94 DRY 
flowers are very different. Native of high mountains in 
Lapland, Denmark, Swifferland, where Rav obferved it 
on Thuiri, one of the higheft points of mount Jura; the 
Grifons, Savoy, Auffria, Carniola, Stiria, Garinthia, Ger¬ 
many, France, Italy, Siberia, Ireland, Scotland, and the 
north of England; as between Gort and Galloway, where 
it was found by Mr. Heaton, and near Sligo in Ireland ; 
Breadalbanc, ille of Skye j Rofsfhire; Sutherland, and 
Argylefhirc, in Scotland ; Arncliff Clowder in Litten- 
dale, near Kilnfay ; and near Settle, in Yorkfhire. It 
flowers in June. No cattle eat it. 
Dryas pentapetal'a, mentioned by Sibbald as growing 
in the den of Bethaick, four miles from Perth, is not now 
to be found there; poilibly the potentilla argentea was 
miffaken for it. See Gf.um Potentili.oides. 
DRY'BURG, a town of Germany, in the circle of 
Weftphalia, and biffiopric of Paderburn: feven miles 
eaft-north-eaft of Paderburn. 
DRY'DEN (John), one of the moft eminent of the 
Britifh poets, born, as is fuppofed, in 1631, in the pari fit 
of Aldwinkle-All-Saints, in Northamptdnfhire. His fa¬ 
ther, Erafmus Driden, (fo the name was then fpelt,) was 
the third Ion of fir Erafmus Driden, bart. of Canons- 
Affiby in the fame county. He polFefled a fmall eftate, 
aCted as a juftice of peace during the ufurpation, and 
appears to have been a prefbyterian. John, after fome 
early education in the country, was fent to Weftrninffer 
fchool, of which Bulby was matter, and was thence elect¬ 
ed to a fcholarlhip inTrinity-college, Cambridge, in 1650. 
Neither at fchool nor at the univerfity does it appear that 
he diftinguifhed himfelf for brilliancy of parts. In the 
latter he took his degrees of bachelor and matter of arts; 
but though he had written two fliort copies of verfes 
about the time of his admiffion, his name is not found 
among the academical poets of that period. His father 
died in 1654, and John, as His eldeft fon, fucceeded to 
the eftate. He removed to the metropolis, and made his 
entrance into public life under the aufpices of his kinf- 
man, fir Gilbert Pickering, a man of influence at that 
time, one of Cromwell’s council and houfe of lords, and 
Haunch in his religious and political principles to the 
party then predominant. Dryden is faid to have been 
his clerk or fecretaty; and there is no reafon to fuppofe 
that he did not voluntarily concur in the opinions and 
practices adopted by his family. In the hiftory of the 
changes of the human mind, few farts will appear more 
extraordinary than that Milton fhould have been descend¬ 
ed from a catholic and loyalift family, and Dryden from 
a fertarian and republican one. On the death of Oliver 
Cromwell, Dryden joined the band of poets who cele¬ 
brated his memory ; and wrote on the occafton, Heroic 
Stanzas, which are among the earlieft of his printed 
verfes, and are ftrongly marked with the loftinefs of ex- 
preftion and variety of imagery which characterised his 
matured efforts. After the reftoration, Dryden loft no 
time in endeavouring to obliterate former politics. He 
greeted the king’s return with a poem intitled AJlrxa 
Redux; and followed it up by A Panegyric on the Coro¬ 
nation, both written in drains of fervent loyalty. In 1662 
he paid another homage, in fome lines addreffed to lord 
chancellor Clarendon. It was probably oa account of 
fome elegant verfes in praife of modern improvements in 
philofophy, which he prefixed to Dr. Charleton’s treatife 
on Stonehenge, that he was elerted a member of the 
then newly-formed royal fociety. About this time he 
appears as a writer for the ftage ; and his comedy of The 
Wild Gallant was arted in February, 1663. It was un¬ 
favourably received by the public, notwithftanding the 
patronage of Barbara Villiers, afterwards duchels of 
Cleaveland, who, however, procured for it a kind recep¬ 
tion at court. He. then raifed his dramatic (train, and 
wrote the tragi-comedy of The Rival Ladies, and the 
tragedy of The Indian Emperor; and aflifted fir Robert 
Howard in his Indian Queen. By thefe attempts, if he 
did not prove himfelf a firft-rate favourite of the theatric 
DRY 
nittfe, lie difplayed a facility of harmonious verification, 
and a Splendour of poetic diction. The fufpenfion of 
dramatic entertainments, in confequence of the plague and 
the fire of London, gave him leifure, in a rural retire¬ 
ment, to compofe an Eff.y on Dramatic Poe r y, which 
proved him to be an elegant writer in profe, and an inge¬ 
nious critic. His marriage with lady Elizabeth Howard, 
daughter of the earl of Berkfhire, is fuppofed to have 
taken place during this interval, in 1665. Some circum- 
ftances attended this connection which rendered it lefs 
propitious to his advancement in life than might have 
been experted from fo noble an alliance. 
