The
epithet, applied to him in the lines, renders it improbable that he
imposed on her by a mock-marriage, though the story is told by Count
Hamilton, and others.
epithet, applied to him in the lines, renders it improbable that he
imposed on her by a mock-marriage, though the story is told by Count
Hamilton, and others.
Dryden - Complete
If he pressed the acceptance of a liberal gift, it was not
as the measure of desert, but as the proof of benevolence; and when
modest merit declined his bounty, ‘Accept it,’ would he say, with a
consciousness of his own worth; ‘you will not always have a Nicholas
among ye. ’ The influence of the holy see pervaded Christendom; and he
exerted that influence in the search, not of benefices, but of books.
From the ruins of the Byzantine libraries, from the darkest monasteries
of Germany and Britain, he collected the dusty manuscripts of the
writers of antiquity; and wherever the original could not be removed,
a faithful copy was transcribed, and transmitted for his use. The
Vatican, the old repository for bulls and legends, for superstition
and forgery, was daily replenished with more precious furniture; and
such was the industry of Nicholas, that, in a reign of eight years,
he formed a library of five thousand volumes. To his munificence,
the Latin world was indebted for the versions of Xenophon, Diodorus,
Polybius, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Appian; of Strabo’s Geography;
of the Iliad; of the most valuable works of Plato and Aristotle; of
Ptolemy and Theophrastus; and of the fathers of the Greek church. The
example of the Roman pontiff was preceded, or imitated, by a Florentine
merchant, who governed the republic without arms, and without a title.
Cosmo, of Medicis, was the father of a line of princes, whose name and
age are almost synonymous with the restoration of learning. His credit
was ennobled into fame; his riches were dedicated to the service of
mankind; he corresponded at once with Cairo and London, and a cargo
of Indian spices and Greek books was imported in the same vessel. The
genius and education of his grandson, Lorenzo, rendered him not only a
patron, but a judge and candidate in the literary race. In his palace,
distress was entitled to relief, and merit to reward. His leisure
hours were delightfully spent in the Platonic academy; he encouraged
the emulation of Demetrius Chalcocondyles and Angelo Politian; and
his active missionary, Janus Lascaris, returned from the East with a
treasure of two hundred manuscripts, fourscore of which were as yet
unknown in the libraries of Europe. The rest of Italy was animated by
a similar spirit, and the progress of the nation repaid the liberality
of the princes. The Latins held the exclusive property of their
own literature; and these disciples of Greece were soon capable of
transmitting and improving the lessons which they had imbibed. After a
short succession of foreign teachers, the tide of emigration subsided;
but the language of Constantinople was spread beyond the Alps; and the
natives of France, Germany, and England, imparted to their country the
sacred fire which they had kindled in the schools of Florence and Rome. ”
[14] Our author recollected the following panegyric on Pope Nicholas,
in the Dedication of Casaubon’s edition of Polybius, to Henry IV. of
France:
“_Quum enim a pluribus retro sæculis, in principum animis, toto
Occidente, amor politioris literaturæ et Græci sermonis excoluisset;
accidit non sine numine profecto, ut circa illa ipsa tempora
Byzantinæ cladis, et paullo ante, summi in Europa viri et principes
generossissimi hunc veternum ceu virgula divina tacti, opportune
excuterent, et ad bene merendum de studiis politioribus et de linguis,
ardore incredibili accenderentur. Prima terrarum Italia ad hanc
palmam occupandam, è diuturno torpore tunc demum expergefacta, sese
concitavit, et nationibus aliis per Europam, exemplum quod imitarentur
præbuit. In ipsa verò Italia, ad certamen adeo gloriosum, Nicolaus
Quintus Pontifex Maximus, in cujus extrema tempora Byzantini imperii
eversio incidit, princeps, quod equidem sciam, signum sustulit. Nam et
literarum dicitur fuisse intelligentissimus; et,_ _quod res arguit,
earum amore erat flagrantissimus. Primus hic, illa ætate, libros
antiquorum scriptorum sedulo conquirere curæ habuit; magnamque earum
copiam in Vaticanam intulit; primus cum assiduis hortatibus, tum
ingentibus etiam propositis præmiis, ad meliorem literaturam è tenebris
oblivionis in lucem revocandam, homines Italos stimulavit: primus,
Græcæ linguæ auctores omnis sincerioris doctrinæ esse promos condos qui
uon ignoraret, ut Latino sermone exprimerentur, vehementissime optavit,
et efficere contendit_. ”
[15] That is, the first five books.
[16] Polybius, the historian, was born at Megalopolis, in Arcadia,
in the fourth year of the 143d Olympiad, about 205 years before the
Christian æra. Being carried to Rome as an hostage, he became the
companion and friend of the younger Scipio Africanus; accompanied him
in his campaigns; and is said to have witnessed the destruction of
Carthage, in the 158th Olympiad. Having returned to his native country,
he died in the 164th Olympiad, 124 years before Christ, in consequence
of a fall from his horse.
The history of Polybius embraced the space from the first year of the
140th to the first of the 153d Olympiad, being fifty-three years.
[17] Nicolo Peretti published a Latin version of the first five books
of Polybius, at Rome, in 1473, folio. The first Greek edition appeared
in 1530; the second at Basle, in 1549. The last is most esteemed.
[18] “Plutarch tells us, that Brutus was thus employed the day before
the battle of Pharsalia. ‘It was the middle of summer; the heats
were intense, the marshy situation of the camp disagreeable, and his
tent-bearers were long in coming. Nevertheless, though extremely
harassed and fatigued, he did not anoint himself till noon; and then
taking a morsel of bread, while others were at rest, or musing on the
event of the ensuing day, he employed himself till the evening in
writing an epitome of Polybius. ”--MALONE.
[19] With a thousand of his countrymen, whom the Romans ordered thither
as hostages, after the conquest of Macedonia.
[20] A. U. C. 608.
[21] A. U. C. 607.
[22] The word _and_ renders this passage ungrammatical. --MALONE.
[23] Mr Malone justly conjectures, that Dryden here thought of his old
master James II. , whose economy bordered on penury, and whose claims of
prerogative approached to tyranny.
[24] Philip de Commines, author of the excellent Memoirs of his
own time. He was born in Flanders, and was for several years a
distinguished ornament of the court of Charles the Bold, Duke of
Burgundy, his native sovereign; but was tempted to divert his service
for that of Louis XI. by whom he was employed in several negociations.
After the death of that monarch, Commines fell into disgrace with his
successor, and was long detained in prison: he died in 1509. It was of
this historian Catherine de Medicis was wont to say, “that he made as
many heretics in the state, as Luther in the Church. ”
[25] In the year of Rome 568.
[26] I believe the most enthusiastic admirers of Livy must tire of
these unvaried prodigies. _Et bos locutus_ occurs as often, and is
mentioned with as much indifference, as a nomination of sheriffs in
Hall, Stowe, or Speed.
[27] See Vol. XIII. p. 68. where our author, in his “Essay on Satire,”
controverts keenly the position of Casaubon.
[28] In his thirty-eight year, forty-three being the legal age.
[29] The elegant translator, however, gives us no information on
that subject; his preface being principally a panegyric upon good
discipline, which, without much risque of contradiction, he affirms to
be the “substance and sum total of military science. ”
[30] Thomas Stanley’s “History of Philosophy,” &c. was published in
folio, in detached parts, between 1655 and 1660; and reprinted entire
in 1687.
[31] A. D. 375. Rufinus was chief prefect of the East. The person here
alluded to was only count of fifteen provinces. Dryden, writing from
memory, confounded the offices of the murderer and murdered. See the
next note.
[32] Gibbon thus narrates the catastrophe:--“The extreme parsimony
of Rufinus left him only the reproach and envy of ill-gotten wealth.
