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his officers to be killed, that they might be pompously buried, he was, with all the solemnity possible, and at the charge of the public, interred in Harry the Seventh's chapel, the monument of the kings. He was a man of an ordinary extraction, yet left enough by his father to give him a good education, which his own inclination disposed him to receive in the university of Oxford; where he took the degree of a master of arts; and was versed in books for a man who intended not to be of any profession, having enough of his own to maintain him in the plenty he affected, and having then no appearance of ambition to be a better man than he was. He was of a melancholic and a sullen nature, and spent his time most with good fellows, who liked his morosity, and a freedom he used in inveighing against the license of the time and the power of the court. And they who knew him inwardly discovered that he had an anti-monarchical spirit, when few men thought the government in any danger. When the troubles began, he quickly declared himself against the king; and having some command in Bristol, when it was first taken by Prince Rupert and the Marquis of Hertford, and being trusted with the command of a little fort upon the line, he refused to give it up, after the governor had signed the articles of surrender, and kept it some hours after the prince was in the town, and killed some of the soldiers; for which the prince resolved to hang him, if some friends had not interposed for him, upon his want of experience in war, and prevailed with him to quit the place by very great importunity, and with much difficulty. He then betook himself wholly to the sea, and quickly made himself signal there, and was the first man that declined the old track, and made it manifest, that the science might be attained in less time than was imagined, and despised those rules

which had been long in practice to keep his ship and his men out of danger, which had been held in former times a point of great ability and circumspection, as if the principal art requisite in the captain of a ship had been to be sure to come home safe again. He was the first man who brought the ships to contemn castles on shore, which had been thought ever very formidable, and were discovered by him only to make a noise and to fright those who could rarely be hurt by them. He was the first that infused that proportion of courage into the seamen, by making them see by experience what mighty things they could do if they were resolved, and taught them to fight in fire as well as upon water; and though he hath been very well imitated and followed, he was the first that drew the copy of naval courage, and bold and resolute achievement.

NOTES.

Left enough &c. Blake, we have seen, had been at Oxford for nine years before his father died; and on his father's death he at once left the university. His father's fortunes had in his later years seriously declined; and he died leaving to Robert and Humphrey, the eldest and second sons, the care of his widow and a very large family of young children, with an embarrassed estate. "When the debts were paid, it would seem that property, exclusive of the house in St Mary's Street, of about two hundred pounds a year remained. . . . Robert ac

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THE NEWER ENGLISH.

JOHN DRYDEN.-1631-1700.

JOHN DRYDEN was born at Aldwinckle in Northamptonshire, and received his education at Westminster School, and at Trinity College, Cambridge (1650-7). In his earlier poems, he varied his political creed to suit the party in power for the time being. Beginning his long career as a dramatist in 1663, he by-and-by obtained an engagement at the King's Theatre, and in 1670 became Poet-laureate and Historiographer-royal. Soon after the accession of James II. (1685), Dryden turned Roman Catholic. At the Revolution (1688), he failed to trim his sails to the court breeze, and had to give up his offices. At his death, in May 1700, he was honoured with a splendid funeral in Westminster Abbey.

After writing some short pieces-such as, Heroic Stanzas to the glory of Cromwell (1659) and Astræa Redux, hailing the restoration of Charles II. (1660)—' Glorious John' produced his first play in 1663, and before 1694 he had written as many as seven-and-twenty, including twelve tragedies and nine comedies. The Annus Mirabilis : the Year of Wonders, 1666-a poem on the Dutch war and the great fire of London-first gave marked proof of his great powers (1667). Absalom and Achitophel, the foremost of English satires,' appeared in 1681, an example of splendid versification; and was followed by two other satires, The Medal (1681), and Mac Flecknoe (1682). Religio Laici; or a Layman's Faith (1682) is a poetical defence of the principles of the Church of England; and The Hind and the Panther (1687) is an argumentation in verse in favour of the milkwhite hind (the Church of Rome) as against the spotted panther (the Church of England). Dryden's lyric fame rests mainly on Alexander's Feast; or the Power of Music: a Song in Honour of St Cecilia's Day, 1697. He modernised and translated a very large number of works by other authors; the greatest translation is the Virgil (1694-7). Dryden's finest prose, consisting of 'masterly criticism on his art,' is found in Prefaces to various dramas and poems.

