d still resolve to live and die in rhyme;
Such as your ears with love and honour feast,
And play at crambo for three hours at least,
That fight and wooe in verse in the same breath,
And make similitude and love in death."
Whatever symptoms of reconciliation afterwards took place between the
poets, I greatly doubt if this first offence was ever cordially
forgiven.
[18] Vol. vii.
[19] See these offensive passages, vol. x.
[20] Vol. x.
[21]
"The laurel makes a wit, a brave, the sword;
And all are wise men at the Council board:
Settle's a coward, 'cause fool Otway fought him,
And Mulgrave is a wit, because I taught him."
_The Tory Poets_, 4to, 1682.
[22] Jonson is described as wearing a loose coachman's coat, frequenting
the Mermaid tavern, where he drunk seas of Canary, then reeling home to
bed, and, after a profuse perspiration, arising to his dramatic studies.
Shadwell appears, from the slight traits which remain concerning him, to
have followed, as closely as possible, the same course of pleasure and
of study. He was brutal in his conversation, and much addicted to the
use of opium, to which indeed he is said finally to have fallen a
victim.
[23] [I have inserted the word "first" because Scott's language is
ambiguous. In the list of the bookseller's collection in _3_ vols. 4to,
advertised in _Amphitryon_ (1690), "Mac-Flecknoe" and the Cromwell poem
do not appear. The later plays, however, soon gave material for another
volume, and in this 4-vol. edition, advertised in _Love Triumphant_,
1694, both poems figure.--ED.]
[24] Vol. x.
[25] See some specimens of these poems, vol. ix.
[26] Vol. vi.; vol. x
[27] In a satire against Settle, dated April 1682, entitled, "A
Character of the True-blue Protestant Poet," the author exclaims, "One
would believe it almost incredible, that any out of Bedlam should think
it possible, a yesterday's fool, an errant knave, a despicable coward,
and a prophane atheist, should be to-day by the same persons, a Cowley,
a man of honour, an hero, and a zealous upholder of the Protestant cause
and interest."
[28] In the "Deliverance," an address to the Prince of Orange, published
about 9th February 1689:--
"Alas! the famous Settle, Durfey, Tate,
That early propped the deep intrigues of state,
Dull Whiggish lines the world could ne'er applaud,
While your swift genius did appear abroad:
And then, great Bayes, whose yet unconquered pen
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