payment is credited to any of them. It may therefore be concluded that the story hitherto told, derived from Malone, of Dryden's having returned to Cambridge after his father's death, and having continued to reside there till the middle of 1657, is not correct. He had ceased to reside before April 1655; and if he returned to Cambridge after his father's death in June 1654, it would have been only for a very short time h. Having ceased to be a scholar of the College, he was ineligible for a fellowship, the fellows being chosen exclusively from the scholars. It has been thought surprising that he did not, when the time came`in 1657, take the degree of Master of Arts, but the smallness of his means is quite sufficient to explain why he did not do so. By the ancient statutes of the University, any one possessed of any estate, annuity, or certain income for life amounting to 261. 135. 4d. was required to pay 61. 6s. 4d. in addition to the ordinary fees for any degree; and those for the M.A. degree for one not a fellow would be as much. Dryden, with his small income of forty pounds, might naturally be unwilling to incur this expense. It is possible also that Dryden's premature departure from Cambridge without fellowship or degree may have been caused by a disagreeable incident, such as he is taunted with by Shadwell h I am indebted to Mr. W. A. Wright, the late librarian of Trinity College, for the information which has enabled me to contradict positively the old story of Dryden's continuing to reside at Cambridge till 1657. The story is Malone's, and on a careful examination of his statements I see that the only authority, if it can be so called, for Dryden's continued residence till 1657 is a description of him by Settle in a polemical pamphlet as a man of seven years' standing at Cambridge.' Malone was made aware, after the completion of his Life of Dryden, of the entry in the Conclusion Book of April 23, 1655; and he mentions this in his Additions and Emendations (Dryden's Prose Works by Malone, vol. i. part 2, p. 134). But he adds that there are instances of gownsmen residing at Cambridge after the loss of their scholarships.' In the memoir in the Globe Edition of Dryden's poems, I have given the old story of Dryden's continuing to reside till 1657 with doubt, and stated that there is no proof of its correctness. I am now able positively to contradict it. At Cambridge first your scurrilous vein began, And you had been expelled had you not fled i.' The scurrility of Shadwell is anything but perfect authority, but there must have been some foundation for the taunt of these malicious lines. A degree of Master of Arts was conferred on Dryden by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1668, on the recommendation of King Charles the Second, when he had made himself known as an author, and had acquired the King's favour by political poems and plays suited to his taste. There is no information about Dryden's life after his leaving Cambridge till he appeared as an author in London on the occasion of Oliver Cromwell's death. It has always hitherto been said that he began to reside in London about the middle of 1657; but this was probably a part of the story that he continued to reside till 1657 at Cambridge. It is not impossible that he went to London earlier than has been hitherto supposed; and it is quite possible that he may have gone there later. He was probably aided by his relative, Sir Gilbert Pickering, at the beginning of his life in London, and he may have gone to London soon after his father's death to profit by Sir Gilbert's friendship. High in Cromwell's favour, a member of his Privy Council, and Chamberlain of his household, he was in a position to render valuable assistance to his clever young cousin. Shadwell, after taunting Dryden with discreditable flight from Cambridge, next holds him up to scorn as clerk to Sir Gilbert— The next step of advancement you began, Was being clerk to Noll's Lord Chamberlain, A sequestrator and Committee man k.' It is not improbable that Sir Gilbert employed him as his secretary. i The Medal of John Bayes.' k Malone strangely thinks that the last line may apply to Dryden himself, but it is clearly intended for Sir Gilbert Pickering. b Oliver Cromwell died on the 3rd of September 1658; and Dryden, now in his twenty-seventh year, wrote a poem in honour of his memory. Since he had written the verses to John Hoddesden in 1650, being then an undergraduate at Cambridge, he had written no poetry that is known, and the 'Heroic Stanzas' to the memory of the Protector is his first poem of any importance. This poem was published with two others on the same subject by Waller and Sprat. It is written in quatrain stanzas, and is very superior to Dryden's two earlier efforts. When the 'Heroic Stanzas ' appeared, Richard Cromwell seemed to be firmly established as his father's successor, and Dryden celebrated the peaceful security which the able and