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"Whereas on Thursday the 18th of this inftant, "in the evening, Mr. John Dryden was affaulted " and wounded in Rose-street, Covent-garden, by di"verse men unknown. If any person shall make difco66 very of the faid offenders to the faid Mr. Dryden, or "to any justice of peace for the liberty of Weftmin

fter, he fhall not only receive fifty pounds, which "is depofited in the hands of Mr. Blanchard, gold"fmith, next door to Temple-bar, for the faid pur66 pofe; but if the discoverer himself be one of the "actors, he fhall have fifty pounds, without letting "his name be known, or receiving the least trouble by prosecution." This advertisement was, on the 2d of January following pursued by another: viz.

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"Whereas there has been printed of late an ad"vertisement about the difcovery of those who af"faulted Mr. Dryden, with promife of pardon and "reward to the discoverer: for his farther encourage"ment, this is to give notice, that if the faid difco"verer fhall make known the perfon, who incited "him to that unlawful action; not only the difcoverer himself, but any of those who committed the "fact, fhall be freed from all manner of profecution." Notwithstanding these repeated advertisements, both the contrivers and perpetrators of this illicit attack remained always a fecret; but both Rochefter and the before mentioned Duchefs were fhrewdly fufpected to be at the bottom of it.

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His comedy called Limberham, or the Kind Keeper, was acted thrice in 1680: but was thought rather too particular than too loofe; the age not being fo fqueamish as to diflike it on the latter account only. Limberham was applied by the people to the Earl of Lauderdale, who was neither the youngest nor the most virtuous of men; and this was the true reafon of its being discontinued: Dryden liked the play himself. He also, about this time, published a translation of Ovid's Epiftles into English verfe, two of which and the preface were of his own

compofition: His Spanish Friar, or the Double Difcovery, was the product of the following year. This is an admirable tragi-comedy; the ferious part of which is beautifully tender and interesting; and the comic abounds with infinity of wit and humour, yet he fomewhere profeffes a diflike to it. But that which established his reputation upon the most solid bafis was the poem of Abfalom and Achitophel, in which he characterifed the court of King Charles the Second, in the most lively terms; and what added to the force of his fatire or panegyric, was, through the whole, his firm adherence to truth. It went through feveral editions; and complimentary poems were poured in upon the editor, addreffed to the unknown author, fome of them figned by the greatest wits of the times.

The character of Zimri, in this celebrated fatire, was, without a key, univerfally given to the profligate duke of Buckingham, for whom it was meant. Our author, when firft attacked by his grace, had given him no offence, but that of poffeffing a genius fuperior, a genius that like the fun among the ftars, fhone out with a fplendor that eclipfed entirely the mob of wits which marked the reign of Charles the Second. The firft edition of the Medal or Satire against Sedition, was alfo published about this time. It is a fevere fatire upon the Whigs. His Religio Laici, many tenets of which clash with those of the Hind and Panther, was the product of the following year.

In 1683 a play called the Duke of Guife, written by our author and Nat. Lee in conjunction, was acted by his majesty's fervants, not without being strongly oppofed by the Whigs, who found a likeness in many parts of it between the Dukes of Monmouth and Guife. The first scene of the fourth act, in which Guife appears as returned to Paris against the king's pofitive command, which exactly correfponded with a fimilar action of Monmouth's, afforded room for

the remark, (but we are told in the Vindication, &c.) that it was written twenty years before; fo that, unlefs Dryden had been endued with a spirit of prophecy, he could not have meant it as a reflection upon that unfortunate prince.

A pamphlet was written against this tragedy by one Thomas Hunt, entituled, A Defence of the Charter and municipal Rights of the City of London, &c. which the faid Hunt fuppofes herein condemned, and the magiftrates already hung in effigy. I have also before me a virulent attack upon it, in three fheets, 4to. called, Some Reflections on the pretended Parallel in the Play of the Duke of Guife, in the compofing of which Shadwell was supposed to have been concerned.

