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.”
——“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.”
[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.