From 1676, however, to 1685, his emoluments from the theatre ought not to be estimated com

"As touching my body, I leave it to be buried [by my] "executors, soe to rest till the time of my changing shall come, in that great appearing of my Lord and Saviour, "with all his Saints. And touching the disposing of my "goods and money, I give and bequeathe to my beloved sonne, JOHN DRYDEN, a silver tankerd, marked with J. D. and a goold ring, which was my wedding-ring. "And it is my will, that after the decease of my son, John Dryden, that his eldest sonne, Charles Dry. "den, should have the ring, as a guift from his grand. "mother M. D.

deare

Some of her bequests mark the modes of life at that time, when a service of pewter was esteemed an elegance. To her daughter Lawton" she gives the black-wrought bed with the furniture belonging to it; "all the new Turkyworke chairs and wrought cradle-cloth; a high silver bowle, a little silver porringer, a crooked spoon, a red curtcine that hung in her chamber-window; two ewes and lambs; two of the best pewter dishes, that had her husband's arms on them, and two of the new pewter plates."

To her daughters, Frances and Elizabeth, whom she made her executors, she bequeathed twenty pounds a piece. She mentions a married daughter, to whom, by the name of her" daughter Blunke," she bequeathed a ring of ten shillings value; who, I suspect, lived at Bletso, in Northamptonshire, and has been erroneously called Bletso by Collins. Her last bequest, which is to her " deare grand-daughter, Mary Dryden," probably did not greatly gratify the young lady. It was-JOSEPHUS. She afterwards became the wife of John Shaw, Esq.

The will of Elizabeth, Countess Dowager of Exeter, who was maternal grand-mother to Lady Elizabeth Dry.

munibus annis, at more than £.100. a year; and consequently during that time, even with this

den, contains a bequest to her, of more value than the wedding-ring and tankard, bequeathed to our poet by his mother:

"Item, I give to my grandchild, Lady Elizabeth Howard, the pearle necklace and the pendent pearle hanging at it, which I did but lend her. And I give her my ague. ring pendent, and a bracelett of pearle and gould I used to weare on my arme."-The office transcript of this will (PRE. OFF. Alchin, qu. 356,) is here perfectly unintel ligible; for instead of my ague.ring, (a charm for the ague,) it has" my aquer-ing pendent;" but on consult. ing an attested copy of the original will, (for the original itself is not in the office,) the true word was found, which my friend Mr. Bindley's sagacity had previously discovered. These trinkets our poet's wife, probably, at a subsequent period would have gladly exchanged for something more substantial.

By a deed made on the 9th of August, 1650, which is recited and confirmed in this will, the testatrix had granted to trustees forty-nine acres of land, and several houses near Newark, in the county of Nottingham, held by lease for three lives, and all the tythes, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, parcel of the possessions of St. Leonard's Hospital, near or without Newark; in trust for herself for life, remainder to the uses of her will,-remainder to her daughter, the Countess of Berkshire, for life,-remainder to that lady's third daughter, Lady Elizabeth Howard, her executors and assigns. I know not whether any of the lives on which the term depended, were in being in 1671, when Lady Berkshire died, so as to entitle Lady Elizabeth Dryden to any advantage under this grant, supposing there were sufficient funds, independent of this leasehold interest, and the tythes, &c. of St. Leonard's

accession, his income was only £420. a year, which may be rated as be rated as equivalent to £.1,200. per annum, at this day. From 1685 to 1689, he derived nothing from the stage; but his salary was increased to £.300. a year; which, with his private fortune, made his income still the same. But, in August, 1689, his distress truly began; for being then deprived of both his places, his certain revenue was reduced to £.120. a year, with such contingent accessions as were derived from his literary exertions, or the kindness and liberality of his friends and patrons.

It has been a received opinion, grounded on a statement made not long after his death by Prior, that when the Earl of Dorset, in 1689, "was obliged to take from Dryden the King's pension, he gave him an equivalent out of his own estate.' But if by an equivalent were meant (and such seems to have been the meaning,) an annuity for life, equal to his salary, Prior unquestionably was misin

hospital, to discharge all the debts and legacies of the testatrix. When this deed was made, Lady Elizabeth Howard was the third surviving daughter of her parents; her elder sister, Diana, who was born in 1631, being then dead.

Neither Langbaine, nor Gildon, seems to have known who James Howard, the author of two successful plays, was. It appears from Lady Exeter's will, which was made March 20, 1650-51, and proved, April 12, 1654, that he was her grandson, and brother to Lady Elizabeth. He was the youngest son of Thoinas, Earl of Berkshire.

Dedication of Prior's Poems to Lionel, Earl of Dorset, 8vo. 1709.

formed, or stated this matter carelessly and inaccurately, confiding perhaps in his memory, which deceived him; for Dryden himself, speaking of his patron's munificence at that period, mentions it in such a manner as proves, beyond a doubt, that Dorset's bounty did not supply him with any stated and certain income, but was merely temporary and occasional. "Being (says he, in his Discourse on Satire, addressed to that nobleman in August, 1692,) encouraged only with fair words by King Charles the Second, my little salary ill paid, and no prospect of a future subsistence, I was then discouraged in the beginning of my attempt: and now age has overtaken me; and want, a more insufferable evil, through the change of the times, has wholly disenabled me. Though I must ever acknowledge, to the honour of your Lordship, 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 subsistance which I had from two Kings, whom I had served more faithfully than profitably to myself, then your Lordship was pleased, out of no other motive but your own nobleness, 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 scasonably 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." Five years afterwards we find him addressing Sheffield, Marquis of Normanby, in the same strain. "Will you give me leave to acquaint the world, that I have many times been obliged to your bounty since the Revolution. Though I never was reduced to beg a charity, nor ever had the impudence to ask one, either of your Lordship, or your noble kinsman, the Earl of Dorset, much less of any other; yet when I least expected it, you have both remembered me: so inherent it is in your family, not to forget an old servant. It looks rather like ingratitude on my part, that where I have been so often obliged, I have appeared so seldom, to return my thanks; and where I was also so sure of being well received. Somewhat of laziness was in the case, and somewhat too of modesty; but nothing of disrespect or of unthankfulness."Both these passages plainly denote occasional acts of munificence, and are entirely inconsistent with Prior's statement. He who received a certain annual income from the liberality of his patron, would surely not have thanked him for a bountiful present; nor have alluded to frequent obligations, which imply intermission, and something of casualty, if those obligations had been of such a kind as must have recurred during every remaining year of his life.

Of this nobleman's occasional bounty to Dryden, the following instance is recorded by Jacob. "Towards the latter part of his life, (the person