time began; for our author, beside the aid already mentioned, furnished the scene with a Secular Masque, introduced at the end of the piece; in which the commencement of the year is particularly mentioned." It is a singular circumstance

attended the run of it, and the advantages accrued to his family." According to this account, its first represen tation was on Monday the 29th of April. But I do not believe this to have been the case.

The Masque commences with the following speeches:
JANUS. Chronos, Chronos, mend thy pace;
An hundred times the rolling Sun

Around the radiant belt has run,
In his revolving race:

Behold, behold, the goal in sight!

Spread thy fans, and wing thy flight!

Enter CHRONOS, with a scythe in his hand, and a great globe on his back, which he sets down at his entrance. CHRONOS. Weary, weary of my weight,

Let me, let me drop my freight,

And leave the world behind;

I could not bear,

Another year,

The load of human-kind.

The name of the original composer of this Masque is not recorded; but probably Daniel Purcell was employed on this occasion. At a subsequent period, as Dr. Burney mentions, it was set to musick by Dr. Boyce, and pcrformed, in still life, at either the Castle Concert or Hickford's Great Room in Brewer-street. In 1749 it was performed at Drury-Lane Theatre with great success; and the Song sung by Diana, beginning-" With horns and with hounds I waken the day," continued long a popular

air.

that Dryden, as well as some other eminent men of that day, should have fallen into the errour respecting the beginning of the century, which has found some partisans in our own time; conceiving that the seventeenth century closed on the 24th of March, 1699, and that the new century began on the following day: in conformity to which notion a splendid Jubilee was celebrated at Rome in the year 1700. By this kind of reckoning, the second century began in the year 100; and the first, in opposition to the decisive evidence furnished by the word itself, consisted of only ninety-nine years! Prior, however, was guilty of the same oversight."

For whatever day this Masque may have been written, it should seem from the last speech of the comedy in which it was introduced, that it was not acted till after Dryden's death. The Prologue and Epilogue, in the former of which he has retaliated on Blackmore, for his recent attack in the

7 See his CARMEN SECULARE for the year 1700.

See vol. iii. p. 649.—It is not quite clear, whether a a passage in our author's Preface to his FABLES, in which he speaks of Blackmore's having traduced him in a libel, relates to the SATIRE AGAINST WIT, or to Blackmore's Preface to PRINCE ARTHUR, published in 1695. Dr. Johnson thought it related to the former; and, I believe, was right in his conjecture: for from an advertisement in the POSTBOY, No. 763, February 29, 1699-1700, it appears, that a satirical production entitled “COMMENDATORY VERSES on the Author of the two ARTHURS, and the SATIRE AGAINST WIT," was then published; THE

SATIRE AGAINST WIT, have been always numbered among his happiest effusions, and would at any period of his life have been highly admired. It is à singular circumstance, (which I have learned

SATIRE AGAINST WIT, therefore, probably appeared early in January, two months before the FABLES. The third edition of Blackmore's poem was published April 20, 1700.

"The libel," says Dr. Johnson, in "which Blackmore traduced him, was a SATIRE UPON [AGAINST] WIT; in which, having lamented the exuberance of false wit, and the deficiency of true, he proposes that all wit should be re-coined before it is current, and appoints masters of assay, who shall reject all that is light or debased.

"'Tis true, that when the coarse and worthless dross "Is purg'd away, there will be mighty loss; "Ev'n Congreve, Southerne, manly Wycherley, "When thus refined, will grievous sufferers be: "Into the melting-pot when DRYDEN comes, "What horrid stench will rise, what noisome fumes! "How will he shrink, when all his lewd allay "And wicked mixture shall be purg'd away! !!"

"Thus stands the passage in the last edition; but in the original there was an abatement of the censure, beginning thus:

"But what remains, will be so pure, 'twill bear "Th' examination of the most severe."

"Blackmore finding the censure resented, and the civility disregarded, ungenerously omitted the softer part. Such variations discover a writer who consults his passions more than his virtue; and it may be reasonably supposed that Dryden imputes his enmity to its true cause:" [his having been a little hard on Blackmore's fanatick patrons in the city of London, in ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL.]

while this sheet was passing through the press,) that these two animated compositions should have been written not above three weeks before his death. The PILGRIM, which was graced with these latest productions of our author's muse, is also memorable for being the first play in which Mrs. Oldfield, who afterwards became so celebrated, was distinguished as an actress."

The end of all his labours was now approaching. He had for some years been harassed by the gravel and the gout; and in December, 1699, was afflicted with an erysipelas in one of his legs." Having recovered, however, from that disorder, he was sufficiently free from any complaint to apply again to his studies, as is evinced by the poctical

9 She was so much admired in the part of Alinda, in this play, that she chose it for her benefit-night. The advertisement in THE POSTBOY of Saturday, July 6, 1700, in which it was announced, shews the state of the at that time:

stage

"For the Benefit of Mrs. OLDFIELD, "This day, at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, will be performed a comedy called THE PILGRIM: revised with large alterations and additions, and a Secular Masque : with the Dialogue between the two mad lovers: Being acted this time at the desire of several persons of quality: And Entertainments of singing and dancing between the Acts, and in particular a new Entry by the late Mr. Englesfield, and performed by Mr. Weaver, Mr. Cottin, and Miss Campion; a Scotch Song, with the dance of the bonny Highlander: never done but once before on the English Stage."

See his Letter to Mrs. Thomas; dated Dec. 29, 1699.

performances which have been just mentioned; but he was confined to his house by the gout during the greater part of March and April; and near the end of that month, in consequence of neglecting an inflammation in one of his feet, a mortification ensued, of which he died, after a very short illness,' at three o'clock on Wednesday morning, May the 1st, 1700.'

His leg having become mortified, his surgeon recommended an amputation of the limb, with a

That his illness was short, and his death sudden and unexpected, appears from the following introductory paragraph to an account of his funeral, written by Edward Ward, in THE LONDON SPY, Soon afterwards:

"A deeper concern hath scarce been known to affect in general the minds of grateful and ingenious men, than the melancholy surprise of the worthy Mr. Dryden's death hath occasioned through the whole town, as well as in all other parts of the kingdom, where any persons either of wit or learning have taken up their residence."

His illness was not noticed in any of the newspapers, that I have seen, till the goth of April, when THE POSTBOY announced, that "John Dryden, Esq., the famous poet, lies a dying."

3 IN THE POSTBOY, from Tuesday, April 30, to Thursday, May 2, 1700, his death was thus announced:

"Yesterday morning at three of the clock, John Dryden, Esq., departed this life, who for his poetry, &c. cxcelled all others this age produced."

Dr. Birch, in the GENERAL DICTIONARY, following an erroneous inscription inserted by Pope in his Works, 1735, stated, that Dryden died in 1701; and in the B10GRAPHIA BRITANNICA, and the subsequent collections of English biography, this errour has been adopted.