8 with Dryden in great intimacy, and towards the close of that year was honoured by him with the well-known verses prefixed to THE DOUBLE DEALER, which was exhibited in Nov. 1693 :9 verses of such excellence, that however often they are perused, they can never cease to be read with delight and admiration. Immediately after the performance of THE DOUBLE DEALER, our author's LOVE TRIUMPHANT was represented, as has been already mentioned; and in an unpublished letter written to Mr. Walsh, during the run of the former piece, (from which I regret that I can only give a short extract,) Dryden thus speaks of his young friend's second play, with some reference to his own tragi-comedy: "Congreve's DOUBLE DEALER is much censured "How wilt thou shine in thy meridian light, "When DRYDEN, dying, shall the world deceive, "Adorn and entertain the coming age.' See the Commendatory Verses prefixed to THE OLD BACHELOR. 8 In the Dedication of THE THIRD MISCELLANY, published in the middle of the year 1693, Dryden having occasion to speak of Congreve, adds-" whom I cannot mention without the honour which is due to his excellent. parts, and that entire affection which I bear him." See also his Letters to Jacob Tonson, and the Postscript to his Translation of Virgil. 9 GENT. JOURN. vol. ii. p. 374 66 by the greater part of the town, and is defended only by the best judges, who, you know, are "commonly the fewest. Yet it gains ground daily, and has already been acted eight times. "The women think he has exposed - ; " and the gentlemen are offended with him for "the discovery of their follies, and the way of their intrigue under the notions of friendship to "their ladies' husbands. "I am afraid you discover not your own opi"nion concerning my irregular use of tragi"comedy, in my doppia favola. I will never de"fend that practice, for I know it distracts the "hearers; but know withal, that it has hitherto pleased them for the sake of variety, and for "the particular taste which they have to low comedy." I Jacob Tonson, encouraged by the success of the various poetical Miscellanies which he had published in preceding years, consisting of short compositions by Dryden and others, now entertained hopes of being able regularly to furnish the readers of poetry with a periodical work, similar to those which had already appeared; and early in 1694 issued out another volume of the same kind, entitled THE ANNUAL MISCELLANY; to which Dryden contributed only a version of the third Georgick, and an Epistle to Sir Godfrey Kneller, probably 'He makes the same acknowledgment in THE PaRALLEL OF POETRY AND PAINTING. See vol. iii. p. 340. written in the preceding year, in return for a portrait of Shakspeare, which Kneller painted and presented to him." 3 Having declared that he would write no more for the stage, he now sat down to the most arduous of all his literary labours, a complete translation of Virgil; which, it should seem from what he has dropped concerning it, was first suggested to him by Tonson. As he was now known to be poor, it was probably a very general wish that he should undertake some great work, which might be attended with considerable profit; and so early as 1692, an obscure poetaster endeavoured to draw his attention to the Æneid. In March, 1694, Motteux, who appears to have been well acquainted with Dryden, expresses a hope that he would give the world a version of the great Roman poet; and in a letter written about that time by 5 2 It was copied from the only original portrait of Shakspeare hitherto discovered, which was then in Mr. Betterton's possession, and now belongs to the Chandos family. Kneller's copy is now in the collection of Earl Fitzwilliam, at Wentworth-House, in Yorkshire. 3 See vol. iii. p. 546. + Poems by Thomas Fletcher, 8vo. 1692. Pref. 5 "We hope that Mr. Dryden will undertake to give us a translation of Virgil. It is indeed a most difficult work; but if any one can assure himself of success in attempting so bold a task, it is doubtless the Virgil of our age, for whose noble pen that best of Latin poets seems reserved." GENT. JOURN. vol. iii. p. 63, our author himself to Dennis the Critick, he thus modestly speaks of the projected work: "If I undertake a translation of Virgil, the little which I can perform will shew, at least, that no man is fit to write after him, in a barbarous modern tongue.' 996 Hopkins, another friend and admirer, in some verses written probably soon afterwards, announced that the work was begun. Dr. Johnson has justly remarked, that the nation seemed to consider its honour interested in the event. Mr. Gilbert Dolben gave him the various editions of his author: Dr. Knightly Chetwood furnished him with the Life of Virgil and the Preface to the Pastorals; and Addison sup 8 “With joy I learn'd, Dryden designs to crown · Eldest son of Dr. John Dolben, the learned Archbishop of York; who was afterwards created a Baronet by Queen Anne, and for many years represented the city of Peterborough in Parliament. He was appointed a Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland by William the Third, and held that office for twenty years. * See Dryden's Letters to Jacob Tonson. Of Dr. Knightly Chetwood, who was afterwards Dean of Glocester, some account may be found in vol. iii. p. 547. ? Dr. Chetwood's Essay on Pastoral Poetry is fre plied the arguments of the several books, and an Essay on the Georgicks." The first lines of this great poet which he translated, he wrote with a diamond on a pane of glass in one of the windows of Chesterton-House, in Huntingtonshire, the residence of his kinsman and namesake, John Driden, Esq. The Version of the first Georgick and a great part of the last Æneid was made at Denham-Court, in Buckinghamshire, the seat of Sir William Bowyer, Baronet; and the seventh Æneid was translated at Burleigh, the noble mansion of the Earl of Exeter. These circumstances, which must be acknowledged to be of no great importance, I yet have thought it proper to record, because they will for ever endear those places to the votaries of the Muses, and add to them a kind of celebrity, which neither the beauties of nature nor the exertions of art can bestow. It was resolved to print the work by subscription, and it has been represented as the first splendid undertaking of this kind. But that is not the fact; for Milton's great poem, as we have seen, been printed by subscription some years be quently attributed to Walsh, and has been erroneously printed among that gentleman's works. I See Tickell's Preface to Addison's Works, and Steele's Dedication of THE DRUMMER, 4to. 1922. This little circumstance was communicated by Mrs. Honor Pigott, whose father was great-nephew to our author's kinsman, John Driden, of Chesterton. |