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ENGLISH CLASSICS 
 
 D RYDEN 
 
 CHRISTIE 
 
JSottSon 
 
 HENRY FROWDE 
 
 Oxford Univehsity Press Wakehous.s 
 
 Amen Corner, E.G. 
 
 (^cw 2)orft 
 
 )i2 Fourth Avenue 
 
Cfaren^on ^treae Settee 
 
 DRYDEN 
 
 .STA.VZAS ON THE DEATH OF OLIVER CROMWELL 
 
 ASTRMA REDUX; ANNUS MIRABILIS 
 
 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL 
 
 RELIGIO LAICI; THE HIND AND THE PANTHER 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 W. D. CHRISTIE, M.A.. C.B. 
 
 Trinity College, Cambridj^e 
 
 FIFTH EDITION 
 
 REVISED BY 
 
 C. H. FIRTH, M.A. 
 
 BallM ColUge^ i 
 
 ^ OF THE ^y 
 
 UNIVERSITY" 
 
 ^;efot'b 
 
 OBV^ 
 
 AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 
 
 MDCCCXCni 
 
©ifovlj 
 
 PRINTED BY HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY 
 

 s. 
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 The Editor of this volume has published within the 
 last twelvemonth an edition of Dryden's Poems, — one 
 of ^Messrs. IMacmillan'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 Caledoji, 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 Calydon. 
 
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. 
 
 Dorset Square, London, 
 
 February 187 1. 
 
 In this second edition I have been able to make an 
 interesting addition to the note at p. xvi. as to Dry den at 
 Trinity College. 
 
 W. D. C. 
 
 October, 1873. 
 
 In this fifth edition the notes have been revised, some 
 additional notes added, and some errors corrected. New 
 notes and material alterations in the old notes are marked 
 by an asterisk. 
 
 C. II. F. 
 
 October, 1892. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ix 
 
 Biographical Introduction .... 
 
 A POEM UPON THE DEATH OF HIS LATE HIGH« 
 
 NESS OLIVER, LORD PROTECTOR OF ENGLAND, 
 SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND .... I 
 
 ASTR^A REDUX. A poem on the happy re- 
 storation AND RETURN OF HIS SACRED SIAJESTY 
 CHARLES THE SECOND 9 
 
 *--^NN'US MIRABILIS: the year of wonders, 
 1666. an historical poem. 
 To the Metropolis of Great Britain . . =5 
 
 An Account of the ensuing Poem . . -5 
 
 Verses to her Royal Highness the Duches? 
 
 [of York] 33 
 
 The Poem • • 37 
 
 AB SALOM AK D ACHITOPHEL. A poem. 
 
 To the Reader ' . . . . • • S5 
 The Poem ^^ 
 
 RELIGIO LAICI ; or, a layman's faith, a poem. 
 
 The Preface ' "9 
 
 The Poem 131 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 THF. HTXn AND THE PANTHER. A POEM 
 
 IN THREE PARTS. pj^^j. 
 
 -To the Reader 147 
 
 The Poem. Part I 151 
 
 Part II .... . 167 
 
 Part III 187 
 
 Notes 225 
 
 Glossary .^o.^ 
 
~ OF, TH1£ r 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 •^CALIFOBjj^ 
 
 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*.' 
 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 J 
 
 * 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 'Paradise Lost.' Milton died in 1674, 
 unhonoured by the multitude, when Dryden v/as at the height 
 of his dramatic popularity, and is spoken of as ' the good 
 and famous poet ' by the cultivated Evelyn ^. A quarter 
 of a century later Dryden had a splendid public funeral. 
 Cowley, 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*^. 
 Before the end of the seventeenth century, the popularity of 
 Cowley had disappeared ^, and no traces of the influence of 
 his metaphysical style are to be discovered in any of Dryden's 
 poems later than the 'Annus Mirabih's' 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. 
 
 ^ Evelyn's Diary, June 27, 1674. 
 
 <= Essay on Heroic Plays, prefixed to the First Part of ' The Conquest 
 of Granada.' 
 
 <* In the Preface to the 'Fables,' written in 16(9, 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 j'ears, yet at prtsent 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 9th of August, 16316, 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 Nortl;amptonshire. 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 ^, 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 He, 
 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 162S. Sir John 
 
 « 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 Milone has made 
 a statement, which appears to be totally without authority, that the poet 
 gave ofience 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 Drey don occur. Dryden's 
 name is spelt Driden on title-pages of his works after the Restc ration, 
 and in one instance ('Astrsea Redux') as late as 1 688. I follow other 
 biographers and editors in preserving the spelling Dride?i for the name of 
 his cousin John, to whom he addressed the beautiful poetical epistle, on 
 account of convenience of distiuctioa. 
 
Xll 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 Ail^ 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 Cromwellite, 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 21st 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 I\Irs. 
 Creed, has an inscription which boasts that ' he was bred 
 and had his first learning here.' But the best part of his 
 Y 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. XIU 
 
 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 
 Montague, 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 IMaster 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 s.' Among the contributors to this volume 
 were three who were already known as poets, and whose 
 
 (f 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 sun'ived 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 be;,nnning of Drj'den's residence at Cam- 
 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 i8th of May, 1650; he matriculated July 16, and 
 , was elected a scholar of the college on the Westminster 
 V foundation, October 2, 1650. 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 Dryden 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-INIaster, 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 40/. 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 40/. 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 
 23> 1655, '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 tliat the story hitherto told, derived from Malone, 
 of Dryden'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 ^. 
 
 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 
 
 h 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 with 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 
 2 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. XVU 
 
 statutes of the University, any one possessed of any estate, 
 annuity, or certain income for life amounting to 26/. 13J. 4^. 
 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. Dryden, 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 fledi.' 
 
 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 
 
 ' 'The Medal of John Bayes.* 
 
 b 
 
XVlll BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 valuable assistance to his clever young cousin. Sliadvvell, 
 after taunting Dryden with discreditable flight from Cam- 
 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 sequestrator and Committee man''.' 
 
 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 
 ^ ' 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'.' 
 
 * ' The Medal of John Bayes.' 
 
 b2 
 
\A, 
 
 XX BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Theatrical representations, which the austerity of the 
 Puritans had proscribed during the Commonwealth, were 
 now revived, and Dryden immediately tunied to play-writing 
 and made it a source of income. After the Restoration, two 
 heatres, 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, * 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 ditlicult 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 "*.' 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 
 
 ™ 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 Dryden'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'^.' '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 Charlton, 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 ofx , 
 the year 1665-6, and describing the war with Holland, the 1/ 
 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. 
 
XXll BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 it appears, for the occasion and under some difficulties. ' For 
 my own part,' he says, ' if 1 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, w-hich was now the fashion, 
 and favoured by the King. Dryden had praised rhymed 
 tragedies in his dedication to the Earl of Ovvevy, 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. XXlll 
 
 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, * 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'Etourdi,' 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 ' 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 — 
 
 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. 
 
 But Shakespeare's magic could not copied be; 
 Within that circle none durst walk but he.* 
 
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 Dryden 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 JNIartin INIar-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 o. 
 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,' * Sir 
 IMartin 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, 'is 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 
 Dryden received from 1667 to 1672 a yearly income of from 
 300/. 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 200/. 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 1.' The 
 criticism of Samuel Pepys is very similar, and Herringman, 
 the publisher, told Pepys that Dryden himself considered it 
 but a fifth-rate play ^. 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 
 
 9 Evelyn's Diary, June 19, 1668. 
 
 ' Pepys' Diary, June 20 and 22, 1668. 
 
 » 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 Blakcsley 
 estate, and the addition thus made to his income was not more 
 than 2oA 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 700/. a year. 
 
 Three tragedies in heroic verse, ' Tyrannic Love, or the 
 Royal INIartyr,' 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 
 
 I 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 200/. 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 
 
 V manner *. The piece had a great success, and its fame endures; 
 
 * Spence's Anecdotes (Villiers, Duke of Buckingham'). 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXvii 
 
 \ythe 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". 
 
 During the year 167 1 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 
 Cliiford, Shaftesbury's colleague in what is called the Cabal 
 INlinistry, 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.' ' The Assignation' was dedicated to the 
 witty and dissolute Sir Charles Sedley. 
 
 » 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.' 
 
XXVIU BIOffRAPHICAL 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 play, 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 ' 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 100/. 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 H ; but the date 
 of the grant of the pension is not known ^. 
 
 Dryden's next play did not appear for two years after; 
 
 * This pension from Charles was first made known bj' 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.) 
 
 i 
 
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 ' CEdipus,' 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 ' GEdipus,' 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 Kitijr's 
 Theatre is dirived from this memorial of complaint addressed to the 
 Lord Chamberlain, which is printed in Malone's Life of Dryden, p. 73. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXXl 
 
 instigator of this cowardly attack was Wilmot Earl of Ro- 
 ciiester, 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 300A 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 
 editicn of the poem that Dryden was entirely innocent of the 
 authorship. In a poem of Rochester's, published the year 
 before, Dryden liad 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 ia 
 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 m.ass 
 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 
 
V. 
 
 XXXU BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 adversaries after he threw himself into political contro- 
 versies^. 
 
 One of Dryden's most successful plays was the ' bpanish 
 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. Rlonmouth, 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, 168 1, 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 
 
 n November 17 ; on November 24 the bill of indictment 
 
 « One of these is worth quoting to illustrate the old pronunciation of 
 aches as a word of two syllables as late as l6So^ 
 
 • 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. XXxiil 
 
 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. '^he_ 
 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 Shadwell'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, INIonmouth, 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 Laici,' 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 unaflected eloquence.' 
 
 A drama, the ' 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- 
 I)any. 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 1300/., 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 iNIay 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 one. 
 
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 100/. 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 Dryden's change of religion to 
 interested motives*. 
 
 » History of England, vol. ii. p. 96. 
 C 2 
 
XXXvi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 During the greater part of the year 1686 Dryden 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 
 
 ' 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 ^. 
 
 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. 
 1 The birth of the Prince was celebrated by Dryden in a poem 
 V 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 Drydert's 
 better word unrooted in the line 
 
 ' And trees unrooted left their place.' 
 This is one of very many similar corrections in the Globe edition of 
 Dryden's Poliiis. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, XXXVU 
 
 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 loo/. 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 
 ]\Iary, 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. 
 
XXXVlll 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, Southerne, 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 Southerne's second play, ' The Dis- 
 appointment, or the Mother in Fashion,' which had also been 
 a success. A check came to Southerne's 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 Savillc, 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 iNIary'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, 
 \vi-itten 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 Torjnsm 
 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 
 uhole of Persius. Dryden also 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 Dryden's 
 editorship, in 1693, and a fourth in 1694. In the last volume 
 appeared Dryden's translation of the fourth Georgia 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 : — 
 
 ' 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. Congreve 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 Congreve 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, 
 designates 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. xli 
 
 ' 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 I 
 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 Congreve 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 <=.' 
 
 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 ^neas 
 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 ^neid, 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 
 
 • George Powel, one of the principal actors at Drury Lane Theatre, 
 mitaied by taunts at the Drury Lane company in Dryden's poem to 
 Granville, twitted Dryden with his giving to GranviUe laurels which he 
 had given aw:iy before, both to Congreve and Soiuherne. (.Preface to 
 'The Fatal Discovery, or Love in Ruins,' 1698, quoted by Malone, vol. i. 
 part i. p. 311.) 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xHii 
 
 in discussion and conjecture on this subject**. 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 Drlden of Chesterton, and there 
 
 * 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 1S32, 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 200/., 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, prefived to the 
 recent reprint of the Aldine edition, and in the Memoir of the Globe 
 edition. 
 
 * 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 Gcorgics. 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 Dryden's 
 having pilloried him in some of his subsequent writings^. 
 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, 
 
 ' 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.' 
 
 6 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 Boolcs,' 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, ' 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 Profanencss 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 Jime Dryden 
 refers to it, in some lines addressed to Rlotteux 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 ' 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 ■nfc may teach our teachers to forgive; 
 Our deflc 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; 
 
xlviii 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 
 I /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 Dryden 
 refused to submit to, and on the ist of ^lay 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 
 INIay 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 Jefteries, son of 
 the Lord Chancellor JefTeries 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 JefTeries. 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 w-ho 
 had been friends from early days, and who for the greater 
 part of half a century had watched his literary career — 
 Dorset, INIulgrave Cnow 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 
 
I 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 
 ♦ime,' and proceeds to say that ' 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 17 14. 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 17 10, a few months 
 after he had succeeded to the family baronetcy on the death 
 of his cousin. Sir John Dryden. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. H 
 
 In person Dryden was short and stout, M-ith a ruddy face. 
 Pope, who when a boy saw Dryden once in his old age, 
 describes him as phnnp and fresh-coloured, with a down 
 look. His hair is said by an enemy to have inclined to red^i, 
 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, ' l\Iy 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'.' 
 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.' ^ 
 
 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 coflTee-house in Russell Street, where he spent the 
 evening. ' It was Dryden,' says Pope, ' who made Will's \ / 
 coff'ee-house the great resort for the wits of his time^.' ^ 
 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 
 
 i> Tom Brown, in ' The Reasons for Mr. Bayes changing his Religion. 
 1 Defence of the Essay on Dramatic Poesy. 
 k A Satire to his Muse. 
 1 Spence's Anecdotes. 
 
 d 2 
 
lii 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 ' 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 w-ent 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, Congreve, 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 Congreve, ' 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 pei-sons 
 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 play's, 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 
 
 V 
 V 
 
liv BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 
 
 before he had lauded and rejoiced in, is discreditable, and 
 must have been an interested change. Almost all his vinilent 
 abuse of Shaftesbur}', the great leader of opposition in- the_ 
 latter years of the reign of Charles the Second, is in flagrani_ 
 contradiction to his former praises of the policy of the Cabal_ 
 INIinistry, the war with Holland, and Clifford, Shaftesbury's_ 
 coTTeague 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 Laici ' 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 ot 
 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 wTiter, 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 IMilton, 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 vei'se. He is the most vigorous 
 and polished of satirists, combining subtle refinement with 
 fervour; and he is unequalled as a reasoner in rhyme. 'Ab- 
 salom and Achitophcl,' superior as a poem, yet presents no 
 samples of his satirical invective equal to ' The MedaU' and 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Iv 
 
 *jMac 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 prurient 
 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.' ™ 
 
 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 ' : — 
 
 •^ Prologue to the University of Oxford, 1 673, 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 1 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, ' 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 no'^le savage ran.' 
 
 Candiope, in * The IMaiden Queen,' describes the retired 
 courtier longing to return to court — 
 
 ' Those who like ycu 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. Ivli 
 
 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 caiTied the wits away from Will's to 
 another coffee-house in the same street, and on the opposite 
 side of it. Button's °. 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 Cromwell. 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 
 
 " Spence's Anecdotes, p. 1 1 3. 
 
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, iNIr. Jo. Dryden, INIr. 
 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 jNIemory of his JNIost Serene and 
 Reno\\'ned 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 Wilham, Jacob Tonson, Dryden's 
 publisher and friend, republished the poem in 1695 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 ' jNIiscellany Poems' in 17 16. Several later 
 editors followed this corrupt copy. The editions of 1659 
 contain the correct text. 
 
 Astraea 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 
 presen'ed 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. Hx 
 
 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 17 16. 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 Dry den's 
 own marginal indications, which have been often omitted. 
 
 Absalom and Achitophel. The first edition was in folio, 
 published by Jacob Tonson in November 168 r. 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. 
 
 Religio Laici. 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 reprhit in Tonson's foHo 
 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 ' IMiscellany 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 w-hole collections published after his death. The first 
 volume of * JMiscellanies' 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 
 'Sylvas,' 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 ' 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 17 16. 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 
 OF HIS LATE HIGHNESS, OLIVER, 
 
 LORD PROTECTOR OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, 
 AND IRELAND. 
 
UNI"V 
 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 ov/n ; 
 
 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? j 
 
 OF ; 
 
 U.NIVZ 
 
 (■ 
 
4 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. 
 
 J? 
 Fortune, that easy mistress of the young, 
 
 But to her ancient sen'ants coy and hard. 
 Him at that age her favourites ranked among 
 
 "»Vhen 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. 
 
 lO 
 
 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. 
 
 1 1 
 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 ; 
 
 \J He fought to end our fighting, and assayed 
 
 To stanch the blood bv 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. 
 
 14 
 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. 
 
 15 
 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. 
 
 17 
 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 supphant 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. \ 
 
 27 
 
 Wlien 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, \J 
 
 If springs as high as fountains may ascend. 
 
 39 
 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. 
 
 31 
 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, t 
 
 As if above what triumphs earth could give. 
 
V 
 
 V 
 
 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. 
 
f 
 
 ASTRyEA REDUX. 
 
 A POEM ON THE HAPPY RESTORATION AND RETURN 
 OF HIS SACRED MAJESTY 
 
 CHARLES THE SECOND. 
 
 'Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna.'— VIRGIL. [Echg. it. 6.] 
 
'e '<?<, 
 
 ASTR.EA REDUX. 
 
 Now with a general peace the world was blest, 
 While 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 bequeathed; 
 And Heaven, that seemed regardless 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 ; 
 — IVIadness the pulpit, faction seized 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. 
 Could taste no sweets of youth's desired age, 
 But found his life too true a pilgrimage. 
 Unconquered 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. 
 
ASTR^A REDUX. 1 3 
 
 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 God's anointed was his 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; 100 
 
 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. 
 
 Some lazy ages, lost in sleep and ease, 105 
 
 No action leave to busy chronicles: 
 
14 ASTR^A REDUX. 
 
 Such, whose supine felicity but makes 
 
 In story chasms, in epoches mistakes, 
 
 O'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 s'..ar 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 Iamb 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 
 
 T)iat 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: 140 
 
 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 : 
 
1 6 ASTR^A REDUX. 
 
 Once sacred House, \vhich when they entered in, 
 They thought the place could sanctify a sin; 
 Like those that vainly hoped kind Heaven would wink, 1S5 
 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, 
 1/ 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. 1" 
 
 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 cliff's 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 show, 
 Your heavenly parentage and earthly too, 
 
 I 
 
l8 ASTHMA 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, 
 
 A 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 
 
 INIade 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 
 
 V 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, 2S0 
 
 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 mom shall fly, 
 
 Dispelled to farthest corners of the sky. 295 
 
ASTRJEA REDUX, 1 9 
 
 Our nation, with united interest blest, 
 
 Not now content to poise, shall sway the rest. / 
 
 Abroad your empire shall no limits know, I / 
 
 But, like the sea, in boundless circles flow y 
 
 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, \ I 
 
 Our merchants shall no more adventurers be ; V 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 3 1 o 
 
 May justly apprehend you still too near. 
 
 At home the hateful names of parties cease. 
 
 And factious souls are wearied into peace. 
 
 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, \ j 
 
 When the joint growth of arms and hearts foreshow \ / 
 
 The world a INIonarch, 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 latins imperare velint.' 
 
 Trajan Iniperator ad Plut, [Plin. Epist, x. 33.] 
 
 ' Urbs antiqua ruit, multos dominata per annos.'— VIRG. [jiin. ii. 363] 
 
TO THE METROPOLIS OF GREAT BRITAIN, 
 
 T HE 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 aff'ection. 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 suiTerings 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 
 
 2° 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 fixe 
 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 
 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- 
 
 lo 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 ^neids. 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 
 
 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 modem 
 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. 27 
 
 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 
 %vriting. 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 openimque 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 
 to 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, hke a nimble spaniel, beats over and 
 
 ^ ranges through the field of memory, till it springs the quarry 
 
 "|i(-j-' it hunted after: or, without metaphor, which searches over 
 
 all the memory for the spedes or ideas of those things which 
 
 35 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 
 
ACCOUXT OF ANNUS MIRABILIS. 29 
 
 it chiefly to consist in the dehghtful 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 
 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 tne 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 
 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 sudden 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 WTiter. 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 
 
go ACCOUNT OF ANNUS MIRABILIS. 
 
 in that to the IMjTrha, 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- 
 6 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 iigures, in 
 I o 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 infiisa per artus 
 I- Mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet.' 
 
