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:—

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.

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. p. 23. note XVIII. Our author commemorated this circumstance in his “Elegy on the Protector:”—

150 Driden, of Chesterton, who, as appears from our author’s Epistle addressed to him, was a keen sportsman.

151 Probably Bevil Driden.

152 This severe proclamation appeared in the London Gazette, No. 3476, Monday, March 6, 1698-9. It enjoined all Popish recusants to remove to their respective places of abode; or if they had none, to the dwellings of their fathers or mothers; and not to remove five miles from thence: and it charged the lord mayor of London, and all other justices of peace, to put the statute 1st William and Mary, c.9. for amoving Papists ten miles from London and Westminster, into execution, by tendering them the declaration therein mentioned; and also another act of William and Mary, for disarming Papists.

153 Dr Thomas Tennison, who succeeded to the see of Canterbury in 1694, on the death of Tillotson. He is thus sarcastically described by William Shippen, in “Faction Displayed,” a poem written a few years afterwards:

So also Edmund Smith, in his elegant ode, Charlettus Percivallo suo;

154 The London Gazette, No. 3474, Monday, Feb. 27, 1698-9, contains the order alluded to:

“His majesty has been pleased to command, that the following order should be sent to both Playhouses:

“His majesty being informed, that, notwithstanding an order made the 4th of June, 1697, by the Earl of Sunderland, then lord chamberlain of his majesty’s houshold, to prevent the profaneness and immorality of the stage, several plays have lately been acted, containing expressions contrary to religion and good manners: And whereas the master of the revels has represented, that, in contempt of the said order, the actors do often neglect to leave out such profane and indecent expressions as he has thought proper to be omitted: These are therefore to signify his majesties pleasure, that you do not hereafter presume to act any thing in any play, contrary to religion and good manners, as you shall answer it at your utmost peril. Given under my hand this 18th of February, 1698, in the eleventh year of his majesties reign.

“Pere. Bertie.

“An order has been likewise sent by his majesties command, to the master of the revels, not to licence any plays containing expressions contrary to religion and good manners; and to give notice to the lord chamberlain of his majesties houshold, or, in his absence, to the vice-chamberlain, if the players presume to act any thing which he has struck out.”

155 The beautiful Fables.

156 Dorothy and Jemima Creed; the latter of whom died Feb. 23, 1705-6, and was buried at Tichmarsh.

157 The founder of the Pepysian library, Magdalen College, Cambridge. He was secretary to the Admiralty in the reign of Charles II. and James II. “He first (says Granger, Biogr. Hist. iv. 322.) reduced the affairs of the Admiralty to order and method; and that method was so just, as to have been a standing model to his successors in that important office. His ‘Memoirs’ relating to the Navy is a well written piece; and his copious collection of manuscripts, now remaining with the rest of his library at Magdalen College in Cambridge, is an invaluable treasure of naval knowledge. He was far from being a mere man of business: his conversation and address had been greatly refined by travel. He thoroughly understood and practised music; was a judge of painting, sculpture, and architecture; and had more than a superficial knowledge in history and philosophy. His fame among the Virtuosi was such, that he was thought to be a very proper person to be placed at the head of the Royal Society, of which he was some time [1685, 1686,] president. His Prints have been already mentioned. His collection of English Ballads, in five large folio volumes, begun by Mr Selden, and carried down to 1700, is one of his singular curiosities.—Ob. 26 May, 1703.”

158 To smicker, though omitted by Dr Johnson, is found, says Mr Malone, in Kersey’s Dictionary, 1708; where it is interpreted—“To look amorously, or wantonly.”

159 Christopher Codrington, governor of the Caribbee Islands.

160 Colonel John Creed, a gallant soldier. He died at Oundle, Nov. 21, 1751, aged 73, and was buried in the church of Tichmarsh.

161 The superscription of this letter is wanting; but that it was addressed to Mr Montague, is ascertained by the words—“From Mr Dryden,” being indorsed on it, in that gentleman’s handwriting. Charles Montague, (afterwards Earl of Halifax,) was at this time First Lord of the Treasury, and Chancellor of the Exchequer; the latter of which offices he had held from the year 1694.—The date is supplied by the subsequent letter. Malone.

