116 117 118 Settle was for this rebellion severely chastised by Dryden under the name of Doeg, in the second part of Absalom and Achitophel', and was perhaps for his factious audacity made the city poet, whose annual office was to describe the glories of the Mayor's day. Of these bards he was the last, and seems not much to have deserved even this degree of regard, if it was paid to his political opinions; for he afterwards wrote a panegyrick on the virtues of judge Jefferies, and what more could have been done by the meanest zealot for prerogative? Of translated fragments or occasional poems to enumerate the titles or settle the dates would be tedious, with little use. It may be observed that as Dryden's genius was commonly excited by some personal regard he rarely writes upon a general topick. Soon after the accession of king James, when the design of reconciling the nation to the church of Rome became apparent, and the religion of the court gave the only efficacious title to its favours, Dryden declared himself a convert to popery 3. This at them; and in both places theyounger 'Elkanah Settle,' said Wilkes, Published about Nov. 10, 1682. Works, ix. 322. Most of it is by Nahum Tate (post, RowE, 21), with corrections and additions by Dryden, who wrote ll. 310-509. For Doeg see 1. 408. See also post, DRYDEN, 273. 2 His office was to compose yearly panegyrics upon the Lord Mayors, and verses to be spoken in the Pageants. But that part of the Shows being at length frugally abolished, the employment of CityPoet ceased.' Warburton's Pope, v. 22. His City Poems bore such titles as the following:-Triumphs of London for the Inauguration of Sir Richard Levett, Lord Mayor of London, Oct. 30, 1699. Lowndes's Bibl. Man. p. 2246, in which work more space is given to Settle than Dryden. In 1683 Settle printed A Panegyrick on Jefferies :Betimes the Long Robe's glory, and his tongue Touched with a coal from wisdom's altar young.' 3 Evelyn recorded under date of Jan. 19, 1685-6:-'Dryden, the famous play-writer, and his two sons, and Mrs. Nelly (Miss to the late [King]) were said to go to mass.' Diary, ii. 259. (See ib. i. 381, where under date of Jan. 9, 1661-2, it is said that 'at this time they began to call all lewd women Miss.') Evelyn's dates are not trustworthy. The Bishop of Carlisle wrote on Jan. 27, 1686-7, that Mr. Finch, the new Warden of All Souls, 'an ingenious young gentleman, lately meeting any other time might have passed with little censure. Sir Kenelm Digby embraced popery1; the two Rainolds reciprocally converted one another; and Chillingworth himself was a while so entangled in the wilds of controversy as to retire for quiet to an infallible church 3. If men of argument and study can find such difficulties or such motives, as may either unite them to the church of Rome or detain them in uncertainty, there can be no wonder that a man, who perhaps never enquired why he was a protestant, should by an artful and experienced disputant be made a papist, overborne by the sudden violence of new and unexpected arguments, or deceived by a representation which shews only the doubts on one part and only the evidence on the other. That conversion will always be suspected that apparently con- 119 curs with interest". He that never finds his error till it hinders with Mr. Dryden in a coffee-house in London, publickly before all the company wished him much joy of his new religion. "Sir," said Dryden, "you are very much mistaken; my religion is the old religion." "Nay," replyed the other, "whatever it be in itself I am sure 'tis new to you, for within these 3 days you had no religion at all." Le Fleming MSS., Hist. MSS. Comm. Report xii. App. 7, p. 202. I 'Wood states that he was "trained up in the Protestant religion" [Aihen. Oxon. iii. 688]. It is certain that he was brought up in the Roman Catholic faith which his father adopted.' S. L. LEE, Dict. Nat. Biog. xv. 6o. [According to Aubrey, 'Anno 163... tempore Caroli Imi he received the sacrament in the chapell at Whitehall, and professed the Protestant religion, which gave great scandal to the Roman Catholics, but afterwards he looked back! Brief Lives, i. 227.] All this while this our John Reinolds was well affected to the Romish religion, and his brother William earnest for Reformation; which difference in judgment... engaged them in a strange duel .. wherein both conquered one the other, yet neither enjoyed the victory, nor kept his prisoner; for John Reinolds, who before was a Papist, by these bickerings became a zealous Protestant, and William Reinolds, who before had been a zealous Protestant, became a Jesuited Papist, and wrote most pestilent books against the church and state.' Fuller's Abel Redivivus, ed. 1867, ii. 221. They flourished in Elizabeth's reign. [John Rainolds or Reynolds lived on to 1607, and was one of the Puritan representatives at the Hampton Court Conference in 1604.] 