Your lordship’s
    Most obedient, faithful servant,
      JOHN DRYDEN.

Footnotes: 
1.  John, Lord Haughton, eldest son of the Earl of Clare. succeeded to
   his father, was created Marquis of Clare, and died 1711, leaving an
   only daughter, who married the eldest son of the famous Robert
   Harley, Earl of Oxford.

2.  See note on OEdipus, p. 151.

3.  Dryden appears to have alluded to the following passage in Strada,
   though without a very accurate recollection of its contents:  "Sane
   Andreas Naugerius Valerio Martiali acriter infensus, solemne jam
   habebat in illum aliquanto petulantius jocari.  Etenim natali suo,
   accitis ad geniale epulum amicis, postquam prolixe de poeticae
   laudibus super mensam disputaverat; ostensurum se aiebat a caena,
   quo tandem modo laudari poesim deceret:  Mox aferri jubebat
   Martialis volumen, (haec erat mensae appendix) atque igni proprior
   factus, illustri conflagratione absumendum flammis imponebat: 
   addebatque eo incendio litare se Musis, Manibusque Virgilij, cujus
   imitatorem cultoremque prestare se melius haud posset, quam si
   vilia poetarum capita per undas insecutus ac flammas perpetuo
   perdidisset.  Nec se eo loco tenuit, sed cum Silvas aliquot ab se
   conscriptas legisset, audissetque Statianu characteri similes
   videri, iratus sibi, quod a Martiale fugiens alio declinasset a
   Virgilio, cum primum se recessit domum, in Silvas conjecit ignem."
   Stradae Prolusiones, Lib.  II.  Pro. 5.  From this passage, it is
   obvious, that it was Martial, not Statius, whom Andreas Navagero
   sacrificed to Virgil, although he burned his own verses when they
   were accused of a resemblance to the style of the author of the
   Thebaid.  In the same prolusion, Strada quotes the “blustering”
   line, afterwards censured by Dryden; but erroneously reads,

     Super imposito moles gemmata colosso.

4.  “Bussy D’Ambois,” a tragedy, once much applauded, was the favourite
   production of George Chapman.  If Dryden could have exhausted every
   copy of this bombast performance in one holocaust, the public would
   have been no great losers, as may be apparent from the following
   quotations: 

Bussy. I’ll sooth his plots, and strew my hate with smiles, Till, all at once, the close mines of my heart Rise at full state, and rush into his blood.  I’ll bind his arm in silk, and rub his flesh, To make the veine swell, that his soule may gush Into some kennel, where it loves to lie; And policy be flanked with policy.  Yet shall the feeling centre, where we meet.  Groan with the weight of my approaching feet.  I’ll make the inspired threshold of his court Sweat with the weather of my horrid steps, Before I enter; yet, I will appear Like calm securitie, befor a ruin.  A politician must, like lightning,