162 The verses addressed to his kinsman, John Driden, of Chesterton, Esq.—The former poem which had been submitted to Mr Montague, was that addressed, to Mary, Duchess of Ormond. They were both inserted in the volume of Fables, which was then printing. See the next letter.—Malone.

163 The lines alluded to occur in the Epistle to Driden of Chesterton, (Vol. XI. p. 81.) They are very cautiously worded; yet obviously imply, that opposition to government was one quality of a good patriot. Dryden, sensible of the suspicion arising from his politics and religion, seems, in this letter, to deprecate Montague’s displeasure, and to prepossess him in favour of the poem, as inoffensive toward the government. I am afraid, that indemnity was all he had to hope for from the protection of this famed Mæcenas; at least, he returns no thanks for benefits hitherto received; and of these he was no niggard where there was room for them. Pope’s bitter verses on Halifax are well known:

164 Dryden probably alludes to some expectations through the interest of Halifax, They were never realised; whether from inattention, or on account of his politics and religion, cannot now be known.

165 Charles Hopkins, son of Hopkins, Bishop of Derry, in Ireland. He was educated at Cambridge, and became Bachelor of Arts in 1688; he afterwards bore arms for King William in the Irish wars. In 1694, he published a collection of epistolary poems and translations; and in 1695, “The History of Love,” which last gained him some reputation. Dorset honoured Hopkins with his notice; and Dryden himself is said to have distinguished him from the undergrowth of authors. He was careless both of his health and reputation, and fell a martyr to excess in 1700, aged only thirty-six years. Hopkins wrote three plays, 1. “Pyrrhus, King of Epirus,” 1695; 2. “Boadicea, Queen of Britain,” 1697; 3. “Friendship Improved.” This last is mentioned in the text as to be acted on 7th November.

166 The fate of the Scottish colony at Darien, accelerated by the inhuman proclamations of William, who prohibited his American subjects to afford them assistance, was now nearly decided, and the nation was almost frantic between rage and disappointment. “The most inflammatory publications had been dispersed among the nation, the most violent addresses were presented from the towns and counties, and whosoever ventured to dispute or doubt the utility of Darien, was reputed a public enemy devoted to a hostile and corrupt court.”—Laing’s History, book x.

167 Mr John Driden of Chesterton, member for the county of Huntingdon.

168 Mrs Steward’s father, Mr John Creed, of Oundle.

169 Mrs Thomas, “Curll’s Corinna,” well known as a hack authoress some years after this period, was now commencing her career. She was daughter of Emanuel Thomas, of the Inner Temple, barrister. Her person, as well as her writings, seems to have been dedicated to the service of the public. The story of her having obtained a parcel of Pope’s letters, written in youth, from Henry Cromwell, to whom they were addressed, and selling them to Curll the bookseller, is well known. In that celebrated collection, 2d Vol. 8vo. 1735, the following letters from Dryden also appear. It would seem Corinna had contrived to hook an acquaintance upon the good-natured poet, by the old pretext of sending him two poems for his opinion. She afterwards kept up some communication with his family, which she made the ground of two marvellous stories, one concerning the astrological predictions of the poet, the other respecting the mode of his funeral.

170 “A Pastoral Elegy to the Memory of the Hon. Cecilia Bew,” published afterwards in the Poems of Mrs Thomas, 8vo. 1727.

171 Mrs Catharine Philips, a poetess of the last age. See Vol. XI, p. 111.

172 She lived with her mother, Mrs Elizabeth Thomas, (as we learn from Curll,) in Dyot-street, St Giles’s; but in the first edition of the letter, for the greater honour, she represents it as addressed to herself at Great Russell-street, Bloomsbury.

