LIFE OF JOHN DRYDEN.

his councils. The first volume of Plutarch's Lives, with Dryden's life of the author, appeared in 1683. About the same time, the king's express command engaged Dryden in a work, which may be considered as a sort of illustration of the doctrines laid down in the "Vindication of the Duke of Guise." It was the translation of Maimbourg's "History of the League," expressly composed to draw a parallel between the Huguenots of France and the Leaguers, as both equal enemies of the monarchy. This comparison was easily transferred to the sectaries of England, and the association proposed by Shaftesbury. The work was published with unusual solemnity of title page and frontispiece: the former declaring, that the translation was made by his majesty's command; the lat-kind is least gratifying to a poverty-struck bard, and ter representing Charles on his throne, surrounded by emblems expressive of hereditary and indefeasible right. The dedication to the king contains sentiments which savour strongly of party violence, and even ferocity. The forgiving disposition of the king is, according to the dedicator, the encouragement of the conspirators. Like Antæus, they rise refreshed from a simple overthrow. "These sons of earth are never to be trusted in their mother element; they must be hoisted into the air, and strangled." Thus exasperated were the most gentle tempers in those times of doubt and peril. The rigorous tone adopted, confirms the opinion of those historians who observe, that, after the discovery of the Rye-house Plot, Charles was fretted out of his usual debonair ease, and became more morose and severe than had been hitherto thought consistent with his disposition.

This translation was to be the last service which Dryden was to render his good humoured, selfish, and thoughtless patron. While the laureate was preparing for the stage the opera of "Albion and Albanius," intended to solemnize the triumph of Charles over the Whigs, or, as the author expressed it the double restoration of his sacred majesty, the king died of an apoplexy upon the 6th February, 1684-5. His death opened to many, and to Dryden among others, new hopes and new prospects, which were, in his instance, doomed to terminate in disappointment and disgrace. We may therefore pause, and review the private life of the poet during the period which has occupied our last sections.

The vigour and rapidity with which Dryden poured forth his animated satire, plainly intimates, that his mind was pleased with the exercise of that formidable power. It was more easy for him, he has himself told us, to write with severity, than with forbearance; and indeed, where is the expert swordsman who does not delight in the flourish of his weapon? Neither could this selfcomplacent feeling be much allayed, by the vague and abusive ribaldry with which his satire was repaid. This was natural to the controversy, was no more than he expected, and was easily retorted with treble interest. "As for knave," says he, "and sycophant, and rascal, and impudent, and devil, and old serpent, and a thousand such good morrows, I take them to be only names of parties; and could return murderer, and cheat, and whig-napper, and sodomite; and, in short, the goodly number of the seven deadly sins, with all their kindred and relations, which are names of parties too; but saints will be saints, in spite of With such feelings, we may believe Dryvillany." den's rest was little disturbed by the litter of libels against him:

"Tom sent down to raise

The price of prologues and of plays."

It may seem surprising, that Dryden should be left to make an object of such petty gains, when, labouring for the service of government, he had in little more than twelve months produced both parts "Mac-Flecknoe," "Religio Laici" and "The Duke of "Absalom and Achitophel," "The Medal," of Guise." But this was not the worst; for, although his pension as poet laureate was apparently all the encouragement which he received from the crown, so ill regulated were the finances of Charles, so expensive his pleasures, and so greedy his favourites, that our author, shortly after finishing these immortal poems, was compelled to sue for more regular payment of that very pension, and for a more permanent provision, in the following affecting Memorial, addressed to Hyde, Earl of Rochestera little merit, and some "I would plead," says he, hazards of my life from the common enemies; my refusing advantages offered by them, and neglecting my beneficial studies, for the king's service; but only think I merit not to starve. I never applied myself 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 re

Sons of a day just buoyant on the flood, Then numbered with the puppies in the mud." But he who keenly engages in political controversy, must not only encounter the vulgar abuse, which he may justly contemn, but the altered eye of friends, whose regard is chilled, or alienated. That Dryden sustained such misfortune we cannot doubt, when he informs us that, out of the large See vol XVII. p. 80. In this edition I have retained a speci-putation of my lord, your father. After this, my Paris, as illustrating the tragedy of the Duke of Guisode of publications,pany; for nothing of the kind occurs in Dryden's

men of a translation, which our author probably executed with

VOL. VIII.

