The Irish standard., 1897-02-27
JOHN DRYDEN The POET.
An Interesting Sketch of His Long
Struggles Through
Life.
In Seeking the Truth He Found
Consolation in the CATH
olic Church.
Perquisitiesa as Poet Laureate Taken
from Him by a Worthless
King.

His family belonged originally to the
county Of Cumberland, but removed to
Northamptonshire on the marriage Of
the poets grandfather with a daughter
OF Sir John Cope, owner of the estate
Carrous-Ashby. His maternal great
grandfather was Sir Gilbert Pickering,
whose son Henry was pastor of the Pu-
ritan church Aldwinckle All Saints. In
the parsonage house, John, the subject of
this sketch, being the Oldest of fourteen
children, was born August 9th, 1881, says
q writer in the Rosary Magazine.
He obtained the rudiments of educa-
ton at. Tichmarsh, possibly a portion at
Oundle, both near by, and was after
wards sent to Westminster school in
London. OF this institution the head
master, DR.. Richard Busby, who presided
more than half a century, became re-
nowned both for the number of eminent
persons who had been under his control,
and the rigor of his discipline. Dryden
said. of him: "Our master, Busby, used
to whip boy so long that he made him
a confirmed blockheau." Yet the speedy
discovery of this lads poetical genius
aud it's judicious cultivation, secured the
latter's earnest respect and gratitude.
At the age of twenty-six he was made
Master of Arts at Cambridge, for which
he never afterwards felt any affection
because of some extremely harsh treat
ment received from the vice-master his
resistance to which was further pun
ished by the faculty.
His portion of the family estate being
but trifiing, he repaired to London, and
took board with bookseller, in whose
store he became acquainted with his sis
ter, the Lady Elizabeth, with whom he
contracted marriage destined to bring
to either little of conjugal happiness
Her small dowry, with the poor returns
received from his writings, kept them in
strained, often extreme, pecuniary con-
ditions throughout their long extended
joint lives.
Dryden early indulged hopes and ex-
pectations Of becoming a great dramat-
list, and he could have been far greater
tnan he became, indeed, but for yielding
to a habit imported from France at the
Restoration that was pernicious to the
English drama. Rhyme never was ne
cessary to English work. Indeed, by far
our greatest poetry has dispensed with
it. Contrariwise, it was always essential
to French, because of the latters lack
of sufficiency in the matter of rhyme
and melody. Charles II. was always in
tensely fond Of the theatre, which, dur
ing his twenty years exile, he habitually
frequented in Paris. Here he became so
eagerly fond of French dramatic litera-
ture that he preferred it above English,
its far superior. He had spent his time,
what portion of it was devoted to litera-
ture Of any sort, quite otherwise than
in study of that of his native country.
Familiar with Racine, Moliere, and les
ser names in that school, he knew little
and cared less for Shakespeare, Fletch-
en-, and Beaumont. Perhaps if there had
been theatre at all at his return, he
might have come to tolerate it. But the
Puritans had abolished it, and another
had to be improvised. There were those
ready to do the work, and in accordance
with the monarch we'll known wishes.
The first to set the example was Roger
Boyle, Earl of Orrery to be soon follow
ed by a. far greater man, the greatest in
that generation, John Dryden. It is pa
thetic to contemplate how an exalted ge-
MUS, for want of means for the mainte-
nance of his family by work upon sim
cere legitimate lines feels bound to en-
ploy his gifts on others to which his
Judgment, to which even his conscience,
does not give cordial assent. A Puritan
by both branches of his family, he had
commemorated by an ode the death Of
Cromwell; but, joining with the rest of
his countrymen in felicitating the resto-
ration of the monarchy, celebrated it in
those choice verses of Astrae Redux, and
soon with that the most rapid among
the pens ever used by men of letters, pro-
duced the Rival Ladies, tragi-comedy,
and the tragedies, the Siege of Granada,
and the Indian Emperor. This diver
sion he defended by his Essay on Dra-
tic Poetry, which despite the erroneous
ness Of it's ideas, is one of the ablest pro-
auctions Of human genius. It was to
be regretted much that one so eminently
gifted instead Of courting and adhering
sto thc romantic muse Of his own country
'1atrors through seemingly necessary
ssgl sconr lancs with the whims Of frivo-s
ssllo md court, to fmplants The elias
4 3sssE le second lal d