truth always led her to search
to the foundation, of it; and on that principle, at her return to
London, she spoke to a gentlewoman of her acquaintance, that was well
acquainted in Mr Dryden’s family, to ask his widow about it; which she
accordingly did. It is true, report has added many incidents to matter
of fact; but the real truth, taken from Lady Elizabeth’s own mouth, is
in these words:

‘When I was in labour of Charles, Mr Dryden being told it was decent
to withdraw, laid his watch on the table, begging one of the ladies,
then present, in a most solemn manner, to take an exact notice of the
very minute when the child was born: which she did, and acquainted
him therewith. This passed without any singular notice; many fathers
having had such a fancy, without any farther thought. But about a week
after, when I was pretty hearty, he comes into my room; ‘My dear,’
says he, ‘you little think what I have been doing this morning;’ “nor
ever shall,” said I, “unless you will be so good to inform me.” ‘Why,
then,’ cried he, ‘I have been calculating this child’s nativity, and
in grief I speak it, he was born in an evil hour; Jupiter, Venus,
and the Sun, were all under the earth, and the lord of his ascendant
afflicted by a hateful square of Mars and Saturn. If he lives to arrive
at his eighth year, he will go near to die a violent death on his very
birth-day; but if he should escape, as I see but small hopes, he will,
in his twenty-third year, be under the very same evil direction: and
if he should, which seems almost impossible, escape that also, the
thirty-third or thirty-fourth year is, I fear’----I interrupted him
here, “O, Mr Dryden, what is this you tell me? my blood runs cold at
your fatal speech; recal it, I beseech you. Shall my little angel, my
Dryden boy, be doomed to so hard a fate? Poor innocent, what hast thou
done? No: I will fold thee in my arms, and if thou must fall, we will
both perish together.” A flood of tears put a stop to my speech; and
through Mr Dryden’s comfortable persuasions, and the distance of time,
I began to be a little appeased, but always kept the fatal period in
my mind. At last the summer arrived, August was the inauspicious month
in which my dear son was to enter on his eighth year. The court being
in progress, and Mr Dryden at leisure, he was invited to my brother
Berkshire’s to keep the long vacation with him at Charleton in Wilts;
I was also invited to my uncle Mordaunt’s, to pass the remainder of
the summer at his country-seat. All this was well enough; but when we
came to dividing the children, I would have had him took John, and let
me have the care of Charles; because, as I told him, a man might be
engaged in company, but a woman could have no pretence for not guarding
of the evil hour. Poor Mr Dryden was in this too absolute, and I as
positive. In fine, we parted in anger; and, as a husband always will
be master, he took Charles, and I was forced to be content with my son
John. But when the fatal day approached, such anguish of heart seized
me, as none but a fond mother can form any idea of. I watched the post;
that failed: I wrote and wrote, but no answer. Oh, my friend! judge
what I endured, terrified with dreams, tormented by my apprehensions. I
abandoned myself to despair, and remained inconsolable.

’The anxiety of my spirits occasioned such an effervescence of my
blood, as threw me into so violent a fever, that my life was despaired
of, when a letter came from my spouse, reproving my womanish credulity,
and assured me all was well, and the child in perfect health; on
which I mended daily, and recovered my wonted state of ease, till
about six weeks after the fatal day, I received an _eclaircissement_
from Mr Dryden, with a full account of the whole truth, which belike
he feared to acquaint me with till the danger was over. It was this:
In the month of August, being Charles’s anniversary, it happened, that
Lord Berkshire had made a general hunting-match, to which were invited
all the adjacent gentlemen; Mr Dryden being at his house, and his
brother-in-law, could not be dispensed with from appearing.

’I have told you, that Mr Dryden, either through fear of being
thought superstitious, or thinking it a science beneath his study,
was extremely cautious in letting any one know that he was a dabbler
in astrology, therefore could not excuse his absence from the sport;
but he took care to set the boy a double exercise in the Latin tongue,
(which he taught his children himself,) with a strict charge not to
stir out of the room till his return, well knowing the task he had
set him would take up longer time. Poor Charles was all obedience,
and sat close to his duty, when, as ill fate ordained, the stag made
towards the house. The noise of the dogs, horns, &c. alarmed the family
to partake of the sport; and one of the servants coming down stairs,
the door being open, saw the child hard at his exercise without being
moved. ‘Master,’ cried the fellow, ‘why do you sit there? come down,
come down, and see the sport.’ ‘No,’ replied Charles, ’my papa has
forbid me, and I dare not.’ ‘Pish!’ quoth the clown, ‘vather shall
never know it;’ so takes the child by the hand, and leads him away;
when, just as they came to the gate, the stag, being at bay with the
dogs, cut a bold stroke, and leaped over the court-wall, which was
very low and very old, and the dogs following, threw down at once a
part of the wall ten yards in length, under which my dear child lay
buried. He was as soon as possible dug out; but, alas, how mangled! his
poor little head being crushed to a perfect mash. In this miserable
condition he continued above six weeks, without the least hope of life.
Through the Divine Providence he recovered, and in process of time,
having a most advantageous invitation to Rome, from my uncle, Cardinal
Howard, we sent over our two sons Charles and John; (having, through
the grace of God, been ourselves admitted into the true Catholic
faith;) they were received suitable to the grandeur and generosity of
his eminence, and Charles immediately planted in a post of honour,
as gentleman-usher to his Holiness, in which he continued about nine
years. But what occasions me to mention this, is an allusion to my
dear Mr Dryden’s too fatal prediction. In his twenty-third year,
being in perfect health, he had attended some ladies of the palace,
his Holiness’s nieces, as it was his place, on a party of pleasure.
His brother John and he lodged together, at the top of an old round
tower belonging to the Vatican, (with a well staircase, much like the
Monument,) when he knew his brother Charles was returned, went up,
thinking to find him there, and to go to bed. But, alas! no brother
was there: on which he made a strict enquiry at all the places he used
to frequent, but no news, more than that he was seen by the centinel
to go up the staircase. On which he got an order for the door of
the foundation of the tower to be opened, where they found my poor
unfortunate son Charles mashed to a mummy, and weltering in his own
blood. How this happened, he gave no farther account, when he could
speak, than, that the heat of the day had been most excessive, and
as he came to the top of the tower, he found himself seized with a
megrim, or swimming in his head, and leaning against the iron rails, it
is to be supposed, tipped over, five stories deep. Under this grievous
mischance, his Holiness (God bless him!) omitted nothing that might
conduce to his recovery; but as he lay many months without hopes of
life, so when he did recover his health, it was always very imperfect,
and he continues still to be of a hectic disposition.

’You see here (continued Lady Elizabeth) the too true fulfilling of two
of my dear husband’s fatal predictions. But, alas! my friend, there is
a third to come, which is, that in his thirty-third or thirty-fourth
year, he or I shall die a violent death; but he could not say which
would go first. I heartily pray it may be myself: But as I have ten
thousand fears, the daily challenges Charles sends to Lord Jefferies,
on his ungenerous treatment of my dear Mr Dryden’s corpse; and as
he has some value for you, I beg, my dearest friend, that you would
dissuade him as much as you can from taking that sort of justice on
Lord Jefferies, lest it should fulfil his dear father’s prediction.’

       *       *       *       *       *

“Thus far Lady Elizabeth’s own words.

“This, if required, I can solemnly attest was long before Mr Charles
died; to the best of my remembrance it was in 1701 or 1702, I will
not be positive which. But in 1703, Lady Elizabeth was seized with a
nervous fever, which deprived her of her memory and understanding,
(which surely may be termed a moral death,) though she lived some
years after. But Mr Charles, in August 1704, was unhappily drowned at
Windsor, as before recited. He had, with another gentleman, swam twice
over the Thames; but venturing a third time, it was supposed he was
taken with the cramp, because he called out for help, though too late.

  I am, Sir, &c.

  CORINNA.”

_June_ 18, 1729.


_Mr_ CHARLES DRYDEN’S _Letter to_ CORINNA.

  ’_Madam_,

’Notwithstanding I have been seized with a fever ever since I saw you
last, I have this afternoon endeavoured to do myself the honour of
obeying my Lady Chudleigh’s commands. My fever is still increasing, and
I beg you to peruse the following verses, according to your own sense
and discretion, which far surpasses mine in all respects. In a small
time of intermission from my illness, I write these following:

    MADAM,

    How happy is our British isle, to bear
    Such crops of wit and beauty to the fair?
    A female muse each vying age has blest,
    And the last Phoenix still excels the rest:
    But you such solid learning add to rhymes,
    Your sense looks fatal to succeeding times;
    Which, raised to such a pitch, o’erflows like Nile,
    And with an after-dearth must seize our isle.
    Alone of all your sex, without the rules
    Of formal pedants, or the noisy schools,
    (What nature has bestowed will art supply?)
    Have traced the various tracts of dark philosophy.

    What happy days had wise Aurelius seen,
    If, for Faustina, you his wife had been!
    No jarring nonsense had his soul oppressed,
    For he with all he wished for had been blessed.

’Be pleased to tell me what you find amiss, or correct it yourself, and
excuse this trouble from

  Your most humble and most obedient servant,

  CHAR. DRYDEN.’

_Easter-Eve._

“I have searched all our ecclesiastical offices for the will of Mr
Dryden, but I find he did not make any; administration was granted to
his son Charles (his wife, the Lady Elizabeth Howard, being a lunatic
for some time before her death) in June 1700.”




No. VI.

MONUMENT IN THE CHURCH AT TICHMARSH.


“In the middle of the north wall of the chapel within the parish church
of Tichmarsh, in Northamptonshire, is a wooden monument, having the
bust of a person at top, wreathed, crowned with laurel. Underneath, THE
POET; and below, this inscription:

    “Here lie the honoured remains
    of Erasmus Dryden, Esq., and Mary Pickering
    his wife.
    He was the third son of Sir Erasmus Dryden, an
    ancient Baronet, who lived with great honour in
    this county, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
    Mr Dryden was a very ingenious worthy gentleman,
    and Justice of the Peace in this county.
    He married Mrs Mary Pickering, daughter of the
    reverend Doc^r Pickering,[211] of Aldwinckle, and
    grand-daughter to Sir Gilbert Pickering:
    Of her it may truly be said,
    She was a crown to her husband:
    Her whole conversation was as becometh
    the Gospel of Christ.
    They had 14 children; the eldest of whom was
    John Dryden, Esq.,
    the celebrated Poet and Laureat of his time.
    His bright parts and learning are best seen in his
    own excellent writings on various subjects.
    We boast, that he was bred and had
    his first learning here;
    where he has often made us happie
    by his kind visits and most delightful conversation.
    He married the Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter to
    Henry[212] Earl of Berkshire; by whom he had three
    sons, Charles, John, and Erasmus-Henry;
    and, after 70 odd years, when nature could be no
    longer supported, he received the notice of
    his approaching dissolution
    with sweet submission and entire resignation
    to the Divine will;
    and he took so tender and obliging a farewell of
    his friends, as none but he himself could have
    expressed; of which sorrowful number
    I was one.
    His body was honourably interred in Westminster
    Abby, among the greatest wits of divers ages.
    His sons were all fine, ingenious, accomplished
    gentlemen: they died in their youth, unmarried:
    Sir Erasmus-Henry, the youngest, lived
    till the ancient honour of the family
    descended on him.
    After his death, it came to his good uncle,
    Sir Erasmus Dryden;
    whose grandson is the present Sir John Dryden,
    of Canons-Ashby, the ancient seat of the Family.
    Sir Erasmus Dryden, the first named, married his
    daughters into very honourable familyes; the
    eldest to Sir John Philipps;[213] the second to
    Sir John Hartop;[214] the youngest[215] was married
    to Sir John Pickering, great grand-father to
    the present Sir Gilbert Pickering, Bart.;
    and to the same persons I have the honour to be
    a grand-daughter:
    And it is with delight and humble thankfullness
    that I reflect on the character of
    my pious ancestors; and that I am
    now, with my owne hand, paying my duty to
    Sir Erasmus Dryden,
    my great grand-father, and to
    Erasmus Dryden, Esq.,
    my honoured uncle,[216] in the 80th year of my age.

          ELIZA. CREED, 1722.”




No. VII.

EXTRACT FROM AN EPISTOLARY POEM, TO JOHN DRYDEN, ESQ.

OCCASIONED BY THE MUCH-LAMENTED DEATH OF THE RIGHT HON. JAMES EARL OF
ABINGDON;

BY WILLIAM PITTIS, LATE FELLOW OF NEW-COLLEGE, IN OXON.


    _Quanto rectius hoc, quam tristi lœdere versu
    Pantolabum scurram, Nomentanumq. Nepotem?_      HOR.

    _----Cadet et Repheus justissimus unus
    Qui fuit in Teucris, et servantissimus æqui._   ÆN. Lib. ii.


THE PREFACE.

  _1699. 13. June._

... And though I am not an author confirmed enough to carry my copies
about to gentlemen’s chambers, in order to pick up amendments and
corrections, as the practice is now of our most received writers; yet
I must, in justice to myself, and the gentleman who has favoured me
with its perusal, tell the world, it had been much worse had not Mr
Dryden acquainted me with its faults. Nothing indeed was so displeasing
to him, as what was pleasing to myself, viz. his own commendations:
and if it pleases the world, the reader has no one to thank but so
distinguishing a judgment who occasioned it.

I might here lay hold of the opportunity of returning the obliging
compliments he sent me by the person who brought the papers to him
before they were printed; but I may chance to call his judgement in
question by it, which I always accounted infallible, but in his kind
thoughts of me; and therefore refer the reader to the poem, in order to
see whether he’ll be so good natured as to join his opinion with the
compliment the gentleman aforesaid has honoured me with.


POEM.

    But thou, great bard, whose hoary merits claim
    The laureat’s place, without the laureat’s name;
    Whose learned brows, encircled by the bays,
    Bespeak their owner’s, and their giver’s praise;
    Thou, Dryden, should’st our loss alone relate,
    And heroes mourn, who heroes canst create.
    Amidst thy verse the wife already shines,
    And owes her virtues, what she owes thy lines.
    Down from above the saint our sorrows views,
    And feels a second heaven in thy muse;
    Whose verse as lasting as her fame shall be,
    While thou shall live by her, and she by thee.
      Oh! let the same immortal numbers tell,
    How just the husband lived, and how he fell;
    What vows, when living, for his life were made;
    What floods of tears at his decease were paid;
    And since their deathless virtues were the same,
    Equal in worth, alike should be their fame.
    But thou, withdrawn from us, and public cares,
    Flatter’st thy age, and feed’st thy growing years;
    Supine, unmoved, regardless of our cries,
    Thou mind’st not where thy noble patron lies:
    Wrapt in death’s icy arms, within his urn,
    Behold him sleeping, and, beholding, mourn:
    Speechless that tongue for wholesome counsels famed,
    And without sight those eyes for lust unblamed;
    Bereaved of motion are those hands which gave
    Alms to the needy, did the needy crave.
    Ah! such a sight, and such a man divine,
    Does only call for such a hand as thine!
    Great is the task, and worthy is thy pen;
    The best of bards should sing the best of men.
      Awake, arise from thy lethargic state,
    Mourn Britain’s loss, though Britain be ingrate;
    Nor let the sacred Mantuan’s labours be
    A _ne plus ultra_ to thy fame and thee.
    Thy Abingdon, if once thy glorious theme,
    Shall vie with his Marcellus for esteem;
    Tears in his eyes, and sorrow in his heart,
    Shall speak the reader’s grief, and writer’s art;
    And, though this barren age does not produce
    A great Augustus, to reward thy muse;
    Though in this isle no good Octavia reigns,
    And gives thee Virgil’s premium for his strains:
    Yet, Dryden, for a while forsake thy ease,
    And quit thy pleasures, that thou more may’st please.
    Apollo calls, and every muse attends,
    With every grace, who every beauty lends.
    Sweet is thy voice, as was thy subject’s mind,
    And, like his soul, thy numbers unconfined;
    Thy language easy, and thy flowing song,
    Soft as a vale, but like a mountain strong.
    Such verse as thine, and such alone, should dare
    To charge the muses with their present care.
      Thine, and the cause of wit, with speed maintain,
    Lest some rude hand the sacred work profane,
    And the dull, mercenary, rhyming crew,
    Rob the deceased and thee, of what’s your due.
    Such fears as these, (if duty cannot move,
    And make thy labours equal to thy love,)
    Should hasten forth thy verse, and make it show
    What thou, mankind, and every muse does owe.
    As Abingdon’s high worth exalted shines,
    And gives and takes a lustre from thy lines;
    As Eleonora’s pious deeds revive
    In him who shared her praises when alive:
    So the stern Greek, whom nothing could persuade
    To quit the rash engagements which he made,
    With sullen looks, and helmet laid aside,
    He soothed his anger, and indulged his pride;
    Careless of fate, neglectful of the call
    Of chiefs entreating, till Patroclus’ fall.
    Roused by his death, his martial soul could bend,
    And lose his whole resentments in his friend;
    As to the dusky field he winged his course,
    With eyes impatient, and redoubled force,
    And weeped him dead, in thousands of the slain,
    Whom living, Greece had beg’d his sword in vain.
      O Dryden! quick the sacred pencil take,
    And rise in virtue’s cause for virtue’s sake;
    Of heaven’s the song, and heaven-born is thy muse,
    Fitting to follow bliss, which mine will lose:
    Bold are thy thoughts, and soaring is thy flight;
    Thy fancy tempting, thy expressions bright;
    Moving thy grief, and powerful is thy praise,
    Or to command our tears, or joys to raise.
    So shall his worth, from age to age conveyed,
    Shew what the hero did, and poet paid;
    And future times shall practice what they see
    Performed so well by him, and praised by thee,
    While I confess the weakness of my lays,
    And give my wonder where thou giv’st thy praise:
    As I from every muse but thine retire,
    And him in thee, and thee in him, admire.




No. VIII.

EXTRACTS FROM POEMS ATTACKING DRYDEN, FOR HIS SILENCE UPON THE DEATH OF
QUEEN MARY.


The author of one of these Mourning Odes inscribes it to Dryden with
the following letter:

  SIR,

Though I have little acquaintance with you, nor desire to have more, I
take upon me, with the assurance of a poet, to make this dedication to
you, which I hope you will the more easily excuse, since you have often
used the same freedom to others; and since I protest sincerely, that I
expect no money from you.

I could not forbear mentioning your admired Lewis, whom you compare to
Augustus, as justly as one may compare you to Virgil. Augustus (though
not the most exact pattern of a prince) yet, on some occasions, shewed
personal valour, and was not a league-breaker, a poisoner, a pirate:
Virgil was a good man and a clean poet; all his excellent writings may
be carried by a child in one hand more easily, than all your almonzors
can be by a porter upon both shoulders.

When I saw your prodigious epistle to the translation of Juvenal, I
feared you were wheeling to the government; I confess too, I long
expected something from you on the late sad occasion, that has employed
so many pens; but it is well that you have kept silence. I hope you
will always be on the other side; did even popery ever get any honour
by you? You may wonder that I subscribe not my name at length, but
I defer that to another time. I hear you are translating again; let
English Virgil be better than English Juvenal, or it is odds you will
hear of me more at large. In the mean time, hoping that you and your
covey will dislike what I _have written_, I remain, Sir, your very
humble servant,

  A. B.

There is also an attack upon our author, as presiding in the Wits
Coffee-house, which gives us a curious view into the interior of that
celebrated place of rendezvous. It is entitled, “Urania’s Temple; or, a
Satire upon the Silent Poets,” and is as follows:--




URANIA’S TEMPLE; OR, A SATIRE UPON THE SILENT POETS.

    _Carmina, nulla canam._----VIRG.

  _1694-5. 2. March._

    A house there stands where once a convent stood,
    A nursery still to the old convent brood:
    This ever hospitable roof of yore
    The famous sign of the old Osiris bore,
    A fair red Io, hieroglyphic-fair,
    For all the suckling wits o’ the town milcht there.
    This long old emblematic, that had past
    Full many a bleak winter’s shaking blast,
    At last with age fell down, some say, confusion,
    Shamed and quite dasht at the new Revolution;
    Dropt out of modesty, (as most suppose,)
    Not daring face the new bright Royal Rose.
      Here in supiner state, ’twixt reaking tiff,
    And fumigating clouds of funk and whiff,
    Snug in a nook, his dusky tripos, sits
    A senior Delphic ’mongst the minor wits;
    Feared like an Indian god, a god indeed
    True Indian, smoked with his own native weed.
    From this oped mouth, soft eloquence rich mint
    Steals now and then a keen well-hammered hint,
    Some sharp state raillery, or politic squint,
    Hard midwived wit, births by slow labours stopt,
    Sense not profusely shower’d, but only dropt.
    Sometimes for oracles yet more profound,
    A titillating sonnet’s handed round,
    Some Abdication-Damon madrigal,
    His own sour pen’s too overflowing gall.
      I must confess in pure poetic rage,
    Bowed down to the old Moloch of that age,
    His strange bigotted muse our wonder saw,
    Tuned to the late great court tarantula.
    What though worn out in pleasures old and stale,
    The reverend Outly sculkt within the pale;
    It was enough, like the old Mahomet’s pigeon,
    He lured to bread, and masked into religion.
      Had that, now silent, muse been but so kind
    As to this funeral-dirge her numbers joined,
    On that great theme what wonders had he told!
    For though the bard, the quill is not grown old,
    Writes young Apollo still, with his whole rays
    Encircled and enriched, though not his bays.
    Thus when the wreath, so long, so justly due,
    The great Mecænas from those brows withdrew,
    With pain he saw such merit sunk so far,
    Shamed that the dragon’s tail swept down the star.
    Not that the conscience-shackle tied so hard,
    But had he been the prophet, as the bard,
    Prognostick’d the diminutive slender birth
    His seven-hill’d mountain-labour has brought forth,
    His foreseen precipice; that thought alone
    Had stopt his fall, secured him all our own;
    Free from his hypochondriac dreams he had slept,
    And still his unsold Esau’s birthright kept.
    ’Tis thus we see him lost, thus mourn his fall;
    That single teint alone has sullied all.
      So have I in the Muses garden seen
    The spreading rose, or blooming jessamine;
    Once from whose bosom the whole Hybla train
    The industrious treasurers of the rich plain,
    Those winged foragers for their fragrant prey,
    On loaded thighs bore thousand sweets away:
    Now shaded by a sullen venomed guest
    Cankered and sooted o’er to a spider’s nest.
    His sweets thus soured, what melancholy change,
    What an ill-natur’d lour, a face so strange!
    His life one whole long scene of all unrest,
    And airy hopes his thin cameleon-feast;
    Pleased only with the pride of being preferred,
    The echoed voice to his own listning herd,
    A magisterial Belweather tape,
    The lordly leader of his bleating troop.
      These doctrines our young Sullenists preach round,
    The texts which their poetic silence found.
    But why the doctor of their chair, why thou,
    Their great rabbinic voice, thus silent too?
    Could Noll’s once meteor glories blaze so fair,
    To make thee that all-prostrate zealot there?
    Strange, that that fiery nose could boast that charm
    Thy muse with those seraphic raptures warm!
    And our fair Albion star to shine so bleak,
    Her radiant influence so chill, so weak!
    Gorged with his riotous festival of fame,
    Could thy weak stomach pule at Mary’s name!
    Or was thy junior palate more canine,
    And now in years grows squeamish, and more fine!
    Fie, peevish-niggard, with thy flowing store
    To play the churl,--excuse thy shame no more.




No. IX.

VERSES OCCASIONED BY READING MR DRYDEN’S FABLES. INSCRIBED TO HIS GRACE
THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.

BY MR JABEZ HUGHES.


    _Musæum ante omnes, medium nam plurima turba
    Hunc habet, atque humeris extantem suspicit altis._--VIRG.

  TO THE READER.

  _1720-1, March._

It is now almost fourteen years since these lines were first written;
and as I had no thought of making them public, I laid them aside among
other papers; where they had still continued private, if it had not, in
a manner, become my duty to print them, by the noble regard which is
paid to Mr Dryden’s memory, by his grace the Duke of Buckingham, who,
to his high quality, has added the liberal distinction of having long
been at once both an eminent patron of elegant literature, and the most
accomplished judge and pattern of it.

It might indeed seem an adventurous presumption to offer so trivial
a poem to his Grace’s view; but he who is able to instruct the
most skilful writer, will have benevolence enough to forgive the
imperfections of the weakest, and to consider the inscribing these
slight verses to his Grace, merely as a respectful acknowledgment of
the common obligation he has laid upon all who have a true value for
English poetry, by thus honouring the remains of a man who advanced it
so highly, and is so justly celebrated for beauty of imagination, and
force and delicacy of expression and numbers.

I must also observe, that I have had the happiness to see one part of
these verses abundantly disproved by Mr Pope, and accordingly I retract
it with pleasure; for that admirable author, who evidently inherits the
bright invention, and the harmonious versification of Mr Dryden, has
increased the reputation his other ingenious writings had obtained him,
by the permanent fame of having finished a translation of the Iliad of
Homer, with surprising genius and merit.


UPON READING MR DRYDEN’S FABLES.

      Our great forefathers, in poetic song,
    Were rude in diction, though their sense was strong;
    Well-measured verse they knew not how to frame,
    Their words ungraceful, and the cadence lame.
    Too far they wildly ranged to start the prey,
    And did too much of Fairy-land display;
    And in their rugged dissonance of lines,
    True manly thought debased with trifles shines.
    Each gaudy flower that wantons on the mead,
    Must not appear within the curious bed;
    But nature’s chosen birth should flourish there,
    And with their beauties crown the sweet parterre.
      Such was the scene, when Dryden came to found
    More perfect lays, with harmony of sound:
    What lively colours glow on every draught!
    How bright his images, how raised his thought!
    The parts proportioned to their proper place,
    With strength supported, and adorned with grace.
      With what perfection did his artful hand
    The various kinds of poesy command!
    And the whole choir of Muses at his call,
    In his rich song, which was inspired of all,
    Spoke from the chords of his enchanting lyre,
    And gave his breast the fulness of their fire.
    As while the sun displays his lordly light,
    The host of stars are humbly veiled from sight,
    Till when he falls, they kindle all on high,
    And smartly sparkle in the nightly sky:
    His fellow bards suspended thus their ray,
    Drowned in the strong effulgence of his day;
    But glowing to their rise, at his decline,
    Each cast his beams, and each began to shine.
      As years advance, the abated soul, in most,
    Sinks to low ebb, in second childhood lost;
    And spoiling age, dishonouring our kind,
    Robs all the treasures of the wasted mind;
    With hovering clouds obscures the muffled sight,
    And dim suffusion of enduring night:
    But the rich fervour of his rising rage,
    Prevailed o’er all the infirmities of age;
    And, unimpaired by injuries of time,
    Enjoyed the bloom of a perpetual prime.
    His fire not less, he more correctly writ,
    With ripened judgment, and digested wit;
    When the luxuriant ardour of his youth,
    Succeeding years had tamed to better growth,
    And seemed to break the body’s crust away,
    To give the expanded mind more room to play;
    Which, in its evening, opened on the sight,
    Surprising beams of full meridian light;
    As thrifty of its splendour it had been,
    And all its lustre had reserved till then.
      So the descending sun, which hid his ray
    In mists before, diminishing the day,
    Breaks radiant out upon the dazzled eye,
    And in a blaze of glory leaves the sky.
      Revolving time had injured Chaucer’s name,
    And dimmed the brilliant lustre of his fame;
    Deformed his language, and his wit depressed,
    His serious sense oft sinking to a jest;
    Almost a stranger even to British eyes,
    We scarcely knew him in the rude disguise:
    But, clothed by thee, the burnished bard appears
    In all his glory, and new honours wears.
    Thus Ennius was by Virgil changed of old;
    He found him rubbish, and he left him gold.
      Who but thyself could Homer’s weight sustain,
    And match the voice of his majestic strain;
    When Phœbus’ wrath the sovereign poet sings,
    And the big passion of contending kings!
    No tender pinions of a gentle muse,
    Who little points in epigram pursues,
    And, with a short excursion, meekly plays
    Its fluttering wings in mean enervate lays,
    Could make a flight like this; to reach the skies,
    An eagle’s vigour can alone suffice.
      In every part the courtly Ovid’s style,
    Thy various versions beautifully foil.
    Here smoothly turned melodious measures move,
    And feed the flame, and multiply the love:
    So sweet they flow, so touch the heaving heart,
    They teach the doctor[217] in his boasted art.
    But when the theme demands a manly tone,
    Sublime he speaks in accents not his own.
    The bristly boar, and the tremendous rage,
    When the fell Centaurs in the fight engage;
    The cruel storm where Ceyx lost his life,
    And the deep sorrows of his widowed wife;
    The covered cavern, and the still abode
    Of empty visions, and the Sleepy God;
    The powers of nature, in her wonderous reign,
    Old forms subverting, to produce again,
    And mould the mass anew, the important verse
    Does with such dignity of words rehearse,
    That Virgil, proud of unexampled fame,
    Looks with concern, and fears a rival name.
    What vaunting Grecians, of their knowledge vain,
    In lying legends insolently feign
    Of magic verses, whose persuasive charm
    Appeased the soul with glowing passion warm;
    Then discomposed the calm, and changed the scene,
    And with the height of madness vexed again,--
    Thou hast accomplished in thy wondrous song,[218]
    With utmost energy of numbers strong.
    A flow of rage comes hurrying on amain,
    And now the refluent tide ebbs out again;
    A quiet pause succeeds; when unconfined
    It rushes back, and swells upon the mind.
    The inimitable lay, through all the maze
    Of harmony’s sweet labyrinth, displays
    The power of music, and Cecilia’s praise.
      At first it lifts the flattered monarch high,
    With boasted lineage, to his kindred sky;
    Then to the pleasures of the flowing bowl,
    And mellow mirth, unbends his easy soul;
    And humbles now, and saddens all the feast,
    With sense of human miseries expressed;
    Relenting pity in each face appears,
    And heavy sorrow ripens into tears.
    Grief is forbid; and see! in every eye
    The gaiety of love, and wanton joy!
    Soft smiles and airs, which tenderly inspire
    Delightful hope, and languishing desire.
    But lo! the pealing verse provokes around
    The frown of rage, and kindles with the sound;
    Behold the low’ring storm at once arise,
    And ardent vengeance sparkling in their eyes;
    Fury boils high, and zeal of fell debate,
    Demanding ruin, and denouncing fate.
      Ye British beauties, in whose finished face
    Smile the gay honours of each bloomy grace;
    Whose forms, inimitably fair, invite
    The sighing heart, and cheer the ravished sight,
    Say, what sweet transports, and complacent joy,
    Rise in your bosoms, and your soul employ,
    When royal Emily, the tuneful bard
    Paints in his song, and makes the rich reward
    Of knightly arms, in costly lists arrayed,
    The world at once contending for the maid.
    How nobly great does Sigismonda shine,
    With constant faith, and courage masculine!
    No menaces could bend her mind to fear,
    But for her love she dies without a tear.
    There Iphigenia, with her radiant eyes,
    As the bright sun, illuminates the skies;
    In clouded Cymon chearful day began,
    Awaked the sleeping soul, and charmed him into man.
    The pleasing legends, to your honour, prove
    The power of beauty, and the force of love.
      Who, after him, can equally rehearse
    Such various subjects, in such various verse?
    And with the raptures of his strain controul,
    At will, each passion, and command the soul?
    Not ancient Orpheus, whose surprising lyre
    Did beasts, and rocks, and rooted woods, inspire,
    More sweetly sung, nor with superior art
    Soothed the sad shades, and softened Pluto’s heart.
    All owned, at distance, his distinguished name,
    Nor vainly vied to share his awful fame;
    Unrivalled, living, he enlarged his praise,
    And, dying, left without an heir his bays.
    So Philip’s son his universal reign
    Extended amply over earth and main;
    Through conquered climes with ready triumph rode,
    And ruled the nations with his powerful nod;
    But when fate called the mighty chief away,
    None could succeed to his imperial sway,
    And his wide empire languished to decay.




No. IX.

AN ODE BY WAY OF ELEGY, ON THE UNIVERSALLY LAMENTED DEATH OF THE
INCOMPARABLE MR DRYDEN.


    _Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus
    Tam chari capitis? Precipe lugubres
    Cantus Melpomene----
    Quando ullam inveniam parem!
    Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit._

    HORAT. Lib. i. Ode 25.

By ALEXANDER OLDYS.

TO MY WORTHY FRIEND MR JAMES DIXON.

  SIR,

  _1700, 22d June._

The many and great obligations which you have been pleased to lay
on me, give me the greatest confusion imaginable at present, when I
consider that I am suing for a greater favour than all, in having the
liberty to prefix your name to these lines; which though I am sensible
they will be condemned by the great, yet the shame of that can no way
affect you, when I do you the justice to assure the town, that it is
contrary to your knowledge that you are become my patron: so your
nicer sense cannot be accountable in the least; for you had no hand in
it, and you may plead

    _----Quæ non fecimus ipsi
    Vix ea nostra voco._

Nay, you were not guilty of so much as of the knowledge of this my
_wicked intentions_; wicked. I mean, if it should offend you and my
other friends, who need not blush for me, since I have already such
a terror upon my conscience for this aggression, as is, I think, a
punishment in some measure equal to any crime; and all that I can urge
in my defence is, that it was pure respect to the dear memory of this
great man, to whom I had the honour to be known, that provoked, or, let
me rather say, obliged me to expose myself on this occasion. I never
attempted any thing in this measure for the public before; and I doubt
not that I shall do yet severer penance for it, in the censures of our
_awful wits_, which I already fear; but your judgment is still more
dreadful than all, by

  Worthy Sir,

  Your most obliged

  obedient and humble servant,

  ALEXANDER OLDYS.


AN ODE ON THE DEATH OF MR DRYDEN.


I.

      On a soft bank of camomel I sate,
      O’ershaded by two mournful yews;
      (Doubtless it was the will of fate
      I this retreat should chuse.)
      Where on delicious poetry I fed,
      Amazing thoughts chilled all my blood,
      And almost stopt the vital flood,
      As Dryden’s sacred verse I read.
      Whilst killing raptures seized my head,
      I shook, as if I had foreknown
      What all-commanding fate had done;
    What for our sovereign Dryden had designed,
    Till sleep o’erwhelmed my brain, as sorrow had my mind;
    To think that all the great, even he, must die,
    And here, in fame alone, have immortality.
    When in my dream the fatal muse,
    With hair dishevell’d, and in tears,
      Melpomene appears;
    Upon my throbbing heart her hand she laid,
    Her hand as cold as death, and thus she said,--
    “Least of my care, be calmed! No more just heaven accuse!


II.

    “Eternal fate has said,--He must remove;
    The bards triumphant wait for him above.
    To everlasting day and blest abodes
      (The seats of poets and of gods)
      He’s gone, to fill the throne
    Which none could fill but he alone;
    The glorious throne for him prepared;
    Of glorious acts the glorious, just reward.
    See, see, as he ascends on high,
    The sacred bards attending in the sky!
      So low do they descend
    To meet their now immortal friend!
    Immortal there above, and here below,
    As long as men shall wit and English know,
    The unequalled Dryden must be so,
    Immortal in his verse, in verse unequalled too.”--
    She said,--then disappear’d; when I
    Could plainly see all that was done on high.


III.

      I saw above an universal joy,
      Perfect without alloy;
      (So great as ne’er till then had been
      Since the sweet Waller entered in,)
      When all that sacred company
    Brought the triumphant bard from ours to heaven’s great jubilee;
      That was the occasion of his happiness,
      And of our sorrows, surely that the cause,
    Called hence heaven’s monarch’s praise to help to express,
    And to receive for that his own deserved applause.
    There wanted still one in the heavenly quire,
      Dryden alone was their desire,
    Whom for the sacred song th’ Almighty did inspire
      ’Twas pity to us that so long delayed
      His blest translation to eternal light;
      Or, otherwise may we not be afraid,
    ’Twas for the sins of some who durst presume to write;
      Who durst in verse, in sacred poetry,
      Even heaven’s own design bely,
    And damn themselves with utmost industry!
       For this may we not dread
    The mighty prophet’s taken from our head?
    And though the fate of these I fear,
    I in respect must venture here.
    A long and racking war was sent,
    Of common sins, a common punishment;
    To the unthinking crowd the only curse,
    Who feel no loss but in their purse:
    But ah! what loss can now be worse?
    The mighty Pan has left our mournful shore;
    The mighty Pan is gone, Dryden is here no more.


IV.

    When to the blest bright region he was come,
    The vulgar angels gazed, and made him room:
    Each laureat monarch welcomes him on high,
    And to embrace him altogether fly:
      Then strait the happy guest is shown
      To his bright and lofty throne,
      Inferior there to none.
    A crown beset with little suns, whose rays
    Shoot forth in foliages resembling bays,
      Now on his head they place:
      Then round him all the sacred band
      Loudly congratulating stand:
      When after silence made,
      Thus the sweetest Waller said:--
    “Well hast thou merited, triumphant bard!
    For, once I knew thee militant below,
      When I myself was so;
    Dangerous thy post, the combat fierce and hard,
      Ignorance and rebellion still thy foe;
    But for those little pains see now the great reward!
      Mack-Flecknoe and Achitophel
    Can now no more disturb thy peace,
    Thy labours past, thy endless joys increase;
    The more thou hast endured, the more thou dost excel;
    And for the laurels snatched from thee below,
    Thou wear’st an everlasting crown upon thy hallowed brow.”


V.

    The bard, who next the new-born saint addrest,
    Was Milton, for his wonderous poem blest;
    Who strangely found, in his Lost Paradise, rest.
      “Great bard,” said he, “’twas verse alone
      Did for my hideous crime atone,
      Defending once the worst rebellion.
    A double share of bliss belongs to thee,
    For thy rich verse and thy firm loyalty;
    Some of my harsh and uncouth points do owe
    To thee a tuneful cadence still below.
    Thine was indeed the state of innocence,
      Mine of offence,
    With studied treason and self-interest stained,
    Till Paradise Lost wrought Paradise Regained.”
    He said:--when thus our English Abraham,
    (In heaven the second of that name,
    Cowley, as glorious there as sacred here in fame,)
    “Welcome, Aleides, to this happy place!
    Our wish, and our long expectation here,
      Makes thee to us more dear;
    Thou great destroyer of that monstrous race,
    Which our sad former seat did harass and disgrace,
      Be blest and welcomed with our praise!
      Thy great Herculean labours done,
      And all the courses of thy zodiac run,
      Shine here to us, a more illustrious sun!
    But see! thy brethren gods in poetry,
      The whole great race divine,
      Ready in thy applause to join,
    Who will supply what is defect in me.”


VI.