ANTONY AND VENTIDIUS.

(From All for Love, Act I., Scene i.)

['I prefer the scene betwixt Antony and Ventidius in the first act to anything which I have written in this kind' (Preface). It is modelled upon Shakspeare's Julius Cæsar, Act iv., scene 3.

Marcus Antonius, commonly called MARK ANTONY (83?—30 B.c.), served under Cæsar, to whom he proved an active supporter. On the murder of the great dictator (44 B.C.), Antony was anxious to be recognised as his representative, but found a rival in Octavianus, Cæsar's great-nephew and adopted son, the future Emperor Augustus, now a youth of nineteen. Presently the rivals came into collision, and Octavianus defeated Antony at Mutina (43 B.C.). Antony was then joined by Lepidus, and soon also by Octavianus, whom his former friends the senate were now regarding with jealousy; and these three leaders divided the sovereign power among them. In 42, Antony met Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, and gave himself up to her charms. On the death of his wife Fulvia in 40, he married Octavia, the sister of Octavianus, but sent her back to her brother in 37, and surrendered himself to a voluptuous Eastern life with Cleopatra. The power of Antony was utterly destroyed in the famous battle of Actium (Sept. 2, 31) by Octavianus, who pursued him to Egypt, where he committed suicide (30).

PUBLIUS VENTIDIUS BASSUS first appears in history as a captive carried from the provinces to Rome in the Social War (89 B.C.). He served under Cæsar, whose favour he gained by his distinguished ability; and on Cæsar's death, he followed the fortunes of Antony. As Antony's lieutenant, he fought with brilliant success against the Parthians (39-38 B.C.); and although Antony out of jealousy dismissed him, his merit was so conspicuous that he was honoured with a triumph (Nov. 38). The rest of his career is unknown.]

SCENE.-The Temple of Isis, in Alexandria.

Enter ANTONY, walking with a disturbed motion before he speaks. VENTIDIUS in the distance, observing him.

Ant. They tell me 'tis my birthday, and I'll keep it With double pomp of sadness.

'Tis what the day deserves which gave me breath.

Why was I raised the meteor of the world,

Hung in the skies, and blazing as I travelled,

Till all my fires were spent ; and then cast downward,
To be trod out by Cæsar ?

205

Vent. [Aside.]

'Tis mournful, wondrous mournful!

Ant.

On my soul,

Count thy gains. 210

Now, Antony, wouldst thou be born for this?
Glutton of fortune, thy devouring youth

Has starved thy wanting age.

Vent. [Aside.]

How sorrow shakes him!

215

So, now the tempest tears him up by the roots,

And on the ground extends the noble ruin.

Ant. [Having thrown himself down.] Lie there, thou shadow

of an emperor;

The place thou pressest on thy mother earth

Is all thy empire now: now it contains thee;

Some few days hence, and then 'twill be too large,

When thou 'rt contracted in thy narrow urn,
Shrunk to a few cold ashes; then Octavia
(For Cleopatra will not live to see it),
Octavia then will have thee all her own,

And bear thee in her widowed hand to Cæsar;

Cæsar will weep, the crocodile will weep,

To see his rival of the universe

220

225

Lie still and peaceful there. I'll think no more on 't.—
Give me some music; look that it be sad:

I'll soothe my melancholy, till I swell,

And burst myself with sighing.

[Soft music.

"Tis somewhat to my humour.

Stay, I fancy

231

I'm now turned wild, a commoner of nature;

Of all forsaken, and forsaking all;

Live in a shady forest's sylvan scene,

Stretched at my length beneath some blasted oak;

235

I lean my head upon the mossy bark,

And look just of a piece, as I grew from it;

My uncombed locks, matted like misletoe,

Hang o'er my hoary face; a murmuring brook
Runs at my foot.

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And, fearless, quench their thirst, while I look on,

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