which had been
launched against him from the groves of Academe. Mr Malone gives
the titles of three pamphlets which had appeared against Dryden.
1. The Censure of the Rota, on Mr Dryden's Conquest of Granada,
printed at Oxford. 2. A Description of the Academy of the Athenian
Virtuoso, with a discourse held there in vindication of Mr Dryden's
Conquest of Granada, against the Author of the Censure of the Rota.
3. A Friendly Vindication of Mr Dryden, from the Author of the
Censure of the Rota, printed at Cambridge. Thus assailed by the
grave and the learned, censured for the irregularities of his gay
patrons, which he countenanced although he did not partake, and
stigmatized as a detractor of his predecessors, and a defamer of
classical learning, it was natural for Dryden to appeal to the most
accomplished of those amongst whom he lived, and to whose taste he
was but too strongly compelled to adapt his productions. Sedley,
therefore, as a man of wit and gallantry, is called upon to support
our author against the censures of pedantic severity. Whatever may
be thought of the subject, the appeal is made with all Dryden's
spirit and elegance, and his description of the attic evenings
spent with Sedley and his gay associates, glosses over, and almost
justifies, their occasional irregularities. We have but too often
occasion to notice, with censure, the licentious manners of the
giddy court of Charles; let us not omit its merited commendation.
If the talents of the men of parts of that period were often
ill-directed, and ill-rewarded, let not us, from whom that
gratitude is justly due, forget that they were called forth and
stimulated to exertion, by the countenance and applause of the
great. We, at least, who enjoy the fruit of these exertions, ought
to rejoice, that the courtiers of Charles possessed the taste to
countenance and applaud the genius which was too often perverted
by the profligacy of their example, and left unrewarded amid their
selfish prodigality.

2. At this period, seconds in a duel fought, as well as principals.

3. The second Dutch war, then raging.

4. To whom the tragedy of "Amboyna" is dedicated.

5. It is impossible to avoid contrasting this beautiful account of
elegant dissipation with the noted freak of Sir Charles Sedley, to
whom it is addressed. In June 1663, being in company with Lord
Buckhur