      Rochester, once on earth a prodigy,
      A happy convert now on high,
      Here begins his wonderous lays,
      In the sainted poet’s praise.
    Fathomless Buckingham, smooth Orrery,
    The witty D’Avenant, Denham, Suckling too,
      Shakespeare, nature’s Kneller, who
      Nature’s picture likest drew,
      Each in their turn his praise pursue.
    His song elaborate Jonson next does try,
      On earth unused to eulogy;
    Beaumont and Fletcher sing together still,
    And with their tuneful notes the arched palace fill.
      The noble patron poet now does try,
      His wondrous Spenser to outvy.
    Drayton did next our sacred bard address,
    And sung above with wonderful success.
    Our English Ennius, he who gave
    To the great bard kind welcome to his grave,
    Chaucer, the mightiest bard of yore,
    Whose verse could mirth to saddest souls restore,
    Caressed him next, whilst his delighted eye
    Expressed his love, and thus his tongue his joy:--
      “Was I, when erst below,” said he,
      “In hopes so great a bard to see,
      As thou, my son, adopted unto me,
    And all this godlike race, some equal even to thee!
    O! ’tis enough.”--Here soft Orinda[219] came
    And sprightly Afra,[220] muses both on earth,
    Both burned here with a bright poetic flame,
    Which to their happiness above gave birth;
    Their charming songs his entertainment close,
    The mighty bard then, smiling, bowed, and rose.


VII.

    Strait from his head each takes his laurel’d crown,
    And on the golden pavement casts it down:
    All prostrate fall before heaven’s high imperial throne,
    When the new saint begins his song alone;
      Wond’rous even there it was confest,
      Scarce to be equalled by the rest;
    Herbert nor Crashaw, though on earth divine,
    So sweetly could their numbers join!
    When, lo! the light of twenty thousand suns,
    All in one body, shining all at once,
    Darts from the imperial to this lower court;
    A light which they but hardly could support!
    Then the great anthem was begun,
    Which all the hallowed bards together sung;
    And by no choir of angels is outdone,
    But by the great seraphic choir alone,
    That day and night surround the awful throne of heaven’s eternal King;
    Even they themselves did the great chorus fill,
    And brought the grateful sounds to heaven’s high holiest hill.


VIII.

    My soul shook with the sacred harmony, which soon alarmed my heart;
    I fancied I was falling from on high, and wakened with a start:
    “Waked,” said I, “surely no; I did not sleep;
    Can they be dreams which such impressions make?
    My soul does still the blest ideas keep;
    And still, methinks, I see them, though awake!
    The other thrones too, which, though vacant, shone
      With greater glory than the sun,
      Come fresh into my mind;
    Which once will lose their lustre by their bards outdone,
    When filled with those for whom they are designed.
    Upon their fronts I saw the glittering names,
    All written in celestial flames.
    For Dorset what a palace did I see!
    For Montague! And what for Normandy!
    What glories wait for Wycherly!
    For Congreve, Southerne, Tate, Garth, Addison?
    For Stephney, Prior, and for Dennis too?
    What thrones are void, what joys prepared and due?
    The pleasant dear companion Cheek,
    Whom all the great although at midnight seek,
    This glorious wreath must wear, and endless joys pursue.
    And for Motteux, my Gallic friend,
    The like triumphant laurels wait;
    Though heaven, I hope, will send it very late,
    Ere they or he to their blest seats ascend.
    ’Tis in their verse, next his, that he must live,
    Next his their lines eternal fame can give;
    Then all the happiness on earth I know
    Is, that such godlike men as they are with us still below.”




No. X.

TO THE MEMORY OF MR DRYDEN, A POEM.

    _Huic versatile ingenium sic pariter ad omnia fuit,
    Ut ad id unum natum diceres quodcunque ageret._

  _1700, 17th June._

    When mortals formed of common clay expire,
    These vulgar souls an elegy require;
    But some hero of more heavenly frame,
    Exerts his valour, and extends his fame;
    Below the spheres impatient to abide,
    With universal joy is deified.
    Thus our triumphant Bard from hence is fled.
    But let us never, never say he’s dead;
    Let poetasters make the Muses mourn,
    And common-place it o’er his sacred urn;
    The public voice exalts him to the sky,
    And fate decrees him immortality;
    Ordains, instead of tears or mournful hearse,
    His apotheosis be sung in verse.
    Great poets sure are formed of heavenly race,
    And with great heroes justly claim a place.
    As Cæsar’s pen did Cæsar best commend,
    And all the elegies of Rome transcend;
    So Dryden’s muse alone, like Phœbus bright,
    Outshines all human praise, or borrowed light;
    To form his image, and to make it true,
    There must be art, and inspiration too.
    Auspicious stars had doomed him to the trade,
    By nature framed, by art a poet made:
    Thus Maro’s words and sense in him we see,
    And Ovid’s teeming vein of poesy.
    In his vast miscellaneous works we find,
    What charms at once, and edifies the mind:
    His pregnant muse has in the offspring shown
    What’s rare for use, or beauty to be known:
    In monumental everlasting verse
    Epitomised, he grasped the universe.
    No power but his could tune a British lyre
    To sweeter notes than any Tuscan quire,
    Teutonic words to animate and raise,
    Strong, shining, musical, as attic lays;
    Rude matter indisposed he formed polite,
    His muse seemed rather to create than write.
    His nervous eloquence is brighter far
    Than florid pulpit, or the noisy bar.
    His periods shine harmonious in the close,
    As if a muse presided in his prose;
    Yet unaffected plain, but strong his style,
    It overflows to fructify, like Nile.
    The God of wit conspires with all the Nine,
    To make the orator and poet join.
    We’re charmed when he the lady or the friend,
    Pleased in majestic numbers to commend.
    The panegyric flows in streams profuse,
    When worth or beauty sublimates the muse.
    His notes are moving, powerful, and strong,
    As Orpheus’ lyre, or as a Syren’s song;
    Sweet as the happy Idumean fields,
    And fragrant as the flowers that Tempe yields.
    Thrice happy she to whom such tribute’s paid,
    And has such incense at her altar laid;
    A sacrifice that might with envy move
    Jove’s consort, or the charming Queen of Love.
    His lasting lines will give a sacred name,
    (Eternal records in the book of fame,)
    His favourites are doom’d by Jove’s decree,
    To share with him in immortality.
      The wealthy muse on innate mines could live,
    Though no Mecenas any smile would give;
    His light not borrowed, but was all his own;
    His rays were bright and warm without the sun.
      Pictures (weak images of him) are sold,
    The French are proud to have the head for gold:
    The echo of his verse has charmed their ear,--
    O could they comprehend the sound they hear!
    Who hug the cloud, caress an airy face,
    What would they give the goddess to embrace?
      The characters his steady muse could frame,
    Are more than like, they are so much the same;
    The pencil and the mirror faintly live,
    ’Tis but the shadow of a life they give;
    Like resurrection from the silent grave,
    He the numeric soul and body gave.
      No art, no hand but his could e’er bring home
    The noblest choicest flowers of Greece and Rome;
    Transplant them with sublimest art and toil,
    And make them flourish in a British soil.
    Whatever ore he cast into his mould           }
    He did the dark philosophy unfold,            }
    And by a touch converted all to gold.         }
    With epic feet who ere can steady run,
    May drive the fiery chariot of the sun,
    Must neither soar too high, nor fall too low;
    Must neither burn like fire, nor freeze like snow.
    All ages mighty conquerors have known,
    Who courage and their power in arms have shown:
    Greece knew but one, and Rome the Mantuan swain,
    Who durst engage in lofty epic strain;
    Heroics here were lands unknown before,
    Our great Columbus first descried the shore.
    No prophet moved the passions of the mind,
    With sovereign power and force so unconfined:
    We sympathised with his poetic rage,
    In lofty buskins when he ruled the stage;
    He roused our love, our hope, despairs, and fears,
    Dissolved in joy we were, or drowned in tears.
    When juster indignation roused his hate,
    Insipid rhymes to lash, or knaves of state;
    Each line’s a sting, and ev’ry sting a death,
    As if their fate depended on his breath.
    Like sun-beams swift, his fiery shafts were sent,
    Or lightning darted from the firmament.
    No warmer clime, no age or muse divine,
    In pointed satire could our bard outshine.
    His unexhausted force knew no decay;
    In spite of years, his muse grew young and gay,
    And vigorous, like the patriarch of old,
    His last-born Joseph cast in finest mould;
    This son of sixty-nine, surpassing fair,
    With any elder offspring may compare,
    Has charms in courts of monarchs to be seen,
    Caressed and cherished by a longing queen.
    Great prophets oft extend their just command,
    Receive the tribute of a foreign land;
    When in their own ungrateful native ground
    Few just admiring votaries they found.
    But when these god-like men their clay resign,
    Pale Envy’s laid a victim at their shrine;
    United mortals do their worth proclaim,
    And altars raise to their eternal fame.
    Wealth, beauty, force of wit, without allay,
    In Dryden’s heavenly muse profusely lay;
    Which mighty charms did never yet combine,
    In any single deity to shine,
    But were dispensed, more thriftily, between
    Jove’s wife, his daughter, and the Cyprian queen.
    The nymphs recorded in his artful lays,
    Produce the grateful homage of their praise;
    Assisted in their vows by powers divine,
    Offer their sacred incense at his shrine.
    The spheres exalt their music, to commend
    The poet’s master and the muse’s friend;
    In concert form seraphic notes to sing,
    Of numbers, and of harmony the king.
    In this triumphant scene to act her part,
    Nature’s attended by her hand-maid, Art:
    Resounding Echo, with her mimic voice,
    Concurs to make the universe rejoice.
    Let ev’ry tongue and pen the poet sing,
    Who mounts Parnassus top with lofty wing;
    Whose splendid muse has crowns of laurel won,
    That brave the shining beauties of the sun.
    His lines (those sacred reliques of the mind)
    Not by the laws of fate or war confined,
    In spite of flames will everlasting prove,
    Devouring rust of time, or angry Jove.




No. XI.

EXTRACT FROM POETÆ BRITANNICI.

A POEM, SATIRICAL AND PANEGYRICAL.


  _1700. 9. January._

    L--gh aim’d to rise above great Dr---n’s height,
    But lofty Dryden kept a steady flight.
    Like Dædalus, he times with prudent care
    His well-waxed wings, and waves in middle air.
    Crowned with the sacred snow of reverend years,
    Dryden above the ignobler crowd appears,
    Raises his laurelled head, and, as he goes,
    O’er-shoulders all, and like Apollo shows.
    The native spark, which first advanced his name,
    By industry he kindled to a flame.
    Then to a different coast his judgment flew,
    He left the old world behind, and found a new.
    On the strong columns of his lasting wit,
    Instructive Dryden built, and peopled it.
    In every page delight and profit shines;
    Immortal sense flows in his mighty lines.
    His images so strong and lively be,
    I hear not words alone, but substance see,
    The proper phrase of our exalted tongue
    To such perfection from his numbers sprung;
    His tropes continued, and his figures fine,
    All of a piece throughout, and all divine.
    Adapted words and sweet expressions move
    Our various passions, pity, rage, and love.
    I weep to hear fond Antony complain
    In Shakespeare’s fancy, but in Virgil’s strain.
    Though for the comic, others we prefer,
    Himself the judge; nor does his judgment err.
    But comedy, ’tis thought, can never claim
    The sounding title of a poem’s name.
    For raillery, and what creates a smile,
    Betrays no lofty genius, nor a style.
    That heavenly heat refuses to be seen
    In a town character, and comic mien.
    If we would do him right, we must produce
    The Sophoclean buskin; when his muse
    With her loud accents filled the listning ear,
    And peals applauding shook the theatre.
      They fondly seek, great name, to blast thy praise,
    Who think that foreign banks produced thy bays.
    Is he obliged to France, who draws from thence,
    By English energy, their captive sense?
    Though Edward and famed Henry warred in vain,
    Subduing what they could not long retain,
    Yet now, beyond our arms, the muse prevails,
    And poets conquer, when the hero fails.
      This does superior excellence betray:
    O could I write in thy immortal way!
    If Art be Nature’s scholar, and can make
    Such great improvements, Nature must forsake
    Her ancient style; and in some grand design,      }
    She must her own originals decline,               }
    And for the noblest copies follow thine.          }
    This all the world must offer to thy praise,
    And this Thalia sang in rural lays.
      As sleep to weary drovers on the plain,
    As a sweet river to a thirsty swain,
    Such divine Dryden’s charming verses show,
    Please like the river, like the river flow.
    When his first years in mighty order ran,
    And cradled infancy bespoke the man,
    Around his lips the waxen artists hung,
    And breathed ambrosial odours as they sung.
    In yellow clusters from their hives they flew,
    And on his tongue distilled eternal dew:
    Thence from his mouth harmonious numbers broke,
    More sweet than honey from the knotted oak;
    More smooth than streams, that from a mountain glide,
    Yet lofty as the top from whence they slide.
      Long he possest the hereditary plains,
    Beloved by all the herdsmen, and the swains,
    Till he resigned his flock, opprest with years,
    And olden’d in his woe, as well as fears.
    Yet still, like Etna’s mount, he kept his fire,
    And look’d, like beauteous roses on a brier:
    He smiled, like Phœbus in a stormy morn,
    And sung, like Philomel against a thorn.




No. XII.

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE NINE MUSES;

_Or, Poems written by nine several Ladies, upon the death of the late
famous_ JOHN DRYDEN, _Esq._


    As earth thy body keeps, thy soul the sky,
    So shall this verse preserve thy memory;
    For thou shalt make it live, because it sings of thee.

_London: printed for Richard Basset, at the Mitre, in Fleet Street,
1700._

       *       *       *       *       *

The work is dedicated to the Right Hon. Charles Montague, (Lord
Halifax,) by the publisher Basset, who thus apologizes for the
intrusion:

“The ladies indeed themselves might have had a better plea for your
reception; but since the modesty which is natural to the sex they are
of, will not suffer them to do that violence to their tempers, I think
myself obliged to make a present of what is written in honour of the
most consummate poet among our English dead, to the most distinguished
among the living. You have been pleased already to shew your respect to
his memory, in contributing so largely to his burial, notwithstanding
he had that unhappiness of conduct, when alive, to give you cause to
disclaim the protection of him.”

The dedication is followed by a commendatory copy of verses, addressed
to the publisher, and signed Philomusus; of which most readers will
think the following lines a sufficient specimen:

    Hence issues forth a most delightful song,
    Fair as their sex, and as their judgment strong;
    Moving its force, and tempting in its ease;
    Secured of fame, unknowing to displease;
    Its every word like Aganippe, clear,
    And close its meaning, and its sense severe:
    As virtuous thoughts with chaste expression join,
    And make them truly, what they feign, divine.

The poems of these divine ladies, as their eulogist phrases them,
appear in the following order:

_Melpomene_, the Tragic Muse, personated by Mrs Manley, refers to his
elegies and tragedies. Melpomene sorrows for him:

    Who sorrowed Killigrew’s untimely fall,
    And more than Roman made her funeral;
    Inspired by me, for me he could command,
    Bright Abingdon’s rich monument shall stand
    For evermore the wonder of the land;
    Oldham he snatched from an ignoble fate,
    Changed his cross star for one more fortunate;
    For who would not with pride resign his breath,
    To be so loved, to be so blest in death?

The eulogiums on Cromwell and Charles then praised. Of the last it is
said,

    For this alone he did deserve the prize,
    As Ranelagh, for her victorious eyes.

Cleopatra and St Catharine are mentioned; then

    ----Dorax and Sebastian both contend
    To shew the generous enemy and friend.

_Urania_, the Divine Muse, by the Honourable the Lady Peirce. This
lady, after much tragic dole, is wonderfully comforted by recollecting
that Garth survives, though Dryden is dead:

    More I’ll not urge, but know, our wishes can
    No higher soar, since Garth’s the glorious man;
    Him let us constitute in Dryden’s stead,
    Let laurels ever flourish on his head.

Urania, after mentioning Virgil, exclaims,

    O give us Homer yet, thou glorious bard!

_Erato_, the Amorous Muse, by Mrs S. Field. She claims the merit of
Dryden’s love poems, on the following grounds:

    Oft I for ink did radiant nectar bring,
    And gave him quills from infant Cupid’s wing.

_Euterpe_, the Lyric Muse, by Mrs J. E. Euterpe, of course, pours forth
her sorrow in a scrambling Pindaric ode:

    But, oh! they could not stand the rage
    Of an ill-natured and lethargic age,
    Who, spite of wit, would stupidly be wise;
    All noble raptures, extasies despise,
    And only plodders after sense will prize.

Euterpe eulogizeth

    Garth, whom the god of wisdom did foredoom,
    And stock with eloquence, to pay thy tomb
    The most triumphant rites of ancient Rome.

Euterpe is true to her own character; for one may plod in vain after
sense through her lyric effusion.

_Thalia_, the Comic Muse, by Mrs Manley. A pastoral dialogue betwixt
Alexis, Daphne, Aminta, and Thalia. After the usual questions
concerning the cause of sorrow, Thalia, invoked by the nymphs and
swains, sings a ditty, bearing the following burden:

    Bring here the spring, and throw fresh garlands on,
    With all the flowers that wait the rising sun;
    These ever-greens, true emblems of his soul,
    Take, Daphne, these, and scatter through the whole,
    While the eternal Dryden’s worth I tell,
    My lovely bard, that so lamented fell.

_Clio_, or the Historic Muse, by Mrs Pix, the authoress of a tragedy
called “Queen Catharine, or the Ruins of Love.”

    Stop here, my muse, no more thy office boast,
    This drop of praise is in an ocean lost;
    His works alone are trumpets of his fame,
    And every line will chronicle his name.

_Calliope_, the Heroic Muse, by Mrs C. Trotter. This is the best of
these pieces. Calliope complains, that she is more unhappy than her
sisters of the sock and buskin, still worshipped successfully by
Vanburgh and Granville, in the epic province:

    ----------------------Blackmore, in spite
    Of me and nature, still presumes to write;
    Heavy and dozed, crawls out the tedious length;
    Unfit to soar, drags on with peasant strength
    The weight he cannot raise.

The poem concludes,

    --------------------------Now you who aim,
    With fading power, at bright immortal fame;
    Ambitious monarchs, all whom glory warms,
    Cease your vain toil, throw down your conquering arms;
    Your active souls confine, since you must die
    Like vulgar men, your names and actions lie
    Where Trojan heroes, had not Homer lived,
    Had lain forgot, nor ruined Troy survived;
    No more their glories I can e’er retrieve,
    For nature can no second Dryden give.

_Terpsichore_, a Lyric Muse, by Mrs L. D. _ex tempore_. Albeit a lyric
muse, Terpsichore laments in hexameters:

    Just as the gods were listening to my strains,
    And thousand loves danced o’er the etherial plains,
    With my own radiant hair my harp I strung,
    And in glad concert all my sisters sung:
    An universal harmony above
    Inspired us all with gaiety and love;
    A horrid sound dashed our immortal mirth,
    Wafted by sighs from the unlucky earth,
    _Et cætera, et cætera._

_Polyhymnia_, the Muse of Rhetoric, by Mrs D. E. This lady concludes
the volume thus:

    Incessant groans be all my rhetoric now!
    My immortality I would forego,
    Rather than drag this chain of endless woe.
    O mighty Father, hear a daughter’s prayer,
    Cure me by death from deathless sad despair!


These extracts are taken from the presentation copy of this rare book,
in the library of Mr Bindley, of Somerset-House, whose liberality I
have had already repeated occasion to acknowledge.




No. XIII.

VERSES IN PRAISE OF MR DRYDEN.

_To Mr_ DRYDEN, _by_ JO. ADDISON, _Esq._

    How long, great poet, shall thy sacred lays
    Provoke our wonder, and transcend our praise!
    Can neither injuries of time, or age,
    Damp thy poetic heat, and quench thy rage?
    Not so thy Ovid in his exile wrote;
    Grief chilled his breast, and checked his rising thought;
    Pensive and sad, his drooping muse betrays
    The Roman genius in its last decays.
    Prevailing warmth has still thy mind possest,
    And second youth is kindled in thy breast.
    Thou mak’st the beauties of the Romans known,
    And England boasts of riches not her own:
    Thy lines have heightened Virgil’s majesty,
    And Horace wonders at himself in thee.
    Thou teachest Persius to inform our isle
    In smoother numbers, and a clearer style:
    And Juvenal, instructed in thy page,
    Edges his satire, and improves his rage.
    Thy copy casts a fairer light on all,
    And still outshines the bright original.
      Now Ovid boasts the advantage of thy song,
    And tells his story in the British tongue;
    Thy charming verse, and fair translations show
    How thy own laurel first began to grow;
    How wild Lycaon, changed by angry Gods,
    And frighted at himself, ran howling through the woods.
    O may’st thou still the noble tale prolong,
    Nor age, nor sickness interrupt thy song!
    Then may we wond’ring read, how human limbs
    Have watered kingdoms, and dissolved in streams,
    Of those rich fruits that on the fertile mould
    Turned yellow by degrees, and ripened into gold:
    How some in feathers, or a ragged hide,
    Have lived a second life, and different natures tried
    Then will thy Ovid, thus transformed, reveal
    A nobler change than he himself can tell.

  Mag. Coll. Oxon. June 2, 1693.




INDEX.


  A.

  Abingdon, Earl of, dedication to, Vol. xi, 121
    Countess of, account of, xi, 119

  Absalom and Achitophel, Part I. ix, 195
    remarks on, ib. 197
    recommendatory verses to, ib. 213, 216
    notes on, ib. 249
    Part I. character of, i, 243
      answers to, ib. 253
    Part II. ix, 313
      remarks on, ib. 315
      notes on, ib. 354
      character of, i, 268
    extracts from Buckingham’s answer to, ix, 272-4

  Absalom’s Conspiracy, or the Tragedy of Treason, ix, 199, 205

  Abuse of personal satires, xiii, 81

  Accession of James I., state of learning in England on, i, 5
    James II., poems on, x, 59

  Account of Gibbon’s conversion to the catholic faith, by himself, i, 316
    Montague and Prior’s parody on the Hind and the Panther, ib. 330
    Luke Milbourne, ib. 394
    ludicrous, Dryden’s funeral, ib. 441
    Dryden’s funeral, by Mrs Thomas, false, ib. 442
    Dryden’s funeral, by Tom Brown, ib. 443
    Dryden’s family, ib. 462
    of Cleveland, i, 43
    Sir Robert Howard, i, 54
    defence of an Essay of Dramatic Poesy, ii, 263
    the representation of the Spanish Friar, vi, 371
    Annus Mirabilis, in a letter to Sir Robert Howard, ix, 92
    contest at the election of Sheriffs for London, ix, 404
    the last period of the life of the Earl of Shaftesbury, ix, 415
    the reception of the Lancashire Witches, vii, 15
    Protestant flail, ib. 19
    the Associating Club, ib. 154
    the Hind and Panther, by Swift, x, 106
    the rise of the Quakers, ib. 141
    the noble house-keeping of the Duke of Beaufort, ix, 391
    the sect of Anabaptists, x, 145
    the rise of Presbyterianism, ib. 148
    the birth of the son of James II., by Smollet, x, 305
    Pope-burning, x, 370
    John Lilburn, vi, 363
    William Fuller, viii, 329
    Lodovico Sforza, ix, 46
    Anne Hyde, Duchess of York, ib. 73
    Sir John Lawson, ib. 161
    gallant actions of Prince Rupert, ix, 167, 174
    gallant actions of the Duke of Albemarle, ib. 168, 171
    Sir Edward Spragge, ib. 178
    Sir Freschville Hollis, ib. 180
    Michael Adrien de Ruyter, ib. 182
    Sir William Jones, ib. 279
    Slingsby Bethel, ib. 280
    Titus Oates, ib. 282
    Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, ib. 285
    the Duke of Ormond, ib. 294
    the Earl of Ossory, ib. 299
    Archbishop Sancroft, ib. 301
    Bishop Compton, ib. 302
    Bishop Dolben, ib. 303
    the Marquis of Halifax, ib. 305
    of the Earl of Rochester, ix. 307
    Sir Edward Seymour, ib. 308
    Nahum Tate, ib. 315
    Sir Robert Playton, ib. 359
    Sir Thomas Player, ib. 361
    Robert Ferguson, ib. 363
    James Forbes, ib. 368
    Samuel Johnson, ib. 369
    Samuel Pordage, ib. 372
    Elkanah Settle, ib. 373
    King’s Head Club, ib. 380
    Sir William Waller, ib. 381
    the Earl of Dartmouth, ib. 386
    Edward Sackville, ib. 387
    the Duke of Beaufort, ib. 390
    the Duke of Albemarle, ib. 394
    the Earl of Arlington, ib. 395
    the Duke of Grafton, ib. 396
    the Earl of Feversham, ix, 397
      Nottingham, ib. 400
    Sir Roger L’Estrange, ib, 400
    Sir John Moor, ib. 402
    Whip and Key, ib. 425
    Thomas Hunt, vii, 127
    Richard Rumbold, ib. 261
    Edward Coleman, x, 18
    Hugh Paulin Cressy, ib. 21
    Edmund Campian, ib. 20
    Robert Parsons, ib. 20
    William Tyndal, ib. 24
    Richard Hooker, ib. 26
    George Cranmer, ib. 26
    John Penry, or Martin Mar-prelate, ib. 27
    Eleanor James, ib. 116
    Zuinglius, ib. 150
    Calvin, ib. 155
    John White, ib. 257
    Gilbert Burnet, ib. 267
    Hart, the tragedian, ib. 328
    Ralph Bathurst, ib. 330
    Dr Charles Davenant, ib. 333
    Lady H. M. Wentworth, ib. 337
    Lodowick Carlell, x, 404
    of John Bancroft, x, 412
    Richard Flecknoe, ib. 441
    Thomas Shadwell, ib. 443
    Thomas Heywood, ib. 446
    James Shirley, ib. 446
      Ogleby, ib. 452
    Sir George Etherege, ib. 454, xi, 38
    Dr Walter Charleton, xi, 12
    Dr William Gilbert, ib. 15
    William Harvey, ib. 15
    Dr George Ent, ib. 16
    Lady Castlemaine, ib. 18
    the death of Nat. Lee, ib. 22
    John Northleigh, ib. 35
      Southerne, ib. 48
    Henry Higden, ib. 52
    Lord Lansdowne, ib. 63
    Peter Anthony Motteux, ib. 67
    John Driden of Chesterton, ib. 71
    Sir Godfrey Kneller, ib. 84
    John Oldham, ib. 98
    Mrs Anne Killigrew, ib. 102
    Dr Henry Killigrew, ib. 106
    Mrs Katharine Philips, xi, 111
    the Countess of Abingdon, ib. 119
    Henry Purcell, ib. 145
    the Marquis of Winchester, ib. 152
    the death of Sir Palmes Fairborne, ib. 156
    St Cecilia, ib. 165
    the festival of St Cecilia, ib. 166
    the Duke of Ormond, ib. 195
    Ovid, xii, 4
    the causes of Ovid’s banishment, ib. 5, 7
    Cowley’s mode of translation, ib. 15
    Lord Radcliffe, ib. 47
    Sir Peter Lely, ib. 267
    Thomas Creech, ib. 277
    the Earl of Roscommon, ib. 341
    Livius Andronicus, xiii, 54
    Barten Holyday, ib. 93
    Sir Robert Stapylton, ib. 93
    Owen Swan, ib. 97
    Sir George Mackenzie, ib. 111
    of William Walsh, ib. 297
    the person, manners, and fortune, of Virgil, ib. 323
    the Earl of Chesterfield, xiv, 3
    the Earl of Peterborough, xv, 189
    Sir William Trumball, ib. 190
    Gilbert Dolben, ib. 190
    the Duke of Shrewsbury, ib. 192
    Sir Thomas Armstrong, ib. 204
      Aston, ib. 204
    the Earl of Aylesbury, ib. 207
    the Earl of Essex, ib. 208
    John Taylor, the water poet, ib. 378
    Thomas Rhymer, ib. 383
    the Brachmans, xvi, 91
    Malacca, ib. 150
    Amboyna, ib. 158
    P. V. P. Cayet, xvii, 94
    Archbishop Spottiswoode, ib. 159
    Robert Bellarmine, ib. 160
    Louis Maimbourg, ib. 182
    Dr Peter Heylin, ib. 190
    Bishop Stillingfleet, ib. 194
    Dr George Morley, ib. 196
    Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy, ib. 281
    M. St Evremont, xviii, 9
    Polybius the historian, ib. 26
    the translation of Polybius, by Sir Henry Shere, ib. 19
    the murder of Lucian, ib. 57
    Charles Blount, ib. 77
    Henry Brouncker, ib. 92
    William Pate, ib. 130
    Mrs Elizabeth Steward, ib. 141
    Samuel Pepys, ib. 154

  Acis, Polyphemus, and Galatea, story of, xii, 199

  Acquittal of the Earl of Shaftesbury, ix, 409

  Act of Oblivion, ix, 50

  Action, unity of, what xv, 307

  Actions of the Duke of Albemarle, ix, 168-171

  Addison’s Essay on the Georgics of Virgil, xiv, 14

  Address of the Atheists, x, 144

  Addresses on the accession of James II. character of, x, 110
    poetical, to James II. on the birth of a son, ib. 286-7

  Advertisement to the Duke of Guise, vii, 133
    regarding poems ascribed to Dryden, xv, 199
    Essay on Dramatic Poesy, xv, 292
    translation of Plutarchs’ Lives, xvii, 3
    the first edition of the translation of Virgil’s works, xiii, 281

  Advice to a young painter, xvii, 377-468

  Æneas, Epistle to, xii, 35

  Æneid, moral of, xiv, 150
      disputed by Heyne, ib. 150
    four first lines of, not Virgil’s, ib. 225

  Æneis, time of action of, xiv, 189
    machinery of, ib. 193
    of Virgil, xiv, 125, xv, 1-186
      dedication of, xiv, 127
      Book I. xiv, 231, notes on, ib. 262
           II. ib. 264
           III. ib. 296, note on, ib. 322
           IV. ib. 324            ib. 353
           V. ib. 355
           VI. ib. 388, notes on, ib. 424
           VII. ib. 429           ib. 461
           VIII. xv, 1            xv, 29
           IX. ib. 30             ib. 62
           X. ib. 64              ib. 102
           XI. ib. 105
           XII. ib. 143, notes on, ib. 183
           Postscript to, xv, 187

  Agathias, epigram of, xvii, 76

  Age of Queen Elizabeth, false wit one character of, i, 7
    share of John Lillie in determining the taste of, ib. 7
    James I. prevalence of false taste in, i, 9
      play of words in, ib. 10

  Age, golden, xii, 66
    silver, ib. 67
    brazen, ib. 68
    iron, ib. 68

  Agreement of Dryden with Jacob Tonson concerning the Fables, xviii, 191

  Ajax and Ulysses, speeches of, xii, 181
    death of, ib. 198

  Albemarle, Duke of, gallant actions of, ix, 168-171
    account of, ib. 394

  Albion and Albanus, an opera, vii, 209
    remarks on, ib. 211
    verses in ridicule of, ib. 213
    preface to, ib. 216
    prologue to, ib. 228
    frontispiece to, ib. 231
    epilogue to, ib. 268

  Albumazar, character of, x, 416
    prologue to, ib. 416

  Alexander’s Feast, or the Power of Music, an ode, xi, 183

  Alexandrine, uncommon one of Tom Brown, ix, 415

  Alexis, a pastoral, xiii, 374

  All for Love, or, the World Well Lost, a tragedy, v, 285
    remarks on, ib. 287
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 296
    preface to, ib. 306
    prologue to, ib. 321
    epilogue to, ib. 411
    original performers in, ib. 294
    character of, i, 238

  Allen, Sir Thomas, enterprise of, ix, 177

  Almanzor and Almahide, a tragedy, Part I. iv, 1

  Amaryllis, or third idyllium of Theocritus, xii, 287

  Amboyna, or the cruelties of the Dutch to the English merchants, a
      tragedy, v, 1
    Dryden’s worst play, ib. 4
    remarks on, ib. 3
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 5
    prologue to, ib. 10
    epilogue to, ib. 87

  American colonies, a refuge for the disaffected, x, 394

  Amours (Ovid’s) translations from, xii, 257

  Amphitryon, or the two Sosias, a comedy, viii, 1
    remarks on, ib. 3
    letter and verses on, ib. 5
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 7
    prologue to, ib. 12
    epilogue to, ib. 106

  Amyntas, a pastoral elegy, xi, 139

  Anabaptists, account of, x, 145

  Anachronism of Virgil defended, xiv, 176

  Ancient political satire of Reynard the fox, x, 155

  Ancient armour, rivetted after put on, xi, 363
    British custom, xviii, 120

  Ancients, excelled by the English in dramatic writing, xv, 396
    ceremonies observed by, on escape from shipwreck, ix, 34, 44

  Andronicus, Livius, first author of a play in Roman republic, xiii, 54
    account of, ib. 54

  Anecdote traditionary of Ben Jonson, i, 13
    James I. ib. 13

  Anecdote of Robert Keies, i, 23
    Dryden’s brothers and sisters, ib. 25
    Southerne, ib. 237
    Jacob Tonson, ib. 389
    Dryden, ib. 390
    Dryden and Jacob Tonson, ib. 391
    Heliodorus, vi. 126
    Andrew Naugeria, ib. 370
    a Scottish judge, ix, 20
    the Earl of Shaftesbury, ib. 265
    Gilbert Burnet, ib. 371
    Charles II., ib. 413
    Nell Gwynn, ib. 426
    Peter Fabel, vii, 10
    Friar Bacon, ib. 10
    the Loyal Brother, x, 370
    John Hales, xv, 351

  Angelo, Michael, character of, ib. 489

  Animadversions, Dryden’s, on Melbourne, i, 403

  Animosity to Dryden of Elkanah Settle, rise of, xv, 398

  Annals or commentaries, what, xvii, 56

  Annus Mirabilis, the year of wonders, 1666, an historical poem, ix, 81
    Dryden’s first poem of consequence, ib. 83
    remarks on, ib. 83
    dedication of, ib. 89
    notes on, ib. 158
    account of, in a letter to Sir Robert Howard, ib. 92
    character of, i, 61

  Answer of Samuel Pepys to a letter of Dryden’s, xviii, 156
    to the preface of the Great Favourite, or the Duke of Lenna, ii, 265
      Dryden’s Medal, extracts from, ix, 452
      Rymer’s remarks, heads of, xv, 385
      the Duchess of York’s paper, xvii, 194
      Absalom and Achitophel, i, 253
      the Medal, ib. 255

  Apology for heroic poetry, and poetic licence, v, 105

  Apostle of the Indies, St Francis Xavier, life of, xvi, 1

  Appeal to honour and justice, extract from, x, 387

  Appendix to the Fables, containing the original tales of Chaucer,
      modernized by Dryden, xii, i-xci.
    to Dryden’s works, xviii, 183
    No. I. Dryden’s degree of master of arts, ib. 185
    No. II. Dryden’s patent as poet-laureat, and historiographer-royal,
      ib. 187
    No. III. Dryden’s agreement with Jacob Tonson concerning the Fables,
      ib. 191
    No. IV. Mr Russel’s bill for Dryden’s funerals, ib. 194
      Description of Dryden’s funeral, ib. 195
    No. V. Mrs Thomas’s letters concerning Dryden’s death and funeral,
      ib. 200
    No. VI. Monument in the church at Tichmarsh, ib. 215
    No. VII. Extract from an epistolary poem to Dryden, occasioned by
      the death of the Earl of Abingdon, by William Pitts, ib. 218
    No. VIII. Extracts from poems attacking Dryden for his silence upon
      the death of Queen Mary, ib. 222
    No. IX. Verses occasioned by reading Dryden’s Fables, by Mr Hughes,
      ib. 227
    No. X. Ode on the death of Dryden, by Alexander Oldys, ib. 234

  Application of the Hind and the Panther censured, x, 90
      defended, ib. 91
      justified, ib. 197, 240
    the fable of the Swallows, ib. 253

  Appointment of Dryden to the office or poet-laureat, and
      historiographer-royal, i, 115
    fasts and thanksgivings belongs only to the king, ix, 388

  Apprentices duty in ancient times, vi, 382
    loyal, dinner, ix, 396

  Archbishop Sancroft, account of, ix, 301
    Spottiswoode, account of, xvii, 159

  Argument of the fable of the Flower and the Leaf, xi, 354

  Arius, doctrine of, x, 146
    and Athanasius, controversy between, ib. 15

  Aristotle’s division of the integral parts of a play, xv, 312

  Arlington, Earl of, account of, ix, 395

  Armour, ancient, rivetted after put on, xi, 363

  Armstrong, Sir Thomas, account of, xv, 204
    stabs Mr Scroop, x, 327

  Art of Love, Ovid’s, translations from, xii, 229
    Painting, by C. A. Du Fresnoy, translation of xvii, 279, 339
      remarks on, ib. 281
      observations on, ib. 392
      when translated, i, 405
    Poetry, xv. 227
      remarks on, ib. 229
      Canto II. pastoral, ib. 238
        elegy, ib. 240
        ode, ib. 240
        epigram, ib. 241
        satire, ib. 243
      III. tragedy, ib. 245
      IV.           ib. 258

  Arthur, or the British Worthy, viii, 107

  Arts, Dryden’s degree of master of, xviii, 185

  Arviragus and Philiciæ, prologue to, x, 404

  Assassination of the Duke of Guise, xvii, 148

  Assault upon Dryden, in Rose-street, i, 204
    upon Sir John Coventry, ix, 258

  Assignation, or Love in a Nunnery, a comedy, iv, 343
    remarks on, ib. 345
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 348
    prologue to, ib. 356
    epilogue to, ib. 447

  Associating club, account of, vii, 154

  Association for the defence of Queen Elizabeth ix, 422

  Aston, account of, xv, 204

  Astrea Redux, a poem, ix, 25
    remarks on, ib. 27
    notes on, ix. 41

  Astrological observations of John Silvester, extract from, x, 421.

  Astrology, Dryden’s belief in, xviii, 207

  Athanasius and Arius, controversy between, x, 15

  Atheists, address of, ib. 144

  Attack on Dryden, xi, 237
      Shakespeare, by Ben Jonson, xv, 344
    upon Blackmore and Collier, in the prologue and epilogue to the
      Pilgrim, i, 436

  Attacks, poetical, against Dryden, specimen of, ib. 350
    by Swift on Dryden, ib. 374-393

  Attempt, Shaftesbury’s, to alter the succession, ix, 268

  Aureng-Zebe, a tragedy, v, 167
    remarks on, ib. 169
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 174
    prologue to, ib. 188
    epilogue to, ib. 282

  Authority of Dryden in Will’s Coffee-house, i, 371

  Authors of the Rehearsal, ib. 136

  Author’s apology for heroic poetry, and poetic licence, v, 105

  Aylesbury, Earl of, account of, xv, 207


  B.

