cant words which are fo often in his mouth may be supposed to have been Dryden's habitual phrafes, or customary exclamations. Bays, when he is to write, is blooded and purged: this, as Lamotte relates himself to have heard, was the real practice of the poet. There were other ftrokes in the Rebearfal by which malice was gratified: the debate between Love and Honour, which keeps prince Volfcius in a fingle boot, is faid to have alluded to the mifconduct of the duke of Ormond, who loft Dublin to the rebels while he was toying with a mistress. The earl of Rochester, to fupprefs the reputation of Dryden, took Settle into his protection, and endeavoured to perfuade the publick that its approbation had been to that time mifplaced. Settle was a while in high reputation: his Empress of Morocco, having first delighted the town, was carried in triumph to Whitehall, and played by the ladies of the court. Now was the poetical meteor at the highest, the next moment began its fall. Rochester withdrew his patronage: feeming refolved, fays one of his biographers, to have a judgement contrary to that of the town. Perhaps being unable to endure any reputation beyond a certain height, even when he had himself contributed to raise it. Neither criticks nor rivals did Dryden much mischief, unless they gained from his own temper the power of vexing him, which his frequent bursts of refentment give reason to fufpect. He is always angry at fome paft or afraid of fome future cenfure; but he leffens the fiart of his wounds by the balm of his Own own approbation, and endeavours to repel the shafts of criticism by opposing a shield of adamantine confidence. The perpetual accufation produced against him was that of plagiarism, against which he never attempted any vigorous defence: for, though he was perhaps fometimes injuriously cenfured, he would by denying part of the charge have confeffed the reft: and as his adverfaries had the proof in their own hands, he, who knew that wit had little power against facts, wifely left in that perplexity which generality produces a queftion which it was his intereft to fupprefs, and which, unless provoked by vindication, few were likely to examine. Though the life of a writer, from about thirty-five to fixty-three, may be fuppofed to have been fufficiently bufied by the compofition of eight and twenty pieces for the ftage, Dryden found room in the fame space for many other undertakings. But, how much foever he wrote, he was at least once suspected of writing more; for in 1679 a paper of verfes called an Effay on Satire, was fhewn about in manufcript, by which the earl of Rochester, the dutchess of Portsmouth, and others, were fo much provoked, that, as was fuppofed, for the actors were never difcovered, they procured Dryden, whom they fufpected as the author, to 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 reputation in time was fuch, that his name was thought neceffary to the fuccefs 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 translation 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 fuppofe, fo 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 translated by the poets of the time, among which one was the work of Dryden, and another of Dryden and Lord Mulgrave, it was necessary to introduce them by a preface; and Dryden, who on fuch occafions was regularly fummoned, prefixed a difcourfe upon tranflation, which was then ftruggling for the liberty that it now enjoys. Why it thould find any difficulty in breaking the thackles of verbal interpretation, which muft for ever debar it from elegance, it would be difficult to conjecture, were not the power of prejudice every day obferved. The authority of Jonfon, Sandys, and Holiday, had fixed the judgement of the nation; and it was not easily believed that a better way could be found than they had taken, U though though Denham, 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 fatire was applied to the fupport of publick principles, 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 Sacheverel's trial. The reason of this general perufal Addison 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 verses were read, which, to all the attractions of wit, elegance, and harmony, added the co-operation of all the factious paffions, and filled every mind with triumph or refentment. It could not be fuppofed that all the provo cation given by Dryden would be endured without refiftance or reply. Both his perfon and his party were expofed in their turns to the fhafts of fatire, which, though neither fo well pointed nor perhaps fo well aimed, undoubtedly drew blood. One of these poems is called Dryden's Satire on his Mufe; afcribed, though, as Pope fays, falfely, to Somers, who was afterwards Chancellor. The poem, whofe foever it was, has much much virulence, and fome spriteliness. The writer tells all the ill that he can collect, both of Dryden and his friends. The poem of Abfalom and Achitophel had two anfwers, now both forgotten; one called Azaria and Hufbai; the other, Abfalom fenior. Of these hostile compofitions, Dryden apparently imputes Abfalom fenior to Settle, by quoting in his verfes against him the fecond line. Azaria and Hufhai was, as Wood fays, imputed to him, though it is fomewhat unlikely that he fhould write twice on the fame occafion. This is a difficulty which I cannot remove, for want of a minuter knowledge of poetical tranfactions. The fame year he published the Medal, of which the fubject is a medal ftruck 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 courage in oppofition to the Medal, and published an anfwer called The Medal reverfed, with fo much fuccefs 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 fhows for fairs, and carrying an elegy or epithalamium, of which the beginning and end were occafionally varied, but the intermediate parts were al U 2 ways |