d daring, and much more difficult
to sympathize with, than the graver conceits in his panegyric of the
Protector. In _Annus Mirabilis_ the poet apostrophizes the newly founded
Royal Society, of which he had been elected a member in 1662.

From the reopening of the theatres in 1666 till November 1681, the date
of his _Absalom and Achitophel_, Dryden produced nothing but plays. The
stage was his chief source of income. _Secret Love, or the Maiden
Queen_, a tragi-comedy, produced in March 1667, was based on an episode
in the _Artamene, ou le Grand Cyrus_ of Mlle de Scudery, the historical
original of the "Maiden Queen" being Christina, queen of Sweden. The
prologue claims that the piece is written with pains and thought, by the
exactest rules, with strict observance of the unities, and "a mingled
chime of Jonson's humour and of Corneille's rhyme"; but it owed its
success chiefly to the charm of Nell Gwyn's acting in the part of
Florimel. It is noticeable that only the more passionate parts of the
dialogue are rhymed, Dryden's theory apparently being that rhyme is then
demanded for the elevation of the style. His next play, _Sir Martin
Mar-all, or the Feigned Innocence_, an adaptation in prose of the duke
of Newcastle's translation of Moliere's _L'Etourdi_, was produced at the
Duke's theatre, without the author's name, in 1667. It was about this
time that Dryden became a retained writer under contract for the King's
theatre, receiving from it L300 or L400 a year, till it was burnt down
in 1672, and about L200 for six years more till the beginning of 1678.
His co-operation with Davenant in a new version (1667) of Shakespeare's
_Tempest_--for his share in which Dryden can hardly be pardoned on the
ground that the chief alterations were happy thoughts of Davenant's,
seeing that he affirms he never worked at anything with more
delight--must also be supposed to be anterior to the completion of his
contract with the Theatre Royal. He was engaged to write three plays a
year, and he contributed only ten plays during the ten years of his
engagement, finally exhausting the patience of his partners by joining
in the composition of a play for the rival house. In adapting
_L'Etourdi_, Dryden did not catch Moliere's lightness of touch; his
alterations go towards making the comedy into a farce. Perhaps all the
more on this account _Sir Martin Mar-all_ had a great run at the theatre
in Lincoln's Inn Fields. There is always a certain coarsen