The theatre again became Dryden’s immediate resource.  Indeed, the very first play Queen Mary attended was one of our poet’s, which had been prohibited during the reign of James II.  But the revival of the “Spanish Friar” could afford but little gratification to the author, whose newly-adopted religion is so severely satirised in the person of Father Dominic.  Nor was this ill-fated representation doomed to afford more pleasure to the personage by whom it was appointed.  For the audience applied the numerous passages, concerning the deposing the old king and planting a female usurper on the throne, to the memorable change which had just taken place; and all eyes were fixed upon Queen Mary, with an expression which threw her into extreme confusion.[35]

Dryden, after the Revolution, began to lay the foundation for a new structure of fame and popularity in the tragedy of “Don Sebastian.”  This tragedy, which has been justly regarded as the chef-d’oeuvre of his plays, was not, he has informed us, “huddled up in haste.”  The author knew the circumstances in which he stood, while, as he expresses it, his ungenerous enemies were taking advantage of the times to ruin his reputation; and was conscious, that the full exertion of his genius was necessary to secure a favourable reception from an audience prepossessed against him and his tenets.  Nor did he neglect to smooth the way, by inscribing the piece to the Earl of Leicester, brother of Algernon Sidney, who had borne arms against Charles in the civil war; and yet, Whig or republican as he was, had taste and feeling enough to patronise the degraded laureate and proscribed Catholic.  The dedication turns upon the philosophical and moderate use of political victory, the liberality of considering the friend rather than the cause, the dignity of forgiving and relieving the fallen adversary; themes, upon which the eloquence of the suffering party is usually unbounded although sometimes forgotten when they come again into power.  With all this deprecatory reasoning, Dryden does not recede, or hint at receding, one inch from his principles, but concludes his preface with a resolution to adopt the counsel of the classic: 

  “Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito.”

The merits of this beautiful tragedy I have attempted to analyse in another place,[36] and at considerable length.  It was brought forward in 1690 with great theatrical pomp.[37] But with all these advantages, the first reception of “Don Sebastian” was but cool; nor was it until several retrenchments and alterations had been made, that it rose to the high pitch in public favour which it maintained for many years, and deserved to maintain for ever.