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susceptible of sentiments accommodated to familiar incidents. The complaint of life is celebrated', and there are many other passages that may be read with pleasure.

This play is addressed to the earl of Mulgrave, afterwards duke 77 of Buckingham, himself, if not a poet, yet a writer of verses, and a critick. In this address Dryden gave the first hints of his intention to write an epick poem. He mentions his design in terms so obscure that he seems afraid lest his plan should be purloined, as, he says, happened to him when he told it more plainly in his preface to Juvenal'. 'The design,' says he, 'you know is great, the story English, and neither too near the present times, nor too distant from them 3.'

All for Love, or the World well lost, a tragedy founded upon 78 the story of Antony and Cleopatra, he tells us, 'is the only play which he wrote for himself'; the rest were 'given to the people 5. It is by universal consent accounted the work in which he has admitted the fewest improprieties of style or character; but it has one fault equal to many, though rather moral than critical, that by admitting the romantick omnipotence of Love, he has recommended as laudable and worthy of imitation that conduct which through all ages the good have censured as vicious, and the bad despised as foolish'.

1 Works, v. 258. It is quoted in Boswell's Johnson, iv. 303. See also ib. ii. 125. Macaulay, after quoting from Clarinda's Journal in The Spectator, No. 323, how 'Kitty repeated the eight best lines in Aurengzebe, continues:-'There are not eight finer lines in Lucretius.' Hist. of Eng. vi. 135 n.

2 Post, DRYDEN, 140, 145.

3 The subject of which you know is great, the story English, and neither too far distant from the present age, nor too near approaching it.' Works, v. 196.

4 Ib. v. 303. It was probably first acted in the early winter of 1677-8, as it was registered at Stationers' Hall on Jan. 31, 1677-8. It was printed in 1678. Malone's Dryden, ì. 116.

Dryden says of The Spanish Friar:-"The faults of that drama are in the kind of it, which is tragicomedy. But it was given to the

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Of this play the prologue and the epilogue, though written upon the common fopicks of malicious and ignorant criticism, and without any particular relation to the characters or incidents of the drama, are deservedly celebrated for their elegance and spriteliness.

Limberham, or the kind Keeper', is a comedy, which after the third night was prohibited as too indecent for the stage. What gave offence was in the printing, as the author says, altered or omitted. Dryden confesses that its indecency was objected to; but Langbaine, who yet seldom favours him, imputes its expulsion to resentment, because it'so much exposed the keeping part of the town 2.'

81 Oedipus3 is a tragedy formed by Dryden and Lee in conjunction from the works of Sophocles, Seneca, and Corneille. Dryden planned the scenes, and composed the first and third acts 3. Don Sebastian is commonly esteemed either the first or second of his dramatick performances". It is too long to be all acted',

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Whole troops of lovers' ghosts shall flock about us,

And all the train be ours.'

Works, v. 432.

• Printed in 1678. Malone's Dryden, i. 116. On the title-page the date is 1680.

2 Dram. Poets, p. 164. Dryden writes in the Dedication :-'It was intended for an honest satire against our crying sin of keeping; how it would have succeeded I can but guess, for it was permitted to be acted only thrice.' Works, vi. 9.

Malone had seen a MS. copy of the play, found by Bolingbroke among the sweepings of Pope's study, in which a pen had been drawn through several exceptionable passages that do not appear in the printed play.' Malone's Dryden, i. 118. See also Prior's Malone, p. 255.

Johnson in his Dictionary gives neither keep nor keeper in the sense in which they are used here.

3 Works, vi. 121. Printed in 1679. Malone's Dryden, i. 118.

Works, vi. 131. For Lee see ante, DRYDEN, 68.

5 I writ the first and third acts, and drew the scenery of the whole play.' Works, vii. 203. Johnson defines scenery, as here used, as 'the

disposition and consecution of the scenes of a play.'

'It took prodigiously, being acted ten nights together.' Roscius Angli canus, p. 47. The Company of the King's Playhouse, in the document quoted post, DRYDEN, 91 n., complain that Dryden, with Lee, 'has given Oedipus to the Duke's Company, contrary to his agreement, to the almost undoing of the Company, this being the only Poet remaining to us.'

Addison, in The Spectator, No. 40, referring to Oedipus, 'shows how a rant pleases beyond the most just and natural thought that is not pronounced with vehemence.'

