[41] “The Duke of Monmouth returned on Saturday from New-Market.  To-day I waited on him, and first presented him with your letter, which he read all over very attentively; and then prayed me to assure you, that he would, upon all occasions, be most ready to give you the marks of his affection, and assist you in any affairs you should recommend to him.  I then delivered him the six broad pieces, telling him, that I was deputed to blush on your behalf for the meanness of the present, etc.; but he took me off, and said he thanked you for it, and accepted it as a token of your kindness.  He had, before I came in, as I was told, considered what to do with the gold; and but that I by all means prevented the offer, or I had been in danger of being reimbursed with it.”—­ANDREW MARVELL’S Works, vol. i. p. 210; Letter to the Mayor of Hull.

[42] From Driden to Dryden.

[43] Shadwell makes Dryden say, that after some years spent at the university, he came to London.  “At first I struggled with a great deal of persecution, took up with a lodging which had a window no bigger than a pocket looking-glass, dined at a three-penny ordinary enough to starve a vacation tailor, kept little company, went clad in homely drugget, and drunk wine as seldom as a rechabite, or the grand seignior’s confessor.”  The old gentleman, who corresponded with the “Gentleman’s Magazine,” and remembered Dryden before the rise of his fortunes, mentions his suit of plain drugget, being, by the bye, the same garb in which he has clothed Flecnoe, who “coarsely clad in Norwich drugget came.”

[44] [Scott, by an evident slip, “Berkeley.”—­ED.]

[45] [Scott, “Cropley.”—­ED.]

[46] [This is a mistake.  See “Amboyna.”—­ED.]

[47] Davenant alleges the advantages of a respite and pause between every stanza, which should be so constructed as to comprehend a period; and adds, “nor doth alternate rhyme, by any lowliness of cadence, make the sound less heroic, but rather adapt it to a plain and stately composing of music; and the brevity of the stanza renders it less subtle to the composer, and more easy to the singer, which, in stilo recitativo, when the story is long, is chiefly requisite.”—­Preface to Gondibert.

SECTION II.

Revival of the Drama at the Restoration—­Heroic Plays—­Comedies of Intrigue—­Commencement of Dryden’s Dramatic Career—­The Wild Gallant—­ Rival Ladies—­Indian Queen and Emperor—­Dryden’s Marriage—­Essay on Dramatic Poetry, and subsequent Controversy with Sir Robert Howard—­The Maiden Queen—­The Tempest—­Sir Martin Mar-all—­The Mock Astrologer—­The Royal Martyr—­The Two Parts of the Conquest of Granada—­Dryden’s Situation at this Period.