But these dramatic innovations were sure not to pass without protest, though the protest came from a quarter where it might least have been expected.  Sir Robert Howard was the sixth son of Thomas, first Earl of Berkshire.  He had distinguished himself on the Royalist side in the Civil War, and had paid the penalty for his loyalty by an imprisonment in Windsor Castle during the Commonwealth.  At the Restoration he had been made an Auditor of the Exchequer.  Dryden seems to have made his acquaintance shortly after arriving in London.  In 1660 Howard published a collection of poems and translations, to which Dryden prefixed an address ‘to his honoured friend’ on ‘his excellent poems.’  Howard’s rank and position made him a useful friend to Dryden, and Dryden in his turn was no doubt of much service to Howard.  Howard introduced him to his family, and in December 1663 Dryden married his friend’s eldest sister, the Lady Elizabeth Howard.  In the following year Dryden assisted his brother-in-law in the composition of the Indian Queen.  There had probably been some misunderstanding or dispute about the extent of the assistance which Dryden had given, which accounts for what follows.  In any case Howard published in 1665, professedly under pressure from Herringman, four plays, two comedies, The Surprisal and The Committee, and two tragedies, the Vestal Virgin and Indian Queen; and to the volume he prefixed the preface, which is here reprinted.  It will be seen that though he makes no reference to Dryden, he combats all the doctrines laid down in the preface to the Rival Ladies.  He exalts the English drama above the French, the Italian, and the Spanish; and vindicates blank verse against rhymed, making, however, a flattering exception of Orrery’s dramas.  If Dryden was not pleased, he appears to have had the grace to conceal his displeasure.  For he passed the greater part of 1666 at his father-in-law’s house, and dedicated to Howard his Annus Mirabilis.  But Howard was to have his answer.  In the Essay of Dramatic Poesy he is introduced in the person of Crites, and in his mouth are placed all the arguments advanced in the Preface that they may be duly refuted and demolished by Dryden in the person of Neander.  At this mode of retorting Howard became really angry; and in the Preface to the Duke of Lerma, published in the middle of 1668, he replied in a tone so contemptuous and insolent that Dryden, in turn, completely lost his temper.  The sting of Howard’s Preface lies, it will be seen, in his affecting the air of a person to whom as a statesman and public man the points in dispute are mere trifles, hardly worth consideration, and in the patronising condescension with which he descends to a discussion with one to whom as a mere litterateur such trifles are of importance.  The Defence of the Essay of Dramatic Poesy Dryden prefixed to the second edition of the Indian