The Dramatic Works of John Dryden Part 23

FOOTNOTES

[1] Such, I understand, is the general purport of some letters of Dryden's, in possession of the Dorset family, which contain certain particulars rendering them unfit for publication. Our author himself commemorates Dorset's generosity in the Essay on Satire, in the following affecting pa.s.sage: "Though I must ever acknowledge to the honour of your lords.h.i.+p, and the eternal memory of your charity, that since this Revolution, wherein I have patiently suffered the ruin of my small fortune, and the loss of that poor subsistence which I had from two kings, whom I had served more faithfully than profitably to myself-- then your lords.h.i.+p was pleased, out of no other motive but your own n.o.bleness, without any desert of mine, or the least solicitation from me, to make me a most bountiful present, which at that time, when I was most in want of it, came most seasonably and unexpectedly to my relief.

That favour, my lord, is of itself sufficient to bind any grateful man to a perpetual acknowledgment, and to all the future service which one of my mean condition can be ever able to perform. May the Almighty G.o.d return it for me, both in blessing you here, and rewarding you hereafter!"--_Essay on Satire_, vol. xiii.

[2] So says Ward, in the London Spy.

[3] "Dryden, though my near relation," says Swift, "is one whom I have often blamed, as well as pitied." Mr. Malone traces their consanguinity to Swift's grandmother, Elizabeth Dryden, being the daughter of a brother of Sir Erasmus Driden, the poet's grandfather; so that the Dean of St. Patrick's was the son of Dryden's second cousin, which, in Scotland, would even yet be deemed a near relation. The pa.s.sages in prose and verse, in which Swift reflects on Dryden, are various. He mentions, in his best poem, "The Rhapsody,"

"The prefaces of Dryden, For these our cities much confide in, Though merely writ at first for filling, To raise the volume's price a s.h.i.+lling."

He introduces Dryden in "The Battle of the Books," with a most irreverent description; and many of the brilliant touches in the following a.s.sumed character of a hack author, are directed against our poet. The malignant allusions to merits, to sufferings, to changes of opinion, to political controversies, and a peaceful consciences, cannot be mistaken. The piece was probably composed _flagrante odio_, for it occurs in the Introduction to "The Tale of a Tub," which was written about 1692. "These notices may serve to give the learned reader an idea, as well as taste, of what the whole work is likely to produce, wherein I have now altogether circ.u.mscribed my thoughts and my studies; and, if I can bring it to a perfection before I die, I shall reckon I have well employed the poor remains of an unfortunate life. This indeed is more than I can justly expect, from a quill worn to the pith in the service of the state, in _pros_ and _cons_ upon popish plots, and meal tubs, and exclusion bills, and pa.s.sive obedience, and addresses of lives and fortunes, and prerogative, and property and liberty of conscience, and letters to a friend: from an understanding and a conscience, threadbare and ragged with perpetual turning; from a head broken in a hundred places by the malignants of the opposite factions; and from a body spent with poxes ill cured, by trusting to bawds and surgeons, who, as it afterwards appeared, were professed enemies to me and the government, and revenged their party's quarrel upon my nose and s.h.i.+ns. Fourscore and eleven pamphlets have I written under three reigns, and for the service of six and thirty factions. But finding the state has no farther occasion for me and my ink, I retire willingly to draw it out into speculations more becoming a philosopher; having, to my unspeakable comfort, pa.s.sed a long life with a conscience void of offence." [See Appendix, vol. xviii., art. "Dryden and Swift."--ED.]

[4] [The exact sentence seems to have been "a Pindaric poet." But as Swift had tried nothing but Pindarics, it was nearly if not quite as severe as the more usually quoted and more sweeping verdict.--ED.]

[5] Robert Gould, author of that scandalous lampoon against Dryden, ent.i.tled "The Laureat," inscribes his collection of poems, printed 1688-9, to the Earl of Abingdon; and it contains some pieces addressed to him and to his lady. He survived also to compose, on the Earl's death, in 1700, "The Mourning Swan," an eclogue to his memory, in which a shepherd gives the following account of the proximate cause of that event:

"_Menaleus_. To tell you true (whoe'er it may displease), He died of the _Physician_--a disease That long has reigned, and eager of renown, More than a plague depopulates the town.

Inflamed with wine, and blasting at a breath, All its _prescriptions_ are receipts for death.

Millions of mischiefs by its rage are wrought, Safe where 'tis fled, but barbarous where 'tis sought; A cursed ingrateful ill, that called to aid, Is still most fatal where it best is paid."