173 In this lively romance, written to ridicule the doctrines of Rosicrucian philosophy, we are informed, that the Nymphs of water, air, earth, and fire, are anxious to connect themselves with the sages of the human race. I remember nothing about their wish to be baptized; but that desire was extremely strong among the fays, or female genii, of the North, who were anxious to demand it for the children they had by human fathers, as the means of securing to them that immortality which they themselves wanted. Einar Godmund, an ancient priest, informed the learned Torfæus, that they often solicited this favour, (usually in vain,) and were exceedingly incensed at the refusal. He gave an instance of Siward Fostre, who had promised to one of these fays, that if she bore him a child, he would cause it to be christened. In due time she appeared, and laid the child on the wall of the church-yard, with a chalice of gold and a rich cope, as an offering at the ceremony. But Siward, ashamed of his extraordinary intrigue, refused to acknowledge the child, which, therefore, remained unbaptized. The incensed mother re-appeared and carried off the infant and the chalice, leaving behind the cope, fragments of which were still preserved. But she failed not to inflict upon Siward and his descendants, to the ninth generation, a peculiar disorder, with which they were long afflicted. Other stories to the same purpose are told by Torfæus in his preface to the “History of Hrolf Kraka,” 12mo. 1715. I suppose, however, that Dryden only recollected the practice of magicians, who, on invoking astral spirits, and binding them to their service, usually imposed on them some distinguishing name. It is possible Paracelsus says something to the purpose in his Magna Philosophia.

174 In printing this letter, Mr Malone says, he “followed a transcript which he made some years ago from the original. It is preserved in a small volume in the Bodleian Library, consisting chiefly of Pope’s original Letters to Henry Cromwell, which Mrs Thomas sold to Curll, the bookseller, who published them unfaithfully. It afterwards fell into the hands of Dr Richard Rawlinson, by whom it was bequeathed to that Library.”

175 Afra Behn, whose plays, poems, and novels, are very indecent; yet an aged lady, a relation of the editor, assured him, that, in the polite society of her youth, in which she held a distinguished place, these books were accounted proper reading; and added, with some humour, it was not till after a long interval, when she looked into them, at the age of seventy, that she was shocked at their indecorum.

176 The Pastoral Elegy on Mrs Bew, and the Triple League.

177 Colonel Codrington wrote an epilogue to Dennis’ “Iphigenia.” Dryden here talks rather slightingly of his acquaintance; but “Iphigenia” is a most miserable piece.

178 Mary, the daughter of Henry Mordaunt, the second Earl of Peterborough, and wife of Thomas, the seventh Duke of Norfolk, afterwards divorced for criminal conversation with Sir John Germaine. See the Proceedings in the State Trials.

179 The Right Hon. Charles Montague.

180 He was about a year after created Lord Halifax.

181 Lord Somers.—Mr Malone is of opinion, that this passage adds some support to what has been suggested in our author’s Life, that a part of Dryden’s “Satire to his Muse” was written in his younger days by this great man. Yet I cannot think, that great man would be concerned in so libellous a piece: and in the same breath Dryden tells us, that he hoped Montague, who had really written against him, was much his friend.

182 Erasmus Dryden, who lived in King’s-street, Westminster, and was a grocer. In Dec. 1710, he succeeded to the title of Baronet.

183 Jemima, Mrs Steward’s youngest daughter, probably then four or five years old.

184 “Fables Ancient and Modern.”

185 Elmes Steward, Esq., was appointed sheriff of the county of Northampton in Nov. 1699.

186 Dennis’s “Iphigenia” was performed at the theatre in Little Lincoln’s Fields; and “Achilles, or Iphigenia in Aulis,” written by Abel Boyer, and, if we are to believe the author, corrected by Dryden, was acted at the theatre in Drury-Lane. Dennis says in his Preface, that the success of his play was “neither despicable, nor extraordinary;” but Gildon, in his “Comparison between the two Stages,” 8vo, 1702, informs us, that it was acted but six times; and that the other tragedy, after four representations, was laid aside. Malone.

187 In the London Gazette, No. 3557, Thursday, December 14, 1699, it is mentioned, that a proclamation for preventing and punishing immorality and profaneness, had been issued out on the 11th instant. We know, by the experience of our own time, the justice of Dryden’s observation.

188 Not at St James’ Church, but at the Chapel Royal. The pews, it seems, were raised to prevent the devotions of the maids of honour from any distractions in time of service. But the ballad maliciously supposes, that the intention was to confine the sun-beams of their eyes to the preacher, Bishop Burnet. The ballad itself may be found Vol. X. p. 270.

189 This poem is a banter upon the interest which the nobility took in the disputes between the Dury-Lane theatre, where Skipwith was manager, and that in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, of which Betterton was sovereign. The “Island Princess” of Fletcher had
been converted into a sort of opera, by Peter Motteux, and acted
at Drury-Lane in 1699. The peculiar taste of Rich for every thing that respected show and machinery is well known.

The Confederates, or the First Happy Day of the Island Princess.