It happened at one time the brilliant, poetical, and mercurial
Earl of Rochester extended his favour and friendship towards
Dryden, gratified by which, the poet had, after the manner of
those days, dedicated a play to him, "Marriage a la Mode." This
favour his lordship received with graciousness, and no doubt
repaid with liberality. After a while, Dryden, led by choice or
interest, sought a new patron in the person of the Earl of
Mulgrave. For this nobleman Rochester had long entertained a
bitter animosity, which had arisen from rivalry, and had been
intensified from the fact that Rochester, refusing to fight him,
had been branded as a coward. Not daring to attack the peer,
Rochester resolved to avenge himself upon the poet. In order to
effect his humiliation, the earl at once bestowed his favour on
Elkanah Settle, a playwright and poet of mean abilities. He had
originally been master of a puppet-show, had written verses to
order for city pageants, and produced a tragedy in heroic verse,
entitled "Cambyses, King of Persia."
His patron being at this time in favour with the king, introduced
Settle to the notice of the court, and induced the courtiers to
play his second tragedy, "The Empress of Morocco," at Whitehall,
before their majesties. This honour, which Dryden, though poet
laureate, had never received, gave Elkanah Settle unmerited
notoriety; the benefit of which was apparent by the applause his
tragedy received when subsequently produced at the Duke's Theatre
in Dorset Gardens.
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