His dependents served him without attachment; the universal hatred of
mankind was repressed only by the influence of servile fear. The fate
of Lucian proclaimed to the East, that the prefect, whose industry
was much abated in the dispatch of ordinary business, was active and
indefatigable in the pursuit of revenge. Lucian, (the son of the
prefect Florentius, the oppressor of Gaul, and the enemy of Julian,)
had employed a considerable part of his inheritance, the fruit of
rapine and corruption, to purchase the friendship of Rufinus, and the
high office of Count of the East. But the new magistrate imprudently
departed from the maxims of the court and of the times; disgraced his
benefactor, by the contrast of a virtuous and temperate administration;
and presumed to refuse an act of injustice, which might have tended to
the profit of the emperor’s uncle. Arcadius was easily persuaded to
resent the supposed insult; and the prefect of the East resolved to
execute in person the cruel vengeance which he meditated against this
ungrateful delegate of his power. He performed, with incessant speed,
the journey of seven or eight hundred miles, from Constantinople to
Antioch, entered the capital of Syria at the dead of night, and spread
universal consternation among a people ignorant of his design, but not
ignorant of his character. The count of the fifteen provinces of the
East was dragged, like the vilest malefactor, before the arbitrary
tribunal of Rufinus. Notwithstanding the clearest evidence of his
integrity, which was not impeached even by the voice of an accuser,
Lucian was condemned, almost without a trial, to suffer a cruel and
ignominious punishment. The ministers of the tyrant, by the order, and
in the presence, of their master, beat him on the neck with leather
thongs, armed at the extremities with lead; and when he fainted under
the violence of the pain, he was removed in a close litter to conceal
his dying agonies from the eyes of the indignant city. No sooner
had Rufinus perpetrated this inhuman act, the sole object of his
expedition, than he returned amidst the deep and silent curses of a
trembling people, from Antioch to Constantinople; and his diligence was
accelerated by the hope of accomplishing, without delay, the nuptials
of his daughter with the emperor of the East. ”--GIBBON’S _Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire_, vol. iii. p. 209.
The punctuation throughout this piece is so inaccurate, and the
paragraphs so strangely divided, that it must have been printed from
a copy very carelessly written. In the present passage, we find
_Rafiany_, instead of _Rufinus_. MALONE.
[33] A. D. 312. He suffered for favouring the Arians. MALONE.
[34] A. D. 415. He was minister of Caphargamala, and pretended to have
been instructed by a dream of the burial place of the proto-martyr
Stephen, Gamaliel, and other saints. See GIBBON’S _History_, vol. iii.
p. 97.
Several other persons of this name, besides those here mentioned, are
enumerated by Fabricius. _Bibl. Græc. _ iv. 508.
[35] Dr Franklin seems disposed to fix on the year 90.
[36] _Procurator principis_. Under Marcus Aurelius.
[37] See _Juv. _ sat. i. 44. ; vii. 148. ; xv. 111. _Quintil. _ lib. x.
cap. 3.
[38] Dr Jasper Mayne, who published a translation of some select
dialogues of Lucian, in folio, in 1664.
[39] I follow Mr Malone in reading _might_; the printed copy has _must_.
[40] This is a gross mistake, 180 years intervening between the death
of Aurelius and the reign of Julian.
[41] Nicolas Perrot, Sieur d’Ablancourt, whose translation of the
Dialogues of Lucian into French was first published at Paris in 1634.
His continuation of the true history of Lucian is very much in the tone
of the original.
[42] This observation had been made by Gilbertas Cognatus, and by
Thomas Hickes, in his Life of Lucian, printed in 1634. MALONE.
[43] Entitled “Philopatris. ” The Christian religion, and its mysteries,
are ridiculed in this piece with very little ceremony.
[44] Gesner has written a long Latin essay upon this point, which is
subjoined to the third volume of Lucian’s works, in the 4to edition of
Hemsterhucius.
[45] I follow Mr Malone in reading _eclectic_ for _elective_.
[46] The best judges have condemned Εταιρικοι Διαλογοι, or
“Dialogues of the Harlots,” as not being genuine. They are at any rate
gross and devoid of humour.
[47] I presume a cant phrase for a graft from that garden of knowledge.
[48] The work alluded to, which was written by the Rev. Dr John
Eachard, (Master of Catharine Hall, in Cambridge, and author of the
“Grounds of the Contempt of the Clergy,”) was published in 1671, and
was entitled “Mr Hobbes’s State of Nature considered; in a Dialogue
between Philautus and Timothy. ” MALONE.
[49] This gentleman, whom our author has again mentioned with esteem,
in the “Parallel of Poetry and Painting,” (Vol. XVII. p. 312. ) was
the son of Sir Walter Moyle, and was born in the year 1672. He was
educated to the study of law, and became a member of Parliament in
1695. He composed a variety of treatises, on various subjects, which
are comprised in a collection of three volumes 8vo, the last being
posthumous. Mr Moyle died in 1721.
[50] Charles Blount, the son of Sir Henry, and brother to Sir Edward
Pope Blount. He early appeared as a defender and admirer of Dryden, by
publishing an answer to Leigh’s “Censure of the Rota in the Conquest
of Granada. ” It was entitled, “Mr Dryden vindicated, in Reply to the
Friendly Vindication of Mr Dryden, with Reflections on the Rota. ”
Mr Blount distinguished himself as a friend to civil liberty during
the crisis preceding the Revolution; but was still better known by
the deistical tracts entitled “_Anima Mundi_,” “Life of Appolonius
Tyaneus,” “Diana of the Ephesians,” and the “_Religio Laici_,” which
last he published anonymously in 1683, and inscribed to our author.
The death of Blount was voluntary. Having lost his wife, the daughter
of Sir Timothy Tyrrel of Shotover, he fell in love with her sister, and
being unable to remove her scruples upon the lawfulness of their union,
shot himself in a fit of despair, in August 1693. His miscellaneous
works were published by Galden in 1695.
He was a man of deep and extensive reading, and probably better
qualified, in point of learning, to translate Lucian, than most of his
coadjutors.
[51] This and two or three other passages shew, that this life was
written hastily, and that it had not been carefully revised by the
author. MALONE.
[52] Ferrand Spence, who published a translation of Lucian’s Dialogues
in four volumes, 8vo, in 1684.
[53] Francis Hickes published a translation of Select Dialogues from
Lucian, 4to, 1634.
[54] Vol XVII. p. 1.
[55] Mr Malone substitutes _lost_ for _left_.
[56] The lady to whom this letter is addressed was our author’s first
cousin, one of the daughters of his uncle, Sir John Dryden. She
probably was born, (says Mr Malone,) about the year 1637, and died,
unmarried, some time after 1707.
The seal, (he adds,) under which runs a piece of blue ribband, is a
crest of a demi-lion, on a wreath, holding in his paws an armillary
sphere at the end of a stand. The letter seems in reply to one from the
fair lady, with a present of writing materials. It is a woeful sample
of the gallantry of the time, alternately coarse and pedantic.
[57] Person _quasi_ parson, which word was originally so spelled. The
custom of preaching by an hour-glass has been before noticed.
[58] A copy of this letter is in the Museum, MSS. Harl. 7003. The
Dedication alluded to, must have been that of “Marriage A-la-Mode,” to
which Rochester had replied by a letter of thanks; and we have here
Dryden’s reply. (See Vol. I. p. 181, and Vol. IV. p. 235. ) The date is
supplied by Mr Malone from internal evidence.
[59] Lord Rochester translated some part of Lucretius.
[60] In the year 1672, Monsieur Schomberg was invited into England to
command the army raised for the Dutch war, then encamped on Blackheath.
He was to be joined in this command with Villiers, Duke of Buckingham,
who held a commission of lieutenant-general only. But when Schomberg
arrived, he refused to serve equally with Buckingham, and was made
general; on which the other resigned his commission in disgust. (See
Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham’s _Memoirs_, p. 5. ) Dryden, still
smarting under the “Rehearsal,” just then come out, was probably not
sorry to take this opportunity to turn the author’s pretensions into
ridicule.
[61] Eight thousand land forces were embarked on board the English
fleet to make a descent in Zealand.
[62] Sir John Eaton was a noted writer of songs at the time.
[63] Mr Malone conjectures Tregonwell Frampton, keeper of the royal
stud at Newmarket; who was born in 1641, and died in 1727. Brother John
must remain in obscurity.
[64] Probably the grandson of Sir George Hume, created Earl of Dunbar
by James the First, in 1605.
