universities, all operated, during the civil wars and succeeding
usurpation, to check the pursuits of the poet, by withdrawing that
public approbation, which is the best, and often the sole, reward of his
labour. There was, at this time, a sort of interregnum in the public
taste, as well as in its government. The same poets were no doubt alive
who had distinguished themselves at the court of Charles: but Cowley and
Denham were exiled with their sovereign; Waller was awed into silence,
by the rigour of the puritanic spirit; and even the muse of Milton was
scared from him by the clamour of religious and political controversy,
and only returned, like a sincere friend, to cheer the adversity of one
who had neglected her during his career of worldly importance.[14]

During this period, the most unfavourable to literature which had
occurred for at least two centuries, Dryden, the subject of this memoir,
was gradually and silently imbibing those stores of learning, and
cultivating that fancy which was to do so much to further the
reformation of taste and poetry. It is now time to state his descent and
parentage.

The name of Dryden is local, and probably originated in the north of
England, where, as well as in the neighbouring counties of Scotland, it
frequently occurs, though it is not now borne by any person of
distinction. David Driden, or Dryden, married the daughter of William
Nicholson of Staff-hill, in the county of Cumberland and was the
great-great-grandfather of our poet. John Dryden, eldest son of David,
settled in Northamptonshire, where he acquired the estate of
Canons-Ashby, by marriage with Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir
John Cope of that county. Wood says, that John Dryden was by profession
a schoolmaster, and honoured with the friendship of the great Erasmus,
who stood godfather to one of his sons.[15] He appears, from some