the more
violently they write; as Lucifer and his companions were only proud
when angels, but grew malicious when devils. Let them rail, since it
is the only solace of their miseries, and the only revenge which, we
hope, they now can take. The greatest and the best of men are above
their reach; and, for our meanness, though they assault us like
footpads in the dark, their blows have done us little harm: we yet
live to justify ourselves in open day, to vindicate our loyalty to
the government, and to assure your lordship, with all submission and
sincerity, that we are

YOUR LORDSHIP'S
Most obedient, faithful servants,
JOHN DRYDEN.
NAT. LEE.

Footnotes:
1. Lawrence Hyde, created Earl of Rochester in 1682, was the second
son of the famous Lord Clarendon, and affords a rare instance of
the son of a disgraced minister recovering that favour at court,
which had been withdrawn from his father. He was now at the head of
the Commissioners for the Treasury, and a patron of our poet; as
appears from the terms of Dryden's letter, soliciting his interest
in very affecting terms, and from the subsequent dedication of
"Cleomenes," where he acknowledges his lordship's goodness during
the reign of two masters; and that, even from a bare treasury, his
success was contrary to that of Mr Cowley; Gideon's fleece having
been moistened, when all the ground was dry around it. The Earl of
Rochester was the more proper patron for the "Duke of Guise," as he
was a violent opponent of the bill of exclusion. He was Lord High
Treasurer in the reign of James II., and died in 1711.

2. Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, then Lord Chamberlain.

3. Dryden seems here to allude to the triumphant strain in which
Shadwell mentions the reception of "The Lancashire Witches:" "I
could not imagine," he says, "till I heard that great opposition
was designed against the play a month before it was acted, by a
party who, being ashamed to say it was for the sake of the Irish
priest, pretended that I had written a satire on the Church of
England; and several profest Papists railed at it violently before
they had seen it, alleging that for a reason, such dear friends
they are to our Church: and, notwithstanding all was put out that
could any way be wrested to an offence against the Church, yet they
came with the greatest malice in the world to hiss it; and many,
that called