For women, born to be control'd, While her high pride does scarce descend All this with indignation spoke, So the tall stag, upon the brink OF THE MARRIAGE OF THE DWARFS DESIGN OF Chance make others wive, To him, for whom Heav'n seem'd to frame, Thrice happy is that humble pair, As if the world held none but them. To him the fairest nymphs do show Ah! Chloris! that kind Nature thus A PANEGYRIC TO MY LORD PROTECTOR, Of the Present Greatness, and Joint Interest, of his WHILE with a strong, and yet a gentle, hand, Let partial spirits still aloud complain, Above the waves as Neptune show'd his face, Your drooping country, torn with civil hate, Restor'd by you, is made a glorious state; The seat of empire, where the Irish come, And the unwilling Scots, to fetch their doom. The sea's our own: and now, all nations greet, Heaven (that hath plac'd this island to give law, Whether this portion of the world were rent, Hither th' oppress'd shall henceforth resort, Fame, swifter than your winged navy, flies With such a chief the meanest nation blest, Lords of the world's great waste, the ocean, we Angels and we have this prerogative, Our little world, the image of the great, As Egypt does not on the clouds rely, The taste of hot Arabia's spice we know, Free from the scorching sun that makes it grow: To dig for wealth, we weary not our limbs; Things of the noblest kind our own soil breeds; Here the third Edward, and the Black Prince too, When for more worlds the Macedonian cry'd, He safely might old troops to battle lead, A race unconquer'd, by their clime made bold, Whom the old Roman wall, so ill confin'd, They, that henceforth must be content to know Prefer'd by conquest, happily o'erthrown, Like favour find the Irish, with like fate Holland, to gain your friendship, is content In our late fight, when cannons did diffuse, Your never-failing sword made war to cease, And now you heal us with the acts of peace; Our minds with bounty and with awe engage, Invite affection, and restrain our rage. Less pleasure take brave minds in battles won, To pardon, willing, and to punish, loth, When Fate or errour had our age misled, One! whose extraction from an ancient line Oft have we wonder'd, how you hid in peace Your private life did a just pattern give, So, when a lion shakes his dreadful mane, As the vex'd world, to find repose, at last Then let the Muses, with such notes as these, Tell of towns storm'd, of armies over-run, Illustrious acts high raptures do infuse, To crown your head, while you in triumph ride O'er vanquish'd nations, and the sea beside; While all your neighhour princes unto you, Like Joseph's sheaves, pay reverence and bow. Verse, thus design'd, has no ill fate, Of fading beauty, if it prove THE STORY OF PHOEBUS AND DAPHNE APPLIED. THYRSIS, a youth of the inspired train, Or form some image of his cruel fair. Beauty like a shadow flies, Or, would youth and beauty stay, Phyllis! to this truth we owe For the joys we now may prove, ON A GIRDLE. THAT, which her slender waist confin'd, Shall now my joyful temples bind : No monarch but would give his crown, His arms might do what this has done. It was my Heaven's extremest sphere, The pale which held that lovely deer : My joy, my grief, my hope, my love, Did all within this circle move! A narrow compass! and yet there TO ZELINDA. FAIREST piece of well-form'd earth! Nor all appear, among those few, In trees, through all the boughs is spread: 'Tis art, and knowledge, which draw forth A pedigree, which reach'd to heaven : TO A LADY SINGING A-SONG OF HIS COMPOSING. CHLORIS, yourself you so excel, When you vouchsafe to breathe my thought, That, like a spirit, with this spell Of my own teaching, I am caught. That eagle's fate and mine are one, Wherewith he wont to soar so high. Had Echo with so sweet a grace JOHN DRYDEN. The tragedies composed by Dryden were written in his earlier periods, in rhyme, which circumstance probably contributed to the poetical rant by which they were too much characterised. For the correction of this fault, Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, in conjunction with other wits, wrote the celebrated burlesque drama, entitled "The Rehearsal," of which Dryden, under the name of Bayes, was made the hero; and, in order to point the ridicule, his dress, phraseology, and mode of recitation, were exactly imitated by the actor. It does not, however, appear that his solid reputation as a poet was injured by this attack. He had the candour to acknowledge that several of the strokes were just, and he wisely refrained from making any direct reply. JOHN OHN DRYDEN was born, probably in 1631, in post of poet-laureat, to which was added the sinethe parish