so sketched.  In mixing his tints, Dryden did not omit that peculiar colouring, in which his age delighted.  Miranda’s simplicity is converted into indelicacy, and Dorinda talks the language of prostitution before she has ever seen a man.  But the play seems to have succeeded to the utmost wish of the authors.  It was brought out in the Duke’s house, of which Davenant was manager, with all the splendour of scenic decoration, of which he was inventor.  The opening scene is described as being particularly splendid, and the performance of the spirits, “with mops and mows,” excited general applause.  Davenant died before the publication of this piece, and his memory is celebrated in the preface.

Our author’s next play, if it could be properly called his, was “Sir Martin Mar-all.”  This was originally a translation of “L’Etourdi” of Moliere, executed by the Duke of Newcastle, famous for his loyalty, and his skill of horsemanship.  Dryden availed himself of the noble translator’s permission to improve and bring “Sir Martin Mar-all” forward for his own benefit.  It was attended with the most complete success, being played four times at court, and above thirty times at the theatre in Lincoln’s-Inn Fields; a run chiefly attributed to the excellent performance of Nokes, who represented Sir Martin.[27] The “Tempest” and “Sir Martin Mar-all” were both acted by the Duke’s Company, probably because Dryden was in the one assisted by Sir William Davenant the manager, and because the other was entered in the name of the Duke of Newcastle.  Of these two plays, “Sir Martin Mar-all” was printed anonymously in 1668.  It did not appear with Dryden’s name until 1697.  The “Tempest,” though acted before “Sir Martin Mar-all,” was not printed until 1669-70.  They are in the present, as in former editions, arranged according to the date of publication, which gives the precedence to “Sir Martin Mar-all,” though last acted.

The “Evening’s Love, or the Mock Astrologer,” was Dryden’s next composition.  It is an imitation of “Le Feint Astrologue” of [T.] Corneille, which is founded upon Calderon’s “El Astrologo Fingido.”  Several of the scenes are closely imitated from Moliere’s “Depit Amoureux.”  Having that lively bustle, intricacy of plot, and surprising situation, which the taste of the time required, and being enlivened by the characters of Wildblood and Jacinta, the “Mock Astrologer” seems to have met a favourable reception in 1668, when it first appeared.  It was printed in the same, or in the following year, and inscribed to the Duke of Newcastle, to whom Dryden had been indebted for the sketch of “Sir Martin Mar-all.”  It would seem, that this gallant and chivalrous peer was then a protector of Dryden, though he afterwards seems more especially to have patronised his enemy Shadwell; upon whose northern dedications, inscribed to the duke and his lady, our author is particularly severe.  In the preface to the “Evening’s