[64] His conversation is thus characterised by a contemporary writer: "O, Sir, there's a medium in all things. Silence and chat are distant enough, to have a convenient discourse come between them; and thus far I agree with you, that the company of the author of 'Absalom and Achitophel' is more valuable, though not so talkative, than that of the modern men of _banter_; for what he says is like what he writes, much to the purpose, and full of mighty sense; and if the town were for anything desirable, it were for the conversation of him, and one or two more of the same character."--_The Humours and Conversation of the Town exposed, in two Dialogues_, 1693, p. 73 [65] [This story is probably as old as the first married pair of whom the husband was studious. It certainly appears without names in the _Historiettes_ of Tallemant des Réaux, most of which were written five years before Dryden's marriage.--ED] [66] "When Dryden, our first great master of verse and harmony, brought his play of 'Amphitryon' to the stage, I heard him give it his first reading to the actors; in which, though it is true he delivered the plain sense of every period, yet the whole was in so cold, so flat, and unaffecting a manner, that I am afraid of not being believed, when I affirm it."--_Cibber's Apology_, 4to. [67] [Transcriber's note: "See page 112" in original. This is to be found in Section III.] [68] Vol. xviii. [69] "I find (says Gildon) Mr. Bayes, the younger [Rowe], has two qualities, like Mr. Bayes, the elder; his admiration of some odd books, as 'Reynard the Fox,' and the old ballads of 'Jane Shore,' etc."-- _Remarks on Mr. Rome's Plays_. "Reynard the Fox" is also mentioned in "The Town and Country Mouse," as a favourite book of Dryden. And Addison, in the 85th number of the Spectator, informs us, that Dorset and Dryden delighted in perusing the collection of old ballads which the latter possessed. [70] Vol. xviii. [71] It is now No. 43. [72] Vol. vii. [73] [The unfavourable accounts of Lady Elizabeth's temper after marriage are not much better founded than those of her maidenly or unmaidenly conduct before it. Dryden's supposed to almost all his contemporaries in _belles-lettres_. There is no sign in his letters of any conjugal unhappiness, and Malone's "respectable authority" is family gossip a century after date.--ED.] [74] [Transcriber's note: "P. 85" in original. This is to be found in Section II.] [75] These are--1. Latin verses prefixed to Lord Roscommon's Essay on Translated Verse. 2. Latin verses on the Death of Charles II., published in the Cambridge collection of Elegies on that occasion. 3. A poem in the same language, upon Lord Arlington's Gardens, published in the Second Miscellany. 4. A translation of the seventh Satire of Juvenal, mentioned in the text. 5. An English poem, on the Happiness of a Retired Life. 6. A pretty song, printed by Mr. Malone, to which Charles Dryden also composed music.