Upon this ground-work, Mrs.
Thomas (the Corinna of Pope and Cromwell) raised, at the distance of
thirty years, the marvellous structure of fable, which has been copied
by all Dryden's biographers, till the industry of Mr. Malone has sent
it, with other figments of the same lady, to "the grave of all the
Capulets."[52] She appears to have been something assisted by a
burlesque account of the funeral, imputed by Mr. Malone to Tom Brown,
who certainly continued to insult Dryden's memory whenever an
opportunity offered.[53] Indeed, Mrs. Thomas herself quotes this last
respectable authority. It must be a well-conducted and uncommon public
ceremony, where the philosopher can find nothing to condemn, nor the
satirist to ridicule; yet, to our imagination, what can be more
striking, than the procession of talent and rank, which escorted the
remains of DRYDEN to the tomb of CHAUCER!
The private character of the individual, his personal appearance, and
rank in society, are the circumstances which generally interest the
public most immediately upon his decease.
We are enabled, from the various paintings and engravings of Dryden, as
well as from the less flattering delineations of the satirists of his
time, to form a tolerable idea of his face and person. In youth, he
appears to have been handsome,[54] and of a pleasing countenance: when
his age was more advanced, he was corpulent and florid, which procured
him the nickname attached to him by Rochester.
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