Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/260

 supplementary sixth volume in 1720, the whole were reissued in what may be called a standard edition, whereof D'Urfey's own songs filled the first two volumes, with a few of his poems and prologues at the end. The title of ‘An Antidote against Melancholy, made up in Pills,’ was first used in 1661. In 1704 had been issued his ‘Tales, Tragical and Comical,’ dedicated to the Duke of Argyll, six in number, and in verse, respectively adapted from Xenophon's ‘Cyropædia,’ Straparola, Machiavelli's ‘Belphegor,’ and Boccaccio. His ‘Tales, Moral and Comical,’ followed in 1706, comprising ‘The Banquet of the Gods,’ ‘Titus and Gissippus,’ ‘The Prudent Husband,’ and ‘Loyalty's Glory.’ A new ode, ‘Mars and Plutus,’ in an entertainment made for the Duke of Marlborough the same year, was but one of the innumerable loyal ditties with which he hailed the victories of the army; another being ‘The French Pride abated,’ of the same date. Two of his comedies in 1709 were intended ‘to ridicule the ridiculers of our established doctrine’ and the pretenders of his day; one was ‘The Modern Prophets,’ the other was entitled ‘The Old Mode and the New; or, the Country Miss and her Furbelow.’ Hitherto he had not fared ill, with the profits of benefit nights, but his dramatic works no longer attracted the public, and he seems to have fallen into poverty, although he had never married or indulged in prodigal expenditure. Four successive monarchs had been amused by him and had shown him personal favour. Charles II had leaned familiarly on his shoulder, holding a corner of the same sheet of music from which D'Urfey was singing the burlesque song, ‘Remember, ye Whigs, what was formerly done.’ James II had continued the friendship previously shown when he was Duke of York, and had often found benefit from the song-writer's attachment to his person, despite differences in religious opinions. D'Urfey wrote ‘An Elegy upon Charles II and a Panegyric on James II’ in 1685. William and Mary gave solid marks of favour, D'Urfey writing ‘Gloriana, a funeral Pindarique Ode,’ in Mary's memory, 1695. Queen Anne delighted in his wit, and gave him fifty guineas when she admitted him to sing to her at supper, because he lampooned the Princess Sophia (then next in succession to herself), by his ditty, ‘The Crown's too weighty for shoulders of 'Eighty!’ The Earl of Dorset had welcomed him at Knole Park, and had his portrait painted there. He was often at the Saturday reception of poets at Leicester House. At Winchendon, Buckinghamshire, Philip, duke of Wharton, enjoyed his company and erected a banqueting-house in the garden, called Brimmer Hall, chiefly on his account. He sang his own songs, with vivacity, most effectively, although he stammered in ordinary speech. He said, ‘The Town may da-da-da-m me as a poet, but they sing my songs for all that.’ Writing to Henry Cromwell, 10 April 1710, Alexander Pope mentions the having ‘learned without book a song of Mr. D'Urfey's, who is your only poet of tolerable reputation in this country. He makes all the merriment in our entertainments. Any man of any quality is heartily welcome to the best toping-table of our gentry who can roundly hum out some fragments or rhapsodies of his works. … Dares any one despise him who has made so many men drink? … But give me your ancient poet, Mr. D'Urfey’ (, Correspondence, v. infra). Pope refers to D'Urfey in the ‘Dunciad,’ bk. iii. lines 145–148, when addressing Ned Ward, ‘Another D'Urfey, Ward, shall sing in thee!’ He also wrote ‘a drolling prologue’ for what was said to be D'Urfey's last play. When Rowe died, in 1718, Arbuthnot wrote to Swift: ‘I would fain have Pope get a patent for the [laureate's] place, with a power of putting D'Urfey in as deputy.’ Gay mentions that Tom ran his muse with what was long a favourite racing song, ‘To horse, brave boys, to Newmarket, to horse!’ (first printed in 1684 in D'Urfey's Choice New Songs). Addison or Steele praises the same song, but D'Urfey wrote another Newmarket song, ‘The Golden Age is come!’ which was sung before Charles II. ‘Mr. Dryden's boy’ had been talked about, but Tom D'Urfey ‘was the last English poet who appeared in the streets attended by a page’ (Notes to the Dunciad). D'Urfey fell into distress, soon after he had produced his song on ‘The Moderate Man,’ although ‘living in a blooming old age, that still promises many musical productions; for if I am not mistaken,’ says Joseph Addison [q. v.], ‘our British swan will sing to the last.’ A friendly notice on Thursday, 28 May 1713, in No. 67 of the ‘Guardian,’ brought before the public the condition of their ‘good old friend and contemporary.’ Addison and Sir Richard Steele, whose affection for D'Urfey was the stronger, induced the managers of Drury Lane to devote 15 June 1713 to a performance of D'Urfey's ‘Fond Husband; or, the Plotting Sisters,’ a comedy which Charles II had witnessed thrice out of the first five nights. Steele had in No. 82 of the ‘Guardian’ written to remind his readers ‘that on this day, being the 15th of June, “The Plotting Sisters” is to be acted for the benefit of the