STATE OF ENGLAND IN 1685 .

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representation of the Squire of Alsatia.* The consequencewas that every man who had to live by his wit wrote plays,whether he had any internal vocation to write plays or not.It was thus with Dryden. As a satirist he has rivalled Juvenal.As a didactic poet he perhaps might, with care and medita-tion, have rivalled Lucretius. Of lyric poets he is, if not themost sublime, the most brilliant and spirit-stirring. But na-ture, profuse to him of many rare gifts, had denied him thedramatic faculty. Nevertheless all the energies of his bestyears were wasted on dramatic composition. He had toomuch judgment not to be aware that in the power of exhibit-ing character by means of dialogue he was deficient. Thatdeficiency he did his best to conceal, sometimes by sur-prising and amusing incidents, sometimes by stately de-clamation, sometimes by harmonious numbers, sometimesby ribaldry but too well suited to the taste of a profane andlicentious pit. Yet he never obtained any theatrical successequal to that which rewarded the exertions of some men farinferior to him in general powers. He thought himself for-tunate if he cleared a hundred guineas by a play; a scantyremuneration, yet apparently larger than he could haveearned in any other way by the same quantity of labour.**

The recompense which the wits of that age could obtainfrom the public was so small, that they were under the ne-cessity of eking out their incomes by levying contributions onthe great. Every rich and good-natured lord was pestered byauthors with a mendicancy so importunate, and a flattery soabject, as may in our time seem incredible. The patron towhom a work was inscribed was expected to reward the writerwith a purse of gold. The fee paid for the dedication of abook was often much larger than the sum which any publisherwould give for the copyright. Books were therefore fre-

* Some Account of the English Stage.

** Life of Southern, by Shiels.

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