Three tragedies in heroic verse, 'Tyrannic Love, or the Royal Martyr,' and 'Almanzor and Almahide, or the Conquest of Granada,' in two parts, each being a separate play, appeared in 1669 and 1670, and added greatly to Dryden's fame. Tyrannic Love' was dedicated to the Duke of Monmouth, and 'The Conquest of Granada' to the Duke of York. In August 1670 he received a substantial mark of royal favour. The two appointments of Poet Laureate and Historiographer Royal, which had been vacant, the one since the death of Sir William Davenant in 1668, the other since the death of James Howell in 1666, were conferred upon Dryden, with a salary of 200l. a year and arrears from Midsummer 1668; and an annual butt of canary wine from the King's cellars was added to the salary.

In December 1671, 'The Rehearsal,' a farce the preparation of which had for some ten years occupied the second George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and in which he is said to have had assistance from the author of 'Hudibras' and others, was brought out at the King's Theatre. The object of this farce was to ridicule the rhymed tragedies of the Restoration. The farce had been begun some time before the death of the former poet laureate, Davenant, and he had been the original hero, but Davenant dying before the farce was finished, Dryden, his successor in the laureateship, was caricatured in his stead as the poet 'Bayes.' It is said that the Duke of Buckingham himself drilled the actor, Lacey, to whom the part of 'Bayes' was allotted, to imitate Dryden's mannert. The piece had a great success, and its fame endures; the name of Bayes stuck to Dryden through life. Dryden bore this attack in silence, claiming credit in later years for a forbearance which was probably prompted by prudence, for Buckingham was at the time a leading minister and in great favour with the King".

t Spence's Anecdotes (Villiers, Duke of Buckingham).

u There is a severe and vigorous poem on the Duke of Buckingham printed in the collection called 'State Poems,' which some have ascribed

During the year 1671 'Dryden produced no play. In January 1672 the King's Theatre in Drury Lane was burnt down, and the company removed to a house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. The impoverished circumstances of the company, which directly affected himself, probably stimulated Dryden to exertion, and in this year he produced two new comedies, 'Marriage à la Mode,' which was very successful, and 'The Assignation, or Love in a Nunnery,' which was condemned. 'Amboyna, or the Cruelties of the Dutch to the English Merchants,' was Dryden's next production. England and France were now jointly engaged in war against Holland, and the tragedy of 'Amboyna' was written for the purpose of inflaming national feeling against the Dutch. This is one of Dryden's worst plays. It was written, he says, 'in haste, but with an English heart.' This eager advocate of the Dutch war of 1672 afterwards reviled and persecuted Shaftesbury for having promoted it. 'Amboyna' was dedicated to Lord Clifford, Shaftesbury's colleague in what is called the Cabal Ministry, who was a private friend and zealous patron of Dryden. 'Marriage à la Mode' had been dedicated to Wilmot Earl of Rochester, who later became Dryden's virulent enemy, but of whom he now said, addressing him, 'you have not only been careful of my reputation, but of my fortune,' and 'I have found the effects of your protection in all my concernments.' 'The Assignation' was dedicated to the witty and dissolute Sir Charles Sedley.

'The State of Innocence,' a transformation of 'Paradise Lost' into an opera, and intended for the stage but never acted, was Dryden's literary work of the year 1674. Aubrey relates that Dryden called on Milton to ask permission to versify his poem, and was drily told by the blind old man that he might' tag his verses' if he pleased. 'Paradise Lost' had

to Dryden, but probably wrongly. The slow composition of 'The Rehearsal' is there alluded to:

'I come to his farce, which must needs be well done,

For Troy was not longer before it was won,

Since 'tis more than ten years since this farce was begun.'

been published five years before, and had not excited enthusiasm. But Dryden had taken a just measure of the poem, and in the preface to his own 'State of Innocence' he declared it to be 'undoubtedly one of the greatest, most noble, and sublime poems which either this age or nation has produced.' Shortly after the publication of The State of Innocence' Milton died, on the 8th of November, 1674. Dryden's well-known lines on Milton were written fourteen years later, to be printed under his portrait prefixed to an edition of 'Paradise Lost,' published by subscription in 1695 by Jacob Tonson.

'Three poets in three distant ages born

Greece, Italy, and England did adorn.
The first in loftiness of thought surpassed,
The next in majesty, in both the last.
The force of nature could no farther go:

To make a third she joined the former two.'

