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parts; Marriage A-la-Mode; and Love

Grenada, both

in a Nunnery.

Tyrannic Love, or the Royal Martyr, is written in rhyme, and dedicated to the duke of Monmouth. We are told in the preface that it was finished in feven weeks, with an intention" to prove, against the ene"mies of the stage, that patterns of piety decently

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represented and equally removed from the extremes "of superstition and prophaneness, may be of excel"lent ufe to fecond the precepts of religion." The plot of this tragedy being the martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, is taken from Herodian and other historians.

To the first part of the Conqueft of Grenada, there is prefixed an effay on Heroic Plays; and the fecond part is followed by a defence of the epilogue, or an effay on the Dramatic Poetry of the preceding age, in which epilogue he is fevere upon Ben. Jonfon. These two plays were attacked by one Richard Leigh, an actor of the duke of York's company, in a pamphlet, entitled, "A Cenfure of the Rota of "Mr. Dryden's Conqueft of Grenada." This was answered by "The friendly Vindication of Mr.Dry"den from the cenfure of the Rota. Camb. 1673, 4to. "Mr. Dryden vindicated, in answer to the Friendly "Vindication, &c. Lond.4to.1673. A Description of "the Academy of the Athenian Virtuofi, 4to. Lond. "1673." It was also abused in 1674 by Elkanah Settle, in a 4to pamphlet, entitled, Notes and In"terpretations on the Empress of Morocco, revised, "with fome few erratas to be printed instead of the postscript, with the next edition of the Conqueft "of Grenada ;" and I fancy this is the fame pamphlet mentioned in the Biographia Britannia,under the name of "Reflections on feveral of Mr. Dryden's plays, "particularly on the first and fecond parts of the "Conqueft of Grenada, by E. Settle, gent. Lond, "1687, 4to."

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VOL. I.

Settle's Empress of Morocco was performed at the duke's theatre in 1673, and published afterwards with cuts. Some expreffions in the preface having madeDryden very angry, he published a 4to pamphlet, called "Notes and Obfervations on the Emprefs of "Morocco, or fome few erratas to be printed in"stead of the sculptures with the fecond edition of "the play." In this piece he has treated Settle with a good deal of fcurrility, and the latter has not failed to return it, in his reply above mentioned.

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Dryden was fenfible that both parts of the Conqueft of Grenada lay very open to cenfure; for in the preface to the Spanish Fryar, written fome years after, he fays, "I remember fome verfes of my own Almanfor cry vengeance upon me for their extravagance; "all I can fay for those paffages, which are, I hope, <6 not many, is that I knew they were bad enough to please even when I writ them." Here we fee he charges his failings upon the depraved tafte of the age, and will not admit them to be laid to the account of his own judgment.

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Lord Lanfdown thus feconds him in his effay concerning unnatural Flights in Poetry.

"Dryden himself, to please a frantic age,
"Was forc'd to let his judgment ftoop to rage;
"To a wild audience he conform'd his voice,

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Comply'd by custom, but not err'd by choice, "Deem then the people's, not the writer's fin, "Almanfor's rage, and rants of Maximin. "That fury fpent; in each laborious piece "He vies for fame with antient Rome and Greece."

Marriage A-la-mode is a tragi-comedy, or rather a play made up of two actions; the one ferious, the other comic, and not fo ftrongly interwoven, but that they may eafily be taken afunder, without much damage being done to either. It is dedicated to the witty earl of Rochester, who I suppose, made an ade

quate return for the compliment, as I have by me a manufcript letter of our author's to that nobleman, written feemingly about this time, which I take, from the tenor of it, to have arisen from such an occafion.

The Affignation, or Love in a Nunnery, a comedy, did not fucceed in the representation; and the poet,in his dedication of it to Sir Charles Sedley, fays, he knows not whether to charge the miscarriage to the number of his enemies, or the defects of the performance. We have mentioned together the plays laid hold of by the author of the Rehearfal; and, as nearly as we could collect, have difpofed them in the order in which they were acted; for they were not printed in that order. If Sir Martin Marr-all, another comedy of our author's, did not appear before the Affignation, it came out at much the fame time, as may be gathered from the prologue to a play of Ravenscroft's called the Careless Lovers, in which mention is made of both thefe pieces having met with no very kind reception.

