is thus alluded to. "And here I must make a little digression, and take liberty to dissent from my particular friend, for whom I have a very great respect, and whose writings I extremely admire; and though I will not say his is the best way of writing, yet I am sure his manner of writing is much the best that ever was." They had even joined in worrying a brother of the craft, Elkanah Settle, the last Poet-Laureate to the city of London, and author of "A Panegyric on the Loyal and Honourable Sir George Jefferies, Lord Chief Justice of England, 1633." But the bond of union was frail, they had little in common in their literary tastes, and in politics they stood in direct opposition to each other. In the prologue to "The Virtuoso," Shadwell glanced at the "Aurungzebe," of Dryden, which had been acted with success that season; and in the dedication, dated 26th June, 1676, in a sneering allusion to Dryden's pension, he says: "Had I as much money and as much time for it, I might perhaps write as correct a comedy as any of my contemporaries."
However, two years afterwards, we find Dryden writing an epilogue for Shadwell's play of "The True Widow," so that the mighty war smouldered long before it burst forth into a blaze. Shadwell's political spleen prompted him to write "The Lancashire Witches," intended to throw ridicule on the Tory party, and he fiercely attacked "The Medal," a satire of Dryden's, published in 1681, on the notorious Shaftesbury. He was likewise concerned in the attack on "The Duke of Guise," in 1683; and Dryden, in his vindication of that play, mentions that Shadwell had repeatedly called him atheist in print. The poet, irritated almost to madness by the unceasing attacks that were made upon him from all quarters, at length singled out Shadwell from the host of his assailants, and poured on his head the full vial of his wrath. He launched into the world two satires, each published within a month of the
