I -FROM -THE- LIBRARY -OF 
 - KONRAD - BURDACH - 
 
(-&J. 
 
 CJL 
 
 it- 
 
 (90$ 
 
 ! 
 
Cteutom |ss Stories 
 
 ENGLISH CLASSICS 
 
 DRYDEN 
 
 CHRISTIE 
 
Soution 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF 
 
DRYDEN 
 
 STANZAS ON THE DEATH OF OLIVER CROMWELL 
 ASTRMA REDUX; ANN US MIRABILIS 
 
 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL 
 RELIGIO LAIC I; THE HIND AND THE PANTHER 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 W. D. CHRISTIE, M.A., C.B. 
 
 Trinity College, Cambridge 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 
 
 M DCCC LXXIV 
 rights reserved] 
 

PREFACE. 
 
 THE Editor of this volume has published within the 
 last twelvemonth an edition of Dryden's Poems, one 
 of Messrs. Macmillan's Globe Series, with a carefully 
 revised text, the result of a labour of some duration. 
 The Globe edition of Dryden's Poems contains more 
 than a hundred corrections of the text as presented in 
 Sir Walter Scott's edition, or that of Mr. Robert Bell 
 in his series of the English Poets. In the portion of 
 Dryden's Poems published in this volume the text is 
 the same as that of the Globe edition; and there are 
 some forty corrections within the compass of these Poems. 
 The Notes to this volume contain a suggestion of one 
 new correction which I have not embodied in the text, 
 not feeling absolutely sure about it; but I think it prob- 
 able that the words Caledonian and Caledon, which have 
 come down to us from Dryden in ' The Hind and the 
 Panther' (Part I. line 14, and Part III. line 3), were 
 intended by him to be Calydonian and Cafydon. 
 
VI . PREFACE. 
 
 The Biography prefixed to this volume is of necessity 
 in much part a repetition of the longer Memoir at the 
 beginning of the Globe edition. Since the publica- 
 tion of the latter I have satisfied myself by additional 
 information obtained from Trinity College, Cambridge, 
 that the story of Dryden's continued residence at Cam- 
 bridge till 1657 is a mistake, and that he ceased to 
 reside there in 1654 or early in 1655. 
 
 W. D. C. 
 
 32 DORSET SQUARE, LONDON, 
 February 1871. 
 
 In this second edition I have been able to make an 
 interesting addition to the note at p. xvi. as to Dryden at 
 Trinity College. 
 
 W. D. C. 
 
 October, 1873. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Biographical Introduction ..... ix 
 
 A POEM UPON THE DEATH OF HIS LATE HIGH- 
 NESS OLIVER, LORD PROTECTOR OF ENGLAND, 
 SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND .... I 
 
 ASTR^EA REDUX. A POEM ON THE HAPPY RE- 
 STORATION AND RETURN OF HIS SACRED MAJESTY 
 CHARLES THE SECOND 9 
 
 ANNUS MIRABILIS: THE YEAR OF WONDERS, 
 
 1666. AN HISTORICAL POEM. 
 
 To the Metropolis of Great Britain . . 23 
 
 An Account of the ensuing Poem . . 25 
 
 Verses to her Royal Highness the Duchess 
 
 [of York] 33 
 
 The Poem 37 
 
 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. A POEM. 
 
 To the Reader 85 
 
 The Poem 88 
 
 RELIGIO LAICI ; OR, A LAYMAN'S FAITH. A POEM. 
 
 The Preface 119 
 
 The Poem 131 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. A POEM 
 
 IN THREE PARTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 To the Reader 147 
 
 The Poem. Part I . . . 4 . 151 
 
 Part II 167 
 
 Part III . . . . ' . 187 
 
 NOTES 225 
 
 GLOSSARY ........ 287 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE poetry and authorship of Dryden cover a period of 
 more than half a century. His first poem was written in 
 youth, within a few months after the execution of Charles the 
 First, and his last a few days before death, within not many 
 months of the death of William the Third and the accession 
 of Anne to the throne. ' Glorious John Dryden,' or ' Glorious 
 John/ as Sir Walter Scott christened him, is the great literary 
 figure of the forty years that follow the Restoration. Dryden 
 was born only fifteen years, and his first poem was written only 
 thirty -three years, after the death of Shakespeare. It is strange 
 to find Dryden deliberately writing in 1672 that the English 
 language had been so changed since Shakespeare wrote, that 
 any one then reading his plays, or Fletcher's, or Jonson's, 
 and comparing them with what had been written since the 
 Restoration, would see the change ( almost in every line a . J 
 There are frequent careless statements and hasty generaliza- 
 tions in Dryden's critical dissertations, which were mostly 
 composed rapidly for particular occasions, and there may be 
 exaggeration in this assertion, but it probably contains more 
 truth than exaggeration. Milton, born eight years before 
 Shakespeare's death, was Dryden's senior by twenty-three 
 
 a Defence of the Epilogue to the Second Part of ' The Conquest of 
 Granada.' 
 
X BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 years, and ' Paradise Lost' was published in 1669, the year 
 before that in which Dryden received the appointment of 
 poet laureate, succeeding Davenant, the author of 'Gon- 
 dibert,' and Dryden's co-operator in a versified abridgment 
 and debasement of f Paradise Lost.* Milton died in 1674, 
 unhonoured by the multitude, when Dryden was at the height 
 of his dramatic popularity, and is spoken of as 'the good 
 and famous poet' by the cultivated Evelyn b . A quarter 
 of a century later Dryden had a splendid public funeral. 
 Gowley, who was Dryden's superior in the imaginative faculty, 
 and who, like Dryden after him, had had a fame unjustly 
 superior to Milton's during his life, had died in 1667. The 
 poetry of Cowley had been a favourite reading of Dryden's 
 youth. He speaks of Cowley, in several passages of his prose 
 writings, with the respect due to a master, and says on 
 one occasion that his authority is 'almost sacred' to him c . 
 Before the end of the seventeenth century, the popularity of 
 Cowley had disappeared d , and no traces of the influence of 
 his metaphysical style are to be discovered in any of Dryden's 
 poems later than the 'Annus Mirabilis' of 1666. Denham 
 and Waller, two poets of humbler order, had, while Dryden 
 was young, produced smooth and harmonious poems, and 
 contributed to the improvement of verse; and it remained 
 for Dryden to advance this work, and bring metrical har- 
 mony to perfection in his own poems, and, during forty years 
 after the Restoration, of various writing in prose and in 
 verse, to give precision and purity and new wealth and capa- 
 bility to the English language. 
 
 b Evelyn's Diary, June 27, 1674. 
 
 Essay on Heroic Plays, prefixed to the First Part of ' The Conquest 
 of Granada.' 
 
 d In the Preface to the ' Fables,' written in 1699, Dryden wrote of 
 Cowley : ' Though he must always be thought a great poet, he is no 
 longer esteemed a good writer ; and for ten impressions which his works 
 have had in so many successive years, yet at present a hundred books 
 are scarcely purchased once a twelvemonth ; for, as my last Lord 
 Rochester said, though somewhat profanely, " Not being of God, he 
 could not stand." ' 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xi 
 
 John Dryden was born on the gth of August, i63i e , at 
 Aldwincle, a village in Northamptonshire, which was also the 
 birthplace of the Church historian, Thomas Fuller. Both 
 his parents belonged to Northamptonshire families of distinc- 
 tion. His father, Erasmus Dryden, the third son of Sir 
 Erasmus Dryden, Baronet, of Canons Ashby, was a Justice of 
 the Peace for Northamptonshire. The Drydens were all 
 Puritans and Commonwealthmen. Sir Erasmus Dryden, who 
 died in 1632, the year after the birth of his celebrated 
 grandson, was sent to prison, but a few years before his 
 death in old age, for refusing to pay loan-money to Charles 
 the First. To this event Dryden refers in his Epistle to his 
 cousin John Driden of Chesterton f , Member for Hunting- 
 donshire, whose public spirit he compares with their common 
 grandfather's : 
 
 ' Such was your generous grandsire, free to grant 
 In Parliaments that weighed their Prince's want, 
 But so tenacious of the common cause 
 As not to lend the king against his laws ; 
 And in a loathsome dungeon doomed to lie, 
 In bonds retained his birthright liberty, 
 And shamed oppression till it set him free.' 
 
 The old man was liberated on the eve of the general election 
 for Charles the First's third Parliament in 1628. Sir John 
 
 6 The year of Dryden's birth is incorrectly given as 1632 in the in- 
 scription on the monument in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 f Malone and some other biographers have said much about the 
 spelling of Dryden's name, and represented that he early in life deliber- 
 ately changed the spelling from Driden to Dryden ; and Malone has made 
 a statement, which appears to be totally without authority, that the poet 
 gave offence to his uncle, Sir John, by this change of spelling. The 
 spelling of names was very variable in Dryden's time, and I believe 
 there is nothing more than accident in the variations of spelling of his 
 name : Dryden, Driden, and also Drey den and Dreydon occur. Dryden's 
 name is spelt Driden on title-pages of his works after the Restoration, 
 . and in one instance ('Astrsea Redux') as late as 1688. I follow other 
 biographers and editors in preserving the spelling Driden for the name of 
 his cousin John, to whom he addressed the beautiful poetical epistle, on 
 account of convenience of distinction. 
 
xil BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Dryden, successor to Sir Erasmus, and Dryden's uncle, 
 inherited the Puritan zeal. Dryden's mother was Mary, 
 daughter of the Reverend Henry Pickering, rector of Ald- 
 wincle All Saints from 1597 till his death in 1637. The 
 Pickerings were near neighbours of the Drydens, and the 
 two families were connected by marriage before the union 
 of the poet's parents, a daughter of Sir Erasmus Dryden 
 having married Sir John Pickering, Knight, the elder brother 
 of the rector of Aldwincle. Sir Gilbert Pickering, the son 
 and successor of Sir John, was thus doubly related to Dryden. 
 Sir Gilbert, having been made a baronet by Charles the First, 
 became a Gromwellite, and held high office during the Pro- 
 tectorate; he was Chamberlain to Oliver Cromwell, and 
 High Steward of Westminster, and one of the so-called peers 
 of Cromwell's second Chamber of 1658, and afterwards one 
 of Richard Cromwell's chief advisers. 
 
 The marriage of Erasmus Dryden and Mary Pickering 
 took place on the 2ist of October 1630, in the church of 
 Pilton, a village near Aldwincle. The poet was their first child, 
 the eldest of a family of fourteen. A room in the parsonage- 
 house at Aldwincle All Saints is shown as his birthplace. 
 This tradition, which has been maintained uninterruptedly 
 from Dryden's time till now, is unsupported by positive 
 evidence, but as it necessitates only the probable supposi- 
 tion that his mother was on a visit to her parents at the time 
 of the birth of her first child, there is no reason for not 
 accepting it. 
 
 Of the early life of Dryden very little is known. His 
 father possessed a small property at Blakesley in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Canons Ashby, the seat of the Drydens, and of 
 Tichmarch the seat of the Pickerings. A monument erected 
 in Tichmarch church to his memory, by his cousin Mrs. 
 Creed, has an inscription which boasts that 'he was bred 
 and had his first learning here.' But the best part of his 
 education was obtained at Westminster, under Dr. Busby. 
 He entered the school as a King's Scholar, but in what year 
 "is not known. He retained through life a pleasant remem- 
 brance of his Westminster days, and a great respect for Dr, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XIII 
 
 Busby, to whom in 1693 he dedicated his translation of the 
 Fifth Satire of Persius. He says in the Dedication that he 
 had received from Dr. Busby 'the first and truest taste of 
 Persius.' Two of his sons were educated at Westminster 
 under the same head-master, Dr. Busby. He remembered 
 to the last, but without resentment, Dr. Busby's floggings. 
 In one of his latest letters, written in 1699 to Charles 
 Montagu, Chancellor of the Exchequer, when sending for 
 his inspection some poems before publication, he speaks of 
 having corrected and re-corrected them, and he says, * I am 
 now in fear that I have purged them out of their spirit, as 
 our Master Busby used to whip a boy so long till he made 
 him a confirmed blockhead.' Charles Montagu had been 
 educated at Westminster, but he was thirty years younger 
 than Dryden, and might have been at the school with Dryden's 
 sons. 
 
 In 1650 Dryden left Westminster with a scholarship, for 
 Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1649 he had written his 
 first poem, which gave little promise of the smoothness and 
 harmony of versification to which he afterwards attained. 
 Lord Hastings, the subject of it, the eldest son of the Earl 
 of Huntingdon, had been educated at Westminster, and his 
 rare attainments had raised among his friends high hopes of 
 future eminence. When these hopes were destroyed by his 
 untimely death from small pox, when he was just of age, in 
 1649, the event was lamented in as many as thirty-three 
 elegies by different authors, which were collected and pub- 
 lished in 1650 by Richard Brome, with the title of 'Lacrymae 
 Musarum, the Tears of the Muses; exprest in Elegies 
 written by divers Persons of nobility and worth upon the 
 death of Henry Lord Hastings, only son of the Right Hon- 
 ourable Ferdinando Earl of Huntingdon, heir-general of the 
 high-born Prince George, Duke of Clarence, brother to King 
 Edward the Fourth #.' Among the contributors to this volume 
 were three who were already known as poets, and whose 
 
 s Sir Walter Scott, who had not seen this little volume, erroneously 
 gives ninety-eight as the number of the elegies. 
 
XIV BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 fame has survived them, Denham, Herrick, and Andrew 
 Marvel. Dryden's second known poem, a short compli- 
 mentary address prefixed to a little volume of sacred poetry 
 by John Hoddesden, a friend and schoolfellow, was probably 
 written at the beginning of Dryden's residence at Gam- 
 bridge. Hoddesden's little volume bore the title ' Sion and 
 Parnassus,' and was published in 1650. 
 
 Dryden was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, on 
 the 1 8th of May, 1650; he matriculated July 16, and 
 was elected a scholar of the college on the Westminster 
 foundation, October 2, 1.650. He took his degree of Bachelor 
 of Arts in January 1654. Beyond these dates very little is 
 known of his college life. With the exception of a single 
 passage in his life of Plutarch, where he mentions having 
 read that author in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, 
 and adds that to that foundation he gratefully acknowledges 
 the debt of a great part of his education, there is no mention 
 of his Cambridge days in his writings ; and this silence has 
 created an impression that in after life he regarded Cambridge 
 with aversion. Some lines in one of his Oxford Prologues, 
 written in 1681, have seemed further proof of such a feeling 
 
 * Oxford to him a dearer name shall be 
 Than his own mother university; 
 Thebes did his green unknowing youth engage, 
 He chooses Athens in his riper age.' 
 
 But these lines prove nothing, being probably prompted by 
 no other motive than the desire of the moment to please an 
 Oxford audience. A passage in a letter from Dryden to 
 Wilmot Earl of Rochester, written in 1675, in which he 
 sends him copies of a Prologue and Epilogue for Oxford, 
 composed on another occasion, shows that all he wrote for 
 Oxford may not be sincere. He tells Rochester that the pieces 
 were approved, 'and by the event your lordship will judge 
 how easy 'tis to pass anything upon an University, and what 
 gross flattery the learned will endure/ 
 
 But Dryden's life at Cambridge had not passed always 
 pleasantly. In the second year of his residence at Trinity, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 he had incurred the displeasure of the authorities for * dis- 
 obedience to the Vice-Master, and his contumacy in taking 
 of his punishment.' What the disobedience was is not known ; 
 the ultimate sentence assigned was ' that Dry den be put out 
 of commons for a fortnight at least, and that he go not out 
 of the college during the time aforesaid, excepting to sermons, 
 without express leave from the Master or Vice-Master, and 
 that at the end of a fortnight he read a confession of his 
 crime in the Hall at dinner-time at the three Fellows' tables.' 
 And there may be some truth, with exaggeration also, in a 
 taunt of Shadwell, that he left Cambridge suddenly in con- 
 sequence of a quarrel. 
 
 Dryden's father died in June 1654, a few months after he 
 had taken his B.A. degree. By his father's death he inherited 
 two-thirds of a small estate at Blakesley, which gave him an 
 income of about 407. a year. The remaining third of the 
 property was left to his mother for her life, and she lived 
 till 1676. It is calculated that 407. a year in Dryden's time 
 would have been equal to four times as much now. Dryden's 
 income would therefore have been sufficient to support him 
 decently with economy. 
 
 He ceased to be a scholar of Trinity in April 1655, before 
 the natural expiry by time of his scholarship, on account of 
 his having ceased to reside at Cambridge. This appears from 
 the following entry in the college Conclusion Book of April 
 2 3> I ^55, 'That scholars be elected into the places of Sr. 
 Hooker, Sr. Sawies, Sr. Driden, Sr. Quincey, Sr. Burton; 
 with this proviso, that if the said Bachelors shall return to 
 the College at or before Midsummer next, to continue con- 
 stantly according to statute, then the scholars chosen into 
 their places respectively shall recede and give place to them, 
 otherwise to stand as proper scholars.' It further appears 
 that a young man named Wilford was elected into Dryden's 
 place on the above-mentioned condition. The Senior Bursar's 
 book shows that neither Dryden nor any of the others for 
 whom as scholars successors were elected at the same time, 
 re-entered into their scholarships. They all received the 
 scholars' stipends up to Michaelmas 1655, and no further 
 
XVI BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 payment is credited to any of them. It may therefore be 
 concluded that the story hitherto told, derived from Malone, 
 of Dry den's having returned to Cambridge after his father's 
 death, and having continued to reside there till the middle 
 of 1657, is not correct. He had ceased to reside before 
 April 1655 ; and if he returned to Cambridge after his 
 father's death in June 1654, it would have been only for a 
 very short time h . 
 
 Having ceased to be a scholar of the College, he was in- 
 eligible for a fellowship, the fellows being chosen exclusively 
 from the scholars. It has been thought surprising that he 
 did not, when the time came in 1657, take the degree of 
 Master of Arts, but the smallness of his means is quite suf- 
 ficient to explain why he did not do so. By the ancient 
 
 fc I am indebted to Mr. W. Aldis Wright, the late librarian of Trinity 
 College, for the information which has enabled me to contradict posi- 
 tively the old story of Dryden's continuing to reside at Cambridge till 
 1657. The story is Malone's, and on a careful examination of his 
 statements I see that the only authority, if it can be so called, for 
 Dryden's continued residence till 1657 is a description of him by Settle 
 in a polemical pamphlet as 'a man of seven years' standing at Cambridge.' 
 Malone was made aware, after the completion of his Life of Dryden, 
 of the entry in the Conclusion Book of April 23, 1655 ; and he mentions 
 this in his Additions and Emendations (Dryden's Prose Works by 
 Malone, vol. i. part 2, p. 134). But he adds 'that there are instances 
 of gownsmen residing at Cambridge after the loss of their scholarships.' 
 In the memoir in the Globe Edition of Dryden's poems, I have given the 
 'old story of Dryden's continuing to reside till 1657 w ^ n doubt, and 
 stated that there is no proof of its correctness. I am now able posi- 
 tively to contradict it. The following interesting account of Dryden by 
 a college contemporary, the Rev. Dr. Crichton, is given in a letter written 
 in 1727 by a Mr. Pain, which is in the Trinity College Library, and has 
 been lately found by Mr. W. A. Wright, who has obligingly furnished it 
 to me. It confirms the fact of Dryden's early departure from Trinity 
 after taking his B.A. degree. ' The Doctor also mentioned something 
 of Dryden the poet, which I tell you because you may have occasion to 
 say something of him. Dryden, he said, was two years above him, and 
 was reckoned a man of good parts and learning while in college : he had 
 to his knowledge read over and very well understood all the Greek and 
 Latin poets : he stayed to take his Bachelor's degree, but his head was 
 too roving and active, or what else you'll call it, to confine himself to 
 a college life, and so he left it and went to London into gayer company, 
 and set up for a poet, which he was as well qualified for as any man.' 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xvil 
 
 statutes of the University, any one possessed of any estate, 
 annuity, or certain income for life amounting to 267. i$s. ^d. 
 was required to pay 61. 6s. \d. in addition to the ordinary 
 fees for any degree ; and those for the M.A. degree for one 
 not a fellow would be as much. Dry den, with his small 
 income of forty pounds, might naturally be unwilling to incur 
 this expense. It is possible also that Dryden's premature 
 departure from Cambridge without fellowship or degree may 
 have been caused by a disagreeable incident, such as he is 
 taunted with by Shadwell 
 
 * At Cambridge first your scurrilous vein began, 
 Where saucily you traduced a nobleman, 
 Who for that crime traduced you on the head, 
 And you had been expelled had you not fled 1 .' 
 
 The scurrility of Shadwell is anything but perfect authority, 
 but there must have been some foundation for the taunt of 
 these malicious lines. 
 
 A degree of Master of Arts was conferred on Dryden by 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1668, on the recommenda- 
 tion of King Charles the Second, when he had made himself 
 known as an author, and had acquired the King's favour by 
 political poems and plays suited to his taste. 
 
 There is no information about Dryden's life after his 
 leaving Cambridge till he appeared as an author in London 
 on the occasion of Oliver Cromwell's death. It has always 
 hitherto been said that he began to reside in London about 
 the middle of 1657; but this was probably a part of the 
 story that he continued to reside till 1657 at Cambridge. 
 It is not impossible that he went to London earlier than 
 has been hitherto supposed; and it is quite possible that he 
 may have gone there later. He was probably aided by his 
 relative, Sir Gilbert Pickering, at the beginning of his life 
 in London, and he may have gone thither soon after his 
 father's death to profit by Sir Gilbert's friendship. High in 
 Cromwell's favour, a member of his Privy Council, and 
 Chamberlain of his household, he was in a position to render 
 
 1 ' The Medal of John Bayes.' 
 
 b 
 
XVlil BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 valuable assistance to his clever young cousin. Shad well, 
 after taunting Dryden with discreditable flight from Gam- 
 bridge, next holds him up to scorn as clerk to Sir Gilbert 
 
 * The next step of advancement you began, 
 Was being clerk to Noll's Lord Chamberlain, 
 A sequestra tor and Committee manV 
 
 It is not improbable that Sir Gilbert employed him as his 
 secretary. 
 
 Oliver Cromwell died on the 3rd of September, 1658; and 
 Dryden, now in his twenty-seventh year, wrote a poem in 
 honour of his memory. Since he had written the verses to 
 John Hoddesden in 1650, being then an undergraduate at 
 Cambridge, he had written no poetry that is known, and the 
 1 Heroic Stanzas' to the memory of the Protector is his 
 first poem of any importance. This poem was published 
 with two others on the same subject by Waller and Sprat. 
 It is written in quatrain stanzas, and is very superior to 
 Dryden's two earlier efforts. When the ' Heroic Stanzas ' 
 appeared, Richard Cromwell seemed to be firmly established 
 as his father's successor, and Dryden celebrated the peaceful 
 security which the able and vigorous government of the Pro- 
 tector had bequeathed to his country. 
 
 * No civil broils have since his death arose, 
 
 But faction now by habit does obey; 
 And wars have that respect for his repose 
 
 As winds for halcyons when they breed at sea. 
 
 His ashes in a peaceful urn shall rest; 
 
 His name a great example stands to show 
 How strangely high endeavours may be blessed 
 
 Where piety and valour jointly go.' 
 
 This tranquillity was of short duration. On the meeting of 
 Parliament in January 1659 it was evident that Richard 
 Cromwell was unable to rule, and in less than eighteen 
 months after the publication of the ' Heroic Stanzas ' 
 Charles the Second was restored. 
 
 k Malone strangely thinks that the last line may apply to Dryden 
 himself, but it is clearly intended for Sir Gilbert Pickering. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 Sir Gilbert Pickering, who had been closely and con- 
 spicuously connected with both the Protectors, and who had 
 sat as one of the judges at the trial of Charles the First, 
 though not when sentence was given, was lucky to escape 
 with life and with most of his property. He was made in- 
 capable of all office, and became a private and powerless man. 
 Dryden, having lost this serviceable benefactor, and not being 
 disposed to sacrifice all advancement to political consistency, 
 became a warm Royalist, and now endeavoured, by zealously 
 espousing the cause of the restored King, to blot out all 
 recollection of his praises of the Protector. ' Astraea Redux/ 
 a poem written in celebration of the return of the King, was 
 published before the end of the year, and was quickly fol- 
 lowed by two other poems in like strain, a ' Panegyric ' ad- 
 dressed to the King on his coronation, and an address to the 
 Lord Chancellor Clarendon, on New Year's Day, 1662. These 
 poems doubtless brought presents of money. Some compli- 
 mentary verses, addressed by Dryden to Sir Robert Howard, 
 were published in 1660, in the beginning of a volume of 
 Howard's poems, the first of which was a panegyric on the 
 restored King, and the last a panegyric on Monk, his chief 
 restorer. Sir Robert Howard was a younger son of the 
 Earl of Berkshire, who had been constant, with all his family, 
 to the cause of royalty, and had impoverished himself in the 
 cause. Henry Herringman was at this time the fashionable 
 publisher, and published both for Howard and Dryden. 
 Shadwell proceeds, in his vituperative biography, to taunt 
 Dryden with drudgery for Herringman, and with living on 
 Howard. 
 
 * He turned a journeyman to a bookseller, 
 Wrote prefaces to books for meat and drink, 
 And, as he paid, he would both write and think; 
 Then, by the assistance of a noble knight, 
 Thou hadst plenty, ease, and liberty to write : 
 First like a gentleman he made thee live, 
 And on his bounty thou didst amply thrive 1 .' 
 
 * ' The Medal of John Bayes.' 
 
XX BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Theatrical representations, which the austerity of the 
 Puritans had proscribed during the Commonwealth, were 
 now revived, and Dryden immediately turned to play-writing 
 and made it a source of income. After the Restoration, two 
 theatres, and only two, were licensed, one called the King's, 
 which was under the management of Thomas Killigrew, the 
 court wit and a dramatic writer, and the other, the Duke of 
 York's, under the poet laureate, Sir William Davenant. 
 Dryden's first play, l The Wild Gallant,' was produced at the 
 King's Theatre, in February 1663. It was not successful, and 
 he attributed the failure to his boldness 'in beginning with 
 comedy, which is the most difficult part of dramatic poetry.' 
 A tragi-comedy, 'The Rival Ladies,' brought out in the 
 same year, was better received. Pepys, who had pronounced 
 'The Wild Gallant* 'so poor a thing as ever he saw in his 
 life,' thought this ' a very innocent and most pretty witty 
 play m .' The plots of both plays are extravagantly improbable, 
 and coarseness and indecency appear in both. But they 
 pleased the court, perhaps rather on account of than in spite 
 of their demerits ; and even the unpopular ' Wild Gallant ' 
 was specially favoured by Lady Castlemaine, and her royal 
 lover caused it to be several times performed at court. 
 Dryden next assisted Sir Robert Howard in the composition 
 of a tragedy, ' The Indian Queen,' which was acted with 
 great success at the King's Theatre, in January 1664. 
 
 Before ' The Indian Queen ' was brought out on the stage, 
 Howard and Dryden had become brothers-in-law. Dryden 
 was married to Lady Elizabeth Howard on the ist of 
 December 1663. This was not a happy marriage. Lady 
 Elizabeth was a woman of violent temper, and had apparently 
 no sympathy with her husband's literary pursuits. Dryden 
 has been taunted by some of the virulent foes of his later 
 life with having been hectored into this marriage by the lady's 
 brothers in order to save her reputation ; and there is 
 reason to believe that her conduct before marriage was not 
 
 1 Diary, February 23, 1663, and August 4, 1664. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXI 
 
 irreproachable. If this were so, happiness could hardly be 
 expected. 
 
 The success of ' The Indian Queen ' encouraged Dryden to 
 bring out in the following year, 1665, a sequel, under the title 
 of ' The Indian Emperor,' and that play was a great success 
 and much advanced Dry den's fame. ( The Indian Emperor ' 
 was published in 1667, with a dedication to the young and 
 beautiful Duchess of Monmouth, the 'charming Annabel* 
 of ( Absalom and Achitophel,' who was an early patroness of 
 Dryden, and whom in his later years he called his ' first and 
 best patroness 11 .' 'The Rival Ladies' had been published 
 with a dedication to the Earl of Orrery, a dramatic writer. 
 'The Wild Gallant' was not published till 1669, when the 
 fame otherwise acquired by Dryden helped to recommend it 
 to favour. He revived ' The Wild Gallant ' on the stage 
 in 1667. 
 
 In the summer of 1665 the Plague broke out in London, 
 and all who could do so fled to the country. Dryden retired 
 to Gharlton, in Wiltshire, the seat of his father-in-law, Lord 
 Berkshire, and he remained there for the greater part of 
 eighteen months. , During this period of retreat he wrote the 
 'Annus Mirabilis,' the 'Essay on Dramatic Poesy,' and the 
 comedy of ' Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen.' 
 
 The 'Annus Mirabilis,' a poem celebrating the events of 
 the year 1665-6, and describing the war with Holland, the 
 Plague, and the Great Fire of London, was published in 1667^ 
 with a dedication to the Metropolis, and a long preface ad- 
 dressed to Sir Robert Howard. This poem is written in the 
 quatrain stanzas in which Dryden had sung the praises of 
 Oliver Cromwell eight years before. In the preface he says, 
 ' I have chosen to write my poem in quatrain stanzas of four 
 alternate rhymes, because I have ever judged them more 
 noble and of greater dignity both for sound and numbers 
 than any other verse in use among us.' The minute know- 
 ledge of naval matters displayed in the poem was acquired 
 
 Dedication of ' King Arthur,' to the Marquis of Halifax, 1691. 
 
XXli BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 it appears, for the occasion and under some difficulties. * For 
 my own part/ he says, * if I had little knowledge of the sea, 
 yet I have thought it no shame to learn, and if I have made 
 some mistakes, it is only, as you can bear me witness, because 
 I have wanted opportunity to correct them, the whole poem 
 being first written and now sent you from a place where I 
 have not so much as the converse of any seaman.' In this 
 poem Dryden's skill and force of language is first strikingly 
 remarkable. Some parts of it, and especially the description 
 of the Fire of London, are very fine. 
 
 Dryden's next publication was the ' Essay on Dramatic 
 Poesy,' also written during his long residence at Charlton: 
 this was published in 1668. A subject treated of in this essay 
 was the use of rhyme in tragedies, which was now the fashion, 
 and favoured by the King. Dry den had praised rhymed 
 tragedies in his dedication to the Earl of Orrery, of the 
 * Rival Ladies,' published in 1664. In the following year Sir 
 Robert Howard published a collection of plays, with a pre- 
 face, in which, though he had himself done tragedy in rhyme, 
 he severely criticised Dryden's doctrine. In the ' Essay on 
 Dramatic Poesy,' Dryden vindicated his views. The essay was 
 in the form of a conversation between four persons, Eugenius, 
 Lisideius, Crites, and Neander ; and under these names were 
 respectively veiled Lord Buckhurst (afterwards Earl of Dor- 
 set), Sir Charles Sedley, Sir Robert Howard, and Dryden 
 himself. Neander maintained the cause of rhyme in tragedies, 
 and Crites argued on the other side with inferior force. 
 This led to a literary controversy with Howard, which pro- 
 duced for a time some ill-feeling between the brothers-in- 
 law, but the estrangement did not last long. 
 
 During the ravages of the Plague and Fire the playhouses 
 had been closed. They were re-opened towards the close 
 of 1666, and in the following March ' Secret Love, or the 
 Maiden Queen,' the play which Dryden had written at Charl- 
 ton, was brought out at the King's Theatre. It was a great 
 success. Pepys, who was present on the first night, com- 
 mends ' the regularity of it and the strain of wit,' and is quite 
 enthusiastic in his praises of Nell Gwyn, in the part of 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xxiii 
 
 Florimel . The play was published in the following year, 
 with a preface, in which Dryden states that Charles had 
 ' graced ' the successful comedy ' with the title of his play.' 
 Another comedy, l Sir Martin Mar-all/ was brought out in 
 the autumn of 1667 at the Duke's House. This was an 
 adaptation of Moliere's play, 'L'tourdi,' which had been 
 translated by the Duke of Newcastle ; and when it appeared 
 on the stage, Pepys tells us that the general opinion was that 
 it was a l play by the Lord Duke of Newcastle, and corrected 
 by Dryden.' Dryden afterwards published himself as author, 
 and we may take for granted that the authorship was really 
 his. 'The Tempest, or the Enchanted Island,' produced at 
 the Duke's Theatre in November, 1667, was an adaptation by 
 Dryden and Davenant of Shakespeare's Tempest. The new 
 play was nothing more nor less than a debasement of Shake- 
 speare's, and Dryden doubtless knew well its inferiority. In 
 the prologue he paid a fine tribute to the genius of Shake- 
 speare. These are the opening lines : 
 
 ' As when a tree's cut down, the secret root, 
 Lives underground, and thence new branches shoot, 
 So from old Shakespeare's honoured dust this day 
 Springs up and buds a new reviving play : 
 Shakespeare, who, taught by none, did first impart 
 To Fletcher wit, to labouring Jonson art; 
 He, monarch-like, gave these his subjects law, 
 And is that Nature which they paint and draw.' 
 
 And in the same prologue he says 
 
 'But Shakespeare's magic could not copied be; 
 
 Within that circle none durst walk but he.' 
 Again 
 
 ' But Shakespeare's power is sacred as a king's.' 
 Dryden and Davenant's ' Tempest ' was published by Dryden 
 in 1668, Davenant having died in the interval: and in the 
 preface Dryden mentions that Davenant had taught him to 
 venerate Shakespeare. 
 
 o Diary, March 2, 1667. 
 
xxiv BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 If Dryden's mutilation of the Tempest seems incon- 
 sistent with his reverence for Shakespeare, it must be borne 
 in mind that Dry den wrote for money, that to adapt took 
 less time than to create, and that the audiences for which he 
 wrote neglected Shakespeare's plays and applauded Dryden's. 
 
 * Those who have best succeeded on the stage 
 Have still conformed their genius to their age P.* 
 
 The year 1667 had been one of great dramatic success for 
 Dryden. The 'Maiden Queen/ 'Sir Martin Mar-all,' and 
 ' The Tempest ' had all been well received, and his first play, 
 ' The Wild Gallant/ unsuccessful when it first appeared, had 
 been revived with some success. 
 
 Until now the profits derived by Dryden from his plays 
 had come from the third night's representation, which custom 
 made the author's benefit, from the prices received from his 
 publisher, from presents in return for dedications, and prob- 
 ably also from a retaining fee from the King's company, to 
 which all his plays were given. A successful ' third night ' of 
 a play would probably at this time bring Dryden forty or at 
 most fifty guineas, and the price of the copyright of one of 
 his plays would now be but a trifle. Thus, for ' Cleomenes,' 
 one of his latest plays, he is known to have received thirty 
 guineas, and no more ; and this was probably the highest 
 price he ever got. He is said never to have received, in his 
 days of greatest fame, more than a hundred guineas for third 
 night and copyright together. There had been no dedication 
 to his last three published plays, the ' Maiden Queen,' e Sir 
 Martin Mar-all,' and ' The Tempest.' But henceforth his 
 plays were always, dedicated to some noble patron, who, ac- 
 cording to the custom of the time, sent a present of money 
 in return for the compliment. To recount Dryden's noble 
 patrons is a necessary part of his biography. ' What. I pre- 
 tend by this dedication,' he said, in 1691, in dedicating 'King 
 Arthur,' to George Savile Lord Halifax, Ms an honour which 
 I do myself to posterity by acquainting them that I have been 
 conversant with the first persons of the age in which I lived.' 
 
 P Dryden's Epilogue to the Second Part of ' The Conquest of Granada.' 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 After the production of ' The Tempest ' he entered into a 
 contract with the King's company, by which he bound him- 
 self to produce three plays a year, in return for a share and a 
 quarter of the profits of the theatre, all which were divided 
 into twelve shares and a quarter. Under this arrangement 
 Dry den received from 1667 to 1672 a yearly income of from 
 3oo/. to 400 /. a year. The King's Theatre was burnt down 
 in 1672, and the losses of the company then reduced 
 Dryden's share of profits to about 2oo/. a year. His reci- 
 procal duty, to write three plays a year, was never fulfilled ; 
 but the company appear to have behaved always generously 
 to him and not to have mulcted him for his shortcomings. 
 
 Under this new contract two comedies, * An Evening's Love, 
 or the Mock Astrologer,' an adaptation of the younger Cor- 
 neille's ' Feint Astrologue/ and ' Ladies a la Mode,' were pro- 
 duced in 1668. ' An Evening's Love' was not very successful. 
 Evelyn went to see it, and was ' afflicted to see how the stage 
 was degenerated and polluted by the licentious times <i.' The 
 criticism of Samuel Pepys is very similar, and Herringman, 
 the publisher, told Pepys that Dryden himself considered it 
 but a fifth-rate play r . Of ' Ladies a la Mode,' Pepys, from 
 whom alone we have knowledge of it, says that it was a trans- 
 lation from the French, and that it was ' so mean a thing as 
 when they came to say it would be acted again, both he that 
 said it, Beeson, and the pit fell a laughing, there being this day 
 not a quarter of the pit full.' It was never acted again, and 
 Dryden never published it s . 
 
 Dryden's mother died in 1670. He was an affectionate 
 son, and there are indeed none but pleasant indications of his 
 relations with members of his family. The first of some 
 little bequests in the will of the mother, who had little to 
 leave, is a silver tankard and her wedding-ring to her son, 
 now so famous. ' I give and bequeath to my beloved son, 
 John Dryden, a silver tankard marked with J. D., and a gold 
 
 4 Evelyn's Diary, June 19, 1668. 
 
 r Pepys' Diary, June 20 and 22, 1 668. 
 
 Ibid. September 15, 1668. 
 
XXVI BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ring, which was my wedding-ring. And it is my will that 
 after the decease of my dear son, John Dryden, his eldest 
 son, Charles Dryden, should have the ring as a gift from his 
 grandmother, Mary Dryden.' On the death of his mother, 
 Dryden came into possession of the whole of the little Blakesley 
 estate, and the addition thus made to his income was not more 
 than 20 1. a year: but his income at this time, derived from 
 various sources, from his estate, his salary and his brain-work, 
 probably amounted to about yoo/. a year. 
 
 Three tragedies in heroic verse, ' Tyrannic Love, or the 
 Royal Martyr,' and 'Almanzor and Almahide, or the Con- 
 quest of Granada,' in two parts, each being a separate play, 
 appeared in 1669 and 1670, and added greatly to Dryden's 
 fame. ' Tyrannic Love' was dedicated to the Duke of Mon- 
 mouth, and 'The Conquest of Granada' to the Duke of York. 
 In August 1670 he received a substantial mark of royal 
 favour. The two appointments of Poet Laureate and Histo- 
 riographer Royal, which had been vacant, the one since the 
 death of Sir William Davenant in 1668, the other since the 
 death of James Howell in 1666, were conferred upon Dryden, 
 with a salary of 2oo/. a year and arrears from Midsummer 
 1668 ; and an annual butt of canary wine from the King's 
 cellars was added to the salary. 
 
 In December 1671 'The Rehearsal* a farce the prepara- 
 tion of which had for some ten years occupied the second 
 George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and in which he is said 
 to have had assistance from the author of 'Hudibras' and 
 others, was brought out at the King's Theatre. The object 
 of this farce was to ridicule the rhymed tragedies of the 
 Restoration. The farce had been begun some time before 
 the death of the former poet laureate, Davenant, and he had 
 been the original hero, but Davenant dying before the farce 
 was finished, Dryden, his successor in the laureateship, was 
 caricatured in his stead as the poet ' Bayes.' It is said that 
 the Duke of Buckingham himself drilled the actor, Lacey, to 
 whom the part of ' Bayes ' was allotted, to imitate Dryden's 
 manner *. The piece had a great success, and its fame endures ; 
 
 * Spence's Anecdotes (Villiers, Duke of Buckingham). 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXvii 
 
 the name of Bayes stuck to Dryden through life. Dryden 
 bore this attack in silence, claiming credit in later years 
 for a forbearance which was probably prompted by prudence, 
 for Buckingham was at the time a leading minister and in 
 great favour with the King u . 
 
 During the year 1671 Dryden produced no play. In 
 January 1672 the King's Theatre in Drury Lane was burnt 
 down, and the company removed to a house in Lincoln's Inn 
 Fields. The impoverished circumstances of the company, 
 which directly affected himself, probably stimulated Dryden 
 to exertion, and in this year he produced two new comedies, 
 ' Marriage a la Mode,' which was very successful, and ' The 
 Assignation, or Love in a Nunnery,' which was condemned. 
 'Amboyna, or the Cruelties of the Dutch to the English 
 Merchants,' was Dryden's next production. England and 
 France were now jointly engaged in war against Holland, and 
 the tragedy of 'Amboyna' was written for the purpose of 
 inflaming national feeling against the Dutch. This is one of 
 Dryden's worst plays. It was written, he says, ' in haste, but 
 with an English heart.' This eager advocate of the Dutch 
 war of 1672 afterwards reviled and persecuted Shaftesbury 
 for having promoted it. 'Amboyna' was dedicated to Lord 
 Clifford, Shaftesbury's colleague in what is called the Cabal 
 Ministry, who was a private friend and zealous patron of 
 Dryden. 'Marriage a la Mode' had been dedicated to 
 Wilmot Earl of Rochester, who later became Dryden's 
 virulent enemy, but of whom he now said, addressing him, 
 ' You have not only been careful of my reputation, but of my 
 fortune,' and * I have found the effects of your protection in 
 all my concernments.' i The Assignation' was dedicated to the 
 witty and dissolute Sir Charles Sedley. 
 
 u There is a severe and vigorous poem on the Duke of Buckingham 
 printed in the collection called * State Poems,' which some have ascribed 
 to Dryden, but probably wrongly. The slow composition of ' The Re- 
 hearsal* is there alluded to : 
 
 ' I come to his farce, which must needs be well done, 
 For Troy was not longer before it was won, 
 Since 'tis more than ten years since this farce was begun.' 
 
XXVlil BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 'The State of Innocence,' a transformation of 'Paradise 
 Lost* into an opera, and intended for the stage but never 
 acted, was Dryden's literary work of the year 1674. Aubrey 
 relates that Dryden called on Milton to ask permission to 
 versify his poem, and was dryly told by the blind old man that 
 he might ' tag his verses ' if he pleased. ' Paradise Lost ' had 
 been published five years before, and had not excited enthu- 
 siasm. But Dryden had taken a just measure of the poem, 
 and in the preface of his own 'State of Innocence' he de- 
 clared it to be ' undoubtedly one of the greatest, most noble, 
 and sublime poems which either this age or nation has pro- 
 duced.' Shortly after the publication of 'The State of 
 Innocence' Milton died, on the 8th of November, 1674. 
 Dryden's well-known lines on Milton were written fourteen 
 years later, to be printed under his portrait prefixed to an 
 edition of 'Paradise Lost,' published by subscription in 1695 
 by Jacob Tonson. 
 
 'Three poets in three distant ages born 
 Greece, Italy, and England did adorn. 
 The first in loftiness of thought surpassed, 
 The next in majesty, in both the last. 
 The force of nature could no farther go : 
 To make a third she joined the former two/ 
 
 In the prologue of ' Aurengzebe, or the Great Mogul,' a 
 tragedy produced in 1675, Dryden informed his audience that 
 he had grown tired of rhyme in tragedy and generally dis- 
 satisfied with play-writing. Having begun by speaking dis- 
 paragingly of the playj but, as he said, 'out of no feigned 
 modesty,' he proceeds in this prologue : 
 
 * Not that it 's worse than what before he writ, 
 But he has now another taste of wit : 
 And to confess a truth, though out of time, 
 Grows weary of his long-loved mistress, Rhyme. 
 Passion's too fierce to be in fetters bound, 
 And Nature flies him like enchanted ground. 
 What verse can do he has performed in this, 
 Which he presumes the most correct of his; 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXIX 
 
 But spite of all his pride, a secret shame 
 Invades his breast at Shakespeare's sacred name: 
 Awed when he hears his godlike Roman rage, 
 He in a just despair would quit the stage; 
 And to an age less polished, more unskilled 
 Does with disdain the foremost honours yield. 
 As with the greater dead he dares not strive, 
 He would not match his verse with those who live. 
 Let him retire betwixt two ages cast, 
 The first of this and hindmost of the last.' 
 
 Dryden had now for some time wished to apply himself to 
 the composition of an epic poem: but for this leisure was 
 necessary, and play-writing gave him bread. He explains 
 himself on this subject in the dedication of t Aurengzebe/ to 
 Sheffield Earl of Mulgrave. He had had an opportunity, 
 through Mulgrave's good offices, of speaking both with the 
 King and the Duke of York of his desire to devote himself to 
 the production of a national epic poem, and he now asked 
 Mulgrave to remind the King of his ambition. Several years 
 later, in 1693, in his ' Discourse on Satire,' addressed to the 
 Earl of Dorset, he mentions two subjects which he had 
 thought of; one was the conquest of Spain by Edward the 
 Black Prince, and the other King Arthur conquering the 
 Saxons. Dryden's wishes were not gratified by the King. 
 No office was given him which relieved him from the neces- 
 sity of writing for subsistence. It is however possible that 
 the King may now have granted him the pension of ioo/. a 
 year in addition to the salaried offices of Poet Laureate and 
 Historiographer Royal, which it has been lately ascertained 
 that he obtained during the reign of Charles 1 1 ; but the date 
 of the grant of the pension is not known x . 
 
 Dryden's next play did not appear for two years after; 
 
 * This pension from Charles was first made known by the publication 
 by Mr. R. Bell in 1854 of a treasury warrant of 1684 for payment of 
 arrears ; and Mr. P. Cunningham has since published a treasury warrant 
 for payment of a quarter due January 5, 1679. (Johnson's 'Lives of 
 the Poets/ Cunningham's edition, vol. i. p. 334, note.) 
 
XXX BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 it was 'All for Love, or the World Well Lost/ the story 
 of Antony and Cleopatra, and it was produced at the King's 
 Theatre in the winter of 1677-8. To the preparation of 
 this tragedy Dryden had devoted more time and labour 
 than usual, and he considered it his best play. ' All for Love* 
 had great success, and the company gave Dryden the benefit of 
 the third night, to which the terms of his contract did not 
 entitle him. This act of generosity appears to have been ill 
 requited by Dryden; his next play ' GEdipus/ written in 
 conjunction with Nathaniel Lee, was given to the Duke's 
 company and brought out at the rival theatre. This was 
 regarded by the King's company as a breach of contract, with 
 the aggravation of ingratitude. He had never fulfilled his 
 engagement to write three plays a year, and indeed had pro- 
 duced on an average less than one a year. The King's company 
 now complained to the Earl of Arlington, the Lord Chamber- 
 lain, of Dryden's proceeding as a violation of contract ; but 
 there is no sign of their having obtained redress y. Dryden 
 now broke with the King's Theatre, or the King's Theatre 
 with him, and his subsequent plays came out at the rival 
 house. 'The Kind Keeper, or Limberham,* a very coarse 
 comedy, followed ' CEdipus,' and gave such offence that, after 
 it had been three times acted, Dryden withdrew it. In April 
 1679, he produced with indifferent success ' Troilus and Cres- 
 sida/ an adaptation of Shakespeare's play. ' All for Love,' on 
 its publication, was dedicated to the Earl of Danby, then the 
 chief Minister, 'Limberham,' to Lord Vaughan, a literary 
 nobleman, and ' Troilus and Cressida,' to the Earl of Sunder- 
 land, a rising politician and future leading minister. 
 
 As Dryden was returning to his house in Long Acre through 
 Rose Alley, Drury Lane, on the night of the i8th of 
 December, 1679, he was fallen upon and severely beaten by a 
 gang of ruffians. There appears to be little doubt that the 
 
 y Almost all our information as to Dryden's partnership in the King's 
 Theatre is derived from this memorial of complaint addressed to the 
 Lord Chamberlain, which is printed in Malone's Life of Dryden, p. 73. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXXI 
 
 instigator of this cowardly attack was Wilmot Earl of Ro- 
 chester, who conceived Dryden to be the author of a poem in 
 circulation, an Essay on Satire, in which he was severely 
 attacked. Sheffield Earl of Mulgrave, afterwards Marquis 
 of Normanby and Duke of Buckinghamshire, is now known 
 to have been the author of the poem ; but at the time a 
 belief seems to have prevailed that Dryden had written it. 
 It is not impossible that Dryden may have seen the poem 
 before it was put in circulation and given it some revision. 
 Yet it is difficult to believe that Dryden, who was dependent 
 on the King's pleasure for 3007. a year of his income would 
 have been so imprudent as to make himself in any way respon- 
 sible for a poem in which the King also was severely assailed. 
 It is more likely that the great intimacy which existed at this 
 period between Dryden and Mulgrave is the sole origin of the 
 suspicion. Mulgrave positively asserted in a note in a later 
 edition of the poem that Dryden was entirely innocent of the 
 authorship. In a poem of Rochester's, published the year 
 before, Dryden had been freely and unpleasantly criticised, 
 and Rochester may have expected retaliation and been 
 prone to conclude that Mulgrave's attack on him came from 
 Dryden. These are Rochester's lines in his ' Allusion to 
 the Tenth Satire of the First Book of Horace,' published in 
 1673- 
 
 'Well, sir, 'tis granted, I said Dryden's rhymes 
 Were stol'n, unequal, nay, dull many times. 
 What foolish patron is there found of his 
 So blindly partial to deny me this? 
 But that his plays, embroidered up and down 
 With wit and learning, justly pleased the town, 
 In the same paper I as freely own. 
 Yet having this allowed, the heavy mass 
 That stuffs up his loose volumes must not pass.' 
 
 A publicly advertised offer of a reward of fifty pounds for 
 the discovery of the offenders failed to furnish any clue to 
 the author of this dastardly assault. This Rose Alley assault 
 became the theme of many taunts from Dryden's bitter 
 
XXxii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 adversaries after he threw himself into political contro- 
 versies 2 . 
 
 One of Dryden's most successful plays was the 'Spanish 
 Friar, or the Double Discovery/ a satire on the Roman 
 Catholic priesthood, produced at the Duke's Theatre in 1681, 
 at a time when popular feeling was strongly excited against 
 the Papists, and when the question of the day was the exclu- 
 sion of the Duke of York from the succession because he 
 was a Roman Catholic. 
 
 Dryden's pecuniary resources about this time had be- 
 come much crippled. Through the poverty of the Treasury, 
 his salary and pension were not paid, and in May 1684 there 
 was a four years' accumulation of arrears. After the produc- 
 tion of the ' Spanish Friar,' Dryden turned from play-writing 
 to political satire. His famous political poem ' Absalom and 
 Achitophel,' was published in November 1681. The subject 
 of the poem, Shaftesbury and Monmouth, is said to have been 
 suggested by the King himself. Monmouth, the Absalom of 
 the poem, for whom his father, Charles, had always a tender 
 affection is treated through the poem with great delicacy, but 
 Shaftesbury, who is Achitophel, is truculently and unscru- 
 pulously assailed. Together with Shaftesbury, Buckingham, 
 who was now one of the great Protestant opposition to the 
 court, is described in Dryden's happiest vein, under the name 
 of Zimri. 
 
 Shaftesbury had been lying in the Tower under a charge 
 of high treason since July 2, 1681, and Dryden's poem was 
 published a very few days before his trial, probably with the 
 deliberate object of inflaming public opinion against him and 
 helping to obtain a condemnation. The poem was published 
 on November 17; on November 24 the bill of indictment 
 
 z One of these is worth quoting to illustrate the old pronunciation of 
 aches as a word of two syllables as late as 1680 
 
 ' Thus needy Bayes, his Rose Street aches past.' 
 
 'The Protestant Satire/ 
 
 Dryden himself pronounced the word in the same manner in his first 
 poem, the 'Elegy on Lord Hastings/ written in 1649. Aches rhymes 
 with catches in * Hudibras/ Part II. Canto ii. 1. 456 ; and see also 
 Part III. Canto ii. 1. 407 of ' Hudibras.' 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXXlii 
 
 against Shaftesbury went before a London grand jury, and 
 was thrown out. The decision was received by the people 
 of London with acclamations, and a medal was struck by his 
 friends in commemoration of his triumph. The sale of 
 'Absalom and Achitophel' was so rapid that a second edition 
 appeared within a month. The medal celebrating Shaftes- 
 bury's escape from his persecutors furnished Dryden with a 
 subject and a name for a new political satire, which was even 
 more fierce against Shaftesbury than its predecessor. ' The 
 Medal' was brought out in March 1682. This poem, as well 
 as 'Absalom and Achitophel,' was published anonymously, 
 but there was no doubt as to the authorship of either poem ; 
 and Dryden's opponents were quick to produce answers, all 
 more remarkable for virulence than literary merit. 'The 
 Medal of John Bayes,' by Shadwell, especially roused Dryden's 
 anger. Shadwell and he had formerly been on friendly terms, 
 and Dryden had written in 1678 a prologue to Shad well's 
 play, 'The True Widow.' They probably now quarrelled 
 only on political grounds. There was now great fury between 
 the partisans of the Duke of York and those of the Duke of 
 Monmouth, and at this period arose the divisions and the 
 names of Whig and Tory. Dryden was with the Tories, and 
 Shadwell with Shaftesbury, Monmouth, and the Whigs. ' The 
 Medal of John Bayes' provoked Dryden to write a new 
 satire, ' Mac Flecknoe,' in which Shadwell is represented as 
 the poetical heir of Flecknoe, an inferior poet and voluminous 
 author, who had died some five years before. ' Mac Flecknoe ' 
 was published in October 1682. In the following month a 
 second part of ' Absalom and Achitophel ' appeared. Of this 
 poem only a small portion was by Dryden ; the bulk of the 
 poem being the production of Nahum Tate, who afterwards 
 translated the Psalms into verse, and became in time poet 
 laureate. Dryden contributed two hundred lines, and he 
 perhaps revised the whole of Tate's work. 
 
 Dryden now passed from politics to theology, and pro- 
 duced ' Religio Laid,' a clear and argumentative exposition 
 in harmonious verse, of the Protestant faith. The merits of 
 this poem are happily, and without exaggeration, described 
 
 c 
 
XXXIV BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 by Dryden's friend and brother-poet, Lord Roscommon, in 
 some lines of commendation which were prefixed to the 
 poem on its publication : 
 
 * Let free impartial men from Dryden learn 
 Mysterious secrets of a high concern, 
 And weighty truths, solid convincing sense, 
 Explained by unaffected eloquence.' 
 
 A drama, the i Duke of Guise,' a joint work of Dryden and 
 Nathaniel Lee, was brought out in December 1682. The two 
 rival theatres had now found it necessary to combine, and 
 this was the first new play brought out by the united com- 
 pany. In the prologue Dryden announced the play to be a 
 parallel : 
 
 ' Our play 's a parallel ; the Holy League 
 Begot our covenant ; Guisards got the Whig.' 
 
 In spite of Dryden's zealous championship of the court, 
 his salary remained unpaid, and his pecuniary distress was 
 great. In a letter to Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, 
 a Commissioner of the Treasury, probably written in the 
 latter part of 1683, he prays for the payment of the arrears 
 of his salary, amounting to about isoo/., and asks also for 
 some small appointment. He says in this letter, 'I have 
 three sons growing to man's estate; I breed them all up to 
 learning, beyond my fortune; but they are too hopeful to 
 be neglected, though I want.' Of these sons, Charles, the 
 eldest, born in 1665 or 1666, entered Trinity College, Cam- 
 bridge, as a Westminster Scholar, in June 1683 ; the second, 
 John, born 1667 or 1668, was now at Westminster; and the 
 youngest, Erasmus Henry, born in May 1669, had been ad- 
 mitted to the Charterhouse by the nomination of the King 
 in February 1683. It was probably in consequence of Dryden's 
 appeal to Rochester that an Exchequer warrant for the pay- 
 ment of half a year's salary and a quarter's pension was issued 
 on the 6th of May, 1684; and there is reason to believe that 
 in time all arrears were paid to him. He received also in 
 December 1683 the appointment of Collector of Customs 
 in London, which may have been a profitable appointment. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXXV 
 
 Various literary labours occupied the poet at this time. In 
 1683 he contributed a life and a preface to a new translation 
 of Plutarch by various hands, and he translated, by order of the 
 King, Maimbourg's 'History of the League.' In 1684 and 
 1685 he published successively two volumes of poetical Mis- 
 cellanies, containing, with some poems by other authors, 
 translations of his own from Virgil, Horace, and Ovid. To 
 the second volume his eldest son was a contributor. 
 
 On the 5th of February, 1685, Charles the Second died, and 
 the crown passed to his brother James. Before the King's 
 death Dryden had written an opera, ' Albion and Albanius,' to 
 celebrate the triumph of the court party over the opposition ; 
 this had not yet been publicly acted, but it had been several 
 times rehearsed at court with approval. ' Albion and Albanius ' 
 was published after James's accession. But before this pub- 
 lication Dryden produced an ode to the memory of Charles 
 under the title of 'Threnodia Augustalis,' in which both 
 Charles and James were extravagantly lauded. 
 
 As, on the restoration of Charles the Second, Dryden, to 
 win royal favour, had broken away from all the associations 
 of his youth, and had appeared without delay as the eager 
 champion of monarchy, so now, when a declared Roman 
 Catholic was seated on the throne, and to be a Roman 
 Catholic seemed the best way to advancement, he was soon 
 convinced that it was right to be a Roman Catholic. Before 
 his conversion James had continued him in the posts of Poet 
 Laureate and Historiographer Royal; and shortly after it, 
 in March 1686, the additional pension of ioo/. a year, which 
 had been granted him by Charles, was renewed by letters 
 patent. Lord Macaulay, who has represented this pension 
 granted by James as the reward of 'Dryden's conversion, 
 wrote before it was known to be merely a renewal of an 
 old pension granted to Dryden by his predecessor, and he 
 has certainly exaggerated its effects in producing that con- 
 version ; but it would be difficult to prove that Lord Macaulay 
 has been unjust in ascribing Dry den's change of religion to 
 interested motives a . 
 
 a History of England, vol. ii. p. 96. 
 C 2 
 
XXXVI BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 During the greater part of the year 1686 Dry den was 
 engaged in writing ' The Hind and the Panther,' an elaborate 
 defence in verse of his new religion. This poem is in the 
 form of a dialogue between a milkwhite Hind, representing 
 the Church of Rome, and a Panther, representing the Church 
 of England ; and the Hind has of course the best of the dis- 
 cussion. The author of ' Religio Laici ' and of * The Spanish 
 Friar/ could not bring himself to treat the Church to which 
 he so lately belonged with entire disrespect ; and the Panther 
 is described as 
 
 1 sure the noblest next the Hind, 
 And fairest creature of the spotted kind ; 
 Oh, could her inborn stains be washed away, 
 She were too good to be a beast of prey ! 
 How can I praise or blame, and not offend, 
 Or how divide the frailty from the friend? 
 Her faults and virtues lie so mixed, that she 
 Nor wholly stands condemned nor wholly free.' 
 The various dissenting bodies are introduced into the poem 
 under the names of different animals. This, the most 
 imaginative and the longest of Dryden's poems, was published 
 in April 1687. 
 
 Dryden's first ode for St. Cecilia's day was written in 
 November 1687, at the request of a musical society formed 
 four years before the celebration of the feast of St. Cecilia, 
 the guardian saint of music b . 
 
 On June 10, 1688, the Queen gave birth to a son, an event 
 which was hailed with joy by all the friends of the Court, 
 while the Protestant party declared the child an imposture. 
 The birth of the Prince was celebrated by Dryden in a poem 
 entitled * Britannia Rediviva/ which was very hastily com- 
 posed, and is one of his least successful efforts. 
 
 There was a very short interval between the birth of 
 
 b A perfect text of so celebrated a poem is of much literary import- 
 ance. The editors have generally substituted uprooted for Dryden's 
 better word unroofed in the line 
 
 ' And trees unrooted left their place.' 
 
 This is one of very many similar corrections in the Globe edition of 
 Dryden's Poems. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXXvii 
 
 James's unfortunate heir and the Revolution, which drove 
 James into exile, placed William and Mary on the throne, and 
 destroyed Dryden's prospects of advancement. His newly- 
 adopted religion made it impossible for him to take the oaths 
 required of all holders of office, and to recant now would 
 have been at once indecent and unprofitable. His offices of 
 Poet Laureate and Historiographer Royal, his place in the 
 Customs, and his pension of ioo/. a year, were now all lost 
 by him. It was stated by Prior, and has been often repeated 
 on his authority, that the Earl of Dorset, who was now 
 appointed Lord Chamberlain, made the poet an allowance 
 from his own purse equivalent to the official salary he had 
 lost. This is a mistake ; but there is no doubt that Dorset 
 at different times made Dryden handsome presents of money, 
 and the poet, in his ( Discourse on Satire/ dedicated to Dorset 
 in 1693, gratefully acknowledges his generosity. Sheffield, 
 Earl of Mulgrave, was also bountiful to him in his reduced 
 circumstances. 
 
 In his fallen fortunes Dryden turned once more to the 
 drama. In 1690 he produced two plays. The first was a 
 tragedy called 'Don Sebastian.' Though one of his best 
 dramas, it was not very successful, and Dryden attributed the 
 failure of it to its length, or in his own language, to his 
 having exceeded ' the proper compass of a play.' A comedy, 
 'Amphitryon/ produced in the same year, had better suc- 
 cess. At the time of Charles the Second's death Dryden was 
 engaged in writing, as a sequel to ( Albion and Albanius,' an 
 opera, 'King Arthur, or the British Worthy.' This work, 
 much altered to suit the altered times, was now brought out 
 with great success. About the representation of his next 
 play there was some difficulty. The story of 'Cleomenes, 
 King of Sparta,' was of an exiled king seeking protection at 
 a foreign court. King William was absent in Holland, and 
 Mary, the Regent, feeling that the play was disagreeably 
 suggestive of her father's position at St. Germains, objected 
 to its being acted. Her objections were, however, overcome 
 by Dryden's friends, and ' Cleomenes ' was produced in May 
 1692. 
 
XXXV111 BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Dryden had been seized with a severe fit of illness while 
 hastening to finish ' Cleomenes/ and he was compelled to call 
 in the aid of a young friend, Southern e, to finish it for him. 
 Southerne, Dryden's junior by twenty-eight years, had ac- 
 quired sudden celebrity by his first play, ' The Loyal Brother, 
 or the Persian Prince/ produced in 1682, when he was only 
 twenty-three. It had been brought on the stage with a 
 prologue and epilogue by Dryden ; and Dryden again had 
 written the prologue for Southerners second play, ' The Dis- 
 appointment, or the Mother in Fashion/ which had also been 
 a success. A check came to Southerners success in 1692, 
 shortly after Dryden had honoured him by seeking his assist- 
 ance for ' Cleomenes.' His fourth play, the ' Wives' Excuse/ 
 was not well received on the stage, and Dryden now con- 
 soled his young friend by some lines of condolence and com- 
 pliment. He ascribed the want of success to the story and 
 the absence of a favourite actor : 
 
 * Yet those who blame thy tale commend thy wit, 
 So Terence plotted, but so Terence writ. 
 Like his, thy thoughts are true, thy language clean, 
 Even lewdness is made moral in thy scene. 
 The hearers may for want of Nokes repine, 
 But rest secure, the readers will be thine. 
 Nor was thy laboured drama damned or hissed, 
 But with a kind civility dismissed.' 
 
 One more play, ' Love Triumphant, or Nature will Prevail/ 
 was produced by Dryden in the beginning of 1694, and he 
 relinquished play-writing. * Love Triumphant ' was a failure. 
 A letter written by one who was evidently a bitter enemy 
 of Dryden, and who calls him ' huffing Dryden/ says that the 
 play was ' damned by the universal cry of the town.' 
 
 'Don Sebastian* was dedicated to the Earl of Leicester, 
 elder brother of Algernon Sydney ; ' Amphitryon ' to Sir 
 William Leveson Gower of Trentham; 'King Arthur' to 
 George Saville, Marquis of Halifax ; 'Cleomenes' to Lawrence 
 Hyde, Earl of Rochester, son of the Lord Chancellor 
 Clarendon, and uncle to Queen Mary; and 'Love Tri- 
 umphant' to the Earl of Salisbury. These were all friends 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXXIX 
 
 of the Revolution, and of William and Mary's government, 
 who, Dryden is careful to say in each of his dedications, had 
 continued kind to him in his adversity. He endeavoured, he 
 says, ' to pitch on such men only as have been pleased to own 
 me in this ruin of my small fortune, who, though they are of a 
 contrary opinion themselves, yet blame me not for adhering 
 to a lost cause and judging for myself, what I cannot choose 
 but judge, so long as I am a patient sufferer and no disturber 
 of the government/ To Lord Leicester, whose mansion was 
 near his own residence in Gerrard Street, Dryden writes that 
 ' his best prospect is on the garden of Leicester House/ and 
 that its owner has more than once offered him his patronage, 
 'to reconcile him to a world of which his misfortunes have 
 made him weary.' And in the last of these dedications, 
 written in 1694, and addressed to the Earl of Salisbury, to 
 whom he says that his wife was related, he writes, ' You have 
 been pleased to take a particular notice of me even in this 
 lowness of my fortunes, to which I have voluntarily reduced 
 myself, and of which I have no reason to be ashamed.' 
 Dryden held himself proudly in his enforced change of cir- 
 cumstances. King William's government could not favour 
 him, even if there were the disposition to do so. His Toryism 
 and his many gibes at the Dutch might have been, and prob- 
 ably would have been, generously forgiven; but he could 
 not recant his new Roman Catholic religion and conform 
 to the tests required for office. In his poem 'Eleonora,' 
 written in 1691, in honour of the memory of the Countess 
 of Abingdon, for which he received a very handsome pe- 
 cuniary reward of five hundred guineas from the Earl, he 
 speaks of himself as one 
 
 * Who, not by cares or wants of age deprest, 
 Stems a wild deluge with a dauntless breast.* 
 
 Dryden had in 1692 produced, with aid from others, a 
 translation of the Satires of Juvenal and Persius, to which 
 he prefixed a ' Discourse on Satire,' addressed to the Earl of 
 Dorset. Among those who aided him were his two elder 
 sons, John and Charles. Dryden himself translated the first, 
 
xl BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 third, sixth, tenth, and sixteenth Satires of Juvenal, and the 
 whole of Persius. Dryden ajso wrote a life of Polybius for 
 a translation by Sir Henry Shere, given to the world in 1692. 
 A third volume of ' Miscellanies' was published, under Dry den's 
 editorship, in 1693, and a fourth in 1694. In the last volume 
 appeared Dryden's translation of the fourth Georgic of Virgil, 
 and his poem addressed to Sir Godfrey Kneller. This poem 
 has been always reprinted in an imperfect state ; the omitted 
 passages are restored in the lately-published Globe edition. 
 One of the omitted passages, immediately following an 
 allusion to the first pair in Eden, is of autobiographical 
 interest : 
 
 ^Forgive the allusion; 'twas not meant to bite, 
 But Satire will have room, where'er I write/ 
 
 There is in this poem an admirable description of a perfect 
 portrait : 
 
 1 Likeness is ever there, but still the best, 
 Like proper thoughts in lofty language drest/ 
 
 Dryden's new friendship with Southerne has been men- 
 tioned. Through Southerne he became acquainted with 
 another young dramatist, Congreve, who was also early 
 famous. Congreve's first play, 'The Old Bachelor/ was 
 brought out in 1693 ; Dryden had seen it in manuscript, and 
 declared that he never saw such a good play, and he aided to 
 adapt it for the stage. Gongreve was at this time but twenty- 
 three years old. A second play was produced by him within 
 a twelvemonth, 'The Double Dealer,' which did not attain 
 the brilliant success that had attended Congreve's first effort. 
 Dryden, who the year before had consoled Southerne under 
 a similar disappointment, now addressed to Gongreve a poem, 
 which was prefixed to ' The Double Dealer ' when published. 
 The poem is headed, 'To my dear friend, Mr. Congreve.' 
 He anticipates in this poem a brilliant future for Congreve, 
 designales him as the fittest of living writers for the laureate- 
 ship which he himself had lost, and ends in well-known 
 beautiful lines by bequeathing to Congreve the care of his 
 own reputation : 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xll 
 
 In him all beauties of this age we see, 
 Etherege his courtship, Southern's purity, 
 The satire, wit, and strength of Wycherly. 
 All this in blooming youth you have achieved, 
 Nor are your foiled contemporaries grieved ; 
 So much the sweetness of your manners move, 
 We cannot envy you, because we love. 
 
 Oh that your brows my laurel had sustained! 
 Well had I been deposed, if you had reigned. 
 
 Yet this I prophesy, Thou shalt be seen, 
 Though with some short parenthesis between, 
 High on the throne of wit, and seated there, 
 Not mine that's little but thy laurel wear. 
 Thy first attempt an early promise made; 
 That early promise this has more than paid. 
 
 Already I am worn with cares and age, 
 And just abandoning the ungrateful stage; 
 Unprofitably kept at Heaven's expense, 
 I live a rent-charge on His providence. 
 But you, whom every Grace and Muse adorn, 
 Whom I foresee to better fortune born, 
 Be kind to my remains ; and oh, defend, 
 Against your judgment, your departed friend. 
 Let not the insulting foe my fame pursue, 
 But shade those laurels which descend to you: 
 And take for tribute what these lines express, 
 You merit more, nor could my love do less.' 
 
 An air of insincerity is given to the prophecy of the laurel 
 for Gongreve by a similar compliment addressed a few years 
 later to another young dramatist, George Granville, who was 
 rich and of noble family, and became afterwards Secretary 
 of State and a peer, with the title of Lord Lansdowne, and 
 who was a beneficent friend of Dryden in his last years. A 
 poem addressed to Mr. Granville in* 1690, 'on his excellent 
 tragedy, called " Heroic Love," ' contains these lines : 
 
 * But since 'tis Nature's law in love and wit, 
 That youth should reign, and withering age submit, 
 
xlii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 With less regret those laurels I resign, 
 Which, dying on my brows, revive on thine. 
 
 Thine be the laurel then: thy blooming age 
 Can best, if any can, support the stage c .' 
 
 Dryden renounced the drama in 1694, in order to devote 
 himself to the translation of Virgil, a work which occupied 
 him almost exclusively for the next three years. The trans- 
 lation was published by subscription in 1697, and it was a 
 success both pecuniarily and in respect of fame. Writing 
 to his sons a few months after the publication, he says, * My 
 Virgil succeeds in the world beyond its desert or my repu- 
 tation,' and he goes on to say that the profits might have 
 been more had his conscience allowed him to comply with 
 the wish of his publisher Tonson, and dedicate the work to 
 the King. The publisher had been so bent on gaining his 
 point in this matter that he caused the engraving of ^Eneas 
 to be altered into some likeness of William, in the hope that 
 Dryden might relent at the last moment. But this wily 
 stratagem failed, and Dryden's Virgil appeared with three 
 separate dedications ; of the Pastorals to Lord Clifford, the 
 son of his early patron, the Lord Treasurer ; of the Georgics 
 to the Earl of Chesterfield ; and of the ^Eneid, to his old and 
 kind friend Mulgrave, now Marquis of Normanby. The Virgil 
 was published by subscription. There were two sets of sub- 
 scribers : one of five guineas each, and the other of two guineas. 
 There were 102 of the first class, and 250 of the second. The 
 profit to Dryden was twelve or thirteen hundred pounds. It 
 is extremely difficult to arrive at a definite notion of the exact 
 arrangements between Dryden and Tonson as to profits, and 
 Malone and other biographers have expended much ingenuity 
 
 c George Powel, one of the principal actors at Drury Lane Theatre, 
 irritated by taunts at the Drury Lane company in Dryden's poem to 
 Granville, twitted Dryden with his giving to Granville laurels which he 
 had given away before, both to Congreve and Southerne. (Preface to 
 ' The Fatal Discovery, or Love in Ruins,' 1698, quoted by Malone, vol. i. 
 parti, p. 311.) 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xliil 
 
 in discussion and conjecture on this subject d . The poet's 
 relations with his publisher during the progress of his transla- 
 tion and of the printing of Virgil were anything but pleasant. 
 Several of Dryden's letters of this period which have been 
 preserved abound in complaints and accusations against Ton- 
 son. At one time he has thoughts of leaving him, but upon 
 trial he finds that ' all of his trade are sharpers, and he not 
 more than others/ He accuses him of paying him in clipped 
 and in bad money, and on one occasion he sends him by 
 Tonson's messenger three insulting lines of poetry, with a 
 message, ' Tell the dog that he who wrote these lines can 
 write more.' Tonson must have been startled by this 
 beginning of a portrait of him : 
 
 'With leering looks, bull-faced, and freckled fair, 
 With two left legs, and Judas-coloured hair, 
 And frowsy pores that taint the ambient air .' 
 
 Dryden is said to have begun his translation of Virgil at 
 the house of his cousin John Driden of Chesterton, and there 
 
 d From a positive statement made by one of Dryden's biographers, 
 the Rev. John Mitford, in Pickering's Aldine edition of Dryden's 
 Poems, published in 1832, there should be in existence an agreement 
 dated June 15, 1694, between Dryden and Tonson, attested by Congreve 
 as one of the witnesses : but Mr. Mitford does not say where the agree- 
 ment is to be seen, and he makes his statement without giving any 
 authority. Mr. Mitford says that by this agreement Dryden was to 
 receive for the Virgil 2OO/., to be paid at stated intervals, and a hundred 
 copies of the work on large paper, Tonson to pay all expenses, and have 
 the proceeds of the sale of the small paper copies. But this statement of 
 the case is not consistent with many passages of Dryden's letters on the 
 subject, of 1695, 1696, and 1697, which are printed by Malone and 
 Scott. Dryden's letters, however, are not sufficient to enable us to arrive 
 at certainty as to his arrangements with his publisher. The subject is 
 discussed in Malone's Life, in the Rev. Mr. Hooper's, prefixed to the 
 recent reprint of the Aldine edition, and in the Memoir of the Globe 
 edition. 
 
 6 These three lines are introduced into a poem called ' Faction Dis- 
 played,' ascribed to Mr. Shippen, published after Dryden's death, and are 
 there quoted as Dryden's description of Tonson, who figures in this poem 
 as Bibliopolo. Pope called Tonson, left-legged Jacob ' in the Dunciad, 
 and referred in a note to Dryden's two left legs.' This story therefore is 
 well authenticated. 
 
xliv BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to have written the first lines with a diamond on a window- 
 pane. Some part of the work was done at Denham Court 
 in Buckinghamshire, the seat of Sir William Bowyer, an old 
 Cambridge friend; and the Seventh Book of the ^neid 
 was translated at Burleigh, the house of the Earl of Exeter, 
 in Northamptonshire. Dr. Knightly Chetwode supplied the 
 Life of Virgil and the Preface to the Pastorals, and 
 Addison wrote the arguments of the books and an Essay 
 on the Georgics. Among those who recommended the work 
 to the public by poetical addresses of compliment printed in 
 the front were George Granville the dramatist, the future 
 Lord Lansdowne, and Henry St. John, the future celebrated 
 Lord Bolingbroke. 
 
 Amid general congratulation and eulogy, the publication of 
 Virgil called forth some enemies and detractors. The most 
 elaborate attack on the translation came from a Norfolk 
 clergyman, the Rev. Luke Milbourne, neither whose criticism 
 nor whose name would be remembered but for Dry den's 
 having pilloried him in some of his subsequent writings f . 
 The most famous of Dryden's detractors was a younger 
 kinsman, the celebrated Jonathan Swifts, who never forgetting, 
 it is said, a discouraging opinion on some of his early poetry 
 privately given him by Dryden, whose advice he had asked, 
 
 f Dryden on two occasions couples Milbourne with Sir Richard Black- 
 more, the doctor, who attacked his plays : in the Epistle to John 
 Driden, where Blackmore is Maurus, 
 
 *Wouldst thou be soon dispatched and perish whole, 
 
 Trust Maurus with thy life and Milbourne with thy soul;' 
 and in the preface to the ' Fables,' where he lashes Milbourne unsparingly, 
 and after replying to Jeremy Collier with some respect, he ends with a 
 general defiance : * As for the rest of those who have written against me, 
 they are such scoundrels that they deserve not the least notice to be 
 taken of them. Blackmore and Milbourne are only distinguished from 
 the crowd by being remembered to their infamy.' 
 
 e The relationship between Dryden and Swift has not been clearly 
 ascertained ; but Malone conjectured, with much probability, that Swift's 
 grandmother, wife of Thomas Swift, vicar of Goodrich in Herefordshire, 
 was daughter to a brother of Sir Erasmus Dryden, John Dryden's grand- 
 father. The lady had a brother, Jonathan Dryden, a clergyman ; whence 
 Swift's Christian name. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xlv 
 
 has sneered at the work and its trio of dedications in his 
 witty < Battle of the Books.' The story is told that Swift, 
 about the year 1692, sent Dryden several Pindaric odes for 
 perusal, and to obtain his advice as to publication, and that 
 Dryden returned them, saying, f Cousin Swift, you will never 
 be a poet.' 
 
 Swift was always ready to sneer at his cousin Dryden. 
 The translation of Virgil is alluded to disrespectfully in the 
 dedication of 'The Tale of a Tub.' Some lines of Swift's 
 ridicule Will's and his cousin's prefaces : 
 
 * Put on the critic's brow and sit 
 At Will's, the puny judge of wit-. 
 
 Read all the prefaces of Dryden, 
 For these our critics much confide in ; 
 Though merely writ at first for filling 
 To raise the volume's price a shilling. 
 
 While Dryden was engaged in translating Virgil, he pub- 
 lished a translation of Du Fresnoy's Latin poem on the Art 
 of Painting, to which he prefixed an essay, entitled ' Parallel 
 of Poetry and Painting.' He wrote also in this period a Life 
 of Lucian for a translation of Lucian's works, which was 
 being prepared by Mr. Moyle, Sir Henry Shere, and other 
 gentlemen, and which was not published till after Dryden's 
 death. Dryden's great ode, Alexander's Feast, his second ode 
 for St. Cecilia's day, was written very soon after the com- 
 pletion of the Virgil, and was sung at the feast of St. Cecilia, 
 November 22, 1697. It is stated by Derrick, on somewhat 
 doubtful authority, that Dryden received forty pounds for the 
 use of this ode on that day. It is likely that he received a 
 gratuity from the Society for which he composed it ; but on 
 the other hand, Dryden wrote in September to his sons at 
 Rome, after he had undertaken to produce this ode for 
 November, ' This is troublesome, and no way beneficial ; but 
 I could not deny the stewards who came in a body to my 
 house to desire that kindness, one of them being Mr. Bridg- 
 man, whose parents are your mother's friends.' 
 
xlvi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Dryden's three sons were now at Rome ; the two elder had 
 gone there in the end of 1692, and the youngest followed 
 them. They were favoured by the Pope, Innocent the 
 Twelfth, who made the eldest his Chamberlain, gave some 
 other office in his household to the second, and made the 
 third an officer of his Guards. A comedy written by Dryden's 
 second son, John, 'The Husband his Own Cuckold/ was 
 brought out at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1696, 
 with a prologue by Congreve and an epilogue by Dryden the 
 father. Dryden wrote also a preface for the play when pub- 
 lished, in which he gave his opinion that his son's comedy had 
 'been surpassed by only two living writers, his friends Southerne 
 and Congreve, and ended characteristically, ' Farewell, reader ; 
 if you are a father, you will forgive me ; if not, you will when 
 you are a father.' Sir Robert Howard had taken great 
 interest in his nephew's play, and had helped to adapt it for 
 the stage : the play was dedicated to him, and the father's and 
 uncle's encouragement was happily indicated by a motto 
 from Virgil 
 
 'Et pater Aeneas et avunculus excitat Hector.' 
 
 Sir Robert Howard, Dryden's brother-in-law, with whom in 
 earlier life he had had a literary controversy and a quarrel, was 
 now his friend and benefactor, and Dryden mentions in one of 
 his letters to his sons an intention to refashion for the stage a 
 play by Sir Robert, ' The Conquest of China by the Tartars,' 
 with an expectation of receiving a hundred pounds for the 
 work. 
 
 The publication of Jeremy Collier's famous work on * The 
 Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage,' is unfor- 
 tunately connected with Dryden's biography. Dryden was a 
 prominent offender and deservedly a special object of attack. 
 Collier's work appeared in March 1698. In June Dryden 
 refers to it, in some lines addressed to Motteux on his play 
 ' Beauty in Distress.' Collier was a clergyman, and Dryden, 
 whether Protestant or Roman Catholic, had always attacked 
 all clergies. He affected to consider Collier's anger against 
 himself as inspired by his attacks on Collier's brotherhood, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xlvii 
 
 and, while confessing faultiness, suggested that his antagonist 
 exaggerated offence and spread mischief. He does not name 
 Collier, but he replies to i the Muses' foes/ 
 
 ' But when to common sense they give the lie 
 And turn distorted words to blasphemy, 
 They give the scandal; and the wise discern 
 Their glosses teach an age too apt to learn. 
 What I have loosely or profanely writ 
 Let them to fires, their due desert, commit. 
 Nor, when accused by me, let them complain 
 Their faults and not their function I arraign.' 
 
 And then in beautiful lines he claims for the drama participa- 
 tion with the pulpit in moral instruction : 
 
 * But let us first reform, and then so live 
 That we may teach our teachers to forgive ; 
 Our desk be placed below their lofty chairs, 
 Ours be the practice, as the precept theirs. 
 The moral part at least we may divide, 
 Humility reward, and punish pride; 
 Ambition, interest, avarice accuse : 
 
 These are the province of the tragic muse.' 
 
 There was moderation in this reply, and if Dryden had 
 stopped here, posterity might have accepted his confession and 
 apology. But in his very last composition, his epilogue for a 
 representation for his own benefit, written within a few weeks 
 before his death, he treats Collier's rebukes in another tone, 
 throws the blame of his immoral writings on the court of 
 Charles the Second, and on the brink of the grave jests on 
 virtue and vice : 
 
 * Perhaps the parson stretched a point too far, 
 When with our theatres he waged a war. 
 He tells you that this very moral age 
 Received the first infection from the stage; 
 
 But, sure a banished court, with lewdness fraught, 
 The seeds of open vice returning brought. 
 
 The poets, who must live by courts or starve, 
 Were proud so good a government to serve; 
 
Xlvili BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 And mixing with buffoons and pimps profane, 
 Tainted the stage for some small snip of gain. 
 
 The sin was of our native growth, 'tis true; 
 The scandal of the sin was wholly new, 
 Misses there were, but modestly concealed; 
 Whitehall the naked Venus first revealed, 
 Who standing, as at Cyprus, in her shrine, 
 The strumpet was adored with rites divine.' 
 
 Towards the end of 1698 Dryden began his ' Fables,' or 
 translations from Chaucer and Boccaccio, which were pub- 
 lished only a few months before his death, in a folio volume 
 entitled, ' Tales, Ancient and Modern, Translated into Verse 
 from Homer, Ovid, Boccaccio and Chaucer; with Original 
 Poems/ While engaged on this work, Dryden entertained 
 hopes of obtaining some favour from the government, 
 chiefly through the good offices of his friend and connexion 
 Charles Montagu, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He sent 
 to Montagu for perusal some of the poems designed for this 
 last of his publications, and he rather pressingly solicited his 
 patronage. But his hopes were disappointed, and shortly after 
 he writes to his cousin Mrs. Steward despondingly : ' The 
 court rather speaks kindly of me than does anything for me, 
 though they promise largely/ And again, ' 1 doubt I am in no 
 condition of having a kindness done me, having the Chancellor 
 for my enemy/ The Lord Chancellor whom he suspected of 
 hindering his advancement was the great Lord Somers. 
 
 The 'Fables' were published in November 1699, and 
 Dryden had the gratification of seeing this, his last work, well 
 received. The epistle to his cousin John Driden appeared 
 for the first time in this volume, and Dryden thought this 
 poem ' the best of the whole ' ; and it is an excellent poem. 
 
 Dryden's health had now been failing for some time. In the 
 preface to the ' Fables,' published in November 1699, he speaks 
 of himself as a cripple in his limbs, and alludes to interruptions 
 in his work from * various intervals of sickness/ But he con- 
 gratulates himself on being as vigorous as ever in the faculties 
 of his mind, and says that he intends, if longer life and 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xlix 
 
 moderate health be granted to him, to translate the whole of 
 Homer. This design was not accomplished. During the 
 winter of 1699-1700 his infirmities increased. He had been 
 long a martyr to gout and gravel. In December the appear- 
 ance of erysipelas in his legs added to his sufferings, and during 
 the months of March and April he was mostly confined to his 
 house by gout. At last mortification set in on one of his legs, 
 and amputation of the limb was recommended as the only 
 possible means of averting death, but this operation Dry den 
 refused to submit to, and on the ist of May 1700 he expired 
 at his house in Gerrard Street. At the time of his death he 
 was within three months of completing his sixty-ninth year. 
 His body was embalmed, and lay in state for several days 
 at the College of Physicians. Thence it was removed on 
 May 13, and carried with great pomp and with all the honours 
 of a public funeral to Westminster Abbey, to be buried in 
 Poet's Corner beside the graves of Chaucer and Cowley. 
 
