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DRYDEN, JOHN, son of Erasmus Dryden, Titchmarsh, Northants., and Mary, dau. of Rev. Henry Pickering, Rector of Aldwincle All Saints, Northants.; b. 19 Aug 1631; adm.; KS; wrote while a KS an elegy on the death of Lord Hastings, published by R. B. in Lachrymae Musarum, 1649; elected head to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1650, adm. pens. 18 May 1650, scholar 2 Oct 1650; “walled” for a fortnight and not allowed to go outside the college “excepting for sermons” Jul 1652, for disobedience to the Vice-Master (W. W. Rouse Ball, Cambridge Papers, 218-9); forfeited scholarship by non-residence and thus ineligible for a Fellowship; BA 1653/4; MA Lambeth 17 Jun 1668; mourned Cromwell’s death in Heroic Stanzas 1658; celebrated the Restoration in Astraea Redux 1660, and Charles II’s Coronation in a Panegyric 1661; one of original Fellows of Royal Society 20 May 1663; author, Annus Mirabilis 1667; Poet Laureate and Historiographer 18 Aug 1670 - 11 Dec 1688; Sir Martin Mar-All, one of his most successful plays, was produced in 1667, Aurungzebe, his finest rhymed tragedy, in 1675, and All for Love, his finest play, in 1678; his Absalom and Achitophel was published in 1681; defended Anglicanism in Religio Laici, 1682; Collector of Customs, Port of London 17 Dec 1683; a Roman Catholic convert 1686; author, The Hind and the Panther, 1687; translations by him of Juvenal and Persius were published in 1693, and of Livy in 1697; wrote Alexander’s Feast 1697 [check] and Fables Ancient and Modern, 1700; his complete works, with a life by Sir Walter Scott, were published in 1808; in a note to the third satire of Persius Dryden wrote “I remember I translated this satire when I was a King’s Scholar at Westminster School, for a Thurday-night exercise; and believe, that it, and many others of my exercises of the nature in English verse, are still in the hands of my learned master the Rev. Dr. Busby” (Works, xiii, 230); Dryden refers to Busby’s excessive use of the rod in a letter to Charles Montagu (ibid., xviii, 159-60) and to the curious custom of “custos” in Hall in a letter to Busby (ibid., xviii, 98); Dryden’s “form” was long preserved up School; m. 1 Dec 1663 Lady Elizabeth Howard, eldest dau. of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Effingham; d. 1 May 1700. His body lay in state at the College of Physicians for ten days, and he was buried in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. DNB.

DUKE, RICHARD, son of Richard Duke, London, and his second wife Anne Pierce; b. 13 Jun 1658; adm.; KS 1670; elected head to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1675, adm. pens. 25 Jun 1675, scholar 1676, matr. 1678; 1st in “ordo” and BA 1678/9; MA 1682; Fellow, Trinity Coll. 1681-c. 1689; ordained; Rector of Blaby, Leics., Jan 1687/8-1708; Prebendary of Gloucester from 6 Jul 1688; Proctor in Convocation for diocese of Gloucester; Chaplain to Queen Anne; Chaplain to Right Rev. Jonathan Trelawny (qv), Bishop of Winchester 1707; Rector of Witney, Oxfordshire, from Jul 1710; a friend of Francis Atterbury (qv) and of Matthew Prior (qv); his Poems upon Several Occasions were collected in 1717 and published with those of Wentworth, Earl of Roscommon; m. 1st, 1696 Mary, widow of Sir Edward More, Bank Hall, Lancaster, and of “Mun” Browne, London, and dau. of --- Ben; m. 2nd, 3 Dec 1708 Martha, dau. of Thomas Jordan, Witney, Oxfordshire; d. 10 Feb 1710/1. DNB.