e debaucheries of the cavaliers of Charles
I. were as nothing in comparison with the lewdness and filth of the court
of Charles II. To say that he brought in French fashions and customs, is
to do injustice to the French: there never was a viler court in Europe
than his own. It is but in accordance with our historical theory that the
literature should partake of and represent the new condition of things;
and the most remarkable illustrations of this are to be found in the works
of Dryden.

It may indeed with truth be said that we have now reached the most
absolute of the literary types of English history. There was no great
event, political or social, which is not mirrored in his poems; no
sentiment or caprice of the age which does not there find expression; no
kingly whim which he did not prostitute his great powers to gratify; no
change of creed, political or religious, of which he was not the
recorder--few indeed, where royal favor was concerned, to which he was not
the convert. To review the life of Dryden himself, is therefore to enter
into the chronicle and philosophy of the times in which he lived. With
this view, we shall dwell at some length upon his character and works.

EARLY LIFE.--Dryden was born on the 10th of August, 1631, and died on the
1st of May, 1700. He lived, therefore, during the reign of Charles I., the
interregnum of Parliament, the protectorate of Cromwell, the restoration
and reign of Charles II., and the reign of James II.; he saw and suffered
from the accession of William and Mary--a wonderful and varied volume in
English history. And of all these Dryden was, more than any other man, the
literary type. He was of a good family, and was educated at Westminster
and Cambridge, where he gave early proofs of his literary talents.

His father, a zealous Presbyterian, had reared his children in his own
tenets; we are not therefore astonished to find that his earliest poetical
efforts are in accordance with the political conditions of the day. He
settled in London, under the protection of his kinsman, Sir Gilbert
Pickering, who was afterward one of the king's judges in 1649, and one of
the council of eight who controlled the kingdom after Charles lost his
head. As secretary to Sir Gilbert, young Dryden learned to scan the
political horizon, and to aspire to preferment.

CROMWELL'S DEATH, AND DRYDEN'S MONODY.--But those who had depended upon
Cromwell, forgot that he was not England, and that his