 We behold him embellishing his images, as he makes Venus 
 breathing beauty upon her son ^neas : 
 
 ' Lumenque juventas 
 Purpureum et laetos oculis afBarat honores : 
 20 Quale manus addunt ebori decus, aut ubi flavo 
 
 Argeatum 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 
 nis 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. 3 1 
 
 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 w-orld, that he has been my master in this 
 poem : I have followed him everywhere, I know not with i o 
 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 
 Grzco fonte cadent parce detorta.' 
 
 The inference is exceeding plain; for if a Roman poet 
 might have liberty to coin a w^ord, 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 w-ere 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, 
 
33 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 
 
 lo 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 ciirribiis JEmiliani, heroes drawn in their 
 triumphal chariots and in their full proportion; others are 
 
 15 to be like that of Virgil, Spirantia moUius ara: 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 
 himii 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 aiTogance; 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 fnat 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 afterguards 
 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. 
 
 I? 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 mitlti, qui carpere aniicos suos judic'non 
 
 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. 'TtS 
 
 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 ^ 
 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 lo 
 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 3 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS: 
 
 ■ THE YEAR OF WONDERS, 1 666. 
 
 I 
 
 Ix 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. 
 
 2 
 
 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^ ripening precious dew; 
 For them the Idumaean balm did sweat 
 
 And in hot Ceylon spicy forests grew. 
 
 4 
 The sun but seemed the labourer of their year; 
 
 Each wexing moon** 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. 
 
 * In eastern quarries. Precious stones at first are dew con- 
 densed, and hardened by the warmth of the sun or subterranean 
 fires. 
 
 ^ 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. 
 
 V* 
 
 ^^" 
 
 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 birds of prey. 
 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. 
 
 « The Iberian. The Spaniard. 
 
AXXUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 39. 
 
 He first surveyed the charge \vith careful eyes, 
 Which none but mighty monarchs could maintain ; 
 
 i'et judged, like vapours that from limbecs rise, 
 It would in richer showers descend again. 
 
 14 
 \t length resolved to assert the watery ball, 
 
 He in himself did whole armados bring; 
 ^im aged seamen might their master call 
 
 And choose for General, were he not their King. 
 
 15 
 
 t seems as every ship their Sovereign knows, 
 His aw^ul summons they so soon obey ; 
 
 )0 hear the scaly herd when Proteus blows <i, 
 And so to pasture follow through the sea. 
 
 fo see this fleet upon the ocean move 
 Angels drew wide the curtains of the skies ; 
 
 ^nd Heaven, as if there wanted lights above, 
 For tapers made two glaring comets rise ; 
 
 17 
 kVhether they unctuous exhalations are 
 
 Fired by the sun, or seeming so alone, 
 Dr each some more remote and slippery star 
 
 Which loses footing when to mortals shown ; 
 
 <* When Proteus blows, or — 
 
 ' Caeruleus Proteus immania ponti 
 Armenia, et magnas pascit sub gurgite phocas.' — Vma, 
 Not quoted exactly by Dryden : 
 
 ' Czruleus Proteus, magnum qui piscibus aequor 
 Et juncto bipedum curru metitur equorum. 
 
 Quippe ita Neptuno visum est ; immania cujus 
 Armenia et turpes pascit sub gurgite phocas.' 
 
 ViRG. Georg. iv. 388.] 
 
40 ANNUS MIRABILIS, l666. 
 
 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 chiefs 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 
 / Theatttmft And now approachcd their fleet from India, fraught 
 W '"s^i^ With all the riches of the rising sun. 
 
 And precious sand from southern climates ^ brought, 
 The fatal regions where the war begun. 
 
 * The Admiral of Holland. f Southern climates. Guinea. 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 4I 
 
 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. 
 
 28 
 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. 
 
 31 
 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. 
 
42 ANNUS MIRABILIS, l666. 
 
 32 
 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 kind?, 
 
 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 i" in vain; 
 Alas, that he should teach the English first 
 
 That fraud and avarice in the Church could reign! 
 
 s Such are, Ifc. From Petroiiius : ' Si bene calculum ponas, 
 ubique fit naufragium.' \_Safyr. c. 1 15.] 
 
 *' 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. Attn. 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; jvar 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. 
 
 x/ 
 
 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 ; 
 
 41 
 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 MIRABTLIS, 1 666. 
 
 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 coual powcr he does two chiefs create, 
 
 andDiiieo/ _ ^ , , , , . , , 
 
 Aibemaru Two such as each seemed worthiest when alone : 
 
 Sc7it 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. 
 
 51 
 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'. 
 
 ' Future people. ' Examina infantium futurusque populus.' — 
 Tws.jun. in Pan. ad Traj. [c. 26.] 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 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, Dukeo/ , 
 
 In number and a famed commander bold : tauu, V 
 
 first 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'' 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'. 
 
 ^ The Elean, ifc. Where the Olympic games were celebrated. 
 ' From Virgil: 'Credas innare revulsas Cycladas,' &c. — \Mn. 
 viii. 691.] 
 
4<5 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, 1 666. 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. 
 
 67 
 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 I / 
 
 The combat still and they ashamed to leave : 
 Till the last streaks of dying day withdrew 
 
 And doubtful moonlight did our rage deceive. 
 
 69 
 
 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. 
 
 7° /( 
 
 Not so the Holland fleet, who, tired and done, | L^^"«nv^"^, 
 
 Stretched on their decks like weary oxen lie ; 
 
 Faint sweats all down their mighty members run,| 
 
 Vast bulks, which little souls but ill supply. 
 
 71 
 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, 1 666. 
 
 72 
 Second days The mom 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"\ 
 
 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, ' to-day ! 
 
 * In you the fortune of Great Britain lies ; 
 'Among so brave a people you are they 
 
 ' 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. ^ 
 
 "> ' Spem vuhu siniulat, premit ahum corde dolorem.' 
 
 ViRG. [/£«. ii. 213.] 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 49 
 
 79 
 )ur little fleet was now engaged so far 
 
 That like the sword-fish in the whale they fought ; 
 rhe combat only seemed a civil war, 
 
 Till through their bowels we our passage wrought. 
 
 8o 
 
 sever had valour, no, not ours before 
 Done aught like this upon the land or main ; 
 
 A'here not to be o'ercome was to do mora 
 Than all the conquests former Kings did gain. 
 
 8i 
 
 rhe mighty ghosts of our great Harrys rose, 
 
 And armed Edwards looked with anxious eyes, 
 ro 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. 
 
 Silent in smoke of cannon they come on : 
 Such vapours once did fiery Cacus hide'^: 
 
 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 ^tnas on the ocean meet I / 
 
 And English fires with Belgian flames contend. •' 
 
 ■ ' lUe autem.' [Virg. .S«. viii. 251.] 
 E 
 
rp ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 
 
 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. 
 
 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, 1666. 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, L/ 
 
 And smiling eddies dimpled on the main. ■-^ P^S'to/^l 
 
 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. 
 
 96 
 
 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 exsestuat ira,' 
 
 jEn, ix. 797.] 
 E a 
 
52 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 
 
 I 
 
 Amidst these toils succeeds the bahiiy night ; 
 
 Now hissing waters the quenched guns restore : 
 And weary waves P, 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 day''. 
 
 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. 
 
 lOI 
 
 ' 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 
 Thirdday. But now, his storcs 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 irucibus fluviis idem sonus : occidit horror 
 ^quoris. et terris maria acclinata quicscimt.' 
 
 [Syh: V. 4. 5.] 
 ■» The 3rd of Juiie, famous for two former victories. 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 53 
 
 104 
 Thus far had Fortune power, here forced to slay ; 
 
 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 / 
 
 tor now bravje 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, 1666. 
 
 Ill 
 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 like 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. 
 
 "3 
 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. 
 
 "5 
 
 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. 
 
 ii8 
 
 55 
 
 The cheerful soldiers, with new stores supplied, 
 
 Now long to execute their spleenful will ; g/^ 
 
 And in revenge for those three days they tried ^ pj^"^'*'^ 
 
 Wish one like Joshua's, when the sun stood still. '' 
 
 119 
 Thus reinforced, against the adverse fleet, Fourihdays 
 
 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. 
 
 The Dutch too well his mighty conduct know 
 And matchless courage, since the former fight ; 
 
 Whose navy like a stilf 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 f some trodden serpent on the grass 
 
 And long behind his wounded volume trails. 
 
 ■■ So glides, &c. From Virgil : 
 
 ' Quum medii nexus extremseque agmina caud^ 
 Solvuntur, tardosque trahit sinus ultimus orbes,' &c. 
 
 IGeorg. iii. 423.] 
 
5^ 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. 
 
 V 
 
 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 sigr.t 
 
 And urges entering billows as they flow. 
 
 130 
 When one dire shot, the last they could supply, 
 
 Close by the board the Prince's main-mast bore 
 All three now helpless by each other lie, 
 
 And this offends not and those fear no more. 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 57 
 
 131 
 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 w'hal they to his courage did refuse 
 
 By mortal valour never must be done. 
 
 134 
 This lucky hour the wise Batavian takes 
 
 And warns his tattered fleet to follow home ; 
 Proud to have so got off with equal stakes. 
 
 Where 'twas a triumph not to be o'ercome s. 
 
 135 
 
 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 : 
 
 ' Quos opimus 
 Fallere et effugere est triumphus.' 
 
 [4 Ot/. 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, 
 1 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 burdcucd vessels first with speedy care 
 
 repairs the ^ ' 
 
 fi'"- 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 MIRABILIS, 1 666. 59 
 
 144 
 ^11 hands employed, the royal work grows warm ' ; 
 
 Like labouring bees on a long summer's day, 
 5ome sound the trumpet for the rest to swarm 
 
 And some on bells of tasted lilies play ; 
 
 145 
 rt''ith glewy wax some new foundation lay 
 
 Of virgin-combs, which from the roof are hung; 
 5ome armed within doors upon duty stay 
 
 Or tend the sick or educate the young: 
 146 
 50 here some pick out bullets from the side, 
 
 Some drive old oakum through each seam and rift: ^' 
 
 rheir left hand does the caulking-iron guide, ^ 
 
 The rattling mallet with the right they lift. L'^ 
 
 147 
 kVith boiling pitch another near at hand, 
 
 From friendly Sweden brought, the seams instops, 
 vV'hich well paid o'er the salt sea waves withstand 
 
 And shake them from the rising beak in drops. 
 148 
 >ome the galled ropes with dauby marling bind 
 
 Or sear-cloth masts with strong tarpauling coats: 
 Fo try new shrouds one mounts into the wind 
 
 And one below their ease or stiffness notes. 
 149 
 3ur careful Monarch stands in person by 
 
 His new cast cannons' firmness to explore, 
 rhe strength of big-corned powder loves to try 
 
 And ball and cartridge sorts for every bore. 
 150 
 £ach day brings fresh supplies of arms and men 
 
 And ships which all last winter were abroad, 
 \nd 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. 
 ■59] 
 
 y 
 
6o 
 
 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 
 
 ■ l.cyal 
 
 London' 
 
 described. 
 
 The goodly London in her gallant trim, 
 The phoenix-daughter of the vanished old, 
 
 Like a rich bride does to the ocean swim 
 And on her shadow rides in floating gold. 
 
 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. 
 
 154 
 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 
 By viewing nature Nature's handmaid. Art, 
 
 Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow ; 
 Thus fishes first to shipping did impart 
 
 Their tail the rudder and tlieir head the prow. 
 
 156 
 Some log perhaps upon the waters swam. 
 
 An useless drift, w-hich, 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, 1656. 6l 
 
 158 
 Ldd but a sail, and Saturn so appeared, 
 
 When from lost empire he to exile went, 
 Lnd with the golden age to Tiber steered, 
 
 Where coin and first commerce he did invent. 
 
 159 
 
 lude as their ships was navigation then, 
 
 No useful compass or meridian known ; 
 loasting, they kept the land within their ken, 
 
 And knew no North but when the pole-star shone. 
 160 
 )f all who since have used the open sea 
 
 Than the bold English none more fame have won ; 
 •eyond the year and out of Heaven's high way" 
 
 They make discoveries where they see no sun. 
 161 
 lut what so long in vain, and yet unknown. 
 
 By poor mankind's benighted wit is sought, 
 hall in this age to Britain first be shown 
 
 And hence be to admiring nations taught. 
 
 162 / 
 
 "he ebbs of tides and their mysterious flow y 
 
 We, as art's elements, shall understand, A 
 ind as by line upon the ocean go 
 
 Whose paths shall be familiar as the land. 
 163 
 nstructed ships shall sail to quick commerce ^, 
 
 By M'hich remotest regions are allied ; 
 V'hich makes one city of the universe, 
 
 Where some may gain and all may be supplied. 
 164 
 rhen we upon our globe's last verge shall go 
 
 And view the ocean leaning on the sky : 
 'rom thence our rolling neighbours we shall know 
 
 And on the lunar world securely pry. 
 
 u ' Extra anni solisque vias.' — Virg. [yEn. vi. 797.] 
 X By a more exact knowledge of longitude. 
 
6l ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 
 
 165 
 'Apostrophe This I foretell, from your auspicious care 
 
 to the Roy(fl . > j r 
 
 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 awed. 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 63 
 
 Did expert Allen, loyal all along, 
 Famed for his action on the Smyrna fleet ; 
 
 \nd 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, 
 \s once old Cato in the Romans' 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 
 Voung Hollis, on a Muse by jNIars 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 MIRABTLIS, 1 666. 
 
 179 
 The ^vary 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 ; 
 i8r 
 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 %vretch 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. 
 1S4 
 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 v. 
 
 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 vastus aperit syrtes,' &c, 
 
 ViRG. [An. i. 145.] 
 
ANXUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 6^ 
 
 186 
 o\v van to van the foremost squadrons meet, smud hatiie. 
 
 The midmost battles hasting up behind, 
 rho view far off the storm of falling sleet 
 
 And hear their thunder rattling in the wind. 
 
 187 
 t length the adverse Admirals appear, 
 
 The two bold champions of each country's right; 
 "heir eyes describe the lists as they come near 
 
 And draw the lines of death before they fight. 
 1S8 
 "he distance judged for shot of every- size, 
 
 The linstocks touch, the ponderous ball expires : 
 'he vigorous seaman every porthole plies 
 
 And adds his heart to every gun he fires. 
 
 189 
 'ierce was the fight on the proud Belgians' side 
 
 For honour, which they seldom sought before; 
 >ut now they by their own vain boasts were tied 
 
 And forced at least in show to prize it more. 
 190 
 kit sharp remembrance on the English part 
 
 And shame of being matched by such a foe 
 louse conscious virtue up in every heart. 
 
 And seeming to be stronger makes them so ^. 
 
 191 
 sor long the Belgians could that fleet sustain 
 
 Which did two Generals' fates and Caesar's bear; 
 ^ach several ship a victory did gain. 
 
 As Rupert or as Albemarle were there. 
 192 
 rheir battered Admiral too soon withdrew, 
 
 Unthanked by ours for his unfinished fight; 
 jut he the minds of his Dutch masters knew v . 
 
 Who called that providence which we called flight.^ 
 
 '■ ' Possunt quia posse videntur.' — Vieg. [^n. v. 23.] 
 F 
 
66 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 
 
 193 
 
 Never did men more joyfully obey 
 Or sooner understood the sign to fly ; 
 
 With such alacrity they bore awav 
 
 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 ^ of injured Spain. 
 
 198 
 Repenting England, this revengeful day, 
 
 To Philip's manes'' 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 rt-as 
 jjained. 
 
 ** Philip's manes; Philip II. of Spain, against whom the Hol- 
 landers rebelling were aided by Queen Elizabeth, 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 67 
 
 199 
 Our fathers bent their baneful mdustry 
 
 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 he 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 £u^„:„ger 
 
 Destructive fires among whole fleets we send ; 'viy%"sn 
 
 Triumphant flames upon the water float 
 
 And out-bound ships at home their voyage end. 
 
 Robert Holmes. 
 
 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 hoUand 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 uusiucerc are all our joys, 
 London" Which scut 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 V 
 
 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 
 
 3reat as the world's, which at the death of time 
 Must fall and rise a nobler frame by fire''. 
 213 
 \s when some dire usurper Heaven provides 
 
 To scourge his country with a lawless sway ; 
 Whs birth perhaps some petty village hides 
 And sets his cradle out of Fortune's way; 
 214 
 rill, 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. 
 
 e ' Quum mare, qiium 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 coeli 
 Ardeat, et mundi moles operosa laboret.' 
 
 Ovid, Melam. vii. 453.] 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 
 
 219 
 Now, like some rich or mighty murderer, 
 
 Too great for prison which he breaks with gold, 
 \Vho 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 
 
 Kis flames from burning but to blow them more : 
 And, every fresh attempt, he is repelled 
 
 With faint denials, weaker than before <*. 
 
 222 
 And now, no longer letted of his prey, 
 
 He leaps up at it with enraged desire, 
 O'erlooks 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. 
 
 ^ Lihe crafty, tfc. ' Haec arte tractabat cupidum virum ut illius 
 animuni inopia accenderet.' [Incorrectly quoted by Dryden from 
 Terence : 
 
 ' Haec arte tractabat virum 
 Ut illius animum cupidum inopia accenderet.' 
 
 Heavtonlim. ii. 3. 106.] 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 7 1 
 
 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 
 3o weary bees in little cells repose ; 
 
 But if night-robbers lift the well-stored hive, 
 \n humming through their waxen city grows, 
 
 And out upon each other's wings they drive. 
 229 
 S^ow streets grow thronged and busy as by day ; 
 
 Some run for buckets to the hallowed quire; 
 5ome cut the pipes, and some the engines play, 
 
 And some more bold mount ladders to the fire. 
 230 
 .n vain; for from the east a Belgian wind 
 
 His hostile breath through the dry rafters sent ; 
 rhe flames impelled soon left their foes behind 
 
 And forward with a wanton fury went. 
 231 
 \ key of fire ran all along the shore ' yf" 
 
 And lighted all the river with a blaze «; jt''^ * 
 
 rhe wakened tides began again to roar, v'-'^"' 
 
 And wondering fish in shining waters gaze. 
 
 e 'Sigoea igni freta lata relucent.' — Virg. [jEn. ii. 312.] 
 
T2 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 66(5. 
 
 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 
 Tlie 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 ; 
 \J 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. 
 
 23S 
 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. 
 
AN^US MIRABILIS, 1 666. 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. 
 
 240 
 More than his guards his sorro\^'S 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 ANXUS 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, 1666. 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 
 (\nd, while through burning labyrinths they retire. 
 
 With loathing eyes repeat what they would shun. 
 
 25S 
 The most in fields like herded beasts lie down, 
 
 To dews obnoxious on the grassy floor ; 
 f\.nd 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, 
 \n infant, waking, to the paps would press , 
 
 And meets instead of milk a falling tear. / 
 
^6 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 
 
 260 
 No thought can ease them but their Sovereign's care, 
 Whose praise the afflicted as their comfort sing ; 
 \l 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 
 Kj!t£-sf,ayey.'0 God,' Said hc, '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 
 The living few and frequent funerals then 
 
 Proclaimed Thy wrath on this forsaken place ; 
 \nd 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 1 / 
 
 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, 
 Zlontinue still Thyself to give the stroke, 
 And let not foreign foes oppress Thy land.' 
 271 
 rhe Eternal heard, and from the heavenly quire 
 Chose out the cherub with the flaming sword, 
 ^nd bad him swiftly drive the approaching fire \/ 
 From where our naval magazines were stored. 
 272 
 rhe 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 
 rhe 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. 
 
7 8 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 
 
 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 lioods the flames that to their quany strove. 
 
 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 mght drive him thence. 
 
i 
 
 1/ 
 
 So ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1666. 
 