[6] How far this was necessary, the reader may judge from Mirana, a funeral eclogue; sacred to the memory of that excellent lady, Eleonora, late Countess of Abingdon, 1691, 4th Aug., which concludes with the following singular _imprecation_:

"Hear, friend, my sacred imprecation hear, And let both of us kneel, and both be bare.

Doom me (ye powers) to misery and shame, Let mine be the most ignominious name, Let me, each day, be with new griefs perplext, Curst in this life, nor blessed in the next, If I believe the like of her survives, Or if I think her not the best of mothers, and of wives."

[7] 30th August 1693, Dryden writes to Tonson, "I am sure you thought my Lord Radclyffe would have done something; I guessed more truly, that he could not."--Vol. xviii. The expression perhaps applies rather to his lords.h.i.+p's want of ability than inclination; and Dryden says indeed, in the dedication, that it is in his nature to be an encourager of good poets, though fortune has not yet put into his hands the power of expressing it. In a letter to Mrs. Steward, Dryden speaks of Ratcliffe as a poet, "and none of the best."--Vol. xviii.

[8] Vol. xviii.

[9] Copied from the Chandos picture. Kneller's copy is now at Wentworth House, the seat of Earl Fitzwilliam.

[10] The antiquary may now search in vain for this frail memorial; for the house of Chesterton was, 1807, pulled down for the sake of the materials.

[11] The exact pecuniary arrangements for the Virgil are a matter of much dispute, almost every biographer taking a different view. It seems most probable that the payment was fifty pounds per two books, not fifty for each. The point will be more fully discussed on the letters dealing with the subject.--Ed.

[12] This gave rise to a good epigram:

"Old Jacob, by deep judgment swayed, To please the wise beholders, Has placed old Na.s.sau's hook-nosed head On poor Aeneas' shoulders.

To make the parallel hold tack, Methinks there's little lacking; One took his father pick-a-pack, And t'other sent his packing."

[13] "I am of your opinion," says the poet to his son Charles, "that, by Tonson's means, almost all our letters have miscarried for this last year. But, however, he has missed of his design in the dedication, though he had prepared the book for it; for, in every figure of Aeneas, he has caused him to be drawn, like King William, with a hooked nose."

Dryden hints to Tonson himself his suspicion of this unworthy device, desiring him to forward a letter to his son Charles, but not by post.

"Being satisfied, that Ferrand will do by this as he did by two letters which I sent my sons, about my dedicating to the king, of which they received neither."--Vol. xviii.

[14] Johnson's "Life of Dryden."

[15] [Professor Ma.s.son calculates, apparently on good grounds, that Simmons probably made about five or six times what he paid. This, in not much more than a year, cannot be considered a bad trade return; but the sale price of "Paradise Lost" seems to provoke unfounded commonplaces from even the most unexpected sources.--ED.]

[16] "I confess to have been somewhat liberal in the business of t.i.tles, having observed the humour of multiplying them, to bear great vogue among certain writers, whom I exceedingly reverence. And indeed it seems not unreasonable that books, the children of the brain, should have the honour to be christened with variety of names, as well as other infants of quality. Our famous Dryden has ventured to proceed a point farther, endeavouring to introduce also a multiplicity of G.o.dfathers; which is an improvement of much more advantage, upon a very obvious account. It is a pity this admirable invention has not been better cultivated, so as to grow by this time into general imitation, when such an authority serves it for a precedent. Nor have my endeavours been wanting to second so useful an example: but, it seems, there is an unhappy expense usually annexed to the calling of a G.o.dfather, which was clearly out of my head, as it is very reasonable to believe. Where the pinch lay, I cannot certainly affirm; but, having employed a world of thoughts and pains to split my treatise into forty sections, and having entreated forty lords of my acquaintance, that they would do me the honour to stand, they all made it a matter of conscience, and sent me their excuses."

[17] Besides the notes on Virgil, he wrote many single sermons, and a metrical version of the psalms, and died in 1720.

[18] He is described as a rake in "The Pacificator," a poem bought by Mr. Luttrell, 15th Feb. 1699-1700, which gives an account of a supposed battle between the men of wit and men of sense, as the poet calls them:

"M----n, a renegade from wit, came on, And made a false attack, and next to none; The hypocrite, in sense, could not conceal What pride, and want of brains, obliged him to reveal.

In him, the critic's ruined by the poet, And Virgil gives his testimony to it.

