"find this fanciful thought in his Ann. "Mirab.

"Old father Thames raised up his reverend "head;

"But fear'd the fate of Simois would return; "Deep in his ooze he fought his fedgy bed; "And fhrunk his waters back into his urn.

2

"This is ftolen from Cowley's Davideis, " p. 9."

"Swift Jordan started, and strait backward fled, "Hiding amongst thick reeds his aged head. "And when the Spaniards their affault begin,

At once beat those without and those within.

"This Almanzor fpeaks of himself; and "fure for one man to conquer an army "within the city, and another without the "city, at once, is fomething difficult; but "this flight is pardonable to fome we meet with in Granada. Ofmin, fpeaking of "Almanzor,

"Who, like a tempeft that outrides the wind, "Made a juft battle, ere the bodies join'd.

"Pray what does this honourable perfon "mean by a tempeft that outrides the wind!

"A tem

"A tempeft that outrides itself. To fuppofe a tempeft without wind, is as bad as fuppofing, a man to walk without feet; for if "he fuppofes the tempeft to be fomething. "diftinct from the wind, yet, as being the "effect of wind only, to come before the

caufe is a little prepofterous: fo that if "he takes it one way, or if he takes it the "other, those two ifs will fcarcely make one "poffibility." Enough of Settle.

Marriage à la Mode (1673) is a comedy dedicated to the Earl of Rochefter; whom he acknowledges not only as the defender of his poetry, but the promoter of his fortune. Langbaine places this play in 1673. The earl of Rochefter therefore was the famous Wilmot, whom yet tradition always reprefents as an enemy to Dryden, and who is mentioned by him with fome disrespect in the preface to Juvenal.

The Affignation, or Love in a Nunnery, a comedy (1673), was driven off the ftage, against the opinion, as the author fays, of the beft judges. It is dedicated, in a very elegant addrefs, to Sir Charles Sedley; in which he

finds an opportunity for his ufual complaint of hard treatment and unreasonable cenfure,

Amboyna (1673) is a tiffue of mingled dialogue in verfe and profe, and was perhaps written in lefs time than The Virgin Martyr; though the author thought not fit either of tentatiously or mournfully to tell how little. labour it coft him, or at how fhort a warning he produced it. It was a temporary performance, written in time of the Dutch war, to inflame the nation against their enemies; to whom he hopes, as he declares in his Epilogue, to make his poetry not lefs deftructive than that by which Tyrtæus of old animated the Spartans. This play was written in the fecond Dutch war in 1673.

Troilus and Creffida (1679) is a play altered from Shakspeare; but fo altered, that, even in Langbaine's opinion, "the laft fcene in "the third act is a mafter-piece." It is introduced by a difcourfe on "the Grounds of "Criticism in Tragedy," to which I suspect that Rymer's book had given occafion.

The

The Spanish Fryar (1681) is a tragi-comedy, eminent for the happy coincidence. and coalition of the two plots. As it was written against the Papifts, it would naturally at that time have friends and enemies; and partly by the popularity which it obtained at first, and partly by the real power both of the ferious and rifible part, it continued long a favourite of the publick.

It was Dryden's opinion, at least for fome time, and he maintains it in the dedication of this play, that the drama required an alternative of comick and tragick scenes, and that it is neceffary to mitigate by alleviations. of merriment the preffure of ponderous events, and the fatigue of toilfome paffions. "Whoever," fays he, "cannot perform "both parts, is but half a writer for the flage."

The Duke of Guife, a tragedy (1683), written in conjunction with Lee, as Oedipus had been before, feems to deferve notice only for the offence which it gave to the rem pant of the Covenanters, and in general to

the

the enemies of the court, who attacked him with great violence, and were answered by him; though at laft he seems to withdraw from the conflict, by transferring the greater part of the blame or merit to his partner. It happened that a contract had been made between them, by which they were to join in writing a play; and he happened," fays Dryden," to claim the promise just upon "the finishing of a poem, when I would have "been glad of a little refpite.-Two-thirds "of it belonged to him; and to me only "the firft fcene of the play, the whole "fourth act, and the first half or fomewhat "more of the fifth."

This was a play written profeffedly for the party of the duke of York, whofe fucceffion was then opposed. A parallel is intended between the Leaguers of France and the Covenanters of England; and this intention produced the controverfy.

Albion and Albanius (1685) is a musical drama or opera, written, like the Duke of Guife, against the Republicans. With what

fuccefs