  Bacon, Friar, anecdote of, vol. vii, 10

  Ballad of College, the Protestant joiner, vii, 5
    The Brawny Bishop’s Complaint, x, 270

  Bancroft, John, account of, ib. 412

  Banishment of Ovid, causes of, xii, 5-7

  Bathurst, Ralph, account of, x, 330
    Character of Latin compositions of, x, 332

  Battle, a poem, extract from, ix, 398
    of four days, ix, 168-174
    of Landen, behaviour of the Duke of Ormond at, xi, 202
    of Senneph, ib. 233

  Baucis and Philemon, xii, 109

  Beaufort, Duke of, account of, ix, 390
    noble house-keeping of, ib. 391

  Beaumont and Fletcher, character of, xv, 352

  Beautiful in painting, xvii, 343

  Behaviour of the Duke of Ormond at the battle of Landen, xi, 202

  Belief of Dryden in judicial astrology, xviii, 207

  Bellarmine, Robert, account of, xvii, 160

  Bellino, George, character of, xvii, 492

  Beneficence of Polybius the historian, xviii, 33

  Benefit of Dryden, the Pilgrim brought forward for, i, 434

  Bennet, Sir Henry, vide Arlington, Earl of

  Bethel, Slingsby, account of, ix, 280

  Bevil, Sir Robert, imprisoned, xi, 82

  Bible, what occasioned by Tyndal’s translation of, x, 23

  Biography, what, xvii, 58

  Birth of Charles II. star visible at, ix, 51
    children, custom at, xiii, 389
    Dryden, i, 26
    St Francis Xavier, xvi, 15
    the Prince, poem on, x, 283
    the son of James II. said to be spurious, x, 286
      believed by the Papists miraculous, ib. 285-302
      account of by Smollet, ib. 305

  Bishop of Munster’s irruption into the United States, ix, 165
    Compton, account of, ib. 302
    Dolben, ib. 303

  Blackmore, Sir Richard, Dryden’s dispute with, i, 420
    extract of preface to Prince Arthur by, ib. 421
    ridiculed, viii, 442

  Blackmore and Collier, Dryden’s attack upon, in the Prologue and
      Epilogue to the Pilgrim, i, 436

  Blount, Charles, account of, xviii, 77

  Blount, Charles, Religio Laici of, x, 8

  Boccace and Chaucer, parallel between, xi, 233
    translations from, ib. 401

  Bologna, singular event at the siege of, ix, 18

  Booksellers, niggardliness of, xv, 194

  Bower’s medal of Earl of Shaftesbury, ix, 412

  Boyle, Lord Broghill, vide Orrery, Earl of,

  Brachmans, account of the, xvi, 91

  Brady’s character of Shadwell, x, 445

  Bravery of the Duke of York, ix, 161

  Brawny Bishop’s complaint, a ballad, x, 270

  Brazen age, from Ovid, xii, 68

  Britannia Rediviva, x, 283
    remarks on, ib. 285
    notes on, ib. 302

  British Worthy, or King Arthur, viii, 107

  Brouncker, Henry, account of, xviii, 92

  Brown, (Tom,) uncommon Alexandrine of, ix, 415
    extract from works of, x, 51
    letter on Hind and Panther of, ib. 102
    extract of Preface to The New Converts Exposed, ib. 103
    account of Dryden’s funeral by, i, 443
    religio medici of, x, 7

  Bruce, Robert, vide Aylesbury, Earl of

  Brutus Marcus, employed writing an epitome of Polybius, xviii, 30

  Buckingham, Duke of, account of, v, 174
    epistle dedicatory to, v, 174
    intrepidity of, ib. 175
    character of, v, 175, ix, 270, 304
    answer of, to Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel, extracts from, ib. 272
    Battle, by extract from, ix, 398
    author of the Essay on Satire, xv, 201
    gallantry of, ib. 211
    satire on gallantry of, ib. 212

  Buffoon, or Gracioso, what, i, 77

  Burlesque inscription by Swift, to be placed under Blackmore’s picture,
      viii, 442

  Burnet, Gilbert, anecdote of, ix, 371
    account of, x, 267
    personal appearance of, ib. 270
    account of the relief given by James II. to the French exiled
      Protestants, ib. 264
    remarks on some part of conduct and writings of, ib. 271
    examination of, by the House of Commons, ib. 274
    why named Captain of the Test, ib. 276

  Burning a Pope, what, vi, 222

  Busby, Rev. Dr, Dryden’s letters to, xviii, 96-98

  Bussy, D’Ambois, a tragedy, extracts from, vi, 376

  Butler, James, vide Ormond, Duke of

  Butler, the author of Hudibras, unrewarded by the Court, x, 250


  C.

  Cæsar Borgia, prologue to, x, 347

  Calisto, a masque, dramatis personæ of, x, 337

  Calvin, account of, x, 150

  Calvinism, history of, by Lewis Maimbourg, x, 30

  Cambridge, Dryden admitted to Trinity College of, i, 28

  Campian, Edmund, account of, x, 20

  Canace to Macareus, epistle of, xii, 21

  Candour of Polybius, instance of, xviii, 40

  Captain of the Test, Bishop Burnet, why named, x, 276

  Carbery, Earl of, vide Vaughan, Lord

  Carlell, Lodovick, account of, x, 404

  Carrache, character of Ludivico, Hannibal, and Augustine, xvii, 496

  Castlemaine treated with contempt by the Pope, x, 305

  Castlemain, Lady, poetical epistle to, xi, 20
    remarks on, ib. 18
    account of, ib. 18

  Catholic missionaries, diligence of in the conversion of the Heathen,
      x, 192

  Catholic faith, Dryden becomes a convert to, i, 303
    Dryden firm in his attachment to, ib. 322
    Gibbon’s account of his conversion to, ib. 316

  Caulfield’s history of the gunpowder plot, extract from, i, 24

  Causabon’s commentary on Persius, xiii, 72

  Causes of enmity between Dryden and Shadwell, x, 427
     Ovid’s banishment, xii, 5-7

  Cavendish, William, vide Newcastle, Duke of,

  Cayet, P. V. P. account of, xvii, 94

  Cecil, John, vide Exeter, Earl of,

  Cecilia’s, St, day, song for, xi, 167
    remarks on, ib. 165
    account of, ib. 165
    festival of, ib. 166
    day, Ode in honour of, ib. 183
    circumstances attending the composition of,i, 408
    set to music by Handel, ib. 310

  Ceremonies observed by the ancients on escape from shipwreck, ix, 34,
      44

  Ceyx and Alcyone, fable of, xii, 139

  Chancellor Hyde, verses to, ix, 65

  Chandos portrait of Shakespeare, xi, 87.

  Chapman, George, extracts from tragedy of Bussy D’Ambois of, vi, 376

  Character of Dryden, i, 444
      by Congreve, ii, 9
    Sir Gilbert Pickering, i, 34
    Sir John Driden, ib. 37
    Annus Mirabilis, ib. 61
    Dryden’s Tempest, ib. 106
    Heroic plays, ib. 118
    Marriage a-la-mode, ib. 143
    Massacre of Amboyna, ib. 164
    the Empress of Morocco, ib. 187
    All for Love, ib. 218
    Ben Jonson, iii, 222
    Mrs Montfort, by Cibber, iv, 233
    the Œdipe of Corneille, vi, 119
    the Troilus and Cressida of Shakespeare, vi, 239
    the Troilus and Cressida of Dryden, i, 223
    of the Spanish Friar, i, 227
    Absalom and Achitophel, Part I. ib. 243
                                II. ib. 268
    Mac-Flecknoe, a satire, ib. 266
    Dryden as a satirist, ib. 279
    Jeremy Collier, ib. 424
    Southerne, i, 372
    Congreve, ib. 372
    Life of St Francis Xavier, ib. 337
    Dryden’s translations by Garth, ib. 340
    of Otho, ix, 43
    the Earl of Clarendon, ib. 63
    Duke of Buckingham, ib. 270, 304
    Pere Richard Simon, x, 31
    the addresses on the accession of Jarnes II. x, 110
    James II. x, 226, 265
    The Man of Mode, x, 339
    Mountfort the comedian, x, 412
    Albumazar, ib. 416
    of Thomas Shadwell, ib. 445
    Decker, ib. 451
    Thomas Shadwell’s Virtuoso, ib. 454
    Sir Godfrey Kneller, xi, 89
    Donne, as a love-poet, ib. 123
    Homer and Virgil, ib. 211
    Chaucer, ib. 225
    a good Parson, xi, 395
      remarks on, ib. 394
    Ovid’s works, xii, 8, 11
    Homer’s poetry, xii, 49
    a translator, ib. 266
    Lucretius, ib. 272
    Theocritus, ib. 278
    Horace, ib. 280
    the Earl of Dorset, xiii, 7
    Spenser, xiii, 18
    Milton, ib. 19
    Pacurius, the satirist, ib. 58
    Lucilius the satirist, ib. 58
    Persius, ib. 72
    the father of Horace, ib. 77
    the Satires of Horace, ib. 99
    Mæcenas, ib. 307
    Virgil’s Pastorals, ib. 339
    French poetry, ib. 366
    Virgil’s Georgics, xiv, 25
    Lauderdale’s translation of Virgil, xiv, 223
    the Earl of Exeter, xv, 191
    the Duke of Shrewsbury, xv, 192
    French plays, ib. 337
    William Shakespeare, ib. 350
    Beaumont and Fletcher, ib. 352
    Ben Jonson, ib. 353
    Dryden’s colleagues in notes and observations on Empress of Morocco,
      xv, 399
    Plutarch’s Lives, xvii, 62
    Michael Angelo, as a painter, xvii, 489
    Raphael Santio, ib. 490
    Julio Romano, ib. 491
    Polydore, ib. 492
    Gio Bellino, ib. 492
    Georgione, as a painter, ib. 492
    Titian, ib. 493
    of Paul Veronese, xvii, 494
    Tintoret, ib. 494
    Corregio, ib. 494
    Parmegiano, ib. 495
    Ludivico, Hannibal, and Augustine Carrache, ib. 496
    Guido, ib. 496
    Domenichino, ib. 497
    Lanfranc, ib. 497
    Gio. Viola, ib. ib.
    Rubens, ib. 498
    M. St Evremont, xviii, 9
    Polybius and his writings, ib. 17
    Pope Nicholas V. ib. 24
    Lucian, ib. 70
    Booksellers, ib. 80.

  Charles I., Dryden accused of approving of the execution of, ix, 16
    Shaftesbury offers his services to, ib. 444

  Charles II., restoration of, led the way for the revival of letters,
      i, 42
    star visible at the birth of, ix, 51
    panegyric on the coronation of, ib. 54
    mechanical genius of, ib. 60
    skill of, in maritime affairs, ib. 160
    conduct of, at the fire of London, ib. 187
    illegitimate children of, ib. 250
    receives a pension from France, ib. 385
    anecdote of, ib. 413
    North’s opinion of Shaftesbury’s designs upon the person and
      authority of, ib. 450
    titles of some odes on death of, x, 55
    concern of the people for death of, ib. 79
    Physicians who attended, ib. 79
    circumstances regarding the death of, ib. 80
    extract of papers found in strong box of, ib. 188, 190

  Charleton, Dr Walter, account of, xi, 12
    poetical epistle to, ib. 14
      remarks on, ib. 12

  Chaucer, Tales from, xi, 193-399
    and Ovid, parallel between, ib. 214

  Chaucer’s Pilgrims, Stothard’s painting of, ib. 217

  Chaucer’s rhyme, supposed inequalities of, xi. 221
    character of, xi, 225
    and Boccace, parallel between, ib. 233
    first patroness, ib. 246
    original tales, modernized by Dryden, xii, i-xci
    Knightes Tale, ib. iii
    Nonnes Priestes Tale, ib. liii
    Floure and the Leafe, ib. lxviii
    Wif of Bathes Tale, ib. lxxxii

  Chesterfield, Earl of, account of, xiv, 3
    dedication to, ib. 3

  Chevalier de St George, birth of, x, 305
    false report of the death of, ib. 307

  Children, illegitimate, of Charles II., ix, 250

  Christian religion, machinery of, more feeble than the Heathen, in
      poetry, xiii, 23

  Church of England, declaration of James VI. concerning the, x, 262
      loyalty of, ib. 154
      tradition of no weight in, ib. 156
    Tichmarsh, monument in, xviii, 215

  Cibber’s character of Mrs Montfort, iv, 233

  Cinyras and Myrrha, fable of, xii, 127

  Circe, original prologue to, x, 333
    prologue to, as corrected by Dryden, ib. 335

  Circumstances which influenced the Earl of Shaftesbury in his change of
      politics, ix, 448
    regarding the death of Charles II., x, 80

  Civil wars, state of poetry in England before, i, 4
    metaphysical poetry favoured till the beginning of, i, 12
    interrupt the study of poetry, i, 20

  Clare, Marquis of. Vide Haughton, Lord

  Clarendon, Earl of, character of, ix, 63

  Clayton, Sir Robert, account of, ib. 359

  Cleomenes, a tragedy, viii, 181
    preface to, ib. 196
    verses to Dryden on, ib. 205
    representation of, suspended, i. 363, viii, 199
    Life of, ib. 207
    Prologue to, ib. 246
    Epilogue to, ib. 329
    character of, i, 362

  Clergy, Dryden’s resentment against, ib. 428

  Cleveland, account of, ib. 43

  Clifford, Lord, epistle dedicatory to, v, 5
      account of, ib. 5
      Hugh, dedication to, xiii, 337
    Matthew, Dryden’s controversy with, i, 154

  Club, King’s Head, account of, ix, 380

  Cock and the Fox, or the Tale of the Nun’s Priest, xi, 327
    remarks on, ib. 326

  Coffeehouse, (Will’s,) Dryden’s authority in, i, 371

  Coleman, Edward, account of, x, 18

  Colleagues of Dryden, in Notes and Observations on the Empress of
      Morocco, xv, 399
    characterized, ib. 399

  College, Trinity, Cambridge, Dryden admitted to, i, 28

  College’s (the protestant joiner) Ballad, vii, 5

  Collier and Blackmore, attack upon, in the prologue and epilogue to the
      Pilgrim, i. 436

  Colouring, the third part of painting, xvii, 361, 450

  Combat, curious, xi, 283

  Combination of the lute and sword ridiculed, x, 450

  Comedy of the Wild Gallant, ii, 13
      Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen, ib. 379
      Sir Martin Mar-all, iii, 1
      the Tempest, iii, 95
      an Evening’s Love, or the Mock Astrologer, ib. 207
      Marriage A-la-mode, iv, 231
      the Assignation, or Love in a Nunnery, ib. 343
      the Kind Keeper, or Mr Limberham, vi, 1
      Amphitryon, viii, 1
    distinguished by acts not known to the early Greeks, xv, 311
    and Tragedy, not wrote by the same authors among the ancients, ib. 317

  Comedies of intrigue introduced to the English stage, i, 76

  Comets, two remarkable, ix, 160

  Comic scenes in tragedy, propriety of, i, 230

  Commencement of Dryden’s dramatic career, ib. 80
    friendship with Southerne, ib. 294

  Commentaries, or annals, what, xvii, 56

  Commines, Philip de, account of, xviii, 36

  Comparison between the poems of Sprat and Dryden, ix, 6
    Persius and Horace, xiii, 78
    Horace and Juvenal, ib. 78
    Tacitus and Polybius, xviii, 50

  Complaint of the Brawny Bishop, a ballad, x, 270

  Compton, Bishop, account of, ix, 302

  Concern of the people for the death of Charles II., x, 79

  Condemnation, King’s power of granting pardon after, questioned, ix, 310

  Conduct of Charles II. on the fire of London, ib. 187
    pusillanimous, of Lord Grey, ib. 276
    infamous of Lord Howard, ib. 278
    of Bishop Burnet, remarks on some parts of, x, 271
    of the Earl of Shaftesbury at the Restoration, ix, 447

  Confederates, a poem, xviii, 175

  Confuting arguments used by the King, and disrespect of his person, x, 252

  Congreve, Wm., extracts from Wilson’s Life of, xviii, 200
    Dryden’s friendship with, i, 372
    poetical epistle to, xi, 59
      remarks on, ib. 57
    verses addressed to, ib. 61

  Congreve’s dedication of Dryden’s Dramatic Works, ii, 5
    character of, i, 372
    character of Dryden, ib. 9

  Connection of Dryden in society, after the Revolution, i, 369
    of the Indian Emperor to the Indian Queen, ii, 293

  Conquest of Granada, a tragedy, Part I. iv, 1
    remarks on, ib. 3
    Epistle Dedicatory to, ib. 9
    complimentary verses on, ib. 29
    Prologue to, ib. 30
    Epilogue to, ib. 110
    a tragedy, Part II. ib.
    Prologue to, ib. 113
    Epilogue to, ib. 210

  Conquest of Mexico, a tragedy, ii. 257

  Conscience, declaration for liberty of, x, 279

  Consequences of the Revolution to Dryden, i, 347

  Constantine the Great, epilogue to, x, 386

  Contest at the election of Sheriffs for London, ix, 404

  Contract, Dryden’s, with the King’s company of players, i, 102

  Controversy between Athanasius and Arius, x, 15
    concerning the comparative merits of the ancients and moderns, xii, 45
    between Dryden and Stillingfleet, concerning the Duchess of York’s
        paper, xvii, 185
      remarks on, ib. 187
    between Dryden and Sir Robert Howard, i, 94
      Matthew Clifford, ib. 154
      Richard Leigh, ib. 157
      Edward Ravenscroft, ib. 160
      Earl of Rochester, ib. 195
      Shadwell, ib. 259
      Elkanah Settle, ib. 259
      Rymer, ib. 379
      Milbourne, ib. 394

  Contumacy, Dryden punished at College for, ib. 28

  Copy of a paper written by the late Duchess of York, xvii, 189

  Corinna, Charles Dryden’s letter to, xviii, 213

  Corneille, character of Œdipe of, vi, 119

  Coronation of Charles II. panegyric on, ix, 54

  Corregio, character of, as a painter, xvii, 494

  Correspondence of Dryden with Madam Honor Dryden,xviii, 86
    with the Earl of Rochester, ib. 89, 101
    with the Rev. Dr Busby, ib. 96, 98
    with Jacob Tonson, ib. 103, 106, 109, 118, 119, 121, 122, 123, 124,
      126, 127, 128, 130, 136, 137, 138
    with Mr Dennis, ib. 111, 114
    with Mrs Steward, ib. 141, 144, 146, 147, 149, 150, 153, 156, 157,
      161, 169, 171, 174, 178, 180
    with his sons, at Rome, ib. 131
    with Elmes Steward, Esq. ib. 143
    with Samuel Pepys, ib. 154, 156
    with the Right Hon. Charles Montague, ib. 159
    with Mrs Elizabeth Thomas, junior, xviii, 164, 167, 173

  Court of Requests, a scene of political intrigue, x, 348

  Covenant in England, and League in France, parallel between, i, 281

  Coventry, Sir John, assault on, ix, 258

  Cowardice of the Earl of Rochester, xv, 215

  Cowley, the most ingenious poet of the metaphysical class, i, 15
    character of Cromwell by, ix, 4
    imitation of, ib. 191
    and Denham’s manner of Prose translation, xii, 14
    translation of Pindar by, ib. 15

  Cranmer, George, account of, x, 26

  Creech, Thomas, account of, xii, 277
    Dryden’s conduct with regard to, censured, viii, 200
      justified, ib. 202
    Dedication of to Horace, extract from, ib. 220
    Life of Cleomenes by, ib. 207
    Verses by on Religio Laici, x, 36
    Note and Letter on a passage in Translation of Lucretius by, xviii, 94

  Cressy, Hugh Paulin, account of, x, 21

  Critical history of the Old Testament, translator of, x, 32

  Criticism, in tragedy, grounds of, vi, 243
    specimen of Milbourne’s on Dryden’s Virgil, i, 397

  Critics censured by Dryden, xii, 49
    French better than the English, xiv, 159

  Cromwell, Oliver, character of by Cowley, ix, 4
    heroic stanzas to the memory of, ib. 8
    Sprat’s verses to the memory of, ib. 5
    dissolution of the Parliament by, ib. 45
    conduct of to Scotland, ib. 19
    storm at the death of, ib. 23
    Shaftesbury’s situation during the usurpation of, ib. 445
    death of, Dryden’s first theme, i, 38

  Cruel doctrine of English lawyers, xv, 297

  Cruelties of the Dutch to the English merchants, or Amboyna, a tragedy,
      v, 1

  Curious combat, xi, 283

  Custom at the birth of children, xiii, 389

  Cymon and Iphigenia, xi, 454
    remarks on, ib. 452
    idea of borrowed from Theocritus, ib. 452


  D.

  Dacier’s character of the Satires of Horace, vol. xiii, p. 77

  Danby, Earl of, epistle dedicatory to, v, 296
    account of, ib. 296

  Daphnis and Chloris, from Theocritus, xii, 300

  Daphnis, a pastoral, xiii, 391

  Dartmouth, Earl of, account of, ix, 386

  Davenant, Sir William, account of, iii, 97
    share of, in the alteration of the Tempest, ib. 98
    first introduced regular scenery on the English stage, x, 323
      introduced moveable scenes on the stage, i, 79
    a restorer of taste in poetry, i, 48
    style of, imitated by Dryden, i, 59

  Davenant, Dr Charles, account of, x, 333

  Davies’s Dramatic Miscellanies, extract from, v, 172

  Death of Lodislaus, king of Hungary, vii, 184
    Charles II. titles of odes on, x, 55
      concern of the people for, ib. 79
      circumstances regarding, ib. 80
    Oliver Cromwell, storm at, ix, 23
      Dryden’s first theme, i, 38
    Ajax, xii, 198

  Death, scenes of, improper on the stage, xv, 332

  Decameron of Boccacio, the tale of Sigismund and Guiscardo originally
      from, xi, 443
    Theodore and Honoria from, ib. 448
    Symon and Iphigenia from, ib. 473

  Decker, character of, x, 451

  Declaration of James II. concerning the church of England, ib. 262
    for liberty of conscience, ib. 279

  Decree of the University of Oxford, concerning non-resistance, ib. 241

  Decrees of fate, Jupiter cannot alter, xv, 103

  Decrepitude, premature, of the Earl of Shaftesbury, ix, 454

  Dedication to the King, xvii, 81
    Queen, xvi, 3
    Duke of Newcastle, ii, 5, iii, 209
    Earl of Orrery, ii, 113
    Duchess of Monmouth and Buccleuch, ib. 259
    Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch, iii, 346
    Duke of York, iv, 9
    Earl of Rochester, ib. 235
    Sir Charles Sedley, ib. 348
    Lord Clifford, v, 5, xiii, 337
    the Duchess of York, v, 95
    Earl of Mulgrave, ib. 174
    Earl of Danby, ib. 296
    Lord Vaughan, vi, 6
    the Earl of Sunderland, ib. 231
    Lord Haughton, ib. 373
    the Earl of Rochester, vii, 13
    the Earl of Leicester, vii, 283
    Sir William Leveson Gower, viii, 7
    the Marquis of Halifax, ib. 113
    Earl of Salisbury, ib. 337
    Metropolis of Great Britain, ix, 89
    Earl of Abingdon, xi, 121
    Duke of Ormond, ib. 195
    Duchess of Ormond, ib. 245
    Lord Radcliffe, xii, 47
    the Earl of Chesterfield, xiv, 3
    Marquis of Normanby, ib. 127
    Earl of Dorset, xv, 286
    Duke of Ormond, xvii, 5
    Congreve’s edition of Dryden’s Dramatic Works, ii, 5
    Orpheus Britannicus, xi, 146
    Creech’s Horace, extract from, viii, 202
    (Author’s) of the History of the League, to the French King, xvii, 89
    the Empress of Morocco, extract from, xv, 398

  Defeat of the Mahometans at Malacca, xvi, 211

  Defence of an Essay of Dramatic Poesy, ii, 265
    the epilogue to the Conquest of Granada, iv, 211
    the Immunities of the city of London, vii, 127
    the use of the triplet in poetry, xiv, 216
    rhyme in serious plays, xv, 367
    the paper written by the Duchess of York, xvii, 208
    Virgil against the reflections of M. Fontenelle, xiii, 345

  Definition of satire, ib. 103
    modern, ib. 105
    a Georgic, xiv, 16
    a play, xv, 302

  Defoe’s Appeal to Honour and Justice, extract from, x, 387

  Denham and Cowley’s manner of translation, xii, 14
    Sir John, opinion of, on verbal translation, ib. 14
    and Waller, improvers of English versification, i, 18

  Dennis, John, letter of, to Dryden, xviii, 111
    Dryden to, ib. 114

  Dennis’s account of Dryden’s controversy with Settle, i, 183

  Description of Titus Oates, by North, ix, 355
    the Independents, x, 140
    the personal appearance of Bishop Burnet, x, 270
    Richard Flecknoe, ib. 441
    Nokes the comedian, xi, 50
    Love, xiv, 173
    Mozambique, xvi, 63
    the city of St. Thomas, ib. 138
    the island of Ternato, ib. 166
      Japan, ib. 290
    an accomplished historian, xviii, 48

  Design, the second part of painting, xvii, 349-420

  Despairing Lover, from Theocritus, xii, 296

  Device of the partizans of Monmouth, x, 364

  Dialogue concerning women, preface to, xviii, 1

  Dickinson, Henry, translator of Pere Simon’s critical history of the Old
      Testament, x, 32

  Dido to Æneas, epistle of, xii, 35

  Difference between the taste of Dryden and Milton, i, 168

  Dillon, Wentworth, vide Roscommon, Earl of,

  Dimock or Dymock, hereditary champion of England, ii, 266

  Dinner of loyal apprentices, ix, 396

  Disaffected, American colonies a refuge for the, x, 394

  Disappointment, epilogue to, ib. 390

  Dispute of Dryden with Milbourne, i, 394
    Blackmore, ib. 420

  Disputes, political, in 1680 and 1681, parallel between, x, 353

  Dissolution of Parliament by Cromwell, ix, 45

  Distinction between the Greek satirical drama, and the satirical poetry
      of the Romans, xiii, 47
    of comedy into acts, not known to the early Greeks, xv, 311

  Distressed circumstances of Wycherly, xiii, 77

  Divination, rod of, what, ix, 20

  Divines, moderate, what, x, 242

  Division of the integral parts of a play, xv, 312

  Divisions of history, xvii, 56
    commentaries or annals, ib. 2
    history proper, ib. 57
    biography, ib. 58

  Doctrine of Socinius, x, 46
    Arius, ib. 146

  Dolben, Bishop, account of, ix, 303
    Gilbert, account of, xv, 190

  Domenichino, character of, as a painter, xvii, 497

  Don Sebastian, a tragedy, vii, 271
    remarks on, ib. 273
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 283
    preface to, ib. 291
    prologue to, ib. 302
    epilogue to, ib. 444

  Donne, character of, as a love-poet, xi, 123

  Dorset, Earl of character of, xiii, 7
    Essay on Satire, addressed to the, ib. 3
    Dryden’s exaggerated praise of, ib. 15
    dedication to, xv, 286
    song of, written the evening before battle, xv, 284

  Double Discovery, or the Spanish Friar, xi, 365

  Drama of the Greeks, plot of, xv, 313
      Romans, ib. 314
    revival of, at the Restoration, i, 65

  Dramatic career of Dryden, commencement of, i, 80
      termination of, i, 364
    poesy, defence of, an essay of, ii, 265
      notes concerning, ib. 263
    poetry of the last age, essay on, iv, 211
    miscellanies, extract from, v, 172
    performances among the Romans, origin of, xiii, 51

  Dramatic poesy, essay on, xv, 293
    writing, English excel the ancients in, xv, 396

  Dramatis personæ of Calisto, x, 337
    The True Widow, ib. 343
    The Humorists, ib. 452

  Driden, Sir John, character of, i, 37

  Driden, John, of Chesterton, account of, xi, 71
    Poetical Epistle to, ib. 75
      remarks on, ib. 71

  Drury-lane theatre burnt, x, 319

  Dryden, John, Life of, i, 1
    descent and parentage of, ib. 21
    anecdotes of the brothers and sisters of, ib. 25
    birth of, i, 27
    education of, ib. 27
    first poems of, ib. 28
    is admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, ib. 28
    punished for contumacy, ib. 29
    long residence of at the university, ib. 31
    degree of Master of Arts of, xviii, 185
    Sir Gilbert Pickering’s clerk, i. 36
    death of Cromwell, the first theme of, ib. 38
    first poem of consequence of, ix, 83
    poems of on the Restoration, i, 50
    changes the spelling of his name, ib. 53
    is chosen a member of the Royal Society, ib. 56
    imitates the style of Davenant, ib. 59
    commencement of dramatic career of, ib. 80
    first appearance of the Wild Gallant, ib. 80
      Rival Ladies, ib. 81
      Indian Queen, ib. 83
    Indian Emperor, ib. 84
    intrigue of with Mrs Reeves, ib. 87
    marriage of, ib. 88
    Essay of Dramatic Poesy, appearance of, ib. 92
    controversy of with Sir Robert Howard, ib. 94
    contract of with the King’s Company of Players, ib. 101
    appearance of the Maiden Queen of, ib. 104
        Tempest, ib. 105
      Sir Martin Mar-all, ib. 107
      the Mock Astrologer, ib. 109
      Royal Martyr, ib. 110
      Conquest of Granada, ib. 112
    promoted to the offices of poet-laureat and historiographer-royal,
        ib. 115
    patent of, as poet-laureat and historiographer-royal, xviii, 187
    appearance of Marriage A-la-mode, i, 143
      the Assignation, ib. 146
    controversy with Matthew Clifford, ib. 154
      Richard Leigh, ib. 157
      Edward Ravenscroft, ib. 160
      Elkanah Settle, ib. 259
      Rochester, ib. 195
    appearance of Massacre of Amboyna, ib. 163
      State of Innocence, ib. 166
      Aurenge-Zebe, i, 209
    is assaulted in Rose-street, ib. 204
    meditates an epic poem, ib. 215
    appearance of All for Love, ib. 218
      Limberham, ib. 221
      Œdipus, ib. 222
      Troilus and Cressida, ib. 223
      the Spanish Friar of, ib. 227
    relations of when he composed the Spanish Friar, ib. 233
    anecdote of with Southerne, ib. 237
    engages in politics, ib. 239
    appearance of Absalom and Achitophel, Part I. ib. 243
      the Medal, ib. 250
      extracts from answer to, ix, 452
    controversy of with Shadwell, i, 259, 286
    causes of enmity between Shadwell and, x, 472
    appearance of Mac-Flecknoe, a satire, i, 266
      Absalom and Achitophel, Part II. ib. 268
    assisted by Nahum Tate in, ix, 315
    effect of the satirical poetry of on English poetry, i, 275
    character of, as a satirist, ib. 279
    share of in the composition of the Duke of Guise, ib. 281
    furnishes a Preface to the translation of Plutarch’s Lives, ib. 289
    translates the History of the League, ib. 290
    appearance of the First Miscellany of, ib. 294
    commencement of Southerne’s friendship with, ib. 294
    Memorial of to the Earl of Rochester, ib. 296
    appearance of Threnodia Augustales of, ib. 299
    Albion and Albanius, ib. 299
    becomes a convert to the Roman Catholic faith, ib. 303
    reasons which might influence him in his change of religious opinions,
      ib. 303
    sincere in his attachment to the Catholic faith, ib. 322
    controversy of with Stillingfleet, ib. 323, xviii, 187
    illiberality of Dryden and Stillingfleet, x, 251
    appearance of the Hind and the Panther, i, 325
    libels occasioned by publication of, x, 104
    Hind and Panther, where composed, i, 325
    projects a translation of the History of Heresies, ib. 334
    appearance of the Life of St Francis Xavier, ib. 336
      second volume of Miscellanies, ib. 340
    character of translations of by Garth, ib. 340
    translation of Te Deum, ib. 343
      hymn for St John’s eve, ib. 344
    consequences of the Revolution to, ib. 347
    poetical attacks against, ib. 350
    loses the offices of poet-laureat and historiographer-royal, ib. 354
    appearance of Don Sebastian, i, 357
      King Arthur, ib. 360
      Cleomenes, ib. 362
      Love Triumphant, ib. 364
    last dramatic work of, viii, 333.
    list of plays of, with the respective dates of their being acted and
        published, i, 367
    connections in society of, after the Revolution, ib. 369
    indebted to Dorset’s bounty, ib. 370
    exaggerated praise of Dorset by, xiii, 15
    authority of in Will’s Coffee-house, i, 371
    friendship of with Southerne and Congreve, ib. 372
    literary friends of, ib. 373
    attacked by Swift, ib. 374
    appearance of translation of Juvenal and Persius, ib. 375
      smaller pieces, ib. 376
      Eleonora, ib. 376
      Third Miscellany, ib. 378
    controversy of with Rymer, ib. 379
    correspondence of with Jacob Tonson, ib. 381
    appearance of the translation of Virgil by, ib. 382
      Fourth Miscellany, ib. 382
    quarrel of with Tonson, ib. 387
    anecdote of, ib. 390
      and Tonson, ib. 391
    dispute of with Milbourne, ib. 394, xi, 237
    animadversions of on Milbourne, ib. 403
    Ode to St Cecilia, appearance of, ib. 407
    set to music by Handel, ib. 410
    attacked for his silence on the death of Queen Mary, xviii, 222
    translation of Homer meditated by, i, 414
    projected works of, xiii, 31
    dispute of with Blackmore, i, 420
    appearance of Fables, ib. 427
    agreement of with Jacob Tonson concerning the Fables, xviii, 191
    resentment of against the clergy, i, 428
    the Pilgrim brought forward for the benefit of, ib. 434
    attack upon Blackmore and Collier, in the Prologue and Epilogue to the
        Pilgrim, i, 436
    last period of the life of, ib. 439
    death and funeral of, ib. 440
    Mr Russell’s bill for funeral of, xviii, 194
    description of funeral of, ib. 195
    ludicrous account of the funeral of by Farquhar, i, 441
    Mrs Thomas’s letters concerning the death and funeral of, xviii, 200
    account of funeral of by Mrs Thomas, false, i, 442
    account of funeral of by Tom Brown, ib. 443
    character of, ib. 444
    character of by Congreve, ii, 9
    notices of family of, i, 462
    Ode on the death of by Alexander Oldys, xviii, 234
    and Shakspeare, parallel between, v, 287
    conduct of with regard to Creech, censured, viii, 200
      justified, ib. 202
    comparison between the poems of Sprat and, ix, 6
    accused of approving of the execution of Charles I, ib. 16
    versification of the King’s Speech to the Oxford Parliament by, ib. 309
    satire on Shadwell by, ib. 379
    use of the Alexandrine by, ridiculed, ib. 413
    Epode to, vii, 133
    Prologues of ridiculed in the Rehearsal, x, 313
    acknowledgment of to Dr William Gibbons, xi, 77
    mistake of regarding the inequalities of Chaucer’s rhyme, xi, 221
    critics censured by, xii, 49
    inaccuracy of with regard to Sir Philip Sidney, xiii, 18
    his translation of Virgil the best, xiv, 209
    Poems ascribed to, xv, 197
    Original Prose Works of, ib. 281
    colleagues of in the Notes and Observations on the Empress of Morocco,
        ib. 399
      characterised, ib. 399
    Life of Plutarch by, xvii, 1
    extract from Epistolary Poem to, xviii, 218
    Letters of, ib. 83
      to Madam Honor Dryden, ib. 86
      to the Earl of Rochester, ib. 89, 101
      to the Rev. Dr. Busby, ib. 96, 98
      to Jacob Tonson, ib. 103, 106, 109, 118, 119, 121, 122, 123, 124,
        126, 127, 128, 130, 136, 137, 138
      with Mr Dennis, ib. 111, 114
      with Mrs Steward, ib. 141, 144, 146, 147, 149, 150, 153, 156, 157,
        161, 169, 171, 174, 178, 180
      with his sons at Rome, ib. 131
      with Elmes Stewart, Esq., ib. 143
      with Samuel Pepys, ib. 154, 156
      with the Right Hon. Charles Montague, ib. 159
      with Mrs Elizabeth Thomas, junior, ib. 164, 167, 173

  Dryden, Charles, letter of to Corinna, xviii, 213

  Duchess of York, account of the, v, 95, ix, 73
      Epistle Dedicatory to, v, 95
      Verses to, ix, 76
      Poetical Epistle to, xi, 33
      paper of, xvii, 189
      controversy between Dryden and Stillingfleet concerning paper of,
        ib. 185
      Stillingfleet’s answer to, ib. 194
      Dryden’s defence of, ib. 208
      Stillingfleet’s answer to defence of, ib. 252
    Newcastle, account of, iii, 210
    Buccleugh and Monmouth, account of, ix, 256
    Ormond, Dedication to, ib. 245
    Portsmouth’s picture, epigram on, xv, 280

  Duke of Guise, a tragedy, vii, 1
    remarks on, ib. 3
    Parallel between, and affairs in England, ib. 4
    Epistle Dedicatory to, ib. 18
    Prologue to, ib. 19
    Epilogue to, ib. 122
    a tragedy, Vindication of, vii, 125
    remarks on Vindication of, ib. 127
    Advertisement to, ib. 133
    and Monmouth, no parallel intended between, ib. 144
    Massacre of Paris transposed for, ib. 188
    attacked by Shadwell, i, 286
    share of Dryden in, ib. 281
    assassination of, xvii, 148

  Duke of Newcastle, Congreve’s Dedication to, ii, 5
        account of, iii, 209
        epistle dedicatory to, ib. 209
    Lerma, answer to the Preface of the, ii, 265
    York, Dedication to, iv, 9
      personal bravery of, ib. 10, ix, 161
      attempt to counteract the influence of in the city, ix, 388
      shipwreck of upon the Lemman Ore, ib. 401
      picture of, at Guildhall, defaced, vii, 51
      Prologue to, x, 366
      requested by Charles II. to retire to the continent, ix, 384
      presence of acceptable to the Scots, ib. 385
    Albemarle, account of, ix, 394
      gallant actions of, ix, 250-6
    Monmouth, account of, ix, 250
    Buckingham, account of, v, 174
      intrepidity of, v, 175
      epistle dedicatory to, ib. 174
      Answer of to Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel, extracts from, ix, 272
      Battle of, extract from, ib. 398
      author of the Essay on Satire, xv, 201
      gallantry of, ib. 211
      satire on gallantry of, ib. 212
    Ormond, account of, ix, 294-8, xi, 195
      dedication to, xi, 195, xvii, 5
      behaviour of at the battle of Landen, xi, 202
    Beaufort, account of, ix, 390
      noble house-keeping of, ib. 391
    Grafton, account of, ix, 396
    examination of Bishop Burnet concerning, x, 274
    Shrewsbury, account of, xv, 192

  Du Bartas, poem of, extract from, xv, 233

  Dumfounding, what, x, 408

  Dundee, Viscount, account of, xi, 113
    Epitaph on the death of, ib. 115
      remarks on, ib. 113
    Pitcairn’s Epitaph upon, ib. 114

  Du Fresnoy, Chas. Alphonse, account of, xvii, 281

  Du Fresnoy’s Art of Painting, ib. 279
      remarks on, ib. 281
      observations on, ib. 392
    judgment of the works of the principal painters of the two last ages,
        ib. 489

  Duras, Lewis, vide Earl of Feversham

  Dutch, satire on, ix, 71

  Dutch insolence, ib. 162

  Duty of apprentices in ancient times, vi, 382


  E.