 There appears to be no doubt that Lord Jefferies, son of 
 the Lord Chancellor Jefferies of bad repute, was principally 
 instrumental in securing for Dryden the honour of a public 
 funeral ; and the Earl of Dorset, and Charles Montagu, who 
 is said to have offered in the first instance to pay the expenses 
 of a private interment, doubtless zealously seconded the pro- 
 posal of Jefferies. Garth, a poet of no mean skill, and Presi- 
 dent of the College of Physicians, placed the College building 
 at the disposal of Dryden's friends, and he delivered a Latin 
 oration before the body left the College. Thence some fifty 
 carriages, filled with distinguished friends, followed the hearse 
 to Westminster Abbey. Among these would be some who 
 had been friends from early days, and who for the greater 
 part of half a century had watched his literary career 
 Dorset, Mulgrave (now Marquis of Normanby), Sir Charles 
 Sedley, and Samuel Pepys; and other younger men, dis- 
 tinguished in literature, wit and politics, who had been 
 attracted to him by his fame and by their literary sympathies 
 Charles Montagu, already a leading statesman, Laurence 
 Hyde Earl of Rochester, son of the Lord Chancellor 
 Clarendon, Southerne, Congreve, Wycherly, Vanbrugh, 
 
 d 
 
1 BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Creech, the translator of Lucretius, Walsh, an accomplished 
 man of letters, who was afterwards prominent among Pope's 
 friends, Sir Godfrey Kneller the painter, Betterton the actor, 
 and the young St. John, destined to a fame brilliant but 
 irregular under the title of Lord Bolingbroke 
 
 It was expected that Montagu and Dorset would erect a 
 monument to Dryden in Westminster Abbey, but this expec- 
 tation was not realized ; and it was not till twenty years after 
 his death that a monument was placed over his grave. This 
 was done in 1720 by his old friend Mulgrave, now Duke of 
 Buckinghamshire, who died a few months after he had dis- 
 charged this duty to friendship and public desert. Two years 
 later another monument to the poet and his family was 
 erected in the church of Tichmarsh, in Northamptonshire, 
 by his cousin, Mrs. Creed, who describes Dryden, in the elabo- 
 rate inscription, as 'the celebrated poet and laureat of his 
 time/ and proceeds to say that f his bright parts and learn- 
 ing are best seen in his own excellent writings on various 
 subjects : we boast that he was bred and had his first learning 
 here, where he has often made us happy by his kind visits and 
 most delightful conversation.' 
 
 Dryden died without a will. He had little to leave 
 beyond the small estate at Blakesley, which he had received 
 from his father, and probably some small landed property 
 which he had acquired in Wiltshire through his marriage. 
 The expenses of his mode of living and of his family had 
 never, in his most prosperous days, been below his income, 
 and of late years he had had great difficulty, even with kind 
 aid from many friends, in meeting his expenses. Lady Elizabeth 
 Dryden, the widow, survived her husband for several years. 
 Soon after his death she became insane, and she continued 
 so till her death in 1714. The three sons all died before 
 their mother. The eldest, Charles, was drowned in the 
 Thames, near Datchet, in August 1704 ; John, the second 
 son, had died at Rome, in January 1701 ; and Erasmus 
 Henry, the youngest, died in December 1710, a few months 
 after he had succeeded to the family baronetcy on the death 
 of his cousin, Sir John Dryden. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. li 
 
 In person Dryden was short and stout, with a niddy face. 
 Pope, who when a boy saw Dryden once in his old age, 
 describes him as plump and fresh-coloured, with a down 
 look. His hair is said by an enemy to have inclined to red h , 
 but it early became gray, and he wore it long and flowing. 
 He had a large mole on one of his cheeks. His eyes were 
 far apart. In a poem on a portrait of him, written by a 
 friend in 1700, his eye is called * sleepy.' His expressive face, 
 without being regularly handsome, was winning. He says of 
 himself in one of his early writings, not meaning probably all 
 that is said, ' My conversation is slow and dull, my humour 
 saturnine and reserved ; in short, I am none of those who 
 endeavour to break jests in company or make repartees 1 .' 
 An adversary took him at his word, and has made him say, 
 
 * Nor wine nor love could ever make me gay, 
 To writing bred, I knew not what to say.' k 
 
 But if his conversation was not brilliant, it was agreeable 
 among friends of congenial spirits, and he was a favourite 
 companion. We learn from Pope, through Spence, how 
 Dryden's days were generally passed. He lived for many 
 years before his death in Gerrard Street, Soho, where he 
 died. The room in which he sat and wrote was on the 
 ground floor, looking into the street. He spent his mornings 
 in 'writing, dined early with his family, and after dinner went 
 to Will's coffee-house in Russell Street, where he spent the 
 evening. 'It was Dryden,' says Pope, 'who made Will's 
 coffee-house the great resort for the wits of his time 1 .' 
 At Will's Dryden was, during the latter part of his life, 
 a literary monarch, and he was a genial and kind- 
 hearted ruler. There is a story, not quite certain to be true, 
 that he gave the boy Pope a shilling for translating the 
 story of Pyramus and Thisbe. Dean Lockier describes his 
 goodnatured way of taking an interruption and correction 
 
 & Tom Brown, in ' The Reasons for Mr. Bayes changing his Religion.' 
 i Defence of the Essay on Dramatic Poesy. 
 k A Satire to his Muse. 
 1 Spence's Anecdotes. 
 
 d 2 
 
* 
 
 Hi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 from himself, a youth of seventeen, and a stranger to Dryden, 
 while he was discoursing at Will's with authority on his own 
 ' Mac Flecknoe.' ' If anything of mine is good/ said Dryden, 
 ' it is my " Mac Flecknoe," and I shall value myself the more 
 on it, because it is the first piece of ridicule written in heroics.' 
 The boy Lockier said audibly that ' Mac Flecknoe ' was a 
 fine poem, but not the first written that way. Dryden 
 turned to him and asked f how long he had been a dealer in 
 poetry ? ' and added smilingly, ' pray, sir, what is that you did 
 imagine to have been writ so before ? ' Lockier named 
 Boileau's 'Lutrin' and Tassoni's 'Secchia Rapita.' 'It is true/ 
 said Dryden, ' I had forgot them ' : and as Dryden left the 
 coffee-house that evening, he went up to the youth who had 
 corrected him, and asked him to come and visit him. Dry- 
 den's kindness to younger authors is one of his distinguishing 
 attributes, and one of several proofs of an amiable nature. 
 It was thus that he attracted and retained the friendship of 
 Southerne, Gongreve, and many others, whose respectful 
 attention and genial kindness solaced and softened the sor- 
 rows of his latter years. 
 
 Congreve, to whom, in lines which have been already 
 quoted, Dryden bequeathed the care of his reputation, has 
 left an account of Dryden's character which is true, if not 
 complete. ' He was of a nature/ says Gongreve, e exceed- 
 ingly humane and compassionate ; easily forgiving injuries, 
 and capable of a prompt and sincere reconciliation with them 
 who had offended him His friendship, where he pro- 
 fessed it, went much beyond his professions, and I have been 
 told of strong and generous instances of it, by the persons 
 themselves who received them ; though his hereditary means 
 
 was little more than a bare competency He was of very 
 
 easy, I may say of very pleasing access, but something slow, and 
 as it were diffident in his advances to others. He had some- 
 thing in his nature that abhorred intrusion into any society 
 whatsoever. . . .To the best of my knowledge and observation 
 he was of all the men that ever I knew one of the most 
 modest, and the most easily to be discountenanced in his 
 approaches to his superiors or his equals.' 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. liii 
 
 But Dryden's character was a mixed one, and faults must 
 be mentioned. His indecent writing, his changes in politics 
 and in religion, and his unscrupulousness in praise and blame, 
 are parts of his life and character which cannot be explained 
 away or defended. If on some occasions, after Jeremy Collier's 
 severe rebukes, he has made in his last years some apology for 
 indecencies in his plays, it cannot be said that he has ever ex- 
 pressed himself with becoming contrition. Nor is his gross 
 writing confined to his plays. Lord Macaulay has most truly 
 said that many of his translations, whether from Virgil or 
 Boccaccio, are full of interpolated and exaggerated indecencies. 
 The translations from Lucretius deserve the same reproof. 
 In his very last work, the volume of Fables, his tale from 
 Boccaccio of Sigismunda and Guiscardo, beautifully told in 
 verse the most melodious, is overcharged with licentious 
 sentiments which are not Boccaccio's, but Dryden's : and yet 
 in the preface to these Fables he could write : ' In general, 
 I will only say that I have written nothing which savours of 
 immorality or profaneness, at least, I am not conscious to 
 myself of any such intention. If there happen to be found 
 an immoral expression or a thought too wanton, they all 
 crept into my verses through inadvertency.' Indecent 
 thoughts came to him naturally, and he could not restrain 
 the prurient impulse. There are many passages of contem- 
 porary writers, more or less unfriendly, which, after due 
 allowance for spite and exaggeration, render certain what 
 would otherwise be probable, that Dryden's licentious 
 writing was a sign of licentiousness of life. He knew not 
 political consistency, and he did not regard decency in 
 some of his transitions. His sudden change at the Restora- 
 tion from flattery of the Protectorate to adulation of the 
 Stuarts cannot possibly be explained by honest conviction. 
 To acquiesce as a good subject in the new order of things, 
 and make the best of the monarchy which the national will 
 had restored, would have been becoming ; but for the poetical 
 eulogist of the Commonwealth and of Cromwell to devote him- 
 self immediately to poetical praises of Charles and Clarendon, 
 and to laments over the Commonwealth, which but a year 
 
llV BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 before he had lauded and rejoiced in, is discreditable, and 
 must have been an interested change. Almost all his virulent 
 abuse of Shaftesbury, the great leader of opposition in the 
 latter years of the reign of Charles the Second, is in flagrant 
 contradiction to his former praises of the policy of the Cabal 
 Ministry, the war with Holland, and Clifford, Shaftesbury's 
 colleague of the Cabal government. It would be difficult in 
 any case to give Dryden credit for perfect sincerity and dis- 
 interestedness in his adoption of the Roman Catholic religion, 
 after James the Second became king ; but his antecedents and 
 general character make this altogether impossible. Dryden's 
 temperament was by no means of that sort which engenders 
 sudden conversions. He was not impulsive, and he had no 
 enthusiasm. His clear sharp intellect, and his strong critical 
 faculty, made it easy for him to see faults and flaws, and pro- 
 tected him against all fanaticism. His ' Religio Laid,' is the 
 mature expression of a faith which is more of the head than 
 of the heart: it is the religion of a calm and clear-sighted 
 man, who has reasoned himself into accepting a quantum of 
 theology, and desires as little dogma as possible. How great 
 the leap from this philosophical religion to Romanism, when 
 a Roman Catholic king ascended the throne ! 
 
 Dryden, in his literary character, is known to the multitude 
 chiefly as a poet, but he is to be regarded and remembered 
 also as a prose writer, as a translator, and as the leading wit 
 in his own age of London literary society. His place among 
 English poets is high, if not the highest, in the second class, 
 the first being that of Chaucer and Spenser, Shakespeare 
 and Milton, in whom genius transcends art, and the * faculty 
 divine ' is ever apparent above subject and execution, and 
 whose poetry streams from a ' full- welling fountain-head* 
 of inner imagination. In Dryden, as in Pope, we admire 
 reason, language, argument, wit, and art. Dryden is a great 
 master of language and of verse. He is the most vigorous 
 and polished of satirists, combining subtle refinement with 
 fervour ; and he is unequalled as a reasoner in rhyme. e Ab- 
 salom and Achitophel,' superior as a poem, yet presents no 
 samples of his satirical invective equal to ' The Medal,' and 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. lv 
 
 * Mac Flecknoe.' ' Religio Laici,' ' The Hind and the Pan- 
 ther,' and likewise ' Absalom and Achitophel,' display his 
 power of arguing in verse, another fine example of which is to 
 be found in the theological discussion of Maximin, Apollonius, 
 and St. Catherine, in ' Tyrannic Love.' The fierce satirist 
 was an exquisite song-writer ; some of the songs interspersed 
 in his plays are gems of art, which have been much hidden 
 from view by the deterring grossness of many of the plays, and 
 of many of the songs themselves, which has prevented them 
 from being separately collected. Dryden as an author would 
 seem to have had two natures. He could be correct and 
 dignified when he chose, and it was easy and seemed pleasant 
 to him to be gross and coarse. The polished style of most 
 of his Prologues and Epilogues for the academical audience 
 of Oxford University is in marked contrast with the purient 
 indecency of the addresses which he prepared for the loose, 
 dissolute courtiers and vulgar cits of London. Gracefully 
 in one of the Oxford Prologues has he discriminated between 
 the University and the Town. 
 
 * Our poet, could he find forgiveness here, 
 Would wish it rather than a plaudit there. 
 He owns no crown from those Praetorian bands, 
 But knows that right is in this Senate's hands. 
 Kings make their poets whom themselves think fit, 
 But 'tis your suffrage makes authentic wit.' m 
 
 The plays of Dryden, as plays, contribute little to his fame. 
 They were mostly hastily composed, and written as money- 
 making tasks. But there are scattered through them many 
 beautiful passages of pure and noble thought, and many lines 
 which fasten on the memory and are quoted from mouth to 
 mouth, often without its being known whence they come 
 an unfailing test of poetic power. The following, which has 
 been often quoted, and cannot be quoted too often, is one of 
 many ' beauties ' of ' Aurengzebe ' : 
 
 m Prologue to the University of Oxford, 1673, p. 420 of Globe edition. 
 
Ivi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ' When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat, 
 Yet fooled with hope, men favour the deceit, 
 Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay : 
 To-morrow 's falser than the former day, 
 Lies worse, and while it says we shall be blest 
 With some new joys, cuts off what we possest. 
 Strange cozenage ! none would live past years again, 
 Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain, 
 And from the dregs of life think to receive 
 What the first sprightly running could not give. 
 I'm tired of waiting for this chymic gold, 
 Which fools us young and beggars us when old.' 
 
 To one of Dryden's plays, the Second Part of ' The Con- 
 quest of Granada/ we owe 
 
 ' Forgiveness to the injured does belong, 
 But they ne'er pardon who have done the wrong.' 
 
 To another play, c All for Love/ we owe 
 
 * Men are but children of a larger growth : 
 Our appetites as apt to change as theirs, 
 And full as craving too, and full as vain.' 
 
 It is Almanzor in the First Part of 'The Conquest of 
 Granada ' who exclaims, addressing the King Boabdallin 
 
 * Obeyed as sovereign by thy subjects be, 
 But know that I alone am king of me : 
 I am as free as Nature first made man, 
 Ere the base laws of servitude began, 
 When wild in woods the noble savage ran.' 
 
 Candiope, in ' The Maiden Queen,' describes the retired 
 courtier longing to return to court 
 
 ' Those who like you have once in courts been great, 
 May think they wish, but wish not, to retreat. 
 They seldom go but when they cannot stay; 
 As losing gamesters throw the dice away. 
 E'en in that cell where you repose would find, 
 Visions of court will haunt your restless mind ; 
 And glorious dreams stand ready to restore, 
 The pleasing shades of all you had before.' 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ivii 
 
 Maximin says, in ' Tyrannic Love,' 
 
 * Fate's dark recesses we can never find, 
 But Fortune at some hours is always kind; 
 The lucky have whole days, which still they choose, 
 The unlucky have but hours, and these they lose.' 
 
 These are a few specimens of many passages of power and 
 beauty in Dryden's little-read and generally inferior plays. 
 His faculty of placing words is wonderful, and conspicuous in 
 prose as well as in poetry. He was specially fitted for a 
 translator. The faults of his translation of Virgil are mostly 
 faults of haste and carelessness. Wanting money, he finished 
 in three years what he rightly told Tonson that it would 
 require seven years to do well. 
 
 We learn from Pope, through Dean Lockier, that Dryden 
 made Will's coffee-house, in Russell Street, Covent Garden, 
 the great resort of all the wits in London, and that some years 
 after his death Addison carried the wits away from Will's to 
 another coffee-house in the same street, and on the opposite 
 side of it, Button's 11 . Pope, who was but twelve years old 
 when Dryden died, had been taken once to Will's in Dryden's 
 last year to get a sight of the poet. Addison succeeded to 
 Dryden's critical chair, and the mantle of the poet fell in a 
 little time on Pope, who regarded Dryden as his teacher of 
 versification, and whose first poems, the Pastorals, were pub- 
 lished nine years after Dryden's death. 
 
 Notices of the early editions of the poems comprised in 
 this volume are subjoined, as important in connexion with 
 the history of the text : 
 
 Heroic Stanzas on Oliver Qromwell. The date on 
 the title-page of the first edition is 1659, but it was doubtless 
 published before the end of 1658. There are two editions 
 of 1659. The first was probably published with two other 
 
 n Spence's Anecdotes, p. 113. 
 
 e 
 
Iviii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 poems on the same subject by Waller and Sprat, the volume 
 having the title, 'Three Poems upon the Death of his late 
 Highness, Oliver, Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and 
 Ireland, written by Mr. Edm. Waller, Mr. Jo. Dryden, Mr. 
 Sprat of Oxford : London, Printed by William Wilson, and 
 are to be sold in Well-yard, near Little St. Bartholomew's 
 Hospital: 1659.' Dryden's poem is printed first in this col- 
 lection, with the separate heading of ' Heroic Stanzas conse- 
 crated to the Glorious Memory of his Most Serene and 
 Renowned Highness, Oliver, late Lord Protector of the Com- 
 monwealth, &c. Written after the celebration of his Funeral/ 
 In the other edition of 1659 Dryden's poem is printed alone; 
 it has the same publisher. There is considerable difference 
 of spelling and punctuation between the two, but none of 
 words. During the reigns of Charles the Second and James 
 the Second, Dryden did not republish this poem, or include 
 it in any list of his works; but it was reprinted in 1682 by a 
 political foe. In the reign of William, Jacob Tonson, Dryden's 
 publisher and friend, republished the poem in 16*95 from the 
 separate edition of 1659. It was afterwards printed in the 
 first volume of the ' State Poems/ with several corruptions of 
 the text; and this corrupt reprint was reproduced in the 
 edition of the 'Miscellany Poems' in 1716. Several later 
 editors followed this corrupt copy. The editions of 1659 
 contain the correct text. 
 
 Astrsea Redux. This was originally published in 1660 in 
 folio, by Henry Herringman. Dryden's name is printed 
 Driden on the title-page. The poem was republished in 
 1688, in quarto, by Tonson, together with the Panegyric on 
 Charles the Second at the Coronation, the Address to Lord 
 Chancellor Clarendon on New Year's Day, 1662, and the 
 Annus Mirabilis; and then in 1688. The spelling Driden was 
 preserved on the title-page of 'Astraea Redux.' The text 
 of the folio edition of 1660 is perfectly to be trusted. 
 
 Annus Mirabilis. The first edition of 1667 is a little 
 volume in small octavo, ' printed by Henry Herringman at the 
 Anchor of the Lower Walk of the New Exchange, 1667.' 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. lix 
 
 Dryden, who was not in the habit of careful correction of 
 the press, printed a list of errata on this occasion, with the 
 following notice : 
 
 * To THE READERS. 
 
 Notwithstanding the diligence which has been used in my absence, 
 some faults have escaped the press ; and I have so many of my own to 
 answer for, that I am not willing to be charged with those of the printer. 
 I have only noted the gravest of them, not such as by false stops have 
 confounded the sense, but such as by mistaken words have corrupted it.' 
 
 This little volume, which Sir Walter Scott does not appear 
 to have seen, contains the best text. Tonson's reprint, in 
 quarto, 1688, contains several changes of text, which are 
 generally changes for the worse; a few, however, may be 
 accepted as improvements. The text of 1688 was literally 
 followed in the edition of the ' Miscellany Poems ' of 1716. The 
 poem is printed in this volume, as also in the Globe edition, 
 with the title-page of the first edition, which has not been 
 generally given by modern editors, and also with Dryden's 
 own marginal indications, which have been often omitted. 
 
 Absalom and Achitophel. The first edition was in folio, 
 published by Jacob Tonson in November 1681. A second 
 edition appeared in quarto before the end of December, with 
 several minor changes, and two considerable additions. This 
 second edition is authoritative for the text. Seven more 
 editions were published in Dryden's lifetime. That in the 
 folio volume of Dryden's poems, published by Tonson after 
 Dryden's death in 1701, is there called the tenth edition. 
 
 Beligio Laid. The first edition is in quarto, published 
 in November 1682 ; there was a second edition in the same 
 year, and a third in 1683. The poem was not again reprinted 
 till it appeared in Tonson's folio edition of Dryden's poems 
 of 1701. 
 
 The Hind and the Panther. This poem was first pub- 
 lished in quarto in April 1687, and a second edition was 
 published in the same year. The Revolution of 1688 stopped 
 
Ix BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the demand for the poem. The reprint in Tonson's folio 
 volume of 1701 is called there the third edition. There are 
 several errors in this last reprint ; the correct text is to be 
 sought in either of the two editions of 1687. 
 
 A bibliographical notice of the < Miscellany Poems,' edited 
 by Dryden, is added, much confusion arising out of the con- 
 tinued connexion of his name with volumes of the series and 
 with whole collections published after his death. The first 
 volume of ' Miscellanies ' was published by Dryden in 1684 ; 
 there is a second edition of this volume, 1692, and a third, 
 1702. There is no important difference between the first 
 and second editions, but the third is considerably different. 
 The second volume of Dryden's * Miscellanies ' was called 
 * Sylvse,' and published in 1685. A third edition of this volume 
 was published in 1702. The third volume of Dryden's series 
 of ' Miscellanies ' was called ' Examen Poeticum,' and appeared 
 in 1693 ; there was a second edition in 1706. The fourth 
 and last of Dryden's volumes is called e Annual Miscellany for 
 the year 1694 ' ; and there is a second edition of 1708.. 
 
 After Dryden's death a fifth volume was published by Jacob 
 Tonson in 1704, and a sixth in 1709, with neither of which 
 Dryden had anything to do. Pope's Pastorals were first 
 published in the sixth volume. 
 
 An edition of ' Miscellany Poems,' in six volumes was pub- 
 lished by Tonson in 1716. This is quite different, both by 
 addition and omission, from the previous sets of six volumes, 
 and has no just title to the name, by which it goes, of Dryden's 
 Miscellany Poems. There are later reprints of these so- 
 called Dryden's Miscellany Poems of 1716. 
 
A POEM 
 
 UPON THE DEATH 
 
 i 
 
 OF HIS LATE HIGHNESS, OLIVER, 
 
 LORD PROTECTOR OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, 
 AND IRELAND. 
 
HEROIC STANZAS, 
 
 CONSECRATED TO THE MEMORY OF HIS HIGHNESS, 
 OLIVER, 
 
 LATE LORD PROTECTOR OF THIS COMMONWEALTH, &C. 
 
 WRITTEN AFTER THE CELEBRATING OF HIS FUNERAL. 
 
 AND now 'tis time; for their officious haste 
 Who would before have borne him to the sky, 
 
 Like eager Romans, ere all rites were past, 
 Did let too soon the sacred eagle fly. 
 
 2 
 Though our best notes are treason to his fame 
 
 Joined with the loud applause of public voice, 
 Since Heaven what praise we offer to his name 
 
 Hath rendered too authentic by its choice; 
 
 3 
 Though in his praise no arts can liberal be, 
 
 Since they, whose Muses have the highest flown, 
 Add not to his immortal memory, 
 
 But do an act of friendship to their own ; 
 
 4 
 Yet 'tis our duty and our interest too 
 
 Such monuments as we can build to raise, 
 Lest all the world prevent what we should do 
 
 And claim a title in him by their praise. 
 
 5 
 How shall I then begin or where conclude 
 
 To draw a fame so truly circular? 
 For in a round what order can be shewed, 
 Where all the parts so equal-perfect are? 
 B a 
 
STANZAS ON OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 6 
 His grandeur he derived from Heaven alone, 
 
 For he was great, ere Fortune made him so; 
 And wars, like mists that rise against the sun, 
 
 Made him but greater seem, not greater grow. 
 
 7 
 No borrowed bays his temples did adorn, 
 
 But to our crown he did fresh jewels bring ; 
 Nor was his virtue poisoned, soon as born, 
 
 With the too early thoughts of being king. 
 
 8 
 Fortune, that easy mistress of the young, 
 
 But to her ancient servants coy and hard, 
 Him at that age her favourites ranked among 
 
 When she her best-loved Pompey did discard. 
 
 9 
 He, private, marked the faults of others' sway 
 
 And set as sea-marks for himself to shun ; 
 Not like rash monarchs, who their youth betray 
 
 By acts their age too late would wish undone. 
 
 10 
 And yet dominion was not his design ; 
 
 We owe that blessing not to him but Heaven, 
 Which to fair acts unsought rewards did join, 
 
 Rewards that less to him than us were given. 
 
 ii 
 Our former chiefs, like sticklers of the war, 
 
 First sought to inflame the parties, then to poise, 
 The quarrel loved, but did the cause abhor, 
 
 And did not strike to hurt, but make a noise. 
 
 12 
 War, our consumption, was their gainful trade ; 
 
 We inward bled, whilst they prolonged our pain ; 
 He fought to end our fighting, and assayed 
 
 To stanch the blood by breathing of the vein. 
 
STANZAS ON OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 13 
 Swift and resistless through the land he passed, 
 
 Like that bold Greek who did the East subdue, 
 And made to battles such heroic haste 
 
 As if on wings of victory he flew. 
 
 H 
 He fought, secure of fortune as of fame, 
 
 Till by new maps the Island might be shown 
 Of conquests, which he strewed where'er he came, 
 
 Thick as the galaxy with stars is sown. 
 
 i5 
 His palms, though under weights they did not stand, 
 
 Still thrived ; no winter could his laurels fade : 
 Heaven in his portrait showed a workman's hand 
 
 And drew it perfect, yet without a shade. 
 
 16 
 Peace was the prize of all his toil and care, 
 
 Which war had banished and did now restore: 
 Bologna's walls thus mounted in the air 
 
 To seat themselves more surely than before. 
 
 '? i 
 
 Her safety rescued Ireland to him owes; 
 
 And treacherous Scotland, to no interest true, 
 Yet blessed that fate which did his arms dispose 
 
 Her land to civilize as to subdue. 
 
 18 
 Nor was he like those stars which only shine 
 
 When to pale mariners they storms portend ; 
 He had his calmer influence, and his mien 
 
 Did love and majesty together blend. 
 
 19 
 'Tis true his countenance did imprint an awe 
 
 And naturally all souls to his did bow, 
 As wands of divination downward draw 
 
 And point to beds where sovereign gold doth grow. 
 
STANZAS ON OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 When, past all offerings to Feretrian Jove, 
 
 He Mars deposed and arms to gowns made yield, 
 Successful counsels did him soon approve 
 
 As fit for close intrigues as open field. 
 
 21 
 To suppliant Holland he vouchsafed a peace, 
 
 Our once bold rival in the British main, 
 Now tamely glad her unjust claim to cease 
 
 And buy our friendship with her idol, gain. 
 
 22 
 Fame of the asserted sea, through Europe blown, 
 
 Made France and Spain ambitious of his love ; 
 Each knew that side must conquer he would own 
 
 And for him fiercely as for empire strove. 
 
 23 
 No sooner was the Frenchman's cause embraced 
 
 Than the light Monsieur the grave Don outweighed ; 
 His fortune turned the scale where'er 'twas cast, 
 
 Though Indian mines were in the other laid. 
 
 24 
 When absent, yet we conquered in his right : 
 
 For, though some meaner artist's skill were shown 
 In mingling colours or in placing light, 
 
 Yet still the fair designment was his own. 
 
 25 
 For from all tempers he could service draw; 
 
 The worth of each 'with its alloy he knew; 
 And, as the confident of Nature, saw 
 
 How she complexions did divide and brew: 
 
 26 
 Or he their single virtues did survey 
 
 By intuition in his own large breast, 
 Where all the rich ideas of them lay 
 
 That were the rule and measure to the rest. 
 
STANZAS ON OLIVER CROMWELL, *j 
 
 27 
 
 When such heroic virtue Heaven sets out, 
 
 The stars, like Commons, sullenly obey, 
 Because it drains them, when it comes about, 
 
 And therefore is a tax they seldom pay. 
 
 28 
 From this high spring our foreign conquests flow 
 
 Which yet more glorious triumphs do portend, 
 Since their commencement to his arms they owe, 
 
 If springs as high as fountains may ascend. 
 
 29 
 He made us freemen of the Continent 
 
 Whom nature did like captives treat before, 
 To nobler preys the English Lion sent, 
 
 And taught him first in Belgian walks to roar. 
 
 30 
 That old unquestioned pirate of the land, 
 
 Proud Rome, with dread the fate of Dunkirk heard:, 
 And trembling wished behind more Alps to stand, 
 
 Although an Alexander were her guard. 
 
 3i 
 By his command we boldly crossed the Line, 
 
 And bravely fought where southern stars arise ; 
 We traced the far-fetched gold unto the mine, 
 
 And that which bribed our fathers made our prize. 
 
 32 
 Such was our Prince, yet owned a soul above 
 
 The highest acts it could produce to show : 
 Thus poor mechanic arts in public move, 
 
 Whilst the deep secrets beyond practice go. 
 
 33 
 Nor died he when his ebbing fame went less, 
 
 But when fresh laurels courted him to live ; 
 He seemed but to prevent some new success, 
 
 As if above what triumphs earth could give. 
 
8 STANZAS ON OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 34 
 His latest victories still thickest came, 
 
 As near the centre motion does increase ; 
 Till he, pressed down by his own weighty name, 
 
 Did, like the Vestal, under spoils decease. 
 
 35 
 But first the Ocean as a tribute sent 
 
 That giant-prince of all her watery herd; 
 And the Isle, when her protecting Genius went, 
 
 Upon his obsequies loud sighs conferred. 
 
 36 
 No civil broils have since his death arose, 
 
 But faction now by habit does obey ; 
 And wars have that respect for his repose 
 
 As winds for halcyons when they breed at sea. 
 
 37 
 His ashes in a peaceful urn shall rest; 
 
 His name a great example stands to show 
 How strangely high endeavours may be blessed 
 
 Where piety and valour jointly go. 
 
ASTR^EA REDUX. 
 
 A POEM ON THE HAPPY RESTORATION AND RETURN 
 OF HIS SACRED MAJESTY 
 
 CHARLES THE SECOND. 
 
 * Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturaia regna.'~VlRGlL. [Eclog. iv. 6.] 
 
ASTR^A REDUX. 
 
 Now with a genenil 
 
 WKiTe ours, a world divided from the rest, 
 
 A dreadful quiet felt, and worser far 
 
 Than arms, a sullen interval of war. 
 
 Thus, when black clouds draw down the labouring skies, 5 
 
 Ere yet abroad the winged thunder flies, 
 
 An horrid stillness first invades the ear 
 
 And in that silence we the tempest fear. 
 
 The ambitious Swede like restless billows tost, 
 
 On this hand gaining what on that he lost, 10 
 
 Though in his life he blood and ruin breathed,^\ 
 
 To his now guideless kingdom peace l>equeathedj 
 
 And Heaven, that seemed regardTess of~our fate, 
 
 For France and Spain did miracles create 
 
 Such mortal quarrels to compose in peace 15 
 
 As nature bred and interest did increase. 
 
 We sighed to hear the fair Iberian bride 
 
 Must grow a lily to the Lily's side ; 
 
 While our cross stars denied us Charles his bed 
 
 Whom our first flames and virgin love did wed. 20 
 
 For his long absence Church and State did groan ; 
 
 Madness the pulpit, f action^jsdzgd the throne . 
 
 Experienced age in deep despair was lost 
 
 To see the rebel thrive, the loyal crost: 
 
 Youth that with joys had unacquainted been 25 
 
 Envied gray hairs that once good days had seen : 
 
 We thought our sires, not with their own content, 
 
 Had, ere we came to age, our portion spent. 
 
 Nor could our nobles hope their bold attempt 
 
 Who ruined crowns would coronets exempt: 30 
 
13 ASTR&A REDUX. 
 
 For when, by their designing leaders taught 
 
 To strike at power which for themselves they sought, 
 
 The vulgar, gulled into rebellion, armed, 
 
 Their blood to action by the prize was warmed; 
 
 The sacred purple then and scarlet gown, 35 
 
 Like sanguine dye to elephants, was shown. 
 
 Thus, when the bold Typhoeus scaled the sky 
 
 And forced great Jove from his own heaven to fly, 
 
 (What king, what crown from treason's reach is free, 
 
 If Jove and heaven can violated be?) 40 
 
 The lesser gods that shared his prosperous state 
 
 All suffered in the exiled Thunderer's fate. 
 
 The rabble now such freedom did enjoy 
 
 As winds at sea that use it to destroy: 
 
 Blind as the Cyclops and as wild as he, 45 
 
 They owned a lawless savage liberty, 
 
 Like that our painted ancestors so prized, 
 
 Ere empire's arts their breasts had civilized. 
 
 How great were then our Charles his woes who thus 
 
 Was forced to suffer for himself and us ! 50 
 
 He, tossed by fate and hurried up and down, 
 
 Heir to his father's sorrows with his crown, j/t/f//C 
 
 Could taste no sweets of youth's desired zgQ y j[/\JU* 
 
 But found his life JgO^ true a pflgnmagei 
 
 UnconquefeH^yet in that forlorn estate, 55 
 
 His manly courage overcame his fate. 
 
 His wounds he took, like Romans, on his breast, 
 
 Which by his virtue were with laurels drest. 
 
 As souls reach Heaven, while yet in bodies pent, 
 
 So did he live above his banishment. 60 
 
 That sun, which we beheld with cozened eyes 
 
 Within the water, moved along the skies. 
 
 How easy 'tis, when Destiny proves kind, 
 
 With full-spread sails to run before the wind! 
 
 But those that 'gainst stiff gales laveering go 65 
 
 Must be at once resolved and skilful too. 
 
 He would not, like soft Otho, hope prevent, 
 
 But stayed and suffered fortune to repent. 
 
ASTRJEA REDUX. 13 
 
 These virtues Galba in a stranger sought 
 
 And Piso to adopted empire brought. 70 
 
 How shall I then my doubtful thoughts express 
 
 That must his sufferings both regret and bless ? 
 
 For when his early valour Heaven had crost, 
 
 And all at Worcester but the honour lost, 
 
 Forced into exile from his rightful throne, 75 
 
 He made all countries where he came his own, 
 
 And, viewing monarchs' secret arts of sway, 
 
 A royal factor for their kingdoms lay. 
 
 Thus banished David spent abroad his time, 
 
 When to be GforFs a"Iluhiled VvasTiis crime, 80 
 
 And, when restored, made his proud neighbours rue 
 
 Those choice remarks he from his travels drew. 
 
 Nor is he only by afflictions shown 
 
 To conquer others' realms, but rule his own ; 
 
 Recovering hardly what he lost before, 85 
 
 His right endears it much, his purchase more. 
 
 Inured to suffer ere he came to reign, 
 
 No rash procedure will his actions stain. 
 
 To business ripened by digestive thought, 
 
 His future rule is into method brought, 90 
 
 As they who first proportion understand 
 
 With easy practice reach a master's hand. 
 
 Well might the ancient poets then confer 
 
 On Night the honoured name of Counseller; 
 
 Since, struck with rays of prosperous fortune blind, 95 
 
 We light alone in dark afflictions find. 
 
 In such adversities to sceptres trained, 
 
 The name of Great his famous grandsire gained : 
 
 Who, yet a king alone in name and right, 
 
 With hunger, cold, and angry Jove did fight; ico 
 
 Shocked by a covenanting League's vast powers, 
 
 As holy and as Catholic as ours : 
 
 Till Fortune's fruitless spite had made it known 
 
 Her blows not shook but riveted his throne. 
 
 Sorne. lazy ages, lost in sleep and ease, 105 
 
 No action leave to busy chronicles: 
 
14 ASTR&A REDUX. 
 
 Such, whose supine felicity but makes 
 IrTstory chas~ms,~in epoches mistakes, 
 0*er whom Time gently shakes his wings of down 
 Till with his silent sickle they are mown. no 
 
 Such is not Charles his too too active age, 
 Which, governed by the wild distempered rage 
 Of some black star infecting all the skies, 
 Made him at his own cost, like Adam, wise. 
 Tremble, ye nations who, secure before, 115 
 
 Laughed at those arms that 'gainst our selves we bore; 
 Roused by the lash of his own stubborn tail, 
 Our Lion now will foreign foes assail/ 
 With alga who the sacred altar strows? 
 To all the sea-gods Charles an offering owes, 120 
 
 A bull to thee, Portunus, shall be slain, 
 A lamb to you the tempests of the main. 
 For those loud storms that did against him roar 
 Have cast his shipwracked vessel on the shore. 
 Yet, as wise artists mix their colours so 125 
 
 That by degrees they from each other go, 
 Black steals unheeded from the neighbouring white 
 Without offending the well-cozened sight, 
 So on us stole our blessed change, while we 
 The effect did feel but scarce the manner see. 130 
 
 Frosts that constrain the ground and birth deny 
 To flowers that in its womb expecting lie 
 Do seldom their usurping power withdraw, 
 But raging floods pursue their hasty thaw: 
 Our thaw was mild, the cold not chased away, 135 
 
 But lost in kindly heat of lengthened day. 
 Heaven would no bargain for its blessings drive, 
 But what we could not pay for freely give. 
 The Prince of Peace would, like himself, confer 
 A gift unhoped without the price of war : 
 Yet, as He knew His blessing's worth, took care 
 That we should know it by repeated prayer, 
 Which stormed the skies and ravished Charles from thence, 
 As Heaven it self is took by violence. 
 
ASTR&A REDUX. 15 
 
 Booth's forward valour only served to show 145 
 
 He durst that duty pay we all did owe ; 
 
 The attempt was fair, but Heaven's prefixed hour 
 
 Not come : so, like the watchful travellour 
 
 That by the moon's mistaken light did rise, 
 
 Lay down again and closed his weary eyes. 150 
 
 'Twas Monk, whom Providence designed to loose 
 
 Those real bonds false freedom did impose. 
 
 The blessed saints that watched this turning scene 
 
 Did from their stars with joyful wonder lean 
 
 To see small clues draw vastest weights along, 155 
 
 Not in their bulk but in their order strong. 
 
 Thus pencils can by one slight touch restore 
 
 Smiles to that changed face that wept before. 
 
 With ease such fond chimeras we pursue 
 
 As Fancy frames for Fancy to subdue; 160 
 
 But when ourselves to action we betake, 
 
 It shuns the mint, like gold that chymists make. 
 
 How hard was then his task, at once to be 
 
 What in the body natural we see 
 
 Man's architect distinctly did ordain 165 
 
 The charge of muscles, nerves, and of the brain, 
 
 Through viewless conduits spirits to dispense, 
 
 The springs of motion from the seat of sense. 
 
 'Twas not the hasty product of a day, 
 
 But the well-ripened fruit of wise delay. 170 
 
 He, like a patient angler, ere he strook, 
 
 Would let them play a while upon the hook. 
 
 Our healthful food the stomach labours thus, 
 
 At first embracing what it straight doth crush. 
 
 Wise leeches will not vain receipts obtrude, 175 
 
 While growing pains pronounce the humours crude : 
 
 Deaf to complaints, they wait upon the ill, 
 
 Till some safe crisis authorize their skill. 
 
 Nor could his acts too close a vizard wear 
 
 To scape their eyes whom guilt had taught to fear, 180 
 
 And guard with caution that polluted nest 
 
 Whence Legion twice before was dispossest : 
 
l6 ASTR&A REDUX. 
 
 Once sacred House, which when they entered in, 
 
 They thought the place could sanctify a sin; 
 
 Like those that vainly hoped kind Heaven would wink, 185 
 
 While to excess on martyrs' tombs they drink. 
 
 And as devouter Turks first warn their souls 
 
 To part, before they taste forbidden bowls, 
 
 So these, when their black crimes they went about, 
 
 First timely charmed their useless conscience out. 190 
 
 Religion's name against it self was made ; 
 
 The shadow served the substance to invade. 
 
 Like zealous Missions, they did care pretend 
 
 Of souls in show, but made the gold their end. 
 
 The incensed powers beheld with scorn from high 195 
 
 An heaven so far distant from the sky, 
 
 Which durst with horses' hoofs that beat the ground 
 
 And martial brass belie the thunder's sound. 
 
 'Twas hence at length just vengeance thought it fit 
 
 To speed their ruin by their impious wit ; 200 
 
 Thus Sforza, cursed with a too fertile brain, 
 
 Lost by his wiles the power his wit did gain. 
 
 Henceforth their fogue must spend at lesser rate 
 
 Than in its flames to wrap a nation's fate. 
 
 Suffered to live, they are like Helots set 205 
 
 A virtuous shame within us to beget ; 
 
 For by example most we sinned before 
 
 And glass-like clearness mixed with frailty bore. 
 
 But since, reformed by what we did amiss, 
 
 We by our sufferings learn to prize our bliss ; 210 
 
 Like early lovers, whose unpractised hearts 
 
 Were long the May-game of malicious* arts, 
 
 When once they find their jealousies were vain, 
 
 With double heat renew their fires again. 
 
 'Twas this produced the joy that hurried o'er 215 
 
 Such swarms of English to the neighbouring shore 
 
 To fetch that prize by which Batavia made 
 
 So rich amends for our impoverished trade. 
 
 Oh, had you seen from Scheveline's barren shore, 
 
 Crowded with troops and barren now no more, 220 
 
ASTR&A REDUX. 17 
 
 Afflicted Holland to his farewell bring 
 
 True sorrow, Holland to regret a king ; 
 
 While waiting him his royal fleet did ride, 
 
 And willing winds to their lowered sails denied, 
 
 The wavering streamers, flags, and Standard out, 225 
 
 The merry seamen's rude but cheerful shout, 
 
 And last the cannons' voice that shook the skies, 
 
 And, as it fares in sudden ecstasies, 
 
 At once bereft us both of ears and eyes. 
 
 The Naseby, now no longer England's shame, 230 
 
 But better to be lost in Charles his name, 
 
 Like some unequal bride in nobler sheets, 
 
 Receives her lord ; the joyful London meets 
 
 The princely York, himself alone a freight; 
 
 The Swiftsure groans beneath great Gloucester's weight : 235 
 
 Secure as when the halcyon breeds, with these 
 
 He that was born to drown might cross the seas. 
 
 Heaven could not own a Providence, and take 
 
 The wealth three nations ventured at a stake. 
 
 The same indulgence Charles his voyage blessed 240 
 
 Which in his right had miracles confessed. 
 
 The winds that never moderation knew, 
 
 Afraid to blow too much, too faintly blew ; 
 
 Or out of breath with joy could not enlarge 
 
 Their straightened lungs, or conscious of their charge, 245 
 
 The British Amphitrite, smooth and clear, 
 
 In richer azure never did appear, 
 
 Proud her returning Prince .to entertain 
 
 With the submitted fasces of the main. 
 
 And welcome now, great Monarch, to your own ! 250 
 Behold the approaching cliffs of Albion, 
 It is no longer motion cheats your view ; 
 As you meet it, the land approacheth you. 
 The land returns, and in the white it wears 
 The marks of penitence and sorrow bears. 255 
 
 But you, whose goodness your descent doth showy A 
 
 Your heavenly parentage and earthly too, 
 
 c 
 
1 8 ASTR&A REDUX. 
 
 By that same mildness/which your father's crown 
 Before did ravish/shall secure your own. 
 
 / Not tied to rules of policy, you find 260 
 
 \ Revenge less sweet than a forgiving mind. 
 Thus, when the Almighty would to Moses give 
 A sight of all he could behold and live, 
 rA voice before His entry did proclaim 
 Long-suffering, goodness, mercy, in His name. 265 
 
 Your power to justice doth submit your cause, 
 Your goodness only is above the laws, 
 Whose rigid letter, while pronounced by you, 
 Is softer made. So winds that tempests brew, 
 When through Arabian groves they take their flight, 270 
 Made wanton with rich odours, lose their spite. 
 And as those lees that trouble it refine 
 The agitated soul of generous wine, 
 So tears of joy, for your returning spilt, 
 Work out and expiate our former guilt. 275 
 
 Methinks I see those crowds on Dover's strand, 
 Who in their haste to welcome you to land 
 Choked up the beach with their still growing store 
 And made a wilder torrent on the shore: 
 While, spurred with eager thoughts of past delight, 280 
 Those who had seen you court a second sight, 
 Preventing still your steps and making haste 
 To meet you often wheresoe'er you past. 
 How shall I speak of that triumphant day, 
 When you renewed the expiring pomp of May ! 285 
 
 A month that owns an interest in your name ; 
 You and the flowers are its peculiar claim. 
 That star, that at your birth shone out so bright 
 It stained the duller sun's meridian light, 
 Did once again its potent fires renew, 290 
 
 Guiding our eyes to find and worship you. 
 And now Time's whiter series is begun, 
 Which in soft centuries shall smoothly run ; 
 Those clouds that overcast your morn shall fly, 
 Dispelled to farthest corners of the sky. 295 
 
ASTRJSA REDUX. 19 
 
 Our nation, with united interest blest, 
 
 Not now content to poise, shall sway the rest. 
 
 Abroad your empire shall no limits know, 
 
 But, like the sea, in boundless circles flow ; 
 
 Your much-loved fleet shall with a wide command 300 
 
 Besiege the petty monarchs of the land; 
 
 And as old Time his offspring swallowed down, 
 
 Our ocean in its depths all seas shall drown. 
 
 Their wealthy trade from pirates' rapine free, 
 
 Our merchants shall no more adventurers be ; 305 
 
 Nor in the farthest East those dangers fear 
 
 Which humble Holland must dissemble here. 
 
 Spain to your gift alone her Indies owes, 
 
 For what the powerful takes not he bestows; 
 
 And France that did an exile's presence fear 310 
 
 May justly apprehend you still too near. 
 
 At home the hateful names of parties ceasex 
 
 And factious souls are wearied into peace. J 
 
 The discontented now are only they 
 
 Whose crimes before did your just cause betray: 315 
 
 Of those your edicts some reclaim from sins, 
 
 But most your life and blest example wins. 
 
 Oh happy Prince, whom Heaven hath taught the way 
 
 By paying vows to have more vows to pay! 
 
 Oh happy age! Oh times like those alone 320 
 
 By fate reserved for great Augustus* throne, 
 
 When the joint growth of arms and hearts foreshew 
 
 The world a Monarch, and that Monarch you! 
 
 C 2 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS: 
 
 THE YEAR OF WONDERS, 1666. 
 
 AN HISTORICAL POEM ; 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 THE PROGRESS AND VARIOUS SUCCESSES OF OUR 
 NAVAL WAR WITH HOLLAND 
 
 UNDER THE CONDUCT OF HIS HIGHNESS PRINCE RUPERT AND 
 HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF ALBEMARLE, 
 
 AND DESCRIBING THE FIRE OF LONDON. 
 
 ' Multum interest res poscat, an homines latius imperare velint.' 
 
 Trajan Integrator ad Plin. [PLIN. Epist. x. 33.] 
 
 ' Urbs antiqua ruit, multos dominata per annos.' VlRG. [JEn. ii. 363.] 
 
TO THE METROPOLIS OF GREAT BRITAIN, 
 
 THE MOST RENOWNED AND LATE FLOURISHING CITY OF LONDON, IN ITS 
 
 REPRESENTATIVES THE LORD MAYOR AND COURT OF ALDERMEN, 
 
 THE SHERIFFS AND COMMON COUNCIL OF IT. 
 
 As perhaps I am the first who ever presented a work of this 5 
 nature to the metropolis of any nation, so is it likewise con- 
 sonant to justice, that he who was to give the first example 
 of such a dedication should begin it with that City which has 
 set a pattern to all others of true loyalty, invincible courage, 
 and unshaken constancy. Other cities have been praised 10 
 for the same virtues, but I am much deceived if any have 
 so dearly purchased their reputation: their fame has been 
 won them by cheaper trials than an expensive though neces- 
 sary war, a consuming pestilence, and a more consuming fire. 
 To submit your selves with that humility to the judgments 15 
 of Heaven, and at the same time to raise your selves with 
 that vigour above all human enemies; to be combated at 
 once from above and from below; to be struck down and 
 to triumph : I know not whether such trials have been ever 
 paralleled in any nation, the resolution and successes of them 20 
 never can be. Never had prince or people more mutual 
 reason to love each other, if suffering for each other can 
 endear affection. You have come together a pair of match- 
 less lovers, through many difficulties; he, through a long 
 exile, various traverses of fortune, and the interposition of 25 
 many rivals, who violently ravished and withheld you from 
 him; and certainly you have had your share in sufferings. 
 But Providence has cast upon you want of trade, that you 
 might appear bountiful to your country's necessities; and 
 the rest of your afflictions are not more the effects of God's 30 
 displeasure (frequent examples of them having been in the 
 reign of the most excellent princes) than occasions for the 
 
24 DEDICA TION. 
 
 manifesting of your Christian and civil virtues. To you, 
 therefore, this Year of Wonders is justly dedicated, because 
 you have made it so : you, who are to stand a wonder to 
 all years and ages, and who have built your selves an immortal 
 5 monument on your own ruins. You are now a phoenix in 
 her ashes, and, as far as humanity can approach, a great 
 emblem of the suffering Deity. But Heaven never made 
 so much piety and virtue to leave it miserable. I have 
 heard indeed of some virtuous persons who have ended 
 
 jo unfortunately, but never of any virtuous nation. Providence 
 is engaged too deeply, when the cause becomes so general ; 
 and I cannot imagine it has resolved the ruin of that people 
 at home, which it has blessed abroad with such successes. 
 I am, therefore, to conclude that your sufferings are at an 
 
 15 end, and that one part of my poem has not been more an 
 history of your destruction, than the other a prophecy of 
 your restoration. The accomplishment of which happiness, 
 as it is the wish of all true Englishmen, so is by none 
 more passionately desired than by 
 
 The greatest of your admirers 
 
 and most humble of your servants, 
 
 JOHN DRYDEN. 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE ENSUING POEM, 
 IN A LETTER TO THE HONOURABLE SIR ROBERT HOWARD. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 I am so many ways obliged to you and so little able 
 to return your favours that, like those who owe too much, 5 
 I can only live by getting farther into your debt. You 
 have not only been careful of my fortune, which was the 
 effect of your nobleness, but you have been solicitous of 
 my reputation, which is that of your kindness. It is not 
 long since I gave you the trouble of perusing a play for me ; 10 
 and now, instead of an acknowledgment, I have given you 
 a greater in the correction of a poem. But since you are 
 to bear this persecution, I will at least give you the encou- 
 ragement of a martyr; you could never suffer in a nobler 
 cause. For I have chosen the most heroic subject which 15 
 any poet could desire: I have taken upon me to describe 
 the motives, the beginning, progress, and successes of a most 
 just and necessary war ; in it the care, management, and 
 prudence of our King ; the conduct and valour of a royal 
 Admiral and of two incomparable Generals; the invincible 20 
 courage of our captains and seamen, and three glorious 
 victories, the result of all. After this, I have in the fire 
 the most deplorable, but withal the greatest argument that 
 can be imagined; the destruction being so swift, so sudden, 
 so vast and miserable, as nothing can parallel in story. The 25 
 former part of this poem, relating to the war, is but a due 
 expiation for my not serving my King and* country in it. 
 All gentlemen are almost obliged to it: and I know no 
 reason we should give that advantage to the commonalty 
 of England, to be foremost in brave actions, which the 30 
 noblesse of France would never suffer in their peasants. I 
 should not have written this but to a person who has been 
 ever forward to appear in all employments, whither his honour 
 
26 ACCOUNT OF ANNUS MIRABILIS. 
 
 and generosity have called him. The latter part of my poem, 
 which describes the fire, I owe, first, to the piety and fatherly 
 affection of our Monarch to his suffering subjects ; and, in 
 the second place, to the courage, loyalty, and magnanimity 
 
 5 of the City; both which were so conspicuous that I have 
 wanted words to celebrate them as they deserve. I have 
 
 t called my poem historical, not epic, though both the actions 
 and actors are as much heroic as any poem can contain. 
 But since the action is not properly one, nor that accom- 
 
 10 plished in the last successes, I have judged it too bold a 
 title for a few stanzas, which are little more in number than 
 a single Iliad or the longest of the ^Eneids. For this reason 
 (I mean not of length, but broken action, tied too severely 
 to the laws of history) I am apt to agree with those who 
 r 15 rank Lucan rather among historians in verse than epic poets; 
 in whose room, if I am not deceived, Silius Italicus, though 
 a worse writer, may more justly be admitted. I have chosen 
 to write my poem in quatrains or stanzas of four in alternate 
 rhyme, because I have ever judged them more noble and of 
 
 20 greater dignity both for the sound and number than any 
 
 other verse in use amongst us ; in which I am sure I have 
 
 * your approbation. The learned languages have certainly a 
 
 great advantage of us in not being tied to the slavery of 
 
 any rhyme, and were less constrained in the quantity of 
 
 25 every syllable, which they might vary with spondees or 
 dactyls, besides so many other helps of grammatical figures 
 for the lengthening or abbreviation of them, than the modern 
 are in the close of that one syllable, which often confines, 
 and more often corrupts, the sense of all the rest. But in 
 
 30 this necessity of our rhymes, I have always found the couplet 
 verse most easy (though not so proper for this occasion), 
 for there the work is sooner at an end, every two lines con- 
 cluding the labour of the poet; but in quatrains he is to 
 carry it farther on, and not only so, but to bear along in his 
 
 35 head the troublesome sense of four lines together. For 
 those who write correctly in this kind must needs acknow- 
 ledge that the last line of the stanza is to be considered in 
 the composition of the first. Neither can we give ourselves 
 
ACCOUNT OF ANNUS MIRABILIS. 2j 
 
 the liberty of making any part of a verse for the sake of 
 rhyme, or concluding with a word which is not current 
 English, or using the variety of female rhymes; all which 
 our fathers practised. And for the female rhymes, they are 
 still in use amongst other nations : with the Italian in every 5 
 line, with the Spaniard promiscuously, with the French al- 
 ternately, as those who have read the Alaric, the Pucelle, or 
 any of their latter poems, will agree with me. And besides 
 this, they write in Alexandrines or verses of six feet, such 
 as, amongst us, is the old translation of Homer by Chapman ; 10 
 all which by lengthening of their chain makes the sphere 
 of their activity the larger. I have dwelt too long upon 
 the choice of my stanza, which you may remember is much 
 better defended in the Preface to Gondibert ; and therefore 
 I will hasten to acquaint you with my endeavours in the 15 
 writing. In general I will only say I have never yet seen 
 the description of any naval fight in the proper terms which 
 are used at sea ; and if there be any such in another language, 
 as that of Lucan in the third of his Pharsalia, yet I could 
 not prevail myself of it in the English ; the terms of arts 20 
 in every tongue bearing more of the idiom of it than any 
 other words. We hear, indeed, among our poets, of the 
 thundering of guns, the smoke, the disorder and the slaughter ; 
 but all these are common notions. And certainly as those 
 who in a logical dispute keep in general terms would hide 25 
 a fallacy, so those who do it in any poetical description would 
 veil their ignorance. 
 
 ' Descriptas servare vices operumque colores 
 Cur ego, si nequeo ignoroque, poeta salutor ?' 
 
 For my own part, if I had little knowledge of the sea, yet 30 
 I have thought it no shame to learn; and if I have made 
 some" few mistakes, it is only, as you can bear me witness, 
 because I have wanted opportunity to correct them, the 
 whole poem being first written, and now sent you from 
 a place where I have not so much as the converse of any 35 
 seaman. Yet though the trouble I had in writing it was 
 great, it was more than recompensed by the pleasure; I 
 
28 ACCOUNT OF ANNUS MIRABILIS. 
 
 found myself so warm in celebrating the praises of military 
 men, two such especially as the Prince and General, that 
 it is no wonder if they inspired me .with thoughts above 
 my ordinary level. And I am well satisfied, that' as they 
 5 are incomparably the best subject I have ever had, excepting 
 only the royal family, so also that this I have written of them 
 is much better than what I have performed on any other. 
 I have been forced to help out other arguments ; but this 
 has been bountiful to me: they have been low and barren 
 
 10 of praise, and 1 have exalted them and made them fruitful ; but 
 here Omnia sponte sua reddit justissima tellus. I have had a 
 large, a fair, and a pleasant field ; so fertile, that, without my 
 cultivating, it has given me two harvests in a summer, and in 
 both oppressed the reaper. All other greatness in subjects is 
 
 15 only counterfeit, it will not endure the test of danger; the 
 greatness of arms is only real. Other greatness burdens a 
 nation with its weight; this supports it with its strength. 
 And as it is the happiness of the age, so is it the peculiar 
 goodness of the best of kings, that we may praise his subjects 
 
 20 without offending him. Doubtless it proceeds from a just 
 confidence of his own virtue, which the lustre of no other 
 can be so great as to darken in him ; for the good or the 
 valiant are never safely praised under a bad- or a degenerate 
 prince. But to return from this digression to a farther 
 
 25 account of my poem : I must crave leave to tell you, that, 
 
 * as I have endeavoured to adorn it with noble thoughts, so 
 much more to express those thoughts with elocution. The 
 
 * composition of all poems is or ought to be of wit ; and wit 
 in the poet, or wit-writing (if you will give me leave to use a 
 
 30 school-distinction), is no other than the faculty of imagination 
 in the writer ; which, like a nimble spaniel, beats over and 
 ranges through the field of memory, till it springs the quarry 
 it hunted after: or, without metaphor, which searches over 
 all the memory for the species or ideas of those things which 
 
 7.5 it designs to represent. Wit written is that which is well de- 
 fined the happy result of thought, or product of that imagina- 
 tion. But to proceed from wit in the general notion of it 
 
 * to the proper wit of an heroic or historical poem, I judge 
 
ACCOUNT OF ANNUS MIRABILIS. 29 
 
 it chiefly to consist in the delightful imaging of persons, 
 actions, passions, or things. 'Tis not the jerk or sting of 
 an epigram, nor the seeming contradiction of a poor antithesis 
 (the delight of an ill-judging audience in a play of rhyme), 
 nor the jingle of a more poor paronomasia ; neither is it so much 5 
 the morality of a grave sentence, affected by Lucan, but 
 
 v more sparingly used by Virgil ; but it is some lively and apt 
 description, dressed in such colours of speech, that it sets 
 before your eyes the absent object as perfectly and more 
 
 *. delightfully than nature. So then the first happiness of the 10 
 poet's imagination is properly invention, or finding of the 
 
 * thought ; the second is fancy, or the variation, driving, or 
 moulding of that thought as the judgment represents it 
 
 proper to the subject ; the third is elocution, or the art of 
 clothing and adorning that thought so found and varied, in 15 
 
 v_apt, significant, and sounding words. The quickness of the 
 imagination is seen in the invention, the fertility in the 
 fancy, and the accuracy in the expression. For the two 
 first of these Ovid is famous amongst the poets; for the 
 latter, Virgil. Ovid images more often the movements and 20 
 affections of the mind, either combating between two contrary 
 passions, or extremely discomposed by one ; his words, there- 
 fore, are the least part of his care ; for he pictures nature 
 in disorder, with which the study and choice of words is 
 
 -. inconsistent. This is the proper wit of dialogue or discourse, 25 
 and consequently of the drama, where all that is said is to 
 be supposed the effect of suddden thought ; which, though 
 it excludes not the quickness of wit in repartees, yet admits 
 not a too curious election of words, too frequent allusions 
 or use of tropes, or in fine anything that shows remoteness 30 
 of thought or labour in the writer. On the other side, Virgil 
 speaks not so often to us in the person of another, like Ovid, 
 but in his own : he relates almost all things as from himself, 
 and thereby gains more liberty than the other to express his 
 thoughts with all the graces of elocution, to write more 35 
 figuratively, and to confess as well the labour as the force 
 of his imagination. Though he describes his Dido well and 
 naturally, in the violence of her passions, yet he must yield 
 
30 ACCOUNT OF ANNUS MIRABILIS. 
 
 in that to the Myrrha, the Byblis, the Althaea of Ovid. For 
 
 as great an admirer of him as I am, I must acknowledge 
 
 that, if I see not more of their souls than I see of Dido's, at 
 
 least I have a greater concernment for them : and that con- 
 
 5 .vinces me that Ovid has touched those tender strokes more 
 
 > delicately than Virgil could. But when action or persons 
 
 are to be described, when any such image is to be set before 
 
 us, how bold, how masterly are the strokes of Virgil ! We see 
 
 the objects he represents us within their native figures, in 
 
 10 their proper motions ; but we so see them as our own eyes 
 
 could never have beheld them, so beautiful in themselves. 
 
 We see the soul of the poet, like that universal one of which 
 
 he speaks, informing and moving through all his pictures : 
 
 'Totamque infusa per artus 
 jc Mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet.' 
 
 We behold him embellishing his images, as he makes Venus 
 breathing beauty upon her son -^Eneas : 
 
 'Lumenque juventae 
 
 Purpureum et laetos oculis afflarat honores : 
 2O Quale manus addunt ebori decus, aut ubi flavo 
 
 Argentum Pariusve lapis circumdatur auro/ 
 
 See his Tempest, his Funeral Sports, his Combat of Turnus 
 and JEneas, and in his Georgics, which I esteem the divinest 
 part of all his writings, the Plague, the Country, the Battle 
 25 of Bulls, the Labour of the Bees, and those many other 
 excellent images of nature, most of which are neither great 
 in themselves nor have any natural ornament to bear them 
 up; but the words wherewith he describes them are so 
 excellent, that it might be well applied to him which was 
 . 30 said by Ovid, Materiam superabat opus : the very sound of 
 his words has often somewhat that is connatural to the 
 subject; and while we read him, we sit, as in a play, behold- 
 ing the scenes of what he represents. To perform this, he 
 made frequent use of tropes, which you know change the 
 35 nature of a known word by applying it to some other signi- 
 
ACCOUNT OF ANNUS MIRABILIS. 31 
 
 fication ; and this is it which Horace means in his Epistle to 
 the Pisos : 
 
 'Dixeris egregie, notum si callida verbum 
 Reddiderit junctura novum.' 
 
 But I am sensible I have presumed too far to entertain you 5 
 with a rude, discourse of that art which you both know so 
 well, and put into practice with so much happiness. Yet 
 before I leave Virgil, I must own the vanity to tell you, 
 and by you the world, that he has been my master in this 
 . poem: I have followed him everywhere, I know not with 10 
 what success, but I am sure with diligence enough : my 
 images are many of them copied from him, and the rest 
 are imitations of him. My expressions also are as near as 
 the idioms of the two languages would admit of in translation. 
 And this, Sir, I have done with that boldness for which I 15 
 will stand accountable to any of our little critics, who, 
 perhaps, are not better acquainted with him than I am. 
 Upon your first perusal of this poem, you have taken notice 
 of some words which I have innovated (if it be too bold for 
 me to say refined) upon his Latin ; which, as I offer not 20 
 to introduce into English prose, so I hope they are neither 
 improper nor altogether unelegant in verse ; and in this 
 Horace will again defend me: 
 
 'Et nova fictaque nuper habebunt verba fidem si 
 Graeco fonte cadent parce detorta.' 
 
 The inference is exceeding plain; for if a Roman poet 
 might have liberty to coin a word, supposing only that it 
 was derived from the Greek, was put into a Latin termina- 
 tion, and that he used this liberty but seldom and with 
 modesty ; how much more justly may I challenge that privi- 30 
 lege to do it with the same pre-requisites, from the best 
 and most judicious of Latin writers ? In some places, where 
 either the fancy or the words were his or any other's, I have 
 noted it in the margin, that I might not seem a plagiary ; 
 in others I have neglected it, to avoid as well tediousness 35 
 as the affectation of doing it too often. Such descriptions 
 or images, well wrought, which I promise not for mine, 
 
32 ACCOUNT OF ANNUS MIRABILIS. 
 
 are, as I have said, the adequate delight of heroic poesy; 
 for they beget admiration, which is its proper object; as 
 the images of the burlesque, which is contrary to this, by 
 the same reason beget laughter ; for the one shows nature 
 5 beautified, as in the picture of a fair woman, which we all 
 admire; the other shows her deformed, as in that of a 
 lazar, or of a fool with distorted face and antic* gestures, at 
 which we cannot forbear to laugh, because it is a deviation 
 from nature. But though the same images serve equally 
 
 10 for the epic poesy, and for the historic and panegyric, which 
 are branches of it, yet a several sort of sculpture is to be 
 used in them. If some of them are to be like those of 
 Juvenal, Stantes in curribus Mmiliam> heroes drawn in their 
 triumphal chariots and in their full proportion; others are 
 
 15 to be like that of Virgil, Spirantia mollms (Bra: there is some- 
 what more of softness and tenderness to be shown in them. 
 You will soon find I write not this without concern. Some, 
 who have seen a paper of verses which I wrote last year 
 to her Highness the Duchess, have accused them of that 
 
 20 only thing I could defend in them. They have said, I did 
 humi serpere, that I wanted not only height of fancy, but 
 dignity of words to set it off. I might well answer with 
 that of Horace, Nunc non erat his locus ; I knew I addressed 
 them to a lady, and accordingly I affected the softness of 
 
 25 expression and the smoothness of measure, rather than the 
 height of thought ; and in what I did endeavour, it is no 
 vanity to say I have succeeded. I detest arrogance; but 
 there is some difference betwixt that and a just defence. 
 But I will not farther bribe your candour, or the reader's. 
 
 30 I leave them to speak for me ; and, if they can, to make 
 out that character, not pretending to a greater, which I have 
 given them. 
 
ACCOUNT OF ANNUS MIRABILIS. 33 
 
 VERSES TO HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUCHESS, 
 
 On the Memorable Victory gained by the Duke against the 
 Hollanders, June 3, 1665, and on her Journey afterwards 
 into the North. 
 
 MADAM, 5 
 
 WHEN for our sakes your hero you resigned 
 To swelling seas and every faithless wind, 
 When you released his courage and set free 
 A valour fatal to the enemy, 
 
 You lodged your country's cares within your breast, 10 
 
 The mansion where soft love should only rest, 
 And, ere our foes abroad were overcome, 
 The noblest conquest you had gained at home. 
 Ah, what concerns did both your souls divide! 
 Your honour gave us what your love denied: 15 
 
 And 'twas for him much easier to subdue 
 Those foes he fought with than to part from you. 
 That glorious day, which two such navies saw 
 As each unmatched might to the world give law, 
 Neptune, yet doubtful whom he should obey, 
 Held to them both the trident of the sea : 
 The winds were hushed, the waves in ranks were cast 
 As awfully as when God's people past, 
 Those yet uncertain on whose sails to blow, 
 These where the wealth of nations ought to flow. 25 
 
 Then with the Duke your Highness ruled the day; 
 While all the brave did his command obey, 
 The fair and pious under you did pray. 
 How powerful are chaste vows! the wind and tide 
 You bribed to combat on the English side. 30 
 
 Thus to your much-loved lord you did convey 
 An unknown succour, sent the nearest way; 
 New vigour to his wearied arms you brought, 
 (So Moses was upheld while Israel fought,) 
 While from afar we heard the cannon play, 35 
 
 Like, distant thunder on a shiny day. 
 
 D 
 
34 ACCOUNT OF ANNUS MIRABILIS. 
 
 For absent friends we were ashamed to fear 
 When we considered what you ventured there. 
 Ships, men, and arms our country might restore, 
 But such a leader could supply no more. 
 
 5 With generous thoughts of conquest he did burn, 
 Yet fought not more to vanquish than return. 
 Fortune and victory he did pursue 
 To bring them as his slaves to wait on you : 
 Thus beauty ravished the rewards of fame 
 
 10 And the fair triumphed when the brave o'ercame. 
 Then, as you meant to spread another way 
 By land your conquests far as his by sea, 
 Leaving our southern clime, you marched along 
 The stubborn North, ten thousand Cupids strong. 
 
 15 Like Commons, the nobility resort 
 
 In crowding heaps to fill your moving court : 
 To welcome your approach the vulgar run, 
 Like some new envoy from the distant sun, 
 And country beauties by their lovers go, 
 
 20 Blessing themselves and wondering at the show. 
 So, when the new-born phoenix first is seen, 
 Her feathered subjects all adore their queen, 
 And while she makes her progress through the East, 
 From every grove her numerous train's increast ; 
 
 25 Each poet of the air her glory sings, 
 
 And round him the pleased audience clap their wings. 
 
 And now, Sir, 'tis time I should relieve you from the 
 tedious length of this account. You have better and more 
 profitable employment for your hours, and I wrong the 
 
 30 public to detain you longer. In conclusion, I must leave 
 my poem to you with all its faults, which I hope to find 
 fewer in the printing by your emendations. I know you 
 are not of the number of those, of whom the younger Pliny 
 speaks ; Nee sunt parum multi, qui carpere amicos suos judicium 
 
 35 vacant: I am rather too secure of you on that side. Your 
 candour in pardoning my errors may make you more remiss 
 in correcting them ; if you will not withal consider that they 
 
ACCOUNT OF ANNUS MIRABILIS. 35 
 
 come into the world with your approbation, and through 
 your hands. I beg from you the greatest favour you can 
 confer upon an absent person, since I repose upon your 
 management what is dearest to me, my fame and reputation ; 
 and, therefore, I hope it will stir you up to make my poem 5 
 fairer by many of your blots. If not, you know the story 
 of the gamester who married the rich man's daughter and, 
 when her father denied the portion, christened all the children 
 by his surname, that, if in conclusion they. must beg, they 
 should do so by one name as well as by the other. But 10 
 since the reproach of my faults will light on you, 'tis but 
 reason I should do you that justice to the readers to let 
 them know, that, if there be anything tolerable in this poem, 
 they owe the argument to your choice, the writing to your 
 encouragement, the correction to your judgment, and the 15 
 care of it to your friendship, to which he must ever acknow- 
 ledge himself to owe all things who is, 
 
 Sir, 
 
 The most obedient 
 and most faithful of your servants, 
 
 JOHN DRYDEN. 
 
 From Charlton, in Wiltshire, 
 Nov. 10, 1666. 
 
 D a 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS: 
 
 THE YEAR OF WONDERS. 1 666. 
 
 IN thriving arts long time had Holland grown, 
 Crouching at home and cruel when abroad ; 
 
 Scarce leaving us the means to claim our own, 
 Our King they courted and our merchants awed. 
 
 Trade, which like blood should circularly flow, 
 Stopped in their channels, found its freedom lost: 
 
 Thither the wealth of all the world did go, 
 And seemed but shipwracked on so base a coast. 
 
 3 
 For them alone the heavens had kindly heat, 
 
 In eastern quarries a ripening precious dew; 
 For them the Idumsean balm did sweat 
 
 And in hot Ceylon spicy forests grew. 
 
 4 
 The sun but seemed the labourer of their year; 
 
 Each wexing moon b supplied her watery store 
 To swell those tides which from the Line did bear 
 
 Their brim-full vessels to the Belgian shore. 
 
 5 
 Thus mighty in her ships stood Carthage long 
 
 And swept the riches of the world from far, 
 Yet stooped to Rome, less wealthy but more strong ; 
 
 And this may prove our second Punic war. 
 
 a In eastern quarries. Precious stones at first are dew con- 
 densed, and hardened by the warmth of the sun or subterranean 
 fires. 
 
 b Each wexing moon. According to their opinions who 
 think that great heap of the waters under the Line is depressed 
 into tides by the moon toward the poles. 
 
38 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 
 
 6 
 What peace can.be, where both to one pretend, 
 
 But they more diligent and we more strong? 
 Or if a peace, it soon must have an end, 
 
 For they would grow too powerful, were it long. 
 
 7 
 Behold two nations then engaged so far 
 
 That each seven years the fit must shake each land ; 
 Where France will side to weaken us by war 
 
 Who only can his vast designs withstand. 
 
 8 
 
 See how he feeds the Iberian with delays 
 / ^/ * To render us his timely friendship vain ; 
 And while his secret soul on Flanders preys, 
 He rocks the cradle of the babe of Spain. 
 
 9 
 Such deep designs of empire does he lay 
 
 O'er them whose cause he seems to take in hand, 
 And prudently would make them lords at sea 
 
 To whom with ease he can give laws by land. 
 
 10 
 This saw our King, and long within his breast 
 
 His pensive counsels balanced to and fro; 
 He grieved the land he freed should be opprest 
 
 And he less for it than usurpers do, 
 
 ii 
 His generous mind the fair ideas drew 
 
 Of fame and honour, which in dangers lay; 
 Where wealth, like fruit on precipices, grew, 
 
 Not to be gathered but by birdsjof^prev^. 
 
 12 
 The loss and gain each fatally were great, 
 
 And still his subjects called aloud for war: 
 But peaceful kings, o'er martial people set, 
 
 Each other's poise and counterbalance are. 
 
 c The Iberian. The Spaniard. 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 39 
 
 13 
 
 He first surveyed the charge with careful eyes, 
 Which none but mighty monarchs could maintain; 
 
 Yet judged, like vapours that from limbecs rise, 
 It would in richer showers descend again. 
 
 14 
 At length resolved to assert the watery ball, 
 
 He in himself did whole armados bring; 
 Him aged seamen might their master call 
 
 And choose for General, were he not their King. 
 
 15 
 
 It seems as every ship their Sovereign knows, 
 
 His awful summons they so soon obey ; 
 So hear the scaly herd when Proteus blows d , 
 
 And so to pasture follow through the sea. 
 
 16 
 
 To see this fleet upon the ocean move 
 
 Angels drew wide the curtains of the skies ; 
 And Heaven, as if there wanted lights above, 
 
 For tapers made two glaring comets rise ; 
 
 Whether they unctuous exhalations are 
 Fired by the sun, or seeming so alone, 
 
 Or each some more remote and slippery star 
 Which loses footing when to mortals shown ; 
 
 d When Proteus blows, or 
 
 ' Caeruleus Proteus immania ponti 
 Armenta, et magnas pascit sub gurgite phocas.' VIRO. 
 [Not quoted exactly by Dryden : 
 
 * Caeruleus Proteus, magnum qui piscibus aequor 
 Et juncto bipedum curru metitur equorum. 
 
 Quippe ita Neptuno visum est; immania cujus 
 Armenta et turpes pascit sub gurgite phocas.' 
 
 VIRQ. Georg. iv. 388.] 
 
40 ANNUS MIRABILIS, l666. 
 
 1 8 
 Or one that bright companion of the sun, 
 
 Whose glorious aspect sealed our new-born King, 
 And now, a round of greater years begun, 
 
 New influence from his walks of light did bring. 
 
 19 
 Victorious York did first with famed success 
 
 To his known valour make the Dutch give place; 
 Thus Heaven our Monarch's fortune did confess, 
 
 Beginning conquest from his royal race. 
 
 20 
 But since it was decreed, auspicious King, 
 
 In Britain's right that thou shouldst wed the main, 
 Heaven as a gage would cast some precious thing, 
 
 And therefore doomed that Lawson should be slain. 
 
 21 
 Lawson amongst the foremost met his fate, 
 
 Whom sea-green Sirens from the rocks lament ; 
 Thus, as an offering for the Grecian state, 
 
 He first was killed who first to battle went. 
 
 22 
 Their chief 6 blown up, in air, not waves expired 
 
 To which his pride presumed to give the law ; 
 The Dutch confessed Heaven present and retired, 
 
 And all was Britain the wide ocean saw. 
 
 23 
 To nearest ports their shattered ships repair, 
 
 Where by our dreadful cannon they lay awed; 
 So reverently men quit the open air 
 
 Where thunder speaks the angry gods abroad. 
 
 24 
 The attempt And now approached their fleet from India, fraught 
 
 With all the riches of the rising sun, 
 And precious sand from southern climates f brought, 
 The fatal regions where the war begun. 
 
 8 The Admiral of Holland. f Southern climates. Guinea 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, l666. 4! 
 
 25 
 Like hunted castors conscious of their store, 
 
 Their way-laid wealth to Norway's coasts they bring ; 
 There first the North's cold bosom spices bore, 
 
 And winter brooded on the eastern spring. 
 
 26 
 By the rich scent we found our perfumed prey, 
 
 Which, flanked with rocks, did close in covert lie ; 
 And round about their murdering cannon lay, 
 
 At once to threaten and invite the eye. 
 
 27 
 Fiercer than cannon and than rocks more hard, 
 
 The English undertake the unequal war: 
 Seven ships alone, by which the port is barred, 
 
 Besiege the Indies and all Denmark dare. 
 
 These fight like husbands, but like lovers those ; 
 
 These fain would keep and those more fain enjoy ; 
 And to such height their frantic passion grows 
 
 That what both love both hazard to destroy. 
 
 29 
 Amidst whole heaps of spices lights a ball, 
 
 And now their odours armed against them fly: 
 Some preciously by shattered porcelain fall 
 
 And some by aromatic splinters die. 
 
 30 
 And though by tempests of the prize bereft, 
 
 In Heaven's inclemency some ease we find; 
 Our foes we vanquished by our valour left, 
 
 And only yielded to the seas and wind. 
 
 3i 
 Nor wholly lost we so deserved a prey, 
 
 For storms repenting part of it restored, 
 Which as a tribute from the Baltic 'sea 
 
 The British ocean sent her mighty lord. 
 

 MIRABILIS, l666. 
 
 Go, mortals, now and vex yourselves in vain 
 For wealth, which so uncertainly must come ; 
 
 When what was brought so far and with such pain 
 Was only kept to lose it nearer home. 
 
 33 
 The son who, twice three months on the ocean tost, 
 
 Prepared to tell what he had passed before, 
 Now sees in English ships the Holland coast 
 
 And parents' arms in vain stretched from the shore. 
 
 34 
 This careful husband had been long away 
 
 Whom his chaste wife and little children mourn, 
 Who on their fingers learned to tell the day 
 
 On which their father promised to return. 
 
 35 
 Such are the proud designs of human kinds, 
 
 And so we suffer shipwrack everywhere! 
 Alas, what port can such a pilot find 
 
 Who in the night of Fate must blindly steer! 
 
 36 
 
 The undistinguished seeds of good and ill 
 
 Heaven in his bosom from our knowledge hides, 
 
 And draws them in contempt of human skill, 
 Which oft for friends mistaken foes provides. 
 
 37 
 Let Munster's prelate ever be accurst, 
 
 In whom we seek the German faith h in vain ; 
 ^ Alas, that he should teach the English first 
 
 That fraud and avarice in the Church could reign! 
 
 s Such are, &c. From Petronius : ' Si bene calculum ponas, 
 jU^^ ubique fit naufragium.' [Satyr, c. 115.] 
 
 h The German faith. Tacitus saith of them : Nullos mor- 
 talium armis aut fide ante Germanos esse.' [Said of the Germans, 
 according to Tacitus, by two Germans. Ann. xiii. 45.] 
 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 43 
 
 38 
 Happy who never trust a stranger's will 
 
 Whose friendship's in his interest understood; 
 Since money given but tempts him to be ill, 
 
 When power is too remote to make him good. 
 
 39 
 Till now, alone the mighty nations strove; war declared 
 
 The rest at gaze without the lists did stand ; 
 And threatening France, placed like a painted Jove, 
 
 Kept idle thunder in his lifted hand. 
 
 40 
 That eunuch guardian of rich Holland's trade 
 
 Who envies us what he wants power to enjoy, 
 Whose noiseful valour does no foe invade 
 
 And weak assistance will his friends destroy ; 
 
 Offended that we fought without his leave, 
 He takes this time his secret hate to show ; 
 
 Which Charles does with a mind so calm receive 
 As one that neither seeks nor shuns his foe. 
 
 42 
 With France to aid the Dutch the Danes unite ; 
 
 France as their tyrant, Denmark as their slave; 
 But when with one three nations join to fight, 
 
 They silently confess that one more brave. 
 
 43 
 Lewis had chased the English from his shore, 
 
 But Charles the French as subjects does invite; 
 Would Heaven for each some Solomon restore, 
 
 Who by their mercy may decide their right ! 
 
 44 
 Were subjects so but only by their choice 
 
 And not from birth did forced dominion take, 
 Our Prince alone would have the public voice 
 
 And all his neighbours' realms would deserts make. 
 
44 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 
 
 45 
 He without fear a dangerous war pursues, 
 
 Which without rashness he began before : 
 As honour made him first the danger choose, 
 
 So still he makes it good on virtue's score. 
 
 46 
 The doubled charge his subjects' love supplies, 
 
 Who in that bounty to themselves are kind: 
 So glad Egyptians see their Nilus rise 
 
 And in his plenty their abundance find. 
 
 47 
 Prince Rupert With equal power he does two chiefs create, 
 
 and Duke of ' 
 
 Aibemarie Two such as each seemed worthiest when alone ; 
 
 sent to sea. 
 
 Each able to sustain a nation s fate, 
 
 Since both had found a greater in their own. 
 48 
 
 Both great in courage, conduct, and in fame, 
 Yet neither envious of the other's praise ; 
 
 Their duty, faith, and interest too the same, 
 Like mighty partners, equally they raise. 
 
 49 
 The Prince long time had courted Fortune's love, 
 
 But once possessed did absolutely reign : 
 Thus with their Amazons the heroes strove, 
 
 And conquered first those beauties they would gain. 
 
 50 
 The Duke beheld, like Scipio, with disdain 
 
 That Carthage which he ruined rise once more, 
 And shook aloft the fasces of the main 
 
 To fright those slaves with what they felt before. 
 
 5i 
 Together to the watery camp they haste, 
 
 Whom matrons passing to their children show ; 
 Infants' first vows for them to Heaven are cast, 
 
 And future people bless them as they go 1 . 
 
 i Future people. ' Examina infantium futurusque populus.' 
 Pmt.jun. in Pan. ad Traj. [c. 26.] 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666* 45 
 
 52 
 With them no riotous pomp nor Asian train 
 
 To infect a navy with their gaudy fears, 
 To make slow fights and victories but vain ; 
 
 But war severely like itself appears. 
 
 53 
 Diffusive of themselves, where'er they pass, 
 
 They make that warmth in others they expect ; 
 Their valour works like bodies on a glass 
 
 And does its image on their men project. 
 
 54 
 Our fleet divides, and straight the Dutch appear, Duke of 
 
 , ' j t. if AlbemarUs 
 
 In number and a famed commander bold : battle, 
 
 Jirst day. 
 
 The narrow seas can scarce their navy bear 
 Or crowded vessels can their soldiers hold. 
 
 55 
 The Duke, less numerous, but in courage more, 
 
 On wings of all the winds to combat flies ; 
 His murdering guns a loud defiance roar 
 
 And bloody crosses on his flag-staffs rise. 
 
 56 
 
 Both furl their sails and strip them for the fight ; 
 
 Their folded sheets dismiss the useless air; 
 The Elean plains k could boast no nobler sight, 
 
 When struggling champions did their bodies bare. 
 
 57 
 Borne each by other in a distant line, 
 
 The sea-built forts in dreadful order move ; 
 So vast the noise, as if not fleets did join, 
 
 But lands unfixed and floating nations strove ' . 
 
 k The Elean, &c. Where the Olympic games were celebrated. 
 1 From Virgil: 'Credas innare revulsas Cycladas,' &c. [JEn. 
 viii. 691.] 
 
46 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 
 
 58 
 Now passed, on either side they nimbly tack; 
 
 Both strive to intercept and guide the wind: 
 And in its eye more closely they come back 
 
 To finish all the deaths they left behind. 
 
 59 
 On high-raised decks the haughty Belgians ride, 
 
 Beneath whose shade our humble frigates go ; 
 Such port the elephant bears, and so defied 
 
 By the rhinoceros, her unequal foe. 
 
 60 
 And as the build, so different is the fight ; 
 
 Their mounting shot is on our sails designed: 
 Deep in their hulls our deadly bullets light 
 
 And through the yielding planks a passage find. 
 
 61 
 
 Our dreaded Admiral from far they threat, 
 Whose battered rigging their whole war receives; 
 
 All bare, like some old oak which tempests beat, 
 He stands, and sees below his scattered leaves. 
 
 62 
 Heroes of old when wounded shelter sought ; 
 
 But he, who meets all danger with disdain, 
 Even in their face his ship to anchor brought 
 
 And steeple-high stood propped upon the main. 
 
 63 
 
 At this excess of courage all-amazed, 
 
 The foremost of his foes a while withdraw; 
 
 With such respect in entered Rome they gazed 
 Who on high chairs the god-like fathers saw. 
 
 64 
 And now as, where Patroclus' body lay, 
 
 Here Trojan chiefs advanced and there the Greek, 
 Ours o'er the Duke their pious wings display 
 
 And theirs the noblest spoils of Britain seek. 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 47 
 
 65 
 Meantime his busy mariners he hastes 
 
 His shattered sails with rigging to restore; 
 And willing pines ascend his broken masts, 
 
 Whose lofty heads rise higher than before 
 
 66 
 Straight to the Dutch he turns his dreadful prow, 
 
 More fierce the important quarrel to decide: 
 Like swans in long array his vessels show, 
 
 Whose crests advancing do the waves divide. 
 
 They charge, recharge, and all along the sea 
 They drive and squander the huge Belgian fleet; 
 
 Berkeley alone, who nearest danger lay, 
 Did a like fate with lost Creusa meet. 
 
 68 
 The night comes on, we eager to pursue 
 
 The combat still and they ashamed to leave : 
 Till the last streaks of dying day withdrew 
 
 And doubtful moonlight did our rage deceive. 
 
 In the English fleet each ship resounds with joy 
 And loud applause of their great leader's fame ; 
 
 In fiery dreams the Dutch they still destroy, 
 And slumbering smile at the imagined flame. 
 
 70 
 Not so the Holland fleet, who, tired and done, 
 
 Stretched on their decks like weary oxen lie ; 
 Faint sweats all down their mighty members run, ^^tff^ 1 ^ 
 
 Vast bulks, which little souls but ill supply. 
 
 7i 
 In dreams they fearful precipices tread, 
 
 Or shipwracked labour to some distant shore, 
 Or in dark churches walk among the dead; 
 
 They wake with horror and dare sleep no more. 
 
48 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 
 
 72 
 The morn they look on with unwilling eyes, 
 
 Till from their maintop joyful news they hear 
 Of ships which by their mould bring new supplies 
 
 And in their colours Belgian lions bear. 
 
 73 
 Our watchful General had discerned from far 
 
 This mighty succour, which made glad the foe; 
 He sighed, but, like a father of the war, 
 
 His face spake hope, while deep his sorrows flow m . 
 
 74 
 His wounded men he first sends off to shore, 
 
 Never till now unwilling to obey: 
 They not their wounds but want of strength deplore 
 
 And think them happy who with him can stay. 
 
