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these assertions were made at random, in consequence of these lampooners being ignorant of his real circumstances at that time, and cannot be wholly true; for the patrimony of which he was then possessed, though a very moderate provision, certainly placed him above a state of mean dependence. He probably did lodge for some time at the house of Herringman, who was Sir Robert Howard's publisher, as well as his own, and lived in what was then called the New Exchange; and on that slight foundation, and the early friendship which subsisted between Dryden and Howard, this tale seems to have been built. His connexion with Sir Robert Howard commenced in or before 1660; he having in April in that year prefixed some encomiastick verses to a collection of Howard's poems which was then published. Our author has himself acknowledged that "he was many ways obliged to that gentleman, and that he had been alike careful of his fortune and reputation.' The intimacy that subsisted between them at this period, which afterwards suffered a temporary suspension, probably was the occasion of Dryden's being made acquainted with his sister, Lady

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3 Henry Herringman was at this time the principal publisher of poetry and plays. Almost all the numerous poems on the subject of the Restoration were issued from his shop.

• Sir Robert Howard's poems were entered in the Stationers' Books by H. Herringman, April 16, 1660. 5 ANNUS MIRABILIS. Pref.

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Elizabeth, one of the daughters of Thomas, the first Earl of Berkshire, to whom he was married in or before 1665," with circumstances, as Dr. Johnson has observed, not very honourable to either of the parties; which, as they are supported by no other evidence than the lampoons of a subsequent period, may be more properly consigned to oblivion, than minutely and particularly stated. Certain, however, it is, that our author has sometimes represented the matrimonial state in no very favourable light,' though his adversaries have

"In this and every other particular relating to our author, I have endeavoured to obtain the best evidence that now can be procured. With this view, the Lord Bishop of Salisbury, at my request, obligingly desired the Register of Charlton in Wiltshire to be examined, where I thought it very probable that the marriage of Dryden to Lady Elizabeth Howard had been recorded; or at least that the baptism of their eldest son, Charles, would have been found. But neither that register, nor the register of the neighbouring parish of Westport, contain any notice of either of these facts; nor do the parochial Lists of Marriages and Baptisms transmitted annually to the Consistory-Office at Salisbury, afford any aid on this subject. However, it appears from the admission of Charles Dryden to Trinity College in Cambridge, in June 1683, at which time he was seventeen years old, that his parents must have been married in or before 1665.—A transcript of his admission from. the college-register, in which he is said to have been born at Charlton, will be found in a subsequent page.

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See particularly the opening of ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL, printed in 1681, and the Verses addressed

ascribed to him one more passage of this kind than he ever wrote.8

In the middle of the next year (1661) he addressed a panegyrick to his Majesty on his Coronation, and on New-year's day, 1662, presented an encomiastick poem to Lord Chancellor Clarendon. In the following year he prefixed to his friend Dr. Charleton's Account of Stonehenge some elegant lines,' in which we find more vigour

to his kinsman, John Driden, of Chesterton, in 1699: "Lord of yourself," &c.

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In a copy of anonymous verses prefixed to Creech's translation of Lucretius, 8vo. 1683, are the following lines:

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Quit not for publick toils a college life,

"Nor take that kind of settlement, a wife."

These verses were in the last age by some ascribed to Dryden, (see the Second Part of "the Reasons of Mr. Bayes's Conversion," p. 54,) and by others to Bishop Spratt. But Fenton, in his Notes on Waller, 4to. 1730, p. lxxviii. assures us, that he had good reason to believe they were written by a person then living, "who, though he had conversed familiarly with the best poets of our nation for almost half a century, never professed himself a member of the faculty." "His name, (he adds,) I am obliged to conceal."

Printed in folio for H. Herringman, in 1660. The verses addressed to Lord Chancellor Clarendon were also published by him in the same form, in the following year.

This" Epistle to his honoured friend Dr. Charleton, on his learned works, but more particularly on his Trea

than in either of the preceding pieces, and much of that copiousness, animation, and harmony, for which his poetical compositions were afterwards

tise of Stonehenge, by him restored to its true Founder," being short, and having been little noticed, though it exhibits the rudiments of almost all Dryden's future excellencies, I shall subjoin it, as a specimen of his poetical powers at this period. The versification is little inferior to that of his most perfect works:

"THE longest tyranny that ever sway'd "Was that wherein our ancestors betray'd "Their free-born reason to the Stagyrite, "And made his torch their universal light. "So truth, while only one supply'd the state, "Grew scarce, and dear, and yet sophisticate. "Still it was bought, like emp'rick wares, or charms; "Hard words seal'd up with Aristotle's arms. "COLUMBUS was the first that shook his throne, "And found a temp'rate in a torrid zone: "The fev'rish air fann'd by a cooling breeze, "The fruitful vales set round with shady trees; "And guiltless men, who danc'd away their time, "Fresh as their groves, and happy as their clime. "Had we still paid that homage to a name "Which only GOD and Nature justly claim, "The western seas had been our utmost bound,

"Where poets still might dream the sun was drown'd; "And all the stars that shine in southern skies "Had been admir'd by none but savage eyes. "Among the asserters of free reason's claim, "Our nation's not the least in worth or fame : "The world to BACON does not only owe "Its present knowledge, but its future too :

distinguished. The former two are, I think, the only papers of verses now extant, written after the poem on the Restoration, and before the commencement of his theatrical career. He now doubtless had attained a considerable degree of

"GILBERT shall live, till loadstones cease to draw, "Or British fleets the boundless ocean awe; "And noble BOYLE, not less in nature seen, "Than his great brother read in states and men : "The circling streams, once thought but pools of blood, (Whether life's fuel, or the body's food,)

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"From dark oblivion HARVEY's name shall save; "While ENT keeps all the honour that he gave. "Nor are you, learned friend, the least renown'd, "Whose fame, not circumscribed with English ground, "Flies like the nimble journies of the light, "And is, like that, unspent too in its flight. "Whatever truths have been, by art or chance, "Redeem'd from errour or from ignorance, "Thin in their authors, like rich veins of ore, "Your works unite, and still discover more: "Such is the healing virtue of your pen, "To perfect cures on books, as well as men. "Nor is this work the least: you well may give "To men new vigour, who make stones to live.

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Through you, the Danes, their short dominion loft, "A longer conquest than the Saxons boast.

STONEHENGE, once thought a temple, you have found

"A throne,where Kings, our earthly gods,were crown'd; "Where by their wond'ring subjects they were seen,

Joy'd with their stature, and their princely mien. "Our sovereign here above the rest might stand, "And here be chose again to rule the land.

VOL. I.

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