Biographies of John Dryden are so numerous and accessible that it is unnecessary here to discuss the weak points of his character. To use the mildest language possible, he was a time-server, a turncoat, and a court sycophant. He had written in praise of Oliver Cromwell, he wrote equally laudatory verses on Charles II., he had strongly defended the Protestant religion, yet within a twelvemonth of the accession of the Catholic James II. the following entry appeared in Evelyn’s Diary, January 19, 1686: “Dryden, the famous play writer, and his two sons, and Mrs. Nelly (Miss to the late King) were said to go to mass; such proselytes were no great loss to the Church.” His conversion brought him Court patronage, and in April 1687 he published a defence of his new religion in verse, entitled “_The Hind and the Panther_.” This was a long allegorical poem in which the Hind represented the Catholic Church, and the Panther the Protestant Church of England. It gave rise to much controversy, and many burlesques were written upon it, ridiculing the work, and the character of its author. The most famous of these parodies was one of exquisite humour, the joint production of Charles Montague (the future Earl of Halifax) and Matthew Prior. This was called “The Hind and the Panther Transversed to the story of the Country Mouse and the City Mouse.” The principal characters in the famous farce _The Rehearsal_, Bayes, Smith, and Johnson, were revived in this witty production, which is unfortunately much too long to reprint. Dryden’s poem commences:―― A milk white Hind, immortal and unchanged, Fed on the lawns, and in the forest ranged; Without, unspotted, innocent within, She feared no danger, for she knew no sin. Yet had she oft been chased with horns and hounds, And Scythian shafts, and many winged wounds Aimed at her heart; was often forced to fly, And doomed to death, though fated not to die. The first lines of the parody are:―― A milk-white Mouse immortal and unchanged, Fed on soft cheese, and o’er the Dairy ranged Without, unspotted; innocent within, She feared no Danger, for she knew no gin. Yet had she oft been scor’d by bloody claws Of winged owls, and stern Grimalkin’s Paws Aim’d at her destin’d Head, which made her fly, Tho’ she was doomed to death, and fated not to die. * * * * * [Illustration] ALEXANDER POPE. BORN May 21, 1688. | DIED May 30, 1744.