[65] Henry Brouncker, younger brother of William, Viscount Brouncker.
He was a gentleman of the Duke of York’s bed-chamber, and carried the
false order to slacken sail, after the great battle in 1665, when
the Duke was asleep, by which the advantage gained in the victory
was entirely lost. There is a great cloud over the story; but that
Brouncker was an infamous character, must be concluded on all hands. He
was expelled the House of Commons; and countenanced by the king more
than he deserved, being “never notorious for any thing but the highest
degree of impudence, and stooping to the most infamous offices. ”
--Continuation of Clarendon’s Life, quoted by Malone.
[66] Aubery de Vere, the twentieth and last Earl of Oxford, of that
family. This nobleman seduced an eminent actress (said, by some
authorities, to be Mrs Marshall, but conjectured, by Mr Malone, to have
been Mrs Davenport,) to exchange her profession for his protection.
The
epithet, applied to him in the lines, renders it improbable that he
imposed on her by a mock-marriage, though the story is told by Count
Hamilton, and others.
[67] The Prologue and Epilogue in question may have been those spoken
by Mr Hart and Mrs Marshall, (Vol. X. p. 328). But, in this case, the
date of their being delivered has been placed too late. Exact accuracy
is of little consequence; but I fear the hint in the letter gives some
reason for Tom Brown’s alleging, that Dryden flattered alternately the
wits of the town at the cost of the university, and the university
scholars at the expence of the London audience. I cry that facetious
person mercy, for having said there was no proof of his accusation. See
Vol. X. p. 113.
[68] There is no address or superscription.
[69] John Dryden admitted a King’s scholar in 1682.
[70] This letter from Lady Elizabeth Dryden seems to have been written
at the same time, and on the same subject:
HONNORED SIR, Ascension Day, [1682. ]
I hope I need use noe other argument to you in excuse of my sonn for
not coming to church to Westminster then this, that he now lies at
home, and thearfore cannot esilly goe soe far backwards and forwards.
His father and I will take care, that he shall duely goe to church
heare, both on holydayes and Sundays, till he comes to be more nearly
under your care in the college. In the mean time, will you pleas to
give me leave to accuse you of forgetting your prommis conserning my
eldest sonn, who, as you once assured me, was to have one night in a
weeke alowed him to be at home, in considirasion both of his health
and cleanliness. You know, Sir, that prommises mayd to women, and
espiceally mothers, will never faille to be cald upon; and thearfore I
will add noe more, but that I am, at this time, your remembrancer, and
allwayes, honnord Sir,
Your humble servant,
E. DRYDEN.
[71] His eldest son Charles, as Mr Malone supposes.
[72] In the hall of the college of Westminster, when the boys are at
dinner, it is, _ex officio_, the place of the second boy, in the second
election, to keep order among the two under elections; and if any word,
after he has ordered silence, be spoken, except in Latin, he says to
the speaker, _tu es_ CUSTOS; and this term passes from the second
speaker to the third, or more, till dinner is over. Whoever is then
_custos_, has an imposition.
It is highly probable, (adds the very respectable gentleman, to whom
I am indebted for this information,) that there had formerly been _a
tessera_, or _symbolum_ delivered from boy to boy, as at some French
schools now, and that _custos_ meant _custos tesseræ, symboli_, &c. ;
but at Westminster, the symbol is totally unknown at present. MALONE.
[73] Dr John Dolben, then Bishop of Rochester, afterwards of York. See
Vol. IX. p. 303.
[74] Mr Malone says, “The person meant was Robert Morgan, who was
elected with Charles Dryden into the college of Westminster, in 1680,
and is the only one of those then admitted, who was elected to Oxford
in 1682. That circumstance, therefore, ascertains the year when this
letter was written. ”
[75] The two last letters are printed from Mr Malone’s copy, to whom
the originals were communicated by Mr John Nichols, author of the
History of Leicestershire.
[76] To this curious and valuable letter, Mr Malone has added the
address to Rochester and the date, both of which are conjectural. Hyde,
Earl of Rochester, was made first commissioner of the treasury in 1679,
and continued prime minister till September 1684. Let it be remembered
by those men of talents, who may be tempted to engage in the sea of
politics, that Dryden thus sued for what was his unquestionable due,
within two years after having written “Absalom and Achitophel,” and
“The Medal,” in defence of the government, to whom he was suppliant for
so small a boon.
[77] Edward, Earl of Clarendon. It is uncertain in what manner our
author undertook his defence.
[78] The place which our author here solicits, (worth only 200l.
a-year,) was the first office that Addison obtained, which he used to
call “the _little thing_ given me by Lord Halifax. ” Locke also, after
the Revolution, was a commissioner of appeals. MALONE.
[79] The “History of the League,” entered on the Stationers’ books
early in 1684, and “Englished by his Majesties express command. ”
[80] This application was successful; and Dryden elsewhere expresses
his gratitude, that his wants were attended to, and relieved during the
penury of an exhausted Exchequer; Cowley’s simile, he observed, was
reversed, and Gideon’s fleece was watered, while all around remained
parched and arid.
[81] What this circumstance was cannot now be discovered.
[82] The Duchess of Ormond died July 1684.
[83] The first edition of Lord Roscommon’s “Essay on Translated Verse”
appeared in 1684, and a second edition was published by Jacob Tonson in
4to, early in 1685.
[84] In the first edition it stood,
“That here his conqu’ring ancestors _was_ nurs’d. ”
[85] Latin Verses by Charles Dryden, prefixed to Lord Roscommon’s Essay.
[86] Knightly Chetwood. He wrote Lord Roscommon’s life.
[87] Dryden was now about to publish the second volume of the
Miscellanies; in which it would appear to have been settled, that
nothing should be inserted but what was new. “_Religio Laici_,”
therefore, as having been formerly published, was laid aside for the
present.
[88] Probably “Albion and Albanius,” which was afterwards completed and
ready to be performed in Feb. 1684-5.
[89] The singing Opera was probably that of “King Arthur,” to which
“Albion and Albanius” was originally designed as a prelude. But it was
not acted till after the Revolution.
[90] “All for Love,” and “The Conquest of Granada. ”
[91] His second son.
[92] His eldest son.
[93] The Third Miscellany was published in July 1693.
[94] The author was at this time in Northamptonshire. The original has
no date but August 30th; but the year is ascertained by the reference
to the third Miscellany, which was published in July 1693. MALONE.
[95] To whom the Third Miscellany is dedicated. I fear this alludes
to some disappointment in the pecuniary compliment usual on such
occasions. See the Dedication, Vol. XII. p. 47.
[96] This commission will probably remind the reader of the poetic diet
recommended by Bayes. --“If I am to write familiar things, as sonnets
to Armida, and the like, I make use of _stewed prunes_ only; but, when
I have a grand design in hand, I ever take physics, and let blood;
for, when you would have pure swiftness of thought, and fiery flights
of fancy, you must have a care of the pensive part. In fine, you must
purge the belly.
_Smith. _ By my troth, Sir, this is a most admirable receipt for writing.
_Bayes. _ Aye, ’tis my secret; and, in good earnest, I think one of the
best I have. ” _Rehearsal_, act i.
This is an instance of the minute and malicious diligence, with which
the most trivial habits and tastes of our author were ridiculed in the
“Rehearsal. ”
[97] Sir Matthew, with whom Dryden appears to have resided at this
time, is unknown.
[98] Sir John Trenchard, who was made one of the secretaries of state
March 23, 1691-2, died in office in April 1695.
[99] “A short View of Tragedy,” published (as appears from the
Gentleman’s Journal, by P. Motteux,) in Dec. 1692. The date in the
title-page is, 1693.
[100] See Vol. XII. p. 45.
[101] Dennis, the critic, afterwards so unfortunately distinguished by
the satire of Pope. Like Rymer, and others, he retained considerable
reputation for critical acumen, until he attempted to illustrate his
precepts by his own compositions.
[102] Sir Richard Blackmore was doomed to accomplish this prophecy. See
Vol. XI. p. 236. and the Life of Dryden, p. 6.
[103] In his Short View of Tragedy. See Vol. XII. pp. 45, 51.
[104] This lesson was thrown away upon poor Dennis, who, by his rash
and riotous attacks upon Pope, afterwards procured an immortality of a
kind very different from that to which he aspired.
[105] Dryden’s evil opinion of the state of matrimony, never fails to
glance forth upon such occasions as the present.
[106] One of the subscribers of the higher class. The decorations were
probably his armorial bearings.
[107] It was an ancient British custom, and prevailed in Scotland
within these forty years, to finish all bargains, contracts, and even
consultations, at a tavern, that the parties might not, according to
the ancient Caledonian phrase, part _dry-lipp’d_. The custom between
authors and booksellers seems to have been universal; and the reader
may recollect, that the supposed poisoning of the celebrated Edmund
Curl took place at a meeting of this kind.
[108] At Burleigh, the seat of John, the fifth Earl of Exeter.
[109] Both the gold and silver coin were at this time much depreciated;
and remained in a fluctuating state till a new coinage took place.
[110] From inspecting the plates of Dryden’s Virgil, it appears, that
the Earl of Derby had one inscribed to him, as had Lord Chesterfield.
But this wrathful letter made no farther impression on the mercantile
obstinacy of Tonson; and neither the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Petre,
nor Lady Macclesfield, obtained the place among the first subscribers,
which Dryden so peremptorily demands for them.
[111] This seems to be a bitter gibe at Jacob’s parsimony.
[112] Perhaps the proposals for the second subscription. See Letter xi.
[113] “The Husband his own Cuckold,” written by our author’s second
son, John, and published in July 1696.
[114] Tonson’s answer to the foregoing letter, seems to have been
pacific and apologetical, yet peremptory as to his terms.
[115] Richard Bentley, a bookseller and printer, who lived in Russel
Street, Covent Garden.
[116] A banker or goldsmith, afterwards notorious for his share in the
South Sea scheme, to which Company he was cashier.
[117] Sir Robert Howard had been appointed auditor of the Exchequer in
1673, and held that office till his death.
[118] The celebrated watchmaker, who was originally a jacksmith. MALONE.
[119] They were at this time at Rome.
[120] The Eclogues of Virgil had been published in the first
Miscellany. Dryden probably corrected them with a pen in Lady
Elizabeth’s copy of the printed book, and sent it to the bookseller, as
what is technically called _copy_.
[121] This person, in the last age, was frequently called “the learned
tradesman. ” “Sir Andrew Fountaine (says Swift, in his _Journal_,
October 6, 1710,) came this morning, and caught me writing in bed. I
went into the city with him, and we dined at the Chop-house, with Will
Pate, _the learned woollen-draper_; then we sauntered at china shops
and booksellers; went to the tavern, and drank two pints of white
wine,” &c. Mr William Pate was educated at Trinity Hall in Cambridge,
where he took the degree of B. C. L. He died in 1746, and was buried at
Lee, in Kent.
Mr Malone, who mentions these particulars, transcribes Mr Pate’s
epitaph, the moral of which is:--
_Nervos atque artus esse sapientiœ,
NON TEMERE CREDERE. _
It would seem, from Dryden’s letter, that this learned tradesman
understood the mercantile, as well as the literary use of the apothegm.
[122] A Roman Catholic.
[123] At Denham Court, in Buckinghamshire. Sir William Bowyer married a
kinswoman of Lady Elizabeth Dryden; Frances, daughter of Charles, Lord
Cranbourne, eldest son of William, the second Earl of Salisbury. MALONE.
[124] This seems to imply a suspicion, though an odd one, that Jacob,
being bent to convert Dryden to his own views of politics, intercepted
his sons’ letters from Rome, as proceeding from an interest hostile to
his views. (See p. 140. ) His earnest wish was, that the Æneid should be
inscribed to King William.
[125] The translation of Virgil.
[126] In MS. Harl. p. 35, in the Museum, are the following verses,
occasioned by this circumstance:
“To be published in the next edition of Dryden’s Virgil.
“Old Jacob, by deep judgment swayed,
To please the wise beholders,
Has placed old Nassau’s book-nosed head
On poor Æneas’ shoulders,
“To make the parallel hold tack,
Methinks there’s little lacking;
One took his father pick-a-pack,
And t’other sent his packing. ”
In a copy I have seen of this epigram, “poor” Æneas is improved into
“young” Æneas. ”
[127] This Dryden never effected, nor was Howard’s play ever printed.
[128] Probably the clergy of England.
[129] This probably alludes to the proposition which appears to
have been made to him, concerning the dedication of his Virgil to
King William; for which a valuable pecuniary reward might have been
expected. MALONE.
[130] The peace of Ryswick, which was proclaimed at London in the
following month, October 19, 1697, O. S.
[131] She _means_, I suppose,--by the same way her son’s letter came to
her.
[132] To account for the difference between the exquisite orthography
of Lady Elizabeth’s present epistle, and that to Dr Busby, Mr Malone
suggests, that Dryden probably revised the latter before it was sent.
[133] Tom Brown had, in the year of the Revolution, published “The
Reasons of Mr Bayes changing his Religion;” and in 1690, a second Part,
called the “Late Converts Exposed. ” What this small wit now had in hand
is difficult to guess; none of his direct attacks against Dryden appear
in his works: but his insignificant enmity survived Dryden, for he
wrote a burlesque account of the poet’s funeral in verse, and libelled
his memory in prose, in his “Letters from the Dead to the Living. ”
[134] This labour he never resumed.
[135] The Rev. Dr Knightly Chetwood, an intimate friend of our author.
[136] Mary Leigh, the wife of Sir George Chudleigh of Ashton, in the
same county, Bart. She died in the year 1710. Her life is among those
of Ballard’s “Learned Ladies. ” The verses mentioned in the text are not
prefixed to the “Virgil,” but printed in Lady Chudleigh’s Poems.
[137] The preface to the “Pastorals. ”
[138] The “Ode for St Cecilia’s Day. ” It is pleasing to be assured,
that the best of English lyrics was received with due honour on its
first appearance.
[139] Our author only translated the First Book. See Vol. XII. p. 231.
[140] His son Charles had probably been much hurt by a dangerous fall
at Rome; probably that mentioned by Mrs Thomas, in her exaggerated
account of his accident at the Vatican. In a former letter, his mother
enquires particularly about his _head_.
[141] Probably the Genoese resident at that time.
[142] See page 132.
[143] Of Mrs Steward Mr Malone gives the following account:--
“Thislady, who was not less distinguished for her talents and
accomplishments than her beauty and virtues, having been both a painter
and a poetess, was the eldest surviving daughter of John Creed of
Oundle, Esq (secretary to Charles II. for the affairs of Tangier,)
by Elizabeth Pickering, his wife, who was the only daughter of Sir
Gilbert Pickering, Baronet, our author’s cousin-german. Her eldest son,
Richard Creed, as we have seen, fell in the battle of Blenheim, and
was honoured with a monument in Westminster Abbey. Her eldest daughter
Elizabeth, was born in the year 1672, and, in 1692, married Elmes
Steward of Cotterstock, in the county of Northampton, Esq. ; where they
principally resided. By this gentleman, who is said to have preferred
field-sports to any productions of the Muses, she had three children;
Elizabeth, who became the wife of Thomas Gwillim, Esq. of Old Court, in
the parish of Whitchurch, near Ross in Herefordshire; Anne, who died
unmarried; and Jemima, who married Elmes Spinckes of Aldwinckle, Esq.
Mrs Steward, who survived her husband above thirty years, in the latter
part of her life became blind, in which melancholy state she died at
the house of her son-in-law Mr Gwillim, at the age of seventy-one, Jan.
17, 1742-3; and a monument was erected to her memory in the church of
Whitchurch. The hall of Cotterstock-house was painted in fresco by her,
in a very masterly style, and she drew several portraits of her friends
in Northamptonshire. Her own portrait, painted by herself, is in the
possession of her kinswoman, Mrs Orel of Queen Anne Street. ”
[144] See Vol. XI. p. 71.
[145] His eldest son Charles, who returned from Italy to England about
the middle of the year 1698.
[146] Mrs Steward’s father, Mr John Creed.
