Note 51 — DIALOGUE II. ON RETIREMENT.

The application of this line is the affair of the Mastership of the Savoy; “which though granted, says Mr. Wood, to his highest merit by both the Charleses I. and II. yet by certain persons, enemies to the Muses, he lost that place.” But this was not the worst. For, such is the hard lot of unsuccessful men, the Savoy-missing Cowley became the object of ridicule, instead of pity, even to the wits themselves; as may be seen in “The session of the poets, amongst the miscellaneous poems published by Mr. Dryden.”