In the refreshingly simple diary of Pepy's, we find
this jotting under date of 3d February, 1666-7: "_Annus Mirabilis_. I am
very well pleased this night with reading a poem I brought home with me
last night from Westminster Hall, of Dryden's, upon the present war: a
very good poem."
Dryden's subserviency, aided by the power of his pen, gained its reward.
In 1668, on the death of Sir William Davenant, he was appointed Laureate,
and historiographer to the king, with an annual salary of L200. He soon
became the most famous literary man in England. Milton, the Puritan, was
producing his wonderful visions in darkened retirement, while at court, or
in the seat of honor on the stage, or in his sacred chair at Will's
Coffee-house in Covent Garden (near the fire-place in winter, and carried
into the balcony in summer), "Glorious John" was the observed of all
observers. Of Will's Coffee-house, Congreve says, in _Love for Love_, "Oh,
confound that Will's Coffee-house; it has ruined more young men than the
Royal Oak Lottery:" this speaks at once of the fashion and social license
of the time.
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