appears from his own information to Giles Jacob, which may be found in his Lives of the Poets. Congreve's first play, the Old Batchelor, was revised by Dryden, and proved the occafion of their friendship; as it alfo procured the author the patronage of Montague Earl of Hallifax, which was accompanied with appointments in the revenue, valued at above 1200l. per ann. The Double Dealer was his fecond play. He wrote three more, viz. Love for Love, the Way of the World, and a tragedy called the Mourning Bride. His comedies are allowed to be the best that ever were introduced upon any stage. His wit is endless and aftonishing, but too redundant; his manners are every where juft, and his characters are often inimitable copies from life. He died in Surry-street in the Strand, aged fifty-feven, Anno 1728-9, and was interred in Westminster-abbey.

Thus old Romano bow'd to Raphael, &c.

Julio Romano was the mafter of the great Raphael, who is reckoned the finest painter the world ever faw.

To Mr. Granville, on his excellent Tragedy.

George Granville, created baron Lanfdowne in 1711, on the last day of the year, was a man of fine parts and polished undertanding, fincere, good-natured, and agreeable. His poems are very pleafing, his verfification being flowing, and his fentiments extremely refined. He had a great friendship for Dryden. The tragedy that gave birth to this poem was acted with applause at Lincoln's-Inn-Fields in 1696. He wrote alfo a comedy, called the She Gallants, the title of which he afterwards altered to Once a Lover, and Always a Lover; the British Enchanter, an opera; and several other pieces. He died in the year 1735. And in defpair, their empty pit to fill,

Set up fome foreign monster in the bill.

This fatire is levelled at the company that played in DruryLane, from which the defpotifm of the managers had driven Mr. Betterton, who still shot

"a glimmering ray,

"Like antient Rome, majestic in decay."

Mr. Dryden's friendship for Betterton, who had muftered up a company, and played at Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, caufed him to write these verses, which were poorly answered by George Powell the actor, in a preface to one of his plays.

VOL. II.

C

EPISTLE XII.

To my Friend Mr. Motteux.

Peter Motteux, to whom this piece is addressed, was born in Normandy, but fettled as a merchant in London very young, and lived in repute. He died in a house of ill fame near the Strand, and was supposed to have been murdered, in 1718. He produced eleven dramatic pieces, and his Beauty in Diftrefs is thought much the best of thèm : it was played in Lincoln's-InnFields by Betterton's company in 1698.

That e'en Corneille, &c.

Pierre Corneille, a French dramatic poet of the seventeenth century. He found the French stage in the most wretched state, without order, tafte, or regularity, and he reformed it intirely.

It would be difficult (fays Racine, fpeaking of him) to find "another poet poffeffed of fuch extraordinary talents, fuch ex"cellent qualifications: the art, the ftrength, the judgment, the "wit of Corneille. One can never too much admire the fublimity and conduct of his fubjects, the vehemence of his pas"fions, the weight of his fentiments; the dignity, and, at the "fame time, the vaft variety of his characters." He was the Shakespeare of the French stage; but far from being equal to that inspired bard.

Wycherley in wit.

William Wycherley, Efq; one of the moft agreeable men of Charles IId's age, wrote feveral poems, and four plays, viz. Love in a Wood, or St. James's Park; the Plain Dealer; the Gentleman-Dancing-Mafter; and the Country Wife. He was intimate with all the men of genius of his time, much admired for his wit and converfation, and beloved by Charles II. from whom he received many substantial marks of favour. He married a countess dowager of Drogheda, which loft him the king's good graces; and the leaving him involved in a law-fuit at her death, he was flung into prifon, from whence king James releafed him. He foon after married a young wife with 1500.4 fortune; but died eleven days after, being seventy-five years old.

EPISTLE XIII.

To my honored kinfman John Dryden, Efq;

This poem was written in 1699. The perfon to whom it is addreffed was coufin german to the poet, and a younger brother

of the baronet. That he inherited his mother's fortune, the enfuing lines confirm :

"The firft-begotten had his father's share;

"But you, like Jacob, are Rebecca's heir."

The beginning of this epiftle is a manifeft imitation of Horace's fecond epode:

"Beatus ille, qui procul negotiis,
"Ut prifca gens mortalium

“ Paterna rura,” &c.

Gibbons but guefes, nor is fure to fave;

But Maurus fweeps whole parishes, &c.

Dr. Gibbons was a physician at this time juftly in high esteem. By Maurus is meant Sir Richard Blackmore, phyfician to king William, and author of many epic poems. Milbourne was a nonjuring minifter.

Garth, gen'rous as his Mufe, prescribes and gives.

