[60] In the year 1672, Monsieur Schomberg was invited into England to command the army raised for the Dutch war, then encamped on Blackheath. He was to be joined in this command with Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who held a commission of lieutenant-general only. But when Schomberg arrived, he refused to serve equally with Buckingham, and was made general; on which the other resigned his commission in disgust. (See Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham’s _Memoirs_, p. 5.) Dryden, still smarting under the “Rehearsal,” just then come out, was probably not sorry to take this opportunity to turn the author’s pretensions into ridicule. [61] Eight thousand land forces were embarked on board the English fleet to make a descent in Zealand. [62] Sir John Eaton was a noted writer of songs at the time. [63] Mr Malone conjectures Tregonwell Frampton, keeper of the royal stud at Newmarket; who was born in 1641, and died in 1727. Brother John must remain in obscurity. [64] Probably the grandson of Sir George Hume, created Earl of Dunbar by James the First, in 1605. [65] Henry Brouncker, younger brother of William, Viscount Brouncker. He was a gentleman of the Duke of York’s bed-chamber, and carried the false order to slacken sail, after the great battle in 1665, when the Duke was asleep, by which the advantage gained in the victory was entirely lost. There is a great cloud over the story; but that Brouncker was an infamous character, must be concluded on all hands. He was expelled the House of Commons; and countenanced by the king more than he deserved, being “never notorious for any thing but the highest degree of impudence, and stooping to the most infamous offices.” --Continuation of Clarendon’s Life, quoted by Malone. [66] Aubery de Vere, the twentieth and last Earl of Oxford, of that family. This nobleman seduced an eminent actress (said, by some authorities, to be Mrs Marshall, but conjectured, by Mr Malone, to have been Mrs Davenport,) to exchange her profession for his protection. The epithet, applied to him in the lines, renders it improbable that he imposed on her by a mock-marriage, though the story is told by Count Hamilton, and others. [67] The Prologue and Epilogue in question may have been those spoken by Mr Hart and Mrs Marshall, (Vol. X. p. 328). But, in this case, the date of their being delivered has been placed too late. Exact accuracy is of little consequence; but I fear the hint in the letter gives some reason for Tom Brown’s alleging, that Dryden flattered alternately the wits of the town at the cost of the university, and the university scholars at the expence of the London audience. I cry that facetious person mercy, for having said there was no proof of his accusation. See Vol. X. p. 113. [68] There is no address or superscription. [69] John Dryden admitted a King’s scholar in 1682. [70] This letter from Lady Elizabeth Dryden seems to have been written at the same time, and on the same subject: