occasions are yet extant, to produce an Ode or any other poetical composition on either of those subjects, does not appear to have been any part of the duty of the Laureate in our author's time ; nor have we among his works a single performance of this kind. Soon after he was deprived of the laurel, the custom of annually celebrating these events in official verse, seems to have commenced,"

1685, being the first song performed to King James II." -Why are all the Muses mute?" Welcome Song, 1687;" Sound the trumpet, beat the drum. "Welcome Song, 1688;"-Ye tuneful Muses, raise your heads. "Birthday Ode for King William :

How does the glorious day appear,

The mightiest day in all the year."

See Burney's HIST. OF MUSICK, vol. iii. p. 504. All these Welcome Songs, except one, were, I suppose, Odes performed in honour of the reigning King's birthday. So, in the second volume of Dryden's MISCELLANIES, 8vo. 1685, (when our author wore the laurel,) p. 449, we find, "The Ode sung before the King on New-Year's Day," by an anonymous poet.

"Yet, after the laurel was given to Shadwell, Sir Charles Sidley furnished "An Anniversary Ode, sung before her Majesty, the 29th of April [1692]: set by Mr. Henry Purcell." GENT. JOURN. for May, 1692, p. 2. We have also an Ode by him on K. William's birthday. On the 1st of Jan. 1692-3, Tate, as Poet Laureate, produced an Ode; another on the Queen's birthday, April 29thr 1693; and a third on the King's birthday, performed before their Majestics, November 4, 1693: but the custom of requiring these compositions from the Laureate was not then perfectly established; for the Ode performed before their Majesties on the New-Year's Day, 1693-4, was

and the production of such lyrick. strains has since been considered a regular and important part of the duty of this office: a task, the weight of

written by Motteux (see GENT. JOURN. for January and February, 1693-4); and one for the sanie occasion was written by Prior. It appears in his works, 8vo. 1709, p. 39, under the title of " Hymn to the Sun: set by Dr. Purcell, and sung before their Majesties on New-Year's Day, 1693-4." (Purcell, however, was never honoured with the degree of Doctor in Musick.) Tonson, in the fourth edition of Dryden's Miscellanics, says, it was written at the Hague, and intended to be sung, &c. Motteux expressly says, his Ode was sung. I know not how to reconcile these three discordant accounts. The King's birthday, however, in the succeeding November, was officially celebrated by Tate. See GENT. JOURN. for October and November, 1694. This Ode of Tate's was set by Dr. Staggins; of whom some account will be given hereafter. Whether the admired Duet in a birthday Ode, beginning" Let Cæsar and Urania live," which was set by Purcell, and sung in the reign of King Wil liam and Queen Mary, was written by Tate, or whether during the remainder of that reign or the next he was assisted by any volunteer, I have no means of ascer-. taining. In 1707, Fenton published, in folio, " An Ode to the Sun, for the New Year;" but from its great length it could not have been sung at Court. Rowe, as Lau reate, wrote an Ode for the New Year, 1716; another for 1717; an Ode to Peace, sung on New-Year's Day, 1718; and Birthday Odes for 1716 and 1718. death having happened on the 6th of December in that year, the Ode for the New-Year, 1718-19, was furnished by George Jeffreys, Esq. From that time, probably, the Laureate produced two poetical compositions every year, though they have not always been preserved.

His

which one of the most ingenious of his successors in the poetical throne seems to have felt by anticipation; having, before he was invested with the office, endeavoured to shew the propriety of abolishing a custom, which he thought would be more honoured in the breach than the observance." Happily, however, a suggestion which would have deprived us of the most elegant compositions of this kind produced since the Revolution, not having been attended to, the united powers of melody and song are still annually employed on these topicks.

We are now arrived at the fourth period of our author's dramatick life. Being by the Revolution deprived of a considerable part of his income, he was once more constrained to derive some emolument from the stage, and in 1690 produced the tragedy of DoN SEBASTIAN, which was acted with

7" It is to be wished, (says Mr. Warton,) that another change might at least be suffered to take place in the exccution of this institution, which is confessedly Gothick, and unaccommodated to modern manners: I mean, that the more than annual return of a composition on a trite argument would be no longer required. I am conscious I say this at a time, when the best of Kings affords the most just and copious theme for panegyrick; but I speak it at a time, when the department is honourably filled by a poct of taste and genius, which are idly wasted on the most splendid subjects, when imposed by constraint, and perpetually repeated." HIST. OF ENG. POET. vol. ii, p. 132. 4to. 1778.

great applause. In the same year his comedy, entitled AMPHITRYON, was not less successful.

The opera of KING ARTHUR appears to have been written before the death of Charles the Second, though it was not performed till 1691, when by its own merit, and the aid of Purcell's musick, who was then greatly admired, it became a very popular entertainment. In the summer of the same year the tragedy of CLEOMENES was written; but Dryden being prevented by illness from finishing it, consigned it to the care of his friend Southerne, by whose aid it was completed, so as

"It was (says Downes) excellently adorned with scenes and machines; the musical part set by the famous Mr. Henry Purcell, and dances made by Mr. Jo. Priest. The play and musick pleased the court and city; and being well performed, 'twas very gainful to the company." Rosc. ANGL. p. 12.

Dr. Johnson's account of KING ARTHUR is incorrect; for he supposed, at first, that it had never been performed. In the third edition of his LIVES OF THE POETS, he inadvertently added a new paragraph to his account of this opera; in which he observed, that, in consequence of the alarm caused by the Duke of Monmouth's invasion, it' was performed but once: but this paragraph was evidently intended to be annexed to the account of the Opera of ALBION and ALBANIUS; though, in truth, that piece was not so hastily dismissed from the scene. See P. 187.

n. 3.

This circumstance we learn from the following passage in Southerne's Dedication of THE WIVES EXcuse, OR CUCKOLDS MAKE THEMSELVES, to the Right Ho,

to be acted, after some obstructions on political grounds,' in May, 1692; and about December,

nourable Thomas Wharton; which comedy was per formed and published in 1692:

"These, Sir, are capital objections against me; but they hit very few faults, nor have they mortified me into a despair of pleasing the more reasonable part of mankind. If Mr. Dryden's judgment goes for any thing, I have it on my side; for, speaking of this play, he has pub. lickly said, "the town was kind to SIR ANTHONY Love, I needed them only to be just to this;" and to prove there was more than friendship in his opinion, upon the credit of this play with him, falling sick last summer, he bequeathed to my care the last act of his tragedy of CLEOMENES, which, when it comes into the world, you will find to be so considerable a trust, that all the town will pardon me for defending this play, that preferred me to it. If modesty be sometimes a weakness, what I say can hardly be a crime: in a fair English trial both parties. are allowed to be heard; and, without this vanity of mentioning Mr. Dryden, I had lost the best evidence of my cause."

In the GENTLEMAN'S JOURNAL for April 1692, by Peter Motteux, I find the following paragraph relative to this piece:

"I was in hopes to have given you in this Letter an account of the acting of Dryden's CLEOMENES: it was to have appeared upon the stage on Saturday last, and you need not doubt but that the town was big with the expectation of the performance; but orders came from her Majesty to hinder its being acted; so that none can tell when it shall be played."

"I told you in my last, (says the same writer in the following month,) that none could tell when Mr. Dryden's