ten years of age,* and, as he has himself told us, being always passionately fond of history, we may conclude that he spent more time over his favourite Thucydides, Tacitus, and the rest of the Greek and Roman historians, than he gave up to the poets, ancient or modern. If he wrote any verses, none of them have been preserved. But it is not probable, to use the expression of one of his biographers, that he 'sacrificed to the Muses,' while he was at Cambridge. The poetical faculty was slowly developed in him, and was more indebted to cultivation than to impulse. He was nearly thirty years of age before he published the poem on the death of Cromwell; and even after he had obtained the stimulus of applause, his early productions followed each other at rather long intervals.

From the sobriety of temperament exhibited in his choice of a collegiate life, when he was perfectly free to select any other, it may be concluded that he was not easily enslaved by the temptations which young men of three or four and twenty usually find it difficult to resist. The cloisters, however, afford little security against the influence of the universal passion, and in the year following his father's death the student fell in love with his cousin, Madame Honor Driden, who was at that time about eighteen years of age. This lady was the daughter of his uncle, Sir John Driden, and sister to his cousin, John Driden, of Chesterton, with whom the poet remained on terms of the closest intimacy and affection to the end of his life. Honor Driden is said to have been a beauty; and as, according to the tradition, she somewhat haughtily rejected the poet's suit, it may be presumed that she was not unconscious of her advantages of person and

* 'I had read Polybius in English, with the pleasure of a boy, before I was ten years of age; and yet, even then, had some dark notions of the prudence with which he conducted his design, particularly in making me know, and almost see, the places where such and such actions were performed.'-Character of Polybius. 1692.

For my own part, who must confess it to my shame, that I never read anything but for pleasure, history has always been the most delightful entertainment of my life '-Life of Plutarch.

1683.

position-for she was, also, an heiress. The opportunities out of which this unpropitious attachment may be supposed to have grown up arose, no doubt, from the intercourse of the cousins at Canons-Ashby during some of the Cambridge vacations. It seems that Madame Honor liked the young collegian well enough as a cousin, for the only evidence we have of his devotion survives in a letter he wrote to her in acknowledgment of a silver inkstand with which she presented him. The letter itself is less remarkable as an expression of real feeling, than as a specimen of that brocaded style of writing which the metaphysical poets had brought into fashion; and might have been written by any man of gallantry who, without having his heart in the slightest degree involved in the matter, desired to pour out a heap of complimentary tropes at the feet of a handsome woman. After indulging in a variety of fantastical figures, this famous epistle runs on as follows. But to make the passage clear it should be observed, that the inkstand was accompanied by a parcel of wax and paper, and an 'incomparable' letter.

'By all that's good (and you, madame, are a great part of my oath), it hath put mee so farre beside myselfe, that I have scarce patience to write prose, and my pen is stealing into verse every time I kisse your letter. I am sure the poor paper smarts for my idolatry: which by wearing it continually next my brest, will at last be burned and martyred in those flames of adoration which it hath kindled in mee. But I forget, madame, what rarityes your letter came fraught with, besides words. You are such a deity that commands worship by provideing the sacrifice. You are pleased, madame, to force me to write by sending me materialls, and compel me to my greatest happinesse. Yet, though I highly value your magnificent presente, pardon me, if I must tell the world they are imperfect emblems of your beauty; for the white and red of wax and paper are but shadowes of that vermilion and snow in your lips and forehead; and the silver of the inkhorn, if it presume to vie in whitenesse with your purer skinne, must confess itselfe blacker than the liquor it contains.'

The letter winds up with a few lines of verse, in which the prevailing extravagance, in the way of hunting verbal conceits

to the last extremity, is very successfully imitated. It is probably true of all poets, that they begin by imitation, the first impulse of that impressionable nature out of which, in the end, all great poetry is produced.

A passion that could find leisure to dress itself in such ornate phrases was not likely to leave any permanent traces behind; and it seems accordingly to have passed away as lightly as it came. Upon the lady, perhaps, it made a deeper impression. It is said that she repented of her refusal when her lover became distinguished; and there is no doubt that she was very proud of his letter, which she carefully preserved.* They often met afterwards at Chesterton, where Madame Honor kept house for her brother; and if Dryden had retained any painful memories of her disdain, we should probably have had some hint of them in his poems. But no allusion to the lady appears anywhere in his works, unless we are to believe that the name of Honoria, in the comedy of the Rival Ladies, was intended as a tribute to her. When that play was written, however, Dryden was on the eve of marriage, so that if he really had Madame Honor in his thoughts, there were no longer any regrets associated with the past. There is, indeed, reason to surmise that she did not retain a very strong hold on his regard, for in the letters of his which have been preserved, containing numerous references to her

* She was no less careful, as she advanced in life, to mystify her friends about the date of this precious love-letter, obliterating the two latter figures of the year, 'lest,' says Malone, the date should too nearly discover her age.'

