Judge, then, if we who act, and they who write, : Knows what should justly please, and what should not. You judge, by her, what draught of her is true, As nations sued to be made free of Rome; Thebes did his green, unknowing, youth engage; During this busy period, Dryden's domestic life had been comparatively uneventful. His eldest son had been born either in 1665 or in 1666, it seems not clear which. His second son, John, was born a year or two later, and the third, Erasmus Henry, in May, 1669. These three sons were all the children Lady Elizabeth brought him. The two eldest went, like their father, to Westminster, and had their schoolboy troubles there, as letters of Dryden still extant show. During the whole period, except in his brief visits to friends and patrons in the country, he was established in the house in Gerrard Street, which is identified with his name.' While his children were young, his means must A house in Fetter Lane, now divided into two, bears a have been sufficient, and, for those days, considerable. With his patrimony included, Malone has calculated that for great part of the time his income must have been fully 7007. a year, equal in purchasing power to 20001. a year in Malone's time, and probably to nearer 30007. now. In June, 1668, the degree of Master of Arts, to which, for some reason or other, Dryden had never proceeded at Cambridge, was, at the recommendation of the king, conferred upon him by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Two years later, in the summer of 1670, he was made poet laureate and historiographer royal. Davenant, the last holder of the laureateship, had died two years previously, and Howell, the well-known author of the Epistolæ HoEliance, and the late holder of the historiographership, four years before. When the two appointments were conferred on Dryden, the salary was fixed in the patent at 2007. a year, besides the butt of sack which the economical James afterwards cut off, and arrears since Davenant's death were to be paid. In the same year, 1670 the death of his mother increased his income by the 201. a year which had been payable to him from the Northamptonshire property. From 1667, or thereabouts, Dryden had been in possession of a valuable partnership plate stating that Dryden lived there. The plate, as I was informed by the present occupiers, replaces a stone slab or inscription which was destroyed in some alterations not very many years ago. I know of no reference to this house in any book, nor does Mr. J. C. Collins, who called my attention to it. If Dryden ever lived here, it must have been between his residence with Herringman and his marriage. 2 The patent, given by Malone, is dated Aug. 18. Mr. W. Noel Sainsbury, of the Record Office, has pointed out to me a preliminary warrant to "our Attorney or Solicitor Generall" to "prepare a Bill" for the purpose dated April 13. with the players of the king's house, for whom he contracted to write three plays a year in consideration of a share and a quarter of the profits. Dryden's part of the contract was not performed, it seems, but the actors declare that at any rate for some years their part was, and that the poet's receipts averaged from 3007. to 4007. a year, besides which he had (sometimes at any rate) the third night, and (we may suppose always) the bookseller's fee for the copyright of the printed play, which together averaged 1007. a play or more. Lastly, at the extreme end of the period most probably, but certainly before 1679, the king granted him an additional pension of 1007. a year. The importance of this pension is more than merely pecuniary, for this is the grant, the confirmation of which after some delay by James, was taken by Macaulay as the wages of apostasy. The pecuniary prosperity of this time was accompanied by a corresponding abundance of the good things which generally go with wealth. Dryden was familiar with most of the literary nobles and gentlemen of Charles's court, and Dorset, Etherege, Mulgrave, Sedley, and Rochester were among his special intimates or patrons, whichever word may be preferred. The somewhat questionable boast which he made of this familiarity Nemesis was not long in punishing, and the instrument which Nemesis chose was Rochester himself. It might be said of this famous person, whom Etherege has hit off so admirably in his Dorimant, that he was, except in intellect, the worst of all the courtiers of the time, because he was one of the most radically unamiable. It was truer of him even than of Pope, that he was sure to play some monkey trick or other on those who were unfortunate enough to be his intimates. He had relations with most of the literary men of his time, but those relations almost always ended badly. Sometimes he set them at each other like dogs, or procured for one some court favour certain to annoy a rival; sometimes he satirized them coarsely in his foul-mouthed poems; sometimes, as we shall see, he forestalled the Chevalier de Rohan in his method of repartee. As early as 1675 Rochester had disobliged Dryden, though the exact amount of the injury has certainly been exaggerated by Malone, whom most biographers, except Mr. Christie, have followed. There is little doubt (though Mr. Christie thinks otherwise) that one of the chief functions of the poet laureate was to compose masques and such like pieces to be acted by the court; indeed, this appears to have been the main regular duty of the office at least in the seventeenth century. That Crowne should have been charged with the composition of Calisto was therefore a slight to Dryden. Crowne was not a bad play-wright. He might perhaps by a plagiarism from Lamb's criticism on Heywood be called a kind of prose Dryden, and a characteristic saying of Dryden's, which has been handed down, seems to show that the latter recognized the fact. But the addition to the charge against Rochester that he afterwards interfered to prevent an epilogue, which Dryden wrote for Crowne's piece, from being recited, rests upon absolutely no authority, and it is not even certain that the epilogue referred to was actually written by Dryden. In the year 1679, however, Dryden had a much more serious taste of Rochester's malevolence. He had recently become very intimate with Lord Mulgrave, who had quarrelled with Rochester. Personal courage was not Rochester's forte, and he had shown the white feather when challenged by Mulgrave. Shortly afterwards there was circulated in manuscript an Essay on Satire, containing virulent attacks on the king, on Rochester and the Duchesses of Cleveland and Portsmouth. How any one could ever have suspected that the poem was Dryden's it is difficult to understand. To begin with, he never at any time in his career lent himself as a hired literary bravo to any private person. In the second place, that he should attack the king from whom he derived the greatest part of his income, was inconceivable. Thirdly, no literary judge could for one moment connect him with the shambling doggrel lines which distinguish the Essay on Satire in its original form. A very few couplets have some faint ring of Dryden's verse, but not more than is perceivable in the work of many other poets and poetasters of the time. Lastly, Mulgrave, who, with some bad qualities, was truthful and fearless enough, expressly absolves Dryden as being not only innocent, but ignorant of the whole matter. However, Rochester chose to identify him as the author, and in letters still extant almost expressly states his belief in the fact, and threatens to "leave the repartee to Black Will with a cudgel." On the 18th December, as Dryden was going home at night, through Rose Alley, Covent Garden, he was attacked and beaten by masked men. Fifty pounds reward (deposited at what is now called Childs' Bank) was offered for the discovery of the offenders, and afterwards a pardon was promised to the actual criminals if they would divulge the name of their employer, but nothing came of it. The intelligent critics of the time affected to consider the matter a disgrace to Dryden, and few of the subsequent attacks on him fail to notice it triumphantly. How frequent those attacks soon became the next chapter will show. |