be waylaid and beaten. This incident is mentioned by the duke of Buckinghamshire, the true writer, in his Art of Poetry; where he says of Dryden,

Though prais'd and beaten for another's rhymes, His own deserves as great applause sometimes.

His reputation in time was fuch, that his name was thought neceffary to the success of every poetical or literary performance, and therefore he was engaged to contribute fomething, whatever it might be, to many publications. He prefixed the Life of Polybius to the tranflation of Sir Henry Sheers; and those of Lucian and Plutarch to verfions of their works by different hands. Of the English Tacitus he tranflated the first book; and, if Gordon be credited, tranflated it from the French. Such a charge can hardly be mentioned without fome degree of indignation; but it is not, I suppose, so much to be inferred that Dryden wanted the literature neceffary to the perufal of Tacitus, as that, confidering himself as hidden in a crowd, he had no awe of the publick; and writing merely for money, was contented to get it by the nearest way.

In 1680, the Epiftles of Ovid being trans

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lated

lated by the poets of the time, among which
one was the work of Dryden, and another of
Dryden and Lord Mulgrave, it was neceffary
to introduce them by a preface; and Dry-
den, who on fuch occafions was regularly
fummoned, prefixed a difcourfe upon tranf-
lation, which was then ftruggling for the
liberty that it now enjoys. Why it should
find any difficulty in breaking the fhackles of
verbal interpretation, which must for ever
debar it from elegance, it would be difficult
to conjecture, were not the power
of preju-
dice every day obferved. The authority of
Jonfon, Sandys, and Holiday, had fixed the
judgement of the nation; and it was not eafi-
ly believed that a better way could be found
than they had taken, though Fanshaw, Den-
ham, Waller, and Cowley, had tried to give
examples of a different practice,

In 1681, Dryden became yet more confpicuous by uniting politicks with poetry, in the memorable fatire called Abfalom and Achitophel, written against the faction which, by lord Shaftesbury's incitement, fet the duke of Monmouth at its head,

Of this poem, in which personal satire was applied to the support of publick principles,

and

and in which therefore every mind was interested, the reception was eager, and the fale fo large, that my father, an old bookfeller, told me, he had not known it equalled but by Sacheverell's trial,

The reafon of this general perufal Addifon has attempted to derive from the delight which the mind feels in the investigation of fecrets; and thinks that curiofity to decypher the names procured readers to the poem. There is no need to enquire why thofe verfes were read, which, to all the attractions of wit, elegance, and harmony, added the cooperation of all the factious paffions, and filled every mind with triumph or resent

ment.

It could not be fuppofed that all the provocation given by Dryden would be endured without refiftance or reply. Both his perfon and his party were expofed in their turns to the shafts of fatire, which, though neither fo well pointed nor perhaps so well aimed, undoubtedly drew blood.

One of thefe poems is called Dryden's Satire on his Mufe; afcribed, though, as Pope

fays,

fays, falfely, to Somers, who was afterwards Chancellor. The poem, whofe foever it was, has much virulence, and fome fpritelinefs. The writer tells all the ill that he can collect both of Dryden and his friends.

The poem of Abfalom and Achitophel had two answers, now both forgotten; one called Azaria and Hufbai; the other Abfalom fenior. Of these hoftile compofitions, Dryden apparently imputes Abfalom fenior to Settle, by quoting in his verses against him the second line. Azaria and Hufhai was, as Wood fays, imputed to him, though it is fomewhat unlikely that he should write twice on the fame occafion. This is a difficulty which I cannot remove, for want of a minuter knowledge of poetical transactions.

The fame year he published the Medal, of which the subject is a medal struck on lord Shaftesbury's escape from a profecution, by the ignoramus of a grand jury of Londoners,

In both poems he maintains the fame principles, and faw them both attacked by the fame antagonist. Elkanah Settle, who had anfwered Abfalom, appeared with equal

ΙΟ

courage

courage in oppofition to the Medal, and published an anfwer called The Medal reverfed, with so much success in both encounters, that he left the palm doubtful, and divided the fuffrages of the nation. Such are the revolutions of fame, or fuch is the prevalence of fashion, that the man whose works have not yet been thought to deserve the care of collecting them; who died forgotten in an hofpital; and whofe latter years were spent in contriving shows for fairs, and carrying an elegy or epithalamium, of which the beginning and end were occafionally varied, but the intermediate parts were always the fame, to every house where there was a funeral or a wedding; might, with truth, have had infcribed upon his stone,

Here lies the Rival and Antagonist of Dryden.

Settle was, for this rebellion, severely chaftifed by Dryden under the name of Doeg, in the fecond part of Abfalom and Achitophel, and was perhaps for his factious audacity made the city poet, whose annual office was to defcribe the glories of the Mayor's day. Of these bards he was the last, and seems not much to have deserved