[21] "And though no wit ran royal blood infuse, No more than melt a mother to a muse, Yet much a certain poet undertook, That men and manners deals in without book; And might not more to gospel truth belong, Than he _(if christened)_ does by name of John." _Poetical Reflections_, etc. See vol. ix.
"A bristled Baptist bred, and then thy strain Immaculate was free from sinful stain." _The Laureat_, vol. x.
[22] Upon a monument, erected by Elizabeth Creed to the poet's memory in the church at Tichmarsh, are these words:--"We boast that he was bred and had his first learning here." [A rival tradition favours Oundle, which had and has a grammar school of merit.--ED.]
[23] The date is not known. That of his admission to Trinity, _infra_, should be May 18. He matriculated on July 16, and was not elected to his scholarship till October 2.--ED.
[25] "I remember (says Dryden, in a postscript to the argument of the third satire of Perseus) I translated this satire when I was a King's scholar at Westminster school, for Thursday night's exercise; and believe, that it, and many other of my exercises of this nature in English verse, are still in the hands of my learned master, the Rev. Dr. Bushby."
[26] The following order is quoted, by Mr. Malone, from the Conclusion-book, in the archives of Trinity College, p. 221.
"July 19, 1652. Agreed, then, That Dryden be put out of Comons, for a fortnight at least; and that he goe not out of the colledg, during the time aforesaid, excepting to sermons, without express leave from the master, or vice-master; and that, at the end of the fortnight, he read a confession of his crime in the hall, at dinner time, at the three ... fellowes table.
"His crime was, his disobedience to the vice-master, and his contumacy in taking his punishment inflicted by him."
[27] Shadwell, in the Medal of John Bayes,
"At Cambridge Brat your scurrilous vein began, Where saucily you traduced a nobleman; Who for that crime rebuked you on the head, And you had been expelled, had you not fled."
[28] He received this degree by dispensation from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
[29] Prologue to the University of Oxford.
[30] Jonathan Dryden, elected a scholar from Westminster into Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1656, of which he became fellow in 1662, was author of some verses in the Cambridge Collections in 1661, on the death of the Duke of Gloucester, and the marriage of the Princess of Orange; and in 1662, on the marriage of Charles II., which have been imputed to our author. An order, quoted by Mr. Malone, for abatement of the commencement-money paid at taking the Bachelor's degree, on account of poverty, applies to Jonathan, not to John Dryden.--MALONE, vol. i. p.17, note.