  Eagre or Higre, what, x, 65

  Earl of Orrery, account of the, ii, 113
      dedication to, ib. 113
    of Mulgrave, account of the, v, 174
      epistle dedicatory to, ib. 174
      character of, ib. 175
      vide Duke of Buckingham,
    of Danby, account of the, v, 296
      epistle dedicatory to, ib. 296
    of Lindsay, account of the, ib. 304
    of Carbery, vide Vaughan, Lord
    of Sunderland, account of, vi, 231
      epistle dedicatory to, ib. 231
    of Rochester, account of, vii, 13, ix, 607
      character of, iv, 235
      epistle dedicatory to, ib. 235, vii, 13
      banished the Court, ib. 238
      assaults Dryden in Rose-street, i, 204
      Dryden’s memorial to, ib. 296
    account of, vii, 283
      epistle dedicatory to, ib. 283
    of Salisbury, epistle dedicatory to, viii, 337
    of Clarendon, character of the, ix, 63
    of Ossory, account of the, ib. 299
    of Feversham, account of, ix, 397
    of Nottingham, account of, ix, 400
    of Shaftesbury, imprisonment and acquittal of, ib. 409
      last period of the life of, ib. 415
      ridiculed as aspiring to the crown of Poland, ix, 441
      offers his services to Charles I., ib. 444
      character of, during usurpation of Cromwell, ib. 445
      conduct of, at the Restoration, ib. 447
      circumstances which influenced him in his change of politics, ib. 448
      North’s opinion of the designs of, upon the person and authority of
        Charles II., ib. 451
      premature decrepitude of, ib. 454
    of Roscommon, account of the, xii, 341
      poetical epistle to, xi, 28
    of Dorset, Dryden indebted to the bounty of, i, 370
      Essay on Satire, addressed to the, xiii, 3
      character of, ib. 7
      Dryden’s exaggerated praise of, ib. 15
      epistle dedicatory to, xv, 286
      song of, written the evening before the battle, ib. 284
    of Peterborough, account of the, ib. 189
    of Exeter, character of the, ib. 191
      epitaph of the, ib. 191
    of Aylesbury, account of the, ib. 207
    of Essex, account of the, ib. 207
      prologue to, x, 368

  Ecclesiastical policy, Hooker’s treatise upon, ib. 26

  Effect of Dryden’s satirical poems on English poetry, i, 275

  Effects of the Revolution upon literary pursuits, ib. 385

  Elegies and epitaphs, xi, 91, 160

  Elegy upon the death of Lord Hastings, ib. 94
    to the memory of Mr Oldham, xi, 99
      Mrs Anne Killigrew, ib. 105
    on the death of Amyntas, ib. 139
    on a very young gentleman, ib. 142

  Election of Sheriffs for London, contest at, ix, 404

  Eleonora, a panegyrical poem, to the memory of the Countess of Abingdon,
      xi, 117
    remarks on, ib. 119
    dedication of, ib. 121

  Elizabeth, Queen, age of, abundant in false wit, i, 7
      John Lillie’s share in determining the taste of, ib. 7
    association for the defence of the person of, ix, 422

  Empress of Morocco, character of, i, 187
    notes and observations on, xv, 405
    postscript to, ib. 409
    parody on part of, ib. 407
    preface to notes, and observations on, ib. 401

  England, poetry of, before the civil wars, i, 4
    state of learning in, on the accession of James I., ib. 5
    milled money not struck in, before 1663, ix, 451
    loyalty of church of, x, 154
    tradition of no weight with the church of, ib. 156
    establishment of the Jesuits in, ib. 255

  English poetry, effect of Dryden’s satirical poems on, i, 275
    versification improved by Denham and Waller, ib. 18
    fleet, names of changed, ix, 63
    verse, Virgil translated into, xiii, 279
    lawyers, cruel doctrine of, xv, 297
    plays, superiority of, ib. 349
    excel the ancients in dramatic writing, ib. 3

  Enchanted Island, or the Tempest, a comedy, iii, 95

  Ennius, first author of Roman satire, xiii, 58

  Ent, Dr George, account of, xi, 16

  Enterprize of Sir Thomas Allen, ix, 177
    Sir Robert Holmes, ib. 178, 184

  Epic poem meditated by Dryden, i, 215

  Epilogues and Prologues, x, 309, 424
    to the Wild Gallant, a comedy, ii, 106-7
      the Indian Queen, ib. 255
      the Indian Emperor, ib. 377
      Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen, ib. 469
      Sir Martin Mar-all, iii, 93
      the Tempest, or the Enchanted Island, ib. 205
      An Evening’s Love, ib. 340
      Tyrannic Love, iii, 435
      the Conquest of Granada, iv, 110, 210
    Defence of the, ib. 211
      remarks on, ib. 229
    to Marriage a-la-Mode, ib. 342
      the Assignation, ib. 447
      Amboyna, v, 87
      Aureng-Zebe, ib. 282
      All for Love, ib. 411
      the Spanish Friar, vi, 485
      Limberham, ib. 114
      Œdipus, ib. 222
      Troilus and Cressida, ib. 363
      the Duke of Guise, vii, 122
      Albion and Albanus, ib. 268
      Don Sebastian, ib. 444
      Amphitryon, viii, 106
      Cleomenes, ib. 329
      Love Triumphant, ib. 435
      the Pilgrim, ib. 462
        remarks on, ib. 459
        attack upon Jeremy Collier in, i, 436
    spoken at the opening of the New House, x, 326
      Oxford, ib. 330
    intended to have been spoken by Lady H. M. Wentworth, ib. 337
    to the Man of Mode, ib. 339
      Mithridates, ib. 341, 354
      Tamerlane, ib. 356
      the University of Oxford, ib. 360, 381
    for the King’s House, ib. 362
    to the Loyal Brother, ib. 377
      Constantine the Great, ib. 386
      the Disappointment, ib. 390
    upon the union of the two companies, x, 398
    to the Princess of Cleves, ib. 402
      Henry II., ib. 412, 420
      the Husband his own Cuckold, ib. 423
      the Humourists, from, ib. 456

  Epistle dedicatory to the King, xvii, 81
      Queen, xvi, 3
      Duke of Newcastle, ii, 5, iii, 209
      Earl of Orrery, ii, 113
      Duchess of Monmouth and Buccleuch, ii, 259
      Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch, iii, 346
      Duke of York, iv, 9
      Earl of Rochester, ib. 235
    Sir Charles Sedley, ib. 348
    Lord Clifford, v, 5, xiii, 337
    the Duchess of York, v, 95
      Earl of Mulgrave, ib. 174
      Earl of Danby, ib. 296
    Lord Vaughan, vi, 6
    the Earl of Sunderland, ib. 231
    Lord Haughton, ib. 373
    the Earl of Rochester, vii, 13
      Earl of Leicester, ib. 283
    Sir William Leveson Gower, viii, 7
    the Marquis of Halifax, ib. 113
      Earl of Salisbury, ib. 337
      Metropolis of Great Britain, ix, 89
      Earl of Abingdon, xi, 121
      Duke of Ormond, ib. 195
      Duchess of Ormond, ib. 245
    Lord Radcliffe, xii, 47
    the Earl of Chesterfield, xiv, 3
      Marquis of Normandy, ib. 127
      Earl of Dorset, xv, 286
      Duke of Ormond, xvii, 5
    Mr Congreve’s edition of Dryden’s Dramatic Works, ii, 5
    Orpheus Britannicus, xi, 146
    Creech’s Horace, extract from, viii, 202
    of the History of the League, to the French King, xvii, 89
      to the Empress of Morocco, extract from, xv, 398
    to the Whigs, ix, 417
    by Sir George Etherege, to the Earl of Middleton, xi, 40
    poetical, from Pope to Jervas, xvii, 282
      Mason to Sir Joshua Reynolds, ib. 284

  Epistles of John Dryden, xviii, 83
      remarks on, ib. 85
    of Dryden to Madam Honor Dryden, ib. 86
      to the Earl of Rochester, ib. 89, 101
      to the Rev. Dr Bushby, ib. 96, 98
      to Jacob Tonson, ib. 103, 106, 109, 118, 119, 121, 122, 123, 124,
        126, 127, 128, 130, 136, 137, 138
      to Mr Dennis, ib. 111, 114
      to Mrs Steward, ib. 131, 144, 146, 147, 149, 150, 153, 156, 157,
        161, 169, 171, 174, 178, 180
      to his sons, at Rome, ib. 131
      to Elmes Steward, Esq., ib. 143
      to Samuel Pepys, ib. 154, 156
      to the Right Hon. Charles Montague, ib. 159
      to Mrs Elizabeth Thomas, junior, ib. 164, 167, 173

  Epistles poetical, xi, 1-90
    to John Hoddeson, ib. 4
    to Robert Howard, ib. 7
    to Dr Charleton, ib. 14
    to Lady Castlemain, ib. 20
    to Mr Lee, ib. 23
    to the Earl of Roscommon, ib. 28
    to the Duchess of York, ib. 33
    to Mr J. Northleigh, ib. 37
    to Sir George Etherege, ib. 42
    to Mr Southerne, ib. 50
    to Henry Higden, ib. 55
    to Mr Congreve, xi. 59
      to Mr Granville, ib. 64
      to Mr Motteux, ib. 69
      to John Driden, ib. 75
      to Sir Godfrey Kneller, ib.
    Ovid’s, translations from, xii, 1-41
      preface to, ib. 3
      character of, ib. 11
      Canace to Macareus, ib. 21
      Helen to Paris, ib. 26
      Dido to Æneas, ib. 35

  Epitaph on the Earl of Rochester’s being dismissed from the treasury,
        xv, 279

  Epithalamium of Helen and Menelaus, xii, 292

  Epitome of Polybius, engaged in by Marcus Brutus, xviii, 30

  Epode to Dryden, vii, 133
    second of Horace, xii, 351

  Essay of Dramatic Poesy, defence of, ii, 265
    on Heroic Plays, iv, 16
    on the dramatic poetry of the last age, iv, 211
    on translated verse, xi, 28
      Poetical Epistle on, ib. 28
    on Virgil’s Georgic’s, xiv, 14
    upon Satire, xv, 203
      remarks on, ib. 201
    upon Satire, Duke of Buckingham, author of, xv, 201
    of Dramatic Poesy, xv, 293
      remarks on, ib. 283
      dedication to, ib. 286
      advertisement to, ib. 292

  Essex, Earl of, prologue to, x, 368

  Establishment of the Jesuits in England, ib. 255

  Etherege, Sir George, account of, ib. 454
    epistle of, to the Earl of Middleton, xi, 40

  Evremont, M. St, account of, xviii, 11
    character of, ib. 9

  Examination of Bishop Burnet by the House of Commons, x, 274

  Evening’s Love, or the Mock Astrologer, a comedy, iii, 207
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 209
    remarks on, iii, 217
    preface to, ib. 218
    prologue to, ib. 233
    epilogue to, ib. 340

  Extract from preface to the Sullen Lovers, i, 260
    Journal of Capt. Christopher Gunman, ib. 301
    Preface to Blackmore’s Prince Arthur, ib. 422
    Epistle to Sir Richard Blackmore, ib. 437
    from epilogue to the Humourists, x, 456
    letter to Jacob Tonson, xv, 194
    Wilson’s life of Congreve, xviii, 200
    an epistolary poem to Dryden, occasioned by the death of the Earl of
      Abingdon, ib. 218

  Extracts from poems attacking Dryden for his silence upon the death of
      Queen Mary, ib. 222
    Vindication of the Answer to some late Papers, x, 246, 249
    Roscius Anglicanus, x, 325
    Appeal to Honour and Justice, x, 387
    Love’s Kingdom, ib. 453
    epilogue to the Humourist, ib. 456
    Malone’s History of the English Stage, xi, 58
    Spanheim’s Dissertation, xiii, 47
    poem of Du Bartas, xv, 233
    epilogue upon reviewing Every Man in his Humour, xv, 310
    dedication to the Empress of Morocco, xv, 398
    Caulfield’s History of the Gunpowder Plot, i, 24
    one of Dryden’s first poems, i, 33
    Creech’s dedication to Horace, viii, 202
    poem of John James, ix, 164
    Naboth’s Vineyard, ib. 198
    Judah Betrayed, a poem, ib. 266
    the Duke of Buckingham’s answer to Absalom and Achitophel, ib. 272
    Settle’s Absalom senior, ib. 375
    poem of Loyal Feast Defeated, ib. 390
    The Battle, ib. 398
    Loyal Medal vindicated, ib. 423
    Hickeringill’s answer to Dryden’s Medal, ix, 452
    Lenten Prologue, vii, 131
    the Religio Laici of J. R., x, 9
      Revolter, a tragi-comedy, x, ib.
    Lord Herbert’s history, ib. 23
    Tom Brown’s works, ib. 51
    preface to the New Converts Exposed, ib. 103
    Reasons for Mr Bayes changing his Religion, ib. 103, 313, 315
    papers found in the strong-box of King Charles II. ib. 188-190


  F.

  Fabel, Peter, anecdote of, vol. vii, 10

  Fable of the Swallows, application of, x, 253
    Cock and Fox, xi, 327
    Flower and Leaf, or the Lady in the Arbour, ib. 356
      remarks on, ib. 354
      argument of, ib. 354

  Fables, tales from Chaucer, xi, 193, 399
    translations from Boccace, ib. 401, 480
    Dedication of, ib. 195
    Preface prefixed to, ib. 205
    Dryden’s agreement with Jacob Tonson, concerning, xviii, 191
    verses occasioned by reading, xviii, 227
    Appendix to, containing the original tales of Chaucer, modernized by
        Dryden, xii, i-xci
    of Iphis and Ianthe, xii, 116
      Pygmalion and the Statue, ib. 123
      Cinyras and Myrrha, ib. 127
      Ceyx and Alcyone, ib. 139

  Fair Stranger, a song, xi, 163

  Fairborne, Sir Palmes, epitaph on tomb of, xi, 155
    account of the death of, xi, 156

  Fairfax, Edward, translator of Tasso’s Jerusalem, xi, 207

  Falkland, Anthony, Lord Viscount, account of, v, 307

  Fall of Man, an opera, v, 89

  False wit, one character of the poetry of Queen Elizabeth, i, 7
    taste, prevalence of in the age of James I. ib. 9

  Familiar epistle to Mr Julian, xv, 222
    remarks on, ib. 218

  Familiarity of Augustus with Virgil and Horace, xiii, 313

  Farquhar’s ludicrous account of the Funeral of Dryden, i, 441

  Fasts and thanksgivings, appointment of, belongs only to the king, ix,
      388

  Fate of Titus Oates, ib. 356

  Fates, Jupiter cannot alter the decrees of the, xv, 103

  Feigned Innocence, or Sir Martin Mar-all, a comedy, iii, 1

  Female Prelate, and Lancashire Witches, account of, vii, 142
    performers first introduced on the stage after the Restoration, x, 321

  Ferrex and Perrex, a tragedy, mistake of Dryden concerning, ii, 118

  Ferguson, Robert, account of, ix, 363

  Fescennine and Saturnine verses, what, xiii, 51

  Festival, St Cecilia’s, account of, xi, 166

  Feversham, Earl of, account of, ix, 397

  Finch, Sir Keneage, vide Nottingham, Earl of

  Fire of London, conduct of Charles II. on, ix, 187
    its dreadful effects, ib. 189

  First Miscellany, appearance of, i, 294

  First poems of Dryden, i, 28

  Fitzharris’s Plot, Waller’s Discovery of, ib. 382

  Flail, account of Protestant, vii, 19

  Flecknoe, Richard, account of, vi, 7, x, 441
    Marvell’s description of, ib. 441
    plays of, ib. 442

  Fleet, English, names of changed, ix, 48

  Flower and the Leaf, a fable, xi, 356

  Floure and the Leafe, by Chaucer, xii, lxviii

  Fontenelle’s Reflections, defence of Virgil from, xiii, 345

  Forbes, James, account of, ix, 368

  Fourth Miscellany, appearance of, i, 382

  Four days battle, account of, ib. 168, 174

  Frampton, Mary, epitaph on monument of, xi, 158

  France, Charles II. receives a pension from, ix, 385

  France set the pattern of rhiming or heroic plays, i, 69
    League in, and Covenant in England, parallel between, i, 281

  Freethinkers, their opinions, x, 143

  Free translation, Cowley’s mode of, xii, 15

  French stage, punctilios of, v, 307
    exiled Protestants, relief given by King James II. to, x, 264
    poetry, character of, xiii, 366
    better critics than the English, xiv, 159
    authors, scrupulous observers of the unities of time and action,
        xv, 325
    observe the laws of the stage, and decorum more exactly than the
        English, xv, 336
    plays, character of, ib. 337
    servility of the, in attention to the unities, ib. 346

  Friar Bacon, anecdote of, vii, 10

  Friends, literary, of Dryden, i, 373

  Friendship of Dryden with Southerne and Congreve, i, 372

  Frontispiece to Albion and Albanus, vii, 231

  Fuller, William, account of, viii, 329

  Fuller’s anecdote of Robert Keies, i, 23

  Funeral Pindaric poem, x, 53
    of Dryden, i, 440
      Farquhar’s ludicrous account of, ib. 441
      Tom Brown’s account of, ib. 443
      Mr Russel’s bill for, xviii, 194
      Mrs Thomas’s letters concerning, ib. 200
      description of, ib. 195
    procession at the death of St Francis Xavier, description of, xvi, 465


  G.

  Gallant, Wild, a comedy, vol. ii, 13
    actions of Prince Rupert, ix, 167-174
      the Duke of Albemarle, ix, 168, 171
    action of Edward Spragge, xi, 24

  Gallantry of the Duke of Buckingham, xv, 211

  Gallus, a pastoral, xiii, 417

  Garth’s character of Dryden’s Translations, i, 340

  Georgic, definition of, xiv, 16

  Georgics of Virgil, translation of, xiv, 1-122
    dedication of, ib. 3
    essay on, ib. 14
    character of, ib. 25
    notes on, ib. 123
    Book I. ib. 27
         II. ib. 49
         III. ib. 73
         IV. ib. 98

  Georgione, character of, xvii, 492

  German jollity, xi, 44

  Giants’ war, xii, 69

  Gibbon’s account of his conversion to the Catholic faith, i, 316
    character of Pope Nicholas V. xviii, 24
    account of the murder of Lucian, ib. 57

  Gilbert, Dr William, account of, xi, 15

  Goa, description of, xvi, 71

  Godfrey, Sir Edmondbury, account of, ix, 285

  Golden age, from Ovid, xii, 66

  Government of Japan, xvi, 291

  Gracioso, or buffoon, what, i, 77

  Grafton, Duke of, account of, ix, 396

  Graham, James, vide Dundee, Viscount

  Granville, George, poetical epistle to, xi, 64
    remarks on, xi, 63

  Great Favourite, answer to the preface of the, ii, 265

  Grecian dramas, plot of, xv, 313

  Greek satirical drama, and the satirical poetry of the Romans,
      distinction between, xiii, 47

  Greeks, comedy distinguished by acts not known to the early, xv, 311

  Grey, Lord, pusillanimous conduct of, ix, 276

  Griselda, story of, not invented by Petrarch, xi, 215

  Grounds of criticism in tragedy, vi, 243

  Growth of Popery, by Andrew Marvel, ix, 420

  Guardian angels, machinery of, xiii,

  Guibbons, Dr William, Dryden’s acknowledgment to, xi, 77

  Guido, character of as a painter, xvii, 496

  Guise, Duke of, a tragedy, vii, 1
    assassination of, xvii, 148

  Gunman, Captain Christopher, extract from journal of, i, 301

  Gunpowder Plot, extract from Caulfield’s history of, i, 24

  Gwynn, Nell, anecdote of, ix, 426


  H.

  Hacket, Coppinger, and Arthington, enthusiasm of, vol. x, 28

  Hale, Sir Matthew, prejudices of, xiii, 67

  Hales, John, anecdote of, xv, 351

  Halifax, Marquis of, epistle dedicatory to, viii, 113
    account of, ib. 113, ix, 305

  Handel, Ode to St Cecilia set to music by, i, 410

  Harman, Sir John, exploit of, ix, 179

  Harmony of numbers, neglected by the metaphysical poets, i, 17

  Hart, the tragedian, account of, x, 328

  Harte’s vindication of Statius, xiv, 130

  Harvey, William, account of, xi, 15

  Hastings, Lord, elegy upon the death of, xi, 94
    remarks on, ib. 93

  Haughton, Lord, account of, vi, 373
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 373

  Hawkers, prodigies of, x, 348

  Heads of an answer to Rymer’s remarks, xv, 385
    remarks on, ib. 383

  Healing Parliament, what, x, 71

  Heathen, diligence of Catholic missionaries in converting the, x, 192

  Hector and Andromache, last parting of, xii, 382

  Heinsius’s definition of satire, xiii, 103

  Helen and Paris, epistle of, xii, 26
    to Menelaus, epithalamium of, from Theocritus, ib. 292

  Heliodorus, anecdote of, vi, 126

  Henry II., epilogue to, x, 412

  Herbert’s, Lord, History of Henry VIII., extracts from, x, 23

  Heresies, History of, Dryden projects a translation of, i, 334

  Hero, piety the first quality of, xiv, 161

  Heroic plays, character of, i, 118
      an essay on, iv, 16
    poetry, apology for, v, 105
    stanzas to the memory of Oliver Cromwell, ix, 8
      remarks on, ib. 3
      notes on, ib. 15
    or rhyming plays imitated from the French, i, 69

  Heylin, Dr Peter, account of, xvii, 190

  Heywood, Thomas, account of, x, 446

  Hickeringill’s, Edmund, answer to the Medal of Dryden, ix, 452

  Higden, Henry, poetical epistle to, xi, 55
      remarks on, ib. 52
    account of, ib. 52

  Higgons’s verses to Congreve, ib. 61

  Higre or Eagre, what, x, 65

  Hind and Panther, Part I. x, 85
      remarks on, ib. 87
    parabolical signification of, ib. 90
    criticised, ib. 90
    application of censured, ib. 90
      defended, ib. 91
    transversed, extracts from, ib. 91
    where composed, i, 325
    parody on by Prior and Montague, ib. 330
    parody on, x, 91
    letters on, ib. 102
    libels occasioned by publication of, ib. 104
    Swift’s account of, ib. 106
    preface to, ib. 109
    notes on, ib. 139-157
    Part II. ib. 159
    notes on, ib. 185-194
    Part III. ib. 195
    application of justified, ib. 197
    notes on, ib. 240-282

  Historiographer-royal, Dryden appointed to the office of, i, 115
    loses the office of, i, 354

  Historical and Political Poems, ix, 1

  History of Calvinism by Lewis Maimbourg, x, 30
      Satire among the Romans, xiii, 56
    divisions of, xvii, 56
    proper, what, ib. 57
    of the League, specimen of translation of, xvii, 77
        appearance of, i, 290
        author’s dedication to, ib. 89
        advertisement to the reader, ib. 98
        Book III. translation of, ib. 101
        translator’s postscript to, ib. 150
    of Heresies, Dryden projects a translation of i, 334

  Hoddeson, John, poetical epistle to, xi, 4
    remarks on, ib. 3

  Hollis, Sir Freschville, account of, ix, 180

  Holmes, Sir Robert, enterprise of, ix, 178, 184

  Holyday, Barten, account of, xiii, 93

  Homer, character of, xi, 211

  Homer’s poetry, character of, xii, 59
    translations from, ib. 355-388
    Virgil’s imitation of, xiv, 182
    Dryden meditates a translation of, i, 414

  Hooker, Richard, account of, x, 26
    treatise of upon Ecclesiastical Policy, ib. 26

  Hoped and unhoped, ancient meaning of, xi, 336

  Hopkins, Charles, account of, xviii, 163

  Horace, character of, xii, 280
    translations from, ib. 339-354
    Ode 3. of Book I. inscribed to the Earl of Roscommon, ib. 341
    Ode 9. of Book I. inscribed to the Earl of Rochester, ib. 344
    Second Epode of, ib. 351
    character of his father, xiii, 77
    and Persius, comparison between, ib. 78
      Juvenal, comparison between, ib. 78
    Satires of, Dacier’s character of, ib. 99

  Housekeeping, noble of the Duke of Beaufort, ix, 391

  Howard, Sir Robert, joint author with Dryden of the Indian Queen, ii, 203
    note concerning, ib. 263
    letter to, ix, 92
      poetical epistle to, xi, 7
        remarks on, ib. 5
      account of, i, 54
      Dryden’s controversy with, ib. 94
    Lord, infamous conduct of, ix, 278

  Hudibras, author of, unrewarded by the court, x, 250
    at court, ib. 250

  Hughes’s verses, occasioned by reading Dryden’s Fables, xviii, 227

  Huguenot refugee clergy, not all of the same communion, x. 203, 244

  Human body, measures of, xvii, 424

  Hume’s account of the rise of the Quakers, x, 141

  Humours, Shadwell’s, what meant by, x, 396, i, 261

  Humourists, dramatis personæ of, x, 452
    extract from epilogue to, ib. 456

  Hungary, breach of treaty, and death of Ladislaus, king of, vii, 184

  Hunt, Thomas, account of, ib. 127

  Husband his own Cuckold, epilogue to, x, 423

  Hyde, Lord Chancellor, verses to, ix, 65
    Anne, vide York, Duchess of
    Laurence, vide Rochester, Earl of

  Hymn for St John’s Eve, translation of by Dryden, i, 344


  I.

  James I. state of learning in England on the accession of, i, 5
      false taste in age of, ib. 9
      play of words in age of, ib. 10
      traditionary anecdote of, ib. 13
      attached to the sports of the chace, viii, 451
      account of one of the revels of, ib. 452
    II. titles of poems on accession of, x, 59
      character of addresses on accession of, ib. 110
      professions of at accession of, ib. 262
      declaration of concerning the church of England, ib. 262
      relief given by to the French exiled Protestants, x, 264
      character of, ib. 226, 265
      poetical addresses to on the birth of a son of, ib. 286
      birth of son of said to be spurious, ib. 286
        believed by the Papists miraculous, ib. 285, 302
      pregnancy of queen of ridiculed, ib. 303
      account of the birth of son of by Smollet, ib. 305
      vide York, Duke of
    Eleanor, account of, x, 116
      author of a Vindication of the Church of England, ib. 116
    John, extract from poem of, ix, 164

  Japan, island of, description of, xvi, 290
    government of, ib. 291
    religion of, ib. 292
    language of, ib. 295

  Idylliums of Theocritus, translations from, xii, 285-307

  Jervas, poetical epistle to, xvii, 282

  Jesuits, establishment of in England, x, 255

  Iliad of Homer, Book I. translations from, xii, 357
    moral not intended in, xiv, 134
    Tasso’s imitation of, xiii, 17

  Illegitimate children of Charles II. ix, 250

  Illiberality of Stillingfleet and Dryden, x, 251

  Imitation of Cowley, ix, 191
    in translation, what, xii, 12
    of Homer by Virgil, xiv, 182

  Immunities of the city of London defended, vii, 127

  Impossible to translate verbally, xii, 12

  Imprisonment and acquittal of the Earl of Shaftesbury, ix, 409

  Indelicacy of the stage in the age of Dryden, i, 417

  Independents, description of, x, 140

  Infallibility, not in the Pope alone, ib. 164-187

  Indian Queen, a tragedy, ii. 201
    remarks on, ib. 203
    prologue to, ib. 205
    epilogue to, ib. 255

  Indian Emperor, a tragedy, ii, 257
    dedication to, ib. 259
    remarks on, ib. 290
    prologue to, ib. 295
    epilogue to, ib. 377
    connection of to the Indian Queen, ib. 293

  Inaccuracy of Dryden with regard to Sir Philip Sydney, xiii, 18

  Indelicacy of Lucretius, xii, 276

  Infamous conduct of Lord Howard, ix, 278

  Innocent Traitor, extract from, ix, 198

  Inscription, burlesque, to be placed under Sir Richard Blackmore’s
      picture, viii, 445

  Inscription under Milton’s picture, xi, 160

  Insolence of the Dutch, ix, 162

  Instruction, the end of all poetry, vi, 246

  Instructions of St Francis Xavier to missionaries, xvi, 228

  Insurrection of Count Teckeli, x, 387

  Integral parts of a play, Aristotle’s distinction of, xv, 312

  Interment of St Francis Xavier, xvi, 456

  Intrigue, comedies of, introduced, i, 76
    of Dryden with Mrs Reeves, ib. 87

  Invention, necessary both to painting and poetry, xvii, 318
    the first part of painting, xvii, 347, 410

  John’s (St) Eve, hymn for, i, 344

  Johnson, Samuel, account of, ix, 369

  Jones, Sir William, account of, ib. 278

  Jonson, Ben, character of by Dryden, iii, 222
    Shadwell an imitator of, x, 456
    a metaphysical poet, i, 11
    traditionary anecdote of, ib. 13
    attack of on Shakespeare, xv, 344

  Journal of Captain Christopher Gunman, extract from, i, 301

  Iphis and Ianthe, fable of, xii, 116

  Iron Age, from Ovid, xii, 68

  Irreligion of Polybius, xviii, 46

  Irruption of the Bishop of Munster into the United States, ix, 165

  Iter Boreale of Dr Robert Wild, xv, 296

  Judah Betrayed, a poem, extract from, ix, 266

  Judgment of Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy on the works of the principal
      painters of the two last ages, xvii, 489

  Judicial astrology, Dryden’s belief in, xviii, 207

  Jupiter cannot alter the decrees of the fates, xv, 103

  Juvenal, translations from, xiii, 1-202
    and Horace, comparison between, xiii, 78
    First Satire of translated, ib. 119
    Third, ib. 130
    Sixth, ib. 148
    Tenth, ib. 178
    Sixteenth, ib. 198


  K.

  Keis, Robert, anecdote of, vol. i. 23

  Ket’s insurrection defeated, v, 181

  Killigrew, Dr Henry, account of, xi, 106
    Mrs Anne, account of, ib. 102
      Elegy to the memory of, ib. 105
      remarks on, ib. 102

  Kind Keeper, a comedy, vi, 1

  King Arthur, or the British Worthy, a Dramatic Opera, viii, 107
    remarks on, ib. 109
    prologue to, ib. 122
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 113
    epilogue to, ib. 178

  King James I. attached to the sports of the chace, viii, 451
      account of one of the revels of, ib. 452
    II., vide Duke of York, and James II.

  King William, Titus Oates pensioned by, viii, 464

  King, confuting arguments used by, disrespect of his person, x, 252

  King and Queen, Epilogue to, ib. 393
    dedication to the, xvii, 81
    of France, dedication to, ib. 89

  King’s speech to Oxford Parliament versified, ix, 309
    power of granting pardon after condemnation questioned, ix, 310
    Head clubs, account of, ib. 380
    House, epilogue for, x, 362
    and Duke’s players united, ib. 393
    company of players, Dryden’s contract with, i, 162
    right of the Pope over, x, 19

  Kneller, Sir Godfrey, poetical epistle to, xi, 85
    account of, ib. 84
    character of, ib. 89

  Knight’s Tale, or Palamon and Arcite, xi, 241
    by Chaucer, xii, iii


  L.

  Ladislaus, King of Hungary, breach of treaty, and death of, vol. vii, 184

  Lady in the Arbour, a fable, xi, 356

  Lancashire Witches, reception of, vii, 15
    account of, ib. 142
    machinery of, x, 382

  Landen, behaviour of the Duke of Ormond at, xi, 202

  Lanfranc, character of, xvii, 497

  Langbaine’s account of Lodowick Carlell, x, 404

  Language of Spenser obsolete, xiii, 19
    of Japan, xvi, 295

  Lansdowne, Lord, account of, xi, 63

  Last period of the life of Dryden, i, 439
    Settle, ib. 273

  Lauderdale, Duke of, examination of Bishop Burnet concerning, x, 274
    Earl of, character of, translation of Virgil by, xiv, 223

  Laureat, a poem, x, 104
    Dryden appointed to the office of, i, 115

  Laws of the stage observed more exactly by the French than the English,
      xv, 336

  Lawson, Sir John, account of, ix, 161

  Lawyers, cruel doctrine of, xv, 297

  Layman’s faith, or Religio Laici, an epistle, x, 1

  League in France, and Covenant in England, parallel between, i, 281
    specimen of translation of history of, xvii, 77
    history of, author’s dedication to, ib. 89

  Learning in England, on the accession of James I. i, 5

  Lee, Nat. verses to Mr Dryden by, v. 103
    share of in the tragedy of Œdipus, vi, 117
    poetical epistle to on his tragedy of the Rival Queens, xi, 23
      remarks on, ib. 22
    account of the death of, ib. 22

  Lee, Eleonora, vide Abingdon, Countess of

  Leeds, Duke of, vide Danby, Earl of

  Leicester, Earl of, epistle dedicatory to, vii, 283
    account of, ib. 283

  Leigh, Richard, Dryden’s controversy with, i, 157

  Lely, Sir Peter, account of, xii, 267

  Letter of Lady Elizabath Dryden to Dr Busby, xviii. 97
      Mr John Dennis to Dryden, ib. 111
      Jacob Tonson to Dryden, ib. 106
      Samuel Pepys to Dryden, ib. 156
      Charles Dryden to Corinna, i. 213
    and verses of Milbourne to Jacob Tonson, viii, 5
    and note on a passage in Creech’s Lucretius, xviii, 94

  Letters of Dryden, xviii, 83
    remarks on, ib. 85
    to Madam Honor Dryden, xviii, 86
    to the Earl of Rochester, ib. 89, 101
    to the Reverend Dr Busby, ib. 96, 98
    to Mr Jacob Tonson, ib. 103, 109, 118, 119, 121, 122, 123, 124, 126,
      127, 128, 130, 136, 137, 138
    to Mr Dennis, ib. 114
    to his sons at Rome, ib. 131
    to Mrs Steward, ib. 141, 144, 146, 147, 149, 150, 153, 156, 157, 161,
      169, 171, 174, 178, 180
    to Elmes Steward, Esq. xviii, 143
    to Samuel Pepys, Esq. ib. 154
    to the Right Hon. Charles Montague, ib. 159
    to Mrs Elizabath Thomas, junior, ib. 164, 167, 173

  Leveson Gower, Sir William, account of, viii, 7
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 7

  Libels against Dryden, occasioned by the publication of the Hind and
      Panther, x, 104

