lian, Secretary, as he called himself,
to the Muses. This person attended Will's, the Wits' Coffee-house,
as it was called; and dispersed among the crowds who frequented
that place of gay resort copies of the lampoons which had been
privately communicated to him by their authors. 'He is described,'
says Mr. Malone, 'as a very drunken fellow, and at one time was
confined for a libel.'"

* * * * *

Tom Brown describes 'a Wit and a Beau set up with little or no
expense. A pair of red stockings and a swordknot set up one, and
peeping once a day in at Will's, and two or three second-hand
sayings, the other.'

* * * * *

Pepys, one night, going to fetch home his wife, stopped in Covent
Garden, at the Great Coffee-house there, as he called Will's, where
he never was before: "Where," he adds, "Dryden, the poet (I knew at
Cambridge), and all the Wits of the town, and Harris the player,
and Mr. Hoole of our College. And had I had time then, or could at
other times, it will be good coming thither, for there, I perceive,
is very witty and pleasant discourse. But I could not tarry, and,
as it was late, they were all ready to go away."

Addison passed each day alike, and much in the manner that Dryden
did. Dryden employed his mornings in writing, dined _en famille_,
and then went to Will's, "only he came home earlier o' nights."

Pope, when very young, was impressed with such veneration for
Dryden, that he persuaded some friends to take him to Will's
Coffee-house, and was delighted that he could say that he had seen
Dryden. Sir Charles Wogan, too, brought up Pope from the Forest of
Windsor, to dress _a la mode_, and introduce at Will's
Coffee-house. Pope afterwards described Dryden as "a plump man with
a down look, and not very conversible," and Cibber could tell no
more "but that he remembered him a decent old man, arbiter of
critical disputes at Will's." Prior sings of--

The younger Stiles,
Whom Dryden pedagogues at Will's!

Most of the hostile criticism on his Plays, which Dryden has
noticed in his various Prefaces, appear to have been made at his
favourite haunt, Will's Coffee-house.

Dryden is generally said to have been returning from Will's to his
house in Gera