The extreme flattery of Dryden's dedications has been objected to him,
as a fault of an opposite description; and perhaps no writer has
equalled him in the profusion and elegance of his adulation. "Of this
kind of meanness," says Johnson, "he never seems to decline the
practice, or lament the necessity. He considers the great as entitled to
encomiastic homage, and brings praise rather as a tribute than a gift;
more delighted with the fertility of his invention than mortified by the
prostitution of his judgment." It may be noticed, in palliation of this
heavy charge, that the form of address to superiors must be judged of by
the manners of the times; and that the adulation contained in
dedications was then as much a matter of course, as the words of
submissive style which still precede the subscription Dryden considered
his panegyrics as merely conforming with the fashion of the day, and
rendering unto Caesar the things which were Caesar's,--attended with no
more degradation than the payment of any other tribute to the forms of
politeness and usage of the world.
Of Dryden's general habits of life we can form a distinct idea, from the
evidence assembled by Mr. Malone. His mornings were spent in study; he
dined with his family, probably about two o'clock. After dinner he went
usually to Will's Coffeehouse, the famous rendezvous of the wits of the
time, where he had his established chair by the chimney in winter, and
near the balcony in summer, whence he pronounced, _ex cathedra_, his
opinion upon new publications, and, in general, upon all matters of
dubious criticism.
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