Page:The Review of English Studies Vol 1.djvu/97

Rh It will be noticed that Wood makes no such positive statement as Malone’s note suggests, and his description of the size of the tract induces one to think that he had never seen it.

The weight of Scott’s judgment is not needed to fortify one in describing these Reflections as drivel, and it is very difficult to understand how any one who had struggled through the piece could contemplate the possibility of its production being in any, even the slightest, degree due to George Villiers, who, disreputable blackguard as he was, was admitted on all hands to be a man of wit and ability. In this connexion, moreover, what Dryden himself says must not be overlooked: “The character of Zimri,” he writes, “in my Absalom, is in my Opinion, worth the whole Poem: ’Tis not bloody, but ’tis ridiculous enough. And he for whom it was intended was too witty to regard it as an injury.” If the Duke had been in any way responsible for the Reflections, it is improbable that Dryden would not have been aware of the fact, and being aware of it, he could hardly have written as he has, unless indeed it is to be said that Zimri had only one way of resenting such an injury open to him, that is by means of personal violence.

The Miscellaneous Works of His Grace, George Villiers, Late Duke of Buckingham were published in various editions from 1704 onwards, and though the volumes in which they appeared were filled with all sorts of odds and ends of other people’s composition, this piece was never included among them. My own copy of it has inscribed on the title-page in a contemporary hand, “Howard Esqr.”: it is more than likely that “dull Ned,” one of Dryden’s brothers-in-law, was the author of it.

Curious inquiries, involving calculations as to the contemporary value of money and of guineas in particular, have been made into Dryden’s financial position at various periods of his life. I have in my possession the original “Book of Expenses” of Thomas, son of Sir Robert Howard, Dryden’s nephew by marriage, in which, under date “Jan. 16, 169$1⁄2$” is this entry:

“Pd Lady Elizabeth Driden in Charitye … 005.00.00.”