a great want of judgment; for Smith and Jonson are men of sense, and should certainly say but little to such stuff, only enough to make Bayes show on.-The same.

Dryden was most touched with the Hind and the Panther transverst. I have heard him say, "For two young fellows that I have always been so civil to, to use an old man in so cruel a manner." And he wept as he said it.-The same.

Three of the characters in Tate's second part of Absalom and Achitophel are of Dryden's writing, and are all excellently well writ; that of Julian Johnson, under the name of Ben; Tochannan Shadwell, under the name of Og; and Settle, under that of Doeg.-Lockier.

I don't think Dryden so bad a dramatic writer as you seem to do. There are many things finely said in his plays as almost by any body. Beside his three best (All for Love, Don Sebastian, and the Spanish Fryar), there are others that are good; as Cleomenes, Sir Martin Mar-all, Limberham, and the Conquest of Mexico. His

Wild Gallant was written while he was a boy, and is very bad. All his plays are printed in the order that they were written. -Mr. Pope.

It was Charles the Second who gave Mr. Dryden the hint for writing his poem called the Medal. One day as the King was walking in the Mall, and talking with Dryden, he said, "If I was a poet (and I think I am poor enough to be one) I would write a poem on such a subject in the following manner,” and then gave him the plan for it. Dryden took the hint, carried the poem as soon as it was written to the King, and had a present of a hundred broad pieces for it. [This was said by a priest that I often met with at Mr. Pope's, who seemed to confirm it, and added, that King Charles obliged Dryden to put his Oxford speech into verse, and to insert it towards the close of his Absalom and Achitophel.]

Dryden lived in Gerrard-street, and used most commonly to write in the ground room next the street.-The same.

He had three or four sons; John, Eras

mus, Charles, and perhaps another. One of them was a priest, and another a captain in the Pope's guards. He left his family estate, which was about 120l. a year, to Charles. His historiographer and poet laureat's places were worth to him about 300l. a year.-The same.

1742. Dryden cleared every way about 12001. by his Virgil, and had sixpence each line for his Fables. For some time he wrote a play (at least) every year; but in those days ten broad pieces was the usual highest price for a play; and if they got 50l. more in the acting, it was reckoned very well. -The same.

His Virgil was one of the first books that had any thing of a subscription (and even that was a good deal on account of the prints, which were Ogilby's plates touched up); as the Tatlers were the first great subscription. The same.

It was Dryden who made Will's coffeehouse the great resort for the wits of his time. After his death, Addison transferred

it to Button's*, who had been a servant of his.-The same.

1743. I learned versification wholly from Dryden's works, who had improved it much beyond any of our former poets, and would probably have brought it to its perfection, had he not been unhappily obliged to write so often in haste.-The same.

Dryden always uses proper language, lively, natural, and fitted to the subject, it is scarce ever too high or too low; never, perhaps, except in his plays.-The same.

Addison passed each day alike, and much in the same manner as Dryden did. Dryden employed his mornings in writing, dined en famille, and then went to Will's; only he came home earlier at nights.—The

same.

Addison was so eager to be the first name, that he and his friend Sir Richard Steele used to run down Dryden's cha

* In Russell-street, Covent Garden, on the south side.

racter as far as they could. Pope and Congreve used to support it.-Tonson.

SHADWELL.

The Virtuoso of Shadwell does not maintain his character with equal strength to the end; and this was that writer's general fault. Wycherly used to say of him, that he knew how to start a fool very well, but that he was never able to run him down.— Mr. Pope.

1730. Shadwell's Squire of Alsatia took exceedingly at first, as an occasional play. It discovered the cant terms that were before not generally known, except to the cheats themselves, and was a good deal instrumental toward causing that nest of villains to be regulated by public authority. The story it was built on was a true fact.-Mr. Dennis, the Critic.

SETTLE.

Settle, in his Anti-Achitophel, was as