Sir Samuel Garth, a celebrated phyfician, as well as a writer, about the year 1696. He zealously promoted the erecting a difpenfary, or apartment in the college of phyficians, for the relief of the fick poor, by giving them advice gratis, and supplying them with medicines at a very cheap rate. In this good defign he was opposed not only by the apothecaries with great malevolence, but even by some selfish members of the faculty. It was for this reafon he wrote a poem in fix canto's, called the Dispensary; the humour and spirit of which are admirable. Dr. Garth was one of the Kit-kat club, confifting of about forty noblemen and gentlemen, attached to the protestant fucceffion in the house of Hanover. King George I. knighted him on his acceffion. He died in 1718-19.

"His death (says Pope, in one of his letters) was very heroi"cal, and yet unaffected enough to have made a faint or a philofopher famous. If ever there was a good Chriftian, without knowing himself to be fo, it was Sir Samuel Garth."

Namur fubdu'd, is England's palm, &c.

In the year 1695, William III. carried Namur, after a fiege of one month. The garrifon retired to the citadel, which capitulated upon honorable terms in another month. The courage of our men in this fiege was much admired, as was the conduct of the king.

France

Oblig'd by one fole treaty to restore

What twenty years of war had won before.

This alludes to the treaty of Ryswick, concluded the latter end of Sept. 1697, between the allies and France, whereby the latter was obliged to give up Barcelona, Luxemburgh, Charleroy, Mons, Dinant, and, in fhort, all the places fhe had seized upon during a long and expenfive war.

EPISTLE XIV.

To Sir Godfrey Kneller.

This epiftle is not the least admired of Dryden's works: it is a fort of brief hiftory of painting, from its birth and progress in Greece to the time of Sir Godfrey. This great painter received the first rudiments of his art at Lubeck in Germany, where he was born. He removed to the Low Countries, where he ftudied under the best masters; and compleated himself in Italy, upon the defigns of Titian and Carachi, whom he endeavoured to copy. Not finding his account in hiftory-painting, for he was of an avaritious turn, he applied himself to portraits. He came over to England in 1676. On the death of Sir Peter Lilly he was appointed principal painter to the king. He maintained this poft, after the decease of Charles II. under James II. and William III. who sent him to paint the plenipotentiaries at Ryfwick, and knighted him at his return. Queen Anne, at her acceffion, retained him in her fervice, and he has painted feveral pictures of her. The emperor Jofeph, and his brother the archduke Charles, did him the honor to fit to him; and he acquitted himself fo well, that he was prefented with a gold chain and medal, created an hereditary knight of the Empire, and foon after received the patent of a baronet, under the broad feal of Great Britain. He confined himself solely to the drawing hands and faces; the lefs nice parts of pictures, fuch as drapery and other ornaments, he left to people who performed under his immediate direction. His pictures are not very scarce, nor yet at this time in any great esteem. He died in 1723. There is a monument to his memory in Westminster-abbey, with an infcription on it by Pope.

A coal or chalk first imitated man.

It is agreed on all hands, that the hint of painting, as well as of fculpture, was first taken from the shadow.

yet perspective was lame.

The art of perspective was not entirely known to the antients: herein the moderns excel them very much. The most perfect piece of antient painting, that has efcaped the ravages of time

and barbarity, in which the figures want perfecting, is the wedding of Aldobrandini; and if we form our opinion of the merits of the paintings of antiquity upon this and fome few fragments, we shall be apt to pronounce them almost strangers to perspective and the clara obfcura. The paintings found among the ruins of Herculaneum have not, by accounts of fuch people of taste as have seen them, any excellence that may induce us to change this opinion. They derive their value only from their antiquity, and can scarcely be juftly ranked with modern pieces that are really quite indifferent.

Hence rofe the Roman and the Lombard line,

One color'd beft, and one did beft defign.

It is faid of Raphael, that he excelled all his predeceffors, and none of his followers equalled him. He was born at Urbino. His pieces are the most valuable in the world. He died in 1520, univerfally lamented, in his thirty-feventh year, of a diforder arifing from a debauch with the fair fex, which he kept concealed from his phyficians. Raphael was well made, mild, affable, and oftentatious, but univerfally beloved.

Titian was bred at Venice under a famous painter named Bellin, and fhewed, from the beginning, a prodigious genius. In a little time it was thought he exceeded his mafter, and his friends and admirers increased with his reputation. There was foon a vaft demand for his works, which were judged to be finished with the highest elegance, and his colouring was particularly beautiful. He was made a knight, and a count Palatine, by Charles V. and died of the plague in 1576.

"En trouva (fays Morerri) dans fes pieces cette douceur char"mante, cette beauté exquife, & cette grande netteté, qui les * rendent des chefs oeuvres de l'art."

Shakespeare, thy gift, &c.

Sir Godfrey Kneller made a prefent of a good piece of ShakeSpear, which he drew, to our author.

And Raphael did with Leo's gold.

Pope Leo X. employed Raphael at Rome, and gave him large fums of money. The Vatican was painted by Raphael and Michael Angelo.

Who Mr. Julian was, I have not been able to find out, or why he is called fecretary to the Mufes: perhaps the Apollo-club still