See John. Misc. ii. 62 for Cradock's revision of this play; also post, AKENSIDE, 24 n.

• Works, vii. 285. It was first acted and printed in 1690. Malone's Dryden, i. 211, 218. 'It was, as I have heard, acted with great applause.' LANGBAINE, Dram. Poets, p. 161. Pope reckoned it, All for Love, and The Spanish Friar as the best of Dryden's plays. Spence's Anec. p. 171. Dryden says in the Preface:'The first day's audience convinced me that the poem was insupportably too long.... Above 1,200 lines have been cut off from it since it was first

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and has many characters and many incidents; and though it is not without sallies of frantick dignity, and more noise than meaning, yet as it makes approaches to the possibilities of real life, and has some sentiments which leave a strong impression', it continued long to attract attention. Amidst the distresses of princes and the vicissitudes of empire are inserted several scenes which the writer intended for comick; but which, I suppose, that age did not much commend, and this would not endure. There are, however, passages of excellence universally acknowledged; the dispute and the reconciliation of Dorax and Sebastian has always been admired 2.

This play was first acted in 1690, after Dryden had for some years discontinued dramatick poetry 3.

Amphitryon is a comedy derived from Plautus and Molière *. 83 The dedication is dated Oct. 1690. This play seems to have succeeded at its first appearance; and was, I think, long considered as a very diverting entertainment.

Cleomeness is a tragedy, only remarkable as it occasioned an 84 incident related in The Guardian, and allusively mentioned by

delivered to the actors.' When printed the lines were restored. Works, vii. 306-8.

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Addison, criticizing this play, continues:- Dryden, indeed, generally wrong in his sentiments.' The Guardian, No. 110.

2 Dorax or Alonzo was a Portuguese renegade. The beginning of this passage is somewhat comical:'SEBASTIAN (solus). Reserved behaviour, open nobleness,

A long mysterious track of a stern bounty;

But now the hand of fate is on the
curtain,

And draws the scene to sight.
Re-enter Dorax, having taken off
his turban, and put on a peruke,
hat, and cravat.

DORAX. Now do you know me?
SEBASTIAN. Thou should'st be
Alonzo.' Works, vii. 433.

See The Rambler, No. 125, for Dryden's improprieties' in this play and Aurengzebe.

3 Post, DRYDEN, 139.

Works, viii. 1. First acted in 1690. Malone's Dryden, i. 212, 219. Cibber describes 'the cold, flat, and unaffect

ing manner' in which Dryden 'gave his first reading of this play to the actors.' Apology, p. 71.

5 Works, viii. 203. First acted in May, 1692, and printed in that year. Southerne (post, DRYDEN, 90) wrote the same year that Mr. Dryden, falling sick last summer, bequeathed to my care the last act.' Malone's Dryden, i.212,219. Malone publishes the following receipt:

'Oct. ye 6th, 1691. Receiv'd the sum of Thirty Guinneys, for which I resigne to Mr. Tonson all my right in the printing ye copy of Cleomenes, a tragedy.

Witnesse

Witnesse my hand,
John Dryden.

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Dryden in his preface 1. As he came out from the representation, he was accosted thus by some airy stripling: 'Had I been left alone with a young beauty, I would not have spent my time like your Spartan.' 'That, Sir,' said Dryden, 'perhaps is true; but give me leave to tell you, that you are no hero.'

85 King Arthur is another opera. It was the last work that Dryden performed for King Charles 2, who did not live to see it exhibited; and it does not seem to have been ever brought upon the stage3. In the dedication to the marquis of Halifax there is a very elegant character of Charles, and a pleasing account of his latter life. When this was first brought upon the stage, news that the duke of Monmouth had landed was told in the theatre,

'He mentions that 'foolish objection which is raised against me by the sparks, for Cleomenes not accepting the favours of Cassandra. They would not have refused a fair lady! I grant they would not; but let them grant me that they are not heroes; and so much for the point of honour.' Works, viii. 221. For the scene see ib. p. 324. In The Guardian, No. 45, by Steele, this remark assumes a more lively air by being converted into an extempore saying. . . . “I can only answer, as I remember Mr. Dryden did," &c. . . . The tale most probably was formed on the passage in the Preface.' Malone's Dryden, ii. 229.

This poem was the last piece of service which I had the honour to do for my gracious master, King Charles II. Works, viii. 129. For Dryden's complaint of the king's neglect see post, DRYDEN, 144 n.

