05 DRY 
diviva , from the courtly hard, who ventured on the occa- 
fion to ufe the poet’s privilege of prophecy, and foretold 
a commencing era of profperity to the nation and the 
choreli from this aufpicious event. It is fcarcely poflible 
for the devotion of loyalty to be carried farther titan is 
done in Dryden’s celebration of The Venerable Infant; 
indeed, the poetry (as is not unfrequent in his compofi. 
tions) (ometimes trenches upon the piety, and his thoughts 
borrow more from heathenifm than from Chriftianity. 
But, equally to the confufion of the poet and his patrons, 
the revolution took place within a few months, and the 
hopes of the party were blalted for ever. Poor Dryden 
was an early and levere fufferer from the change. His 
polls and petitions were taken away, and to increafe the 
mortification, the poetical laurel w r as conferred upon his 
infignificant rival Shadwell. T|he earl of Dorfet, it is 
faid, would gladly have retained Dryden in his llation, 
but this was impoffible. It would, however, have been 
worthy of a government ellabliflied upon the principles 
.of freedom, to have Ihewn fome generous regard to the 
literary merit of fo diltinguilhed a perfon, notwithstand¬ 
ing his political demerits. 
Dryden now, in advanced life, was to depend upon 
his o.wn exertions for a fecurity from abfolute indigence : 
for his .other refources appear to have been inadequate 
ito a decent fupport. His faculties were equal to the exi¬ 
gence ; and it will furprife fome theorilts to be told, that 
the ten concluding years of his life, in which he actually 
wrote for bread, and compofed at a certain rate per line, 
were thofe of the compofition of fome of the pieces which 
have molt contributed to immortalize his name. Proba¬ 
bly, as one of the molt lucrative fpecies of writing, he re¬ 
fumed that for the Itage. In 1690, he brought out Don 
Sebaltian, one of the belt of his tragedies, which was re¬ 
ceived with great applaufe. Cleomenes, written the next 
year, underwent fome political obflacles in its way to the 
Itage, but was at length acted. A tragi-comedy concluded 
his theatric labours in 1693, and its unfavourable recep¬ 
tion mult have convinced him that he had lingered on 
the Itage too long. In 1692, the production of an elegy 
on Eleonora countefs of Abingdon, a lady whom he never 
law, written at the requelt of a nobleman with whom 
he had no perfonal acquaintance, attelled that facility of 
mercenary praife, which lefs honoured his genius than it 
degraded his moral character. He fliewed in the fame 
year that he had been better employed, by the publica¬ 
tion of a tranllation of the fatires of Juvenal and Perlius, 
of which three fatires of the firlt, and the whole of the 
lalt, were executed by himfelf. He prefixed to the vo¬ 
lume a large difcourfe on fatire, dedicated to lord Dor¬ 
fet. We (hall pafs over fome other works, and proceed 
to that great undertaking, the entire tranllation of Vir¬ 
gil. It feems to have been intended by his admirers that 
this Ihould be a work of emolument to him, as well as of 
reputation, and accordingly a fubfeription, at that time 
an unufual thing, was entered into for its encouragement. 
He began it in 1694, and it was fent to the prefs in 1697, 
a period which mult be reckoned fhort for fuch a labour. 
He himfelf has allerted, that “ it would require feven 
years to tranllate Virgil exaCtly and it cannot be de¬ 
nied that his work in various refpeCts bears the marks 
of halte. It neverthelefs maintains an exalted rank amid 
the performances of this kind with which the Englilh 
language is enriched, and lias greatly contributed to¬ 
wards the author’s poetical fame. The emolument he 
derived from it is fuppofed to have been twelve or thir¬ 
teen hundred pounds. It is allerted that his fon, and 
Tonfon the bookfcller, urged him to dedicate his tranf- 
lation to king William, but he rejected the propolal. 
