16 The LIFE of the

Th« Pleasure he gave in his Conversation was a Snareto him ; for his Mirth increasing with his Liquor, manyPersons of Quality, his Friends, promoted the Glass, tohis Detriment, for their own Satisfaction. It is certain,that in his natural Temper, when sober, he was a good-natured Man, and had not that Allay of Malice, whichinmanyThingshediscovered, when heated by a Debauch.He had a particular Pique to Mr. Dryden, after hismighty Success in the Town ; either, because he was sen-sible that he deserved not that Applause for his Tragedies,which the mad unthinking Audience gave them, (whichCorruptness of Taste was afterwards somewhat correctedby the Duke of Buckingham’s Rehearsal) or whetherit was out of Indignation at being rivalled in Reputation ;either as a Poet in general, or a Satirist in particular; Sa-tire, indeed, being one of the chief Excellencies of Mr.Dryden, as well as of my Lord Rochester. TheEffect of this was discovered, by his Lordship’s setting upMr. Crown in Opposition to Mr. Dryden. He re-commended him to the King, ordering him to compose aMasque * for the Court, when it was the Business of thePoet-Laureat. But when Mr. Crown’s Destruftion of‘ Jerusalem -j- had met with as wild and unaccountableSuccess as MnDryden’s Conquest of Granada, his Lord-ship withdrew his Favours, as if he would be still in Con-tradiction to the Town; and, in that, perhaps, he wasgenerally in the right; for of all Audiences, in politeNations, perhaps there is not one that judges so very falselyof the Drama as the English, unless it be the Spaniards,who seem to have much the same wild, injudicious Taste.This the incomparable Cervantes has shewn in his in-

• * It nxas entitled, C A LI S T O: Or, The ChasteNymph. Perform'd in the Tear 1675.

t 1677.

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