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Gader Family 04-29-38

THE LIFE OF

JOHN DRYDEN, Esq.

THIS illustrious Poet was son of Erasmus Dryden of Tichmersh in Northamptonshire, third son of Sir Erasmus Dryden of Canons-Ashby, in the same county, Baronet; and born at Aldwincle, near Oun❤ dle, 1631*: he had his Education in grammar-learning at Westminster-fchool, under the famous Dr. Busby, and was from thence elected, in 1650, a scholar of Trinity College in Cambridge.

We have no account of any extraordinary indications of genius given by this great Poet while in his earlier days; and he is one instance how little regard is to be paid to the figure a boy makes at school. Mr. Dryden was turned of thirty before he introduced any play upon the stage, and his first, called The Wild Gallants, met with a very indifferent reception; so that if he had not been impelled by the force of genius and propension, he had never again attempted the stage; a circumstance which the lovers of dramatic poetry must ever have regretted, as they would in this case have been deprived of one of the greatest ornaments that ever adorned the profession. The year before he left the University, he wrote a

Athen Oxon.

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