3 I know a man that of a moderate Protestant turned a Papist, and the day that he did so.. was convicted in conscience that his yesterday's opinion was an error. . . . The same man afterwards, upon a better consideration, became a doubting Papist, and, of a doubting Papist, a confirmed Protestant.' W. CHILLINGWORTH, The Religion of Protestants, &c., 1638, p. 303. Chillingworth had contracted such an irresolution and habit of doubting that by degrees he grew confident of nothing, and a sceptic at least in the greatest mysteries of faith.' CLARENDON, Life, i. 62. See also Johnson's Works, vi. 417; Gibbon's Memoirs, 120 121 122 his progress towards wealth or honour will not be thought to love Truth only for herself. Yet it may easily happen that information may come at a commodious time; and as truth and interest are not by any fatal necessity at variance, that one may by accident introduce the other. When opinions are struggling into popularity the arguments by which they are opposed or defended become more known; and he that changes his profession would perhaps have changed it before, with the like opportunities of instruction. This was then the state of popery; every artifice was used to shew it in its fairest form: and it must be owned to be a religion of external appearance sufficiently attractive *. It is natural to hope that a comprehensive is likewise an elevated soul, and that whoever is wise is also honest. I am willing to believe that Dryden, having employed his mind, active as it was, upon different studies, and filled it, capacious as it was, with other materials, came unprovided to the controversy, and wanted rather skill to discover the right than virtue to maintain it. But enquiries into the heart are not for man; we must now leave him to his Judge'. The priests, having strengthened their cause by so powerful an adherent, were not long before they brought him into action. They engaged him to defend the controversial papers found in the strong-box of Charles the Second, and, what yet was harder, to defend them against Stillingfleet 3. With hopes of promoting popery he was employed to translate Maimbourg's History of the League, which he published with a large introduction. His name is likewise prefixed to the English Life of Francis Xavier 5; but I know not that he ever owned himself the translator. Perhaps the use of his name was Have followed me for miracles of bread. Judge not by hearsay, but observe at least, If since their change their loaves have been increased.' For Macaulay's accusation that Dryden's 'conversion concurred with interest' see his History, ii. 455, and for Robert Bell's defence see Bell's Dryden, i. 55; ii. 134 n., and Dryden's Works, i. 248 n. It is idle,' wrote Sir Leslie Stephen, 'to compare such a conversion to those of loftier minds. But, in a sense, he may well have been sincere enough.' Dict. Nat. Biog. xvi. 69. 1 Post, GARTH, 16. 2 Ante, MILTON, 105 n. ; post, DryDEN, 158, 406. 3 See Appendix S. 5 By Father Dominic Bouhours. a pious fraud, which however seems not to have had much effect; for neither of the books, I believe, was ever popular. The version of Xavier's Life is commended by Brown, in a 123 pamphlet not written to flatter; and the occasion of it is said to have been that the Queen, when she solicited a son, made vows to him as her tutelary saint 3. He was supposed to have undertaken to translate Varillas's 124 History of Heresies, and, when Burnet published Remarks upon it, to have written an Answer upon which Burnet makes the following observation 5: 'I have been informed from England that a gentleman, who is famous [known] both for poetry and several other things [and other things], had spent three months in translating M. Varillas's History, but that, as soon as my Reflections appeared, he discontinued his labour, finding the credit of his author was gone. Now, if he thinks it is recovered by his Answer, he will perhaps go on with his translation; and this may be, for aught I know, as good an entertainment for him as the conversation that he had set on between the Hinds and Panthers, and all the rest of animals, for whom M. Varillas may serve well enough as an author: and this * "When pious frauds and holy shifts Are dispensations and gifts.' Hudibras, i. 3, 1145. See also ib. iii. 2, 63. 