  Liberty of conscience, declaration for, x, 279

  Licence in personal satire, xv, 218

  Life of John Dryden, i, 1
    descent and parentage of, ib. 21
    anecdotes of the brothers and sisters of, ib. 25
    birth of, i, 27
    education of, ib. 27
    first poems of, ib. 28
    is admitted of Trinity College, Cambridge, ib. 28
    punished for contumacy, ib. 29
    long residence of at the university, ib. 31
    degree of Master of Arts of, xviii, 185
    Sir Gilbert Pickering’s clerk, i, 36
    death of Cromwell, the first theme of, ib. 38
    first poem of consequence of, ix, 83
    poems of on the Restoration, i, 50
    changes the spelling of his name, ib. 53
    is chosen a member of the Royal Society, ib. 56
    imitates the style of Davenant, ib. 59
    commencement of dramatic career of, ib. 80
    first appearance of the Wild Gallant, ib. 80
      Rival Ladies, ib. 81
      Indian Queen, ib. 83
    Indian Emperor, ib. 84
    intrigue of with Mrs Reeves, ib. 87
    marriage of, ib. 88
    Essay of Dramatic Poesy, appearance of, ib. 92
    controversy of with Sir Robert Howard, ib. 94
    contract of with the King’s Company of Players, ib. 101
    appearance of the Maiden Queen of, ib. 104
      Tempest, ib. 105
      Sir Martin Mar-all, ib. 107
      the Mock Astrologer, ib. 109
      Royal Martyr, ib. 110
      Conquest of Granada, ib. 112
    promoted to the offices of poet-laureat and historiographer-royal,
        ib. 115
    patent of, as poet-laureat and historiographer-royal, xviii, 187
    appearance of Marriage A-la-mode, i, 143
      the Assignation, ib. 146
      --controversy with Matthew Clifford, i, 154
      Richard Leigh, ib. 157
      Edward Ravenscroft, ib. 160
      Elkanah Settle, ib. 259
      Rochester, ib. 195
    appearance of Massacre of Amboyna, ib. 163
      State of Innocence, ib. 166
      Aurenge-Zebe, i, 209
    is assaulted in Rose-street, ib. 204
    meditates an epic poem, ib. 215
    appearance of All for Love, ib. 218
      Limberham, ib, 221
      Œdipus, ib. 222
      Troilus and Cressida, ib. 223
      the Spanish Friar of, ib. 227
    relations of when he composed the Spanish Friar, ib. 233
    anecdote of with Southerne, ib. 237
    engages in politics, ib. 239
    appearance of Absalom and Achitophel, Part I. ib. 243
      the Medal, ib. 250
      extracts from answer to, ix, 452
    controversy of with Shadwell, i, 259, 286
    causes of enmity between Shadwell and, x, 472
    appearance of Mac-Flecknoe, a satire, i, 266
      Absalom and Achitophel, Part II. ib. 268
    assisted by Nahum Tate in, ix, 315
    effect of the satirical poetry of on English poetry, i, 275
    character of, as a satirist, ib. 279
    share of in the composition of the Duke of Guise, ib. 281
    furnishes a Preface to the translation of Plutarch’s Lives, ib. 289
    translates the History of the League, ib. 290
    appearance of the First Miscellany of, ib. 294
    commencement of Southerne’s friendship with, ib. 294
    Memorial of to the Earl of Rochester, ib. 296
    appearance of Threnodia Augustales of, ib. 299
    --appearance of Albion and Albanius, i, 299
    becomes a convert to the Roman Catholic faith, ib. 303
    reasons which might influence him in his change of religious opinions,
        ib. 303
    sincere in his attachment to the Catholic faith, ib. 322
    controversy of with Stillingfleet, ib. 323, xviii, 187
    illiberality of Dryden and Stillingfleet, x, 251
    appearance of the Hind and the Panther, i, 325
    libels occasioned by publication of, x, 104
    Hind and Panther, where composed, i, 325
    projects a translation of the History of Heresies, ib. 334
    appearance of the Life of St Francis Xavier, ib. 336
      second volume of Miscellanies, ib. 340
    character of translations of by Garth, ib. 340
    translation of Te Deum, ib. 343
      hymn for St John’s eve, ib. 344
    consequences of the Revolution to, ib. 347
    poetical attacks against, ib. 350
    loses the offices of poet-laureat and historiographer-royal, ib. 354
    appearance of Don Sebastian, i. 357
      King Arthur, ib. 360
      Cleomenes, ib. 362
      Love Triumphant, ib. 364
    last dramatic work of, viii, 333.
    list of plays of, with the respective dates of their being acted and
        published, i, 367
    connections in society of, after the Revolution, ib. 369
    indebted to Dorset’s bounty, ib. 370
    exaggerated praise of Dorset by, xiii, 15
    authority of in Will’s Coffee-house, i, 371
    friendship of with Southerne and Congreve, ib. 372
    literary friends of, ib. 373
    --Dryden attacked by Swift, i, 374
    appearance of translation of Juvenal and Persius, ib. 375
      smaller pieces, ib. 376
      Eleonora, ib. 376
      Third Miscellany, ib. 378
    controversy of with Rymer, ib. 379
    correspondence of with Jacob Tonson, ib. 381
    appearance of the translation of Virgil by, ib. 382
      Fourth Miscellany, ib. 382
    quarrel of with Tonson, ib. 387
    anecdote of, ib. 390
      and Tonson, ib. 391
    dispute of with Milbourne, ib. 394, xi, 237
    animadversions of on Milbourne, ib. 403
    Ode to St Cecilia, appearance of, ib. 407
    set to music by Handel, ib. 410
    attacked for his silence on the death of Queen Mary, xviii, 222
    translation of Homer meditated by, i, 414
    projected works of, xiii, 31
    dispute of with Blackmore, i, 420
    appearance of Fables, ib. 427
    agreement of with Jacob Tonson concerning the Fables, xviii, 191
    resentment of against the clergy, i, 428
    the Pilgrim brought forward for the benefit of, ib. 434
    attack upon Blackmore and Collier, in the Prologue and Epilogue to the
        Pilgrim, i, 436
    last period of the life of, ib. 439
    death and funeral of, ib. 440
    Mr Russell’s bill for funeral of, xviii, 194
    description of funeral of, ib. 195
    ludicrous account of the funeral of by Farquhar, i, 441
    Mrs Thomas’s letters concerning the death and funeral of, xviii, 200
    account of funeral of by Mrs Thomas, false, i, 442
    account of funeral of by Tom Brown, ib. 443
    character of, ib. 444
  Life of John Dryden,--character of by Congreve, ii, 9
    notices of family of, i, 462
    Ode on the death of by Alexander Oldys, xviii, 234

  Life of St Francis Xavier, the Apostle of the Indies, xvi, 1
      dedication of, ib. 3
      writers of, ib. 9
      address to the reader by the author of, ib. 8.
    his birth, ib. 15
    education, ib. 16
    teaches philosophy, ib. 19
    conversion, ib. 24
    arrives at Rome, ib. 29
    at Lisbon, ib. 46
    departs for the Indies ib. 58.
    arrives at Mozambique, ib. 63
    at Goa, ib. 71
    visits Cape Comorin, ib. 82
    miracles of, ib. 83, 89, 91, 99, 111, 113, 131, 155, 163--to 466
    converts the Paravas, ib. 101
    returns to Goa, ib. 101
    visits Comorin, ib. 107
    goes to Cochin, ib. 124
      Negapatam, ib. 133
      Meliapor, ib. 138
      Malacca, ib. 150
      Amboyna, ib. 158
      Isle del Moro, ib. 176
    returns to Amboyna, ib. 186
      Malacca, ib. 190
    arrives at Cochin, ib. 219
    visits the Paravas, ib. 226
    his instructions to missionaries, ib. 228
    visits Ceylon, ib. 233
      Goa, ib. 234
    baptises a Japonese, ib. 238
    visits the Coast of Fishery, ib. 248
    returns to Goa, ib. 249
    resolves to go to Japan, ib. 249
    his instructions to Gasper Barzeus, ib. 254
    --sails for Japan, xvi, 276
    visits Cochin, ib. 276
      Malacca, ib. 276
    his instructions to Juan Bravo, ib. 279
    arrives at Japan, ib. 287
    waits on the king of Saxuma, ib. 297
    is treated with honour, ib. 297
    receives permission to teach the Christian religion, ib. 297
    visits the Bonzas, ib. 299
    Bonzas oppose the Christian faith, ib. 301
    miracle, ib. 302
    arrives at Firando, ib. 312
      Amanguchi, ib. 313
      Macao, ib. 319
    returns to Amanguchi, ib. 321
    visits Fugheo, and reception by the king, ib. 343
    disputes with a Bonza, ib. 362, 369
    leaves Japan, ib. 379
    arrives at Cochin, ib. 395
      at Goa, ib. 396
    affairs of Goa in his absence, ib. 403
    engages in a voyage to China, ib. 410
    departs from Goa, ib. 421
    arrives at Malacca, ib. 422
    miracles at Malacca, ib. 423
    arrives at the isle of Sancian, ib. 437
    means fail him for his passage into China, ib. 451
    his sickness, ib. 452
    death, ib. 455
    interment, ib. 456
    disinterred, ib. 457
    and carried to Goa, ib. 465
    funeral procession, ib. 465
    miracles wrought by the dead body, ib. 466.
    qualifications, ib. 471
    beatification and canonization, ib. 531

  Life of St Francis Xavier, an authentic testimony of the truth of the
      Gospel, ib. 535

  Life of Virgil, xiii. 297
      his birth, ib. 298
      education, ib. 300
      visits Rome, ib. 301
      is introduced to Octavius, ib. 302
      visits Athens, ib. 306
      loses his patrimony, ib. 307
      recovers his patrimony, ib. 309
      in favour with Augustus, ib, 313
      Pastorals, ib. 310
      Georgics, ib. 311
      Æneis, ib. 316
      sickness and death of, ib. 321

  Life of Cleomenes, viii. 207
    Plutarch, xvii, 1
      remarks on, ib. 3
      birth, ib. 19
      education, ib. 23
      travels, ib. 27
      religion ib. 31
      marriage, ib. 39
      children, ib. 39
      visits Rome, ib. 45
      letter to Trojan, ib. 49
      his Lives, ib. 51
      chosen Archon of Chæronea, ib. 51
      other works, ib. 52

  Life of Lucian, xviii, 53
      remarks on, ib. 55
    Congreve, by Wilson, Extract from, ib. 200

  Lilburn, John, account of, vi. 363

  Lillie, John, share of in determining the taste of the age of Queen
      Elizabeth, i. 7

  Lilly, the astrologer, x. 263

  Limberham, or the Kind Keeper, a comedy, vi. 1
    remarks on, ib. 3
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 6
    prologue to, ib. 13
    epilogue to, ib. 114

  Lindsay, Earl of, account of, v. 304

  List of Dryden’s Plays, with the respective dates of their being acted
      and published, i, 367

  List of the Nine Worthies, xi, 372

  Literary friends of Dryden, i, 373
    pursuits, effect of the Revolution upon, i, 385

  London, immunities of city of defended, vii, 127
    plague in city of, in 1665, ix, 189
    city of, dedication to, ix, 89
    fire of, conduct of Charles II. on, ix. 187
    dreadful effects of, ib. 189

  Love in a Nunnery, a comedy, iv, 343

  Love Triumphant, or Nature will Prevail, a tragic comedy, viii. 331
    remarks on, ib. 333
    Dryden’s last Dramatic work, ib. 333
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 337
    prologue to, ib. 344
    epilogue to, ib. 435

  Love’s Kingdom, a pastoral tragi-comedy, extract from, x, 453

  Love, description of, xiv. 173

  Loyal Feast defeated, extracts from poem of, ix, 390
    apprentices dinner, ib. 396
    Medal vindicated, extracts from, ib. 423
    cause, military chiefs of the city attached to, ib. 451
    Brother, prologue to, x, 374
      anecdote of, ib. 370
      epilogue to, ib. 377

  Loyalty of the church of England, x, 154

  Lucian, life of, xviii, 53
      remarks on, ib. 55
    first profession of, ib. 60
    teaches rhetoric, and studies law, ib. 61
    death of, ib. 61
    religion of, ib. 63
    character of, ib. 70
    murder of, by Rufinus, ib. 57

  Lucilius, the satirist, character of, xiii, 58

  Lucretius, character of, xii, 272
    indelicacy of, ib. 276
    translations from, xii, 307-337
      beginning of 1st book, xii, 311
        2d, ib. 314
        3d, ib. 317
        4th, ib. 326
        5th, ib. 337

  Lucretius of Creech, note and letter concerning, xviii, 94

  Lute and Sword, combination of, ridiculed, x, 450

  Lycidas and Mæris, a pastoral, xiii, 413

  Lyrical Pieces, Odes, Songs, xi, 63


  M.

  Macareus, epistle to, xii, 21

  Mac-Flecknoe, a satire against Thomas Shadwell, x, 425
      remarks on, ib. 427
      character of, i, 266
    one of the keenest satires in the English language, ib. 429
    its object misconstrued by Dryden’s editors, ib. 432
    notes on, ib. 441

  Machinery of the Christian religion more feeble than that of the Heathen,
        in poetry, xiii, 23
      Guardian Angels, ib. 26
      the Æneis, xiv, 193
    in the Lancashire Witches, x, 382

  Mackenzie, Sir George, account of, xiii, 111

  Mæcenas, character of, xiii, 307

  Maiden Queen, or Secret Love, a comedy, ii, 379
    lady, epitaph on, xi, 158

  Maimbourg, Lewis, account of, xvii, 182
    history of Calvinism of, x, 30

  Malacca, account of, xvi, 150
    defeat of the Mahometans at, ib. 211

  Malone’s account of the Whip and Key, ix, 425
    History of the English Stage, extract from, xi, 58

  Man of Mode, character of, x, 339
    Epilogue to, ib. 339

  Mar-all, Sir Martin, a comedy, iii, 1

  Maritime affairs, skill of Charles II. in, ix, 160

  Mar-prelate, Martin, account of, x, 27

  Marriage of Dryden, i, 88

  Marriage A-la-mode, a comedy, iv, 231
    remarks on, ib. 233
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 235
    prologue to, ib. 241
    epilogue to, ib. 342
    character of, i, 143

  Marquis of Clare, vide Haughton, Lord
    Halifax, account of, viii, 113, ix, 305
      epistle dedicatory to, viii, 113
    Worcester, vide Beaufort, Duke of
    Winchester, epitaph on, xi, 154
      account of, ib. 152
    Normanby, dedication to, xiv, 127
      vide Buckingham, Duke of

  Marvel’s Growth of Popery, ix, 420
    description of Richard Flecknoe, x, 441

  Massacre of Pans, transposed for the Duke of Guise, vii, 188
    Amboyna, character of, i, 164

  Mason, Mr, poetical epistle of, xvii, 284

  Master of Arts, Dryden’s degree of, xviii, 185

  Masque of Calisto, dramatis personæ of, x, 337

  Meal-tub Plot, Waller’s discovery of, ix, 382

  Measures of the human body, xvii, 424

  Mechanical genius of Charles II. ix. 60

  The Medal, or a satire against Sedition, ix, 407
    remarks on, ib. 409
    publications in opposition to, ib. 415
    character of, i, 250
    reply to, i, 255

  Medal, Bower’s, of the Earl of Shaftesbury, ix, 412

  Meleager and Atalante, xii, 96

  Melibæus, a pastoral, xiii, 402

  Memorial of Dryden to the Earl of Rochester, i,296

  Metamorphoses, Ovid’s, translations from, xii, 43-227
    Book I. ib. 63
      the Golden Age, ib. 66
      the Silver Age, ib. 67
      the Brazen Age, ib. 68
      the Iron Age, ib. 68
        Giants’ War, ib. 69
    of Daphne into a laurel, xii, 81
      Io into an heifer, ib. 85
      the eyes of Argus into a peacock’s train, ib. 90
      Syrinx into reeds, ib, 91
    of Æacus into a cormorant, xii, 154

  Metamorphoses, Book XII. ib. 156

  Metaphrase translation, what, ib. 11

  Metaphysical poet, what, i, 10
    poetry favoured by the public till the beginning of the civil wars,
        i, 12
    poets, Cowley the most ingenious of, i, 16
      neglected harmony of numbers, ib. 17

  Mexico, Conquest of, a tragedy, ii, 257

  Middleton, Earl of, Etherege’s Epistle to, xi, 40

  Milbourne, Luke, account of, i, 394
    letter of, and verses to Mr Tonson on Amphitryon, viii, 5
    attack on Dryden, xi, 158
    dispute of with Dryden, i, 394
    an admirer of Dryden, i, 395
    translation of Virgil by, character of, i, 397
    criticism by, of Dryden’s Virgil, specimen of, i, 397

  Military chiefs of the city, attached to the loyal cause, ix, 451

  Milled money, not struck in England before 1663, ib. 451

  Milton, John, character of, xiii, 19
    difference between the taste of Dryden and, i, 168
    not swayed by the conceits of his time, i, 16
    inscription under picture of, xi, 160

  Miracles of St Francis Xavier, xvi, 83, 89, 91, 99, 111, 113, 131, 155,
      163, &c.

  Miscellany, first, of Dryden, appearance of, i, 294
    second, ib. 340
    third, ib. 378
    fourth, ib. 382

  Missionaries, Catholic, diligence of, in converting the Heathen, x, 192
    St Francis Xavier’s instructions to, xvi, 228

  Mistake of Dryden concerning the tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex, ii, 118

  The Mistakes, prologue to, x, 408

  Mistake concerning the dedication of Orpheus Britannicus, xi, 146

  Mithridates, epilogue to, x, 341, 354

  Mock Astrologer, a comedy, iii, 207

  Moderate divines, what, x, 242

  Modern satire, definition of, xiii, 105

  Moliere, Psyche, an opera, imitated from, x, 448

  Money, milled, not struck in England before 1663, ix, 451

  Monmouth and Buccleuch, Duchess of, account of, ii, 250, ix, 256
    dedication to, ii, 259

  Monmouth, Duke of, account of, ix, 250
    epistle dedicatory to, in, 346
    reception of, in an excursion through England, ix, 288
    partizans of, designs of, x, 364
    and Duke of Guise, no parallel intended between, vii, 144

  Montague, Hon. Charles, letter of Dryden to, xviii, 159

  Montague and Prior, parody of the Hind and Panther of, x, 91

  Montfort, Mrs, character of, iv, 233

  Monument in the church at Tichmarsh, xviii, 215

  Moor, Sir John, account of, ix, 402

  Moral not intended by Homer in the Iliad, xiv, 134
    of the Æneid, ib. 150
      disputed by Heyne, ib. 150

  Mordaunt, Charles, vide Earl of Peterborough

  Morley, Dr George, account of, xvii, 182

  Motteux, Peter Anthony, poetical epistle to, xi, 69
      remarks on, ib. 67
    account of, ib. 67

  Motteux’s account of St Cecilia’s Festival, xi, 166

  Mountfort the comedian, character of, x, 412

  Moveable scenes introduced on the stage, i, 79

  Moyle, Walter, account of, xviii, 76

  Mozambique, description of, xvi, 63

  Mulgrave, Earl of, account of, v, 174
    character of, ib. 175
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 174
    vide Buckingham, Duke of

  Munster, irruption of the Bishop of, into the United States, ix, 165

  Murder of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, ix, 285
    Thomas Thynne, Esq. ib. 292
    Lucian by Rufinus, xviii, 57

  Music, Shadwell’s proficiency in, x, 448
    Ode to St Cecilia set to, by Handel, i, 410

  Mysteries or religious plays, origin of, xv, 247


  N.

  Naboth’s Vineyard, or the Innocent Traitor, extracts from, ix, 198

  Names of the English fleet changed, ib. 48

  Nature will Prevail, a tragi-comedy, viii, 331
    of satire, xiii, 37

  Naugeria, Andrew, anecdote of, vi, 370

  Neander, Dryden’s feigned appellation, xv, 283

  Neptune, pilots’ prayer to, vii, 17

  New House, epilogue spoken at opening of the, x, 326

  Newcastle, Duke of, account of, iii, 209
      Congreve’s dedication to, ii, 5
      epistle dedicatory to, iii, 209
    Duchess of, account of, iii, 210

  Nicholas V. Pope, character of, xviii, 24
    panegyric on, ib. 25

  Niggardliness of booksellers, xv, 194

  Nine Worthies, life of the, xi, 372

  Nokes, the comedian, description of, xi, 50

  Nonnes Priestes Tale, by Chaucer, xii, liii

  Non-resistance, decree of the University of Oxford concerning, x, 241

  Normanby, Marquis of, dedication to, xiv, 127
    vide Mulgrave, Earl of, and Buckingham, Duke of

  North’s description of Titus Oates, ix, 355
    opinion of Shaftesbury’s designs upon the person and authority of
        Charles II. ix, 451

  Northleigh, John, poetical epistle to, xi, 37
      remarks on, ib. 85
    account of, ib. 35

  Note concerning Polybius, xviii, 19

  Notes on Heroic Stanzas to the Memory of Oliver Cromwell, ix, 15
    on Astrea Redux, ix, 41
      Panegyric on the Coronation of Charles II. ib. 59
      Verses to the Duchess of York, ib. 79
      Absalom and Achitophel, Part I. ib. 249
        Part II. ib. 354
      Threnodia Augustalis, x, 79
      the Hind and Panther, Part I. ib. 139
        II. ib. 185
        III. ib. 240
      Britannia Rediviva, ib. 302
      Mac-Flecknoe, a satire, ib. 441
      the satires of Persius, xiii, 217, 227, 239, 248, 262, 274
      Æneis of Virgil, xiv, 262, 322, 353, 424, 461, xv, 29, 62, 102, 183
    and observations on Empress of Morocco, preface to, xv, 401, 405
      postscript to, ib. 409
    upon Dryden’s poems, extract of, i, 154

  Notices of Dryden’s family, ib. 462

  Nottingham, Earl of, account of, ix, 400


  O.

  Oates, Titus, account of, vol. ix, 282
    pensioned by King William, viii, 464
    North’s description of, ix, 355
    fate of, ib. 356

  Obscurity of Persius, xiii, 72

  Observations on Du Fresnoy’s Art of Painting, xvii, 392

  Obsolete language of Spenser, xiii, 19

  Oblivion, act of, ix, 50

  Odes, Songs, and Lyrical Pieces, xi, 161-191
    on the death of Charles II., titles of some of, x, 59

  Ode on the death of Mr Purcell, xi, 148
      remarks on, ib. 145
    in honour of St Cecilia’s day, ib. 183
      set to music by Handel, i, 410
      circumstances concerning composition of, i, 408
    on the death of Dryden, xviii, 234

  Œdipe of Corneille, character of, vi, 119

  Œdipus, a tragedy, ib. 115
      remarks on, ib. 117
      preface to, ib. 124
      prologue to, ib. 128
      epilogue to, ib. 222
    Tyrannus, of Sophocles, character of, ib. 117
    Coloneus, character of, ib. 117

  Ogleby, account of, x, 452

  Old Testament, critical history of, x, 32

  Oldham, John, account of, xi, 98
    extract from the works of, ib. 100
    elegy to the memory of, ib. 99

  Oldys, Alexander, ode of, on the death of Dryden, xviii, 234

  Opera of the State of Innocence, v, 89
    Albion and Albanius, vii, 209
    King Arthur, viii, 107

  Opinion of Sir John Denham on verbal translation, xii, 14

  Opinions of Freethinkers, x, 143

  Order for the reformation of the stage, xviii, 152

  Origin and nature of satire, xiii, 37
    of dramatic performances among the Romans, xiii, 51
    of mysteries or religious plays, xv, 247

  Original prologue to Circe, x, 333
    Tales of Chaucer, modernized by Dryden, xii, i-xci
    prose works of Dryden, xv, 281

  Originality of Shadwell, x, 418

  Ormond, Duke of, account of, ix, 294, xi, 195
      dedication to, ib. 195, xvii, 5
      behaviour of, at the battle of Landen, xi, 202
    Duchess of, dedication to, xi, 245

  Orpheus Britannicus, dedication of, ib. 146

  Orrery, Earl of, account of, ii, 113
    dedication to, ib. 113

  Osburne, Sir Thomas, vide Danby, Earl of

  Ossory, Earl of, account of, ix, 299

  Otho, character of, ib. 43

  Ovid, account of, xii, 4
    causes of the banishment of, ib. 5, 7
    character of works of, ib. 8
      epistles of, ib. 11

  Ovid and Chaucer, parallel between, xi, 214

  Ovid’s epistles, translations from, xii, 1-41
      preface to, ib. 3
      Epistle xi. Canace to Macareus, ib. 21
        xvii. Helen to Paris, ib. 26
        vii. Dido to Æneas, ib. 35
    Metamorphoses, translations from, xii, 43-227
      dedication to, ib. 47
      remarks on, ib. 45
      first book of, xii, 63
      Golden Age, ib. 66
      Silver Age, ib. 67
      Brazen Age, ib. 68
      Iron Age, ib. 68
      Giant’s war, ib. 69
      twelfth book of, ib. 156
    Art of Love, translations from, xii, 229
    Amours, translations from, ib. 257, 259

  Oxford, University of, decree of, concerning non-resistance, x, 241
      prologues spoken to, ib. 328, 358, 378, 385
      epilogues spoken to, ib. 330, 360, 381
    Parliament, King’s speech to versified, ix, 309


  P.

  Pacurius, the satirist, character of, xiii, 58

  Pages, the sons of gentlemen, viii, 338

  Painter, advice to a young, xvii, 377, 468

  Painters of the two last ages, judgment of C.A. Du Fresnoy on, xvii, 489

  Painting, Art of, xvii, 279, 339
    and poetry, parallel of, ib. 286
      invention necessary to, ib. 313
    what is beautiful in, ib. 343
    invention the first part of, ib. 347, 410
    design the second part of, xvii, 349, 420
    colouring the third part of, ib. 361, 450
    passions to be expressed in, ib. 359

  Palæmon, a pastoral, xiii, 378

  Palæmon and Arcite, or the Knight’s tale, xi, 241
    remarks on, ib. 243
    Book I. ib. 252
      II. ib. 271
      III. ib. 291
    dedication to, ib. 245

  Panegyric on the coronation of Charles II. ix, 54
      remarks on, ib. 53
      notes on, ib. 59
    on Pope Nicholas V. xviii, 25

  Papers found in King Charles II’s strong-box, extract from x, 188

  Papist plot, ix, 259

  Parabolical signification of the Hind and the Panther, x, 90
    criticised, ib. 90

  Parallel between Shakespeare and Dryden, v, 287
    the story of the Duke of Guise and affairs in England, vii, 4
    the Duke of Guise and Monmouth, not intended, ib. 144
    political disputes in 1680 and 1681, x, 353
    Ovid and Chaucer, xi, 214
    Chaucer and Boccace, ib. 233
    poetry and painting, xvii, 286
    the League in France and the Covenant in England, i, 281

  Paraphrase, in translation, what, xii, 12
    of the Third Idyllium of Theocritus, xii, 287
    of Veni Creator Spiritus, xi, 190

  Paris, Epistle to, xii, 26

  Pardon, the king’s power of granting, after condemnation questioned,
       ix, 310

  Parliament, dissolution of by Cromwell, ix, 45
    Oxford, king’s speech to versified, ib. 309
    Healing, what, x, 71

  Parmegiano, character of as a painter, xvii, 495

  Parody on part of the Empress of Morocco, xv, 407
    the Hind and the Panther, x, 91, i, 330

  Parson, character of a good one, xi, 395

  Parsons, Robert, account of, x, 20

  Particulars regarding the test-act, x, 260

  Parting of Hector and Andromache, xii, 382

  Parts of a poem, tragedy, or comedy, xv, 386

  Party-names, Stillingfleet’s opinion of, x, 243

  Paston, Mrs Margaret, epitaph on, xi, 151

  Pastorals of Virgil, translated, xiii, 335, 421
    dedication of, ib. 337
    character of, ib. 339
    Tityrus and Melibœus, xiii, 369
    Alexis, ib. 374
    Palæmon, ib. 378
    Pollio, ib. 386
    Daphnis, ib. 391
    Silenus, ib. 397
    Melibœus, ib. 402
    Pharmaceutria, ib. 407
    Lycidas and Mœris, ib. 413
    Gallus, ib. 417
    rules to be observed in writing, ib. 355

  Pate, William, account of, xviii, 130

  Patent of Dryden as poet-laureat and historiographer royal, xviii, 187

  Pelham, Thomas, vide Newcastle, Duke of

  Penny, John, or Martin Mar-prelate, account of, x, 27

  Pension from France received by Charles II. ix, 385

  People, concern of for the death of Charles II. x, 79

  Pepys, Samuel, account of, xviii, 154
    letter of Dryden to, ib. 154
      to Dryden, ib. 156

  Performers, female, first introduced after the Restoration, x, 321

  Personal resemblance of Shadwell to Ben Jonson, i, 265

  Personal appearance of Gilbert Burnet, x, 270

  Perspective, when known in England, xi, 86

  Petrarch, not the inventor of the story of Griselda, xi, 215

  Persius, not equal as a satirist to Juvenal and Horace, xiii, 68
    obscurity of, ib. 72
    Causabon’s commentary on, ib. 72
    character of, ib. 75
    and Horace, comparison between, ib. 78
    translations from, ib. 203-247
    First Satire of, ib. 207
      notes on, ib. 217
    Second Satire of, xiii, 221
      notes on, ib. 227
    Third Satire of, ib. 230
      notes on, ib. 239
    Fourth Satire of, ib. 242
      notes on, ib. 248
    Fifth Satire of, ib. 251
      notes on, ib. 262
    Sixth Satire of, ib. 267
      notes on, ib. 274

  Personal satire, abuse of, ib. 281
    licence in, xv, 218

  Peterborough, Earl of, account of, xv, 189

  Pharmaceutria, a pastoral, xiii, 407

  Philips, Mrs Katherine, account of, xi, 111

  Philosophy of Pythagoras, from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, xii, 207

  Phylacteries, what, x, 132

  Physicians who attended Charles II. ib. 79

  Pickering, Sir Gilbert, character of, i, 34
    Dryden clerk to, ib. 36

  Picture of the Duke of York at Guildhall defaced, vii, 51

  Piety, the first quality of a hero, xiv, 161

  Piles, Mons. de, preface of to the Art of Painting, xvii, 333

  Pilgrim, a comedy, revived for Dryden’s benefit in 1700, i, 434,
      viii, 437
    prologue written for, ib. 441
    song written for, ib. 449
    secular masque written for, ib. 455
    epilogue written for, ib. 462

  Pindar, Cowley’s translation of, xii, 15

  Pindaric funeral poem, x, 53

  Pilot’s prayer to Neptune, vii, 17

  Pitcairn’s epitaph on Viscount Dundee, xi. 114

  Pitt’s, William, extract from epistolary poem of, xviii, 218

  Place, unity of, what, xv, 306

  Plagiarism charged on Shadwell, x, 418

  Plague in London in 1665, ix, 189

  Play, first one among the Romans, xiii, 54
    definition of a, xv, 302
    of words, a particular taste in the age of James I. i, 10

  Plays of Dryden, list of, with the respective dates of their being
        acted
      and published, i, 367
    Heroic, an Essay on, iv, 16
    English superior to French, xv, 349
    rhyme unnatural in, ib. 363
    serious, defence of rhyme in, ib. 367
    effect of in the representation, ib. 393
    rhyming or heroic, i, 69
    heroic, character of, ib. 118
    of Richard Flecknoe, x, 442

  Player, Sir Thomas, account of, ix, 361

  Players, rival companies of united, x, 393
    Dryden’s contract with the King’s Company of, i, 102

  Plot of the Papists, ix, 259
    Grecian dramas, xv, 313
    Roman dramas, ib. 314

  Plutarch, Lives of, advertisement to translation of, xvii, 3
      preface to, appearance of, i, 289
    Life of, xvii, 1
      remarks on, ib. 3
    birth of, xvii, 19
    education of, ib. 23
    travels, ib. 27
    religion of, ib. 31
    marriage of, ib. 39
    children of, ib. 39
    visits Rome, ib. 45
    letter of to Trajan, ib. 49
    chosen Archon of Chæronea, ib. 51
    his Lives, ib. 51
      other works, ib. 52
    character of the Lives of, ib. 62

  Poem on the restoration of Charles II. ix, 30
      birth of the prince, x, 283
    an epic one the greatest work of human genius, xiii, 36
    parts of, xv, 386
    epic, meditated by Dryden, i, 215
    epistolary to Dryden, extract from, xviii, 218

  Poems, satirical, of Dryden, effect of on English poetry, i, 275
    attacking Dryden for his silence on the death of Queen Mary, extract
      from, xviii, 222

  Poems Historical and Political, ix, 1
    of Sprat and Dryden, comparison between, ib. 6
    on the accession of James II. titles of some of, x, 59
    recommendatory on Dryden’s translation of Virgil, xiii, 289
    ascribed to Dryden, xv, 197
      advertisement regarding, ib. 199

  Poet-Laureat, Dryden appointed to the office of, i, 115
    Dryden loses the office of, i, 354

  Poetic licence, apology for, v, 105

  Poetical addresses to James II. on the birth of a son, x, 286

  Poetical Epistles, xi, 1-90
    Epistle to John Hoddeson, ib. 4
      Sir Robert Howard, ib. 7
      Dr Charleton, ib. 14
      Lady Castlemain, ib. 20
      Mr Lee, ib. 23
      the Earl of Roscommon, ib. 28
      the Duchess of York, ib. 33
      Mr J. Northleigh, ib. 37
      Sir George Etherege, ib. 42
      Mr Southerne, ib. 50
      Henry Higden, ib. 55
      Mr Congreve, ib. 59
      Mr Granville, ib. 64
      Mr Motteux, ib. 69
      John Driden, ib. 75
      Sir Godfrey Kneller, ib. 85
    from Pope to Jervas, xvii, 282

  Poetry, Dramatic, Essay on, iv, 211
    Heroic, apology for, v, 105
    the chief end of instruction, vi, 246
    French, character of, xiii, 366
    expression in, the same as colouring in a picture, xiv, 210
    Art of, xv, 227
      remarks on, ib. 229
      Elegy, ib. 240
      Ode, ib. 240
      Pastoral, ib. 238
      Epigram, ib. 241
  Poetry, Art of, Satire, xv, 243
      Tragedy, ib. 245
    and painting, parallel of, xvii, 286
    of England before the Civil Wars, remarks on, i, 4
    study of interrupted by the Civil Wars, ib. 20
    Sir William Davenant a restorer of true taste in, ib. 48
    character of Homer’s, xii, 59
    English, effect of Dryden’s satirical poems upon, i, 275

  Poets, metaphysical, what, ib. 10
    Cowley the most ingenious of, ib. 15
    neglected harmony of numbers, ib. 17

  Poland, crown of, Shaftesbury ridiculed as aspiring to, ix, 441

  Political and Historical Poems, ib. 1
    satire of Reynard the Fox, x, 155

  Political affairs, skill of Polybius in, xviii, 31

  Politics, Dryden engages in, i, 239

  Pollio, a pastoral, xiii, 386

  Polybius, the historian, account of, xviii, 26
    skill of in political affairs, ib. 31
    Marcus Brutus employed in writing an epitome of, ib. 30
    character of and of his writings, ib. 17
    Shere’s translation of, viii, 203
      character of, xviii, 19

  Polydore, character of as a painter, xvii, 492

  Pope-burning, description of vi, 222
      account of, x, 370
    right of over kings, ib. 19
    infallibility not alone in the, x, 164, 187
    treats Castlemaine with contempt, ib. 305
    Nicholas V. character of, xviii, 24
      panegyric on, ib. 25
    Alexander, poetical epistle of, xvii, 282
      lines of on the fate of Elkanah Settle, i, 274

  Pordage, Samuel, account of, ix, 372

  Portsmouth, Duchess of, epigram on picture of, xv, 280

  Postscript to the Æneis, ib. 187
    History of the League, xvii, 150

  Powell’s, George, retort on Dryden, xi, 65

  Powlet, John, vide Winchester, Marquis of

  Prayer, pilot’s, to Neptune, vii, 17

  Preface to the Sullen Lovers, extract from, i, 260
      translation of Plutarch’s Lives, appearance of, ib. 289
    Blackmore’s Prince Arthur, extract from, ib. 422
    the Wild Gallant, a comedy, ii, 17
    Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen, ib. 383
    the Tempest, iii, 99
    an Evening’s Love, ib. 218
    Tyrannic Love, ib. 349
    All for Love, v, 306
    the State of Innocence, ib. 105
    Œdipus, vi, 124
    Troilus and Cressida, ib. 238
    Albion and Albanus, vii, 216
    Don Sebastian, ib. 291
    Cleomenes, viii, 196
    Religio Laici, x, 11
    the Hind and the Panther, ib. 109
    prefixed to the Fables, xi, 205
    to translation of Ovid’s Epistles, xii, 3
    on Translation, prefixed to Dryden’s Second Miscellany, ib. 263
    the translation of the Pastorals of Virgil, xiii, 345
    Notes and Observations on the Empress of Morocco, xv, 401
      remarks on, ib. 397
    every Husband his own Cuckold, xv, 414
    the Art of Painting, by Mons. de Piles, xvii, 333
    a dialogue concerning women, xviii, 1
      remarks on, ib. 3
    the New Converts Exposed, extract from, x, 103
    Reasons for Mr Bayes changing his Religion, extract from, ib. 103

  Pregnancy of the Queen of James II. ridiculed, ib. 303

  Prejudices of Sir Matthew Hall, xiii, 67

  Preliminary remarks on the poetry of England before the Civil Wars,
      i, 4

  Premature decrepitude of the Earl of Shaftesbury, ix, 454

  Presbyterianism, account of the rise of x, 148

  Presbyterians, tradition of no weight with, ib. 169

  Prevalence of false taste in the age of King James I. i, 9

  Prince Rupert’s gallant actions, ix, 167, 174
    Arthur, of Blackmore, extract from, i, 422

  Princess of Cleves, prologue to, x, 400
    epilogue to, ib. 402

  Prior and Montague, parody of on the Hind and the Panther, i, 330

  Prodigies of hawkers, x, 348

  Profession of James II. on his accession, x, 262

  Projected works of Dryden, xiii, 31

  Prologue to the Wild Gallant, ii, 19, 21
      Rival Ladies, ib. 123
      Indian Queen, ib. 205
      Indian Emperor, ib. 295
    Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen, ii, 388, 389
    Sir Martin Mar-all, iii, 5
    the Tempest, ib. 103
    An Evening’s Love, ib. 218
    Tyrannic Love, ib. 355
    the Conquest of Granada, iv, 30, 113
    Marriage A-la-mode, iv, 241
    the Assignation, iv, 356
    Amboyna, v, 10
    Aureng-Zebe, ib. 188
    All for Love, v, 321
    the Spanish Friar, vi, 382
    Limberham, vi, 13
    Œdipus, vi, 128
    Troilus and Cressida, vi, 267
    Amphitryon, viii, 12
    King Arthur, ib. 122
    Cleomenes, ib. 246
    Love Triumphant, ib. 344
    the Pilgrim, attack upon Blackmore, i, 436

  Prologue, Song, Secular Masque, and Epilogue, written for the
      Pilgrim, viii, 437
    remarks on, ib. 439
    to the Duke of Guise, vii, 19
      Lenten, extract from, vii, 131

  Prologue to Albion and Albanus, vii, 228
      Don Sebastian, vii, 302
    spoken the first day of the King’s House acting after the fire,
        x, 319
    for the women, when they acted at the old theatre,
        Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields, x, 321
    spoken at the opening of the new house, x, 323
    to the University of Oxford, x, 328
    original to Circe, x, 333
    to Circe, as corrected by Dryden, x, 335
    to the True Widow, x, 345
    Cæsar Borgia, x, 347
    to Lee’s Sophonisba, x, 350
      ib. 352
    the University of Oxford, ib. 385
    his Royal Highness the Duke of York, ib. 366
    to the Earl of Essex, ib. 368
        Loyal Brother, ib. 374
        University of Oxford, ib. 378, 385
        King and Queen, ib. 393
        Princess of Cleves, ib. 400
      Arviragus and Philicia, ib. 404
      the first satire of Persius, xiii, 206
        Prophetess, x, 406
          prohibited, ib. 406
        Mistakes, ib. 408
          ib. 415
      to Albumazar, ib. 416

  Prologues and Epilogues, x, 309
      remarks on, ib. 311
    Dryden’s ridiculed in the Rehearsal, x, 313
    and Epilogues, sold by hawkers at the door of the theatres, x, 316

  Projected translation of Homer by Dryden, i, 334

  Prophetess, prologue to, x, 406
    prohibited, ib. 406

  Propriety of comic scenes in tragedy, i, 230

  Prose works of Dryden, xv, 281

  Protestant Joiner’s ballad, vii, 5
    Flail, account of, ib. 19

  Protestants, French, relief given by James II. to, x, 264

  Publications of Dryden’s enemies in opposition to the Medal, ix, 415

  Punctilios of the French stage, v, 307

  Purcel, Henry, account of, xi, 145

  Purcel, Henry, Ode on the death of, ib. 148

  Purgatory, what founded on, x, 189

  Pusillanimous conduct of Lord Grey, ix, 276

  Pygmalion and the Statue, fable of, xii, 123

  Psyche, an Opera, imitated from Moliere, x, 448

  Pythagorean Philosophy, from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, xii, 207


  Q.

  Quakers, account of the rise of, x, 141

  Qualification of a translator, xviii, 81

  Qualifications of St Francis Xavier, xvi, 473

  Quatrains, or stanzas of four verses in alternate rhyme, defended,
      ix, 94

  Queen, dedication to the, xvi, 3
    pregnancy of ridiculed, x, 303

  Querouailles, Louise de, account of, xi, 163
    verses addressed to, ib. 163


  R.

