D R Y D E N. 
pnffages and the instances of abfurdity are drawn from 
other writers than from Drvden. In 1679, in conjunction 
with lord Mulgrave, he published an Effay upon Satire, 
in verfe. Some very fevere lines in this piece againft lord 
Rochefter, provoked from that peer the retaliation of a 
cudgelling inflicted upon Dryden by means of hired ruf¬ 
fians, as he was returning home one evening from the cof- 
fee-houfe. The duchefs of Portsmouth is faid to have 
joined in this outrage, in revenge of fome fatire beftowed 
in the piece upon “the royal miftreffes.” 
In 1681, at the king’s exprefs defire, as is aflerted, he 
wrote his famous political poem, Abfalom and Achito- 
phel, an adaptation of the incidents in the life of king 
David to thole of the reign of Charles II. relative to the 
duke o.f Monmouth and the earl of Shaftefbury. Its 
poetry and Severity caufed it to be read with great eager- 
nefs; ami as it raifed«the author to high favour with the 
court party, fo it involved him in irreconcileable enmity 
with its opponents. This was Still embittered by his 
Medal, a Satire on Sedition, written the fame year on oc- 
cafion of a medal Struck by the whig party, when a grand 
jury returned ignoramus to an indictment preferred againft 
lord Shaftefbury for high treafon. The rancour of this 
piece is not eafily to be paralleled among party poems. 
It is laid to have been rewarded by the king with the gift 
of a hundred broad pieces. A circumftance relative to the 
Abfalom and Achitophel, has occafioned fome fruitlefs 
Speculation. In the Second edition he added fome lines 
to the portrait of Shaftefbury, liberally praifing him for 
his judicial condudt in his capacity of chancellor. It has 
been enquired what could have been the motive for a com¬ 
pliment which, according to the king’s opinion, injured 
the poem 3 and a fuppofed presentation of a fcholarlbip 
in the Charter-houl'e to one of Dryden’s fons, by Shaftef¬ 
bury, has been fuggefted. But Mr. Malone feems to have 
proved that this presentation came from the king himfelf; 
and whether the compliment w’as a voluntary tribute to 
candour, or a return for fome favour conferred, is ftill 
undecided. 
As he had Shewn his eminent powers in political fatire, 
fo in 1682 he gave an admirable Specimen of literary fa¬ 
tire in his Mac-f’lecknoe, a Short piece ridiculing his 
rival Shadwell. One of his mod ferious poems, the 
Religio Laid, appeared in the fame year. Its purpofe is 
to give a compendious view of the arguments for revealed 
religion, and to afcertain in what the authority of revela¬ 
tion eSTentially confifts. Many of the Sentiments are can¬ 
did and judicious; and though he dwells ftrongly upon 
the difficulty of a right interpretation of the Scriptures, 
and therefore admits the weight of early opinion and tra¬ 
dition, yet he -was at this time far from aifenting to the 
exclufive claims of the Romifh church, as will appear 
from the following lines refpecting the Papifts : 
When want of learning kept the laymen low. 
And none but priefts were authoris’d to know ; 
When what Small knowledge was, in them did dwell. 
And he a god who could but write and fpell j 
Then mother church did mightily prevail: 
She parcell’d out the Bible by retail; 
But Still expounded what She fold or gave. 
To keep it in her power to damn or Save : 
Scripture was fcarce, and to the market went j 
Poor laymen took Salvation on content, 
As needy men take money good or bad: 
God's word they had not, but the priejl's they had. 
In thole dark times they learn’d their knack fo well, 
That by long ufe they grew infallible. 
Soon after this he ceafed to write for the Stage. Pro¬ 
bably his dramatic vein was exhausted; for the patentees 
had already made complaints of his dilatorinefs, and de¬ 
murs had arifen about the payment of his-Salary. His 
circumstances were diftreSTed ; and it is to this period that 
Mr. Malone refers a letter written by him to Hyde earl of 
Rochefter, in which, with modeft dignity, he pleads merit 
5 
& 
enough not to deferve to Starve, and requefts fome fmall 
employment in the cuftoms or excife, or, at leaft, the pay¬ 
ment of half a year’s penfion for his prefent neceffities. 