+ Probably alluding to the author having defended Clarendon

SECT. VI.J

RX LIFE OF JOHN DRYDEN.

company, who were involved by the expense in a considerable debt, and never recovered half the money laid out. Neither was it of service to our poet's reputation, who had, on this occasion, to undergo the gibes of angry musicians, as well as the reproaches of disappointed actors and hostile poets. One went so far as to suggest with some humour, that probably the laureate and Grabut had mistaken their trade; the former writing the music, and the latter the verse.

the poet was thirty years of age at the Restoration; so that a considerable space of his full-grown manhood has passed while the rigid doctrines of the fanatics were still the order of the day. But the third state of his opinions, those "sparkles which his pride struck out," after the delusions of puritanism had vanished; in other words, those sentiments which he imbibed after the Restoration, and which faith, cannot be ascertained without more minute immediately preceded his adoption of the Catholic We have now reached a remarkable incident in investigation. We may at the outset be easily perour author's life, namely, his conversion to the Ca- mitted to assume, that the adoption of a fixed creed tholic faith, which took place shortly after the ac- of religious principles was not the first business of cession of James II. to the British throne. The bio- our author, when that merry period set him free grapher of Dryden must feel considerable difficulty from the rigorous fetters of fanaticism. Unless he in discussing the probable causes of his change. differed more than we can readily believe from the Although this essay be intended to contain the life, public feeling at that time, Dryden was satisfied to not the apology of the poet, it is the duty of the give to Cesar the things that were Cesar's, with writer to place such circumstances in view, as may out being in a hurry to fulfil the counterpart of the qualify the strong prepossession at first excited by a precept. Foremost in the race of pleasure, engaged change of faith against the individual who makes it. in labours alien from serious reflection, the favourite This prepossession, powerful in every case, becomes of the most lively and dissolute nobility whom doubly so, if the step be taken at a time when the England ever saw, religious thoughts were not, at religion adopted seems more readily to pave the this period, likely to intrude frequently upon his way for the temporal prosperity of the proselyte. mind, or to be encouraged when they did so. The Even where the grounds of conviction are ample time, therefore, when Dryden began seriously to and undeniable, we have a respect for those who compare the doctrines of the contending sects of suffer, rather than renounce a mistaken faith, when Christianity, was probably several years after the it is discountenanced or persecuted. A brave man Restoration, when reiterated disappointment, and will least of all withdraw himself from his ancient satiety of pleasure, prompted his mind to retire withstandard when the tide of battle beats against it. in itself, and think upon hereafter. The "Religio On the other hand, those who at such a period ad- Laici," published in 1682, evinces, that, previous to mit conviction to the better and predominant doc- composing that poem, the author had bestowed trine, are viewed with hatred by the members of the serious consideration upon the important subjects deserted creed, and with doubt, by their new brethren of which it treats; and I have postponed the analyin faith. Many who adopted Christianity in the sis of it to this place, in order that the reader may reign of Constantine were doubtless sincere prose- be able to form his own conjecture from what faith The "Religio Laici" has indeed a political tenlytes, but we do not find that any of them have Dryden changed when he became a Catholic. been canonized. These feelings must be allowed powerfully to affect the mind, when we reflect, that dency, being written to defend the church of England Dryden, a servant of the court, and zealously at- against the sectaries: it is not, therefore, so much tached to the person of James, to whom he looked from the conclusions of the piece, as from the mode for the reward of long and faithful service, did not of the author's deducing these conclusions, that receive any mark of royal favour until he professed Dryden's real opinions may be gathered as we himself a member of the religion for which that king learn nothing of the bowl's bias from its having was all but an actual martyr. There are other con- reached its mark, though something may be considerations, however, greatly qualifying the conclu-jectured by observing the course, which it described sions which might be drawn from these suspicious in attaining it. From many minute particulars, I circumstances, and tending to show, that Dryden's think it almost decisive, that Dryden, when he conversion was at least in a great measure effected wrote the "Religio Laici," was sceptical concernby sincere conviction. The principal clue to the pro- ing revealed religion. I do not mean, that his doubts gress of his religious principles is to be found in the were of that fixed and permanent nature, which poet's own lines in "The Hind and the Panther;" have at different times induced men, of whom better and may, by a very simple commentary, be applied might have been hoped, to pronounce themselves den seems to have doubted with such a strong wish to the state of his religious opinions at different free thinkers on principle. On the contrary, Dryto believe, as, accompanied with circumstances of periods of his life: extrinsic influence, led him finally into the opposite extreme of credulity. His view of the doctrines of Christianity, and of its evidence, were such as could not legitimately found him in the conclusions he draws in favour of the church of England; and accordingly, in adopting them, he evidently stretches his complaisance towards the national religion, while perhaps in his heart he was even then disposed to think there was no middle course between natural religion and the church of Rome. The first creed which he examines is that of deism; which he rejects, because the worship of one sole deity was not known to the philosophers of antiquity, and is therefore obviously to be ascribed to revelation. whether the Scripture, as contended by Calvinists, Revelation thus proved, the puzzling doubt occurs, was to be the sole rule of faith, or whether the rules and traditions of the church are to be admitted in explanation of the holy text. Here Dryden does not hesitate to point out the inconveniences ensuing from making the sacred page the subject of the dubious and contradictory commentary of the laity at large: when

