view to stop the further progress of the disorder; but he would not undergo the operation, saying, that as by the course of nature he had not many years to live, he would not attempt to prolong an uncomfortable existence by a painful and uncertain experiment, but patiently submit to death. This

4. "The occasion of his sickness (says Ward, ubi supra,) was a lameness in one of his feet, springing from so trivial a cause as the flesh growing over one of his toe-nails, which, being neglected, begot a soreness, and brought an inflammation in his toe; and being a man of a gross body, a flux of humours falling into the part, made it very troublesome,-that he was forced to put himself into the hands of an able surgeon, who foreseeing the danger of a mortification, advised him to part with the toe affected, as the best means to prevent the ill conscquence likely to ensue; which he refused to consent to, believing a.cure might be effected by less severe means than the loss of a member; till at last his whole leg gangrened, which was presently followed by a mortification, so that nothing remained to prevent death, but an amputation of the member thus putrified, which he refused to consent to, saying," &c. His Surgeon, we know, was Mr. Hobbes, a very famous operator, whose skill and care he has acknowledged in the Postscript to his Virgil.

On this account, which was printed in 1703, if not before, Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, whose talents for invention were not inconsiderable, above twenty years afterwards, formed the following story; into which, for the better grace, and to give her narrative the genuine air of authenticity, she has introduced several small circum

stances:

"On the 19th of April, 1700, he said he had been very bad with the gout, and an erysipelas in one leg, but he was then very well, and designed to go soon abroad:

account, which was given by a contemporary writer, not long afterwards, is strongly corrobo

but on the Friday following, [April 26th,] he had cat e partridge for supper; and going to take a turn in the little garden behind his house, [we must suppose, by moon. light, for on the 26th of April it was certainly dark after supper,] was seized with a violent pain under the ball of the great toe of his right foot; that, unable to stand, he cried out for help, and was carried in by his servants : when, upon sending for surgeons, they found a small black spot in the place affected. He submitted to their present applications; and when gone, called his son, Charles, to him, using these words: I know,' says he, this black spot is a mortification; I know also that it will seize my head, and that they will cut off my leg; but I command you, my son, by your filial duty, that you do not suffer me to be dismembered.' As he too truly foretold, the event proved, and his son was too dutiful to disobey his father's commands." Letter to the author of the Memoirs of Congreve, 8vo. 1730.-The reader will very soon be furnished with such decisive proofs of this lady's inventive faculties and disregard for truth, as will leave no doubt that this story is a mere fiction.-She has, it is observable, furnished our author with a train of servants, though, in his correspondence with Tonson, he mentions only his footboy; and she has been equally lavish of chirurgical assistance. As for the words, which, she tells us, he spoke on this occasion, if she had been sitting by his bed-side, she could not have been more precise.

Ward's account is in part confirmed by the following lines in an Elegy on Dryden, written by Gildon soon after his death:

"His body old, his wit continued young;

"Weak were his limbs, his lines robust and strong; "In winter, as in spring, this warbling swan still sung..

rated by the unquestionable testimony of Mrs. Elizabeth Creed,' his kinswoman; who informs us, that he received the notice of his approaching

}

"If health be harmony, the wonder's great, "How discord-sickness should admittance get, "Where harmony itself had placed her regal seat. "Disease in vain had oft the fortress storm'd; "With harmony divine as oft it found it arm'd. "Repulse upon repulse enraged to find, "Now on new arts she bent her deadly mind: "She watch'd each chance, to level with the ground "A fort so long impregnable she'd found : "Malicious chance a fatal breach had made,

، Too small, indeed, without dire gangrene's aid, "For death to enter with its stern brigade."

}

In a note the writer remarks, that Dryden died of a gangrene. EXAMEN MISCELLANEUM, 8vo. 1702.

s Mrs. Elizabeth Creed, who was second-cousin to our author's children, was the only daughter of Sir Gilbert Pickering, Baronet, (of whom an ample account has been given in a former page,) by Elizabeth, the only daughter of Sir Sidney Montagu, Knight, and sister of Edward Montagu, first Earl of Sandwich. She was born in the year 1642, and was married to John Creed of Oundle, Esq.," a wise, learned, and pious man," (as she has herself informed us, in an inscription in the church of Tichmarsh,)" who served his Majesty King Charles the Second in diverse honourable employments at home and abroad; lived with honour, and died lamented, A. D. 1701." By this gentleman she had eleven children, six of whom died in their infancy. Of the survivors, Richard, the eldest, who was a Major in the army, highly distinguished himself at the battle of Blenheim, where he commanded one of the squadrons that began the attack. In

dissolution with perfect resignation and submission to the Divine Will; and that in his last illness he

two several charges he was unhurt, but in the third he received many wounds; notwithstanding which he continued to fight, till he was shot through the head by a cannon ball. His dead body was brought off the field by his brother John, at the hazard of his own life; and a monument was afterwards erected in Westminster Abbey in memory of the gallant services of Major Richard Creed, on which the inscription (written probably by his mother) informs us, that "he attended King William in all his wars, and was never more himself than when he looked an enemy in the face." His mother erected another monument to him in the church of Tichmarsh.

This very amiable and respectable lady, as I have been informed by her great grandson, William Walcot, jun. Esq., "during her widowhood, resided many years in a mansion-house at Barnwell, near Oundle, in Northamp tonshire, belonging to the Montagu family, where she amused and employed herself in painting, and instructing many young women in drawing, fine needle-works, and other elegant arts. Many of the churches in the neighbourhood of Oundle are decorated with altar-pieces, monuments, and ornaments of different kinds, the works of her hand; and her descendants are possessed of many por. traits, and some good pictures, painted by her. Two days in every week she constantly allotted to the publick: on one, she was visited by all the nobility and gentry who resided near her; on the other, she received and relieved all the afflicted and diseased of every rank, giving them food, raiment, or medicine, according to their wants. Her reputation in the administration of medicine was considerable; and as she afforded it gratis, her practice was of course extensive. Her piety was great and unaffected. That it was truly sincere, was evinced by the

took the most tender and affectionate farewel of his afflicted friends, " of which sorrowful number

magnanimity with which she endured many trials more heavily afflictive than what usually fall to the lot even of those whose life is prolonged to so great an extent.".

In 1722 Mrs. Creed, then in her eightieth year, erected a monument in the church of Tichmarsh, to the memory of our author and his ancestors; for which she wrote the Inscription, (containing the passage in the text,) which will be found at length in a subsequent page. She died at Oundle about three years afterwards, in the beginning of the year 1724-5, and her remains were removed to Tichmarsh, where she was buried with her ancestors.

This excellent woman having borne so honourable and kind a testimony to the tenderness, fortitude, and piety, of our author, in the last scene of his life, is entitled to particular respect from his biographer. It is therefore with great satisfaction that I have endeavoured to rescue her name from oblivion, (for she who was so zealous in recording the merits of others, remains herself without a monument;) and that, as a further proof of her virtues, I add an eulogy on her, which has been obligingly communicated to me by Mr. Walcot:

"Conversation one day after dinner, at Mrs. Creed's, running upon the or[igin of names], Mr. Dryden bowed to the good old lady, and spoke extempore the following verses]:

"So much religion in your name doth dwell, "Your soul must needs with piety excell.

"Thus names, like [well-wrought] pictures drawn of

old,

"Their owners' nature and their story told.

"Your name but half

expresses; for in you

"Belief and practice do together go.