of St. Cecilia's feast to furnish them with a second. Ode on the same subject: a request which gave rise to the finest composition of this kind in the English language; of which he thus speaks in a letter written to his son early in Sept. 1697: "In the mean time I am writing a song for St. Cecilia's feast; who, you know, is the patroness of musick. This is troublesome, and no way beneficial; but I could not deny the Stewards, who came in a body to my house to desire that kindness, one of them being Mr. Bridgeman, whose parents are your mother's friends.”

2

Concerning the occasion and manner of writing this unrivalled Ode, the following story has been told, on the authority of the late Mr. Richard Berenger : 3

"Mr. St. John, afterwards Lord Bolingbroke, happening to pay a morning visit to Dryden, whom he always respected, found him in an unusual agitation of spirits, even to a trembling. On enquiring the cause, I have been up all night, re

2 In 1697, eight Stewards officiated; viz. Hugh Colvill, Esq. Captain Thomas Newnam, Orlando Bridegman, Esq. Theophilus Buller, Esq. Leonard Wessell, Esq. Paris Slaughter, Esq. Jeremiah Clarke, Gent. and Francis Le Riche, Gent. Mr. Bridgeman was grandson to Lord Keeper Bridgeman. The names of all these gentlemen, except Mr. Newnam and the musical composers, are found among the Subscribers to the Translation of Virgil.

3 For many years Gentleman of the Horse and first Equerry to his present Majesty. He died Sept. 9, 1782.

plied the old bard: my musical friends made me promise to write them an Ode for their feast of St. Cecilia: I have been so struck with the subject which occurred to me, that I could not leave it till I had COMPLETED it; here it is, FINISHED at one sitting." And immediately he shewed him THIS ode, which places the British lyrick poetry above that of any other nation." This anecdote was communicated to Dr. Warton by Mr. Berenger, whose informer was Mr. Gilbert West, who derived the account from Mr. Pope, to whom it is said to have been imparted by Lord Bolingbroke; and it cannot be denied that this is a very fair genealogy: but after it has been carefully examined, we shall find, that, like many traditional tales, it is not to be implicitly relied upon; for our author's own words, already quoted," I am writing a song," &c. manifestly denote a composition produced by study and meditation, and growing up under the writer's hands; and a letter written by Dryden to the younger Mr. Graham, which I have not been able to recover,' proves incontestably, that this admirable

4 Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, vol. ii. p. 20. 5 Dr. Birch's words are-" He observes in an original letter of his, that he was almost a fortnight in composing and correcting it:" he adds, that this information was "communicated by the very learned and ingenious Richard Graham, Jun. Esq." I hoped to have found a copy of this letter among Dr. Birch's papers in the Muscum; but I have examined them for that purpose in vain. Of the fortnight here spoken of, we surely may allow some days to the original composition.

and "

performance, instead of being struck off at once, and completed at one sitting, was the work of almost a fortnight. The words, "I have been up all night," my musical friends made me promise to write them an Ode," all denote hurry; and the original relater of the anecdote evidently supposed that it was composed on the spur of the occasion, recently before it was wanted; whereas we find from Dryden's own account, that an application on the subject had been made to him, and he had actually begun to write, near three months before St. Cecilia's day. It may perhaps be true, that Mr. St. John, happening to call on Dryden, found him just after the general scheme of his Ode first presented itself to his mind, and he had rudely sketched out the mere outlines of it: but the other circumstances appear to be adscititious. It may be doubted too, whether Dryden received. forty pounds for writing it, as Derrick relates on the authority of Mr. Moyle; for the author expressly says, that the undertaking "was no way beneficial." This, however, is not decisive; for that sum may have been a subsequent donation.

It is a singular circumstance, that the name of the composer by whom this admirable Ode was

6 Derrick's words are, "Mr. Walter Moyle, who wrote the Essays, used to say, that it was composed for the Cecilian Concert, and that our author for the use of it received 401." Mr. Moyle died in 1721; Derrick therefore could not himself have conversed with him, being then not born. In Moyle's works I find nothing on this subject.

originally set to musick, has hitherto been unascertained. Purcell, who had gained new laurels by the musick of Dryden's KING Arthur, as well as several other operas, though he had been more than once employed by the Stewards of this festival, in 1683, 1692, and probably 1694, would perhaps have been the composer on this occasion also, but to the great regret of his country he died two years before, November 21, 1695; when he was honoured by an Elegy written by our author,

7 Sir John Hawkins tells us in his HISTORY OF MUSICK, that there is a tradition, that "Dryden wrote his ALEXANDER'S FEAST with a view to its being set by Purcell, but that Purcell declined the task, as thinking it beyond the powers of musick to express sentiments so superlatively energetick as that ode abounds with."-This tradition the Knight very gravely refutes, by observing that "Purcell composed the TE DEUM, and did not scruple to set to musick some of the sublimest passages in the Psalms, the prophecy of Isaiah, and other parts of the Holy Scripture." He omits, however, to state a reason of some little import, why neither Dryden could have intended his Ode for Purcell, nor this composer could have set it to musisk ;-that he had been dead nearly two years before it was written.

* Purcell died November 21, 1695, and it has been supposed that the following inscription on a tablet to his memory in Westminster-Abbey was written by Dryden:

Here lies

HENRY PURCELL, Esq.

who left this life,

And is gone to that blessed place,

Where only his harmony

can be exceeded:

who appears to have much respected him.

Some

other composer, therefore, was to be resorted to.

Obiit 21mo die Novembris,

Anno ætatis suæ 37m0,

Annoq; Domini 1695.

Whether this inscription was written by Dryden or not, the reasoning on which Sir John Hawkins (HISTORY OF MUSICK, iv. 509,) grounds this conjecture, is by no means satisfactory. After mentioning that Purcell's ORPHEUS BRITANNICUS was dedicated by his widow, in 1698, to Lady Howard, he adds, that the foregoing inscription is found in Westminster-Abbey" on a tablet fixed to a pillar, before which formerly stood the organ; placed there by his patroness, the Lady Elizabeth Howard." He then tells us, that this same lady, whom he now calls Lady Howard, "had been a scholar of Purcell, was the "eldest daughter of Thomas, Earl of Berkshire, and the "wife of Dryden, who is plainly alluded to in the Dedica"tion of the ORPHEUS BRITANNICUS. Many of his best "compositions were made for her entertainment, and were "recommended by her own performance. Purcell had set the "musick to KING ARTHUR, and many other of Dryden's "dramatick works. Dryden wrote an Ode on his death, "which Dr. Blow set to musick, and Lady Howard [for "after all she is still Lady Howard,] erected the tablet."

Let us now see how the fact stands. Purcell's widow, in 1698, collected several of his songs, which she published under the title of ORPHEUS BRITANNICUS, and dedicated "to The Honourable the Lady HOWARD." In this Dedication, after observing in the usual style of Dedications at that period, that the Lady Howard "had added the characters of a judge and patron of her late husband's performances to the many excellent qualities which made her the admiration of all that knew her ;" and highly commending" her extraordinary skill in musick, and ad