In 1667, Dryden published one of his moft lingular 
poems, the Annus Mirabilis, the fubjerts of which were 
the naval war with the Dutch, and the fire of London. 
It is written in quatrains, or four-line ftanzas, or what is 
now called the elegiac meafure ; but which at that time, 
from the example of Davenant’s Gondibert, and other 
pieces, feems to have been rather appropriated to heroic 
topics. This piece could not fail of adding to the au¬ 
thor’s poetical fame, for it abounds in images of high 
and genuine poetry, though intermixed with many extra¬ 
vagances. At this period of his life he became profef- 
fionally a writer for the ftage ; for it appears that he en¬ 
tered into a contraft with the patentees of the king’s 
theatre to furnifti them with three plays in a-year, upon 
the condition of being allowed the profit of one fliare 
and a quarter, out of twelve fhares and three-quarters,, 
into which the theatrical ftock was then divided. This 
is aflerted to have brought him in between 300I. and 
400I. per ann. and was probably the principal part of his 
income. Dryden feems never to have had, or to have 
required, any other infpirer of his poetical exertions, 
than either the call of party, or the regular demand of 
pecuniary employment; and he well deferves to be noted 
as an illuftrious example of one who, poftefting the cha- 
rarter of true genius, was yet able to reduce the labour 
of his mind to a mechanical exartnefs, and could bring 
all his intellertual powers into artion whenever he found 
it neceffary. This neceffity, indeed, is fuppofed fre¬ 
quently to have rendered his productions lefs perfeft 
than they might have been with the expenditure of more 
time and attention ; and it is certain, that of the plays 
written upon the contrart above-mentioned, a fmall pro¬ 
portion have kept their place on the ftage or in the 
clofet. He did not, however, keep to his engagement as 
to number; and it is computed, that during the greateft 
vigour of his exertions he produced fewer than two dra¬ 
matic pieces within the year. On the death of fir W. 
Davenant in 1668, Dryden obtained the port of poet-lau- 
reat. Fie alfo obtained the finecure place of hiftoriogra- 
pher; and the joint falaries amounted to 200I. which, 
however, in that needy reign do not feem to have been 
paid with exartnefs. The tragedies written by Dryden 
in his earlier periods were compofed in rhyme, as were 
alfo thofe of feveral contemporary poets. This circum- 
ftance probably contributed to that poetical rant by which 
they were too much chararterifed, and which tended to 
vitiate the dramatic tafte both of writers and auditors. 
For the purpofe of correcting this fault, Villiers duke of 
Buckingham, in conjunction with other wits, wrote in 
1671 the celebrated burlefque drama, entitled The Re- 
hearfal, of which Dryden, under the name of Bayes, was 
made the hero. In order to point the ridicule, Dryden’s 
drefs, phrafeology, and manner of recitation, were exartly 
mimicked by the artor. But although the town enjoyed 
the laugh raifed againft him, it does not appear that his 
folid reputation as a poet was injured by the attack. He 
had the candour to acknowledge that feveral of the ftrokes 
in it were juft, and he wifely refrained from making any 
direft reply to it. “ I anfwered not the Rehearfal, (fays 
he,) becaufe I knew the author fat to himfelf when he 
drew the picture, and was the very Bayes of his own farce : 
becaufe alfo I knew that my betters were more concerned 
than I was in. that fatire,” In fart, more of the parodied 
paffages. 