 75 
 Then to the rest, < Rejoice/ said he, l to-day ! 
 
 1 In you the fortune of Great Britain lies ; 
 ' Among so brave a people you are they 
 
 1 Whom Heaven has chose to fight for such a prize. 
 
 76 
 'If number English courages could quell, 
 
 ' We should at first have shunned, not met our foes, 
 ' Whose numerous sails the fearful only tell ; 
 
 ' Courage from hearts and not from numbers grows.' 
 
 77 
 He said, nor needed more to say : with haste 
 
 To their known stations cheerfully they go ; 
 And all at once, disdaining to be last, 
 
 Solicit every gale to meet the foe. 
 
 78 
 Nor did the encouraged Belgians long delay, 
 
 But bold in others, not themselves, they stood: 
 So thick, our navy scarce could sheer their way, 
 
 But seemed to wander in a moving wood. 
 
 m ' Spem vultu simulat, premit altum corde dolorem.' 
 
 VIRG. [JEn. ii. 213.] 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 49 
 
 79 
 Our little fleet was now engaged so far 
 
 That like the sword-fish in the whale they fought; 
 The combat only seemed a civil war, 
 
 Till through their bowels we our passage wrought. 
 
 80 
 Never had valour, no, not ours before 
 
 Done aught like this upon the land or main ; 
 Where not to be o'ercome was to do more 
 
 Than all the conquests former Kings did gain. 
 
 81 
 The mighty ghosts of our great Harrys rose, 
 
 And armed Edwards looked with anxious eyes, 
 To see this fleet among unequal foes, 
 
 By which Fate promised them their Charles should 
 rise. 
 
 82 
 
 Meantime the Belgians tack upon our rear, 
 And raking chase-guns through our sterns they 
 
 send; 
 
 Close by, their fire-ships like jackals appear 
 Who on their lions for the prey attend. 
 
 83- 
 
 Silent in smoke of cannon they come on : 
 
 Such vapours once did fiery Cacus hide n : 
 In these the height of pleased revenge is shown 
 
 Who burn contented by another's side. 
 
 84 
 Sometimes from fighting squadrons of each fleet, 
 
 Deceived themselves or to preserve some friend, 
 Two grappling ^Etnas on the ocean meet 
 
 And English fires with Belgian flames contend. 
 
 * Ille autem. 5 [VIRG. 2En. viii. 251.] 
 
 
50 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 
 
 85 
 Now at each tack our little fleet grows less ; 
 
 And, like maimed fowl, swim lagging on the main ; 
 Their greater loss their numbers scarce confess, 
 
 While they lose cheaper than the English gain. 
 
 86 
 Have you not seen when, whistled from the fist, 
 
 Some falcon stoops at what her eye designed, 
 And, with her eagerness the quarry missed, 
 
 Straight flies at check and clips it down the wind ; 
 
 87 
 The dastard crow, that to the wood made wing 
 
 And sees the groves no shelter can afford, 
 With her loud caws her craven kind does bring, 
 
 Who,, safe in numbers, cuff the noble bird. 
 
 88 
 Among the Dutch thus Albemarle did fare: 
 
 He could not conquer and disdained to fly: 
 Past hope of safety, 'twas his latest care, 
 
 Like falling Caesar, decently to die. 
 
 89 
 Yet pity did his manly spirit move, 
 
 To see those perish who so well had fought; 
 And generously with his despair he strove, 
 
 Resolved to live till he their safety wrought. 
 
 90 
 Let other muses write his prosperous fate, 
 
 Of conquered nations tell and kings restored ; 
 But mine shall sing of his eclipsed estate, 
 
 Which, like the sun's, more wonders does afford. 
 
 91 
 
 He drew his mighty frigates all before, 
 
 On which the foe his fruitless force employs; 
 
 His weak ones deep into his rear he bore 
 Remote from guns, as sick men from the noise. 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, l666. 51 
 
 92 
 His fiery cannon did their passage guide, 
 
 And following smoke obscured them from the foe ; 
 Thus Israel, safe from the Egyptian's pride, 
 
 By flaming pillars and by clouds did go. 
 
 93 
 
 Elsewhere the Belgian force we did defeat, 
 
 But here our courages did theirs subdue ; 
 So Xenophon once led that famed retreat 
 
 Which first the Asian empire overthrew. 
 
 94 
 The foe approached; and one for his bold sin 
 
 Was sunk, as he that touched the Ark was slain: 
 The wild waves mastered him and sucked him in, 
 
 And smiling eddies dimpled on the main. 
 
 95 
 
 This seen, the rest at awful distance stood : 
 
 As if they had been there as servants set 
 To stay or to go on, as he thought good, 
 
 And not pursue, but wait on his retreat. 
 
 So Libyan huntsmen on some sandy plain, 
 From shady coverts roused, the lion chase : 
 
 The kingly beast roars out with loud disdain, 
 And slowly moves, unknowing to give place . 
 
 97 
 But if some one approach to dare his force, 
 
 He swings his tail and swiftly turns him round, 
 With one paw seizes on his trembling horse, 
 
 And with the other tears him to the ground. 
 
 The simile is Virgil's : ' Vestigia retro improperata refert.' 
 [More fully and correctly : 
 
 * Haud aliter retro dubius vestigia Turnus 
 Improperata refert, et mens exaestuat ira.' 
 
 JEn. ix. 797.] 
 2 
 
52 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 
 
 Amidst these toils succeeds the balmy night; 
 
 Now hissing waters the quenched guns restore : 
 And weary waves?, withdrawing from the fight, 
 
 Lie lulled and panting on the silent shore. 
 
 99 
 The moon shone clear on the becalmed flood, 
 
 Where, while her beams like glittering silver play, 
 Upon the deck our careful General stood, 
 
 And deeply mused on the succeeding dayQ. 
 
 100 
 'That happy sun/ said he, 'will rise again, 
 
 Who twice victorious did our navy see, 
 And I alone must view him rise in vain, 
 
 Without one ray of all his star for me. 
 
 10 1 
 
 ' Yet like an English general will I die, 
 
 And all the ocean make my spacious grave : 
 
 Women and cowards on the land may lie ; 
 The sea's a tomb that's proper for the brave.' 
 
 102 
 Restless he passed the remnants of the night, 
 
 Till the fresh air proclaimed the morning nigh ; 
 And burning ships, the martyrs of the fight, 
 
 With paler fires beheld the eastern sky. 
 
 103 
 Third day. But now, his stores of ammunition spent, 
 
 His naked valour is his only guard ; 
 Rare thunders are from his dumb cannon sent 
 And solitary guns are scarcely heard. 
 
 P Weary waves, from Statius : 
 
 ' Nee trucibus fluviis idem sonus : occidit horror 
 JEquoris, et terris maria acclinata quiescunt.' 
 
 \Sylv. v. 4, 5.] 
 i The 3rd of June, famous for two former victories. 
 
ANNUS MIRAEILIS, 1666. 53 
 
 104 
 Thus far had Fortune power, here forced to stay ; 
 
 Nor longer durst with virtue be at strife ; 
 This as a ransom Albemarle did pay 
 
 For all the glories of so great a life. 
 
 105 
 For now brave Rupert from afar appears, 
 
 Whose waving streamers the glad General knows ; 
 With full-spread sails his eager navy steers, 
 
 And every ship in swift proportion grows. 
 
 106 
 The anxious Prince had heard the cannon long 
 
 And from that length of time dire omens drew 
 Of English overmatched, and Dutch too strong 
 
 Who never fought three days but to pursue. 
 
 107 
 Then, as an eagle, who with pious care 
 
 Was beating widely on the wing for prey, 
 To her now silent eyry does repair, 
 
 And finds her callow infants forced away ; 
 
 108 
 Stung with her love, she stoops upon the plain, 
 
 The broken air loud whistling as she flies ; 
 She stops and listens and shoots forth again 
 
 And guides her pinions by her young ones' cries. 
 
 109 
 With such kind passion hastes the Prince to fight 
 
 And spreads his flying canvas to the sound ; 
 Him whom no danger, were he there, could fright, 
 
 Now absent, every little noise can wound. 
 
 no 
 As in a drought the thirsty creatures cry 
 
 And gape upon the gathered clouds for rain, 
 And first the martlet meets it in the sky, 
 
 And with wet wings joys all the feathered train; 
 
54 ANNUS MIRABILIS y l666. 
 
 With such glad hearts did our despairing men 
 Salute the appearance of the Prince's fleet, 
 
 And each ambitiously would claim the ken 
 That with first eyes did distant safety meet. 
 
 112 
 The Dutch, who came lik$. greedy hinds before 
 
 To reap the harvest their ripe ears did yield, 
 Now look like those, when rolling thunders roar 
 
 And sheets of lightning blast the standing field. 
 
 H3 
 Full in the Prince's passage, hills of sand 
 
 And dangerous flats in secret ambush lay, 
 Where the false tides skim o'er the covered land 
 
 And seamen with dissembled depths betray. 
 
 114 
 The wily Dutch, who, like fallen angels, feared 
 
 This new Messiah's coming, there did wait, 
 And round the verge their braving vessels steered 
 
 To tempt his courage with so fair a bait. 
 
 H5 
 But he unmoved contemns their idle threat,- 
 
 Secure of fame whene'er he please to fight ; 
 His cold experience tempers all his heat, 
 
 And inbred worth does boasting valour slight. 
 
 116 
 Heroic virtue did his actions guide, 
 
 And he the substance, not the appearance, chose ; 
 To rescue one such friend he took more pride 
 
 Than to destroy whole thousands of such foes. 
 
 117 
 But when approached, in strict embraces bound 
 
 Rupert and Albemarle together grow ; 
 He joys to have his friend in safety found, 
 
 Which he to none but to that friend would owe. 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 55 
 
 118 
 
 The cheerful soldiers, with new stores supplied, 
 
 Now long to execute their spleenful will ; 
 And in revenge for those 
 
 _ 
 Wish* "one like Joshua^s, whenthe sun stood still. 
 
 119 
 Thus reinforced, against the adverse fleet, Fourth da^s 
 
 Still doubling ours, brave Rupert leads the way ; 
 With the first blushes of the morn they meet 
 
 And bring night back upon the new-born day. 
 
 His presence soon blows up the kindling fight, 
 And his loud guns speak thick like angry men ; 
 
 It seemed as slaughter had been breathed all night 
 And Death new pointed his dull dart again. 
 
 T2I 
 
 The Dutch too well his mighty conduct know 
 And matchless courage, since the former fight ; 
 
 Whose navy like a stiff stretched cord did show, 
 Till he bore in and bent them into flight. 
 
 122 
 The wind he shares, while half their fleet offends 
 
 His open side and high above him shows; 
 Upon the rest at pleasure he descends 
 
 And doubly harmed he double harms bestows. 
 
 123 
 Behind, the General mends his weary pace 
 
 And sullenly to his revenge he sails ; 
 So glides r some trodden serpent on the grass 
 
 And long behind his wounded volume trails. 
 
 r So glides, &c. From Virgil : 
 
 * Quum medii nexus extremaBque agmina caudae 
 Solvuntur, tardosque trahit sinus ultimus orbes,' &c. 
 
 [Georg. iii. 423.] 
 
56 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 
 
 124 
 The increasing sound is borne to either shore 
 
 And for their stakes the throwing nations fear, 
 Their passion double with the cannons' roar, 
 
 And with warm wishes each man combats there. 
 
 125 
 Plied thick and close as when the fight begun, 
 
 Their huge unwieldy navy wastes away : 
 So sicken waning moons too near the sun 
 
 And blunt their crescents on the edge of day. 
 
 126 
 And now, reduced on equal terms to fight, 
 
 Their ships like wasted patrimonies show, 
 Where the thin scattering trees admit the light 
 
 And shun each other's shadows as they grow. 
 
 127 
 The warlike Prince had severed from the rest 
 
 Two giant ships, the pride of all the main : 
 Which with his one so vigorously he pressed 
 
 And flew so home they could not rise again. 
 
 128 
 Already battered by his lee they lay ; 
 
 In vain upon the passing winds they call; 
 The passing winds through their torn canvas play 
 
 And flagging sails on heartless sailors fall. 
 
 129 
 Their opened sides receive a gloomy light, 
 
 Dreadful as day let in to shades below ; 
 Without, grim Death rides barefaced in their sight 
 
 And urges entering billows as they flow. 
 
 130 
 
 , When one dire shot, the last they could supply, 
 f Close by the board the Prince's main-mast bore : 
 I All three now helpless by each other lie, 
 
 And this offends not and those fear no more. 
 
 \ 
 \ 
 
ANNUS MIRAB1LIS, 1666. 57 
 
 So have I seen some fearful hare maintain 
 A course, till tired before the dog she lay, 
 
 Who, stretched behind her, pants upon the plain, 
 Past power to kill as she to get away: 
 
 132 
 With his lolled tongue he faintly licks his prey; 
 
 His warm breath blows her flix up as she lies ; 
 She, trembling, creeps upon the ground away 
 
 And looks back to him with beseeching eyes. 
 
 133 
 The Prince unjustly does his stars accuse, 
 
 Which hindered him to push his fortune on ; 
 For what they to his courage did refuse 
 
 By mortal valour never must be done. 
 
 134 
 This lucky hour the wise Batavian takes 
 
 And v/arns his tattered fleet to follow home; 
 Proudto^-haxe_so^got off with equal stakes, 
 
 wKere 'twas a triumph not to be o'ercome s . 
 
 J 35 
 The General's force, as kept alive by fight, 
 
 Now, not opposed, no longer can pursue; 
 Lasting till Heaven had done its courage right, 
 
 When he had conquered he his weakness knew. 
 
 136 
 
 He casts a frown on the departing foe 
 
 And sighs to see him quit the watery field ; 
 
 His stern fixed eyes no satisfaction show 
 For all the glories which the fight did yield. 
 
 From Horace : 
 
 1 Quos opimus 
 Fallere et effugere triumphus est.' 
 
 [4 Od. iv. 51.] 
 
58 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 
 
 137 
 Though, as when fiends did miracles avow, 
 
 He stands confessed even by the boastful Dutch; 
 He only does his conquest disavow 
 
 And thinks too little what they found too much. 
 
 138 
 Returned, he with the fleet resolved to stay; 
 
 No tender thoughts of home his heart divide ; 
 Domestic joys and cares he puts away, 
 
 For realms are households which the great must 
 guide. 
 
 139 
 
 As those who unripe veins in mines explore 
 On the rich bed again the warm turf lay, 
 Till time digests the yet imperfect ore, 
 And know it will be gold another day ; 
 
 140 
 So looks our Monarch on this early fight, 
 
 The essay and rudiments of great success, 
 Which all-maturing time must bring to light, 
 
 While he, like Heaven, does each day's labour bless. 
 
 141 
 Heaven ended* not the first or second day, 
 
 Yet each was perfect to the work designed : 
 God and kings work, when they their work survey, 
 And passive aptness in all subjects find. 
 
 142 
 HIS Majesty In burdened vessels first with speedy care 
 
 refairsttie . 
 
 fleet. His plenteous stores do seasoned timber send; 
 
 Thither the brawny carpenters repair 
 And as the surgeons of maimed ships attend. 
 
 143 
 With cord and canvas from rich Hamburg sent 
 
 His navy's moulted wings he imps once more ; 
 Tall Norway fir their masts in battle spent, 
 
 And English oak sprung leaks and planks restore. 
 
ANNUS MIRAE1LIS) 1666. 59 
 
 144 
 All hands employed, the royal work grows warm * ; 
 
 Like labouring bees on a long summer's day, 
 Some sound the trumpet for the rest to swarm 
 
 And some on bells of tasted lilies play ; 
 
 145 
 With glewy wax some new foundation lay 
 
 Of virgin-combs, which from the roof are hung; 
 Some armed within doors upon duty stay 
 
 Or tend the sick or educate the*young: 
 
 146 
 So here some pick out bullets from the side, 
 
 Some drive old oakum through each seam and rift : 
 Their left hand does the caulking-iron guide, 
 
 The rattling mallet with the right they lift. 
 
 H7 
 With boiling pitch another near at hand, 
 
 From friendly Sweden brought, the seams instops, 
 Which well paid o'er the salt sea waves withstand 
 
 And shake them from the rising beak in drops. 
 
 148 
 Some the galled ropes with dauby marling bind 
 
 Or sear-cloth masts with strong tarpauling coats: 
 To try new shrouds one mounts into the wind 
 
 And one below their ease or stiffness notes. 
 
 149 
 Our careful Monarch stands in person by 
 
 His new cast cannons' firmness to explore, 
 The strength of big-corned powder loves to try 
 
 And ball and cartridge sorts for every bore. 
 
 150 
 Each day brings fresh supplies of arms and men 
 
 And ships which all last winter were abroad, 
 And such as fitted since the fight had been 
 Or new from stocks were fallen into road. 
 * Fervet opus : ' the same similitude in Virgil. [Georg. iv. 
 
60 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 
 
 'i.oyai The goodly London in her gallant trim, 
 
 Scribed. The phoenix-daughter of the vanished old, 
 
 Like a rich bride does to the ocean swim 
 And on her shadow rides in floating gold. 
 
 152 
 Her flag aloft, spread ruffling to the wind, 
 
 And sanguine streamers seem the flood to fire; 
 The weaver, charmed with what his loom designed, 
 Goes on to sea and knows not to retire. 
 
 153 
 With roomy decks, her guns of mighty strength, 
 
 Whose low-laid mouths each mounting billow laves, 
 Deep in her draught and warlike in her length, 
 
 She seems a sea wasp flying on the waves. 
 
 * i54 
 
 This martial present, piously designed, 
 
 The loyal City give their best-loved King : 
 And, with a bounty ample as the wind, 
 
 Built, fitted, and maintained, to him did bring. 
 
 155 
 
 Digression By viewing nature Nature's handmaid, Art, 
 C shippins S and Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow : 
 Thus fishes first to shipping did impart 
 
 Their tail the rudder and their head the prow. 
 
 Some log perhaps upon the waters swam, 
 An useless drift, which, rudely cut within 
 
 And hollowed, first a floating trough became 
 And cross some rivulet passage did begin. 
 
 157 
 In shipping such as this the Irish kern 
 
 And untaught Indian on the stream did glide, 
 Ere sharp-keeled boats to stem the flood did learn, 
 
 Or fin-like oars did spread from either side. 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 6l 
 
 158 
 Add but a sail, and Saturn so appeared, 
 
 When from lost empire he to exile went, 
 And with the golden age to Tiber steered, 
 
 Where coin and first commerce he did invent. 
 
 159 
 Rude as their ships was navigation then, 
 
 No useful compass or meridian known ; 
 Coasting, they kept the land within their ken, 
 
 And knew no North but when the pole-star shone. 
 
 160 
 Of all who since have used the open sea 
 
 Than the bold English none more fame have won ; 
 Beyond the year and out of Heaven's high way u 
 
 They make discoveries where they see no sun. 
 
 161 
 But what so long in vain, and yet unknown, 
 
 By poor mankind's benighted wit is sought, 
 Shall in this age to Britain first be shown 
 
 And hence be to admiring nations taught. 
 
 162 
 The ebbs of tides and their mysterious flow 
 
 We, as art's elements, shall understand, 
 And as by line upon the ocean go 
 
 Whose paths shall be familiar as the land. 
 
 163 
 Instructed ships shall sail to quick commerce x , 
 
 By which remotest regions are allied ; 
 Which makes one city of the universe, 
 
 Where some may gain and all may be supplied. 
 
 164 
 Then we upon our globe's last verge shall go 
 
 And view the ocean leaning on the sky: 
 From thence our rolling neighbours we shall know 
 
 And on the lunar world securely pry. 
 
 u Extra anni solisque vias.' VIRG. [JEn. vi. 79 7.] 
 x By a more exact knowledge of longitude. 
 
62 ANNUS MIRABILISj 1666. 
 
 165 
 
 Apostrophe This I foretell, from your auspicious care 
 society. Who great in search of God and Nature grow ; 
 
 "Who best your wise Creator's praise declare, 
 Since best to praise His works is best to know. 
 
 166 
 O, truly Royal ! who behold the law 
 
 And rule of beings in your Maker's mind, 
 And thence, like limbecs, rich ideas draw 
 
 To fit the levelled use of human kind. 
 
 167 
 But first the toils of war we must endure 
 
 And from the injurious Dutch redeem the seas; 
 War makes the valiant of his right secure 
 
 And gives up fraud to be chastised with ease. 
 
 168 
 Already were the Belgians on our coast, 
 
 Whose fleet more mighty every day became 
 By late success, which they did falsely boast, 
 
 And now by first appearing seemed to claim. 
 
 169 
 
 Designing, subtle, diligent, and close, 
 
 They knew to manage war with wise delay: 
 
 Yet all those arts their vanity did cross 
 
 And by their pride their prudence did betray. 
 
 170 
 Nor stayed the English long; but, well supplied, 
 
 Appear as numerous as the insulting foe; 
 
 The combat now by courage must be tried 
 
 And the success the braver nation show. 
 
 171 
 There was the Plymouth squadron new come in, 
 
 Which in the Straits last winter was abroad, 
 Which twice on Biscay's working bay had been 
 
 And on the midland sea the French had awecL 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 63 
 
 172 
 Old expert Allen, loyal all along, 
 
 Famed for his action on the Smyrna fleet ; 
 And Holmes, whose name shall live in epic song, 
 
 While music numbers, or while verse has feet; 
 
 173 
 Holmes, the Achates of the Generals' fight, 
 
 Who first bewitched our eyes with Guinea gold, 
 As once old Cato in the Roman's sight, 
 
 The tempting fruits of Afric did unfold. 
 
 174 
 With him went Spragge, as bountiful as brave, 
 
 Whom his high courage to command had brought; 
 Harman, who did the twice-fired Harry save 
 
 And in his burning ship undaunted fought. 
 
 175 
 Young Hollis, on a Muse by Mars begot, 
 
 Born, Caesar-like, to write and act great deeds, 
 Impatient to revenge his fatal shot, 
 
 His right hand doubly to his left succeeds. 
 
 176 
 Thousands were there in darker fame that dwell, 
 
 Whose deeds some nobler poem shall adorn; 
 And though to me unknown, they sure fought well 
 
 Whom Rupert led and who were British born. 
 
 177 
 Of every size an hundred fighting sail ; 
 
 So vast the navy now at anchor rides 
 That underneath it the pressed waters fail 
 
 And with its weight it shoulders off the tides. 
 
 178 
 Now, anchors weighed, the seamen shout so shrill 
 
 That heaven and earth and the wide ocean rings : 
 A breeze from westward waits their sails to fill 
 
 And rests in those high beds his downy wings. 
 
64 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 
 
 179 
 
 The wary Dutch this gathering storm foresaw 
 And durst not bide it on the English coast; 
 Behind their treacherous shallows they withdraw 
 And there lay snares to catch the British host. 
 
 180 
 So the false spider, when her nets are spread, 
 
 Deep ambushed in her silent den does lie, 
 And feels far off the trembling of her thread, 
 
 Whose filmy cord should bind the struggling fly ; 
 
 181 
 Then, if at last she find him fast beset, 
 
 She issues forth and runs along her loom: 
 She joys to touch the captive in her net 
 
 And drags the little wretch in triumph home. 
 
 182 
 The Belgians hoped that with disordered haste 
 
 Our deep-cut keels upon the sands might run, 
 Or, if with caution leisurely were past, 
 Their numerous gross might charge us one by one. 
 
 183 
 But, with a fore-wind pushing them above 
 
 And swelling tide that heaved them from below, 
 O'er the blind flats our warlike squadrons move 
 And with spread sails to welcome battle go. 
 
 184 
 It seemed as there the British Neptune stood, 
 
 With all his host of waters at command, 
 Beneath them to submit the officious flood, 
 ^ And with his trident shoved them off the sand Y. 
 
 185 
 
 To the pale foes they suddenly draw near 
 And summon them to unexpected fight: 
 They start, like murderers when ghosts appear 
 And draw their curtains in the dead of night. 
 
 y ' Levat ipse tridenti et vastas aperit syrtes,' &c. 
 
 VIRG. \2ttn. i. 145.] 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 65 
 
 186 
 Now van to van the foremost squadrons meet, second battle, 
 
 The midmost battles hasting up behind, 
 Who view far off the storm of falling sleet 
 
 And hear their thunder rattling in the wind. 
 
 187 
 At length the adverse Admirals appear, 
 
 The two bold champions of each country's right ; 
 Their eyes describe the lists as they come near 
 
 And draw the lines of death before they fight. 
 
 188 
 
 The distance judged for shot of every size, 
 
 The linstocks touch, the ponderous ball expires : 
 
 The vigorous seaman every porthole plies 
 And adds his heart to every gun he fires. 
 
 189 
 Fierce was the fight on the proud Belgians' side 
 
 For honour, which they seldom sought before; 
 But now they by their own vain boasts were tied 
 
 And forced at least in show to prize it more. 
 
 190 
 But sharp remembrance on the English part 
 
 And shame of being matched by such a foe 
 Rouse conscious virtue up in every heart, 
 
 And seeming to be stronger makes them so z . 
 
 191 
 Nor long the Belgians could that fleet sustain 
 
 Which did two Generals' fates and Caesar's bear; 
 Each several ship a victory did gain, 
 
 As Rupert or as Albemarle were there. 
 
 192 
 Their battered Admiral too soon withdrew, 
 
 Unthanked by ours for his unfinished fight; 
 But he the minds of his Dutch masters knew 
 
 Who called that providence which we called flight. 
 
 z ' Possunt quia posse videntur.' Vmo. [JEn. v. 23.] 
 F 
 
66 ANNUS MIRABILIS) 1 666. 
 
 193 
 
 Never did men more joyfully obey 
 Or sooner understood the sign to fly ; 
 
 With such alacrity they bore away 
 
 As if to praise them all the States stood by. 
 
 194 
 O famous leader of the Belgian fleet ! 
 
 Thy monument inscribed such praise shall wear 
 As Varro, timely flying, once did meet, 
 
 Because he did not of his Rome despair. 
 
 195 
 Behold that navy, which a while before 
 
 Provoked the tardy English close to fight, 
 Now draw their beaten vessels close to shore, 
 
 As larks lie dared to shun the hobby's flight. 
 
 196 
 
 Whoe'er would English monuments survey 
 In other records may our courage know; 
 
 But let them hide the story of this day, 
 
 Whose fame was blemished by too base a foe. 
 
 197 
 
 Or if too busily they will inquire 
 Into a victory which we disdain, 
 
 Then let them know the Belgians did retire 
 Before the patron saint a of injured Spain. 
 
 198 
 
 Repenting England, this revengeful day, 
 To Philip's manes b did an offering bring, 
 
 England, which first by leading them astray 
 Hatched up rebellion to destroy her King. 
 
 * Patron saint; St. James, on whose day this victory was 
 gained. 
 
 b Philip 9 s manes ; Philip II. of Spain, against whom the Hol- 
 landers rebelling were ai4ed by Queen Elizabeth. 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 67 
 
 199 
 Our fathers bent their baneful industry 
 
 To check a monarchy that slowly grew, 
 But did not France or Holland's fate foresee, 
 
 Whose rising power to swift dominion flew. 
 
 In Fortune's empire blindly thus we go 
 
 And wander after pathless destiny; 
 Whose dark resorts since prudence cannot know, 
 
 In vain it would provide for what shall be. 
 
 201 
 But whate'er English to the blessed shall go, 
 
 And the fourth Harry or first Orange meet, 
 Find him disowning of a Bourbon foe 
 
 And him detesting a Batavian fleet. 
 
 202 
 
 Now on their coasts our conquering navy rides, 
 Waylays their merchants and their land besets ; 
 
 Each day new wealth without their care provides ; 
 They lie asleep with prizes in their nets. 
 
 203 
 So close behind some promontory lie 
 
 The huge leviathans to attend their prey, 
 And give no chase, but swallow in the fry, 
 
 Which through their gaping jaws mistake the way. 
 
 204 
 Nor was this all; in ports and roads remote Burning & 
 
 Destructive fires among whole fleets we send; 
 Triumphant flames upon the water float 
 
 And out-bound ships at home their voyage end. 
 
 205 
 
 Those various squadrons, variously designed, 
 Each vessel freighted with a several load, 
 Each squadron waiting for a several wind, 
 All find but one, to burn them in the road. 
 F 2 
 
68 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 
 
 206 
 Some bound for Guinea golden sand to find 
 
 Bore all the gauds the simple natives wear ; 
 Some for the pride of Turkish courts designed 
 
 For folded turbans finest holland bear; 
 
 207 
 Some English wool, vexed in a Belgian loom 
 
 And into cloth of spungy softness made, 
 Did into France or colder Denmark doom, 
 
 To ruin with worse ware our staple trade. 
 
 208 
 Our greedy seamen rummage every hold, 
 
 Smile on the booty of each wealthier chest, 
 And, as the priests who with their gods make bold, 
 
 Take what they like and sacrifice the rest. 
 
 209 
 
 Transition to But, ah ! how unsincere are all our joys, 
 London. Which sent from Heaven, like lightning, make no 
 
 stay ! 
 
 Their palling taste the journey's length destroys, 
 Or grief sent post o'ertakes them on the way. 
 
 210 
 Swelled with our late successes on the foe, 
 
 Which France and Holland wanted power to cross, 
 We urge an unseen fate to lay us low 
 
 And feed their envious eyes with English loss. 
 
 211 
 Each element His dread command obeys 
 
 Who makes or ruins with a smile or frown ; 
 Who as by one He did our nation raise, 
 
 So now He with another pulls us down. 
 
 212 
 
 Yet, London, empress of the northern clime, 
 By an high fate thou greatly didst expire; 
 

 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 69 
 
 Great as the world's, which at the death of time 
 Must fall and rise a nobler frame by fire c . 
 
 213 
 As when some dire usurper Heaven provides 
 
 To scourge his country with a lawless sway ; 
 His birth perhaps some petty village hides 
 
 And sets his cradle out of Fortune's way; 
 
 214 
 Till, fully ripe, his swelling fate breaks out 
 
 And hurries him to mighty mischiefs on ; 
 His Prince, surprised, at first no ill could doubt, 
 
 And wants the power to meet it when 'tis known. 
 
 215 
 Such was the rise of this prodigious fire, 
 
 Which, in mean buildings first obscurely bred, 
 From thence did soon to open streets aspire 
 
 And straight to palaces and temples spread. 
 
 216 
 The diligence of trades, and noiseful gain, 
 
 And luxury, more late, asleep were laid; 
 All was the Night's, and in her silent reign 
 
 No sound the rest of Nature did invade. 
 
 217 
 In this deep quiet, from what source unknown, 
 
 Those seeds of fire their fatal birth disclose ; 
 And first few scattering sparks about were blown, 
 
 Big with the flames that to our ruin rose. 
 
 218 
 Then in some close-pent room it crept along 
 
 And, smouldering as it went, in silence fed; 
 Till the infant monster, with devouring strong, 
 
 Walked boldly upright with exalted head. 
 
 c ' Quum mare, quum tellus, correptaque regia coeli ardeat,' &c. 
 [Not quite correctly quoted by Dryden : 
 
 ' Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur, affore tempus 
 Quo mare, quo tellus correptaque regia cceli 
 Ardeat, et mundi moles operosa laboret.' 
 
 OVID, Metam. vii. 453.] 
 
70 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 
 
 219 
 Now, like some rich or mighty murderer, 
 
 Too great for prison which he breaks with gold, 
 Who fresher for new mischiefs does appear 
 
 And dares the world to tax him with the old, 
 
 220 
 So scapes the insulting fire his narrow jail 
 
 And makes small outlets into open air; 
 There the fierce winds his tender force assail 
 
 And beat him downward to his first repair. 
 
 221 
 The winds, like crafty courtesans, withheld 
 
 His flames from burning but to blow them more : 
 And, every fresh attempt, he is repelled 
 
 With faint denials, weaker than before d . 
 
 222 
 
 And now, no longer letted of his prey, 
 He leaps up at it with enraged desire, 
 
 Overlooks the neighbours with a wide survey, 
 And nods at every house his threatening fire. 
 
 223 
 The ghosts of traitors from the Bridge descend, 
 
 With bold fanatic spectres to rejoice; 
 About the fire into a dance they bend 
 
 And sing their sabbath notes with feeble voice. 
 
 224 
 Our guardian angel saw them where they sate, 
 
 Above the palace of our slumbering King ; 
 He sighed, abandoning his charge to Fate, 
 
 And drooping oft looked back upon the wing. 
 
 d Like crafty, &c. ' Haec arte tractabat cupidum virum ut illius 
 animum inopia accenderet.' [Incorrectly quoted by Dry den from 
 Terence : 
 
 * Haec arte tractabat virum 
 Ut illius animum cupidum inopia accenderet.' 
 
 Heautontim. ii. 3. 106.] 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 71 
 
 225 
 At length the crackling noise and dreadful blaze 
 
 Called up some waking lover to the sight; 
 And long it was ere he the rest could raise, 
 
 Whose heavy eyelids yet were full of night. 
 
 226 
 The next to danger, hot pursued by fate, 
 
 Half-clothed, half-naked, hastily retire ; 
 And frighted mothers strike their breasts too late 
 
 For helpless infants left amidst the fire. 
 
 227 
 Their cries soon waken all the dwellers near; 
 
 Now murmuring noises rise in every street; 
 The more remote run stumbling with their fear, 
 
 And in the dark men justle as they meet. 
 
 228 
 So weary bees in little cells repose ; 
 
 But if night-robbers lift the well-stored hive, 
 An humming through their waxen city grows, 
 
 And out upon each other's wings they drive. 
 
 229 
 Now streets grow thronged and busy as by day; 
 
 Some run for buckets to the hallowed quire; 
 Some cut the pipes, and some the engines play, 
 
 And some more bold mount ladders to the fire. 
 
 230 
 In vain; for from the east a Belgian wind 
 
 His hostile breath through the dry rafters sent; 
 The flames impelled soon left their foes behind 
 
 And forward with a wanton fury went. 
 
 231 
 A key of fire ran all along the shore 
 
 And lighted all the river with a blaze 6 ; 
 The wakened tides began again to roar, 
 
 And wondering fish in shining waters gaze. 
 
 e 'Sigaea igni freta late relucent.' VIRG. [<<. ii. 312.] 
 
72 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 
 
 Old Father Thames raised up his reverend head, 
 But feared the fate of Simois would return; 
 
 Deep in his ooze he sought his sedgy bed 
 And shrank his waters back into his urn. 
 
 233 
 The fire meantime walks in a broader gross; 
 
 To either hand his wings he opens wide ; 
 He wades the streets, and straight he reaches cross 
 
 And plays his longing flames on the other side. 
 
 234 
 At first they warm, then scorch, and then they take ; 
 
 Now with long necks from side to side they feed ; 
 At length, grown strong, their mother-fire forsake, 
 
 And a new colony of flames succeed. 
 
 235 
 To every nobler portion of the town 
 
 The curling billows roll their restless tide; 
 In parties now they straggle up and down, 
 
 As armies unopposed for prey divide. 
 
 236 
 One mighty squadron, with a sidewind sped, 
 
 Through narrow lanes his cumbered fire does haste, 
 By powerful charms of gold and silver led 
 
 The Lombard bankers and the Change to waste. 
 
 237 
 Another backward to the Tower would go 
 
 And slowly eats his way against the wind; 
 But the main body of the marching foe 
 
 Against the imperial palace is designed. 
 
 238 
 Now day appears; and with the day the King, 
 
 Whose early care had robbed him of his rest ; 
 Far off the cracks of falling houses ring 
 
 And shrieks of subjects pierce his tender breast. 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS) 1666. 73 
 
 239 
 Near as he draws, thick harbingers of smoke 
 
 With gloomy pillars cover all the place ; 
 Whose little intervals of night are broke 
 
 By sparks that drive against his sacred face. /( 
 
 r- / 
 240 ]\/J ~ 
 
 More than his guards his sorrows made him known 
 And pious tears which down his cheeks did shower ; 
 
 The wretched in his grief forgot their own ; 
 So much the pity of a king has power. 
 
 241 
 He wept the flames of what he loved so well 
 
 And what so well had merited his love ; 
 For never prince in grace did more excel 
 
 Or royal city more in duty strove. 
 
 242 
 Nor with an idle care did he behold : 
 
 Subjects may grieve, but monarchs must redress; 
 He cheers the fearful and commends the bold 
 
 And makes despairers hope for good success. 
 
 243 
 Himself directs what first is to be done 
 
 And orders all the succours which they bring; 
 The helpful and the good about him run 
 
 And form an army worthy such a King. 
 
 244 
 He sees the dire contagion spread so fast 
 
 That, where it seizes, all relief is vain, 
 And therefore must unwillingly lay waste 
 
 That country which would else the foe maintain. 
 
 245 
 The powder blows up all before the fire ; 
 
 The amazed flames stand gathered on a heap, 
 And from the precipice's brink retire, 
 
 Afraid to venture on so large a leap. 
 
74 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 
 
 246 
 Thus fighting fires a while themselves consume, 
 
 But straight, like Turks forced on to win or die, 
 They first lay tender bridges of their fume 
 
 And o'er the breach in unctuous vapours fly. 
 
 247 
 Part stays for passage, till a gust of wind 
 
 Ships o'er their forces in a shining sheet; 
 Part, creeping under ground, their journey blind 
 
 And, climbing from below, their fellows meet. 
 
 248 
 
 Thus to some desert plain or old wood-side 
 Dire night-hags come from far to dance their 
 
 round, 
 
 And o'er broad rivers on their fiends they ride 
 Or sweep in clouds above the blasted ground. 
 
 249 
 No help avails : for, hydra-like, the fire 
 
 Lifts up his hundred heads to aim his way; 
 And scarce the wealthy can one half retire 
 
 Before he rushes in to share the prey. 
 
 250 
 The rich grow suppliant and the poor grow proud: 
 
 Those offer mighty gain and these ask more; 
 So void of pity is the ignoble crowd, 
 
 When others' ruin may increase their store. 
 
 251 
 As those who live by shores with joy behold 
 
 Some wealthy vessel split or stranded nigh, 
 And from the rocks leap down for- shipwracked gold 
 
 And seek the tempest which the others fly: 
 
 252 
 So these but wait the owners' last despair 
 
 And what's permitted to the flames invade ; 
 Even from their jaws they hungry morsels tear 
 
 And on their backs the spoils of Vulcan lade. 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 75 
 
 253 
 The days were all in this lost labour spent ; 
 
 And when the weary King gave place to night, 
 His beams he to his royal brother lent, 
 
 And so shone still in his reflective light. 
 
 254 
 Night came, but without darkness or repose, 
 
 A dismal picture of the general doom ; 
 Where souls distracted, when the trumpet blows, 
 
 And half unready with their bodies come. 
 
 255 
 Those who have homes, when home they do repair, 
 
 To a last lodging call their wandering friends ; 
 Their short uneasy sleeps are broke with care, 
 
 To look how near their own destruction tends : 
 
 256 
 Those who have none sit round where once it was 
 
 And with full eyes each wonted room require, 
 Haunting the yet warm ashes of the place, 
 
 As murdered men walk where they did expire. 
 
 257 
 Some stir up coals and watch the vestal fire, 
 
 Others in vain from sight of ruin run 
 And, while through burning labyrinths they retire, 
 
 With loathing eyes repeat what they would shun. 
 
 258 
 The most in fields like herded beasts lie down, 
 
 To dews obnoxious on the grassy floor ; 
 And while their babes in sleep their sorrows drown, 
 
 Sad parents watch the remnants of their store. 
 
 259 
 While by the motion of the flames they guess 
 
 What streets are burning now, and what are near, 
 An infant, waking, to the paps would press 
 
 And meets instead of milk a falling tear. 
 
7 6 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 
 
 260 
 No thought can ease them but their Sovereign's care, 
 
 Whose praise the afflicted as their comfort sing ; 
 Even those whom want might drive to just despair 
 
 Think life a blessing under such a King. 
 
 261 
 Meantime he sadly suffers in their grief, 
 
 Outweeps an hermit and outprays a saint ; 
 All the long night he studies their relief, 
 
 How they may be supplied and he may want. 
 
 262 
 Km ' S prayer. <O God/ said he, c Thou patron of my days, 
 
 Guide of my youth in exile and distress ! 
 Who me unfriended broughtst by wondrous ways, 
 The kingdom of my fathers to possess : 
 
 263 
 ' Be Thou my judge, with what unwearied care 
 
 I since have laboured for my people's good, 
 To bind the bruises of a civil war 
 
 And stop the issues of their wasting blood. 
 
 264 
 'Thou who hast taught me to forgive the ill 
 
 And recompense as friends the good misled, 
 If mercy be a precept of Thy will, 
 
 Return that mercy on Thy servant's head. 
 
 265 
 * Or if my heedless youth has stepped astray, 
 
 Too soon forgetful of Thy gracious hand, 
 On me alone Thy just displeasure lay, 
 
 But take Thy judgments from this mourning land. 
 
 266 
 'We all have sinned, ^ and Thou hast laid us low 
 
 As humble earth from whence at first we came ; 
 Like flying shades before the clouds we show, 
 
 And shrink like parchment in consuming flame. 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 77 
 
 267 
 
 ( O let it be enough what Thou hast done, 
 When spotted deaths ran armed through every 
 
 street. 
 
 With poisoned darts, which not the good could shun, 
 The speedy could outfly or valiant meet. 
 
 268 
 1 The living few and frequent funerals then 
 
 Proclaimed Thy wrath on this forsaken place ; 
 And now those few, who are returned again, 
 
 Thy searching judgments to their dwellings trace. 
 
 269 
 
 <O pass not, Lord, an absolute decree 
 Or bind Thy sentence unconditional, 
 But in Thy sentence our remorse foresee 
 And in that foresight this Thy doom recall. 
 
 270 
 
 'Thy threatenings, Lord, as Thine Thou mayest re- 
 voke : 
 
 But if immutable and fixed they stand, 
 Continue still Thyself to give the stroke, 
 And let not foreign foes oppress Thy land.' 
 
 271 
 
 The Eternal heard, and from the heavenly quire 
 Chose out the cherub with the flaming sword, 
 And bad him swiftly drive the approaching fire 
 From where our naval magazines were stored. 
 
 272 
 The blessed minister his wings displayed, 
 
 And like a shooting star he cleft the night ; 
 He charged the flames, and those that disobeyed 
 He lashed to duty with his sword of light. 
 
 273 
 The fugitive flames, chastised, went forth to prey 
 
 On pious structures by our fathers reared ; 
 By which to Heaven they did affect the way, 
 
 Ere faith in churchmen without works was heard. 
 
78 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1.666. 
 
 274 
 The wanting orphans saw with watery eyes 
 
 Their founders' charity in dust laid low, 
 And sent to God their ever-answered cries ; 
 
 For he protects the poor who made them so. 
 
 275 
 Nor could thy fabric, Paul's, defend thee long, 
 
 Though thou wert sacred to thy Maker's praise, 
 Though made immortal by a poet's song, 
 
 And poets' songs the Theban walls could raise. 
 
 276 
 The daring flames peeped in and saw from far 
 
 The awful beauties of the sacred quire ; 
 But, since it was profaned by civil war, 
 
 Heaven thought it fit to have it purged by fire. 
 
 277 
 Now down the narrow streets it swiftly came 
 
 And, widely opening, did on both sides prey ; 
 This benefit we sadly owe the flame, 
 
 If only ruin must enlarge our way. 
 
 278 
 And now four days the Sun had seen our woes, 
 
 Four nights the Moon beheld the incessant fire ; 
 It seemed as if the stars more sickly rose 
 
 And farther from the feverish North retire. 
 
 279 
 In the empyrean Heaven, the blessed abode, 
 
 The thrones and the dominions prostrate lie, 
 Not daring to behold their angry God ; 
 
 And a hushed silence damps the tuneful sky. 
 
 280 
 At length the Almighty cast a pitying eye, 
 
 And mercy softly touched His melting breast ; 
 He saw the town's one half in rubbish lie 
 
 And eager flames give on to storm the rest. 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 79 
 
 281 
 An hollow crystal pyramid he takes, 
 
 In firmamental waters dipped above ; 
 Of it a broad extinguisher he makes, 
 
 And hoods the flames that to their quarry strove. 
 
 282 
 The vanquished fires withdraw from every place 
 
 Or, full with feeding, sink into a sleep : 
 Each household Genius shows again his face 
 
 And from the hearths the little Lares creep. 
 
 283 
 Our King this more than natural change beholds, 
 
 With sober joy his heart and eyes abound ; 
 To the All-good his lifted hands he folds, 
 
 And thanks him low on his redeemed ground. 
 
 284 
 As, when sharp frosts had long constrained the earth, 
 
 A kindly thaw unlocks it with mild rain, 
 And first the tender blade peeps up to birth, 
 
 And straight the green fields laugh with promised 
 grain : 
 
 285 
 
 By such degrees the spreading gladness grew 
 
 In every heart which fear had froze before ; 
 The standing streets with so much joy they view 
 
 That with less grief the perished they deplore. 
 
 286 
 The father of the people opened wide 
 
 His stores, and all the poor with plenty fed : 
 Thus God's anointed God's own place supplied 
 
 And filled the empty with his daily bread. 
 
 287 
 This royal bounty brought its own reward 
 
 And in their minds so deep did print the sense, 
 That, if their ruins sadly they regard, 
 
 'Tis but with fear the sight might drive him thence. 
 
80 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 
 
 288 
 
 cajsreguest But so may he live long that town to sway 
 to ua-uc them. Which by his auspice they will nobler make, 
 As he will hatch their ashes by his stay 
 And not their humble ruins now forsake. 
 
 289 
 They have not lost their loyalty by fire ; 
 
 Nor is their courage or their wealth so low, 
 That from his wars they poorly would retire 
 Or beg the pity of a vanquished foe. 
 
 290 
 Not with more constancy the Jews of old, 
 
 By Cyrus from rewarded exile sent, 
 Their royal city did in dust behold 
 
 Or with more vigour to rebuild it went. 
 
 291 
 The utmost malice of their stars is past, 
 
 And two dire comets which have scourged the town 
 In their own plague and fire have breathed their last, 
 Or dimly in their sinking sockets frown. 
 
 292 
 Now frequent trines the happier lights among 
 
 And high-raised Jove from his dark prison freed, 
 Those weights took off that on his planet hung, 
 Will gloriously the new-laid work succeed. 
 
 293 
 Methinks already from this chymic flame 
 
 I see a city of more precious mould, 
 Rich as the town which gives the Indies name, 
 With silver paved and all divine with gold f . 
 
 294 
 Already, labouring with a mighty fate, 
 
 She shakes the rubbish from her mounting brow 
 And seems to have renewed her charter's date 
 
 Which Heaven will to the death of time allow. 
 
 f Mexico. 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, l666. 8l 
 
 295 
 More great than human now and more August s, 
 
 New deified she from her fires does rise : 
 Her widening streets on new foundations trust, 
 
 And, opening, into larger parts she flies. 
 
 296 
 Before, she like some shepherdess did show 
 
 Who sate to bathe her by a river's side, 
 Not answering to her fame, but rude and low, 
 
 Nor taught the beauteous arts of modern pride. 
 
 297 
 Now like a maiden queen she will behold 
 
 From her high turrets hourly suitors come ; 
 The East with incense and the West with gold 
 
 Will stand like suppliants to receive her doom. 
 
 298 
 The silver Thames, her own domestic flood, 
 
 Shall bear her vessels like a sweeping train, 
 And often wind, as of his mistress proud, 
 
 With longing eyes to meet her face again. 
 
 299 
 The wealthy Tagus and the wealthier Rhine 
 
 The glory of their towns no more shall boast, 
 And Seine, that would with Belgian rivers join, 
 
 Shall find her lustre stained and traffic lost. 
 
 300 
 The venturous merchant who designed more far 
 
 And touches on our hospitable shore, 
 Charmed with the splendour of this northern star, 
 
 Shall here unlade him and depart no more. 
 
 301 
 Our powerful navy shall no longer meet 
 
 The wealth of France or Holland to invade; 
 The beauty of this town without a fleet 
 
 From all the world shall vindicate her trade. 
 
 s Augusta, the old name of London. 
 G 
 
82 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 
 
 302 
 And while this famed emporium we prepare. 
 
 The British ocean shall such triumphs boast, 
 That those who now disdain our trade to share 
 
 Shall rob like pirates on our wealthy coast. 
 
 303 
 Already we have conquered half the war, 
 
 And the less dangerous part is left behind; 
 Our trouble now is but to make them dare 
 
 And not so great to vanquish as to find. 
 
 304 
 Thus to the Eastern wealth through storms we go, 
 
 But now, the Cape once doubled, fear no more; 
 A constant trade-wind will securely blow 
 
 And gently lay us on the spicy shore. 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL 
 A POEM. 
 
 ' Si propius stes 
 Te capiat mngis.' 
 
 [HORACE, Ars Poet. 361.] 
 
 6 9 
 
TO THE READER. 
 
 'Tis not my intention to make an apology for my poem : 
 some will think it needs no excuse, and others will receive 
 none. The design, I am sure, is honest ; but he who draws 
 his pen for one party must expect to make enemies of the 
 other. For wit and fool are consequents of Whig and Tory ; 5 
 and every man is a knave or an ass to the contrary side. 
 There's a treasury of merits in the Fanatic church as well 
 as in the Papist, and a pennyworth to be had of saintship, 
 honesty, and poetry, for the lewd, the factious, and the 
 blockheads ; but the longest chapter in Deuteronomy has not 10 
 curses enough for an Anti-Bromingham. My comfort is, 
 their manifest prejudice to my cause will render their judg- 
 ment of less authority against me. Yet if a poem have a 
 genius, it will force its own reception in the world ; for there 
 is a sweetness in good verse, which tickles even while it hurts ; jg 
 and no man can be heartily angry with him who pleases him 
 against his will. The commendation of adversaries is the 
 greatest triumph of a writer, because it never comes unless 
 extorted. But I can be satisfied on more easy terms: if I 
 happen to please the more moderate sort, I shall be sure 20 
 of an honest party and, in all probability, of the best judges ; 
 for the least concerned are commonly the least corrupt. And 
 I confess I have laid in for those, by rebating the satire, 
 where justice would allow it, from carrying too sharp an 
 edge. They who can criticize so weakly as to imagine I have 25 
 done my worst, may be convinced at their own cost that I 
 can write severely with more ease than I can gently. I have 
 but laughed at some men's follies, when I could have de- 
 claimed against their vices ; and other men's virtues I have 
 commended as freely as I have taxed their crimes. And now, 30 
 if you are a malicious reader, I expect you should return 
 
86 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 upon me that I affect to be thought more impartial than 
 I am ; but if men are not to be judged by their professions, 
 God forgive you commonwealth's-men for professing so plau- 
 sibly for the government. You cannot be so unconscionable 
 
 5 as to charge me for not subscribing of my name ; for that 
 would reflect too grossly upon your own party, who never 
 dare, though they have the advantage of a jury to secure 
 them. If you like not my poem, the fault may possibly be 
 in my writing, though 'tis hard for an author to judge against 
 
 10 himself; but more probably 'tis in your morals, which cannot 
 bear the truth of it. The violent on both sides will condemn 
 the character of Absalom, as either too favourably or too 
 hardly drawn ; but they are not the violent whom I desire to 
 please. The fault on the right hand is to extenuate, palliate, 
 
 15 and indulge; and, to confess freely, I have endeavoured to 
 commit it. Besides the respect which I owe his birth, I have 
 a greater for his heroic virtues ; and David himself could not 
 be more tender of the young man's life, than I would be 
 of his reputation. But since the most excellent natures are 
 
 20 always the most easy and, as being such, are the soonest 
 perverted by ill counsels, especially when baited with fame 
 and glory, it is no more a wonder that he withstood not the 
 temptations of Achitophel than it was for Adam not to have 
 resisted the two devils, the serpent and the woman. The con- 
 
 25 elusion of the story I purposely forbore to prosecute, because 
 
 I could not obtain from myself to show Absalom unfortunate. 
 
 The frame of it was cut out but for a picture to the waist ; and 
 
 if the draught be so far true, it is as much as I designed. 
 
 Were I the inventor, who am only the historian, I should 
 
 30 certainly conclude the piece with the reconcilement of 
 Absalom to David. And who knows but this may come to 
 pass ? Things were not brought to an extremity where I left 
 the story : there seems yet to be room left for a composure ; 
 hereafter there may only be for pity. I have not so much as 
 
 35 an uncharitable wish against Achitophel, but am content to 
 be accused of a good-natured error, and to hope with Origen, 
 that the Devil himself may at last be saved. For which 
 reason, in this poem, he is neither brought to set his house in 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 87 
 
 order, nor to dispose of his person afterwards as he in wisdom 
 shall think fit. God is infinitely merciful ; and his vicegerent 
 is only not so, because he is not infinite. 
 
 The true end of satire is the amendment of vices by 
 correction. And he who writes honestly is no more an 5 
 enemy to the offender than the physician to the patient, when 
 he prescribes harsh remedies to an inveterate disease ; for 
 those are only in order to prevent the chirurgeon's work 
 of an Ense resc'mdendum^ which I wish not to my very enemies. 
 To conclude all ; if the body politic have any analogy to 10 
 the natural, in my weak judgment, an act of oblivion were as 
 necessary in a hot distempered state as an opiate would be in 
 a raging fever. 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 IN pious times, ere priestcraft did begin, 
 
 Before polygamy was made a sin, 
 
 When man on many multiplied his kind, 
 
 Ere one to one was cursedly confined, 
 
 When nature prompted and no law denied 5 
 
 Promiscuous use of concubine and bride, 
 
 Then Israel's monarch after Heaven's own heart 
 
 His vigorous warmth did variously impart 
 
 To wives and slaves, and, wide as his command, 
 
 Scattered his Maker's image through the land. jo 
 
 Michal, of royal blood, the crown did wear, 
 
 A soil ungrateful to the tiller's care: 
 
 Not so the rest; for several mothers bore 
 
 To god-like David several sons before. 
 
 But since like slaves his bed they did ascend, 15 
 
 No true succession could their seed attend. 
 
 Of all this numerous progeny was none 
 
 So beautiful, so brave, as Absalon : 
 
 Whether, inspired by some diviner lust, 
 
 His father got him with a greater gust, 20 
 
 Or that his conscious destiny made way 
 
 By manly beauty to imperial sway. 
 
 Early in foreign fields he won renown 
 
 With kings and states allied to Israel's crown; 
 
 In peace the thoughts of war he could remove 25 
 
 And seemed as he were only born for love. 
 
 Whate'er he did was done with so much ease, 
 
 In him alone 'twas natural to please ; 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 89 
 
 His motions all accompanied with grace, 
 
 And Paradise was opened in his face. 30 
 
 With secret joy indulgent David viewed 
 
 His youthful image in his son renewed ; 
 
 To all his wishes nothing he denied 
 
 And made the charming Annabel his bride. 
 
 What faults he had (for who from faults is free?) 35 
 
 His father could not or he would not see. 
 
 Some warm excesses, which the law forbore, 
 
 Were construed youth that purged by boiling o'er; 
 
 And Amnon's murder by a specious name 
 
 Was called a just revenge for injured fame. 40 
 
 Thus praised and loved, the noble youth remained, 
 
 While David undisturbed in Sion reigned. 
 
 But life can never be sincerely blest ; 
 
 Heaven punishes the bad, and proves the best. 
 
 The Jews, a headstrong, moody, murmuring race 45 
 
 As ever tried the extent and stretch of grace; 
 
 God's pampered people, whom, debauched with ease, 
 
 No king could govern nor no God could please ; 
 
 Gods they had tried of every shape and size 
 
 That godsmiths could produce or priests devise ; 50 
 
 These Adam-wits, too fortunately free, 
 
 Began to dream they wanted liberty ; 
 
 And when no rule, no precedent was found 
 
 Of men by laws less circumscribed and bound, 
 
 They led their wild desires to woods and caves 55 
 
 And thought that all but savages were slaves. 
 
 They who, when Saul was dead, without a blow 
 
 Made foolish Ishbosheth the crown forego; 
 
 Who banished David did from Hebron bring, 
 
 And with a general shout proclaimed him King ; 60 
 
 Those very Jews who at their very best 
 
 Their humour more than loyalty exprest, 
 
 Now wondered why so long they had obeyed 
 
 An idol monarch which their hands had made ; 
 
 Thought they might ruin him they could create 65 
 
 Or melt him to that golden calf, a State. 
 
90 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 But these were random bolts; no formed design 
 
 Nor interest made the factious crowd to join : 
 
 The sober part of Israel, free from stain, 
 
 Well knew the value of a peaceful reign ; 70 
 
 And looking backward with a wise affright 
 
 Saw seams of wounds dishonest to the sight, 
 
 In contemplation of whose ugly scars 
 
 They cursed the memory of civil wars. 
 
 The moderate sort of men, thus qualified, 75 
 
 Inclined the balance to the better side; 
 
 And David's mildness managed it so well, 
 
 The bad found no occasion to rebel. 
 
 But when to sin our biassed nature leans, 
 
 The careful Devil is still at hand with means 80 
 
 And providently pimps for ill desires ; 
 
 The good old cause, revived, a plot requires, 
 
 Plots true or false are necessary things, 
 
 To raise up commonwealths and ruin kings. 
 
 The inhabitants of old Jerusalem 85 
 
 Were Jebusites; the town so called from them, 
 And theirs the native right. 
 But when the chosen people grew more strong, 
 The rightful cause at length became the wrong ; 
 And every loss the men of Jebus bore, 90 
 
 They still were thought God's enemies the more. 
 Thus worn and weakened, well or ill content, 
 Submit they must to David's government : 
 Impoverished and deprived of all command, 
 Their taxes doubled as they lost their land; 95 
 
 And, what was harder yet to flesh and blood, 
 Their gods disgraced, and burnt like common wood. 
 This set the heathen priesthood in a flame, 
 For priests of all religions are the same. 
 Of whatsoe'er descent their godhead be, 100 
 
 Stock, stone, or other homely pedigree, 
 In his defence his servants are as bold, 
 As if he had been born of beaten gold. 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 91 
 
 The Jewish Rabbins, though their enemies, 
 
 In this conclude them honest men and wise: 105 
 
 For 'twas their duty, all the learned think, 
 
 To espouse his cause by whom they eat and drink. 
 
 From hence began that Plot, the nation's curse, 
 
 Bad in itself, but represented worse, 
 
 Raised in extremes, and in extremes decried, no 
 
 With oaths affirmed, with dying vows denied, 
 
 Not weighed or winnowed by the multitude, 
 
 But swallowed in the mass, unchewed and crude. 
 
 Some truth there was, but dashed and brewed with lies 
 
 To please the fools and puzzle all the wise: 115 
 
 Succeeding times did equal folly call 
 
 Believing nothing or believing all. 
 
 The Egyptian rites the Jebusites embraced, 
 
 Where gods were recommended by their taste; 
 
 Such savoury deities must needs be good 120 
 
 As served at once for worship and for food. 
 
 By force they could not introduce these gods, 
 
 For ten to one in former days was odds: 
 
 So fraud was used, the sacrificer's trade; 
 
 Fools are more hard to conquer than persuade. 125 
 
 Their busy teachers mingled with the Jews 
 
 And raked for converts even the court and stews: 
 
 Which Hebrew priests the more unkindly took, 
 
 Because the fleece accompanies the flock. 
 
 Some thought they God's anointed meant to slay 130 
 
 By guns, invented since full many a day : 
 
 Our author swears it not; but who can know 
 
 How far the Devil and Jebusites may go ? 
 
 This plot, which failed for want of common sense, 
 
 Had yet a deep and dangerous consequence; 135 
 
 For as, when raging fevers boil the blood, 
 
 The standing lake soon floats into a flood, 
 
 And every hostile humour which before 
 
 Slept quiet in its channels bubbles o'er; 
 
 So several factions from this first ferment 140 
 
 Work up to foam and threat the government. 
 
92 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 Some by their friends, more by themselves thought wise, 
 
 Opposed the power to which they could not rise. 
 
 Some had in courts been great and, thrown from thence. 
 
 Like fiends were hardened in impenitence. 145 
 
 Some by their Monarch's fatal mercy grown 
 
 From pardoned rebels kinsmen to the throne 
 
 Were raised in power and public office high; 
 
 Strong bands, if bands ungrateful men could tie. 
 
 Of these the false Achitophel was first, 150 
 
 A name to all succeeding ages curst : 
 
 For close designs and crooked counsels fit, 
 
 Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit, 
 
 Restless, unfixed in principles and place, 
 
 In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace; 155 
 
 A fiery soul, which working out its way, 
 
 Fretted the pigmy body to decay 
 
 And o'er-informed the tenement of clay. 
 
 A daring pilot in extremity, 
 
 Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high, 160 
 
 He sought the storms; but, for a calm unfit, 
 
 Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit. 
 
 Great wits are sure to madness near allied 
 
 And thin partitions do their bounds divide; 
 
 Else, why should he, with wealth and honour blest, 165 
 
 Refuse his age the needful hours of rest? 
 
 Punish a body which he could not please, 
 
 Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of ease ? 
 
 And all to leave what with his toil he won 
 
 To that unfeathered two-legged thing, a son, 170 
 
 Got, while his soul did huddled notions try, 
 
 And born a shapeless lump, like anarchy. 
 
 In friendship false, implacable in hate, 
 
 Resolved to ruin or to rule the state ; 
 
 To compass this the triple bond he broke, 175 
 
 The pillars of the public safety shook, 
 
 And fitted Israel for a foreign yoke; 
 
 Then, seized with fear, yet still affecting fame, 
 
 Usurped a patriot's all-atoning name. 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPI1EL. 
 
 93 
 
 So easy still it proves in factious times 180 
 
 With public zeal to cancel private crimes. 
 
 How safe is treason and how sacred ill, 
 
 Where none can sin against the people's will, 
 
 Where crowds can wink and no offence be known, 
 
 Since in another's guilt they find their own! 185 
 
 Yet fame deserved no enemy can grudge ; 
 
 The statesman we abhor, but praise the judge. 
 
 In Israel's courts ne'er sat an Abbethdin 
 
 With more discerning eyes or hands more clean, 
 
 Unbribed, unsought, the wretched to redress, 190 
 
 Swift of despatch and easy of access. 
 
 Oh! had he been content to serve the crown 
 
 With virtues only proper to the gown, 
 
 Or had the rankness of the soil been freed 
 
 From cockle that oppressed the noble seed, 195 
 
 David for him his tuneful harp had strung 
 
 And Heaven had wanted one immortal song. 
 
 But wild ambition loves to slide, not stand, 
 
 And fortune's ice prefers to virtue's land. 
 
 Achitophel, grown weary to possess 200 
 
 A lawful fame and lazy happiness, 
 
 Disdained the golden fruit to gather free 
 
 And lent the crowd his arm to shake the tree. 
 
 Now, manifest of crimes contrived long since, 
 
 He stood at bold defiance with his Prince, 205 
 
 Held up the buckler of the people's cause 
 
 Against the crown, and skulked behind the laws. 
 
 The wished occasion of the Plot he takes ; 
 
 Some circumstances finds, but more he makes; 
 
 By buzzing emissaries fills the ears 210 
 
 Of listening crowds with jealousies and fears 
 
 Of arbitrary counsels brought to light, 
 
 And proves the King himself a Jebusite. 
 
 Weak arguments! which yet he knew full well 
 
 Were strong with people easy to rebel. 215 
 
 For governed by the moon, the giddy Jews 
 
 Tread the same track when she the prime renews : 
 
94 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 And once in twenty years their scribes record, 
 
 By natural instinct they change their lord. 
 
 Achitophel still wants a chief, and none 220 
 
 Was found so fit as warlike Absalon. 
 
 Not that he wished his greatness to create, 
 
 For politicians neither love nor hate; 
 
 But, for he knew his title not allowed 
 
 Would keep him still depending on the crowd, 225 
 
 That kingly power, thus ebbing out, might be 
 
 Drawn to the dregs pf a democracy. 
 
 Him he attempts with studied arts to please 
 
 And sheds his venom in such words as these : 
 
 * Auspicious prince, at whose nativity 230 
 
 Some royal planet ruled the southern sky, 
 Thy longing country's darling and desire, 
 Their cloudy pillar and their guardian fire, 
 Their second Moses, whose extended wand 
 Divides the seas and shows the promised land, 235 
 
 Whose dawning day in every distant age 
 Has exercised the sacred prophet's rage, 
 The people's prayer, the glad diviner's theme, 
 The young men's vision and the old men's dream, 
 Thee Saviour, thee the nation's vows confess, 240 
 
 And never satisfied with seeing bless: 
 Swift unbespoken pomps thy steps proclaim, 
 And stammering babes are taught to lisp thy name. 
 How long wilt thou the general joy detain, 
 Starve and defraud the people of thy reign ? 245 
 
 Content ingloriously to pass thy days, 
 Like one of virtue's fools that feeds on praise ; 
 Till thy fresh glories, which now shine so bright, 
 Grow stale and tarnish with our daily sight. 
 Believe me, royal youth, thy fruit must be 250 
 
 Or gathered ripe, or rot upon the tree. 
 Heaven has to all allotted, soon or late, 
 Some lucky revolution of their fate : 
 Whose motions if we watch and guide with skill, 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 95 
 
 (For human good depends on human will,) 255 
 
 Our fortune rolls as from a smooth descent 
 
 And from the first impression takes the bent; 
 
 But, if unseized, she glides away like wind 
 
 And leaves repenting folly far behind. 
 
 Now, now she meets you with a glorious prize 260 
 
 And spreads her locks before her as she flies. 
 
 Had thus old David, from whose loins you spring, 
 
 Not dared, when fortune called him to be King, 
 
 At Gath an exile he might still remain, 
 
 And Heaven's anointing oil had been in vain. 265 
 
 Let his successful youth your hopes engage, 
 
 But shun the example of declining age. 
 
 Behold him setting in his western skies, 
 
 The shadows lengthening as the vapours rise ; 
 
 He is not now, as when, on Jordan's sand, 270 
 
 The joyful people thronged to see him land, 
 
 Covering the beach and blackening all the .strand, 
 
 But like the Prince of Angels, from his height 
 
 Gomes tumbling downward with diminished light: 
 
 Betrayed by one poor plot to public scorn, 275 
 
 (Our only blessing since his curst return,) 
 
 Those heaps of people, which one sheaf did bind, 
 
 Blown off and scattered by a puff of wind. 
 
 What strength can he to your designs oppose, 
 
 Naked of friends, and round beset with foes? 280 
 
 If Pharaoh's doubtful succour he should use, 
 
 A foreign aid would more incense the Jews ; 
 
 Proud Egypt would dissembled friendship bring, 
 
 Foment the war, but not support the King ; 
 
 Nor would the royal party e'er unite 285 
 
 With Pharaoh's arms to assist the Jebusite ; 
 
 Or, if they should, their interest soon would break 
 
 And with such odious aid make David weak. 
 
 All sorts of men, by my successful arts 
 
 Abhorring kings, estrange their altered hearts 290 
 
 From David's rule: and 'tis the general cry, 
 
 Religion, commonwealth, and liberty. 
 
96 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 If you, as champion of the public good, 
 
 Add to their arms a chief of royal blood, 
 
 What may not Israel hope, and what applause 295 
 
 Might such a general gain by such a cause ? 
 
 Not barren praise alone, that gaudy flower, 
 
 Fair only to the sight, but solid power; 
 
 And nobler is a limited command, 
 
 Given by the love of all your native land, 300 
 
 Than a successive title, long and dark, 
 
 Drawn from the mouldy rolls of Noah's ark.' 
 
 What cannot praise effect in mighty minds, 
 When flattery soothes and when ambition blinds? 
 Desire of power, on earth a vicious weed, 305 
 
 Yet sprung from high is of celestial seed ; 
 In God 'tis glory, and when men aspire, 
 'Tis but a spark too much of heavenly fire. 
 The ambitious youth, too covetous of fame, 
 Too full of angel's metal in his frame, 310 
 
 Unwarily was led from virtue's ways, 
 Made drunk with honour and debauched with praise. 
 Half loth and half consenting to the ill, 
 For loyal blood within him struggled still, 
 He thus replied: 'And what pretence have I 315 
 
 To take up arms for public liberty ? 
 My father governs with unquestioned right, 
 The faith's defender and mankind's delight, 
 Good, gracious, just, observant of the laws ; 
 And Heaven by wonders has espoused his cause. 320 
 
 Whom has he wronged in all his peaceful reign ? 
 Who sues for justice to his throne in vain ? 
 What millions has he pardoned of his foes 
 Whom just revenge did to his wrath expose ? 
 Mild, easy, humble, studious of our good, 325 
 
 Inclined to mercy and averse from blood. 
 If mildness ill with stubborn Israel suit, 
 His crime is God's beloved attribute. 
 What could he gain his people to betray 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 97 
 
 Or change his right for arbitrary sway? 330 
 
 Let haughty Pharaoh curse with such a reign 
 His fruitful Nile, and yoke a servile train. 
 If David's rule Jerusalem displease, 
 The dog-star heats their brains to this disease. 
 Why then should I, encouraging the bad, 335 
 
 Turn rebel and run popularly mad ? 
 Were he a tyrant, who by lawless might 
 Oppressed the Jews and raised the Jebusite, 
 Well might I mourn; but nature's holy bands 
 Would curb my spirits and restrain my hands; 340 
 
 The people might assert their liberty, 
 But what was right in them were crime in me. 
 His favour leaves me nothing to require, 
 Prevents my wishes and outruns desire; 
 What more can I expect while David lives ? 345 
 
 All but his kingly diadem he gives: 
 And that' But there he paused, then sighing said, 
 ' Is justly destined for a worthier head ; 
 For when my father from his toils shall rest 
 And late augment the number of the blest, 350 
 
 His lawful issue shall the throne ascend, 
 Or the collateral line, where that shall end. 
 His brother, though oppressed with vulgar spite, 
 Yet dauntless and secure of native right, 
 Of every royal virtue stands possest, 355 
 
 Still dear to all the bravest and the best. 
 His courage foes, his friends his truth proclaim, 
 His loyalty the King, the world his fame. 
 His mercy even the offending crowd will find, 
 For sure he comes of a forgiving kind. 360 
 
 Why should I then repine at Heaven's decree 
 Which gives me no pretence to royalty? 
 Yet oh that Fate, propitiously inclined, 
 Had raised my birth or had debased my mind, 
 To my large soul not all her treasure lent, 365 
 
 And then betrayed it to a mean descent! 
 I find, I find my mounting spirits bold, 
 
 H 
 
98 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 And David's part disdains my mother's mould. 
 
 Why am I scanted by a niggard birth? 
 
 My soul disclaims the kindred of her earth, 370 
 
 And, made for empire, whispers me within, 
 
 Desire of greatness is a god-like sin/ 
 
 Him staggering so when Hell's dire agent found, 
 While fainting virtue scarce maintained her ground, 
 He pours fresh forces in, and thus replies: 375 
 
 ' The eternal God, supremely good and wise, 
 Imparts not these prodigious gifts in vain. 
 What wonders are reserved to bless your reign ! 
 Against your will your arguments have shown, 
 Such virtue's only given to guide a throne. 380 
 
 Not that your father's mildness I contemn, 
 But manly force becomes the diadem. 
 'Tis true he grants the people all they crave, 
 And more perhaps than subjects ought to have : 
 For lavish grants suppose a monarch tame 385 
 
 And more his goodness than his wit proclaim. 
 But when should people strive their bonds to break, 
 If not when kings are negligent or weak ? 
 Let him give on till he can give no more, 
 The thrifty Sanhedrin shall keep him poor; 390 
 
 And every shekel which he can receive 
 Shall cost a limb of his prerogative. 
 To ply him with new plots shall be my care, 
 Or plunge him deep in some expensive war; 
 Which when his treasure can no more supply, 395 
 
 He must with the remains of kingship buy. 
 His faithful friends our jealousies and fears 
 Gall Jebusites and Pharaoh's pensioners, 
 Whom when our fury from his aid has torn, 
 He shall be naked left to public scorn. 400 
 
 The next successor, whom I fear and hate, 
 My arts have made obnoxious to the State, 
 Turned all his virtues to his overthrow, 
 And gained our elders to pronounce a foe. 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 99 
 
 His right for sums of necessary gold 405 
 
 Shall first be pawned, and afterwards be sold; 
 Till time shall ever-wanting David draw 
 To pass your doubtful title into law. 
 If not, the people have a ifeht supreme 
 To make their kings, for kinfs are made for them. 410 
 All empire is no more than power in trust, 
 Which, when resumed, can be no longer just. 
 Succession, for the general good designed, 
 In its own wrong a nation cannot bind: 
 If altering that the people can relieve, 415 
 
 Better one suffer than a nation grieve. 
 The Jews well know their power: ere Saul they chose 
 God was their King, and God they durst depose. 
 Urge now your piety, your filial name, 
 A father's right and fear of future fame, 420 
 
 The public good, that universal call, 
 To which even Heaven submitted, answers all. 
 Nor let his love enchant your generous mind; 
 'Tis Nature's trick to propagate her kind. 
 Our fond begetters, who would never die, 425 
 
 Love but themselves in their posterity. 
 Or let his kindness by the effects be tried 
 Or let him lay his vain pretence aside. 
 God said, He loved your father ; could He bring 
 A better proof than to anoint him King? 430 
 
 It surely showed, He loved the shepherd well 
 Who gave so fair a flock as Israel. 
 Would David have you thought his darling son? 
 What means he then to alienate the crown? 
 The name of godly he may blush to bear; 435 
 
 'Tis after God's own heart to cheat his heir. 
 He to his brother gives supreme command, 
 To you a legacy of barren land, 
 Perhaps the old harp on which he thrums his lays 
 Or some dull Hebrew ballad in your praise. 44 
 
 Then the next heir, a prince severe and wise, 
 Already looks on you with jealous eyes, 
 H 2 
 
ICO ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 Sees through the thin disguises of your arts, 
 
 And marks your progress in the people's hearts ; 
 
 Though now his mighty soul its grief contains, 445 
 
 He meditates revenge who least complains; 
 
 And like a lion, slumbering in the way 
 
 Or sleep dissembling, while he waits his prey, 
 
 His fearless foes within his distance draws, 
 
 Constrains his roaring and contracts his paws, 450 
 
 Till at the last, his time for fury found, 
 
 He shoots with sudden vengeance from the ground, 
 
 The prostrate vulgar passes o'er and spares, 
 
 But with a lordly rage his hunters tears ; 
 
 Your case no tame expedients will afford, 455 
 
 Resolve on death or conquest by the sword, 
 
 Which for no less a stake than life you draw, 
 
 And self-defence is Nature's eldest law. 
 
 Leave the warm people no considering time, 
 
 For then rebellion may be thought a crime. 460 
 
 Prevail yourself of what occasion gives, 
 
 But try your title while your father lives ; 
 
 And, that your arms may have a fair pretence, 
 
 Proclaim you take them in the King's defence ; 
 
 Whose sacred life each minute would expose 465 
 
 To plots from seeming friends and secret foes. 
 
 And who can sound the depth of David's soul? 
 
 Perhaps his fear his kindness may control : 
 
 He fears his brother, though he loves his son, 
 
 For plighted vows too late to be undone. 470 
 
 If so, by force he wishes to be gained, 
 
 Like women's lechery to seem constrained. 
 
 Doubt not : but, when he most affects the frown, 
 
 Commit a pleasing rape upon the crown. 
 
 Secure his person to secure your cause : 475 
 
 They who possess the Prince possess the laws.' 
 
 He said, and this advice above the rest 
 With Absalom's mild nature suited, best ; 
 Unblamed of life (ambition set aside), 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. IOI 
 
 Not stained with cruelty nor puffed with pride, 480 
 
 How happy had he been, if Destiny 
 
 Had higher placed his birth or not so high ! 
 
 His kingly virtues might have claimed a throne 
 
 And blessed all other countries but his own ; 
 
 But charming greatness since so few refuse, 485 
 
 'Tis juster to lament him than accuse. 
 
 Strong were his hopes a rival to remove, 
 
 With blandishments to gain the public love, 
 
 To head the faction while their zeal was hot, 
 
 And popularly prosecute the plot. 490 
 
 To further this, Achitophel unites 
 
 The malcontents of all the Israelites, 
 
 Whose differing parties he could wisely join 
 
 For several ends to serve the same design: 
 
 The best, (and of the princes some were such,) 495 
 
 Who thought the power of monarchy too much. 
 
 Mistaken men and patriots in their hearts, 
 
 Not wicked, but seduced by impious arts ; 
 
 By these the springs of property were bent 
 
 And wound so high they cracked the government. 500 
 
 The next for interest sought to embroil the state, 
 
 To sell their duty at a dearer rate, 
 
 And make their Jewish markets of the throne, 
 
 Pretending public good to serve their own. 
 
 Others thought kings an useless heavy load, 505 
 
 Who cost too much and did too little good. 
 
 These were for laying honest David by 
 
 On principles of pure good husbandry. 
 
 With them joined all the haranguers of the throng 
 
 That thought to get preferment by the tongue. 510 
 
 Who follow next a double danger bring, 
 
 Not only hating David, but the King; 
 
 The Solymaean rout, well versed of old 
 
 In godly faction and in treason bold, 
 
 Cowering and quaking at a conqueror's sword, 5*5 
 
 But lofty to a lawful prince restored, 
 
 Saw with disdain an Ethnic plot begun 
 
102 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 And scorned by Jebusites to be outdone. 
 
 Hot Levites headed these ; who pulled before 
 
 From the ark, which in the Judges' days they bore, 520 
 
 Resumed their cant, and with a zealous cry 
 
 Pursued their old beloved theocracy, 
 
 Where Sanhedrin and priest enslaved the nation 
 
 And justified their spoils by inspiration ; 
 
 For who so fit for reign as Aaron's race, 525 
 
 If once dominion they could found in grace? 
 
 These led the pack ; though not of surest scent, 
 
 Yet deepest mouthed against the government. 
 
 A numerous host of dreaming saints succeed 
 
 Of the true old enthusiastic breed: 530 
 
 'Gainst form and order they their power employ, 
 
 Nothing to build and all things to destroy. 
 
 But far more numerous was the herd of such 
 
 Who think too little and who talk too much. 
 
 These out of mere instinct, they knew not why, 535 
 
 Adored their fathers' God and property, 
 
 And by the same blind benefit of Fate 
 
 The Devil and the Jebusite did hate: 
 
 Born to be saved even in their own despite, 
 
 Because they could not help believing right. 540 
 
 Such were the tools ; but a whole Hydra more 
 
 Remains of sprouting heads too long to score. 
 
 Some of their chiefs were princes of the land ; 
 
 In the first rank of these did Zimri stand, 
 
 A man so various that he seemed to be 545 
 
 Not one, but all mankind's epitome: 
 
 Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong, 
 
 Was everything by starts and nothing long ; 
 
 But in the course of one revolving moon 
 
 Was chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon ; 550 
 
 Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking, 
 
 Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking. 
 
 Blest madman, who could every hour employ 
 
 With something new to wish or to enjoy ! 
 
 Railing and praising were his usual themes, 555 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 103 
 
 And both, to show his judgment, in extremes : 
 
 So over violent or over civil 
 
 That every man with him was God or Devil. 
 
 In squandering wealth was his peculiar art ; 
 
 Nothing went unrewarded but desert. 560 
 
 Beggared by fools whom still he found too late, 
 
 He had his jest, and they had his estate. 
 
 He laughed himself from Court; then sought relief 
 
 By forming parties, but could ne'er be chief: 
 
 For spite of him, the weight of business fell 565 
 
 On Absalom and wise Achitophel; 
 
 Thus wicked but in will, of means bereft, 
 
 He left not faction, but of that was left. 
 
 Titles and names 'twere tedious to rehearse 
 Of lords below the dignity of verse. 570 
 
 Wits, warriors, commonwealth's-men were the best ; 
 Kind husbands and mere nobles all the rest. 
 And therefore in the name of dulness be 
 The well-hung Balaam and cold Caleb free ; 
 And canting Nadab let oblivion damn 575 
 
 Who made new porridge for the paschal lamb. 
 Let friendship's holy band some names assure, 
 Some their own worth, and some let scorn secure. 
 Nor shall the rascal rabble here have place 
 Whom kings no titles gave, and God no grace : 580 
 
 Not bull-faced Jonas, who could statutes draw 
 To mean rebellion and make treason law. 
 But he, though bad, is followed by a worse, 
 The wretch who Heaven's anointed dared to curse ; 
 Shimei, whose youth did early promise bring 585 
 
 Of zeal to God and hatred to his King, 
 Did wisely from expensive sins refrain 
 And never broke the Sabbath but for gain : 
 Nor ever was he known an oath to vent 
 Or curse, unless against the government. 590 
 
 Thus heaping wealth by the most ready way 
 Among, the Jews, which was to cheat and pray, 
 The City, to reward his pious hate 
 
104 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 Against his master, chose him magistrate. 
 
 His hand a vare of justice did uphold, 595 
 
 His neck was loaded with a chain of gold. 
 
 During his office treason was no crime, 
 
 The sons of Belial had a glorious time; 
 
 For Shimei, though not prodigal of pelf, 
 
 Yet loved his wicked neighbour as himself. 600 
 
 When two or three were gathered to declaim 
 
 Against the monarch of Jerusalem, 
 
 Shimei was always in the midst of them : 
 
 And, if they cursed the King when he was by, 
 
 Would rather curse than break good company. 605 
 
 If any durst his factious friends accuse, 
 
 He packed a jury of dissenting Jews ; 
 
 Whose fellow-feeling in the godly cause 
 
 Would free the suffering saint from human laws : 
 
 For laws are only made to punish those 610 
 
 Who serve the King, and to protect his foes. 
 
 If any leisure time he had from power, 
 
 Because 'tis sin to misemploy an hour, 
 
 His business was by writing to persuade 
 
 That kings were useless and a clog to trade: 615 
 
 And that his noble style he might refine, 
 
 No Rechabite more shunned the fumes of wine. 
 
 Chaste were his cellars, and his shrieval board 
 
 The grossness of a city feast abhorred : 
 
 His cooks with long disuse their trade forgot; 620 
 
 Cool was his kitchen, though his brains were hot. 
 
 Such frugal virtue malice may accuse; 
 
 But sure 'twas necessary to the Jews : 
 
 For towns once burnt such magistrates require 
 
 As dare not tempt God's providence by fire. 625 
 
 With spiritual food he fed his servants well, 
 
 But free from flesh that made the Jews rebel: 
 
 And Moses' laws he held in more account 
 
 For forty days of fasting in the mount. 
 
 To speak the rest, who better are forgot, 630 
 
 Would tire a well-breathed witness of the plot. 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 105 
 
 Yet, Corah, thou shalt from oblivion pass ; 
 Erect thyself, thou monumental brass, 
 High as the serpent of thy metal made, 
 While nations stand secure beneath thy shade. 635 
 
 What though his birth were base, yet comets rise 
 From earthy vapours, ere they shine in skies. 
 Prodigious actions may as well be done 
 By weaver's issue as by prince's son. 
 
 ^This arch-attester for the public good 640 
 
 By that one deed ennobles all his blood. 
 Who ever asked the witnesses' high race 
 Whose oath with martyrdom did Stephen grace? 
 Ours was a Levite, and as times went then, 
 His tribe were God Almighty's gentlemen. 645 
 
 Sunk were his eyes, his voice was harsh and loud, 
 Sure signs he neither choleric was nor proud : 
 His long chin proved his wit, his saint-like grace 
 A church vermilion and a Moses' face. 
 His memory, miraculously great, 650 
 
 Could plots exceeding man's belief repeat ; 
 W T hich therefore cannot be accounted lies, 
 For human wit could never such devise. 
 Some future truths are mingled in his book, 
 But where the witness failed, the prophet spoke : 655 
 
 Some things like visionary flights appear; 
 The spirit caught him up, the Lord knows where ; 
 And gave him his Rabbinical degree 
 Unknown to foreign University. 
 
 His judgment yet his memory did excel, 660 
 
 Which pieced his wondrous evidence so well 
 And suited to the temper of the times, 
 Then groaning under Jebusitic crimes. 
 Let Israel's foes suspect his heavenly call 
 And rashly judge his writ apocryphal ; 665 
 
 Our laws for such affronts have forfeits made, 
 He takes his life who takes away his trade. 
 Were I myself in witness Corah's place, 
 The wretch who did me such a dire disgrace 
 
106 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 Should whet my memory, though once forgot, 670 
 
 To make him an appendix of my plot. 
 
 His zeal to Heaven made him his Prince despise, 
 
 And load his person with indignities. 
 
 But zeal peculiar privilege aifords, 
 
 Indulging latitude to deeds and words: 675 
 
 And Corah might for Agag's murder call, 
 
 In terms as coarse as Samuel used to Saul. 
 
 What others in his evidence did join, 
 
 The best that could be had for love or coin, 
 
 In Corah's own predicament will falj, 6So 
 
 For Witness is a common name to all. 
 
 Surrounded thus with friends of every sort, 
 Deluded Absalom forsakes the court ; 
 Impatient of high hopes, urged with renown, 
 And fired with near possession of a crown. 685 
 
 The admiring crowd are dazzled with surprise 
 And on his goodly person feed their eyes. 
 His joy concealed, he sets himself to show, 
 On each side bowing popularly low, 
 
 His looks, his gestures, and his words he frames 690 
 
 And with familiar ease repeats their names. 
 Thus formed by nature, furnished out with arts, 
 He glides unfelt into their secret hearts. 
 Then with a kind compassionating look, 
 And sighs, bespeaking pity ere he spoke, 695 
 
 Few words he said, but easy those and fit, 
 More slow than Hybla-drops and far more sweet. 
 
 1 1 mourn, my countrymen, your lost estate, 
 Though far unable to prevent your fate : 
 Behold a banished man, for your dear cause 700 
 
 Exposed a prey to arbitrary laws ! 
 Yet oh that I alone could be undone, 
 Cut off from empire, and no more a son- ! 
 Now all your liberties a spoil are made, 
 Egypt and Tyrus intercept your trade, 705 
 
 And Jebusites your sacred rites invade. 
 