  Radcliffe, Lord, account of, xii, 47
    dedication to, ib. 47

  Ravenscroft, Edward, account of, iv, 345
    Dryden’s controversy with, i, 160

  Reasons for Mr Bayes changing his religion, extract from, x, 103
    for and against transubstantiation, ib. 154
    which might have influenced Dryden in his change of faith, i, 303

  Reception of the Duke of Monmouth in an excursion through England,
      ix, 288
    Dryden’s translation of Virgil, i, 392

  Recommendatory verses to Absalom and Achitophel, ix, 213
        the author of the Medal, ib. 427
      on Religio Laici, x, 33
    poems on Dryden’s translation of Virgil, xiii, 289

  Reeves, Mrs, Dryden’s intrigue with, i, 87

  Reflections on Milton’s Paradise Lost, xiii, 20

  Reformation of the stage, order for, xviii, 152

  Refugee Clergy, Huguenot, not all of the same communion, x, 203, 244

  Rehearsal, time spent in composing the, ixi, 46
    first appearance of, i, 133
    authors of, i, 136
    Dryden’s prologues ridiculed in, x, 313

  Relations of Dryden, when he composed the Spanish Friar, i, 233

  Relief given by James II. to the French exiled Protestants, x, 264

  Religio Laici, or a Layman’s faith, an epistle, x, 1
      remarks on, ib. 3
      preface to, ib. 11
      recommendatory verses on, ib. 33
      of Charles Blount, ib. 8
      by J. R. extracts from, ib. 9
    Medici of Thomas Browne, ib. 7

  Religion of Lucian, xviii, 63
    Japan, xvi, 292

  Religious plays, origin of, xv, 247

  Remarkable comet, ix, 160
    sea fight, ib. 168

  Remarks on the poetry of England during the civil wars, i, 4
    the Duke of Guise, vii, 3
    Vindication of the Duke of Guise, ib. 127
    Albion and Albanius, ib. 211
    Don Sebastian, ib. 273
    the Wild Gallant, a comedy, ii, 15
    the Rival Ladies, ib. 111
    the Indian Queen, ib. 203
    the Indian Emperor, ib. 290
    Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen, ib. 381
    Sir Martin Mar-all, iii, 3
    the Tempest, or the Enchanted Island, ib. 97
    An Evening’s Love, ib. 217
    Tyrannic Love, ib. 343
    the Conquest of Granada, iv, 3
    Defence of the Epilogue, ib. 229
    Marriage A-la-mode, ib. 233

  Remarks on the Assignation, iv. 345
    Amboyna, v, 3
    Aureng-Zebe, ib. 169
    All for Love, ib. 287
    the State of Innocence, or Fall of Man, ib. 91
    the Spanish Friar, vi, 367
    Limberham, ib. 3
    Œdipus, ib. 117
    Troilus and Cressida, ib. 228
    Amphitryon, viii, 3
    King Arthur, ib. 109
    Cleomenes, viii, 183
    Love Triumphant, viii, 333
    Prologue written for the Pilgrim, ib. 439
    Song written for do. ib. 446
    Secular Masque, written for do. ib. 451
    Epilogue written for do. ib. 459
    Heroic Stanzas to the memory of Oliver Cromwell, ix, 3
    Astrea Redux, ib. 41
    Panegyric on the Coronation of Charles II. ib. 53
    Satire on the Dutch, ix, 70
    Verses to the Duchess of York, ib. 73
    Annus Mirabilis, ib. 83
    Absalom and Achitophel, Part I. ib. 197
      II. ib. 315
    the Medal, or Satire against Sedition, ib. 409
    Religio Laici, x, 3
    Threnodia Augustalis, ib. 55
    the Hind and the Panther, ib. 87
    some parts of Bishop Burnet’s conduct and writings, ib. 271
    Britannia Rediviva, ib. 285
    Prologues and Epilogues, ib. 311
    Mac-Flecknoe, ib. 427
    Poetical Epistles, xi, 3, 5, 12, 18, 22, 26, 31, 35, 38, 47, 52,
        57, 63, 67, 71, 84
    Elegies and Epitaphs, ib. 93, 102, 113, 145, 152
    Eleonora, a panegyrical poem, ib. 119
    Song for St Cecilia’s day, ib. 165
    Palæmon and Arcite, ib. 243

  Remarks on the Cock and the Fox, a fable, xi. 326
    the Flower and the Leaf, a fable, ib. 354
    the Wife of Bath, a tale, ib. 376
    Character of a good parson, ib. 394
    Sigismonda and Guiscardo, a tale, ib. 403
    Theodore and Honoria, ib. 433
    Cymon and Iphigenia, ib. 452
    translations from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, xii, 45
    translation of Virgil, xiii, 281
    Essay on Satire, xv, 201
    Epistle to Mr Julian, ib. 218
    Art of Poetry, ib. 229
    Tarquin and Tullia, ib. 266
    Verses on the Young Statesman, ib. 273
    Essay of Dramatic Poesy, ib. 283
    Heads of an Answer to Rhymer’s Remarks, ib. 383
    Preface to the notes and observations on the Empress of Morocco,
      ib. 397
    Life of Plutarch xvii, 3
    specimen of translation of the History of the League, ib. 79
    the controversy between Dryden and Stillingfleet, xvii, 187
    translation of Du Fresnoy’s Art of Painting, ib. 281

  Reply to Absalom and Achitophel, i, 253
    the Medal, ib. 255

  Report of the death of the Chevalier de St George, x, 307

  Requests, Court of, a scene of political intrigue, ib. 348

  Resemblance, personal, of Shadwell to Ben Jonson, i, 265

  Resentment of Dryden against the clergy, ib. 428

  Residence of Dryden at the university, ib. 31

  Restoration of Charles II. poem on, ix, 30
    conduct of Shaftesbury at, ib. 447
    led the way to the revival of letters, i, 42
    Dryden’s poems on, ib. 50
    revival of the Drama at, ib. 65

  Retort on Dryden, xi, 65

  Revel of James I. viii, 452

  Revival of the Drama at the Restoration, i, 65

  Revolter, a tragi-comedy, extracts from, x, 9
    criticism of, on the Hind and the Panther, ib. 99

  Revolution, consequences of to Dryden, i, 347
    effects of upon literary pursuits, ib. 385

  Reynard the Fox, an ancient political satire, x, 155

  Reynolds, Sir Joshua, poetical epistle to, xvii, 284

  Rhyme unnatural in plays, xv, 363
    defence of in serious plays, ib. 367
    a constraint to poets, xiv, 207

  Rhyming or heroic plays, pattern of set by France, i, 69

  Ridicule of Dryden’s use of the Alexandrine, ix, 415

  Right of the Pope over kings, x, 19

  Rise of the Quakers, account of, ib. 141
    Settle’s animosity to Dryden, xv, 398

  Rival Ladies, a tragi-comedy, ii, 109
      remarks on, ib. 111
      dedication to, ib. 113
      prologue to, ib. 123
    companies of players united, x, 393

  Rochester, Earl of, character of, iv, 235
    account of, vii, 13, ix, 307
    Dryden’s memorial to, i, 296
      letters to, xviii, 89, 101
    epistle dedicatory to, iv, 235, vii, 13
    banished the court, iv, 238
    cowardice of, xv, 215
    dismissal from the treasury of, epitaph on, ib. 279
    assaults Dryden in Rose-street, i, 204

  Rod of divination, what, ix, 20

  Rogers, Mr, epitaph upon, xi, 144

  Roman satirical poetry, rise of, xiii, 47

  Roman satire, first author of, ib. 58
    dramas, plot of, xv, 314

  Roman Catholic plot, ix, 259

  Romances of Mademoiselle Scuderi, xi, 232

  Romano, Julio, character of as a painter, xvii, 491

  Romans, origin of dramatic performances among, xiii, 51
    first author of a play among the, ib. 54
    what satire meant among, ib. 65

  Roscius Anglicanus, extract from, x, 325

  Roscommon, Earl of, account of, xii, 341
    poetical epistle to, xi, 28
      remarks on, ib. 26
    verses of on Religio Laici, x, 33

  Roundelay, xi, 178

  Rovers sporting at, what, xiii, 10

  Royal Martyr, a tragedy, iii, 341
    mistresses, xv, 206
    exile, soliloquy of, ib. 280
    Society, Dryden chosen a member of, i, 56
    historiographer, Dryden appointed to the office of, i, 115

  Rubens, character of as a painter, xvii, 498

  Rules to be observed in writing pastorals, xiii, 355

  Rumbold, Richard, account of, vii, 261

  Run-a-muck, a Malay term, what, x, 276

  Rupert, Prince, gallant actions of, ix, 167, ib. 174

  Russell’s bill for Dryden’s funerals, xviii, 194

  Ruyter, Michael Adrian de, account of, ix, 182

  Rymer, Thomas, account of, xv, 383
    reflections of, on Milton’s Paradise Lost, xiii, 20
    controversy of Dryden with, i, 379


  S.

  Sackville, Edward, account of, ix, 387

  Salisbury, Earl of, epistle dedicatory to, viii, 337

  Sancian, island of, description of, xvi, 437

  Sancroft, Archbishop, account of, ix, 301

  Santio, Raphael, character of, xvii, 490

  Satire on the Dutch, ix, 71
      remarks on, ib. 70
    on Shadwell, ib. 379
    of Mac-Flecknoe, character of, i, 266
    against sedition, or the Medal, ib. 407
    political of Reynard the Fox, x, 155
    essay on, xiii, 3
    origin and nature of, ib. 37
    Roman, first, author of, ib. 58
    history of, among the Romans, ib. 56
    Varronian, what, ib. 61
    Menippean, what, ib. 63
    what meant by among the Romans, ib. 65
    personal, abuse of, xiii, 81
    Heinsius’s definition of, ib. 103

  Satire, modern, definition of, xiii, 105
    Essay on, Duke of Buckingham author of, xv, 201
    Essay on, ib. 203
      remarks on, ib. 201
    on the Duke of Buckingham’s gallantry, xv, 212
    personal, license in, xv, 218
    upon the silent poets, xviii, 224

  Satires of Horace, character of, xiii, 99
    Juvenal, xiii, 119-198
    Persius, ib. 207-267

  Satirical poetry of the Greeks and Romans, difference between, xiii,
      47
    poetry of Dryden, effect of on English poetry, i, 275

  Satirist, Dryden’s character as a, i, 279

  Saturnine and Fescennine verses, what, xiii, 51

  Saunders, Charles, author of the tragedy of Tamerlane, x, 356

  Saville, Sir George, vide Marquis of Halifax,

  Scenery first introduced on the stage, x, 323

  Scenes, moveable, introduced on the stage, i, 79

  Scotish judge, anecdote of a, ix, 20

  Scotland, Cromwell’s conduct to, ix, 19
    theatrical amusements introduced into, x, 360

  Scott, Anne, vide Monmouth and Buccleuch, Duchess of

  Scroop, Mr, stabbed by Sir Thomas Armstrong, x, 327

  Scuderi, Mademoiselle, romances of, xi, 232

  Sea-fight, remarkable, ix, 168

  Sebastian, Don, a tragedy, vii, 271

  Second epode of Horace, xii, 351
    miscellany of Dryden, appearance of, i, 340

  Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen, a comedy, ii, 379
    remarks on, ib. 381
    preface to, ib. 383
    prologues to, ib. 388
    epilogue to, ib. 469

  Secretary of the muses, epistle to, xv, 222

  Secular Masque, written for the Pilgrim, viii, 455
    remarks on, ib. 451

  Sedition, satire against, ix, 407

  Sedley, Sir Charles, account of, iv, 348
    anecdote of, ib. 351
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 348
    Shadwell assisted by, in the comedy of Epsom Wells, x, 454

  Selling-bargains, what, x, 408

  Seneph, battle of, xi, 239

  Sense of the author to be preserved inviolable in translation, xii,
      18

  Servility of the French in attention to the unities, xv, 346

  Settle, Elkanah, account of, ix, 373
    rise of animosity of to Dryden, xv, 398
    Dryden’s controversy with, i, 259
    Absalom senior, or Achitophel transposed of, extracts from, ix, 376
    last period of the life of, i, 273
    Pope’s lines on the fate of, ib. 274

  Seymour, Sir Edward, account of, ix, 308

  Sforza, Lodovico, account of, ix, 46

  Shadwell, Thomas, Dryden’s satire on, ix, 379
    account of the reception of the Lancashire Witches by, vii, 15
    machinery of in the Lancashire Witches, x, 382
    humours of, what meant by, ib. 396
    plagiarism charged on, ib. 418
    originality of, ib. 418
    a satire against, x, 425
      remarks on, ib. 427
    causes of enmity between Dryden and, x, 427
    Dryden’s controversy with, i, 259, 286
    personal resemblance of to Ben Jonson, i, 265
    Duke of Guise attacked by, i, 286
    account of, x, 443
    character of, ib. 445
    humours of, ib. 444, i, 261
    proficiency in music of, x, 448
    assisted in his comedy of Epsom Wells by Sir Charles Sedley, x,
       454
    an imitator of Ben Jonson, ib. 456

  Shaftesbury, Earl of, account of, ix, 409
    anecdote of, ix, 265
    attempt of to alter the succession, ib. 268
    imprisonment and acquittal of, ib. 409
    Bower’s medal of, ib. 412
    account of last period of the life of, ib. 415
    ridiculed as aspiring to the crown of Poland, ix, 441
    offers his services to Charles I. ix, 444
    situation of during Cromwell’s usurpation, ib. 445
    conduct of at the Restoration, ib. 447
    circumstances which influenced him in his change of politics, ib. 448
    North’s opinion of the designs of, upon the person and authority of
        Charles II. ib. 451
    premature decrepitude of, ib. 454

  Shakespeare and Dryden, parallel between, v, 287
    attack on, by Ben Jonson, xv, 344
    character of, ib. 350
    Chandos portrait of, xi, 87

  Share of Dryden in the composition of the Duke of Guise, i, 281

  Shere, Sir Henry, translation of Polybius by, viii, 203
    account of xviii, 19

  Shipwreck of the Duke of York, ix, 401
    ceremonies observed by the ancients on escape from, ix, 34, 44

  Shirley, James, account of, x, 446

  Shooting at Rovers, what, xiii, 10

  Shovel-board, an ancient game, viii, 122

  Shrewsbury, Duke of, account of, xv, 192

  Sidney, Philip, vide Leicester, Earl of

  Sigismonda and Guiscardo, a tale, xi, 405
    remarks on, ib. 403
    original from the Decameron of Boccace, xi, 443

  Signification, parabolical, of the Hind and the Panther, x, 90
    critised, ib. 90

  Silence of Dryden upon the death of Queen Mary, extracts from poems
      attacking him for, xviii, 222

  Silent Woman, examination of the comedy of the, xv, 354
    poets, a satire upon, xviii, 224

  Silenus, a pastoral, xiii, 397

  Silver Age, from Ovid, xii, 67

  Silvester, John, extract from astrological observations of, x, 421

  Simon, Pere Richard, character of, x, 31

  Sincerity of Dryden in his attachment to the Catholic faith, i, 322

  Singleton, a musical performer of eminence, x, 450

  Singular fashion of writing, x, 457
    event at the siege of Bologna, ix, 18

  Sir Martin Mar-all, or the Feigned Innocence, a comedy, iii, 1
    remarks on, ib. 3
    prologue to, ib. 5
    epilogue to, ib. 93

  Skill of Polybius in Political affairs, xviii, 31

  Smollett’s account of the birth of the son of James II. x, 305

  Society, Dryden’s connections in after the Revolution, i, 369

  Socinius, Lelius, doctrine of, x, 46

  Soliloquy of a royal exile, xv, 280

  Song, written for the Pilgrim, viii, 449
    remarks on, ib. 446

  Songs, Odes, and Lyrical Pieces, xi, 161-191
    the Fair Stranger, xi, 163
    for St Cecilia’s day, ib. 167
    the Tears of Amynta, ib. 171, xi, 173
    The Lady’s, ib. 175, xi, 176, 177
    to a fair Young Lady, ib. 181

  Sophocles, Œdipus Tyrannus and Coloneus of, character of, vi, 117, 124

  Sophonisba, prologue to, x, 350

  Southerne, poetical epistle to, xi, 50
      remarks on, ib. 47
    account of, ib. 48
    verses of to Congreve, xi, 61
    anecdote of, i, 237
    commencement of Dryden’s friendship with, i, 294
    character of, i, 372

  Spanheim’s dissertations, extract from, xiii, 47

  Spanish Friar, or the Double Discovery, vi, 365
      remarks on, ib. 367
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 373
    prologue to, ib. 382
    epilogue to, ib. 485
    prohibited by James II. ib. 371
    represented by Queen Mary by her order, ib. 371
    account of, representation of, ib. 371
    character of, i, 227
    relations of Dryden when it was composed, i, 233

  Specimen of Milbourne’s translation of Virgil, i, 400
    poetical attacks upon Dryden, i, 350
    of translation of the History of the League, xvii, 77
      remarks on, ib. 79

  Speech, King’s, to Oxford Parliament, versified, ix, 309

  Speeches of Ajax and Ulysses, xii, 181

  Speght’s edition of Chaucer, xi, 220

  Spenser, character of, xiii, 18
    obsolete language of, ib. 19

  Sports of the Chace, King James I. much attached to, viii, 451

  Spottiswoode, Archbishop, account of, xvii, 159

  Spragge, Sir Edward, account of, ix, 178
    gallant action of, xi, 24

  Sprat’s verses to the memory of Cromwell, ix, 5

  Stage, regular scenery first introduced on, x, 323
    moveable scenes introduced on, i, 79
    scenes of death improper on, xv, 332
    laws of, observed more exactly by the French than by the English, xv,
      336
    order for the reformation of, xviii, 152
    indelicacy of, in the age of Dryden, i, 417

  Stanzas, heroic, to the memory of Oliver Cromwell, ix, 8
    of four verses in alternate rhyme, defended, ib. 94

  Stapylton, Sir Robert, account of, xiii, 93

  Star visible at the birth of Charles II. ix, 51

  State of Innocence and Fall of Man, an opera, v, 89
    remarks on, ib. 91
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 95
    verses on, ib. 103
    preface to, ib. 105

  State of Learning in England, on the accession of James I. i, 5
    Dryden’s connexions in society after the Revolution, i, 369

  State Tracts, extract from, x, 185

  Statius, Harte’s vindication of, xiv, 130

  Steward, Elmes, letter of Dryden to, xviii, 143
    Mrs Elizabeth, account of, ib. 141
      letters of Dryden to, xviii, 141, 144, 146, 147, 149, 150, 153,
        161, 169, 171, 174, 178, 180

  Stillingfleet, Bishop, account of, xvii, 194
    opinion of, on party names, x, 243
    and Dryden, illiberality of, x, 251
      controversy between, xvii, 187, i, 323
    answer of to the Duchess of York’s paper, xvii, 194

  Storm at the death of Oliver Cromwell, ix, 23

  Story of Griselda, not invented by Petrarch, xi, 215
    Acis, Polyphemus, and Galatea, xii, 199

  Stothard’s painting of Chaucer’s Pilgrims, xi, 217

  Strong box of Charles II. extract from papers found in, x, 188

  Stuart, James, vide Duke of Monmouth

  Succession, Shaftesbury’s attempt to alter the, ix, 268

  Sullen Lovers, extract from preface to, i, 260

  Sunderland, Earl of, account of, vi, 231
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 231

  Superiority of English to French plays, xv, 349

  Suum Cuique, xv, 276

  Swallows, application of the fable of the, x, 253

  Swan, Owen, account of, xiii, 97

  Swash-buckler, what, iii, 6

  Swift’s attacks on Dryden, i, 374
      the Virgil of Dryden, ib. 393
    inscription for Sir R. Blackmore’s picture, viii, 445
    account of the Hind and the Panther, x, 106

  Synalepha, example of, xii, 57


  T.

  Talbot, Charles, vide Shrewsbury, Duke of

  Tale of the Nun’s Priest, xi, 327
      Wife of Bath, ib. 377
    Sigismonda and Guiscardo, ib. 405

  Tales from Chaucer, fables, xi, 193-399
    of Chaucer modernized by Dryden, xii, i-xci
      Knightes Tale, xii, iii
      Nonnes Preestes Tale, ib. liii
      Floure and the Leafe, ib. lxviii
      Wif of Bathes Tale, ib. lxxxii

  Tamerlane, a tragedy, epilogue to, x, 356

  Tarquin and Tullia, xv, 267
    remarks on, ib. 266

  Tasso’s imitation of the Iliad, xiii, 17
    Jerusalem, translation of by Edward Fairfax, xi, 207

  Taste, false, prevalence of in the age of James I. i, 9
    in poetry, Sir William Davenant a restorer of, i, 48

  Tate, Nahum, account of, ix, 315
    assisted Dryden in the Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel, ib. 315

  Taylor, John, the water-poet, account of, xv, 378

  Te Deum, translation of by Dryden, i, 343

  Tears of Amynta, a song, xi, 171

  Tekeli, Count, insurrection of, x, 387

  The Tempest, or the Enchanted Island, a comedy, iii, 95
    remarks on, ib. 97
    preface to, ib. 99
    prologue to, ib. 103
    epilogue to, ib. 205
    character of, i, 106

  Terence, unity of time neglected by, xv, 315

  Ternate, description of the island of, xvi, 166

  Test-act, what it required, x, 187
    particulars regarding, ib. 260

  Theatre, prologues and epilogues sold at the door of the, x, 316
    of Drury-Lane burnt, ib. 319

  Theatrical amusements introduced into Scotland by the Duke of York,
      x, 360

  Theocritus, character of, xii, 278
    translations from, ib. 285-307
    idea of Cymon and Iphigenia, borrowed from, xi, 452

  Theodore and Honoria, xi, 435
    remarks on, ib. 433

  Third Miscellany, appearance of, i, 378

  Thomas, Mrs Elizabeth, account of, xviii, 164
    Dryden’s letters to, xviii, 164, 167, 173
    letters of, concerning Dryden’s death and funeral, ib. 200
    account of Dryden’s funeral false, i, 442

  Thomas, St, description of the city of, xvi, 138

  Three Unities, what, xv, 305

  Threnodia Augustalis, a funeral pindaric poem, x, 53
    remarks on, ib. 55
    notes on, ib. 79
    appearance of, i, 299

  Thynne, Thomas, murder of, ix, 292

  Tichmarsh, monument in the church of, xviii, 215

  Time, unity of, what, xv, 305
      neglected by Terence, ib. 305
    of action of Æneis, xiv, 189
    and action, unities of, scrupulously observed by the French authors,
        xv, 325
    spent in composing the Rehearsal, xi, 46

  Tintoret, character of as a painter, xvii, 494

  Titian, character of as a painter, xvii, 493

  Titles of some odes on the death of Charles II. x, 55

  Tityrus and Melibœus, a pastoral, xiii, 369

  Tonson, Jacob, letter and verses to on Amphitryon, viii, 5
    extract of letter to, xv, 194
    anecdotes of, i, 389, 391
    quarrel between Dryden and, i, 387
    Dryden’s letters to, xviii, 103, 109, 118, 119, 121, 122, 123, 124,
        126, 127, 128, 130, 136, 137, 138
    letter of to Dryden, xviii, 106
    Dryden’s agreement with concerning the Fables, ib. 191

  Tory, origin of the name of, ix, 208

  Tradition, of no weight with the church of England, x, 156
    Presbyterians, ib. 169

  Traditionary anecdote of Ben Jonson, i, 13

  Tragedy, propriety of comic scenes in, i, 230
    of the Indian Emperor, ii, 201
      Tyrannic Love, or the Royal Martyr, iii, 341
      the Conquest of Granada--two Parts, iv, 1
      Amboyna, v, 1
      Aureng-Zebe, ib. 167
      All for Love, v, 285
      Œdipus, vi, 115
      Troilus and Cressida, vi, 227
      The Duke of Guise, vii, 1
      Don Sebastian, vii, 271
      Cleomenes, viii, 181
      Tamerlane, epilogue to, x, 356

  Tragi-comedy of the Rival Ladies, ii, 109
    the Spanish Friar, vi, 365
    Love Triumphant, viii, 331
    the Revolter, extracts from, x, 9

  Trajan, letter of Plutarch to, xvii, 49

  Transformation of Daphne into a laurel, xii, 81
    Io into an heifer, ib. 85
    the eyes of Argus into a peacock’s train, ib. 90
    Lyrinx into reeds, ib. 91
    Æsacus into a cormorant, ib. 154

  Translation of Virgil’s works, xiii, 279
      Virgil, reception of, i, 392
        circumstances concerning, ib. 383
      Virgil’s Pastorals, ib. 335-421
        Georgics, xiv 1-122
        Æneis, xiv, 125, xv, 1-186
      the Bible by Tyndal, what it occasioned, x, 23
      metaphrase, xii, 11
      paraphrase, ib. 12
      imitation, ib. 12
      verbal, impossible, ib. 12
      Cowley’s mode of, ib. 15
      sense to be preserved inviolably in, ib. 18
      Pindar, ib. 15
      preface on, xii, 263
      Plutarch’s Lives, advert. to, xvii, 3
        dedication to, ib. 5
      the History of the League, specimen of, ib. 77
      Du Fresnoy’s Art of Painting, xvii, 279
        remarks on ib. 281
      the History of Heresies, projected by Dryden, i, 334
      Te Deum, by Dryden, ib. 43
      the Hymn for St John’s Eve, by Dryden, ib. 344
      Homer, meditated by Dryden, ib. 414
      Polybius, by Sir Henry Shere, account of, xviii, 19
    from Boccace, xi, 401-480
      Ovid’s Epistles, xii, 1-41
        preface to, ib. 3

  Translations from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, xii, 43-227
          remarks on, ib. 45
          dedication to, ib. 47
        Art of Love, xii, 229
        Amours, xii, 257
      Persius, xiii, 203-247
      Theocritus, xii, 285-307
      Lucretius, ib. 309-337
      Horace, ib. 339-354
      Homer, ib. 355-388
      Juvenal, xiii, 1-202
    of Dryden, Garth’s character of, i, 340

  Translator, character of a, xii, 266
    qualification of, xviii, 81

  Translators of Plutarch, xvii, 3, 18

  Translator’s postscript to the History of the League, xvii ,150

  Transubstantiation, reasons for and against, x, 147
    reasons against, ib. 154

  Trimmer, original, who, x, 389

  Trinity College, Cambridge, Dryden admitted to, i, 28

  Triplet defended, xiv, 216

  Troilus and Cressida, or Truth found too Late, a tragedy, vi, 227
    character of, i, 223
    remarks on, vi, 228
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 231
    preface to, ib. 238
    prologue to, ib. 267
    epilogue to, ib. 363

  True Widow, character of, x, 343
    dramatis personæ of, ib. 343
    prologue to, ib. 345

  Trumball, Sir William, account of, xv, 190

  Truth found too Late, or Troilus and Cressida, a tragedy, vi, 227

  Tyndal, William, account of, x, 24

  Tyndall’s translation of the Bible, what occasioned by, x, 23

  Tyrannic Love, or the Royal Martyr, a tragedy, iii, 341
    remarks on, ib. 343
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 346
    preface to, ib. 349
    prologue to, ib. 355
    epilogue to, ib. 435


  U.

  Union of the two companies, epilogue upon, x, 398

  United States, irruption of the Bishop of Munster into, ix, 165

  Unities, three, what, xv, 305
    servility of the French in attention to, xv, 346

  Unity of time, what, xv, 305
    place, what, ib. 306
    action, what, ib. 307
    of time, neglected by Terence, xv, 315
      and action, scrupulously observed by the French authors, xv, 325

  University, Dryden’s residence at, i, 31
    of Oxford’s decree concerning non-resistance, x, 241
    of Oxford, prologues to, x, 328, 358, 378, 385
      epilogues to, ib. 360, 381

  Usurpation of Cromwell, Shaftesbury’s situation during, ix, 445

  Urania’s Temple, or a Satire upon the Silent Poets, xviii, 224


  V.

  Varronian satire, what, xiii, 61

  Vaughan, Lord, account of, vi, 6
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 6

  Veni Creator Spiritus, paraphrased, xi, 190

  Verbal translation impossible, xii, 12
    opinion of Sir John Denham on, ib. 14

  Veronese, Paul, character of as a painter, xvii, 494

  Verses on the Conquest of Granada, iv, 29
        State of Innocence, v, 103
      Amphitryon, viii, 5
      Cleomenes, ib. 205
    to the memory of Cromwell, ix, 5
      Lord Chancellor Hyde, ib. 65
        remarks on, ib. 63

  Verses to the Duchess of York, ix, 76
        remarks on, ib. 73
    recommendatory to Absalom and Achitophel, ix, 213
      the author of the Medal, ib. 427
    in ridicule of Albion and Albanius, vii, 213
    on Religio Laici, x, 33-36
    addressed to Congreve, xi, 61
      Louise de Querouailles, ib. 163
    on the young statesmen, xv, 274
      remarks on, ib. 273
    occasioned by reading Dryden’s Fables, xvii, 227

  Versification, English, improved by Waller and Denham, i, 18

  Villiers, George, vide Buckingham, Duke of
    Barbara, vide Castlemain, Lady

  Vindication of the Duke of Guise, vii, 125
    remarks on, ib. 127
    answer to some late papers, extract from, x, 246
    Statius, xiv, 130

  Viola, Gio, character of, xvii, 497

  Virgil, works of translated into English verse, xiii, 279
    remarks on, ib. 281
    advertisement to first edition of, ib. 281
    recommendatory poems on, ib. 289
    names of subscribers to cuts of, ib. 283
    life of, ib. 297
    birth of, ib. 298
    education of, ib. 300
    visits Rome, ib. 301
    is introduced to Octavius, ib. 302
    visits Athens, ib. 306
    loses his patrimony, ib. 307
    recovers his patrimony, ib. 309
    favour of with Augustus, ib. 313
    Georgics of, ib. 311
    Pastorals of, ib. 310
    Æneis of, ib. 316
    sickness and death of, ib. 321
    account of the person, manners, and fortune of, ib. 323
    character of, xi, 211
    Pastorals of translated, xiii, 335-421
      dedication of, ib. 337
      character of, ib. 339
      preface to, ib. 34,5
    defence of against the reflections of M. Fontenelle, ib. 345
    Pastorals of, Tityrus and Melibæus, ib. 369
      Alexis, ib. 374
      Palemon, ib. 378
      Pollio, ib. 386
      Daphnis, ib. 391
      Silenus, ib. 397
      Melibæus, ib. 402
      Pharmaceutria, ib. 407
      Lycidas and Mæris, ib. 413
      Gallus, ib. 417
    Georgics of translated, xiv, 1-122
    Æneis of translated, ib. 125, xv, 1-186
    anachronism of defended, xiv, 176
    an imitator of Homer, ib. 182
    Dryden’s translation of the best, ib. 209
    character of Lauderdale’s translation of, ib. 223
    attack of Swift on Dryden’s translation of, i, 393
    specimen of Milbourne’s translation of, i, 397
    Dryden’s translation of, circumstances concerning, i, 383

  Virtuoso, a comedy, character of, x, 454

  Viscount Falkland, account of, viii, 196


  W.

  Wakeman, George, account of, vi, 223

  Waller, Sir William, account of, ix, 381
    discovery of the meal-tub plot by, ib. 382
      Fitzharris’s plot by, ib. 382

  Waller and Denham, improvers of English versification, i, 18

  Walsh, William, account of, xiii, 297
    preface by to the translation of Virgil’s Pastorals, ib. 345

  Walter, William, tragedy of Guiscard and Sigismund by, xi, 403

  Warlock, what meant by, xiv, 164

  Wars, civil, interrupted the study of poetry in England, i, 20

  Wentworth, Lady Henrietta Maria, account of, x, 337

  Whig and Tory, origin of the names of, ix, 208

  Whigs, epistle to the, ib. 417

  Whip and Key, account of, ib. 425

  White, John, account of, x, 257

  White-boys, what meant by, vii, 257

  Whitmore, Lady, epitaph on, xi, 150

  Wif of Bathes Tale, by Chaucer, xii, lxxxii

  Wife of Bath, a tale, xi, 377
    remarks on, ib. 376

  Wild, Dr Robert, Iter Boreale of, xv, 296

  Wild Gallant, a comedy, ii, 13
    remarks on, ib. 15
    preface to, ib. 17
    prologues to, ib. 19, 21
    epilogues to, ib. 106, 107

  Will’s Coffee-house, authority of Dryden in, i, 371

  William III. Titus Oates pensioned by, viii, 464

  Wilmot, John, vide Earl of Rochester

  Wilson’s life of Congreve, extract from, xviii, 200

  Winchester, Marquis of, account of, xi, 152
    epitaph on monument of, ib. 154
    remarks on, ib. 152

  Wit, false, one character of the poetry of the age of Queen Elizabeth,
      i, 7

  Women, preface to a dialogue concerning, xviii, 1

  Worcester, Marquis of, vide Duke of Beaufort

  Works of Virgil translated into English verse, xiii, 279
      remarks on, ib. 281
      advertisement to first edition of, ib. 281
      recommendatory poems on, ib. 289-296
    of John Dryden, appendix to, xviii, 183
      No. I. Dryden’s degree of master of arts, ib. 185
      No. II. Dryden’s patent as poet-laureat, and historiographer-royal,
          xviii, 187
      No. III. Dryden’s agreement with Jacob Tonson concerning the Fables,
          ib. 191
      No. IV. Mr Russel’s bill for Dryden’s funerals, ib. 194
        Description of Dryden’s funeral, ib. 195
      No. V. Mrs Thomas’s letters concerning Dryden’s death and funeral,
          ib. 200
      No. VI. Monument in the church at Tichmarsh, ib. 215
      No. VII. Extract from an epistolary poem to Dryden, occasioned by the
          death of the Earl of Abingdon, by William Pitts, ib. 218
      No. VIII. Extracts from poems attacking Dryden for his silence upon
          the death of Queen Mary, ib. 222
      No. IX. Verses occasioned by reading Dryden’s Fables, by Mr Hughes,
          ib. 227
      No. X. Ode on the death of Dryden, by Alexander Oldys, ib. 234

  Writers of Life of St Francis Xavier, xvi, 9

  Writing pastorals, rules to be observed in, xiii, 355
    singular fashion of, x, 457

  Writings of Bishop Burnet, remarks on some parts of, x, 271
    Polybius, character of, xviii, 17


  X.

  Xavier, St Francis, Life of, xvi, 1
    writers of life of, ib. 9
    address to the reader by the author of life of, ib. 8.
    dedication to, ib. 3
    birth of, ib. 15
    education, ib. 16
    teaches philosophy, ib. 19
    conversion of, xvi, 24
    arrives at Rome, ib. 29
    at Lisbon, ib. 46
    departs for the Indies, ib. 58.
    arrives at Mozambique, ib. 63
    at Goa, ib. 71
    visits Cape Comorin, ib. 82
    miracles of, ib. 83, 89, 91, 99, 111, 113, 131, 155, 163-466
    converts the Paravas, ib. 101
    returns to Goa, ib. 101
    visits Comorin, ib. 107
    goes to Cochin, ib. 124
      Negapatam, ib. 133
      Mehapor, ib. 138
      Malacca, ib. 150
      Amboyna, ib. 158
      Isle del Moro, ib. 176
    returns to Amboyna, ib. 186
      Malacca, ib. 190
    arrives at Cochin, ib. 219
    visits the Paravas, ib. 226
    his instructions to missionaries, ib. 228
    visits Ceylon, ib. 233
      Goa, ib. 234
    baptises a Japonese, ib. 238
    visits the Coast of Fishery, ib. 248
    returns to Goa, ib. 249
    resolves to go to Japan, ib. 249
    his instructions to Gasper Barzeus, ib. 254
    sails for Japan, xvi, 276
    visits Cochin, ib. 276
      Malacca, ib. 276
    his instructions to Juan Bravo, ib. 279
    arrives at Japan, ib. 287
    waits on the king of Saxuma, ib. 297
    is treated with honour, ib. 297
    receives permission to teach the Christian religion, ib. 297
    visits the Bonzas, ib. 299
    Bonzas oppose the Christian faith, ib. 301
    miracle, ib. 302
    arrives at Firando, xvi, 312
      Amanguchi, ib. 313
      Macao, ib. 319
    returns to Amanguchi, ib. 321
    visits Fugheo, and reception by the king, ib. 343
    disputes with a Bonza, ib. 362, 369
    leaves Japan, ib. 379
    arrives at Cochin, ib. 395
      at Goa, ib. 396
    affairs of Goa in his absence, ib. 403
    engages in a voyage to China, ib. 410
    departs from Goa, ib. 421
    arrives at Malacca, ib. 422
    miracles at Malacca, ib. 423
    arrives at the isle of Sancian, ib. 437
    means fail him for his passage into China, ib. 451
    his sickness, ib. 452
    death, ib. 455
    interment, ib. 456
    disinterred, ib. 457
    and carried to Goa, ib. 465
    funeral procession, ib. 465
    miracles wrought by the dead body, ib. 466.
    qualifications, ib. 471
    beatification and canonization, ib. 531
    life of an authentic testimony of the truth of the Gospel, ib. 535
    character of the Life of, i, 337


  Y.

  Year of Wonders, 1666; an historical poem, ix, 81

  York, Duke of, epistle dedicatory to, iv, 9
    personal valour of, ib. 10, ix, 161
    requested by Charles II. to retire to the Continent, ib. 384
    presence of, acceptable to the Scots, ib. 385
    attempt to counteract the influence of, in the city, ib. 388
    shipwreck of, ix, 401
    picture of at Guildhall defaced, xvii, 51
    prologue to, x, 366

  York, Duchess of, account of, v, 95, ix, 73
    epistle dedicatory to, ib. 73
    verses to, ix, 76
    poetical epistle to, on her return from Scotland, xi, 33
    remarks on poetical epistle to, ib. 31
    copy of a paper written by, xvii, 189
    Stillingfleet’s answer to paper, &c. ib. 194
    defence of paper, &c. ib. 208
    answer to defence of paper, &c. ib. 252

  Young Lady, song to, xi, 181
    Gentleman, elegy on the death of a, xi, 142
    Statesman, verses on, xv, 274
    painter, advice to a, xvii, 377, 468


  Z.

  Zuinglius, account of, x, 150




GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.


VOLUME FIRST.

