the critics, I think, have allowed that Dryden best succeeded: notwithstanding, as he himself says, when he began it, he was past the grand climacteric! so little influence it seems age had over him, that he retained his judgment and fire, in full force to the last. Mr. Pope, in his preface to Homer, says, if Dryden had lived to finish what he began of Homer, he (Mr. Pope) would not have attempted it after him, "no "more (says he) than I would his Virgil, his version "of whom (notwithstanding some human errors) is "the most noble and spirited translation I know in any language."

Besides the original pieces and translations hitherto mentioned, Mr. Dryden wrote many others. They consist of translations from the Greek and Latin poets, Epistles to several persons, Prologues and Epilogues to several plays, Elegies, Epitaphs, and Songs. His last work was his Fables, ancient and modern, translated into verse from Homer, Ovid, Boccace, and Chaucer. To this work is prefixed, by way of preface, a critical account of the authors from whom the fables are translated.

As to our Author's performances in prose, besides his Dedications and Prefaces; and Controversial writings, they consist of the Lives of Plutarch and Lucian, prefixed to the translation of those authors by several hands; the Life of Polybius, before the translation of that historian by Sir Henry Sheers, and the

Preface to the Dialogue concerning Women, by William Walsh, Esq.

Mr Dryden died the first of May, 1701, and was interred in Westminster-Abbey. On the 19th of April he had been very bad with the gout and erisipelas in one leg; but he was then something recovered, and designed to go abroad; on the Friday following he ate a partridge for his supper, and going to take a turn in the little garden behind his house in Gerardstreet, he was seized with a violent pain under the ball of the great toe of his right foot. 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 this black spot is a mortification; I know "also that it will seize my head, and that they will "attempt to cut off my leg; but I command you, 86 my son, by your filial duty, that you do not suffer tr me to be dismembered." As he foretold the event proved, and his son was too dutiful to disobey his fa

ther's commands.

He married the Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Earl of Berkshire, who survived him about eight years, and by whom he had three sons, Charles, John, and Henry. Charles became usher of the palace to Pope Clement XI.; and, returning to England, was

drowned in the Thames near Windsor in 1704. He was the author of several things, and translated the sixth satire of Juvenal. John translated the fourteenth satire of Juvenal, was the author of a comedy, called The Hufband his own Cuckold, printed in 1696, and died of a fever at Rome. Henry entered into religious orders.

The day after Mr. Dryden's death the Dean of Westminster sent word to Mr. Dryden's widow, that he would make a present of the ground, and all other Abbey-fees for the funeral. The lord Halifax likewise sent to the Lady Elizabeth, and to Mr. Charles Dryden, offering to defray the expences of our Poet's funeral, and afterwards to bestow 50cl. on a monument in the Abbey, which generous offer was accepted. Accordingly, on Sunday following, the company being assembled, the corpse was put into a velvet hearse, attended by cighteen mourning coaches. When they were just ready to move, Lord Jeffreys, son of Lord Chancellor Jeffreys, a name dedicated to infamy, with some of his rakish companions, riding by, afked whose funeral it was; and being told it was Mr. Dryden's, he protested he should not be buried in that private manner; that he would himself, with the Lady Elizabeth's leave, have the honour of the interment, and would bestow a thousand pounds on a monument in the Abbey for him. This put a stop to their procession; and the Lord Jeffreys, with se

veral of the gentlemen, who had alighted from their coaches, went up stairs to the lady, who was sick in bed. His Lordship repeated the purport of what he had said below; but the Lady Elizabeth refusing her consent, he fell on his knees, vowing never to rise till his request was granted. The lady, under a sudden surprize, fainted away, and Lord Jeffreys, pretending to have obtained her consent, ordered the body to be carried to Mr. Russel's, an undertaker in Cheapside, and to be left there till further orders. In the mean time the Abbey was lighted up, the ground opened, the choir attending, and the Bishop waiting some hours to no purpose for the corpse. The next day Mr. Charles Dryden waited on my Lord Halifax and the Bishop, and endeavoured to excuse his mother by relating the truth. Three days after the undertaker, having received no orders, waited on the Lord Jeffreys; who pretended it was a drunken frolic, that he remembred nothing of the matter, and he might do what he pleased with the body. Upon this the undertaker waited on the Lady Elizabeth, who desired a day's respite, which was granted. Mr. Charles Dryden immediately wrote to the Lord Jeffreys, who returned for answer, that he knew nothing of the matter, and would be troubled no more about it. Mr. Dryden hereupon applied again to the Lord Halifax and the Bishop of Rochester, who absolutely refused te do any thing in the affair.

In this distress Dr. Garth, who had been Mr. Dryden's intimate friend, sent for the corpse to the College of Physicians, and proposed a subscription; which succeeding, about three weeks after Mr Dryden's decease,Dr. Garth pronounced a fine Latin oration over the body, which was conveyed from the College, attended by a numerous train of coaches, to Westminster-Abbey, but in very great disorder. At last the corpse arrived at the Abbey, which was all unlighted. No organ played, no anthem sung; only two of the singing boys preceded the corpse, who sung an ode of Horace, with each a small candle in their hand. When the funeral was over, Mr. Charles Dryden sent a challenge to Lord Jeffreys, who refusing to answer it, he sent several others, and went often himself; but could neither get a letter delivered, nor admittance to speak to him, which so incensed him, that finding his Lordship refused to answer him like a gentleman, he resolved to watch an opportunity, and brave him to fight, though with all the rules of honour; which his Lordship hearing, quitted the Town, and Mr. Charles never had an opportunity to meet him, though he sought it to his death with the utmost application.

The character of Mr. Dryden has been drawn by various hands; some have done it in a favourable, others in an opposite manner. The Bishop of Sarum, in the History of his own Times, says, that the stage was defiled beyond all example; "Dryden, the great * master of dramatic poetry, being a monster of im