of fuch an author deferve, and which by our labour we have endeavoured to awaken, we shall reprint his Virgil and his Plays in the fame fize, which will make up a complete and uniform fet of his works.

No body, we hope, will blame us for leaving out in this edition most of the complimentary copies of verses prefixed to our author's works : they were few of them worth preferving; but it was the custom of the times for every man who was fuppofed capable of writing, to furnish his friend with fuch a prefent, on his printing any thing; and the publication of them, indifcriminately, was obferved, because they were mostly folicited.

THE

LIFE

O F

JOHN DRYDEN, Efq;

D

RYDEN's univerfal genius, his firmly eftablished reputation, and the glory his memory must always reflect upon the nation that gave him birth, make us ardently wish for a more accurate life of him than any which has hitherto appeared: nor will, we hope, the learned writers of the Biographica Britannica, nor thofe of the General Dic-. tionary, be offended with us for thinking, that, even after their labours, fomething farther may be done. That we are furnished with fome new materials, the judicious reader will eafily perceive: where these are wanting, we have endeavoured to be more clear, by being less diffusive, and by avoiding as much as poffible that variety of notes, into which they feem by their plan to have been neceffarily led.

The Drydens are a reputable and wealthy family, fettled at Canons-Afhby in Northamptonshire; the chief of which, Erafmus, was by letters patent of James I. dated in November 1619, advanced to the dignity of a Baronet. He intermarried with the daughter of William Wilkes, Efq; of Hodnel, in Warwickshire; and Erafmus Dryden, of Tichmarsh, in the county of Northampton, Efq; the third fon of this marriage, had for his eldest born and heir, by Mary the daughter of John Pickering, D. D. rector of Aldwincle, John, whofe life we are now about to write.

John Dryden was born at Aldwincle, near Oundle, Auguft the 9th, 1631, and on his father's death came into poffeffion of an eftate of 200l. per ann. He is faid to have been bred an anabaptift, and this may in some measure excuse the praises he has bestowed on Oliver. It redounds to a man's honour to fee his errors, and renounce them: there cannot be a ftronger proof of judgment and integrity, and we have no reafon to doubt Dryden's being afterwards zealously attached to the Stuart's family, through duty as well as gratitude.

He was bred at Westminster-school, under the great Doctor Bufby, being entered a king's fcholar: while here he wrote the poem on lord Haftings's death, which is the firft in this collection, and tranflated the Third Satire of Perfius, for a Thurfday night's exercife. The latter is much the better performance; and it is not unlikely that he retouched it before he permitted it to be publifhed. He fays, he believes he left feveral other poetical exercifes in the hands of his learned preceptor. In 1650 he was elected thence a fcholar of Trinity-college, Cambridge. His heroic stanzas on the death of the Lord Protector, appeared in 1658; and on the restoration he published a poem called Aftrea Redux; with another on king Charles the Second's Coronation. On New-year's day 1662, he prefented a poem to lord chancellor Hyde; and the fame year wrote a loofe fatire on the Dutch, the first twenty-four lines of which he afterwards prefixed as a prologue to his play of Amboina, with an addition of the ten laft lines. The conclufion of this fatire beginning

To one well-born th' affront is worse, &c.

introduced by four new lines, ferve here as an epilogue.

His firft play was a comedy called the Wild Gallant, the plot of which, he fays, was not originally his own. It was but cooly received, and this convinced him, that for a firft attempt in dramatic poetry, co

medy, which is the most difficult part of it, was a bold one. I fuppofe it might have been exhibited in 1663; as his fecond performance of this kind, being a tragi-comedy intitled the Rival Ladies, was brought out in 1664, and published with a dedication to the great Roger earl of Orrery; in which he ftands forth as an advocate for writing plays in rhyme. Here he obferves, that before the days of Shakefpear, lord Buckhurst had written a play in rhyme, entituled, Queen Gorboduc, whereas it was King Gorboduc, the compofition blank verfe; and only the two lait acts were written by that eminent nobleman; the author of the three first acts being one Mr. Thomas Norton. These are overfights, in which Langbaine, who miffes no opportunity of ufing our author with afperity, triumphs prodigiously. His arguments were controverted by Sir Robert Howard, in a preface to a volume containing fome dramatic pieces; and defended by him in his effay on Dramatic Poefy, which was printed in 1668. A reply to this defence appeared before Sir Robert's Duke of Lerma, and an answer to it is prefixed to our author's Indian Emperor. Here I believe the difpute dropp'd; in keeping up of which Dryden was not fo much to blame, as Langbane in his lives of the Dramatic Poets would fain infinuate; for Sir Robert was certainly the aggreffor.

The gentleman laft mentioned affifted our author in writing a tragedy called the Indian Queen, which was acted wirh applaufe in 1665. In the fummer of this year he prefented the dutchess of York with a copy of verses on the fignal victory gained by the duke her husband over the Hollanders at fea, and on her grace's journey into the north.

His fourth play, called the tragedy of the Indian Emperor, or the Conqueft of Mexico by the Spaniards, being the fequel of the Indian Queen, was exhibited in October 1667, and met with prodigious fuccefs. It is written in heroic verfe or rhyme

and dedicated to the dutchefs of Monmouth and Buccleugh.

Sir William D'Avenant joined with Dryden in altering Shakespear's Tempeft. It was prefented, with the additional name of the Inchanted Ifland, at the duke's theatre in 1667, as appears from the epilogue, and greatly approved of. We are informed in the preface, that the humour of the failors was of Sir William's writing; and that he invented the character of Hippolito, who never faw a woman, to match with Miranda in Shakespear's Tempeft, who never faw a

man.

Sir William D'Avenant dying in April 1668, our author fucceeded him as poet-laureat and hiftoriographer to the king.

An Evening's Love, or the Mock Aftrologer, a comedy, was exhibited at the theatre royal in 1671, and dedicated to the romantic writing duke of Newcastle; before it we find a preface, in which the author difcourses upon comedy and farce, and their difference; paffes fome ftrictures upon Ben. Jonson, and then proceeds to defend poets in plagiarifm and imitation, when made to good purpose. His arguments on this head are candid and judicious. It was in this memorable year, that the duke of Buckingham fatirized him fo feverely in the play of the Rehearsal, under the name of Bayes: this character was originally called Bilboa, and intended for Sir Robert Howard; but the knight was deprived of the compliment by the breaking out of the plague, whereby the exhibition of the piece, which was finished in 1665, was prevented. It must be owned, the ridicule is in many places juft and ftriking, though Mr. Dryden affects to treat it with great contempt, particularly in the dedication of his tranflations from Juvenal and Perfius to the earl of Dorfet, fee vol. iv. of this edit. p. 163, near the bottom. The plays of our author ridiculed in this whimfical performance, are, the Wild Gallant; Tyrannic Love; the Conquest of