 288 
 cttys request But SO mav he live long that town to sway 
 
 to the King not jo j 
 
 toUavtt/u,>,. 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 to\^n which gives the Indies name. 
 With silver paved and all divine with gold^. 
 
 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, 1666. 8 J 
 
 295 
 More great than human now and more Augusts, 
 
 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 ; 
 rhe 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, 
 \nd often wind, as of his mistress proud. 
 
 With longing eyes to meet her face again. 
 299 
 rhe wealthy Tagus and the wealthier Rhine 
 
 The glory of their towns no more shall boast, 
 knd Seine, that would with Belgian rivers join. 
 
 Shall find her lustre stained and traffic lost. 
 300 
 rhe 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 
 3ur powerful navy shall no longer meet 
 
 The wealth of France or Holland to invade; 
 I'he beauty of this town without a fleet 
 
 From all the world shall vindicate her trade. 
 
 8 Augusta, the old name of London. 
 G 
 
82 ANNUS MIRABILIS, 1 666. 
 
 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 gc, 
 \j But now, the Cape once doubled, fear no moie ; 
 
 A constant trade-wind will securely blow 
 And gently lay us on the spicy shore. 
 
 ^ 
 
 4^ 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 A POEM. 
 
 * Si propius stes 
 Te capiat magfis." 
 
 IHORACE, Ars Poet. 351.) 
 
 G 2 
 
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. Rly 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; jc 
 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 jti 
 can write severely with more ease than I can gently. I have I 
 but laughed at some men's follies, when 1 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 aifect 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, 
 
 1 5 and indulge ; and, to confess freely, I have endeavoured to 
 commit it. Besides the respect which I owe his birth, 1 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 
 
 2o 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. 8 J 
 
 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 U^ ^ 
 correction. And he who writes honestly is no more an 5 V 
 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 rescindetidum, which I wish not to my very enemies. 
 To conclude all; if the body politic have any analogy to ic 
 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 INIaker's image through the land. 10 
 
 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. 
 
 Pearly 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 mo^ns 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 case, 
 
 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 I^hbosheth Jhe 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 1 , 
 
 An idol monarch which their hands had made ; y 
 
 Thought they might ruin him they could create 65 
 
 Or melt him to that golden calf, a State. 
 
9© 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 ; 7 o 
 
 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. 
 f But when to sin our biassed nature leans, 
 I The careful Devil is still at hand with means 80 
 
 ^ And providently pimps for ill desires ; 
 
 The good old cause, revived, a plot requires. 
 I .'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 
 
 I 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, roo 
 
 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: lo^ 
 
 For 'twa^ 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 \vinnowed 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. 1,3 
 
 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, • 133 
 
 ■ 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 shooi. 
 
 And fitted Israel for a foreign yoke ; 
 \ Then, seized with fear, yet still affecting fame, 
 'J Usurped a patriot's all-atoning name. 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 93 
 
 So easy still it proves in factious times i8o 
 
 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! 1S5 
 
 Yet fame deserved no enemy can grudge ; 
 
 The statesman we abhor, but praise the judge. 
 
 In Israel's courts ne'er sat an Abbethdin 
 
 W^ith more discerning eyes or hands more clean, 
 
 Unbribed, ^unsought, the wretcTied 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. 
 
 £ut wild ambition loves to slide, not stand, 
 
 And fortune's ice prefers to virtue's land. 
 
 Achjiggjiel, grown weary to possess 300 
 
 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 
 
 Yv'ere 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 of 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 
 
 Comes 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, 
 JMade 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 ^ 3 r 5 
 
 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, 335 
 
 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 ? 
 
 AVere 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 giv^^n to guide a throne. 380 
 
 Not that your father'^ 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 3S5 
 
 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 
 
 Call 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 right supreme 
 
 To make their kings, for kings 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. ~A 
 
 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, 4-° 
 
 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 ? 43° 
 
 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. 440 
 
 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 : 
 I 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. lOI 
 
 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, X 
 
 And make their Jewish markets of the throne,j 
 
 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 Solymsean rout, well versed of old \ 
 
 In godly faction and in treason bold, ^ 
 
 Cowering and quaking at a conqueror's sword, 515 
 
 But lofty to a lawful prince restored. 
 
 Saw with disdain an Ethnic plot begun 
 
/ 
 
 I02 ABSALOM AXD ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 And scorned by Jebusites to be outdone. 
 
 Hot Levites headed these ; who pulled before 
 
 Yrora 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. 
 ,Biit far more numerous was the herd of such 
 
 ^^'ho 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 w rong, 
 
 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. I03 
 
 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 
 
I 
 
 104 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 Agp'nst 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, 
 
 N 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. I05 
 
 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 ; 
 
 Which 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 
 
To6 ABSALOM AXD ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 Should wliet 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 affords, 
 
 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 fall, 6S0 
 
 For Witness is a common name to all. 
 
 Surrounded thus with friends of every sort, 
 ^ Deluded Absalom forsakes the coui t ; 
 
 Impatient of high hopes, urged with renown. 
 
 And fired with near possession of a crown. 605 
 
 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. 
 ' I 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 ACIIITOPHEL. IO7 
 
 My father, whom with reverence yet I nainc, 
 
 Charmed into ease, is careless of his fame, 
 
 And, bribed with petty sums of foreign gold, 
 
 Is grown in Bathshcba'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, 7 1 5 
 
 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 A 
 
 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. X/ 
 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, 
 
lo8 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. IO9 
 
 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 suflferings were before. 
 
 That change they covet makes them suifer more. 
 
 All other errors but disturb a state, 
 
 But innovation is the blow of fate. Soo 
 
 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. 
 
I 
 
 no ABSAL03I 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 chu.se, 
 
 The fighting warrior, and recording jMuse, 
 
 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, S40 
 
 Arms thy delight, and war was all thy own : 
 
 Thy force infused the fainting Tyrians propped, 
 
 And haughty Pharaoh found his fortune stoppctl. 
 
 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 IMuse, here cease thy painful fiight ; 
 No pinions can pursue immortal height : 855 
 
ABSALOM A ND A CHI TOP 11 EL . 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 fi-om heaven, and see S6o 
 
 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. 8 65 
 
 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, C70 
 
 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. S75 
 
 Next them a train of loyal peers ascend ; r^ _v^- 
 
 Sharp-judging Adriel, the Muses' friend, )j^ 
 
 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 S80 
 
 That from his disobedient son were torn. 
 
 J[otham of piercing wit and pregnant thought, s. 
 
 Endued by nature and by learning taught 
 
 To move assemblies, who but only tried 
 
 The worse a while, then chose the better side, 8 85 
 
 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 S90 
 
 And joined experience to his native truth. 
 
 His frugal care supplied the wanting throne, 
 
 Frugal for that, but bounteous of his own : 
 
TI2 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 
 
 'Tis easy conduct when exchequers flow, 
 
 But hard the task to manage well the low. S95 
 
 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, 
 V 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, 
 j 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. II3 
 
 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. 1 
 
 Kings are the public pillars of the State, '-^^ / 
 
 Born to sustain and prop the nation's v/eight : 
 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 ! "+ li 
 How easy 'tis for parents to forgive ! -t- I 
 
 With how few tears a pardon might be won - / 
 From nature, pleading for a darling son ! 4- i 960 
 
 Poor pitied youth, by my paternal care 
 Raised up to all the height his frame could bear ! 
 Had God ordained his fate foi: empire born, 
 He would have given his soul another turn : 
 (bulled 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. 
 
 tV^hence 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. 9S0 
 
 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, 
 
 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 ^ 99° 
 
 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. 
 
 "5 
 
 Beware the fury of a patient man. 1005 
 
 Law they require, let Law then show her lace ; 
 
 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 -'X^j^^ 
 
 Till, viper-like, their mother-plot they tear, ^ <! '^ ^jl-^^^^ 
 
 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. 
 
 13 
 
RELIGIO LAICI; 
 
 OR 
 
 A LAYMAN'S FAITH. 
 
 A POEM. 
 
 'Oman res ipsa negate coucenia doceri.* 
 
 [MawiLIUS, AstroHom. iii. y^^ 
 
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 
 tirst 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 of 10 
 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 2.s\ 
 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 
 
I20 RELIGIO 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 
 ^ published, to a judicious and le.irned 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, which he advised me whoily 
 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 He 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 all 
 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 »o 
 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 6 
 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 .';5 
 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 
 
122 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 
 
 J 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 
 
 j 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 Creed 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 Creed itself, which, till I am better informed, 
 
 -JO is of too hard a digestion for m.y 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 betv.'ixt 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 LA Id. 123 
 
 never heard of Christ and were nothing interesscd 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 tlie 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 ijv 
 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 I 
 Almighty for that purpose, I have left my self no right to 
 interpret obscure places, such as concern the possibility of 25 
 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 
 
 y 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, 
 
 E5 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, ji 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 bomhmm Cbristianorum dominatu, from exercising 
 dominion over Christians; and to this they are bound by 
 virtue of divine precept, and by all the ties of conscience. 
 
RELIGIO LA TCI. I 25 
 
 under no less penalty than damnation. If they answer mc, as 
 a learned priest has lately %vritten, that this doctrine of the 
 Jesuits is not iie 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 10 
 ratione directi domini, 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 20 
 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 la\A^ul king, 
 and consequently to rise against him is no rebellion. I should 
 be glad, therefore, that they -oould follow the advice which 
 was charitably given them by a reverend prelate of our 35 
 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 
 
 lo 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 
 
 15 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 
 
RELTGIO LAICI. 1 Ij 
 
 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 covetousness was gaping at the patrimony 
 of the Church. They who will 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 
 
 ro 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, \yherever 
 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 \ 
 tlatterers 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 N 
 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 rejjuire the 
 smoothness, the numbers, and the turn of heroic poetry in ;,5 
 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 
 fe 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 w^hat they naturally are. 
 A man is to be cheated into passion, but to be reasoned into 
 10 truth. 
 
VOv 
 
 ^■ 
 
 RELIGIO LAICL 
 
 »IM as the borrowed beams of moon and stars 
 o lonely, weary, wandering travellers 
 Reason to the soul : and as on high 
 hose rolling fires discover but the sky, 
 ot light us here, so Reason's glimmering ray 5 
 
 7as lent, not to assure our doubtful way, 
 ut guide us upward to a better day. 
 nd as those nightly tapers disappear 
 /hen day's bright lord ascends our hemisphere, 
 3 pale grows Reason at Religion's sight, \ 10 
 
 3 dies, and so dissolves in supernatural light. ~, 
 ome few, whose lamp shone brighter, have been led 
 rom cause to cause to Nature's secret head, 
 nd found that one first principle must be ; 
 ut what or who that universal He; 15 
 
 k^hether some soul encompassing this ball, 
 nmade, unmoved, yet making, moving all, 
 T various atoms' interfering dance 
 eapt into form (the noble work of chance,) 
 'T this great All was from eternity, 20 
 
 ot even the Stagirite himself could see, 
 nd Epicurus guessed as well as he. 
 ,s blindly groped they for a future state, 
 .s rashly judged of Providence and Fate. 
 ;ut least of all could their endeavours find 
 Vhat most concerned the good of human kind ; 
 'or Happiness was never to be found, 
 lut vanished from them like enchanted ground. 
 >ne thought Content the good to be enjoyed ; 
 "his every little accident destroyed, 
 rhe wiser madmen did for Virtue toil, 
 K 2 
 
 2 C opinions ofths 
 several sects of 
 Phitosophers 
 concerning the 
 Sunimura Bo- 
 num. 
 
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. 
 
 sys/iMg/ The Deist thinks he stands on firmer ground, 
 
 Cries evprjKa, the mighty secret's found : 
 God is that spring of good, supreme and best. 
 We made to serve, and in that service blest ; 4 5 
 
 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 
 
 ^That vice triumphs 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. 
 
 q/,-e-r^/(./ Thus man by his own strength to Heaven would 
 
 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. 
 U Revealed Religion first informed thy sight^ 
 
RELIGIO LAICI. 
 
 And Reason saM' 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, 
 
 ^^^hich so obscure to heathens did appear ? 
 
 Not Plato these, nor Aristotle found, 
 
 Nor he whose wisdom oracles renowned. 75 
 
 Hast thou a wit so deep or so sublime, 
 
 Or canst thou lower dive or higher climb r 
 
 Canst thou by reason more of Godhead know 
 
 Than Plutarch, Seneca, or Cicero ? 
 
 rhose giant wits, in happier ages born, 80 
 
 ^^'hen arms and arts did Greece and Rome adorn, 
 
 \.new no such system ; no such piles could raise 
 
 3f natural worship, built on prayer and praise 
 
 Fo one sole GOD : 
 
 "sor did remorse to expiate sin prescribe, 85 
 
 But slew their fellow creatures for a bribe : 
 
 rhe guiltless victim groaned for their offence, 
 
 ^nd cruelty and blood was penitence. 
 
 f sheep and oxen could atone for men, 
 
 \h. ! at how cheap a rate the rich might sin ! 90 
 
 \.nd great oppressors might Heaven's wrath beguile 
 
 >y offering his own creatures for a spoil ! 
 
 Darest thou, poor worm, off"end Infinity? 
 Lnd must the terms of peace be given by thee .' 
 rhen thou art Justice in the last appeal; 95 
 
 rhy easy God instructs thee to rebel, 
 ind, like a king remote and weak, must take 
 Vhat satisfaction thou art pleased to make. 
 
 But if there be a power too just and strong 
 "o wink at crimes and bear unpunished wrong, 100 
 ,00k humbly upward, see his will disclose 
 ^he forfeit first, and then the fine impose : 
 . mulct thy poverty could never pay, 
 lad not Eternal Wisdom found the way, 
 .nd with celestial wealth supplied thy store; 105 
 
 lis justice makes the fine. His mercy quits the score. 
 
 ^Z^ 
 
134 RELIGIO LAICI. 
 
 See God descending in thy human frame ; 
 
 The offended suffering in the offender's name : 
 
 All 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 1 1 5 
 
 Not paid, or paid inadequate in price : 
 What further means can Reason now direct, 
 Or what relief from human wit expect? 
 That shows us sick ; 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 ail 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 life ; 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 presciibed 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. 1^5 
 
 tarving their gain and martyrdom their price. 145 
 
 If on the Book itself we cast our view, 
 Concurrent heathens prove the story true : 
 7he doctrine, miracles; which must convince, 
 'or Heaven in them appeals to human sense; 
 ind though they prove not, they confirm the cause, 150 
 Vhen what is taught agrees with Nature's laws. 
 
 Then for the style, majestic and divine, t\ 
 t speaks no less than God in every line ; / 
 Commanding words, whose force is still the same 
 lS the first fiat that produced our frame. 155 
 
 Jl faiths beside or did by arms ascend, 
 )r sense indulged has m.ade mankind their friend; 
 'his only doctrine does our lusts oppose, 
 Infed by nature's soil, in which it grows, 
 Cross to our interests, curbing sense and sin; 160 
 »ppressed without and undermined within, 
 t thrives through pain ; its own tormenters tires, 
 .nd with a stubborn patience still aspires, 
 'o what can Reason such effects assign, 
 >anscending Nature, but to laws divine? 165 
 
 Vhich in that sacred volume are contained ; 
 uflicient, clear, and for that use ordained. 
 
 But stay : the Deist here will urge anew, \ objeciion of 
 
 ' ' \ '"* Deist 
 
 \o supernatural worship can be true ; / 
 
 lecause a general law is that alone 170 
 
 Vhich must to all and everywhere be known : 
 
 L style so large as not this Book can claim, 
 
 lor aught that bears Revealed Religion's name. 
 
 ris said the sound of a Messiah's birth 
 
 s gone through all the habitable earth; 175 
 
 >ut still that text must be confined alone 
 
 "o what was then inhabited, and known : 
 
 ind what provision could from thence accrue 
 
 "o Indian souls and worlds discovered new? 
 
 n other parts it helps, that, ages past, 180 
 
 'he Scriptures there were known, and were embraced, 
 
 rill Sin spread once again the shades of night : 
 
1^6 RELIGIO LAICI. 
 
 What's that to these who never saw the light ? 
 Theobjec Qf all objections this indeed is chief 
 
 tion an- J 
 
 tTvtnd. "j-Q 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 : 
 That if the Gentiles, whom no law inspired, 20c 
 
 ,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. I37 
 
 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, fJf/irr-Zns- 
 
 (A much unskilful, but well meaning guide;) 225 '"at'ht{si- 
 
 Yet what they are, even these crude thoughts were bred /,y,4" //S/cV v 
 By reading that which better thou hast read, "reiuimfnt. 
 
 Thy matchless author's work, which thou, my friend, 
 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, 
 
^3« 
 
 RELIGIO LAICI. 
 
 Of the infal- 
 libility of 
 
 Tradition 
 l't:neral. 
 
 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 ; 
 \^ If we consider Interest, Church, and Gain. 275 
 
 ^ Oh, but, says one. Tradition set aside, 
 Where can we hope for an unerring guide ? 
 For since the original Scripture has been lost 
 All copies disagreeing, maimed the most, 
 Or Christian faith can have no certain ground 2 So 
 Or truth in Church tradition must be found. 
 
 Such an 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 doubts 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. 1 39 
 
 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, y' 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 otjeawn in 
 
 This to affirm were ignorance or pride. Tradition 
 
 Are there not many points, some needful sure thtrsimm 
 
 To saving faith, that Scripture leaves obscure, 
 Which every sect will wTest 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, 3:10 
 
 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 ; 
 WTiich exposition flows from genuine sense, / 
 
 And which is forced by wit and eloquence. 
 Not that Tradition's parts are useless here. 
 
'140 RELIGIO LAICI. 
 
 When general, old, disinteressed, and clear: 335 
 
 / That ancient Fathers thus expound the page 
 [ 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, 3-10 
 
 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 diff'erence 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 second / The partial Papists would infer from hence, 
 ojecion. ^ xheir Church in last resort should judge the sense. 
 Ans^uerto ' But first they would assume with wondrous art 
 leojecioK. -j-j^gj^ggjygg ^Q V)g j.j^g whole, who are but part 
 
 Of that vast frame, the Church; yet grant they were 
 
 The handers down, can they from thence infer 361 
 
 A right to interpret? 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 foundj 
 
 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, Y 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 priest'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 conseq\ience ; 
 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 ; 4 r o 
 
142 RELIGIO LAICI 
 
 Each was ambitious of tlie 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 : 
 
 iThis was the fruit the private spirit brought, 415 
 Occasioned by great zeal and little thought. 
 While crowds unlearned, with rude devotion warm, 
 nL 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 : j 
 
 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. 
 
 «VVvi-</ 
 
RELIGIO LAICr. M3 
 
 For points obscure are of small use to learn : \ 
 But common quiet is mankind's concern. 45° 
 
 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, 
 Tom Sternhold's or Tom Shadwell's rhymes will serve. 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 A POEM. 
 
 IN THREE PARTS. 
 
 •Antiquam exquirite matrem.* 
 
 VIRG. \j^n. Ui. 96.] 
 
 'Et vera iiicesba patuit Dea.' 
 
 \lbid, i. 405.] 
 
TO THE READER. 
 
 The nation is in too high a ferment for me to expect 
 either fair war or even so mucli 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-envyTiot liberty'^^^on- 
 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. 
 
 ^^upposed to be out of gun-shot. Our physicians have ob- 
 
 ^ served, that in pr©c?S5~of'fime~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. 
 
 'o '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 
 
 1 5 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 
 Gyrus, a heathen prince and a foreigner, but from a Christian 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 1 49 
 
 king, their native sovereign, who expects a return in specie 
 from them, that the kindness which he has graciously shown 
 them may be retahated 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 
 inten-uptions 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 injm-iously attacked in 
 print : and I refer myself to the judgment of those who have :o 
 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, ! 
 
 15 and give it the majestic turn of heroic poesy. The second i 
 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. 
 
 Xot 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, -5 
 
 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. 3° 
 
152 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 j_ 
 
 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 
 
 And 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. 
 