It was first

3 This is a mistake. acted and printed in 1691. Malone's Dryden, i. 212,219; Works, viii. 123. According to Roscius Anglicanus, p. 57, 'it was very gainful to the Company.' Cibber says that,' though the success in appearance was very great,' the expenses were still greater. Apology, p. 110.

Collier describes it as 'a strange jumble and hotch potch of matters ... the Hell of Heathenism and the Hell of Revelation; a fit of smut, and then a jest about original sin.' A Short View of the English Stage, 3rd ed. 1698, p. 188.

'Dec. 25, 1770. I went to King Arthur, and was tired to death, both of the nonsense of the piece and the execrable performance.' HORACE WALPOLE, Letters, v. 272.

'It was set to music by Purcell, and is yet [1787] a favourite entertainment.' HAWKINS, Johnson's Works, 1787, ii. 339. It was revived in 1842-3. Macready's Reminiscences, ii. 208.

E. FitzGerald wrote in 1851 :'I am just now looking with great delight into Purcell's King Arthur, real noble English music, much of it; and assuredly the prototype of much of Handel.' Letters, i. 270.

Let his human frailties be forgotten, and his clemency and moderation (the inherent virtues of his family) be remembered with a grateful veneration. . . . He was master of too much good sense to delight in heavy conversation, and whatever his favourites of state might be, yet those of his affection were men of wit. He was easy with these, and complied only with the former. But in the latter part of his life, which certainly required to be most cautiously managed, his secret thoughts were communicated but to few; and those selected of that sort who were Amici omnium horarum, able to advise him in a serious consult, and afterwards capable of entertaining him with pleasant discourse as well as profitable Works, viii. 131-3. See also Boswell's Johnson, i. 442; ii. 341.

upon which the company departed, and Arthur was exhibited

no more 1.

His last drama was Love triumphant, a tragi-comedy. In 86 his dedication to the Earl of Salisbury he mentions 'the lowness of fortune to which he has voluntarily reduced himself, and of which he has no reason to be ashamed 3.'

This play appeared in 1694. It is said to have been unsuccessful. The catastrophe, proceeding merely from a change of mind, is confessed by the author to be defective 5. Thus he began and ended his dramatick labours with ill success.

From such a number of theatrical pieces it will be supposed 87 by most readers that he must have improved his fortune; at least, that such diligence with such abilities must have set penury at defiance. But in Dryden's time the drama was very far from that universal approbation which it has now obtained. The playhouse was abhorred by the Puritans, and avoided by those who desired the character of seriousness or decency. A grave lawyer would have debased his dignity, and a young trader would have impaired his credit, by appearing in those mansions of dissolute licentiousness'. The profits of the theatre when so many classes of the people were deducted from the audience were not great, and the poet had for a long time but a single night. The first that had two nights was Southern, and the

'This sentence was added to the second edition in forgetfulness of the statement that this opera was never brought upon the stage. The piece interrupted by Monmouth's landing was Albion and Albanius, ante, DRYDEN, 70.

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Works, viii. 365. First acted about Dec. 1693, and printed in 1694. Malone's Dryden, i. 214, 219. As a second title Dryden had thought of Neither Side to Blame. Works, xviii.

189.
Ib. viii. 373. See post, DRYDEN,
136, for his loss of the laureate-
ship.

Malone (i. 217) quotes from a Letter from a Gentleman in London to a Friend in the Country, March 22, 1693-4:-'It was damned by the universal cry of the town, nemine contradicente, but the conceited poet.'

5 'Aristotle, I acknowledge, has declared that the catastrophe which is

made from the change of will is not of the first order of beauty.' Works, viii. 374.

• Ante, DRYDEN, 14.

''The play-houses in so dissolute a time were become nests of prostitution, and the stage was defiled beyond all example; Dryden, the great master of dramatic poesy, being a monster of immodesty and of impurity of all sorts.' BURNET, History, i. 300. See post, DRYDEN, 124, 175; CONGREVE, 18.

8 'In the dedication of Sir Antony Love in 1691 Southern speaks of his being interested in the third and sixth representation.' Malone's Dryden, i. 454. For Southerne see post, DRYDEN, 90; FENTON, II.

In the document signed by the players (post, DRYDEN, 91 m.) it is stated that 'the Company did also at Mr.Dryden's earnest request give him a third day for his last new play called

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