Soon after the appearance of his Virgil, he was lolicited 
by the Itewards of the mufical celebration of St. Cecilia’s 
Day, to write a fecund ode for the purpofe : he had writ¬ 
ten the firlt in 1687, which did immortal honour to his 
name. The next requelt produced his celebrated Alex¬ 
ander’s Feult, which Hands, perhaps, at the head of all 
D E N. 
the lyric poems in the Englilh language. Whether It 
was, as fome alfert, “ Itruck off at a heat,” or whether 
it occupied a fortnight in its completion, it is certainly 
a wonderful proof of the fire of genius preferved in full 
vigour to a late period of life. It appears that about 
this time he meditated a tranllation of Homer, of which 
he actually wrote the firlt Iliad ; but this delign gave 
way to that of modernizing fome of Chaucer's tales, 
which he undertook in 1698. He foon proceeded fo far 
in the talk, as to venture upon a contract with his book- 
feller, in 1699, to furnilh him with 10,000 lines for the 
fum of 300I. a fpecies of bargain which may be deemed 
as unpoctical as can well be conceived. Yeffo rich and duc¬ 
tile was the verlifying faculty of Dryden, that it produced 
the collection called his Fables, which contains fome of 
the molt entertaining and perhaps the molt truly poeti¬ 
cal pieces he ever compofed. Thefe are not taken from 
Chaucer alone, but comprife Itories from Boccace, Ovid, 
&c. This was the lalt of his great w’orks, for death cut 
Ihort the time for writing more; otherwife, there was 
ftill enough of the poet left in him to have made impor¬ 
tant additions to the lilt. His conftitution feems gradu¬ 
ally to have declined ; but the immediate caufe of his dif- 
folution was an inflammation in one of his toes, termi¬ 
nating in a mortification, which, fpreading rapidly, put 
an end to his life on the iltof Mav, 1700. Of a romantic 
account of.liis funeral, publilhed by Mrs. Thomas, the 
following fadts appear to have been the only foundation : 
The corpfe was conveying in a private manner for inter¬ 
ment, at the expence of Mr. Montague, afterwards earl 
of Halifax; when lords Dorfet and Jeffries, with fome 
others, thinking the funeral unworthy of fo great a poet, 
prevailed upon the attendants to fuffer the body to be 
taken for embalment to an undertaker’s ; and in the mean 
time applied to the college of phyficians for leave to fuf¬ 
fer it to be depofited in their hall till it Ihould be con¬ 
veyed to Weltminlter-abbey. It accordingly lay there 
in Hate for ten days; after which period, a Latin oration 
having been pronounced over the remains by Dr. Garth, 
and the ode of Horace, beginning Exegi monumentum are 
peremiius , having beenfung, a p.roceflion, very honourably 
attended, fet out for the abbey, in which, with due fo- 
lenmity, the body of Dryden was interred next to that 
of Chaucer. The place was undiltinguilhed by a monu¬ 
ment, till a plain one, with his bull, was eredted at the 
expence of Sheffield duke of Buckingham. The inferip- 
tion, with good tafle, contains the name of the poet, 
without addition or eulogy. 
With refpedt to private charadter, Dryden feems to 
have been of a cold and referved temper ; and, as lie 
himfelf denominated it, pf a faturnine call. Yet, from 
Congreve’s teftimony, he was friendly and humane, eafy 
of accefs, and prompt to reconciliation after a quarrel. 
He was backward in perfonal advances to the great, and 
rather heavy in converfation. Though his pen was ex¬ 
tremely licentious, his manners appear to have been de¬ 
cently regular. He was domeftic in his habits, and af- 
fedtionate towards his family. With a due fenfe of his 
own fuperior merit, he was fenfible of his defedts, and 
patient under criticifm. That he was capable of the ut- 
moft bitternefs of party rancour, and unbounded in the 
dillribution of venal praife, his writings too plainly tef- 
tify. His real fentiments of men and things appear to 
have been free, and it would be eafy to deduce from his 
works Itrong exprellions of fcorn and indignation relative 
to every fpecies of tyranny exercifed over mankind ; but 
thefe are Angularly contralted by the dodtrines of pallive 
fubmiilion, civil and religious, which it was his talk to 
fupport. Few writers have fo much delighted in ap¬ 
proaching the verge of profanenefs; whence it may be 
fairly inferred, that, though religion was an interelting 
topic of difeuilion to him, he had very little of its fpirit 
in his heart. Yet he was not proof againlt fuperltitioir: 
he w'as a believer injudicial altrology, and formed pre- 
didtions from nativities call by himfelf. The character 
