Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

The laft capital work which he executed, was his Fables, collected from Homer, Ovid, Boccace, and Chaucer, for which old Jacob Tonfon gave him down 250 guineas; and there being fomething very fingular in the instrument that paffed between the bard and the bookfeller on this account, we have transcribed it from the original now in Mr. Tonson's hands, as a piece both entertaining and curious.

[ocr errors]

66

[ocr errors]

I

Do hereby promife to pay John Dryden, Efq; or order, on the 25th of March, 1699, the sum "of two hundred and fifty guineas, in confideration "of ten thousand verses, which the faid John Dryden, Efq; is to deliver to me Jacob Tonfon, when finished, whereof feven thousand five hundred verfes more or lefs, are already in the faid Jacob Ton"fon's poffeffion. And I do hereby farther promise "and engage myself to make up the faid fum of two "hundred and fifty guineas, three hundred pounds fterling to the faid John Dryden, Efq; his executors, administrators, or affigns, at the beginning of the second impreffion of the faid ten thousand "verfes.

66

[ocr errors]

"In witness whereof I have hereunto fet my hand "and feal this twentieth day of March 1693.

"JACOB TONSON.

Sealed and delivered, being

first ftampt, pursuant to the acts of parliament for that purpose, in the prefence of

BEN. PORTLOCK.

WILL. CONGREVE.

[ocr errors]

R

March 24th. 1698.

Eceived then of Mr. Jacob Tonfon, the fum of two hundred fixty-eight pounds fifteen fhillings, in purfuance of an agreement for ten "thousand verfes, to be delivered by me to the faid

[ocr errors]

Jacob Tonfon, whereof I have already delivered to "him about feven thoufand five hundred, more or lefs; he the faid Jacob Tonfon being obliged to "make up the forefayd fum of 2681. 15 s. od. three "hundred pounds, at the beginning of the fecond impreffion of the forefayd ten thousand verses.

"I fay received by me

"JOHN DRYDEN,

Witnefs, CHARLES DRYDEN.

250 Guineas at 11. 15. 6d. -- is 2681. 155. od,

This was a very confiderable price for poetry in those days; and, together with the bookseller's specifying barely the number of lines, without reftricting them either to fubject or revife, fhew that our author's reputation was in very high esteem.

To complete the number of lines, he inferted the epiftle to his cousin John Dryden of Chesterton, for which that gentleman made him a prefent of 500l. and his ode for St. Cecilia's day, entituled Alexander's Feaft, which is unanimoufly allowed to be the most finished poetical performance in our, or perhaps, in any other modern language. Mr. W. Moyle, who wrote the effays, used to fay, "That it was composed "for the Cicilian concert, and that our author "for the ufe of it received 40l." This volume was introduced into the world with a poetical address to the dutchefs of Ormond, who rewarded the poet with a bill of 500l. as I have been credibly informed by one of his collateral defcendants.

In a manufcript letter to Jacob Tonfon, now under my eye, our author fpeaks thus of his Alexander's Feaft: "I am glad to hear from all hands, that my

6.6

*ode is esteemed the best of all my poetry, by all "the town: I thought fo myfelf when I writ it; but

66

being old, I diftrufted my own judgment. I hope. "it has done you fervice, and will do you more."

Besides what we have here enumerated, our author published a vast variety of other poems both tranflations and originals, all which will be found in this edition of his works. He alfo wrote in profe a preface to Walsh's dialogue concerning women, and the Lives of Plutarch and Lucian, prefixed to the tranflation of their respective works by feveral hands; and alfo that of Polybius, before a tranflation of that hiftorian by Sir Harry Sheers. The fame gentleman published a Tacitus, the first book of which was done by our author; and other things were paffed upon the world for his which really belonged to one JohnDavies, a writer of those days, who encouraged the mistake, in which to be fure he found his advantage, by printing in the title-page only the initial letters of his name which might be equally applied to Dryden and Davies.

