ascribed to him. From the numerous persuasives of this kind which his writings exhibit, I select the following animated passage; and others, perhaps equally apposite, might be produced. In an address to the second Duke of Ormond, written not long before his death, after having observed that armour, however useful in war, is laid aside in peace, not only because it is a garment too harsh and cumbersome, but " also keeps off the embraces of a more humane life," he adds, " For this reason, my Lord, though you have courage in an heroical degree, yet I ascribe it to you but as your second attribute; mercy, benevolence, and compassion, claim precedence, as they are first in the Divine Nature. An intrepid courage, which is inherent in your Grace, is at best but a holiday kind of virtue, to be seldom exercised, and never but in cases of necessity; affability, mildness, tenderness, and a word which I would fain bring back to its original signification of virtue, I mean-goodnature, are of daily use: they are the bread of mankind, and staff of life: neither sighs, nor tears, nor groans, nor curses of the vanquished, follow acts of compassion and of charity; but a sincere pleasure and serenity of mind in him who performs an action of mercy, which cannot suffer the misfortunes of another without redress, lest they should bring a contagion along with them, and pollute the happiness which he enjoys."4 4 So also in the Dedication of AMPHITRYON to Sir William Levison Gower :-" All things of honour have These sentiments unquestionably flowed from his heart, for we know they did not evaporate in words, but regulated the practice of his life; of which not only the tenderness and warmth of his affections as a parent and a friend, but his goodnature and humanity in his general intercourse with mankind afford incontestable proofs. His little estate at Blakesley is at this day occupied by one Harriots, grandson of the tenant who held it in Dryden's time; and he relates, that his grandfather was used to take great pleasure in talking of our poet. He was, he said, the easiest and the kindest landlord in the world, and never raised the rent during the whole time he possessed the estate. To the various notices concerning himself, which Dryden, like Montagne, has very liberally scattered in his writings, we are indebted for many traits of his character; which are fully confirmed by the testimony of those with whom he lived. at best somewhat of ostentation in them; there is a pride of doing more than is expected from us, and more than others would have done: but to proceed in the same tract of goodness and protection, is, to shew that a man is actuated by a thorough principle: it carries somewhat of tenderness in it, which is humanity in a heroical degree: it is a kind of unmoveable good-nature; a word which is commonly despised, because it is so seldom practised. But, after all, it is the most generous virtue, opposed to the most degenerate vice, which is that of ruggedness and harshness to our fellow-creatures." 5 Communicated by Lady Dryden, the present owner of the Blakesley estate. "For my own part, (says he,) I never could shake off the rustick bashfulness which hangs upon my nature; but, valuing myself as little as I am worth, have been afraid to render even the common duties of respect to those who are in power. The ceremonious visits which are generally paid on such occasions, are not my talent. They may be real even in courtiers; but they appear with such a face of interest, that a modest man would think himself in danger of having his sincerity mistaken for his design. My congratulations keep their distance, and pass no further than my heart. There it is that I have all the joy imaginable, when I see true worth rewarded, and virtue uppermost in the world." To the eulogy of Congreve, who, agreeably to this representation, has described him as the most modest man he ever knew, may be added that of Lord Lansdowne, in his vindication of his friend from the charge brought against him by Burnet; who in his History, under the year 1669, has said, that the playhouses were at that time "become nests of prostitution," and that "the stage was defiled beyond all example, Dryden, the great master of dramatick poesy, being a monster of immodesty and of impurity of all sorts." All who knew him, replied Lord Lansdowne, can testify, this was not his character. "He was so much a stranger 6 Dedication of TROILUS AND CRESSIDA to Robert, Earl of Sunderland, 1679. to immodesty, that modesty in too great a degree was his failing. He hurt his fortune by it; he was sensible of it; he complained of it, and never could overcome it." So far from meriting such a character, he was the very reverse; a man of regular life and sober conversation, as all his acquaintance can vouch."-The Bishop's youngest son, indeed, contended, that the immodesty censured by his father was not opposed to modesty, but to chastness; and that this expression, as well as the words-impurity of all sorts, "could only be meant of his dramatick poesy, of which alone the Bishop was speaking."-However inapplicable 7" A Letter to the Author of Reflexions Historical and Political,' [written by John Oldmixon,] occasioned by a Treatise in Vindication of General Monk, and Sir Richard Granville, &c. By the Right Hon. George Granville, Lord Lansdowne;" 4to. 1732, p. 5.-He was (adds the noble writer,) esteemed, courted, and admired, by all the great men of the age in which he lived, who would certainly not have received into friendship a monster, abandoned to all sorts of vice and impurity. His writings will do immortal honour to his name and country, and his poems last as long, if I may have leave to say it, as the Bishop's sermons, supposing them to be equally excellent in their kind." 8 Remarks upon the Right Hon. the Lord Lans. downe's Letter to the Author of "the Reflections Historical and Political;" as far as relates to Bishop Burnet. 4to. 1732, p. 26. [By Thomas Burnet, Esq. who had published the first volume of his father's History in 1724. He was afterwards (1741) made a Judge of the Common Pleas, and died in 1751.] to the point in question Lord Lansdowne's reasoning may have been, his character of Dryden strongly confirms what Congreve and others have said on the same subject; for which purpose chiefly it has been here introduced. As to the licentiousness of some of our author's comedies, of which almost every writer of the time, following the example of the Court,' was as guilty as Dryden, his best defence must ever be that which Dr. Johnson has made for him, that "he lived to repent, and to testify his repentance." The younger Burnet's assertion, however, that the poet's moral character • See our author's Epilogue to THE PILGRIM: "The poets, who must live by Courts, or starve, The sin was of our native growth, 'tis true; |