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 themselves Protestants, joined with them in that noble
   enterprise.

“But, for all this, they came resolved to hiss it, right or wrong, and had gotten mercenary fellows, who were such fools they did not know when to hiss; and this was evident to all the audience.  It was wonderful to see men of great quality, and gentlemen, in so mean a combination; but, to my great satisfaction, they came off as meanly as I could wish.  I had so numerous an assembly of the best sort of men, who stood so generously in my defence for the three first days, that they quashed all the vain attempts of my enemies; the inconsiderable party of hissers yielded, and the play lived in spite of them.

“Had it been never so bad, I had valued the honour of having so many and such friends as eminently appeared for me, above that of excelling the most admirable Jonson, if it were possible to be done by me.”

This flourish of exultation contains many things which were doubtless offensive to Dryden’s jealousy of dramatic fame, as well as to his political principles.  Nor was he probably insensible to the affected praise bestowed on Jonson, whose merit, it was fashionable to say, he had attempted to depreciate.

4.  The greater, and, perhaps, the most formidable, part of those who
   now opposed the court, were the remnants of the old fanatics, whose
   religious principles were shocked by the dissolute manners of
   Charles and his courtiers.  These, of course, added little to the
   force of the party in the theatres, which they never frequented. 
   Shadwell seems to acknowledge this disadvantage in the epilogue to
   “The Lancashire Witches:”