Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/260

Caryl and at the same time zealous for the covenant. In 1645 he was appointed minister of the church of St. Magnus, near London Bridge. For a considerable number of years he discharged the duties of this sphere with great zeal and success, being especially esteemed as an expositor of Scripture. Among other work committed to him at this time, he was appointed by the parliament, along with Stephen Marshall, chaplain to the commissioners who were sent to the king at Holmby House in order to arrange terms of peace. The chaplains never had a chance of influencing the king, not being even invited to say grace at meals, which the king always did himself. Caryl and John Owen were afterwards nominated to attend Oliver Cromwell in his journey to Scotland. Caryl was also one of the triers for judging of the qualifications of ministers of the gospel. After the restoration of Charles II, Caryl was ejected from the church of St. Magnus by the Act of Uniformity in 1662. He continued, however, to live in London, and he does not seem to have been interfered with in gathering a congregation in the neighbourhood of his former charge. In this he was so successful that when he died the number of communicants was 136. He died 10 March 1672–3 at his house in Bury Street. On his death his congregation chose Dr. John Owen as his successor, uniting with a previous flock of Dr. Owen's. Another of his successors was Dr. Isaac Watts, for whom the congregation built a new meeting-house in Bury Street, near St. Mary Axe.

About a dozen of Caryl's sermons were published separately, preached on public occasions before the commons, the lords, or both houses, or before the lord mayor. But the great work of Caryl was his ‘Commentary on the Book of Job.’ The first edition was in 12 vols. 4to (1651–66); the second in 2 vols. folio (1676–7); and the work has always commanded a high character for sound judgment, extensive learning, and fervent piety. It ranks with other great puritan commentaries—Greenhill on Ezekiel, Burroughs on Hosea, or Owen on the Hebrews. After his death a volume of posthumous sermons was published with preface by Dr. Owen. He was one of the authors of an English Greek lexicon for the New Testament (1661), and of ‘Saints' Memorials, or words fitly spoken, like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver.’

 CARYLL, JOHN, titular (1625–1711), diplomatist and poet, came of an ancient Roman catholic family, which had been settled, from the close of the sixteenth century, at West Harting in Sussex. His father, John Caryll, was a royalist, who suffered fine for his opinions; his mother was Catharine, daughter of Lord Petre. He was partly educated at St. Omer. Succeeding to a fair estate, and endowed with a literary taste, he figures among the minor poets of Charles II's reign as the author of a few plays and other pieces. He is briefly noticed by Macaulay (History, ch. vi.) as ‘known to his contemporaries as a man of fortune and fashion, and as the author of two successful plays.’ The first of these plays was ‘The English Princess, or the Death of Richard III, a tragedy, written in the year 1666, and acted at his Highness the Duke of York's Theatre.’ Pepys saw it acted on 7 March 1667, ‘a most sad, melancholy play, and pretty good, but nothing eminent in it, as some tragedys are.’ The other was a comedy, in imitation of Molière's ‘Ecole des Femmes,’ which was published in 1671, with the title, ‘Sir Salomon, or the Cautious Coxcomb; a comedy, as it is acted at his Royal Highness the Duke of York's Theatre.’ In ‘Ovid's Epistles, translated by several hands,’ first published in 1680, Caryll appears as the author of the ‘Epistle of Briseis to Achilles;’ and in the collection of ‘Miscellany Poems,’ put forth by Dryden in 1683, he is the translator of the First Eclogue of Virgil, and the writer of a short copy of verses on the Earl of Shaftesbury, entitled ‘The Hypocrite,’ and dated 1678 (see, Select Collection of Poems, 1780, ii. 1, iii. 205). The earlier editors of Pope identified Caryll with his nephew, John Caryll [q. v.], Pope's friend—an error in which they have been followed by Macaulay.

As a Roman catholic, and probably also on account of his connection with the Duke of York, he fell under suspicion in the panic of the popish plot, and was committed to the Tower in 1679, but was soon released on bail. When James ascended the throne in 1685, Caryll was selected as the English agent at the court of Rome, where, says Macaulay, he ‘acquitted himself of his delicate errand with good sense and good feeling. The business confided to him was well done; but he assumed no public character, and carefully avoided all display. His mission therefore put the government to scarcely any charge, and excited scarcely any murmurs.’ He was recalled in 1686, to make room for Lord Castlemaine. On his return, Caryll was appointed secretary to the queen, Mary of