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thoughts to a translation of Euripides, rather than of Homer, he confessed that he had no relish for that poet, who was a great master of tragic simplicity. Mr. Gildon further observes, as a confirmation that Dryden's taste for tragedy was not of the genuine sort, that he constantly expressed great contempt for Otway, who is universally allowed to have succeeded very happily in affecting the tender passions; yet Mr. Dryden, in his preface to the translation of M. Du Fresnoy, speaks more favourably of Otway; and after mentioning these instances, Gildon ascribes this taste in Dryden to his having read many French Romances. -The truth is, if a poet would affect the heart, he must not exceed Nature too much, nor colour too high; distressful circumstances, short speeches, and pathetic observations, never fail to move infinitely beyond the highest rant, or long declamations in tragedy. The simplicity of the drama was Otway's peculiar excellence; a living poet observes, that from Otway to our own times,

"From bard to bard the frigid caution crept,
"And Declamation roar'd while Passion slept."

Mr. Dryden seems to be sensible that he was not born to write Comedy; "For," says he, “I want "that gaiety of humour which is required in it; my "conversation is slow and dull, my humoursaturnine " and reserved. In short, I am none of those who " endeavour to break jests in company, and make

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circumstances obliged him to comply with the popular taste. He himself, in the dedication to the Spanish Fryar, insinuates as much. " I remember," says he, " some verses of my own Maximin and Almanzor " which cry vengeance upon me for their extrava. "gance. All that I can say for those passages, which "are, I hope, not many, is, that I knew they were bad "when I wrote them. But I repent of them amongst "my sins, and if any of their fellows intrude by "chance into my present writings, I draw a veil over "all these Dalilahs of the theatre, and am resolved " I will settle myself no reputation upon the applause "of fools. It is not that I am mortified to all ambi"tion, but I scorn as much to take it from half-witted " judges, as I should to raise an estate by cheating of "bubbles. Neither do I discommend the lofty style "in tragedy, which is naturally pompous and mag"nificent; but nothing is truly sublime that is not " just and proper." He says in another place, "that "his Spanish Fryar was given to the people, and that " he never wrote any thing in the dramatic way to " please himself, but his All for Love."

In 1671 Mr. Dryden was publicly ridiculed on the stage in the Duke of Buckingham's comedy, called The Rehearsal, under the character of Bays. This character, we are informed in the Key to the Rehearsal, was originally intended for Sir Robert Howard, under the name of Bilboa; but the representation being put a stop to, by the breaking out of the plague in 1665, it was laid by for several years, and not exhibited on the stage till 1671, in which interval, Mr. Dryden being advanced to the Laurel, the noble author changed the name of his poet from Bilboa to Bays, and made great alterations in his play, in order to ridicule several dramatic perfomances that appeared since the first writing it. Those of Mr. Dryden which fell under his Grace's lash were The Wild Gallant, Tyrannic Love, The Conquest of Granada, Marriage à-la-Mode, and Love in a Nunnery; whatever was extravagant, or too warmly expressed, or any way unnatural, the author has ridiculed by parody. Mr. Dryden affected to despise the satire levelled at him in the Rehearsal, as appears from his dedication of the translation of Juvenaland Persius, where, speaking of the many lampoons and libels that had been written against him, he says, "I answered not to the "Rehearsal, because I knew the author sat to himself " when he drew the picture, and was the very Bays " of his own farce; because also I knew my betters " were more concerned than I was in that satire; and, "lastly, because Mr. Smith and Mr. Johnson, the " main pillars of it, were two such languishing gentle

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men in their conversation, that I could liken them "to nothing but their own relations, those noble "characters of men of wit and pleasure about Town."

In 1679 came out an Essay on Satire, said to be written jointly by Mr. Dryden and the Earl of Mulgrave. This piece, which was handed about in manuscript, contained reflections on the Duchess of Portsmouth and the Earl of Rochester; who suspect ing, as Wood says, Mr. Dryden to be the author, hired three ruffians to cudgel him in Will's coffeehouse at cight o'clock at night. This short anecdote, I think, cannot be told without indignation. It proved Rochester was a malicious coward, and, like other cowards, cruel and insolent; his soul was incapable of any thing that approached towards generosity; and when his resentment was heated, he pursued revenge, and retained the most lasting hatred; he had always entertained a prejudice against Dryden, from no other motive than envy: Dryden's plays met with success, and this was enough to fire the resentment of Rochester, who was naturally envious. In order to hurt the character, and shake the interest of this noble poet, he recommended Crown, an obscure man, to write a masque for the Court, which was Dryden's province, as Poet-Laureat, to perform. Crown in this succeeded, but soon after, when his play, called The Conquest of Jerusalem, met with such extravagant applause, Rochester, jealous of his new favourite, not only abandoned him, but commenced from that moment his enemy.

The other person against whom this satire was levelled was not superior in virtue to the former, and

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