38

Mr. Dryden celebrates by the name of Corinna; of whom it appears he was very fond, and who had the relation from lady Chudleigh.

Dryden, with all his understanding, was weak enough to be fond of judicial aftrology, and used to calculate the nativity of his children. When his lady was in labour with his fon Charles, he being told it was decent to withdraw, laid his watch on the table, begging one of the ladies then present, in a most folemn manner, to take exact notice of the very minute the child was born; which fhe did, and acquainted him with it.

About a week after, when his lady was pretty well recovered, Mr. Dryden took occafion to tell her, that he had been calculating the child's nativity; and obferved, with grief, that he was born in an evil hour, for Jupiter, Venus, and the Sun, were all under the earth, and the lord of his afcendant afflicted with a hateful fquare of Mars and Saturn. "If he lives to arrive at his eighth year," fays he,

he will go near to die a violent death on his very birth-day; but, if he fhould escape, as I fee but fmall hopes, he will, in the twentythird year, be under the fame evil direction; and, if he should efcape that alfo, the thirtythird or thirty-fourth year, is, I fear,"-Here he was interrupted by the immoderate grief of his lady, who could no longer hear calamity prophecied to befal her fon.

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age, Charles belonging t d by a fwimvas feized, the He again rea languishing,

his age, bevas unhappily with another Thames; but ppofed he was

taken

Pope has the following beautiful lines in its praise*.

Hear how Timotheus' varied lays furprize,
And bid alternate paffions fall and rife!
While, at each change, the fon of Lybian
Jove

Now burns with glory, and then melts with love:

Now his fierce eyes with sparkling fury glow;
Now fighs fteal out, and tears begin to flow;
Perfians and Greeks like turns of nature found,
And the world's victor stood fubdued by found:
The power of mufic all our hearts allow;
And what Timotheus was, is Dryden now.

As to our author's performances in profe, befides his dedications and prefaces, and controverfial writings, they confift of the Lives of Plutarch and Lucian, prefixed to the tranflation of those authors, by feveral hands; the Life of Polybius, before the tranflation of that hiftorian by Sir Henry Sheers; and the preface to the Dialogue concerning Women, by William Walsh, efquire.

Before we give an account of the dramatic works of Dryden, it will be proper here to infert a story concerning him, from the life of Congreve, by Charles Wilfon, efquire, which that gentleman received from the lady whom *Effay on Criticism,

Mr. Dry

Mr. Dryden celebrates by the name of Corinna; of whom it appears he was very fond, and who had the relation from lady Chudleigh.

Dryden, with all his understanding, was weak enough to be fond of judicial aftrology, and used to calculate the nativity of his children. When his lady was in labour with his fon Charles, he being told it was decent to withdraw, laid his watch on the table, begging one of the ladies then present, in a most folemn manner, to take exact notice of the very minute the child was born; which she did, and acquainted him with it.

About a week after, when his lady was pretty well recovered, Mr. Dryden took occafion to tell her, that he had been calculating the child's nativity; and obferved, with grief, that he was born in an evil hour, for Jupiter, Venus, and the Sun, were all under the earth, and the lord of his ascendant afflicted with a hateful fquare of Mars and Saturn. "If he

lives to arrive at his eighth year," fays he, "he will go near to die a violent death on his very birth-day; but, if he fhould escape, as I fee but small hopes, he will, in the twentythird year, be under the fame evil direction; and, if he fhould efcape that alfo, the thirtythird or thirty-fourth year, is, I fear,"-Here he was interrupted by the immoderate grief of his lady, who could no longer hear calamity prophecied to befal her fon.

The