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 favour of Jonson, by Charles the First, from an hundred marks to one hundred pounds a year, and a tierce of wine; a revenue in those days not Inadequate to the conveniences of life.

The same year he published his Essay on Dramatick Poetry, an elegant and instructive dialogue, in which we are told by Prior, that the principal character is meant to represent the duke of Dorset. This work seems to have given Addison a model for his Dialogues upon Medals.

Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen, (1663) is a tragi-comedy. In the preface he discusses a curious question, whether a poet can judge well of his own productions? and determines very justly, that, of the plan and disposition, and all that can be reduced to principles of science, the author may depend upon his own opinions; but that, in those parts where fancy predominates, self-love may easily deceive. He might have observed, that what is good only because it pleases, cannot be pronounced good till it has been found to please. Sir Martin Marr;all (1668) is a comedy, published without preface or dedication, and at first without the name of the author. Langbaine charges it, like most of the rest, with plagiarism; and observes that the song is translated from Voiture, allowing however that both the sense and measure are exactly observed.

The Tempest (1670) is an alteration of Shakspeare's play, made by Dryden in conjunction with Davenant, "whom," says he, "I found of so quick a "fancy, that nothing was proposed to him in which he could not suddenly "produce a thought extremely pleasant and surprising; and those first "thoughts of his, contrary to the Latin proverb, were not always the least "happy, and as his fancy was quick, so likewise were the products of it remote and new. He borrowed not of any other, and his imaginations were such as could not easily enter into any other man."

The effect produced by the conjunction of these two powerful minds was, that to Shakspeare's monster Caliban is added a sister-monster Sycorax ; and a woman, who, in the original play, had never seen a man, is in this brought acquainted with a man that had never seen a woman.

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About this time, in 1673, Dryden seems to have had his quiet much disturbed by the success of the Empress of Morocco, a tragedy written in rhyme by Elkanah Settle; which was so much applauded, as to make him think his supremacy of reputation in some danger. Settle had not only been prosperous on the stage, but, in the confidence of success, had published his play, with sculptures and a preface of defiance. Here was one offence added to another; and, for the last blast of inflammation, it was acted at Whitehall by the court-ladies.

Dryden could not now repress these emotions, which he called indignation, and others jealousy; but wrote upon the play and the dedication such criticism as malignant impatience could pour out in haste.

Of

Of Settle he gives this character." He's an animal of a most deplored "understanding, without conversation. His being is in a twilight of sense,

and some glimmerings of thought, which he can never fashion into wit or "English. His style is boisterous and rough-hewn, his rhyme incorrigibly "lewd, and his numbers perputually harsh and ill-sounding. The little talent " which he has, is fancy. He sometimes labours with a thought; but with "the pudder he makes to bring it into the world, 'tis commonly still-born; "so that for want of learning and elocution, he will never be able to express any thing either naturally or justly!"

This is not very decent; yet this is one of the pages in which criticism prevails over brutal fury. He proceeds: "He has a heavy hand at fools, and a great "felicity in writing nonsense for them. Fools they will be in spite of him. His King, his two empresses, his villain, and his sub-villain, nay "his hero, have all a certain natural cast of the father- their folly was born and bred in them, and something of the Elkanah will be visible." This is Dryden's general declamation; I will not withold from the reader a particular remark. Having gone through the first act, he says, " To conclude this act with the most rumbling piece of nonsense spoken yet,

"To flattering lightning our feign'd smiles conform,
"Which back'd with thunder do but gild a storm.”

"Conform a smile to lightning, make a smile imitate lightning, and flattering light"ning lightning sure is a threatning thing. And this lightning must gilda storm. Now if I must conform by smiles to lightning, then my smiles must "gild a storm too: to gild with smiles is a new invention of gilding. And gild a storm by being backed with thunder. Thunder is part of the storm ; so one part of the storm must help to gild another part, and help by backing; ཞུ་ as if a man would guild a thing the better for being backed, or having à << load upon his back. So that here is gilding by conforming, smiling, lightning, “backing, and thundering. The whole is as if I should say thus, I will make my counterfeit smiles look like a flattering stone-horse, which, being backed "with a trooper, does but gild the battle. I am mistaken if nonsense is not here pretty thick sown. Sure the poet writ these two lines aboard some "smack in a storm, and being sea-sick, spewed up a good lump of clotted nonsense at once."