The troops of wit were so enraged to see This priest invade his own fraternity, They sent a party out, by silence led, And, without answer, shot the turn-coat dead.

The priest, the rake, the wit, strove all in vain, For there, alas! he lies among the slain.

_Memento mori_; see the consequence, When rakes and wits set up for men of sense."

[19] This, Mr. Malone has proved by the following extract from Motteux's "Gentleman's Journal." "That best of poets (says Motteux) having so long continued a stranger to tolerable English, Mr. Milbourne pitied his hard fate; and seeing that several great men had undertaken some episodes of his Aeneis, without any design of Englis.h.i.+ng the whole, he gave us the first book of it some years ago, with a design to go through the poem.

It was the misfortune of that first attempt to appear just about the time of the late Revolution, when few had leisure to mind such books; yet, though by reason of his absence, it was printed with a world of faults, those that are sufficient judges have done it the justice to esteem it a very successful attempt, and cannot but wish that he would complete the entire translation."--_Gent. Journ._ for August 1692.

[20] See the Preface to "A Funeral Idyll, sacred to the glorious Memory of King William III.," by Mr. Oldmixon.

"In the Idyll on the peace, I made the first essay to throw off rhymes, and the kind reception that poem met with, has encouraged me to attempt it again. I have not been persuaded by my friends to change the Idyll into Idyllium; for having an English word set me by Mr. Dryden, which he uses indifferently with the Greek, I thought it might be as proper in an English poem. I shall not be solicitous to justify myself to those who except against his authority, till they produce me a better: I have heard him blamed for his innovations and coining of words, even by persons who have already been sufficiently guilty of the fault they lay to his charge; and shown us what we are to expect from them, were their names as well settled as his. If I had qualifications enough to do it successfully, I should advise them to write more naturally, delicately, and reasonably themselves, before they attack Mr. Dryden's reputation; and to think there is something more necessary to make a man write well, than the favour of the great, or the success of a faction. We have every year seen how fickle Fortune has been to her declared favourites; and men of merit, as well as he who has none, have suffered by her inconstancy, as much as they got by her smiles. This should alarm such as are eminently indebted to her, and may be of use to them in their future reflections on others' productions, not to a.s.sume too much to themselves from her partiality to them, lest, when they are left like their predecessor, it should only serve to render them the more ridiculous."

[21] "Homer in a Nutsh.e.l.l," (16th Feb.) 1700-9, by Samuel Parker, Gent.

"_Preface_.--Ever since I caught some termagant ones in a club, undervaluing our new translation of Virgil, I've known both what opinion I ought to harbour, and what use to make of them; and since the opportunity of a digression so luckily presents itself, I shall make bold to ask the gentlemen their sentiments of two or three lines (to pa.s.s over a thousand other instances) which they may meet with in that work. The fourth Aeneid says of Dido, after certain effects of her taking shelter with Aeneas in the cave appear,

_Conjuijium vocat, hoc proetexit lomine culpam,_ V. 172,

which Mr. Dryden renders thus:

She called it marriage, by that specious name To veil the crime, and sanctify the shame.

Nor had he before less happily rendered the 39th verse of the second Aeneid:

_Scinditur in certum studia in contraria vulgus._

The giddy vulgar, as their fancies guide, With noise, say nothing, and in parts divide.

"If these are the lines which they call flat and spiritless, I wish mine could be flat and spiritless too! And, therefore, to make short work, I shall only beg Mr. Dryden's leave to congratulate him upon his admirable flatness, and dulness, in a rapture of poetical indignation:

Then dares the poring critic snarl? And dare The[21a] puny brats of Momus threaten war?

And can't the proud perverse Arachne's fate Deter the[21a] mongrels e'er it prove too late?

In vain, alas! we warn the[21a] hardened brood; In vain expect they'll ever come to good.

No: they'd conceive more venom if they could.

But let each[21a] viper at his peril bite, While you defy the most ingenious spite.

So Parian columns, raised with costly care, [21a] Vile snails and worms may daub, yet not impair, While the tough t.i.tles, and obdurate rhyme, Fatigue the busy grinders of old Time.

Not but your Maro justly may complain, Since your translation ends his ancient reign, And but by your officious muse outvied, That vast immortal name had never died.

"[21a] I desire these appellations may not seem to affect the parties concerned, any otherwise than as to their character of critics."

[22] Preface to the Fables, vol. xi.

[23] See several extracts from these poems in the Appendix, vol. xviii., which I have thrown together to show how much Dryden was considered as sovereign among the poets of the time.