Charles Dryden (1666–1704) was an English chamberlain to Pope Innocent XII. Born at Charlton, London in 1666, Charles was the first son of the poet

John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...

and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire. He was educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

and elected to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

. In 1683, Dryden wrote some poems, one of which, in Latin, appeared in the second ''

Miscellany A miscellany is a collection of various pieces of writing by different authors. Meaning a mixture, medley, or assortment, a miscellany can include pieces on many subjects and in a variety of different forms. In contrast to anthologies, whose aim ...

''. He executed the seventh satire for his father's translation of

Juvenal Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the ''Satires''. The details of Juvenal's life ...

in 1692. About that time he went to Italy and was appointed chamberlain to Pope Innocent XII. Here he wrote an English poem which appeared in the fourth ''Miscellany''. He returned to England about 1697 or 1698; administered to his father's effects; was drowned in the Thames near

Datchet Datchet is a village and civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England, located on the north bank of the River Thames. Historically part of Buckinghamshire, and the Stoke Hundred, the village was eventually tr ...

, and buried at Windsor 20 August 1704. Sir

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...

records in his ''Life of John Dryden'' (1834) that Charles was attempting to swim across the Thames on 20 August. John Dryden, who was a believer in

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...

, calculated his son's

horoscope A horoscope (or other commonly used names for the horoscope in English include natal chart, astrological chart, astro-chart, celestial map, sky-map, star-chart, cosmogram, vitasphere, radical chart, radix, chart wheel or simply chart) is an ast ...

, and on the strength of it prophesied in 1697 that he would soon recover his health, injured by a fall at Rome. "Corinna" ( Elizabeth Thomas) constructed an elaborate fiction upon this basis, showing that Dryden had foretold three periods of danger to his son; at one of which Charles fell from a (non-existent) tower of the Vatican five stories high and was "mashed to a mummy" for the time. Malone reprints this narrative, cites Malone ''Life of Dryden'' vol. ?, pp. 404–420. which is only worth notice from the use made of it in Sir Walter Scott's '' Guy Mannering''.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dryden, Charles 1666 births 1704 deaths 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Burials in Berkshire Papal chamberlains Date of birth unknown Date of death unknown Deaths by drowning in the United Kingdom People from Charlton, London English expatriates in Vatican City Writers from London