ship in the College. Why he was excluded cannot now be known, and it is vain to guess: had he thought himself injured, he knew how to complain. In the Life of Plutarch he mentions his education. in the College with gratitude; but, in a prologue at Oxford, he has these lines:

Oxford to him a dearer name shall be
Than his own mother-university;

Thebes did his rude, unknowing youth engage;
He chooses Athens in his riper age.

It was not till the death of Cromwell, in 1658, that he became a public candidate for fame, by pub lishing "Heroic Stanzas on the late Lord Protector;" which compared with the verses of Sprat and Waller, on the same occasion, were sufficient to raise great expectations of the rising Poet,

When the King was restored, Dryden, like the other panegyrists of usurpation, changed his opinion, or his profession, and published "ASTREA REDUX, a Poem on the happy Restoration and Return of his most sacred Majesty King Charles the Second."

The reproach of inconstancy was, on this occasion, shared with such numbers, that it produced neither hatred nor disgrace! if he changed, he changed with the nation. It was, however, not totally forgotten when his reputation raised him ene

mies.

The same year, he praised the new King in a second poem on his restoration. In the "ASTREA" was the line,

An horrid stillness first invades the ear,
And in that silence we a tempest fear-

This is a mistake. His poem on the death of Lord Hastings appeared in a volume entitled, "Tears of the Muses on the Death of Henry Lord Hastings; 8vo. 1649." Malone.-J. B.

for which he was persecuted with perpetual ridicule, perhaps with more than was deserved. Si lence is indeed mere privation; and, so considered, cannot invade; but privation likewise certainly is darkness, and probably cold; yet poetry has never been refused the right of ascribing effects or agency to them as to positive powers. No man scruples to say, that darkness hinders him from his work; or that cold has killed the plants. Death is also privation; yet who has made any difficulty of assigning to Death a dart and the power of striking!

In settling the order of his works there is some difficulty; for, even when they are important enough to be formally offered to a patron, he does not commonly date his dedication; the time of writing and publishing is not always the same; nor can the first editions be easily found, if even from them could be obtained the necessary information.⚫

The time at which his first play was exhibited is not certainly known, because it was not printed till it was, some years afterwards, altered and revived; but since the plays are said to be printed in the order in which they were written, from the dates of some, those of others may be inferred; and thus it may be collected, that in 1663, in the thirty-second year of his life, he commenced a writer for the stage; compelled undoubtedly by necessity, for he appears never to have loved that exercise of his genius, or to have much pleased himself with his own dramas.

Of the stage, when he had once invaded it, he kept possessiou for many years; not indeed without the competition of rivals who sometimes prevailed, or the censure of critics, which was often poignant and often just; but with such a degree of reputation, as made him at least secure of being

• The order of his plays has been accurately ascertained by Mr. Malone.-C.

..eard, whatever might be the final determination of the public.

His first piece was a comedy called "The Wild Gallant." He began with no happy auguries; for his performance was so much disapproved, that he was compelled to recal it, and change it from its imperfect state to the form in which it now appears, and which is yet sufficiently defective to vindicate the critics.

I wish that there were no necessity of following the progress of his theatrical fame, or tracing the meanders of his mind through the whole series of his dramatic performances; it will be fit, however, to enumerate them, and to take especial notice of those that are distinguished by any peculiarity, in trinsic or concomitant; for the composition and fate of eight-and-twenty dramas include too much. of a poetical life to be omitted.

In 1664, he published "The Rival Ladies," which he dedicated to the Earl of Orrery, a man of high reputation both as a writer and as a statesman. In this play he made his essay of dramatic rhyme, which he defends, in his dedication, with sufficient certainty of a favourable hearing; for Orrery was himself a writer of rhyming tragedies.

He then joined with Sir Robert Howard in "The Indian Queen," a tragedy in rhyme. The parts which either of them wrote are not distinguished.

"The Indian Emperor" was published in 1667. It is a tragedy in rhyme, intended for a sequel to Howard's "Indian Queen." Indian Queen." Of this connexion notice was given to the audience by printed bills, distributed at the door; an expedient supposed to be ridiculed in "The Rehearsal," where Bayes tells how many reams he has printed, to instil into the audience some conception of his plot.

The "Duke of Guise" was his first attempt in the drama, but laid aside and afterwards new modelled. See Malone, p. 51.-J. B.

In this play is the description of Night, which Rymer has made famous by preferring it to those of all other poets.

The practice of making tragedies in rhyme was introduced soon after the Restoration, as it seems by the Earl of Orrery, in compliance with the opi nion of Charles the Second, who had formed his taste by the French theatre; and Dryden, who wrote, and made no difficulty of declaring that he wrote only to please, and who perhaps knew that by his dexterity of versification he was more likely to excel others in rhyme than without it, very readily adopted his master's preference. He therefore made rhyming tragedies, till, by the prevalence of mani. fest propriety, he seems to have grown ashamed of making them any longer.

To this play is prefixed a vehement defence of dramatic rhyme, in confutation of the preface to "The Duke of Lerma," in which Sir Robert Howard had censured it.

In 1667, he published "Annus Mirabilis, the Year of Wonders," which may be esteemed one of his most elaborate works.

It is addressed to Sir Robert Howard by a letter, which is not properly a dedication; and, writing to a poet, he has interspersed many critical obser vations, of which some are common, and some perhaps ventured without much consideration. He began, even now, to exercise the domination of conscious genius, by recommending his own performance: "I am satisfied that as the Prince and General" [Rupert and Monk] " are incomparably the best subjects I ever had, so what I have written on them is much better than what I have performed on any other. As I have endeavoured to adorn my poem with noble thoughts, so much more to express those thoughts with elocution."

It is written in quatrains, or heroic stanzas of four lines; a measure which he had learned from the "Gondibert" of Davenant, and which he then

thought the most majestic that the English language affords. Of this stanza he mentions the incumbrances, increased as they were by the exactness which the age required. It was throughout his life, very much his custom to recommend his works. by representation of the difficulties that he had encountered, without appearing to have sufficiently considered, that where there is no difficulty there is no praise.

There seems to be, in the conduct of Sir Robert Howard and Dryden towards each other, something that is not now easily to be explained. Dryden, in his dedication to the Earl of Orrery, had defended dramatic rhyme; and Howard, in a preface to a collection of plays, had censured his opinion, Dryden vindicated himself in his "Dialogue on Dramatic Poetry:" Howard, in his preface to "The Duke of Lerma," animadverted on the vindication; and Dryden, in a preface to "The Indian Emperor," replied to the animadversions with great asperity, and almost with contumely. The dedication to this play is dated the year in which the "Annus Mirabilis" was published. Here appears a strange inconsistency; but Langbaine affords some help, by relating that the answer to Howard was not published in the first edition of the play, but was added when it was afterwards reprinted : and as "The Duke of Lerma" did not appear till 1668, the same year in which the dialogue was published, there was time enough for enmity to grow up between authors, who, writing both for the theatre, were naturally rivals.

He was now so much distinguished, that in 1668+ he succeeded Sir William Davenant as poet-laureat. The salary of the laureat had been raised in fa

See Malone, p. 91.-J. B.

He did not succeed Davenant till Aug. 18, 1670; but Mr. Malone informs us, that the patent had a retrospect, and the salary commenced from the Midsummer after D'Avenant's death.-C.