In the prologue of 'Aurengzebe, or the Great Mogul,' a tragedy produced in 1675, Dryden informed his audience that he had grown tired of rhyme in tragedy and generally dissatisfied with play-writing. Having begun by speaking disparagingly of the play, but, as he said, 'out of no feigned modesty,' he proceeds in this prologue :

'Not that it's worse than what before he writ,

But he has now another taste of wit:
And to confess a truth, though out of time,
Grows weary of his long-loved mistress, Rhyme.
Passion's too fierce to be in fetters bound,
And Nature flies him like enchanted ground.
What verse can do he has performed in this,
Which he presumes the most correct of his;
But spite of all his pride, a secret shame
Invades his breast at Shakespeare's sacred name:
Awed when he hears his godlike Roman rage,
He in a just despair would quit the stage;
And to an age less polished, more unskilled
Does with disdain the foremost honours yield,

As with the greater dead he dares not strive,

He would not match his verse with those who live.
Let him retire betwixt two ages cast,

The first of this and hindmost of the last.'

Dryden had now for some time wished to apply himself to the composition of an epic poem: but for this leisure was necessary, and play-writing gave him bread. He explains himself on this subject in the dedication of 'Aurengzebe,' to Sheffield Earl of Mulgrave. He had had an opportunity, through Mulgrave's good offices, of speaking both with the King and the Duke of York of his desire to devote himself to the production of a national epic poem, and he now asked Mulgrave to remind the King of his ambition. Several years later, in 1693, in his 'Discourse on Satire,' addressed to the Earl of Dorset, he mentions two subjects which he had thought of; one was the Conquest of Spain by Edward the Black Prince, and the other King Arthur conquering the Saxons. Dryden's wishes were not gratified by the King. No office was given him which relieved him from the necessity of writing for subsistence. It is however possible, that the King may now have granted him the pension of 100l. a year in addition to the salaried offices of Poet Laureate and Historiographer Royal, which it has been lately ascertained that he obtained during the reign of Charles II; but the date of the grant of the pension is not known *.

Dryden's next play did not appear for two years after; it was 'All for Love, or the World Well Lost,' the story of Antony and Cleopatra, and it was produced at the King's Theatre in the winter of 1677-8. To the preparation of this tragedy Dryden had devoted more time and labour than usual, and he considered it his best play. 'All for Love' had great success, and the company gave Dryden the benefit of the third night, to which the terms of his contract did not

* This pension from Charles was first made known by the publication by Mr. R. Bell in 1854 of a treasury warrant of 1684 for payment of arrears; and Mr. P. Cunningham has since published a treasury warrant for payment of a quarter due January 5, 1679. (Johnson's Lives of the Poets,' Cunningham's edition, vol. i. p. 334, note.)

entitle him. This act of generosity appears to have been ill requited by Dryden; his next play 'Edipus,' written in conjunction with Nathaniel Lee, was given to the Duke's company and brought out at the rival theatre. This was regarded by the King's company as a breach of contract, with the aggravation of ingratitude. He had never fulfilled his engagement to write three plays a year, and indeed had produced on an average less than one a year. Yet the Company appear never to have made a deduction from the share of profits promised him in return for three plays a year. They now complained to the Earl of Arlington, the Lord Chamberlain, of Dryden's proceeding as a violation of contract; but there is no sign of their having obtained redress. Dryden now broke with the King's Theatre, or the King's Theatre with him, and his subsequent plays came out at the rival house. 'The Kind Keeper, or Limberham,' a very coarse comedy, followed' Edipus,' and gave such offence that, after it had been three times acted, Dryden withdrew it. In April 1679, he produced with indifferent success 'Troilus and Cressida,' an adaptation of Shakespeare's play. All for Love,' on its publication, was dedicated to the Earl of Danby, then the chief Minister, 'Limberham,' to Lord Vaughan, a literary nobleman, and 'Troilus and Cressida,' to the Earl of Sunderland, a rising politician and future leading minister.

As Dryden was returning to his house in Long Acre through Rose Alley, Drury Lane, on the night of the 18th of December, 1679, he was fallen upon and severely beaten by a gang of ruffians. There appears to be little doubt that the instigator of this cowardly attack was Wilmot Earl of Rochester, who conceived Dryden to be the author of a poem in circulation, an Essay on Satire, in which he was severely attacked. Sheffield Earl of Mulgrave, afterwards Marquis of Normanby and Duke of Buckinghamshire, is now known to have been the author of the poem; but at the time a

y Almost all our information as to Dryden's partnership in the King's Theatre is derived from this memorial of complaint addressed to the Lord Chamberlain, which is printed in Malone's Life of Dryden, p. 73.