[37] Bought by Mr. Luttrell, 11th April 1683. See it in vol. x. It is expressly levelled against "The Duke of Guise," and generally against Dryden as a court poet. I may, however be wrong in ascribing it to Shadwell.
[38] I observe Anthony Wood, as well as Mr. Malone, suppose Hunt and the Templar associated in the Reflections to be the same person. But in the "Vindication of the Duke of Guise" Shadwell and they are spoke of as three distinct persons.
[39] See vol. xvii. In this edition I have retained a specimen of a translation which our author probably executed with peculiar care; selecting it from the account of the barricades of Paris, as illustrating the tragedy of "The Duke of Guise."
[40] [This story is told with great variation of figures. Johnson mentions two and three guineas as the old and new prices; others give four and six.—ED.]
[41] Probably alluding to having defended Clarendon in public company; for nothing of the kind occurs in Dryden's publications. [It is not impossible that the New Year's Day Poem (1662) to the Lord Chancellor is partly referred to here.—ED.]
[42] Probably the translation of "Religio Laici."
[43] [Some important evidence has come to light since Scott wrote, which shows that the response to Dryden's petitions and the reward of his services was not so insignificant as appears from the text, though it was meagre enough. The facts were not known fully even to Macaulay, and his ignorance enabled him, in perfect honesty, to make the case against Dryden, for supposed venal apostasy, stronger than it might otherwise appear. The documents referred to were discovered by Mr. Peter Cunningham and by Mr. Charles Beville Dryden, the latter of whom communicated his discovery to Mr. Robert Bell. As the facts are undoubted, and Macaulay's ignorance of them equally so, it seems a little remarkable that a reviewer of the little book on Dryden to which I am too often obliged to refer my readers, should have announced his adherence to "Macaulay and fact" rather than "Mr. Bell and sophistry." It is not obvious how fact can be on the side of a writer who was, owing to no fault of his own, ignorant of the fact, and whose ignorance furnished him with his premises. The state of the case is this. Dryden's application to Hyde produced the following Treasury warrant:—
—of the sume of Fifty pounds for one quarter of the said Annuity or Pencon due at Mid-summer 1680. And by Vertue of his Ma'ts Lres of Privy Scale directing an additionall Annuity of One hundred pounds to him the said John Dryden to draw one or more orders for payment of the sume of Twenty five Pounds for one Quarter of the said Annuity due at Lady day 1680. And let both the said sumes making the sume of Seaventy Five Pounds be satisfyed out of any his Ma'ts Treasure now or hereafter being and remaining in the Receipt of Excheq'r not appropriated to particular uses For w'ch this shal be your Warrant.
Whitehall Treasury Chambers May the 6th 1684
To our very Loving friend S'r Robert Rochester howard Kn't Auditor of the Receipt J Ernle'r of his Ma'ts Excheq'r. Ed Dering Int'r. in officio Auditor Ste: ffox Recpt see-ij Dni Regis Int'r in Oficio Clei Pell &c. Mr. Dryden 75_l_.