 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 1OJ 
 
 My father, whom with reverence yet I name, 
 
 Charmed into ease, is careless of his fame, 
 
 And, bribed with petty sums of foreign gold, 
 
 Is grown in Bathsheba's embraces old; 710 
 
 Exalts his enemies, his friends destroys, 
 
 And all his power against himself employs. 
 
 He gives, and let him give, my right away ; 
 
 But why should he his own and yours betray? 
 
 He, only he can make the nation bleed, 715 
 
 And he alone from my revenge is freed. 
 
 Take then my tears (with that he wiped his eyes), 
 
 'Tis all the aid my present power supplies : 
 
 No court-informer can these arms accuse ; 
 
 These arms may sons against their fathers use. 720 
 
 And 'tis my wish, the next successor's reign 
 
 May make no other Israelite complain.' 
 
 Youth, beauty, graceful action seldom fail, 
 But common interest always will prevail; 
 And pity never ceases to be shown 725 
 
 To him who makes the people's wrongs his own. 
 The crowd that still believe their kings oppress 
 With lifted hands their young Messiah bless : 
 Who now begins his progress to ordain 
 With chariots, horsemen, and a numerous train; 730 
 
 From east to west his glories he displays 
 And, like the sun, the promised land surveys. 
 Fame runs before him as the morning star, 
 And shouts of joy salute him from afar ; 
 Each house receives him as a guardian god 735 
 
 And consecrates the place of his abode. 
 But hospitable treats did most commend 
 Wise Issachar, his wealthy western friend. 
 This moving court that caught the people's eyes, 
 And seemed but pomp, did other ends disguise; 740 
 
 Achitophel had formed it, with intent 
 To sound the depths and fathom, where it went, 
 The people's hearts, distinguish friends from foes, 
 
I08 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 And try their strength before they came to blows. 
 
 Yet all was coloured with a smooth pretence 745 
 
 Of specious love and duty to their prince. 
 
 Religion and redress of grievances, 
 
 Two names that always cheat and always please, 
 
 Are often urged ; and good king David's life 
 
 Endangered by a brother and a wife. 750 
 
 Thus in a pageant show a plot is made, 
 
 And peace itself is war in masquerade. 
 
 Oh foolish Israel ! never warned by ill ! 
 
 Still the same bait, and circumvented still! 
 
 Did ever men forsake their present ease, 755 
 
 In midst of health imagine a disease, 
 
 Take pains contingent mischiefs to foresee, 
 
 Make heirs for monarchs, and for God decree ? 
 
 What shall we think? Can people give away 
 
 Both for themselves and sons their native sway? 760 
 
 Then they are left defenceless to the sword 
 
 Of each unbounded, arbitrary lord; 
 
 And laws are vain by which we right enjoy, 
 
 If kings unquestioned can those laws destroy. 
 
 Yet if the crowd be judge of fit and just, 765 
 
 And kings are only officers in trust, 
 
 Then this resuming covenant was declared 
 
 When kings were made, or is for ever barred. 
 
 If those who gave the sceptre could not tie 
 
 By their own deed their own posterity, 770 
 
 How then could Adam bind his future race ? 
 
 How could his forfeit on mankind take place ? 
 
 Or how could heavenly justice damn us all 
 
 Who ne'er consented to our father's fall ? 
 
 Then kings are slaves to those whom they command 775 
 
 And tenants to their people's pleasure stand. 
 
 Add that the power, for property allowed, 
 
 Is mischievously seated in the crowd; 
 
 For who can be secure of private right, 
 
 If sovereign sway may be dissolved by might? 780 
 
 Nor is the people's judgment always true : 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 109 
 
 The most may err as grossly as the few, 
 
 And faultless kings run down by common cry 
 
 For vice, oppression, and for tyranny. 
 
 What standard is there in a fickle rout, 785 
 
 Which, flowing to the mark, runs faster out? 
 
 Nor only crowds but Sanhedrins may be 
 
 Infected with this public lunacy, 
 
 And share the madness of rebellious times, 
 
 To murder monarchs for imagined crimes. 790 
 
 If they may give and take whene'er they please, 
 
 Not kings alone, the Godhead's images, 
 
 But government itself at length must fall 
 
 To nature's state, where all have right to all. 
 
 Yet grant our lords, the people, kings can make, 795 
 
 What prudent men a settled throne would shake ? 
 
 For whatsoe'er their sufferings were before, 
 
 That change they covet makes them suffer more. 
 
 All other errors but disturb a state, 
 
 But innovation is the blow of fate. 800 
 
 If ancient fabrics nod and threat to fall, 
 
 To patch the flaws and buttress up the wall, 
 
 Thus far 'tis duty : but here fix the mark ; 
 
 For all beyond it is to touch our ark. 
 
 To change foundations, cast the frame anew, 805 
 
 Is work for rebels who base ends pursue, 
 
 At once divine and human laws control, 
 
 And mend the parts by ruin of the whole. 
 
 The tampering world is subject to this curse, 
 
 To physic their disease into a worse. 810 
 
 Now what relief can righteous David bring ? 
 How fatal 'tis to be too good a king ! 
 Friends he has few, so high the madness grows ; 
 Who dare be such must be the people's foes. 
 Yet some there were even in the worst of days; 815 
 
 Some let me name, and naming is to praise. 
 
 In this short file Barzillai first appears, 
 Barzillai, crowned with honour and with years. 
 
IIO ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 Long since the rising rebels he withstood 
 
 In regions waste beyond the Jordan's flood: 820 
 
 Unfortunately brave to buoy the state, 
 
 But sinking underneath his master's fate. 
 
 In exile with his godlike prince he mourned, 
 
 For him he suffered, and with him returned. 
 
 The court he practised, not the courtier's art: 825 
 
 Large was his wealth, but larger was his heart, 
 
 Which well the noblest objects knew to chuse, 
 
 The fighting warrior, and recording Muse. 
 
 His bed could once a fruitful issue boast ; 
 
 Now more than half a father's name is lost. 830 
 
 His eldest hope, with every grace adorned, 
 
 By me, so Heaven will have it, always mourned 
 
 And always honoured, snatched in manhood's prime 
 
 By unequal fates and Providence's crime : 
 
 Yet not before the goal of honour won, 835 
 
 All parts fulfilled of subject and of son ; 
 
 Swift was the race, but short the time to run. 
 
 Oh narrow circle, but of power divine, 
 
 Scanted in space, but perfect in thy line ! 
 
 By sea, by land, thy matchless worth was known, 840 
 
 Arms thy delight, and war was all thy own: 
 
 Thy force infused the fainting Tyrians propped, 
 
 And haughty Pharaoh found his fortune stopped. 
 
 Oh ancient honour! oh unconquered hand, 
 
 Whom foes unpunished never could withstand! 845 
 
 But Israel was unworthy of thy name: 
 
 Short is the date of all immoderate fame. 
 
 It looks as Heaven our ruin had designed, 
 
 And durst not trust thy fortune and thy mind. 
 
 Now, free from earth, thy disencumbered soul 850 
 
 Mounts up, and leaves behind the clouds and starry 
 
 pole: 
 
 From thence thy kindred legions mayest thou bring 
 To aid the guardian angel of thy King. 
 Here stop, my Muse, here cease thy painful flight; 
 No pinions can pursue immortal height : 855 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. Ill 
 
 Tell good Barzillai thou canst sing no more, 
 
 And tell thy soul she should have fled before : 
 
 Or fled she with his life, and left this verse 
 
 To hang on her departed patron's hearse ? 
 
 Now take thy stecpy flight from heaven, and see 85o 
 
 If thou canst find on earth another he : 
 
 Another he would be too hard to find; 
 
 See then whom thou canst see not far behind. 
 
 Zadoc the priest, whom, shunning power and place, 
 
 His lowly mind advanced to David's grace. 865 
 
 With him the Sagan of Jerusalem, 
 
 Of hospitable soul and noble stem ; 
 
 Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense 
 
 Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence. 
 
 The Prophets' sons, by such example led, 70 
 
 To learning and to loyalty were bred: 
 
 For colleges on bounteous kings depend, 
 
 And never rebel was to arts a friend. 
 
 To these succeed the pillars of the laws, 
 
 Who best could plead, and best can judge a cause. 875 
 
 Next them a train of loyal peers ascend; 
 
 Sharp-judging Adriel, the Muses' friend, 
 
 Himself a Muse : in Sanhedrin's debate 
 
 True to his Prince, but not a slave of state ; 
 
 Whom David's love with honours did adorn 8 So 
 
 That from his disobedient son were torn. 
 
 Jotham of piercing wit and pregnant thought, 
 
 Endued by nature and by learning taught 
 
 To move assemblies, who but only tried 
 
 The worse a while, then chose the better side, 885 
 
 Nor chose alone, but turned the balance too, 
 
 So much the weight of one brave man can do. 
 
 Hushai, the friend of David in distress, 
 
 In public storms of manly stedfastness ; 
 
 By foreign treaties he informed his youth 890 
 
 And joined experience to his native truth. 
 
 His frugal care supplied the wanting throne, 
 
 Frugal for that, but bounteous of his own: 
 
112 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 'Tis easy conduct when exchequers flow, 
 
 But hard the task to manage well the low. 895 
 
 For sovereign power is too depressed or high, 
 
 When kings are forced to sell or crowds to buy. 
 
 Indulge one labour more, my weary Muse, 
 
 For Amiel : who can Amiel's praise refuse ? 
 
 Of ancient race by birth, but nobler yet 900 
 
 In his own worth and without title great : 
 
 The Sanhedrin long time as chief he ruled, 
 
 Their reason guided and their passion cooled: 
 
 So dexterous was he in the Crown's defence, 
 
 So formed to speak a loyal nation's sense, 905 
 
 That, as their band was Israel's tribes in small, 
 
 So fit was he to represent them all. 
 
 Now rasher charioteers the seat ascend, 
 
 Whose loose careers his steady skill commend : 
 
 They, like the unequal ruler of the day, 910. 
 
 Misguide the seasons and mistake the way, 
 
 While he, withdrawn, at their mad labour smiles 
 
 And safe enjoys the sabbath of his toils. 
 
 These were the chief, a small but faithful band 
 Of worthies in the breach who dared to stand 915 
 
 And tempt the united fury of the land. 
 With grief they viewed such powerful engines bent 
 To batter down the lawful government. 
 A numerous faction, with pretended frights, 
 In Sanhedrins to plume the regal rights; 920 
 
 The true successor from the Court removed; 
 The plot by hireling witnesses improved. 
 These ills they saw, and, as their duty bound, 
 They showed the King the danger of the wound ; 
 That no concessions from the throne would please, 925 
 But lenitives fomented the disease ; 
 That Absalom, ambitious of the crown, 
 Was made the lure to draw the people down ; 
 That false Achitophel's pernicious hate 
 Had turned the plot to ruin Church and State ; 930 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 113 
 
 The council violent, the rabble worse ; 
 That Shimei taught Jerusalem to curse. 
 
 With all these loads of injuries opprest, 
 And long revolving in his careful breast 
 The event of things, at last his patience tired, 935 
 
 Thus from his royal throne, by Heaven inspired, 
 The godlike David spoke ; with awful, fear 
 His train their Maker in their master hear. 
 
 'Thus long have I, by native mercy swayed, 
 My wrongs dissembled, my revenge delayed ; 940 
 
 So willing to forgive the offending age; 
 So much the father did the king assuage. 
 But now so far my clemency they slight, 
 The offenders question my forgiving right. 
 That one was made for many, they contend ; 945 
 
 But 'tis to rule, for that's a monarch's end. 
 They call my tenderness of blood my fear, 
 Though manly tempers can the longest bear. 
 Yet since they will divert my native course, 
 'Tis time to show I am not good by force. 950 
 
 Those heaped affronts that haughty subjects bring 
 Are burdens for a camel, not a king. 
 Kings are the public pillars of the State, 
 Born to sustain and prop the nation's weight : 
 If my young Samson will pretend a call 955 
 
 To shake the column, let him share the fall; 
 But oh that yet he would repent and live ! 
 How easy 'tis for parents to forgive ! 
 With how few tears a pardon might be won 
 From nature, pleading for a darling son ! 960 
 
 Poor pitied youth, by my paternal care 
 Raised up to all the height his frame could bear ! 
 Had God ordained his fate for empire born, 
 He would have given his soul another turn : 
 Gulled with a patriot's name, whose modern sense 965 
 Is one that would by law supplant his prince; 
 
 I 
 
114 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 The people's brave, the politician's tool; 
 
 Never was patriot yet but was a fool. 
 
 Whence comes it that religion and the laws 
 
 Should more be Absalom's than David's cause ? 970 
 
 His old instructor, ere he lost his place, 
 
 Was never thought endued with so much grace. 
 
 Good heavens, how faction can a patriot paint ! 
 
 My rebel ever proves my people's saint. 
 
 Would they impose an heir upon the throne? 975 
 
 Let Sanhedrins be taught to give their own. 
 
 A king's at least a part of government, 
 
 And mine as requisite as their consent : 
 
 Without my leave a future king to choose 
 
 Infers a right the present to depose. 980 
 
 True, they petition me to approve their choice : 
 
 But Esau's hands suit ill with Jacob's voice. 
 
 My pious subjects for my safety pray, 
 
 Which to secure, they take my power away. 
 
 From plots and treasons Heaven preserve my years, 985 
 
 But save me most from my petitioners. 
 
 Unsatiate as the barren womb or grave, N 
 
 God cannot grant so much as they can crave. 
 
 What then is left but with a jealous eye 
 
 To guard the small remains of royalty ? 990 
 
 The law shall still direct my peaceful sway, 
 
 And the same law teach rebels to obey : 
 
 Votes shall no more established power control, 
 
 Such votes as make a part exceed the whole. 
 
 No groundless clamours shall my friends remove 995 
 
 Nor crowds have power to punish ere they prove ; 
 
 For gods and godlike kings their care express 
 
 Still to defend their servants in distress. 
 
 Oh that my power to saving were confined ! 
 
 Why am I forced, like Heaven, against my mind 1000 
 
 To make examples of another kind? 
 
 Must I at length the sword of justice draw ? 
 
 Oh curst effects of necessary law ! 
 
 How ill my fear they by my mercy scan ! 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 Beware the fury of a patient man. 1005 
 
 Law they require, let Law then show her face; 
 
 They could not be content to look on Grace 
 
 Her hinder, parts, but with a daring eye 
 
 To tempt the terror of her front and die. 
 
 By their own arts, 'tis righteously decreed, 1010 
 
 Those dire artificers of death shall bleed. 
 
 Against themselves their witnesses will swear 
 
 Till, viper-like, their mother-plot they tear, 
 
 And suck for nutriment that bloody gore 
 
 Which was their principle of life before. 1015 
 
 Their Belial with their Beelzebub will fight ; 
 
 Thus on my foes my foes shall do me right. 
 
 Nor doubt the event ; for factious crowds engage 
 
 In their first onset all their brutal rage. 
 
 Then let them take an unresisted course; 1020 
 
 Retire and traverse, and delude their force : 
 
 But when they stand all breathless, urge the fight 
 
 And rise upon them with redoubled might : 
 
 For lawful power is still superior found, 1024 
 
 When long driven back at length it stands the ground.' 
 
 He said. The Almighty, nodding, gave consent; 
 And peals of thunder shook the firmament. 
 Henceforth a series of new time began, 
 The mighty years in long procession ran ; 
 Once more the godlike David was restored, . 1030 
 
 And willing nations knew their lawful lord. 
 
 I 2 
 
RELIGIO LAICI; 
 
 OR 
 
 A LAYMAN'S FAITH. 
 A POEM. 
 
 'Ornari res ipsa negat, contenta doceri.' 
 
 [MANILIUS, Astronom. iii. 39.] 
 
THE PREFACE. 
 
 A POEM with so bold a title, and a name prefixed from 
 which the handling of so serious a subject would not be 
 expected, may reasonably oblige the author to say somewhat 
 in defence both of himself and of his undertaking. In the 
 first place, if it be objected to me that, being a layman, I 5 
 ought not to have concerned myself with speculations which 
 belong to the profession of divinity, I could answer that 
 perhaps laymen, with equal advantages of parts and know- 
 ledge, are not the most incompetent judges of sacred things ; 
 but in the due sense of my own weakness and want ofio 
 learning I plead not this ; I pretend not to make my self a 
 judge of faith in others, but only to make a confession of my 
 own. I lay no unhallowed hand upon the Ark, but wait 
 on it with the reverence that becomes me at a distance. In 
 the next place I will ingenuously confess, that the helps I 15 
 have used in this small Treatise were many of them taken 
 from the works of our own reverend divines of the Church of 
 England ; so that the weapons with which I combat irreligion 
 are already consecrated, though I suppose they may be taken 
 down as lawfully as the sword of Goliah was by David, when 20 
 they are to be employed for the common cause against the 
 enemies of piety. I intend not by this to entitle them to any 
 of my errors, which yet I hope are only those of charity to 
 mankind; and such as my own charity has caused me to 
 commit, that of others may more easily excuse. Being 25 
 naturally inclined to scepticism in philosophy, I have no 
 reason to impose my opinions in a subject which is above 
 it ; but, whatever they are, I submit them with all reverence 
 
J20 REL1GIO LAICI. 
 
 to my mother Church, accounting them no farther mine, than 
 as they are authorized or at least uncondemned by her. 
 And, indeed, to secure my self on this side, I have used the 
 necessary precaution of showing this paper, before it was 
 5 published, to a judicious and learned friend, a man inde- 
 fatigably zealous in the service of the Church and State, and 
 whose writings have highly deserved of both. He was pleased 
 to approve the body of the discourse, and I hope he is more 
 my friend than to do it out of complaisance ; 'tis true he had 
 
 10 too good a taste to like it all ; and amongst some other faults 
 recommended to my second view what I have written perhaps 
 too boldly on St. Athanasius, whteh he advised me wholly 
 to omit. I am sensible enough that I had done more pru- 
 dently to have followed his opinion ; but then I could not 
 
 15 have satisfied my self that I had done honestly not to have 
 written what was my own. It has always been my thought, 
 that heathens who never did, nor without miracle could, hear 
 of the name of Christ, were yet in a possibility of salvation. 
 Neither will it enter easily into my belief, that before the 
 
 20 coming of our Saviour the whole world, excepting only the 
 Jewish nation, should lie under the inevitable necessity of 
 everlasting punishment, for want of that Revelation, which 
 was confined to so small a spot of ground as that of Palestine. 
 Among the sons of Noah we read of one only who was 
 
 25 accursed ; and if a blessing in the ripeness of time was re- 
 served for Japhet (of whose progeny we are), it seems un- 
 accountable to me, why so many generations of the same 
 offspring as preceded our Saviour in the flesh should be ail 
 involved in one common condemnation, and yet that their 
 
 30 posterity should be entitled to the hopes of salvation: as 
 if a Bill of Exclusion had passed only on the fathers, which 
 debarred not the sons from their succession ; or that so many 
 ages had been delivered over to Hell, and so many reserved 
 for Heaven, and that the Devil had the first choice, and God 
 
 35 the next. Truly I am apt to think that the revealed religion 
 which was taught by Noah to all his sons might continue for 
 some ages in the whole posterity. That afterwards it was 
 included wholly in the family of Shem is manifest ; but when 
 
RELIGIO LAICI. 121 
 
 the progenies of Cham and Japhet swarmed into colonies, and 
 those colonies were "subdivided into many others, in process 
 of time their descendants lost by little and little the primitive 
 and purer rites of divine worship, retaining only the notion of 
 one deity ; to which succeeding generations added others ; 5 
 for men took their degrees in those ages from conquerors to 
 gods. Revelation being thus eclipsed to almost all mankind, 
 the Light of Nature, as the next in dignity, was substituted ; 
 and that is it which St. Paul concludes to be the rule of the 
 heathens, and by which they are hereafter to be judged. If 10 
 my supposition be true, then the consequence which I have 
 assumed in my poem may be also true ; namely, that Deism, 
 or the principles of natural worship, are only the faint rem- 
 nants or dying flames of revealed religion in the posterity of 
 Noah : and that our modern philosophers, nay, and some of 1 5 
 our philosophizing divines, have too much exalted the faculties 
 of our souls, when they have maintained that by their force 
 mankind has been able to find out that there is one supreme 
 agent or intellectual Being which we call God; that praise 
 and prayer are his due worship ; and the rest of those deduce- 20 
 ments, which I am confident are the remote effects of Revela- 
 tion, and unattainable by our Discourse, I mean as simply 
 considered, and without the benefit of divine illumination. 
 So that we have not lifted up our selves to God by the weak 
 pinions of our Reason, but he has been pleased to descend to 25 
 us ; and what Socrates said of him, what Plato writ, and the 
 rest of the heathen philosophers of several nations, is all no 
 more than the twilight of Revelation, after the sun of it was 
 set in the race of Noah. That there is something above us, 
 some principle of motion, our Reason can apprehend, though 30 
 it cannot discover what it is by its own virtue. And, indeed, 
 'tis very improbable that we, who by the strength of our 
 faculties cannot enter into the knowledge of any being, not 
 so much as of our own, should be able to find out by them 
 that supreme nature, which we cannot otherwise define than 35 
 by saying it is infinite ; as if infinite were definable, or infinity 
 a subject for our narrow understanding. They who would 
 prove religion by reason do but weaken the cause which they 
 
12,2, RELIGIO LAICI. 
 
 endeavour to support : 'tis to take away the pillars from our 
 faith, and to prop it only with a twig ; 'tis to design a tower 
 like that of Babel, which, if it were possible (as it is not) 
 to reach heaven, would come to nothing by the confusion of 
 5 the workmen. For every man is building a several way; 
 impotently conceited of his own model and his own materials : 
 reason is always striving, and always at a loss ; and of necessity 
 it must so come to pass, while 'tis exercised about that which 
 is not its proper object. Let us be content at last to know God 
 
 i o by his own methods ; at least, so much of him as he is pleased 
 to reveal to us in the sacred Scriptures : to apprehend them to 
 be the word of God is all our reason has to do ; for all beyond 
 it is the work of faith, which is the seal of Heaven impressed 
 upon our human understanding. 
 
 15 And now for what concerns the holy bishop Athanasius, 
 the Preface of whose Greed seems inconsistent with my 
 opinion, which is, that heathens may possibly be saved : in the 
 first place, I desire it may be considered that it is the Preface 
 only, not the Greed itself, which, till I am better informed, 
 
 20 is of too hard a digestion for my charity. It is not that I am 
 ignorant how many several texts of Scripture seemingly sup- 
 port that cause ; but neither am I ignorant how all those 
 texts may receive a kinder and more mollified interpreta- 
 tion. Every man who is read in Church history knows that 
 
 25 Belief was drawn up after a long contestation with Arius 
 concerning the divinity of our blessed Saviour and his being 
 one substance with the Father ; and that, thus compiled, it 
 was sent abroad among the Christian churches, as a kind of 
 test, which whosoever took was looked on as an orthodox 
 
 30 believer. It is manifest from hence, that the heathen part of 
 the empire was not concerned in it ; for its business was not 
 to distinguish betwixt Pagans and Christians, but betwixt 
 heretics and true believers. This, well considered, takes off 
 the heavy weight of censure, which I would willingly avoid 
 
 35 from so venerable a man; for if this proportion, ' whosoever 
 will be saved,' be restrained only to those to whom it was 
 intended, and for whom it was composed, I mean the Chris- 
 tians, then the anathema reaches not the heathens, who had 
 
RELIGIO LAICI. 12$ 
 
 never heard of Christ and were nothing interessed in that 
 dispute. After all, I am far from blaming even that prefatory 
 addition to the creed, and as far from cavilling at the con- 
 tinuation of it in the Liturgy of the Church, where on the 
 days appointed 'tis publicly read : for I suppose there is the 5 
 same reason for it now in opposition to the Socinians as there 
 was then against the Arians ; the one being a heresy, which 
 seems to have been refined out of the other ; and with how 
 much more plausibility of reason it combats our religion, with 
 so much more caution to be avoided : and therefore the 10 
 prudence of our Church is to be commended, which has 
 interposed her authority for the recommendation of this 
 Creed. Yet to such as are grounded in the true belief, 
 those explanatory Creeds, the Nicene and this of Athana- 
 sius, might perhaps be spared; for what is supernatural 1 5 
 will always be a mystery in spite of exposition, and for 
 my own part, the plain Apostles' Creed is most suitable 
 to my weak understanding, as the simplest diet is the most 
 easy of digestion. 
 
 I have dwelt longer on this subject than I intended, and 20 
 longer than perhaps I ought ; for having laid down, as my 
 foundation, that the Scripture is a rule, that in all things 
 needful to salvation it is clear, sufficient, and ordained by God 
 Almighty for that purpose, I have left my self no right to 
 interpret obscure places, such as concern the possibility of 2 5 
 eternal happiness to heathens : because whatsoever is obscure 
 is concluded not necessary to be known. 
 
 But by asserting the Scripture to be the canon of our faith, 
 I have unavoidably created to my self two sorts of enemies : 
 the Papists, indeed, more directly, because they have kept 30 
 the Scripture from us what they could and have reserved to 
 themselves a right of interpreting what they have delivered 
 under the pretence of infallibility : and the Fanatics more 
 collaterally, because they have assumed what amounts to an 
 infallibility in the private spirit, and have detorted those texts 35 
 of Scripture which are not necessary to salvation to the 
 damnable uses of sedition, disturbance, and destruction of 
 the civil government. To begin with the Papists, and to 
 
124 RELIGIO LAICI. 
 
 speak freely, I think them the less dangerous, at least in 
 appearance, to our present state, for not only the penal laws 
 are in force against them, and their number is contemptible ; 
 but also their peerage and commons are excluded from parlia- 
 
 5 ments, and consequently those laws in no probability of being 
 repealed. A general and uninterrupted plot of their clergy 
 ever since the Reformation I suppose all Protestants believe ; 
 for 'tis not reasonable to think but that so many of their 
 orders, as were outed from their fat possessions, would en- 
 
 lodeavour a re-entrance against those whom they account 
 heretics. As for the late design, Mr. Coleman's letters, for 
 aught I know, are the best evidence ; and what they discover, 
 without wire-drawing their sense or malicious glosses, all men 
 of reason conclude credible. If there be anything more 
 
 1 5 than this required of me, I must believe it as well as I am 
 able, in spite of the witnesses, and out of a decent conformity 
 to the votes of Parliament; for I suppose the Fanatics will 
 not allow the private spirit in this case. Here the infallibility 
 is at least in one part of the government; and our under- 
 
 20 standings as well as our wills are represented. But to return 
 to the Roman Catholics, how can we be secure from the 
 practice of Jesuited Papists in that religion ? For not two 
 or three of that order, as some of them would impose upon 
 us, but almost the whole body of them are of opinion, 
 
 25 that their infallible master has a right over kings, not only in 
 spirituals but temporals. Not to name Mariana, Bellarmine, 
 Emanuel Sa, Molina, Santarel, Simancha, and at least twenty 
 others of foreign countries; we can produce of our own 
 nation, Campian, and Doleman or Parsons : besides many 
 
 30 are named whom I have not read, who all of them attest this 
 doctrine, that the Pope can depose and give away the right of 
 any sovereign prince, si <vel paulum deflexerit, if he shall never 
 so little warp : but if he once comes to be excommunicated, 
 then the bond of obedience is taken off from subjects ; and 
 
 35 they may and ought to drive him like another Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, ex hominum Christianorum dom'matu^ from exercising 
 dominion over Christians; and to this they are bound by 
 virtue of divine precept, and by all the ties of conscience, 
 
RELIGIO LAICI. 12$ 
 
 under no less penalty than damnation. If they answer me, as 
 a learned priest has lately written, that this doctrine of the 
 Jesuits is not de fide, and that consequently they are not 
 obliged by it, they must pardon me if I think they have said 
 nothing to the purpose ; for 'tis a maxim in their Church, 5 
 where points of faith are not decided, and that doctors are of 
 contrary opinions, they may follow which part they please; 
 but more safely the most received and most authorized. 
 And their champion Bellarmine has told the world, in his 
 Apology, that the King of England is a vassal to the Pope i o 
 ratione directi domim, and that he holds in villanage of his 
 Roman landlord. Which is no new claim put in for England. 
 Our chronicles are his authentic witnesses, that King John 
 was deposed by the same plea, and Philip Augustus admitted 
 tenant. And which makes the more for Bellarmine, the 15 
 French King was again ejected when our King submitted to 
 the Church, and the crown received under the sordid condi- 
 tion of a vassalage. 
 
 'Tis not sufficient for the more moderate and well-meaning 
 Papists (of which I doubt not there are many) to produce 2 
 the evidences of their loyalty to the late King, and to declare 
 their innocency in this Plot : I will grant their behaviour in 
 the first to have been as loyal and as brave as they desire, and 
 will be willing to hold them excused as to the second (I mean, 
 when it comes to my turn and after my betters, for it is a 25 
 madness to be sober alone, while the nation continues drunk): 
 but that saying of their Father Cres, is still running in my 
 head, that they may be dispensed with in their obedience to 
 an heretic prince, while the necessity of the times shall 
 oblige them to it; for that, as another of them tells us, is 3 
 only the effect of Christian prudence; but when once they 
 shall get power to shake him off, an heretic is no lawful king, 
 and consequently to rise against him is no rebellion. I should 
 be glad, therefore, that they would follow the advice which 
 was charitably given them by a reverend prelate of our 3 5 
 Church; namely, that they would join in a public act of 
 disowning and detesting those Jesuitic principles, and sub- 
 scribe to all doctrines which deny the Pope's authority of 
 
126 RELIGIO LAICI. 
 
 deposing kings, and releasing subjects from their oath of 
 allegiance ; to which I should think they might easily 
 be induced, if it be true that this present Pope has con- 
 demned the doctrine of king-killing (a thesis of the Jesuits) 
 5 amongst others, ex cathedra, as they call it, or in open 
 consistory. 
 
 Leaving them, therefore, in so fair a way (if they please 
 themselves) of satisfying all reasonable men of their sincerity 
 and good meaning to the government, I shall make bold to 
 
 10 consider that other extreme of our religion, I mean the 
 Fanatics or Schismatics of the English Church. Since the 
 Bible has been translated into our tongue, they have used it 
 so as if their business was not to be saved, but to be damned 
 by its contents. If we consider only them, better had it been 
 
 * 5 for the English nation that it had still remained in the original 
 Greek and Hebrew, or at least in the honest Latin of St. 
 Jerome, than that several texts in it should have been pre- 
 varicated to the destruction of that government which put it 
 into so ungrateful hands. 
 
 20 How many heresies the first translation of Tyndal pro- 
 duced in few years, let my Lord Herbert's ' History of Henry 
 the Eighth ' inform you ; insomuch that for the gross errors 
 in it, and the great mischiefs it occasioned, a sentence passed 
 on the first edition of the Bible, too shameful almost to be 
 
 25 repeated. After the short reign of Edward the Sixth, who had 
 continued to carry on the Reformation on other principles 
 than it was begun, every one knows that not only the chief 
 promoters of that work, but many others, whose consciences 
 would not dispense with Popery, were forced for fear of per- 
 
 30 secution to change climates ; from whence returning at the 
 beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, many of them who had 
 been in France and at Geneva brought back the rigid opinions 
 and imperious discipline of Calvin, to graff upon our Refor- 
 mation ; which, though they cunningly concealed at first, as 
 
 35 well knowing how nauseously that drug would go down in a 
 lawful monarchy which was prescribed for a rebellious com- 
 monwealth, yet they always kept it in reserve, and were never 
 wanting to themselves, either in court or parliament, when 
 
RELIGIO LAICI. 1 2j 
 
 either they had any prospect of a numerous party of fanatic 
 members in the one, or the encouragement of any favourite in 
 the other, whose covetou^ness was gaping at the patrimony 
 of the Church. They who wUl consult the works of our 
 venerable Hooker, or the account of his life, or more parti- 5 
 cularly the letter written to him on this subject by George 
 Cranmer, may see by what gradations they proceeded ; from 
 the dislike of cap and surplice, the very next step was ad- 
 monitions to the parliament against the whole government 
 ecclesiastical ; then came out volumes in English and Latin in 10 
 defence of their tenets ; and immediately practices were set 
 on foot to erect their discipline without authority. Those 
 not succeeding, ^satire and railing was the next ; and Martin 
 Mar-prelate, the Marvel of those times, was the first presby- 
 terian scribbler who sanctified libels and scurrility to the use 15 
 of the good old cause. Which was done, says my author, 
 upon this account : that, their serious treatises having been 
 fully answered and refuted, they might compass by railing 
 what they had lost by reasoning ; and, when their cause was 
 sunk in court and parliament, they might at least hedge in a 20 
 stake amongst the rabble ; for to their ignorance all things are 
 wit which are abusive ; but if Church and State were made 
 the theme, then the doctoral degree of wit was to be taken at 
 Billingsgate ; even the most saint-like of the party, though 
 they durst not excuse this contempt and vilifying of the 25 
 government, yet were pleased, and grinned at it with a 
 pious smile, and called it a judgment of God against the 
 hierarchy. Thus sectaries, we may see, were born with 
 teeth, foul-mouthed and scurrilous from their infancy ; and 
 if spiritual pride, venom, violence, contempt of superiors, 30 
 and slander had been the marks of orthodox belief, the 
 Presbytery and the rest of our Schismatics, which are their 
 spawn, were always the most visible Church in the Chris- 
 tian world. 
 
 'Tis true, the government was too strong at that time for a 35 
 rebellion; but to show what proficiency they had made in 
 Calvin's school, even then their mouths watered at it ; for two 
 of their gifted brotherhood, Racket and Coppinger, as the 
 
128 RELIGIO LAICI. 
 
 story tells us, got up into a pease-cart and harangued the 
 people, to dispose them to an insurrection and to establish 
 their discipline by force ; so that, however it comes about 
 that now they celebrate Queen Elizabeth's birthnight, as that 
 5 of their saint and patroness, yet then they were for doing the 
 work of the Lord by arms against her ; and in all probability 
 they wanted but a fanatic lord-mayor and two sheriffs of 
 their party to have compassed it. 
 
 Our venerable Hooker, after many admonitions which he 
 
 10 had given them, towards the end of his preface breaks out 
 into this prophetic speech : ' There is in every one of these 
 considerations most just cause to fear, lest our hastiness to 
 embrace a thing of so perilous consequence, [meaning the 
 Presbyterian discipline,] should cause posterity to feel those 
 
 15 evils which as yet are more easy for us to prevent than they 
 would be for them to remedy. ' 
 
 How fatally this Cassandra has foretold, we know too 
 well by sad experience: the seeds were sown in the time 
 of Queen Elizabeth, the bloody harvest ripened in the reign 
 
 20 of King Charles the Martyr ; and, because all the sheaves 
 could not be carried off without shedding some of the 
 loose grains, another crop is too likely to follow ; nay, I 
 fear 'tis unavoidable, if the Conventiclers be permitted still 
 to scatter. 
 
 25 A man may be suffered to quote an adversary to our re- 
 ligion, when he speaks truth. And 'tis the observation of 
 Maimbourg, in his ' History of Calvinism,' that, wherever 
 that discipline was planted and embraced, rebellion, civil war, 
 and misery attended it. And how, indeed, should it happen 
 
 30 otherwise ? Reformation of Church and State has always 
 been the ground of our divisions in England. While we were 
 Papists, our holy Father rid us by pretending authority out of 
 the Scriptures to depose princes ; when we shook off his 
 authority, the sectaries furnished themselves with the same 
 
 35 weapons, and out of the same magazine, the Bible : so that 
 the Scriptures, which are in themselves the greatest security 
 of governors, as commanding express obedience to them, are 
 now turned to their destruction ; and never, since the Re- 
 
RELIGIO LAICI. 129 
 
 formation, has there wanted a text of their interpreting to 
 authorize a rebel. And 'tis to be noted, by the way, that the 
 doctrines of king-killing and deposing, which have been taken 
 up only by the worst party of the Papists, the most frontless 
 flatterers of the Pope's authority, have been espoused, 5 
 defended, and are still maintained by the whole body of 
 Nonconformists and Republicans. 'Tis but dubbing them- 
 selves the people of God, which 'tis the interest of their 
 preachers to tell them they are, and their own interest to 
 believe ; and, after that, they cannot dip into the Bible, 10 
 but one text or another will turn up for their purpose : if 
 they are under persecution, as they call it, then that is a 
 mark of their election ; if they flourish, then God works 
 miracles for their deliverance, and the saints are to 
 possess the earth. 15 
 
 They may think themselves to be too roughly handled in 
 this paper ; but I, who know best how far I could have gone 
 on this subject, must be bold to tell them they are spared: 
 though at the same time I am not ignorant that they interpret 
 the mildness of a writer to them, as they do the mercy of the 20 
 government ; in the one they think it fear, and conclude it 
 weakness in the other. The best way for them to confute 
 me is, as I before advised the Papists, to disclaim their 
 principles and renounce their practices. We shall all be 
 glad to think them true Englishmen, when they obey the 25 
 King ; and true Protestants, when they conform to the 
 Church discipline. 
 
 It remains that I acquaint the reader, that the verses were 
 written for an ingenious young gentleman, my friend, upon 
 his Translation of * The Critical History of the Old Testa- 30 
 ment, ' composed by the learned Father Simon : the verses 
 therefore are addressed to the translator of that work, and 
 the style of them is, what it ought to be, epistolary. 
 
 If any one be so lamentable a critic as to require the 
 smoothness, the numbers, and the turn of heroic poetry in 35 
 this poem, I must tell him, that, if he has not read Horace, I 
 have studied him, and hope the style of his Epistles is not ill 
 imitated here. The expressions of a poem designed purely 
 
 K 
 
130 RELIGIO LAICI. 
 
 for instruction ought to be plain and natural, and yet majestic : 
 for here the poet is presumed to be a kind of lawgiver, and 
 those three qualities which I have named are proper to the 
 legislative style. The florid, elevated, and figurative way is 
 5 for the passions ; for love and hatred, fear and anger, are be- 
 gotten in the soul by showing their objects out of their true 
 proportion, either greater than the life or less; but instruc- 
 tion is to be given by showing them what they naturally are. 
 A man is to be cheated into passion, but to be reasoned into 
 jo truth. 
 
RELIGIO LAICI. 
 
 DIM as the borrowed beams of moon and stars 
 
 To lonely, weary, wandering travellers 
 
 Is Reason to the soul : and as on high 
 
 Those rolling fires discover but the sky, 
 
 Not light us here, so Reason's glimmering ray 5 
 
 Was lent, not to assure our doubtful way, 
 
 But guide us upward to a better day. 
 
 And as those nightly tapers disappear 
 
 When day's bright lord ascends our hemisphere, 
 
 So pale grows Reason at Religion's sight, 10 
 
 So dies, and so dissolves in supernatural light. 
 
 Some few, whose lamp shone brighter, have been led 
 
 From cause to cause to Nature's secret head, 
 
 And found that one first principle must be ; 
 
 But what or who that UNIVERSAL HE; 15 
 
 Whether some soul encompassing this ball, 
 
 Unmade, unmoved, yet making, moving all, 
 
 Or various atoms' interfering dance 
 
 Leapt into form (the noble work of chance,)- 
 
 Or this great All was from eternity, 20 
 
 Not even the Stagirite himself could ^see, 
 
 And Epicurus guessed as well as he. 
 
 As blindly groped they for a future state, 
 
 As rashly judged of Providence and Fate. 
 
 But least of all could their endeavours find 
 
 What most concerned the good of human kind ; 
 
 concerning the 
 
 For Happiness was never to be found, nuS. mum Bo 
 
 But vanished from them like enchanted ground. 
 One thought Content the good to be enjoyed ; 
 This every little accident destroyed. 3 
 
 The wiser madmen did for Virtue toil, 
 K 2 
 
132 RELIGIO LAICI. 
 
 A thorny, or at best a barren soil ; 
 
 . In Pleasure some their glutton souls would steep, 
 
 But found their line too short, the well too deep, 
 And leaky vessels which no bliss could keep. 35 
 
 Thus anxious thoughts in endless circles roll, 
 Without a centre where to fix the soul. 
 In this wild maze their vain endeavours end : 
 How 'can the less the greater comprehend ? 
 Or finite Reason reach Infinity? 40 
 
 For what could fathom GOD were more than He. 
 
 system of The Deist thinks he stands on firmer ground, 
 
 Cries cvprjua, the mighty secret's found : 
 God is that spring of good, supreme and best, 
 We made to serve, and in that service blest ; 45 
 If so, some rules of worship must be given, 
 Distributed alike to all by Heaven ; 
 Else God were partial, and to some denied 
 The means His justice should for all provide. 
 This general worship is to PRAISE and PRAY ; 50 
 One part to borrow blessings, one to pay ; 
 And when frail nature slides into offence, 
 The sacrifice for crimes is penitence. 
 Yet since the effects of Providence, we find, 
 Are variously dispensed to human kind ; 55 
 
 7^3. That vice trunnphs and virtue suffers here, 
 
 (A brand that sovereign justice cannot bear :) 
 Our Reason prompts us to a future state, 
 The last appeal from Fortune and from Fate, 
 Where God's all-righteous ways will be declared, 60 
 . The bad meet punishment, the good reward. 
 
 of revealed Thus man by his own strength to Heaven would 
 
 religion. 
 
 soar 
 
 And would not be obliged to God for more. 
 Vain, wretched creature, how art thou misled 
 To think thy wit these god-like notions bred ! 65 
 These truths are not the product of thy mind, 
 But dropped from Heaven, and of a nobler kind. 
 Revealed Religion first informed thy sight, 
 
RELIGIO LAICI. 133 
 
 And Reason saw not till Faith sprung the light. 
 
 Hence all thy natural worship takes the source : 70 
 
 'Tis Revelation what thou thinkst Discourse. 
 
 Else how comest thou to see these truths so clear, 
 
 Which so obscure to heathens did appear? 
 
 Not Plato these, nor Aristotle found, 
 
 Nor he whose wisdom oracles renowned. 75s<r/. 
 
 Hast thou a wit so deep or so sublime, 
 
 Or canst thou lower dive or higher climb ? 
 
 Canst thou by reason more of Godhead know 
 
 Than Plutarch, Seneca, or Cicero ? 
 
 Those giant wits, in happier ages born, So 
 
 When arms and arts did Greece and Rome adorn, 
 
 Knew no such system^ no such piles could raise 
 
 Of natural worship, built on prayer and praise 
 
 To one sole GOD : 
 
 Nor did remorse to expiate sin prescribe, 85 
 
 But slew their fellow creatures for a bribe : 
 
 The guiltless victim groaned for their offence, 
 
 And cruelty and blood was penitence. 
 
 If sheep and oxen could atone for men, 
 
 Ah ! at how cheap a rate the rich might sin ! 90 
 
 And great oppressors might Heaven's wrath beguile 
 
 By offering his own creatures for a spoil! 
 
 Darest thou, poor worm, offend Infinity? <"/ 3^ 
 
 And "must the terms of peace be given by thee ? 
 Then thou art Justice in the last appeal; 95 
 
 Thy easy God instructs thee to rebel, 
 And, like a king remote and weak, must take 
 What satisfaction thou art pleased to make. 
 
 But if there be a power too just and strong ^ 
 
 To wink at crimes and bear unpunished wrong, 100 
 Look humbly upward, see his will disclose 
 The forfeit first, and then the fine impose : 
 A mulct thy poverty could never pay, 
 Had not Eternal Wisdom found the way, 
 And with celestial wealth supplied thy store; 105 
 His justice makes the fine, His mercy quits the score. 
 
134 RELIGIO LAICI. 
 
 See God descending in thy human frame ; 
 The offended suffering in the offender's name : 
 
 1A11 thy misdeeds to Him imputed see, 
 And all His righteousness devolved on thee. no 
 
 For granting we have sinned, and that the offence 
 Of man is made against Omnipotence, 
 Some price that bears proportion must be paid, 
 And infinite with infinite be weighed. 
 See then the Deist lost: remorse for vice 115 
 
 Not paid, or paid inadequate in price : 
 What further means can Reason now direct, 
 Or what relief from human wit expect ? 
 That shows us sickj^and sadly are we sure 
 Still to be sick, till Heaven reveal the cure: 120 
 If then Heaven's will must needs be understood, 
 Which must, if we want cure and Heaven be good, 
 "# ^. Let aif records of will revealed be shown, 
 With Scripture all in equal balance thrown, 
 And our one Sacred Book will be that one. 125 
 
 Proof needs not here ; for whether we compare 
 That impious, idle, superstitious ware 
 Of rites, lustrations, offerings, which before, 
 In various ages, various countries bore, 
 With Christian Faith and Virtues, we shall find 130. 
 None answering the great ends of human kind, 
 But this one rule of lifej^that shows us best 
 How God may be appeased and mortals blest. 
 Whether from length of time its worth we draw, 
 The world is scarce more ancient than the law : 135 
 Heaven's early care prescribed for every age, 
 First, in the soul, and after, in the page. 
 Or whether more abstractedly we look 
 Or on the writers or the written book, 
 Whence but from Heaven could men, unskilled in arts, 
 In several ages born, in several parts, 141 
 
 Weave such agreeing truths^ or how or why 
 Should all conspire to cheat us with a lie ? 
 Unasked their pains, ungrateful their advice, 
 
RELIGIO LAICI. 135 
 
 Starving their gain and martyrdom their price. 145 
 
 If on the Book itself we cast our view, 
 Concurrent heathens prove the story true : 
 The doctrine, miracles; which must convince, 
 For Heaven in them appeals to human sense; 
 And though they prove not, they confirm the cause, 150 
 When what is taught agrees with Nature's laws. 
 
 Then for the style, majestic ^and divine, 
 It speaks no less than God in every line ; 
 Commanding words, whose force is still the same 
 As the first fiat that produced our frame. 155 
 
 All faiths beside or did by arms ascend, 
 Or sense indulged has made mankind their friend; 
 This only doctrine does our lusts oppose, 
 Unfed by nature's soil, in which it grows, 
 Cross to our interests, curbing sense and sin ; 1 60 
 Oppressed without and undermined within, 
 It thrives through pain ; its own torment ers tires, 
 And with a stubborn patience still aspires. 
 To what can Reason such effects assign, 
 Transcending Nature, but to laws divine? 165 
 
 Which in that sacred volume are contained ; 
 Sufficient, clear, and for that use ordained; 
 
 But stay ; the Deist here will urge anew, objection of 
 
 3 J the Deist, 
 
 No supernatural worship can be true ; 
 
 Because a general law is that alone 170 
 
 Which must to all and everywhere be known: _ 
 
 A style so large as not this Book can claim, 
 
 Nor aught that bears Revealed Religion's name. 
 
 'Tis said the sound of a Messiah's birth 
 
 Is gone through all the habitable earth; 175 
 
 But still that text must be confined alone 
 
 To what was then inhabited, and known : 
 
 And what provision could from thence accrue 
 
 To Indian souls and worlds discovered new? 
 
 In other parts it helps, that, ages past, 180 
 
 The Scriptures there were known, and were embraced, 
 
 Till Sin spread once again the shades of night : 
 
136 RELIGIO LA TCI. 
 
 What's that to these who never saw the light ? 
 nan- c ' of al l objections this indeed is chief 
 
 were*. ^o startle reason, stagger frail belief: 185 
 
 We grant, 'tis true, that Heaven from human sense 
 Has hid the secret paths of Providence ; 
 But boundless wisdom, boundless mercy may 
 Find even for those bewildered souls a way ; 
 If from His nature foes may pity claim, 190 
 
 Much more may strangers who ne'er heard His name. 
 And though no name be for salvation known, 
 But that of His Eternal Son]s alone; 
 Who knows how far transcending goodness can 
 Extend the merits of that Son to man? 195 
 
 Who knows what reasons may His mercy lead, 
 Or ignorance invincible may plead? 
 ^ Not only charity bids hope the best, 
 
 , But more the great Apostle has exprest: 
 
 ip* That if the Gentiles, whom no law inspired, 200 
 
 By nature did what was by law required, 
 They who the written rule had never known 
 Were to themselves both rule and law alone, 
 To Nature's plain indictment they shall plead 
 And by their conscience be condemned or freed. 205 
 Most righteous doom ! because a rule revealed 
 Is none to those from whom it was concealed. 
 Then those who followed Reason's dictates right, 
 Lived up, and lifted high their natural light, 
 With Socrates may see their Maker's face, 210 
 
 While thousand rubric-martyrs want a place. 
 
 Nor does it baulk my charity to find 
 The Egyptian Bishop of another mind ; 
 For, though his Creed eternal truth contains, 
 'Tis hard for man to doom to endless pains 215 
 
 All who believed not all his zeal required, 
 Unless he first could prove he was inspired. 
 Then let us either think he meant to say 
 This faith, where published, was the only way; 
 Or else conclude that, Arius to confute, 220 
 
RELIGIO LAICI. 137 
 
 The good old man, too eager in dispute, 
 Flew high; and, as his Christian fury rose, 
 Damned all for heretics who durst oppose. 
 
 Thus far my charity this path hath tried, ?Jfhe S Tr"ns- 
 
 (A much unskilful, but well meaning guide;) 225 j-^Lfis*- 
 Yet what they are, even these crude thoughts w 
 By reading that which better thou hast read, 
 Thy matchless author's work, which thou, m 
 By well translating better dost commend. 
 Those youthful hours, which of thy equals most 230 
 In toys have squandered or in vice have lost, 
 Those hours hast thou to nobler use employed, 
 And the severe delights of truth enjoyed. 
 Witness this weighty book, in which appears 
 The crabbed toil of many thoughtful years, 235 
 
 Spent by thy author in the sifting care 
 Of Rabbins' old sophisticated ware 
 From gold divine, which he who well can sort 
 May afterwards make Algebra a sport ; 
 A treasure which, if country curates buy, 240 
 
 They Junius and Tremellius may defy, 
 Save pains in various readings and translations, 
 And without Hebrew make most learned quotations; 
 A work so full with various learning fraught, 
 So nicely pondered, yet so strongly wrought 245 
 
 As Nature's height and Art's last hand required : 
 As much as man could compass, uninspired. 
 Where we may see what errors have been made 
 Both in the copier's and translator's trade; 
 How Jewish, Popish interests have prevailed, 250 
 And where Infallibility has failed. 
 
 For some, who have his secret meaning guessed, 
 Have found our author not too much a priest; 
 For fashion-sake he seems to have recourse 
 To Pope and Councils and Tradition's force : 255 
 But he that old traditions could subdue 
 Could not but find the weakness of the new : 
 If Scripture, though derived from heavenly birth, 
 
138 RELIGIO LAICI. 
 
 Has been but carelessly preserved on earth; 
 If God's own people, who of God before 260 
 
 Knew what we know, and had been promised more 
 In fuller terms of Heaven's assisting care, 
 And who did neither time nor study spare 
 To keep this Book untainted, unperplext, 
 Let in gross errors to corrupt the text, 265 
 
 Omitted paragraphs, embroiled the sense, 
 With vain traditions stopped the gaping fence, 
 Which every common hand pulled up with ease, 
 What safety from such brushwood-helps as these ? 
 If written words from time are not secured, 270 
 How can we think have oral sounds endured ? 
 Which thus transmitted, if one mouth has failed, 
 Immortal lies on ages are entailed; 
 And that some such have been, is proved too plain ; 
 7 If we consider Interest, Church, and Gain. 275 
 
 On ? but/says one, Tradition set aside, 
 
 Where can we hope for an unerring guide ? 
 
 libility of 
 
 Tradition i 
 
 general. p Qr gj nce ^6 or jgi na l Scripture has been lost 
 
 All copies disagreeing, maimed the most, 
 
 Or Christian faith can have no certain ground 280 
 
 Or truth in Church tradition must be found. 
 
 Such ah omniscient Church we wish indeed; 
 'Twere worth both Testaments, and cast in the Creed ; 
 But if this mother be a guide so sure 
 As can all doubte resolve, all truth secure, 285 
 
 Then her infallibility as well 
 Where copies are corrupt or lame can tell ; 
 Restore lost canon with as little pains, 
 As truly explicate what still remains; 
 Which yet no Council dare pretend to do, 290 
 
 Unless, like Esdras, they could write it new; 
 Strange confidence, still to interpret true, 
 Yet not be sure that all they have explained 
 Is in the blest original contained. 
 More safe and much more modest 'tis to say, 295 
 God would not leave mankind without a way : 
 
RELIGIO LAICI. 139 
 
 And that the Scriptures, though not everywhere 
 
 Free from corruption, or entire, or clear, 
 
 Are uncorrupt, sufficient, clear, entire, 
 
 In all things which our needful faith require. 300 
 
 If others in the same glass better see, 
 
 'Tis for themselves they look, but not for me; 
 
 For MY salvation must its doom receive, 
 
 Not from what OTHERS, but what I, believe. 
 
 Must all tradition then be set aside ? 305 objection in 
 
 This to affirm were ignorance or pride. Tradition 
 
 Are there not many points, some needful sure thersimon. 
 
 To saving faith, that Scripture leaves obscure, 
 Which every sect will wrest a several way? 
 For what one sect interprets, all sects may. 310 
 
 We hold, and say we prove from Scripture plain, 
 That Christ is GOD; the bold Socinian 
 From the same Scripture urges he's but MAN. 
 Now what appeal can end the important suit? 
 Both parts talk loudly, but the rule is mute. 315 
 
 Shall I speak plain, and in a nation free 
 Assume an honest layman's liberty? 
 I think, according to my little skill, 
 To my own mother Church submitting still, 
 That many have been saved, and many may, 320 
 Who never heard this question brought in play. 
 The unlettered Christian, who believes in gross, 
 Plods on to Heaven and ne'er is at a loss; 
 For the strait gate would be made straiter yet, 
 Were none admitted there but men of wit. 325 
 
 The few by Nature formed, with learning fraught, 
 Born to instruct, as others to be taught, 
 Must study well the sacred page ; and see 
 Which doctrine, this or that, does best agree 
 With the whole tenour of the work divine, 330 
 
 And plainliest points to Heaven's revealed design ; 
 Which exposition flows from genuine sense, 
 And which is forced by wit and eloquence. 
 Not that Tradition's parts are useless here, 
 
140 
 
 RELIGIO LAICI. 
 
 The second 
 objection. 
 
 Answer to 
 the objection. 
 
 When general, old, disinteressed, and clear: 335 
 
 That ancient Fathers thus expound the page ^/^<t*. 
 
 Gives truth the reverend majesty of age, i>>>*- 
 
 Confirms its force by biding every test, 
 
 For best authorities, next rules, are best; 
 
 And still the nearer to the spring we go, 340 
 
 More limpid, more unsoiled, the waters flow. 
 
 Thus, first traditions were a proof alone, 
 
 Could we be certain such they were, so known: 
 
 But since some flaws in long descent may be, 
 
 They make not truth but probability. 345 
 
 Even Arius and Pelagius durst provoke 
 
 To what the centuries preceding spoke. 
 
 Such difference is there in an oft-told tale, 
 
 But truth by its own sinews will prevail. 
 
 Tradition written, therefore, more commends 350 
 
 Authority than what from voice descends : 
 
 And this, as perfect as its kind can be, 
 
 Rolls down to us the sacred history: 
 
 Which, from the Universal Church received, 
 
 Is tried, and after for its^self believed. 355 
 
 The partial Papists would infer fromjjience, 
 Their Church in last resort should judge the sense. 
 But first they would assume with wondrous art 
 Themselves to be the whole, who are but part 
 Of that vast frame, the Church ; yet grant they were 
 The handers down, can they from jthence infer 361 
 A right tojnterpret? or would they alone 
 Who brought the present, claim it for their own ? 
 The Book's a common largess to mankind, 
 Not more for them than every man designed; 365 
 The welcome news is in the letter found; 
 The carrier's not commissioned to expound. 
 It speaks its_self, and what it does contain 
 In all things needful to be known is plain. 
 
 In times o'ergrown with rust and ignorance 370 
 A gainful trade their clergy did advance; 
 When want of learning kept the laymen low 
 
RELIGIO LAICI. 141 
 
 And none but priests were authorized to know; 
 
 When what small knowledge was in them did dwell 
 
 And he a God who could but read or spell; 375 
 
 Then Mother Church did mightily prevail; 
 
 She parcelled out the Bible by retail, 
 
 But still expounded what she sold or gave, 
 
 To keep it in her power to damn and save. 
 
 Scripture was scarce, and as the market went, 380 
 
 Poor laymen took salvation on content, 
 
 As needy men take money, good or bad; 
 
 God's word they had not, but the priest's they had. 
 
 Yet, whate'er false conveyances they made, 
 
 The lawyer still was certain to be paid. 385 
 
 In those dark times they learned their knack so well. 
 
 That by long use they grew infallible. 
 
 At last, a knowing age began to inquire 
 
 If they the Book or that did them inspire ; 
 
 And making narrower search they found, though late, 
 
 That what they thought the nriest's was their estate, 391 
 
 Taught by the will produced, the written word, 
 
 How long they had been cheated on record. 
 
 Then every man, who saw the title fair, 
 
 Claimed a child's part and put in for a share, 395 
 
 Consulted soberly his private good, 
 
 And saved himself as cheap as e'er he could. 
 
 'Tis true, my friend (and far be flattery hence), 
 This good had full as bad a consequence; 
 The Book thus put in every vulgar hand, 400 
 
 Which each presumed he best could understand, 
 The common rule was made the common prey, 
 And at the mercy of the rabble lay. 
 The tender page with horny fists was galled, 
 And he was gifted most that loudest bawled; 405 
 The spirit gave the doctoral degree, 
 And every member of a Company 
 Was of his trade and of the Bible free. 
 Plain truths enough for needful use they found, 
 But men would still be itching to expound; 410 
 
142 RELIGIO LAICI. 
 
 Each was ambitious of the obscurest place, 
 
 No measure ta'en from Knowledge, all from GRACE. 
 
 Study and pains were now no more their care, 
 
 Texts were explained by fasting and by prayer: 
 
 This was the fruit the private spirit brought, 415 
 
 Occasioned by great zeal and little thought. 
 
 While crowds unlearned, with rude devotion warm, 
 
 About the sacred viands buzz and swarm; 
 
 The fly-blown text creates a crawling brood 
 
 And turns to maggots what was meant for food. 420 
 
 A thousand daily sects rise up and die, 
 
 A thousand more the perished race supply : 
 
 So all we make of Heaven's discovered will 
 
 Is not to have it or to use it ill. 
 
 The danger's much the same, on several shelves 425 
 
 If others wreck us or we wreck ourselves. 
 
 What then remains but, waving each extreme, 
 The tides of ignorance and pride to stem ? 
 Neither so rich a treasure to forgo 
 Nor proudly seek beyond our power to know? 430 
 Faith is not built on disquisitions vain; 
 The things we must believe are few and plain: 
 But since men will believe more than they need 
 And every man will make himself a creed, 
 In doubtful questions 'tis the safest way \ 435 
 
 To learn what unsuspected ancients say; 
 For 'tis not likely we should higher soar 
 In search of Heaven than all the Church before ; 
 Nor can we be deceived, unless we see 
 The Scripture and the Fathers disagree. 440 
 
 If after all they stand suspected still, 
 (For no man's faith depends upon his will,) 
 'Tis some relief, that points not clearly known 
 Without much hazard may be let alone; 
 And after hearing what our Church can say, 445 
 If still our reason runs another way, 
 That private reason 'tis more just to curb 
 Than by disputes the public peace disturb. 
 
RELIGIO LAICI. 143 
 
 For points obscure are of small use to learn : 
 
 But common quiet is mankind's concern. 450 
 
 Thus have I made my own opinions clear, 
 Yet neither praise expect nor censure fear; 
 And this unpolished rugged verse I chose 
 As fittest for discourse and nearest prose; 
 For while from sacred truth I do not swerve, 455 
 Tom Sternhold's or Tom ShadwelPs rhymes will serve. 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 A POEM. 
 IN THREE PARTS. 
 
 'Antiquam exquirite matrem.' 
 
 VIRG. [>E. iii. 96.] 
 
 'Et vera incessu patuit Dea.' 
 
 \Ibid. i. 405.] 
 
TO THE READER. 
 
 THE nation is in too high a ferment for me to expect 
 either fair war or even so much as fair quarter from a reader 
 of the opposite party. All men are engaged either on this 
 side or that ; and though conscience is the common word 5 
 which is given by both, yet if a writer fall among enemies 
 and cannot give the marks of their conscience, he is knocked 
 down before the reasons of his own are heard. A Preface, 
 therefore, which is but a bespeaking of favour, is altogether 
 useless. What I desire the reader should know concerning 10 
 me he will find in the body of the poem, if he have but the 
 patience to peruse it. Only this advertisement let him take 
 beforehand, which relates to the merits of the cause. No gen- 
 eral characters of parties (call 'em either Sects or Churches) 
 can be so fully and exactly drawn as to comprehend all the 15 
 several members of 'em ; at least all such as are received 
 under that denomination. For example : there are some of 
 the Church by law established who envy not liberty of con- 
 science to Dissenters, as being well satisfied that, according 
 to their own principles, they ought not to persecute them. 20 
 Yet these by reason of their fewness I could not distinguish 
 from the numbers of the rest, with whom they are embodied 
 in one common name. On the other side, there are many of 
 our sects, and more indeed than I could reasonably have 
 hoped, who have withdrawn themselves from the communion 25 
 of the Panther and embraced this gracious Indulgence of his 
 Majesty in point of toleration. But neither to the one nor 
 the other of these is this Satire any way intended : 'tis aimed 
 only at the refractory and disobedient on either side. For 
 those who have come over to the royal party are consequently 30 
 L 2 
 
148 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 supposed to be out of gun-shot. Our physicians have ob- 
 served, that in process of time some diseases have abated of 
 their virulence and have in a manner worn out their malignity, 
 so as to be no longer mortal: and why may not I suppose 
 
 5 the same concerning some of those who have formerly been 
 enemies to kingly government as well as Catholic religion? 
 I hope they have now another notion of both, as having found 
 by comfortable experience that the doctrine of persecution is 
 far from being an article of our faith. 
 
 i 'Tis not for any private man to censure the proceedings of 
 a foreign Prince ; but without suspicion of flattery I may 
 praise our own, who has taken contrary measures, and those 
 more suitable to the spirit of Christianity. Some of the 
 Dissenters, in their addresses to his Majesty, have said ' that 
 
 15 he has restored God to his empire over conscience/ I confess 
 I dare not stretch the figure to so great a boldness ; but I 
 may safely say, that conscience is the royalty and prerogative 
 of every private man. He is absolute in his own breast, and 
 accountable to no earthly power for that which passes only 
 
 20 betwixt God and him. Those who are driven into the fold 
 
 are, generally speaking, rather made hypocrites than converts. 
 
 This indulgence being granted to all the sects," it ought in 
 
 reason to be expected that they should both receive it and 
 
 receive it thankfully. For at this time of day to refuse the 
 
 25 benefit and adhere to those whom they have esteemed their 
 persecutors, what is it else but publicly to own that they 
 suffered not before for conscience sake, but only out of pride 
 and obstinacy to separate from a Church for those impositions 
 which they now judge may be lawfully obeyed ? After they 
 
 30 have so long contended for their classical ordination (not to 
 speak of rites and ceremonies), will they at length submit to 
 an episcopal ? If they can go so far out of complaisance to 
 their old enemies, methinks a little reason should persuade 'em 
 to take another step, and see whither that would lead 'em. 
 
 35 Of the receiving this toleration thankfully I shall say no 
 more than that they ought, and I doubt not they will, 
 consider from what hands they received it. 'Tis not from a 
 Cyrus, a heathen prince and a foreigner, but from a Christian 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 149 
 
 king, their native sovereign, who expects a return in specie 
 from them, that the kindness which he has graciously shown 
 them may be retaliated on those of his own persuasion. 
 
 As for the Poem in general, I will only thus far satisfy the 
 reader, that it was neither imposed on me nor so much as the 5 
 subject given me by any man. It was written during the last 
 winter and the beginning of this spring ; though with long 
 interruptions of ill health and other hindrances. About a 
 fortnight before I had finished it, his Majesty's Declaration 
 for Liberty of Conscience came abroad : which if I had so 10 
 soon expected, I might have spared myself the labour of 
 writing many things which are contained in the Third Part 
 of it. But I was always in some hope that the Church of 
 England might have been persuaded to have taken off the 
 Penal Laws and the Test, which was one design of the Poem 15 
 when I proposed to myself the writing of it. 
 
 It is evident that some part of it was only occasional, and 
 not first intended : I mean that defence of myself, to which 
 every honest man is bound, when he is injuriously attacked in 
 print : and I refer myself to the judgment of those who have 20 
 read the Answer to the Defence of the late King's Papers, 
 and that of the Duchess (in which last I was concerned), how 
 charitably I have been represented there. I am now informed 
 both of the author and supervisers of his pamphlet, and will 
 reply, when I think he can affront me : for I am of Socrates's 25 
 opinion, that all creatures cannot. In the mean time let him 
 consider whether he deserved not a more severe reprehension 
 than I gave him formerly, for using so little respect to the 
 memory of those whom he pretended to answer; and at 
 his leisure look out for some original Treatise of Humility, 3 
 written by any Protestant in English, I believe I may say in 
 any other tongue : for the magnified piece of Duncomb on 
 that subject, which either he must mean or none, and with 
 which another of his fellows has upbraided me, was translated 
 from the Spanish of Rodriguez; though with the omission of 35 
 the seventeenth, the twenty-fourth, the twenty-fifth, and the 
 last chapter, which will be found in comparing of the books. 
 
 He would have insinuated to the world, that her late 
 
150 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Highness died not a Roman Catholic ; he declares himself to 
 be now satisfied to the contrary, in which he has given up the 
 cause, for matter of fact was the principal debate betwixt us. 
 In the mean time, he would dispute the motives of her change ; 
 5 how preposterously, let all men judge, when he seemed to 
 deny the subject of the controversy, the change itself. And 
 because I would not take up this ridiculous challenge, he tells 
 the world I cannot argue: but he may as well infer that a 
 Catholic cannot fast because he will not take up the cudgels 
 
 10 against Mrs. James to confute the Protestant religion. 
 
 I have but one word more to say concerning the Poem as 
 such, and abstracting from the matters, either religious or civil, 
 which are handled in it. The First Part, consisting most in 
 general characters and narration, I have endeavoured to raise, 
 
 1 5 and give it the majestic turn of heroic poesy. The second 
 being matter of dispute, and chiefly concerning Church au- 
 thority, I was obliged to make as plain and perspicuous as 
 possibly I could; yet not wholly neglecting the numbers, 
 though I had not frequent occasions for the magnificence of 
 
 20 verse. The third, which has more of the nature of domestic 
 conversation, is or ought to be more free and familiar than 
 the two former. 
 
 There are in it two Episodes or Fables, which are inter- 
 woven with the main design ; so that they are properly parts 
 
 25 of it, though they are also distinct stories of themselves. In 
 both of these I have made use of the commonplaces of satire, 
 whether true or false, which are urged by the members of 
 the one Church against the other ; at which I hope no reader 
 of either party will be scandalized, because they are not of 
 
 30 my invention, but as old, to my knowledge, as the times of 
 Boccace and Chaucer on the one side and as those of the 
 Reformation on the other. 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER, 
 
 A MILK-WHITE Hind, immortal and unchanged, 
 
 Fed on the lawns and in the forest ranged; 
 
 Without unspotted, innocent within, 
 
 She feared no danger, for she knew no sin. 
 
 Yet had she oft been chased with horns and hounds 5 
 
 And Scythian shafts, and many winged wounds 
 
 Aimed at her heart; was often forced to fly, 
 
 And doomed to death, though fated not to die. 
 
 Not so her young; for their unequal line 
 Was hero's make, half human, half divine. 10 
 
 Their earthly mould obnoxious was to fate, 
 The immortal part assumed immortal state. 
 Of these a slaughtered army lay in blood, 
 Extended o'er the Caledonian wood, 
 
 Their native walk; whose vocal blood arose 15 
 
 And cried for pardon on their perjured foes. 
 Their fate was fruitful, and the sanguine seed, 
 Endued with souls, increased the sacred breed. 
 So captive Israel multiplied in chains, 
 
 A numerous exile, and enjoyed her pains. 20 
 
 With grief and gladness mixed, their mother viewed 
 Her martyred offspring and their race renewed; 
 Their corps to perish, but their kind to last, 
 So much the deathless plant the dying fruit surpassed. 
 
 Panting and pensive now she ranged alone, 25 
 
 And wandered in the kingdoms once her own. 
 The common hunt, though from their rage restrained 
 By sovereign power, her company disdained, 
 Grinned as they passed, and with a glaring eye 
 Gave gloomy signs of secret enmity. 30 
 
15% THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 'Tis true she bounded by and tripped so light, 
 They had not time to take a steady sight ; 
 For truth has such a face and such a mien 
 As to be loved needs only to be seen. 
 
 The bloody Bear, an independent beast, 35 
 
 Unlicked to form, in groans her hate expressed. 
 Among the timorous kind the quaking Hare 
 Professed neutrality, but would not swear. 
 Next her the buffoon Ape, as atheists use, 
 Mimicked all sects and had his own to chuse ; 40 
 
 Still when the Lion looked, his knees he bent, 
 And paid at church a courtier's compliment. 
 The bristled baptist Boar, impure as he, 
 But whitened with the foam of sanctity, 
 With fat pollutions filled the sacred place 45 
 
 ^\nd mountains levelled in his furious race ; 
 So first rebellion founded was in grace. 
 But, since the mighty ravage which he made 
 In German forests had his guilt betrayed, 
 With broken tusks and with a borrowed name, 50 
 
 He shunned the vengeance and concealed the shame, 
 So lurked in sects unseen. With greater guile 
 False Reynard fed on consecrated spoil; 
 The graceless beast by Athanasius first 
 Was chased from Nice, then by Socinus nursed, 55 
 
 His impious race their blasphemy renewed, 
 And Nature's king through Nature's optics viewed; 
 Reversed they viewed him lessened to their eye, 
 Nor in an infant could a God descry. 
 
 New swarming sects to this obliquely tend, 60 
 
 Hence they began, and here they all will end. 
 
 What weight of ancient witness can prevail, 
 If private reason hold the public scale? 
 But, gracious God, how well dost thou provide 
 For erring judgments an unerring guide ! 65 
 
 Thy throne is darkness in the abyss of light, 
 A blaze of glory that forbids the sight. 
 O teach me to believe Thee thus concealed, . 
 
PART I. 153 
 
 And search no farther than Thy self revealed ; 
 But her alone for my director take, 70 
 
 Whom Thou hast promised never to forsake! 
 My thoughtless youth was winged with vain desires; 
 My manhood, long misled by wandering fires, 
 Followed false lights; and when their glimpse was gone 
 My pride struck out new sparkles of her own. 75 
 
 Such was I, such by nature still I am; 
 Be Thine the glory and be mine the shame! 
 Good life be now my task; my doubts are done; 
 What more could fright my faith than Three in One? 
 Can I believe eternal God could lie 80 
 
 Disguised in mortal mould and infancy, 
 That the great Maker of the world could die? 
 And, after that, trust my imperfect sense 
 Which calls in question His omnipotence? 
 Can I my reason to my faith compel, 85 
 
 And shall my sight and touch and taste rebel? 
 Superior faculties are set aside; 
 Shall their subservient organs be my guide? 
 And let the moon usurp the rule of day, 
 And winking tapers show the sun his way; 90 
 
 For what my senses can themselves perceive 
 I need no revelation to believe. 
 Can they, who say the Host should be descried 
 By sense, define a body glorified, 
 
 Impassible, and penetrating parts? 95 
 
 Let them declare by what mysterious arts 
 He shot that body through the opposing might 
 Of bolts and bars impervious to the light, 
 And stood before His train confessed in open sight. 
 For since thus wondrously He passed, 'tis plain 100 
 
 One single place two bodies did contain, 
 And sure the same omnipotence as well 
 Can make one body in more places dwell. 
 Let Reason then at her own quarry fly, 
 But how can finite grasp infinity? 105 
 
 'Tis urged again, that faith did first commence 
 
154 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 By miracles, which are appeals to sense, 
 
 And thence concluded, that our sense must be 
 
 The motive still of credibility. 
 
 For latter ages must on former wait, no 
 
 And what began belief must propagate. 
 
 But winnow well this thought, and you shall find 
 'Tis light as chaff that flies before the wind. 
 Were all those wonders wrought by power divine 
 As means or ends of some more deep design ? 115 
 
 Most sure as means, whose end was this alone, 
 To prove the Godhead of the Eternal Son. 
 God thus asserted: man is to believe 
 Beyond what Sense and Reason can conceive, 
 And for mysterious things of faith rely 120 
 
 On the proponent Heaven's authority. 
 If then our faith we for our guide admit, 
 Vain is the farther search of human wit ; 
 As when the building gains a surer stay, 
 We take the unuseful scaffolding away. 125 
 
 Reason by sense no more can understand; 
 The game is played into another hand. 
 Why choose we then like bilanders to creep 
 Along the coast, and land in view to keep, 
 When safely we may launch into the deep? 130 
 
 In the same vessel which our Saviour bore, 
 Himself the pilot, let us leave the shore, 
 And with a better guide a better world explore. 
 Gould He his Godhead veil with flesh and blood 
 And not veil these again to be our food? 135 
 
 His grace in both is equal in extent; 
 The first affords us life, the second nourishment. 
 And if He can, why all this frantic pain 
 To construe what his clearest words contain, 
 And make a riddle what He made so plain? 140 
 
 To take up half on trust and half to try, 
 Name it not faith, but bungling bigotry. 
 Both knave and fool the merchant we may call 
 To pay great sums and to compound the small, 
 
PART I. 155 
 
 For who would break with Heaven, and would not break 
 
 for all? 145 
 
 Rest then, my soul, from endless anguish freed : 
 Nor sciences thy guide, nor sense thy creed. 
 Faith is the best insurer of thy bliss ; 
 The bank above must fail before the venture miss. 
 But Heaven and heaven-born faith are far from thee, 150 
 Thou first apostate to divinity. 
 Unkennelled range in thy Polonian plains ; 
 A fiercer foe, the insatiate Wolf remains. 
 
 Too boastful Britain, please thyself no more 
 That beasts of prey are banished from thy shore; 155 
 The Bear, the Boar, and every savage name, 
 Wild in effect, though in appearance tame, 
 Lay waste thy woods, destroy thy blissful bower, 
 And, muzzled though they seem, the mutes devour. 
 More haughty than the rest, the wolfish race 160 
 
 Appear with belly gaunt and famished face ; 
 Never was so deformed a beast of grace. 
 His ragged tail betwixt his legs he wears, 
 Close clapped for shame ; but his rough crest he rears, 
 And pricks up his predestinating ears. 165 
 
 His wild disordered walk, his haggered eyes, 
 Did all the bestial citizens surprise ; 
 Though feared and hated, yet he ruled a w r hile, 
 As captain or companion of the spoil. 
 
 Full many a year his hateful head had been 170 
 
 For tribute paid, nor since in Cambria seen ; 
 The last of all the litter scaped by chance, 
 And from Geneva first infested France. 
 Some authors thus his pedigree will trace, 
 But others write him of an upstart race; 175 
 
 Because of WicklifFs brood no mark he brings 
 But his innate antipathy to kings. 
 These last deduce him from the Helvetian kind, ' 
 Who near the Leman lake his consort lined : 
 That fiery Zuinglius first the affection bred, 180 
 
 And meagre Calvin blessed the nuptial bed. 
 
156 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 In Israel some believe him whelped long since, 
 
 When the proud Sanhedrim oppressed the Prince, 
 
 Or, since he will be Jew, derive him higher, 
 
 When Corah with his brethren did conspire 185 
 
 From Moses' hand the sovereign sway to wrest, 
 
 And Aaron of his ephod to devest; 
 
 Till opening earth made way for all to pass, 
 
 And could not bear the burden of a class. 
 
 The Fox and he came shuffled in the dark, 190 
 
 If ever they were stowed in Noah's ark ; 
 
 Perhaps not made ; for all their barking train 
 
 The Dog (a common species) will contain; 
 
 And some wild curs, who from their masters ran, 
 
 Abhorring the supremacy of man, 195 
 
 In woods and caves the rebel-race began. 
 
 O happy pair, how well have you increased! 
 What ills in Church and State have you redressed ! 
 With teeth untried and rudiments of claws, 
 Your first essay was on your native laws: 200 
 
 Those haying torn with ease and trampled down, 
 Your fangs you fastened on the mitred crown, 
 And freed from God and monarchy your town. 
 What though your native kennel still be small, 
 Bounded betwixt a puddle and a wall ; 205 
 
 Yet your victorious colonies are sent 
 Where the North Ocean girds the continent. 
 Quickened with fire below, your monsters breed 
 In fenny Holland and in fruitful Tweed ; 
 And, like the first, the last affects to be 210 
 
 Drawn to the dregs of a democracy. 
 As, where in fields the fairy rounds are seen, 
 A rank sour herbage rises on the green; 
 So, springing where these midnight elves advance, 
 Rebellion prints the footsteps of the dance. 215 
 
 Such are their doctrines, such contempt they show 
 To Heaven above and to their Prince below 
 As none but traitors and blasphemers know. 
 God like the tyrant of the skies is placed, 
 
PART I. 157 
 
 And kings, like slaves, beneath the crowd debased. 220 
 
 So fulsome is their food that flocks refuse 
 
 To bite, and only dogs for physic use. 
 
 As, where the lightning runs along the ground, 
 
 No husbandry can heal the blasting wound ; 
 
 Nor bladed grass nor bearded corn succeeds, 225 
 
 But scales of scurf and putrefaction breeds : 
 
 Such wars, such waste, such fiery tracks of dearth 
 
 Their zeal has left, and such a teemless earth. 
 
 But as the poisons of the deadliest kind 
 
 Are to their own unhappy coasts confined, 230 
 
 As only Indian shades of sight deprive, 
 
 And magic plants will but in Golchos thrive, 
 
 So Presbytery and pestilential zeal 
 
 Can only flourish in a common-weal. 
 
 From Celtic woods is chased the wolfish crew; 235 
 
 But ah ! some pity e'en to brutes is due : 
 
 Their native walks, methinks, they might enjoy, 
 
 Curbed of their native malice to destroy. 
 
 Of all the tyrannies on human kind 
 
 The worst is that which persecutes the mind. 240 
 
 Let us but weigh at what offence we strike ; 
 
 'Tis but because we cannot think alike. 
 
 In punishing of this, we overthrow 
 
 The laws of nations and of nature too. 
 
 Beasts are the subjects of tyrannic sway, 245 
 
 Where still the stronger on the weaker prey ; 
 
 Man only of a softer mould is made, 
 
 Not for his fellows' ruin, but their aid: 
 
 Created kind, beneficent and free, 
 
 The noble image of the Deity. 250 
 
 One portion of informing fire was given 
 To brutes, the inferior family of Heaven: 
 The Smith Divine, as with a careless beat, 
 Struck out the mute creation at a heat; 
 But when arrived at last to human race, 255 
 
 The Godhead took a deep considering space, 
 And, to distinguish man from all the rest, 
 
158 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Unlocked the sacred treasures of his breast, 
 
 And mercy mixed with reason did impart, 
 
 One to his head, the other to his heart; 260 
 
 Reason to rule, but mercy to forgive, 
 
 The first is law, the last prerogative. 
 
 And like his mind his outward form appeared, 
 
 When issuing naked to the wondering herd 
 
 He charmed their eyes, and for they loved they feared. 265 
 
 Not armed with horns of arbitrary might, 
 
 Or claws to seize their furry spoils in fight, 
 
 Or with increase of feet to o'ertake them in their flight : 
 
 Of easy shape, and pliant every way, 
 
 Confessing still the softness of his clay, 270 
 
 And kind as kings upon their coronation day; 
 
 With open hands, and with extended space 
 
 Of arms to satisfy a large embrace. 
 
 Thus kneaded up with milk, the new-made man 
 
 His kijigdom o'er his kindred world began; 275 
 
 Till knowledge misapplied, misunderstood, 
 
 And pride of empire scoured his balmy blood. 
 
 Then, first rebelling, his own stamp he coins ; 
 
 The murderer Cain was latent in his loins; 
 
 And blood began its first and loudest cry 280 
 
 For differing worship of the Deity. 
 
 Thus persecution rose, and farther space 
 
 Produced the mighty hunter of his race. 
 
 Not so the blessed Pan his flock increased, 
 
 Content to fold them from the famished beast: 285 
 
 Mild were his laws ; the Sheep and harmless Hind 
 
 Were never of the persecuting kind. 
 
 Such pity now the pious pastor shows, 
 
 Such mercy from the British Lion flows 
 
 That both provide protection for their foes. 290 
 
 Oh happy regions, Italy and Spain, 
 Which never did those monsters entertain ! 
 The Wolf, the Bear, the Boar, can there advance 
 No native claim of just inheritance ; 
 And self-preserving laws, severe in show, 295 
 
PART I. 159 
 
 May guard their fences from the invading foe. 
 
 Where birth has placed them, let them safely share 
 
 The common benefit of vital air ; 
 
 Themselves unharmful, let them live unharmed, 
 
 Their jaws disabled and their claws disarmed; 300 
 
 Here, only in nocturnal howlings bold, 
 
 They dare not seize the Hind nor leap the fold. 
 
 More powerful, and as vigilant as they, 
 
 The Lion awfully forbids the prey. 
 
 Their rage repressed, though pinched with famine sore, 305 
 
 They stand aloof, and tremble at his roar; 
 
 Much is their hunger, but their fear is more. 
 
 These are the chief; to number o'er the rest 
 And stand, like Adam, naming every beast, 
 Were weary work ; nor will the Muse describe 310 
 
 A slimy-born and sun-begotten tribe, 
 Who, far from steeples and their sacred sound, 
 In fields their sullen conventicles found. 
 These gross, half-animated lumps I leave, 
 Nor can I think what thoughts they can conceive. 315 
 But if they think at all, 'tis sure no higher 
 Than matter put in motion may aspire ; 
 Souls that can scarce ferment their mass of clay, 
 So drossy, so divisible are they 
 
 As would but serve pure bodies for allay, 320 
 
 Such souls as shards produce, such beetle things 
 As only buzz to heaven with evening wings, 
 Strike in the dark, offending but by chance, 
 Such are the blindfold blows of ignorance. 
 They know not beings, and but hate a name; 325 
 
 To them the Hind and Panther are the same. 
 
 The Panther, sure the noblest next the Hind, 
 And fairest creature of the spotted kind ; 
 Oh, could her inborn stains be washed away, 
 She were too good to be a beast of prey ! 330 
 
 How can I praise or blame, and not offend, 
 Or how divide the frailty from the friend? 
 Her faults and virtues lie so mixed, that she 
 
l6o THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Nor wholly stands condemned nor wholly free. 
 
 Then, like her injured Lion, let me speak; 335 
 
 He cannot bend her and he would not break. 
 
 Unkind already, and estranged in part, 
 
 The Wolf begins to share her wandering heart. 
 
 Though unpolluted yet with actual ill, 
 
 She half commits who sins but in her will. 340 
 
 If, as our dreaming Platonists report, 
 
 There could be spirits of a middle sort, 
 
 Too black for heaven and yet too white for hell, 
 
 Who just dropped half-way down, nor lower fell ; 
 
 So poised, so gently she descends from high, 345 
 
 It seems a soft dismission from the sky. 
 
 Her house not ancient, whatsoe'er pretence 
 
 Her clergy heralds make in her defence; 
 
 A second century not half-way run, 
 
 Since the new honours of her blood begun. 350 
 
 A Lion old, obscene, and furious made 
 
 By lust, compressed her mother in a shade ; 
 
 Then by a left-hand marriage weds the dame, 
 
 Covering adultery with a specious name ; 
 So schism begot; and sacrilege and she, 355 
 
 A well matched pair, got graceless heresy. 
 rrSbd's and kings' rebels have the same good cause, 
 
 \JTo trample down divine and human laws; 
 Both would be called reformers, and their hate 
 Alike destructive both to Church and State. 360 
 
 The fruit proclaims the plant ; a lawless Prince 
 By luxury reformed incontinence, 
 By ruins charity, by riots abstinence. 
 Confessions, fasts, and penance set aside; 
 Oh with what ease we follow such a guide, 365 
 
 Where souls are starved and senses gratified ! 
 Where marriage pleasures midnight prayer supply, 
 And matin bells (a melancholy cry) 
 Are tuned to merrier notes, Increase and Multiply. 
 Religion shows a rosy-coloured face, 370 
 
 Not hattered out with drudging works of grace : 
 
PART I. l6l 
 
 A down-hill reformation rolls apace. 
 
 What flesh and blood would crowd the narrow gate, 
 
 Or, till they waste their pampered paunches, wait? 
 
 All. .would-be-- happy at the cheapest rate. ,375 
 
 Though our lean faith these rigid laws has given, 
 The full-fed Mussulman goes fat to heaven; 
 For his Arabian prophet with delights 
 Of sense allured his Eastern proselytes. 
 The jolly Luther, reading him, began 380 
 
 To interpret Scriptures by his Alcoran ; 
 To grub the thorns beneath our tender feet 
 And make the paths of Paradise more sweet, 
 Bethought him of a wife, ere half way gone, 
 For 'twas uneasy travailing alone; 385 
 
 And in this masquerade of mirth and love 
 Mistook the bliss of Heaven for Bacchanals above. 
 Sure he presumed of praise, who came to stock 
 The etherial pastures with so fair a flock, 
 Burnished and battening on their food, to show 390 
 
 The diligence of careful herds below. * 
 
 Our Panther, though like these she changed her head, 
 Yet, as the mistress of a monarch's bed, 
 H.er front erect with majesty she bore, 
 The crosier wielded and the mitre wore. 395 
 
 Her upper part of decent discipline 
 Showed affectation of an ancient line ; 
 And Fathers, Councils, Church and Church's head, 
 Were on her reverend phylacteries read. 
 But what disgraced and disavowed the rest 400 
 
 Was 1 Calvin's brand, that stigmatised the beast. 
 Thus, like a creature of a double kind, 
 In her own labyrinth she lives confined ; 
 To foreign lands no sound of her is come, 
 Humbly content to be despised at home. 405 
 
 Such is her faith, where good cannot be had, 
 At least she leaves the refuse of the bad. 
 Nice in her choice of ill, though not of best, 
 And least deformed, because reformed the least. 
 
