e defended himself in eight letters addressed to Mr. Moyle, and
we can only say of them, that, if anything, they are yet coarser than
the plays he would excuse.

The works of the young Templar, and his connection with Betterton,
introduced him to all the writers and wits of his day. He and Vanbrugh,
though rivals, were fellow-workers, and our glorious Haymarket Theatre,
which has gone on at times when Drury and Covent Garden have been in
despair, owes its origin to their confederacy. But Vanbrugh's theatre
was on the site of the present Opera House, and _the_ Haymarket was set
up as a rival concern. Vanbrugh's was built in 1705, and met the usual
fate of theatres, being burnt down some eighty-four years after. It is
curious enough that this house, destined for the 'legitimate
drama'--often a very illegitimate performance--was opened by an opera
set to _Italian_ music, so that 'Her Majesty's' has not much departed
from the original cast of the place.

Perhaps Congreve's best friend was Dryden. This man's life and death are
pretty well known, and even his funeral has been described time and
again. But Corinna--as she was styled--gave of the latter an account
which has been called romantic, and much discredited. There is a deal of
characteristic humour in her story of the funeral, and as it has long
been lost sight of, it may not be unpalatable here: Dryden died on
May-day, 1701, and Lord Halifax[16] undertook to give his body a
_private_ funeral in Westminster Abbey.

'On the Saturday following,' writes Corinna, 'the Company came. The
Corps was put into a Velvet Hearse, and eighteen Mourning Coaches filled
with Company attending. When, just before they began to move, Lord
Jeffreys, with some of his rakish Companions, coming by, in Wine, ask'd
whose Funeral? And being told; "What!" cries he, "shall Dryden, the
greatest Honour and Ornament of the Nation, be buried after this private
Manner? No, Gentlemen! let all that lov'd Mr. Dryden, and honour his
Memory, alight, and join with me in gaining my Lady's Consent, to let me
have the Honour of his Interment, which shall be after another manner
than this, and I will bestow L1000 on a Monument in the Abbey for him."
The Gentlemen in the Coaches, not knowing of the Bishop of Rochester's
Favour, nor of Lord Halifax's generous Design (these two noble Spirits
having, out of Respect to the Family, enjoin'd Lady Elsabeth and her Son
to keep their Favour concealed to the World, and l