PAGE. The Life of John Dryden 1

SECT. I. Preliminary remarks on the Poetry of England before the Civil
Wars--The Life of Dryden from his Birth till the Restoration--His Early
Poems, including the Annus Mirabilis, 3

SECT. II. Revival of the Drama at the Restoration--Heroic
Plays--Comedies of Intrigue--Commencement of Dryden’s Dramatic
Career--The Wild Gallant--Rival Ladies--Indian Queen and
Emperor--Dryden’s Marriage--Essay on Drastic Poetry, and subsequent
Controversy with Sir Robert Howard--The Maiden Queen--The Tempest--Sir
Martin Mar-all--The Mock Astrologer--The Royal Martyr--The two Parts of
the Conquest of Granada--Dryden’s situation at this period, 65

SECT. III. Heroic Plays--The Rehearsal--Marriage A-la-mode--The
Assignation--Controversy with Clifford--with Leigh--with
Ravenscroft--Massacre of Amboyna--State of Innocence, 118

SECT. IV. Dryden’s Controversy with Settle--with Rochester--he is
assaulted in Rose-street--Aureng-Zebe--Dryden meditates an Epic
Poem--All for Love--Limberham--Œdipus--Troilus and Cressida--The
Spanish Friar--Dryden supposed to be in opposition to the Court, 180

SECT. V. Dryden engages in Politics--Absalom and Achitophel, Part
First--The Medal--Mac-Flecknoe--Absalom and Achitophel, Part
Second--The Duke of Guise, 239

SECT. VI. Threnodia Augustalis--Albion and Albanius--Dryden becomes a
Catholic--The Controversy of Dryden with Stillingfleet--The Hind and
Panther--Life of St Francis Xavier--Consequences of the Revolution to
Dryden--Don Sebastian--King Arthur--Cleomenes-- Love Triumphant, 298

SECT. VII. State of Dryden’s Connections in Society after the
Revolution--Juvenal and Persius--Smaller Pieces--Eleanora--Third
Miscellany--Virgil--Ode to St Cecilia--Dispute with Milbourne--with
Blackmore--Fables--The Author’s Death and Funeral--His Private
Character--Notices of his Family, 369

SECT. VIII. The State of Dryden’s Reputation at his Death, and
afterwards--The general Character of his Mind--His Merit as a
Dramatist--As a Lyrical Poet--As a Satirist--As a Narrative Poet--As
a Philosophical and Miscellaneous Poet--As a Translator--As a Prose
Author--As a Critic, 470


VOLUME SECOND.

  Dedication of Mr Congreve’s edition of Dryden’s Dramatic Works to
      the Duke of Newcastle,                                          5

  The Wild Gallant, a Comedy,                                        13
    Preface,                                                         17

  The Rival Ladies, a Tragi-comedy,                                 109
    Dedication to the Earl of Orrery,                               113

  The Indian Queen, a Tragedy,                                      201

  The Indian Emperor, or the Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards,   257
    Dedication to the Duchess of Monmouth and Buccleuch,            259
    Defence of an Essay of Dramatic Poesy,                          265
    Connection of the Indian Emperor to the Indian Queen,           293

  Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen,                                 379
    Preface,                                                        583


VOLUME THIRD.

  Sir Martin Mar-All, or the Feigned Innocence, a Comedy,             1

  The Tempest, or the Enchanted Island, a Comedy,                    95
    Preface,                                                         99

  An Evening’s Love, or the Mock Astrologer, a Comedy,              207
    Epistle Dedicatory to the Duke of Newcastle,                    209
    Preface,                                                        218

  Tyrannic Love, or the Royal Martyr, a Tragedy,                    341
      Epistle Dedicatory to the Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch,     346
      Preface,                                                      349


VOLUME FOURTH.

    Almanzor and Almahide, or the Conquest of Granada by the
        Spaniards, a Tragedy, Part First,                               1
      Epistle Dedicatory to the Duke of York,                           9
      Of Heroic Plays, an Essay,                                       16
      Part II.                                                        111
      Defence of the Epilogue; or an Essay on the Dramatic Poetry
        of the last Age,                                              211

    Marriage A-la-Mode, a Comedy,                                     231
      Epistle Dedicatory to the Earl of Rochester,                    235

    The Assignation, or Love in a Nunnery, a Comedy,                  343
      Epistle Dedicatory to Sir Charles Sedley, Bart.                 348


    VOLUME FIFTH.

    Amboyna; or the Cruelties of the Dutch to the English Merchants,
        a Tragedy,                                                      1
      Epistle Dedicatory to Lord Clifford of Chudleigh,                 5

    The State of Innocence, and Fall of Man, an Opera,                 89
      Epistle Dedicatory to her Royal Highness the Duchess,            95
      Preface. The Author’s Apology for Heroic Poetry, and Poetic
        Licence,                                                      105

    Aureng-Zebe, a Tragedy,                                           167
      Epistle Dedicatory to the Earl of Mulgrave,                     174

    All for Love, or the World Well Lost, a Tragedy,                  285
      Epistle Dedicatory to the Earl of Danby,                        296
      Preface,                                                        306


    VOLUME SIXTH.

    Limberham, or the Kind Keeper, a Comedy,                            1
      Epistle Dedicatory to Lord Vaughan,                             373

    Œdipus, a Tragedy,                                                115
      Preface,                                                        124

    Troilus and Cressida, or Truth found too late, a Tragedy,         227
      Epistle Dedicatory to the Earl of Sunderland,                   231
      Preface,                                                        238

    The Spanish Friar, or the Double Discovery,                       365
      Epistle Dedicatory to Lord Haughton,                            373


    VOLUME SEVENTH.

    The Duke of Guise, a Tragedy,                                       1
      Epistle Dedicatory to the Earl of Rochester,                     13
      The Vindication of the Duke of Guise,                           125

    Albion and Albanius, an Opera,                                    209
      Preface,                                                        216

    Don Sebastian, a Tragedy,                                         271
      Epistle Dedicatory to the Earl of Leicester,                    283
      Preface,                                                        291


    VOLUME EIGHTH.

    Amphitryon, or the Two Socias, a Comedy,                            1
      Epistle Dedicatory to Sir William Leveson, Gower, Bart.           7

    King Arthur, or the British Worthy, a Dramatic Opera,             107
      Epistle Dedicatory to the Marquis of Halifax,                   113

    Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero, a Tragedy,                           181
      Epistle Dedicatory to the Earl of Rochester,                    191
      Preface,      196
      The Life of Cleomenes, translated from Plutarch by Mr
          Thomas Creech,                                              207

    Love Triumphant, or Nature will prevail, a Tragi-comedy,          331
      Epistle Dedicatory to the Earl of Salisbury,                    337

    Prologue, Song, Secular Masque, and Epilogue, written for the
        Pilgrim, revived for Dryden’s benefit in 1700,                347


VOLUME NINTH.


POEMS, HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL.

  Heroic Stanzas to the Memory of Oliver Cromwell,                     3
    Notes,                                                            15

  Astrea Redux,                                                       25
    Notes,                                                            41

  To his Sacred Majesty, a Panegyric on his Coronation,               53
    Notes,                                                            59

  To Lord Chancellor Hyde, presented on New-year’s-day, 1662,         63

  Satire on the Dutch,                                                71

  To her Royal Highness the Duchess of York, on the Victory gained
       by the Duke over the Dutch, &c.                                73
    Notes,                                                            79

  Annus Mirabilis, the Year of Wonders, 1666, an Historical Poem,     81
    Dedication to the Metropolis of Great Britain,                    89
    An Account of Annus Mirabilis, in a Letter to the Hon. Sir
        Robert Howard,                                                92
    Notes,                                                           158

  Absalom and Achitophel, Part I.                                    195
    To the Reader,                                                   208
    Notes on Part I.                                                 249
    Part II.                                                         319
    Notes on Part II.                                                354

  The Medal, a satire against Sedition,                              407
    Epistle to the Whigs,                                            417
    Notes,                                                           441


VOLUME TENTH.

  Religio Laici, or a Layman’s Faith, an Epistle,                      1
    Preface,                                                          11

  Threnodia Augustalis, a Funeral Pindaric Poem, sacred to the
      happy memory of King Charles II.                                53
    Notes,                                                            79

  The Hind and the Panther, a Poem, in Three Parts,                   85
    Preface,                                                         109
    Notes on Part I.                                                 139
    Part II.                                                         159
    Notes on Part II.                                                185
    Part III.                                                        195
    Notes on Part III.                                               240

  Britannia, Rediviva, a Poem on the Birth of the Prince,            283
    Notes,                                                           302

  Prologues and Epilogues,                                           309

  Mac-Flecknoe, a Satire against Thomas Shadwell,                    425
    Notes,                                                           441


VOLUME ELEVENTH.


EPISTLES.

  Epistle I. To John Hoddeson,                                       3
    II. To Sir Robert Howard,                                        5
    III.  To Dr Charleton,                                          12
    IV.  To the Lady Castlemain,                                    18
    V. To Mr Lee,                                                   22
    VI. To the Earl of Roscommon,                                   26
    VII. To the Duchess of York,                                    31
    VIII. To Mr J. Northleigh,                                      35
    IX. To Sir George Etherege,                                     38
    X. To Mr Southerne,                                             47
    XI. To Henry Higden, Esq.                                       52
    XII. To Mr Congreve,                                            57
    XIII.  To Mr Granville,                                         63
    XIV.  To Mr Motteux,                                            67
    XV. To Mr John Driden,                                          71
    XVI. To Sir Godfrey Kneller,                                    84


ELEGIES AND EPITAPHS.

  Upon the Death of Lord Hastings,                                  94

  To the Memory of Mr Oldham,                                       99

  To the pious Memory of Mrs Anne Killigrew,                       105

  Upon the Death of the Viscount of Dundee,                        115

  Eleonora, a panegyrical Poem, to the Memory of the Countess of
      Abingdon,                                                    117

  Dedication to the Earl of Abingdon,                              121

  On the Death of Amyntas,                                         139

  On the Death of a very young Gentleman,                          142

  Upon young Mr Rogers of Gloucestershire,                         144

  On the Death of Mr Purcell,                                      145

  Epitaph on the Lady Whitmore,                                    150
    Mrs Margaret Paston,                                           151
    the Monument of the Marquis of Winchester,                     152
    Sir Palmer Fairbones’ tomb in Westminster Abbey,               155
    The Monument of a fair Maiden Lady,                            158

  Inscription under Milton’s Picture,                              160


ODES, SONGS, AND LYRICAL PIECES.

  The Fair Stranger,                                               163

  A Song for St Cecilia’s Day,                                     165

  The Tears of Amynta,                                             171

  A Song,                                                          173

  The Lady’s Song,                                                 175

  A Song,                                                          176

  A Song,                                                          177

  Rondelay,                                                        178

  A Song,                                                          180

  A Song to a fair young Lady,                                     181

  Alexander’s Feast, or the power of Music, an Ode,                183

  Veni Creator Spiritus, paraphrased,                              190


FABLES.--TALES FROM CHAUCER.

  Dedication to the Duke of Ormond,                                195

  Preface prefixed to the Fables,                                  205

  Palamon and Arcite; or the Knight’s Tale,                        241
    Dedication to the Duchess of Ormond,                           245

  The Cock and the Fox; or the Tale of the Nun’s Priest,           327

  The Flower and the Leaf; or the Lady in the Arbour,              356

  The Wife of Bath, her Tale,                                      377

  The Character of a good Parson,                                  395


FABLES.--TRANSLATIONS FROM BOCCACE.

  Sigismonda and Guiscardo,                                        403

  Theodore and Honoria,                                            433

  Cymon and Iphigenia,                                             452


VOLUME TWELFTH.

  Appendix to the Fables,                                             i

  The Knightes Tale, by Chaucer,                                    iii

  The Nonnes Preestes Tale,                                        liii

  The Floure and the Leafe,                                      lxviii

  The Wif of Bathes Tale,                                        lxxxii


TRANSLATIONS FROM OVID’S EPISTLES.

  Preface,                                                            3

  Canace to Macareus,                                                21

  Helen to Paris,                                                    26

  Dido to Æneas,                                                     35


TRANSLATIONS FROM OVID’S METAMORPHOSES.

  Dedication to Lord Radcliffe,                                      47

  The first Book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses,                            63

  Meleager and Atalanta,                                             97

  Baucis and Philemon,                                              109

  Iphis and Ianthe,                                                 116

  Pygmalion and the Statue,                                         123

  Cinyras and Myrrha,                                               127

  Ceyx and Alcyone,                                                 139

  Æsacus transformed into a Cormorant,                              154

  The Twelfth Book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses,                         156

  The Speeches of Ajax and Ulysses,                                 181

  Acis, Polyphemus, and Galatea,                                    199

  Of the Pythagorean Philosophy,                                    207


TRANSLATIONS FROM OVID’S ART OF LOVE.

  Preface on Translation, prefixed to Dryden’s Second Miscellany,   263


TRANSLATIONS FROM THEOCRITUS.

  Amaryllis,                                                        287

  The Epithalamium of Helen and Menelaus,                           292

  The Despairing Lover,                                             296

  Daphnis and Chloris,                                              300


TRANSLATIONS FROM LUCRETIUS.

  Book I.                                                           311

  II.                                                               314

  Book III.                                                         317

  IV.                                                               327

  V.                                                                337


TRANSLATIONS FROM HORACE.

  The Third Ode of the First Book of Horace,                        341

  The Ninth Ode of the First Book,                                  344

  The Twenty-ninth Ode of the First Book,                           346

  The Second Epode of Horace,                                       351


TRANSLATIONS FROM HOMER.

  The First Book of Homer’s Iliad,                                  357

  The last Parting of Hector and Andromache,                        382


VOLUME THIRTEENTH.


TRANSLATIONS FROM JUVENAL.

  Essay on Satire; addressed to Charles, Earl of Dorset, and
      Middlesex,                                                     3

  The First Satire of Juvenal,                                     119

  The Third Satire of Juvenal,                                     130

  The Sixth Satire of Juvenal,                                     148

  The Tenth Satire of Juvenal,                                     178

  The Sixteenth Satire of Juvenal,                                 198


TRANSLATIONS FROM PERSIUS.

  The First Satire of Persius,                                     205
    Notes,                                                         217

  The Second Satire of Persius,                                    221
    Notes,                                                         227

  The Third Satire of Persius,                                     230
    Notes,                                                         239

  The Fourth Satire of Persius,                                    242
    Notes,                                                         239

  The Fifth Satire of Persius, inscribed to the Rev. Dr Busby,     251
    Notes,                                                         248

  The Sixth Satire of Persius,                                     267
    Notes,                                                         274


  THE WORKS OF VIRGIL, TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE.

  Names of Subscribers to the Cuts of Virgil,                      283

  Recommendatory Poems on the Translation of Virgil,               289

  The Life of Publius Virgilius Maro, by Knightly Chetwood,        297


PASTORALS.

  Dedication of the Pastorals, to Lord Clifford, Baron of
      Chudleigh,                                                   337

  Preface to the Pastorals, with a short Defence of Virgil, by
      William Walsh,                                               345

  Pastoral I. or Tityrus and Melibœus,                             369
    II. or Alexis,                                                 374
    III.  or Palæmon,                                              378
    IV.  or Pollio,                                                386
    V. or Daphnis,                                                 391
    VI. or Silenus,                                                397
    VII. or Melibœus,                                              402
    VIII. or Pharmaceutria,                                        407
    IX. or Lycidas and Mæris,                                      413
    X. or Gallus,                                                  417


VOLUME FOURTEENTH.

  The Georgics, translated from Virgil,                              1
    Dedication to the Earl of Chesterfield,                          3
    An Essay on the Georgics, by Mr Addison,                        14
    Book I.                                                         27
    Book II.                                                        49
    Book III.                                                       73
    Book IV.                                                        98
    Notes on Book IV.                                              123

  Æneis,                                                           125
    Dedication to the Marquis of Normandy, Earl of Mulgrave, &c.   127
    Book I.                                                        231
    Notes on Book I.                                               262
  Æneis,
    Book II.                                                       264
    Book III.                                                      296
    Notes on Book III.                                             323
    Book IV.                                                       324
    Note on Book IV.                                               353
    Book V.                                                        355
    Book VI.                                                       388
    Notes on Book VI.                                              424
    Book VII.                                                      429
    Notes on Book VII.                                             461


VOLUME FIFTEENTH.

  Æneis, Book VIII.                                                  1
    Notes on Book VIII.                                             29
    Book IX.                                                        30
    Notes on Book IX.                                               62
    Book X.                                                         64
    Notes on Book X.                                               102
    Book XI.                                                       105
    Book XII.                                                      143
    Notes on Book XII.                                             182
    Postscript to the Reader,                                      187


POEMS ASCRIBED TO DRYDEN.

  An Essay upon Satire,                                            201

  A familiar Epistle to Mr Julian,                                 218

  The Art of Poetry,                                               227

  Tarquin and Tullia,                                              267

  On the young Statesman,                                          273

  Suum Cuique,                                                     276


DRYDEN’S ORIGINAL PROSE WORKS.

  Essay of Dramatic Poesy,                                         283
    Dedication to the Earl of Dorset and Middlesex,                286

  Heads of an Answer to  Mr Rymer’s Remarks on the Tragedies of
      the last Age,                                                383

  Preface to Notes and Observations on the Empress of Morocco,     397

  Preface to the Husband his own Cuckold,                          414


VOLUME SIXTEENTH.

  The Life of St Francis Xavier, of the Society of Jesus, Apostle
      of the Indies, and of Japan,                                   1
    Dedication to the Queen,                                         3
    The Author’s Advertisement to the Reader,                        8
    Book I.                                                         14
    Book II.                                                        59
    Book III.                                                      116
    Book IV.                                                       191
    Book V.                                                        288
    Book VI.                                                       408


VOLUME SEVENTEENTH.

  The Life of Plutarch,                                              1
    Dedication to the Duke of Ormond, &c.                            5

  Specimen of the Translation of the History of the League,         77
    Dedication to the King,                                         81
    The Author’s Advertisement to the Reader,                       93
    The History of the League, Book III.                           101
    Postscript to the History of the League,                       150

  Controversy between Dryden and Stillingfleet concerning
      the Duchess of York’s Paper,                                 185
    Copy of a Paper written by the late Duchess of York, &c.       189
    An Answer to the Duchess’s Paper by the Rev. Edward
        Stillingfleet,                                             194
    A Defence of the Paper written by the Duchess of York,
        against the Answer made to it,                             208
    An Answer to the Defence of the Third Paper,                   252

  The Art of Painting, by C. A. Du Fresnoy, with Remarks
      translated into English; with an original Preface,
      containing a Parallel between Painting and Poetry,           279
    A Parallel of Poetry and Painting,      286
    The Preface of M. de Piles, the French Translator,             333


  VOLUME EIGHTEENTH.

  Preface to a Dialogue concerning Women; being a Defence
      of the Sex,                                                    1

  Character of M. St Evremont,                                       9

  The Character of Polybius,                                        17

  The Life of Lucian,                                               53

  Dryden’s Letters,                                                 83

  Appendix,                                                        183

  Index,                               i

  FINIS.

       *       *       *       *       *

  EDINBURGH:
  Printed by James Ballantyne & Co.




DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER.


The Binder is requested to pay particular attention to the placing of
the following Cancels in DRYDEN’S WORKS:--

  Vol. I. Pages 29, 75.
    II. Page 3. (Advert.), Pages 15,  111, 469, and add pages 471-2.
    III. Page 429, to be found in the last sheet of Vol. VI.
    VII. Page 317.
    IX. Page 435.
    XI. Add pages 161-2 after the Title, “Odes, Songs, and Lyrical
        Pieces.”
    XII. Contents.
    XIII. Pages 97, 297.

The Cancels will be found put up with Vol. II.




FOOTNOTES:

[1] Mr Walsh was born in 1663, and in 1691 must have been twenty-eight
years old. Still he was but a youth in the eyes of Dryden, who was now
advanced in life.

[2] Mr Malone observes, that, according to Antony Wood, (_Ath. Oxon._
ii. 423.) this was not said _of_ Waller, but _by_ that poet, of Sir
John Denham.--“In the latter end of the year 1641, Sir John published
the tragedy called the ‘Sophy,’ which took extremely much, and was
admired by all ingenious men, particularly by Edmund Waller of
Beaconsfield, who then said of the author, that he broke out, like the
Irish rebellion, threescore thousand strong, before any body was aware,
or the least suspected it.” Mr Malone adds, that the observation is
more applicable to Denham than to Waller; for Denham, from the age of
sixteen, when he went to Trinity College, in Oxford, November 18, 1631,
to the time of his father’s death, January 6, 1638-9, was considered as
a dull and dissipated young man; whereas Waller distinguished himself,
as a poet, before he was eighteen. Besides, the “Sophy” was published
just when the Irish rebellion broke out.

[3] In one passage of the Dialogue, our author’s version of the sixth
satire of Juvenal is mentioned with commendation; and in another, the
tragedy of “Aureng-Zebe” is quoted.

[4] St Evremont wrote “Observations on Segrais’ Translation of Virgil.”

[5]

    ----“He at Philippi kept
    His sword even like a dancer;----
    ----he alone
    Dealt on lieutenancy, and no practice had
    In the brave squares of war.”

          _Antony and Cleopatra._


[6] A tragedy by Racine. St Evremont, in a dissertation on this play,
addressed to Madame Borneau, severely reprobates the fault so common in
French tragedy, of making a play, though the scene is laid in ancient
Rome or India, centre and turn upon Parisian manners. He concludes,
that Corneille is the only author of the nation that displays a true
taste for antiquity.

[7] The full title is, “The History of Polybius the Megalopolitan;
containing a general Account of the Transactions of the World, and
principally of the Roman People during the first and second Punic Wars.
Translated by Sir H.S. To which is added a Character of Polybius and
his Writings, by Mr Dryden, 1693.”

[8] Where he enumerates the translators of Lucian in the Supplement to
his Life.

[9] Vol. VIII. p. 203.

[10] “History of Polybius, the five first bookes entire, with all the
parcels of subsequent bookes unto the eighteenth, according to the
Greeke original. Also, the manner of the Romane encamping. Translated
into English, by Edward Grimestone, sergeant at armes.” London, 1634.
Folio.

[11] From these expressions, one would suppose Sir Henry Shere to
have been a seaman, which may also be conjectured from his writing an
“Essay on the certainty and causes of the Earth’s Motion on its Axis;”
and a “Discourse concerning the Mediterranean Sea and the Straits of
Gibraltar;” the one published in 1698, the other in 1705. The naval
and military professions were, however, formerly accounted less
absolutely distinct branches of service than at present. Many officers
distinguished themselves in both. Mr Malone may therefore be right in
conjecturing Sir Henry Shere to have been a soldier, though his studies
would argue him a seaman or engineer.

[12] _Polybii Lycortæ F. Megalopolites Historiarum Libri, qui
supersunt, Gr. Lat. Isaacus Casaubonus, ex antiquis libris emendavit,
Lat. vertit et commentariis illustravit. Accessit Æneæ vetustissimi
Tactici commentarius de toleranda obsidione. Isaaeus Casaubonus primus
vulgavit, Latinam interpretationem ac notas adjecit. Parisiis, 1609,
Folio._

[13] “The fame of Nicholas the Fifth, (who sat in the papal chair
from 1447 to 1455,) has not,” says Mr Gibbon,--_Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire_, vi. 429, 4to.) “been adequate to his merits. From
a plebeian origin, he raised himself, by his virtue and learning.
The character of the man prevailed over the interests of the pope;
and he sharpened those weapons, which were soon pointed against the
Roman church. He had been the friend of the most eminent scholars of
the age; he became their patron; and such was the humility of his
manners, that the change was scarcely discernible, either to them or
to himself. If he pressed the acceptance of a liberal gift, it was not
as the measure of desert, but as the proof of benevolence; and when
modest merit declined his bounty, ‘Accept it,’ would he say, with a
consciousness of his own worth; ‘you will not always have a Nicholas
among ye.’ The influence of the holy see pervaded Christendom; and he
exerted that influence in the search, not of benefices, but of books.
From the ruins of the Byzantine libraries, from the darkest monasteries
of Germany and Britain, he collected the dusty manuscripts of the
writers of antiquity; and wherever the original could not be removed,
a faithful copy was transcribed, and transmitted for his use. The
Vatican, the old repository for bulls and legends, for superstition
and forgery, was daily replenished with more precious furniture; and
such was the industry of Nicholas, that, in a reign of eight years,
he formed a library of five thousand volumes. To his munificence,
the Latin world was indebted for the versions of Xenophon, Diodorus,
Polybius, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Appian; of Strabo’s Geography;
of the Iliad; of the most valuable works of Plato and Aristotle; of
Ptolemy and Theophrastus; and of the fathers of the Greek church. The
example of the Roman pontiff was preceded, or imitated, by a Florentine
merchant, who governed the republic without arms, and without a title.
Cosmo, of Medicis, was the father of a line of princes, whose name and
age are almost synonymous with the restoration of learning. His credit
was ennobled into fame; his riches were dedicated to the service of
mankind; he corresponded at once with Cairo and London, and a cargo
of Indian spices and Greek books was imported in the same vessel. The
genius and education of his grandson, Lorenzo, rendered him not only a
patron, but a judge and candidate in the literary race. In his palace,
distress was entitled to relief, and merit to reward. His leisure
hours were delightfully spent in the Platonic academy; he encouraged
the emulation of Demetrius Chalcocondyles and Angelo Politian; and
his active missionary, Janus Lascaris, returned from the East with a
treasure of two hundred manuscripts, fourscore of which were as yet
unknown in the libraries of Europe. The rest of Italy was animated by
a similar spirit, and the progress of the nation repaid the liberality
of the princes. The Latins held the exclusive property of their
own literature; and these disciples of Greece were soon capable of
transmitting and improving the lessons which they had imbibed. After a
short succession of foreign teachers, the tide of emigration subsided;
but the language of Constantinople was spread beyond the Alps; and the
natives of France, Germany, and England, imparted to their country the
sacred fire which they had kindled in the schools of Florence and Rome.”

[14] Our author recollected the following panegyric on Pope Nicholas,
in the Dedication of Casaubon’s edition of Polybius, to Henry IV. of
France:

“_Quum enim a pluribus retro sæculis, in principum animis, toto
Occidente, amor politioris literaturæ et Græci sermonis excoluisset;
accidit non sine numine profecto, ut circa illa ipsa tempora
Byzantinæ cladis, et paullo ante, summi in Europa viri et principes
generossissimi hunc veternum ceu virgula divina tacti, opportune
excuterent, et ad bene merendum de studiis politioribus et de linguis,
ardore incredibili accenderentur. Prima terrarum Italia ad hanc
palmam occupandam, è diuturno torpore tunc demum expergefacta, sese
concitavit, et nationibus aliis per Europam, exemplum quod imitarentur
præbuit. In ipsa verò Italia, ad certamen adeo gloriosum, Nicolaus
Quintus Pontifex Maximus, in cujus extrema tempora Byzantini imperii
eversio incidit, princeps, quod equidem sciam, signum sustulit. Nam et
literarum dicitur fuisse intelligentissimus; et,_ _quod res arguit,
earum amore erat flagrantissimus. Primus hic, illa ætate, libros
antiquorum scriptorum sedulo conquirere curæ habuit; magnamque earum
copiam in Vaticanam intulit; primus cum assiduis hortatibus, tum
ingentibus etiam propositis præmiis, ad meliorem literaturam è tenebris
oblivionis in lucem revocandam, homines Italos stimulavit: primus,
Græcæ linguæ auctores omnis sincerioris doctrinæ esse promos condos qui
uon ignoraret, ut Latino sermone exprimerentur, vehementissime optavit,
et efficere contendit_.”

[15] That is, the first five books.

[16] Polybius, the historian, was born at Megalopolis, in Arcadia,
in the fourth year of the 143d Olympiad, about 205 years before the
Christian æra. Being carried to Rome as an hostage, he became the
companion and friend of the younger Scipio Africanus; accompanied him
in his campaigns; and is said to have witnessed the destruction of
Carthage, in the 158th Olympiad. Having returned to his native country,
he died in the 164th Olympiad, 124 years before Christ, in consequence
of a fall from his horse.

The history of Polybius embraced the space from the first year of the
140th to the first of the 153d Olympiad, being fifty-three years.

[17] Nicolo Peretti published a Latin version of the first five books
of Polybius, at Rome, in 1473, folio. The first Greek edition appeared
in 1530; the second at Basle, in 1549. The last is most esteemed.

[18] “Plutarch tells us, that Brutus was thus employed the day before
the battle of Pharsalia. ‘It was the middle of summer; the heats
were intense, the marshy situation of the camp disagreeable, and his
tent-bearers were long in coming. Nevertheless, though extremely
harassed and fatigued, he did not anoint himself till noon; and then
taking a morsel of bread, while others were at rest, or musing on the
event of the ensuing day, he employed himself till the evening in
writing an epitome of Polybius.”--MALONE.

[19] With a thousand of his countrymen, whom the Romans ordered thither
as hostages, after the conquest of Macedonia.

[20] A. U. C. 608.

[21] A. U. C. 607.

[22] The word _and_ renders this passage ungrammatical.--MALONE.

[23] Mr Malone justly conjectures, that Dryden here thought of his old
master James II., whose economy bordered on penury, and whose claims of
prerogative approached to tyranny.

[24] Philip de Commines, author of the excellent Memoirs of his
own time. He was born in Flanders, and was for several years a
distinguished ornament of the court of Charles the Bold, Duke of
Burgundy, his native sovereign; but was tempted to divert his service
for that of Louis XI. by whom he was employed in several negociations.
After the death of that monarch, Commines fell into disgrace with his
successor, and was long detained in prison: he died in 1509. It was of
this historian Catherine de Medicis was wont to say, “that he made as
many heretics in the state, as Luther in the Church.”

[25] In the year of Rome 568.

[26] I believe the most enthusiastic admirers of Livy must tire of
these unvaried prodigies. _Et bos locutus_ occurs as often, and is
mentioned with as much indifference, as a nomination of sheriffs in
Hall, Stowe, or Speed.

[27] See Vol. XIII. p. 68. where our author, in his “Essay on Satire,”
controverts keenly the position of Casaubon.

[28] In his thirty-eight year, forty-three being the legal age.

[29] The elegant translator, however, gives us no information on
that subject; his preface being principally a panegyric upon good
discipline, which, without much risque of contradiction, he affirms to
be the “substance and sum total of military science.”

[30] Thomas Stanley’s “History of Philosophy,” &c. was published in
folio, in detached parts, between 1655 and 1660; and reprinted entire
in 1687.

[31] A. D. 375. Rufinus was chief prefect of the East. The person here
alluded to was only count of fifteen provinces. Dryden, writing from
memory, confounded the offices of the murderer and murdered. See the
next note.

[32] Gibbon thus narrates the catastrophe:--“The extreme parsimony
of Rufinus left him only the reproach and envy of ill-gotten wealth.
His dependents served him without attachment; the universal hatred of
mankind was repressed only by the influence of servile fear. The fate
of Lucian proclaimed to the East, that the prefect, whose industry
was much abated in the dispatch of ordinary business, was active and
indefatigable in the pursuit of revenge. Lucian, (the son of the
prefect Florentius, the oppressor of Gaul, and the enemy of Julian,)
had employed a considerable part of his inheritance, the fruit of
rapine and corruption, to purchase the friendship of Rufinus, and the
high office of Count of the East. But the new magistrate imprudently
departed from the maxims of the court and of the times; disgraced his
benefactor, by the contrast of a virtuous and temperate administration;
and presumed to refuse an act of injustice, which might have tended to
the profit of the emperor’s uncle. Arcadius was easily persuaded to
resent the supposed insult; and the prefect of the East resolved to
execute in person the cruel vengeance which he meditated against this
ungrateful delegate of his power. He performed, with incessant speed,
the journey of seven or eight hundred miles, from Constantinople to
Antioch, entered the capital of Syria at the dead of night, and spread
universal consternation among a people ignorant of his design, but not
ignorant of his character. The count of the fifteen provinces of the
East was dragged, like the vilest malefactor, before the arbitrary
tribunal of Rufinus. Notwithstanding the clearest evidence of his
integrity, which was not impeached even by the voice of an accuser,
Lucian was condemned, almost without a trial, to suffer a cruel and
ignominious punishment. The ministers of the tyrant, by the order, and
in the presence, of their master, beat him on the neck with leather
thongs, armed at the extremities with lead; and when he fainted under
the violence of the pain, he was removed in a close litter to conceal
his dying agonies from the eyes of the indignant city. No sooner
had Rufinus perpetrated this inhuman act, the sole object of his
expedition, than he returned amidst the deep and silent curses of a
trembling people, from Antioch to Constantinople; and his diligence was
accelerated by the hope of accomplishing, without delay, the nuptials
of his daughter with the emperor of the East.”--GIBBON’S _Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire_, vol. iii. p. 209.

The punctuation throughout this piece is so inaccurate, and the
paragraphs so strangely divided, that it must have been printed from
a copy very carelessly written. In the present passage, we find
_Rafiany_, instead of _Rufinus_. MALONE.

[33] A. D. 312. He suffered for favouring the Arians. MALONE.

[34] A. D. 415. He was minister of Caphargamala, and pretended to have
been instructed by a dream of the burial place of the proto-martyr
Stephen, Gamaliel, and other saints. See GIBBON’S _History_, vol. iii.
p. 97.

Several other persons of this name, besides those here mentioned, are
enumerated by Fabricius. _Bibl. Græc._ iv. 508.

[35] Dr Franklin seems disposed to fix on the year 90.

[36] _Procurator principis_. Under Marcus Aurelius.

[37] See _Juv._ sat. i. 44.; vii. 148.; xv. 111. _Quintil._ lib. x.
cap. 3.

[38] Dr Jasper Mayne, who published a translation of some select
dialogues of Lucian, in folio, in 1664.

[39] I follow Mr Malone in reading _might_; the printed copy has _must_.

[40] This is a gross mistake, 180 years intervening between the death
of Aurelius and the reign of Julian.

[41] Nicolas Perrot, Sieur d’Ablancourt, whose translation of the
Dialogues of Lucian into French was first published at Paris in 1634.
His continuation of the true history of Lucian is very much in the tone
of the original.

[42] This observation had been made by Gilbertas Cognatus, and by
Thomas Hickes, in his Life of Lucian, printed in 1634. MALONE.

[43] Entitled “Philopatris.” The Christian religion, and its mysteries,
are ridiculed in this piece with very little ceremony.

[44] Gesner has written a long Latin essay upon this point, which is
subjoined to the third volume of Lucian’s works, in the 4to edition of
Hemsterhucius.

[45] I follow Mr Malone in reading _eclectic_ for _elective_.

[46] The best judges have condemned Εταιρικοι Διαλογοι, or
“Dialogues of the Harlots,” as not being genuine. They are at any rate
gross and devoid of humour.

[47] I presume a cant phrase for a graft from that garden of knowledge.

[48] The work alluded to, which was written by the Rev. Dr John
Eachard, (Master of Catharine Hall, in Cambridge, and author of the
“Grounds of the Contempt of the Clergy,”) was published in 1671, and
was entitled “Mr Hobbes’s State of Nature considered; in a Dialogue
between Philautus and Timothy.” MALONE.

[49] This gentleman, whom our author has again mentioned with esteem,
in the “Parallel of Poetry and Painting,” (Vol. XVII. p. 312.) was
the son of Sir Walter Moyle, and was born in the year 1672. He was
educated to the study of law, and became a member of Parliament in
1695. He composed a variety of treatises, on various subjects, which
are comprised in a collection of three volumes 8vo, the last being
posthumous. Mr Moyle died in 1721.

[50] Charles Blount, the son of Sir Henry, and brother to Sir Edward
Pope Blount. He early appeared as a defender and admirer of Dryden, by
publishing an answer to Leigh’s “Censure of the Rota in the Conquest
of Granada.” It was entitled, “Mr Dryden vindicated, in Reply to the
Friendly Vindication of Mr Dryden, with Reflections on the Rota.”
Mr Blount distinguished himself as a friend to civil liberty during
the crisis preceding the Revolution; but was still better known by
the deistical tracts entitled “_Anima Mundi_,” “Life of Appolonius
Tyaneus,” “Diana of the Ephesians,” and the “_Religio Laici_,” which
last he published anonymously in 1683, and inscribed to our author.

The death of Blount was voluntary. Having lost his wife, the daughter
of Sir Timothy Tyrrel of Shotover, he fell in love with her sister, and
being unable to remove her scruples upon the lawfulness of their union,
shot himself in a fit of despair, in August 1693. His miscellaneous
works were published by Galden in 1695.

He was a man of deep and extensive reading, and probably better
qualified, in point of learning, to translate Lucian, than most of his
coadjutors.

[51] This and two or three other passages shew, that this life was
written hastily, and that it had not been carefully revised by the
author. MALONE.

[52] Ferrand Spence, who published a translation of Lucian’s Dialogues
in four volumes, 8vo, in 1684.

[53] Francis Hickes published a translation of Select Dialogues from
Lucian, 4to, 1634.

[54] Vol XVII. p. 1.

[55] Mr Malone substitutes _lost_ for _left_.

[56] The lady to whom this letter is addressed was our author’s first
cousin, one of the daughters of his uncle, Sir John Dryden. She
probably was born, (says Mr Malone,) about the year 1637, and died,
unmarried, some time after 1707.

The seal, (he adds,) under which runs a piece of blue ribband, is a
crest of a demi-lion, on a wreath, holding in his paws an armillary
sphere at the end of a stand. The letter seems in reply to one from the
fair lady, with a present of writing materials. It is a woeful sample
of the gallantry of the time, alternately coarse and pedantic.

[57] Person _quasi_ parson, which word was originally so spelled. The
custom of preaching by an hour-glass has been before noticed.

[58] A copy of this letter is in the Museum, MSS. Harl. 7003. The
Dedication alluded to, must have been that of “Marriage A-la-Mode,” to
which Rochester had replied by a letter of thanks; and we have here
Dryden’s reply. (See Vol. I. p. 181, and Vol. IV. p. 235.) The date is
supplied by Mr Malone from internal evidence.

[59] Lord Rochester translated some part of Lucretius.

[60] In the year 1672, Monsieur Schomberg was invited into England to
command the army raised for the Dutch war, then encamped on Blackheath.
He was to be joined in this command with Villiers, Duke of Buckingham,
who held a commission of lieutenant-general only. But when Schomberg
arrived, he refused to serve equally with Buckingham, and was made
general; on which the other resigned his commission in disgust. (See
Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham’s _Memoirs_, p. 5.) Dryden, still
smarting under the “Rehearsal,” just then come out, was probably not
sorry to take this opportunity to turn the author’s pretensions into
ridicule.

[61] Eight thousand land forces were embarked on board the English
fleet to make a descent in Zealand.

[62] Sir John Eaton was a noted writer of songs at the time.