To all thefe, the Vindication of the Duke of Guife, which is generally printed after it, was publifhed by way of anfwer. Here we are told that the Duke of Guife was our author's first piece, written foon after the Restoration, as the fairest way which the act of indemnity left of expofing the rife of the grand rebellion, or inter-regnum. It did not then appear, because condemned by a few friends in private, as unfit for the stage. It was again taken in hand, in compliance with the defire of Nat. Lee, with whom Dryden had promised to join in a fecond dramatic venture, in confequence of the fuccefs of Oedipus. Mr. Lee wrote two thirds of it, and our author the reft: viz. the first scene of the first act, the whole fourth act, and half, or rather more, of the fifth.

In the year 1684, he published Maimbourg's Hiftory of the League, tranflated from the French, by the king's especial defire, on account of the plain parallel fubfifting between the troubles of France and England. His next piece was Threnodia Augustalis, a poem, facred to the memory of the king. It appeared in the year 1685, as did an opera of his, entituled, Albion and Albanius, acted at the Queen's

Theatre in Dorset-garden; the fubject is wholly allegorical: the man on the pedeftal, with a lean pale face, and ferpents fucking poifon from his fides, is fuppofed to be intended for Shaftesbury corrupting the principles of his followers.

James the Second, on his acceffion, having imprudently enough caused to be published two papers, faid to be found in the ftrong box of the late king, and one left by the duchefs of York, both being a fort of Vindication of fome tenets of the Roman Catholic Church, they were answered by the very ingenious Dr. Stillingfleet: to whom our author, now profeffed papift, made a reply which he calls, A Defence of the Papers written by the late King, of bleffed Memory, and duchess of York, against the Answer made to them. This pamphlet contains 126 pages, befides the title and preface, and came out in 1686. COMMAND. The Hind and Panther, with which our fecond volume begins, appeared in 1687; the birth of a prince in 1688 occafioned a poem on that head and his translation of the Life of St. Francis Xavier, from the French of Bouhors, came out alfo this year.

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He had been about this time employed in tranflating Varilla's Hiftory of Herefies, but laid the defign afide; and this Dr. Burnet tells us he was induced to do, because he (the Dr.) had published reflexions on the work, that quite deftroyed the credit of the author. He was difmiffed from the office of poet-laureat at the revolution, and its being conferred on Tom Shadwell, was a more fenfible mortification to him than his difmiffion: this gave rife to his beautiful fatire of Mac Flecnoe, the first edition of which bears date 1689. His penfion was generously continued to him by the munificent Earl of Dorset, who was lord-chamberlain to King William, out of his own private purfe; and grateful mention is made of our author's obligations to that elegant nobleman in the dedication of the Satires of Juvenal and Perfius,

The tragedy of Don Sebaftian was exhibited at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, anno 1690; but being infupportably long, was curtailed even after the firft night's performance. The dedication of this performance to Sydney, Earl of Leicester, is a remarkably fine piece of writing.

Amphytrion, or, the Two Socias, a comedy, founded on Plautus and Moliere, was prefented the fame year; as was alfo the dramatic opera of King Arthur, or, the British Worthy and both were received with very high applause.

In 1692, he gave his excellent tragedy of Cleomenes to the stage, and dedicated the copy of it to Laurence, Earl of Rochester, fecond fon to the great Earl of Clarendon. The tranflation of Juvenal, in which he had a confiderable fhare: and that of Perfius, which was entirely his own, were first published in 1693. In the dedication, which is a long and beautiful difcourfe to the Earl of Dorfet, he lays down a plan, according to which he intended to have erected an epic poem, and which Sir Richard Blackmore carried into execution in his poem of King Arthur. Dryden expreffes the utmost contempt both for the piece and the man. His laft dramatic piece is a tragicomedy, called Love-Triumphant, or, Nature will prevail, which is dedicated to James, earl of Salisbury, and was prefented in 1694.

In 1695 our author published a translation into profe of Du Frefnoy's celebrated Latin Poem on the Art of Painting; to which he has prefixed a long preface, in which there is a parallel of poetry and painting. At this time he was engaged in tranflating all Virgil's works they did not make their appearance till 1697; and though greatly admired, passed not without being feverely cenfured. "But none, (fays Pope) "criticifed upon them fo fairly as Milbourne; who at "the fame time that he abufed his tranflation, did "Mr. Dryden the juftice to print his own, which was "intolerable."

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