 '^5Z 
 
 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 roo 
 
 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 T^E 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. 
 Could 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 ; 
 ^Theliank 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 while, 
 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 Wickliff''s 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 1C5 
 
 From ]\Ioses' 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 having 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 Colchos 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. 
 ''^asts are the subjects of tyrannic sway, 245 
 
 Where still the stronger on the weaker prey; 
 
 ^lan 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. 25° 
 
 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 kingdom 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 7. 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 bowlings 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. 
 TA 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. 
 
 God's and kings' rebels have the same good cause, 
 
 To trample down divine and human laws; 
 
 Both would be called reformers, and their hate 
 
 Alike destructive both to Church and State. 3^0 
 
 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, hicrease and Multiply. >;„ 
 
 Religion shows a rosy-coloured face, 370 
 
 Not haltered out with drudging works of grace : ^ 
 
PART I. i6r 
 
 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. 
 Her 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 Calvin's brand, that stigmatised the beast. 
 Thus, Hke 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 diifering friends, 4ro 
 
 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. 4-25 
 
 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 can be understood. 
 
 Her wild belief on every wave is tost; -"^ 430 
 
 But sure no Church can better morals boast. 
 True to her King her principles are found ; 
 Oh that her practice were but half so sound ! 
 Stedfast in various turns of state 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 I. 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; 45° 
 
 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 a(>° 
 
 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: 4^5 
 
 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: 47^ 
 
 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. 4 So 
 
 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, 4S5 
 
 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. 
 
 Whose 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 ; 
 Whom soon by lawful 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. 
 ]\Iore 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. l6j 
 
 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 aw^ul roar 530 
 
 The so\ereign Lion bad her fear no more. 
 
 Encouraged thus, she brought her younglings nigh, 
 
 ^^'atching the motion's of her patron's eye, 
 
 And drank a sober draught ; the rest amazed 
 
 Stood mutely still and on the stranger gazed ; 533 
 
 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. 55° 
 
 The surly Wolf with secret en\y 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 ; 
 
l66 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. 
 
 f 
 
 '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 huntsmen 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, lo 
 
 Not trusting destiny to save your head. 
 
 For whate'er 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 :' 
 
 '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 iEsop'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 : 6c 
 
 '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 bim somewhere, and derive his race, 
 Or else conclude that nothing has no place.' 
 
 'Suppose, (though I disown it,)' said the Hinil, 7^ 
 
 '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 T 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; 
 
170 
 
 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. 1 1 o 
 
 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, 
 ]\Iisjoins 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 
 
173 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 {Hind.) 'TJie 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. 183 
 
 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 unfeithful 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' chair ; 
 
 At least 'tis proved against your argument, 21c 
 
 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, 
 ' 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 lor 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 v>ho left the Scripture to the crowd, 
 Each for his own peculiar judge allowed : 255 
 The way to please them was to make them proud^ ^ 
 
 UNIT 
 
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, 28 5 
 
 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 countrj-men at hand, 
 
PART 11. 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 ? loo 
 
 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, 31° 
 
 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 hke 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, 33° 
 
 Or bold seducers taught them to rebel, 
 As charity grew cold or faction hot, 
 
176 THE Hn\'D 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, 
 
 1 think those truths their sacred works contain 
 
 The Church alone can certainly explain ; 
 
 That following ages, leaning on the past, 355 
 
 IMay 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 IT. 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.' 
 
 ' 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 ov/ned his Deity, 
 Pronounced His words— S^i? ivbom 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; 4S0 
 
 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 dowTi- 
 
 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 jNIother-Church asserts her own, 
 
 And w'ith 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 tlie 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 o/nu 
 
 „ ,. 1-j 1 • • J- J Catholic 
 
 hntire, one solid shniing diamond, churcn fro, 
 
 XT 1 • 1-1 the Niccue 
 
 JNot sparkles shattered into sects like you: crud. 
 
 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 hke 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 ail 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, 391 
 
 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 
 
 fhose 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, 610 
 
 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. 
 
 '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, 8^30 
 
 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 AXD 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 
 
 Thtr^iuncia- fhat pious Joseph in the Church behold, 
 
 tzan 0/ Che r o r j 
 
 M^"w'/f '"" '" ^^ ised your famine and refuse your gold ; 
 
 iandi. Xhe 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 
 
 /"o^/u /..?»A<«r. Xhe pledge of his Almighty Patron's iove, 
 
 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 wiso, 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 hoiiest meaning and an open breast. 
 
 Last, with content of mind, the poor man's wealth, 
 
 A grace-cup to their common patron's health. 6 So 
 
 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 ; 
 
1 86 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 a'nd 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 may censure this mysterious writ, 
 
 Because the ]Muse has peopled Caledon 
 
 With Panthers, Bears, and Wolves, and beasts unknown. 
 
 As if we were not stocked with monsters of our own. 5 
 
 Let ^sop answer, who has set to view 
 
 Such kinds as Greece and Phrygia never knew ; 
 
 And I\I other 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, 
 When 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. 
 
l88 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 : 4° 
 
 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, 5c 
 
 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 Csesar 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 III. 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 tormeuters 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. 
 
 ' 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.' ijo 
 
 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 : 
 
 'I 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 suff'ering 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. 191 
 
 'Ah!' said the Hind, 'how many sons have you 
 Who call you mother whom you never knew I 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 hne? 
 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. 1 70 
 
 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, ancf 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, 315 
 
 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 III. 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 
 
 ' 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. 
 o 
 
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 teai-s 
 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. 
 
 '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.' 34° 
 
 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, * I 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. 3^5 
 
 '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; 37° 
 
 We nod awhile, but neighbourhood prevails ; 
 
PART III. 197 
 
 But when the greater proves the nearer too, 
 I wonder more your converts come so slow. 
 iNIethinks 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 ill, 
 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 : 4 1 o 
 
 ' 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; 4:5 
 
 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, 
 
 ' 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. 199 
 
 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 Cuma^an 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 Chelidonian main. 
 
 At this, some shook for fear ; the more devout 495 
 
 Arose, and blessed themselves from head to foot. 
 
 ' '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. 20 I 
 
 ' 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 can-ied by the major part to stay. 
 
 ' His point thus gained, Sir INIartin 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. 
 
 ' 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 beiieve their eyes) 
 New blossoms flourish and new flowers arise, I 
 As God had been abroad, and walking there I 
 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 
 
 ' 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. 
 
 ' 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 poled 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 sarpent'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, C55 
 
 Who summed their scandals up by centuries. 
 But through your parable I plainly see 
 The bloody laws, the crov/d'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.' 
 
 ' 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 angr)' 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 GaUic 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 obhvion 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, 700 
 
 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. 705 
 
 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; 
 
2o6 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. 
 
 '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 conic, 
 
 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 pauperis ; 
 Yet thought it decent something should be saiti, 
 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 preferred peace you bring, 
 As once iEneas 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 
 
 ' Conscience is then your plea,' replied the dame, 
 'Which, well-informed, will ever be the same. 
 But yours is much of the cameleon hue, 
 
2o8 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, S05 
 
 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. S15 
 
 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 8 35 
 
 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. 
 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 S60 
 
 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 
 
2IO 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 beheve 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 tr)' ; 
 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 so 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. 
 
 ' 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. 
 
 ' 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) 989 
 
 Their glutton kind should teach him abstinence. 
 
 Nor consecrated grain their wheat he thought. 
 
 Which, new from treading, in their bills they brought'. 
 
 But left his hinds each in his private power, 
 
 That those who Hke 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; 10 10 
 
 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, 10 15 
 
a 14 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. 
 
 Could 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 restiif 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 toes 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, 
 JNIore 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 1060 
 
 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, 107 5 
 
 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, loSo 
 
 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 w^orse 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. rioo 
 
 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 ]\f usquet and the Coystrel were too weak ; 
 Too fierce the Falcon; but, above the rest, 112c 
 
 The noble Buzzard ever pleased me best : 
 Of small renown, 'tis true ; for, not to lie, 
 We 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 HI. 217 
 
 On this high potentate, without delay, 11 30 
 
 1 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. 1 1 40 
 
 ' 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 bra\vny 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; 11 50 
 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; ii6d 
 
 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, 
 
2t8 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: 
 
 ^ Greek, and bountiful, forezvarns us tivice. 
 
 Seven sacraments he wisely does disown, 11 75 
 
 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, 11 85 
 
 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,) 11 90 
 
 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. 
 
 ai9 
 
 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, 
 
 Like Goths and Vandals to demolish Rome. 
 
 That Conscience, which to all their crimes was mute, 12 15 
 
 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 
 
 Theii several kinds alike, and equally protect. 
 
 His gracious edict the same franchise yields 
 
 To all the wild increase of vv^oods 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. 
 
 ' 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. 
 
 ' 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 rep;;ir. 
 
 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 yawnings at the close, 
 Seemed to require her natural repose ; 
 For now the streaky light began to peep. 
 And setting stars adm.onished 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 
 
 stanzas on Oliver Cromwell. 
 
 Stanza 1. The death of Cromwell was on September 3, 1658 ; the 
 iineral was celebrated on November 23. The meaning of this stanza 
 , that ' now 'tis time,' after the funeral, to write in honour of Crom- 
 rell's memory, and that those who wrote before were too hasty. The 
 omparison with the Romans refers to the custom of letting fly an eagle 
 t the close of the funeral ceremonies of a Roman emperor, which 
 /ere his consecration or apotheosis. The eagle flying upwards symbo- 
 zed the ascent of the soul of the deceased emperor to take its place 
 mong the gods. These funeral ceremonies are minutely described by 
 lerodianus in the case of the Emperor Severus (Hist. Roman, lib. iv.). 
 )ryden makes reference to this custom again in his play Tyrannic 
 vove, Act iv. Sc. 2 : 
 
 ' A God indeed after the Roman style, 
 An eagle mounting from a kindled pile.' 
 
 1. line I. officioiis haste, ^^t/otw means ' friendly,' ' obliging.' Poem 
 n the Coronation, 42 : 
 
 ' Officious slumbers haste your eyes to close ;' 
 nd Threnodia Augustalis, 370 : 
 
 ' The officious Muses came along.' 
 'ompare also ' officious flood ' in Annus Mirabilis, stanza 184. ' Offi- 
 ious ' 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 
 sual meaning with Dryden and his contemporaries. Compare The 
 lind and the Panther, Part iii. 838. One of Dryden's Prologues to the 
 Jniversity of Oxford 1,1673) ends with this couplet : 
 
 ' Kings make their poets whom themselves think fit, 
 Biit 'tis your suffrage makes authentic wit.' 
 n his Dedication of Aurcngzebe, Dryden, speaking of the King, says, 
 he has made authentic my private opinion.' 
 
 Q 
 
226" iVOTES. 
 
 4. i. prevent, anticipate ; the ordinary meaning with Dn-den. C . .- 
 pare Astrrea Redux, 67 and 282 ; Absalom and Achitophel, 344; J :ie 
 Hind and the Panther, Part ii. 641. In stanza 11 of this poem,/;Yr ' 
 may mean either • anticipate' or 'hinder,' but the former is prob. 
 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. 
 Drjden, 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. skewed. Both spellings skew and sho'u occur in Drj-den's 
 original editions ; and the spelling is adapted to the rhyme. Here 
 shewed rhyrats with conclude. In stanzas 32 and 37 show rhymes %vith 
 go, and in stanzas 14 and 24 sho%u7t with soiun and own. In the last 
 couplet of Astrcea '^^Av^y. foreshew rhymes with you. 
 
 8. I. of \s 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 prosperity 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. 61. After that, his rule at Rome was attended 
 ■with many troubles, till at last, vanquished by Csesar, and a fugitive, 
 he was assassinated in Egypt, B.C. 48, September 25, the day before 
 that which would have completed his fifty-eighth year. Cromwell, 
 on the other hand, first came prominently into notice at the battle 
 of Marston Moor wlien he was forty-five ; and died at the age of fifty- 
 nine, in great fame and power. 
 
 9. 2. seamark, lighthouse, or beacon, showing j ilots what coi;rse 
 to steer. 
 
STANZAS ON OLIVER CROMWELL. ll^i 
 
 11. I. sticklers were sidesmen in a fight, who acted as umpires, and 
 .eparated 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. 
 rhey were called sticklers from their carrj'ing sticks or staves, with 
 I'hich they interfered between the combatants. The verb stickle is used 
 n this sense of interfering to separate combatants in Dryden's Assigna- 
 ion, Act i. Sc. i : 
 
 ' Nay then 'tis time to stickle.' 
 t occurs also in Dryden's Prologue to Southeme's Disappointment, 
 roar and stickle,' rhyming with 'conventicle,' which would be either 
 )ronounced convetitickle or with the final e making a distinct syllable, 
 ,s occurs in Dryden with chronicles, mij-acles, oracles. See note 
 in Astrrea Redux, io6. Compare also, 
 
 ' He used to lay about and stickle, 
 Like ram or bull at conventicle.' Hudibras, i. 2. 435. 
 ' Faith, ciy St. George, let them go to 't and stickle 
 Whether in conclave or in conventicle.' 
 
 Cleaveland, Smectymnuus, p. 39 of Poems, 1659. 
 rhe ' former chiefs,' who are compared to ' sticklers,' are the Presbyterian 
 Parliamentary generals of the beginning of the Ci^^l ^Yar, Essex, 
 ilanchester. Waller, and others, who were thought unwilling to prose- 
 ute to the utmost advantages gained against the king, and whom the 
 ndependents got rid of through the Self-denying Ordinance and the 
 ■Jew Model, making Fairfax commander-in-chief, and Cromwell 
 ieutenant-general. 
 
 12. 3. He fought to end our fighting, ^w^/ cwr wrongly changed to 
 \indcr in the edition in the State Poems, followed in a Tew editions. 
 
 Assayed. Dr^'den spells this verb in the same way in The Hind 
 ,nd the Panther, Part iii. 796. But he spells it essay in an earlier 
 t-ork, Threnodia Augustalis, 162, and in The Fables. The substantive 
 le uniformly spells essay. 
 
 * 4. Breathing (sc. opening'^ of the vein, is a peculiar and favourite 
 )hrase of Dryden. He uses it in Palamon and Arcite, Bk. iii. 775 : 
 
 'Nor breathing veins nor cupping will prevail.' 
 Uso in the Spanish Friar, Act v. Sc. 2 : and in translating Virgil's 
 ferire venam' (Georgics, iii. 460), and Juvenal's ' mediam pertundite 
 ■enam' (Sat. vi. 46). Dryden's line is illustrated by a passage of 
 kcon : ' There is a fifth way also in use, to let blood in an adverse 
 )art for a revision ' (Nat. Hist. cent. i). A contemporary life of 
 >omwell, ' The Perfect Politician' (1660), uses the same simile in 
 ommenting on the slaughter of the garrison of Drogheda : 'Cruelty 
 
 Q 2 
 
aaS NOTES. 
 
 could not be laid to his charge, for, like a politic state-physician, 
 he here opens one vein, to preserve the whole body of the nation from 
 a lingering war.' When Dryden had become prominent as a court-poet 
 in the reign of Charles II, his adversaries frequently taunted him with 
 this ' breathing of the vein,' interpreting it as meaning the execution of 
 Charles I. But the line does not necessarily mean so much. It may 
 mean no more than a vigorous and thorough policy. 
 
 13. 2. That bold Greek who did the East subdtie. Alexander the 
 Great. 
 
 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 
 tlie 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 
 opprimentibusque non cedat.' The palm is the date-palm of the East, 
 and the palm of Scripture, Phoenix dactylifera. ' The righteous shall 
 flourish like the palm-tree" (Psalm xcii. 120). 
 
 ' Well did he know how palms by oppression speed 
 Victori(5us and the victor's sacred meed ; 
 The burden lifts them higher.' Cowley, Davideis, Bk. i. 
 
 16. 3. Bologna s ivalls. 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 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' Italia, lib. x.) See Roscoe's Life 
 of Leo X, ii. loi. 
 
 * 17. 2 . treacherous Scotland. ' Treacherous ' because true to neither 
 party. In 1644 the Scots in alliance with the Parliament had invaded 
 England and taken part in the battle of Marston Moor. In 1648 they 
 again entered England to restore Charles 1 and were defeated at Preston. 
 In 1649 they proclaimed Charles II, and the war which followed, ended, 
 
STANZAS ON OLIVER CROMWELL. 229 
 
 after the defeat of Charles at Worcester, in the complete subjugation 
 of Scotland. 
 
 * 17. 3. Bnmet describes Scotland as flourishing tinder Cromwell's rule. 
 ' There was good justice done, and vice was suppressed and punished ; so 
 that we always reckon those eight years of usurpation a time of great 
 peace and prosperity ' (Own Time). 
 
 * 18. I. stars. Probably Dryden refers to the appearances known as 
 'corposants' or ' composants,' and sometimes called 'St. Elmo's lights.' 
 These are names given to balls of electric light, seen about the masts 
 and rigging of a ship before or during storms. 
 
 3. mien, pronounced mine to rhyme with shitte. Spelt mine in the 
 edition of 1659 '^ith Waller's and Sprat's poems, and in the other spelt 
 mien. It is spelt and pronounced mitie in the following couplet of 
 Mar\'ell : 
 
 ' 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 tneen in 
 Dryden, in accordance with the French pronunciation. See The Hind 
 and the Panther, Part i. 33, where it is spelt ' meen ' in the original 
 edition, and rhymes with ' seen.' In a song in Covent Garden Drollery, 
 ' bonne mine ' is Anglicised : 
 
 'She vdll vanquish all hearts 
 With her boon mean and parts.' 
 
 P. 32, Second Edition, 1672. 
 
 * 19. 3. ' wands of divination,' a divining rod. 'A rod, usually of hazel, 
 with forked branches, used by those who pretend to discover minerals 
 or water underground. The rod, if carried slowly along in suspension, 
 dips and points downward, when brought over the spot where the 
 concealed mineral or water is to be found.' (Annandale, Imperial 
 Dictionary.) See an account of the use of the rod in Scott's Antiquary, 
 chap. xvii. 
 
 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. 
 ' 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 
 
230 NOTES. 
 
 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 opima ' (Livy i. 10). In the history of 
 Rome there were only two subsequent 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 vSat. 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. The war with Holland began in May 1652. Peace was concluded 
 by Cromwell in April 1654. 
 
 2. in is wrongly changed into of'yn. the edition in the State Poems, 
 which is followed by Scott. 
 
 * 23. I. Cromwell made a commercial treaty with France in Oct. 1655, 
 which developed into an offensive and defensive alliance in March 1657. 
 
 2.5. 3. confident is the spelling throughout Dryden of the word now 
 spelt confidant, meaning ' one confided in.' 
 
 4. co>nplexions, 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), 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 lill 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 4, 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 afterwards, with his accustomed versatility. 
 
STANZAS ON OLIVER CROMWELL. 23 1 
 
 eulogised 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 w^as Alexander VII. 
 
 * 31. This stanza should not be interpreted too literally. Dryden refers 
 in very general terms to two episodes of the war with Spain. The first 
 two lines refer to the expedition sent out by Cromwell at the end of 
 1654, snider Penn and Venables, to attack Spain in America and the 
 West Indies. The armament was repulsed from Hispaniola or St. 
 Domingo in April 1655, but took Jamaica in May, It never crossed the 
 Line nor reached gold-mines in South America. The last half of the 
 stanza refers to the capture of a Spanish treasure fleet by Captain 
 Stayner and Admiral Montague in 1656, near Cadiz. 
 
 34. 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 giant prince. A whale 60 feet long was taken in the 
 Thames not far from Greenwich. (Mercurius Politicus, June 3-10, 1658.) 
 ' At this time, June 2, 1658, arrived an ominous whale in the river of 
 Thames, not to do homage to his Highness, this was a fond conceit, as 
 one would have it, but rather to forewarn him of his end, which not 
 long after happened.' (The Perfect Politician or a full view of the life of 
 O. Cromwell, p. 259.) 
 
