"1 tion of his learning and eminent abilities, and his great skill and elegant style, both in verse and prose." Thus was our author placed at the head of the literary class of his countrymen, so far as that high station could be conferred by the favour of the monarch. If we compute Dryden's share in the theatre at L.300 annually, which is lower than it was rated by the actors in their petition; 2 if we make, at the same time, some allowance for those presents which authors of that time received upon presenting dedications, or occasional pieces of poetry; if we recollect, that Dryden had a small landed property, and that his wife, Lady Elizabeth, had probably some fortune, or allowance, however trifling, from her family, I think we will fall considerably under the mark in computing the poet's income, during this period of prosperity, at L.600 or L.700 annually;3 a sum more adequate to procure all the 1 Pat. 22 Car. ii., p. 6, n. 6. Malone, i., p. 88. ? Their account was probably exaggerated. Upon a similar occasion, the master of the revels stated the value of his winter and summer benefit plays at L.50 each; although, in reality, they did not, upon an average, produce him L.9.-See MALONE'S Historical Account of the Stage. 3 [This point has been investigated by Malone with a minuteness which, in this instance, we certainly think wellemployed (Malone's Life, p. 144). From his data, it seems that Mr Scott has rated Dryden's income rather too high; but if we suppose him to have possessed but L.500 a-year, equal at least to L. 1500 at present, this is placing the circumstances of a poet, who has been a proverb, even among his own tribe, for penury, in a very new light. Yet he has never been accused of extravagance, or over-stating his own distresses. comforts, and many of the luxuries, of life, than thrice the amount at present. We must, at the same time, recollect, that, though Dryden is nowhere censured for extravagance, poets are seldom capable of minute economy, and that Lady Elizabeth was by education, and perhaps by nature, unfitted for supplying her husband's deficiencies. These halcyon days, too, were but of short duration. The burning of the theatre, in 1670, greatly injured the poet's income from that quarter; his pension, like other appointments of the household establishment of Charles II., was very irregularly paid; and thus, if his income was competent in amount, the payment was precarious and uncertain. Leaving Dryden for the present in the situation which we have described, and which he occupied during the most fortunate period of his life, the next Section may open with an account of the public taste at this time, and of the revolution in it which shortly took place. We must suppose, therefore, that his income was irregular, and his salary not regularly forthcoming from the scanty exchequer of Charles.-HALLAM, 1808.] SECTION III. Heroic Plays-The Rehearsal-Marriage a-la-ModeThe Assignation-Controversy with Clifford—with Leigh -with Ravenscroft-Massacre of Amboyna-State of Innocence. THE rage for imitating the French stage, joined to the successful efforts of our author, had now carried the heroic or rhyming tragedy to its highest pitch of popularity. The principal requisites of 1 [" It is justly observed by Mr Scott, that the French theatre, which was now thought to be in perfection, guided the criticism of Charles the Second's court, and afforded the pattern of those tragedies, which continued in fashion for twenty years after the Restoration, and which were called rhyming or heroic plays. He finds the origin of that unnatural and pedantic dialogue which prevailed through these performances, in the romances of Calprenede and Scuderi; and in the necessity of modifying every expression of passion and feeling, so as not to exceed the decorum prescribed by the presence of a royal spectator. It may be doubtful, however, whether the inflexible nature of French verse, and its want of a proper poetical dialect, will not principally account for these defects. They were, too, established and rendered legitimate by the authority of Corneille, whose genius, in many respects, resembled that of Dryden. It would be ridiculous (although we think Dryden, upon the whole, by far the superior) to balance his heroic plays against Cinna and Polyeucte; but the merits and defects of the two writers are much of the same class. Voltaire somewhere confesses of his countrymen, that he has written no line that ever drew a tear; an avowal, by such a drama are summed up by Dryden in the two first lines of the " Orlando Furioso," "Le Donne, i cavalieri, l' arme, gli amori Le cortesie, audaci imprese." The story thus partaking of the nature of a romance of chivalry, the whole interest of the play necessarily turned upon love and honour, those supreme idols of the days of knight-errantry. The love introduced was not of that ordinary sort, which exists between persons of common mould; it was the love of Amadis and Oriana, of Oroondates and Statira; that love which required a sacrifice of every wish, hope, and feeling, uncon-、 nected with itself, and which was expressed in the language of prayer and of adoration. It was that love which was neither to be chilled by absence, nor wasted by time, nor quenched by infidelity. No caprice in the object beloved entitled her slave to emancipate himself from her fetters; no command, however unreasonable, was to be disobeyed; if required by the fair mistress of his affections, the hero was not only to sacrifice his interest, but his friend, his honour, his word, his country, even the gratification of his love itself, to maintain the character of a submissive and faithful adorer. the way, which ought to have silenced him, when he affected to set the name of Corneille above that of Shakspeare. Of Dryden, the same may perhaps be said, with very little exception; but each had great knowledge of men; great power of reasoning in forcible and compressed language; and a command of the versification of his own tongue. The following account of these heroic tragedies is lively and just."HALLAM.] Much of this mystery is summed up in the following speech of Almahide to Almanzor, and his answer; from which it appears, that a lover of the true heroic vein never thought himself so happy, as when he had an opportunity of thus showing the purity and disinterestedness of his passion. Almanzor is commanded by his mistress to stay to assist his rival, the king, her husband. The lover very naturally asks, "Almanz. What recompense attends me, if I stay? I no return of love can ever make, But what I ask is for my husband's sake; Your virtue to the hardest proof I bring ;— Almanz. I'll stop at nothing that appears so brave: You've given my honour such an ample field, The king, however, not perhaps understanding this nice point of honour, grows jealous, and wishes to dismiss the disinterested ally, whom his spouse's beauty had enlisted in his service. But this did not depend upon him; for Almanzor exclaims, "Almanz. I wonnot go; I'll not be forced away: I came not for thy sake; nor do I stay. And thou, by me, in spite of thee, shalt reign." |