"The Pilgrim, a Comedy, as it is acted at the Theatre-royal in Drury-lane, written originally by Mr Fletcher, and now very much altered, with several additions; likewise, a Prologue, Epilogue, Dialogue, and Masque, written by the late great poet, Mr Dryden, just before his death, being the last of his works. Printed for Benjamin Tooke, near the Middle Temple Gate, in Fleet-street. 1700."
In the published copy our author is mentioned as dead:—"Governor. I hope before you go, sir, you'll share with us an entertainment, the late great poet of our age prepared to celebrate this day." But this, as Mr Malone observes, was probably an addition, after Dryden's death had taken place. Gildon, in his "Comparison between the Stages," seems to say that the play was performed for the benefit of Dryden's son; probably, because in his father's extreme illness, or upon his death, his son would naturally draw the profits. On the whole, it seems probable, that Dryden survived the performance of the play; as it is presumable that "The Secular Masque," being intended to solemnise the supposed termination of the century, was brought out as soon as possible in the new year.
[63] The savage amusement of bear-baiting was much in fashion in England during the seventeenth century. Tom Dove, although equipped with a name not very expressive of his properties, seems to have been a bear of great celebrity. Dryden honours him by another notice in the second Prologue on the Union of the Companies:
They roar so loud, you'd think, behind the stairs,
Tom Dove, and all the brotherhood of bears.
[64] Quack Maurus is the noted Sir Richard Blackmore, who, if he was not witty himself, was the cause of more wit in others than most who have favoured the world with their writings. In his Satire against Wit, he had proposed a sort of mint, in which the works of the witty should be purified and re-coined:
'Tis true, that, when the coarse and worthless dross
Is purged away, there will be mighty loss:
Even Congreve, Southerne, Manly, Wycherly,
When thus refined, will grievous sufferers be: