the stage till 1671, in which interval, Mr. Dryden being advanced to the
Laurel, the noble author changed the name of his poet, from Bilboa to
Bays, and made great alterations in his play, in order to ridicule
several dramatic performances, that appeared since the first writing it.
Those of Mr. Dryden, which fell under his grace's lash, were the Wild
Gallant, Tyrannic Love, the Conquest of Granada, Marriage A la-Mode, and
Love in a Nunnery: Whatever was extravagant, or too warmly expressed, or
any way unnatural, the author has ridiculed by parody.

Mr. Dryden affected to despise the satire levelled at him in the
Rehearsal, as appears from his dedication of the translation of Juvenal
and Persius where speaking of the many lampoons, and libels that had,
been written against him, he says, 'I answered not to the Rehearsal,
because I knew the author sat to himself when he drew the picture, and
was the very Bays of his own farce; because also I knew my betters were
more concerned than I was in that satire; and lastly, because Mr. Smith
and Mr. Johnson, the main pillars of it, were two such languishing
gentlemen in their conversation, that I could liken them to nothing but
their own relations, those noble characters of men of wit and pleasure
about town.'

In 1679 came out an Essay on Satire, said to be written jointly by Mr.
Dryden and the earl of Mulgrave; this piece, which was handed about in
manuscript, containing Reflexions on the Duchess of Portsmouth, and the
Earl of Rochester; who suspecting, as Wood says, Mr. Dryden to be the
author, hired three ruffians to cudgel him in Wills's coffee-house at
eight o'clock at night. This short anecdote, I think, cannot be told
without indignation. It proved Rochester was a malicious coward, and,
like other cowards, cruel and insolent; his foul was incapable of any
thing that approached towards generosity, and when his resentment was