 M 
 
 
1 62, THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 In doubtful points betwixt her differing friends, 4fo 
 
 Where one for substance, one for sign contends, 
 
 Their contradicting terms she strives to join ; 
 
 Sign shall be substance, substance shall be sign. 
 
 A real presence all her sons allow, 
 
 And yet 'tis flat idolatry to bow, 415 
 
 Because the Godhead's there they know not how. 
 
 Her novices are taught that bread and wine 
 
 Are but the visible and outward sign, 
 
 Received by those who in communion join. 
 
 But the inward grace or the thing signified, 420 
 
 His blood and body who to save us died, 
 
 The faithful this thing signified receive : 
 
 What is't those faithful then partake or leave ? 
 
 For what is signified and understood 
 
 Is by her own confession flesh and blood. 425 
 
 Then by the same acknowledgment we know 
 
 They take the sign and take the substance too. 
 
 The literal sense is hard to flesh and blood, 
 
 But nonsense never ca*n be understood. 
 
 Her wild belief on every wave is tost; 430 
 
 But sure no Church can better morals boast. 
 True to her King her priRciples are found ; 
 Qh that her practice were but half so sound! 
 Stedfast in vanduTTirrfiS~oFstate she stood, 
 And sealed her vowed affection with her blood : 435 
 
 Nor will I meanly tax her constancy, 
 That interest or obligement made the tie, 
 (Bound to the fate of murdered monarchy.) 
 Before the sounding axe so falls the vine, 
 Whose tender branches round the poplar twine. 440 
 
 She chose her ruin, and resigned her life, 
 In death undaunted as an Indian wife: 
 A rare example! but some souls we see 
 Grow hard and stiffen with adversity : 
 Yet these by Fortune's favours are undone ; 445 
 
 Resolved, into a baser form they run, 
 And bore the wind, but cannot bear the sun. 
 
PART 1. 163 
 
 Let this be nature's frailty or her fate, 
 
 Or Isgrim's counsel, her new chosen mate; 
 
 Still she's the fairest of the fallen crew; 450 
 
 No mother more indulgent but the true. 
 
 Fierce to her foes, yet fears her force to try, 
 Because she wants innate auctority; 
 For how can she constrain them to obey 
 Who has herself cast off the lawful sway? 455 
 
 Rebellion equals all, and those who toil 
 In common theft will share the common spoil. 
 Let her produce the title and the right 
 Against her old superiors first to fight; 
 If she reform by text, even that's as plain 460 
 
 For her own rebels to reform again. 
 As long as words a different sense will bear, 
 And each may be his own interpreter, 
 Our airy faith will no foundation find : 
 The word's a weathercock for every wind : 465 
 
 The Bear, the Fox, the Wolf by turns prevail; 
 The most in power supplies the present gale. 
 The wretched Panther cries aloud for aid 
 To Church and Councils, whom she first betrayed ; 
 No help from Fathers or Tradition's train: 470 
 
 Those ancient guides she taught us to disdain, 
 And by that Scripture which she once abused 
 To Reformation stands herself accused. 
 What bills for breach of laws can she prefer, 
 Expounding which she owns herself may err? 475 
 
 And, after all her winding ways are tried, 
 If doubts arise, she slips herself aside 
 And leaves the private conscience for the guide. 
 If then that conscience set the offender free, 
 It bars her claim to Church auctority. 480 
 
 How can she censure, or what crime pretend, 
 But Scripture may be construed to defend? 
 Even those whom for rebellion she transmits 
 To civil power, her doctrine first acquits; 
 Because no disobedience can ensue, 485 
 
 M 2 
 
 
164 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Where no submission to a judge is due ; 
 
 Each judging for himself, by her consent, 
 
 Whom thus absolved she sends to punishment. 
 
 Suppose the magistrate revenge her cause, 
 
 >Tis only for transgressing human laws. 490 
 
 How answering to its end a Church is made. 
 
 W r hose power is but to counsel and persuade ? 
 
 Oh solid rock, on which secure she stands ! 
 
 Eternal house, not built with mortal hands ! 
 
 Oh sure defence against the infernal gate, 495 
 
 A patent during pleasure of the State ! 
 
 Thus is the Panther neither loved nor feared, 
 A mere mock queen of a divided herd; 
 WhoTYTsoon by lawfuT^power she might control, 
 Her self a part submitted to the whole. 500 
 
 Then, as the moon who first receives the light 
 By which she makes our nether regions bright, 
 So might she shine, reflecting from afar 
 The rays she borrowed from a better star ; 
 Big with the beams which from her mother flow, 505 
 
 And reigning o'er the rising tides below : 
 Now mixing with a savage crowd she goes, 
 
 And meanly flatters her inveterate foes, 
 Ruled while she rules, and losing every hour 
 Her wretched remnants of precarious power. 510 
 
 One evening, while the cooler shade she sought, 
 Revolving many a melancholy thought, 
 Alone she walked, and looked around in vain 
 With rueful visage for her vanished train : 
 None of her sylvan subjects made their court; 515 
 
 Levees and couchees passed without resort. 
 So hardly can usurpers manage well 
 Those whom they first instructed to rebel. 
 More liberty begets desire of more ; 
 
 The hunger still increases with the store. 520 
 
 Without respect they brushed along the wood, 
 Each in his clan, and filled with loathsome food 
 Asked no permission to the neighbouring flood. 
 
PART I. 165 
 
 The Panther, full of inward discontent, 
 
 Since they would go, before them wisely went; 525 
 
 Supplying want of power by drinking first, 
 
 As if she gave them leave to quench their thirst. 
 
 Among the rest, the Hind with fearful face 
 
 Beheld from far the common watering-place, 
 
 Nor durst approach; till with an awful roar 530 
 
 The sovereign Lion bad her fear no more. 
 
 Encouraged thus, she brought her younglings nigh, - 
 
 Watching the motion/s of her patron's eye, / ^ 
 
 And drank a sober draught ; the rest amazed 
 
 Stood mutely still and on the stranger gazed; 535 
 
 Surveyed her part by part, and sought to find 
 
 The ten-horned monster in the harmless Hind, 
 
 Such as the Wolf and Panther had designed. 
 
 They thought at first they dreamed; for 'twas offence 
 
 With them to question certitude of sense, 540 
 
 Their guide in faith: but nearer when they drew, 
 
 And had the faultless object full in view, 
 
 Lord, how they all admired her heavenly hue ! 
 
 Some who before her fellowship disdained, 
 
 Scarce, and but scarce, from inborn rage restrained, 545 
 
 Now frisked about her and old kindred feigned. 
 
 Whether for love or interest, every sect 
 
 Of all the savage nation showed respect. 
 
 The viceroy Panther could not awe the herd; 
 
 The more the company, the less they feared. 550 
 
 The surly Wolf with secret envy burst, 
 
 Yet could not howl, the Hind had seen him first ; 
 
 But what he durst not speak, the Panther durst. 
 
 For when the herd suffised did late repair 
 To ferny heaths and to their forest lair, 555 
 
 She made a mannerly excuse to stay, 
 Proffering the Hind to wait her half the way ; 
 That, since the sky was clear, an hour of talk 
 Might help her to beguile the tedious walk. 
 With much good- will the motion was embraced, 560 
 
 To chat a while on their adventures passed ; 
 
1 66 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Nor had the grateful Hind so soon forgot 
 
 Her friend and fellow-sufferer in the Plot. 
 
 Yet wondering how of late she grew estranged, 
 
 Her forehead cloudy and her countenance changed, 565 
 
 She thought this hour the occasion would present 
 
 To learn her secret cause of discontent, 
 
 Which well she hoped might be with ease redressed, 
 
 Considering her a well-bred civil beast 
 
 And more a gentlewoman than the rest. 570 
 
 After some common talk what rumours ran, 
 
 The lady of the spotted muff began. 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 THE SECOND PART. 
 
 <DAME,' said the Panther, 'times are mended well 
 
 Since late among the Philistines you fell. 
 
 The toils were pitched, a spacious tract of ground 
 
 With expert hunstmen was encompassed round ; 
 
 The enclosure narrowed ; the sagacious power 5 
 
 Of hounds and death drew nearer every hour. 
 
 'Tis true, the younger Lion scaped the snare, 
 
 But all your priestly calves lay struggling there, 
 
 As sacrifices on their altars laid ; 
 
 While you, their careful mother, wisely fled, 10 
 
 Not trusting destiny to save your head. 
 
 For whatever promises you have applied 
 
 To your unfailing Church, the surer side 
 
 Is four fair legs in danger to provide ; 
 
 And whate'er tales of Peter's chair you tell, 15 
 
 Yet, saving reverence of the miracle, 
 
 The better luck was yours to scape so well.' 
 
 ' As I remember,' said the sober Hind, 
 * Those toils were for your own dear self designed, 
 As well as me; and with the self-same throw 20 
 
 To catch the quarry and the vermin too, 
 (Forgive the slanderous tongues that called you so.) 
 Howe'er you take it now, the common cry 
 Then ran you down for your rank loyalty. 
 Besides, in Popery they thought you nurst, 25 
 
 As evil tongues will ever speak the worst, 
 Because some forms and ceremonies some 
 You kept, and stood in the main question dumb. 
 
1 68 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Dumb you were born indeed ; but thinking long, 
 
 The Test, it seems, at last has loosed your tongue. 30 
 
 And to explain what your forefathers meant 
 
 By real presence in the Sacrament, 
 
 After long fencing pushed against a wall, 
 
 Your salvo comes, that he's not there at all : 
 
 There changed your faith, and what may change may fall. 
 
 Who can believe what varies every day, 36 
 
 Nor ever was nor will be at a stay ?' 
 
 1 Tortures may force the tongue untruths to tell, 
 And I ne'er owned my self infallible,' 
 
 Replied the Panther: ' grant such presence were, 40 
 
 Yet in your sense I never owned it there. 
 A real virtue we by faith receive, 
 And that we in the sacrament believe.' 
 
 'Then/ said the Hind, 'as you the matter state, 
 Not only Jesuits can equivocate ; 45 
 
 For real, as you now the word expound, 
 From solid substance dwindles to a sound. 
 Methinks an jEsop's fable you repeat ; 
 You know who took the shadow for the meat. 
 Your Church's substance thus you change at will, 50 
 
 And yet retain your former figure still. 
 I freely grant you spoke to save your life, 
 For then you lay beneath the butcher's knife. 
 Long time you fought, redoubled battery bore, 
 But, after all, against your self you swore; 55 
 
 Your former self, for every hour your form 
 Is chopped and changed, like winds before a storm. 
 Thus fear and interest will prevail with some ; 
 For all have not the gift of martyrdom.' 
 
 The Panther grinned at this, and thus replied : 60 
 
 ' That men may err was never yet denied. 
 But, if that common principle be true, 
 The cannon, dame, is levelled full at you. 
 But, shunning long disputes, I fain would see 
 That wondrous wight, Infallibility. 65 
 
 Is he from Heaven, this mighty champion, come? 
 
PART II. 169 
 
 Or lodged below in subterranean Rome ? 
 First, seat him somewhere, and derive his race, 
 Or else conclude that nothing has no place.' 
 
 ' Suppose, (though I disown it,)' said the Hind, 70 
 
 'The certain mansion were not yet assigned: 
 The doubtful residence no proof can bring 
 Against the plain existence of the thing. 
 Because philosophers may disagree 
 
 If sight by emission or reception be, 75 
 
 Shall it be thence inferred I do not see? 
 But you require an answer positive, 
 Which yet, when I demand, you dare not give; 
 For fallacies in universals live. 
 
 I then affirm that this unfailing guide 80 
 
 In Pope and General Councils must reside ; 
 Both lawful, both combined ; what one decrees 
 By numerous votes, the other ratifies ; 
 On this undoubted sense the Church relies. 
 'Tis true some doctors in a scantier space, 85 
 
 I mean in each apart, contract the place. 
 Some, who to greater length extend the line, 
 The Church's after acceptation join. 
 This last circumference appears too wide ; 
 The Church diffused is by the Council tied ; 90 
 
 As members by their representatives 
 Obliged to laws which Prince and Senate gives. 
 Thus some contract and some enlarge the space : 
 In Pope and Council who denies the place, 
 Assisted from above with God's unfailing grace ? 95 
 
 Those canons all the needful points contain ; 
 Their sense so obvious and their words so plain, 
 That no disputes about the doubtful text 
 Have hitherto the labouring world perplexed. 
 If any should in after times appear, 100 
 
 New Councils must be called, to make the meaning clear; 
 Because in them the power supreme resides, 
 And all the promises are to the guides. 
 This may be taught with sound and safe defence; 
 
1 70 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 But mark how sandy is your own pretence, 105 
 
 Who, setting Councils, Pope, and Church aside, 
 
 Are every man his own presuming guide. 
 
 The Sacred Books, you say, are full and plain, 
 
 And every needful point of truth contain ; 
 
 All who can read interpreters may be. no 
 
 Thus, though your several Churches disagree, 
 
 Yet every saint has to himself alone 
 
 The secret of this philosophic stone. 
 
 These principles your jarring sects unite, 
 
 When differing doctors and disciples fight ; 115 
 
 Though Luther, Zuinglius, Calvin, holy chiefs, 
 
 Have made a battle royal of beliefs, 
 
 Or, like wild horses, several ways have whirled 
 
 The tortured text about the Christian world, 
 
 Each Jehu lashing on with furious force, 120 
 
 That Turk or Jew could not have used it worse. 
 
 No matter what dissension leaders make, 
 
 Where every private man may save a stake : 
 
 Ruled by the Scripture and his own advice, 
 
 Each has a blind by-path to Paradise, 125 
 
 Where driving in a circle slow or fast 
 
 Opposing sects are sure to meet at last. 
 
 A wondrous charity you have in store 
 
 For all reformed to pass the narrow door, 
 
 So much, that Mahomet had scarcely more. 130 
 
 For he, kind prophet, was for damning none, 
 
 But Christ and Moses were to save their own ; 
 
 Himself was to secure his chosen race, 
 
 Though reason good for Turks to take the place, 
 
 And he allowed to be the better man 135 
 
 In virtue of his holier Alcoran.' 
 
 * True,' said the Panther, ' I shall ne'er deny 
 My brethren may be saved as well as I : 
 Though Huguenots contemn our ordination, 
 Succession, ministerial vocation, 140 
 
 And Luther, more mistaking what he read, 
 Misjoins the sacred body with the bread, 
 
PART II. 171 
 
 Yet, lady, still remember I maintain 
 
 The Word in needful points is only plain.' 
 
 ' Needless or needful I not now contend, 145 
 
 For still you have a loophole for a friend/ 
 Rejoined the matron ; { but the rule you lay 
 Has led whole flocks and leads them still astray 
 In weighty points, and full damnation's way. 
 For did not Arius first, Socinus now 150 
 
 The Son's eternal Godhead disavow? 
 And did not these by gospel texts alone 
 Condemn our doctrine and maintain their own ? 
 Have not all heretics the same pretence, 
 To plead the Scriptures in their own defence? 155 
 
 How did the Nicene Council then decide 
 That strong debate ?. was it by Scriptures tried ? 
 No, sure to those the rebel would not yield ; 
 Squadrons of texts he marshalled in the field : 
 That was but civil war, an equal set, 160 
 
 Where piles with piles, and eagles eagles met. 
 With texts point-blank and plain he faced the foe : 
 And did not Satan tempt our Saviour so ? 
 The good old bishops took a simpler way ; 
 Each asked but what he heard his father say, 165 
 
 Or how he was instructed in his youth, 
 And by tradition's force upheld the truth.' 
 
 The Panther smiled at this, and 'when,' said she, 
 ' Were those first Councils disallowed by me ? 
 Or where did I at sure tradition strike, 170 
 
 Provided still it were apostolic ?' 
 
 ' Friend,' said the Hind, ' you quit your former ground, 
 Where all your faith you did on Scripture found: 
 Now, 'tis tradition joined with Holy Writ ; 
 But thus your memory betrays your wit.' 175 
 
 'No,' said the Panther, 'for in that I view 
 When your tradition's forged, and when 'tis true. 
 I set them by the rule, and as they square 
 Or deviate from undoubted doctrine there, 
 This oral fiction, that old faith declare.' 180 
 
J72 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 (Hind.') 'The Council steered, it seems, a different course ; 
 
 They tried the Scripture by tradition's force ; 
 
 But you tradition by the Scripture try; 
 
 Pursued by sects, from this to that you fly, 
 
 Nor dare on one foundation to rely. 185 
 
 The Word is then deposed, and in this view 
 
 You rule the Scripture, not the Scripture you.' 
 
 Thus said the dame, and, smiling, thus pursued : 
 
 ' I see tradition then is disallowed, 
 
 When not evinced by Scripture to be true, 190 
 
 And Scripture as interpreted by you. 
 
 But here you tread upon unfaithful ground, 
 
 Unless you could infallibly expound ; 
 
 Which you reject as odious Popery, 
 
 And throw that doctrine back with scorn on me. 195 
 
 Suppose we on things traditive divide, 
 
 And both appeal to Scripture to decide ; 
 
 By various texts we both uphold our claim, 
 
 Nay, often ground our titles on the same : 
 
 After long labour lost and time's expense, 200 
 
 Both grant the words and quarrel for the sense. 
 
 Thus all disputes for ever must depend, 
 
 For no dumb rule can controversies end. 
 
 Thus, when you said tradition must be tried 
 
 By Sacred Writ, whose sense your selves decide, 205 
 
 You said no more but that your selves must be 
 
 The judges of the Scripture sense, not we. 
 
 Against our Church-tradition you declare, 
 
 And yet your clerks would sit in Moses 5 chair ; 
 
 At least 'tis proved against your argument, 2ic 
 
 The rule is far from plain, where all dissent.' 
 
 * If not by Scriptures, how can we be sure/ 
 Replied the Panther, ' what tradition's pure ? 
 For you may palm upon us new for old ; 
 All, as they say, that glitters is not gold.' 215 
 
 'How but by following her,' replied the dame, 
 4 To whom derived from sire to son they came ; 
 Where every age does on another move, 
 
PART II. 173 
 
 And trusts no farther than the next above ; 
 
 Where all the rounds like Jacob's ladder rise, 220 
 
 The lowest hid in earth, the topmost in the skies?' 
 
 Sternly the savage did her answer mark, 
 Her glowing eye-balls glittering in the dark, 
 And said but this : ' Since lucre was your trade, 
 Succeeding times such dreadful gaps have made, 225 
 
 'Tis dangerous climbing : to your sons and you 
 I leave the ladder, and its omen too/ 
 
 (Hind.) 'The Panther's breath was ever famed for sweet, 
 But from the Wolf such wishes oft I meet ; 
 You learned this language from the blatant beast, 230 
 
 Or rather did not speak, but were possessed. 
 As for your answer, 'tis but barely urged : 
 You must evince tradition to be forged, 
 Produce plain proofs, unblemished authors use, 
 As ancient as those ages they accuse ; 235 
 
 Till when, 'tis not sufficient to defame ; 
 An old possession stands till elder quits the claim. 
 Then for our interest, which is named alone 
 To load with envy, we retort your own ; 
 For, when traditions in your faces fly, 240 
 
 Resolving not to yield, you must decry. 
 As when the cause goes hard, the guilty man 
 Excepts, and thins his jury all he can ; 
 So when you stand of other aid bereft, 
 You to the twelve Apostles would be left. 245 
 
 Your friend the Wolf did with more craft provide 
 To set those toys, traditions, quite aside; 
 And Fathers too, unless when, reason spent, 
 He cites them but sometimes for ornament. 
 But, madam Panther, you, though more sincere, 250 
 
 Are not so wise as your adulterer ; 
 The private spirit is a better blind 
 Than all the dodging tricks your authors find. 
 For they who left the Scripture to the crowd, 
 Each for his own peculiar judge allowed ; 255 
 
 The way to please them was to make them proud. 
 
174 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Thus with full sails they ran upon the shelf; 
 
 Who could suspect a cozenage from himself? 
 
 On his own reason safer 'tis to stand 
 
 Than be deceived and damned at second hand. 260 
 
 But you who Fathers and traditions take 
 
 And garble some, and some you quite forsake, 
 
 Pretending Church auctority to fix, 
 
 And yet some grains of private spirit mix, 
 
 Are like a mule made up of differing seed, 265 
 
 And that's the reason why you never breed, 
 
 At least, not propagate your kind abroad, 
 
 For home-dissenters are by statutes awed. 
 
 And yet they grow upon you every day, 
 
 While you, to speak the best, are at a stay, 270 
 
 For sects that are extremes abhor a middle way. 
 
 Like tricks of state to stop a raging flood 
 
 Or mollify a mad-brained senate's mood, 
 
 Of all expedients never one was good. 
 
 Well may they argue, (nor can you deny,) 275 
 
 If we must fix on Church-auctority, 
 
 Best on the best, the fountain, not the flood ; 
 
 That must be better still, if this be good. 
 
 Shall she command who has herself rebelled ? 
 
 Is Antichrist by Antichrist expelled? 280 
 
 Did we a lawful tyranny displace, 
 
 To set aloft a bastard of the race ? 
 
 Why all these wars to win the Book, if we 
 
 Must not interpret for ourselves, but she ? 
 
 Either be wholly slaves or wholly free. 285 
 
 For purging fires traditions must not fight; 
 
 But they must prove episcopacy's right. 
 
 Thus, those led horses are from service freed; 
 
 You never mount them but in time of need. 
 
 Like mercenaries, hired for home defence, 290 
 
 They will not serve against their native Prince. 
 
 Against domestic foes of hierarchy 
 
 These are drawn forth, to make fanatics fly ; 
 
 But, when they see their countrymen at hand, 
 
PART II. 175 
 
 Marching against them under Church command, 295 
 
 Straight they forsake their colours and disband.' 
 
 Thus she ; nor could the Panther well enlarge 
 With weak defence against so strong a charge ; 
 But said, ' For what did Christ his word provide, 
 If still his Church must want a living guide ? 300 
 
 And if all saving doctrines are not there, 
 Or sacred penmen could not make them clear, 
 From after ages we should hope in vain 
 For truths, which men inspired could not explain.' 
 
 ' Before the Word was written,' said the Hind, 305 
 
 'Our Saviour preached his faith to human kind: 
 From his Apostles the first age received 
 Eternal truth, and what they taught believed. 
 Thus by tradition faith was planted first ; 
 Succeeding flocks succeeding pastors nursed. 310 
 
 This was the way our wise Redeemer chose, 
 Who sure could all things for the best dispose, 
 To fence his fold from their encroaching foes. 
 He could have writ himself, but well foresaw 
 The event would be like that of Moses' law; 315 
 
 Some difference would arise, some doubts remain, 
 Like those which yet the jarring Jews maintain. 
 No written laws can be so plain, so pure, 
 But wit may gloss and malice may obscure ; 
 Not those indited by his first command, 320 
 
 A prophet graved the text, an angel held his hand. 
 Thus faith was ere the written Word appeared, 
 And men believed, not what they read, but heard. 
 But since the Apostles could not be confined 
 To these or those, but severally designed 325 
 
 Their large commission round the world to blow, 
 To spread their faith, they spread their labours too. 
 Yet still their absent flock their pains did share ; 
 They hearkened still, for love produces care. 
 And as mistakes arose or discords fell, 330 
 
 Or bold seducers taught them to rebel, 
 As charity grew cold or faction hot, 
 
176 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Or long neglect their lessons had forgot, 
 
 For all their wants they wisely did provide, 
 
 And preaching by Epistles was supplied : 335 
 
 So, great physicians cannot all attend, 
 
 But some they visit and to some they send. 
 
 Yet all those letters were not writ to all, 
 
 Nor first intended, but occasional 
 
 Their absent sermons ; nor, if they contain 340 
 
 All needful doctrines, are those doctrines plain. 
 
 Clearness by frequent preaching must be wrought; 
 
 They writ but seldom, but they daily taught ; 
 
 And what one saint has said of holy Paul, 
 
 He darkly writ, is true applied to all. 345 
 
 For this obscurity could Heaven provide 
 
 More prudently than by a living guide, 
 
 As doubts arose, the difference to decide ? 
 
 A guide was therefore needful, therefore made ; 
 
 And, if appointed, sure to be obeyed. 350 
 
 Thus, with due reverence to the Apostles' writ, 
 
 By which my sons are taught, to which submit, 
 
 I think those truths their sacred works contain 
 
 The Church alone can certainly explain ; 
 
 That following ages, leaning on the past, 355 
 
 May rest upon the primitive at last. 
 
 Nor would I thence the Word no rule infer, 
 
 But none without the Church-interpreter; 
 
 Because, as I have urged before, 'tis mute, 
 
 And is it self the subject of dispute. 360 
 
 But what the Apostles their successors taught, 
 
 They to the next, from them to us is brought, 
 
 The undoubted sense which is in Scripture sought. 
 
 From hence the Church is armed, when errors rise 
 
 To stop their entrance and prevent surprise, 365 
 
 And, safe entrenched within, her foes without defies. 
 
 By these all-festering sores her councils heal, 
 
 Which time or has disclosed or shall reveal ; 
 
 For discord cannot end without a last appeal. 
 
 Nor can a council national decide, 370 
 
PART II. 177 
 
 But with subordination to her guide, 
 
 (I wish the cause were on that issue tried ;) 
 
 Much less the Scripture ; for suppose debate 
 
 Betwixt pretenders to a fair estate, 
 
 Bequeathed by some legator's last intent, 375 
 
 (Such is our dying Saviour's Testament ;) 
 
 The will is proved, is opened, and is read, 
 
 The doubtful heirs their differing titles plead ; 
 
 All vouch the words their interest to maintain, 
 
 And each pretends by those his cause is plain. 380 
 
 Shall then the testament award the right ? 
 
 No, that's the Hungary for which they fight, 
 
 The field of battle, subject of debate, 
 
 The thing contended for, the fair estate. 
 
 The sense is intricate, 'tis only clear 385 
 
 What vowels and what consonants are there. 
 
 Therefore 'tis plain, its meaning must be tried 
 
 Before some judge appointed to decide.' 
 
 1 Suppose,' the fair apostate said, ' I grant, 
 The faithful flock some living guide should want, 390 
 
 Your arguments an endless chase pursue: 
 Produce this vaunted leader to our view, 
 This mighty Moses of the chosen crew.' 
 
 The dame, who saw her fainting foe retired, 
 With force renewed, to victory aspired ; 395 
 
 And, looking upward to her kindred sky, 
 As once our Saviour owned his Deity, 
 Pronounced His words She whom ye seek am I. 
 Nor less amazed this voice the Panther heard 
 Than were those Jews to hear a God declared. 400 
 
 Then thus the matron modestly renewed : 
 'Let all your prophets and their sects be viewed, 
 And see to which of them your selves think fit 
 The conduct of your conscience to submit; 
 Each proselyte would vote his doctor best, 405 
 
 With absolute exclusion to the rest : 
 Thus would your Polish Diet disagree, 
 And end, as it began, in anarchy ; 
 
 N 
 
178 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Your self the fairest for election stand, 
 
 Because you seem crown-general of the land : 410 
 
 But soon against your superstitious lawn 
 
 Some Presbyterian sabre would be drawn ; 
 
 In your established laws of sovereignty 
 
 The rest some fundamental flaw would see, 
 
 And call rebellion gospel-liberty. 415 
 
 To Church-decrees your articles require 
 
 Submission modified, if not entire. 
 
 Homage denied, to censures you proceed : 
 
 But when Curtana will not do the deed, 
 
 You lay that pointless clergy- weapon by, 420 
 
 And to the laws, your sword of justice, fly. 
 
 Now this your sects the more unkindly take, 
 
 (Those prying varlets hit the blots you make,) 
 
 Because some ancient friends of yours declare 
 
 Your only rule of faith the Scriptures are, 425 
 
 Interpreted by men of judgment sound, 
 
 Which every sect will for themselves expound, 
 
 Nor think less reverence to their doctors due 
 
 For sound interpretation, than to you. 
 
 If then by able heads are understood 430 
 
 Your brother prophets, who reformed abroad; 
 
 Those able heads expound a wiser way, 
 
 That their own sheep their shepherd should obey. 
 
 But if you mean your selves are only sound, 
 
 That doctrine turns the Reformation round, 435 
 
 And all the rest are false reformers found ; 
 
 Because in sundry points you stand alone, 
 
 Not in communion joined with any one, 
 
 And therefore must be all the Church, or none. 
 
 Then, till you have agreed whose judge is best, 440 
 
 Against this forced submission they protest ; 
 
 While sound and sound a different sense explains, 
 
 Both play at hard-head till they break their brains; 
 
 And from their chairs each other's force defy, 
 
 While unregarded thunders vainly fly. 445 
 
 I pass the rest, because your Church alone 
 
PART II. 179 
 
 Of all usurpers best could fill the throne. 
 
 But neither you nor any sect beside 
 
 For this high office can be qualified ' 
 
 With necessary gifts required in such a guide. 450 
 
 For that which must direct the whole must be 
 
 Bound in one bond of faith and unity ; 
 
 But all your several Churches disagree. 
 
 The consubstantiating Church and priest 
 
 Refuse communion to the Calvinist; 455 
 
 The French reformed from preaching you restrain, 
 
 Because you judge their ordination vain ; 
 
 And so they judge of yours, but donors must ordain. 
 
 In short, in doctrine or in discipline 
 
 Not one reformed can with another join : 460 
 
 But all from each, as from damnation, fly : 
 
 No union they pretend, but in Non-Popery. 
 
 Nor, should their members in a synod meet, 
 
 Could any Church presume to mount the seat 
 
 Above the rest, their discords to decide ; 465 
 
 None would obey, but each would be the guide ; 
 
 And face to face dissensions would increase, 
 
 For only distance now preserves the peace. 
 
 All in their turns accusers and accused, 
 
 Babel was never half so much confused. 470 
 
 What one can plead the rest can plead as well, 
 
 For amongst equals lies no last appeal, 
 
 And all confess themselves are fallible*. 
 
 Now, since you grant some necessary guide, 
 
 All who can err are justly laid aside, 475 
 
 Because a trust so sacred to confer 
 
 Shows want of such a sure interpreter, 
 
 And how can he be needful who can err? 
 
 Then, granting that unerring guide we want, 
 
 That such there is you stand obliged to grant; 480 
 
 Our Saviour else were wanting to supply 
 
 Our needs and obviate that necessity. 
 
 It then remains, that Church can only be 
 
 The guide which owns unfailing certainty; 
 
 N 2 
 
l8o THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Or else you slip your hold and change your side, 485 
 
 Relapsing from a necessary guide. 
 
 But this annexed condition of the crown, 
 
 Immunity from errors, you disown ; 
 
 Here then you shrink, and lay your weak pretensions down. 
 
 For petty royalties you raise debate, 490 
 
 But this unfailing universal State 
 
 You shun, nor dare succeed to such a glorious weight; 
 
 And for that cause those promises detest 
 
 With which our Saviour did his Church invest; 
 
 But strive to evade, and fear to find them true, 495 
 
 As conscious they were never meant to you ; 
 
 All which the Mother- Church asserts her own, 
 
 And with unrivalled claim ascends the throne. 
 
 So, when of old the Almighty Father sate 
 
 In council to redeem our ruined state, 500 
 
 Millions of millions, at a distance round, 
 
 Silent the sacred consistory crowned, 
 
 To hear what mercy mixed with justice could propound ; 
 
 All prompt with eager pity to fulfil 
 
 The full extent of their Creator's will. 505 
 
 But when the stern conditions were declared, 
 
 A mournful whisper through the host was heard, 
 
 And the whole hierarchy with heads hung down 
 
 Submissively declined the ponderous proffered crown. 
 
 Then, not till then, the eternal Son from high 510 
 
 Rose in the strength' of all the Deity ; 
 
 Stood forth to accept the terms, and underwent 
 
 A weight which all the frame of heaven had bent, 
 
 Nor he himself could bear, but as omnipotent. 
 
 Now, to remove the least remaining doubt, 515 
 
 That even the blear-eyed sects may find her out, 
 
 Behold what heavenly rays adorn her brows, 
 
 What from his wardrobe her beloved allows 
 
 To deck the wedding-day of his unspotted spouse. 
 
 Behold what marks of majesty she brings, 520 
 
 Richer than ancient heirs of Eastern kings ! 
 
 Her right hand holds the sceptre and the keys, 
 
PART II. l8l 
 
 To show whom she commands, and who obeys : 
 
 With these to bind or set the sinner free, 
 
 With that to assert spiritual royalty. 525 
 
 ' One in herself, not rent by schism, but sound, Marks oft 
 
 ' Catholic 
 
 Entire, one solid shining diamond, 
 
 Not sparkles shattered into sects like you : 
 
 One is the Church, and must be to be true, 
 
 One central principle of unity. 530 
 
 As undivided, so from errors free ; 
 
 As one in faith, so one in sanctity. 
 
 Thus she, and none but she, the insulting rage 
 
 Of heretics opposed from age to age ; 
 
 Still when the giant-brood invades her throne, 535 
 
 She stoops from heaven and meets them half way. down, 
 
 And with paternal thunder vindicates her crown. 
 
 But like Egyptian sorcerers you stand, 
 
 And vainly lift aloft your magic wand 
 
 To sweep away the swarms of vermin from the land. 540 
 
 You could like them, with like infernal force, 
 
 Produce the plague, but not arrest the course. 
 
 But when the boils and botches with disgrace 
 
 And public scandal sat upon the face, 
 
 Themselves attacked, the Magi strove no more, 545 
 
 They saw God's finger, and their fate deplore ; 
 
 Themselves they could not cure of the dishonest sore. 
 
 * Thus one, thus pure, behold her largely spread, 
 Like the fair ocean from her mother-bed; 
 From east to west triumphantly she rides, 550 
 
 All shores are watered by her wealthy tides. 
 The gospel-sound, diffused from pole to pole, 
 Where winds can carry and where waves can roll, 
 The self same doctrine of the sacred page 
 Conveyed to every clime, in every age. 555 
 
 ' Here let my sorrow give my satire place, 
 To raise new blushes on my British race. 
 Our sailing ships like common shores we use, 
 And through our distant colonies diffuse 
 The draughts of dungeons and the stench of stews, 560 
 
1 82 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Whom, when their home-bred honesty is lost, 
 
 We disembogue on some far Indian coast; 
 
 Thieves, pandars, palliards, sins of every sort; 
 
 Those are the manufactures we export, 
 
 And these the missioners our zeal has made; 565 
 
 For, with my country's pardon be it said, 
 
 Religion is the least of all our trade. 
 
 ' Yet some improve their traffic more than we ; 
 For they on gain, their only god, rely, 
 And set a public price on piety. 570 
 
 Industrious of the needle and the chart, 
 They run full sail to their Japonian mart ; 
 Prevention fear, and prodigal of fame, 
 Sell all of Christian to the very name, 
 Nor leave enough of that to hide their naked shame. 575 
 
 ' Thus of three marks, which in the creed we view, 
 Not one of all can be applied to you; 
 Much less the fourth. In vain, alas! you seek 
 The ambitious title of Apostolic : 
 
 God-like descent! 'tis well your blood can be 580 
 
 Proved noble in the third or fourth degree; 
 For all of ancient that you had before, 
 (I mean what is not borrowed from our store,) 
 Was error fulminated o'er and o'er; 
 
 Old heresies condemned in ages past, 585 
 
 By care and time recovered from the blast. 
 
 ' 'Tis said with ease, but never can be proved, 
 The Church her old foundations has removed, 
 And built new doctrines on unstable sands: 
 Judge that, ye winds and rains ! you proved her, yet she stands. 
 Those ancient doctrines charged on her for new, 591 
 
 Show when, and how, and from what hands they grew. 
 We claim no power, when heresies grow bold, 
 To coin new faith, but still declare the old. 
 How else could that obscene disease be purged, 595 
 
 When controverted texts are vainly urged? 
 To prove tradition new, there's somewhat more 
 Required, than saying, 'Twas not used before. 
 
PART II. 183 
 
 Those monumental arms are never stirred, 
 
 Till schism or heresy call down Goliath's sword. 600 
 
 ' Thus what you call corruptions are in truth 
 The first plantations of the gospel's youth, 
 Old standard faith ; but cast your eyes again, 
 And view those errors which new sects maintain, 
 Or which of old disturbed the Church's peaceful reign ; 605 
 And we can point each period of the time, 
 When they began, and who begot the crime ; 
 Can calculate how long the eclipse endured, 
 Who interposed, what digits were obscured: 
 Of all which are already passed away, 61,0 
 
 We know the rise, the progress, and decay. 
 
 ' Despair at our foundations then to strike* 
 Till you can prove your faith Apostolic, 
 A limpid stream drawn from the native source, 
 Succession lawful in a lineal course. 615 
 
 Prove any Church, opposed to this our head, 
 So one, so pure, so unconfinedly spread 
 Under one chief of the spiritual state, 
 The members all combined, and all subordinate. 
 Show such a seamless coat, from schism so free, 620 
 
 In no communion joined with heresy. 
 If such a one you find, let truth prevail; 
 Till when, your weights will in the balance fail ; 
 A Church unprincipled kicks up the scale. 
 
 i But if you cannot think (nor sure you can 625 
 
 Suppose in God what were unjust in man) 
 That He, the fountain of eternal grace, 
 Should suffer falsehood, for so long a space, 
 To banish truth and to usurp her place; 
 That seven successive ages should be lost, 630 
 
 And preach damnation at their proper cost; 
 That all your erring ancestors should die 
 Drowned in the abyss of deep idolatry ; 
 If piety forbid such thoughts to rise, 
 
 Awake, and open your unwilling eyes: 635 
 
 God hath left nothing for each age undone, 
 
184 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 From this to that wherein he sent his Son ; 
 
 Then think but well of Him, and half your work is done. 
 
 ' See how his Church, adorned with every grace, 
 With open arms, a kind forgiving face, 640 
 
 Stands ready to prevent her long-lost son's embrace ! 
 Not more did Joseph o'er his brethren weep, 
 Nor less himself could from discovery keep, 
 When in the crowd of suppliants they were seen, 
 And in their crew his best-beloved Benjamin. 645 
 
 pious Joseph in the Church behold, 
 eec ^ J QW: famine and refuse your gold ; 
 s. The Joseph you exiled, the Joseph whom you sold.' 
 
 Thus, while with heavenly charity she spoke, 
 A streaming blaze the silent shadows broke; 650 
 
 Shot from the skies a cheerful azure light; 
 The birds obscene to forests winged their flight, 
 And gaping graves received the wandering guilty spright. 
 
 Such were the pleasing triumphs of the sky 
 For James his late nocturnal victory ; 655 
 
 a loquitur. The pledge of his Almighty Patron's love, 
 
 The fireworks which his angels made above. 
 
 I saw my self the lambent easy light 
 
 Gild the brown horror and dispel the night: 
 
 The messenger with speed the tidings bore, 660 
 
 News which three labouring nations did restore ; 
 
 But Heaven's own Nuncius was arrived before. 
 
 By this the Hind had reached her lonely cell, 
 And vapours rose, and dews unwholesome fell ; 
 When she, by frequent observation wise, 665 
 
 As one who long on heaven had fixed her eyes, 
 Discerned a change of weather in the skies. 
 The western borders were with crimson spread, 
 The moon descending looked all flaming red ; 
 She thought good manners bound her to invite 670 
 
 The stranger dame to be her guest that night. 
 'Tis true, coarse diet and a short repast, 
 She said, were weak inducements to the taste 
 Of one so nicely bred and so unused to fast ; 
 
PART II. 185 
 
 But what plain fare her cottage could afford, 675 
 
 A hearty welcome at a homely board 
 
 Was freely hers; and to supply the rest, 
 
 An honest meaning and an open breast. 
 
 Last, with content of mind, the poor man's wealth, 
 
 A grace-cup to their common patron's health. 680 
 
 This she desired her to accept, and stay, 
 
 For fear she might be wildered in her way, 
 
 Because she wanted an unerring guide; 
 
 And then the dew-drops on her silken hide 
 
 Her tender constitution did declare 685 
 
 Too lady-like a long fatigue to bear, 
 
 And rough inclemencies of raw nocturnal air. 
 
 But most she feared that, travelling so late, 
 
 Some evil-minded beasts might lie in wait, 
 
 And without witness wreak their hidden hate. 690 
 
 The Panther, though she lent a listening ear, 
 Had more of Lion in her than to fear ; 
 Yet wisely weighing, since she had to deal 
 With many foes, their numbers might prevail, 
 Returned her all the thanks she could afford, 695 
 
 And took her friendly hostess at her word; 
 Who, entering first her lowly roof, a shed 
 With hoary moss and winding ivy spread, 
 Honest enough to hide an humble hermit's head, 
 Thus graciously bespoke her welcome guest : 700 
 
 'So might these walls, with your fair presence blest, 
 Become your dwelling-place of everlasting rest, 
 Not for a night, or quick revolving year, 
 Welcome an owner, not a sojourner. 
 
 This peaceful seat my poverty secures; 705 
 
 War seldom enters but where wealth allures: 
 Nor yet despise it, for this poor abode 
 Has oft received and yet receives a God; 
 A God victorious of the Stygian race 
 
 Here laid his sacred limbs, and sanctified the place. 710 
 This mean retreat did mighty Pan contain; 
 
l86 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Be emulous of him, and pomp disdain, 
 And dare not to debase your soul to gain.' 
 
 The silent stranger stood amazed to see 
 Contempt of wealth and wilful poverty : 715 
 
 And, though ill habits are not soon controlled, 
 A while suspended her desire of gold; 
 But civilly drew in her sharpened paws, 
 Not violating hospitable laws, 
 And pacified her tail -and licked her frothy jaws. 720 
 
 The Hind did first her country cates provide; 
 Then couched her self securely by her side. 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 THE THIRD PART. 
 
 MUCH malice mingled with a little wit 
 
 Perhaps niay censure this mysterious writ, 
 
 Because the Muse has peopled Galedon 
 
 With Panthers, Bears, and Wolves, and beasts unknown, 
 
 As if we were not stocked with monsters of our own. 5 
 
 Let JEsop answer, who has set to view 
 
 Such kinds as Greece and Phrygia never knew ; 
 
 And Mother Hubbard in her homely dress 
 
 Has sharply blamed a British Lioness, 
 
 That Queen, whose feast the factious rabble keep, 10 
 
 Exposed obscenely naked and asleep. 
 
 Led by those great examples, may not I 
 
 The wanted organs of their words supply? 
 
 If men transact like brutes, 'tis equal then 
 
 For brutes to claim the privilege of men. 15 
 
 Others our Hind of folly will indite 
 To entertain a dangerous guest by night. 
 Let those remember that she cannot die 
 Till rolling time is lost in round eternity ; 
 Nor need she fear the Panther, though untamed, 20 
 
 Because the Lion's peace was now proclaimed : 
 The wary savage would not give offence, 
 To forfeit the protection of her Prince, 
 But watched the time her vengeance to complete, 
 W^hen all her furry sons in frequent senate met; 25 
 
 Meanwhile she quenched her fury at the flood 
 And with a lenten salad cooled her blood. 
 Their commons, though but coarse, were nothing scant, 
 Nor did their minds an equal banquet want. 
 
1 88 THE HIND^AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 For now the Hind, whose noble nature strove 30 
 
 To express her plain simplicity of love, 
 Did all the honours of her house so well, 
 No sharp debates disturbed the friendly meal. 
 She turned the talk, avoiding that extreme, 
 To common dangers past, a sadly pleasing theme; 35 
 
 Remembering every storm which tossed the State, 
 When both were objects of the public hate, 
 And dropped a tear betwixt for her own children's fate. 
 
 Nor failed she then a full review to make 
 Of what the Panther suffered for her sake : 40 
 
 Her lost esteem, her truth, her loyal care, 
 Her faith unshaken to an exiled heir, 
 Her strength to endure, her courage to defy, 
 Her choice of honourable infamy. 
 
 On these prolixly thankful she enlarged ; 45 
 
 Then with acknowledgments her self she charged; 
 For friendship, of it self an holy tie, 
 Is made more sacred by adversity. 
 Now should they part, malicious tongues would say 
 They met like chance companions on the way, 50 
 
 Whom mutual fear of robbers had possessed ; 
 While danger lasted, kindness was professed; 
 But that once o'er, the short-lived union ends, 
 The road divides, and there divide the friends. 
 
 The Panther nodded when her speech was done, 55 
 
 And thanked her coldly in a hollow tone: 
 But said, her gratitude had gone too far 
 For common offices of Christian care. 
 If to the lawful heir she had been true, 
 She paid but Caesar what was Caesar's due. 60 
 
 ' I might,' she added, ' with like praise describe 
 Your suffering sons, and so return your bribe: 
 But incense from my hands is poorly prized, 
 For gifts are scorned where givers are despised. 
 I served a turn, and then was cast away ; 65 
 
 You, like the gaudy fly, your wings display, 
 And sip the sweets, and bask in your great Patron's day.' 
 
PART HI. 189 
 
 This heard, the matron was not slow to find 
 What sort of malady had seized her mind : 
 Disdain, with gnawing envy, fell despite, 70 
 
 And cankered malice stood in open sight : 
 Ambition, interest, pride without control, 
 And jealousy, the jaundice of the soul ; 
 Revenge, the bloody minister of ill, 
 
 With all the lean tormenters of the will. 75 
 
 'Twas easy now to guess from whence arose 
 Her new-made union with her ancient foes, 
 Her forced civilities, her faint embrace, 
 Affected kindness with an altered face : 
 Yet durst she not too deeply probe the wound, 80 
 
 As hoping still the nobler parts were sound ; 
 But strove with anodynes to assuage the smart, 
 And mildly thus her medicine did impart : 
 
 * Complaints of lovers help to ease their pain ; 
 It shows a rest of kindness to complain, 85 
 
 A friendship loth to quit its former hold; 
 And conscious merit may be justly bold. 
 But much more just your jealousy would show, 
 If others' good were injury to you: 
 
 Witness, ye heavens, how I rejoice to see 90 
 
 Rewarded worth and rising loyalty ! 
 Your warrior offspring that upheld the crown, 
 The scarlet honours of your peaceful gown, 
 Are the most pleasing objects I can find, 
 Charms to my sight and cordials to my mind. 95 
 
 When virtue spooms before a prosperous gale, 
 My heaving wishes help to fill the sail ; 
 And if my prayers for all the brave were heard, 
 Caesar should still have such, and such should still reward. 
 
 ' The laboured earth your pains have sowed and tilled ; 
 'Tis just you reap the product of the field. 101 
 
 Yours be the harvest, 'tis the beggar's gain 
 To glean the fallings of the loaded wain. 
 Such scattered ears as are not worth your care 
 Your charity for alms may safely spare, 105 
 
190 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 And alms are but the vehicles of prayer. 
 
 My daily bread is literally implored; 
 
 I have no barns nor granaries to hoard. 
 
 If Caesar to his own his hand extends, 
 
 Say which of yours his charity offends; no 
 
 You know, he largely gives to more than are his friends. 
 
 Are you defrauded, when he feeds the poor? 
 
 Our mite decreases nothing of your store. 
 
 I am but few, and by your fare you see 
 
 My crying sins are not of luxury. 115 
 
 Some juster motive sure your mind withdraws 
 
 And makes you break our friendship's holy laws, 
 
 For barefaced envy is too base a cause. 
 
 4 Show more occasion for your discontent ; 
 Your love, the Wolf, would help you to invent. 120 
 
 Some German quarrel, or, as times go now, 
 Some French, where force is uppermost, will do. 
 When at the fountain's head, as merit ought 
 To claim the place, you take a swilling draught, 
 How easy 'tis an envious eye to throw 125 
 
 And tax the sheep for troubling streams below; 
 Or call her, when no farther cause you find, 
 An enemy professed of all your kind ! 
 But then, perhaps, the wicked world would think 
 The Wolf designed to eat as well as drink.' 130 
 
 This last allusion galled the Panther more, 
 Because indeed it rubbed upon the sore ; 
 Yet seemed she not to wince, though shrewdly pained, 
 But thus her passive character maintained : 
 
 l l never grudged, whate'er my foes report, 135 
 
 Your flaunting fortune in the Lion's court. 
 You have your day, or you are much belied, 
 But I am always on the suffering side ; 
 You know my doctrine, and I need not say 
 I will not, but I cannot disobey. 140 
 
 On this firm principle I ever stood : 
 He of my sons who fails to make it good 
 By one rebellious act renounces to my blood/ 
 
PART III. Ipl 
 
 'Ah!' said the Hind, * how many sons have you 
 Who call you mother whom you never knew! 145 
 
 But most of them who that relation plead 
 Are such ungracious youths as wish you dead. 
 They gape at rich revenues which you hold 
 And fain would nibble at your grandam gold ; 
 Inquire into your years, and laugh to find 150 
 
 Your crazy temper shows you much declined. 
 Were you not dim and doted, you might see 
 A pack of cheats that claim a pedigree, 
 No more of kin to you than you to me. 
 Do you' not know that for a little coin 155 
 
 Heralds can foist a name into the line ? 
 They ask you blessing but for what you have ; 
 But once possessed of what with care you save, 
 The wanton boys would piss upon your grave. 
 
 * Your sons of latitude that court your grace, 160 
 
 Though most resembling you in form and face, 
 Are far the worst of your pretended race ; 
 And, but I blush your honesty to blot, 
 Pray God you prove them lawfully begot : 
 For in some Popish libels I have read 165 
 
 The Wolf has been too busy in your bed ; 
 At least their hinder parts, the belly-piece, 
 The paunch and all that Scorpio claims are his. 
 Their malice too a sore suspicion brings, 
 For though they dare not bark, they snarl at kings. 170 
 Nor blame them for intruding in your line ; 
 Fat bishoprics are still of right divine. 
 
 ' Think you your new French proselytes are come 
 To starve abroad, because they starved at home ? 
 Your benefices twinkled from afar, 175 
 
 They found the new Messiah by the star. 
 Those Swisses fight on any side for pay, 
 And 'tis the living that conforms, not they. 
 Mark with what management their tribes divide, 
 Some stick to you, and some to t'other side, 180 
 
 That many churches may for many mouths provide. 
 
192 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 More vacant pulpits would more converts make ; 
 
 All would have latitude enough to take. 
 
 The rest unbeneficed your sects maintain, 
 
 For ordinations without cures are vain, 185 
 
 And chamber practice is a silent gain. 
 
 Your sons of breadth at home are much like these ; 
 
 Their soft and yielding metals run with ease; 
 
 They melt, and take the figure of the mould, 
 
 But harden and preserve it best in gold.' 190 
 
 ' Your Delphic sword,' the Panther then replied, 
 'Is double-edged and cuts on either side. 
 Some sons of mine, who bear upon their shield 
 Three steeples argent in a sable field, 
 
 Have sharply taxed your converts, who unfed / 195 
 
 Have followed you for miracles of bread ; 
 Such who themselves of no religion are, 
 Allured with gain, for any will declare. 
 Bare lies with bold assertions they can face, 
 But dint of argument is out of place ; 200 
 
 The grim logician puts them in a fright, 
 'Tis easier far to flourish than to fight. 
 Thus, our eighth Henry's marriage they defame ; 
 They say the schism of beds began the game, 
 Divorcing from the Church to wed the dame ; 205 
 
 Though largely proved, and by himself professed, 
 That conscience, conscience would not let him rest, 
 I mean, not till possessed of her he loved, 
 And old, uncharming Catherine was removed. 
 For sundry years before did he complain, 210 
 
 And told his ghostly confessor his pain. 
 With the same impudence, without a ground 
 They say that, look the Reformation round, 
 No Treatise of Humility is found. 
 
 But if none were, the Gospel does not want, 215 
 
 Our Saviour preached it, and I hope you grant 
 The Sermon in the Mount was Protestant.' 
 
 'No doubt,' replied the Hind, 'as sure as all 
 The writings of Saint Peter and Saint Paul ; 
 
PART HI. 193 
 
 On that decision let it stand or fall. 220 
 
 Now for my converts, who, you say, unfed 
 
 Have followed me for miracles of bread. 
 
 Judge not by hearsay, but observe at least, 
 
 If since their change their loaves have been increast. 
 
 The Lion buys no converts; if he did, 225 
 
 Beasts would be sold as fast as he could bid. 
 
 Tax those of interest who conform for gain 
 
 Or stay the market of another reign : 
 
 Your broad-way sons would never be too nice 
 
 To close with Calvin, if he paid their price; 230 
 
 But, raised three steeples higher, would change their note, 
 
 And quit the cassock for the canting-coat. 
 
 Now, if you damn this censure as too bold, 
 
 Judge by your selves, and think not others sold. 
 
 ' Meantime my sons accused by fame's report 235 
 
 Pay small attendance at the Lion's court, 
 Nor rise with early crowds, nor flatter late, 
 (For silently they beg who daily wait.) 
 Preferment is bestowed that comes unsought ; 
 Attendance is a bribe, and then 'tis bought. 240 
 
 How they should speed, their fortune is untried ; 
 For not to ask is not to be denied. 
 For what they have their God and King they bless, 
 And hope they should not murmur had they less. 
 But if reduced subsistence to implore, 245 
 
 In common prudence they would pass your door. 
 Unpitied Hudibras, your champion friend, 
 Has shown how far your charities extend. 
 This lasting verse shall on his tomb be read, 
 He shamed you living, and upbraids you dead. 250 
 
 1 With odious atheist names you load your foes ; 
 Your liberal clergy why did I expose ? 
 It never fails in charities like those. 
 In climes where true religion is professed, 
 That imputation were no laughing jest ; 255 
 
 But Imprimatur, with a chaplain's name, 
 Is here sufficient licence to defame. 
 
194 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 What wonder is't that black detraction thrives ; 
 
 The homicide of names is less than lives, 
 
 And yet the perjured murderer survives.' 260 
 
 This said, she paused a little, and suppressed 
 The boiling indignation of her breast. 
 She knew the virtue of her blade, nor would 
 Pollute her satire with ignoble blood; 
 Her panting foes she saw before her lie, 265 
 
 And back she drew the shining weapon dry. 
 So when the generous Lion has in sight 
 His equal match, he rouses for the fight ; 
 But when his foe lies prostrate on the plain, 
 He sheathes his paws, uncurls his angry mane, 270 
 
 And, pleased with bloodless honours of the day, 
 Walks over and disdains the inglorious prey. 
 So James, if great with less we may compare, 
 Arrests his rolling thunder-bolts in air ; 
 And grants ungrateful friends a lengthened space 275 
 
 To implore the remnants of long-suffering grace. 
 
 This breathing-time the matron took ; and then 
 Resumed the thrid of her discourse again. 
 'Be vengeance wholly left to powers divine, 
 And let Heaven judge betwixt your sons and mine : 280 
 If joys hereafter must be purchased here 
 With loss of all that mortals hold so dear, 
 Then welcome infamy and public shame, 
 And last, a long farewell to worldly fame. 
 'Tis said with ease, but oh, how hardly tried 285 
 
 By haughty souls to human honour tied ! 
 O sharp convulsive pangs of agonizing pride ! 
 Down then, thou rebel, never more to rise ; 
 And what thou didst and dost so dearly prize, 
 That fame, that darling fame, make that thy sacrifice. 290 
 'Tis nothing thou hast given ; then add thy tears 
 For a long race of unrepenting years : 
 'Tis nothing yet, yet all thou hast to give : 
 Then add those may-be years thou hast to live: 
 Yet nothing still: then poor and naked come, 295 
 
PART III. 195 
 
 Thy Father will receive his unthrift home, 
 
 And thy blest Saviour's blood discharge the mighty sum.' 
 
 * Thus/ she pursued, * I discipline a son, 
 Whose unchecked fury to revenge would run; 
 
 He champs the bit, impatient of his loss, 300 
 
 And starts aside and flounders at the Cross. 
 
 Instruct him better, gracious God, to know 
 
 As Thine is vengeance, so forgiveness too ; ' 
 
 That, suffering from ill tongues, he bears no more 
 
 Than what his Sovereign bears and what his Saviour bore. 
 
 * It now remains for you to school your child, 306 
 And ask why God's anointed he reviled ; 
 
 A King and Princess dead ! did Shimei worse ? 
 
 The curser's punishment should fright the curse ; 
 
 Your son was warned, and wisely gave it o'er, 310 
 
 But he who counselled him has paid the score; 
 
 The heavy malice could no higher tend, 
 
 But woe to him on whom the weights descend. 
 
 So to permitted ills the daemon flies; 
 
 His rage is aimed at him who rules the skies: 315 
 
 Constrained to quit his cause, no succour found, 
 
 The foe discharges every tire around, 
 
 In clouds of smoke abandoning the fight ; 
 
 But his own thundering peals proclaim his flight. 
 
 1 In Henry's change his charge as ill succeeds; 320 
 
 To that long story little answer needs : 
 Confront but Henry's words with Henry's deeds. 
 Were space allowed, with ease it might be proved, 
 What springs his blessed reformation moved. 
 The dire effects appeared in open sight, 325 
 
 Which from the cause he calls a distant flight, 
 And yet no larger leap than from the sun to light. 
 
 ' Now last, your sons a double paean sound, 
 A Treatise of Humility is found. 
 
 'Tis found, but better had it ne'er been sought 330 
 
 Than thus in Protestant procession brought. 
 The famed original through Spain is known, 
 Rodriguez' work, my celebrated son, 
 o 2 
 
196 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Which yours by ill-translating made his own ; 
 
 Concealed its author, and usurped the name, 335 
 
 The basest and ignoblest theft of fame. 
 
 My altars kindled first that living coal; 
 
 Restore, or practise better what you stole ; 
 
 That virtue could this humble verse inspire, 
 
 'Tis all the restitution I require/ 340 
 
 Glad was the Panther that the charge was closed, 
 And none of all her favourite sons exposed; 
 For laws of arms permit each injured man 
 To make himself a saver where he can. 
 Perhaps the plundered merchant cannot tell 345 
 
 The names of pirates in whose hands he fell ; 
 But at the den of thieves he justly flies, 
 And every Algerine is lawful prize. 
 No private person in the foe's estate 
 
 Can plead exemption from the public fate. 350 
 
 Yet Christian laws allow not such redress; 
 Then let the greater supersede the less : 
 But let the abettors of the Panther's crime 
 Learn to make fairer wars another time. 
 Some characters may sure be found to write 355 
 
 Among her sons; for 'tis no common sight, 
 A spotted dam, and all her offspring white. 
 
 The savage, though she saw her plea controlled, 
 Yet would not wholly seem to quit her hold, 
 But offered fairly to compound the strife 360 
 
 And judge conversion by the convert's life. 
 ' 'Tis true,' she said, 1 1 think it somewhat strange 
 So few should follow profitable change ; 
 For present joys are more to flesh and blood 
 Than a dull prospect of a distant good. 365 
 
 'Twas well alluded by a son of mine, 
 (I hope to quote him is not to purloin,) 
 Two magnets, heaven and earth, allure to bliss; 
 The larger loadstone that, the nearer this : 
 The weak attraction of the greater fails ; 370 
 
 We nod awhile, but neighbourhood prevails ; 
 
PART in. 197 
 
 But when the greater proves the nearer too, 
 I wonder more your converts come so slow. 
 Methinks in those who firm with me remain, 
 It shows a nobler principle than gain.' 375 
 
 'Your inference would be strong,' the Hind replied, 
 ' If yours were in effect the suffering side ; 
 Your clergy-sons their own in peace possess, 
 Nor are their prospects in reversion less. 
 My proselytes are struck with awful dread, 380 
 
 Your bloody comet-laws hang blazing o'er their head; 
 The respite they enjoy but only lent, 
 The best they have to hope, protracted punishment. 
 Be judge your self, if interest may prevail, 
 Which motives, yours or mine, will turn the scale. 385 
 While pride and pomp allure, and plenteous ease, 
 That is, till man's predominant passions cease, 
 Admire no longer at my slow increase. 
 
 * By education most have been misled ; 
 So they believe, because they so were bred. 390 
 
 The priest continues what the nurse began, 
 And thus the child imposes on the man. 
 The rest I named before, nor need repeat ; 
 But interest is the most prevailing cheat, 
 The sly seducer both of age and youth ; 395 
 
 They study that, and think they study truth. 
 When interest fortifies an argument, 
 Weak reason serves to gain the will's assent; 
 For souls already warped receive an easy bent. 
 
 ' Add long prescription of established laws, 400 
 
 And pique of honour to maintain a cause, 
 And shame of change, and fear of future rll, 
 And zeal, the blind conductor of the will ; 
 And chief among the still-mistaking crowd, 
 The fame of teachers obstinate and proud ; 405 
 
 And, more than all, the private judge allowed; 
 Disdain of Fathers which the dance began, 
 And last, uncertain whose the narrower span, 
 The clown unread and half-read gentleman.' 
 
198 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 To this the Panther, with a scornful smile: 410 
 
 ' Yet still you travail with unwearied toil, 
 And range around the realm without control, 
 Among my sons for proselytes to prowl, 
 And here and there you snap some silly soul. 
 You hinted fears of future change in state; 415 
 
 Pray Heaven you did not prophesy your fate ! 
 Perhaps, you think your time of triumph near, 
 But may mistake the season of the year ; 
 The Swallows' fortune gives you cause to fear.' 
 
 * For charity,' replied the matron, ' tell 420 
 
 What sad mischance those pretty birds befel.' 
 
 'Nay, no mischance,' the savage dame replied, 
 ' But want of wit in their unerring guide, 
 And eager haste and gaudy hopes and giddy pride. 
 Yet, wishing timely warning may prevail, 425 
 
 Make you the moral, and I'll tell the tale. 
 
 1 The Swallow, privileged above the rest 
 Of all the birds as man's familiar guest, 
 Pursues the sun in summer, brisk and bold, 
 But wisely shuns the persecuting cold; 430 
 
 Is well to chancels and to chimneys known, 
 Though 'tis not thought she feeds on smoke alone. 
 From hence she has been held of heavenly line, 
 Endued with particles of soul divine. 
 
 This merry chorister had long possessed 435 
 
 Her summer seat, and feathered well her nest; 
 Till frowning skies began to change their cheer, 
 And time turned up the wrong side of the year; 
 The shedding trees began the ground to strow 
 With yellow leaves, and bitter blasts to blow. 440 
 
 Sad auguries of winter thence she drew, 
 Which by instinct or prophecy she knew: 
 When prudence warned her to remove betimes, 
 And seek a better heaven and warmer climes. 
 
 ' Her sons were summoned on a steeple's height, . 445 
 And, called in common council, vote a flight; 
 
PART III. 
 
 I 99 
 
 The day was named, the next that should be fair; 
 
 All to the general rendezvous repair, 
 
 They try their fluttering wings and trust themselves in air 
 
 But whether upward to the moon they go, 450 
 
 Or dream the winter out in caves below, 
 
 Or hawk at flies elsewhere, concerns not us to know. 
 
 ' Southwards, you may be sure, they bent their flight, 
 And harboured in a hollow rock at night ; 
 Next morn they rose, and set up every sail; 455 
 
 The wind was fair, but blew a mackrel gale : 
 The sickly young sat shivering on the shore, 
 Abhorred salt-water never seen before, 
 And prayed their tender mothers to delay 
 The passage, and expect a fairer day. 460 
 
 ' With these the Martin readily concurred, 
 A church -begot and church-believing bird ; 
 Of little body, but of lofty mind, 
 Round bellied, for a dignity designed, 
 
 And much a dunce, as Martins are by kind ; 465 
 
 Yet often quoted Canon-laws and Code 
 And Fathers which he never understood ; 
 But little learning needs in noble blood. 
 For, sooth to say, the Swallow brought him in 
 Her household chaplain and her next of kin : 470 
 
 In superstition silly to excess, 
 And casting schemes by planetary guess; 
 In fine, short- winged, unfit himself to fly, 
 His fear foretold foul weather in the sky. 
 
 ' Besides, a Raven from a withered oak 475 
 
 Left of their lodging was observed to croak. 
 That omen liked him not; so his advice 
 Was present safety, bought at any price; 
 A seeming pious care that covered cowardice. 
 To strengthen this, he told a boding dream, 480 
 
 Of rising waters and a troubled stream, 
 Sure signs of anguish, dangers, and distress, 
 With something more not lawful to express: 
 By which he slyly seemed to intimate 
 
200 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Some secret revelation of their fate. 485 
 
 For he concluded, once upon a time, 
 
 He found a leaf inscribed with sacred rhyme, 
 
 Whose antique characters did well denote 
 
 The Sibyl's hand of the Cumsean grot: 
 
 The mad divineress had plainly writ, 490 
 
 A time should come (but many ages yet) 
 
 In which sinister destinies ordain 
 
 A dame should drown with all her feathered train, 
 
 And seas from thence be called the Ghelidonian main. 
 
 At this, some shook for fear; the more devout 495 
 
 Arose, and blessed themselves from head to foot. 
 
 4 'Tis true, some stagers of the wiser sort 
 Made all these idle wonderments their sport: 
 They said, their only danger was delay, 
 And he who heard what every fool could say 500 
 
 Would never fix his thoughts, but trim his time away. 
 The passage yet was good ; the wind, 'tis true, 
 Was somewhat high, but that was nothing new, 
 Nor more than usual equinoxes blew. 
 
 The sun, already from the Scales declined, 505 
 
 Gave little hopes of better days behind, 
 But change from bad to worse of weather and of wind. 
 Nor need they fear the dampness of the sky 
 Should flag their wings, and hinder them to fly ; 
 'Twas only water thrown on sails too dry. 510 
 
 But, least of all, philosophy presumes 
 Of truth in dreams from melancholy fumes; 
 Perhaps the Martin, housed in holy ground, 
 Might think of ghosts that walk their midnight round, 
 Till grosser atoms tumbling in the stream 515 
 
 Of fancy madly met and clubbed into a dream: 
 As little weight his vain presages bear, 
 Of ill effect to such alone who fear; 
 Most prophecies are of a piece with these, 
 Each Nostradamus can foretell with ease: 520 
 
 Not naming persons, and confounding times, 
 One casual truth supports a thousand lying rhymes. 
 
PART III. 201 
 
 1 The advice was true ; but fear had seized the most, 
 And all good counsel is on cowards lost. 
 The question crudely put to shun delay, 525 
 
 'Twas carried by the major part to stay. 
 
 ' His point thus gained, Sir Martin dated thence 
 His power, and from a priest became a prince. 
 He ordered all things with a busy care, 
 And cells and refectories did prepare, 530 
 
 And large provisions laid of winter fare ; 
 But now and then let fall a word or two, 
 Of hope, that Heaven some miracle might show, 
 And for their sakes the sun should backward go, 
 Against the laws of nature upward climb, 535 
 
 And, mounted on the Ram, renew the prime; 
 For which two proofs in sacred story lay, 
 Of Ahaz' dial and of Joshua's day. 
 In expectation of such times as these, 
 A chapel housed them, truly called of ease ; 540 
 
 For Martin much devotion did not ask ; 
 They prayed sometimes, and that was all their task. 
 
 1 It happened (as beyond the reach of wit 
 Blind prophecies may have a lucky hit) 
 That this accomplished, or at least in part, 545 
 
 Gave great repute to their new Merlin's art. 
 Some Swifts, the giants of the Swallow kind, 
 Large-limbed, stout-hearted, but of stupid mind, 
 (For Swisses or for Gibeonites designed,) 
 These lubbers, peeping through a broken pane 550 
 
 To suck fresh air, surveyed the neighbouring plain, 
 And saw (but scarcely could believe their eyes) 
 New blossoms flourish and new flowers arise, 
 As God had been abroad, and walking there 
 Had left his footsteps and reformed the year. 555 
 
 The sunny hills from far were seen to glow 
 With glittering beams, and in the meads below 
 The burnished brooks appeared with liquid gold to flow. 
 At last they heard the foolish Cuckoo sing, 
 Whose note proclaimed the holy-day of spring. 560 
 
202 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 'No longer doubting, all prepare to fly 
 And repossess their patrimonial sky. 
 The priest before them did his wings display; 
 And that good omens might attend their way, 
 As luck would have it, 'twas St. Martin's day. 565 
 
 1 Who but the Swallow now triumphs alone ? 
 The canopy of heaven is all her own ; 
 Her youthful offspring to their haunts repair, 
 And glide along in glades, and skim in air, 
 And dip for insects in the purling springs, 570 
 
 And stoop on rivers to refresh their wings. 
 Their mothers think a fair provision made, 
 That every son can live upon his trade, 
 And, now the careful charge is off their hands, 
 Look out for husbands and new nuptial bands. 575 
 
 The youthful widow longs to be supplied; 
 But first the lover is by lawyers tied 
 To settle jointure-chimneys on the bride. 
 So thick they couple, in so short a space, 
 That Martin's marriage-offerings rise apace; 580 
 
 Their ancient houses, running to decay, 
 Are furbished up and cemented with clay. 
 They teem already ; stores of eggs are laid, 
 And brooding mothers call Lucina's aid. 
 Fame spreads the news, and foreign fowls appear 585 
 
 In flocks to greet the new returning year, 
 To bless the founder and partake the cheer. 
 
 ' And now 'twas time (so fast their numbers rise) 
 To plant abroad, and people colonies. 
 The youth drawn forth, as Martin had desired 590 
 
 (For so their cruel destiny required), 
 Were sent far off on an ill-fated day; 
 The rest would need conduct them on their way, 
 And Martin went, because he feared alone to stay. 
 
 1 So long they flew with inconsiderate haste, 595 
 
 That now their afternoon began to waste ; 
 And, what was ominous, that very morn 
 The Sun was entered into Capricorn: 
 
PART III. 203 
 
 Which, by their bad astronomers* account, 
 
 That week the Virgin balance should remount. 600 
 
 An infant moon eclipsed him in his way, 
 
 And hid the small remainders of his day. 
 
 The crowd amazed pursued no certain mark, 
 
 But birds met birds, and justled in the dark. 
 
 Few mind the public in a panic fright, 605 
 
 And fear increased the horror of the night. 
 
 Night came, but unattended with repose ; 
 
 Alone she came, no sleep their eyes to close ; 
 
 Alone, and black she came ; no friendly stars arose. 
 
 'What should they do, beset with dangers round, 610 
 No neighbouring dorp, no lodging to be found, 
 But bleaky plains, and bare unhospitable ground ? 
 The latter brood, who just began to fly, 
 Sick-feathered and unpractised in the sky, 
 For succour to their helpless mother call: 615 
 
 She spread her wings ; some few beneath them crawl ; 
 She spread them wider yet, but could not cover all. 
 To augment their woes, the winds began to move 
 Debate in air for empty fields above, 
 
 Till Boreas got the skies, and poured amain 620 
 
 His rattling hailstones mixed with snow and rain. 
 
 ' The joyless morning late arose, and found 
 A dreadful desolation reign around, 
 Some buried in the snow, some frozen to the ground. 
 The rest were struggling still with death, and lay 625 
 
 The Crows' and Ravens' rights, an undefended prey, 
 Excepting Martin's race ; for they and he 
 Had gained the shelter of a hollow tree : 
 But soon discovered by a sturdy clown, 
 He headed all the rabble of a town, 630 
 
 And finished them with bats, or polled them down. 
 Martin himself was caught alive, and tried 
 For treasonous crimes, because the laws provide 
 No Martin there in winter shall abide. 
 High on an oak which never leaf shall bear, 635 
 
 He breathed his last, exposed to open air; 
 
204 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 And there his corps, unblessed, is hanging still, 
 
 To show the change of winds with his prophetic bill.' 
 
 The patience of the Hind did almost fail, 
 For well she marked the malice of the tale ; 640 
 
 Which ribald art their Church to Luther owes ; 
 In malice it began, by malice grows; 
 He sowed the serpent's teeth, an iron-harvest rose. 
 But most in Martin's character and fate 
 She saw her slandered sons, the Panther's hate, 645 
 
 The people's rage, the persecuting State : 
 Then said, ' I take the advice in friendly part ; 
 You clear your conscience, or at least your heart. 
 Perhaps you failed in your foreseeing skill, 
 For Swallows are unlucky birds to kill: 650 
 
 As for my sons, the family is blessed 
 Whose every child is equal to -the rest; 
 No church reformed can boast a blameless line, 
 Such Martins build in yours, and more than mine; 
 Or else an old fanatic author lies, 655 
 
 Who summed their scandals up by centuries. 
 But through your parable I plainly see 
 The bloody laws, the crowd's barbarity ; 
 The sunshine that offends the purblind sight, 
 Had some their wishes, it would soon be night, 660 
 
 Mistake me not; the charge concerns not you; 
 Your sons are malcontents, but yet are true, 
 As far as non-resistance makes them so ; 
 But that's a word of neutral sense, you know, 
 A passive term, which no relief will bring, 665 
 
 But trims betwixt a rebel and a king.' 
 
 1 Rest well assured,' the Pardalis replied, 
 * My sons would all support the regal side, 
 Though Heaven forbid the cause by battle should be tried.' 
 
 The matron answered with a loud 'Amen!' 670 
 
 And thus pursued her argument again: 
 ' If, as you say, and as I hope no less, 
 Your sons will practise what your self profess, 
 What angry power prevents our present peace? 
 
PART III. 205 
 
 The Lion, studious of our common good, 675 
 
 Desires (and kings' desires are ill withstood) 
 
 To join our nations in a lasting love; 
 
 The bars betwixt are easy to remove, 
 
 For sanguinary laws were never made above. 
 
 If you condemn that Prince of tyranny, 680 
 
 Whose mandate forced your Gallic friends to fly, 
 
 Make not a worse example of your own ; 
 
 Or cease to rail at causeless rigour shown, 
 
 And let the guiltless person throw the stone. 
 
 His blunted sword your suffering brotherhood 685 
 
 Have seldom felt ; he stops it short of blood : 
 
 But you have ground the persecuting knife 
 
 And set it to a razor edge on life. 
 
 Cursed be the wit which cruelty refines 
 
 Or to his father's rod the scorpion joins ; 690 
 
 Your finger is more gross than the great monarch's loins. 
 
 But you perhaps remove that bloody note 
 
 And stick it on the first Reformers' coat. 
 
 Oh, let their crime in long oblivion sleep; 
 
 'Twas theirs indeed to make, 'tis yours to keep. 695 
 
 Unjust or just is all the question now; 
 
 'Tis plain that, not repealing, you allow. 
 
 ' To name the Test would put you in a rage ; 
 You charge not that on any former age, 
 But smile to think how innocent you stand, 7 
 
 Armed by a weapon put into your hand. 
 Yet still remember that you wield a sword 
 Forged by your foes against your sovereign lord; 
 Designed to hew the imperial cedar down, 
 Defraud succession and disheir the crown. 75 
 
 To abhor the makers and their laws approve 
 Is to hate traitors and the treason love: 
 What means it else, which now your children say, 
 We made it not, nor will we take away ? 
 
 * Suppose some great oppressor had by slight 710 
 
 Of law disseised your brother of his right, 
 Your common sire surrendering in a fright; 
 
206 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Would you to that unrighteous title stand, 
 
 Left by the villain's will to heir the land ? 
 
 More just was Judas, who his Saviour sold; 715 
 
 The sacrilegious bribe he could not hold, 
 
 Nor hang in peace, before he rendered back the gold. 
 
 What more could you have done than now you do, 
 
 Had Gates and Bedlow and their Plot been true? 
 
 Some specious reasons for those wrongs were found; 720 
 
 The dire magicians threw their mists around, 
 
 And wise men walked as on enchanted ground. 
 
 But now, when Time has made the imposture plain 
 
 (Late though he followed truth, and limping held her train), 
 
 What new delusion charms your cheated eyes again? 725 
 
 The painted harlot might a while bewitch, 
 
 But why the hag uncased and all obscene with itch? 
 
 * The first Reformers were a modest race ; 
 Our peers possessed in peace their native place, 
 And when rebellious arms o'erturned the State 730 
 
 They suffered only in the common fate ; 
 But now the Sovereign mounts the regal chair, 
 And mitred seats are full, yet David's bench is bare. 
 Your answer is, they were not dispossessed; 
 They need but rub their metal on the Test 735 
 
 To prove their ore ; 'twere well if gold alone 
 Were touched and tried on your discerning stone, 
 But that unfaithful Test unfound will pass 
 The dross of atheists and sectarian brass ; 
 As if the experiment were made to hold 740 
 
 For base productions, and reject the gold. 
 Thus men ungodded may to places rise, 
 And sects may be preferred without disguise; 
 No danger to the Church or State from these; 
 The Papist only has his writ of ease, - 745 
 
 No gainful office gives him the pretence 
 To grind the subject or defraud the prince, 
 Wrong conscience or no conscience may deserve 
 To thrive, but ours alone is privileged to sterve. 
 
 1 Still thank your selves, you cry; your noble race 750 
 
PART III. 207 
 
 We banish not, but they forsake the place: 
 
 Our doors are open. True, but ere they come, 
 
 You toss your censing Test and fume the room; 
 
 As if 'twere Toby's rival to expel, 
 
 And fright the fiend who could not bear the smell.' 755 
 
 To this the Panther sharply had replied; 
 But, having gained a verdict on her side, 
 She wisely gave the loser leave to chide; 
 Well satisfied to have the butt and peace, 
 And for the plaintiffs cause she cared the less, 760 
 
 Because she sued in forma pauper is ; 
 Yet thought it decent something should be said, 
 For secret guilt by silence is betrayed. 
 So neither granted all, nor much denied, 
 But answered with a yawning kind of pride: 765 
 
 'Methinks such terms of prof erred peace you bring, 
 As once JEneas to the Italian king. 
 By long possession all the land is mine; 
 You strangers come with your intruding line 
 To share my sceptre, which you call to join. 770 
 
 You plead like him an ancient pedigree 
 And claim a peaceful seat by Fate's decree: 
 In ready pomp your sacrificer stands, 
 To unite the Trojan and the Latin bands : 
 And, that the league more firmly may be tied, 775 
 
 Demand the fair Lavinia for your bride. 
 Thus plausibly you veil the intended wrong, 
 But still you bring your exiled gods along; 
 And will endeavour, in succeeding space, 
 Those household poppits on our hearths to place. 780 
 
 Perhaps some barbarous laws have been preferred; 
 I spake against the Test, but was not heard. 
 These to rescind and peerage to restore 
 My gracious Sovereign would my vote implore ; 
 I owe him much, but owe my conscience more.' 785 
 
 1 Conscience is then your plea,' replied the dame, 
 'Which, well-informed, will ever be the same. 
 But yours is much of the cameleon hue, 
 
208 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER, 
 
 To change the dye with every different view. 
 
 When first the Lion sat with awful sway, 790 
 
 Your conscience taught you duty to obey; 
 
 He might have had your statutes and your Test; 
 
 No conscience but of subjects was professed. 
 
 He found your temper, and no farther tried, 
 
 But on that broken reed, your Church, relied. 795 
 
 In vain the sects assayed their utmost art, 
 
 With offered treasure to espouse their part ; 
 
 Their treasures were a bribe too mean to move his heart. 
 
 But when, by long experience, you had proved 
 
 How far he could forgive, how well he loved ; 800 
 
 A goodness that excelled his godlike race, 
 
 And only short of Heaven's unbounded grace; 
 
 A flood of mercy that o'erflowed our isle, 
 
 Calm in the rise, and fruitful as the Nile ; 
 
 Forgetting whence your Egypt was supplied, 805 
 
 You thought your Sovereign bound to send the tide ; 
 
 Nor upward looked on that immortal spring, 
 
 But vainly deemed he durst not be a king : 
 
 Then Conscience, unrestrained by fear, began 
 
 To stretch her limits, and extend the span; 810 
 
 Did his indulgence as her gift dispose, 
 
 And made a wise alliance with her foes. 
 
 Can Conscience own the associating name, 
 
 And raise no blushes to conceal her shame ? 
 
 For sure she has been thought a bashful dame. 815 
 
 But if the cause by battle should be tried, 
 
 You grant she must espouse the regal side ; 
 
 O Proteus Conscience, never to be tied ! 
 
 What Phoebus from the tripod shall disclose 
 
 Which are in last resort your friends or foes? 820 
 
 Homer, who learned the language of the sky, 
 
 The seeming Gordian knot would soon untie; 
 
 Immortal powers the term of Conscience know, 
 
 But Interest is her name with men below.' 
 
 * Conscience or Interest be it, or both in one,' 825 
 
 The Panther answered in a surly tone ; 
 
PART III. 
 
 209 
 
 'The first commands me to maintain the crown, 
 
 The last forbids to throw my barriers down. 
 
 Our penal laws no sons of yours admit, 
 
 Our Test excludes your tribe from benefit. 830 
 
 These are my banks your ocean to withstand, 
 
 Which proudly rising overlooks the land, 
 
 And, once let in, with unresisted sway 
 
 Would sweep the pastors and their flocks away. 
 
 Think not my judgment leads me to comply 835 
 
 With laws unjust, but hard necessity : 
 
 Imperious need, which cannot be withstood, 
 
 Makes ill authentic for a greater good, 
 
 Possess your soul with patience, and attend ; 
 
 A more auspicious planet may ascend ; 840 
 
 Good fortune may present some happier time, 
 
 With means to cancel my unwilling crime ; 
 
 (Unwilling, witness all ye Powers above !) 
 
 To mend my errors and redeem your love : 
 
 That little space you safely may allow ; 845 
 
 Your all-dispensing power protects you now.' 
 
 ' Hold/ said the Hind, ' 'tis needless to explain ; 
 You would postpone me to another reign; 
 Till when, you are content to be unjust: 
 Your part is to possess, and mine to trust. 850 
 
 A fair exchange proposed of future chance 
 For present profit and inheritance. 
 Few words will serve to finish our dispute ; 
 Who will not now repeal would persecute. 
 To ripen green revenge your hopes attend, 855 
 
 Wishing that happier planet would ascend. 9 
 
 For .shame, let conscience be your plea no more ; 
 To will hereafter proves she might before ; 
 But she's a bawd to gain, and holds the door. 
 
 ' Your care about your banks infers a fear 860 
 
 Of threatening floods and inundations near ; 
 If so, a just reprise would only be 
 Of what the land usurped upon the sea; 
 And all your jealousies but serve to show 
 
 p 
 
210 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Your ground is, like your neighbour-nation, low. 865 
 
 To entrench in what you grant unrighteous laws 
 
 Is to distrust the justice of your cause, 
 
 And argues, that the true religion lies 
 
 In those weak adversaries you despise. 
 
 ' Tyrannic force is that which least you fear ; 870 
 
 The sound is frightful in a Christian's ear: 
 
 Avert it, Heaven! nor let that plague be sent 
 
 To us from the dispeopled continent. 
 ( But piety commands me to refrain ; 
 
 Those prayers are needless in this Monarch's reign. 875 
 
 Behold how he protects your friends opprest, 
 
 Receives the banished, succours the distressed ! 
 
 Behold, for you may read an honest open breast. 
 
 He stands in daylight, and disdains to hide 
 
 An act to -which by honour he is tied, 880 
 
 A generous, laudable, and kingly pride. 
 Your Test he would repeal, his peers restore ; 
 This when he says he means, he means no more.' 
 ( Well, ' said the Panther, * I believe him just, 
 
 And yet ' 
 
 * And yet, 'tis but because you must ; 885 
 You would be trusted, but you would not trust.' 
 The Hind thus briefly ; and disdained to enlarge 
 On power of kings and their superior charge, 
 As Heaven's trustees before the people's choice, 
 Though sure the Panther did not much rejoice 890 
 
 To hear those echoes given of her once loyal voice. 
 
 * The matron wooed her kindness to the last, 
 But could not win ; her hour of grace was past. 
 Whom thus persisting when she could not bring 
 To leave the Wolf and to believe her King, 895 
 
 She gave her up, and fairly wished her joy 
 Of her late treaty with her new ally : 
 Which well she hoped would more successful prove 
 Than was the Pigeon's and the Buzzard's love. 
 The Panther asked what concord there could be 900 
 
 Betwixt two kinds whose natures disagree?' 
 
PART III. 211 
 
 The dame replied: *'Tis sung in every street, 
 
 The common chat of gossips when they meet ; 
 
 But, since unheard by you, 'tis worth your while 
 
 To take a wholesome tale, though told in homely style. 
 
 'A plain good man, whose* name is understood, 906 
 
 (So few deserve the name of plain and good,) 
 Of three fair lineal lordships stood possessed, 
 And lived, as reason was, upon the best. 
 Inured to hardships from his early youth, 910 
 
 Much had he done and suffered for his truth : 
 At land and sea, in many a doubtful fight, 
 Was never known a more adventurous knight, 
 Who oftener drew his sword, and always for the right. 
 
 'As Fortune would, (his fortune came though late,) 915 
 He took possession of his just estate ; 
 Nor racked his tenants with increase of rent, 
 Nor lived too sparing, nor too largely spent ; 
 But overlooked his hinds ; their pay was just 
 And ready, for he scorned to go on trust: 920 
 
 Slow to resolve, but in performance quick, 
 So true that he was awkward at a trick. 
 For little souls on little shifts rely 
 And coward arts of mean expedients try ; 
 The noble mind will dare do anything but lie. 925 
 
 False friends (his deadliest foes) could find no way 
 But shows of honest bluntness, to betray ; 
 That unsuspected plainness he believed ; 
 He looked into himself, and was deceived. 
 Some lucky planet sure attends his birth 930 
 
 Or Heaven would make a miracle on earth, 
 For prosperous honesty is seldom seen 
 To bear sb dead a weight, and yet to win ; 
 It looks as Fate with Nature's law would strive 
 To show plain-dealing once an age may thrive; 935 
 
 And, when so tough a frame she could not bend, 
 Exceeded her commission to befriend. 
 