In the latter years of his life, Dryden was a frequent visitor at Chesterton, where, according to a tradition in the family, he inscribed the first lines of his translation of Virgil with a diamond, on a pane of glass. Mr. John Driden, Madame Honor's brother, at that period, after 1690, represented Huntingdon in parliament, and on his visits to London maintained the most affectionate intercourse with the poet. The last we hear of him is in the winter of 1699-70, when he was lodging at the house of Erasmus Dryden, who afterwards succeeded to the baronetcy, and who then kept a grocer's shop in King-street, Westminster.

brother, her name does not occur once. She survived the poet many years, and died unmarried.+

* Amongst the letters preserved at Canons-Ashby, there are two from Madame Honor to her father. They contain no reference to the poet, but are interesting as specimens of the lady's correspondence, and as illustrations of the domestic manners of the period. It may be inferred from a comparison of the kindnesses the writer acknowledges to have received from her father, with the parental frugality alluded to by her sister in the letter which follows, that the beauty was the favourite daughter.

Honoured Father,

Feb. 15th.

I should bee most unworthy of your afection, should I not endeavor the utmost of my power to answer it by my constant obedience to your comands. Sr it is a high satisfaction to mee to hear your liking the pudings which was a requitall enought for the most covetous mind; for your Noble present in the reseat of so good orings and lemons I know not what to say, only beg of you to exsept my humble thankes, my brother and sister desier the like, for what thay received from you, this with thers and my humble duty to you

These

for her highly honoured father Sr John Driden

Most Honoured

I remaine

your dutifull Daughter HONOUR DRIDEN

Sr I should bee most unworthy to have so kind a father as your slfe, if I should neglect the least opertunity, wherein I may present my duty to you though I have very litell else to writ. Pray Sr be plesed to buy my brother Richard a cage, and if you thinke convenient to send to the gentleman that gives him the things to take, however I beseech you to pardon me for remembring you of it; I also want some things my slfe, but am almost ashamed to writ for them, knowing how many other things you have to buy; but if you will be plesed to bestow them on me, they are gorget of holland, or what is the newest fashion, and 2 ells of allamode for a scarfe; my brothers and sister are all well, they present their humble duty to you, this beeseeching you to excuse thes unpolished lines from her that is

This

For her highly Honoured Father

Sr John Driden at his lodgings

at mr Hood his house

in Chancery lane

Your most dutifull

and obedient Daughter
HON DRIDEN

The letter referred to from her sister Ann, afterwards married to Mr. Pigott, suggests a point of some interest, and is here inserted on that account. In the postscript, Madam Ann begs of her father, on behalf of herself and her sister Frances, to let Mr. Conceit come down to Canons-Ashby in the summer. Who was Mr. Conceit? Could he have been her cousin, the young poet? The conjecture is in some

Some time in 1657, after a seven years' residence at Cambridge, Dryden went up to London. He entered life under

measure supported by the omission of the name of her sister Honor, who may, probably, have desired his company in reality more than either of them, but, for obvious womanly reasons, did not choose to join in the request. The soubriquet by which Madam Ann designates him is significant.

Honoured Father

I will not presume to trouble you with a longe letter of complement and duty haueing too put you in minde of a petition I made to you which is trouble enough of it selfe. You were pleased to promise me a side saddle and furniture; if to my good fortune you have hitherto beene frugall I hope to my happinesse you will now bee liberall and therebeby ingage her humble gratitude & acknowledgments whose desires are to approve her selfe

Deare Father

Your most obedient Daughter
ANN DRIDEN.

My sister Frances and myselfe humbly begs of you to let Mr. Conseat come downe this sumer-my brother Bevill presents his duty to you. For her highly Honoured Father Sr John

Driden at his lodging at Mrs Hoods

house in Chancery lane this present

The orthography and punctuation of these letters are strictly copied from the originals.

+ Malone says she died after 1707. This is not exact. Nicholls, in his History of Northamptonshire, tells us that she was living in 1710. She was buried at St. Chads, Shrewsbury. To Sir Henry Dryden, who has aided my inquiries by instituting a search into the register of burials at St. Chads, I am indebted for all the additional information now likely to be procured respecting this lady. Her name does not appear in the register; but upon an old table of benefactions in the church there is the following inscription, accompanied by the armorial bearings of the Dryden family: :

'Mad. Honr. Dryden, of the parish of St. Mary, spinster, by her last will did give to the poore of this Parish Forty pounds, to bee put out at interest by the Churchwardens of the Parish, and the interest yearly to bee given by them to the poore of this Paris for ever. Dec. 5th, 1715. This money and a year's interest was paid by the executors of Mad. Dryden.'

It is difficult to determine whether this date is the date of the will, or of the payment of the bequest with the first year's interest. The latter conjecture is the more probable; in which case, it would fix the date of Madam Honor Dryden's decease in December, 1714. A search has also been made into the register of St. Mary's, the parish in which she is above stated to have resided, but without success.