Not only did he
survive the earl, but likewise the king. To the company and
conversation of that gracious sovereign the poet was frequently
admitted, a privilege which resulted in satisfaction and pleasure
to both. One pleasant day towards the end of his majesty's
reign, whilst they walked in the Mall, Charles said to him, "If I
were a poet, and indeed I think I am poor enough to be one, I
would write a satire on sedition." Taking this hint, Dryden
speedily set himself to work, and brought a poem on such a
subject to his royal master, who rewarded him with a hundred
broad pieces.
Amongst Dryden's friends was the excellent and ingenious Abraham
Cowley, whose youth had given the promise of distinction his
manhood fulfilled. It is related that when quite a lad, he found
in the window recess of his mother's apartment a copy of
Spencer's "Faerie Queene." Opening the book, he read it with
delight, and his receptive mind reflecting the poet's fire, he
resolved likewise to exercise the art of poesy. In 1628, when at
the age of ten, he wrote "The Tragic History of Pyramus and
Thisbe;" five years later he published a volume of poems; and
whilst yet a schoolboy wrote his pastoral comedy, "Love's
Riddle."
When at St. John's College, Oxford, he gave proof of his loyalty
by writing a poem entitled the "Puritan and the Papist," which
gained him the friendship of courtiers. On the Queen of Charles
I. taking refuge in France, he soon followed her, and becoming
secretary to the Earl of St.
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