 *4. Cromwell died on Sept. 3, 1658. On Aug. 30 was a great 
 storm, which the popular imagination connected with the Protector's 
 death. ' Heaven,' wrote Waller, ' his great soul doth claim, In storms 
 as loud as his eternal fame.' Dryden in these lines refers to the storm. 
 He probably had in his mind Milton's lines : 
 
 ' From haunted spring and dale 
 Edged with poplar pale 
 The parting genius is with sighing sent.' 
 
 (Nativity Ode, stanza xx.) 
 
 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, 
 January 27, 1659. When Dryden wrote his poem in praise of Cromwell, 
 there was a general expectation that his son Richard would easily main- 
 tain his power. But Richard was overthrown by the army in May 
 1659 ; twelve months later 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, Astraea Redux. 
 
2^2 NOTES. 
 
 Astrsea Bedux. 
 
 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 Drj-den's line one as objectionable in Cowley : 
 'A dreadful silence filled the hollow place.' 
 
 Davideis, Bk. i. 
 11.9-12. 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. 
 
 II. 17, 18. By the treaty of the Pyrenees, by which peace was made 
 between France and Spain, November 1659, 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 gcnun the 
 peers. 
 
 ^- 37' Typhoeus (T:v<pca(vs), generally incorrectly printed Typhceus. 
 The Greeks also called him 1v<pws, 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. 
 
ASTR/EA REDUX. 233 
 
 ' So Jove himself, when Typhon Heaven does brave, 
 Descends to visit Vulcan's smoky cave.' 
 
 Waller, To the King. 
 Tj'phoeus or Typhon is a hnndred-headed giant, of classical mythology, 
 fabled to have once driven Jupiter and the gods from heaven. He was 
 afterwards quelled by Jupiter with a thunderbolt, and stowed away, 
 according to Homer, whom Milton follows, in Cilicia (II. ii. 783), but 
 Virgil placed him under the islands Inarime and Prochyta, off the west 
 coast of Italy, near Vesuvius (Aen. ix. 716). 
 
 *1. 42. After the king's death the House of Lords was abolished 
 as ' useless, and dangerous to the people of England to be continued ' 
 (March 19, 1649). The bishops had previously been excluded from the 
 House of Lords (Feb. 15, 1642), and presbytery established in place of 
 episcopacy. 
 
 1. 45. Cyclops, wrongly printed Cyclop in most modern editions, 
 including Scott's. ' Cyclops ' is both singular and plural with Dn.'deii. 
 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 ; cojps is both singialar and plural. 
 
 1. 46. savage liberty. Compare Absalom and Achitophel, 11. 50-56, 
 and the lines quoted from ' The Conquest of Granada,' in the Introduc- 
 tion (p. Ivi). 
 
 1. 51. tossed by fate. ' Jactatus fatis' (Virg. Aen. iv. 3). 
 1. 61. cozetied. conz'jted 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. laveriiig, tacking ; a word of Dutch origin. 
 ' To catch opinion as a ship the wind, 
 ^^"hich blowing cross, the pilot backwards steers, 
 And, shifting sails, makes way when he laveers.' 
 
 Davenant, Works, p. 2S0, 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 
 
234 NOTES. 
 
 disputed his succession : and on the first defeat of his forces by those of 
 \'itellius, 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) ; and Martial calls him ' mollis Otho,' in his epigram on his 
 death (vi. 32). His habits were effeminate. Suetonius says of him, 
 ' munditiarum fuit paene muliebrium.' Compare Juvenal, ' pathici 
 gestamen Othonis ' (ii. 99). 
 
 11. 69-70. Galba, who preceded Olho 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 I'honneur.' The exact words of Francis I 
 were, ' De toutes choses ne m'est demeure que I'honneur et la vie qui est 
 sauvee.' See Foumier's L'Esprit dans I'Histoire ; Paris, TS57. 
 
 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. 79. banished David. The germ of the personification of Charles II 
 as David, which plays so important a part in Absalom and Achitophel. 
 
 1. 94. By the hononred natne of Cotuiseller, given to Night by the 
 ancients, Dryden perhaps refers to the Greek name for night, Evcppuvrj, 
 which may be translated ' well-judging,' ' well-minded.' Or he may 
 refer to cv vvktI ^ovk-q. 
 
 1. 98. His famous gratidsire is Heniy IV of France, maternal grand- 
 father of Charles II. 
 
 * 1. loi. covenanting League. A comparison of the Solemn League and 
 Covenant of 1643, to the Catholic League of 1576 in France. It is 
 developed later in Dryden's Duke of Guise. See Preface, p. liii. 
 
 1. 106. chronicles here rhymes with ease, and must be pronounced 
 chioniclees. 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. 
 
 ' Their feats I fear not or vain oracles, 
 'Twas given to Venus they should cross the seas.' 
 la lines 14 and 241, ?>nracles pronounced as miraclccs, distinctly of three 
 
ASTR/EA REDUX. 235 
 
 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 line as printed in the original edition of 1661 is, 
 'In story chasmes, in epoche's mistakes.' 
 The apostrophe decides the plural of epoche, from the Greek eirox'';- 
 ' 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 : 
 
 ' 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 ivhich in modern editions, includ- 
 ing Scott's. 
 
 1. 119. straws; printed stroiues in the edition of 1661, straws in that 
 of 1668. Strew is a common spelling in Dryden ; but straws rhymes 
 with otves. 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 s/i07i' 
 
 and shew, choose and chitse. 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 always invoked for a happy return from a voyage. Dryden 
 introduces him also in his address to the Duchess of Ormond prefixed to 
 Palamon and 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 : 
 
236 
 
 N'OTES. 
 
 'Et pater ipse manu magna Portunus euntem 
 Impulit' Aen. v. 241. 
 1. 122. the is wrongly replaced hy ye, with a comma before it, in 
 modem editions, including Scott's. 
 
 1. 144. As Heaven it self is took by violetue. This idea is probably 
 from St. Matthew xi. 12 : ' And from the days of John the Baptist until 
 now 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.' 
 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 giants' war.' 
 * 1. 145. BootJi s fo7~ivard valour . In Aug. 1659 a royalist rising took 
 place, headed by Sir George Booth, but it was easily crushed by the par- 
 liamentary forces under Lambert. 
 
 I. 148. travellour, so spelt in first edition, rhyming with hour; in 
 second edition of 1688 spelt travellor. Elsewhere spelt traveller, as in 
 Religio Laici, where traveller rhj-mes 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 o'er, and that then 
 Dryden begins to speak in his o\vn person, ' Like ^sop'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 Dr}"den : 
 ' The gods came downward to behold the wars. 
 Sharpening their sights and leaning from their stars.' 
 
 Palamon and Arcite, Bk. iii. 442. 
 
ASTR^A REDUX. 237 
 
 1. 162. Like gold that chy mists tnake, referring to the attempts of the 
 alchemists to make gold out of baser metals. Compare : 
 ' I'm tired of waiting for this chymic gold 
 \Yhich 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. iSo. scape. It is always scape in the original editions from first to 
 last, never 'scape or escape. 
 
 I. 182. The two occasions referred to in this line are Cromwell's 
 ejection of the remnant of the Long Parliament in April 1653, and 
 Lambert's violent interruption of its sitting in October, 1659, ^^^^^ i' ^^^ 
 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 
 very 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 /oi/gue, fury ; the word thus Anglicised. 
 The editors have all ^ixinted Joitgiie. Dr. Johnson has said of Dryden, 
 ' He had a vanity, unworthy of his abilities, to show, as may be sus- 
 pected, the rank of the company with whom he lived, by the use of 
 French words, which had then crept into conversation ; such zs fraicheur 
 for " coolness," /07<^«e for "turbulence," and a few more, none of which 
 the language has incorporated or retained.' Fraischcur occurs in 
 Dr}'den'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 
 
238 NOTES. 
 
 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 lias 
 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 
 agreeing with clearness. Shakespeare has expressed that glass is fragile 
 as well as reflective : 
 
 ' Angela. 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 li glass-like is understood as applying to both clear- 
 ness and frailty. 
 
 1. 212. May-gaine, sports or diversions such as are used on the first of 
 May. ' Not a May-game is this man's life.' Carlyle. 
 1. 219. Charles II embarked at Scheveling on May 23. 
 1. 224. lozvered, pronounced as of one syllable; loivr'd va. original 
 editions. 
 
 1.225. Standard. ^/awaSar/ 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 for Dover, 
 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. siilmiilted fasces. From Livy, ' submissis fascibus.' Publius 
 Valerius, 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. 276. Pepys gives a description of the landing of Charles II, in his 
 ' Diary,' under May 25. Compare also Absalom and Achitophel, 11. 
 270-273. 
 
 * 11. 276-291, Mr. Saintsbury quotes these lines as a specimen of 
 
ASTRMA REDUX. 239 
 
 Dryden's skill in versification : ' The extraordinary art with which the 
 recurrences of the you and your are varied in position so as to give a 
 corresponding variety to the cadence of the verse, is the chief thing to be 
 noted here.' (English Men of Letters, Dryden, p. 31.) 
 
 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 star which had been observed on the day of his 
 birth thirty years before. There is nothing to support Scott's unneces- 
 sary conjecture that the same star was again visible on May 29, 1 660. 
 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 lelieve, 
 Such vigorous assistance give 
 As that which, thirty years ago, 
 At Charles his birth, did, in despite 
 Of the proud sun's meiidian 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 Prince Charles : 
 
 ' 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 bom 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, 1S68. 
 
 1. 292. Times zvhiter 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, 
 
240 NOTES. 
 
 '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 1654, or more probably perhaps to the dislike 
 more recently shown by Cardinal Mazarin to Charles's visit to Fuenta- 
 rabia in the autumn of 1659, when the treaty of the Pyrenees was being 
 negotiated. 
 
 *1. 316. edicts. Dryden refers to the King's proclamation against 
 vicious, debauched, and profane persons, issued May 30, 1660, the day 
 after he entered London. See Kennet's Register Ecclesiastical and Civil, 
 p. 167. The King specially mentions those riotous Cavaliers, ' who in 
 truth have more discredited our cause by the license of their manners 
 and lives, than they ever could advance it by their affection or courage.' 
 1. 317. your life and blest exafiiple wilts. The verb is singular, fol- 
 lowing the singular number of the noun immediately before it, a common 
 construction of the time. In Threnodia Augustalis, 189, Dryden wrote 
 
 ' Death and despair was in their looks.' 
 Scott, following Derrick, has changed wi^is, and sins of the preceding 
 line, which makes the rhyme, into luin and sin ; an unnecessary and im- 
 proper 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. 18. so is, 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. 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. 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS. 24 1 
 
 P. 25, 1. 31. ttoblesse, changed into nobles by all modem editors, in- 
 cluding Scott. N^oblesse was in common use in Drj'den'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 Chape- 
 lain on Joan of Arc. 
 
 1. S. 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. 14. Gondibert, an epic poem by Sir \Villiam Davenant, written 
 in the same metre as Annus Mirabilis, published in 1651. 
 
 1. 20. prevail myself of it. The French idiom '^se prcvaloir 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 sp07ite sua reddit justissima tcllus, 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. 102 1. 
 1. 18. is it, changed by Scott and other editors unnecessarily to it 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. ^.paronomasia, a pun; called in humbler language by Drj-den 
 and his contemporaries, by Pope also, a clench or clinch. 
 
 1. 12. driving has been changed by the editors, including Scott, into 
 deriving. 
 
 R 
 
242 NOTES. 
 
 V. 30, 1. 8. We see the objects he represents us xuithin their 7iative 
 ^figures. The editors, not understanding represents its, which means of 
 course represents to us, have changed Dryden's words to presents us tvith 
 in their native figures . 
 
 I. 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. Matericm superahat 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 
 deformed piece, there is as much of art and as near an imitation of 
 nature in a lazar as in a Venus.' 
 
 1. 13. Stanley, &c. Juvenal, Sat. viii. 43. 
 
 1. 15. Spirantia, &c. Virgil, Aen. vi. 848. 
 
 1. 21. hiimi serpere. Horace, Ars Poetica, 28: 
 
 ' Serpit humi tutus nimium timidusque procellae.' 
 
 1. 23. Nu7ic 71071, &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 doubt- 
 less before, according 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 complimentary poem. War had been 
 declared by England against the Dutch in February, 1665. The 
 Duke of York, who 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 tlie journey with great 
 honours. 
 
 1. 21. sea rhymes with obey, and in 1. 12 of p. 34 with way. So in 
 Annus Mirabilis, stanza 9, sea rhymes with lay, and in stanza 31 with 
 P»'ey. 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, Cynion and Iphigtnia, 612 : 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS. 243 
 
 ' The crew with merrj' shouts their anchor weigh, 
 Then ply their oars, and bmsh the buxom sea, 
 \A'hile troops of gathered Rhodians crowd the key.' 
 Lea is printed lay and rhymes with 'vay 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 verbyfay is spelt _/ft?a in Drj'den 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 prevailed. But Moses' hands were hea\7 : and they took 
 a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon ; and Aaron and Hnr 
 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. Dr)'den 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 ktter from Lord Arlington, Secretary 
 of State, to the Lord Mayor, in the Public Record Office, giving the 
 ofBcial news of the victorj', mentions 'the King having been in expecta- 
 tion ever since the guns were heard.' 
 
 P. 34, 1. 21. Drj'den repeats this simile of the phoenix in the Threnodia 
 Augustalis, 364: 
 
 'As when the new-bom phoenix takes his way 
 His rich paternal regions to survey, 
 Of air}' choristers a numerous train 
 Attends his wondrous progress o'er the plain.' 
 1. 26. Compare with this line Pope's 
 
 ' And all the aerial audience clap their wings.' 
 
 Pastorals, i. 16. 
 1.29. I tvrong the ptiblic to detain you longer. Probably in imita- 
 tion of Horace : 
 
 ' In publica commoda peccem 
 Si longo sermone morer tua tempora, Caesar.' Epist. ii. i, 2. 
 1. 34. nee stmt fariitn miilti, &c. Plin. Epist. vii. 28, 
 R 2 
 
244 NOTES. 
 
 The Poem. 
 [The references hereafter for the poem are to the stanzas.] 
 * Stanza 1, line i. An excellent criticism of Annus Mirabilis is to be 
 found in Lowell's essay on Dryden, in the volume entitled ' My Study 
 Windows.' 
 
 3. 2. Dryden's explanation of the formation of precious minerals, 
 that they are dew condensed and hardened by the sun or by subter- 
 ranean 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.' 
 .\nd see below in note on stanza 4, line i. Oldham's ' eastern quarries 
 hardened pearly dew.' 
 
 3. the Iduiiiaan balm did sweat is an imitation of Virgil : 
 ' Odorato sudantia ligno Balsama.' Georg. ii. it8i. 
 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 Lament- 
 ation 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 Piinic war. The first war with the Dutch in the 
 time of the Commonwealth had been ended advantageously for England 
 by Cromwell in 1654; '^his '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 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS. 245 
 
 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 pro- 
 posals to Spain to prevent her entering into engagements with England. 
 He postponed as long as 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. I . assert the zvatery ball, i. e. assert the dominion of the sea ; cf. 
 Stanzas on Cromwell, 22. i. 
 
 2. armado, the Spanish word for 'army,' now always written ar- 
 mada ; the same -^i^h junto, a committee, now vf\\\Xtn jimta 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 18, 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, 166.^, and the Index to Mrs. Green's Calendar of State Papers, 
 1664-65 ; also the Appendix to Sherborne's Translation of Manilius. 
 
 lb. On the subject of the star which had appeared on the birthday of 
 Charles II, see note on line 288 of Astr3ea 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. 
 
24<5 NOTES. 
 
 20. 4. Sir John Lawson, who had gained naval distinction in the 
 Dutch war of the Commonwealth, was then Vice-admiral of the Duke 
 of York's division 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 mi offei-ing, 8cc. This refers to Protesilaus, the first 
 Greek that landed on the Trojan shore, and the first slain. 
 
 22. and Dryden's note. T/u- Admiral of Holland \fz.% Opdam, who 
 was 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 Ruyler on 
 British ships and subjects on the coasts of Guinea, in retaliation for 
 proceedings 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 atlejnpt at Berghen, described in stanzas 2-1-20, was altogether 
 unfortunate. The rich Dutch merchant fleets from Smyrna and the 
 East Indies had taken shelter in that neutral Norse harbour. The King 
 of Denmark agreed, on condition of receiving half the profits, to con- 
 nive at the capture of the fleets by the English. The Earl of Sandwich, 
 who was now Commander-in-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 encountered by a storm, and then 
 Sandwich captured eight men-of-war and some of the richly-laden 
 merchant vessels. 
 
 35. I. Dr}'den, 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 tcmpcstatis filius ; 
 aut patrem utique reliquit aliquem, cui proficiscens osculum dedit- 
 Ilaec sunt consilia mortalium, haec vota niagnarum cogitationum . . . 
 Ite nunc, mortales, et magnis cogitationibus pectora implete.' In 
 Dryden's short quotation from Petronius, in the note, he substitutes fit 
 for est, which is the right word, 
 
 37. I. The Bishop of Miinster, a German sovereign prince, had, on 
 
AAmUS MIRABILIS. 247 
 
 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.) 
 
 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 
 protection 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 re- 
 formed 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 last two lines of the 
 stanza refer to Solomon's judgment, in i Kings iii, between the two 
 women claiming the child. 
 
 50. 3. fasces. See note on Astrcea Redux, 1. 249. Dryden refers here 
 to the story of the Syracusan slaves. See Massinger's Bondman, iv. 2. 
 
 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, obser\-are 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 
 Commanders-in-Chief of the English fleet. In the last days of May, on 
 information that the Dutch fleet was not ready for sea, and that a 
 French squadron was near the Channel on its way from the Mediter- 
 ranean 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 proceeding 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 
 eio-hty, 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 1st of June, the first day of 
 the battle, and he joined Albemarle on the evening of June 3. 
 
248 NOTES. 
 
 59. I. high-raised decks. The Dutch vessels were high-built. Cela- 
 don, 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 halt in Drydetfs editions, and this spelling is 
 preserved by Scott and some other editors. 
 
 68. 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 Floras describe the incident graphically. ' Adeo baud secus quam 
 venerabundi intuebantur in aedium vestibulis sedentes viros, praeter 
 omatum habitumque 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 venerati, mox eosdem . . . 
 pari vecordia mactant.' (Florus, Epit. Rer. Roman, i. X3.) 
 
 66. 3. sho'M means ' seem,' ' appear.' A common use of the verb at 
 the time, and in Dryden. See stanzas 121, 122, 126, 2'J6. 
 
 67. 2. squmider means simply ' disperse.' Compare Shakespeare, 
 Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 3, where Shylock says of Antonio's 
 wealth, ' I understand, 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 1688 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 compari-on 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 oi shear, meaning ' cut.' In the second 
 edition of 16S8, sheer was turned into steer, perhaps by a misprint, and 
 sleer has appeared in all subsequent editions. Sheer, a Drj'den word. 
 is clearly the right word here. 
 
 ' And through the brackish waves their passage sheer.' 
 
 Spenser's Faery Queene, Bk. iii. c. 4. 
 
A.ViYUS MIRABILIS. 249 
 
 83. 2, and Dryden's note. ' lUe 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. i6c)6.) 
 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 1688 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. 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. Unknowing to give place. An imitation of the Latin ' cedere 
 nescius.' (Hor. Od. i. 6. 5.) Compare 'And knows not to retii'e,' in 
 stanza 152. 
 
 ' I dared the death, unknowing how to yield.' 
 
 Palamon and Arcite, Bk. iii. 309. 
 The verb tmknoiu 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 of the 3rd of June 
 were in 1653 and 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. Rettmants 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 ' (^The Hind and Panther, i. 510), and ' remnants of 
 long-suffering grace.' (Id. iii. 276.) The word j-emainders also occurs 
 in The Hind and Panther, iii. 602, and in the Dedication of Eleanora, 
 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, quem dudum non ulla injecta movebant 
 Tela, neque adverso glomerati ex agmine Graii 
 Nunc omnes terrent aurae, sonus excitat omnis.' Aen. ii. 726. 
 