"My thoughtless youth was wing'd with vain desires: My manhood, long misled by wandering fires, Follow'd false lights; and, when their glimpse was gone, My pride struck out new sparkles of her own. Such was I, such by nature still I am; Be thine the glory, and be mine the shame!" The vain desires" of Dryden's "thoughtless youth" require no explanation: they obviously mean, that in attention to religious duties which the amusements of youth too frequently occasion. The "false lights" which bewildered the poet's manhood, were, I doubt not, the puritanical tenets, which, coming into the world under the auspices of his fanatical relations, Sir Gilbert Pickering and Sir John Driden, he must have at least professed, but probably seriously entertained. It must be remembered, that to four o'clock; in which interval they went to Whitehall, presented their address, and then met again.-Com. Jour. vol. IX. P. 735. About this time, therefore, it may be presumed, the news transpired, and in an hour afterwards probably reached the theatre, where an audience was assembled at the representation of the opera of Albion and Albanius: for plays at that time be gan at four o'clock. It seems from Mr. Luttrell's MS. note, that the first representation of this opera was on Saturday the 6th of June; and Downes (Rosc. Ang. p. 40) says, that in consequence of Monmouth's invasion, it was only performed six times; so that the sixth representation was, without doubt, on Saturday, the 13th of June. An examination of dates is generally fatal to tales of this kind: here, however, they certainly support the tradison mentioned in the text."-Life of Dryden, page 188,

markable, that his friends do not seem to have considered the "Religio Laici" as expressive of his decided sentiments: for Charles Blount, a noted This was the rule of the sectaries,-of those free-thinker, in consequence of that very work, whose innovations seemed, in the eyes of the To- wrote a deistical treatise in prose, bearing the same ries, to be again bursting in upon monarchy and title, and ascribed it with great testimony of reepiscopacy with the strength of a land-flood. Dry-spect to "his much honoured friend, John Dryden, den, therefore, at once, and heartily, reprobates it. Esquire." Mr. Blount, living in close habits with But the opposite extreme of admitting the authority Dryden, must have known perfectly well how to of the church as omnipotent in deciding all matters understand his polemical poem; and, had he supof faith, he does not give up with the same readi-posed it was written under a deep belief of the ness. The extreme convenience, nay, almost necessity, for such authority, is admitted in these remarkable lines:

2

to

D

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BRO LIFE OF JOHN DRYDEN.

Rome. He did not unloose from the secure haven to moor in the perilous road; but, being tossed on the billows of uncertainty, he dropped his anchor in the first moorings to which the winds, waves, and perhaps an artful pilot, chanced to convey his bark. We may indeed regret, that, having to choose between two religions, he should have adopted that which our education, reason, and even prepossessions, combine to point out as foully corrupted from the primitive simplicity of the Christian church. But neither the Protestant Christian, nor the sceptic philosopher, can claim a right to despise the sophistry which bewildered the judgment of Chilling, worth, or the toils which enveloped the active and suspicious minds of Bayle and of Gibbon. The latter, in his account of his own conversion to the Catholic faith, fixes upon the very arguments pleaded by Dryden, as those which appeared to him irresistible. The early traditions of the church, the express words of the text, are referred to by both as the grounds of their conversion; and the works of Bossuet, so frequently referred to by the poet, were the means of influencing the determination of the philosopher. The victorious argument to which Chillingworth himself yielded, was, that there must be some where an infallible judge, and the church of Rome 18 the only Christian society which either does or can pretend to that character."uoted a

It is also to be observed, that towards the end of the reign of Charles II., the high-churchmen and the Catholics regarded themselves as on the same side in political questions, and not greatly divided in their temporal interests. Both were sufferers in the plot, both were enemies of the sectaries, both were adherents of the Stuarts. Alternate conversion had been common between them, so early as since Milton made a reproach to the English universities of the converts to the Roman faith daily made within their colleges; of those sheep,

Whom the grim wolf with privy paw
Daily devours apace and nothing said."