Our author married the lady Elizabeth Howard, a daughter of the earl of Berkshire, and fifter to Sir Robert Howard, the honorable colonel Philip Howard, and to Edward Howard Efq; author of the British Princes. She furvived him feveral years; and by her he left three fons; Charles, who was drowned swimming across the Thames at Windfor, in his twentyeighth year; John, who wrote a play called the Hufband his own Cuckold, and who died in the pope's houfhold, being one of his guard; Henry Erafmus, who was in prieft's orders, and lived to inherit the family title.

There was fomething fuperftitious in Dryden's character; for he calculated the nativity of his fon Charles, who was his favorite; and found that he fhould be in danger of death every feventh year. The event verified the prediction. He had three very narrow escapes at the æras foretold; the fourth accident was fatal.

6

This great poet died of a mortification in his foot, at his houfe in Gerrard's ftreet, Soho, on the first of May, 1701, aged seventy: and when he first felt the pain, pronounced it to be the ftroke of death. Dr. Sprat bishop of Rochester requested that his lady would order the body to be interred in Westminster-abbey, and he would remit the fees for opening the ground, &c. which came to upwards of forty pounds. Lord Hallifax alfo undertook the expence of his funeral, and ordered a velvet hearfe with eighteen mourning coaches to attend for that purpose.

The proceffion was now beginning to move forward, when Lord Jeffries, fon to the famous chancellor, chancing to pafs by with fome revelling companions, fwore that fo great a poet fhould not be thus privately buried; but that he would undertake it in a manner much more fplendid, and more worthy of fuch a celebrated character. He even intruded with this declaration upon the privacy of lady Elizabeth; but she rejected the offer, and actually fwooned at his extraordinary procedure. He then went down ftairs; and, pretending that her ladyfhip had confented, ordered the body to one Ruffel's, an undertaker in Cheapfide, where it lay for fome time, without his taking any further notice of it; and when folicited about it, he pleaded ignorance and a drunken frolic. Thus the body lay above-ground near three weeks; when, with her ladyfhip's leave, Dr. Garth had it removed to the College of Phyficians, where a fubfcription being made to defray the burial-expences, the Dr. pronounced a fine Latin oration in praife of the deceased. His remains were then conveyed to the abbey, with a long train of coaches, and interred in a confufed diforderly manner : for the bishop, disgusted at the affront put upon him, as he fuppofed, by my lady before, when he attended with the choir, the abbey being lighted up, declined affifting; and it has been confidently afferted, that fo little was decorum attended to, a Weftminster fcholar fung an ode of Horace over the grave.

Mr. Charles Dryden challenged the lord who had deported himself thus meanly; but he, to avoid worfe confequences, left town thereupon, and afterwards the kingdom. The Earl of Hallifax, influenced by the fame reason that prevented Dr. Sprat from attending the funeral, no longer thought of laying out five hundred pounds, as he had at first intended, in a monument to the memory of our poet; but Sheffield, duke of Buckingham, at length set ur his buft in the Abbey with this infcription:

J.

DRYDEN
Natus Aug. 9. 1631.

Mortuus Maii 1. 1701.

Johannes Sheffield Dux Buckinghamienfis fecit.

He took the hint of fo doing from this line, relating to Dryden, in Pope's epitaph on Rowe.

Beneath a rude and nameless ftone be lies.

And his grace originally intended for the monumental inscription, these two lines:

This Sheffield rais'd: the facred duft below

Was DRYDEN once; the reft who does not know.

Tom Brown, in a pamphlet, entituled, "The late "Converts expofed, or, the Reasons of Mr. Bayes' "changing his Religion," infinuates, that Dryden follicited to be ordained in the Proteftant church, but was refused; and that he also mifcarried in attempting to be appointed to the provoftfhip of Eton-College, near Windfor. Langbaine alfo bears teftimony to this; but I dare fay the reputation of thefe witneffes will have but little weight with the judicious reader, who cannot but fee that this great man's enemies fpared no opportunities of ftriving to make him ridiculous; and if truth failed, they feldom fcrupled having recourse to invention. Envy is a vice peculiar to little minds, and falfity its beft iupport.

« ПредишнаНапред »