D R V 



16G 



DUB 



Dnucn- torton ws, in 1M>7. pulled clown tor tlie dakr of iu 

 '~~~,~~~' in.iv-ri.ilv Mi* pr.'i .Din tin- w oik have 



bern calculated at L.l.'to" i-t work was tin- ini<- 



ctUimy of 17<K>; which tinik it* name from in most 

 iiii]M>rtnnt coir -. At this period, on the 



nrgt of 70 YMT* of Ag*, be had bargained with Ton- 

 MB to furnish 1 0,000 veraea tin- 'J.'.o guincn*; but lie 



-ctl from tin- Duke of ( >riuoiul. for they di-di. 



KXX 



Amidst UHS warfare of criticism, and the toils of lite- 

 rature, his age was now afflicted by the gout and gra- 

 vel, lie had also an erysipelas in his fag and a ne- 

 glected inflammation in one of his toes speedily turned 

 to gangrene. He refused to undergo amputation of the 

 limb, telling the surgeon that he cared not to lose it, 

 tor the sake of protracting an uncomfortable life to the 

 other members, and closed his existence on the first of 

 May 1700. Dr Garth pronounced a funeral oration in 

 Latin over his grave. 



The merits of Dryden are so <trong and diversified, 

 that they collectively rank him as one of the greatest of 

 our poets; and yet the destiny of his lal>oriou-< lift- pre- 

 vented him from accomplishing any one production, 

 which can be pronounced .it once excellent, extensive, 

 and original. Not one of his dramatic pieces is a mas- 

 ter- piece, though many of them l>ear tokens of the hand 

 of a master. He never reached in the drama to an ori- 

 ginal conception of character ; and he had no talent for 

 pathos, an indispensible qualification in dramatic wri- 

 ting. The design of his allegory the '' Hind and Pan- 

 ther," is preposterous. In his Fables from Chaucer and 

 Hoccacio, he has only filled up the outline of enrly mas- 

 ters ; his merit in those pieces reaches only to colouring 

 and expression, not to design or invention. In his 

 " Absalom and Achitophel," his plan of scripture pa- 

 rallel was not original ; and the story of the poem is 

 necessarily meagre and defective. As an ode writer, 

 however, it would be only repeating proverbial praise 

 to speak of bis " Alexander's Feast ;" and not only 

 irom that, but from innumerable instances of his mag- 

 nificent imagination, not a doubt can remain, that He 

 was equal to the conception, as well as conduct, of ex- 

 tensive and original creations in poetry. The whole 

 history of his life anticipates an answer to the question, 

 why he did not execute such a work ? The readiness 

 of his pen was indeed taxed to the utmost ; but it is 

 evident, from his constant recourse in narrative to the 

 materials which he could borrow or translate, that he 

 despaired of having leisure to invent. At the same 

 time, his power of managing stories at second hand, his 

 touches of addition and renovation, and the air and spi- 

 rit with which he personates the character of an origi- 

 nal narrator, is so like originality itself, that we forget 

 all his debt of the materials to another, and regard the 

 facts, the contrivance of incident, and whatever had 

 been left to him by a predecessor, as only fortuitous 

 advantages, which none other could have used ; or like 

 the strings of some instrument of music, which no 

 other hand could have readjusted and taught to pro- 

 duce the notes of enchantment. This remark on his 

 art of renovating poetical narrative, we conceive to be 

 peculiarly applicable to his imitations of Boccacio and 

 Chaucer. His translation of Virgil cannot be consider- 

 ed, without a comparison with the original, more unfa- 

 vourable to the English poet. The circumstance which 

 leaves the deepest impression of his genius, is his por- 

 traiture of moral character. As a story, " Absalom and 

 Achitophel" has neither interest nor regularity, but it is 



II 



( I'UlltV. 



great gallery of historical portraits, sketched with 

 niT.il pBJMdgMn/j taken from 

 life, and full of the spirit and air of vitality, and touched 

 v. ith a singular union ol 'gay satire, and of dignilicd in- 

 tellectual eiu . % The polemic may be- wrong, but as 

 a polemical pint. Drwlen lias always the art to make 

 his fancy potently illustrative of Ills rca.-cming ; and his 

 reasoning has, for all the views of JXM try. both a bold 

 and familiar aspect of command, \\ith majestic num- 

 ber.-, he seldom or ever reaches to the sublime; hit 

 manner, for ever recurring to carelessness and flat 

 has not an ethereal or snp|M>rtcd tone of inspiration, but 

 it always assumes an eloquence (keeping apart his bad 

 tragedies.) in which the judgment is manly, and the 

 imagination profuse, and the tbrce anil fidelity of lan- 

 guage at once preserved and heightened by the noblest 

 structure- of F.ngli.-h rhyme. () 



DHYMOI'IIILA. a" genus of plants of the class 

 Hcxandria, and order Mnnoguiia. See Brown's l'io- 

 droiiiiis I'lnnt. Nov. Hull. <S|X. p. i.';)-' ; and EOT 

 p. 1 !i(J. 



DllYPIS, a genus of plants of the class Hcxandria, 

 and order Trigynia. See BOTANY, p. 1<>7. 



DSCHOl I OLTKALE, or DCHIFV IKAI.I, is a town 

 and fortress in the Crimea, built on the summit of a 

 mount, which rises into a peak on each .-ide. The town 

 contains about 200 houses, and about 1200 inhabitant-, 

 who are principally Karaite .lews. The chief part of 

 each house is occupied by the women, but the master 

 has his own private apartment, where he smokes, sK 

 and receives his friends. The principal objects of in- 

 terest. in this place are the remains of a stately mauso- 

 leum, erected for the daughter of one of the khans of 

 the Tartars, and the cemetery, or " Field of Dead," hc- 

 longing^to the Karaite Jews. This cemetery, situated at 

 theoegUffling of a valley, and without the town, is a beau- 

 tiful grove, filling a chasrn of the mountains, and so- 

 lemnly shaded with lofty trees and impending rmk-. 

 There are ranges of tombs in the form of sarcophagi, 

 and the tombs bear Hebrew inscriptions, the most an- 

 cient of which is .'!aS years old. On one of the olde.-t 

 %\ as the following inscription : 



CECY JOSEPH, Fn,s DE SCHABATAI 



LE TOMBEAU 5204, 



a date which corresponds with the year 1445 of oiu 

 a^ra. As there is no water in the town, the inhabitants 

 are obliged to convey it on the backs of asses from 

 a spring in the defile, and deposit it in a reservoir cut 

 in the rocks. 



The inhabitants of this town keep their shops at 

 1'atcheserai : they go there on horseback in the morn- 

 ing, and return home in the same manner in the even, 

 ing. 



See Reuilly's Travels in the Crimea in the year 1 803, 

 cliap. vi. ; and Dr Clarke's Travels, vol. i. p. 479. See 

 also BATCHESERAI. (*) 



DUBLIN, a county of Ireland. It is situated in 

 the province of Leinster, and is bounded on the east Boundari* 

 by the Irish sea; on the north, by East Meatli ; on the 

 west, by East Meatli and Kildare ; and on the south 

 by Wicklow. 



This county is not remarkable for its scenery. In Apet. 

 general, it is flat and uninteresting. On the sea-coast, 

 however, where there are many bays and creeks, it 

 adonis some picturesque views. And the prospect across 

 the Bay of Dublin, towards the south, is extremely 

 grand aud magnificent. Approacliing to M'icklow, there 