In approaching Dryden, therefore, a Catholic priest had to combat few of those personal prejudices, which, in other cases, have been impediments to their making converts. The poet had, besides, before him the example of many persons both of rank and talent, who had adopted the Catholic religion, Such being the disposition of Dryden's mind, and such the peculiar facilities of the Roman churchmen in making proselytes, it is by no means to be denied, that circumstances in the poet's family and situation strongly forwarded his taking such a step. His wife, Lady Elizabeth, had for some time been a Catholic; and though she may be acquitted of any share in influencing his determination, yet her new faith necessarily brought into his family persons both able and disposed to do so. His eldest and best beloved son, Charles, is also said, though upon uncertain authority, to have been a Catholic before his father, and to have contributed to his

"I was unable to resist the weight of historical evidence, that within the same period most of the leading doctrines of Popery were already introduced in theory and practice; nor was my conclusion absurd, that miracles are the test of truth, and that the church must be orthodox and pure, which was so often approved by the visible interposition of the deity. The marvellous tales which are so boldly attested by the Basils and Chrysostoms, the Austins and Jeromes, compelled me to embrace the superior merits of celibacy, the institution of the monastic life, the use of the sign of the cross, of holy oil, and even of images, the invocation of saints, the worship of relics, the rudiments of purgatory in prayers for the dead, and the tremendous mystery of the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ, which insensibly swelled into the prodigy of transubstantiation. In these dispositions, and already more than half a convert. I formed an unlucky intimacy with a young gentleman of our college, whose name I shall spare. With a character less resolute, Mr. **** had imbibed the same religious opinions; and some Popish books, I know not through what channel, were conveyed into his possession. I read, 1 applauded. I believed; the English translations of two famous works of Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, the Exposition of the Catholic Doctrine, and the History of the Protestant Variations," achieved my conversion; and I surely fell by a noble hand. I have since examined the originals with a more discerning eye, and shall not hesitate to pronounce, that Bossuet is indeed a master of all the weapons of controversy. In the Exposition,' a specious apology, the orator assumes, with consummate art, the Bone of candour and simplicity; and the ten-horned monster is i

change. Above all, James, his master, to whose
fortunes he had so closely attached himself, had
now become as parsimonious of his favour as his
church is of salvation, and restricted it to those of
his own sect. It is more than probable, though
only a conjecture, that Dryden might be made the
subject of those private exhortations, which in that
reign were called closeting; and, predisposed as he
was, he could hardly be supposed capable of resist-
ing the royal eloquence. For, while pointing out
was not made by manner of bargain and sale, but
circumstances of proof, that Dryden's conversion
proceeded from a sincere though erroneous convic
tion, it cannot be denied, that his situation as poet
laureate and his expectations from the king, must
have conduced to his taking his final resolution.
All I mean to infer from the above statement is,
that his interest and internal conviction led him to
the same conclusion.

If we are to judge of Dryden's sincerity in his
new faith, by the determined firmness with which
we must allow him to have been a martyr, or at
he retained it through good report and bad report,
least a confessor, in the Catholic cause. If, after
the Revolution, like many greater men, he had
changed his principles with the times, he was not
the nation, and punished for former tenets. Sup-
a person of such mark as to be selected from all
ported by the friendship of Rochester, and most of
the Tory nobles who were active in the Revolution
of Leicester, and many Whigs, and especially of
the Lord Chamberlain Dorset, there would proba
bly have been but little difficulty in permitting so
eminent an author to remain poet laureate, if he had
recanted the errors of popery. But the Catholic
religion and the consequent disqualifications, were
an insurmountable obstacle to his holding that or
adherence to it, with all the poverty, reproach, and
any other office under government; and Dryden's
even persecution which followed the profession,
argued a deep and substantial conviction of the
truth of the doctrines it inculcated. So late as
1699, when a union, in opposition to King William,
had led the Tories and Whigs to look on each other
with some kindness, Dryden thus expresses him-
self in a letter to his cousin, Mrs. Steward: "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 back-
ward, in which they will be much deceived: for I
can never go an inch beyond my conscience and
my honour. 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 Catholic; they are
all so divided amongst themselves in matters of
faith, necessary to salvation, and yet all assuming
must be loved as soon as she is seen. In the History,' a bold
transformed, at his magic touch, into the milk-white Hind, whe
and well-aimed attack, he displays, with a happy mixture of nar
rative and argument, the faults and follies, the changes and con-
tradictions of our first reformers; whose variations, (as he dexter
truth. To my present feelings, it seems incredible, that I should
ously contends,) are the mark of historical error, while the perpet-
ever believe that I believed in transubstantiation. But my con
ual unity of the Catholic church is the sign and test of infallible
corpus meum, and dashed against each other the figurative
queror oppressed me with the sacramental words, Hoc est
half-meanings of the Protestant sects; every objection was resol-
ved into omnipotence; and, after repeating at St. Mary's the
Athanasian creed, I humbly acquiesced in the mystery of the real
presence.

"To take up half on trust, and half to try,
Name it not faith, but bungling bigotry.
To pay great sums, and to compound the small;
For who would break with heaven, and would not break for all.
Gibbon's Memoirs of his own Life.
Both knave and fool, the merchant we may call,

+ In a libel in the "State poems," vol. III., Dryden is made te say,

"One son turn'd me, I turned the other two, Page 244. But had not an indulgence, sir, like you."