vigorous government of the Protector had bequeathed to his country. No civil broils have since his death arose, But faction now by habit does obey; And wars have that respect for his repose As winds for halcyons when they breed at sea. His ashes in a peaceful urn shall rest; His name a great example stands to show This tranquillity was of short duration. On the meeting of Parliament in January 1659, it was evident that Richard Cromwell was unable to rule, and in less than eighteen months after the publication of the 'Heroic Stanzas' Charles the Second was restored. Sir Gilbert Pickering, who had been closely and conspicuously connected with both the Protectors, and who had sat as one of the judges at the trial of Charles the First, though not when sentence was given, was lucky to escape with life and with most of his property. He was made incapable of all office, and became a private and powerless man. Dryden, having lost this serviceable benefactor, and not being disposed to sacrifice all advancement to political consistency, became a warm Royalist, and now endeavoured, by zealously espousing the cause of the restored King, to blot out all recollection of his praises of the Protector. 'Astræa Redux,' a poem written in celebration of the return of the King was published before the end of the year, and was quickly followed by two other poems in like strain, a 'Panegyric' addressed to the King on his coronation, and an address to the Lord Chancellor Clarendon, on New Year's Day, 1662. These poems doubtless brought presents of money. Some complimentary verses, addressed by Dryden to Sir Robert Howard, were published in 1660, in the beginning of a volume of Howard's poems, the first of which was a panegyric on the restored King, and the last a panegyric on Monk, his chief restorer. Sir Robert Howard was a younger son of the Earl of Berkshire, who had been constant, with all his family, to the cause of royalty, and had impoverished himself in the cause. Henry Herringman was at this time the fashionable publisher, and published both for Howard and Dryden, Shadwell proceeds, in his vituperative biography, to taunt Dryden with drudgery for Herringman, and with living on Howard. 'He turned a journeyman to a bookseller," Wrote prefaces to books for meat and drink, Thou hadst plenty, ease, and liberty to write : Theatrical representations, which the austerity of the Puritans had proscribed during the Commonwealth, were now revived, and Dryden immediately turned to play-writing and made it a source of income. After the Restoration, two theatres, and only two, were licensed, one called the King's, which was under the management of Thomas Killigrew, the court wit and a dramatic writer, and the other, the Duke of York's, under the poet laureate, Sir William Davenant. Dryden's first play, 'The Wild Gallant,' was produced at the King's 1 The Medal of John Bayes.' 1 Theatre, in February 1663. It was not successful, and he attributed the failure to his boldness in beginning with comedy, which is the most difficult part of dramatic poetry.' A tragi-comedy, 'The Rival Ladies,' brought out in the same year, was better received. Pepys, who had pronounced 'The Wild Gallant' ' so poor a thing as ever he saw in his life,' thought this 'a very innocent and most pretty witty play m.' The plots of both plays are extravagantly improbable, and coarseness and indecency appear in both. But they pleased the court, perhaps rather on account of than in spite of their demerits; and even the unpopular 'Wild Gallant' was specially favoured by Lady Castlemaine, and her royal lover caused it to be several times performed at court. Dryden next assisted Sir Robert Howard in the composition of a tragedy, 'The Indian Queen,' which was acted with great success at the King's Theatre, in January 1664. Before The Indian Queen' was brought out on the stage, Howard and Dryden had become brothers-in-law. Dryden was married to Lady Elizabeth Howard on the 1st of December, 1663. This was not a happy marriage. Lady Elizabeth was a woman of violent temper, and had apparently no sympathy with her husband's literary pursuits. Dryden has been taunted by some of the virulent foes of his later life with having been hectored into this marriage by the lady's brothers in order to save her reputation; and there is reason to believe that her conduct before marriage was not irreproachable. If this were so, happiness could hardly be expected. The success of 'The Indian Queen' encouraged Dryden to bring out in the following year, 1665, a sequel, under the title of 'The Indian Emperor,' and that play was a great success and much advanced Dryden's fame. 'The Indian Emperor' was published in 1667, with a dedication to the young and beautiful Duchess of Monmouth, the 'charming Annabel' of 'Absalom and Achitophel,' who was an early patroness of Dryden, and whom in his later years he called his 'first and m Diary, February 23, 1663, and August 4, 1664. |