Ev'n Finch and Mulgrave, whom the court caress,
Exalt its praises, but its power depress;
And, that impartial justice may be seen,

Burnet declares how French dragooning rose,
And bishops persecuting bills oppose :
Till Rochester's' cool temper shall be fir'd,
And North's and Nottingham's strong reasonings be Confirm to friends what they refus'd the queen.
admir'd.

But when due time their counsels shall mature,
And fresh removes have made the game secure;
When Somerset and Devonshire give place

To Windham's Bradford, and to Richmond's grace,
Both converts great; when justice is refin'd,
And corporations garbled to their mind;
Then passive doctrines shall with glory rise,
Before them hated moderation flies,
And anti-christian toleration dies.
Granville shall seize the long-expected chair,
Godolphin to some country seat repair;
Pembroke from all employments be debarr'd,
And Marlborough, for ancient crimes, receive his
just reward.
[gun,
France, that this happy change so wisely has be-
Shall bless the great design, and bid it smoothly run.
Come on, young James's friends, this is the time,

come on;

Receive just honours, and surround the throne.
Boldly your loyal principles maintain,
Hedges now rules the state, and Rooke the main.
Grimes is at hand the members to reward,
And troops are trusted to your own Gerhard.
The faithful club assembles at the Vine,

And French intrigues are broach'd o'er English wine.
Freely the senate the design proclaims,
Affronting William, and applauding James.
Good ancient members, with a solemn face,
Propose that safety give to order place;
And what they dare not openly dissuade,
Is by expedients ineffectual made.

• Bishop Sprat.

Bishops, who most advanc'd good James's cause
In church and state, now reap deserv'd applause:
While those, who rather made the Tower their choice,
Are styl'd unchristian by the nation's voice.
Avow'dly now St. David's cause they own,
And James's votes for simony atone.

Archbishop Kenn shall from Long-Leat be drawn,
While firm nonjurors from behind stand crowding
for the lawn.

And thou, great Weymouth, to reward thy charge,
Shalt sail to Lambeth in his grace's barge.

See by base rebels James the Just be ray'd,
See his three realms by vile usurpers sway'd;
Then see with joy his lawful heir restor❜d,
And erring nations own their injur'd lord.

O would kind Heaven so long my life maintain,
Inspiring raptures worthy such a reign!
Not Thracian Saint John should with me contend,
Nor my sweet lays harmonious Hammond's mend:
Not though young D'Avenant, Saint John should

ت

THE

POEMS

OF

JOHN DRYDEN.

THE

LIFE OF DRYDEN,

BY DR. JOHNSON.

Of the great poet whose life I am about to delineate, the curiosity 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 casual mention and uncertain tradition have supplied.

JOHN DRYDEN was born August 9, 1631', at Aldwinkle near Oundle, the son of Erasmus Dryden of Titchmersh; who was the third son of sir Erasmus Dryden, baronet, of Canons Ashby. All these places are in Northamptonshire; but the original stock of the family was in the county of Huntingdon'.

He is reported by his last biographer, Derrick, to have inherited from his father an estate of two hundred a year, and to have been bred, as was said, an anabaptist. For either of these particulars no authority is given. Such a fortune ought to have secured him from that poverty which seems always to have oppressed him; or, if he had wasted it, to have made him ashamed of publishing his necessities. But though he had many enemies, who undoubtedly examined his life with a scrutiny sufficiently malicious, I do not remember, that he is ever charged with waste of his patrimony. He was indeed sometimes reproached for his first religion. I am therefore inclined to believe, that Derrick's intelligence was partly true, and partly erroneous'.

From Westminster school, where he was instructed as one of the king's scholars by Dr. Busby, whom he long after continued to reverence, he was in 1650 elected to one of the Westminster scholarships at Cambridge*.

' Mr. Malone has lately proved, that there is no satisfactory evidence for this date. The inscription on Dryden's monument says only natus 1632. See Malone's Life of Dryden, prefixed to his Critical and Miscellaneous Prose Works, p. 5, note. C.

2 Of Cumberland. Ibid. p. 10. C.

3 Mr. Derrick's Life of Dryden was prefixed to a very beautiful and correct edition of Dryden's Miscellanies, published by the Tonsons in 1760, 4 vols. 8vo. Derrick's part, however, was poorly executed, and the edition never became popular. C.

4 He went off to Trinity College, and was admitted to a bachelor's degree in January 1653-4, and in 1657 was made master of arts. C.