of praife. The difpofition of Dryden, however, is fhewn in this character rather as it exhibited itself in curfory converfation, than as it operated on the more important parts of life. His placability and his friendship indeed were folid virtues; but courtesy and good-humour are often found with little real worth. Since Congreve, who knew him well, has told us no more, the reft must be collected as it can from other teftimonies, and particularly from those notices which Dryden has very liberally given us of himself.

The modefty which made him fo flow to advance, and so easy to be repulfed, was certainly no fufpicion of deficient merit, or unconsciousness of his own value: he appears to have known, in its whole extent, the dignity of his character, and to have set a very high value on his own powers and performances. He probably did not offer his converfation, because he expected it to be folicited; and he retired from a cold reception, not fubmiffive but indignant, with fuch reverence of his own greatness as made him unwilling to expofe it to neglect or violation.

His modefty was by no means inconfiftent with oftentatioufnefs: he is diligent enough to remind the world of his merit, and expreffes with very little fcruple his high opinion of his own powers; but his felf-commendations are read without fcorn or indignation; we allow his claims, and love his frankness.

Tradition, however, has not allowed that his confidence in himself exempted him from jealousy of others. He is accused of envy and infidioufnefs; and is particularly charged with inciting Creech to tranflate Horace, that he might lose the reputation which Lucretius had given him.

Of

Of this charge we immediately discover that it is merely conjectural; the purpose was such as no man would confefs; and a crime that admits no proof, why fhould we believe?

He has been defcribed as magifterially prefiding over the younger writers, and affuming the diftribution of poetical fame; but he who excels has a right to teach, and he whofe judgement is inconteftable may without ufurpation examine and decide.

Congreve reprefents him as ready to advife and inftruct; but there is reafon to believe that his communication was rather useful than entertaining. He declares of himself that he was faturnine, and not one of those whofe fpritely fayings diverted company; and one of his cenfurers makes him fay,

Nor wine nor love could ever see me gay;

To writing bred, I knew not what to say.

There are men whofe powers operate only at leifure and in retirement, and whofe intellectual vigour deserts them in converfation; whom merriment confufes, and objection disconcerts; whofe bafhfulness restrains their exertion, and fuffers them not to fpeak till the time of speaking is paft; or whofe attention to their own character makes them unwilling to utter at hazard what has not been confidered, and cannot be recalled.

Of Dryden's fluggishness in converfation it is vain to fearch or to guefs the caufe. He certainly wanted neither sentiments nor language; his intellectual treafures were great, though they were locked up from his own ufe. His thoughts, when he wrote, flowed in upon him fo faft, that his only care which was to chufe, and which to reject. Such rapidity of compofition naturally promiles

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mifes a flow of talk, yet we must be content to believe what an enemy fays of him, when he likewife fays it of himself. But whatever was his character as a companion, it appears that he lived in familiarity with the highest persons of his time. It is related by Carte of the duke of Ormond, that he used often to pass a night with Dryden, and thofe with whom Dryden conforted: who they were, Carte has not told; but certainly the convivial table at which Ormond fat was not furrounded with a plebeian fociety. He was indeed reproached with boafting of his familiarity with the great; and Horace will fupport him in the opinion, that to please fuperiours is not the lowest kind of merit.

The merit of pleasing muft, however, be estimated by the means. Favour is not always gained by good actions or laudable qualities. Careffes and preferments are often bestowed on the auxiliaries of vice, the procurers of pleasure, or the flatterers of vanity. Dry, den has never been charged with any perfonal agency unworthy of a good character: he abetted vice and vanity only with his pen. One of his enemies has accufed him of lewdnefs in his converfation; but, if accufation without proof be credited, who fhall be innocent?

His works afford too many examples of diffolute licentioufness, and abject adulation; but they were probably, like his merriment, artificial and constrained; the effects of study and meditation, and his trade rather than his pleasure.

Of the mind that can trade in corruption, and can deliberately pollute itself with ideal wickednefs for the fake of fpreading the contagion in fociety, I wifh not to conceal or excuse the depravity. Such degradation

of

of the dignity of genius, fuch abuse of superlative abilities, cannot be contemplated but with grief and indignation. What confolation can be had, Dryden has afforded, by living to repent, and to teftify his repentance.

Of dramatick immorality he did not want examples among his predeceffors, or companions among his contemporaries; but in the meanness and fervility of hyperbolical adulation, I know not whether, fince the days in which the Roman emperors were deified, he has been ever equalled, except by Afra Behn in an addrefs to Eleanor Gwyn. When once he has undertaken the task of praife, he no longer retains fhame in himself, nor fuppofes it in his patron. As many odoriferous bodies are obferved to diffuse perfumes from year to year, without fenfible diminution of bulk or weight, he appears never to have impoverished his mint of flattery by his expences, however lavish. He had all the forms of excellence, intellectual and moral, combined in his mind, with endless variation; and when he had fcattered on the hero of the day the golden fhower of wit and virtue, he had ready for him, whom he wished to court on the morrow, new wit and virtue with another ftamp. Of this kind of meanness he never feems to decline the practice, or lament the neceffity: he confiders the great as entitled to encomiaftick homage, and brings praise rather as a tribute than a gift, more delighted with the fertility of his invention, than mortified by the proftitution of his judgement. It is indeed not certain, that on thefe occafions his judgement much rebelled against his intereft, There are minds which eafily fink into fubmiflion, that look on grandeur with undistinguishing

reverence,

reverence, and discover no defect where there is elevation of rank and affluence of riches.

With his praises of others and of himfelf is always intermingled a strain of discontent and lamentation, a fullen growl of refentment, or a querulous murmur of diftrefs. His works are under-valued, his merit is unrewarded, and he has few thanks to pay his ftars that he was born among Englishmen. To his criticks he is fometimes contemptuous, fometimes refentful, and fometimes fubmiffive: The writer who thinks his works formed for duration, mistakes his intereft when he mentions his enemies. He degrades his own dignity by fhewing that he was affected by their cenfures,. and gives lasting importance to names, which, left to themselves, would vanish from remembrance. From this principle Dryden did not oft depart; his complaints are for the greater part general; he feldom pollutes his page with an adverfe name. He condefcended indeed to a controverfy with Settle, in which he perhaps may be confidered rather as affaulting than repelling; and fince Settle is funk into oblivion, his libel remains injurious only to himself:

Among anfwers to criticks, no poetical attacks, or altercations, are to be included; they are, like other poems, effufions of genius, produced as much to obtain praise as to obviate cenfure. These Dryden practifed, and in thefe he excelled.

Of Collier, Blackmore, and Milbourne, he has made mention in the preface to his Fables. To the cenfure of Collier, whofe remarks may be rather termed admonitions than criticifins, he makes little reply; being, at the age of fixty-eight, attentive to better things than the claps of a playhoufe. He complains of ColVOL. II. lier's

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