Brief Lives, Vol. 1

Chapter 211: Sir Erasmus Dryden (1553-1632).

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Biographies History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)

About This Book

A collection of concise biographical sketches compiled from the author's manuscript notes, offering anecdotal portraits of a wide range of literary, scientific, political, and social figures across several generations. Entries blend remembered quotations, learned citation, personal recollection, and occasional gossip, producing uneven but vivid character sketches. Material is presented alphabetically and supplemented by antiquarian notes, a short theatrical piece, and facsimiles of manuscript drawings and plans. An introduction outlines editorial principles and reproduces the manuscript spellings and citations where appropriate, preserving the informality and immediacy of the original notes.

Sir Erasmus Dryden (1553-1632).

[886]Sir Erasmus Dryden, of <Canons Ashby> in Northamptonshire:—John Dreyden, esq., Poet Laureat, tells me that there was a great friendship between his great grandfather's father [887] and Erasmus Roterodamus, and Erasmus was god-father to one of his sonnes, and the Christian name of Erasmus hath been kept in the family ever since. The poet's second sonne is Erasmus.

And at ..., the seate of the family, is a chamber called 'Erasmus's chamber.'

I ghesse that this coate [888]—'azure, a lion rampant and in chief a sphere between 2 estoiles or'—was graunted in Henry 8th's time by the odnesse of the charge.