have been found to contain the record of our poet's baptism.1 Dryden seems to have received the rudiments of his education at Tichmarsh,2 and was admitted a king's scholar at Westminster, under the tuition of the celebrated Dr Bushby, for whom he ever afterwards entertained the most sincere veneration. One of his letters to his old master is addressed, "Honoured Sir," and couched in terms of respect, and even humility, fully sufficient for the occasion. Another, written by Dryden, when his feelings were considerably irritated by a supposed injustice done to his son, is nevertheless qualified by great personal deference to his old preceptor. It may be readily supposed, that such a scholar, under so able a teacher, must have made rapid progress in classical learning. The bent of the juvenile poet, even at this early period, distinguished itself. He translated the third satire of Persius, as a Thursday night's task, and executed I" And though no wit can royal blood infuse, Yet much a certain poet undertook, Poetical Reflections, &c. See [SCOTT's Edition Another opponent of our author calls him "A bristled baptist bred, and then thy strain The Laureat, [Ibid.] vol. x., p. 105. 2 Upon a monument, erected by Elizabeth Creed to the poet's memory in the church at Tichmarsh, are these words: "We boast that he was bred and had his first learning here." Rose, Lucy, Mary, Martha, Elizabeth, Hester, Hannah, Abigail, Frances. Such anecdotes concerning them as my predecessors have recovered, may be found in the note.1 JOHN DRYDEN, the subject of this memoir, was born at the parsonage house of Oldwinkle AllSaints, on or about the 9th day of August, 1631. The village then belonged to the family of Exeter, as we are informed by the poet himself, in the postscript to his Virgil. That his family were puritans may readily be admitted; but that they were anabaptists, although confidently asserted by some of our author's political or poetical antagonists, appears altogether improbable. Notwithstanding, therefore, the sarcasm of the Duke of Buckingham, the register of Oldwinkle All-Saints parish, had it been in existence, would probably 1 Erasmus, the poet's immediate younger brother, was in trade, and resided in King-street, Westminster. He succeeded to the family title and estate upon the death of Sir John Dryden, and died at the seat of Canons-Ashby, 3d November, 1718, leaving one daughter and five grandsons. Henry, the poet's third brother, went to Jamaica, and died there, leaving a son, Richard. James, the fourth of the sons, was a tobacconist in London, and died there, leaving two daughters. Of the daughters, Mr Malone, after Oldys, says, that Agnes married Sylvester Emelyn of Stanford, Gent.; that Rose married ton; - Laughton of Calworth, D. D., in the county of Huntingthat Lucy became the wife of Stephen Umwell of London, merchant; and Martha of Bletso of Northampton. Another of the daughters was married to one Shermardine, a bookseller in Little Britain; and Frances, the youngest, to Joseph Sandwell, a tobacconist in Newgate street. This last died, 10th October, 1730, at the advanced age of ninety. She had survived the poet about thirty years. Of the remaining four sisters, no notices occur. T have been found to contain the record of our poet's baptism.1 2 Dryden seems to have received the rudiments of his education at Tichmarsh, and was admitted a king's scholar at Westminster, under the tuition of the celebrated Dr Bushby, for whom he ever afterwards entertained the most sincere veneration. One of his letters to his old master is addressed, "Honoured Sir," and couched in terms of respect, and even humility, fully sufficient for the occasion. Another, written by Dryden, when his feelings were considerably irritated by a supposed injustice done to his son, is nevertheless qualified by great personal deference to his old preceptor. It may be readily supposed, that such a scholar, under so able a teacher, must have made rapid progress in classical learning. The bent of the juvenile poet, even at this early period, distinguished itself. He translated the third satire of Persius, as a Thursday night's task, and executed I" And though no wit can royal blood infuse, Poetical Reflections, &c. See [SCOTT's Edition Another opponent of our author calls him "A bristled baptist bred, and then thy strain The Laureat, [Ibid.] vol. x., p. 105. 2 Upon a monument, erected by Elizabeth Creed to the poet's memory in the church at Tichmarsh, are these words: "We boast that he was bred and had his first learning here." many other exercises of the same nature, in English verse, none of which are now in existence. During the last year of his residence at Westminster, the death of Henry Lord Hastings, a young nobleman of great learning, and much beloved, called forth no less than ninety-eight elegies, one of which was written by our poet, then about eighteen years old. They were published in 1650, under the title of "Lachrymæ Musarum." Dryden, having obtained a Westminster scholarship, was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, on the 11th May, 1650, his tutor being the reverend John Templer, M.A., a man of some learning, who wrote a Latin Treatise in confutation of Hobbes, and a few theological tracts and single sermons. While at college, our author's conduct seems not to have been uniformly regular. He was subjected to slight punishment for contumacy to the vice-master, and seems, according to the statement of an obscure libeller, to have been engaged in some public and notorious dispute with a noble 2 "I remember," says Dryden, in a postscript to the argument of the third satire of Persius, "I translated this satire when I was a king's scholar at Westminster school, for Thursday night's exercise; and believe, that it, and many other of my exercises of this nature in English verse, are still in the hands of my learned master, the Rev. Dr Bushby." The following order is quoted, by Mr Malone, from the Conclusion-book, in the archives of Trinity College, p. 221.— "July 19, 1652. Agreed, then, That Dryden be put out of Comons, for a fortnight at least; and that he goe not out of the colledg, during the time aforesaid, excepting to sermons, without express leave from the master, or vice-master; and that, at the end of the fortnight, he read a confession of his man's son, probably on account of the indulgence of his turn for satire.' He took, however, the degree of Bachelor, in January 1653-4, but neither became Master of Arts, 2 nor a fellow of the university, and certainly never retained for it much of that veneration usually paid by an English scholar to his Alma Mater. He often celebrates Oxford, but only mentions Cambridge as the contrast of the sister university in point of taste and learning: "Oxford to him a dearer name shall be Thebes did his green, unknowing youth engage; A preference so uncommon, in one who had studied at Cambridge, probably originated in those slight disgraces, or perhaps in some other cause of disgust, which we may now search for in vain. In June 1654, the death of his father, Erasmus Dryden, proved a temporary interruption to our author's studies. He left the university, on this occasion, to take possession of his inheritance, con crime in the hall, at dinner-time, at the three fellowes table."-"His crime was, his disobedience to the vice-master, and his contumacy in taking his punishment inflicted by him." 1 Shadwell, in the Medal of John Bayes, "At Cambridge first your scurrilous vein began, Where saucily you traduced a nobleman; Who for that crime rebuked you on the head, And you had been expell'd, had you not fled." 2 He received this degree by dispensation from the Archbishop of Canterbury. 3 Prologue to the University of Oxford, [Dryden's Works.] vol. x., p. 385. |