"would admit of any plea; especially "the latter, who had the Abbey lighted, "the ground opened, the choir attending, "an anthem ready fet, and himself waiting "for fome time without any corpfe to bury. "The undertaker, after three days expec"tance of orders for embalment without

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receiving any, waited on the lord Jefferies; "who pretending ignorance of the matter, "turned it off with an ill-natured jeft, fay

They

ing, That those who obferved the orders "of a drunken frolick deferved no better; "that he remembered nothing at all of it " and that he might do what he pleased with "the corpse. Upon this, the undertaker "waited upon the lady Elizabeth and her "fon, and threatned to bring the corpfe "home, and fet it before the door. "defired a day's refpite, which was granted. "Mr. Charles Dryden wrote a handfome "letter to the lord Jefferies, who returned it "with this cool anfwer, "That he knew "nothing of the matter, and would be trou"bled no more about it." He then addreff"ed the lord Halifax and the bishop of Ro"chester, who abfolutely refused to do any thing in it. In this diftrefs Dr. Garth fent

" for

"for the corpfe to the College of Physicians, "and propofed a funeral by fubfcription, "to which himself set a moft noble example. "At last a day, about three weeks after Mr. Dryden's decease, was appointed for the "interment: Dr. Garth pronounced a fine "Latin oration, at the College, over the corpfe; which was attended to the Abbey

by a numerous train of coaches. When "the funeral was over, Mr. Charles Dryden "fent a challenge to the lord Jefferies, who refufing to answer it, he fent feveral others, "and went often himself; but could nei"ther get a letter delivered, nor admittance "to speak to him: which fo incensed him, "that he refolved, fince his lordship refused "to answer him like a gentleman, that he "would watch an opportunity to meet, and

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fight off-hand, though with all the rules "of honour; which his lordship hearing, "left the town: and Mr. Charles Dryden "could never have the fatisfaction of meet

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ing him, though he fought it till his death "with the utmost application."

This story I once intended to omit, as it appears with no great evidence; but having been

G 2

been fince informed that there is in the regifter of the College of Phyficians an order relating to Dryden's funeral, I can doubt its truth no longer.

The gradual change of manners, though inperceptible in the procefs, appears great when different times, and those not very diftant, are compared. If at this time a young drunken Lord should interrupt the pompous regularity of a magnificent funeral, what would be the event, but that he would be juftled out of the way, and compelled to be quiet? If he fhould thrust himself into a houfe, he would be fent roughly away; and what is yet more to the honour of the prefent time, I believe, that those who had fubfcribed to the funeral of a man like Dryden, would not, for fuch an accident, have withdrawn their contributions.

He was buried among the poets in Westminster Abbey, where, though the duke of Newcastle had, in a general dedication prefixed by Congreve to his dramatick works, accepted thanks for his intention of erecting him a monument, he lay long without dif tinction, till the duke of Buckinghamshire

gave him a tablet, infcribed only with the name of DRYDEN.

He married the lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the earl of Berkshire, with circumstances, according to the fatire imputed to lord Somers, not very honourable to either party by her he had three fons, Charles, John, and Henry. Charles was usher of the palace to pope Clement the XIth, and vifiting England in 1704, was drowned in an attempt to fwim crofs the Thames at Windfor.

John was author of a comedy called The Hufband his own Cuckold. He is faid to have died at Rome. Henry entered

into fome religious order. It is some proof of Dryden's fincerity in his fecond religion, that he taught it to his fons. A man conscious of hypocritical profeffion in himself, is not likely to convert others; and as his fons were qualified in 1693 to appear among the tranflators of Juvenal, they must have been taught fome religion before their father's change.

Of the perfon of Dryden I know not any account; of his mind, the portrait which G 3 has

has been left by Congreve, who knew him. with great familiarity, is such as adds our love of his manners to our admiration of his genius. "He was," we are told, "of a "nature exceedingly humane and compaffionate, ready to forgive injuries, and ca"pable of a fincere reconciliation with those "that had offended him. His friendship, "where he profeffed it, went beyond his profeffions. He was of a very easy, "of very pleafing accefs; but somewhat "flow, and, as it were, diffident in his ad"vances to others: he had that in his na"ture which abhorred intrufion into any fociety whatever. He was therefore lefs "known, and consequently his character bé

came more liable to misapprehenfions and misrepresentations: he was very modest, "and very easily to be discountenanced in "his approaches to his equals or superiors. "As his reading had been very extensive, fo was he very happy in a memory tenacious "of every thing that he had read. He was "not more poffeffed of knowledge than he "was communicative of it; but then his "communication was by no means pedantick, or impofed upon the conversation,

" but