of Aldwincle-Allsaints, in Northamp-cure place of historiographer royal; the joint salatonshire. His father possessed a small estate, ries of which amounted to 2001. acted as a justice of the peace during the usurpation, and seems to have been a presbyterian. John, at a proper age, was sent to Westminster school, of which Busby was then master; and was thence elected to a scholarship in Trinity college, Cambridge. He took his degrees of bachelor and master of arts in the university; but though he had written two short copies of verses about the time of his admission, his name does not occur among the academical poets of this period. By his father's death, in 1654, he succeeded to the estate, and, removing to the metropolis, he made his entrance into public life, under the auspices of his kinsman, Sir Gilbert Pickering, one of Cromwell's council and house of lords, and staunch to the principles then predominant. On the death of Cromwell, Dryden wrote some "Heroic Stanzas," strongly marked by the loftiness of expression and variety of imagery which characterised his more mature efforts. They were, however, criticised with some severity. Its In 1681, and, as it is asserted, at the king's express desire, he wrote his famous political poem, entitled "Absolom and Achitophel;" in which the incidents in the life of David were adapted to those of Charles II. in relation to the Duke of At the Restoration, Dryden lost no time in Monmouth and the Earl of Shaftesbury. obliterating former stains; and, as far as it was poetry and its severity caused it to be read with great possible, rendered himself peculiarly distinguished eagerness; and as it raised the author to high fafor the base servility of his strains. He greeted the vour with the court party, so it involved him in irking's return by a poem, entitled "Astraa Redux," reconcilable enmity with its opponents. These which was followed by "A Panegyric on the feelings were rendered more acute by his "Medal, Coronation:" nor did Lord Chancellor Clarendon a Satire on Sedition," written in the same year, on escape his encomiastic lines. His marriage with occasion of a medal struck by the whigs, when a Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Earl of grand jury returned Ignoramus to an indictment Berkshire, is supposed to have taken place in 1665. preferred against Lord Shaftesbury, for high treaAbout this time he first appears as a writer for the The rancour of this piece is not easily to be stage, in which quality he composed several pieces; paralleled among party poems. In 1682, he puband though he did not display himself as a prime lished "Mac-Flecknoe," a short piece, throwing favourite of the dramatic muse, his facility of har- ridicule upon his very unequal rival, Shadwell. monious versification, and his splendour of poetic In the same year, one of his most serious poems, diction, gained him admirers. In 1667 he pub- the " Religio Laici," made its appearance. lished a singular poem, entitled "Annus Mira-purpose was to give a compendious view of the arbilis," the subjects of which were, the naval war guments for revealed religion, and to ascertain in with the Dutch, and the fire of London. It was what the authority of revelation essentially consists. written in four-line stanzas, a form which has since gone into disuse in heroic subjects; but the piece abounded in images of genuine poetry, though intermixed with many extravagances. At this period of his life Dryden became professionally a writer for the stage, having entered into a contract with the patentees of the King's Theatre, to supply them with three plays in a year, upon the condition of being allowed the profit of one share and a quarter out of twelve shares and three quarters, into which the theatrical stock was divided. Of the plays written upon the above contract, a small proportion have kept their place on the stage, or in the closet. On the death of Sir W. Davenant, in 1668, Dryden obtained the son. Its Soon after this time he ceased to write for the stage. His dramatic vein was probably exhausted, and his circumstances were distressed. To this period Mr. Malone refers a letter written by him to Hyde, Earl of Rochester, in which, with modest dignity, he pleads merit enough not to deserve to starve, and requests some small employment in the customs or excise, or, at least, the payment of half a year's pension for the supply of his present necessities. He never obtained any of the requested places, and was doomed to find the booksellers his best patrons. Charles II. died in 1685, and was succeeded by his brother James II., who openly declared his attachment to the religion of Rome. It was not long |