“ I have (he fays) three fons, growing to man’s eftate. 
I breed them all up to learning, beyond my fortune ; but 
they are too hopeful to be negleCted, though I want--. 
I am going to write Somewhat by his majesty’s command ; 
and cannot Stir into the country for my health and Studies, 
till I fecure my family from want.” Such was the con¬ 
dition of this champion for loyalty under Charles II. 
though lie was by no means an extravagant, and was cer¬ 
tainly an induftrious, man! He never obtained any of 
the requested places, and was doomed to find the booksel¬ 
ler's his belt patrons. The work to which he alludes is 
fuppofed to have been a translation of Maimbourg’s HiStory 
of the League, which was probably thought by the king to 
afford an instructive parallel to the fanatical opponents of 
his government. Some translations from the dallies, and 
the publication of two volumes of Mifcellany Poems, 
were his other literary occupations, till the king’s death, 
in February, 1685. On that occalion he compofed 
Threnodia Augujlalis, a funeral Pindaric Poem, which is 
not one of his happieft eSFnfions. 
A Short time after the acceffion of James II. Drydert 
conformed to the religion of the new Sovereign. This 
ftep has been the Source of much obloquy againft him on 
the one fide, while, on the other, he has not wanted ad¬ 
vocates in favour of the Sincerity of his conversion. But 
if the period of its taking place be contrasted with his 
opinion of popery, declared in the lines above quoted, 
and tlie bitter farcafms beftowed on its clergy in his Spa¬ 
nish Friar, it will furely require an uncommon Stretch of 
candour to fuppofe that its immediate motive was any 
thing more than interest. It may, indeed, be alleged, 
that in changing his profeffion he encountered little dif¬ 
ficulty from his convictions. He had habitually treated 
religion with very little reverence in his works ; and 
where he confiders it ferioufly in his Religio Laid , he 
feems wavering between different fyftems, .and not exclu¬ 
sively attached to any. It is therefore very credible that 
he might regard the Roman.catnolic as a true -church, 
and at lead of as good authority as any other ; nor, in 
reality, is it ever to be wondered at, that one who is con¬ 
vinced of the duty of making reafon Submit to faith, 
Should adopt that mode of faith which is Supported by 
the moft Specious authorities. It is fuppofed that Dry¬ 
den’s lady had long been a catholic, as her brother the 
earl of Berkshire was.' The adherence of the poet to 
his new religion till the end of his life, notwithstanding 
the inconveniences he afterwards underwent from it, can 
Scarcely be adduced as a proof of his conviction, without 
fuppofing him fo destitute of Shame, that he would have 
been ready to recant a Second time. An additional pen¬ 
fion of iool. per annum was the reward he obtained for his 
compliance ; and to this feems to have been annexed an 
expectation that he Should employ his pen in the Service 
of popery. He wrote a defence of a paper left at her 
deceafe by Anne Hyde duchefs of York, Bating the mo¬ 
tives of her conversion; and he appears, at the king’s re¬ 
commendation, to have undertaken a translation of the 
HiStory of Revolutions in matter of Religion, by Varillas, 
though the discredit of that author prevented it from 
being given to the public. But the capital taSk which 
he executed in the Same intention was his elaborate con¬ 
troversial poem of The Hind and Panther, the longeft 
Single piece he ever compofed. This work, written upon 
a very unpromifing fubjeCt, and on a plan of Signal ab¬ 
furdity, affords a Striking proof of the p-ower of Dryden’s 
verfe. It was published in 1687, was read with avidity, 
criticifed, ridiculed, and bore every mark of occupying 
the public attention. At prefent, the admirers of Dry¬ 
den’s mule will probably concur in regretting that he 
Should have employed the vigour of his mature faculties 
on fuch a delign. The birth of a prince in June, 1688, 
called forth a congratulatory poem, entitled Britannia Re.- 
diviva } . 
