"If this to thy necessityes wee ow,

O, may they greater still and greater grow!

Nor blame the wish; Plautus could write in chaines,
Wee'll blesse thy wants, while wee enjoy thy pains.
Wealth makes the poet lazy, nor can fame,

That gay attendant of a spritely flame,

A Dorset or a Wycherly invite,

Because they feel no pinching wants, to write.
Go on endenizon the Romane slave;
Let an eternal spring adorne his grave;
His ghost would gladly all his fame submitt
To thy strong judgment and thy piercing witt.
Purged by thy hand, he speaks immortall sense,
And pleases all with modish excellence.
Nor would we have thee live on empty praise
The while, for, though we cann't restore the bays,
While thou writ'st thus,-to pay thy merites due,
Wee 'll give the claret and the pension too."

Milbourne concludes, by desiring to be supplied with such of our author's writings, as he had not already, to be sent to Yarmouth in Norfolk, where he probably had then a living.

Amphitryon" was produced in the same year with “ Don Sebastian ;" and although it cannot be called altogether an original performance, yet it contains so much original writing as to show that our author's vein of poetry was, in his advanced age, distinguished by the same rapid fluency as when he first began to write for the stage.

This comedy was acted and printed in 1690. It was very favourably received; and continued long to be what is called a stock-play.

[I do not think that Scott has quite fully stated the advantages which remain to Dryden after a perusal of the three Amphitryons. It is probable that in point of absolute originality there is not much to choose between them, for Plautus must pretty certainly have had a model. The Roman poet is the most humorous of the three, as Molière is the most decent in treating a situation where to be decent without being dull is a proof of consummate art. But in the life and bustle proper to comedy Dryden excels both his formidable predecessors, and two particular innovations of his, the introduction of Judge Gripus, and the separation of the parts of Sosia's wife and Alcmena's handmaid are exceedingly happy. It should perhaps be observed that to speak of Dryden's play as a mere adaptation of Molière's, as both French and German writers not uncommonly do, is an

entire mistake; and those who make it can hardly have read both pieces, or, if they have done this, can hardly have read Plautus.

The Music of the songs, which appears in the original, is not given by Scott; it is here added, as likely to be interesting.-ED.]

ΤΟ

THE HONOURABLE

SIR WILLIAM LEVESON GOWER,

BARONET.*

But

THERE is one kind of virtue which is inborn in the nobility, and indeed in most of the ancient families of this nation; they are not apt to insult on the misfortunes of their countrymen. you, sir, I may tell it you without flattery, have grafted on this natural commiseration, and raised it to a nobler virtue. As you have been pleased to honour me, for a long time, with some part of

* This gentleman united in his person the ancient families of Gower and Leveson. He was second son of Sir Thomas Gower, Bart., and succeeded to the title and estate, by the death of his nephew, Sir Edward Gower, in the year before. He was a keen Whig, and distinguished himself, both by his attachment to Monmouth and his zeal for the Revolution; but his alliance with Lawrence Earl of Rochester, whose eldest son, Lord Hyde, had married his daughter, might smooth our poet's access to his favour; since Rochester is distinguished as his constant patron. Dryden also refers to former passages of intimacy between him and Sir William. Above all, we are to suppose that, in admiration of our author's poetical talents, Sir William Gower was capable of drowning every unfavourable recollection of his political tenets. Sir William Leveson Gower is ancestor of the present Marquis of Stafford [i.e. of the Duke of Sutherland.-ED.].

your esteem, and your good-will; so, in particular, since the late Revolution, you have increased the proofs of your kindness to me; and not suffered the difference of opinions, which produce such hatred and enmity in the brutal part of humankind, to remove you from the settled basis of your good nature, and good sense. This nobleness of yours, had it been exercised on an enemy, had certainly been a point of honour, and as such I might have justly recommended it to the world; but that of constancy to your former choice, and the pursuance of your first favours, are virtues not over common amongst Englishmen. All things of honour have, at best, somewhat of ostentation in them, and self-love; there is a pride of doing more than is expected from us, and more than others would have done. to proceed in the same tract of goodness, favour, and protection, is to show that a man is acted by a thorough principle: it carries somewhat of tenderness in it, which is humanity in a heroical degree; it is a kind of unmovable good nature; a word which is commonly despised, because it is so seldom practised. But, after all, it is the most generous virtue, opposed to the most degenerate vice, which is that of ruggedness and harshness to our fellow-creatures.

But

It is upon this knowledge of you, sir, that I have chosen you, with your permission, to be the patron of this poem. And as, since this wonderful Revolution, I have begun with the best pattern of humanity, the Earl of Leicester, I shall continue to follow the same method, in all to whom I shall address; and endeavour to pitch on such only, as have been pleased to own me, in this ruin of my small fortune; who, though they are of a contrary opinion themselves, yet blame

not me for adhering to a lost cause, and judging for myself, what I cannot choose but judge, so long as I am a patient sufferer, and no disturber of the government. Which, if it be a severe penance, as a great wit has told the world, it is at least enjoined me by myself: and Sancho Panca, as much fool as I, was observed to discipline his body no further than he found he could endure the smart.

You see, sir, I am not entertaining you like Ovid, with a lamentable epistle from Pontus: I suffer no more than I can easily undergo; and so long as I enjoy my liberty, which is the birthright of an Englishman, the rest shall never go near my heart. The merry philosopher is more to my humour than the melancholic; and I find no disposition in myself to cry, while the mad world is daily supplying me with such occasions of laughter. The more reasonable sort of my countrymen have shown so much favour to this piece, that they give me no doubt of their protection for the future.

As you, sir, have been pleased to follow the example of their goodness, in favouring me; so give me leave to say that I follow yours, in this dedication to a person of a different persuasion. Though I must confess withal, that I have had a former encouragement from you for this address; and the warm remembrance of your noble hospitality to me, at Trentham,* when some years ago I visited my friends and relations in your country, has ever since given me a violent temptation to this boldness.

It is true, were this comedy wholly mine, I

* A noble seat in Staffordshire, inherited by Sir William Gower, from the Levesons, his maternal ancestors.