[147] Miss, or, in the language of that day, _Mistress_ Dorothy Creed,
second daughter of John Creed, Esq.
[148] At Tichmarsh, after his return from Cotterstock.
[149] See Vol. IX.
as the measure of desert, but as the proof of benevolence; and when
modest merit declined his bounty, ‘Accept it,’ would he say, with a
consciousness of his own worth; ‘you will not always have a Nicholas
among ye. ’ The influence of the holy see pervaded Christendom; and he
exerted that influence in the search, not of benefices, but of books.
From the ruins of the Byzantine libraries, from the darkest monasteries
of Germany and Britain, he collected the dusty manuscripts of the
writers of antiquity; and wherever the original could not be removed,
a faithful copy was transcribed, and transmitted for his use. The
Vatican, the old repository for bulls and legends, for superstition
and forgery, was daily replenished with more precious furniture; and
such was the industry of Nicholas, that, in a reign of eight years,
he formed a library of five thousand volumes. To his munificence,
the Latin world was indebted for the versions of Xenophon, Diodorus,
Polybius, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Appian; of Strabo’s Geography;
of the Iliad; of the most valuable works of Plato and Aristotle; of
Ptolemy and Theophrastus; and of the fathers of the Greek church. The
example of the Roman pontiff was preceded, or imitated, by a Florentine
merchant, who governed the republic without arms, and without a title.
Cosmo, of Medicis, was the father of a line of princes, whose name and
age are almost synonymous with the restoration of learning. His credit
was ennobled into fame; his riches were dedicated to the service of
mankind; he corresponded at once with Cairo and London, and a cargo
of Indian spices and Greek books was imported in the same vessel. The
genius and education of his grandson, Lorenzo, rendered him not only a
patron, but a judge and candidate in the literary race. In his palace,
distress was entitled to relief, and merit to reward. His leisure
hours were delightfully spent in the Platonic academy; he encouraged
the emulation of Demetrius Chalcocondyles and Angelo Politian; and
his active missionary, Janus Lascaris, returned from the East with a
treasure of two hundred manuscripts, fourscore of which were as yet
unknown in the libraries of Europe. The rest of Italy was animated by
a similar spirit, and the progress of the nation repaid the liberality
of the princes. The Latins held the exclusive property of their
own literature; and these disciples of Greece were soon capable of
transmitting and improving the lessons which they had imbibed. After a
short succession of foreign teachers, the tide of emigration subsided;
but the language of Constantinople was spread beyond the Alps; and the
natives of France, Germany, and England, imparted to their country the
sacred fire which they had kindled in the schools of Florence and Rome. ”
[14] Our author recollected the following panegyric on Pope Nicholas,
in the Dedication of Casaubon’s edition of Polybius, to Henry IV. of
France:
“_Quum enim a pluribus retro sæculis, in principum animis, toto
Occidente, amor politioris literaturæ et Græci sermonis excoluisset;
accidit non sine numine profecto, ut circa illa ipsa tempora
Byzantinæ cladis, et paullo ante, summi in Europa viri et principes
generossissimi hunc veternum ceu virgula divina tacti, opportune
excuterent, et ad bene merendum de studiis politioribus et de linguis,
ardore incredibili accenderentur. Prima terrarum Italia ad hanc
palmam occupandam, è diuturno torpore tunc demum expergefacta, sese
concitavit, et nationibus aliis per Europam, exemplum quod imitarentur
præbuit. In ipsa verò Italia, ad certamen adeo gloriosum, Nicolaus
Quintus Pontifex Maximus, in cujus extrema tempora Byzantini imperii
eversio incidit, princeps, quod equidem sciam, signum sustulit. Nam et
literarum dicitur fuisse intelligentissimus; et,_ _quod res arguit,
earum amore erat flagrantissimus. Primus hic, illa ætate, libros
antiquorum scriptorum sedulo conquirere curæ habuit; magnamque earum
copiam in Vaticanam intulit; primus cum assiduis hortatibus, tum
ingentibus etiam propositis præmiis, ad meliorem literaturam è tenebris
oblivionis in lucem revocandam, homines Italos stimulavit: primus,
Græcæ linguæ auctores omnis sincerioris doctrinæ esse promos condos qui
uon ignoraret, ut Latino sermone exprimerentur, vehementissime optavit,
et efficere contendit_. ”
[15] That is, the first five books.
[16] Polybius, the historian, was born at Megalopolis, in Arcadia,
in the fourth year of the 143d Olympiad, about 205 years before the
Christian æra. Being carried to Rome as an hostage, he became the
companion and friend of the younger Scipio Africanus; accompanied him
in his campaigns; and is said to have witnessed the destruction of
Carthage, in the 158th Olympiad. Having returned to his native country,
he died in the 164th Olympiad, 124 years before Christ, in consequence
of a fall from his horse.
The history of Polybius embraced the space from the first year of the
140th to the first of the 153d Olympiad, being fifty-three years.
[17] Nicolo Peretti published a Latin version of the first five books
of Polybius, at Rome, in 1473, folio. The first Greek edition appeared
in 1530; the second at Basle, in 1549. The last is most esteemed.
[18] “Plutarch tells us, that Brutus was thus employed the day before
the battle of Pharsalia. ‘It was the middle of summer; the heats
were intense, the marshy situation of the camp disagreeable, and his
tent-bearers were long in coming. Nevertheless, though extremely
harassed and fatigued, he did not anoint himself till noon; and then
taking a morsel of bread, while others were at rest, or musing on the
event of the ensuing day, he employed himself till the evening in
writing an epitome of Polybius. ”--MALONE.
[19] With a thousand of his countrymen, whom the Romans ordered thither
as hostages, after the conquest of Macedonia.
[20] A. U. C. 608.
[21] A. U. C. 607.
[22] The word _and_ renders this passage ungrammatical. --MALONE.
[23] Mr Malone justly conjectures, that Dryden here thought of his old
master James II. , whose economy bordered on penury, and whose claims of
prerogative approached to tyranny.
[24] Philip de Commines, author of the excellent Memoirs of his
own time. He was born in Flanders, and was for several years a
distinguished ornament of the court of Charles the Bold, Duke of
Burgundy, his native sovereign; but was tempted to divert his service
for that of Louis XI. by whom he was employed in several negociations.
After the death of that monarch, Commines fell into disgrace with his
successor, and was long detained in prison: he died in 1509. It was of
this historian Catherine de Medicis was wont to say, “that he made as
many heretics in the state, as Luther in the Church. ”
[25] In the year of Rome 568.
[26] I believe the most enthusiastic admirers of Livy must tire of
these unvaried prodigies. _Et bos locutus_ occurs as often, and is
mentioned with as much indifference, as a nomination of sheriffs in
Hall, Stowe, or Speed.
[27] See Vol. XIII. p. 68. where our author, in his “Essay on Satire,”
controverts keenly the position of Casaubon.
[28] In his thirty-eight year, forty-three being the legal age.
[29] The elegant translator, however, gives us no information on
that subject; his preface being principally a panegyric upon good
discipline, which, without much risque of contradiction, he affirms to
be the “substance and sum total of military science. ”
[30] Thomas Stanley’s “History of Philosophy,” &c. was published in
folio, in detached parts, between 1655 and 1660; and reprinted entire
in 1687.
[31] A. D. 375. Rufinus was chief prefect of the East. The person here
alluded to was only count of fifteen provinces. Dryden, writing from
memory, confounded the offices of the murderer and murdered. See the
next note.
[32] Gibbon thus narrates the catastrophe:--“The extreme parsimony
of Rufinus left him only the reproach and envy of ill-gotten wealth.