 'This grateful man, as Heaven increased his store, 
 Gave God again, and daily fed his poor, 
 p 2 
 
212 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 His house with all convenience was purveyed ; 940 
 
 The rest he found, but raised the fabric where he prayed ; 
 And in that sacred place his beauteous wife 
 Employed her happiest hours of holy life. 
 
 1 Nor did their alms extend to those alone 
 Whom common faith more strictly made their own ; 945 
 A sort of Doves were housed too near their hall, 
 Who cross the proverb, and abound with gall. 
 Though some, 'tis true, are passively inclined, 
 The greater part degenerate from their kind ; 
 Voracious birds, that hotly bill and breed, 950 
 
 And largely drink, because on salt they feed. 
 Small gain from them their bounteous owner draws, 
 Yet, bound by promise, he supports their cause, 
 As corporations privileged by laws. 
 
 6 That house, which harbour to their kind affords, 955 
 Was built long since, God knows, for better birds ; 
 But fluttering there, they nestle near the throne, 
 And lodge in habitations not their own, 
 By their high crops and corny gizzards known. 
 Like harpies, they could scent a plenteous board ; 960 
 
 Then, to be sure, they never failed their lord : 
 The rest was form, and bare attendance paid ; 
 They drunk, and eat, and grudgingly obeyed. 
 The more they fed, they ravened still for more ; 
 They drained from Dan, and left Beersheba poor. 965 
 All this they had by law, and none repined ; 
 The preference was but due to Levi's kind: 
 But when some lay-preferment fell by chance, 
 The gourmands made it their inheritance. 
 When once possessed, they never quit their claim, 970 
 For then 'tis sanctified to Heaven's high name ; * 
 And, hallowed thus, they cannot give consent 
 The gifts should be profaned by worldly management. 
 
 * Their flesh was never to the table served ; 
 Though 'tis not thence inferred the birds were starved ; 
 But that their master did not like the food, 976 
 
 As rank, and breeding melancholy blood. 
 
PART III. 213 
 
 Nor did it with his gracious nature suit, 
 
 Even though they were not Doves, to persecute : 
 
 Yet he refused (nor could they take offence) 980 
 
 Their glutton kind should teach him abstinence. 
 
 Nor consecrated grain their wheat he thought, 
 
 \Vhich, new from treading, in their bills they brought'. 
 
 But left his hinds each in his private power, 
 
 That those who like the bran might leave the flour. 985 
 
 He for himself, and not for others, chose, 
 
 Nor would he be imposed on, nor impose; 
 
 But in their, faces his devotion paid, 
 
 And sacrifice with solemn rites was made, 
 
 And sacred incense on his altars laid. 990 
 
 ' Besides these jolly birds, whose crops impure 
 Repaid their commons with their salt manure, 
 Another farm he had behind his house, 
 Not overstocked, but barely for his use; 
 Wherein his poor domestic poultry fed 995 
 
 And from his pious hands received their bread. 
 Our pampered Pigeons with malignant eyes 
 Beheld these inmates and their nurseries ; 
 Though hard their fare, at evening and at morn, 
 A cruise of water and an ear of corn, 1000 
 
 Yet still they grudged that modicum, and thought 
 A sheaf in every single grain was brought. 
 Fain would they filch that little food away, 
 While unrestrained those happy gluttons prey. 
 And much they grieved to see so nigh their hall 1005 
 
 The bird that warned St. Peter of his fall ; 
 That he should raise his mitred crest on high, 
 And clap his wings and call his family 
 To sacred rites; and vex the etherial powers 
 With midnight matins at uncivil hours; 1010 
 
 Nay more, his quiet neighbours should molest, 
 Just in the sweetness of their morning rest. 
 
 ' Beast of a bird, supinely when he might 
 Lie snug and sleep, to rise above the light! 
 What if his dull forefathers used that cry, 1015 
 
214 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Gould he not let a bad example die? 
 
 The world was fallen into an easier way ; 
 
 This age knew better than to fast and pray. 
 
 Good sense in sacred worship would appear 
 
 So to begin as they might end the year. 1020 
 
 Such feats in former times had wrought the falls 
 
 Of crowing Chanticleers in cloistered walls. 
 
 Expelled for this and for their lands, they fled, 
 
 And sister Partlet, with her hooded head, 
 
 Was hooted hence, because she would not pray a-bed. 
 
 The way to win the restiff world to God 1026 
 
 Was to lay by the disciplining rod, 
 
 Unnatural fasts, and foreign forms of prayer : 
 
 Religion frights us with a mien severe. 
 
 'Tis prudence to reform her into ease, 1030 
 
 And put her in undress, to make her please ; 
 
 A lively faith will bear aloft the mind 
 
 And leave the luggage of good works behind. 
 
 ( Such doctrines in the Pigeon-house were taught ; 
 You need not ask how wondrously they wrought; 1035 
 But sure the common cry was all for these, 
 Whose life and precepts both encouraged ease. 
 Yet fearing those alluring baits might fail, 
 And holy deeds o'er all their arts prevail, 
 (For vice, though frontless and of hardened face, 1040 
 
 Is daunted at the sight of awful grace,) 
 An hideous figure of their foes they drew, 
 Nor lines, nor looks, nor shades, nor colours true; 
 And this grotesque design exposed to public view. 
 One would have thought it an Egyptian piece, 1045 
 
 With garden-gods, and barking deities, 
 More thick than Ptolemy has stuck the skies. 
 All so perverse a draught, so far unlike, 
 It was no libel where it meant to strike. 
 Yet still the daubing pleased, and great and small 1050 
 To view the monster crowded Pigeon-hall. 
 There Chanticleer was drawn upon his knees, 
 Adoring shrines and stocks of sainted trees; 
 
PART III. 215 
 
 And by him a misshapen ugly race; 
 
 The curse of God was seen on every face. 1055 
 
 No Holland emblem could that malice mend, 
 
 But still the worse the look the fitter for a fiend. 
 
 ' The master of the farm, displeased to find 
 So much of rancour in so mild a kind, 
 Inquired into the cause, and came to know ic6o 
 
 The passive Church had struck the foremost blow ; 
 With groundless fears and jealousies possest, 
 As if this troublesome intruding guest 
 Would drive the birds of Venus from their nest : 
 A deed his inborn equity abhorred; 1065 
 
 But Interest will not trust, though God should plight his word. 
 
 * A law, the source of many future harms, 
 Had banished all the poultry from the farms, 
 With loss of life, if any should be found 
 To crow or peck on this forbidden ground. 1070 
 
 That bloody statute chiefly was designed 
 For Chanticleer the white, of clergy kind ; 
 But after-malice did not long forget 
 The lay that wore the robe and coronet. 
 For them, for their inferiors and allies, 1075 
 
 Their foes a deadly Shibboleth devise: 
 By which unrighteously it was decreed, 
 That none to trust or profit should succeed, 
 Who would not swallow first a poisonous wicked weed; 
 Or that to which old Socrates was curst, 1080 
 
 Or henbane juice to swell them till they burst. 
 The patron, as in reason, thought it hard 
 To see this inquisition in his yard, 
 By which the Sovereign was of subjects' use debarred. 
 
 'All gentle means he tried, which might withdraw 1085 
 The effects of so unnatural a law: 
 But still the Dove-house obstinately stood 
 Deaf to their own and to their neighbours' good; 
 And which was worse, if any worse could be, 
 Repented of their boasted loyalty ; 1090 
 
 Now made the champions of a cruel cause, 
 
2l6 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 And drunk with fumes of popular applause : 
 For those whom God to ruin has designed, 
 He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind. 
 
 * New doubts indeed they daily strove to raise, 1095 
 Suggested dangers, interposed delays; 
 And emissary Pigeons had in store, 
 Such as the Meccan prophet used of yore, 
 To whisper counsels in their patron's ear; 
 And veiled their false advice with zealous fear. noo 
 
 The master smiled to see them work in vain, 
 To wear him out and make an idle reign: 
 He saw, but suffered their protractive arts, 
 And strove by mildness to reduce their hearts; 
 But they abused that grace to make allies 1105 
 
 And fondly closed with former enemies ; 
 For fools are double fools, endeavouring to be wise. 
 
 After a grave consult what course were best, 
 One, more mature in folly than the rest, 
 Stood up, and told them with his head aside, mo 
 
 That desperate cures must be to desperate ills applied : 
 And therefore, since their main impending fear 
 Was from the increasing race of Chanticleer, 
 Some potent bird of prey they ought to find, 
 A foe professed to him and all his kind: 1115 
 
 Some haggared Hawk, who had her eyry nigh, 
 Well pounced to fasten, and well winged to fly: 
 One they might trust their common wrongs to wreak. 
 The Musquet and the Coystrel were too weak ; 
 Too fierce the Falcon; but, above the rest, 1120 
 
 The noble Buzzard ever pleased me best : 
 Of small renown, 'tis true; for, not to lie, 
 W T e call him but a Hawk by courtesy. 
 I know he haunts the Pigeon-house and farm, 
 And more, in time of war has done us harm: 1125 
 
 But all his hate on trivial points depends; 
 Give up our forms, and we shall soon be friends. 
 For pigeons' flesh he seems not much to care; 
 Crammed chickens are a more delicious fare. 
 
PART III. 217 
 
 On this high potentate, without delay, 1130 
 
 I wish you would confer the sovereign sway ; 
 Petition him to accept the government, 
 And let a splendid embassy be sent. 
 
 ' This pithy speech prevailed ; and all agreed, 
 Old enmities forgot, the Buzzard should succeed. 1135 
 
 ' Their welcome suit was granted soon as heard, 
 His lodgings furnished,, and a train prepared, 
 With B's upon their breast, appointed for his guard. 
 He came, and crowned with great solemnity, 
 God save king Buzzard! was the general cry. 1140 
 
 ' A portly prince, and goodly to the sight, 
 He seemed a son of Anak for his height : 
 Like those whom stature did to crowns prefer; 
 Black-browed and bluff, like Homer's Jupiter; 
 Broad-backed and brawny built for love's delight, 1145 
 A prophet formed to make a female proselyte. 
 A theologue more by need than genial bent ; 
 By breeding sharp, by nature confident, 
 Interest in all his actions was discerned; 
 More learned than honest, more a wit than learned; 1150 
 Or forced by fear or by his profit led, 
 Or both conjoined, his native clime he fled : 
 But brought the virtues of his heaven along; 
 A fair behaviour, and a fluent tongue. 
 And yet with all his arts he could not thrive, 1155 
 
 The most unlucky parasite alive ; 
 Loud praises to prepare his paths he sent, 
 And then himself pursued his compliment; 
 But by reverse of fortune chased away, 
 His gifts no longer than their author stay; 1160 
 
 He shakes the dust against the ungrateful race, 
 And leaves the stench of ordures in the place. 
 Oft has he flattered and blasphemed the same, 
 For in his rage he spares no sovereign's name : 
 The hero and the tyrant change their style 1165 
 
 By the same measure that they frown or smile. 
 When well received by hospitable foes, 
 
21 8 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 The kindness he returns is to expose ; 
 
 For courtesies, though undeserved and great, 
 
 No gratitude in felon-minds beget; 1170 
 
 As tribute to his wit the churl receives the treat. 
 
 His praise of foes is venomously nice; 
 
 So touched, it turns a virtue to a vice: 
 
 A Greek, and bountiful, forewarns us twice. 
 
 Seven sacraments he wisely does disown, 1175 
 
 Because he knows Confession stands for one; 
 
 Where sins to sacred silence are conveyed, 
 
 And not for fear or love to be betrayed : 
 
 But he, uncalled, his patron to control, 
 
 Divulged the secret whispers of his soul; 1180 
 
 Stood forth the accusing Satan of his crimes, 
 
 And offered to the Moloch of the times. 
 
 Prompt to assail, and careless of defence, 
 
 Invulnerable in his impudence, 
 
 He dares the world and, eager of a name, 1185 
 
 He thrusts about and justles into fame. 
 
 Frontless and satire-proof, he scours the streets, 
 
 And runs an Indian muck at all he meets. 
 
 So fond of loud report, that not to miss 
 
 Of being known (his last and utmost bliss,) 1190 
 
 He rather would be known for what he is. 
 
 ' Such was and is the Captain of the Test, 
 Though half his virtues are not here exprest ; 
 The modesty of fame conceals the rest. 
 The spleenful Pigeons never could create 1195 
 
 A prince more proper to revenge their hate ; 
 Indeed, more proper to revenge than save; 
 A king whom in His wrath the Almighty gave : 
 For all the grace the landlord had allowed 
 But made the Buzzard and the Pigeons proud, 1200 
 
 Gave time to fix their friends and to seduce the crowd. 
 They long their fellow-subjects to enthral, 
 Their patron's promise into question call, 
 And vainly think he meant to make them lords of all. 
 
 * False fears their leaders failed not to suggest, 1205 
 
PART III. 219 
 
 As if the Doves were to be dispossest; 
 
 Nor sighs nor groans nor goggling eyes did want, 
 
 For now the Pigeons too had learned to cant. 
 
 The house of prayer is stocked with large increase, 
 
 Nor doors nor windows can contain the press: 1210 
 
 For birds of every feather fill the abode; 
 
 Even Atheists out of envy own a God ; 
 
 And, reeking from the stews, adulterers come, 
 
 I<ike Goths and Vandals to demolish Rome. 
 
 That Conscience, which to all their crimes was mute, 1215 
 
 Now calls aloud and cries to persecute: 
 
 No rigour of the laws to be released, 
 
 And much the less, because it was their Lord's request: 
 
 They thought it great their Sovereign to control, 
 
 And named their pride nobility of soul. 1220 
 
 ' 'Tis true, the Pigeons and their prince elect 
 Were short of power their purpose to effect : 
 But with their quills did all the hurt they could 
 And cuffed the tender chickens from their food: 
 And much the Buzzard in their cause did stir, 1225 
 
 Though naming not the patron, to infer, 
 With all respect, he was a gross idolater. 
 
 ' But when the imperial owner did espy 
 That thus they turned his grace to villany, 
 Not suffering wrath to discompose his mind, 1230 
 
 He strove a temper for the extremes to find, 
 So to be just as he might still be kind: 
 Then, all maturely weighed, pronounced a doom 
 Of sacred strength for every age to come. 
 By this the Doves their wealth and state possess, 1235 
 No rights infringed, but licence to oppress: 
 Such power have they as factious lawyers long 
 To crowns ascribed, that kings can do no wrong. 
 But since his own domestic birds have tried 
 The dire effects of their destructive pride, 1240 
 
 He deems that proof a measure to the rest, 
 Concluding well within his kingly breast 
 His fowl of nature too unjustly were oppressed. 
 
220 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 He therefore makes all birds of every sect 
 
 Free of his farm, with promise to respect 1245 
 
 Their several kinds alike, and equally protect. 
 
 His gracious edict the same franchise yields 
 
 To all the wild increase of woods and fields, 
 
 And who in rocks aloof, and who in steeples builds ; 
 
 To Crows the like impartial grace affords, 1250 
 
 And Choughs and Daws, and such republic birds ; 
 
 Secured with ample privilege to feed, 
 
 Each has his district and his bounds decreed : 
 
 Combined in common interest with his own, 
 
 But not to pass the Pigeons' Rubicon. 1255 
 
 ' Here ends the reign of this pretended Dove ; 
 All prophecies accomplished from above, 
 For Shiloh comes the sceptre to remove. 
 Reduced from her imperial high abode, 
 Like Dionysius to a private rod, 1260 
 
 The passive Church, that with pretended grace 
 Did her distinctive mark in duty place, 
 Now touched, reviles her Maker to his face. 
 
 1 What after happened is not hard to guess ; 
 The small beginnings had a large increase, 1265 
 
 And arts and wealth succeed, the secret spoils of peace. 
 'Tis said the Doves repented, though too late 
 Become the smiths of their own foolish fate : 
 Nor did their owner hasten their ill hour, 
 But, sunk in credit, they decreased in power: 1270 
 
 Like snows in warmth that mildly pass away, 
 Dissolving in the silence of decay. 
 
 1 The Buzzard, not content with equal place, 
 Invites the feathered Nimrods of his race, 
 To hide the thinness of their flock from sight, 1275 
 
 And all together make a seeming goodly flight: 
 But each have separate interests of their own ; 
 Two Czars are one too many for a throne. 
 Nor can the usurper long abstain from food; 
 Already he has tasted Pigeon's blood, 1280 
 
 And may be tempted to his former fare, 
 
PART III. 221 
 
 When this indulgent lord shall late to Heaven repair. 
 
 Bare benting times and moulting months may come, 
 
 When lagging late they cannot reach their home ; 
 
 Or rent in schism (for so their fate decrees) 1285 
 
 Like the tumultuous College of the Bees, 
 
 They fight their quarrel, by themselves opprest; 
 
 The tyrant smiles below, and waits the falling feast.' 
 
 Thus did the gentle Hind her fable end, 
 Nor would the Panther blame it nor commend; 1290 
 
 But, with affected y awnings at the close, 
 Seemed to require her natural repose ; 
 For now the streaky light began to peep, 
 And setting stars admonished both to sleep. 
 The dame withdrew, and wishing to her guest 1295 
 
 The peace of Heaven, betook her self to rest. 
 Ten thousand angels on her slumbers wait 
 With glorious visions of her future state. 
 
NOTES. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 Stanzas on Oliver Cromwell. 
 
 Stanza 1. The death of Cromwell was on September 3, 1658 ; the funeral 
 was celebrated on November 23. The meaning of this stanza is, that ' now 'tis 
 time,' after the funeral, to write in honour of Cromwell's memory, and that 
 those who wrote before were too hasty. The comparison with the Romans 
 refers to the custom of letting fly an eagle at the close of the funeral cere- 
 monies of a Roman emperor, which were his consecration or apotheosis. The 
 eagle flying upwards symbolized the ascent of the soul of the deceased emperor 
 to take its place among the gods. These funeral ceremonies are minutely 
 described by Herodianus in the case of the Emperor Severus (Hist. Roman, 
 lib. iv.) Dryden makes reference to this custom again in his play Tyrannic 
 Love, Act iv. Sc. 2 : 
 
 'A God indeed after the Roman style, 
 An eagle mounting from a kindled pile.' 
 
 1. line I. officious haste, officious means * friendly,' 'obliging.' Poem 
 on the Coronation, 42 : 
 
 ' Officious slumbers haste your eyes to close.' 
 And Threnodia Augustalis, 370 : 
 
 * The officious Muses came along.' 
 
 Compare also 'officious flood 5 in Annus Mirabilis, stanza 184. 'Officious* 
 has the same meaning in Milton, Paradise Lost, viii. 99 : 
 
 ' Yet not to Earth are those bright luminaries 
 -Officious, but to thee, Earth's habitant.' 
 
 2. 4. authentic, stamped with authority, authoritative. This is the usual 
 meaning with Dryden and his contemporaries. Compare The Hind and 
 the Panther, Part iii. 838. One of Dryden's Prologues to the University of 
 Oxford (1673) ends with this couplet : 
 
 'Kings make their poets whom themselves think fit, 
 
 But 'tis your suffrage makes authentic wit.' 
 
 In his Dedication of Aurengzebe, Dryden, speaking of the King, says, ' he 
 has made authentic my private opinion/ 
 
 4. 3. prevent, anticipate ; the ordinary meaning with Dryden. Compare 
 
 Q 
 
226 NOTES. 
 
 Astraea Redux, 67 and 282 ; Absalom and Achitophel, 344 ; The Hind and 
 the Panther, Part ii. 641. In stanza 11 of this poem, prevent may mean 
 either ' anticipate ' or ' hinder,' but the former is probably the meaning. 
 5. 2. circular, perfect, completely symmetrical. 
 
 * A man so absolute and circular.' 
 
 Massinger, Maid of Honour, Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 * In this, sister, your wisdom is not circular.' 
 
 Massinger, The Emperor of the East, Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 * Any attaint might disproportion her, 
 Or make her graces less than circular.' 
 
 G. Chapman, Mons d'Olive. 
 
 The idea is the same in the Latin rotundus, as applied by Horace to a 
 perfect man, ' teres atque rotundus ' (Sat. ii. 7. 86), and by Cicero to a perfect 
 style, 'apta et quasi rotunda constructio ' (Brutus, c. 78). Dryden, in his 
 poem Eleanora, compares the Countess of Abingdon's perfection to an orb 
 'truly round* (line 273); and 'round eternity' in The Hind and the 
 Panther (Part ii. 19), is explained as Dryden here explains the circular fame 
 of Cromwell, 
 
 * For in a round what order can be shewed ? ' 
 
 Eternity has neither beginning nor end. Cleaveland has ' Eternity's round 
 womb' (Rupertismus, p. 58 of ed. 1659). 
 
 'But in his circle wit no end is found.' 
 
 Elegy on Cleaveland, before Poems, &c., 1660. 
 
 3. shewed. Both spellings shew and show occur in Dryden's original 
 editions ; and the spelling is adapted to the rhyme. Here shewed rhymes 
 with conclude. In stanzas 32 and 37 show rhymes with go, and in stanzas 
 14 and 24 shown with sown and own. In the last couplet of Astraea Redux 
 foreshew rhymes with you. 
 
 8. I . of is wrongly replaced by to in the edition in the State Poems ; 
 and to is in Scott's edition. Pompey reached the highest point of his pros- 
 perity and glory on the occasion of his splendid triumph, on his forty-fifth 
 birthday, after his return to Rome from his great Eastern conquests, B.C. 6r. 
 After that, his rule at Rome was attended with many troubles, till at last, 
 vanquished by Caesar, and a fugitive, he was assassinated in Egypt, B.C. 48, 
 September 25, the day before that which would have completed his forty- 
 eighth year. Cromwell, on the other hand, first came permanently into 
 notice in the Civil War when he was forty-five ; his greatness grew from 
 that hour, and he died at the age of fifty-nine, in great fame and power. 
 
 11. i. sticklers were sidesmen in a fight, who acted as umpires, and 
 separated the combatants when they judged right. 
 
 *The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth 
 And, stickler-like, the armies separates.' 
 
 Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act v. Sc. 8. 
 
STANZAS ON OLIVER CROMWELL. <22J 
 
 They were called sticklers from their carrying sticks or staves, with which 
 they interfered between the combatants. The verb stickle is used in this 
 sense of interfering to separate combatants in Dryden's Assignation, Act i. 
 Sc. i : 
 
 'Nay then 'tis time to stickle.' 
 
 It occurs also in Dryden's Prologue to Southerne's Disappointment, ' roar and 
 stickle,' rhyming with ' conventicle,' which would be either pronounced 
 conventickle or with the final e making a distinct syllable, as occurs in 
 Dry den with chronicles, miracles, oracles. See note on Astraea Redux, 106. 
 Compare also, 
 
 'He used to lay about and stickle, 
 
 Like ram or bull at conventicle/ Hudibras, i. 2. 435. 
 'Faith, cry St. George, let them go to't and stickle 
 Whether in conclave or in conventicle.' 
 
 Cleaveland, Smectymnus, p. 39 of Poems, 1659. 
 
 The ' former chiefs,' who are compared to ' sticklers,' are the Presbyterian 
 Parliamentary generals of the beginning of the Civil War, Essex, Manchester, 
 Waller, and others, who were thought unwilling to prosecute to the utmost 
 advantages gained against the king, and whom the Independents got rid of 
 through the Self- denying Ordinance and the New Model, making Fairfax 
 commander-in-chief, and Cromwell lieutenant-general. 
 
 12. 3. He fought to end our fighting, end our wrongly changed to 
 hinder in the edition in the State Poems, followed in a few editions. 
 
 Assayed. Dryden spells this verb in the same way in The Hind and 
 the Panther, Part iii. 796. But he spells it essay in an earlier work, 
 Threnodia Augustalis, 162, and in his latest volume, The Fables. The sub- 
 stantive he uniformly spells essay. 
 
 4. Breathing (sc. opening) of the vein, is a peculiar and favourite 
 phrase of Dryden. He uses it in Palamon and Arcite, Bk. iii. 775 : 
 
 'Nor breathing veins nor cupping will prevail.' 
 
 Also in The Spanish Friar, Act v. Sc. 2 : and in translating Virgil's ' ferire 
 venam ' (Georgics, iii. 460), and Juvenal's ' mediam pertundite venam ' 
 (Sat. vi. 46). Dryden's 
 
 ' Stanch the blood by breathing of the vein,' 
 
 is illustrated by a passage of Bacon : ' There is a fifth way also in use, to let 
 blood in an adverse part for a revulsion' (Nat. Hist. cent. i). Stanch is 
 spelt Stench in the separate edition of this poem of 1659. When Dryden 
 had become prominent as a court-poet in the reign of Charles II, his adver- 
 saries frequently taunted him with this ' breathing of the vein,' interpreting 
 it as meaning the execution of Charles I. But the line does not necessarUy 
 mean so much. It may mean no more than a vigorous and thorough 
 policy. 
 
 13. 2. That bold Greek who did the East subdue. Alexander the Great. 
 
 Q3 
 
228 NOTES. 
 
 14. The meaning of the last three lines is, ' Till the Island might by new 
 maps be shown thick of conquests, &c. as the galaxy is sown with stars.' 
 Thick of is one of Dryden's frequent Gallicisms. It occurs again in his 
 Palamon and Arcite, Bk. i. 230 : 
 
 ' He through a little window cast his sight, 
 
 Though thick of bars, that gave a scanty light.' 
 
 This stanza has puzzled some editors, who have made changes. A semicolon 
 or colon is placed at the end of the first line, and ' Till ' at the beginning of 
 the second is changed into * Still,' in the edition in the State Poems, in 
 Broughton's, the Wartons', and Aldine editions. Scott, first edition (1808), 
 also has a stop at the end of the first line. 
 
 15. Aulus Gellius, in the Noctes Atticae (lib. iii. c. 6), describes this 
 quality of the palm of thriving under oppressive weights; and, quoting 
 Plutarch, he says that this is why the palm has been chosen as the emblem 
 of victory, * quoniam ingenium eiusmodi ligni est, ut ingentibus opprimenti- 
 busque non cedat.' The palm is the date-palm of the East, and the palm of 
 Scripture, Phoenix dactylifera. * The righteous shall nourish like the palm- 
 tree ' (Psalm xcii. 120). 
 
 'Well did he know how palms by oppression speed 
 Victorious and the victor's sacred meed ; 
 The burden lifts them higher.' Covvley, Davideis, Bk. i. 
 
 16. 3. Bologna's walls. Guicciardini relates that, when the French were 
 besieged in Bologna in 1512 by the Papal, Spanish, and Venetian forces, 
 a mine laid by the besiegers blew up a part of the walls on which stood 
 a chapel dedicated to the Holy Virgin, and that this, after being carried up 
 so high in air that the besiegers saw through the breach into the town, fell 
 down again exactly into its old place, and that there was no sign of injury. 
 (Storia d'ltalia, lib. x.) See Roscoe's Life of Leo X, ii. 101. 
 
 17. 2. treacherous Scotland. 'Treacherous 1 on account of the rising of 
 1648, under the Duke of Hamilton, for Charles I, and the war afterwards 
 carried on by the Scots for Charles II, which ended, after the defeat of 
 Charles at Worcester, in the complete subjugation of Scotland. Eighteen 
 months later, when Dryden suddenly transferred all his enthusiasm to Charles, 
 Scottish ' treachery ' would be regarded by him as virtue. 
 
 18. 3. mien, pronounced mine to rhyme with shine. Spelt mine in the 
 edition of 1659 w ^h Waller's and Sprat's poems, and in the other spelt mien. 
 It is spelt and pronounced mine in the following couplet of Marvell, 
 
 ' And everything so wished and fine 
 Starts forth withal to its bonne mine.' 
 
 Appleton House (Works, iii. 220). 
 The word introduced from the French mine is elsewhere spelt meen in 
 Dryden, in accordance with the French pronunciation. Sea The Hind and 
 the Panther, Part i. 33, where it is spelt ' meen ' in the original edition, and 
 
STANZAS ON OLIVER CROMWELL. 2^9 
 
 | 
 rhymes with seen.' In a song in Covent Garden Drollery, * bonne mine is 
 
 Anglicised, 
 
 ' She will vanquish all hearts 
 With her boon mean and parts.' 
 
 P. 32, Second Edition, 1672. 
 
 19. 4. sovereign, all-powerful. ' A sovereign remedy,' in The Flower and 
 the Leaf, 422. 
 
 ' To me thy tears are sovereign.' 
 
 Rival Ladies, Act iii. Sc. I. 
 
 ''Cause there are pestilent airs which kill men 
 In health, must these be soveraigne as suddenly 
 To cure in sickness?' Suckling, Brennoralt, p. 20, 1638. 
 4 The most sovereign prescription in Galen.' 
 
 Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act ii. Sc. I. 
 
 20. There was a temple of Jupiter Feretrius in Rome, said to have been 
 built by Romulus, who was also said to have given that title to Jupiter in 
 offering to him the spoils taken from Aero, King of the Caeninenses, whom 
 he had slain in battle. Romulus is further said to have ordained that the 
 spoils taken by a Roman general from an enemy's general whom he had 
 slain should be given to Jupiter Feretrius : such spoils were called ' spolia 
 opirna ' (Livy i. 10). In the history of Rome there were only two sub- 
 sequent cases of ' spolia opima.' Dryden here seems to mean that all spoils 
 of war were given to Jupiter Feretrius, which was not the case : and he 
 again betrays the same idea in translating ' exuviae bellorum ' of Juvenal 
 (Sat. x. 133): 
 
 ' The spoils of war brought to Feretrian Jove.' 
 
 Virgil, alluding to the third instance of ' spolia opima,' those gained by 
 Marcellus, assigns the offering to Romulus (Aen. vi. 860) : 
 
 ' Tertiaque arma patri suspendet capta Quirino.' 
 Dryden's translation of this line gives them to Jupiter Feretrius : 
 
 'And the third spoils shall grace Feretrian Jove.' 
 
 21. 2. in is wrongly changed into of in the edition in the State Poems, 
 which is followed by Scott. 
 
 25. 3. confident is the spelling throughout Dryden of the word now spelt 
 confidant, meaning ' one confided in.' 
 
 4. complexions, physical temperaments or humours. Compare 
 
 ' 'Tis ill ; though different your complexions are, 
 
 The family of heaven for men should war/ 
 
 Palamon and Arcite, Bk. iii. 422. 
 ' All dreams, as in old Galen I have read, 
 Are from repletion and complexion bred.' 
 
 The Cock and the Fox, 140. 
 See Shakespeare's Hamlet, ' the o'ergrowth of some complexion ' (Act i. Sc. 4), 
 
230 NOTES. 
 
 and The Merchant of Venice, 'it is the complexion of them all to leave the 
 dam ' (Act iii. Sc. i). 
 
 27. 2. Commons, the people. Compare, in the Lines addressed to the 
 Duchess of York, 
 
 'Like Commons, the nobility resort 
 In crowding heaps to fill your moving court.' 
 
 29. Cromwell in 1657 sent a force of six thousand men into Flanders to 
 act with the French against the Spaniards. The Spaniards were defeated by 
 the French and English at Dunkirk, June 17, 1658, and Dunkirk was ceded 
 to England. The English thus became 'freemen of the Continent.' The 
 Duke of York was with the Spanish army as a volunteer, and Dryden after- 
 wards, with his accustomed versatility, eulogized the Duke as reflecting lustre 
 on his country by serving against this force (Dedication of the Conquest of 
 Granada, 1672). Dryden's lines on the British Lion are poor enough, but 
 even their bathos is exceeded by Waller in his poem on the same occasion : 
 
 ' Beneath the tropics is our language spoke, 
 And part of Flanders has received our yoke.' 
 
 30. 4. Alexander. The reigning Pope was Alexander VII. 
 
 31. In this stanza Dryden has altogether departed from truth. The 
 reference can only be to the expedition sent out by Cromwell at the end of 
 1654, under Penn and Venables, to attack Spain in America and the West 
 Indies, which was a failure. The armament did not get further than the 
 West Indies, where it was repulsed from Hispaniola or St. Domingo ; afte"r- 
 wards it took Jamaica, but it never crossed the Line nor reached gold-mines 
 in South America. It is probable that Dryden wrote in ignorance as 'to 
 Hispaniola and Jamaica being north of the equator. His writings contain 
 other as great mistakes of carelessness. 
 
 34. 2. does, changed in the State Poems to doth, which has been copied 
 in other editions, including Scott's. 
 
 4. the Vestal. Tarpeia, who was crushed by the shields of the Sabines, 
 to whom she had betrayed the citadel of Rome. 
 
 35. 2. That was changed into The by Derrick, who has been followed by 
 subsequent editors, including Scott. The change, though slight, is material. 
 ' That giant-prince,' &c., clearly refers to an individual, and it is most 
 probable that the reference is to the death of Blake, the great admiral, who 
 had died about a twelvemonth before Cromwell, and had been buried with 
 state in Westminster Abbey, September 4, 1657. There is no means of 
 explaining from classical mythology the words ' giant-prince of all the watery 
 herd.' Scott has understood the whole stanza as referring to the great 
 storm which occurred at the time of Cromwell's death. The two last lines 
 of the stanza are doubtless a poetical reference to the storm. 
 
 36. The first two months of Richard Cromwell's reign were serene, and 
 there was no sign of danger or trouble for him till his Parliament met, 
 
ASTR&A REDUX. 331 
 
 January 27, 1659. When Dryden wrote this poem in praise of Cromwell, 
 there was a general expectation that his son Richard would easily maintain 
 his power. But within a few months he lost the Protectorate ; in eighteen 
 months hence Charles Stuart was restored, and then Dryden was one of the 
 first to extol the Stuarts and the Restoration, as is to be seen in the next 
 poem Astnea Redux. 
 
 Astrsea Redux. 
 
 Line 2. Imitating Virgil : 
 
 ' Penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos.' Eclog. i. 67. 
 1. 3. A dreadful quiet, from Tacitus, ' dira quies ' (Ann. i. 65). 
 
 I. 7. An horrid stillness first invades the ear. This line has been much 
 ridiculed, and, with all respect to Dr. Johnson, who has elaborately argued 
 in favour of an invasion of the ear by stillness, the diction cannot be justified. 
 The following, in ridicule of this line, occurs in a poem called News from 
 Hell, by Captain Radcliffe : 
 
 * Laureat, who was both learned and florid, 
 Was damned long since for " silence horrid," 
 Nor had there been such clutter made 
 But that this silence did invade. 
 Invade ! and so it might well, that 's clear, 
 But what did it invade ? an ear ! ' 
 
 The line is parodied and burlesqued in Duffet's Spanish Rogue (quoted in 
 Genest's History of the Stage, i. 162) : 
 
 ' A silent noise, methinks, invades my ear.' 
 Compare with Dryden's line one as objectionable in Cowley : 
 
 ' A dreadful silence filled the hollow place.' 
 
 Davideis, Bk. i. 
 
 II, 9-12. Charles X of Sweden died February 12, 1660. He had succeeded 
 Queen Christina in 1654. Sweden had been, during the greater part of his 
 reign, and was at the time of his death, at war with Poland, Russia, Austria, 
 Denmark, and Holland. His son being a minor, Charles X appointed by 
 will regents, and on his death-bed exhorted these to restore peace to his 
 kingdom. Peace was concluded with Denmark and Holland by the treaty of 
 Oliva, May 1660, and with Austria, Prussia, and Poland by the treaty of 
 Copenhagen in July 1660. 
 
 11. 17, 1 8. By the treaty of the Pyrenees, by which peace was made 
 between France and Spain, November 1654, it was agreed that Louis XIV, 
 king of France, should marry the Infanta Maria Theresa, eldest daughter of 
 Philip IV, king of Spain. 
 
 1. 35. The sacred purple means the bishops, and the scarlet gown the peers. 
 
232 NOTES. 
 
 1. 37. Typhoeus (Ti>0<uevs), generally incorrectly printed Typhceus. The 
 Greeks also called him Tv$ws, whence Typhon, his usual name with the 
 English poets. ' Roaring Typhon ' (Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, 
 Act i. Sc. 3). Milton and Waller also call him Typhon : 
 
 ' Typhon, whom the den 
 
 By ancient Tarsus held.' Paradise Lost, i. 199. 
 ' So Jove himself, when Typhon Heaven does brave, 
 Descends to visit Vulcan's smoky cave.' 
 
 Waller, To the King. 
 
 Typhoeus or Typhon, is a hundred-headed giant, of classical mythology, 
 fabled to have once driven Jupiter and the gods from heaven. He was after- 
 wards quelled by Jupiter with a thunderbolt, and stowed away, according to 
 Homer, whom Milton follows, in Cilicia (II. 783), but Virgil placed him 
 under the islands Inarime and Prochyta, off the west coast of Italy, near 
 Vesuvius (Aen. ix. 716). 
 
 1. 45. Cyclops, wrongly printed Cyclop in most modern editions, including 
 Scott's. * Cyclops ' is both singular and plural with Dryden. It occurs in 
 the plural in Threnodia Augustalis, 441 : 
 
 ' With hardening cold and forming heat, 
 The Cyclops did their strokes repeat.' 
 
 It is the same with corps, the usual spelling in Dryden of the word now 
 spelt corpse ; corps is both singular and plural. 
 
 1. 51. tossed by fate. ' Jactatus fatis ' (Virg. Aen. iv. 3). 
 1. 6 1. cozened, couz'ned in the two early editions. The change of spelling 
 does not affect the metre, the e of the last syllable being elided in pronunciation. 
 So again, ' well-couz'ned,' line 128 ;' lengthned,' line 135 ; ' rip'ned,' line 89 ; 
 and this is the usual, though not uniform, mode of printing words of this class 
 through the early editions of all Dryden's works. 
 1. 65. lateering, tacking ; a word of Dutch origin. 
 * To catch opinion as a ship the wind, 
 Which blowing cross, the pilot backwards steers, 
 And, shifting sails, makes way when he laveers.' 
 
 Davenant, Works, p. 280, fol. 1673. 
 
 Spelt laver in Suckling, but the accent is on the last syllable . 
 ' Can you laver against this tempest?' 
 
 The Goblins, Act iv. p. 44. 
 ' With as much ease as a skipper 
 
 Would laver against the wind.' Id. Act iv. p. 40. 
 
 1. 67. soft Otho. The Roman Emperor Otho, who committed suicide. 
 He became emperor on the death of Galba, January, A.D. 69 ; Vitellius dis- 
 puted his succession; and on the first defeat of his forces by those of Vitel- 
 lius, he committed suicide at Brixellum, near Parma, in April, A.D. 69. 
 Eutropius says of him that he was ' in privata vita mollis ' (Bk. viii. c. 17); 
 
ASTRJSA REDUX. 233 
 
 and Martial calls him ' mollis Otho,' in his epigram on his death (vi. 32). 
 His habits were effeminate. Suetonius says of him, ' munditiarum fuit poene 
 muliebrum.' Compare Juvenal, ' pathici gestamen Othonis ' (ii. 99). 
 
 11. 69-70. Galba, who preceded Otho as Roman Emperor, had adopted 
 Piso as his successor on account of his virtues. This adoption of Piso led 
 Otho to revolt against Galba, who was slain in battle ; and then came Otho's 
 very short reign. 
 
 11. 73-75. An ungrammatical construction ; what is meant is, ' When 
 Heaven had crost his early valour and he had lost all at Worcester, &c.' ' All 
 but the honour lost,' is a literal adaptation of the celebrated phrase ascribed 
 to Francis I of France, when he is said to have announced to his mother 
 his defeat and capture at Pavia by the Imperial troops in 1525, * Tout est 
 perdu hors 1'honneur.' It has been lately ascertained that the exact words 
 of Francis I were, ' De toutes choses ne m'est demeure que 1'honneur et 
 la vie qui est sauvee,' not s epigrammatic, but essentially as fine. See 
 Founder's L'Esprit dans 1'Histoire; Paris, 1857. 
 
 1. 78. The meaning of this line is, that Charles was, as a royal agent, on 
 the look-out for the kingdoms of foreign monarchs. All modem editions, 
 including Scott's, have wrongly ' his kingdoms,' instead of ' their kingdoms.' 
 
 1. 94. By the honoured name of Counseller, given to Night by the ancients, 
 Dryden perhaps refers to the Greek name for night, Evcj>p'vrj, which may 
 be translated ' well-judging,' * well-minded.' Or he may refer to kv vvtcrl 
 PovXr). 
 
 1. 98. His famous grandsire is Henry IV of France, maternal grandfather 
 of Charles II. 
 
 1. 1 06. chronicles here rhymes with ease, and must be pronounced 
 chroniclees. This ancient pronunciation and rhyme occurs in later poems 
 of Dryden : with miracles, rhyming with these, in Threnodia Augustalis, 414, 
 with articles, rhyming with ease, in Letter to Sir George Etherege, 37 
 (written in 1687); and with oracles, in the Translation of the Aeneid, 
 Bk. ix. 
 
 1 Their feats I fear not or vain oracles, 
 
 'Twas given to Venus they should cross the seas.' 
 
 In lines 14 and 241, miracles pronounced as miraclees, distinctly of three 
 
 syllables, improves the rhythm. In The Hind and the Panther, Part ii. 16, 
 
 miracle rhymes with tell and well. Oracles rhymes with spells in Hudibras : 
 
 'And like the devil's oracles, 
 
 Put into doggerel rhyme her spells.' Part ii. cant. 3. 374. 
 
 1. 108. epoches. Broughton changed this into epochas ; Derrick into 
 epocha, which has been followed in modern editions, including Scott's. The 
 Wartons' edition has the right word, epoches. The line as printed in the 
 original edition of 1661 is, 
 
 'In story chasmes, in epoche's mistakes.' 
 
234 NOTES. 
 
 The apostrophe decides the plural of epoche, from the Greek kiro^. 
 ' Howe'er, since we're delivered, let there be 
 From this flood too another epochee.' 
 
 Cleaveland, Poems, &c., 1660, p. 20. 
 
 1. III. too too. This double too, very common in old writers, is rare in 
 Charles the Second's reign. It does not occur again in Dryden, but it is 
 in Lord Mulgrave's Essay on Satire, which has been often erroneously ascribed 
 to Dryden, said to be written in 1675 : 
 
 4 Till the shrewd fool by thriving too too fast/ 
 It is to be found in Hudibras : 
 
 'But Mart was too too politic.' Part ii. cant. 3. 158. 
 It occurs in Shakespeare : 
 
 * What, must I hold a candle to my shames ? 
 They in themselves, good sooth, are too too light.' 
 
 Merchant of Venice, Act ii. Sc. 6. 
 
 1. 115. who is wrongly replaced by which in modern editions, including 
 Scott's. 
 
 1. 119. straws; printed strowes in the edition of 1661, straws in that of 
 1668. Strew is a common spelling in Dryden ; but straws rhymes with 
 owes. Scott has wrongly printed strews. In the translation of the Sixth 
 Aeneid strew rhymes with yew : 
 
 'The fabric's front with cypress twigs they strew, 
 And stick the sides with boughs of baleful yew.* 
 
 There are similar variations of spelling for rhyme in Dryden, with show and 
 shew, choose and chuse. See notes on Poem on Cromwell, stanza 57, and' 
 on Absalom and Achitophel, line 527. 
 
 1. 121. Portunus was the protector of harbours in Roman mythology, and 
 was invoked always for a happy return from a voyage. Dryden introduces 
 him also in his address to the Duchess of Ormond prefixed to Palamon an ' 
 Arcite, as helping to speed the passage of the Duchess across the Channel to 
 Ireland : 
 
 ' Portunus took his turn, whose ample hand 
 
 Heaved up the lightened keel and sunk the sand.' 
 This is an obvious imitation of Virgil : 
 
 ' Et pater ipse manu magna Portunus euntem 
 
 Impulit.' Aen. v. 241. 
 
 1. 122. the is wrongly replaced by ye, with a comma before it, in modern 
 editions, including Scott's. 
 
 1. 144. -4s Heaven it self is took by violence. This idea is probably from 
 St. Matthew xi. 12 : 'And from the days of John the Baptist until npw the 
 kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.' 
 Compare Pope, Imitation of Horace, ii. i. 240: 
 
 ' And Heaven is won by violence of song.' 
 
ASTR&A REDUX. 235 
 
 In the preceding line, 
 
 'Which stormed the skies and- ravished Charles from thence,' 
 Dryden probably had in his mind also the expulsion of Jupiter and the gods 
 from heaven by the Titans, referred to in line 36, and again in Threnodia 
 Augustalis, on the subject of prayers for Charles the Second's recovery : 
 ' So great a throng not Heaven itself could bar, 
 'Twas almost borne by force, as in the giant's war.' 
 
 I. 148. travellour, so spelt in first edition, rhyming with hour; in second 
 edition of 1688 spelt traveller. Elsewhere spelt traveller, as in Religio Laici, 
 where traveller rhymes with star, travellour is printed in the early editions 
 of Oedipus, Act iii. Sc. I. 
 
 II. 148-150. The construction here, is ungrammatical. There is a similar 
 wrong construction with like in Palamon and Arcite, Bk. i. 339. Palamon, 
 speaking of himself and Arcite hopelessly striving for Emily : 
 
 And both are mad alike, since neither can possess : 
 Both hopeless to be ransomed, never more 
 To see the sun but as he passes o'er ; 
 Like ^Esop's hounds contending for the bone, 
 Each pleaded right and would be lord alone ; 
 The fruitless fight continued all the day, 
 A cur came by and snatched the prize away.' 
 
 This passage was misunderstood by John Warton, who thinks that Palamon 
 ceases to speak with the line ending with oVr, and that then Dryden begins to 
 speak in his own person, ' Like ^Esop's hounds' &c.; and this line is wrongly 
 made to begin a new paragraph in the Wartons' edition, as well as in Scott. 
 1. 154. This idea of leaning from the stars is a favourite with Dryden: 
 ' The gods came downward to behold the wars, 
 Sharpening their sights and leaning from their stars.' 
 
 Palamon and Arcite, Bk. iii. 442. 
 1. 162. Like gold that chymists make. 
 
 ' I'm tired of waiting for this chymic gold 
 Which fools us young and beggars us when old.' 
 
 Aurengzebe, Act iv. Sc. I. 
 
 1. 164. In most editions there is a stop at the end of this line ; in Scott's^ 
 for instance, a note of exclamation. But this is wrong. The meaning is 
 that Monk's task was to be what God ordained as the charge of muscles, 
 &c., to dispense spirits through viewless conduits. 
 
 1. 173. This simile of the stomach and the food is used again by Dryden 
 in his Dedication of The Rival Ladies, printed in 1664 : ' As the stomach 
 makes the best concoction when it strictly embraces the nourishment, and 
 takes account of every little particle as it passes through.' 
 
 1. 1 80. scape. It is always scape in the original editions from first to last, 
 never 'scape or escape. 
 
A T TES. 
 
 I. 182. The two occasions referred to in this line are Cromwell's ejection 
 of the remnant of the Long Parliament in April 1659, and Lambert's 
 violent interruption of its sitting in October, 1659, after it had been 
 restored by the republicans and military chiefs acting together on Richard 
 Cromwell's deposition. 
 
 II. 195-198. These lines contain a reference to the story of Salmoneus, 
 king of Elis, son of Aeolus, who excited the wrath of Jupiter by driving his 
 chariot over a brazen bridge and flinging burning torches around him, to 
 make it seem that he could make thunder and lightning, and so to induce 
 his subjects to regard and treat him as a god. See Virgil, Aen. vi. 585 : 
 
 ' Vidi et crudeles dantem Salmonea poenas, 
 Dum flammas Jovis et sonitus imitatur Olympi/ 
 
 1. 201. Lodovico Sforza, who murdered his nephew Giovanni Galeazzo 
 Sforza, duke of Milan, and usurped his dukedom, and after a course of vesy 
 successful intrigues, was in 1499 driven from Italy by Louis XII of France, 
 and ultimately died a prisoner in France in 1508. 
 
 1. 203. 'fogue, from the French fougue, fury ; the word thus Anglicised. 
 The editors have all printed fougue. Dr. Johnson has said of Dryden, He 
 had a vanity, unworthy of his abilities, to show, as may be suspected, the 
 rank of the company with whom he lived, by the use of French words, 
 which had then crept into conversation ; such as fraicheur for " coolness," 
 fougue for " turbulence," and a few more, none of which the language has 
 incorporated or retained.' Fraischeur occurs in Dryden's Poem on the 
 Coronation, line 102. But Johnson is probably wrong in assigning vanity 
 as Dryden's motive : these French words which have not been retained in 
 our language were not more strange then than others used by him, which 
 have remained in use and do not sound strange to us. 
 
 1. 208. And glass-like clearness mixed with frailty bore. Scott has 
 printed glass-like between two commas. Glass-like may be understood, as 
 Scott understood it, as agreeing with we of the preceding line, or as agree- 
 ing with clearness. Shakespeare has expressed that glass is fragile as well 
 as reflective : 
 
 ' Angelo. Nay, women are frail too. 
 
 Isabel. Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves, 
 Which are as easy broke as they make forms.' 
 
 Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc. 4. 
 
 The sense is better if glass-like is understood as applying to both clearness 
 and frailty. 
 
 1. 224. lowered, pronounced as of one syllable; lowr'd in original editions. 
 
 1. 225. Standard. Standart in original editions.- The royal standard is 
 meant. Most editors have wrongly printed ' Standards.' Scott prints 
 'Standart,' following here the old spelling. 
 
 1. 230. The ship 'Naseby,' in which Charles embarked from Dover, 
 
ASTR&A REDUX. 337 
 
 received from him, as he was on the point of starting, the name 'Royal 
 Charles/ 
 
 11. 234, 235. The Duke of York, afterwards James II, came over in the 
 ' London/ and the Duke of Gloucester in the ' Swiftsure.' The Duke of 
 Gloucester died in September, 1660. 
 
 * The Swiftsure groans beneath great Gloucester's weight' 
 is an imitation of Virgil's description of the great Aeneas, * ingens Aeneas,' 
 in Charon's bark, Aen. vi. 412 : 
 
 * Simul accipit alveo 
 ' Ingentem Aenean. Gemuit sub pondere cymba.' 
 
 I. 249. submitted fasces. From Livy, ' submissis fascibus.' Publius Vale- 
 rius, consul, called the Roman people together to vindicate himself from false 
 accusations, and he made the lictors who preceded him with the fasces, the 
 emblems of his consular rank, lower them in recognition of the people's 
 superior power. * Submissis fascibus in concionem escendit ' (Livy, ii. 7). 
 
 II. 261-265. See Exodus xxxiii. and xxxiv. 
 
 1. 288. A star appeared at noon on the day of Charles the Second's birth, 
 May 29, 1630, as the king his father was proceeding to St. Paul's to give 
 thanks to God for the event. Charles II entered London, when restored to 
 his throne, on his birthday ; and Dryden here -ascribes renewed force to the 
 t star which had been observed on the day of his birth thirty years before. 
 There is nothing to support Scott's unnecessary conjecture that the same star 
 was again visible on May 29, 1660. Cowley and Waller both refer to the 
 star in such a manner as to show that it is only from its appearance on the 
 actual day of Charles's birth that good effect is inferred : 
 * No star amongst ye all did, I believe, 
 Such vigorous assistance give 
 As that which, thirty years ago, 
 At Charles his birth, did, in despite 
 Of the proud sun's meridian light, 
 His future glories and this year foreshow 
 No less effects than these we may 
 Be assured of from that powerful ray 
 Which could outface the sun and overcome the day.' 
 
 Cowley 's Ode on the Restoration. 
 'His thoughts rise higher when he does reflect 
 Of what the world may from that star expect, 
 Which at his birth appeared to let us see 
 Day for his sake would with the night agree.' 
 
 Waller's Poem on St. James's Park. 
 
 Dryden refers again to this star presiding over Charles's birth in Annus 
 Mirabilis, stanza 18. It is mentioned by Herrick in his Pastoral upon the 
 Birth of King Charles : 
 
238 NOTES. 
 
 ' And that his birth should be more singular, 
 At noon of day was seen a silver star, 
 Bright as the wise men's torch, which guided them 
 To God's sweet babe, when born at Bethlehem/ 
 
 Lilly the astrologer declared the star to be the planet Venus ; and he was 
 doubtless right. Derrick mentions that Venus was similarly seen by day in 
 1757. It was lately so seen in May 1868. 
 
 1. 292. Time's whiter series. ' White ' used to mean ' fortunate,' is a 
 Latinism. The line probably is an imitation of Silius Italicus (xv. 53) : 
 
 ' Sed current albusque dies horaeque serenae/ 
 Herrick uses ' white ' in this sense frequently in the Hesperides ; as, 
 'Adversity trusts none, but only such 
 
 Whom whitest Fortune dandled has too much.' 
 and again, 
 
 'They were discreetly made with white success.' 
 
 1. 310. The allusion to France's fear of an exile is either to the ready 
 acquiescence of France in Charles's departure from Paris to take up his 
 residence at Cologne in 1656, or more probably perhaps to the dislike more 
 recently shown by Cardinal Mazarin to Charles's visit to Fuentarabia in the 
 autumn of 1659, when the treaty of the Pyrenees was being negotiated. 
 
 1. 317* your life and blest example wins. The verb is singular, following 
 the singular number of the noun immediately before it, a common construc- 
 tion of the time. In Threnodia Augustalis, 189, Dryden wrote 
 
 ' Death and despair was in their looks/ 
 
 Scott, following Derrick, has changed wins, and sins of the preceding line, 
 which makes the rhyme, into win and sin; an unnecessary and improper 
 change. See also The Hind and the Panther, Part ii. 92, 
 
 ' Obliged to laws which Prince and Senate gives/ 
 
 Annus Mirabilis. 
 
 Dedication. 
 
 P. 23, 1. 6. so is it, unnecessarily changed by most editors, including Scott, 
 into so it is. 
 
 P. 24, 1. 1 8. so ts, changed by the editors unnecessarily into so it is. 
 
 Account of the Poem. 
 
 P. 25, 1. 10, The play which Dryden asked Sir R. Howard to read for 
 him was probably The Maiden Queen, which was brought out on the stage 
 early in 1667, on the re-opening of the theatres after the Plague and Fire. 
 
ANNUS M1RABILIS. 239 
 
 The Maiden Queen was composed during the period of closed theatres, from 
 the middle of 1665 to the end of 1666, and during the greater part of this 
 period Dryden was living at Charlton in Wiltshire, whence this letter is 
 dated, the seat of the Earl of Berkshire, his father-in-law, and father of Sir 
 R. Howard. 
 
 1. 31. noblesse, changed into nobles by all modern editors, including 
 Scott. Noblesse was in common use in Dryden's time ; it occurs in his 
 Essay of Dramatic Poesy : ' But if you mean the mixed audience of the 
 populace and the noblesse/ &c. 
 
 P. 27, 1. 2. female rhymes; such rhymes as of words ending with e, as 
 noble, chronicle, conventicle, the e being pronounced. In the note on Astraea 
 Redux, 106, where chronicles rhymes with ease, a few other instances of 
 singular rhyming by Dryden of words ending in cle are given, one as late as 
 his translation of the Aeneid, published in 1697. See also, for conventicle 
 rhyming with stickle, the note on Poem on Oliver Cromwell, stanza 11. 
 
 1. 7. the Alaric, the Pucelle ; two French poems, the first by Scudery on 
 the Conquest of Rome by Alaric, and the second by Chapelain on Joan of Arc. 
 
 1. 8. latter,, changed unnecessarily by Scott and other editors to later. 
 
 1. 10. Dryden makes a mistake in saying that Chapman's translation of 
 Homer is in Alexandrines of six feet ; it is in lines of seven feet. 
 
 1. 20. prevail myself of it. This French idiom (se prevaloir de) has been 
 lost in all modern editions, avail being substituted for prevail. The same 
 change has been made by the editors, including Scott, in Absalom and 
 Achitophel, line 461, where Dryden wrote 
 
 * Prevail yourself of what occasion gives.' 
 
 arts, incorrectly changed to art in Scott's and other editions. 
 
 1. 28. Descriptas servare, &c. Horace, Ars Poetica, 87. 
 P. 28, 1. II. Omnia sponte sua reddit justissima tellus, a misquotation by 
 Dryden, who probably confused in his memory two passages of Virgil : 
 ' Fundit humo facilem victum justissima tellus,' 
 
 Georg. iv. 460, 
 
 and 'Omnis feret omnia tellus,' Eel. iv. 391. 
 
 Ovid also says, 
 
 'Per se dabat omnia tellus.' Metam. i. 1021. 
 
 1. 18. is if, changed by Scott and other editors unnecessarily to // is. 
 
 1. 32. This comparison of imagination with a spaniel is again used by 
 Dryden in his Dedication to the Earl of Orrery of the Rival Ladies (1664) : 
 * Imagination in a poet is a faculty so wild and lawless, that, like an high- 
 ranging spaniel, it must have clogs tied to it, lest it outrun the judgment.' 
 
 P. 29, 1. 5. paronomasia, a pun ; called in humbler language by Dryden 
 and his contemporaries, by Pope also, a clench or clinch. 
 
 1. 12. driving has been changed by the editors, including Scott, into 
 deriving. 
 
24-0 NOTES. 
 
 P. 30, 1. 8. We see ike objects he represents us within their native figures. 
 The editors, not understanding represents us, which means of course represents 
 to us, have changed Dry den's words to presents us with in their native figures. 
 
 1. 14. Virgil, Aen. vi. 726. 
 
 1. 18. Aen. i. 990. 
 
 1. 24. The editors have changed The Battle of Bulls to The Battle of 
 the Bulls. 
 
 1. 30. Materiam superabat opus. Ovid, Metam. ii. 4. 
 P. 31, 1. 3. Horace, Ars Poetica, 47. 
 
 1. 24. Ars Poetica, 52. 
 
 P. 32, 1. 6. Compare with this passage another in Dryden's Preface to 
 Tyrannic Love : ' If with much pains and some success I have drawn a de- 
 formed piece, there is as much of art and as near an imitation of nature in 
 a lazar as in a Venus.' 
 
 1. 13. Stantes, &c. Juvenal, Sat. viii. 43. 
 
 1. 15. Spirantia, &c. Virgil, Aen. vi. 848. 
 
 1. 21. humi serpere. Horace, Ars Poetica, 28: 
 
 ' Serpit humi tutus nimium timidusque procellae/ 
 
 1. 23. Nunc non, &c. Horace, Ars Poetica, 19. 
 
 P. 33, 1. I. Verses to Her Royal Highness the Duchess. This is the Duchess 
 of York, Anne Hyde, daughter of Lord Chancellor Clarendon. These verses 
 to her were now for the first time printed ; they had doubtless, before, accord- 
 ing to the custom of the time, been circulated in manuscript, and Dryden had 
 probably received a handsome present from the Duke in return for his com- 
 plimentary poem. War had been declared by England against the Dutch in 
 February, 1665. The Duke of York, wh'o was Lord High Admiral, took the 
 command of the fleet, and went to sea in the beginning of May. On the 
 3rd of June he engaged with the Dutch fleet off the coast of Suffolk, near 
 Lowestoft, and obtained a decided victory, showing great bravery in the 
 battle. The Duke of York was not permitted to go to sea again after this 
 victory : the command of the fleet was then given to the Earl of Sandwich. 
 In August the Duke was sent by the King into Yorkshire, there being fears 
 of a rising in the north. His valour at sea and his victory had made him 
 very popular, and he and the Duchess were received throughout the journey 
 with great honours. 
 
 1. 21. sea rhymes with obey, and in 1. 12 of p. 34 with way. So in 
 Aanus Mirabilis, stanza 9, sea rhymes with lay, and in stanza 31 with prey. 
 This pronunciation of sea is constant through Dryden's works. Key (quay) 
 and sea both rhyme with weigh in one of Dryden's latest poems, Cymon and 
 Iphigenia, 612 : 
 
 ' The crew with merry shouts their anchor weigh, 
 Then ply their oars, and brush the buxom sea, 
 While troops of gathered Rhodians crowd the key.' 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS. 241 
 
 Lea is printed lay and rhymes with way in the original edition of The Flower 
 and the Leaf, 260 : 
 
 ' A tuft of daisies on a flowery lea 
 
 They saw, and thitherward they bent their way.' 
 The verb^oy is spelt flea in Dryden and Lee's Oedipus, Act iv. Sc. I. 
 
 1. 34. Exodus xvii. 11-13 : 'And it came to pass, when Moses held up 
 his hand, that Israel prevailed ; and when he let down his hand Amalek pre- 
 vailed. But Moses* hands were heavy : and they took a stone, and put it 
 under him, and he sat thereon ; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the 
 one on the one side and the other on the other side ; and his hands were 
 steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek 
 and his people with the edge of the sword.' Dryden, who is wont to repeat 
 his illustrations, refers again to this fight of Joshua and Amalek in Britannia 
 Rediviva, 296: 
 
 ' Nor Amalek can rout the chosen bands, 
 While Hur and Aaron hold up Moses' hands.' 
 
 1. 35. The battle of June 3 was off the coast of Suffolk, near 
 Lowestoft, and the guns were heard in London. Dryden refers to this 
 fact also in the opening of his Essay of Dramatic Poesy. ' The noise of the 
 cannon from both navies reached all ears about the city, so that, all men 
 being alarmed with it and in a. dreadful suspense of the event which they 
 knew was then deciding, every one went following the sound as his fancy 
 led him.' A letter from Lord Arlington, Secretary of State, to the Lord 
 Mayor, in the Public Record Office, giving the official news of the victory, 
 mentions * the King having been in expectation ever since the guns were 
 heard.' 
 
 P. 34, I. 21. Dryden repeats this simile of the phcenix in the Threnodia 
 Augustalis, 364 : 
 
 ' As when the new-born phcenix takes his way 
 His rich paternal regions to survey, 
 Of airy choristers a numerous train 
 Attends his wondrous progress o'er the plain.' 
 I. 26. Compare with this line Pope's 
 
 * And all the aerial audience clap their wings.' 
 
 Pastorals, i. 16. 
 
 1. 29. / wrong the public to detain you longer. Probably in imitation 
 of Horace : 
 
 * In publica commoda peccem 
 Si longo sermone morer tua tempora, Caesar.' 
 
 Epist. ii. I. 2. 
 1. 34. nee sunt parum multi, &c. Plin. Epist. vii. 28. 
 
243 NOTES. 
 
 The Poem. 
 
 [The references hereafter for the poem are to the stanzas.] 
 
 Stanza 3, line 2. Dryden's explanation of the formation of precious minerals 
 that they are dew condensed and hardened by the sun or by subterranean fires, 
 is in accordance with the state of knowledge at the time. The idea occurs 
 again in stanza 139, and in his King Arthur (Act v.), where Merlin, 
 prophesying the greatness of England, says : 
 
 ' Behold what rolling ages shall produce, 
 The wealth, the loves, the glories of our Isle, 
 Which yet, like golden ore, unripe in beds, 
 Expect the warm indulgency of heaven 
 To call them forth to light/ 
 
 And see below in note on stanza 4, line I, Oldham's ' eastern quarries 
 hardened pearly dew.' 
 
 3. the Idumaan balm did sweat is an imitation of Virgil : 
 
 ' Odorato sudantia ligno Balsama.' Georg. ii. 1181. 
 Dryden introduces the idea of sweating in translating Juvenal, where it is not 
 in the original : 
 
 * His emitur quicquid graciles hue mittitis Indi/ 
 
 Juvenal, Sat. vi. 466. 
 Translated by Dryden diffusely, 
 
 'For him the rich Arabia sweats her gum, 
 And precious oils from distant Indies come.' 
 
 4. I. their year. So printed in the first edition; in the second edition of 
 1688, the year, which is an evident corruption, but followed by Scott. 
 Oldham has copied from this passage in his David's Lamentation for the 
 Death of Saul and Jonathan : 
 
 *For you the blest Arabia's spices grew, 
 And eastern quarries hardened pearly dew ; 
 The sun himself turned labourer for you.' 
 
 2. wexing. The spelling wex is retained ; but the word is printed 
 waxing in the second edition of 1688. The spelling wex occurs in Dryden's 
 latest poems, as Palamon and Arcite, Bk. ii. 649, and Secular Masque, 30. 
 
 5. 4. our second Punic war. The first war with the Dutch in the time 
 of the Commonwealth had been ended advantageously for England by 
 Cromwell in 1654 tn ^ s ' second Punic war ' ended with humiliating disasters 
 for England, and by no means as the second Punic war ended for Rome. 
 
 8. I. Louis XIV, who claimed the Spanish Netherlands in right of his 
 wife (elder sister of the infant Charles II of Spain, by a previous marriage of 
 their common father Philip IV, who had died in 1665), abstained at present 
 from pressing his claim, and made delusive proposals to Spain to prevent 
 her entering into engagements with England. He postponed as long as 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS. 243 
 
 possible declaring himself for Holland in the war with England. France at 
 last declared war against England, January 1666. 
 
 13. 3. limbec, spelt limbeck, an abbreviation of alembic, a still. It occurs 
 again in stanza 116. 
 
 ' I feel my strength each day and hour consume 
 Like lilies wasting in a limbec's heat.' 
 
 Maiden Queen, Act i. Sc. 3. 
 Milton speaks of Proteus 
 
 ' drained through a limbec to his native form.' 
 
 Par. Lost, iii. 605. 
 
 14. 2. armado, the Spanish word for * army,' now always written 
 armada ; the same with junto, a committee, now written junta in English. 
 
 16. 2. Angels drew wide the curtains of the skies. Todd compares this 
 line with one in Sir P. Sidney's Astrophel and Stella : 
 
 ' Phoebus drew wide the curtains of the skies.' 
 
 4. tapers. This word is often used by Dryden similarly, and was more 
 dignified than it now seems. Compare Religio Laici 1 8, where the moon 
 and stars are called ' nightly tapers.' 
 
 ' The tapers of the gods, 
 The sun and moon, run down like waxen globes/ 
 
 Oedipus, Act ii. 
 
 The two comets referred to had been seen in the winter of 1664-65, and 
 in the spring of 1665. See Pepys' Diary, Dec. 17, 22, 1664, and April 6, 
 1665, and the Index to Mrs. Green's Calendar of State Papers, 1664-65 ; 
 also the Appendix to Sherborne's Translation of Manilius. 
 
 18. On the subject of the star which had appeared on the birthday of 
 Charles II, see note on line 288 of Astraea Redux. A round of greater 
 years begun ' is an imitation of Virgil's 
 
 ' Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo.' 
 
 Eclog. iv. 
 
 Compare the lines at the end of Absalom and Achitophel : 
 ' Henceforth a series of new time began, 
 The mighty years in long procession ran.' 
 
 19. 2. This refers to the battle and victory off the coast of Suffolk, June 
 3, 1665, celebrated in the lines addressed to the Duchess of York. War 
 had been declared by England against the Dutch in February. 
 
 20. 4. Sir John Lawson, who had gained naval distinction in the Dutch 
 war of the Commonwealth, was then Admiral of the Duke of York's divi- 
 sion of the fleet in the battle of June 2, 1665 ; he received a shot in the 
 knee, and died a few days after. 
 
 21. 3. Thus, as an offering, &c. This refers to Protesilaus, the first 
 Greek that landed on the Trojan shore, and the first slain. 
 
 22. and Dryden's note. The Admiral of Holland was Opdam, who was 
 
 R2 
 
244 NOTES. 
 
 blown up with his flag -ship while engaged in close fight with the Duke of 
 York in the * Royal Charles/ 
 
 23. Compare in The Maiden Queen, Act iii. Sc. I, 
 
 ' When it thunders, 
 Men reverently quit the open air 
 Because the angry gods are then abroad/ 
 
 24. 3. The war had been preceded by depredations of De Ruyter on 
 British ships and subjects on the coasts of Guinea, in retaliation for proceed- 
 ings of Sir Robert Holmes against the Dutch near Cape Verde, and at Goree 
 early in 1664. 
 
 30. Our foes we vanquished by our valour left, an obscure and bad line: 
 the meaning is, ' We left our foes vanquished by our valour/ 
 
 * The attempt at Berghen,' described in stanzas 24-30, was altogether un- 
 fortunate. The rich Dutch merchant fleets from Smyrna and the East 
 Indies had taken shelter in that neutral Norse harbour. The King of Den- 
 mark agreed, on condition of receiving half the profits, to connive at the 
 capture of the fleets by the English. The Earl of Sandwich, who was now 
 Commander-m-Chief, the Duke of York having remained on shore, was so 
 eager for the great prize that he did not wait until the Governor of Bergen 
 had received instructions from the King; and when the attack was made, 
 August 3, 1665, the Danish garrison assisted the Dutch. The attempt was 
 a failure ; one English ship was lost. The Dutch fleet under De Witt, which 
 after the engagement convoyed the merchantmen from Bergen, was en- 
 countered by a storm, and then Sandwich captured eight men-of-war and 
 some of the richly-laden merchant vessels. 
 
 35. I. Dryden, in his own note, refers to Petronius. The three stanzas 
 preceding this are also in imitation of Petronius in the same chapter of his 
 Satyricon (c. 115) : *Hunc forsitan, proclamo, in aliqua parte terrarum secura 
 expectat uxor ; forsitan ignarus tempestatis films ; aut patrem utique reli- 
 quit aliquem, cui proficiscens osculum dedit. Haec sunt consilia mortalium, 
 haec vota magnarum cogitationum. . . . Ite nunc, mortales, et magnis cogi- 
 tationibus pectora implete/ In Dryden's short quotation from Petronius, in 
 the note, he substitutes^/ for est, which is the right word. 
 
 37- i. The Bishop of Minister, a German sovereign prince, had, on the 
 breaking out of the Dutch war, offered to invade Holland with twenty 
 thousand men, in consideration of a subsidy from England, and his offer was 
 accepted and a treaty made with him. He invaded Holland, but after France 
 joined the Dutch in the war, he drew back in fear of France, and secretly 
 made a separate treaty of peace with Holland in April 1666. Dryden, in his 
 own note on * the German faith,' says that ' Tacitus saith of them, " Nullos 
 mortalium armis aut fide ante Germanos esse." ' But this was said, according 
 to Tacitus, by two Germans, Verritus and Malorix, chiefs of the Frisii, who 
 went on an embassy to Nero. (Tacit. Ann. xiii. 54.) 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS. 345 
 
 39. 3. France declared war against England in January 1666. 
 
 42. 4. Denmark joined Holland and France in the war against England in 
 February 1666. 
 
 43. 2. Charles, in the declaration of war against France, promised pro- 
 tection to all French and Dutch subjects remaining in England, or afterwards 
 
 , entering, who should behave dutifully and not correspond with the enemy; 
 and he invited to come * especially those of the reformed religion, whose 
 interest he would always particularly adopt.' The French king made no 
 like offer; three months were allowed the English to withdraw with their 
 properties. The two last lines of the stanza refer to Solomon's judgment, 
 in i Kings iii, between the two women claiming the child. 
 
 51. Dryden, in his own note, refers to Pliny's Panegyric addressed to Trajan, 
 for the phrase * future people.' The complete sentence is : ' Adventante 
 congiarii die, observare principis egressum in publicum, insidere vias examina 
 infantium futurusque populus solebat.' (c. 26.) 
 
 52. I. riotous is pronounced as a dissyllable, ritous. 
 
 54. I. Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle were now joint com- 
 manders-in-chief of the English fleet. In the last days of May, on infor- 
 mation that the Dutch fleet was not ready for sea, and that a French squadron 
 was near the Channel on its way from the Mediterranean to join the Dutch, 
 an order was sent by the government to Prince Rupert to proceed at once 
 from the Downs with twenty ships, to meet the French. Albemarle pro- 
 ceeding eastwards at the same time with fifty-four vessels, the remainder of 
 the fleet, was surprised on June I, by finding the Dutch fleet, under De 
 Ruyter, numbering more than eighty, at anchor off the North Foreland. He 
 resolved at once to fight. The English government had been altogether 
 misinformed. The French fleet had not yet passed the Straits of Gibraltar. 
 Prince Rupert was ordered back from St. Helen's on the ist of June, the 
 first day of the battle, and he joined Albemarle on the evening of June 3. 
 
 59. I. high-raised decks. The Dutch vessels were high-built. Celadon, 
 in the Maiden Queen, compares two sisters : ' Lord, who could love that 
 walking steeple ! Ha ! give me my little fifth-rate, that lies so snug. She ! 
 hang her, a Dutch-built bottom : she 's so tall, there 's no boarding her.' 
 (Act iv. Sc. I.) 
 
 60. I. build. Spelt built in Dryden's editions, and this spelling is pre- 
 served by Scott and some other editors. 
 
 63. 3. This refers to the awe inspired by the Roman senators in the minds 
 of the invading Gauls, when they sacked Rome, B.C. 387. Livy and Florus 
 describe the incident graphically. ' Adeo haud secus quam venerabundi 
 intuebantur in aedium vestibulis sedentes viros, praeter ornatum habitum- 
 que humano augustiorem, majestate etiam quam vultus gravitasque oris prae 
 se ferebat, simillimos Diis.' (Livy, v. 41.) ' Patentes passim domos adeunt; 
 ubi sedentes in curialibus sellis praetextatos senes velut Deos geniosque 
 
246 NOTES. 
 
 venerati, mox eosdem . . . pari vecordia mactant/ (Florus, Epit. Rer. 
 Roman, i. 13.) 
 
 66. 3. show means ' seem/ ' appear/ A common use of the verb at the 
 time, and in Dryden. See stanzas 121, 122, 126, 296. 
 
 67. 2. squander means simply ' disperse/ Compare Shakespeare, Merchant 
 of Venice, Act i. Sc. 3, where Shylock says of Antonio's wealth, * I under- 
 stand, moreover, upon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for 
 England, and other ventures he hath, squandered abroad/ 
 
 3. Vice-Admiral Sir William Berkeley fought in the van desperately 
 against superior numbers, and continued to fight after resistance of his ship 
 was hopeless, refusing quarter. He was at last shot in the throat with a 
 musket-ball, and then retired to his cabin, stretched himself on a table, 
 and there expired. In the first edition the line was ' Berkeley alone, not 
 making equal way/ This was changed in that of 1 688 to what is retained in 
 the text, ' who nearest danger lay.' The change must have been intentional : 
 the original words were probably thought capable of being understood as 
 reflecting on Berkeley. But otherwise the change is not an improvement, 
 as it affects the comparison with Creusa, who was left behind in the flight 
 of Aeneas from Troy. 
 
 72. On the morning of June 2, the second day of the battle, the Dutch 
 were reinforced by an accession of sixteen men-of-war to their already greatly 
 superior number. 
 
 78. 3. sheer, the old spelling of shear, meaning ' cut/ In the second 
 edition of 1688, sheer was turned into steer, perhaps by a misprint, and steer 
 has appeared in all subsequent editions. Sheer, a Dryden word, is clearly the 
 right word here. 
 
 *And through the brackish waves their passage sheer.' 
 
 Spenser's Faery Queene, Bk. iii. c. 4. 
 
 83. 2, and Dryden's note. ' Ille autem ' is Dryden's reference in a note 
 to the passage in Virgil (Aen. viii. 251) describing Cacus, the son of Vulcan, 
 pursued and attacked by Hercules, whose cattle he had stolen, and vomiting 
 forth smoke to conceal himself. 
 
 86. 4. flies at check. To 'fly at check' is to fly wildly at any bird, whether 
 game or not. ' A young woman is a hawk upon her wings, and, if she be 
 handsome, she is the more subject to go out at check/ (Sir John Suckling's 
 Letters, p. 93; Works, ed. 1696.) 
 clips it, cuts it, flies fast. 
 
 91. 4. In the first edition this line stood, 
 
 ' Remote from guns as sick men are from noise.' 
 
 It was changed in the edition of 1 688 to what appears in the text, which 
 seems an improvement. 
 
 94. 2. See i Chron. xiii. 7-10 : ' And they carried the ark of God in a 
 new cart out of the house of Abinadab ; and Uzza and Ahio drave the cart. 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS. 247 
 
 And when they came unto the threshingfloor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his 
 hand to hold the ark ; for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord 
 was kindled against Uzza, and he smote him, because he put his hand to the 
 ark ; and there he died before God.' 
 
 96. 4. U?iknowing to give place. An imitation of the Latin ' cedere nescius.' 
 (Hor. Od. i. 6. 5.) Compare * And knows not to retire,' in stanza 152. 
 
 * I dared the death, unknowing how to yield.' 
 
 Palamon and Arcite, Bk. iii. 1. 309. 
 
 The verb wiknow is used in Dryden and Lee's Duke of Guise, as meaning 
 * to be ignorant of.' ' Can I unknow it ? ' (Act v. Sc. i.) 
 
 99. 4, and Dryden's note. The two former victories on the 3rd of June 
 were in 1653 and in 1665, both over the Dutch. The latter was the Duke 
 of York's victory celebrated in Dryden's Verses to the Duchess, p. 33. 
 
 102. I. Remnants of the night. Remnants was incorrectly changed by 
 Broughton into remnant, which appears also in Scott's and other editions. 
 Remnants occurs again in stanza 258 : and compare ' remnants of precarious 
 power' (Hind and Panther, i. 510), and 'remnants of long-suffering grace.' 
 (Id. iii. 276.) The word remainders also occurs in Hind and Panther, iii. 
 602, and in the Dedication of Eleonora, where Dryden says, addressing the 
 Earl of Abingdon, ' You may stand aside with the small remainders of the 
 English nobility.' 
 
 104. I. Broughton, Derrick, and others, have changed here forced to stay 
 into he forced to stay, which is clearly wrong. 
 
 109. 3. Compare Virgil's description of the fears of Aeneas: 
 
 * Et me, quern dudum non ulla injecta movebant 
 Tela, neque adverso glomerati ex agmine Graii 
 Nunc omnes terrent aurae, sonus excitat omnis.' Aen. ii. 726. 
 
 110. 3. martlet, a swift or swallow. Dryden, in a note on a line in The 
 Hind and the Panther (Part iii. line 547), 
 
 * Some swifts, the giants of the swallow-kind,' 
 says that these giant swallows are otherwise called martlets. 
 
 115. 4. does is the word in the first edition : it was changed to doth in 
 the edition of 1688. 
 
 118. 4. See Joshua x. 13 : * And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, 
 until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies.' 
 
 120. 2. speak thick, speak quick. Compare Shakespeare, 2 Henry IV, 
 Act ii. Sc. 3 : 
 
 * And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish, 
 Became the accents of the valiant ; 
 For those that could speak low and tardily 
 Would turn their own perfection to abuse, 
 To seem like him.' 
 123, and Dryden's note. There is another passage in Virgil (Aen. v. 276) 
 
248 NOTES. 
 
 comparing the motion of a ship tq that of a wounded snake, which Dryden 
 might also have referred to, and which was doubtless in his mind. 
 ' Nequidquam longos fugiens dat corpore tortus; 
 Parte fejox, ardensque oculis, et sibila colla 
 Arduus attollens, pars vulnere clauda retentat 
 Nexantem nodis, seque in sua membra plicantem : 
 Tali remigio navis se tarda movebat.' 
 
 124. 3. passion. The two early editions have passion, which is very 
 intelligible. Broughton printed passions, which has been copied by subse- 
 quent editors, making double a verb instead of an adjective. 
 
 129. 2. let in to: changed by Broughton to let into, which is followed 
 by other editors, including Scott, and which is certainly a deterioration. 
 Dryden doubtless had in his mind the words in Virgil's comparison of the 
 bursting open of the cave of Cacus by Hercules with the opening to view of 
 the shades below : 
 
 ' Trepidentque immisso lumine Manes/ Aen. viii. 246. 
 132. 2. flix, the fur or soft hair of a hare or other animal. Dyer, in The 
 Fleece (Bk. i.), speaks of sheep with flix like deer, and not woolly. 
 ' No locks Cormandel's nor Malacca's tribe 
 
 Adorn, but sleek of flix and brown like deer.' 
 
 Browning uses the word of a lady's hair, * flix and flax.' These two words 
 have probably the same origin. Mr. Halliwell mentions flix as a Kentish 
 provincialism in his Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words. 
 
 137. I. See St. Mark iii. u, 12: 'And unclean spirits, when they saw 
 him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God. Arid 
 he straitly charged them that they should not make him known.' 
 
 139. Compare stanza 3 and the note on the belief then in vogue of the 
 origin of precious metals. 
 
 141. 3. This and the following line have been spoilt by editors by 
 changing And at the beginning of the fourth line into A. The change 
 makes nonsense of the passage ; it first appeared in Broughton's edition, and 
 was copied by succeeding editors, including Scott. 
 
 143. imps. To imp a wing is properly, and technically in falconry, to 
 repair it by grafting new pieces on broken feathers. Shakespeare says meta- 
 phorically in Richard II, Act ii. Sc. I, 
 
 ' Imp out our drooping country's broken wing/ 
 
 Milton, in his Sonnet to Fairfax, has ' imp their serpent-wings/ Elsewhere 
 Dryden uses the word imp loosely. ' Imped with wings ' he says of young 
 bees, in his Translation of the Fourth Georgic ; and in the play of Oedipus, 
 Act iv. Sc. I : 
 
 * With all the wings with which revenge 
 Could imp my flight/ 
 
 144. I, and Dry den's note. Dryden, in his note, gives only the words 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS. 249 
 
 ' fervet opus ' from Virgil's description of the labours of the bees, part of 
 which he closely imitates. 
 
 * Pars intra septa domorum 
 Narcissi lacrymam et lentum de cortice gluten 
 Prima favis ponunt fundamina, deinde tenaces 
 Suspendunt ceras : aliae spem gentis, adultos 
 Educunt foetus: aliae purissima mella 
 Stipant, et liquido distendunt nectare cellas.' 
 
 Georg. iv. 159. 
 
 145. I. foundation, the word in the first edition: foundations in edition 
 of 1688 and subsequent editions. 
 
 146. i. sides is printed in the two early editions. I have altered it to 
 side, to rhyme with guide, but sides may still be the right word. 
 
 147. 4. shake, shakes is printed in both the early editions, but the gram- 
 mar requires shake, to which waves is nominative. 
 
 148. I. marling, a small line smeared with tar, used for winding round 
 ropes and cables to prevent their being fretted by the blocks. 
 
 2. sear-cloth is here a verb, meaning to cover with sear-cloth, cere-cloth, 
 or cloth prepared with wax. Sir Thomas Browne, in his Hydrotaphia, 
 speaks of a dead body ' sound and handsomely cereclothed, that after seventy- 
 eight years was found uncorrupted.' See Richardson's Dictionary, Sear-cloth 
 and Cere-cloth. 
 
 151. The old ship the ' London,* one of the many of the Commonwealth, 
 had been destroyed by fire, and the city of London now presented the king 
 with a new ship, called ' The Loyal London.' This second ' London ' was 
 burnt before the end of the war, when the Dutch surprised Chatham, in 
 1667. 
 
 157. Irish kern. Irish peasant or soldier. Compare Dryden's Dedication 
 of Palamon and Arcite to the Duchess of Ormond, where he speaks of the 
 reverence of the Irish for her husband's family : 
 
 * Awed by that house accustomed to command, 
 The sturdy kerns in due subjection stand, 
 Nor bear the reins in any foreign hand/ 
 
 The word occurs in Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 2, * kerns and gallow- 
 glasses, 5 and again, 2 Henry VI, Act iv. Sc. 9, 
 
 * A puissant and a mighty power 
 Of gallowglasses and stout kerns.' 
 
 Kerns are light- armed soldiers, having only darts and daggers, or knives ; the 
 gallowglasses had helmet, coat of mail, long sword and axe. 
 
 4. fin-like oars. The same idea is in Denham's Cooper's Hill, ' oar- 
 finned galleys ;' and Herrick has ' finny oar ' in the Hesperides. 
 
 158. Saturn, driven from his throne by his son Jupiter, is said to have fled 
 to Italy, and to have been welcomed there by Janus, king of Latium, and 
 
250 NOTES. 
 
 becoming a partner in Janus's throne, it was further fabled that he civilised 
 the Italians, who under his reign enjoyed a. golden age. 
 
 4. Derrick unjustifiably made a change in this line, in ignorance of the 
 pronunciation of commerce with the accent on the last syllable, and printed 
 the line, 
 
 * Where coin and commerce first he did invent.' 
 
 Derrick was followed by other editors, including Scott. It is strange that 
 the editors did not attend to the accentuation of commerce in stanza 163, 
 where it rhymes with universe, and where there was no possibility of changing 
 the line. Commerce is invariably so pronounced in Dryden's works, and it 
 was the pronunciation of his time as of Shakespeare's : 
 ' Peaceful commerce from dividable shores.' 
 
 Troilus and Cressida, i. 3. 
 'To join in marriage and commerce 
 And only 'mong themselves converse/ 
 
 Hudibras, Part iii. cant. 2, 1. 1383. 
 
 160. 3. out of Heaven's high way. Dryden refers, in his note, to Virgil's 
 1 extra anni solisque vias.' It is a favourite idea with Dryden. See the 
 Threnodia Augustalis, line 353, 
 
 * Out of the solar walk and Heaven's high way.' 
 Again, in Britannia Rediviva, 1306, 
 
 ' Beyond the sunny walks and circling year.' 
 
 165. Dryden was an early member of the Royal Society, founded imme- 
 diately after the Restoration: he was elected November 19, 1662. 
 
 168. I. After the engagement of the first three days of June, which 
 ended without decisive result, the Dutch fleet was ready and again off the 
 English coast, a fortnight before the English had completed their repairs and 
 preparations. 
 
 171. I. new is the word in the first edition; now in that of 1688, which 
 has been generally followed. Now is no improvement, and was very likely 
 a misprint. 
 
 172. I. Old expert Allen. Sir Thomas Allen had, at the beginning of the 
 war, attacked in the Bay of Cadiz a large Dutch merchant squadron home- 
 ward bound from Smyrna under convoy, about forty vessels altogether, while 
 he had only seven ships ; and he had routed them and made rich prizes. Sit 
 Thomas Allen was Vice-Admiral of the White in the fleet. 
 
