of kingdoms were machines too ponderous for bim to manage.

In 1694, he began the most laborious and difficult of all his works, the tranflation of Virgil; from which he borrowed two months, that he might turn Frefnoy's Art of Painting into English profe. The preface, which he boafts to have written in twelve mornings, exhibits a parallel of poetry and painting, with a miscellaneous collection of critical remarks, fuch as cost a mind ftored like his no labour to produce them.

In 1697, he published his verfion of the works of Virgil; and that no opportunity of profit might be loft, dedicated the Paftorals to the lord Clifford, the Georgics to the earl of Chesterfield, and the Eneid to the earl of Mulgrave. This œconomy of flattery, at once lavish and discreet, did not pass without obfervation.

This tranflation was cenfured by Milbourne, a clergyman, ftyled by Pope the fairest of criticks, because he exhibited his own version to be compared with that which he condemned.

His laft work was his Fables, published in 1699, in confequence, as is fuppofed, of a contract now in the hands of Mr. Tonfon; by which he obliged himself, in confideration of three hundred pounds, to finish for the prefs ten thoufand verfes.

In this volume is comprised the wellknown ode on St. Cecilia's day, which, as appeared by a letter communicated to Dr. Birch, he spent a fortnight in compofing and correcting. But what is this to the patience and diligence of Boileau, whose Equivoque, a poem of only three hundred forty-fix lines, took from his life eleven months to write it, and three years to reyife it!

Part of this book of Fables is the first Iliad in English, intended as a specimen of a verfion of the whole. Confidering into what hands Homer was to fall, the reader cannot but rejoice that this project went no further.

The time was now at hand which was to put an end to all his fchemes and labours.

On

On the first of May 1701, having been some time, as he tells us, a cripple in his limbs, he died in Gerard-ftreet of a mortification in his leg.

There is extant a wild ftory relating to some vexatious events that happened at his funeral, which, at the end of Congreve's Life, by a writer of I know not what credit, are thus related, as I find the account transferred to a biographical dictionary:

"Mr. Dryden dying on the Wednesday "morning, Dr. Thomas Sprat, then bishop "of Rochester and dean of Weftminster, "fent the next day to the lady Elizabeth "Howard, Mr. Dryden's widow, that he "would make a prefent of the ground, "which was forty-pounds, with all the other Abbey-fees. The lord Halifax likewife "fent to the lady Elizabeth, and Mr. Charles Dryden her fon, that, if they would give him leave to bury Mr. Dryden, he "would inter him with a gentleman's pri"vate funeral, and afterwards beftow five

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hundred pounds on a monument in the "Abbey; which, as they had no reason to

"refuse,

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refufe, they accepted. On the Saturday following the company came: the corpfe

was put into a velvet hearse, and eighteen mourning coaches, filled with company, "attended. When they were just ready to

move, the lord Jeffries, fon of the lord "chancellor Jeffries, with fome of his rakish companions coming by, afked whofe fu"neral it was: and being told Mr. Dryden's, he faid, "What, fhall Dryden, the greatest honour and ornament of the nation, "be buried after this private manner! No, gentlemen, let all that loved Mr. Dryden, "and honour his memory, alight and join "with me in gaining my lady's confent to "let me have the honour of his interment, " which fhall be after another manner than this; and I will beftow a thousand pounds on a monument in the Abbey for him." "The gentlemen in the coaches, not knowing of the bishop of Rochester's favour, nor of the lord Halifax's generous defign (they both having, out of refpect to the family, enjoined the lady Elizabeth and "her fon to keep their favour concealed to "the world, and let it pafs for their own expence) readily came out of the coaches,

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" and

"and attended lord Jefferies up to the lady's "bedfide, who was then fick; he repeated "the purport of what he had before faid; "but the abfolutely refufing, he fell on his "knees, vowing never to rife till his requeft was granted. The rest of the com

pany by his defire kneeled also; and the

lady, being under a fudden furprize, faint"ed away, As foon as the recovered her speech, the cried, No, no. Enough, gen"tlemen, replied he; my lady is very good, "the fays, Go, go. She repeated her for"mer words with all her ftrength, but in "vain; for her feeble voice was loft in their "acclamations of joy; and the lord Jefferies "ordered the hear femen to carry the corpse to "Mr. Ruffel's, an undertaker's in Cheap"fide, and leave it there till he should fend "orders for the embalment, which, he add"ed, fhould be after the royal manner. "His directions were obeyed, the company

difperfed, and lady Elizabeth and her fon "remained inconfolable. The next day "Mr. Charles Dryden waited on the lord "Halifax and the bishop, to excufe his mo"ther and himself, by relating the real truth. "But neither his lordship nor the bishop VOL. II. "would

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