Page:Lives of Poets-Laureate.djvu/181

Rh printed at the end of some of our English Bibles. If Achitophel signify the brother of a fool, the author of that poem will pass with his readers for the next of kin; and perhaps it is the relation that makes the kindness. Whatever the verses are, buy them, I pray you, out of pity; for I hear the conventicle is shut up, and the brother of Achitophel out of service."

Dryden had waged hostilities with Settle. He was now brought into collision with Shadwell, with whom he had before been on seemingly good terms, in spite of some diversity of tastes. "MacFlecnoe," the bitterest personal invective that has ever been penned, was the result of this quarrel.

We shall say more of this contest in the life of that poet. Dryden spared him neither in verse or prose. On Shadwell's publishing "Reflections on the Pretended Parallel in the Play called 'The Duke of Guise, Dryden speaks of him thus: "Og may write against the King if he pleases, so long as he drinks for him, and his writings will never do the Government so much harm, as his drinking does it good; for true subjects will not be much perverted by his libels; but the wine-duties rise considerably by his claret. He has often called me an atheist in print; I would believe more charitably of him, and that he only goes the broad way, because the other is too narrow for him."

It was at this time that Dryden wrote his biographical preface to the translation of Plutarch's Lives, which then appeared, and translated at the King's request Maimbourg's "History of the League." He was also employed in writing "Albion and Albanius," to celebrate Charles's victory over the Whigs. When that monarch died, and James II. ascended the throne, Dryden immediately wrote his "Threnodia Augustalis," in which