Here is perhaps a sufficient specimen ; but as the pamphlet, though Dryden's has never been thought worthy of republication, and is not easily to be found, it may gratify curiosity to quote it more largely.

Whene'er she bleeds,

He no severer a damnation needs,

That dares pronounce the sentence of her death,

Than the infection that attends that breath..

That attends that breath. The poet is at breath again; breath can never escape him; and here he brings in a breath that must be infectious with pronouncing

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nouncing a sentence; and this sentence is not to be pronounced till the con"demned party bleeds; that is, she must be executed first, and sentenced "after; and the pronouncing of this sentence will be infectious; that is, others "will catch the disease of that sentence, and this infecting of others will tor"ment a man's self. The whole is thus ; when she bleeds, thou needest no greater "hell or torment to thyself, than infecting of others by pronouncing a sentence upon her. What hodge-podge does he make here! Never was Dutch grout "such clogging, thick, indigestible stuff. But this is but a taste to stay the "stomach; we shall have a more plentiful mess presently.

"Now to dish up the poet's broth, that I promised: For when we're dead, and our freed souls enlarg'd

Of natures grosser burden we're discharg'd,

Then gently, as a happy lover's sigh,

Like wandring meteors through the air we'll fly,
And in our airy walk, as subtle guests,

We'll steal into our cruel fathers breasts,

There read their souls, and track each passion's sphere:
See how Revenge moves there, Ambition here.
And in their orbs view the dark characters
Of sieges, ruins, murders, blood and wars.

We'll blot out all those hideous draughts, and write
Pure and white forms; then with a radient light
Their breasts encircle, till their passions be

Gentle as nature in its infancy :

Till soften'd by our charms their furies cease,

And their Revenge resolves into a peace.

Thus by our death their quarrel ends,

Whom living we made foes, dead we'll make friends.

"If this be not a very liberal mess, I will refer myself to the stomach of any "moderate guest. And a rare mess it is, far excelling any Westminster "white-broth. It is a kind of gibblet porridge, made of the gibblets of a "couple of young geese, stodged full of meteors, orbs, spheres, track, hideous draughts, dark characters, white forms, and radiant lights, designed not only "to please appetite, and indulge luxury; but it is also physical, being an "approved medicine to purge choler: for it is propounded by Morena, as a "receipt to cure their fathers of their choleric humours: and, were it written " in characters as barbarous as the words, might very well pass for a doctor's "bill. To conclude, it is porridge, 'tis a receipt, 'tis a pig with a pudding in the belly, 'tis I know not what; for, certainly, never any one that pic"tended to write sense, had the impudence before to put such stuff as this "into the mouths of those that were to speak it before an audience, whom " he did not take to be all fools; and after that to print it too, and expose it "to the examination of the world. But let us see, what we can make of this < stuff:

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Vol. I.

For when we're dead, and our freed souls enlarg'd
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<< Here

"Here he tells us what it is to be dead; it is to have our freed souls set free. "Now if to have a soul set free, is to be dead, then to have a freed soul set "free, is to have a dead man die.

Then gentle, as a happy lover's sigh

"They two like one sigh, and that one sigh like two wandering meteors, -Shall fly through the air

"That is, they shall mount above like falling stars, or else they shall skip "like two Jacks with lanthorns, or Will with a wisp, and Madge with a candle."

