DRY D E N.

F the great poet whofe life I am

OF

about to delineate, the curiofity which his reputation must excite, will require a display more ample than can now be given. His contemporaries, however they reverenced his genius, left his life unwritten; and nothing therefore can be known beyond what cafual mention and uncertain tradition have fupplied. JOHN DRYDEN was born Auguft 9th, 1631, at Aldwincle near Oun

dle, the fon of Erafmus Dryden of Tichmerfh; who was the third fon of Sir Erasmus Dryden, Baronet, of Canons Afhby. All these places are in Northamptonshire; but the original ftock of the family was in the county of Huntingdon.

He is reported by his laft biographer, Derrick, to have inherited from his father an eftate of two hundred a year, and to have been bred, as was faid, an Anabaptift. For either of these particulars no authority is given. Such a fortune ought to have fecured him from that poverty which feems always to have oppreffed him; or, if he had wasted it, to have made him afhamed of publishing his neceffities. But though he had

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