Nor does he shrink from his fate.

He neither sings a Godspeeding ode to the runaway king, nor a salutatory to the new comers.
DRYDEN'S FALL .-- Stripped of his laureate-wreath and all his emoluments, he does not sit down to fold his hands and repine.

Sixty years of age, he girds up his loins to work manfully for his living.

He translates from the classics; he renders Chaucer into modern English: in 1690 he produced a play entitled Don Sebastian, which has been considered his dramatic master-piece, and, as if to inform the world that age had not dimmed the fire of his genius, he takes as his caption,-- ...

nec tarda senectus Debilitat vires animi, mutat que vigorem.
This latter part of his life claims a true sympathy, because he is every inch a man.
It must not be forgotten that Dryden presented Chaucer to England anew, after centuries of neglect, almost oblivion; for which the world owes him a debt of gratitude.