His dependents served him without attachment; the universal hatred of
mankind was repressed only by the influence of servile fear. The fate
of Lucian proclaimed to the East, that the prefect, whose industry
was much abated in the dispatch of ordinary business, was active and
indefatigable in the pursuit of revenge. Lucian, (the son of the
prefect Florentius, the oppressor of Gaul, and the enemy of Julian,)
had employed a considerable part of his inheritance, the fruit of
rapine and corruption, to purchase the friendship of Rufinus, and the
high office of Count of the East. But the new magistrate imprudently
departed from the maxims of the court and of the times; disgraced his
benefactor, by the contrast of a virtuous and temperate administration;
and presumed to refuse an act of injustice, which might have tended to
the profit of the emperor’s uncle. Arcadius was easily persuaded to
resent the supposed insult; and the prefect of the East resolved to
execute in person the cruel vengeance which he meditated against this
ungrateful delegate of his power. He performed, with incessant speed,
the journey of seven or eight hundred miles, from Constantinople to
Antioch, entered the capital of Syria at the dead of night, and spread
universal consternation among a people ignorant of his design, but not
ignorant of his character. The count of the fifteen provinces of the
East was dragged, like the vilest malefactor, before the arbitrary
tribunal of Rufinus. Notwithstanding the clearest evidence of his
integrity, which was not impeached even by the voice of an accuser,
Lucian was condemned, almost without a trial, to suffer a cruel and
ignominious punishment. The ministers of the tyrant, by the order, and
in the presence, of their master, beat him on the neck with leather
thongs, armed at the extremities with lead; and when he fainted under
the violence of the pain, he was removed in a close litter to conceal
his dying agonies from the eyes of the indignant city. No sooner
had Rufinus perpetrated this inhuman act, the sole object of his
expedition, than he returned amidst the deep and silent curses of a
trembling people, from Antioch to Constantinople; and his diligence was
accelerated by the hope of accomplishing, without delay, the nuptials
of his daughter with the emperor of the East. ”--GIBBON’S _Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire_, vol. iii. p. 209.
The punctuation throughout this piece is so inaccurate, and the
paragraphs so strangely divided, that it must have been printed from
a copy very carelessly written. In the present passage, we find
_Rafiany_, instead of _Rufinus_. MALONE.
[33] A. D. 312. He suffered for favouring the Arians. MALONE.
[34] A. D. 415. He was minister of Caphargamala, and pretended to have
been instructed by a dream of the burial place of the proto-martyr
Stephen, Gamaliel, and other saints. See GIBBON’S _History_, vol. iii.
p. 97.
Several other persons of this name, besides those here mentioned, are
enumerated by Fabricius. _Bibl. Græc. _ iv. 508.
[35] Dr Franklin seems disposed to fix on the year 90.
[36] _Procurator principis_. Under Marcus Aurelius.
[37] See _Juv. _ sat. i. 44. ; vii. 148. ; xv. 111. _Quintil. _ lib. x.
cap. 3.
[38] Dr Jasper Mayne, who published a translation of some select
dialogues of Lucian, in folio, in 1664.
[39] I follow Mr Malone in reading _might_; the printed copy has _must_.
[40] This is a gross mistake, 180 years intervening between the death
of Aurelius and the reign of Julian.
[41] Nicolas Perrot, Sieur d’Ablancourt, whose translation of the
Dialogues of Lucian into French was first published at Paris in 1634.
His continuation of the true history of Lucian is very much in the tone
of the original.
[42] This observation had been made by Gilbertas Cognatus, and by
Thomas Hickes, in his Life of Lucian, printed in 1634. MALONE.
[43] Entitled “Philopatris. ” The Christian religion, and its mysteries,
are ridiculed in this piece with very little ceremony.
[44] Gesner has written a long Latin essay upon this point, which is
subjoined to the third volume of Lucian’s works, in the 4to edition of
Hemsterhucius.
[45] I follow Mr Malone in reading _eclectic_ for _elective_.
[46] The best judges have condemned Εταιρικοι Διαλογοι, or
“Dialogues of the Harlots,” as not being genuine. They are at any rate
gross and devoid of humour.
[47] I presume a cant phrase for a graft from that garden of knowledge.
[48] The work alluded to, which was written by the Rev. Dr John
Eachard, (Master of Catharine Hall, in Cambridge, and author of the
“Grounds of the Contempt of the Clergy,”) was published in 1671, and
was entitled “Mr Hobbes’s State of Nature considered; in a Dialogue
between Philautus and Timothy. ” MALONE.
[49] This gentleman, whom our author has again mentioned with esteem,
in the “Parallel of Poetry and Painting,” (Vol. XVII. p. 312. ) was
the son of Sir Walter Moyle, and was born in the year 1672. He was
educated to the study of law, and became a member of Parliament in
1695. He composed a variety of treatises, on various subjects, which
are comprised in a collection of three volumes 8vo, the last being
posthumous. Mr Moyle died in 1721.
[50] Charles Blount, the son of Sir Henry, and brother to Sir Edward
Pope Blount. He early appeared as a defender and admirer of Dryden, by
publishing an answer to Leigh’s “Censure of the Rota in the Conquest
of Granada. ” It was entitled, “Mr Dryden vindicated, in Reply to the
Friendly Vindication of Mr Dryden, with Reflections on the Rota. ”
Mr Blount distinguished himself as a friend to civil liberty during
the crisis preceding the Revolution; but was still better known by
the deistical tracts entitled “_Anima Mundi_,” “Life of Appolonius
Tyaneus,” “Diana of the Ephesians,” and the “_Religio Laici_,” which
last he published anonymously in 1683, and inscribed to our author.
The death of Blount was voluntary. Having lost his wife, the daughter
of Sir Timothy Tyrrel of Shotover, he fell in love with her sister, and
being unable to remove her scruples upon the lawfulness of their union,
shot himself in a fit of despair, in August 1693. His miscellaneous
works were published by Galden in 1695.
He was a man of deep and extensive reading, and probably better
qualified, in point of learning, to translate Lucian, than most of his
coadjutors.
[51] This and two or three other passages shew, that this life was
written hastily, and that it had not been carefully revised by the
author. MALONE.
[52] Ferrand Spence, who published a translation of Lucian’s Dialogues
in four volumes, 8vo, in 1684.
[53] Francis Hickes published a translation of Select Dialogues from
Lucian, 4to, 1634.
[54] Vol XVII. p. 1.
[55] Mr Malone substitutes _lost_ for _left_.
[56] The lady to whom this letter is addressed was our author’s first
cousin, one of the daughters of his uncle, Sir John Dryden. She
probably was born, (says Mr Malone,) about the year 1637, and died,
unmarried, some time after 1707.
The seal, (he adds,) under which runs a piece of blue ribband, is a
crest of a demi-lion, on a wreath, holding in his paws an armillary
sphere at the end of a stand. The letter seems in reply to one from the
fair lady, with a present of writing materials. It is a woeful sample
of the gallantry of the time, alternately coarse and pedantic.
[57] Person _quasi_ parson, which word was originally so spelled. The
custom of preaching by an hour-glass has been before noticed.
[58] A copy of this letter is in the Museum, MSS. Harl. 7003. The
Dedication alluded to, must have been that of “Marriage A-la-Mode,” to
which Rochester had replied by a letter of thanks; and we have here
Dryden’s reply. (See Vol. I. p. 181, and Vol. IV. p. 235. ) The date is
supplied by Mr Malone from internal evidence.
[59] Lord Rochester translated some part of Lucretius.
[60] In the year 1672, Monsieur Schomberg was invited into England to
command the army raised for the Dutch war, then encamped on Blackheath.
He was to be joined in this command with Villiers, Duke of Buckingham,
who held a commission of lieutenant-general only. But when Schomberg
arrived, he refused to serve equally with Buckingham, and was made
general; on which the other resigned his commission in disgust. (See
Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham’s _Memoirs_, p. 5. ) Dryden, still
smarting under the “Rehearsal,” just then come out, was probably not
sorry to take this opportunity to turn the author’s pretensions into
ridicule.
[61] Eight thousand land forces were embarked on board the English
fleet to make a descent in Zealand.
[62] Sir John Eaton was a noted writer of songs at the time.
[63] Mr Malone conjectures Tregonwell Frampton, keeper of the royal
stud at Newmarket; who was born in 1641, and died in 1727. Brother John
must remain in obscurity.
[64] Probably the grandson of Sir George Hume, created Earl of Dunbar
by James the First, in 1605.
[65] Henry Brouncker, younger brother of William, Viscount Brouncker.
