thoughts to a translation of Euripides rather than of "From bard to bard the frigid caution crept, 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 humour saturnine "and reserved. In short, I am none of those who "endeavour to break jests in company, and make "repartees; so that those who decry my Comedies "do me no injury except it be in point of profit: "reputation in them is the last thing to which I shall pretend." 66 This ingenuous confession of inability, one would imagine, were sufficient to silence the clamour of the critics against Mr. Dryden in that particular; but, however true it may be that Dryden did not succeed to any degree in comedy, I shall endeavour to support my assertion, that in tragedy, with all his faults, he is still the most excellent of his time. The end of tragedy is to instruct the mind as well as move the passions; and where there are no shining sentiments, the mind may be affected, but not improved; and however prevalent the passion of grief may be over the heart of man, it is certain that he may feel distress in the acutest manner, and not be much the wiser for it. The tragedies of Otway, Lee, and Southern, are irresistibly moving, but they convey not such grand 'sentiments, and their language is far from being so poetical as Dryden's. Now, if one dramatic poet writes to move, and another to enchant and instruct, as instruction is of greater consequence than being agitated, it follows naturally that the latter is the most excellent writer, and possesses the greatest genius., But perhaps our Poet would have wrote better in both kinds of the drama, had not the necessity of his + Defence; or the Essay on Dramatic Poetry. B Volume 1. circumstances obliged him to comply with the popular taste. He himself, in his Dedication to the Spanish Fryar, insinuates as much. "I remember," says he, 66 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 naturaliy 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 1761 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 exhi→ bited 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 10 Bays, and made great alterations in his play, in order to ridicule several dramatic performances 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 â-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 Juvenal and 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"men in their conversation, that I could liken them "to nothing but their own relations, those noble cha"racters 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 suspecting, as Wood says, Mr. Dryden to be the author, hired three ruffians to cudgel him in Wills' coffee-house at eight 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 recom`mended Crown, an obscure man, to write a Mask for the Court, which was Dryden's province, as Poet-Laureate, 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 |