D R Y D E N.

1631-1700.

Born at Aldwinkle, in Northamptonshire-Educated at Westminster and Cambridge--His late

appearance as a Poet-His first Verses—His Panegyric on Cromwell-His Poem on the Restoration-His first Play--Revival of the Drama-Heroic Plays with Rhyme-Becomes a constant Writer for the Stage-Made Poet Laureate-His controversy with Settle and Shadwell—Is ridiculed by the Duke of Buckingham in 'The Rehearsal '-Is beaten by bullies hired by the Earl of Rochester--His Political and Religious Satires—Publishes 'Absalom and Achitopel-The Medal -Mac Flecknoe'-Is converted to the Church of RomePublishes 'The Hind and the Panther'-Loses his office of Poet Laureate-His translations from Juvenal, Ovid, and Persius-His translation of Virgil-Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, and Fables—Death and burial in Westminster Abbey-Works and Character.

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Of the great poet whose life I am about to delineate, the curiosity which his reputation must excite will require a display more ample than can now be given. His contemporaries, however they reverenced his genius, left his life unwritten ; and nothing therefore can be known beyond what casual mention and uncertain tradition have supplied.

John Dryden was born August 9, 1631," at Aldwinkle, near Oundle, the son of Erasmus Dryden of Tichmarch, who was the third son of Sir Erasmus Dryden, Baronet, of Canons Ashby. All these places are in Northamptonshire ; but the original stock of the family was in the county of Huntingdon."

He is reported by his last biographer, Derrick,' to have inherited from his father an estate of two hundred a-year, and to have been

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bred, as was said, an Anabaptist. For either of these particulars no authority is given. Such a fortune ought

Such a fortune ought to have secured him from that poverty which seems always to have oppressed him ; or, if he had wasted it, to have made him ashamed of publishing his necessities. But though he had many enemies, who undoubtedly examined his life with a scrutiny sufficiently malicious, I do not remember that he is ever charged with waste of his patrimony. He was, indeed, sometimes reproached for his first religion. I am therefore inclined to believe that Derrick’s intelligence was partly true, and partly erroneous.

From Westminster School, where he was instructed as one of the King's scholars by Dr. Busby, whom he long after continued to reverence, he was in 1650 [11th May] elected to one of the Westminster scholarsbips at Cambridge.'

Of his school performances bas appeared only a poem on the death of Lord Hastings, composed with great ambition of such conceits as, notwithstanding the reformation begun by Waller and Denbam, the example of Cowley still kept in reputation. Lord Hastings died of the smallpox ; and his poet has made of the pustules first rosebuds, and then gems; at last exalts them into stars,

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and says,

“No comet need foretell his change drew on,
Whose corpse might seem a constellation." 9

At the university he does not appear to have been eager of poetical distinction, or to have lavished his early wit either on fictitious subjects or public occasions. He probably considered that he who proposed to be an author ought first to be a student. He obtained,

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whatever was the reason, no fellowship in the college. Why he was excluded cannot now be known, and it is vain to guess ; bad he thought himself injured, he knew how to complain. In the 'Life of Plutarch' he mentions his education in the college with gratitude ;" but in a prologue at Oxford he has these lines :

It was not till the death of Cromwell," in 1658 [Sept. 3], that he became a public candidate for fame, by publishing (1659] Heroic Stanzas on the late Lord Protector,' which, compared with the verses of Sprat and Waller on the same occasion, were sufficient to raise great expectations of the rising poet.

When the King was restored, Dryden, like the other panegyrists of usurpation, changed his opinion or his profession, and published (1660] 'Astræa Redux; a Poem on the happy Restoration and Return of his sacred Majesty King Charles the Second.'

The reproach of inconstancy was on this occasion shared with such numbers, that it produced neither hatred nor disgrace ! If he changed, he changed with the nation. It was, however, not totally forgotten when his reputation raised him enemies."

The same years he praised the new King in a second poem on his restoration. In the “ Astræa' was the line,

for which he was persecuted with perpetual ridicule, perhaps with more than was deserved. Silence is indeed mere privation ; and, so considered, cannot invade; but privation likewise certainly is darkness, and probably cold; yet poetry has never been refused the right of ascribing effects or agency to them as to positive powers. No man scruples to say that darkness hinders him from his work, or that cold has killed the plants. Death is also privation ; yet who has made any difficulty of assigning to Death a dart and the power of striking ?

In settling the order of his works there is some difficulty ; for even when they are important enough to be formally offered to a patron, he does not commonly date his dedication; the time of writing and publishing is not always the same; nor can the first editions be easily found, if even from them could be obtained the necessary information. 16

The time at which his first play was exhibited is not certainly known,because it was not printed till it was some years afterwards

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altered and revived ; but since the plays are said to be printed in the order in which they were written, from the dates of some those of others may be inferred ; and thus it may be collected, that in 1663, in the thirty-second year of his life, he commenced a writer for the stage ; compelled undoubtedly by necessity, for he appears never to have loved that exercise of his genius, or to have much pleased himself with his own dramas.

Of the stage, when he had once invaded it, he kept possession for many years ; not, indeed, without the competition of rivals, who sometimes prevailed, or the censure of critics, which was often poignant and often just ; but with such a degree of reputation as made him at least secure of being heard, whatever might be the final determination of the public.

His first piece was a comedy called the “Wild Gallant.'18 He began with no happy auguries ; for his performance was so much disapproved that he was compelled to recall it, and change it from its imperfect state to the form in which it now appears, and which is yet sufficiently defective to vindicate the critics."

I wish that there were no necessity of following the progress of his theatrical fame, or tracing the meanders of his mind through the whole series of his dramatic performances ; it will be fit, however, to enumerate them, and to take especial notice of those that are distinguished by any peculiarity, intrinsic or concomitant; for the composition and fate of eight-and-twenty dramas include too much of a poetical life to be omitted. In 1664 he published the Rival Ladies, 12which he dedicated to

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" the Earl of Orrery, a man of high reputation both as a writer and

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1662–8. See the Prologue to the Wild Gallant, on its first performance,' and Evelyn under 5th Feb. 1662-3.

18 First acted 5th Feb. 1662-3, and first published in 1669, 4to.

19 23rd Feb. 1662–3.—Took coach and to Court, and there saw "The Wild Gallant,' per. formed by the King's house, but it was ill acted, and the play so poor a thing as ever I saw in my life almost, and so little answering the name, that from the beginning to the end I could not, nor can at this time, tell certainly which was the Wild Gallant. The King did not seem pleased at all, the whole play, nor anybody else. My Lady Castlemaine was all worth seeing to-night, and little Steward [la Belle Stuart].—Pepys. Dryden has a copy of verses to the Countess of Castlemaine on her encouraging his first play.

20 4th Aug. 1664.–To a play at the King's house; 'The Rival Ladies,' a very innocent and · most pretty witty play. I was much pleased with it.

18th July, 1666.-Walked to Woolwich, reading The Rival Ladies' all the way, and find it a most pleasant and fine writ play.-PEPYS.

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