And in their airy walk steal into their cruel fathers breasts, like subtle guests. "So that their fathers breasts must be in an airy walk, an airy walk of a flier. "And there they will read their souls, and track the spheres of their passions. "That is, these walking fliers, Jack with a lanthorn, &c. will put on his

spectacles, and fall a reading souls, and put on his pumps and fall a tracking "of spheres: so that he will read and run, walk and fly at the same time! Oh! "Nimble Jack. Then he will see, how revenge here, how ambition there-The "birds will hop about. And then view the dark characters of sieges, ruins "murders, blood, and wars, in their orbs: Track the characters to their "forms! Oh! rare sport for Jack. Never was place so full of game as these "breasts! You cannot stir but flush a sphere, start a character, or unkennel cr an orb!"

Settle's is said to have been the first play embellished with sculptures; those ornaments seem to have given poor Dryden great disturbance. He tries however to ease his pain, by venting his malice in a parody.

"The poet has not only been so impudent to expose all this stuff, but so arrogant to defend it with an epistle; like a saucy booth-keeper, that, when " he had put a cheat upon the people, would wrangle and fight with any that "would not like it, or would offer to discover it; for which arrogance our poet receives this correction; and to jerk him a little the sharper, I will not transpose his verse, but by the help of his own words transnon-sense, sense, "that, by my stuff, people may judge the better what his is ;

"Great Boy, the tragedy and sculptures done

"From press, and plates in fleets do homeward come:

"And in ridiculous and humble príde,

"Their course is ballad-singers baskets guide,

"Whose greasy twigs do all new beauties take,
"From the gay shews thy dainty sculptures make.
Thy lines a mess of rhyming nonsense yield,

"A senseless tale, with flattering fustian fill'd.

No grain of sense does in our line appear,

Thy words big bulks of beisterous bombast bear.

"With noise they move, and from players mouths rebound,

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When their tongues dance to thy words empty sound

" By

"By thee inspir'd the rumbling verses roll,
"As if that rhyme and bombast lent a soul:
“And with that soul they seem taught duty too,
"To huffing words does humble nonsense bow,
"As if it would thy worthless work enchance,
"To th' lowest rank of fops thy praise advance;
"To whom, by instinct, all thy stuff is dear;
Their loud claps echo to the theatre.
"From breaths of fools thy commendation spreads,
"Fame sings thy praise with mouths of logger-heads.
With noise and laughing each thy fustian greets,
"Tis clapt by quires of empty-headed cits,

"Who have their tribute sent, and homage given,
"As men in whispers send loud noise to heaven.

"Thus I have daubed him with his own puddle: and now we are come "from aboard his dancing, masking, rebounding, breathing fleet; and as if we had landed at Gotham, we meet nothing but fools and nonsense." Such was the criticism to which the genius of Dryden could be reduced, between rage and terrour; rage with little provocation, and terrour with little danger. To see the highest minds thus levelled with the meanest, may produce some solace to the consciousness of weakness, and some mortification to the pride of wisdom. But let it be remembered, that minds are not levelled in their powers but when they are first levelled in their desires. Dryden and Settle had both placed their happiness in the claps of multitudes.

An Evening's Love or the Mock Astrologer, a comedy (1671), is dedicated to the illustrious duke of Newcastle, whom he courts by adding to his praises those of his lady, not only as a lover but a partner of his studies. It is unpleasing to think how many names, once celebrated, are since forgotten. Of Newcastle's works nothing is now known but his treatise on horesemanship.

The Preface seems very elaborately written, and contains many just remarks on the Fathers of the English drama. Shakspeare's plots, he says, are in the hundred novels of Cinthio; those of Beaumont and Fletcher in Spanish Stories; Jonson only made them for himself. His criticisms upon tragedy, comedy, and farce, are judicious and profound. He endeavours to defend the immorality of some of his comedies by the example of former writers; which is only to say, that he was not the first nor perhaps the greatest offender. Against those that accused him of plagiarism he alleges a favourable expression of the king: "He only desired that they, who accuse me of thefts, would steal him plays like mine;" and then relates how much labour he spends in fitting for the English stage what he borrows from others.

Tyrannick Love, or the Virgin Martyr, (1672), was another tragedy in rhyme, conspicuous for many passages of strength and elegance, and many of empty noise and ridiculous turbulence. The rants of Maximin have been always the

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