1803. | 
nent as riots s, obtained much reputation 
or difttnction in their literary courfe, while 
young men in the. Univerfity ; whether it 
has proceeded from their being under the 
influence of fancy, felf-willed, and ungo- 
vernable ; choofing- rather to be the direc- 
tors of their own ftudies, than to be fub- 
jected to the judgment of others ; abforb- 
ed in akind of literary fenfuality, and in- 
different about its deuceurs and honours, 
ioo® often the xz plus ultra of aca- 
demical ambition—or whether they 
have been too defultory for fyftematic ftu- 
dies, avd too lively for inordinate appli- 
cation ;—-whatever may have been the 
caufe, let others determine. 
Of this unfortunate number was John 
Dryden, a great poet unqueftionably : 
Mr. Malone, who has given fuch a mi 
nute account of his life, remarks, that his 
n4me is not to be found in any of the Cam- 
bridge verfes compofed in his time on pub- 
lic occafions, and that he did not obtain 
a fellowfhip in his college. There was a 
general coileQion of poems put forth by 
the Univerfity on the peace in 1654. 
John Dryden’s name_does not appear in 
this colleétion, though feveral contribu- 
tors to it were of Trinity-college. 
The only notice a Dryden, while an 
undergraduate, is the following order, 
made about two years after his admiffion : 
‘¢ July 19, 1652. Agreed, then, that 
Dryden be put out of Comrons, for a fort- 
night at leaft, and that he goe not out of the 
Colleg during the time aforefaid, excepting 
to fermons, without exprefs leave from the 
Mager or Vice-Mafer, and that at the end of 
the fertnight he read a confeffion of his crime 
in the hall at the dinner-time, at the three 
.... fellows-table ” 
«<< His crime was, his difobedience to the 
Vice-Matter, and his contumacy in tak- 
ing his punifhment infli@ed by him.” 
Dryden; however, appears ‘ have been 
fond of a college-life, a8 being particu- 
larly favourable to the habits ofa (tudent : 
and he refided feven years in all] at Gata: 
bridge. But whether bis Mufe was fulky 
during’ his continuance, or his mind too 
much occupied in fludy to woo her, he 
does not appear to have handed her forta 
fo public admiration during his flay, nor 
to have compofeii any tender Valetés at his 
departure. - “He left Cambridge in 1657, 
fettied then in Londos as an author, and 
became one of the greateft literary adven- 
‘turers that ever vifited the metropolis. 
A writer of fach varied powers, of fuch 
diverfified purfuits, and of fuch numerous 
-excellencies, it would be in vain to at- 
Cantabrigiana. oe AIB6 
tempt to diferiminate in two or three lines, 
Dr. Jobnifen confidered Dryden as the fa~ 
ther of English criticifm, and has given a 
lite of him, fo elaborate, difcriminating, 
_and judicious, that, as a critical work, ‘it 
is allowed by his greateft admirers t6 be 
the beft of hits Lives. - Ine inaccuracies 
refpeSting the early part of Dryden’s life, 
whichaccompany that and other accounts, 
have been fet right, and the defeéts fup- 
plied, as well as they could be, by Mr. 
Malone. . Of Dryden, as of Cowley, 
there are a buft and portrait in ace 
college. 
LXXXVi.—-WALLER. 
This gentleman was born to fomething 
more fub{tantial than poetry—an ample 
patrimony—and is faid to have manifeited 
a greater defire to increafe it, than is to be 
always found in aman of genius: hewasa 
Member of Parliament, and is reported to 
have poffefled an eafe and eloquence in {peak- 
ing, which Prior and Addiion could never 
obtain: he was a poi.tician, but fhifted 
fides fo often, that all eae apreed to call _ 
him a mere courtier: at all events he was 
an elegant pot, and had a happy knack 
at a compliment, He was educated 
at Eton-{chool, and removed thence to 
King’s, to which Eton is a kind of nur- 
fery. 
LEXXVII.—PRIOR. 
-. Thislively, facetious writer was of St. 
John’s, where he wayentered in 1682 5 he 
took his Bachelor’s and Mafter’s degree 
at the regular time, and diftinguifhed him 
felf pr obably i in the Univerfity ; ; fo at leafe 
may be concluded from one of his poems, 
as well as from his fucceeding to a fellows 
fhip, and from theready, approved manner, 
in which he fuliiled an important public 
ftation, on his Jeaving college. It is fin; 
gular, that Dr. Johnifon fhould have omit- 
ted to mention the circum{tance o¢ Prior’s 
having obtained a fellowthip ; for he was 
the firft of cur more eminent posts who 
gained that honour. 
Pricr was the fellow-collegian and friend 
of Thomas Baker, the antiquary. Mr. 
Robert Robinfon,in bis Notes en Claude’s 
Effay on the Comasttion of a Sermon, 
favs, that Dr. Goddard, late mafter of: 
Clare-ball, who well knew Baker, in- 
formed sista that when sac was ejected 
from his tellawthio, for refuling to take 
the oath required at the Rev olution, Mat.” 
Prior ‘eeneroufly gave nim the prosts of 
his fellowthip: end on Dr. Goddara’s 
authority itis fo recorded in the Biogra- 
phia Britannica. This may or. may not 
. be 