[63] Mr Malone conjectures Tregonwell Frampton, keeper of the royal
stud at Newmarket; who was born in 1641, and died in 1727. Brother John
must remain in obscurity.

[64] Probably the grandson of Sir George Hume, created Earl of Dunbar
by James the First, in 1605.

[65] Henry Brouncker, younger brother of William, Viscount Brouncker.
He was a gentleman of the Duke of York’s bed-chamber, and carried the
false order to slacken sail, after the great battle in 1665, when
the Duke was asleep, by which the advantage gained in the victory
was entirely lost. There is a great cloud over the story; but that
Brouncker was an infamous character, must be concluded on all hands. He
was expelled the House of Commons; and countenanced by the king more
than he deserved, being “never notorious for any thing but the highest
degree of impudence, and stooping to the most infamous offices.”
--Continuation of Clarendon’s Life, quoted by Malone.

[66] Aubery de Vere, the twentieth and last Earl of Oxford, of that
family. This nobleman seduced an eminent actress (said, by some
authorities, to be Mrs Marshall, but conjectured, by Mr Malone, to have
been Mrs Davenport,) to exchange her profession for his protection. The
epithet, applied to him in the lines, renders it improbable that he
imposed on her by a mock-marriage, though the story is told by Count
Hamilton, and others.

[67] The Prologue and Epilogue in question may have been those spoken
by Mr Hart and Mrs Marshall, (Vol. X. p. 328). But, in this case, the
date of their being delivered has been placed too late. Exact accuracy
is of little consequence; but I fear the hint in the letter gives some
reason for Tom Brown’s alleging, that Dryden flattered alternately the
wits of the town at the cost of the university, and the university
scholars at the expence of the London audience. I cry that facetious
person mercy, for having said there was no proof of his accusation. See
Vol. X. p. 113.

[68] There is no address or superscription.

[69] John Dryden admitted a King’s scholar in 1682.

[70] This letter from Lady Elizabeth Dryden seems to have been written
at the same time, and on the same subject:

  HONNORED SIR,          Ascension Day, [1682.]

I hope I need use noe other argument to you in excuse of my sonn for
not coming to church to Westminster then this, that he now lies at
home, and thearfore cannot esilly goe soe far backwards and forwards.
His father and I will take care, that he shall duely goe to church
heare, both on holydayes and Sundays, till he comes to be more nearly
under your care in the college. In the mean time, will you pleas to
give me leave to accuse you of forgetting your prommis conserning my
eldest sonn, who, as you once assured me, was to have one night in a
weeke alowed him to be at home, in considirasion both of his health
and cleanliness. You know, Sir, that prommises mayd to women, and
espiceally mothers, will never faille to be cald upon; and thearfore I
will add noe more, but that I am, at this time, your remembrancer, and
allwayes, honnord Sir,

  Your humble servant,

  E. DRYDEN.


[71] His eldest son Charles, as Mr Malone supposes.

[72] In the hall of the college of Westminster, when the boys are at
dinner, it is, _ex officio_, the place of the second boy, in the second
election, to keep order among the two under elections; and if any word,
after he has ordered silence, be spoken, except in Latin, he says to
the speaker, _tu es_ CUSTOS; and this term passes from the second
speaker to the third, or more, till dinner is over. Whoever is then
_custos_, has an imposition.

It is highly probable, (adds the very respectable gentleman, to whom
I am indebted for this information,) that there had formerly been _a
tessera_, or _symbolum_ delivered from boy to boy, as at some French
schools now, and that _custos_ meant _custos tesseræ, symboli_, &c.;
but at Westminster, the symbol is totally unknown at present. MALONE.

[73] Dr John Dolben, then Bishop of Rochester, afterwards of York. See
Vol. IX. p. 303.

[74] Mr Malone says, “The person meant was Robert Morgan, who was
elected with Charles Dryden into the college of Westminster, in 1680,
and is the only one of those then admitted, who was elected to Oxford
in 1682. That circumstance, therefore, ascertains the year when this
letter was written.”

[75] The two last letters are printed from Mr Malone’s copy, to whom
the originals were communicated by Mr John Nichols, author of the
History of Leicestershire.

[76] To this curious and valuable letter, Mr Malone has added the
address to Rochester and the date, both of which are conjectural. Hyde,
Earl of Rochester, was made first commissioner of the treasury in 1679,
and continued prime minister till September 1684. Let it be remembered
by those men of talents, who may be tempted to engage in the sea of
politics, that Dryden thus sued for what was his unquestionable due,
within two years after having written “Absalom and Achitophel,” and
“The Medal,” in defence of the government, to whom he was suppliant for
so small a boon.

[77] Edward, Earl of Clarendon. It is uncertain in what manner our
author undertook his defence.

[78] The place which our author here solicits, (worth only 200l.
a-year,) was the first office that Addison obtained, which he used to
call “the _little thing_ given me by Lord Halifax.” Locke also, after
the Revolution, was a commissioner of appeals. MALONE.

[79] The “History of the League,” entered on the Stationers’ books
early in 1684, and “Englished by his Majesties express command.”

[80] This application was successful; and Dryden elsewhere expresses
his gratitude, that his wants were attended to, and relieved during the
penury of an exhausted Exchequer; Cowley’s simile, he observed, was
reversed, and Gideon’s fleece was watered, while all around remained
parched and arid.

[81] What this circumstance was cannot now be discovered.

[82] The Duchess of Ormond died July 1684.

[83] The first edition of Lord Roscommon’s “Essay on Translated Verse”
appeared in 1684, and a second edition was published by Jacob Tonson in
4to, early in 1685.

[84] In the first edition it stood,

  “That here his conqu’ring ancestors _was_ nurs’d.”


[85] Latin Verses by Charles Dryden, prefixed to Lord Roscommon’s Essay.

[86] Knightly Chetwood. He wrote Lord Roscommon’s life.

[87] Dryden was now about to publish the second volume of the
Miscellanies; in which it would appear to have been settled, that
nothing should be inserted but what was new. “_Religio Laici_,”
therefore, as having been formerly published, was laid aside for the
present.

[88] Probably “Albion and Albanius,” which was afterwards completed and
ready to be performed in Feb. 1684-5.

[89] The singing Opera was probably that of “King Arthur,” to which
“Albion and Albanius” was originally designed as a prelude. But it was
not acted till after the Revolution.

[90] “All for Love,” and “The Conquest of Granada.”

[91] His second son.

[92] His eldest son.

[93] The Third Miscellany was published in July 1693.

[94] The author was at this time in Northamptonshire. The original has
no date but August 30th; but the year is ascertained by the reference
to the third Miscellany, which was published in July 1693. MALONE.

[95] To whom the Third Miscellany is dedicated. I fear this alludes
to some disappointment in the pecuniary compliment usual on such
occasions. See the Dedication, Vol. XII. p. 47.

[96] This commission will probably remind the reader of the poetic diet
recommended by Bayes.--“If I am to write familiar things, as sonnets
to Armida, and the like, I make use of _stewed prunes_ only; but, when
I have a grand design in hand, I ever take physics, and let blood;
for, when you would have pure swiftness of thought, and fiery flights
of fancy, you must have a care of the pensive part. In fine, you must
purge the belly.

_Smith._ By my troth, Sir, this is a most admirable receipt for writing.

_Bayes._ Aye, ’tis my secret; and, in good earnest, I think one of the
best I have.” _Rehearsal_, act i.

This is an instance of the minute and malicious diligence, with which
the most trivial habits and tastes of our author were ridiculed in the
“Rehearsal.”

[97] Sir Matthew, with whom Dryden appears to have resided at this
time, is unknown.

[98] Sir John Trenchard, who was made one of the secretaries of state
March 23, 1691-2, died in office in April 1695.

[99] “A short View of Tragedy,” published (as appears from the
Gentleman’s Journal, by P. Motteux,) in Dec. 1692. The date in the
title-page is, 1693.

[100] See Vol. XII. p.45.

[101] Dennis, the critic, afterwards so unfortunately distinguished by
the satire of Pope. Like Rymer, and others, he retained considerable
reputation for critical acumen, until he attempted to illustrate his
precepts by his own compositions.

[102] Sir Richard Blackmore was doomed to accomplish this prophecy. See
Vol. XI. p. 236. and the Life of Dryden, p. 6.

[103] In his Short View of Tragedy. See Vol. XII. pp. 45, 51.

[104] This lesson was thrown away upon poor Dennis, who, by his rash
and riotous attacks upon Pope, afterwards procured an immortality of a
kind very different from that to which he aspired.

[105] Dryden’s evil opinion of the state of matrimony, never fails to
glance forth upon such occasions as the present.

[106] One of the subscribers of the higher class. The decorations were
probably his armorial bearings.

[107] It was an ancient British custom, and prevailed in Scotland
within these forty years, to finish all bargains, contracts, and even
consultations, at a tavern, that the parties might not, according to
the ancient Caledonian phrase, part _dry-lipp’d_. The custom between
authors and booksellers seems to have been universal; and the reader
may recollect, that the supposed poisoning of the celebrated Edmund
Curl took place at a meeting of this kind.

[108] At Burleigh, the seat of John, the fifth Earl of Exeter.

[109] Both the gold and silver coin were at this time much depreciated;
and remained in a fluctuating state till a new coinage took place.

[110] From inspecting the plates of Dryden’s Virgil, it appears, that
the Earl of Derby had one inscribed to him, as had Lord Chesterfield.
But this wrathful letter made no farther impression on the mercantile
obstinacy of Tonson; and neither the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Petre,
nor Lady Macclesfield, obtained the place among the first subscribers,
which Dryden so peremptorily demands for them.

[111] This seems to be a bitter gibe at Jacob’s parsimony.

[112] Perhaps the proposals for the second subscription. See Letter xi.

[113] “The Husband his own Cuckold,” written by our author’s second
son, John, and published in July 1696.

[114] Tonson’s answer to the foregoing letter, seems to have been
pacific and apologetical, yet peremptory as to his terms.

[115] Richard Bentley, a bookseller and printer, who lived in Russel
Street, Covent Garden.

[116] A banker or goldsmith, afterwards notorious for his share in the
South Sea scheme, to which Company he was cashier.

[117] Sir Robert Howard had been appointed auditor of the Exchequer in
1673, and held that office till his death.

[118] The celebrated watchmaker, who was originally a jacksmith. MALONE.

[119] They were at this time at Rome.

[120] The Eclogues of Virgil had been published in the first
Miscellany. Dryden probably corrected them with a pen in Lady
Elizabeth’s copy of the printed book, and sent it to the bookseller, as
what is technically called _copy_.

[121] This person, in the last age, was frequently called “the learned
tradesman.” “Sir Andrew Fountaine (says Swift, in his _Journal_,
October 6, 1710,) came this morning, and caught me writing in bed. I
went into the city with him, and we dined at the Chop-house, with Will
Pate, _the learned woollen-draper_; then we sauntered at china shops
and booksellers; went to the tavern, and drank two pints of white
wine,” &c. Mr William Pate was educated at Trinity Hall in Cambridge,
where he took the degree of B.C.L. He died in 1746, and was buried at
Lee, in Kent.

Mr Malone, who mentions these particulars, transcribes Mr Pate’s
epitaph, the moral of which is:--

    _Nervos atque artus esse sapientiœ,
      NON TEMERE CREDERE._

It would seem, from Dryden’s letter, that this learned tradesman
understood the mercantile, as well as the literary use of the apothegm.

[122] A Roman Catholic.

[123] At Denham Court, in Buckinghamshire. Sir William Bowyer married a
kinswoman of Lady Elizabeth Dryden; Frances, daughter of Charles, Lord
Cranbourne, eldest son of William, the second Earl of Salisbury. MALONE.

[124] This seems to imply a suspicion, though an odd one, that Jacob,
being bent to convert Dryden to his own views of politics, intercepted
his sons’ letters from Rome, as proceeding from an interest hostile to
his views. (See p. 140.) His earnest wish was, that the Æneid should be
inscribed to King William.

[125] The translation of Virgil.

[126] In MS. Harl. p. 35, in the Museum, are the following verses,
occasioned by this circumstance:

“To be published in the next edition of Dryden’s Virgil.

    “Old Jacob, by deep judgment swayed,
      To please the wise beholders,
    Has placed old Nassau’s book-nosed head
      On poor Æneas’ shoulders,

    “To make the parallel hold tack,
      Methinks there’s little lacking;
    One took his father pick-a-pack,
      And t’other sent his packing.”

In a copy I have seen of this epigram, “poor” Æneas is improved into
“young” Æneas.”

[127] This Dryden never effected, nor was Howard’s play ever printed.

[128] Probably the clergy of England.

[129] This probably alludes to the proposition which appears to
have been made to him, concerning the dedication of his Virgil to
King William; for which a valuable pecuniary reward might have been
expected. MALONE.

[130] The peace of Ryswick, which was proclaimed at London in the
following month, October 19, 1697, O. S.

[131] She _means_, I suppose,--by the same way her son’s letter came to
her.

[132] To account for the difference between the exquisite orthography
of Lady Elizabeth’s present epistle, and that to Dr Busby, Mr Malone
suggests, that Dryden probably revised the latter before it was sent.

[133] Tom Brown had, in the year of the Revolution, published “The
Reasons of Mr Bayes changing his Religion;” and in 1690, a second Part,
called the “Late Converts Exposed.” What this small wit now had in hand
is difficult to guess; none of his direct attacks against Dryden appear
in his works: but his insignificant enmity survived Dryden, for he
wrote a burlesque account of the poet’s funeral in verse, and libelled
his memory in prose, in his “Letters from the Dead to the Living.”

[134] This labour he never resumed.

[135] The Rev. Dr Knightly Chetwood, an intimate friend of our author.

[136] Mary Leigh, the wife of Sir George Chudleigh of Ashton, in the
same county, Bart. She died in the year 1710. Her life is among those
of Ballard’s “Learned Ladies.” The verses mentioned in the text are not
prefixed to the “Virgil,” but printed in Lady Chudleigh’s Poems.

[137] The preface to the “Pastorals.”

[138] The “Ode for St Cecilia’s Day.” It is pleasing to be assured,
that the best of English lyrics was received with due honour on its
first appearance.

[139] Our author only translated the First Book. See Vol. XII. p. 231.

[140] His son Charles had probably been much hurt by a dangerous fall
at Rome; probably that mentioned by Mrs Thomas, in her exaggerated
account of his accident at the Vatican. In a former letter, his mother
enquires particularly about his _head_.

[141] Probably the Genoese resident at that time.

[142] See page 132.

[143] Of Mrs Steward Mr Malone gives the following account:--

“Thislady, who was not less distinguished for her talents and
accomplishments than her beauty and virtues, having been both a painter
and a poetess, was the eldest surviving daughter of John Creed of
Oundle, Esq (secretary to Charles II. for the affairs of Tangier,)
by Elizabeth Pickering, his wife, who was the only daughter of Sir
Gilbert Pickering, Baronet, our author’s cousin-german. Her eldest son,
Richard Creed, as we have seen, fell in the battle of Blenheim, and
was honoured with a monument in Westminster Abbey. Her eldest daughter
Elizabeth, was born in the year 1672, and, in 1692, married Elmes
Steward of Cotterstock, in the county of Northampton, Esq.; where they
principally resided. By this gentleman, who is said to have preferred
field-sports to any productions of the Muses, she had three children;
Elizabeth, who became the wife of Thomas Gwillim, Esq. of Old Court, in
the parish of Whitchurch, near Ross in Herefordshire; Anne, who died
unmarried; and Jemima, who married Elmes Spinckes of Aldwinckle, Esq.
Mrs Steward, who survived her husband above thirty years, in the latter
part of her life became blind, in which melancholy state she died at
the house of her son-in-law Mr Gwillim, at the age of seventy-one, Jan.
17, 1742-3; and a monument was erected to her memory in the church of
Whitchurch. The hall of Cotterstock-house was painted in fresco by her,
in a very masterly style, and she drew several portraits of her friends
in Northamptonshire. Her own portrait, painted by herself, is in the
possession of her kinswoman, Mrs Orel of Queen Anne Street.”

[144] See Vol. XI. p. 71.

[145] His eldest son Charles, who returned from Italy to England about
the middle of the year 1698.

[146] Mrs Steward’s father, Mr John Creed.

[147] Miss, or, in the language of that day, _Mistress_ Dorothy Creed,
second daughter of John Creed, Esq.

[148] At Tichmarsh, after his return from Cotterstock.

[149] See Vol. IX. p. 23. note XVIII. Our author commemorated this
circumstance in his “Elegy on the Protector:”--

    ----The isle when her protecting genius went,
    Upon his obsequies loud sighs conferred.


[150] Driden, of Chesterton, who, as appears from our author’s Epistle
addressed to him, was a keen sportsman.

[151] Probably Bevil Driden.

[152] This severe proclamation appeared in the London Gazette, No.
3476, Monday, March 6, 1698-9. It enjoined all Popish recusants to
remove to their respective places of abode; or if they had none, to the
dwellings of their fathers or mothers; and not to remove five miles
from thence: and it charged the lord mayor of London, and all other
justices of peace, to put the statute 1st William and Mary, c.9. for
amoving Papists ten miles from London and Westminster, into execution,
by tendering them the declaration therein mentioned; and also another
act of William and Mary, for disarming Papists.

[153] Dr Thomas Tennison, who succeeded to the see of Canterbury in
1694, on the death of Tillotson. He is thus sarcastically described by
William Shippen, in “Faction Displayed,” a poem written a few years
afterwards:

    “A pause ensued, till Patriarcho’s grace
    Was pleased to rear his huge unwieldy mass;
    A mass unanimated with a soul,
    Or else he’d ne’er be made so vile a tool:
    He’d ne’er his apostolic charge profane,
    And atheists’ and fanaticks’ cause maintain.
    At length, as from the hollow of an oak,
    The bulky Primate yawned, and silence broke:
    I much approve,” &c.

So also Edmund Smith, in his elegant ode, _Charlettus Percivallo suo_;

    “_Scribe securus, quid agit Senatus_,
    Quid caput stertit grave Lambethanum,
    _Quid comes Guilford, quid habent novorum_
        _Dawksque Dyerque_.”--MALONE.


[154] The London Gazette, No. 3474, Monday, Feb. 27, 1698-9, contains
the order alluded to:

“His majesty has been pleased to command, that the following order
should be sent to both Playhouses:

“His majesty being informed, that, notwithstanding an order made the
4th of June, 1697, by the Earl of Sunderland, then lord chamberlain of
his majesty’s houshold, to prevent the profaneness and immorality of
the stage, several plays have lately been acted, containing expressions
contrary to religion and good manners: And whereas the master of the
revels has represented, that, in contempt of the said order, the actors
do often neglect to leave out such profane and indecent expressions as
he has thought proper to be omitted: These are therefore to signify his
majesties pleasure, that you do not hereafter presume to act any thing
in any play, contrary to religion and good manners, as you shall answer
it at your utmost peril. Given under my hand this 18th of February,
1698, in the eleventh year of his majesties reign.

  “PERE. BERTIE.

“An order has been likewise sent by his majesties command, to the
master of the revels, not to licence any plays containing expressions
contrary to religion and good manners; and to give notice to the lord
chamberlain of his majesties houshold, or, in his absence, to the
vice-chamberlain, if the players presume to act any thing which he has
struck out.”

[155] The beautiful Fables.

[156] Dorothy and Jemima Creed; the latter of whom died Feb. 23,
1705-6, and was buried at Tichmarsh.

[157] The founder of the Pepysian library, Magdalen College, Cambridge.
He was secretary to the Admiralty in the reign of Charles II. and
James II. “He first (says Granger, _Biogr. Hist._ iv. 322.) reduced
the affairs of the Admiralty to order and method; and that method
was so just, as to have been a standing model to his successors in
that important office. His ‘Memoirs’ relating to the Navy is a well
written piece; and his copious collection of manuscripts, now remaining
with the rest of his library at Magdalen College in Cambridge, is an
invaluable treasure of naval knowledge. He was far from being a mere
man of business: his conversation and address had been greatly refined
by travel. He thoroughly understood and practised music; was a judge of
painting, sculpture, and architecture; and had more than a superficial
knowledge in history and philosophy. His fame among the Virtuosi was
such, that he was thought to be a very proper person to be placed at
the head of the Royal Society, of which he was some time [1685, 1686,]
president. His Prints have been already mentioned. His collection of
English Ballads, in five large folio volumes, begun by Mr Selden, and
carried down to 1700, is one of his singular curiosities.--_Ob_. 26
May, 1703.”

[158] To _smicker_, though omitted by Dr Johnson, is found, says Mr
Malone, in Kersey’s Dictionary, 1708; where it is interpreted--“To look
amorously, or wantonly.”

[159] Christopher Codrington, governor of the Caribbee Islands.

[160] Colonel John Creed, a gallant soldier. He died at Oundle, Nov.
21, 1751, aged 73, and was buried in the church of Tichmarsh.

[161] The superscription of this letter is wanting; but that it was
addressed to Mr Montague, is ascertained by the words--“From Mr
Dryden,” being indorsed on it, in that gentleman’s handwriting. Charles
Montague, (afterwards Earl of Halifax,) was at this time First Lord
of the Treasury, and Chancellor of the Exchequer; the latter of which
offices he had held from the year 1694.--The date is supplied by the
subsequent letter. MALONE.

[162] The verses addressed to his kinsman, John Driden, of Chesterton,
Esq.--The former poem which had been submitted to Mr Montague, was that
addressed, to Mary, Duchess of Ormond. They were both inserted in the
volume of Fables, which was then printing. See the next letter.--MALONE.

[163] The lines alluded to occur in the Epistle to Driden of
Chesterton, (Vol. XI. p. 81.) They are very cautiously worded; yet
obviously imply, that opposition to government was one quality of
a good patriot. Dryden, sensible of the suspicion arising from his
politics and religion, seems, in this letter, to deprecate Montague’s
displeasure, and to prepossess him in favour of the poem, as
inoffensive toward the government. I am afraid, that indemnity was all
he had to hope for from the protection of this famed Mæcenas; at least,
he returns no thanks for benefits hitherto received; and of these he
was no niggard where there was room for them. Pope’s bitter verses on
Halifax are well known:

    “Dryden alone what wonder came not nigh,
    Dryden alone escaped his judging eye;
    Yet still the great have kindness in reserve,
    He helped to bury, whom he helped to starve.”


[164] Dryden probably alludes to some expectations through the interest
of Halifax, They were never realised; whether from inattention, or on
account of his politics and religion, cannot now be known.

[165] Charles Hopkins, son of Hopkins, Bishop of Derry, in Ireland.
He was educated at Cambridge, and became Bachelor of Arts in 1688; he
afterwards bore arms for King William in the Irish wars. In 1694, he
published a collection of epistolary poems and translations; and in
1695, “The History of Love,” which last gained him some reputation.
Dorset honoured Hopkins with his notice; and Dryden himself is said
to have distinguished him from the undergrowth of authors. He was
careless both of his health and reputation, and fell a martyr to excess
in 1700, aged only thirty-six years. Hopkins wrote three plays, 1.
“Pyrrhus, King of Epirus,” 1695; 2. “Boadicea, Queen of Britain,” 1697;
3. “Friendship Improved.” This last is mentioned in the text as to be
acted on 7th November.

[166] The fate of the Scottish colony at Darien, accelerated by the
inhuman proclamations of William, who prohibited his American subjects
to afford them assistance, was now nearly decided, and the nation was
almost frantic between rage and disappointment. “The most inflammatory
publications had been dispersed among the nation, the most violent
addresses were presented from the towns and counties, and whosoever
ventured to dispute or doubt the utility of Darien, was reputed a
public enemy devoted to a hostile and corrupt court.”--_Laing’s
History_, book x.

[167] Mr John Driden of Chesterton, member for the county of Huntingdon.

[168] Mrs Steward’s father, Mr John Creed, of Oundle.

[169] Mrs Thomas, “Curll’s Corinna,” well known as a hack authoress
some years after this period, was now commencing her career. She
was daughter of Emanuel Thomas, of the Inner Temple, barrister. Her
person, as well as her writings, seems to have been dedicated to the
service of the public. The story of her having obtained a parcel of
Pope’s letters, written in youth, from Henry Cromwell, to whom they
were addressed, and selling them to Curll the bookseller, is well
known. In that celebrated collection, 2d Vol. 8vo. 1735, the following
letters from Dryden also appear. It would seem Corinna had contrived
to hook an acquaintance upon the good-natured poet, by the old pretext
of sending him two poems for his opinion. She afterwards kept up
some communication with his family, which she made the ground of two
marvellous stories, one concerning the astrological predictions of the
poet, the other respecting the mode of his funeral.

[170] “A Pastoral Elegy to the Memory of the Hon. Cecilia Bew,”
published afterwards in the Poems of Mrs Thomas, 8vo. 1727.

[171] Mrs Catharine Philips, a poetess of the last age. See Vol. XI, p.
111.

[172] She lived with her mother, Mrs Elizabeth Thomas, (as we learn
from Curll,) in Dyot-street, St Giles’s; but in the first edition of
the letter, for the greater honour, she represents it as addressed to
herself at Great Russell-street, Bloomsbury.

[173] In this lively romance, written to ridicule the doctrines of
Rosicrucian philosophy, we are informed, that the Nymphs of water, air,
earth, and fire, are anxious to connect themselves with the sages of
the human race. I remember nothing about their wish to be baptized; but
that desire was extremely strong among the fays, or female genii, of
the North, who were anxious to demand it for the children they had by
human fathers, as the means of securing to them that immortality which
they themselves wanted. Einar Godmund, an ancient priest, informed
the learned Torfæus, that they often solicited this favour, (usually
in vain,) and were exceedingly incensed at the refusal. He gave an
instance of Siward Fostre, who had promised to one of these fays, that
if she bore him a child, he would cause it to be christened. In due
time she appeared, and laid the child on the wall of the church-yard,
with a chalice of gold and a rich cope, as an offering at the
ceremony. But Siward, ashamed of his extraordinary intrigue, refused
to acknowledge the child, which, therefore, remained unbaptized. The
incensed mother re-appeared and carried off the infant and the chalice,
leaving behind the cope, fragments of which were still preserved. But
she failed not to inflict upon Siward and his descendants, to the ninth
generation, a peculiar disorder, with which they were long afflicted.
Other stories to the same purpose are told by Torfæus in his preface
to the “History of Hrolf Kraka,” 12mo. 1715. I suppose, however, that
Dryden only recollected the practice of magicians, who, on invoking
astral spirits, and binding them to their service, usually imposed on
them some distinguishing name. It is possible Paracelsus says something
to the purpose in his Magna Philosophia.

[174] In printing this letter, Mr Malone says, he “followed a
transcript which he made some years ago from the original. It is
preserved in a small volume in the Bodleian Library, consisting chiefly
of Pope’s original Letters to Henry Cromwell, which Mrs Thomas sold to
Curll, the bookseller, who published them unfaithfully. It afterwards
fell into the hands of Dr Richard Rawlinson, by whom it was bequeathed
to that Library.”

[175] Afra Behn, whose plays, poems, and novels, are very indecent;
yet an aged lady, a relation of the editor, assured him, that, in the
polite society of her youth, in which she held a distinguished place,
these books were accounted proper reading; and added, with some humour,
it was not till after a long interval, when she looked into them, at
the age of seventy, that she was shocked at their indecorum.

[176] The Pastoral Elegy on Mrs Bew, and the Triple League.

[177] Colonel Codrington wrote an epilogue to Dennis’ “Iphigenia.”
Dryden here talks rather slightingly of his acquaintance; but
“Iphigenia” is a most miserable piece.

[178] Mary, the daughter of Henry Mordaunt, the second Earl of
Peterborough, and wife of Thomas, the seventh Duke of Norfolk,
afterwards divorced for criminal conversation with Sir John Germaine.
See the Proceedings in the _State Trials_.

[179] The Right Hon. Charles Montague.

[180] He was about a year after created Lord Halifax.

[181] Lord Somers.--Mr Malone is of opinion, that this passage adds
some support to what has been suggested in our author’s Life, that
a part of Dryden’s “Satire to his Muse” was written in his younger
days by this great man. Yet I cannot think, that great man would be
concerned in so libellous a piece: and in the same breath Dryden tells
us, that he hoped Montague, who had really written against him, was
much his friend.

[182] Erasmus Dryden, who lived in King’s-street, Westminster, and was
a grocer. In Dec. 1710, he succeeded to the title of Baronet.

[183] Jemima, Mrs Steward’s youngest daughter, probably then four or
five years old.

[184] “Fables Ancient and Modern.”

[185] Elmes Steward, Esq., was appointed sheriff of the county of
Northampton in Nov. 1699.

[186] Dennis’s “Iphigenia” was performed at the theatre in Little
Lincoln’s Fields; and “Achilles, or Iphigenia in Aulis,” written
by Abel Boyer, and, if we are to believe the author, corrected by
Dryden, was acted at the theatre in Drury-Lane. Dennis says in his
Preface, that the success of his play was “neither despicable, nor
extraordinary;” but Gildon, in his “Comparison between the two Stages,”
8vo, 1702, informs us, that it was acted but six times; and that the
other tragedy, after four representations, was laid aside. MALONE.

[187] In the London Gazette, No. 3557, Thursday, December 14, 1699,
it is mentioned, that a proclamation for preventing and _punishing_
immorality and profaneness, had been issued out on the 11th instant.
We know, by the experience of our own time, the justice of Dryden’s
observation.

[188] Not at St James’ Church, but at the Chapel Royal. The pews, it
seems, were raised to prevent the devotions of the maids of honour
from any distractions in time of service. But the ballad maliciously
supposes, that the intention was to confine the sun-beams of their eyes
to the preacher, Bishop Burnet. The ballad itself may be found Vol. X.
p. 270.

[189] This poem is a banter upon the interest which the nobility took
in the disputes between the Dury-Lane theatre, where Skipwith was
manager, and that in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, of which Betterton was
sovereign. The “Island Princess” of Fletcher had been converted into
a sort of opera, by Peter Motteux, and acted at Drury-Lane in 1699.
The peculiar taste of Rich for every thing that respected show and
machinery is well known.


The CONFEDERATES, or the First Happy Day of the ISLAND PRINCESS.

    Ye vile traducers of the female kind,
    Who think the fair to cruelty inclined,
    Recant your error, and with shame confess
    Their tender care of Skipwith[190] in distress:
    For now to vindicate this monarch’s right,
    The Scotch and English equal charms unite;
    In solemn leagues contending nations join,
    And Britain labours with the vast design.
    An opera with loud applause is played,
    Which famed Motteux in soft heroics made;
    And all the sworn Confederates resort,
    To view the triumph of their sovereign’s court.
    In bright array the well-trained host appears;
    Supreme command brave Derwentwater[191] bears;
    And next in front George Howard’s bride[192] does shine,
    The living honour of that ancient line.
    The wings are led by chiefs of matchless worth;
    Great Hamilton,[193] the glory of the North,
    Commands the left; and England’s dear delight,
    The bold Fitzwalter[194] charges on the right.
    The Prince, to welcome his propitious friends,
    A throne erected on the stage ascends.
      He said:--Blest angels! for great ends designed,
    The best, and sure the fairest, of your kind,
    How shall I praise, or in what numbers sing
    Your just compassion of an injured king?
    Till you appeared, no prospect did remain,
    My crown and falling sceptre to maintain;
    No noisy beaus in all my realm were found;
    No beauteous nymphs my empty boxes crowned:
    But still I saw, O dire heart-breaking woe!
    My own sad consort[195] in the foremost row.
    But this auspicious day new empire gives;
    And if by your support my nation lives,
    For you my bards shall tune the sweetest lays,
    Norton[196] and Henley[197] shall resound your praise;
    And I, not last of the harmonious train,
    Will give a loose to my poetic vein.
      To him great Derwentwater thus replied:--
    Thou mighty prince, in many dangers tried,
    Born to dispute severe decrees of fate,
    The nursing-father of a sickly state;
    Behold the pillars of thy lawful reign!
    Thy regal rights we promise to maintain:
    Our brightest nymphs shall thy dominions grace,
    With all the beauties of the Highland race;
    The beaus shall make thee their peculiar care,
    For beaus will always wait upon the fair:
    For thee kind Beereton and bold Webbe shall fight,[198]
    Lord Scott[199] shall ogle, and my spouse shall write:[200]
    Thus shall thy court our English youth engross,
    And all the Scotch, from Drummond down to Ross.
      Now in his throne the king securely sat;
    But O! this change alarmed the rival state;
    Besides he lately bribed, in breach of laws,
    The fair deserter of her uncle’s cause.
    This roused the monarch of the neighbouring crown,
    A drowsy prince, too careless of renown.[201]
    Yet prompt to vengeance, and untaught to yield,
    Great Scarsdale[202] challenged Skipwith to the field.
    Whole shoals of poets for this chief declare,
    And vassal players attend him to the war.
    Skipwith with joy the dreadful summons took,
    And brought an equal force; then Scarsdale spoke;--
      Thou bane of empire, foe to human kind,
    Whom neither leagues nor laws of nations bind;
    For cares of high poetic sway unfit,
    Thou shame of learning, and reproach of wit;
    Restore bright Helen to my longing sight,
    Or now my signal shall begin the fight.--
      Hold, said the foe, thy warlike host remove,
    Nor let our bards the chance of battle prove:
    Should death deprive us of their shining parts,
    What would become of all the liberal arts?
    Should Dennis fall, whose high majestic wit,
    And awful judgment, like two tallies, fit,
    Adieu, strong odes, and every lofty strain,
    The tragic rant, and proud Pindaric vein.
    Should tuneful D’Urfey now resign his breath,
    The lyric Muse would scarce survive his death;
    But should divine Motteux untimely die,
    The gasping Nine would in convulsions lie:
    For these bold champions safer arms provide,
    And let their pens the double strife decide.
      The king consents; and urged by public good,
    Wisely retreats to save his people’s blood:
    The moving legions leave the dusty plain,
    And safe at home poetic wars maintain.


[190] Sir Thomas Skipwith, joint patentee and manager with Charles Rich
of the Drury-Lane theatre.

[191] Mary Tudor, natural daughter of Charles the Second, and lady of
Lord Ratcliff, (now Earl of Derwentwater,) to whom Dryden dedicated his
Third Miscellany. See Vol. XII. p. 47.

[192] Arabella, daughter of Sir Edward Allen, Bart. She first married
Francis Thompson, Esq. and was at this time the wife of Lord George
Howard, (eldest son of Henry, the sixth duke of Norfolk, by his second
wife,) who died in March 1720-21. MALONE.

[193] Elizabeth, daughter of Digby, Lord Gerard, and second wife of
James, Duke of Hamilton, who was killed in a duel by Lord Mohun, in
November 1712. MALONE.

[194] Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Bertie of Uffington, in the county
of Lincoln, Esq. a younger son of Montague, the second earl of Lindsey.
She was at this time the wife of Charles Mildmay, the second Lord
Fitzwalter of that family. MALONE.

[195] Margaret, daughter of George, Lord Chandos, and relict of William
Brownlow of Humby, in Lincolnshire.

[196] Richard Norton of Southwick, in Hampshire, Esq. Cibber’s comedy,
entitled, “Love’s last Shift,” was dedicated to this gentleman, in
February 1696-7. Mr Norton died December 10, 1732, in his sixty-ninth
year.

[197] Anthony Henley, of the Grange, in Hampshire, Esq., a man of parts
and learning, and a correspondent of Swift, who died in 1711.

[198] Perhaps General Webbe, whose “firm platoon” was afterwards
celebrated by Tickell. Of the prowess of Mr Beereton no memorials have
been discovered. MALONE.

[199] Lord Henry Scott, second surviving son of James, Duke of
Monmouth, who was born in 1676. In 1706 he was created Earl of
Deloraine; and died about 1730.

[200] The Earl of Derwentwater’s poetry, which, according to Dryden,
was none of the best.

[201] The famous Betterton, who, in 1695, again divided the two
companies, and headed that in Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

[202] Robert, third Earl of Scarsdale, a protector of Betterton’s
company.

[203] Alluding to the statutes imposing the oath of allegiance and
supremacy on all Catholics, under the penalty of incapacity to hold
landed property. 11 and 12 William III. cap. 4.

[204] The excellent comedy entitled the “Way of the World.” It had
cost Congreve much pains, and he was so much disgusted with the cold
reception alluded to in the text, that he never again wrote for the
stage.

[205] His Fables.

[206] King William had made large grants of land out of the forfeited
estates in Ireland, to his foreign servants, Portland, Albemarle,
Rochford, Galway, and Athlone, and to his favourite, Lady Orkney. The
Commons, who now watched every step of their deliverer with bitter
jealousy, appointed a commission to enquire into the value of these
grants; and followed it with a bill for resuming and applying them to
the payment of public debt; “and; in order to prevent the bill from
being defeated in the House of Lords, they, by a form seldom used, and
which very seldom should be used, tacked it to their bill of supply;
so that the Lords could not refuse the one, without disappointing the
other. The Lords, to secure themselves from that insignificancy, to
which the form of the bill tended to reduce them, disputed, in some
conferences with the Commons, the form of it with warmth; but the
resumption which it contained with indifference. And in both Houses,
even the servants of the Crown gave themselves little trouble to defeat
it; partly to gain popularity, but more from national antipathy to
foreigners, and envy at gifts in which themselves were no sharers.
The King, making allowances for national weaknesses, and for those
of human nature, passed the bill without any complaint in public,
but with a generous indignation in private, which perhaps made the
blow fall more heavy on his friends, when, in order to soften it, he
said to them, that it was for his sake, and not for their own, they
were suffering,”--_Dalrymple’s Annals._ William felt so deeply the
unkindness offered to him, that he prorogued the Parliament without the
usual ceremony of a speech from the throne.

[207] Mr Steward.

[208] More commonly called Vanbrugh. In Dryden’s age, the spelling of
proper names was not punctiliously adhered to.

[209] Dryden died on the 1st of May, and this letter was written on the
11th of the preceding month. The prologue and epilogue were therefore
composed within less than a month of his death.

[210] The Hall of the College of Physicians.

[211] Mr Malone doubts his being Doctor.

[212] Thomas.

[213] Sir Richard Philipps, according to Collins.

[214] Sir Edward Hartop, says Collins.

[215] Susanna, the wife of Sir John Pickering, according to Collins,
was the eldest daughter of Sir Erasmus Driden.

[216] Erasmus Driden, the poet’s father, was the writer’s great uncle.
All these corrections are made by Mr Malone.

[217] _Ego sum Preceptor Amoris._ ART. AM. Lib.

[218] His Ode on St Cecilia’s Day, entitled, Alexander’s Feast, or the
Power of Music.

[219] Mrs Philips.

[220] Mrs Behn.


[Transcriber's Note:

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]





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18, by John Dryden

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