He was a gentleman of the Duke of York’s bed-chamber, and carried the
false order to slacken sail, after the great battle in 1665, when
the Duke was asleep, by which the advantage gained in the victory
was entirely lost. There is a great cloud over the story; but that
Brouncker was an infamous character, must be concluded on all hands. He
was expelled the House of Commons; and countenanced by the king more
than he deserved, being “never notorious for any thing but the highest
degree of impudence, and stooping to the most infamous offices. ”
--Continuation of Clarendon’s Life, quoted by Malone.
[66] Aubery de Vere, the twentieth and last Earl of Oxford, of that
family. This nobleman seduced an eminent actress (said, by some
authorities, to be Mrs Marshall, but conjectured, by Mr Malone, to have
been Mrs Davenport,) to exchange her profession for his protection.
The
epithet, applied to him in the lines, renders it improbable that he
imposed on her by a mock-marriage, though the story is told by Count
Hamilton, and others.
[67] The Prologue and Epilogue in question may have been those spoken
by Mr Hart and Mrs Marshall, (Vol. X. p. 328). But, in this case, the
date of their being delivered has been placed too late. Exact accuracy
is of little consequence; but I fear the hint in the letter gives some
reason for Tom Brown’s alleging, that Dryden flattered alternately the
wits of the town at the cost of the university, and the university
scholars at the expence of the London audience. I cry that facetious
person mercy, for having said there was no proof of his accusation. See
Vol. X. p. 113.
[68] There is no address or superscription.
[69] John Dryden admitted a King’s scholar in 1682.
[70] This letter from Lady Elizabeth Dryden seems to have been written
at the same time, and on the same subject:
HONNORED SIR, Ascension Day, [1682. ]
I hope I need use noe other argument to you in excuse of my sonn for
not coming to church to Westminster then this, that he now lies at
home, and thearfore cannot esilly goe soe far backwards and forwards.
His father and I will take care, that he shall duely goe to church
heare, both on holydayes and Sundays, till he comes to be more nearly
under your care in the college. In the mean time, will you pleas to
give me leave to accuse you of forgetting your prommis conserning my
eldest sonn, who, as you once assured me, was to have one night in a
weeke alowed him to be at home, in considirasion both of his health
and cleanliness. You know, Sir, that prommises mayd to women, and
espiceally mothers, will never faille to be cald upon; and thearfore I
will add noe more, but that I am, at this time, your remembrancer, and
allwayes, honnord Sir,
Your humble servant,
E. DRYDEN.
[71] His eldest son Charles, as Mr Malone supposes.
[72] In the hall of the college of Westminster, when the boys are at
dinner, it is, _ex officio_, the place of the second boy, in the second
election, to keep order among the two under elections; and if any word,
after he has ordered silence, be spoken, except in Latin, he says to
the speaker, _tu es_ CUSTOS; and this term passes from the second
speaker to the third, or more, till dinner is over. Whoever is then
_custos_, has an imposition.
It is highly probable, (adds the very respectable gentleman, to whom
I am indebted for this information,) that there had formerly been _a
tessera_, or _symbolum_ delivered from boy to boy, as at some French
schools now, and that _custos_ meant _custos tesseræ, symboli_, &c. ;
but at Westminster, the symbol is totally unknown at present. MALONE.
[73] Dr John Dolben, then Bishop of Rochester, afterwards of York. See
Vol. IX. p. 303.
[74] Mr Malone says, “The person meant was Robert Morgan, who was
elected with Charles Dryden into the college of Westminster, in 1680,
and is the only one of those then admitted, who was elected to Oxford
in 1682. That circumstance, therefore, ascertains the year when this
letter was written. ”
[75] The two last letters are printed from Mr Malone’s copy, to whom
the originals were communicated by Mr John Nichols, author of the
History of Leicestershire.
[76] To this curious and valuable letter, Mr Malone has added the
address to Rochester and the date, both of which are conjectural. Hyde,
Earl of Rochester, was made first commissioner of the treasury in 1679,
and continued prime minister till September 1684. Let it be remembered
by those men of talents, who may be tempted to engage in the sea of
politics, that Dryden thus sued for what was his unquestionable due,
within two years after having written “Absalom and Achitophel,” and
“The Medal,” in defence of the government, to whom he was suppliant for
so small a boon.
[77] Edward, Earl of Clarendon. It is uncertain in what manner our
author undertook his defence.
[78] The place which our author here solicits, (worth only 200l.
a-year,) was the first office that Addison obtained, which he used to
call “the _little thing_ given me by Lord Halifax. ” Locke also, after
the Revolution, was a commissioner of appeals. MALONE.
[79] The “History of the League,” entered on the Stationers’ books
early in 1684, and “Englished by his Majesties express command. ”
[80] This application was successful; and Dryden elsewhere expresses
his gratitude, that his wants were attended to, and relieved during the
penury of an exhausted Exchequer; Cowley’s simile, he observed, was
reversed, and Gideon’s fleece was watered, while all around remained
parched and arid.
[81] What this circumstance was cannot now be discovered.
[82] The Duchess of Ormond died July 1684.
[83] The first edition of Lord Roscommon’s “Essay on Translated Verse”
appeared in 1684, and a second edition was published by Jacob Tonson in
4to, early in 1685.
[84] In the first edition it stood,
“That here his conqu’ring ancestors _was_ nurs’d. ”
[85] Latin Verses by Charles Dryden, prefixed to Lord Roscommon’s Essay.
[86] Knightly Chetwood. He wrote Lord Roscommon’s life.
[87] Dryden was now about to publish the second volume of the
Miscellanies; in which it would appear to have been settled, that
nothing should be inserted but what was new. “_Religio Laici_,”
therefore, as having been formerly published, was laid aside for the
present.
[88] Probably “Albion and Albanius,” which was afterwards completed and
ready to be performed in Feb. 1684-5.
[89] The singing Opera was probably that of “King Arthur,” to which
“Albion and Albanius” was originally designed as a prelude. But it was
not acted till after the Revolution.
[90] “All for Love,” and “The Conquest of Granada. ”
[91] His second son.
[92] His eldest son.
[93] The Third Miscellany was published in July 1693.
[94] The author was at this time in Northamptonshire. The original has
no date but August 30th; but the year is ascertained by the reference
to the third Miscellany, which was published in July 1693. MALONE.
[95] To whom the Third Miscellany is dedicated. I fear this alludes
to some disappointment in the pecuniary compliment usual on such
occasions. See the Dedication, Vol. XII. p. 47.
[96] This commission will probably remind the reader of the poetic diet
recommended by Bayes. --“If I am to write familiar things, as sonnets
to Armida, and the like, I make use of _stewed prunes_ only; but, when
I have a grand design in hand, I ever take physics, and let blood;
for, when you would have pure swiftness of thought, and fiery flights
of fancy, you must have a care of the pensive part. In fine, you must
purge the belly.
_Smith. _ By my troth, Sir, this is a most admirable receipt for writing.
_Bayes. _ Aye, ’tis my secret; and, in good earnest, I think one of the
best I have. ” _Rehearsal_, act i.
This is an instance of the minute and malicious diligence, with which
the most trivial habits and tastes of our author were ridiculed in the
“Rehearsal. ”
[97] Sir Matthew, with whom Dryden appears to have resided at this
time, is unknown.
[98] Sir John Trenchard, who was made one of the secretaries of state
March 23, 1691-2, died in office in April 1695.
[99] “A short View of Tragedy,” published (as appears from the
Gentleman’s Journal, by P. Motteux,) in Dec. 1692. The date in the
title-page is, 1693.
[100] See Vol. XII. p. 45.
[101] Dennis, the critic, afterwards so unfortunately distinguished by
the satire of Pope. Like Rymer, and others, he retained considerable
reputation for critical acumen, until he attempted to illustrate his
precepts by his own compositions.
[102] Sir Richard Blackmore was doomed to accomplish this prophecy. See
Vol. XI. p. 236. and the Life of Dryden, p. 6.
[103] In his Short View of Tragedy. See Vol. XII. pp. 45, 51.
[104] This lesson was thrown away upon poor Dennis, who, by his rash
and riotous attacks upon Pope, afterwards procured an immortality of a
kind very different from that to which he aspired.