'These are called the pious frauds of friendship.' FIELDING, Amelia, vi. 6. 2 The Late Converts Exposed, or the Reasons of Mr. Bays's changing his Religion. Considered in a Dialogue, Part the Second. With Reflections on the Life of St. Xavier, &c., 1690. One of the characters of the Dialogue says of the Life:-'The language and the style are extremely fine, both in the original and in the translation.' p. 33. 3 lb. p. 35. Dryden, in his Dedication to the Queen, after stating that Bouhours attributed the birth of Lewis XIV to Xavier's intercession, continues:-' Your Majesty, I doubt not, has the inward satisfaction of knowing that such pious prayers have not been unprofitable to you; and the nation may one day come to understand how happy it will be for them to have a son of prayers ruling over them.' Works, xvi. 3. Britannia Rediviva, ib. x. 288; post, In DRYDEN, 298, he addresses the 'Hail, son of prayers! by holy vio- Drawn down from heaven.' * Varillas in 1686 began the publication of his Histoire des Révolutions arrivées dans l'Europe en matière de Religion. Burnet the same year published Reflections on Mr. Varillas History. The next year he published A Continuation of Reflections, &c., and A Defence of the Reflections, &c. The History was translated by Dryden, 'at the King's command,' as is shown by an entry on April 29, 1686, in the Stationers' Register. The Answer was by Varillas. Malone shows that Johnson was misled 'by the imperfect citation of Burnet's words in the General Dict., and by his clumsy phraseology.' The paragraph preceding the one cited in the text makes this clear. Malone's Dryden, i. 194. See also post, KING, 3. 5 In A Defence of the Reflections, &c., Amsterdam, 1687, p. 138. history and that poem are such extraordinary things of their kind, that it will be but suitable to see the author of the worst poem become likewise the translator of the worst history that the age has produced. If his grace and his wit improve both proportionably he will hardly find that he has gained much by the change he has made, from having no religion to chuse one of the worst. It is true he had somewhat to sink from in [the] matter of wit; but as for his morals, it is scarce possible for him to grow a worse man than he was'. He has lately wreaked his malice on me2 for spoiling his three months' labour; but in it he has done me all the honour that any man can receive from him, which is to be railed at by him. If I had ill-nature enough to prompt me to wish a very bad wish for him, it should be that he would go on and finish his translation. By that it will appear whether the English nation, which is the most competent judge in this matter, has, upon the seeing our debate, pronounced in M. Varillas's favour, or in mine. It is true Mr. D. will suffer a little by it; but at least it will serve to keep him in from other extravagancies; and if he gains little honour by this work, yet he cannot lose so much by it as he has done by his last employment.' 125 Having probably felt his own inferiority in theological controversy he was desirous of trying whether, by bringing poetry to aid his arguments, he might become a more efficacious defender of his new profession. To reason in verse was, indeed, one of his powers3; but subtilty and harmony united are still feeble, when opposed to truth. 126 127 Actuated therefore by zeal for Rome, or hope of fame, he published The Hind and Panther, a poem in which the church of Rome, figured by the milk-white Hind, defends her tenets against the church of England, represented by the Panther, a beast beautiful, but spotted. A fable which exhibits two beasts talking Theology appears at once full of absurdity; and it was accordingly ridiculed in The City Mouse and Country Mouse, a parody written by Montague, afterwards earl of Halifax, and Prior, who then gave the first specimen of his abilities". |