2,50 NOTES. 
 
 110. 3. martlet, a swift or swallow. Dryden, in a note on a line in 
 The Hind and 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 \.odoth in 
 the edition of 1688. 
 
 118. 4. See Joshua x. i.', : '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. So. 3 : 
 
 ' And speaking thick, which nature made his blem'sh. 
 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. 
 J 76) comparing the motion of a ship to 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 fero.v, ardensque oculis, et sibila coUa 
 Arduus attoUens, pars vulnere clauda retentat 
 Nexantem nodis, seque in sua membra plicantem : 
 Tali remigio navis se tarda movebat.' 
 
 124. 3. passion. The two early editions ^■aMe. passion, which is very 
 intelligible. Broughton printed passions, which has been copied by 
 subsequent 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. 
 Drj'den 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 
 ^■iew of the shades below : 
 
 ' Trepidentque immisso lumine Manes.' Aen. viii. 246. 
 
 132. 2.Jlix, 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 bro\vn like deer.' 
 Browning uses the word of a lady's hair, ' flix and flax.' These two 
 words have probably the same origin. Mr. Halliwell mentionsy??'.r as 
 a Kentish provincialism in his Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial 
 \\'ords. 
 
 137. I. See St. Mark iii. 11,12: ' And unclean spirits, when they saw 
 him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God, 
 And he straitly charged them that they should not make him known.' 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS. 25 1 
 
 139. Compare stanza 3 and the note on the belief then in vogue of 
 the origin of precioiis 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 metaphorically in Richard 11, Act ii. Sc. i, 
 
 'Imp out our drooping country's broken wing.' 
 Milton, in his Sonnet to Fairfax, has 'imp their serpent-wings.' Else- 
 where 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 Dryden's note. Dryden, in his note, gives only the words 
 ' 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.fojindation, 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 
 grammar 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 Hydrio- 
 taphia, 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 Common- 
 wealth, had been destroyed by fire, and the city of London now presented 
 the king with a new ship, called ' The Loyal London.' This second 
 
253 NOTES. 
 
 ' London ' was burnt before the end of the war, when the Dutch surprised 
 Chatham, in 1667. 
 
 147. 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 
 gallowglasses,' and again, 2 Henry VI, Act i. 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. Jin-like oars. The same idea is in Denham's Cooper's Hill, 
 ' oarfinned 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 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 oi canmerce in stanza 
 163, where it rhymes with universe, and where there was no possibility 
 of changing the line. Comtncrce 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, Act i. Sc. 3. 
 ' To join in marriage and commerce 
 And only 'mong themselves converse.' 
 
 Hudibras, Part iii. cant. 2, 1. 1383. 
 160. 3. otit of Heaven s high zvay. Drj'den refers in his note to Virgil's 
 ' 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.' 
 * 164. Lowell makes the following comment on this stanza: 'I confess 
 it interests me as an Americanism. We have hitherto been credited as 
 
ANNUS MIRABILIS. 253 
 
 the inventors of the " jumping-off place " at the extreme western verge of 
 the world. But Dryden was beforehand with us. Though he doubtless 
 knew that the earth was a sphere (and perhaps that it was flattened at 
 the poles), it was always a flat surface in his fancy. In his " Amphitryon " 
 he makes Alcmena say : 
 
 " No, I would fly thee to the ridge of earth, 
 And leap the precipice to scape thy sight." 
 And in his " Spanish Friar " Lorenzo says to Elvira that they "will travel 
 together to the ridge of the world, and then drop together into the 
 next." ' 
 
 165. Dryden was an early member of the Royal Society, founded 
 immediately 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- neiv is the word in the first edition ; now in that of 16SS, 
 which has been generally followed. Now is no improvement, and was 
 very likely a misprint. 
 
 172. I. Old expert Alien. Sir Thomas Allen had, at the beginning of 
 the war, attacked in the Bay of Cadiz a large Dutch merchant squadron 
 homeward bound from Smyrna under convoy, about forty vessels 
 altogether, while he had only seven ships ; and he had routed them and 
 made rich prizes. Sir Thomas Allen was Vice-Admiral of the White iu 
 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 
 generafs, 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 an embassy to Carthage, drew out from under his robe, one day in 
 the senate, some Carthaginian figs, saying that they had 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 : 
 
 ' 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. Spragge was killed in battle in the next Dutch war, August 
 II, 1672. 
 
254 A'OTES. 
 
 174. 3. Sir John Ilarman 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 successfully 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 
 HoUis, an antiquary : and this literary character of the father probably 
 explains the singular description of HoUis'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. 
 ' (jrabut his yo'emate ne'er shall be forgot 
 \Vhom the god of tunes upon a Muse begot.' 
 
 176. I. This line is an imitation of Virgil, 
 
 ' 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 16S8, it is hosts of waters, which is not an improve- 
 ment, but which has been generally followed. 
 
 * 185. 4. ' E'en such a man, so faint, so spiritless, 
 So dull, so dead in look, so woe begone, 
 Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night 
 And would have told him half his Troy was burned.' 
 Shakespeare, Henry IV, Pt. ii. Act i. Sc. i. 
 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 
 h.ad engaged the enemy and had not despaired for the State, ' quia de 
 republica non desperasset.' 
 
 195. 4. As larks lie dared, dared means 'thoroughly frightened,' 
 'scared,' and is specially applied to larks frightened by a hawk or by 
 any object. 
 
AA^NUS MIRABILIS. 255 
 
 ' 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. 
 So. I. 
 
 ' Let his grace go forward 
 And dare us with his cap like larks.' 
 
 Shakespeare, Henrj' 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 unnatural as for a lark to dare the hobby.' (Marvel's 
 Works, i. 474.) 
 
 197. 4, 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 lar;;e 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. I- Some English wool. The Dutch were England's great rivals in 
 the cloth trade, and undersold the English merchants by making slighter, 
 cheaper, lighter cloths, more suited to foreign markets. English wool 
 was smuggled abroad to Holland, in spite of all prohibitions of its 
 export, and, according to English merchants, mixed there with cheap 
 foreign wool to produce these coarse cloths. 
 
 207. 3. doom, a peculiar" use of the verb. doo»i here means ' send.' 
 The word ' destine ' connects the use in this passage with the usual 
 meaning. 
 
 209. I. uiisincere. The use of sincere in the sense of ' pure,' ' un- 
 mixed,' the meaning of the Latin sincerus, is common with Dryden and 
 his contemporaries. See Absalom and Achitophel, 43. 
 
2 $6 NOTES. 
 
 ' And none can boast sincere felicit)'.' . 
 
 Palamon and Arcite, Bk. iii. 897. 
 ' Nulla est sincera voluptas 
 Solicitumqne aliquid laetis intervenit.' Ovid, Metam. \-ii. 453. 
 215. The fire broke out on the early morning of Sunday, September 
 2, 1666, and raged for six days. 
 
 •216. 3. AH was the Night's. Probably an imitation of ' Omnia noctij 
 erant ' in a fragment of Varro, quoted by the elder Seneca in the Contro- 
 versies (iii. 16) : 
 
 ' Omnia noctis erant, placida composta quiete.' 
 Dr. Johnson has made the mistake of attributing this line to Seneca 
 himself. 
 
 *217. 1. Pepys was called up at three in the morning of Sept. 2, to see 
 the fire, and was told by the Lieutenant of the Tower that it began that 
 morning, in the King's baker's house in Pudding Lane. (Diary, Sep- 
 tember 6, 1666.) 
 
 223. 1. 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 : 
 ' Cateshy Jo 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 
 e-xhibited on London Bridge 
 
 * 230. An east wind had prevailed for some weeks. Evelyn describes on 
 September 4, ' The eastern wind still more impetuously driving the flames 
 forward,' and writes on September 5, ' It pleased God to abate the wind." 
 
 231. A key of fire. Key, the old spelling of qtiay, and pronounced as 
 we pronounce quay. Compare Cymon and Iphigenia, 612 ; 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, delending 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. 
 
 ' 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. 1). 
 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 cract:.' 
 
AA'NUS MIRABILIS. 257 
 
 ' A mighty flaw ' is used by Dryden in his Threnodia Augustalis, with 
 reference to the end of the world. 
 
 243. Drj'den'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 
 extraordinary 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 theirs.' (Diary, September 6, 1666.) 
 
 * "245. 'Now begins the practice of blowing up of houses in Tower 
 Street, those next the Tower, which at first did frighten people more 
 than anything ; but it stopped the fire where it was done, it bringing 
 the houses down to the ground in the same places where they stood, and 
 then it was easy to quench what little fire was in it, though it kindled 
 nothing almost.' (Pepys, September 4. Compare Evelyn, September 5.) 
 
 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 
 16S8, and in subsequent editions. 
 
 256. 2. require, used in the strict sense of the Latin reqiiirere, '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. 
 
 * 258. ' The poor inhabitants were dispersed about St. George's Fields 
 and Moorfields, as far as Highgate, and several miles in circle, some 
 under tents, some under miserable huts and hovels, many without a rag 
 or any necessary utensils, bed or board, who from delicateness, riches, 
 and easy accommodations in stately and well furnished houses, were now 
 reduced to extreme misery and poverty.' . . . ' I went towards Islington 
 and Highgate, where one might have seen 200,000 people of all ranks 
 and degrees dispersed and lying along by their heaps of what they could 
 save from the fire.' (Evelyn's Diary, September 5 and September 7.) 
 
 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 dc elated London in September 1666. 
 
 S 
 
258 NOTES. 
 
 270. 1. threatnings is the word of the first edition, and the spelling of 
 the time. In the editions of 1688 thrcatings is substituted, and this 
 occurs in most editions. The modem spelling threatenings is sub- 
 stituted for threatnings in the text. 
 
 * 273. a. A plan showing the part of London burnt by the fire is 
 reproduced in Loftie's History of London, i. 359. ' The result of the 
 five days' fire was summarily as follows : — 396 acres of houses were 
 destroyed, composing fifteen wards wholly ruined, eight others half 
 burnt; 400 streets, 13.200 dwellings, eighty-nine churches, besides 
 chapels, and four of the city gates.' 
 
 3. affect, seek, desire. So in Absalom and Achitophel, 17S, 'aftect- 
 ing fame.' 
 
 'The name of great let other kings afi'ect.' 
 
 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.' Denhara, in Cooper's Hill, celebrated 
 the same poem of Waller on the repairs made by Charles L : 
 
 '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 168S, 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 cor- 
 ruption of Dryden's text has been adopted by following editors, in- 
 cluding Scott. 
 
 284. 2. mild raiti, the reading of the first and second editions, was 
 changed 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 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 1^<) 
 
 after long captivity, and their setting to work to build the Temple of 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 292. \. frequent irines. A trine, or conjunction of planets in the 
 form of a triangle, was considered fortunate by astrologers : and Dryden 
 adds to frequent trims another good omen, the planet Jupiter in as- 
 cension. 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.' 
 4. work in original edition ; works in that of 1688, followed by 
 subsequent editors. 
 
 succeed. The verb has here an active meaning, ' make to succeed.' 
 So in Drj'den's State of Innocence, Act iii. Sc. i : ' Heaven your design 
 succeed.' 
 
 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 
 allusion 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 1679 in the famous controversy about the Exclusion Bill. 
 Whig is a woid of Scotch origin, Tory of Irish. Whig is explained 
 
 S 2 
 
x6o NOTES. 
 
 in two ways : Roger North says that it meant corrupt and sonr whey 
 (Examen, p. 321) ; Bishop Burnet derives it from whiggamor, a driver, 
 from whiggatn, an exclamation 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 164S in Scotland. Tories, 
 according to Roger North, were ' the most despicable savages among 
 the wild Irish.' Irishmen, as Roman Catholics, were generally favour- 
 able to the Duke of York ; thus his friends were called Tories. The 
 opponents of the Court were Whigs. 
 
 P. 85. 1. 8. When Dryden wrote Papist, his editors, from Broughton 
 downward, have printed Popish. 
 
 1. II. Attti-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 'Bir- 
 mingham Protestants, alluding to the false groats struck at that place.' 
 
 1. 13. a gefiius. Most editors, including Scott, have omitted the a, 
 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 
 W"ith profits of the mind, steady and just.' 
 
 Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act i. Sc. 4. 
 ' Let no defeat 
 Your sprightly courage and attempts rebatj.' 
 
 Oldham, Satire iii. 
 P. 86. 1. 3. Co>nmonwealthsf?ien, i. e. republicans. 
 
 1. 1 4. The fault on the right hand. Compare 'an error of the 
 better hand,' in Cymon and Iphigenia, 237. 
 
 1.33. ("ow/o^z^r^ 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. Enseresciiidenduvi. Ovid has 'ense recidendum' (Metam. 
 i. 191). * 
 
 The Poem. 
 
 It will be most convenient for the reader to preface the notes to the 
 l)oem with an alphabetical key to the names in the allegory. This key 
 is part of tlie one published by Tonson, Dryden's publisher, as key to 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 26 1 
 
 this poem and 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, Earl of Shaftesbury. 
 Adriel, Earl of Mulgrave. 
 Agag, Sir Edmund liury Godfrey. 
 Amiel, Mr. (afterwards Sir Edward) Seymour. 
 ■ — Annabel, Duchess of Monmouth. 
 Balaam, Earl of Huntingdon. 
 Barzillai, Duke of Ormond. 
 — £athsheba, Duchess of Portsmouth. 
 
 Caleb, Lord Grey of Wark. 
 ■—Corah, Titus Gates. 
 
 ^ David, King Charles IL 
 
 — ^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. 
 «— Alichal, 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, 
 .^yre, Holland. 
 Uzza, John Hall, commonly called Jack Hall. 
 Western Dome, Westminster Abbey. 
 — Zadoc, Sancroftj Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 Zaken, member of parliament. 
 Ziloah, Sir John Moore. 
 — Zimri, Duke of Buckingham. 
 
362 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 souglit 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 fulfd my will.' (Acts xiii. 22.) Charles had already been 
 compared to David in Astrcca Redux. 11. 79, 80. 
 
 1. 17. this, changed to tlic by Broughton, and the error coi)ied by 
 following editors, including Scott. 
 
 1. 18. Absaloii. 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. 
 
 1. 19. inspired l>y. 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 Bucclcuch 
 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 and 
 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 
 (16S3) Dryden calls her ' the patroness of my unworthy poetry '; and 
 in his Dedication of King Arthur to Lord Halifax, in i('i9i, he says 
 that the Duclicss 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. Ariinons tniirdcr. 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 tlie 
 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 dis- 
 figure, 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 200, on 
 this use oi sincerely, meaning ' without alloy.' 
 
 * 11. 52-56. An allusion to the ' state of nature ' which Hobbes and 
 other political writers of the period supposed to have existed before- 
 states and commonwealths were founded. In this state of nature all 
 men were equal, and there was no government, but a war of every one 
 against every one else. ' There are many places,' says Hobbes, ' where 
 
ABSALOM AND ACIIITOPHEL. 263 
 
 they live so now. For the savage people in many places of America 
 . . . live at this day in that brutish manner.' 
 
 * 1. 59. Hebron means Scotland. Charles II was crowned king in 
 Scotland, Jan. i, 1651; in England not till April, 1661. So David 
 reigned first seven years and six months in Hebron, and then thirty-three 
 years in Jerusalem. (2 Sam. v. 5.) 
 
 1. 65. State means here a republic. 
 
 1. 92. worti 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. 117. Compare the lines on the Popish Plot in The Hind and 
 Panther, iii. 719-722. 
 
 1. 118. Egyptian ntes. 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 o( As. 
 
 1. 150. Achitophel, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury. 
 Drj'den'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 tlie reorganization of that body by 
 the TCing -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, i68i. 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. 
 
 * 11. 150-200. Coleridge in his Table Talk makes the following 
 remarks on Dryden's method of drawing characters, ' You will find this 
 a good gauge or criterion of genius, — whether it progresses and evolves, 
 or only spins upon itself. Take Dr}den's Achitophel and Zimri ; everj' 
 line adds to or modifies the character, which is, as it were, abuilding 
 up to the very last verse ; whereas in Pope's Timon, &c. the first two or 
 three couplets contain all the pith of the character, and the twenty or 
 thirty lines that follow are so much evidence or proof of overt acts of 
 jealousy, or pride, or whatever it may be that is satirised.' 
 
 1. 152. counsel \Ti first edition, instead oi counsels. 
 
 I. 154. principle in first edition, instead oi principles . 
 
 II. 155-157. A correspondent of Notes and Queries, December 7, 
 1850 (vol. i, p. 46S'i, has supplied the two following quotations in illus- 
 tration of this triplet on Shaftesbury's fiery soul fretting his pigmy body 
 
264 NOTES. 
 
 and o'er-informing the tenement of clay. ' He (the Duke of Alva) 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 sonl that e'er was sent 
 Into a clayey tenement.' Carew. 
 1. 163. Great wits, &c. 'Nullum fit magnum ingenium sine mixtura 
 dementiae.' (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 
 
 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 
 circulated 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 Drj'den'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 Shaftes- 
 bury 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 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. ' ' "^ "^65 
 
 operation restored him to health, which was afterwards preserved by 
 means of a silver pipe which kept the wound always open. 
 
 1.170. unfeathcred two-legged thing. Dryden has here appropriated 
 for ribaldry Plato's humorous definition of man, a two-footed animal 
 without wings, ^ujov Sittow d-rmpov. Shaftesbury's son was a man of 
 no ability, but was the father of an able man, the third Earl, the meta- 
 physician, 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 
 establishment of the Roman Catholic religion in England. The English 
 commissioners who signed this treaty were Arlington, Clifford, Lord 
 Arundel of Wardour, and Sir Richard Sellings ; the last two were not 
 ministers. Another treaty was afterwards concluded on December 31, 
 in appearance solely for alliance 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 responsi- 
 bility 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 Dryden, who wrote in 1673 a bad play, Amboyna, for the 
 express purpose of inflaming the English public against the Dutch. 
 He there proclaimed 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 Epi- 
 logue concludes with a reference to Cato's ' Delenda est Carthago,' 
 quoted by Shaftesbury in his speech for the King as Chancellor to Par- 
 liament in February 1673. Dryden perhaps derived the idea from 
 Shaftesbury's famous speech, 
 
 ' All loyal English will like him conclude. 
 Let Caesar 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 16S1 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 : 
 
266 NOTES. 
 
 ' Thus framed for ill, he loosed onr 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 un- 
 *V scrupulousness in attack. 
 
 I. 179. Assumed m 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. So. 1), ' To atone the 
 people' (Vindication of Duke of Guise). At>ne was sometimes 
 wrongly spelt attone, the origin of the word being at one, ' to make at 
 one ' (See New English Dictionary). 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. 1. 
 Elsewhere in Shakespeare atotie is used intransitively, meaning ' to agree,' 
 as in Coriolanus, Act iv. Sc. 6 : 
 
 ' He and Aufidius can no more atone 
 Than violentest contrariety.' 
 
 II. 1S0-191. These twelve lines were added in the second edition of 
 the poem. A very absurd story has been told, tliat these lines, contain- 
 ing high praise of Shaftesbury as a Judge, were added by Dr\'den 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. Drj-den's son Erasmus was ad- 
 mitted to the Charterhouse in February 16S3, on a nomination from the 
 King. The first edition of this poem appeared in November, and the 
 second in December, 1681. The storj' is simply impossible. Immedi- 
 ately after the publication of Absalom and Achitophel, Shaftesbury could 
 not have abased himself by offering a favour to Dryden, even if Dryden 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 26'] 
 
 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 supposed 
 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 maybe 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. 1S8. Abbethdm, 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 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 interpreted the passage in a note in the Globe Edition, 
 there representing the line, ' 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 interpretation. David as usual means Charles II ; 
 the harp is introduced again in 11. 439,440. 
 
