till about twenty years ago decorated the house of Chesterton, was perhaps an interchange of civility on his part, on that occasion. That some valuable donation was made to Dryden in return for these animated verses, I have no doubt; but in traditional anecdotes of this kind, transmitted by oral communication, minute accuracy is seldom found. It seems much more probable, that the gift was one hundred pounds; for the receipt of so large a sum as five hundred pounds, in 1699, or carly in the following year, to which period this transaction must be referred, seems inconsistent with those distressed circumstances in which we know the poet died soon afterwards; more especially if a similar story concerning the bounty of the Duchess of Ormond be authentick.

The volume of FABLES being nearly printed in December, 1699, waited only for that lively and pleasing Preface which he prefixed to it; and the work, thus completed, was published ear' in March, 1699-1700,' with a Dedication in prc to the Duke of Ormond, and another in verse to Mary, the second Duchess of Ormond, for

In a letter to Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, written De. cember 29, 1699, he says, that the FABLES will be published within a month. The earliest advertisement of their publication, however, which I have found, is in THE FLYING POST, or THE POST-MASTER, No. 753, Thursday March 7, 1699-1700, when the book (in folio) probably first appeared; and it was sold, as we learn from the letter above mentioned, for twelve shillings.

which she is said to have rewarded the writer with a present of five hundred pounds: but in this case, as in the former, I am inclined to read one instead of five, for the reason already assigned. To gratify the curious reader, the pieces of Chaucer which had been modernized were subjoined to the volume, in their primitive form: but a perfect edition of this most popular, and perhaps the happiest, of all our author's poetical performances, except his Musick-Ode, remains to be given; in which the most splendid passages of the original should be compared with the copy, and the judicious retrenchments, as well as the beautiful amplifications, made by Dryden in various places, should be distinctly pointed out.

yet

It has, without reason, been mentioned as a subject of admiration, that in the middle of the reign of Charles the Second only fifteen hundred copies of PARADISE LOST should have been sold in seven years. The slow progress of this last great performance of Dryden is much more extraordi nary; for a second edition of the FABLES, of which probably not more than one thousand copies were printed, was not called for till thirteen years after the death of the author; when Anne, Lady Sylvius, (a daughter of one of Lady Elizabeth Dryden's brothers,) taking out letters of administration to him, received from Tonson the sum which then became due, agreeably to the original contract. So different is the present state of literature from what' it was in the beginning of this century, that there can be little doubt, if such a work were now for

the first time to appear, the whole of the impression would be sold in a twelvemonth.

At this time Betterton, who in 1695 had seceded from Drury-Lane to the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, finding.that the modern plays did not fill his treasury, called in the aid of Shakspeare; and revived the first part of KING HENRY THE FOURTH, in which he performed the part of Falstaff, with considerable success.+ Soon afterwards MEASURE FOR MEASURE was altered by Gildon, and produced at the same theatre, with the aid of a Masque, and the attraction of Purcell's musick. To comply with the fashion of the day, Vanbrugh, then an officer, who had already acquired considerable reputation by two plays, THE RELAPSE and THE PROVOKED WIFE, and appears to have been one of the numerous band of accomplished

"The Wits of all qualities (says a contemporary,) have lately entertained themselves with a revived humour of Sir John Falstaff, in Henry the Fourth, which has drawn all the town more than any new play that has bin produced of late; which shews that Shakspeare's wit will always last and the criticks allow that Mr. Betterton has hitt the humour of Falstaff better than any that have aimed at it before." Letter from Mr. Villiers Bathurst to Dr. Arthur Charlett, Master of University College, in Oxford, dated Bond-street, January 28, 1699-1700, -Ballard's MSS. in Bibl. Bodl. vol. xxxiii. p. 64.-The writer, who was son of George Bathurst, Esq. and uncle to Pope's friend and correspondent, the first Earl Bathurst, died and was buried at Chelsea, Sept. 9, 1711.

young men with whom Dryden lived in great intimacy, revised Fletcher's comedy entitled THE PILGRIM, for the company of actors who, after Betterton's departure, continued to play in DruryLane; with whom he stipulated that our author should have the benefit of the third night's performance,' in consideration of his having enriched the piece with a Prologue and Epilogue, a Dialogue between two mad lovers, and other additions. The precise time of its first representation has not been recorded by the writers of theatrical history; nor have I been able to ascertain it, from

It is not easy to ascertain the exact time when, this revived play was first performed. Cibber in his APOLOGY, p. 219, says, "it was revived in 1700 for Dryden's benefit, in his declining age and fortune:" and afterwards adds, that "Sir John Vanbrugh, who had given some slight touches of his pen to THE PILGRIM, to assist the benefit-day of Dryden, had the disposal of the parts," and assigned to him that of the stuttering Cook, and the speaking of the Epi. logue; and that" Dryden upon hearing him repeat it, made him a further compliment of trusting him with the Prologue also."-From this account it might be presumed that the play was performed in Dryden's life-time, on the day for which I suppose it to have been intended, March 25th, 1700. The last speech, however, of the printed play speaks of him as dead: "I hope, before you go, Sir, you'll share with us an entertainment the late great poct of our age prepared, to celebrate this day. Let the Masque begin."-But even these words are not decisive; for the word late might have been written subsequent to the first representation, and added to the printed copy, which was published on the 18th of June, as appears from the following

the newspapers of the time; but doubtless it was intended to have been produced on the 25th of March, 1700, on which day the new year at that

advertisement in the London Gazette, No. 3610, Monday June 17, 1700:

"To-morrow will be published THE PILGRIM, a comedy, as it is acted at the Theatre-Royal in DruryLane; written originally by Mr. Fletcher, and now very much altered, with several additions: likewise a Prologue, Epilogue, Dialogue, and Masque, written by the late Mr. Dryden, just before his death; being the last of his works. Printed for B. Tooke," &c.

Gildon, in his COMPARISON BETWEEN THE STAGES, published in 1702, says, this play was performed for the benefit of Dryden's son, and that it was brought out after HENRY THE FOURTH and MEASURE FOR MEASURE (which last he himself altered,) had been acted at Lincoln's-Inn Fields. The latter was produced probably in February. After having mentioned the success of HENRY THE FOURTH and HENRY THE EIGHTH, he makes one of the speakers in his Dialogue say, "The battle continued a long time doubtful, and victory hovering over both camps, Betterton solicits for some auxiliaries from the same author, and then he flanks his enemy with MEASURE FOR MEASURE. -Nay then, says the whole party Drury-Lane, we'll even put THE PILGRIM upon him." Ay, 'faith, so we will,' says Dryden: and if yu'll let my son have the profits of the third night, I'll give you a Secular Masque.' Donc,' says the House; and so the bargain was struck."

One of Curll's authors, in the Memoirs of Mrs. Oldfield published in 1731, says, that "THE PILGRIM was revived for the benefit of Mr. Dryden in Ann. 1700; but he dying on the third night of its representation, his son