In 1673, our author's thirteenth play was exhibited at the Theatre-Royal in Drury Lane: it was entituled Amboina, or the Cruelties of the Dutch to the English Merchants, a tragedy; and published with a dedication to Lord Clifford of Chudleigh. Though written in a month, it fucceeded well on the stage, the fubject being very popular, as we were then at war

with Holland.

In 1675 he introduced a comedy to the ftage, called the Mistaken Husband. It was not his own, though it has been attributed to him; but he protected it as an orphan, and embellished it with one fcene and an epilogue.

Aureng-Zebe, a tragedy, came out in 1676. The scene lies at Agra in the Eaft-Indies, and is founded on a true story related by feveral hiftorians, and told at large by Tavernier in his voyages. It is written in rhyme; and in the dedication to the Earl of

Mulgrave, it is faid that King Charles not only preferred it to all the other dramatic works of our poet, but even had fome hand in adjusting the contrivance of it.

The State of Innocence, or the Fall of Man, an opera, taken from Paradife Loft, was published in 1678, but never acted. Many beautiful paffages are here transplanted from that excellent poem, and thrown into rhyme. Nat. Lee has prefixed to it a commendato

ry copy of verses, in which he pays fome compliments to Dryden, at the expence of the immortal Milton: "But thefe," fays our author very justly in his Apology for heroic poetry and poetic licence, prefixed to this piece, "ought rather to be esteemed the effect of "Mr. Lee's love than his deliberate and fober judg. "ment." It is preceded by a dedication to the duchess of York, through which runs a most delicate strain of flattery.

All for Love, or the World well loft, a tragedy, appeared the fame year; and Dryden himself, in the preface to his tranflation of Fresnoy's Art of Painting, tells us it is the only thing in the dramatic way which "he ever wrote to please himself." He was particularly fond of the fine fcene in the first act between Anthony and Ventidius. This play is on all hands. allowed to be his best: he has ftrictly regarded the unities of time, place, and action; and has attempted, more than once, to break a lance with Shakespear (whofe Anthony and Cleopatra is on the fame fubject) particularly in the famous defcription of the queen of Egypt's failing down the Cydnus.

Her galley down the filver Cydnus, &c.

How he has fucceeded, we fhall not here take upon us to decide in his ftile he profeffes to have imitated that prince of the drama, and on that account he has difincumbered himself of rhyme; not that he condemns that way of writing, which he fo long used, but because he looks upon blank verfe to be more to his purpose.

In 1679 Nat. Lee, and he in conjunction, produced a play called Oedipus, and Langbaine fets it down. as one of the best tragedies we have: the contrivance and difpofition of the scenery with the first and third acts, were entirely our author's, Lee juftly claims the reft. The preface is a critique upon Corneille, the father of the French stage, who had previously handled the fame story.

Two other of his plays appeared in the fame year, viz. Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen; and Troilus and Creffida, or 'Truth found too late. The latter is an alteration from Shakespear, to whofe memory much deference is paid in the preface.

The beginning of this winter, a poem was printed, called an Effay on Satire, in which Sir William Scroggs, lord chief juftice of the King's Bench, Willmot earl of Rochefter, the dutchefs of Portsmouth, and feveral other remarkable perfonages, were treated with great freedom. Lord Mulgrave and our author wrote it in conjunction, though the nobleman was ambitious enough to endeavour to engross the honour of it to himself. On account of this performance it is thought that Rochefter or the dutchefs hired fome ruffians, to revenge their quarrel upon the laureat, which gave rife to the following paragraph in a news-paper of those days, called Domestic Intelligence, or News from both City and Country, numbered 49, dated Tuesday, December 23, 1679.

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"On the 18th inftant in the evening, Mr. Dry"den, the great poet, was fet upon in Rofe-ftreet, "Covent-garden, by three perfons who called him "rogue and fon of a whore, knocked him down and "dangeroutly wounded him: but upon his crying out murder, they made their escape: it is conceiv"ed they had their pay before hand, and defigned not to rob him, but to execute on him fome feminine if not popish vengeance." In No. 50 of the fame paper, dated Friday, September 26, 1679, wa♣ find this advertisement.

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