fort of his tragic muse, Dryden has had recourse to his discarded mistress, Rhyme. As this could hardly arise from an alteration of his final opinion, it may have been owing to a consciousness, that there was some deficiency in the piece, which the harmony of numbers might veil, though it could not supply. The turn of the dialogue, also, is quite in our poet's early manner. The lovers, in the first scene of the second act, burning with a horrible passion, which they felt it death to conceal, and infamy and mortal sin to avow, communicate their feelings to each other in alternate couplets, like two contending Arcadians. Their horror evaporates in antithesis, and their passion in quaint prettiWitness the speech of Alphonso:

nesses.

Alph. Oh raging, impious, and yet hopeless fire!
Not daring to possess what I desire;
Condemn'd to suffer what I cannot bear ;
Tortur'd with love, and furious with despair.

Of all the pains which wretched mortals prove,
The fewest remedies belong to love :
But ours has none; for if we should enjoy,
Our fatal cure must both of us destroy.
Oh dear Victoria, cause of all my pain!
Oh dear Victoria, whom I would not gain!
Victoria, for whose sake I would survive :
Victoria, for whose sake I dare not live.

If the tragic part of "Love Triumphant" have little merit, the comic has even less. The absurdity of the two gallants disguising themselves, in hopes to pass for the deceased Conde upon a mistress, who had borne him two children, is too gross for a puppet-show, or pantomime; and there is nothing in the dialogue to atone for the flatness, and extravagance of the plot. It may, however, be remarked, that Sancho, a tawdry and conceited coxcomb, the son of a Jewish usurer, and favoured by the father of his mistress, only for his wealth, has some resemblance in manners and genealogy to a much more pleasant character, that of Isaac in the "Duenna."

It is impossible to dismiss a performance of Dryden, without some tribute of praise. The verse, where it is employed, possesses, as usual, all the dignity which numbers can give to language; and the Song upon Jealousy, as well as that in the character of a Girl, have superior merit.

The play was received as ill as might be; so at least we are informed by a curious letter, preserved by Mr Malone, dated 22d March 1673-4, in which the writer, after chuckling over the failure of the "Double Dealer," and the absolute damnation of " Love Triumphant," concludes, that the success of Southerne's "Fatal Marriage" will encourage the minor poets," and

vex huffing Dryden, and Congreve, to madness."* Dryden himself, it may be noticed, says nothing in the preface concerning the reception of the piece: all authorities, however, state it to have been unfavourable; and thus, as Dr Johnson has remarked, this great poet opened and closed his theatrical career with bad success; a fact, which may secure the inexperienced author from despondence, and teach him who has gained reputation, how little he ought to presume on its stability.

"Love Triumphant" was first acted and published in 1693-4.

The second play is Mr Dryden's, called "Love Triumphant, or Nature will prevail." It is a tragi-comedy; but, in my opinion, one of the worst he ever writ, if not the very worst; the comical part descends beneath the style and show of a Bartholomew-Fair droll. It was damned by the universal cry of the town, nemine contradiccnte but the conceited poet. He says in his prologue, that this is the last the town must expect from him; he had done himself a kindness, had he taken his leave before."

ΤΟ

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

JAMES,

EARL OF SALISBURY, &c. *

MY LORD,

THIS HIS poem, being the last which I intend for the theatre, ought to have the same provision made for it, which old men make for their youngest child, which is commonly a favourite. They, who were born before it, carry away the patrimony by right of eldership; this is to make its fortune in the world, and since I can do little for it, natural affection calls upon me to put it out, at least, into the best service which I can procure for it; and, as it is the usual practice of our decayed gentry to look about them for some illustrious family, and their

* James, the fourth Earl of Salisbury, was strongly attached to the religion and cause of his former master, James II., a rea son, doubtless, for Dryden inscribing to him his last dramatic offspring. There was also a connection betwixt our poet's lady and the Earl, which is alluded to in the dedication. The Ear succeeded to the title in 1683.

endeavour to fix their young darling, where he may be both well educated and supported ;* I have herein also followed the custom of the world, and am satisfied in my judgment, that I could not have

* It was an ancient custom derived from the days of chivalry, but which long survived them, that, as formerly the future knight had to go through a preliminary course of education, as page and squire to some person of rank and valour; so the pages of the quality, so late as the Revolution, were the sons of gentlemen, and in no way derogated from their birth by accepting that menial situation. This is often alluded to in the old plays. In the "New Inn," for example, when Lovel asks of the Host his son for a page, we have an account of the decay of the institution from its original purposes and respectability.

Lovel. Call you that desperate, which by a line

Of institution from our ancestors

Hath been derived down to us, and received

In a succession, for the noblest way

Of breeding up our youth in letters, arms,
Fair mien, discourses, civil exercise,

And all the blazon of a gentleman ?

Where can he learn to vault, to ride, to fence,
To move his body gracefuller? to speak

His language purer? or tune his mind

And manners more to the harmony of nature,

Than in these nurseries of nobility?.

Host. Aye, that was when the nurseries self was noble,

And only virtue made it, not the market,

That titles were not vented at the drum

Or common outcry: Goodness gave the greatness,

And greatness worship: Every house became

An academy of honour, and those parts

We see departed in the practice now

Quite from the institution.

Lovel. Why do you say so,

Or think so enviously? do they not still

Learn there the centaur's skill, the art of Thrace,

To ride? or Pollux' mystery, to fence?

The Phyrrick gesture, both to dance and spring
In armour? to be active for the wars ?
To study figures, numbers, and proportions,
May yield them great in counsel ? and the arts,
Grave Nestor, and the wise Ulysses practised,
To make their English sweet upon their tongue,
As reverend Chaucer says?

Host. Sir, you mistake.

To play Sir Pandarus my copy hath it,
And carry messages to Madam Creside;

made a more worthy choice. It is true, I am not vain enough to think that any thing of mine can in any measure be worthy of your lordship's patronage; and yet I should be ashamed to leave the stage, without some acknowledgment of your former favours, which I have more than once experienced. Besides the honour of my wife's relation to your noble house, to which my sons may plead some title, though I cannot; you have been pleased to take a particular notice of me, even in this lowness of my fortunes, to which I have voluntarily reduced myself; and of which I have no reason to be ashamed. This condescension, my lord, is not only becoming of your ancient family, but of your personal character in the world; and, if I value myself the more for your indulgence to me, and your opinion of me, it is because any thing which you like, ought to be considered as something in itself;

Instead of backing the brave steed o' mornings,
To mount the chambermaid, and, for a leap
O' the vaulting horse, to ply the vaulting house;
For exercise of arms, a bale of dice,

Or two or three packs of cards, to show the cheat,

And nimbleness of hand; mistake a cloak

From my lord's back, and pawn it; ease his pockets
Of a superfluous watch; or geld a jewel

Of an odd stone or so; twinge two or three buttons
From off my lady's gown.
These are the arts,

Or seven liberal deadly sciences
Of pagery, or rather paganism,

As the tides run; to which if he apply him,
He may perhaps take a degree at Tyburn
A year the earlier; come to read a lecture
Upon Aquinas at St Thomas a watering's,
And so go forth a laureat in hemp circle.

New Inn, Act I. Scene 3.

* The second Earl of Salisbury married an aunt of Lady Elizabeth Dryden; his son, Lord Cranbourne, was grandfather of James the fourth earl; and therein consisted the relationship be tween Dryden's sons, and the family of his patron, to which it is somewhat difficult, in modern days, to give an exact name.