The Works of John Dryden, Vol. II | Page 2

the politer arts.
And these are the qualities, my Lord, by which you are more

distinguished, than by all those other uncommon advantages, with
which you are attended. Your great disposition, your great ability to be
beneficent to mankind, could by no means answer that end, if you were
not possessed of a judgment to direct you in the right application and
just distribution of your good offices.
You are now in a station, by which you necessarily preside over the
liberal arts, and all the practisers and professors of them. Poetry is more
particularly within your province; and with very good reason may we
hope to see it revive and flourish under your influence and protection.
What hopes of reward may not the living deserver entertain, when even
the dead are sought out for, and their very urns and ashes made
partakers of your liberality?
As I have the honour to be known to you, my Lord, and to have been
distinguished by you by many expressions and instances of your
goodwill towards me, I take a singular pleasure to congratulate you
upon an action so entirely worthy of you. And as I had the happiness to
be very conversant, and as intimately acquainted with Mr Dryden as the
great disproportion in our years could allow me to be, I hope it will not
be thought too assuming in me, if, in love to his memory, and in
gratitude for the many friendly offices, and favourable instructions,
which, in my early youth, I received from him, I take upon me to make
this public acknowledgment to your Grace, for so public a testimony,
as you are pleased to give to the world, of that high esteem, in which
you hold the performances of that eminent man.
I can, in some degree, justify myself for so doing, by a citation of a
kind of right to it, bequeathed to me by him. And it is, indeed, upon
that pretension, that I presume even to make a dedication of these his
works to you.
In some very elegant, though very partial, verses, which he did me the
honour to write to me, he recommended it to me to _be kind to his
remains_[2].
[Footnote 2: These are the affecting lines referred to.
Already I am worn with cares and age, And just abandoning th'
ungrateful stage; Unprofitably kept at heaven's expense, I live a
rent-charge on his providence. But you, whom every muse and grace
adorn, Whom I foresee to better fortune born, Be kind to my remains;
and, O! defend, Against your judgment, your departed friend: Let not

the insulting foe my fame pursue, But shade those laurels which
descend to you; And take, for tribute, what these lines express: You
merit more, nor could my love do less.
Epistle to MR CONGREVE]
I was then, and have been ever since, most sensibly touched with that
expression; and the more so, because I could not find in myself the
means of satisfying the passion which I felt in me, to do something
answerable to an injunction laid upon me in so pathetic and so amicable
a manner.
You, my Lord, have furnished me with ample means of acquitting
myself, both of my duty and obligation to my departed friend. What
kinder office lies in me to do to these, his most valuable and
imperishable remains, than to commit them to the protection, and lodge
them under the roof, of a patron, whose hospitality has extended itself
even to his dust?
If I would permit myself to run on in the way which so fairly opens
itself before me, I should tire your Grace with reiterated praises and
acknowledgments; and I might possibly (notwithstanding my pretended
right so to do) give some handle to such, who are inclinable to censure,
to tax me of affectation and officiousness, in thanking you, more than
comes to my share, for doing a thing, which is, in truth, of a public
consideration, as it is doing an honour to your country. For so
unquestionably it is, to do honour to him, who was an honour to it.
I have but one thing to say, either to obviate or to answer such an
objection, if it shall be made to me, which is, that I loved Mr Dryden.
I have not touched upon any other public honour or bounty, done by
you to your country. I have industriously declined entering upon a
theme of so extensive a nature; and of all your numerous and continual
largesses to the public, I have only singled out this, as what most
particularly affected me. I confess freely to your Grace, I very much
admire all those other donations, but I much more love this; and I
cannot help it, if I