[105] Dryden’s evil opinion of the state of matrimony, never fails to
glance forth upon such occasions as the present.
[106] One of the subscribers of the higher class. The decorations were
probably his armorial bearings.
[107] It was an ancient British custom, and prevailed in Scotland
within these forty years, to finish all bargains, contracts, and even
consultations, at a tavern, that the parties might not, according to
the ancient Caledonian phrase, part _dry-lipp’d_. The custom between
authors and booksellers seems to have been universal; and the reader
may recollect, that the supposed poisoning of the celebrated Edmund
Curl took place at a meeting of this kind.
[108] At Burleigh, the seat of John, the fifth Earl of Exeter.
[109] Both the gold and silver coin were at this time much depreciated;
and remained in a fluctuating state till a new coinage took place.
[110] From inspecting the plates of Dryden’s Virgil, it appears, that
the Earl of Derby had one inscribed to him, as had Lord Chesterfield.
But this wrathful letter made no farther impression on the mercantile
obstinacy of Tonson; and neither the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Petre,
nor Lady Macclesfield, obtained the place among the first subscribers,
which Dryden so peremptorily demands for them.
[111] This seems to be a bitter gibe at Jacob’s parsimony.
[112] Perhaps the proposals for the second subscription. See Letter xi.
[113] “The Husband his own Cuckold,” written by our author’s second
son, John, and published in July 1696.
[114] Tonson’s answer to the foregoing letter, seems to have been
pacific and apologetical, yet peremptory as to his terms.
[115] Richard Bentley, a bookseller and printer, who lived in Russel
Street, Covent Garden.
[116] A banker or goldsmith, afterwards notorious for his share in the
South Sea scheme, to which Company he was cashier.
[117] Sir Robert Howard had been appointed auditor of the Exchequer in
1673, and held that office till his death.
[118] The celebrated watchmaker, who was originally a jacksmith. MALONE.
[119] They were at this time at Rome.
[120] The Eclogues of Virgil had been published in the first
Miscellany. Dryden probably corrected them with a pen in Lady
Elizabeth’s copy of the printed book, and sent it to the bookseller, as
what is technically called _copy_.
[121] This person, in the last age, was frequently called “the learned
tradesman. ” “Sir Andrew Fountaine (says Swift, in his _Journal_,
October 6, 1710,) came this morning, and caught me writing in bed. I
went into the city with him, and we dined at the Chop-house, with Will
Pate, _the learned woollen-draper_; then we sauntered at china shops
and booksellers; went to the tavern, and drank two pints of white
wine,” &c. Mr William Pate was educated at Trinity Hall in Cambridge,
where he took the degree of B. C. L. He died in 1746, and was buried at
Lee, in Kent.
Mr Malone, who mentions these particulars, transcribes Mr Pate’s
epitaph, the moral of which is:--
_Nervos atque artus esse sapientiœ,
NON TEMERE CREDERE. _
It would seem, from Dryden’s letter, that this learned tradesman
understood the mercantile, as well as the literary use of the apothegm.
[122] A Roman Catholic.
[123] At Denham Court, in Buckinghamshire. Sir William Bowyer married a
kinswoman of Lady Elizabeth Dryden; Frances, daughter of Charles, Lord
Cranbourne, eldest son of William, the second Earl of Salisbury. MALONE.
[124] This seems to imply a suspicion, though an odd one, that Jacob,
being bent to convert Dryden to his own views of politics, intercepted
his sons’ letters from Rome, as proceeding from an interest hostile to
his views. (See p. 140. ) His earnest wish was, that the Æneid should be
inscribed to King William.
[125] The translation of Virgil.
[126] In MS. Harl. p. 35, in the Museum, are the following verses,
occasioned by this circumstance:
“To be published in the next edition of Dryden’s Virgil.
“Old Jacob, by deep judgment swayed,
To please the wise beholders,
Has placed old Nassau’s book-nosed head
On poor Æneas’ shoulders,
“To make the parallel hold tack,
Methinks there’s little lacking;
One took his father pick-a-pack,
And t’other sent his packing. ”
In a copy I have seen of this epigram, “poor” Æneas is improved into
“young” Æneas. ”
[127] This Dryden never effected, nor was Howard’s play ever printed.
[128] Probably the clergy of England.
[129] This probably alludes to the proposition which appears to
have been made to him, concerning the dedication of his Virgil to
King William; for which a valuable pecuniary reward might have been
expected. MALONE.
[130] The peace of Ryswick, which was proclaimed at London in the
following month, October 19, 1697, O. S.
[131] She _means_, I suppose,--by the same way her son’s letter came to
her.
[132] To account for the difference between the exquisite orthography
of Lady Elizabeth’s present epistle, and that to Dr Busby, Mr Malone
suggests, that Dryden probably revised the latter before it was sent.
[133] Tom Brown had, in the year of the Revolution, published “The
Reasons of Mr Bayes changing his Religion;” and in 1690, a second Part,
called the “Late Converts Exposed. ” What this small wit now had in hand
is difficult to guess; none of his direct attacks against Dryden appear
in his works: but his insignificant enmity survived Dryden, for he
wrote a burlesque account of the poet’s funeral in verse, and libelled
his memory in prose, in his “Letters from the Dead to the Living. ”
[134] This labour he never resumed.
[135] The Rev. Dr Knightly Chetwood, an intimate friend of our author.
[136] Mary Leigh, the wife of Sir George Chudleigh of Ashton, in the
same county, Bart. She died in the year 1710. Her life is among those
of Ballard’s “Learned Ladies. ” The verses mentioned in the text are not
prefixed to the “Virgil,” but printed in Lady Chudleigh’s Poems.
[137] The preface to the “Pastorals. ”
[138] The “Ode for St Cecilia’s Day. ” It is pleasing to be assured,
that the best of English lyrics was received with due honour on its
first appearance.
[139] Our author only translated the First Book. See Vol. XII. p. 231.
[140] His son Charles had probably been much hurt by a dangerous fall
at Rome; probably that mentioned by Mrs Thomas, in her exaggerated
account of his accident at the Vatican. In a former letter, his mother
enquires particularly about his _head_.
[141] Probably the Genoese resident at that time.
[142] See page 132.
[143] Of Mrs Steward Mr Malone gives the following account:--
“Thislady, who was not less distinguished for her talents and
accomplishments than her beauty and virtues, having been both a painter
and a poetess, was the eldest surviving daughter of John Creed of
Oundle, Esq (secretary to Charles II. for the affairs of Tangier,)
by Elizabeth Pickering, his wife, who was the only daughter of Sir
Gilbert Pickering, Baronet, our author’s cousin-german. Her eldest son,
Richard Creed, as we have seen, fell in the battle of Blenheim, and
was honoured with a monument in Westminster Abbey. Her eldest daughter
Elizabeth, was born in the year 1672, and, in 1692, married Elmes
Steward of Cotterstock, in the county of Northampton, Esq. ; where they
principally resided. By this gentleman, who is said to have preferred
field-sports to any productions of the Muses, she had three children;
Elizabeth, who became the wife of Thomas Gwillim, Esq. of Old Court, in
the parish of Whitchurch, near Ross in Herefordshire; Anne, who died
unmarried; and Jemima, who married Elmes Spinckes of Aldwinckle, Esq.
Mrs Steward, who survived her husband above thirty years, in the latter
part of her life became blind, in which melancholy state she died at
the house of her son-in-law Mr Gwillim, at the age of seventy-one, Jan.
17, 1742-3; and a monument was erected to her memory in the church of
Whitchurch. The hall of Cotterstock-house was painted in fresco by her,
in a very masterly style, and she drew several portraits of her friends
in Northamptonshire. Her own portrait, painted by herself, is in the
possession of her kinswoman, Mrs Orel of Queen Anne Street. ”
[144] See Vol. XI. p. 71.
[145] His eldest son Charles, who returned from Italy to England about
the middle of the year 1698.
[146] Mrs Steward’s father, Mr John Creed.
[147] Miss, or, in the language of that day, _Mistress_ Dorothy Creed,
second daughter of John Creed, Esq.
[148] At Tichmarsh, after his return from Cotterstock.
[149] See Vol. IX.