 173. I. Holmes, the Achates, &c. Sir Robert Holmes had had a fight 
 with the Dutch off the coast of Africa, before the war began. This may be 
 why he is called Achates, generals' is here printed instead of general's, 
 the usual reading, as there were two generals, Prince Rupert and the Duke 
 of Albemarle. Holmes was Rear-Admiral of the White. 
 
 3. Cato the Censor, when he was urging the Romans, in the year 
 before his death, to enter on the third Punic war, having lately returned from 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS. 
 
 an embassy to Carthage, drew out from under his robe, one day in the 
 senate, some Carthaginian figs, saying that they ha'd been gathered only three 
 days before in Carthage, so near was the enemy to Rome. Compare, in 
 Dryden's Prologue to Amboyna, written in 1673, during the second Dutch 
 war: 
 
 1 As Cato did his Afric fruits display, 
 So we before your eyes their Indies lay.' 
 
 174. I. Sir Edmund Spragge had been knighted by Charles for his bravery 
 in the action off Lowestoft of June 3, 1665, at the beginning of the war. 
 He was now under Sir Jeremiah Smith, Vice-Admiral of the Blue. Spragge 
 was killed in the next Dutch war in battle, August II, 1672. 
 
 3. Sir John Harman was captain of the * Henry' in the battle of the 
 first four days of June. His ship was disabled, and he refused an offer of 
 quarter. Then three fire-ships were successively sent against his ship. She 
 was disengaged successively from two, each of which had set fire to her, and 
 both fires were put out. The third fire-ship was disabled by the ' Henry's ' 
 guns. Harman carried his ship off, and took her into Harwich badly 
 damaged. A yard of one of the masts fell on him and broke his leg. 
 
 175. I. Captain, afterwards Sir Frescheville Hollis, son of Gervase Hollis, 
 an antiquary : and this literary character of the father probably explains the 
 singular description of Hollis's parentage. Hollis had lost an arm in the 
 battle of June 3, 1665. He was killed fighting against the Dutch in the 
 next Dutch war, May 28, 1672. The phrase ' on a Muse by Mars begot,' 
 is not happy. Buckingham parodied it against Dryden in his reply to 
 Absalom and Achitophel : 
 
 * Or more to intrigue the metaphor of man, 
 Got on a muse by father Publican/ 
 
 Another satirist applied the phrase to the French musical composer, Grabut, 
 who made the music for Dryden's opera, Albion and Albanius, and whose 
 employment by Dryden displeased the public. 
 
 * Grabut his yokemate ne'er shall be forgot 
 Whom the god of tunes upon a Muse begot.' 
 
 176. I. This line is an imitation of Virgil's 
 
 * Multi praeterea quos fama obscura recondit/ 
 
 Aen. v. 302. 
 
 184. 2. host of waters. This is the reading of the first edition. In the 
 second edition of 1688, it is hosts of 'water -s, which is not an improvement, 
 but which has been generally followed. 
 
 188. 2. linstock, a pointed stick with a fork at the end to hold a lighted 
 match, used by gunners in firing cannon. 
 
 194. Admiral de Ruyter was the leader of the Dutch fleet. He is here 
 compared to Terentius Varro, who commanded the Romans in the battle of 
 Cannae, and was after defeat thanked by the Senate because he had engaged 
 
252 NOTES. 
 
 the enemy and had not despaired for the State, ' quia de republics! non 
 desperasset.' 
 
 195 4. As larks lie dared, dared means 'thoroughly frightened, ''scared,' 
 and is specially applied to laiks frightened by a hawk or by any object. 
 * Dared like a lark that, on the open plain, 
 Pursued and cuffed, seeks shelter now in vain.' 
 
 Conquest of Granada, Part ii. Act v. Sc. 2, 
 ' Who leads you now then coursed like a dared lark.' Oedipus, Act i. Sc. I. 
 
 ' Let his grace go forward 
 And dare us with his cap like larks.' 
 
 Shakespeare, Henry VIII, Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 A hobby is a species of hawk. Andrew Marvel, in his treatise on the Growth 
 of Popery and Arbitrary Government, compares the English yacht firing into 
 a Dutch fleet, when the English flag was not saluted, to a lark daring 
 a hobby : ' which must sure,' he says, ' have appeared as ridiculous and un- 
 natural as for a lark to dare the hobby.' (Marvel's Works, i. 474.) 
 
 197. 4i and Dryden's note. This battle was fought on July 25, St. James's 
 Day. 
 
 201. This stanza is an extraordinary flight of imagination in Dryden, who 
 represents the souls of Henry IV of France, and of William, the first Prince 
 of Orange, repenting rebellion; Henry 'disowning' hostility to Henry III, 
 against whom he had fought to vindicate his right of succession to the throne, 
 and William ' detesting' the Dutch navy, the strength of the nation, and the 
 means by which the Dutch independence had been achieved. 
 
 204. Immediately after the battle of the 25th of July, the English fleet 
 sailed for the Dutch coast, and a squadron was detached, under Sir Robert 
 Holmes, with five ships, to attack the islands of Uly and Schelling. Holmes 
 destroyed a very large Dutch merchant fleet off Uly, only eight or nine out 
 of one hundred and seventy escaping destruction: and he also destroyed 
 with fire the chief town of Schelling. It was estimated that property to 
 the value of upwards of a million sterling was destroyed. 
 
 207. 3- doom, a peculiar use of the verb, doom here means * send.' The 
 word ' destine ' connects the use in this passage with the usual meaning. 
 
 209. I. unstncere. The use of sincere in the sense of 'pure,' ' unmixed,' 
 the meaning of the Latin sincerus, is common with Dryden and his con- 
 temporaries. See Absalom and Achitophel, 43. 
 
 ' And none can boast sincere felicity.' 
 
 Palamon and Arcite, Bk. iii. 897. 
 ' Nulla est sincera voluptas 
 Solicitumque aliquid laetis mtervenit.' Ovid, Metam. vii. 453. 
 
 215. The fire broke out on the night of September 2, 1666, and raged 
 for six days. 
 
 216. 3. All was the Night's. Probably an imitation of ' Omnia noctis 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS. 253 
 
 erant ' in a fragment of Varro, quoted by the elder Seneca in the Contro- 
 versies (iii. 1 6) : 
 
 'Omnia noctis erant placida composta quiete.' 
 Dr. Johnson has made the mistake of attributing this line to Seneca himself. 
 
 223. I. the Bridge London Bridge; where, by old custom, the heads of 
 those executed for treason were exhibited. There is a reference to this 
 custom in Shakespeare's Richard III, Act iii. Sc. 2 : 
 ' Catesby (to Lord Hastings). 
 
 The princes both make high account of you ; 
 {Aside} For they account his head upon the bridge.' 
 The heads of Hugh Peters and others executed after the Restoration were 
 exhibited on London Bridge. 
 
 231. A key of fire. Key, the old spelling of quay, and pronounced as we 
 pronounce quay. Compare Cymon and Iphigenia, 6 1 2 ; and see note at foot 
 of p. 240. 
 
 232. 2. The river Simois flowed into the Scamander or Xanthus, which is 
 described by Homer as burnt up by Vulcan, defending Achilles. Scamander 
 called Simois to his aid. (II. xxi. 307.) 
 
 238. 3. cracks of falling houses. Crack means the loud noise of anything 
 falling or breaking, and is the same as crash. 
 
 1 The breaking of so great a thing should make 
 A greater crack.' 
 
 Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act v. Sc. I. 
 
 And Shakespeare has 'the crack of doom' (Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. i). 
 Addison's couplet, criticised by Pope, has brought the old poetical word 
 crack into disrepute : 
 
 ' Should the whole frame of nature round him break, 
 He unconcerned would hear the mighty crack.' 
 
 ' A mighty flaw ' is used by Dryden in his Threnodia Augustalis, with 
 reference to the end of the world. 
 
 243. Dryden 's account of the King's conduct on the occasion of the fire 
 is free from flattery. Evelyn says, * It is not indeed imaginable, how extra- 
 ordinary the vigilance and activity of the King and the Duke was, even 
 labouring in person, and being present to command, order, reward, or 
 encourage workmen, by which he showed his affection to his people and 
 gained them.' (Diary, September 6, 1 666.) 
 
 247. I. Part stays. So in the original edition. Broughton changed 
 stays into stay, which is preserved in most following editions, including 
 Scott's. 
 
 250. 3. ignoble crowd. Probably from Virgil, ' saevitque animis ignobile 
 vulgus' (Aen. i. 153). 
 
 251. 4. tempest. So in the original edition, tempests in edition of 1 688, 
 and in subsequent editions. 
 
254 NOl'ES. 
 
 256. 2. require, used in the strict sense of the Latin reqtiirere, ' to seek 
 again/ 
 
 257. 4. repeat, used exactly in the meaning of the Latin repetere, ' to 
 reseek/ So in Dryden's play of Tyrannic Love, 
 
 * I'll lead you thence to melancholy groves 
 
 And there repeat the scenes of our past loves.' (Act iii.) 
 
 * The pious Trojan so, 
 Neglecting for Creusa's life his own, 
 Repeats the danger of the burning town.' 
 
 Waller, Battle of the Summer Islands, Cant. iii. 
 
 267. The Great Plague had destroyed a hundred thousand souls : it had 
 begun in the summer of 1665, and was not quite extinct when the Great 
 Fire desolated London in September 1666. 
 
 270. I. threatnings is the word of the first edition, and the spelling of 
 the time. In the editions of 1688 thr eatings is substituted, and this occurs 
 in most editions. The modern spelling threatenings is substituted for 
 threatnings in the text. 
 
 273. 3. affect, seek, desire. So in Absalom and Achitophel, 1 78, ' affecting 
 fame.' 
 
 ' The name of great let other kings affect/ 
 
 Epilogue to Albion and Albanius. 
 'Viamque affectat Olympo' (Virg. Georg. iv. 562) is probably imitated. 
 
 274. 2. in dust, changed in edition of 1688 into in the dust, a decided 
 deterioration. 
 
 275. 3. The poet's song here referred to is Waller's poem 'Upon His 
 Majesty's repairing of St. Paul's/ Denham, in Cooper's Hill, celebrated the 
 same poem of Waller on the repairs made by Charles I. : 
 
 * Paul's, the late theme of such a Muse, whose flight 
 Has bravely reached and soared above thy height, 
 Now shalt thou stand, though sword or time or fire, 
 Or zeal more fierce than they thy fall conspire ; 
 Secure whilst thee the best of poets sings, 
 Preserved from ruin by the best of kings/ 
 
 280. 4. give on. The words of the original editions ; changed to drive on 
 in the edition of 1 688, which has been followed by subsequent editors. But 
 give on is much better, and is a phrase of Dryden's. ' The enemy gives on, 
 by fury led/ occurs in the Indian Emperor, Act ii. Sc. 3. Waller uses the 
 phrase in describing the Duke of York in the naval battle of June 3, 1665 : 
 
 * Where he gives on, disposing of their fates, 
 Terror and death on his loud cannon waits/ 
 
 281. 4. strove. Derrick changed this word to drove, and this corruption 
 of Dryden's text has been adopted by following editors, including Scott. 
 
 284. 2. mild rain, the reading of the first and second editions, was changed 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 255 
 
 to cold rain in the republication of this poem in the Miscellany Poems, 1716, 
 and it has been so printed always since. Mild is obviously the proper 
 epithet ; cold is inconsistent with ' kindly rain.' Scott's edition has cold, the 
 wrong word. 
 
 290. See Ezra i.-iii. for the return of the Jewish tribes from Babylon after 
 long captivity, and their setting to work to build the Temple of Jerusalem. 
 
 292. i. frequent trines. A trine, or conjunction of planets in the form of 
 a triangle, was considered fortunate by astrologers : and Dryden adds to 
 frequent trines another good omen, the planet Jupiter in ascension. Dryden 
 was learned in astrology and a firm believer. He introduces trine as part of 
 a happy omen in his Ode to the Memory of Mrs. Ann Killegrew : 
 'For sure the milder planets did combine 
 On thy auspicious horoscope to shine, 
 And even the most malicious were in trine.' 
 
 Trine appears as a verb in Palamon and Arcite, Bk. iii. 1. 389, where there 
 is a conjunction of the deities, Saturn, Venus, and Mars. 
 ' By fortune he was now to Venus trined, 
 
 And with stern Mars in Capricorn was joined.' 
 
 1. 4. work in original edition; works in that of 1688, followed by sub- 
 sequent editors. 
 
 succeed. The verb has here an active meaning, ' make to succeed.' So 
 in Dryden's State of Innocence, Act iii. Sc. I : ' Heaven your design suc- 
 ceed.' 
 
 295. 2. New deified. New is the reading of both the early editions. 
 Derrick changed new into now ; and now has appeared in subsequent editions, 
 including Scott's. 
 
 299. 3. And Seine, that would with Belgian rivers join. This is an allu- 
 sion to the designs of Louis XIV on Spanish Flanders, which soon broke out 
 in an invasion. 
 
 303. The boastful prophecy of this stanza was soon falsified by the events 
 of 1667, when the Dutch fleet under De Ruyter entered the Thames, ascended 
 to Chatham, and there burnt some of our ships. The close of the war was 
 humiliating to England: begun in hot fury in 1665, it ended amid general 
 dissatisfaction in England. Peace was concluded at Breda, July 31, 1667. 
 
 Absalom and Achitophel. 
 
 Preface. 
 
 P. 85. 1. 5. Whig and Tory. These two names, so familiar to us, were 
 new when Absalom and Achitophel was written. They were first applied 
 in i6jmjrj, the famous controversy about the Exclusion Bill. Whig is a 
 
256 NOTES. 
 
 word of Scotch origin, Tory of Irish. Whig is explained in two ways: 
 Roger North says that it meant corrupt and sour whey (Examen, p. 321) ; 
 Bishop Burnet derives it from whiggamor, a driver, from whiggam, an ex- 
 clamation in use in driving horses (Hist, of Own Time, 1. 43). Anyhow, 
 the name of Whigs came to be given to the Scottish Covenanters. It was 
 first applied in 1648 in Scotland. Tories, according to Roger North, were 
 ' the most despicable savages among the wild Irish.' Irishmen, as Roman 
 Catholics, were generally favourable to the Duke of York ; thus his friends 
 were called Tories. The opponents of the Court were Whigs. 
 
 1. 8. When Dryden wrote Papist, his editors, from Broughton downward, 
 have printed Popish. 
 
 1. II. Anti-Bromingham. ' Bromingham ' was a cant term of the time 
 for a Whig. Birmingham was famous for base and counterfeit coinage ; a 
 ' Birmingham groat ' was a current phrase for base coin. Roger North says 
 that the Tories nicknamed their adversaries ' Birmingham Protestants, 
 alluding to the false groats struck at that place.' 
 
 J."i^> a genius. Most editors, including Scott, have omitted the a, thus 
 spoiling the sentence. 
 
 1. 23. rebating the satire. Rebate, an obsolete word, means to blunt. 
 *The keener edge of battle to rebate.' 
 
 Palamon and Arcite, Bk. ii. 1. 502. 
 ' One who never feels 
 
 The wanton stings and motions of the sense, 
 But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge 
 With profits of the mind, steady and just.' 
 
 Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act i. Sc. 4. 
 
 ' Let no defeat 
 Your sprightly courage and attempts rebate.' 
 
 Oldham, Satire iii. 
 
 P. 86. 1. 14. The fault on the right hand. Compare ' an error of the better 
 hand,' in Cymon and Iphigenia, 237. 
 
 1. 33. composure here means ' arrangement,' ' reconciliation.' Dryden uses 
 composure for 'composition' in his poem to Sir Robert Howard : 
 * So in your verse a native sweetness dwells 
 
 Which shames composure and its art excels.' 
 P. 87. 1. 9. Ense rescindendum. Ovid has ' ense recidendum ' (Metam. 
 
 The Poem. 
 
 It will be most convenient for the reader to preface the notes to the poem 
 with an alphabetical key to the names in the allegory. This key is part of 
 the one published by Tonson, Dry den's publisher, as 'key to this poem and 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 to the Second Part, the most of which was written by Nahum Tate in the 
 Miscellany Poems, vol. ii. ed. 1716. 
 
 Abbethdin, Lord Chancellor. 
 
 Absalom, Duke of Monmouth. 
 
 Achitophel, Bail of Shaftesbury. 
 
 Adriel, Earl of Mulgrave. 
 
 Agag, Sir Edmnnd Bury Godfrey. 
 
 Amiel, Mr. (afterwards Sir Edward) Seymour. 
 
 Annabel, Duchess of Monmouth. 
 
 Balaam, Earl of Huntingdon. 
 
 Barzillai, Duke of Ormond. 
 
 Bathsheba, Duchess of Portsmouth. 
 
 Caleb, Lord Grey of Werke. 
 
 Corah, Titus Gates. 
 
 David, King Charles II. 
 
 Egypt, France. 
 
 Ethnic Plot, Popish Plot. 
 
 Hebrew Priests, Church of England clergymen. 
 
 Hebron, Scotland. 
 
 Ishbosheth, Richard Cromwell. 
 
 Israel, England, 
 
 Issachar, Thomas Thynne of Longleat. 
 
 Jebusites, Papists. 
 
 Jerusalem, London. 
 
 Jewish Rabbins, Doctors of the Church of England. 
 
 Jonas, Sir William Jones. 
 
 Jotham, Marquis of Halifax. 
 
 Michal, Queen Catharine. 
 
 Nadab, Lord Howard of Escrick. 
 
 Pharaoh, Louis XIV, King of France. 
 
 Sagan of Jerusalem, Bishop of London. 
 
 Sanhedrin, Parliament. 
 
 Saul, Oliver Cromwell. 
 
 Shimei, Slingsby Bethel. 
 
 Sion, London. 
 
 Solymean rout, the London rabble. 
 
 Tyre, Holland. 
 
 Uzza, John Hall, commonly called Jack Hall. 
 
 Western Dome, Westminster Abbey. 
 
 Zadoc, Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 Zaken, member of parliament. 
 
 Ziloah, Sir John Moore. 
 
 Zimri, Duke of Buckingham. 
 S 
 
358 NOTES. 
 
 1. 7. Charles II, who is David in this poem, is described as ' Israel's 
 monarch after Heaven's own heart,' as David is in Scripture. ' The Lord 
 hath sought him a man after his own heart.' (i Sam. xiii. 14.) ' I have 
 found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall 
 fulfil all my will.' (Acts xiii. 22.) 
 
 1. 1 7. this, changed to the by Broughton, and the error copied by following 
 editors, including Scott. 
 
 1. 1 8. Absalon. So spelt here and in line 221 for the rhyme, in the early 
 editions ; elsewhere always Absalom. The Duke of Monmouth, here called 
 Absalom, was the son of Charles by Lucy Walters, and born at Rotterdam, 
 April 9, 1649. Till lately it has been always believed that Monmouth was 
 the eldest of Charles II's natural sons ; but a recent publication at Rome 
 from papers in the Jesuits' College there has made known, on the authority 
 of Charles himself, that he had a son by a lady of the name of La Cloche, in 
 Jersey, two or three years earlier, when he was sixteen or seventeen years 
 old. This son entered the noviciate of the Jesuit Society at Rome in 1667, 
 under the name of James La Cloche, and came secretly to England in 1668, 
 calling himself Henri de Rohan. See Gentleman's Magazine for January 
 1866. 
 
 1. 19. inspired by. In the first edition it was with. 
 
 1. 30. Compare with this line Pope's 
 
 'And Paradise was opened in the wild.' Eloisa to Abelard, 133. 
 
 1. 34. Annabel, Duchess of Monmouth, was Countess of Buccleuch in her 
 own right, and was married to Monmouth in 1665. The name of Scott was 
 afterwards given to Monmouth, and he was created Duke of Buccleuch. 
 The Duchess of Monmouth was an early patron arid constant friend of Dryden. 
 He dedicated to her the play of The Indian Emperor, published in 1667. In 
 the Vindication of the Duke of Guise (1683) Dryden calls hef * the 
 patroness of my unworthy poetry ' ; and in his Dedication of King Arthur to 
 Lord Halifax, in 1691, he says that the Duchess of Monmouth had read 
 the play in manuscript and recommended it to Queen Mary; and he calls 
 the Duchess ' my first and best patroness/ 
 
 1. 39. Amnon's murder. This is probably a reference to an attack, which 
 Monmouth was believed to have instigated, on Sir John Coventry in 1670, 
 by some officers and men of Monmouth's troop of horseguards, in revenge 
 for a sarcasm uttered in the House of Commons about the King's amours. 
 Coventry's nose was slit with a penknife. The House of Commons took 
 up the affair very warmly, and a new act was passed, making it a capital 
 felony to wound with intention to maim or disfigure, which went by the 
 name of the Coventry Act. There was indeed no murder in this case, but 
 Dryden probably desired to avoid precise identification. 
 
 1. 43. sincerely blest. See note on Annus Mirabilis, stanza 209, on this 
 use of sincerely, meaning ' without alloy.' 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 259 
 
 1. 59. Hebron. In the second part of Absalom and Achitophel, both in 
 Dryden's own part and in Tate's, Hebron means Scotland ; and the key to 
 this poem represents Hebron as Scotland. But in this, the only passage of 
 the poem where Hebron occurs, Flanders would be more appropriate. 
 Reference is perhaps made to Monk's march from Scotland to bring about 
 the Restoration. 
 
 1. 92. worn and weakened, and changed by Derrick to or; the error 
 copied by following editors, including Scott. 
 
 1. 112. Not weighed or winnowed. Derrick substituted nor for or, which 
 has been followed by most editors, including Scott. 
 
 1. 118. Egyptian rites. Egypt, in this poem, stands for France, and the 
 Egyptian rites are the Roman Catholic rites prevailing in France. 
 
 1. 121. And in first edition, instead of As. 
 
 1. 150. Achitophel, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury. Dryden's 
 subsequent poem of The Medal, not included in this volume, should be read, 
 for a longer and more elaborate and severe attack on Shaftesbury. He had 
 been Lord Chancellor in 1672-73. Dismissed from the chancellorship in 
 November 1673, he was made President of the Privy Council in April 1679, 
 on the reorganization of that body by the King to conciliate the parliamentary 
 opposition. He was, however, removed from that office a few months after. 
 Shaftesbury was now in the Tower, on a charge of high treason : he was 
 apprehended at his house in London, July 2, 1681. After many delays, his 
 trial came on in November, a few days after the publication of this poem, 
 and the grand jury threw out the bill. 
 
 1. 152. counsel in first edition, instead of counsels. 
 
 I. 154. principle in first edition, instead of principles. 
 
 II. 155-1.857. A correspondent of Notes and Queries, December 7, 1850 
 (vol. i. p. 468), has supplied the two following quotations in illustration of 
 this triplet on Shaftesbury's fiery soul fretting his pigmy body and o'er- 
 informing the tenement of clay. * He was one of a lean body and visage, as 
 if his eager soul, biting for anger at the clay of his body, desired to fret 
 a passage through it.' (Fuller's Profane State.) 
 
 ' The purest soul that ere was sent 
 
 Into a clayey tenement.' Carew. 
 
 1. 163. Great wits, &c. * Nullum fit magnum ingenium sine mixtura de- 
 mentiae.' (Seneca, De Tranq. Anim. c. xv. s. 77.) 
 
 1. 167. The same idea of ill-usage of Shaftesbury's little body by his active 
 mind appears in a sketch of him in Mulgrave's Essay on Satire, which was 
 erroneously ascribed to Dryden. 
 
 * As by our little Machiavel we find 
 That nimblest creature of the busy kind : 
 His legs are crippled, and his body shakes 
 Yet his bold mind that all this bustle makes 
 s a 
 
260 NOTES. 
 
 No pity of its poor companion takes. 
 
 What gravity can hold from laughing out 
 
 To see that lug his feeble limbs about? 
 
 Like hounds ill-coupled, Jowler is so strong 
 
 He jades poor Trip and drags him all along. 
 
 'Tis such a cruelty as ne'er was known 
 
 To use a body thus, though 'tis one's own.' 
 
 The Essay on Satire is said to have been written in 1675 : it was first circu- 
 lated in manuscript in 1679. Duke, a friend and imitator of Dryden, has 
 described Shaftesbury in his poem called ' The Review,' and some of his 
 lines bear traces of Dryden's descriptions here and in The Medal. 
 * Antonius, early in rebellious race 
 
 Swiftly set out, nor slackening in his pace ; 
 
 The same ambition that his youthful heat 
 
 Urged to all ills, the little daring brat, 
 
 With unabated ardour does engage 
 
 The loathsome dregs of his decrepit age. 
 
 The working ferment of his active mind, 
 In his weak body's cask with pain confined, 
 Would burst the rotten vessel where 'tis pent, 
 But that 'tis tapt to give the treason vent.' 
 
 The last line is an unseemly allusion to an abscess from which Shaftesbury 
 suffered, originally caused by a fall from a carriage, when he went out to 
 meet King Charles at Breda on the eve of the Restoration. The abscess, 
 which was internal, at one time endangered his life. A severe operation 
 restored him to health, which was afterwards preserved by means of a silver 
 pipe which kept the wound always open. 
 
 1. 1 70. unfeathered two-legged thing. Dryden has here appropriated for 
 ribaldry Plato's humorous definition of man, a two-footed animal without 
 wings, $ov OITTOVV dnrcpov. Shaftesbury's son was a man of no ability, 
 but was the father of an able man, the third Earl, the metaphysician, author 
 of the Characteristics. Shaftesbury was three times married, but had only 
 two children, sons, by his second wife, Lady Frances Cecil, who died in 1653 : 
 one of the two died in infancy. 
 
 1. 175. the triple bond. The triple alliance of England, Holland, and 
 Sweden of 1667, directed against France. In June 1670, a second treaty, 
 of which Shaftesbury, though at the time a prominent minister, knew 
 nothing, was made with France for war against Holland and the establish- 
 ment of the Roman Catholic religion in England. The English commissioners 
 who signed this treaty were Arlington, Clifford, Lord Arundel of Wardour, 
 and Sir Richard Bellings ; the last two were not ministers. Another treaty 
 was afterwards concluded on December 31, in appearance solely for alliance 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 26 1 
 
 with France and war against Holland, and this was signed by Buckingham, 
 Shaftesbury (then Lord Ashley), and Lauderdale, together with Arlington 
 and Clifford. But Charles's engagement about the Roman Catholic religion 
 in the treaty of June remained binding ; and that treaty was a secret from 
 Buckingham, Shaftesbury, and Lauderdale. Shaftesbury has his share of 
 responsibility for a treaty of alliance with France for a war against Holland. 
 But no one was louder at the time for this war and for the French alliance 
 than Dry den, who wrote in 1673 a bad play, Amboyna, for the express 
 purpose of inflaming the English public against the Dutch. He there pro- 
 claimed the alliance of the two kings of England and France to be necessary 
 to destroy the pride of Holland : 
 
 * Yet is their empire no true growth, but humour, 
 
 And only two kings' touch can cure the tumour.' 
 
 These two lines are from Dryden's Epilogue to Amboyna, and the Epilogue 
 concludes with a reference to Cato's ' Delenda est Carthago,' quoted by 
 Shaftesbury in his speech for the King as Chancellor to Parliament in 
 February 1673. Dryden perhaps derived the idea from Shaftesbury's 
 famous speech, 
 
 ' All loyal English will like him conclude, 
 
 Let Csesar live, and Carthage be subdued.' 
 
 The play of Amboyna was dedicated to Lord Clifford, a friend and patron of 
 Dryden, with fulsome praises of Clifford as a statesman. Yet Dryden in 
 1 68 1 could revile Shaftesbury for 'breaking the triple bond' and 'fitting 
 Israel for a foreign yoke.' He repeats the accusation a few months after in 
 The Medal : 
 
 ' Thus framed for ill, he loosed our triple hold 
 
 Advice unsafe, precipitous, and bold. 
 
 From hence those tears, that Ilium of our woe : 
 
 Who helps a powerful friend forearms a foe. 
 
 What wonder if the waves prevail so far, 
 
 When he cut down the banks that made the bar? 
 
 Seas follow but their nature to invade, 
 
 But he by art our native strength betrayed.' 
 
 This is a flagrant example of Dryden's reckless inconsistency and unscru- 
 pulousness in attack. 
 
 1. 179. Assumed in first edition instead of Usurped. 
 
 all-atoning, all -reconciling. The verb atone was used differently in 
 Dryden's time from its present use. It meant to ' harmonize,' ' unite,' and 
 was used transitively. Thus in Dryden's Poem on the Coronation, 57 : 
 ' He that brought peace and discord could atone, 
 
 His name is music of itself alone.' 
 
 To atone her anger ' (Love Triumphant, Act iv. Sc. i), ' To atone the 
 people ' (Vindication of Duke of Guise). A tone was also spelt attone, the two 
 
262 NOTES. 
 
 /'s coming from the old spelling of at with two t's ; the origin of the word 
 being at one, ' to make at one.' Atone is used similarly in Shakespeare : 
 * I would do much to atone them for the love I bear to Cassio ' (Othello 
 Act iv. Sc. i). 
 
 ' Since we cannot atone you, we shall see 
 Justice design the victor's chivalry.' 
 
 King Richard II, Act i. Sc. I. 
 
 Elsewhere in Shakespeare atone is used intransitively, meaning ' to agree,' as 
 in Coriolanus : 
 
 ' He and Aufidius can no more atone 
 Than violentest contrariety.' 
 
 11. 180-191. These twelve lines were added in the second edition of the 
 poem. A very absurd story has been Jold, that these lines, containing high 
 praise of Shaftesbury as a Judge, were added by Dryden in gratitude for the 
 gift of a nomination to the Charterhouse School for his third son, Erasmus, 
 by Shaftesbury, after the publication of Absalom and Achitophel. The story 
 was first published in Kippis's edition of the Biographia Britannica, published 
 in 1779. Malone took great pains to refute this very improbable story. 
 Dryden's son Erasmus was admitted to the Charterhouse in February 1683, 
 on a nomination from the King. The first edition of this poem appeared in 
 November, and the second in December, 1681. The story is simply im- 
 possible.. Immediately after the publication of Absalom and Achitophel, 
 Shaftesbury could not have abased himself by offering a favour to Dryden, 
 even if Dryden were likely to accept it ; and then in a few months, in March 
 1682, Dryden published The Medal, a yet more savage attack on his sup- 
 posed forgiving benefactor. After all, the idea of praising Shaftesbury as 
 a Judge is in the lines 192-7, which were in the first edition. Why so much 
 praise was added in the second edition .may be variously explained. Dryden 
 may have thought that further explanation was necessary for connecting the 
 passage beginning in line 192, 
 
 ' Oh ! had he been content to serve the crown,' 
 
 with the preceding denunciation of Shaftesbury as a politician. Or he may 
 have thought that higher praise of him as a Judge might increase by contrast 
 the effect of his abuse of the statesman. Or, as Shaftesbury had in the 
 interval been acquitted of the charge of high treason and had triumphed 
 over his enemies, Dryden may have wished to say something conciliatory for 
 one whom he had so fiercely attacked, and who might now again become 
 formidable. 
 
 1. 1 88. Abbethdin, the president of the Jewish judicature. The word is 
 compounded of ab, ' father,' and beth-din, ' house of judgment,' and means 
 literally ' father of the house of judgment.' 
 
 1. 196. What is meant by David's tuning his harp for Achitophel if he had 
 been other than he was, and its then resulting that ' Heaven had wanted 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 263 
 
 one immortal song,' probably is this, that David would then have addressed 
 a song to Achitophel instead of a lament to Heaven. I have otherwise in- 
 terpreted the passage in a note in the Globe Edition, there representing 
 the linef 'And Heaven had wanted one immortal song,' as meaning that 
 Dryden's own poem would then have been lost to Heaven ; which would be 
 a very arrogant boast. But I believe now that this was a wrong interpre- 
 tation. 
 
 1. 197. wanted, want is here used in a simple sense no longer current, 
 except provincially, ' to be without.' It occurs in the same sense in Pope : 
 ' Friend of my life, which did not you prolong, 
 The world had wanted many an idle song.' 
 
 Prologue to Satires, 27. 
 
 1. 198. Lord Macaulay, in his Essay on Sir William Temple, pointed out 
 the probable origin of this couplet, in some verses in Knolles's History of 
 the Turks : 
 
 * Greatness on goodness loves to slide, not stand, 
 And leaves for Fortune's ice Virtue's firm land.' 
 
 1. 204. manifest of crimes, an imitation of Sallust's ' Manifestus tanti 
 sceleris' (Jugurtha, 39). Dryden uses the same idiom in Palamon and 
 Arcite, Bk. i. 623 : 
 
 ' Calisto there stood manifest of shame.' 
 
 1. 209. The charge against Shaftesbury *of * making circumstances' of the 
 alleged Popish Plot is totally without proof, and against all probability. 
 Shaftesbury entirely believed in the Plot, as did many others of calmer 
 temperament and high character : one of these was the virtuous Lord 
 Russell. Shaftesbury and Russell were entirely as one in the prosecution of 
 the plot. Bishop Burnet, who disliked Shaftesbury, and blamed him for his 
 vehemence, acquits him of invention. (Hist, of Own Time, ii. 168.) 
 
 1. 213. To prove 'the King a Jebusite' was no calumnious attempt of 
 Shaftesbury. We now know very well that Charles was a Roman Catholic 
 before the Restoration, and in indiscreet private talk he frequently betrayed 
 the sentiments of his heart. Burnet and Lord Halifax (in his ' Character of 
 Charles the Second ') both assume that he was a Roman Catholic. 
 
 1. 219. The accent is on the second syllable of instinct t according to the 
 pronunciation of the time. So again in line 535. 
 
 I. 227. This line is reproduced by Dryden in The Hind and the Panther, 
 Part i. 211. In one of the poems in Lacrymae Musarum, occasioned by the 
 death of Lord Hastings in 1649, to wm ch collection Dryden contributed his 
 first known poem, the following couplet occurs : 
 
 ' It is decreed we must be drained, I see, 
 
 Down to the dregs of a democracy.' 
 The phrase was probably early impressed on Dryden from this poem. 
 
 1. 235. Shuts up in first edition, instead of Divides. 
 
364 NOTES. 
 
 1. 247. Like one of virtue's fools that feeds on praise. Scott and most 
 editors wrongly print feed. 
 
 1. 280. Naked of is a Gallicism. Dryden uses dry in the same way. * Dry 
 of pleasure' (Love Triumphant, Act iii. Sc. l), 'Dry of those embraces' 
 (Amphitryon, Act iii. Sc. I.) 
 
 1. 291. the general cry. Scott and most editors wrongly print their for the. 
 
 1. 314. loyal blood. Scott and most editors wrongly print royal for loyal. 
 
 I. 318. mankind's delight. ' Amor atque deliciae generis humani,' said 
 by Suetonius of the Emperor Titus. 
 
 II. 353-360. This elaborate eulogy on Charles's brother, James Duke of 
 York, may be compared with Dryden' s characters of James in the play The 
 Duke of Guise, produced in 1682, and in the Threnodia Augustalis, the 
 elegy on Charles II's death. James's truthfulness is dwelt on in both 
 characters ; his merciful and forgiving disposition in the sketch of him in 
 the Duke of Guise, where the King of France praises to the Archbishop of 
 Lyons his ' brother of Navarre ' : 
 
 * I know my brother's nature ; 'tis sincere, 
 Above deceit, no crookedness of thought; 
 Says what he means, and what he says performs; 
 Brave but not rash; successful but not proud; 
 So much acknowledging, that he's uneasy 
 Till every petty service be o'erpaid. 
 Archp. Some say revengeful. 
 King. Some then libel him : 
 
 But that's what both of us have learnt to bear; 
 He can forgive, but you disdain forgiveness.' 
 
 Duke of Guise, Act v. Sc. I. 
 ' For all the changes of his doubtful state 
 His truth, like Heaven's, was kept inviolate; 
 For him to promise is to make it fate. 
 His valour can triumph o'er land and main; 
 With broken oaths his fame he will not stain, 
 With conquest basely bought and with inglorious gain.' 
 
 Threnodia Augustalis, 485-490. 
 
 Compare also Dryden's character of James in The Hind and the Panther, 
 Part iii. beginning at line 906 : ' A plain good man,' &c. 
 
 I. 416. million in first edition, instead of nation. 
 
 II. 417, 418. Dryden here describes the government of the Commonwealth 
 before Cromwell's Protectorate as a theocracy. In line 522 he speaks of an 
 * old beloved theocracy.' 
 
 1. 436. This line was changed by Derrick so as to make a question : 
 
 ' Is 't after God's own heart to cheat his heir?' 
 and Derrick's change has been adopted by succeeding editors, including 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 365 
 
 Scott. Dryden makes Achitophel assert it to be ' after God's own heart to 
 cheat his heir,' i. e. to deprive the Duke of York of his succession. This is 
 intended for the assertion of a wicked counsellor. Derrick's change spoils 
 the sense. 
 
 1. 447. This simile of the lion is again used by Dryden in Sigismunda and 
 Guiscardo, 241 : 
 
 ' For malice and revenge had put him on his guard, 
 So, like a lion that unheeded lay, 
 Dissembling sleep and watchful to betray 
 With inward rage he meditates his prey?' 
 
 1. 461. Prevail yourself. Avail was substituted by Derrick for prevail, 
 and the editors have followed Derrick. The same has happened where 
 Dryden uses the same verb prevail reflectively, as in the Preface to Annus 
 Mirabilis. 
 
 1.519. Levites, priests; the Presbyterian ministers displaced by the Act 
 of Uniformity. 
 
 1. 525. Aaron's race, the clergy. For in this line has been carelessly 
 changed into To in most editions, including Scott's. 
 
 1. 524. Zimri, George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham, a poet as 
 well as a politician, who united great talents with extreme profligacy. There 
 is a well-known brilliant sketch of this Buckingham in Pope's Moral Essays. 
 He ran through a very large fortune. 
 
 * Alas ! how changed for him 
 That life of pleasure and that soul of whim ! 
 Gallant and gay in Cleveden's proud alcove, 
 The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and love; 
 Or just as gay at council in a ring 
 Of mimicked statesmen and their merry king. 
 No wit to flatter left of all his store ! 
 No fool to laugh at, which he valued more. 
 There victor of his health, of fortune, friends, 
 And fame, this lord of useless thousands ends/ 
 
 Moral Essays, iii. 309. 
 
 Buckingham, in The Rehearsal, had unsparingly ridiculed Dryden's plays, and 
 given Dryden the nickname of Bayes. The Rehearsal was first acted in 
 1671. Dryden took his revenge on Buckingham now. Buckingham wrote 
 a reply to this poem, under the title, ' Poetic Reflections on a late Poem, 
 entitled Absalom and Achitophel, by a Person of Honour.' This reply was a 
 very poor production, unworthy of the author of The Rehearsal. 
 
 1. 574. Balaam, the Earl of Huntingdon, younger brother of the Lord 
 Hastings, whose premature death in youth was lamented by Dryden in his 
 first known poem. Lord Huntingdon was now a very zealous member of 
 Shaftesbury's party, bent on the exclusion of James Duke of York from 
 
266 NOTES. 
 
 succession to the throne ; but he afterwards changed his politics and became 
 a warm adherent of James. 
 
 1. 574. Caleb, Frederick Lord Grey of Werke, who had no children. 
 1. 575. Nadab, Lord Howard of Escrick, the third peer of that title. He 
 had been lately a prisoner in the Tower on account of accusations made by 
 Fitzharris, and he is accused of having taken the Sacrament when in prison, 
 to assert his innocence, in a mixture of ale and apples called ' lamb's wool.' 
 Lord Howard afterwards became infamous by betraying Lord Russell and 
 Algernon Sydney. 
 
 1. 581. Jonas, Sir William Jones, the Attorney-General who conducted 
 the prosecutions of the Popish Plot. Mr. Luttrell, in a manuscript note on 
 this poem, says that Sir William Jones drew the Habeas Corpus Act. 
 1. 585. This line stood in the first edition, 
 
 ' Shimei, whose early youth did promise bring.* 
 Shimei is Slingsby Bethel, who had been elected one of the sheriffs of 
 London in 1680. He had been conspicuous as a republican before the 
 Restoration, and was a member of Richard Cromwell's parliament. His 
 stinginess was a by-word : 
 
 * And though you more than Buckingham has spent 
 Or Cuddon got, like stingy Bethel save, 
 And grudge yourself the charges of a grave.* 
 
 Oldham, Imitation of Eighth Satire of Boileau. 
 
 1. 595. vare, a wand, from the Spanish vara. The word occurs in 
 Howel's Letters (p. 161, ed. 1728) : ' The proudest don of Spain, when he is 
 prancing upon his ginet in the street, if an alguazil show him his vare, that 
 is, a little white staff he carrieth as a badge of his office, my don will 
 presently off his horse and yield himself his prisoner.' The word vase has 
 been substituted for vare in some editions,' including Scott's. 
 
 1. 634. An allusion to the serpent of brass made by Moses, and * set upon 
 a pole ' by God's command, to save the Israelites from the fiery serpents 
 which God had sent for punishment. ' And it came to pass that if a serpent 
 had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass he lived.' (Numbers 
 xxi. 6, 9.) 
 
 1. 637. earthy : incorrectly printed earthly in some editions. 
 1. 644. Ours was a Levite. Titus Gates had taken orders in the Church 
 of England, and his father was a Church of England clergyman, having been 
 before an Anabaptist minister. 
 
 1. 649. A church vermillion and a Moses" face. The rubicund look of a 
 jolly churchman, and a shining face supposed to be like that of Moses, when 
 he came down from the Mount (Exod. xxxiv. 29-35). 
 
 1.658. Rabbinical degree. Gates represented that he had received the 
 degree of Doctor of Divinity at Salamanca. 
 1. 665. wit in first edition, instead of writ. 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. <2,6j 
 
 1. 676. Agag's murder. The murder of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey, the 
 magistrate before whom Gates had deposed on oath his story of the Popish 
 Plot, and who was soon after found dead near Primrose Hill. The believers 
 in the Popish Plot charged the Roman Catholics with having murdered 
 Godfrey in revenge. It was urged on the opposite side that Gates and his 
 witnesses instigated the murder in order to impute it to the Roman Catholics. 
 Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey was reputed friendly to the Roman Catholics, and 
 was said to be unwilling to take the depositions. Dryden's meaning seems 
 to be that Godfrey was murdered at the call of Gates, for being friendly to 
 the Roman Catholics. See I Samuel xv. for Samuel's reproaches to Saul for 
 disobeying the Lord's command and sparing Agag. 
 
 1. 688. Dissembling joy in first edition, instead of His joy concealed. 
 
 1. 700. Behold a banished man. Monmouth had been sent out of England 
 by the King in September 1679, and in November he returned without per- 
 mission. The King then ordered him again to quit England, and he disobeyed, 
 whereupon he was deprived of all his offices and banished from court. 
 
 1. 738. Wise Issachar t his wealthy western friend. Thomas Thynne of 
 Longleat, who on account of his wealth went by the name of Tom of Ten 
 Thousand. Thynne was murdered in February 1682, a few months after 
 the publication of this poem, by assassins employed by Count Konigsmark, 
 who desired to marry Lady Ogle, a young heiress to whom Thynne was 
 betrothed. 
 
 1. 742. depth in first edition, instead of depths. 
 
 1. 777. In the first edition this line stood, 
 
 * That power which is for property allowed.' 
 1. 802. This line has been generally printed after Derrick, 
 
 * To patch their flaws and buttress up the wall/ 
 
 But the change of the to their before flaws is not necessary, nor is it an 
 improvement. 
 
 I. 804. Broughton changed our ark into the ark, and has been generally 
 followed by succeeding editors. But there is no reason for the change. 
 
 1. 817. Barzillai, the Duke of Ormond, an old Cavalier, who was Lord 
 Lieutenant of Ireland for Charles I at the beginning of the Civil War, and 
 was re- appointed by Charles II to the same post after the Restoration. He 
 was removed in 1669, but re-appointed a few years after; and he was Lord 
 Lieutenant of Ireland at the time of the publication of this poem. The duke 
 was one of Dryden's patrons : Carte, in his life of Ormond, mentions Dryden 
 as one of his periodical dinner-guests. Dryden dedicated, in 1683, to the 
 Duke of Ormond the translation of Plutarch's Lives, to which was prefixed 
 a Life of Plutarch, by Dryden. Ormond died in 1688, before the Re- 
 volution. Dryden dedicated his Fables, published in 1699, to the duke's 
 grandson and successor, son of the Earl of Ossory, who had died in July 
 1680, and who is eulogised in the lines which soon follow. 
 
268 NOTES. 
 
 1. 825. The court he practised. To practise the court is a Gallicism. 
 1. 827. chuse is the spelling here to rhyme with Muse. Later, in line 979, 
 it is printed choose, where the rhyme is with depose. In The Hind and the 
 Panther, Part i. line 40, chuse rhymes with use. See note on Astrsea Redux, 
 119, for similar variety of spelling, strow and strew to suit rhyme : and it is 
 the same with show and shew in Dryden. 
 
 1. 834. By unequal fates and Providence* s crime. Compare 
 
 ' Fortunae, Ptolemaee, pudor crimenque Deorum.' 
 
 Lucan, Phars. v. 59. 
 
 Unequal fates is probably Dryden's translation of Virgil's ' fata iniqua ' 
 (Aen. ii. 257, and x. 380). 
 
 1. 858. And left this verse, 
 
 To hang on her departed patron's hearse. 
 Compare Pope, 
 
 ' Or teach the melancholy Muse to mourn, 
 Hang the sad verse on Carolina's urn.' 
 
 Epilogue to the Satires, 79. 
 It was an old custom to hang funereal poems on the hearse. 
 
 1. 875. Who best could plead and best can judge a cause. Here Dryden, 
 who never uses a word at random, speaks of judges who had been barristers, 
 and who formerly were the best pleaders as now the best judges. Broughton, 
 not seeing this, changed who best could plead, into who best can plead : and 
 succeeding editors followed him. In the Preface to The State of Innocence, 
 Dryden had written, ' He must be a lawyer before he mounts the tribunal.' 
 
 I. 877. Adriel, John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, who was afterwards 
 made Marquis of Normanby by King William, and Duke of Buckinghamshire 
 by Queen Anne. Mulgrave was a poet, and a great friend of Dryden. He 
 was the author of the Essay on Satire, which was wrongly ascribed to 
 Dryden, and for which Dryden was cudgelled in Rose Alley, in December, 
 1679. Mulgrave was bountiful to Dryden after the Revolution of 1688, 
 when he had lost the poet-laureateship. Dryden dedicated to him the 
 Translation of the Aeneid. Mulgrave, then Duke of Buckinghamshire, 
 erected a monument to Dryden in Westminster Abbey, in 1720, twenty years 
 after the poet's death. Dryden in writing ' The Muses' friend ' may have 
 had Horace's ' Musis amicus,' applied to Lamia (Od. i. 26) in his mind. 
 
 II. 880, 88 1. Charles deprived Monmouth of all his offices and honours in 
 1679 ; anc ^ f ^ese he gave the Lord Lieutenancy of the East Riding of York- 
 shire and the government of Hull to Mulgrave. 
 
 1. 882. Jotham, George Savile, who inherited a baronetcy and was created 
 by Charles II successively Viscount, Earl, and Marquis of Halifax, was 
 a statesman of great ability and accomplishments. He held the office of 
 Lord Privy Seal, and was one of Charles's chief advisers during the last four 
 years of his reign. He was a ' Trimmer,' the name given to the party of 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 369 
 
 moderation in the violent disputes between Charles and the opposition, 
 headed by Shaftesbury and Russell. He wrote the * Character of a Trimmer.' 
 Dryden dedicated to him his play of King Arthur, produced and published 
 in 1691 ; and in this dedication he says that Halifax had 'held a principal 
 place in King Charles's esteem, and perhaps the first in his affection during 
 his latter troubles.' Halifax took a prominent part in bringing about the 
 Revolution of 1688. 
 
 ready stands instead of piercing in the first edition in line 882. 
 
 1. 888. Hushai, Laurence Hyde, second son of the Lord Chancellor 
 Clarendon, created in 1680 Viscount Hyde, and in 1682 Earl of Rochester. 
 He was appointed one of the Commissioners of the Treasury in 1679, anc ^ 
 soon became first Commissioner and a leading minister. On the accession 
 of James he was made Lord Treasurer. Hyde befriended Dryden. Dryden's 
 and Lee's Duke of Guise was dedicated to Rochester in 1682, and Dryden 
 dedicated to him in 1692 his Cleomenes. In the latter dedication Dryden 
 refers to Rochester's kindness to him when he was powerful at the Treasury 
 in the reigns of Charles II and James II: 'Your goodness has not been 
 wanting to me during the reign of my two masters, and even from a 
 bare Treasury my success has been contrary to that of Mr. Cowley, and 
 Gideon's fleece has there been moistened, when all the ground has been dry 
 about it.' 
 
 1. 899. Amiel, Edward Seymour, who had been Speaker of the House of 
 Commons from 1673 to 1679. He succeeded to a baronetcy in 1688, and 
 is best known as Sir Edward Seymour. He was the head of the house of 
 Seymour, the then Duke of Somerset being of a younger branch of the family. 
 He opposed the Bill of Exclusion ; he was afterwards an eager promoter of 
 the Revolution. 
 
 1. 910. the unequal ruler of the day, Phaeton, unequal, incompetent. 
 
 1. 920. plume, pluck. The regal rights are to be plucked like a bird's 
 feathers. Elsewhere Dryden uses the word plume in the sense of strip or 
 rob by plucking : * He has left the faction as bare of arguments as .flSsop's 
 bird of feathers, and plumed them of all those fallacies and evasions which 
 thef borrowed from Jesuits and Presbyterians.' (Vindication of the Duke 
 of Guise.) 
 
 * One whom, instead of banishing a day, 
 
 You should have plumed of all his borrowed honours/ 
 
 Maiden Queen, Act ii. Sc. I. 
 
 * Not with more ease the falcon from above 
 Trusses in middle air the trembling dove, 
 
 Then plumes the prey.' Translation of Aeneid, xi. 1045. 
 
 1. 939. With reference to David's speech, which begins at this line, Spence 
 says that he was told by Pope that * King Charles obliged Dryden to put his 
 Oxford speech into verse, and to insert it towards the close of his Absalom 
 
270 NOTES. 
 
 and Achitophel.' (Anecdotes of Men and Books, p. 112.) The Oxford 
 speech is the speech made by Charles at the opening of the parliament at 
 Oxford, March 21, 1681. There are some points of resemblance in the 
 two speeches, but David's speech is certainly far from being a paraphrase of 
 King Charles's. 
 
 11. 957-960. These four lines about Monmouth were added in the second 
 edition. 
 
 I. 966. destroy in first edition, intead of supplant. 
 
 1.987. Compare Proverbs xxx. 15, r6 : 'There are three things that are 
 never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough : the grave ; and the 
 barren womb ; the earth that is not filled with water ; and the fire that saith 
 not, It is enough.' 
 
 II. 1007, 8. Grace Her hinder parts : this means Grace's hinder parts. In 
 the same way the title of one of Dryden's Fables from Boccaccio is the 
 ' Wife of Bath her Tale.' There is a reference here, as in Astraea Redux 
 (262-265), to the appearance of God to Moses. 'And he (the Lord) said 
 Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And 
 the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a 
 rock, and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put 
 thee in the cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand, while I pass 
 by : and I will take away mine hand and thou shalt see my back parts ; but 
 my face shall not be seen.' See The Hind and the Panther, Part iii. 
 line 1040, 
 
 'Vice, though frontless and of hardened face, 
 Is daunted at the sight of awful grace.' 
 1. 1009. From Ovid; Art Amat, u 655, 
 
 ' Neque enim lex aequior ulla est 
 Quam necis artifices arte perire sua.' 
 1. 1030. ' Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo.' 
 
 Virg. Eel. iv. 5. 
 
 'Incipient magni procedere menses.' Id. 12. 
 And compare in Annus Mirabilis, stanza 18, 
 
 ' And now, a round of greater years begun.' 
 
 Keligio Laid. 
 Preface. 
 
 P. 122, 1. 1 6. The preface of the Athanasian Creed is, 'Whosoever will 
 be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith. 
 Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt 
 he shall perish everlastingly. 
 
RELIGIO LAICI. 27 1 
 
 P. 123, I. I. interested. The form of the time, and always used by 
 Dryden. Disinteressed occurs in line 335 of Religio Laici. Both here and in 
 li ne 335 the old form has been replaced by the editors with the modern 
 word, interested, disinterested; and the change in line 335 spoils the rhythm. 
 Dryden has interessing in the Preface to the State of Innocence, and tm- 
 interessed in the prefaces to Troilus and Cressida and Albion and Albanius. 
 
 P. 124, 1. n. Mr. Colemans letters. Edward Coleman was Secretary to 
 the Duke of York, and a very zealous Roman Catholic. He had been 
 engaged in correspondence with Pere la Chaise, Confessor to Louis XIV, 
 with the Pope's Nuncio, and with other Roman Catholics abroad for 
 bringing about the establishment of the Roman Catholic religion in 
 England. He was the first of Oates's victims : he was executed December 3, 
 1678. 
 
 1. 26. Mariana and the others named are all Jesuit writers of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 1. 28. Edmund Campian and Robert Parsons were two English Jesuits. 
 Parsons wrote under the name of Doleman. Campian and Parsons obtained 
 in 1580 a bull from the Pope declaring that the previous bull of Pius V 
 deposing and excommunicating Queen Elizabeth did for ever bind the 
 heretics, but not Roman Catholics, until a favourable opportunity arose for 
 putting it in execution. Armed with this bull, they came into England to 
 proclaim that the Pope had power to dethrone monarchs, and that Queen 
 Elizabeth's subjects were freed from their allegiance. Campian was executed 
 for preaching this doctrine in 1581. Parsons fled to Rome, where he pub- 
 lished, under the name of N. Doleman, a work with the title * A Conference 
 about the Next Succession of the Crown of England.' Parsons died at Rome 
 in 1610. 
 
 P. 125, 1. 27. Father Cres. Serenus Cressy was originally chaplain to the 
 Earl of Strafford, and afterwards to Lord Falkland : he subsequently became 
 a Roman Catholic and a Benedictine monk at Douay. After the Restoration 
 he came to England, and was chaplain to the Queen. 
 
 P. 126, 1. 1 8. William Tyndal, a zealous Lutheran, was the first translator 
 into English of the New Testament and the Pentateuch. His version was 
 prohibited and publicly burnt by order of Henry VIII, who was against the 
 Lutherans. Tyndal was seized at Brussels and strangled and burnt to death 
 in 1536. His last words were 'Lord, open the King's eyes.' 
 
 P. 127, 1. 5. Isaac Walton's Life of Hooker, which was published in 1662, 
 is here referred to. In it is the letter of George Cranmer to Hooker here 
 mentioned. 
 
 1. 13. Martin Mar-prelate , John Penry, a Welsh clergyman of the reign 
 of Queen Elizabeth, who became an Anabaptist and a writer against Episco- 
 pacy, under the above nom de guerre. He was executed in 1593 for writing 
 against the established religion. 
 
272 NOTES. 
 
 1. 38. Hacket and Coppinger, two Calvinistic mad enthusiasts. The 
 former proclaimed himself in 1591 in the streets of London as the Messiah, 
 come to purify the Church of England; and Coppinger was one of his pro- 
 phets. Hacket was executed ; Coppinger starved himself to death in prison. 
 A third, Arthington, recanted and was pardoned. 
 
 P. 129,1. 29. The 'ingenious young gentleman' for whom Dryden says 
 that he wrote this poem was a Mr. Henry Dickinson, of whom nothing else 
 is known. The name is ascertained by a poem by Duke addressed to him 
 by name as the translator of Father Simon's work ; and in the translation 
 the initials H. D. are given as those of the translator. Derrick made a mis- 
 take, saying that the translator complimented by Dryden was Richard 
 Hampden, grandson of the famous John Hampden. Richard Simon, the 
 author of the Critical History of the Old Testament, was a priest of the 
 Oratory in Paris, and a good Oriental scholar. He wrote also a Critical 
 History of the New Testament. 
 
 The Poem. 
 
 1. 21. the Stagirite, Aristotle. 
 
 I. 56. triumphs. The accent is on the last syllable, as was the custom 
 in Dryden's time, and as it always is in his poems. See The Hind and the 
 Panther, Part iii. 566. In Dryden's poem to Lady Castlemaine there is 
 the following line, 
 
 ' Let others still triumph and gain their cause,' 
 which, in apparent ignorance, is silently altered in R. Bell's edition to 
 
 * Let others triumph still and gain their cause.' 
 1. 75. For the use of the verb renown as transitive compare Pope : 
 ' The bard whom pilfered pastorals renown.' 
 
 Prologue to the Satires, i. 1 73. 
 
 II. 76, 77- Todd has compared the language of these lines to Zophar's in Job: 
 * Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty 
 unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than 
 hell; what canst thou know?' (Job xi. 7, 8.) 
 
 1. 80. Dryden probably had in his mind Virgil's line, 
 
 ' Magnanimi heroes, nati melioribus annis.' Aen. vi. 649. 
 1. 193. Scott is much troubled about the word Sons, which, according to 
 present notions of correct writing, should be Son. What is now still a usual 
 colloquial form of speech was in Shakespeare's and Dryden's times customary 
 in writing : 
 
 'A thousand moral paintings I can show 
 That shall demonstrate these quick blows of Fortune's 
 More pregnantly than words.' Timon of Athens, i. I. 
 
RELIGIO LAICI. 
 
 1. 213. The Egyptian Bishop, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. 
 1. 228. The Critical History of the Old Testament, by the Father Richard 
 Simon, a French divine, translated by Mr. Henry Dickinson: see note to 
 p. 129, 1. 29. 
 
 1. 241. Junius and Tremellius are two Calvinist divines who translated 
 the Scriptures, and whom Simon criticises. 
 
 1. 283. This is a clumsy line, to be read thus 
 
 * 'Twere worth both Testaments and cast in th* Creed.' 
 The accent is on the second syllable of testament as of testator. The editors 
 have generally followed Derrick in omitting and to make the line accord 
 with the modern pronunciation of testament. 
 
 1. 291. like Esdras. For Esdras had very great skill, so that he omitted 
 nothing of the law and commandments of the Lord, but taught all Israel 
 the ordinances and judgments.' (i Esdras vii. 7.) 
 
 1. 335. This line has been spoilt by editors, including Scott, by printing 
 disinterested, instead of Dryden's word disinteressed. See note on p. 123, 1. I. 
 1. 389. A similar line occurs in The Medal (166): 
 
 'The text inspires not them, but they the text inspire/ 
 1. 420. Compare Hudibras, iii. 2. 7 : 
 
 * So ere the storm of war broke out, 
 Religion spawned a various rout 
 Of petulant capricious sects, 
 The maggots of corrupted texts.' 
 
 1. 456. Tom Sternhold is the versifier of the Psalms with Hopkins. Dryden 
 refers contemptuously to this version of the Psalms in his portion of the 
 Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel : 
 
 ' Poor slaves in metre, dull and addle-pated, 
 Who rhyme below even David's psalms translated.' 
 
 Shad well, whom Dryden here couples with Sternhold, was greatly Sternhold's 
 superior in talent; his comedies have much cleverness and merit. But he 
 was not a good poet. Dryden's Mac Flecnoe is a severe satire exclusively 
 devoted to Shadwell, in reprisal for Shad well's poem, The Medal of John 
 Bayes, a reply to Dryden's Medal ; and he severely attacked Shadwell again, 
 calling him Og, in the Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel, where he 
 couples Shadwell with Settle, who is called Doeg : 
 
 *And hasten Og and Doeg to rehearse, 
 Two fools that crutch their feeble sense on verse, 
 Who by my Muse to all succeeding times 
 Shall live in spite of their own dogrel rhymes/ 
 And Dryden thus concludes an apostrophe to Shadwell : 
 
 'And for my foes may this their blessing be, 
 To talk like Doeg and to write like thee/ 
 
274 NOTES. 
 
 The Hind and the Panther. 
 Preface. 
 
 P. 147, 1. 26. James II had issued his famous Declaration of Indulgence, 
 suspending all penal laws against Dissenters from the Church of England 
 and abrogating all acts which imposed a religious test for secular office, 
 only a few days before the appearance of this poem. The Declaration is 
 dated April 4, 1687. The Hind and the Panther was licensed April II, and 
 was published shortly afterwards. The tone of this Preface, conciliatory to 
 Protestant Dissenters, is not in accord with the tone of the poem as regards 
 them. The spirit of the poem is for union of the Church of England with 
 the Roman Catholics in opposition to the Protestant Nonconformists: 
 and it is to be inferred that the Declaration of Indulgence, embracing 
 Protestant Nonconformists and Roman Catholics alike, came by surprise on 
 Dryden when this poem was nearly concluded, and that he endeavoured to 
 reconcile himself in the Preface with the Protestant Dissenters, whom in the 
 poem he had treated roughly. The tactics of James at the outset of his 
 reign were those of Dryden's poem ; he found himself compelled to change 
 them, and, in order to benefit the Roman Catholics, to grant equal indul- 
 gence to Protestants Dissenters as well. 
 
 P. 148, 1. 10. This refers to the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 
 1685 by Louis XIV, and the persecution of the French Protestants. 
 
 P. 149, 1. 22. Dryden here publishes that he had had a part in a defence 
 of the Duchess of York's statement of her reasons for becoming a Roman 
 Catholic in reply to Stillingfleet. James II had published the statement of 
 the duchess, his first wife, and daughter of Lord Chancellor Clarendon, 
 together with papers found in Charles II's strong box in favour of the 
 Roman Catholic faith. Stillingfleet, then Dean of St. Paul's, replied to 
 this publication. A 'Defence' was published by the King's command, in 
 which Dryden bore a part. Stillingfleet rejoined, and treated Dryden with 
 contemptuous asperity. 
 
 1. 35. Dryden had asserted, in his defence of the Duchess of York's paper, 
 that he had seen or heard of no treatise on the virtue of humility written by 
 a Protestant. Stillingfleet called this ' a barefaced assertion of a thing known 
 to be false/ and stated that 'within a few years, besides what has been 
 printed formerly, such a book hath been printed in London.' Dryden now 
 asserts that the publication of Duncomb, which he presumes to be the work 
 alluded to by Stillingfleet, was translated from the Spanish of Rodriguez. 
 
 P. 150, 1. II. Mrs. James. Eleanor James, the wife of a printer, had 
 lately published 'A Vindication of the Church of England,' irr answer to a 
 pamphlet entitled ' A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty.' 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART I. 375 
 
 1. 23. The two Episodes or Fables are the tales of the Swallows (Roman 
 Catholics) persuaded to defer flight, and of the Pigeons (Church clergy) who 
 chose a Buzzard (Dr. Buruet) to be their king. 
 
 The Poem. 
 
 1. I. Hind. The Hind represents the Roman Catholic Church. 
 
 1. 6. Scythian shafts. The Scythians were great archers, and used poisoned 
 arrows. It is doubtful whether Dryden here uses Scythian merely to denote 
 poisoned arrows, or means actually Scythian shafts, as a part of his fable. 
 See note below on Caledonian, 1. 14. 
 
 1. 8. The distinction between doomed and fated is that doom is a sentence 
 which may remain unexecuted, while fate is irreversible and irresistible. The 
 witty parodists of The Hind and the Panther overlooked this difference when 
 they ridiculed Dryden for this line. ' Faith, Mr. Bayes, if you were doomed 
 to be hanged, whatever you were fated to, 'twould give you but small com- 
 fort.' (The Country and the City Mouse.) In Annus Mirabilis, stanza 207, 
 merchandise sent to a foreign country is said to be doomed to it. 
 
 1. 14. Caledonian wood. This has been generally interpreted as meaning 
 the old Caledonian wood of Britain in the time of the Romans, and the 
 'slaughtered army' of the Hind's progeny, * extended o'er the Caledonian 
 wood,' is explained to be the Roman Catholic priests executed in Great 
 Britain since the Reformation. The explanation is not satisfactory, and the 
 passage is by no means clear. In Palamon and Arcite, Book ii, where the 
 Calydonian boar is introduced, Calydonian is spelt Caledonian in the original 
 edition; and editors down to Scott and later have continued to print 
 Caledonian. I do not feel sure that it should not be Calydonian here, 
 though we do not know specially of a Calydonian wood in connexion with 
 the long hunt of the Calydonian boar. Calydonian would suit better with 
 the 'Scythian shafts 1 of line 6. Calydon would do for Caledon in line 3 of 
 Part iii. of the poem : indeed the sense would be better. 
 ' Because the Muse has peopled Calydon 
 With Panthers, Bears, and Wolves, and beasts unknown, 
 As if we were not stocked with monsters of our own/ 
 The reading Calydon gives point to ' our own ' monsters, comparing them 
 with those the poet places in Catydon. Calydon was a city of Aetolia, 
 the mountains round which were the haunt of the famous boar, killed by 
 Meleager. Dryden was very careless in correcting his poems for the press, 
 and classical words are frequently misspelt in the early editions ; as Pardalis, 
 spelt Pardelis in this poem, evprjKa. spelt (vptita in Religio Laici, 43 ; and 
 these misspellings have been continued by editors to the last. 
 
 1. 23. corps, the spelling in Dryden, is used both for singular and plural; 
 it is the same with Cyclops. See note on Astraea Redux, line 45. 
 
 T 2 
 
276 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 1. 34. Compare with this couplet on virtue Pope's on vice : 
 'Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
 As to be hated needs but to be seen/ 
 1. 35. The bloody Bear, the Independent. 
 1. 37. The quaking Hare, the Quaker. 
 1. 39. The buffoon Ape, the Free-thinker. 
 
 1. 41. The Lion, the King of England. Some scoffer who had conformed 
 to the Church of England or embraced the Roman Catholic religion for 
 royal favour is probably here struck at. It has been suggested that 
 Sunderland, who was a sudden Roman Catholic convert, is intended; but 
 Dryden would hardly wish to offend any Roman Catholic convert, and he . 
 was not at all likely at this time to run a risk of offending Sunderland, who 
 was in power. He had flatteringly dedicated ' Troilus and Cressida' to 
 Sunderland in 1679. Dryden's parodists, however, think that there is a 
 personal allusion in this passage, for Bayes is there made to say of it, ' That 
 galls somewhere; I' gad I can't leave it out, though I were cudgelled every 
 day for it.' 
 
 1. 43. The bristled baptist Boar, the Anabaptist. This sect arose in 
 Germany soon after the rise of Luther, about the year 1521. They in- 
 vaded Saxony under the leadership of Muncer and Pfeifer ; and some years 
 afterwards John of Leyden, with a numerous following, seized Munster and 
 held it for some time. These Anabaptists committed great cruelties, and 
 they were in the end conquered. John of Leyden was torn to pieces with 
 hot pincers when Munster was retaken. The name of Anabaptist was long 
 after in great disrepute. 
 
 I. 53. False Reynard, the Arian. 
 
 II. 54, 55. The doctrine of Arius, that God the Son was not coexistent, 
 and consequently not coequal, with God the Father, was contested by 
 Athanasius in the Council of Nice, and condemned by that council. The 
 Arian doctrine was embraced by Laelius Socinus, a nobleman of Sienna, to- 
 wards the end of the sixteenth century : this is the origin of the Socinians. 
 The Protestants of Poland adopted the Socinian doctrine ; wherefore Dryden 
 bids the Arian fox to range unkennelled in her Polonian plains (line 152). 
 
 1. 95. Impassible, incapable of suffering, impassibilis (Latin) : impassible 
 is the derived French word. In most editions, including Scott's, Impassable 
 is wrongly substituted. 
 
 Penetrating parts means penetrating the parts of matter, instead of 
 separating them. This power of penetrating is a criterion of spirit as 
 distinct from matter. Matter cannot penetrate matter. 
 
 1. 99. This passage refers to Christ's appearance among his disciples after 
 the crucifixion, as described in St. John xx. 19, 26. 'Then the same 
 day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut 
 where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART I. 277 
 
 in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.' * And after eight days 
 again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them : then came Jesus, 
 the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.' 
 
 1. 104. quarry, an object aimed at. The game which a hawk flies at is 
 its quarry. In Annus Mirabilis, stanza 281, the buildings to which the fire 
 was directing itself in the great conflagration of 1666 are called their quarry: 
 'The flames that to their quarry strove.' 
 
 1. 128. bilanders, coasting vessels used in Holland and there so called. 
 The French adopted the word bilandre, also from the Dutch. 
 
 11. 134, 135. Could He his Godhead veil with flesh and blood 
 
 And not veil these again to be our food? 
 
 This pleading of Dryden in 1687 for the doctrine of Transubstantiation may 
 be compared with his ridicule of the same doctrine in 1 68 1, in Absalom and 
 Achitophel, 120. 
 
 'Such savoury deities must needs be good, 
 As served at once for worship and for food.' 
 
 1. 153. the insatiate Wolf, the Presbyterian. Dryden here turns suddenly 
 to the Presbyterian, in bidding good-bye to the Arians and Socinians, both 
 comprehended under Reynard the Fox, now denounced by him as ' first 
 ' apostate to divinity.' 
 
 1. 165. The Presbyterians in the time of the Commonwealth wore black 
 skull-caps, which left their ears uncovered ; and their hair being close cropped 
 all round, the ears were prominent. ' The ragged tail betwixt his legs,' was 
 the Presbyterian's Geneva cloak. 
 
 1. 1 66. haggered, a way of spelling the word haggard, and Dry den's usual 
 spelling. But in Part iii. line 1 1^6 of this poem, it is spelt haggared. 
 
 1. 1 70. Nothing can be more ribald and offensive than the account of the 
 Presbyterians and their genealogy which follows. Scott interprets the re- 
 ference to Cambria as pointing to the refusal of the ancient British Church 
 in the seventh century, the monks of Bangor being prominently zealous, to 
 acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope, and admit St. Augustin as metro- 
 politan of Britain by Pope Gregory's appointment. Ethelred, the Saxon 
 king of Northumberland, defeated the British at Chester, and cut to pieces 
 twelve hundred of the monks of Bangor, who had come to assist their 
 countrymen with their prayers. It is however more probable that Dryden 
 in his vituperative vein mixes up the extinction of wolves in Wales by the 
 tribute of wolves' heads imposed on the kings, with the history of British 
 Presbyterians, to whom he has given the name of wolves, and then he 
 suggests that the Presbyterians of his day are of an inferior race to ' Wickliff's 
 brood' the Lollards, cruelly persecuted in the reign of Henry V. 
 
 1. 180. Zuinglius began to preach the Reformation in Zurich about 1518. 
 He was killed in battle in a war between the canton of Zurich and four 
 Roman Catholic cantons. 
 
278 NOTES. 
 
 1. 181. Calvin, having been expelled from France for preaching the 
 doctrines of the Reformation, went to Geneva, where he was appointed 
 Professor of Divinity in 1536. He afterwards left Geneva and taught a 
 French congregation at Strasburg. 
 
 1. 183. Sanhedrim; spelt Sanhedrin by Dry den in Absalom and Achitophel. 
 The latter spelling connects the name with the Greek cvvtfipiov. Dryden 
 has a note on this line 183, 'Vide Preface to Heylyn's History of Pres- 
 byterians.' The passage of Heylyn which he refers to is the following : 
 * I know that some out of pure zeal with the cause would fain entitle them 
 [the Presbyterians] to a descent from the Jewish Sanhedrim ordained by 
 God himself in the time of Moses. And that it might comply the better 
 with these ends and purposes, they have endeavoured to make that famous 
 consistory of the seventy elders not only a co-ordinate power with that of 
 Moses, and after his decease with the kings and princes of that state in the 
 public government, but a power paramount and supreme, from which lay no 
 appeal to any but to God himself; a power by which they were enabled not 
 only to control the actions of their kings and princes, but also to correct 
 their persons.' Heylyn proceeds: 'And yet I shall not yield them an 
 antiquity as great as that which they desire, as great as that of Moses or 
 the Jewish Sanhedrim, from which they would so willingly derive themselves.' ' 
 
 1. 187. devest, the spelling of the time for the word divest now in use, 
 which is clearly a corruption of language. The literal meaning is ' to take 
 clothes off/ and de is the proper prefix. 
 
 1. 189. Korah and the sons of Levi, who rebelled and were all swallowed 
 up in a pit which opened in the earth, are here compared to a Presbyterian 
 ' class ' ; classis, order. 
 
 1. 190. The Fox, the Arian, already spoken of as ' false Reynard.' 
 
 1. 204. The 'native kennel small' and 'bounded betwixt a puddle and a 
 wall,' is Dryden's contemptuous description of Geneva, the puddle being the 
 great and beautiful lake Leman. 
 
 1. 211. This line occurs in Absalom and Achitophel, 227, where see the note. 
 
 ! 2 35- The 'wolfish crew' chased from 'Celtic woods' are the French 
 Protestants driven from France by the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 
 1685. The contemptuous tone of this passage is in marked contrast with 
 the allusion to the persecution of the French Huguenots in the Preface. 
 
 1. 284. the blessed Pan, Jesus Christ. In Part ii. line 711, Christ is again 
 spoken of as * mighty Pan.' Compare Milton's Hymn on Christ's Nativity : 
 The shepherds on the lawn 
 Or ere the point of dawn, 
 
 Sate simply chatting in a rustic row; 
 Full little thought they then 
 That the mighty Pan 
 Was kindly come to live with them below.' 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART I. 279 
 
 I. 288. This and the two following lines were probably added by Dryden 
 after the publication of the Declaration of Indulgence. 
 
 1. 290. for their foes. Broughton substituted from for /or, thus making 
 the line nonsense, but his mistake has been adopted by succeeding editors, 
 including Scott. 
 
 1. 319. divisible, material ; divisibility being a criterion of matter. 
 1. 322. Such souls as shards produce. The probable meaning of shard 
 here is dung or ordure. The word does not occur again in this sense in 
 Dryden. In his translation of the Second Epode of Horace, he uses shard for 
 an edible plant : 
 
 ' Not heathpout or the rarer bird 
 Which Phasis or Ionia yields, 
 More pleasing morsels would afford 
 Than the fat olives of my fields ; 
 Than shards or mallows for the pot 
 That keep the loosened body sound.' 
 
 Some are of opinion that shard has the meaning ' dung ' in the passage in 
 Macbeth, Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 'The shard-borne beetle with her drowsy hums.' 
 
 This word would mean in that case ' born of dung' ; the spelling born or borne 
 is immaterial. There is a beetle called the * turd-bug* (Halliwell's Dictionary 
 of Archaic and Provincial Words) or ' dung-beetle.' Most commentators inter- 
 pret shard-borne as meaning borne or carried by shards, the hard wing-cases of 
 the beetle. Shard or sherd means in old writers the hard seals of an animal ; 
 and it might mean the mail of a beetle, but there is a gap between the mail- 
 covering of a wing and the wing itself. Gower says of a dragon that his 
 ' scherdes shyne as the sonne' (Confessio Amantis, 1. vi.), and describes a 
 serpent, 
 
 ' He was so sherdid all aboute 
 
 It held all edge tools withoute.' Id. 1. v. 
 
 These passages do not explain shard-borne ; but they may explain ' sharded 
 beetle ' in Cymbeline, Act iii. Sc. 2 : 
 
 * And often, to our comfort, shall we find 
 The sharded beetle in a safer hold 
 Than is the full-winged eagle.' 
 
 Sharded may here mean ' mail-clad/ but it may also mean ' dunged * or 
 * dunging,' sharded being sharding (a not uncommon use in Shakespeare of 
 the past participle termination). In Antony and Cleopatra (Act iii. Sc. 2), 
 Lepidus is described by -^Enobarbus as hovering and gloating with praise 
 equally over Caesar and Antony. 
 
 ' They are his shards and he their beetle.' 
 
 The meaning of ' dung ' for shard would be very appropriate here. The 
 commentators generally explain shards as the beetle's two wing-cases, but 
 
280 NOTES. 
 
 how can they be separated from the beetle ? There is a fourth passage in 
 Shakespeare where shard occurs, where the meaning may be different. In 
 Hamlet (Act v. Sc. i) the priest says that Ophelia deserved that 
 
 * Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her.' 
 Shards here means broken pieces or fragments of pottery : it is the word 
 sherd of the translation of the Bible. * And he shall break it as the breaking 
 of the potters' vessel that is broken to pieces ; he shall not spare : so that 
 there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the 
 hearth.' (Isaiah xxx. 14.) And again in Ezekiel xxiii. 34: 'Thou 
 shalt break the sherds ' of the cup. This sherd is preserved in potsherd, 
 fragment of a pot, which occurs, so spelt, in Dryden. Here again, however, 
 in the passage of Hamlet, shards might mean ' pieces of dung.' Mr. Brown- 
 ing has lately written in The Ring and the Book, probably following the 
 passage of Hamlet, 
 
 * By the roadside, mid ordure, shards, and weeds.' 
 
 1. 327. The Panther, the Church of England. 
 
 M' 339 34- Compare with this couplet Juvenal, Sat. xiii. 209 : 
 * Nam scelus intra se taciturn qui cogitat ullum, 
 Facti crimen habet.' 
 
 1. 354. * Conjugium vocat, hoc praetexit nomine culpam.' 
 
 Virg. Aen. iv. 172. 
 
 Henry VIIFs divorce from Catharine and marriage with Anne Boleyn are here 
 referred to, as leading to the abolition of the papal authority in England. 
 
 1. 369. Here Dryden refers to the removal of the restriction of celibacy 
 for priests. 
 
 1. 371. haltered out, wearied out. The word occurs in Ogilby's transla- 
 tion of the Iliad, p. 500, 1669. Jamieson, in his Scottish Dictionary, quotes 
 from Gavan and Gob, iii. 5, * Helmys of hard steill their hatterit and heuch.' 
 
 1. 385. I have preserved here the spelling of the original edition, travail- 
 ing. This was the common spelling for the two meanings, 'journey' (now 
 spelt travel) and ' labour.' See Part iii. line 411. 
 
 1. 388. presumed of praise. A common Gallicism with Dryden : it 
 occurs again in Part iii. line 511. 
 
 1. 391. This line has been spoilt by Derrick and most subsequent editors, 
 including Scott, by changing The into Their, herds here means ' shepherds.' 
 
 1/399. phylacteries. The accent is on the third syllable, the e being long 
 in Greek, <j>v\a.KT7)piov. 
 
 I. 409. Derrick and a few other editors have spoilt this line by changing 
 reformed into deformed : 
 
 'And least deformed, because deformed the least,' 
 which is simple nonsense. 
 
 II. 41 7-430. Dryden here criticises the Article of the Church of England 
 on the Eucharist, Art. xxviii. * The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART II. 281 
 
 of the love that Christians ought to have amongst themselves one to another, 
 but rather it is a sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death ; insomuch 
 that to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same, the 
 
 bread which we break is a partaking of the body of Christ The body 
 
 of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper only, after an heavenly 
 and spiritual manner. And the means whereby the body of Christ is 
 received and eaten in the Supper is faith.' 
 
 1. 446. Resolved here means ' dissolved.' It is similarly used in Dryden's 
 Eleanora, 2 29 : 
 
 * Goodness resolved into necessity,' 
 
 1. 449. Isgrim' s. Dryden has a note on this word, ' The Wolf/ It is 
 the name given to the wolf in the old German fable of Reynard the Fox. 
 This is ridiculed in Montague and Prior's parody. Bayes says : ' Take it 
 from me, Mr. Smith, there is as good morality, and as sound precepts in the 
 delectable History of Reynard the Fox, as in any book I know, except 
 Seneca ; pray tell me where, in any other author, could I have found so 
 pretty a name for a wolf as Isgrim?' But Dryden had Beaumont and 
 Fletcher's example : 
 
 ' Isgrim himself in all his bloody anger 
 I can beat from the bay.' Beggar's Bush, Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 ! 55 2. There was an old superstition that the wolfs seeing the man 
 before he saw it, or the sight . of a wolf, or the wolfs look, deprived a man 
 of the power of speech : 
 
 * Vox quoque Moerin 
 Jam fugit ipsa : lupi Moerin videre priores.' 
 
 Virg. Eclogue ix. 53. 
 
 In Theocritus (Idyl xiv. 22) the mere sight of a wolf is said to take away 
 speech. Pliny says that when a wolf sees a man before the man sees him, 
 it is believed to have the effect of taking away the man's power of speech 
 for the time. There is no classical authority, however, for the power 
 which -Dryden here gives the Hind of making the wolf speechless. Shirley, 
 in the Royal Master (Act iv. Sc. 6), states it correctly : * The fright she 
 was in late, like a wolf that sees a man first, hath taken away her voice. ' 
 
 1. 554. suffised, so spelt in the original edition, and the spelling is here 
 retained ; from the French suffiser. 
 
 The Hind and the Panther. Part II. 
 
 11. l-ii. This refers to the agitation against the Roman Catholics in 
 consequence of the so-called Popish Plot. ' The younger Lion ' is James II, 
 then Duke of York. The Hind replies (17-27) that the prosecution was 
 against the Church of England as well as the Roman Catholics. 
 
282 NOTES. 
 
 1. 21. quarry here stands for game as distinguished from vermin. 
 1. 30. The Test Acts of 1673 and 1678 prescribed a declaration denying 
 Transubstantiation ; the words of both these Acts were, ' I do believe that 
 in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is not any transubstantiation of 
 the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ at or 
 after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever/ 
 
 1. 63. cannon is in the early editions, and it is here preserved. The word 
 is changed to canon in Scott's and the Wartons' editions, cannon seems 
 the best sense, and Dryden may have meant a play on the word. In Part iii. 
 line 466 canon is misprinted cannon in the first edition, and it is corrected 
 in the second to canon. But in this passage cannon remains. 
 
 1/67. subterranean Rome, ' Roma Sotteranea,' an extensive cavern near 
 Rome, formerly inhabited, described in a work of that name published at 
 Rome, circa 1632. Evelyn describes his visit to this cavern in his Diary, 
 April n, 1645. 
 
 1. 79. For fallacies in universals live. ' Dolus versatur in generalibus/ 
 Compare ' As those who in a logical dispute keep in general terms would 
 hide a fallacy.' (Preface to Annus Mirabilis, p. 27.) 
 1. 142. Luther's doctrine of Consubstantiation. 
 1. 161. An imitation of Lucan: 
 
 * Infestisque obvia signis 
 Signa, pares aquilas, et pila minaritia pills.' 
 
 Pharsalia, I. 7. 
 
 1. 227. The omen of the ladder is, it is to be presumed, the gallows. 
 1. 228. The sweetness of the panther's breath is an old belief. It is 
 mentioned by Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxi. 7). 
 
 ' Thy baths shall be the juice of July flowers, 
 Spirit of roses and of violets, 
 The milk of unicorns and panthers' breath, 
 Gathered in bags and mixt with Cretan wines.' 
 
 Ben Jonson, The Fox, Act iii. Sc. 5. 
 ' And yet your grace is bound 
 To have his accusation confirmed, 
 Or hunt this spotted panther to his ruin, 
 Whose breath is only sweet to poison virtue/ 
 
 Shirley, The Royal Master, Act iii. Sc. I. 
 
 1. 230. the blatant beast, blatant, ' howling,' ' barking.' Dryden here 
 means probably the Presbyterian, the Wolf. Derrick thought it referred to 
 the Blatant Beast of Spenser's Faery Queen, Slander; and Scott and other 
 editors have adopted Derrick's interpretation, printing the two words with 
 initial capitals ; but they are not so printed in the original editions. 
 
 1. 268. These statutes were suspended by James's Declaration of In- 
 dulgence, issued shortly before the publication of the poem. 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART II. 283 
 
 1. 345. He darkly writ. * As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of 
 those things ; in which are some things hard to be understood.' (2 Peter 
 iii. 1 6.) 
 
 1. 382. Hungary, the then object of contention between the Turks and 
 Germany. 
 
 1. 398. This refers to the reply of Jesus to the Jewish officers who went 
 with Judas to seek him. * As soon then as he had said unto them, I am 
 he, they went backward, and fell to the ground/ (St. John xviii. 6.) 
 
 1. 410. The phrase crown-general, is ridiculed in Prior and Montague's 
 parody : 
 
 * There's a pretty name now for the Spotted Mouse, The Viceroy ! 
 
 * Smith. But pray, why d' ye call her so ? 
 
 ' Bayes. Why, because it sounds prettily : I'll call her the Crown-General 
 presently, if I have a mind to it.' 
 
 1. 419. Curtana. The sword of mercy, a sword without an edge, said to 
 have belonged to Edward the Confessor, and carried before our kings at their 
 coronation. 
 
 1. 454. The consubstantiating Church and priest, the Lutherans. 
 1. 525. Either the accent is on the second syllable of spiritual, and so 
 again in line 618, or in both lines the i is elided. The noun used always by 
 Dryden is sprite or spright, not spirit. See line 653. 
 
 ' For after death we sprites have just such natures.' 
 
 Epilogue to Tyrannic Love. 
 'You groan, sir, ever since the morning light, 
 As something had disturbed your noble spright.' 
 
 The Cock and the Fox, 103. 
 
 1. 538. See Exodus viii. and ix. for the Egyptian magicians unable to 
 destroy the frogs which they had brought on Egypt, or to get rid of the lice, 
 and also covered with boils. 
 
 1. 543. Broughton changed botches to blotches, which has been printed by 
 succeeding editors. A botch is a sore : ' The Lord shall smite thee in the 
 knees and in the legs with a sore botch that cannot be healed.' (Deut. xxviii. 
 
 35-) 
 
 * Young Hylas botched with stains too foul to name.' 
 
 Garth's Dispensary, Act ii. 
 1. 562. disembogue, from the French desemboucher, to open out. 
 
 * To where Fleet ditch with disemboguing streams, 
 Rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to Thames/ 
 
 Pope, Dunciad, ii. 271. 
 
 1. 563. palliard, from the French paillard, a lewd person. 
 
 1. 565. missioners. In the first edition the word was missionaires direct 
 from the French. In the second edition of the poem missioners was substi- 
 tuted. Dryden uses missioner again in his Epistle to Sir George Etherege : 
 
284 NOTES. 
 
 'Like mighty missioner you come 
 
 Ad paries infidelium' 
 
 1. 571. Industrious of the needle and the chart. A Latinism, ' Industrious 
 of the common good.' (Dryden's Address to his cousin John Driden, 153.) 
 