 1. 197. wanted, ivant is here used in a simple sense no longer cur- 
 rent, 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 His- 
 tory 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.' 
 
268 NOTES. 
 
 1. 209. The charge against Shaftesbury of ' making circumstances ' of 
 the alleged Popish Plot is totally without proof, and against all proba- 
 bility. 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 at one in the pro- 
 secution 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. Charles is suspected to have been a Roman Catholic be- 
 fore 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 Rom^n Catholic. 
 
 1. 219. The accent is on the second syllable of instinct, according to 
 the pronunciation of the time. So again in line 535. 
 
 1. 227. This line is reproduced by Dryden in The Hind and the 
 Panther, Part i. 211. In one of the poems in Lacrymte Musarum, oc- 
 casioned by the death of Lord Hastings in 1649, to which 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. S/iuts up in first edition, instead oi Divides. 
 
 I. 247. Like ojie of virtue s fools that feeds on praise. Scott and most 
 editors wrongly print /tva'. 
 
 * 1. 252. Compare Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act iv. Sc. 3 : 
 
 ' There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
 Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; 
 Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
 Is bound in shallows and in miseries.' 
 
 II. 270-273. Compare Astrsea Redux, 1. 276. 
 
 1. 280. Naked c/" is a Gallicism. Dryden uses dry in the same way. 
 ' Dry of pleasure ' (Love Triumphant, Act iii. Sc. i), ' Dry of those em- 
 braces ' (Amphitryon, Act iii. Sc. i). 
 
 1. 291. the general cry. Scott and most editors wrongly print royal 
 for loyal. 
 
 1.318. mankind's delight. 'Amor atque deliciae generis humani,' 
 said by Suetonius of the Emperor Titus. 
 
 * 1. 328. Compare Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, Act iv. Sc. 1, 
 on ' the quality of mercy ..." ' It is an attribute to God himself.' 
 
 11- 353-.360. This elaborate-eulogy on Charles's brother, James Duke 
 of York, may be comi)ared with Dryden's characters of James in the 
 ])lay The Duke of Guise, produced in 1682, and in the Threnodia Au- 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL, 269 
 
 gustalis, 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 ' : 
 King. ' 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. 
 Archbp. 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 Drj'den'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 oi fiatioti. 
 
 II. 417, 418. Dryden here describes the government of the Common- 
 wealth 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 
 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 Drj'den 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 ? ' 
 See also The Hind and the Panther, iii. 267-272. 
 
 1. 461. Prevail yourself . Avail Viz% substituted by Derrick iox prevait, 
 
270 NOTES. 
 
 and the editors have followed Derrick. The same has happened where 
 Dryden uses the same v^xh prevail reflectively, as in the preface to Annus 
 Mirabilis. 
 
 1. 519. Levites, priests; the Presbyterian ministers displaced by the 
 Act of Uniformity. 
 
 * 11. 524-568. See Dr}'den's own criticism on this character in the Essay 
 on Satire, prefixed to his translation of Juvenal (Works, ed. Scott, xiii. 
 95). He concludes : ' The character of " Zimri " is, in my opinion, worth 
 the whole poem. It is not bloody, but it is ridiculous enough, and he 
 for whom it was intended was too witty to resent it as an injury. ... I 
 avoided the mention of great crimes, and applied myself to the repre- 
 senting of blind sides and little extravagances, to which, the wittier a 
 man is, he is generally the more obnoxious.' 
 
 1. 525. Aai-oiUs race, the clergy. For in this line has beeij carelessly 
 changed into To in most editions, including Scott's. 
 
 1. 544. 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. 
 Tiuckingham, in The Rehearsal, had unsparingly ridiculed Dryden's51 
 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 Re- ' 
 flections 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 mem- 
 ber of Shaftesbury's party, bent on the exclusion of James Duke of York 
 from succession to the throne ; but he afterwards changed his iiolitics 
 and became a warm adherent of James. 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 27 I 
 
 *1. 574. Well-hung, voluble, fluent, — 
 
 ' Flippant of talk and voluble of tongue 
 With words at will, no lawyer better hung.' 
 
 Oldham, Imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal. 
 Caleb, Ford, Lord Grey of Wark. 
 1. 575. A'adah, 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 ' lambs wool.' Lord Howard afterwards became infamous by 
 betraying Lord Russell and Algernon Sydney. 
 
 1. 58 1. 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. 
 
 I. 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 16S0. 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. 
 
 II. 5S5-6S1. ' Most satirists are usually prone to the error of attacking 
 either mere types, or else individuals too definitely marked as individuals.! 
 The first is the fault of Regnier and all the minor French satirists, the \ 
 second is the fault of Pope. In the first case the point and zest of the 
 thing are apt to be lost, and the satire becomes a declamation against vice 
 and folly in the abstract. In the second case a suspicion of personal 
 pique comes in, and it is felt that the requirement of art, the disengage- 
 ment of the general law from the indi\adual instance, is not sufficiently 
 attended to.' Dryden avoids both these faults. 'His figures are always 
 at once types and individuals. Zimri is at once Buckingham and the 
 idle grand seigneur who plays at politics and learning, Achitophel at 
 once Shaftesbury and the abstract intriguer, Shimei at once Bethel and 
 the sectarian politician of all days.' Saintsbury, Drj'den, p. 77- 
 
 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 presenily off his horse and yield himself his prisoner.' The 
 word vase has been substituted for vare in some editions, including .Scott's.. 
 
272 NOTES. ^-^1^ ^-^fe-y 
 
 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 Lcvite. 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 rubici^nd 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. 
 
 1. 676. Agags 7)iurder. 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 dis- 
 obeying the Lord's command and sparing Agag. 
 
 1. 688. Dissembling joy in first edition, instead oi 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 permission. 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, his wealthy western friend. Thomas Thynne 
 of Longleat, who on account of his wealth went by the name of Tom of 
 Ten Thousand. Wise is ironical. ' Issachar is a strong ass ' (^Genesis 
 xliv. 14), and Tom Thynne's reputation is hinted at in a satire which 
 refers to the assault on Dryden mentioned in p. xxx of the preface : 
 ' What drudge would be in Dryden's cudgelled skin, 
 Gr who'd be safe and senseless like Tom Thynne?' 
 
 State Poems, vol. i. pt. 2. p. 33. 
 Thynne was murdered in February 1682, a few months after the publi- 
 cation of this poem, by assassins employed by Count Konigsmark, who 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 273 
 
 desired to marry Lady Ogle, a young heiress to whom Thynne was 
 betrothed. 
 
 1. 742. depth in first edition, instead of depths. 
 
 * 11- 759-768- According to Hobbes the State was based on a contract 
 or covenant. Men, weary of the perpetual warfare and insecurity of the 
 state of nature, covenanted together to surrender their right of governing 
 themselves to a sovereign, or to a sovereign assembly. This covenant or 
 contract was iiTevocable, and the power thus transferred could not be 
 resumed by those who gave it. Dr>'den and the Tories in general 
 accepted this view. The Whigs held that the transfer of power was^ 
 only conditional, not absolute. 
 
 1. 777. In the first edition this line stood, 
 
 ' That power which is for property allowed.' 
 
 * 1. 794. In the state of nature, according to Hobbes, there can be ' no 
 property, no mine and thine distinct; but only that to be every man's 
 that he can get, and for so long as he can keep it.' 
 
 1. S02. 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 ^aws is not necessarj^, nor is it an 
 improvement. 
 
 1. 804. Broughton changed our ai-k into the ark, and has been gener- 
 ally 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 Ci^^l 
 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 publi- 
 cation of this poem. The duke was one of Drj'den's patrons : Carte, 
 in his life of Ormond, mentions Dryden as one of his periodical dinner- 
 guests. Drj'den dedicated, in 16S3, to the Duke of Ormond the trans- 
 lation of Plutarch's Lives, to which was prefixed a Life of Plutarch, by 
 Drjden. Ormond died 16S8, before the Revolution. Dryden dedicated 
 his Fables, published in 1699, to the duke's grandson and successor, 
 son of the Earl of Ossory, who died in July 1680, and who is eulogised 
 in the lines which soon follow. 
 
 1. 825. The court he practised. To practise the court is a Gallicism. 
 
 1. 827. chtise is the spelling here to rhyme with Muse. Later, in 
 line 979, it is printed choose, where the rhjTiie is with depose. In The 
 Hind and the Panther, Part i. line 40, chtise rhjTnes with use. See note 
 on Astrsea and Redux, 119, for similar variety of spelling, st}-ow 
 and strew to suit rhyme : and it is the same with show and shew in 
 Dr}'den. 
 
 T 
 
374 NOTES. 
 
 1. 834. By unequal fates and Providence^ s crime. Compare 
 ' Fortunae, Ptolemaee, pudor crimenque Deoram.' 
 
 Lucan. Phars. v. 59. 
 Unequal fates is probably Dryden's translation of Virgil's ' fata 
 iniqua ' (Aen. ii. 257, and x. 380). 
 
 1. 858. A7id left this verse, 
 
 To hang on her departed patrons 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 funeral poems on the hearse. See 
 Shakespeare, Much Ado, Act v. So. iii. Claudio hangs verses on Hero's 
 monument : 
 
 ' Hang thou there upon the tomb, 
 Praising her when I am dumb.' 
 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 ^i)ho 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 'V\'illiam, and Duke of Bucking- 
 hamshire 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 16S8, 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, 881. Charles deprived Monmouth of all his offices and honours 
 in 1679 ; and of these he gave the Lord Lieutenancy of the East Riding 
 of Yorkshire 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,' 
 
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. 275 
 
 the name given to the party of 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 oi piercing va the first edition in line 882. 
 
 1. 888. Httshai, 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, and 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 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. Atniel, 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 tine qtial ruler of the dfay, Phaeton, unequal, incompetent. 
 
 1. 920. plume, pluck. The regal rights are to be plucked like a bird's 
 feathers. Elsewhere Dryden uses the word pbime in the sense of strip 
 or rob by plucking : ' He has left the faction as bare of arguments as 
 .^sop's bird of feathers, and plumed them of all those fallacies and 
 evasions which they borrowed from Jesuits and Presbyterians.' (Vin- 
 dication of the Duke of Guise.) 
 
 ' One whom, instead of banishing a day, 
 You should have plumed of all his borrowed honours.' 
 
 Maiden Queen, Act iii. 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 Da\^d's speech, which begins at this line, 
 Spence says that he was told by Pope that ' King Charles obliged 
 
 T 2 
 
276 AVTES. 
 
 Dryden to pnt his Oxford speech into verse, and to insert it towards the 
 close of his Absalom 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. 
 
 1. 966. destroy in first edition, instead oi supplant. 
 
 I. 971. His old instructor, Shaftesbury, who lost his place as Chan- 
 cellor in Nov. 1673. 
 
 *11. 1006-1009 ™^y tie thus paraphrased: 'They, i.e. the factious 
 party, demand law and shall have law. They are not content with my 
 clemency, with grace or mercy — which is as it were the hinder parts of 
 law and may be seen with safety — but rashly demand to see the very face of 
 law.' ' Grace ' is explained by lines 939-944 ; ' Law ' by lines 991-1003. 
 
 II. 1007, 8. Grace Her hinder parts. 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 a clift 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 ' (Exodus 
 xxxiii. 20-23). 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 ; Ars Amat. i. 655, 
 
 ' Neque enim lex aequior ulla est 
 Quam necis artifices arte perire sua.' 
 1. 1030. ' Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo.' 
 
 Virg. Eel. iv. £. 
 ^ 'Incipient magni procedere menses.' Id. 12. 
 
 And compare in Annus Mirabilis, stanza 18, 
 
 ' And now, a round of greater years begun.' 
 Also Astrxa Redux, 1. 292. 
 
 Keligio Laici. 
 
 Preface. 
 
 P. 122,1. 16. The preface of the Athanasian Creed is, 'Whosoever 
 will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic 
 
RELIGIO LAI CI. 277 
 
 faith. Which faith, except every one do keep whole and undefiled, 
 without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.' 
 
 P. 123, 1. I. inter essed. The form of the time, and always used by 
 Dryden. Disinteressed occurs in line 335 of Religio Laici. Both here 
 and in line 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 inieressing in the Preface to the State of 
 Innocence, and wiinteressed in the Prefaces to Troilus and Cressida and 
 Albion and Albanius. 
 
 P. 124, 1. II. Mr. Coleman'' s letters. Edward Coleman was Secretary 
 to the Duke of York, and a very zealous Roman Catholic. He had 
 been eno-ao-ed 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 favour- 
 able 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 
 1 58 1 . Parsons fled to Rome, where he published, 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 sub- 
 sequently 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. 18. 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 
 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. 
 
278 NOTES. 
 
 P. 127, 1. 13. Martin Mar-prelate, John Penry, a Welsh clergjTnan of 
 the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who became an Anabaptist and a writer 
 against Episcopacy, under the above nom de guerre. He was executed 
 in 1593 for writing against the established religion. 
 
 *1. 14. Marvel. Andrew Marvel (d. 167S), famous for his con- 
 troversies with Samuel Parker and other high-church writers. Marvel's 
 best-known pamphlets are ' The Rehearsal Transposed ' and ' Mr. 
 Smirke, or the Divine in Mode.' Wood terms him ' the buffooning 
 champion ' of the Nonconformists. 
 
 1. 3S. 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 prophets. 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 mistake, saying that the translator complimented by 
 Dryden was John 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. 
 
 1. 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 rencnun as transitive compare Pope : 
 
 ' The bard whom pilfered pastorals renown.' 
 
 Prologue to the Satires, i. 173. 
 ^^- 1^1 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.) 
 
RELIGIO LAI CI. 279 
 
 1. So. 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 6'(7«'5, which, according 
 to present notions of correct writing, should be Soti. 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. 
 1. 213. The Egyptian Bishop, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. 
 1. 228. The Critical History of the Old Testament, by the Father 
 Richard Sifnon, a French divine, translated by Mr. Henry Dickinson : 
 see note to p. 129, 1. 29. 
 
 1. 241. Junius and Tretnellius are two Calvinist divines who trans- 
 lated 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 modem 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 Stemhold 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.' 
 Shadwell, whom Dryden here couples with Stemhold, was greatly 
 Sterahold's superior in talent ; his comedies have much clevemess and 
 merit. But he was not a good poet. Drj'den's Mac Flecnoe is a severe 
 satire exclusively devoted to Shadwell, in reprisal for Shadwell's poem, 
 The Medal of John Bayes, a reply to Dryden's Medal ; and he severely 
 
28o NOTES. 
 
 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.' 
 
 The Hind and the Panther. Part I. 
 Preface. 
 
 P. 147, 1. 26. James II had issued his famous Declaration of Indulg- 
 ence, 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 11, and was published shortly afterwards. The tone of 
 [ this Preface, conciliatory to Protestant Dissenters, is not in accord with 
 \jthe tone of the poem as regards them. The spirit of the poem is for 
 ftmion of the Church of England with the Roman Catholics in opposition 
 [to the Protestant Nonconformists: and it is to be inferred that the 
 fDeclaration 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 indulgence 
 to Protestant Dissenters as well. 
 
 P. 148, 1. ID. 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 bo.x 
 in favour of the Roman Catholic faith. Stillingfleet, then Dean of 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART I. 28 1 
 
 St. Paul's, replied to this publication. A ' Defence' was published by 
 the King's command, in which Drj'den bore a part. Stillingfleet 
 rejoined, and treated Drj'den with contemptuous asperity. 
 
 1. 35. Dr)-den 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 piinted 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 trans- 
 lated 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,' in answer 
 to a pamphlet entitled ' A New Test of the Church of England's 
 Loyalty.' 
 
 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. Burnet) to be their king. 
 
 The Poem. 
 
 * 1. I . Johnson quotes the first eight lines as a specimen of Dryden's 
 ' deliberate and ultimate scheme of metre. We may reasonably infer 
 that he did not approve the perpetual uniformity which confines the 
 sense to couplets, since he has broken the lines in the initial paragraph. ._. 
 These lines are lofty, elegant, and musical, notwithstanding the interrup- 
 tion of the pause, of which the effect is rather increase of pleasure by 
 variety, than offence by ruggedness.' 
 
 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 Scytkiati 
 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 /a/e is irreversible and 
 irresistible. The witty parodists of The Hind and the Panther over- 
 looked this difference when they ridiculed Dr}den for this line. The 
 parody begins — 
 
 ' A milk-white mouse, immortal and unchanged, 
 Fed on soft cheese and o'er the dairy ranged ; 
 Without, unspotted ; innocent ^vithin, 
 She feared no danger for she knew no ginn. 
 
282 NOTES. 
 
 Yet oft had she been scared by bloody claws 
 Of wnged owls, and stem Grimalkin's paws. 
 Aimed at her destined head, which made her fly, 
 The' she was doomed to death, and fated not to die.' 
 • Faith, Mr. Bayes, if you were doomed to be hanged, whatever you 
 wtK fated io, 'twould give you but small comfort.' i^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 Caledonia7i in the original edition ; and editors down to Scott 
 and later have continued to print Caledonian. I do not feel sure that 
 it skould 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 ' Scythian shafts ' of line 6. 
 Calydon would do for Caledon in line 3 of Part iii. of t'ne poem ; indeed 
 the sense would be better : 
 
 ' Because the Muse has peopled Calydon 
 With Panthers, Bears, and \Yolves, and beasts imknown, 
 As if we were not stocked with monsters of our o\vn.' 
 The reading Calydon gives point to ' our own ' monsters, comparing 
 them with those the poet places in Calydon. Cah'don was a city of 
 Aetolia, the mountains rpund which were the haunt of the famous boar, 
 killed by Meleager. Drj'den was very careless in correcting his poems 
 for the press, and classical words are frequently misspelt in the early 
 editions ; as Fardalis for Pardelis in this poem, ivpTjKa spelt tiiptKa in 
 Religio Laici, 43 : and the 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 Astrjea Redux, 
 line 45. 
 
 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 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART I. 283 
 
 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 152 1. They in- 
 vaded Saxony under the leadership of Muncer and Pfeifer ; and in 1532 
 John of Leyden, with a numerous following, seized Miinster and 
 held it till 1535. These Anabaptists committed great cruelties, and 
 they were in the end conquered. John of Leyden was torn to pieces 
 with hot pincers when Miinster 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, 
 towards 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). 
 
 * 11. 62-78. These lines are of great autobiographical importance. They 
 help to explain Dryden's conversion to Roman Catholicism. In his 
 manhood he followed ' false lights,' i. e. the fashionable scepticism of 
 the period. Based on the theories of Kobbes. What attracted him to 
 the Roman ^huTch was the conviction of the fallibility of his own 
 judgment, and the desire for ' an unerring guide.' 
 
 1. 95. Impassible, incapable of suffering, impassibilis (Latin) : itn- 
 passible 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 
 
284 A'OTES. 
 
 Jesus and stood 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 imto 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 quarr)' : 
 
 ' The flames that to their quarry strove.' 
 
 I. 128. bilandcrs, coasting vessels used in Holland and there so called. 
 The French adopted the word bilandre, also from the Dutch. 
 
 II. 134, 135. Could He his Godhead veil -with flesh and blood 
 
 And not veil these again to be oiir food? 
 This pleading of Dr^-den in 1687 for the doctrine of Transubstantiation 
 may be compared with his ridicule of the same doctrine in 1681, 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. Drj'den 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, their ears were prominent. ' The ragged tail 
 betwixt his legs ' was the Presbyterian's Geneva cloak. 
 
 1. 166. haggered, a way of spelling the word haggard, and Dr)-den's 
 usual spelling. But in Part iii. line 1 166 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 reference 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 metropolitan of Britain by Pope Gregory's appointment. 
 Ethelred, the Saxon king of Xorthumberland, defeated the British 
 at Chester, and cut to pieces twelve hundred of the monks of Bangor, 
 who had come to assist their countr)'men 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 Presby- 
 terians of his day are of an inferior race to ' WicklifTs brood ' — the 
 Lollards, cruelly persecuted in the reign of Henry V. 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART I. 285 
 
 1. 180. Zuinglius began to preach the Reformation in Zurich about 
 1518. He was killed in 1531 in a war between the canton of Zurich 
 and four Roman Catholic cantons. 
 
