JOHN DRYDEN. (1670-1688.) "Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to join A. POPE. JOHN DRYDEN, who holds the first place in the second rank of our classical poets, was certainly one of the greatest satirists in the language, and the first poet who joined argument with verse-a style of composition which Pope successfully imitated. Living in the stormy days which preceded and followed the Restoration, the revolution which Dryden effected in English literature and taste may be fitly compared to the changes through which our country passed, to emerge, at length, free from the baneful influence and vicious examples of the Stuarts, and richer, purer, and greater for the trials it had endured. "What was said of Rome," remarks Dr. Johnson, "adorned by Augustus, may be applied by an easy metaphor to English poetry, embellished by Dryden. 'He found it brick, and he left it marble.'" His writings constitute the last of the so-called romantic school of poetry, and the first of the didactic and reasoning style which his pupil and admirer, Pope, brought to the height G of polish and refinement. The strength of intellect and power of language-which Dryden possessed to a far greater extent than Pope--is shown as strongly by his prose-writings as by his poetry. The former consist principally of essays on poetry, and criticism in the form of prefaces, and are characterised by the purity of his English, the fitness of every word he uses to its position, and the originality of his style. He has little or no sentiment, and more humour than wit. His poetry is argumentative or political, seldom fanciful or gay; and scarcely a tender or pathetic passage is to be found in all his poems. His plays (now never performed) are probably but seldom read; yet it must not be forgotten that by his contemporaries they were much admired, and brought him more profit and fame than all his poetry. A new tragedy by Dryden at the King's Theatre was the greatest of all attractions, and king, court, town, and the wits, all flocked to the first day's performance, as we may see by reference to Pepys' chatty "Diary." In comedy he may be said to have failed; he had not the sparkling wit, the power of repartee, or the graceful epigrammatic turn of expression the audiences of those days looked for in comedy, and which they found in the masterpieces of Congreve, Etherege, and Wycherley. John Dryden was born on the 9th of August, 1631, in the parsonage of the small parish of Aldwincle All Saints, in Northamptonshire. He came of a good family, and this fact, which one would suppose to be of little interest to the general reader, is elaborately detailed in most biographies, with long genealogical notes. Not only is this the case with Dryden, but of every other poet in whose behalf a claim for gentle blood can be put in; as though the name of a Dryden or a Spenser could derive any further lustre from the accident of birth. There were various ways of spelling the family name, Dreydon and Dreyden had been in use, but Driden was the most usual form, and the poet adopted that orthography on the occasion of his marriage; but at all other times he spelt his name—Dryden. He was first sent to study at Westminster School, where he formed a lasting friendship with the celebrated and severe Dr. Busby. In May, 1650, Dryden was elected to a scholarship in Trinity College, Cambridge, and took the degree of Bachelor of Arts in January, 1654. Many years afterwards his rival, Shadwell, accused him of having been nearly expelled— "At Cambridge first your scurrilous vein began, Who, for that crime, rebuked you on the head; THE MEDAL OF JOHN BAYES. But the incident to which these lines refer occurred in 1652, several years before Dryden left the college, and the punishment of being "put out of commons for a fortnight," which is recorded against his name, shows that his crime was not considered a very heinous one. A few months after he had taken his degree, his father died, leaving a small estate of the annual value of sixty pounds, of which two-thirds came to John Dryden, the remaining third going to his mother, with reversion to him at her death. Although this income of forty pounds a year was equivalent to about three times the same nominal value in the present day, it was barely sufficient to keep Dryden at college; and the narrowness of his means is the reason usually assigned for his not taking the degree of Master of Arts, the fees of which dignity were very heavy. The degree was, however, afterwards conferred upon him by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Before he finally quitted Cambridge, he suffered a misfortune which no doubt threw a shade over his future career, and tended to force him into the dissipated, reckless life he afterwards led. His cousin, Honor Driden, daughter of Sir John Driden, was young, beautiful, and an heiress, the poet endeavoured to win her affections, but without success, and the lady died unmarried. Having resided seven years in Cambridge (which town he very much disliked) he removed to London in the summer of 1657, and was employed in some literary capacity (probably as secretary) by his relative, Sir Gilbert Pickering, one of the most rigid of Puritans, a member of the Protector's Council, and a man of such hasty temper, that he was known as "the Fiery Pickering." "The next step of advancement you began Was being clerk to Noll's lord chamberlain." Thus from personal interest, as well as from family ties, Dryden became attached to the Protector's cause, for besides Sir Gilbert Pickering, who held offices under Cromwell, both Dryden's father, and his uncle, Sir John, had displayed great zeal for the Puritan party. The Protector's death in 1658, whilst it destroyed the power of the great party to which Dryden had attached himself, gave him the subject for his first poem of any pretension, although he had at the age of seventeen written an elegy upon the death of his schoolfellow, Lord Hastings, which, overladen as it is with classical and pedantic allusions, has yet some fine lines. The verses upon the death of Cromwell, however, quickly attracted attention, and they certainly contain indications of his powers of thought and versification; some critics at once pronounced them superior to Waller's poem on the same. subject, and most people were of opinion that Sprat's verses were far inferior to Dryden's. HEROIC STANZAS, consecrated to the glorious memory of his Most Serene and Renowned Highness, OLIVER, late Lord Protector of this Commonwealth, &c." The following verses are the most remarkable for their panegyrics upon Cromwell: "His grandeur he derived from heaven alone; For he was great, ere fortune made him so ; Made him but greater seem, not greater grow. * "Such was our Prince; yet owned a soul above Whilst the deep secrets beyond practice go. But when fresh laurels courted him to live: "His ashes in a peaceful urn shall rest; His name a great example stands, to show In the last verse the poet was singularly unfortunate in his predictions, for within a few months the Royalists returned, and vented a cowardly and malignant spite on Cromwell, by the exposure of his body upon Tyburn |