 1. 575. This passage is levelled at the Dutch, whom Dryden accuses of 
 denying their Christianity in order to trade in Japan, where Christians were 
 forbidden to land. 
 
 1. 576. Dryden has been describing the marks of the Catholic Church 
 from the Nicene Creed : ' And I believe in one Catholic and Apostolic 
 Church.' See his marginal note at line 526. Three marks were indicated 
 in lines 526-531. Now he gives the fourth mark, the apostolic origin. 
 
 1. 590. In St. Matthew vii. 24, 27: 'And the rain descended, and the 
 floods came, and the winds blew,' &c. 
 
 1. 630. In the first edition the word was nine instead of seven. 
 1. 646. That pious Joseph in the Church beheld, &c. Dryden's marginal 
 note explains this passage as referring to a formal renunciation recently made 
 by the English Benedictine monks of the abbey lands which had belonged to 
 their order before the Reformation. This was done in order to quiet the 
 fears of proprietors and aid in restoring the Roman Catholic Religion in 
 England. 
 
 1. 658. From Dryden's marginal note Poeta loquitur, it is to be inferred 
 that he here describes a phenomenon seen by himself. James's ' late noc- 
 turnal victory,' must be the battle of Sedgmoor, which began on the after- 
 noon of July 6, 1685, and was not finished till the break of day, July 7. 
 Dryden appears to refer to an Aurora Borealis, or a display of shooting stars 
 seen by himself on that night, but there is no other known mention of this 
 circumstance. Mr. Hallam has erroneously explained the passage as referring 
 to the night of the conception of James's heir, and he supposes that Dryden 
 means that this event was announced by a stream of light from Heaven 
 which he saw. But this explanation is impossible. James's son was born 
 on June IO, 1688, and The Hind and the Panther was published fourteen 
 months before, in April 1687. With line 659 compare 
 
 ' A beam of comfort, like the moon through clouds, 
 Gilds the brown horror and directs my way.' 
 
 Love Triumphant, Act iv. Sc. I. 
 
 1. 721. Gates, provisions; contracted from an old word achates or acates t 
 the French achats. 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART III. 385 
 
 The Hind and the Panther. Part III. 
 
 11. 8-1 1. Spenser, in his Mother Hubbard's Tale, represented Queen 
 Elizabeth as a Lion asleep, while the Ape and the Fox, ministers of 
 government, usurped the functions and did mischief. 
 
 * The Lion sleeping lay in secret shade, 
 His crown and sceptre lying down beside. 
 And having doft for heat his dreadful hide.' 
 
 The anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's succession, November 17, was an 
 annual festival at this time of great Protestant excitement, the Pope being 
 always burned in effigy in the evening. Dryden describes the anti-Papist 
 demonstrations of Queen Bess's night in his Prologue to Southerne's Loyal 
 Brother (p. 453 of Globe Edition). 
 
 1. 19. round eternity. See note on circular, Poem on Cromwell, stanza 5. 
 Cleaveland has ' eternity's round womb' (Poems 1659, p. 58). 
 
 ' As round and full as the great circle of eternity.' 
 
 Sprat's Pindaric Ode on Cowley. 
 
 1. 21. The lion's peace proclaimed,' is James IPs Declaration of In- 
 dulgence. 
 
 1. 25. frequent senate, full, well-attended senate. * Frequens senatus,' is a 
 phrase of Cicero (Epist. Fam. x. 12). Compare Milton: 
 
 * The great seraphic lords and cherubim 
 In close recess and secret conclave sat 
 A thousand demi-gods on golden seats, 
 Frequent and full.' Paradise Lost, i. 794. 
 
 1. 42. The Panther's ' faith unshaken to an exiled heir,' is the support given 
 by the Church of England to James when Duke of York, and forced to live 
 away from London and threatened with exclusion from succession to the 
 throne. 
 
 1. 85. // shows a rest of kindness to complain. Dryden uses the same 
 sentiment in a letter to Dr. Busby in 1682, complaining of his treatment of 
 his song at Westminster : ' None complain but they desire to be reconciled 
 at the same time ; there is no mild expostulation at least which does not 
 intimate a kindness and respect in him who makes it.' 
 
 1. 96. spooms. To spoom is a nautical term applied to a ship under sail 
 going before the wind. 
 
 1. 114. / am but few. Compare ' a numerous exile,' Part i. line 20. 
 
 1. 121. A German quarrel, from the French ' une querelle Allemande,' 
 which means a quarrel picked without cause. 
 
 1. 143. renounces to my blood. Compare, in Dryden's marginal note, 
 Part ii. line 648, * renunciation to the abbey-lands.' This is one of Dryden's 
 frequent Gallicisms. 
 
286 NOTES. 
 
 1. 152. doted, foolish from age. 
 
 1. 1 60. The ' sons of latitude,' are the divines of the Church of England 
 who were for widening its basis and for endeavouring to comprehend a large 
 portion of the Nonconformists. Tillotson, Stillingfleet and Burnet were 
 leaders among these. In line 187 these divines are ' sons of breadth,' and 
 in line 229 ' broad-way sons.' 
 
 1. 194. The ' three steeples argent in a sable field,' is supposed to mean 
 plurality of preferments, and Stillingfleet, who was in controversy with 
 Dryden about the Duchess of York's paper, is supposed to be specially aimed 
 at by Dryden. 
 
 1. 199. Bare lies with bold assertions they can face. This line means 'they 
 can cover bare lies with a facing of bold assertions.' 
 
 1. 20 1. The grim logician is a retort on Stillingfleet, who had frequently 
 applied this phrase to Dryden in his ' Vindication of the Answer to some 
 late Papers.' The whole of this passage, 11. 198-217, is a paraphrase of 
 sentences and arguments in Stillingfleet's ' Vindication.' Stillingfleet had 
 argued strongly against the imputation on the Reformation, founded on 
 Henry VTII's divorce and marriage, and had hotly contradicted Dryden's 
 assertion that there was no Protestant treatise on Humility. See note on 
 Preface, 1. 35 (p. 274). 
 
 1. 217. The Sermon in the Mount. Dryden's in has been changed by 
 modern editors, including Scott, into on. 
 
 I. 227. Tax those of interest. To tax of is one of Dryden's many Gal- 
 licisms. 
 
 II. 247-250. This is not the only occasion on which Dryden has denounced 
 the neglect which the author of Hudibras experienced. In a letter written 
 by him in 1683 to Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, then First Com- 
 missioner of the Treasury, Dryden had said, in pleading for himself, ' 'Tis 
 enough for one age to have neglected Mr. Cowley and starved Mr. Butler.' 
 Sir Walter Scott justly observes in his note on this passage, that King 
 Charles II and his government were much more to blame than the Church. 
 
 1. 256. But Imprimatur with a chaplain's name. Stillingfleet's pamphlets 
 were licensed by the Archbishop of Canterbury's chaplain. 
 
 11.307-309. Dryden's charges against Stillingfleet of 'reviling' and 
 ' cursing ' the king are totally unfounded. Stillingfleet's two tracts contain 
 nothing disrespectful to Charles, James, or the Duchess of York. 
 
 1. 333. Rodriguez' work. Alonzo Rodriguez, a Jesuit, wrote a work 
 called ' Exerjicio de Perfection y Virtudes Cristianas,' published at Seville, 
 1609. This is the work which Dryden in the Preface to this poem referred 
 to as the original of a treatise which Stillingfleet had treated as an English 
 work on Humility : and Dryden speaks of Duncomb as the translator. The 
 authors of the parody on The Hind and the Panther twit Dryden with 
 inaccuracy, and say that he has mistaken Duncombe for Allen : ' There are 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART III. 287 
 
 few mistakes but one may imagine how a man fell into them, and at least 
 what he aimed at; but what likeness is there between Duncomb and 
 Allen ? Do they as much as rhyme ? ' (Preface to The Hind and the Panther 
 Transversed, &c.) Scott rather strangely thinks that ' a sort of similarity 
 of sound may have led to Dryden's mistake.' The English translator or 
 adapter of the work of Rodriguez is supposed to have been the Rev. Thomas 
 Allen, rector of Kettering, Northamptonshire. 
 
 1. 427. The tale of the Swallows is a fable of the temporary prosperity of 
 the Roman Catholics and their ultimate discomfiture here, strangely predicted 
 by Dryden. The Swallows hold a consultation and vote a flight in view of the 
 coming winter. The Martin joins with the young swallows in counselling the 
 postponement of the flight, and they then resolve to stay. Scott sees in the 
 fable a special reference to a meeting of the leading Roman Catholics in the 
 Savoy in 1686, to consider the prospects of their religion in England, 
 Father Petre in the chair. At this meeting the majority were for modera- 
 tion, and content with security for their estates, exemption from employments, 
 and permission for their worship in private houses. Others were for 
 petitioning the king for leave to sell their estates and retire with their 
 property to France. Father Petre was againt all compromise. Petre is the 
 Martin in the fable. The gleam of sunshine which gives the Swallows hope 
 and new life is doubtless James's Declaration of Indulgence, and the Swifts 
 who first see the coming of spring are probably the Irish Roman Catholics. 
 
 1. 437. cheer, face, look. Dryden uses cheer in this sense twice in 
 Palamon and Arcite. 
 
 * And asked him why he looked so deadly wan, 
 And whence and how his change of cheer began.' 
 
 Book i. line 240. 
 For Venus, like her day, will change her cheer.' 
 
 Book ii. line 83. 
 
 1. 438. And time turned up the wrong side of the year. Dryden probably 
 had in his mind Horace's phrase, 
 
 ' Simul inversum contristat Aquarius annum.' 
 
 Sat. i. I. 36. 
 
 In one of Dryden's smaller poems, ' A Song to a Fair Young Lady going 
 out of Town in the Spring,' he uses a similar expression : 
 ' And winter storms invert the year.' 
 
 1. 456. mackrel gale. Mackerel are best caught during a fresh gale of 
 wind, which is therefore called a mackerel gale. 
 
 1. 468. But little learning needs in noble blood. Father Edward Petre, 
 who is here contemptuously described as the Martin, was of the noble 
 family of Petre. This account of him, put into the mouth of the Panther, 
 yet speaks Dryden's feeling. The English Roman Catholics were divided 
 into two parties, moderate Papists and followers of the Jesuits. 
 
288 NOTES. 
 
 1. 475. A raven on the left was regarded by the Romans as a sure prophet, 
 and Dryden probably has Virgil in memory : 
 
 ' Quod nisi me quacumque novas incidere lites 
 Ante sinistra cava monuisset ab ilice cornix, 
 Nee tuus hie Moeris nee viveret ipse Menalcas/ Eel. ix. 14. 
 1. 490. mad divineress. The * insana vates ' of Virgil, who so describes 
 the Sibyl of Cumae, committing her prophecies to leaves. 
 
 * Insanam vatem adspicies : quae rupe sub ima 
 
 Fata canit, folisque notas et nomina mandat.' Aen. iii. 443. 
 1. 494. \e\ifi&v (Chelidon) is the Greek for a swallow. 
 1. 520. Nostradamus. This general name for a prophet is derived from 
 Michel Notre Dame, a famous French physician and prophet, who was 
 born 1503, and died 1566. 
 
 1. 538. OfAhaz' dial and of Joshua's day. For the former see 2 Kings 
 xx., and for the latter Joshua x. 
 
 1. 547. Dryden says in a note that swifts are * otherwise called martlets.' 
 1. 604. Compare with this line 
 
 ' But gods meet gods, and justle in the dark.' 
 
 Dryden and Lee's QEdipus, Act iv. 
 
 1. 6ll. dorp, a village ; a word of Dutch origin : the English form is thorpe. 
 1. 637. And there his corps, unblessed, is hanging still. are is in the 
 early editions instead of is, but this must have been a mistake. 
 
 1.638. To show the change of winds with his prophetic bill. Scott says, 
 * It is a vulgar idea that a dead swallow, suspended in the air, intimates a 
 change of wind by turning its bill to the point from which it is to blow.' 
 
 1. 655. The 'old fanatic author' who 'summed up the scandals' of the 
 Panther's Church ' by centuries,' was John White, a Puritan member of the 
 Long Parliament, who published in 1643 a work entitled ' The First Century 
 of Scandalous Malignant Priests made and admitted into Benefices by the 
 Prelates.' No second part of the work appeared. White died in 1645. 
 He acquired from this work the name of Century White. 
 
 I. 667. Pardalis, the Greek and Latin name for a panther, mispelt Pardelis 
 in all the editions from the original one. 
 
 II. 690, 691. Here Dryden borrows the language which the young men 
 advised Rehoboam to use in answer to Jeroboam, and to those who asked 
 him to lighten his father's yoke. ' Thus shalt thou say unto them, My 
 little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins. And now whereas my 
 father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke ; my father 
 hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.' 
 (I Kings xii. 10, II.) 
 
 1. 733. Yet David's bench is bare. This is supposed to mean the exclusion 
 of the Roman Catholic peers from the House of Lords, effected by the Test 
 Act of 1678. 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART III. 389 
 
 I. 749. sterve. Sterve is retained here as printed by Dryden. But starve 
 is more commonly printed in Dryden's original editions, and starve is printed 
 in line 975, where it rhymes with serve. Serve and deserve were, however, 
 pronounced at that time sarve and desarve. The word is printed sterve in 
 one of Dryden's Prologues to the University of Oxford, 1681 (Globe Edition, 
 p. 451): 
 
 ' How ill soe'er our action may deserve, 
 Oxford's a place where wit can never sterve.' 
 
 II. 754, 755. Tobias drove away the evil spirit which haunted his bride 
 Raguel by fumigation (Tobit viii. 1-3). ' And when they had supped, 
 they brought Tobias in unto her. And as he went, he remembered the 
 words of Raphael, and took the ashes of the perfumes,, and put the heart 
 and the liver of the fish thereupon, and made a smoke therewith. The 
 which smell when the evil spirit had smelled, he fled into the utmost parts 
 of Egypt, and the angel bound him.' 
 
 1. 759. A misprint in this line of but for butt was in the original edition, 
 and has been perpetuated by editors, who have one after the other printed it 
 without any attempt to explain or correct it. ' The but and peace ' is per- 
 fectly unintelligible. * The butt and peace ' is a reference to Dryden's 
 Tempest, where the butt plays a great part in a contention of Trinculo 
 with Stephano and Ventoso. Stephano desires permission to drink from the 
 butt before he returns to deliberate on the terms offered by Trinculo. 
 * That/ says Trinculo, ' I refuse, till acts of hostility be ceased. Then 
 rogues are rather spies than ambassadors. I must take heed of my butt/ 
 Stephano returns with his friends Ventoso and Mustacho, and the following 
 conversation takes place : 
 
 * Vent. Duke Trinculo, we have considered. 
 
 Trin. Peace or war? 
 
 Must. Peace and the butt.' 
 
 Act iv. Sc. 3. 
 
 I am not aware of any other writer using this phrase, but Dryden treats it 
 as if it were well known. He uses it again in his Prologues to The Mistakes 
 (p. 473 of the Globe Edition) : 
 
 * Peace and the butt is all our business here.' 
 
 1. 767. This refers to Aeneas and Latinus in Book vii. of the Aeneid. 
 
 I. 8 1 8. O Proteus Conscience, never to be tied! Compare 
 
 * Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo ? ' 
 
 Horace, Epist. i. I. 90. 
 
 II. 823, 824. Immortal powers the term of Conscience know. 
 
 But Interest is her name with men below. 
 An imitation of Homer : 
 
 *Ov Bptdpew Ka\ovfft Oeol, avSpes 8e re TTO.VTCS 
 AtycuW. Iliad, i. 403. 
 
 U 
 
290 NOTES. 
 
 I. 862. reprise, for ' reprisal ' ; so used elsewhere by Dryden. But Dryden 
 also uses reprise as the French reprise : 
 
 1 Disease, despair, and death as three reprises bold.' 
 
 Britannia Rediviva, 231. 
 
 II. 876-880. These lines refer to James TI's open support and aid given to 
 the French Protestant refugees. Bishop Burnet thus speaks of James's 
 decided measures and language about the persecution of the Huguenots by 
 Louis XIV. * Though all endeavours were used to lessen the clamour this 
 had raised, yet the King did not stick openly to condemn it as both un- 
 christian and unpolitic. He took pains to clear the Jesuits of it, and laid 
 the blame of it chiefly on the King, on Madame de " Maintenon, and the 
 Archbishop of Paris. He spoke often of it with such vehemence, that there 
 seemed to be an affectation in it. He did more. He was very kind to the 
 refugees. He was liberal to many of them. He ordered a brief for a 
 charitable collection over the nation for them all; upon which great sums 
 were sent in. They were deposited in good hands, and well distributed. 
 The King also ordered them to be denised without paying fees, and gave 
 them great immunities. So that in all there came over, first to last, 
 between forty and fifty thousand of that nation.' (Hist, of Own Times, i. 
 
 1. 906. Here begins the fable of the Pigeons and the Buzzard, the 
 second episode of the poem. The Buzzard is Dr. Burnet, afterwards 
 Bishop of Salisbury, whom the pigeons or doves, the clergy of the Church 
 of England, choose for their king. The ' plain good man, whose name is 
 understood,' is James 11. 
 
 1. 941. the fabric where he prayed is James II's Roman Catholic chapel 
 at Whitehall. 
 
 1. 946. A sort of Doves, sort means ' number.' 
 
 * As when a sort of wolves infect the night 
 With their wild howlings at fair Cynthia's light.' 
 
 Waller's Poems, p. 314, ed. 1705. 
 
 1. 975. Here starved is printed in the original and early editions, though 
 rhyming with served. See note on line 749, where it is sterved, rhyming 
 with deserved. 
 
 1. 991. crops impure! crops, which is the word of the original editions, 
 was changed by Broughton into corps, and this has been copied by succeeding 
 editors, who print corpse, as Scott. Corpse, singular, is clearly inappropriate. 
 Crops is evidently the right word. 
 
 1 995. his poor domestic poultry. James IPs Roman Catholic priests. 
 
 1. 1006. The bird that warned St. Peter of his fall. ' The cock,' says 
 Scott, ' is made an emblem of the regular clergy of Rome, on account of 
 their nocturnal devotions and matins.' 
 
 J. 1024. And sister Partlett, with her hooded head: this is the nun. 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART III. 291 
 
 1. 1056. No Holland emblem could that malice mend. The Dutch were 
 famous for emblems and pictures. In Prior and Montague's parody there is 
 a reference to this hit at the Dutch. Mr. Bayes is made to boast of his 
 drawings. * Oh Lord ! nothing at all. I could design twenty of 'em in an 
 hour, if I had but witty fellows about me to draw 'em. I was proffered 
 a pension to go into Holland and continue these emblems ; but hang 'em, 
 they are dull rogues and would spoil my invention.' 
 
 I. 1064. The birds of Venus, the Doves; and the phrase was doubtless 
 intended to convey a reflection on the Church of England clergy. 
 
 II. 1093, 94. This couplet is a free translation of two Greek lines, a frag- 
 ment of Euripides preserved by Athenagoras : 
 
 "OTCLV 8c Scu/jcyj' dvSpl iropavvr} KO.KCL 
 
 TOV VOVV f@\ai[/ TTpSjTOV. 
 
 Translated into Latin thus, 
 
 * Quern Deus vult perdere prius dementat.' 
 
 1. 1119. The musquet is the male of the sparrow-hawk; the coystrel (or 
 kestrel) according to Johnson, is ' a species of degenerate hawk.' 
 
 I. 1 1 74. A Greek, and bountiful, forewarns us twice. Compare 
 
 * Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.' Virg. Aen. ii. 49. 
 
 II. 1179-82. This denunciation against Burnet is supposed to refer to evi- 
 dence given by him in 1675, before a committee of the House of Commons, 
 revealing private conversations of the Duke of Lauderdale with himself, to 
 the effect that he wished the Presbyterians in Scotland would rebel, that he 
 might bring over the French papists to cut their throats. 
 
 1. 1 1 88. And runs an Indian muck at all he meets. Dryden here takes a 
 great liberty with the phrase ' run amuck/ which is of Malay origin, and 
 has no connexion with our word muck. Scott, in his note on this passage, 
 has the following : ' To run a-muck is a phrase derived from a practice of 
 the Malays. When one of this nation has lost his whole substance by 
 gaming, or sustained any other great and unsupportable calamity, he in- 
 toxicates himself with opium, and having dishevelled his hair, rushes into 
 the streets, crying Amocca or Kill, and stabbing every one whom he meets 
 with his creeze, until he is cut down, or shot like a mad dog/ 
 
 I. 1192. Captain of the Test. Burnet was at this time carrying on a con- 
 troversy with Parker, Bishop of Oxford, who had proposed the abrogation 
 of the Test. This probably is why this name is given to Burnet. 
 
 II. 1257, 58. The reference in this couplet is to Genesis xlix. 10: 'The 
 sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, 
 until Shiloh come/ 
 
 1. 1260. Like Dionysius to a private rod. Dionysius, the tyrant of Syra- 
 cuse, became, after he was deposed, a schoolmaster at Corinth. 
 
 1. 1268. the smiths of their own foolish fate. A translation from the 
 Latin, in a passage quoted from Appius in a piece ascribed to Sallust, 
 
 U2 
 
293 NOTES. 
 
 * Epistola ad Caesarum de Republica Ordinanda,' i. I : * Res docuit id verum 
 esse quod in carminibus Appius ait, fabrum esse quemque fortunae suae.' 
 
 1. 1283. Bare benting times, times when the pigeons have no food but 
 bent, a coarse grass. 
 
 * The pigeon never knoweth woe 
 
 Until she doth a benting go/ 
 
 (Old proverb, quoted in Latham's edition of Johnson's Dictionary.) 
 The word bent is rare. Browning uses it : 
 
 * For the rabbit that robs scarce a blade or a bent.' 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 O. C. refers to the Stanzas on the death of Oliver Cromwell; A. R. to 
 Astraea Redux ; A.M. to Annus Mirabilis ; A. A. to Absalom and Achitophel ; 
 R. L. to Religio Laid ; and H. P. to The Hind and the Panther. 
 
 The numbers after O. C. and A. M. refer to the stanzas ; in the other cases 
 to lines of the poems. 
 
 A. 
 
 Abate, v. i. lessen, * abate of virulence/ Preface to R. L. 
 Abbethdin, sb. chief judge among the Jews. A. A. 1 88. 
 Admire, v. i. wonder. H. P. iii. 388. 
 Affect, v. t. seek, desire. A.M. 273; A. A. 177. 
 Affright, sb. fear. A. A. 71. 
 Alga, sb. sea-weed. A. R. 119. 
 Allay, sb. alloy. H. P. i. 320. 
 Allude, v. i. compare. H. P. iii. 366. 
 Amain, adv. vehemently. H. P. iii. 620. 
 Antique, adj. strange, grotesque. H. P. iii. 488. 
 Armado, sb. army. A.M. 14. 
 Arose, p. p. arisen. O. C. 36. 
 Assay, v. t. try, essay. O. C. 12 ; H. P. iii. 796. 
 
 Atone, v. t. reconcile, harmonise, A. A. 1 79 : used intransitively, R. L. 89. 
 Auctority, sb. authority. H. P. i. 453, ii. 276. Elsewhere authority. 
 Auspice, sb. patronage. A. M. 288. 
 
 Authentic, adj. authoritative, authorised. O. C. 2 ; H. P. iii. 838 ; Pref. 
 to R. L. 
 
 B. 
 
 Bad, v. perfect of bid, ordered. H. P. i. 531. 
 
 Benting, adj. ' benting times,' times when pigeons feed on bent, a coarse 
 
 grass. H.P. iii. 1283. 
 
 Big-corned, adj. big-grained, ' big-corned powder.' A. M. 149. 
 Bilander, sb. coasting vessel. H.P. i. 128. 
 Blatant, adj. howling, barking. H. P. iii. 230. 
 Bleaky, adj. bleak. H.P. iii. 612. 
 
294 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Botch., sb. sore spot, eruption. H.P. ii. 542. 
 
 Brave, sb. bravo. A. A. 967. 
 
 Breathe, v. t. to open, lance ; applied to opening a vein. O. C. 1 2. 
 
 Brew, v. t. mix, make. O. C. 25 ; A. R. 296. 
 
 Broke, p. p. broken. A. M. 239, 255. 
 
 Build (spelt built in original edition), shape. A. M. 60. 
 
 C. 
 
 Castor, sb. beaver. A. M, 25. 
 
 Gates, sb. food. H. P. ii. 72 1. 
 
 Cense, v. i. scatter incense. H.P. iii. 753. 
 
 Cham, sb. Ham, son of Noah. Pref. to R. L. 
 
 Check, sb. ' fly at check,' fly at random. A. M. 86. 
 
 Cheer, sb. countenance. H. P. iii. 437. 
 
 Chirurgeon, sb. surgeon. Pref. to A. A. 
 
 Chose, p. p. chosen. A. M. 75. 
 
 Circular, adj. complete, perfect, * circular fame.' O. C. 5. 
 
 Circularly, adv. all round, in circles. A.M. 2. 
 
 Clip, v. i. fly fast, ' clips it.' A. M. 86. 
 
 Cockle, sb. weed in corn. A. A. 195. 
 
 Commonweal, sb. commonwealth. H. P. i. 234. 
 
 Complexion, sb. physical disposition. O. C. 25. 
 
 Composure, sb. reconciliation. Pref. to A. A. 
 
 Concernment, sb. care, concern. Pref. to A. M. 
 
 Confident, sb. a person confided in. O. C. 25. 
 
 Connatural, adj. of same nature, ' connatural to.' Pref. to A. M. 
 
 Consequent, sb. consequence. Pref. to A. A. 
 
 Corps, sb. corpse, body, used for plural as well as singular ; plural, H.P. i. 23. 
 
 Couch, v. t. lay down. H.P. i. 722. 
 
 Couchee, sb. evening reception. H. P. i. 516. 
 
 Courage, sb. used in the plural, * courages.' A. M. 76, 93. 
 
 Cozenage, sb. deception. H. P. ii. 258. 
 
 Crack, sb. noise of falling, crash. A. M. 238. 
 
 Cross, adv. across. A.M. 156, 233. 
 
 Curtana, sb. the sword of mercy. H. P. ii. 419. 
 
 D. 
 
 Dared, p.p. frightened, bewildered; applied to larks. A.M. 195. 
 Dauby, adj. sticky. A. M. 148. 
 Decease, v. i. die. O. C. 34. 
 Deducement, sb. deduction. Pref. to R. L. 
 
GLOSSARY. 295 
 
 Designment, sb. design. O. C. 24. 
 
 Despite, sb. spite. H. P. iii. 70. 
 
 Detort, v. t. twist. Pref. to R. L. 
 
 Devest, v. t. divest. H. P. i. 187. 
 
 Digestive, adj. digesting. A. R. 89. 
 
 Dint, sb. force. H. P. iii. 200. 
 
 Disembogue, v. i. empty out. H. P. ii. 562. 
 
 Disheir, v. t. deprive of an heir. H.P. iii. 75* 
 
 Disinteressed, adj. disinterested. R. L. 335. 
 
 Dismission, sb. dismissal. H.P. i. 346. 
 
 Doom, v. t. destine, used familiarly, ' doom wool into France.' A. M. 207. 
 
 Dorp, sb. village. H.P. iii. 6l i. 
 
 Doted, adj. doting, foolish. H.P. iii. 152. 
 
 E. 
 
 Earthy, adj. of the earth. A. A. 637. 
 
 Eiry, sb. nest. A. M. 107. 
 
 Epoche, sb. epoch. A. R. 108. 
 
 Essay, sb. first effort, trial. A. M. 140; H. P. i. 200. 
 
 Evince, v. t. prove. H.P. ii. 190, 233. 
 
 Expire, v. i. applied to a ball coming out of a cannon. A. M. 188. 
 
 F. 
 
 Face, v. t. put on a facing. H.P. iii. 199. 
 
 Factor, sb. agent. A. R. 78. 
 
 Firmamental, adj. of the firmament. A. M. 281. 
 
 Flix, sb. fur of the hare. A. M. 132. 
 
 Fogue, sb. fury. A. R. 203. 
 
 Forbear, v. t. forbear fr6m, spare. A. A. 37. 
 
 Forgot, p. p. forgotten. H. P. ii. 333. 
 
 Fowl, sb. bird, birds, used in plural sense. A.M. 85; H.P. i. 1243. 
 
 Fowls occurs, H.P. iii. 585. 
 Frequent, adj. crowded. H.P. iii. 25. 
 Fright, v. t. frighten. A. M. 50, 109 ; H. P. i. 79. 
 Frontless, adj. shameless. Pref. to R. L., and H.P. iii. 1040, 1187. 
 Froze, p. p. frozen. A. M. 285. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gage, sb. pledge. A. M. 20. 
 
 Galled (spelt gauled in original editions), p. p. rubbed. A. M. 148 ; R. L. 
 404. 
 
296 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Gaud, sb. ornament. A. M. 206. 
 
 Genius, sb. ' a genius,' a character of genius. Pref. to A. A. 
 
 Give on, v. i. proceed violently. A. M. 280. 
 
 Godsmith, sb. God-maker. A. A. 50. 
 
 Graff, v. t. graft. Pref. to R. L. 
 
 Grave, v. t. engrave. H.P. ii. 321. 
 
 Gross, sb. size, A. M. 152, 233 : * in gross,' in the general, R. L. 322. 
 
 Haggared or haggered, adj. haggard, wild. H.P. i. 166: iii. 1116. 
 
 Haste, v. t. hasten, A. M. 65, 236 : v. i. make haste, A. M. 109, 186. 
 
 Hatch, v. t. build. A. M. 198, 288. 
 
 Hattered out, p. p. wearied. H. P. i. 371. 
 
 He, pron. used as substantive, * another he,' A. A. 86 1 : ' that universal 
 
 He,' R.L. 15. 
 
 Heir, v. t. inherit. H.P. iii. 714. 
 Her, pron. in lieu of 's for genitive. A. A. 1008. 
 
 His, pron. in lieu of 's for genitive. A. R. 19, 49, ill, 231 ; H.P. ii. 655. 
 Hobby, sb. hawk. A.M. 195. 
 Holland, sb. cloth from Holland. A. M. 206. 
 
 Imp, v. t. repair ; applied to wings. A. M. 143. 
 
 Impassible, adj. incapable of suffering. H.P. i. 95. 
 
 Industrious, adj. * industrious of.' H. P. ii. 571. 
 
 Innocency, sb. innocence. Pref. to R. L. 
 
 Innovate, v. t. introduce for the first time. Pref. to A. M. 
 
 Instop, v. t. fill up. A. M. 147. 
 
 Interessed, p. p. interested. Pref. to R. L. 
 
 J. 
 
 Joy, v. t. make joyful, A. M. no: v. i. rejoice, A. M. 117, 181. 
 
 Ken, sb. sight. A.M. in, 159. 
 Kern, sb. Irish peasant. A.M. 157. 
 Key, sb. quay. A.M. 231. 
 
GLOSSARY. 297 
 
 Lade, v. t. load. A.M. 252. 
 
 Lag, v. i. loiter behind. A. M. 85 ; H. P. iii. 1284. 
 
 Laveer, v. i. tack about. A. R. 65. 
 
 Lazar, sb. a filthy deformed person. Pref. to A. M. 
 
 Leech, sb. doctor. A. R. 175. 
 
 Left, sb. ' left of,' left by. A. A. 568. 
 
 Legator, sb. testator. H. P. ii. 375. 
 
 Letted, p. p. ' letted of,' hindered from. A. M. 222. 
 
 Levee, sb. morning reception. H. P. i. 516. 
 
 Like, v. t. please. H. P. iii. 477. 
 
 Limbec (spelt limbeck in original editions), sb. alembic. A.M. 13, 1 66. 
 
 Linstock, sb. a match-holder for firing cannon. A. M. 188. 
 
 Loll, v. t. stretch out. A. M. 132. 
 
 ' M. 
 
 Mackrel, adj. mackerel, ' a mackrel gale.' H. P. iii. 456. 
 
 Manifest, adj. ' manifest of crimes.' A. A. 204. 
 
 Mannerly, adj. well-mannered. H. P. i. 556. 
 
 Marling, sb. a small tarred line for winding round ropes. A. M. 148. 
 
 Martlet, sb. a species of swallow. A.M. no; and note on H. P. iii. 547. 
 
 Miss, v. i. miss of.' H.P. iii. 1189. 
 
 Missioner, sb. missionary. H.P. ii. 565. 
 
 Mould, sb. form, shape, make, A.M. 72, 293; A. A. 368 : material, H.P. 
 
 i. 247. 
 
 Moulted, p. p. afflicted by moulting. A. M. 143. 
 Muck, sb. * an Indian muck,' H.P. iii. 11^8: * amuck/ from amocca, a 
 
 Malay word for ' kill.' 
 Musquet, sb. a small hawk. H. P. iii. 1119. 
 
 4 
 
 N. 
 
 Naked, adj. ' naked of friends.' A. A. 280. 
 
 Name, sb. used as if it were the person or thing named. H. P. i. 156. 
 
 Need, v. i. be needed. R. L. 126; H.P. iii. 321, 1428. 
 
 Noblesse, sb. nobility. Pref. to A. M. 
 
 Noiseful, adj. noisy. A.M. 40. 
 
 O. 
 
 Obligenient, sb. obligation. H. P. i. 437. 
 
 Obscene, adj. loathsome, ugly. H.P. ii. 595, 652 ; iii. 726. 
 
298 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Officious, adj. obliging, serviceable. O. C. I ; A. M. 184. 
 Out, v. t. oust. Pref. to R. L. 
 
 P. 
 
 Pain, sb. labour. A. M. 32. 
 
 Palliard, sb. a lewd person, a rascal. H. P. ii. 563. 
 
 Pardalis, sb. panther. H. P. iii. 667. 
 
 Paronomasia, sb. pun. Pref. to A. M. 
 
 Pay o'er, v. t. spread over. A. M. 147. 
 
 Pile, sb. troop. H. P. ii. 161. 
 
 Plagiary, sb. plagiarist. Pref. to A. M. 
 
 Plume, v. t. pluck. A. A. 920. 
 
 Poll, v. t. cut down. H. P. iii. 631. 
 
 Poppet, sb. puppet. H. P. iii. 780. 
 
 Practice, v. t. frequent. A. A. 825. 
 
 Presume, v. t. ' presume of.' H. P. i. 388 ; iii. 51*1. 
 
 Prevail, v. avail, ' prevail oneself of.' Pref. to A. M. ; A. A. 461. 
 
 Prevaricated, p. p. made a disingenuous use of. Pref. to R. L. 
 
 Prevent, v. t. anticipate, go before. O. C. 41, 33 ; A. R. 282 ; A. A. 344 ; 
 
 H.P. ii.64i. 
 
 Prime, sb. spring. H. P. iii. 536. 
 Procedure, sb. proceeding. A. R. 88. 
 Prefer, v. t. proffer. H. P. iii. 766. Elsewhere spelt proffer in original 
 
 editions. 
 
 Proponent, sb. a person propounding. H. P. i. 121. 
 Protractive, adj. protracting. H.P. iii. 1103. 
 Purchase, sb. acquisition. A. R. 86. 
 
 Q. 
 
 Quarry, sb. anything aimed at, A.M. Pref., 86, 281 ; H.P. i. 104: game 
 
 as distinguished from vermin, H.P. ii. 21. 
 Quatrain, sb. stanza of four lines which rhyme alternately. Pref. to A. M. 
 
 R. 
 
 Rabbin, sb. rabbi, doctor among the Jews. A. A. 104. 
 
 Rabbinical, adj. of a doctor. A. A. 658. 
 
 Raven, v. i. hunger. H. P. iii. 964. 
 
 Rebate, v. t. blunt. Pref. to A. A. 
 
 Reflective, adj. reflected. A. M. 253. 
 
 Remainders, sb. plural of remainder^ used as if singular. H. P. iii. 602. 
 
GLOSSARY. 299 
 
 Bemnants, sb. used in the plural like remainders. A. M. 102, 258; H. P. 
 
 i. 510; iii. 276. 
 
 Renounce, v. i. ' renounce to.' H. P. iii. 143. 
 Renown, v. t. make renowned. R. L. 75. 
 Renunciation, sb. used with to after, as the verb renounce. H. P. ii. 648 
 
 (marginal note). 
 
 Repair, sb. resort. A.M. 220. 
 Repeat, v. t. reseek. A. M. 257. 
 
 Repose, v. t. place as a trust, with upon after. Pref. to A. M. 
 Reprise, sb. reprisal. H. P. iii. 862. 
 Republic, adj. republican. H. P. iii. 1251. 
 Require, v. t. seek again. A. M. 256. 
 Resolve, v. i. melt, dissolve, H. P. i. 446. 
 Rest, sb. remainder. H. P. iii. 85. 
 Restiff, adj. restive. H. P. 1026. 
 Retire, v. /. draw back. A. M. 249. 
 Rid, v. perfect of ' ride.' Pref. to R. L. 
 
 S. 
 
 Scape, v. i. escape. A. R. 180; A.M. 220; H.P. i. 172; ii. 7. 
 
 Seal, v. t. used figuratively sealed our new-born king.' A. M. 1 8. 
 
 Sear-cloth, v. t. cover with sear-cloth (cere or wax cloth). A. M. 148. 
 
 Shard, sb. dung, ordure. H.P. i. 321. 
 
 Sheer, v. t. cut. A. M. 78. 
 
 Shipwrack, sb. shipwreck. A. M. 35. 
 
 Shipwracked, p. p. A. R. 125 ; A. M. 2, 71, 251. 
 
 Shore, sb. sewer. H.P. ii. 558. 
 
 Show, v.i. appear. A.M. 66, 121, 126, 296. 
 
 Sincere, adj. pure. H. P. ii. 250. 
 
 Sincerely, adv. purely, without alloy. A. A. 43. 
 
 Sort, sb. number, collection. H. P. iii. 946. 
 
 Sovereign, adj. ail-powerful. O. C. 19. 
 
 Spoom, v. i. sail before the wind. H. P. iii. 96. 
 
 Sprite, s6. spirit. H.P. ii. 653. 
 
 Squander, v. t. disperse. A. M. 67. 
 
 Steepy, adv. steep. A. A. 860. 
 
 Sterve, v. i. starve. H. P. iii. 749. 
 
 Stickler, sb. sidesman or second in a fight. O. C. II. 
 
 Strook, v. (perfect) struck. A.R. 171. 
 
 Submit, v. t. lower. A. R. 249. 
 
 Succeed, v. t. make to follow or succeed. A.M. 175, 292. 
 
 Successive, adj. of or by succession. A. A. 301. 
 
300 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Suffice, v. t. suffice. H. P. i. 554. 
 
 Swift, adj. swift of despatch.' A. A. 191. 
 
 Swisses, sb. plural of Swiss. H. P. iii. 177. 
 
 T. 
 
 Tarnish, v. i. become stained. A. A. 249. 
 
 Tax, v. t. accuse, f tax of.' H. P. iii. 227. 
 
 Tell, v. t. count. A. M. 34, 76. 
 
 Theologue, sb. Theologian. H. P. iii. 1147. 
 
 Thick, adv. quickly following. A. M. 1 20. 
 
 Thick, adj. ' thick of.' O. C. 14. 
 
 Threat, v. t. threaten. A. M. 61 ; A. A. 141. 
 
 Timely, adv. in time. A. R. 190. 
 
 Tire, sb. row of guns. H. P. iii. 3 1 7. 
 
 Too too, adv. excessively. A. R. in. 
 
 Took, p. p. taken. A. R. 144. 
 
 Traditive, adj. traditional. H.P. ii. 196. 
 
 Travellour, sb. traveller. A. R. 148. 
 
 Treasonous, adj. treasonable. H. P. iii. 633. 
 
 Trine, sb. conjunction of three planets making a triangle. A. M. 292. 
 
 Trust, v. i. followed by on. A. M. 295. 
 
 Turbulent, adj. ' turbulent of evil.' A. A. 153. 
 
 U. 
 
 Unblamed, adj. ' unblamed of life.' A. A. 479. 
 Ungodded, p. p. -having no gods. H. P. iii. 742. 
 Unhoped, adj. unexpected. A. R. 140. 
 Unknowing, adj. not knowing. A. M. 96. 
 Unlade, v. t. empty, unload. A. M. 300. 
 Unready, adj. not ready. A. M. 254. 
 Unsatiate, adj. insatiable. A. A. 987. 
 Unsincere, adj. mixed, alloyed. A. M. 209. 
 Unthrift, sb. prodigal. H. P. iii. 296. 
 
 V. 
 
 Vare, sb. wand. A. A. 595. 
 
 W. 
 
 "Wait, v. f. attend, accompany. H.P. i. 557. 
 "Want, v. t. be without. A. A. 197. 
 
GLOSSARY. 301 
 
 Wanting, adj. needy, poor. A. M. 274; A. A. 407, < 
 "Well-breathed, adj. with good lungs. A. A. 630. 
 Wex, v. i. wax, grow. A. M. 4. 
 "Wilder, v. t. bewilder. H. P. ii. 682. 
 Witness, sb. evidence. H. P. i. 62. 
 Worser, adj. worse. A. R. 3. 
 
August, 1877. 
 
 BOOKS 
 
 PRINTED AT 
 
 THE CLARENDON PRESS, OXFORD, 
 
 AND PUBLISHED FOR THE UNIVERSITY BY 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., 
 
 2 9 & 3 o, BEDFORD STREET, CO VENT GARDEN, LONDON. 
 
 LEXICONS, GRAMMARS, &c. 
 A Greek-English Lexicon, by Henry George Liddell, 
 
 D.D., and Robert Scott, D.D. Sixth Edition, Revised and Augmented. 1870. 
 4to. cloth, i/. idr. 
 
 A Greek-English Lexicon, abridged from the above, 
 
 chiefly for the use of Schools. Seventeenth Edition, carefully revised 
 throughout. 1876. square i2mo. cloth, js. 6d. 
 
 A copious Greek-English Vocabulary, compiled from the 
 
 best authorities. 1850. 241110. bound, y. 
 
 Graecae Grammaticae Rudimenta in usum Scholarum. 
 
 Auctore Carolo Wordsworth, D.C. L. Eighteenth Edition, 1875. izrao. bound, 4^. 
 
 A Practical Introduction to Greek Accentuation, by 
 
 H. W. Chandler, M.A. 1862. 8vo. cloth, IQJ. 6d. 
 
 Scheller's Lexicon of the Latin Tongue, with the German 
 
 explanations translated into English by J. E. Riddle, M.A. 1835. foL cloth, 
 i/. if. 
 
 A Practical Grammar of the Sanskrit Language, ar- 
 ranged with reference to the Classical Languages of Europe, for the use of 
 English Students, by Monier Williams, M.A. Third Edition, 1864. 8vo. cloth, 
 IS-?. 
 
 A Sanskrit English Dictionary, Etymologically and 
 
 Philologically arranged, with special reference to Greek, Latin, German, 
 Anglo-Saxon, English, and other cognate Indo-European Languager 
 Monier Williams, M. A., Boden Professor of Sanskrit. 1872. 4to. cloth, 4/. : 
 
 A.n Icelandic-English Dictionary. By the late R. Cleasby. 
 
 Enlarged and completed by G. Vigfusson. With an Introduction, and Life 
 of R. Cleasby, by G. Webbe Dasent, D.C.L. 4to. cloth, $1. js. 
 
Books lately printed at the 
 
 GBEEK CLASSICS. 
 Aeschylus : Tragoediae et Fragmenta, ex recensione Guil. 
 
 Dindorfii. Second Edition, 1851. 8vo. cloth, 5-r. 6d. 
 
 Sophocles : Tragoediae et Fragmenta, ex recensione et cum 
 
 commentariis Guil. Dindorfii. Third Edition, 2 vols. 1860. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 
 i/. is. 
 
 Each Play separately, limp, zs. 6d. 
 
 The Text alone, printed on writing paper, with large 
 
 margin, royal i6mo. cloth, 8s. 
 
 The Text alone, square i6mo. clotb, 35. 6d. 
 
 Each Play separately, limp, 6d. (See also page 8.) 
 
 Sophocles : Tragoediae et Fragmenta cum Annotatt. Guil. 
 
 Dindorfii. Tomi II. 1849. 8vo. cloth, IDJ. 
 
 The Text, VoL I. 5*. 6d. The Notes, Vol. II. 4*. 6d. 
 
 Euripides : Tragoediae et Fragmenta, ex recensione Guil. 
 
 Dindorfii. Tomi II. 1834. 8Vo. cloth, IQS. 
 
 Aristophanes: Cpmoediae et Fragmenta, ex recensione 
 
 GuiL Dindorfii. Tomi II. 1835. 8vo. cloth, us. 
 
 Aristoteles; ex recensione Immanuelis Bekkeri. Accedunt 
 
 Indices Sylburgiani. Tomi XI. 1837. 8vo. cloth, zl. los. 
 Each volume separately, $s. 6d. 
 
 Demosthenes: ex recensione Guil. Dindorfii. Tomi IV. 
 
 1846. 8vo. cloth, i/. is. 
 
 Homerus : Ilias, ex rec. Guil. Dindorfii. 1856. 8vo. cloth, 
 
 SS. 6d. 
 
 Homerus : Odyssea, ex rec. Guil. Dindorfii. 1855. 8vo. 
 
 cloth, 5-r. 6d. 
 
 Plato: The Apology, with a revised Text and English 
 
 Notes, and a Digest of Platonic Idioms, by James Riddell, M.A. 1867. 8vo. 
 cloth, 8s. 6d. 
 
 Plato : Philebus, with a revised Text and English Notes, 
 
 by Edward Poste, M.A. 1860. 8vo. cloth, js. 6d. 
 
 Plato : Sophistes and Politicus, with a revised Text and 
 
 English Notes, by L. Campbell, M.A. 1866. 8vo. cloth, i8s. 
 
 Plato : Theaetetus, with a revised Text and English Notes, 
 
 by L. Campbell, M.A. 1861. 8vo. cloth,gs. 
 
 Plato : The Dialogues, translated into English, with Ana- 
 lyses and Introductions. By B. Jowett, M.A., Master of Balliol College, and 
 Regius Professor of Greek. A new Edition in Jive volumes, medium 8vo. 
 cloth, 3/. IQS. 
 
Clarendon Press, Oxford. 
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 The Holy Bible in the Earliest English Versions, made from 
 
 the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his followers : edited by the Rev. J. 
 Forshall and Sir F. Madden. 4 vols. 1850. royal 410. cloth, $1. 3-r. 
 
 The Holy Bible : an exact reprint, page for page, of the 
 
 Authorized Version published in the year 1611. Demy 4to. half bound, il. is. 
 
 Novum Testamentum Graece. Edidit Carolus Lloyd, 
 
 S.T.P,R., necnon Episcopus Oxoniensis. 1869. i8mo. cloth, 3-$-. 
 
 The same on writing paper, small 4to. cloth, los. 6d. 
 Novum Testamentum Graece juxta Exemplar Millianum. 
 
 1868. i8mo. cloth, 2s. 6d. 
 
 The same on writing paper, small 4to. cloth, 6s. 6d. 
 Evangelia Sacra Graece. 1870. fcap. 8vo. limp, is. 6d. 
 Vetus Testamentum ex Versione Septuaginta Interpretum 
 
 secundum exemplar Vaticanum Romae editum. Accedit potior varietas Codicis 
 Alexandrini. Editio Altera. Tomi III. i8mo. cloth, i8s. 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, &c. 
 Baedae Historia Ecclesiastica. Edited, with English 
 
 Notes, by G. H. Moberly, M.A. 1869. crown 8vo. cloth, IQS. 6d. 
 
 Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, and other 
 
 Works. 10 vols. 1855. 8vo. cloth. Price reduced from 5/. 5^. to 3/. 3-r. 
 
 Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, according to the Text 
 
 of Burton. With an Introduction by William Bright, D.D., Regius Professor 
 of Ecclesiastical History, Oxford. Crown 8vo. cloth, 8s. 6d. 
 
 The Orations of St. Athanasius against the Arians. With 
 
 an Account of his Life. By William Bright, D.D. Crown 8vo. cloth, <)s. 
 
 Patrum Apostolicorum, S. dementis Romani, S. Ignatii, 
 
 S. Polycarpi, quae supersunt. Edidit Guil. Jacobson, S.T.P.R. Tomi II. 
 Fourth Edition, 1863. 8vo. cloth, il. is. 
 
 ENGLISH THEOLOGY. 
 
 Butler's Analogy, with an Index. 8vo. cloth, 55. 6d. 
 Butler's Sermons. 8vo. cloth, 55. 6d. 
 Greswell's Harmonia Evangelica. Fifth Edition, 1856. 
 
 8vo. cloth, gs. 6d. 
 
 Hooker's "Works, with his Life by Walton, arranged by 
 
 John Keble, M.A. Sixth Edition, 3 vols. 1874. 8vo. cloth, il. us. 6d. 
 
 Hooker's "Works ; the text as arranged by John Keble, M.A. 
 
 2 vols. 1875. 8vo. cloth, us. 
 
 Pearson's Exposition of the Creed. Revised and corrected 
 
 by E. Burton, D.D. Sixth Edition, 1870. 8vo. cloth, los. 6d. 
 
 "Waterland's Review of the Doctrine of the Eucharist, with 
 
 a Preface by the present Bishop of London. 1868. crown 8vo. cloth, 6s. 6d. 
 
Clarendon Press, Oxford. 
 
 ENGLISH HISTORY. 
 A History of England. Principally in the Seventeenth 
 
 Century. By Leopold Von Ranke. 6 vols. 8vo. cloth, $1. $s. 
 
 Clarendon's (Edw. Earl of) History of the Rebellion and 
 
 Civil Wars in England. To which are subjoined the Notes of Bishop War- 
 burton. 7 vols. 1849. medium 8vo. cloth, zl. los. 
 
 Clarendon's (Edw. Earl of) History of the Rebellion and 
 
 Civil Wars in England. 7 vols. 1839. i8mo. cloth, il. is. 
 
 Freeman's (E. A.) History of the Norman Conquest of 
 
 England : its Causes and Results. Vols. I. and II. 8vo. i/. i6s. 
 Vol. III. The Reign of Harold and the Interregnum. 8vo. cloth, 1.1. is. 
 Vol. IV. The Reign of William. 1871. 8vo. cloth, il. is. 
 Vol. V. The Effects of the Norman Conquest. 8vo. cloth, il. is. 
 
 Bogers's History of Agriculture and Prices in England, A.D. 
 
 1259 1400. 2 vols. 1866. 8vo. cloth, 2/. as. 
 
 MATHEMATICS, PHYSICAL SCIENCE, &c. 
 An Account of Vesuvius, by John Phillips, M.A., F.R.S., 
 
 Professor of Geology, Oxford. 1869. Crown 8vo. cloth, los. 6d. 
 
 Treatise on Infinitesimal Calculus. By Bartholomew 
 
 Price, M.A., F.R.S., Professor of Natural Philosophy, Oxford. 
 
 Vol. I. Differential Calculus. Second Edition, 1858. 8vo. cloth, 14^. 6d. 
 
 VoL II. Integral Calculus, Calculus of Variations, and Differential Equations. 
 Second Edition, 1865. 8vo. cloth, i8s. 
 
 Vol. III. Statics, including Attractions ; Dynamics of a Material Particle. 
 Second Edition, 1868. 8vo. cloth, i6s. 
 
 Vol. IV. Dynamics of Material Systems ; together with a Chapter on Theo- 
 retical Dynamics, by W. F. Donkin.M. A., F.R.S. 1862. 8vo. cloth, i6s. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and 
 
 Legislation. By Jeremy Bentham. Crown 8vo. cloth, 6s. 6d. 
 
 Bacon's Novum Organuni, edited, with English Notes, by 
 
 G. W. Kitchin, M.A. 1855. 8vo. cloth, gs. 6d. 
 
 Bacon's Novum Organum, translated by G. W. Kitchin, 
 
 M.A. 1855. 8vo. cloth, gs. 6d. 
 
 Smith's "Wealth of Nations. A new Edition, with Notes, 
 
 by J. E. Thorold Rogers, M.A. 2 vols. 8vo. cloth, 2is. 
 
 The Student's Handbook to the University and Col- 
 leges of Oxford. Fourth Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, zs. 6ct. 
 
The Delegates of the Clarendon Press having undertaken 
 the publication of a series of works, chiefly educational, and 
 entitled the eDlartntton ^rcss Scries, have published, or have 
 in preparation, the following. 
 
 Those to -which prices are attached are already published ; the others are in 
 preparation. 
 
 I. LATIN AND GREEK CLASSICS, &c. 
 
 An Elementary Latin Grammar. By John B. Allen, M. A., 
 
 Head Master of Perse Grammar School, Cambridge. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 
 2S. 6d. 
 
 A First Latin Exercise Book. By the same Author. 
 
 Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 2s. 6d. 
 
 A Series of Graduated Latin Readers. 
 First Latin Reader. By T. J. Nunns, M.A. Second 
 
 Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 2S. 
 
 Second Latin Reader. In Preparation. 
 
 Third Latin Reader, or Specimens of Latin Literature. 
 
 Part I, Poetry. By James McCall Marshall, M.A., Dulwich College. 
 
 Fourth. Latin Reader. 
 
 Cicero. Selection of interesting and descriptive passages. 
 
 With Notes. By Henry Walford, M.A., Wadham College, Oxford, Assistant 
 Master at Haileybury College. In three Parts. Third Edition. Ext. fcap. 
 8vo. cloth, 4s. 6d. 
 
 Each Part separately, in limp cloth, is. 6d. 
 
 Part I. Anecdotes from Grecian and Roman History. 
 
 Part II. Omens and Dreams : Beauties of Nature. 
 
 Part III. Rome's Rule of her Provinces. 
 
 Cicero. Select Letters (for Schools). With Notes. By the 
 
 late C. E. Prichard, M.A., and E. R. Bernard, M.A., Fellow of Magdalen 
 College, Oxford. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, -$s. 
 
 Pliny. Select Letters (for Schools). With Notes. By the 
 
 same Editors. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 3^. 
 
 Cornelius Nepos. With Notes, by Oscar Browning, M.A., 
 
 Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and Assistant Master at Eton College. 
 Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, zs. 6d. 
 
 Caesar. The Commentaries (for Schools). With Notes 
 
 and Maps, &c. By C. E. Moberly, M. A., Assistant Master in Rugby School. 
 
 The Gallic War. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 45. 6d. 
 
 The Civil War. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 35. 6d. 
 
 The Civil War. BOOK I. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 2s. 
 
Clarendon Press Series. 
 
 Livy. Selections (for Schools). With Notes and Maps. 
 
 By H. Lee Warner, M.A., Assistant Master at Rugby School. In Parts. 
 Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, is. >d. <each. 
 
 Part I. The Caudine Disaster. 
 
 Part II. Hannibal's Campaign in Italy. 
 
 Part III. The Macedonian War. 
 
 Livy, Books I-X. By J. R. Seeley, M.A., Regius Professor 
 
 of Modern History, Cambridge. Book I. Second Edition. Demy 8vo. cloth, 6s. 
 Also a small edition for Schools. 
 
 Passages for Translation into Latin. For the use of 
 
 Passmen and others. Selected by J. Y. Sargent, M.A., Fellow of Magdalen 
 College, Oxford. Fourth Edition. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 2S. 6d. 
 
 Tacitus. The Annals. Books I VI. With Essays and 
 
 Notes. By T. F. Dallin, M.A., Tutor of Queen's College, Oxford. Preparing. 
 
 Cicero's Philippic Orations. With Notes. By J. R. King, 
 
 M.A., formerly Fellow and Tutor of Merton College, Oxford. Demy 8vo. 
 cloth, los. 6d. 
 
 Cicero. Select Letters. With English Introductions, 
 
 Notes, and Appendices. By Albert Watson, M.A., Fellow and Lecturer of 
 Brasenose College, Oxford. Second Edition. Demy 8vo. cloth, i8s. 
 
 Cicero. Select Letters (Text). By the same Editor. 
 
 Extra fcap. 8vo, cloth, 4*. 
 
 Cicero pro Cluentio. With Introduction and Notes. By 
 
 W. Ramsay, M.A. Edited by G. G. Ramsay, M.A., Professor of Humanity, 
 Glasgow. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, -$s. 6d. 
 
 Cicero de Oratore. With Introduction and Notes. By 
 
 A. S. Wilkins, M.A., Professor of Latin, Owens College, Manchester. 
 
 Catullus. A Commentary on Catullus. By Robinson 
 
 Ellis, M.A. 8vo. cloth, z6s. Just Published. 
 
 Catulli Veronensis Liber. Recognovit, apparatum criticum 
 
 prolegomena appendices addidit, Robinson Ellis, A.M. 1867. 8vo. cloth, i6s. 
 
 Catulli Veronensis Carmina Selecta, secundum recog- 
 
 nitionem Robinson Ellis, A.M. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, y. 6d. 
 
 Ovid. Selections for the use of Schools. With Introduc- 
 tions and Notes, and an Appendix on the Roman Calendar. By W. Ramsay, 
 M.A. Edited by G. G. Ramsay, M. A., Professor of Humanity, Glasgow. Second 
 Edition. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 5-$-. 6d. 
 
 Horace. With Introductions and Notes. By Edward C. 
 
 Wickham, M.A., Head Master of Wellington College. 
 Vol. I. The Odes, Carmen Seculare, and Epodes. Demy 8vo. cloth, izs. 
 Also a small edition for Schools. 
 
 Persius. The Satires. With a Translation and Com- 
 mentary. By John Conington, M.A., late Corpus Professor of Latin in the 
 University of Oxford. Edited by H. Nettleship, M.A. Second Edition. 8vo. 
 cloth, 7 s. 6ct. 
 
 Selections from the less known Latin Poets. By North 
 
 Pinder, M.A. Demy 8vo. cloth, iy. 
 
Clarendon Press Series. 
 
 Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin. With Intro- 
 duction and Notes. By John Wordsworth, M. A., Tutor of Brasenose College, 
 Oxford. Demy 8vo. cloth, i8s. 
 
 A Manual of Comparative Philology, as applied to the 
 
 Illustration of Greek and Latin Inflections. By T. L. Papillon, M.A., Fellow 
 of New College. Crown 8vo. cloth, 6s. 
 
 The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age. Virgil. By 
 
 William Young Sellar, M.A., Professor of Humanity in the University of 
 Edinburgh. 8vo. cloth, 14^-. 
 
 The Roman Poets of the Republic. By the same 
 
 Editor. Prewar-ing. 
 
 A Greek Primer, in English, for the use of beginners. By 
 
 the Right Rev. Charles Wordsworth, D.C.L., Bishop of St. Andrews. Fourth 
 Edition. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, is. 6d. 
 
 Greek Verbs, Irregular and Defective; their forms, 
 
 meaning, and quantity ; embracing all the Tenses used by Greek writers, with 
 reference to the passages in which they are found. By W. Veitch. New 
 Edition. Crown 8vo. cloth, IO.T. 6d. 
 
 The Elements of Greek Accentuation (for Schools) : 
 
 abridged from his larger work by H. W. Chandler, M.A., Waynflete Professor 
 of Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy, Oxford. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, zs. 6d. 
 
 A Series of Graduated Greek Readers. 
 First Greek Reader. By W. G. Rushbrooke, M.L. In the 
 
 Press. 
 
 Second Greek Reader. By A. J. M. Bell, M.A. In Pre- 
 paration. 
 
 Third Greek Reader. In Preparation. 
 
 Fourth Greek Reader; being Specimens of Greek 
 
 Dialects. With Introductions and Notes. By W. W. Merry, M.A., Fellow 
 and Lecturer of Lincoln College. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, \s. 6d. 
 
 Fifth Greek Reader. Part I, Selections from Greek Epic 
 
 and Dramatic Poetry, with Introductions and Notes. By Evelyn Abbott, M.A., 
 Fellow and Tutor of Balliol College. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 4$. 6d. 
 Part II. By the same Editor. In Preparation. 
 
 Xenophon. Easy Selections from the Anabasis. With a 
 
 Vocabulary, Notes, and Map. By J. S. Phillpotts, B.C. L., and C. S. Jerram, 
 M.A. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 3^. 6d. 
 
 Xenophon. Selections (for Schools). With Notes and 
 
 Maps. By J. S. Phillpotts, B.C. L., Head Master of Bedford School. 
 Part I. Second Edition. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 3$. 6d. 
 
 Arrian. Selections (for Schools). With Notes. By J. S. 
 
 Phillpotts, B.C.L., Head Master of Bedford School. 
 
Clarendon Press Series. 
 
 The Golden Treasury of Ancient Greek Poetry ; being a 
 
 Collection of the finest passages in the Greek Classic Poets, with Introductory 
 Notices and Notes. By R. S. Wright, M.A. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 8s. 6d. 
 
 A Golden Treasury of Greek Prose ; being a Collection of 
 
 the finest passages in the principal Greek Prose Writers, with Introductory 
 Notices and Notes. By R. S. Wright, M.A., and J. E. L. Shadwell, M.A. 
 Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 4s. 6d. 
 
 Aristotle's Politics. By W. L. Newman, M.A., Fellow 
 
 of Balliol College, Oxford. 
 
 Demosthenes and Aeschines. The Orations on the 
 
 Crown. With Introductory Essays and Notes. By G. A. Simcox, M.A., and 
 W. H. Simcox, M.A. Demy 8vo. cloth, izs. 
 
 Theocritus (for Schools). With Notes. By H. Kynaston, 
 
 (late Snow,) M.A., Head Master of Cheltenham College. Second Edition. 
 Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 4-r. 6d. 
 
 A Homeric Grammar. By D. B. Monro, M.A., Fellow of 
 
 Oriel College, Oxford. 
 
 Homer. Iliad. By D. B. Monro, M.A., Fellow of Oriel 
 
 College, Oxford. 
 
 Also a smaller edition for Schools. 
 
 Homer. Odyssey, Book II. With Introduction, Notes, 
 
 and Table of Homeric Forms. By W. W. Merry, M.A., Fellow and Lecturer 
 of Lincoln College, Oxford. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, is. 6d. 
 
 Homer. Odyssey, Books I-XII (for Schools). By W. W: 
 
 Merry, M.A. Fourth Edition. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, s. 6d. 
 
 Homer. Odyssey, Books XIII-XXIV (for Schools). By 
 
 the same Editor. Preparing. 
 
 Homer. Odyssey, Books I-XII. Edited with English 
 
 Notes, Appendices, &c. By W. W. Merry, M.A., and the late James Riddell, 
 M.A. Demy 8vo. cloth, i6s. 
 
 Homer. Odyssey, Books XIII-XXIV. By Robinson Ellis, 
 
 M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. 
 
 Plato. Selections (for Schools). With Notes. By B. Towett, 
 
 M.A., Regius Professor of Greek ; and J. Purves, M.A. 
 
 Sophocles. The Plays and Fragments. With English Notes 
 
 and Introductions. By Lewis Campbell, M. A., Professor of Greek, St. Andrews. 
 Vol. I. Oedipus Tyrannus. Oedipus Coloneus. Antigone. 8vo. cloth, 143. 
 
 Sophocles. The Text of the Seven Plays. By the same 
 
 Editor. Ext fcap. 1 8vo. cloth, \s. 6d. 
 
 Sophocles. In Single Plays, with English Notes, &c. By 
 
 Lewis Campbell, M.A., and Evelyn Abbott, M.A. Extra fcap. 8vo. 
 Oedipus Rex, Oedipus Coloneus, Antigone, is. gd. each. 
 Ajax, Electra, Trachiniae, zs. each. 
 
 Sophocles. Oedipus Rex : Dindorf s Text, with Notes by 
 
 the present Bishop of St. David's. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, is. 6d. 
 
Clarendon Press Series. 
 
 II. MENTAL AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 The Elements of Deductive Logic, designed mainly for 
 
 the use of Junior Students in the Universities. By T. Fowler, M.A., Fellow 
 and Tutor of Lincoln College, Oxford. Fifth Edition, with a Collection of 
 Examples. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, -3,5. 6d. 
 
 The Elements of Inductive Logic, designed mainly for 
 
 the use of Students in the Universities. By the same Author. Second Edition. 
 Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 6s. 
 
 Selections from Berkeley. With an Introduction and Notes. 
 
 For the use of Students in the Universities. By Alexander Campbell Fraser, 
 LL.D., Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh. 
 Crown 8vo. cloth, 75. 6d. 
 
 A Manual of Political Economy, for the use of Schools. 
 
 By J. E. Thorold Rogers, M.A., formerly Professor of Political Economy, 
 Oxford. Third Edition. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 4*. 6d. 
 
 III. MATHEMATICS, &o. 
 Figures made Easy: a first Arithmetic Book. (Intro- 
 
 ductory to 'The Scholar's Arithmetic.') By Lewis Hensley, M.A., formerly 
 Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Crown 8vo. cloth, 6d. 
 
 Answers to the Examples in Figures made Easy. 
 
 By the same Author. Crown 8vo. cloth, is. 
 
 The Scholar's Arithmetic. By the same Author. Crown 
 
 8vo. cloth, 4s. 6d. 
 
 The Scholar's Algebra. By the same Author. Crown 8vo. 
 
 cloth, 4s. 6d. 
 
 Book-keeping. By R. G. C. Hamilton, Financial Assistant 
 
 Secretary to the Board of Trade, and John Ball (of the Firm of Quilter, Ball, 
 & Co.). Co-Examiners in Book-keeping for the Society of Arts. New and 
 enlarged Edition. Ext. fcap. 8vo. limp cloth, 2S. 
 
 A Course of Lectures on Pure Geometry. By Henry J. 
 
 Stephen Smith, M.A., F.R.S., Fellow of Corpus Christi College, and Savilian 
 Professor of Geometry in the University of Oxford. 
 
 Acoustics. By W. F. Donkin, M.A., F.R.S., Savilian Pro- 
 
 fessor of Astronomy, Oxford. Crown 8vo. cloth, js. 6d. 
 
 A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. By J. Clerk 
 
 Maxwell, M.A.,F.R.S., Professor of Experimental Physics in the University 
 of Cambridge. 2 vols. Demy 8vo. cloth, il. us. 6d. 
 
 An Elementary Treatise on the same subject. By the 
 
 same Author. Preparing. 
 
 IV. HISTORY. 
 Select Charters and other Illustrations of English 
 
 Constitutional History from the Earliest Times to the reign of Edward I. 
 By W. Stubbs, M.A., 
 Edition. Crown 8vo. 
 
 . 
 
 By W. Stubbs, M.A., Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford, Third 
 . cloth, 8s. 6 
 
io Clarendon Press Series. 
 
 A Constitutional History of England. By W.Stubbs, M.A., 
 
 Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford. Vols. I. and II. Crown 8vo. 
 cloth, each i2s. 
 
 Genealogical Tables illustrative of Modern History. 
 
 By H. B. George, M.A. New Edition, Revised and Corrected. Small 4to. 
 
 Cloth, I2S. 
 
 A History of France. With numerous Maps, Plans, and 
 
 Tables. By G. W. Kitchin, M. A., formerly Censor of Christ Church. In three 
 Volumes, Crown 8vo. cloth, price IQS. 6d. each. 
 
 Vol. I. Down to the year 1453. Vol. II. From 1453-1624. 
 
 Vol. III. From 1624-1793. 
 
 A Manual of Ancient History. By George Rawlinson, 
 
 M.A., Camden Professor of Ancient History, Oxford. Demy 8vo. cloth, 14^. 
 
 A History of Germany and of the Empire, down to the 
 
 close of the Middle Ages. By J. Bryce, D.C.L., Regius Professor of Civil 
 Law, Oxford. 
 
 A History of British India. By S. J. Owen, M.A., Tutor 
 
 and Reader in Law and Modern History, Christ Church. 
 
 A History of Greece. By E. A. Freeman, M.A., formerly 
 
 Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. 
 
 Selections from the Despatches, Treaties, and other 
 
 Papers of the Marquess Wellesley, K.G., during his Government of India. 
 Edited by S. J. Owen, M.A., Reader in Law and History, and Tutor at 
 Christ Church. 8vo. cloth, it. 4?. 
 
 V. LAW. 
 
 Elements of Law considered with reference to Principles 
 
 of General Jurisprudence. By William Markby, M.A., Judge of the High 
 Court of Judicature, Calcutta. Second Edition, -with Siipplement. Crown 8vo. 
 cloth, is. 6d. 
 
 An Introduction to the History of the Law of Heal 
 
 Property, with Original Authorities. By Kenelm E. Digby, M. A., formerly 
 Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Crown Svo. cloth, js. 6d. 
 
 Gaii Institutionum Juris Civilis Commentarii Quatuor ; 
 
 or, Elements of Roman Law by Gaius. With a Translation and Commentary. 
 By Edward Poste, M. A., Barrister-at-Law, and Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. 
 Second Edition. Svo. cloth, iSs. 
 
 The Institutes of Justinian, edited as a Recension of the 
 
 Institutes of Gaius. By Thomas Erskine Holland, B.C.L., Chichele Professor 
 of International Law and Diplomacy. Extra fcap. Svo. cloth, $s. 
 
 The Elements of Jurisprudence. By the same Editor. 
 Select Titles from the Digest of Justinian. By T. E. 
 
 Holland, B.C.L., Chichele Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, and 
 C. L. Shadwell, B.C.L., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. In Parts. 
 
 Part I. Introductory Titles. Svo. sewed, 2s. 6d. 
 Part II. Family Law. Svo. sewed, is. 
 Part III. Property Law. Svo. sewed, 2s. 6d. 
 
Clarendon Press Series. 1 1 
 
 VI. PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 
 A Handbook of Descriptive Astronomy. By G. F. 
 
 Chambers, F.R. A. S. Third Edition, Demy 8vo. cloth, 28s. 
 
 Chemistry for Students. By A. W. Williamson, Phil. 
 
 Doc., F.R S., Professor of Chemistry, University College, London. A new 
 Edition, with Solutions. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 8s. 6d. 
 
 A Treatise on Heat, with numerous Woodcuts and Dia- 
 grams. By Balfour Stewart, LL.D., F.R.S., Professor of Physics, Owens 
 College, Manchester. Third Edition. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, -js. 6d. 
 
 Forms of Animal Life. By G. Rolleston, M.D., F.R.S., 
 
 Linacre Professor of Physiology, Oxford. Illustrated by Descriptions and 
 Drawings of Dissections. Demy 8vo. cloth, i6s. 
 
 Exercises in Practical Chemistry. By A. G. Vernon 
 
 Harcourt, M.A., F.R.S., Senior Student of Christ Church, and Lee's Reader 
 in Chemistry ; and H. G. Madan, M.A., Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford. 
 
 Series I. Qualitative Exercises. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. cloth, ^s. 6d. 
 
 Series II. Quantitative Exercises. 
 
 Geology of Oxford and the Valley of the Thames. 
 
 By John Phillips, M.A., F.R.S., Professor of Geology, Oxford. 8vo. cloth, \l. is. 
 
 Crystallography. By M. H. N. Story-Maskelyne, M.A., 
 
 Professor of Mineralogy, Oxford ; and Deputy Keeper in the Department of 
 Minerals, British Museum. In the Press. 
 
 VII. ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITEBATUBE. 
 A First Beading Book. By Marie Eichens of Berlin ; and 
 
 edited by Anne J. Clough. Ext. fcap. 8vo. stiff" covers, 4d. 
 
 Oxford Beading Book, Part I. For Little Children. 
 
 Ext. fcap. 8vo. stijfcovers, 6d. 
 
 Oxford Beading Book, Part II. For Junior Classes. 
 
 Ext. fcap. 8vo. stiff covers, 6d. 
 
 An Elementary English Grammar and Exercise Book. 
 
 By O. W. Tancock, M.A., Assistant Master of Sherborne School. Ext. fcap. 
 8vo. Just ready. 
 
 An English Grammar and Beading Book, for Lower 
 
 Forms in Classical Schools. By the same Author. Second Edition. Ext. fcap. 
 8vo. cloth, 3-r. f>d. 
 
 Gray. Elegy, and Ode on Eton College. Paper covers, 2d. 
 Johnson. Vanity of Human Wishes. With Notes by E. J. 
 
 Payne, M. A. Paper covers, &,d. 
 
 Keats. Hyperion, Book I. With Notes by W. T. Arnold, 
 
 B.A. Paper covers, t,d. 
 
 Milton. With Notes by R. C. Browne, M.A. 
 
 Lycidas, 3^. L' Allegro, 4d. II Penseroso, yd. Paper covers. 
 
 Parnell. The Hermit. Paper covers, 2d. 
 
1 2 Clarendon Press Series. 
 
 A Book for Beginners in Anglo-Saxon. By John Earle, 
 
 M.A., Professor of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford. Extra fcap. 8vo. doth, zs. 6d. 
 
 An Anglo-Saxon Reader, in Prose and Verse, with Gram- 
 matical Introduction, Notes, and Glossary. By Henry Sweet, M.A., Balliol 
 College, Oxford. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 8s. 6d. 
 
 Specimens of Early English. A New and Revised Edi- 
 tion. With Introduction. Notes, and Glossarial Index. By R. Morris, LL.D. 
 and W. W. Skeat, M.A. 
 Part I. In the Press. 
 
 Part II. From Robert of Gloucester to Gower (A.D. 1298 to A.D. 1393). Extra 
 fcap. 8vo. cloth, 7$, 6d. 
 
 Specimens of English Literature, from the ' Ploughmans 
 
 Crede' to the 'Shepheardes Calender' (A.D. 1394 toA.D. 1579). With Intro- 
 duction, Notes, and Glossarial Index. By W. W. Skeat, M.A. Ext. fcap. 8vo. 
 cloth, 7 s. 6d. 
 
 The Vision of "William concerning Piers the Plowman, 
 
 by William Langland. Edited, with Notes, by W. W. Skeat, M.A. Second 
 Edition. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 4$. 6d. 
 
 Chaucer. The Prioresses Tale; Sire Thopas; The 
 
 Monkes Tale ; The Clerkes Tale ; The Squieres Tale, &c. Edited by W. W. 
 Skeat, M.A., Editor of Piers the Plowman. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 4s. 6d. 
 
 Chaucer. The Tale of the Man of Lawe ; The Par- 
 
 doneres Tale ; The Second Nonnes Tale ; The Chanouns Yemannes Tale. 
 By the same Editor. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 4^-. 6d. 
 
 Shakespeare. Hamlet. Edited by W. G. Clark, M. A., and 
 
 W. Aldis Wright, M.A. Extra fcap. 8vo. stiff covers, vs. 
 
 Shakespeare. The Tempest. Edited by W. Aldis Wright, 
 
 M.A. Extra fcap. 8vo. stiff covers, is. 6d. 
 
 Shakespeare. King Lear. By the same Editor. Ext. fcap. 
 
 8vo. stiff" covers, is. 6d. 
 
 Shakespeare. As You Like It. By the same Editor. 
 
 Extra fcap. 8vo. stiff" covers, is. 6d. (For other Plays, see page 15.) 
 
 Shakespeare. A Midsummer-Night's Dream. By the 
 
 same Editor. In the Press. 
 
 Milton. Areopagitica. With Introduction and Notes. By 
 
 J. W. Hales, M.A. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 3*. 
 
 Addison. Selections from Papers in the Spectator. With 
 
 Notes. By T. Arnold, M.A., University College. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, &. 6d. 
 
 The Philology of the English Tongue. By J. Earle, 
 
 M. A., formerly Fellow of Oriel College, and Professor of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford. 
 Second Edition. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, >js. 6d. 
 
 Typical Selections from the best English Writers, with 
 
 Introductory Notices. Second Edition, in Two Volumes. Extra fcap. 8vo. 
 cloth, 7-r. Sold separately, 3^. 6d. each. 
 
 Vol. I. Latimer to Berkeley. Vol. II. Pope to Macaulay. 
 See also XII. below for other English Classics. 
 
Clarendon Press Series. 1 3 
 
 VIII. FBENCH LANGUAGE AND LITEBATI7BE. 
 Brachet's Historical Grammar of the French Language. 
 
 Translated by G. W. Kitchin, M. A. Third Edition, Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 3^. 6d. 
 
 An Etymological Dictionary of the French Language, with 
 
 a Preface on the Principles of French Etymology. By A. Brachet. Translated 
 by G. W. Kitchin, M.A. Crown 8vo. cloth, los. 6d. 
 
 Corneille's Cinna, and Moliere's Les Femmes Savantes. 
 
 Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Gustave Masson. Ext. fcap. 8vo. 
 cloth, 2S. 6d. 
 
 Bacine's Andromaque, and Corneille's Le Menteur. With 
 
 Louis Racine's Life of his Father. By the same Editor. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 
 vs. 6d. 
 
 Moliere's Les Fourberies de Scapin, and Bacine's Athalie. 
 
 With Voltaire's Life of Moliere. By the same Editor. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 
 zs. 6d. 
 
 Selections from the Correspondence of Madame de Se'vigne' 
 
 and her chief Contemporaries. Intended more especially for Girls' Schools. 
 By the same Editor. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, &. 
 
 Selections from Modern Writers. By the same Editor. 
 
 Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, zs. 6d. 
 
 Begnard's Le Joueur, and Brueys and Palaprat's Le 
 
 Grondeur. With Notes. By the same Editor. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, zs. 6d. 
 
 Louis XIV and his Contemporaries; as described in 
 
 Extracts from the best Memoirs of the Seventeenth Century. With Notes, 
 Genealogical Tables, etc. By the same Editor. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 2s. 6d* 
 
 IX. GEBMAN LANGUAGE AND LITEBATUBE. 
 New German Method. In Four Vols. By Hermann Lange, 
 
 Teacher of Modern Languages, Manchester. 
 Vol. I. The Germans at Home. 8vo. cloth, 2s. 6d. 
 Vol. II. A Grammar of the German Language. 8vo. cloth, 3$. 6d. 
 Vol. III. The German Manual. In the Press. 
 Vol. IV. German Composition. In Preparation. 
 
 Lessing's Laocoon. With Introduction, English Notes, &c. 
 
 By Dr. Albert Haman, Teacher of German at the Taylor Institution, Oxford. 
 Preparing. 
 
 Also, Edited by C. A. BUCHHEIM, Phil. Doc., Professor in King's 
 College, London. 
 
 Goethe's Egmont. With a Life of Goethe, &c. Extra fcap. 
 
 8vo. cloth, 3-r. 
 
 Schiller's Wilhelm Tell. With a Life of Schiller; an histo- 
 
 rical and critical Introduction, Arguments, and a complete Commentary. 
 Second Edition. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 3^. 6d. 
 
1 4 Clarendon Press Series. 
 
 Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm. A Comedy. With a Life 
 
 of Lessing, Critical Analysis, Complete Commentary, &c. Second Edition. 
 Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, y. 6d. 
 
 In Preparation, 
 
 Goethe's Iphigenie auf Tauris. A Drama. With a 
 
 Critical Introduction, Arguments to the Acts, and a complete Commentary. 
 
 Selections from the Poems of Schiller and Goethe. 
 
 Becker's (K. F.) Friedrich der Grosse. 
 
 Egmont's Leben und Tod, and Belagerung von Ant- 
 
 werpen by Schiller. 
 
 X. ABT, &c. 
 A Handbook of Pictorial Art. By R. St. J. Tyrwhitt, 
 
 M.A. Second Edition. 8vo. half morocco. i8s. 
 
 A Treatise on Harmony. By Sir F. A. Gore Ouseley, 
 
 Bart., M.A., Mus. Doc. Second Edition. 4to. cloth, IDS. 
 
 A Treatise on Counterpoint, Canon, and Fugue, based 
 
 upon that of Cherubini. By the same Author. 410. cloth, i6.r. 
 
 A Treatise on Musical Form, and General Compo- 
 sition. By ,the same Author. 4to. cloth, ios. 
 
 A Music Primer for Schools. By J. Troutbeck, M.A., 
 
 and R. F. Dale, M.A., B. Mus. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. cloth, is. 6d. 
 
 The Cultivation of the Speaking Voice. By John Hullah. 
 
 Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, ss. 6d. 
 
 XI. MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Text-Book of Botany, Morphological and Physio- 
 logical. By Dr. Julius Sachs, Professor of Botany in the University of Wiirzburg. 
 Translated by A. W. Bennett, M.A., assisted by W. T. Thiselton Dyer, M.A. 
 Royal 8vo. half morocco, 31$. 6d. 
 
 Dante. Selections from the Inferno. With Introduction 
 
 and Notes. By H. B. Cotterill, B.A. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 4*. 6d. 
 
 Tasso. La Gerusalemme Liberata. Cantos I, II. By 
 
 the same Editor. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, zs. 6d. 
 
 A Treatise on the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew. By 
 
 S. R. Driver, M.A., Fellow of New. College. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 6s. 6d. 
 
 Outlines of Textual Criticism applied to the New Testa- 
 ment. By C. E. Hammond, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Exeter College 
 Oxford. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 35. 6d. 
 
 A System of Physical Education : Theoretical and Prac- 
 tical. By Archibald Maclaren, The Gymnasium, Oxford. Extra fcap. 8vo. 
 cloth, 7S. 6d. 
 
Clarendon Press Series. 15 
 
 XII. A SEKIES OF ENGLISH CLASSICS 
 
 Designed to meet the wants of Students in English 
 Literature: under the superintendence of the Rev. J. S. 
 BREWER, M.A., of Queen's College, Oxford, and Professor 
 of English Literature at King's College, London. 
 
 It is especially hoped that this Series may prove useful to 
 Ladies' Schools and Middle Class Schools ; in <which English 
 Literature must always be a leading subject of instruction. 
 
 A General Introduction to the Series. By Professor 
 
 Brewer, M.A. 
 
 1. Chaucer. The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales ; The 
 
 Knightes Tale ; The Nonne Prestes Tale. Edited by R. Morris Editor for 
 the Early English Text Society, &c., &c. Sixth Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 
 clothes. 6d. See also p, 12. 
 
 2. Spenser's Faery Q,ueene. Books I and II. Designed 
 
 chiefly for the use of Schools. With Introduction, Notes, and Glossary. By 
 G. W. Kitchin, M.A., formerly Censor of Christ Church. 
 
 Book I. Eighth Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, zs. 6d. 
 Book II. Third Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, zs. 6d. 
 
 3. Hooker. Ecclesiastical Polity, Book I. Edited by R. W. 
 
 Church, M.A., Dean of St. Paul's, formerly Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. 
 Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, vs. 
 
 4. Shakespeare. Select Plays. Edited by W. G. Clark, 
 
 M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; and W. Aldis Wright, M.A., 
 Trinity College, Cambridge. Extra fcap. 8vo. stiff covers. 
 
 I. The Merchant of Venice, is. 
 
 II. Richard the Second, is. 6d. * 
 
 III. Macbeth, is. 6d. (For other Plays, see p. 12.) 
 
 5. Bacon. 
 
 I. Advancement of Learning. Edited by W. Aldis Wright, M.A. Second 
 
 Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 4^. >d. 
 
 II. The Essays. With Introduction and Notes. By J. R. Thursfield, M.A., 
 
 Fellow and Tutor of Jesus College, Oxford. 
 
1 6 Clarendon Press Series. 
 
 6. Milton. Poems. Edited by R. C. Browne, M.A., and 
 
 Associate of King's College, London 2 vols. Fourth Edition. Ext. fcap. 8vo. 
 cloth, 6s. 6d. 
 
 Sold separately, Vol. I. 4^., Vol. II. 3^. 
 
 7. Dry den. Stanzas on the Death of Oliver Cromwell ; 
 
 Astraea Redux ; Annus Mirabilis ; Absalom and Achitophel ; Religio Laici ; 
 The Hind and the Panther. Edited by W. D. Christie, M. A., Trinity College, 
 Cambridge. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 3-r. 6d. 
 
 8. Bunyan. The Pilgrim's Progress; Grace Abounding. 
 
 Edited by E. Venables, M. A., Canon of Lincoln. In the Press. 
 
 9. Pope. With Introduction and Notes. By Mark Pattison, 
 
 B.D., Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford. 
 
 I. Essay on Man. Fifth Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. stiff covers, is. 6d. 
 
 II. Satires and Epistles. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. stiff covers, vs. 
 
 10. Johnson. Rasselas ; Lives of Pope and Dryden. Edited 
 
 by T. Arnold, M. A. University College. Preparing. 
 
 11. Burke. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by E. J. 
 
 Payne, M.A., Fellow of University College, Oxford. 
 
 I. Thoughts on the Present Discontents ; the Two Speeches on America, 
 
 etc. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 4^-. 6d. 
 
 II. Reflections on the French Revolution. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 5^. 
 
 12. Cowper. Edited, with Life, Introductions, and Notes, 
 
 by H. T. Griffith, B.A., formerly Scholar of Pembroke College, Oxford. 
 
 I. The Didactic Poems of 1782, with Selections from the Minor Pieces, 
 
 A.D. 1779-1783. Ext. fcap 8vo. cloth, 3.$-. 
 
 II. The Task, with Tirocinium, and Selections from the Minor Poems, 
 
 A.D. 1784-1799. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 3^-. 
 
 Published for the University by 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON. 
 
 The DELEGATES OF THE PRESS invite suggestions and advice 
 from all persons interested in education; and will be thankful 
 for hints, &c. t addressed to the SECRETARY TO THE DELEGATES, 
 Clarendon Press, Oxford. 
 
i 
 
 RETURN TO the circulation desk of any 
 
 University of California Library 
 
 or to the 
 
 NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 Bldg. 400, Richmond Field Station 
 University of California 
 Richmond, CA 94804-4698 
 
 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 
 2-month loans may be renewed by calling 
 
 (510)642-6753 
 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing books 
 
 to NRLF 
 Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days 
 
 prior to due date 
 
 DUE AS STAMPED BELOW 
 
 FEB Q 8 1995 
 FEB 1 1 2001 
 
VB I 1 272 
 
 1317