 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 after\vards left Geneva and taught a 
 French congregation at Strasburg. 
 
 1. 183. Sanhedrim ; spelt Saiihedrin by Dryden in Absalom and 
 Achitophel. As in Absalom and Achitophel, 11. 390, 878 Sanhedrin 
 means Parliament. The latter spelling connects the name with the 
 Greek awkhpiov. Dryden has a note on this line 1S3, 'Vide Preface to 
 Heylyn's History of Presbyterians.' 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 San- 
 hedrim, 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 swal- 
 lowed up in a pit which opened in the earth, are here compared to a 
 Presbyterian ' class ' ; classis, order. 
 
 1. 190. 77^;? 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. 
 
 *1. 212. Compare Shakespeare, Tempest, Act v. Sc. i : 
 ' You demipuppets that 
 By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make 
 Whereof the ewe not bites.' 
 1. 235. The ' wolfish crew ' chased from 'Celtic woods' are the French 
 Protestants driven from France by the revocation of the edict of Nantes 
 
286 NOTES. 
 
 in 1685. The contemptuons 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.' 
 Milton followed Spenser, who, in the glossarj' to the Shepherd's Calendar 
 for May, explains ' great Pan,' mentioned in the poem, to be ' Christ the 
 very God of all shepherds. . . The name is most rightly, methinks, applied 
 to him, for Pan signilieth all or omnipotent, which is only the Lord Jesus.' 
 1. 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 y/-i9w io'^ for, 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 sojtls 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' (Halli- 
 well's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words) or ' dung-beetle.' 
 Most commentators interpret 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 scale 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 ' sherdes shyne as the 
 Sonne ' (Confessio Amantis, 1. vi), and describes a serpent, 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART I. 287 
 
 ' He was so sherdid all aboute 
 It held all edge tools withoute.' Id. 1. v. 
 These passatjes 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,' charded 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 ^nobarbus as hovering and gloating 
 with praise equally over C?esar 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 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. 1) 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 potter's 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 (A. S. 
 sceard, a fragment) is preserved in potsherd, fragment of a pot, which 
 occurs, so spelt, in Dryden. Mr. Browning has written in The Ring 
 and the Book : 
 
 ' By the roadside, mid ordure, shards, and weeds.' 
 
 I. 327. The Panther, the Church of England. 
 
 II. 339, 340. Compare with this couplet Juvenal, Sat. xiii. 209 : 
 
 'Nam scelus intra se tacitum qui cogitat ullum, 
 Facti crimen habet.' 
 1. 354. 'Conjugium vocat, hoc praetexit nomine culpam.' 
 
 Virg. Aen. iv. 172. 
 Henry VIII's 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. hattered out, wearied out. The word occurs in Ogilby's 
 
288 A'OTES. 
 
 translation of the Iliad, p. 500, 1669. Jamieson, in his Scottish 
 Dictionan-, 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, 
 travailing. This was the common spelling for the two meanings, 
 'journey' (now spelt travel) and 'labour.' See Part iii. line 411. 
 
 1. 3S8. prcsu7ued 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. phylactci-ies. The accent is on the third syllable, the e being 
 long in Greek, <(>v\aKTripiov. 
 
 I. 409. Derrick and a few other editors have spoilt this line by chang- 
 ing reformed into d-cformcd : 
 
 ' And least deformed, because deformed the least,' 
 which is simple nonsense. 
 
 II. 317-430. Dri-den here criticises the Article of the Church of 
 England on the Eucharist, Art. xx^nii : ' The Supper of the Lord is not 
 only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among 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 mean whereby the 
 body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is faith.' 
 
 1. 442. Alluding to the practice of 'suttee,' i.e. the voluntarj- self- 
 immolation of Hindu widows on the funeral pile of their husbands. 
 
 1. 446. Resolved here means ' dissolved.' It is similarly used in 
 Drj'den's Eleanora, 229 : 
 
 ' Goodness resolved into necessity.' 
 
 I. 449. IsgHm's. Dryden has a note on this word, ' The Wolf.' It is 
 the name given to the wolf in the old German fable of Re}-nard 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 RejTiard 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 Dnden 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. 
 
 II. 460-465. Compare The Medal, 11. 156-166. 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART II. 289 
 
 1. 537. Revelation xiii. The Reformers usually explained the beast 
 as typical of the Church of Rome. 
 
 1. 552. There was an old superstition that the wolf's seeing the man 
 before he saw it, or the sight of a wolf, or the wolf's look, deprived a 
 man of the power of speech : 
 
 ' Vox quoque Moerin 
 Jam fugit ipsa : lupi Moerin videre priores.' 
 
 Virg. Eclogue ix. 33. 
 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. sitffiscd, so spelt in the original edition, and the spelling is here 
 retained ; from the French suffiser. 
 
 The Hind and the Panther. Part II. 
 
 11. i-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. 
 
 1. 21. quarry here stands for game as distinguished from vermin. 
 
 1. 36. 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 what- 
 soever.' 
 
 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 camion 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 
 
 U 
 
290 NOTES, 
 
 published at Rome, circa 1632. Evelyn describes his first visit to this 
 cavern in his Diary, April ii, 1645. 
 
 * 1. 70. ' He seems well enough skilled in the usual topics of argument, 
 endeavours to show the necessity of an infallible judge, and reproaches 
 the Reformers with lack of unity ; but is weak enough to ask, why, since 
 we see without knowing how, we may not have an infallible judge with- 
 out knowing where ? ' Johnson. 
 
 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 minantia pilis.' 
 
 Pharsalja, 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. xx.i. 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. i/ic 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. 255. shelf, rock. Cp. Tennyson, In Memoriam, Stanza xvi, 
 
 ' The unhappy bark 
 That strikes by night a craggy shelf.' 
 1. 26S. These statutes were suspended by James's Declaration of In- 
 dulgence, issued shortly before the publication of the poem. 
 
 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. 16.) 
 
 1. 382. Hungary, then the object of contention between the Turks and 
 Germany. 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART II. 29I 
 
 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-gcneraVva 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.' 
 
 Crown-General was a Polish title. ' The Grand Marshal of the 
 Crown, or Crown-General has very great advantages, and his office gives 
 him the title also of Grand Master of the King's House, Great Master 
 of the Ceremonies, Introductor of Ambassadors,' &c. The Ancient and 
 Present State of Poland, 1697, p. 12. Lines 405-412 refer to the process 
 of electing a King in Poland. 
 
 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 coronation. 
 
 1. 454. The co7isubstantiating CMirch and priest, the Lutherans. 
 1. 499. Compare Milton, Paradise Lost, Bk. iii. 
 
 1. 525. Either the accent is on the second syllable oi spiritual, and so 
 again in line 61 S, 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 Dispensarj^, Act ii. 
 *1. 557. A reference to the practice of transporting criminals to Vir- 
 ginia, Barbadoes and other British colonies. 
 
 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. 
 
 U 2 
 
292 NOTES. 
 
 1. 563. palliard, from the YT&r\c\i paillard, a lewd person. 
 
 1. 565. missioncrs. In the first edition the word was missionaries 
 direct from the French. In the second edition of the poem missioners 
 was substituted. Dryden uses missioner again in his Epistle to Sir 
 George Etherege: 
 
 'Like mighty missioner you come 
 Ad partes ittjidelitim.'' 
 
 1. 571. Industrious of the needle atid the chart. A Latinism, ' Indus- 
 trious of the common good.' (Dr}'den'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. 599. I Samuel .xxi. 9. 
 
 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. 653. Compare Hamlet, Act i. Sc. i. 
 
 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 nocturnal victory ' must be the battle of Sedgmoor, which began 
 soon after midnight, and was not finished till the break of day, July 7, 
 16S5. Drj'den 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. ISIr. Hallam has erroneously explained the 
 ])assage 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 10, 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. 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART III. 293 
 
 I. 721. Gates, provisions; contracted from an old word achates or 
 acates, the French achats. 
 
 The Hind and the Panther. Part III. 
 
 II. 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 these 
 demonstrations in his Prologue to Southeme'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 H's 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 the 
 succession. 
 
 *1. 64. Compare Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. i : 
 ' To the noble mind 
 Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.' 
 1. 85. It shows a rest of kindness to co?nplain. 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.' 
 Rest, i.e. remnant. 
 
 1. 96. spooms. To spoom is a nautical term applied to a ship under 
 sail going before the wind. 
 
294 NOTES. 
 
 1. 114. I am but few. Compare 'a numerous exile,' Part i. 1. 20. 
 
 1. 121. A German quarrel, from the French ' una querelle A Uemande, 
 which means a quarrel picked without cause. 
 
 1. 139. ffty doctrine, a reference to the doctrine of non-resistance pro- 
 fessed by the Church of England. 
 
 1. 143. renounces to my blood. Compare, in Dryden's marginal note. 
 Part ii. 1. 64S, 'renunciation to the abbey-lands.' This is one of Dryden's 
 frequent Gallicisms. 
 
 1. 152. doted, foolish from age. 
 
 I. 160. The 'sons of latitude' are the divines of the Church of 
 England who were for widening its basis and for endeavouring to com- 
 prehend 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. 173. new French proselytes, the exiled Huguenots. 
 
 I. 194. The 'three steeples argent in a sable field,' is supposed to 
 mean plurality of preferments, and Stillingtleet, 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. 201. The grifn logician is a retort on Stillingfleet, who had fre- 
 quently 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 para- 
 phrase of sentences and arguments in Stillingdeet's ' Vindication.' Stil- 
 lingfleet had argued strongly against the imputation on the Reformation, 
 founded on Henry VIH's divorce and marriage, and had hotly contra- 
 dicted 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 ofh one of Dryden's many Gal- 
 licisms. 
 
 II. 247-250. This is not the only occasion on which Drj'den 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 Commissioner 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 
 hlame than the Church. 
 
 1. 256. But imprimatur with a chaplains name. Stillingfleet "s 
 l)amphlets were licensed by the Archbishop of Canterbury's chaplain. 
 
THE HI.\D AND THE PANTHER. PART III. 295 
 
 * 11. 281-297. These lines refer to Dryden himself. He is the ' son ' of 
 the Church mentioned in 1. 298 ; bidden to be patient and sacrifice pride 
 and fame for the sake of his faith. 
 
 11. 307-309. Dryden's charges against Stillingfleet of ' reviling ' and 
 ' cursing' the king are totally unfounded. Stillingfleet's two tracts con- 
 tain nothing disrespectful to Charles, James, or the Duchess of York. 
 
 1. 317. tire, tier of guns. 
 
 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 oiiginal of a treatise which Stillingfleet had 
 treated as an English work on Humility : and Dryden speaks of Dun- 
 comb as the translator. The authors of the parody on The Hind and the 
 Panther twit Dryden with inaccuracy, and say that he has mistaken 
 Duncomb for Allen : ' There are 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 smiilarity 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. 390. Compare Absalom and Achitophel, 1. 535. 
 
 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 16S6, to consider the 
 prospects of their religion in England, Father Petre in the chair. At 
 this meeting the majority were for model ation, 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 against 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. 
 
 * 11. 427-63S. On Martins see Gilbert White's Natural History of Sel- 
 borne, the sixteenth letter to Daines Harrington. They breed the latest 
 and migrate the latest of the swallow tribe. Letter xxi to Barrington is 
 on the Swifts, letter xviii on the house swallow. See also letter xxxvi. 
 
2q6 AVT£S. 
 
 1. 437. c/ieer, face, look. Drj'den uses c/ieer 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 S3. 
 1. 438. And time turned tip 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 Drj-den'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.' 
 Compare also Cowper : 
 
 ' O winter ! ruler of the inverted year.' 
 
 The Task, Bk. iv. 
 *1. 456. machrel gale. Mackerel are best caught during afresh gale of 
 wind, which is therefore called a mackerel gale. Scott in the Antiquary 
 quotes a fragment of a ballad illustrating this belief : 
 
 ' The herring loves the merry moonlight, 
 
 The mackerel loves the wind ; 
 But the oyster loves the dredging sang. 
 For they come of a gentle kind.' 
 1. 468. But little learning 7ieeds 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 Drj'den's feeling. The English Roman Catholics were 
 divided into two parties, moderate Papists and followers of the 
 Jesuits. 
 
 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 comi.x, 
 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, foliisque notas et nomina mandat.' Aen. iii. 443. 
 1. 494. x^^'Stii' (Chelidon) is the Greek for a swallow. 
 1. 520. A'ostradaintis. This general name for a prophet is derived from 
 Michel Notre Dame, a famous French physician and prophet, who was 
 bom 1503, and died 1566. 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART III. 297 
 
 1. 53S. Of Ahaz' dial attd of Joshua's day. For the former see 2 I-Cings 
 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 CEdipus, Act iv. 
 
 1. 611. dorp, a village ; a word of Dutch origin : the English form is 
 thorpe. 
 
 * 1. 631. poled, i.e. knocked them down with poles. Mr. Christie reads 
 ' polled.' 
 
 1. 637. And there his corps, miblesscd, is hajiging still, are is in the 
 early editions instead of is, but this must have been a mistake. 
 
 1. 638. To shoiu the change of luinds 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 finatic 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. ^^ acquired from this work the name of Century 
 White. 
 
 I. 667. Pardalis, the Greek and Latin name for a panther, misspelt 
 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 hea\7 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, 11.) 
 
 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. 
 
 1. 749. stei-ve. 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 say-ve and desarve. The 
 word is printed sterve in one of Dryden's Prologues to the University of 
 Oxford, 16S1 (Globe Edition, p. 451) : 
 
 ' How ill soe'er our action may deserve, 
 Oxford's a place where wit can never sterve.' 
 
298 NOTES. 
 
 11. 754, 755. Tobias drove away the evil spirit which haunted his 
 hiide Raguel by fumigation (Tobit viii. 1-3) : 'And when they had 
 supped, they brought Tobins in unto her. And as he went, he remem- 
 bered 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 Initt 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 perfectly 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 refu-e, 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 Ven- 
 toso and Mustacho, and the following conversation takes place : 
 ' Vent. Duke Trinculo, we have considered. 
 Trhi. 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 Prologue 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. 
 
 * 1. 780. poppit, according to Naresan old form of the word ' puppet.' 
 
 I. 818. Proteus Conscience, never to be tied ! Compare 
 
 ' Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo ? ' 
 
 Horace, Epist. i. i. 90. 
 
 II. 823, S24. Immortal pOTvers the term of Conscience know. 
 
 But Interest is her name ivitli men below. 
 An imitation of Homer : 
 
 "Oi' Bpinpewv KaXiovai Seal, avSpei di t( Trapm 
 Alyaia;!/'. Iliad, i. 403. 
 
 I. 862. reprise, for ' reprisal ' ; so used elsewhere by Dryden. Put 
 I >ryden also uses reprise as the French reprise : 
 
 ' Disease, despair, and death as three reprises bold.' 
 
 P)ritannia Rediviva, 231. 
 
 II. 876-880. These lines refer to James H's open support and aid 
 given to the French Protestant refugees. Iiishop 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 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART III. 299 
 
 lessen the clamour this had raised, yet the King did not stick openly to 
 condemn it as both unchristian 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 immu- 
 nities. So that in all there came over, first to last, between forty and 
 fifty thousand of that nation.' (Hist, of Own Time, i. 664.) 
 
 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 H. See note on Absalom and 
 Achitophel, 1. 253. 
 
 1. 941. the fabric luhere 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 bowlings at fair Cynthia's light.' 
 
 Waller's Poems, p. 314, ed. 1705. 
 1. 975. Here sta>-ved is printed in the original and early editions, 
 though rhyming with served. See note on line 749, where it is sferved, 
 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 H's 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.' 
 
 1. 1024. And sister Partlett, 7vith her hooded head: this is the nun. 
 1. 1056. No Holland emblem could that jnalice 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.' 
 
300 NOTES. 
 
 1. 1065. 7^he birds of Vouis, the Doves ; and the phrase was doubt- 
 less intended to convey a reflection on the Church of England clergy. 
 1. 1074. The lay, i.e. the lay members of the House of Lords. 
 * 11. 1093, 94. This couplet is a free translation of two Greek lines : 
 "Orav b\ Sai/Jxuv dvSpi nopavvp KaKo. 
 Tdv vovv i0\wp( irpuJTOV <f Pov\(vfTai, 
 attributed to Euripides, but really cited by the Scholiast in commenting 
 on a passage of the Antigone of Sophocles. Barnes in his edition of 
 Euripides paraphrases them in his Index by the following line : 
 
 ' Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat.' 
 See a letter by the Rev. Edward Marshall, Literary Churchman, March 
 25, 18S7. 
 
 1. 1 1 19. The 7misquet 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 l>02i)itiful,f orewartis tis twice. Compare 
 
 ' Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.' Virg. Aen. ii. 49. 
 
 II. 1179-S2. This denunciation against Burnet is supposed to refer to 
 evidence 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 rtms 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 unsupport- 
 able calamity, he intoxicates 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. 1 192. Captain of the Test. Burnet was at this time carrj-ing on 
 a controversy 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 
 .Syracuse, became, after he was deposed, a schoolmaster at Corinth. 
 
 1. 126S. the smiths of their o'vn foolish fate. A translation from the 
 Latin, in a passage quoted from Appius in a piece ascribed to Sallust, 
 
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART III. 301 
 
 Epistola ad Caesarem de Republica Ordinanda. i. i : 'Res docuit id 
 verum esse quod in carminibus Appius ait, fabrum esse quemque fortunae 
 suae.' 
 
 * 1. 1278. T1V0 Czars. Peter the Great and his brother Ivan were joint 
 sovereigns of Russia from 16S2. In 16S9 Peter deposed his brother 
 and made himself sole ruler. 
 
 1. 12 S3, Bare bentin^ 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 : 
 
 ' P'or the rabbit that robs scarce a blade or a bent.' 
 
 T^ Of THk 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
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. 
 
 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. 3S8. 
 Affect, V. t. seek, desire. A.M. 273; A. A. 177. 
 Affright, sb. fear. A. A. 71. 
 Alga, &h. sea-weed. A. R. 1 19. 
 Allay, ih. 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. 179: 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. 
 
 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. 
 BUander, sb. coasting vessel. H.P. i. 128. 
 Blatant, adj. howling, barking. H.P. iii. 230. 
 Bleaky, adj. bleak. H.P. iii, 612, 
 
304 
 
 GLOSS A R r. 
 
 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. 
 
 Castor, s6. beaver. A.M. 25. 
 
 Gates, sb. food. H.P. ii. 721. 
 
 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. 45. 
 
 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. 
 
 Covirage, 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. 23S. 
 
 Cross, adv. across. A. M. 156, 233. 
 
 Curtana, s6. the sword of mercy. H.P. ii. 419. 
 
 D. 
 
 Dared, />. /I. frightened, bewildered ; applied to larks. A.M. 195. 
 Dauby, adj. sticky. A. M. 14S. 
 Decease, v. i. die. O. C. 34. 
 Deducement, sb. deduction. Pref. to R. L. 
 
GLOSSARy, 305 
 
 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, s&. force. H.P. iii. 200. 
 
 Disembogue, v. i. empty out. H. P. ii. 562. 
 
 Disheir, v. t. deprive of an heir. H. P. iii. 705. 
 
 Disinteressed, adj. disinterested. R. L. 335. 
 
 Dismission, &b. dismissal. H.P. i. 346. 
 
 Doom, V. t. destine, used familiarly, ' doom wool into France.* A. M. 307. 
 
 Dorp, s6. village. H.P. iii. 611. 
 
 Doted, adj. doting, foolish. H.P. iii. 152. 
 
 E. 
 
 Earthy, adj. of the earth. A. A. 637. 
 
 Eiry, s&. nest. A. M. 107. 
 
 Epoehe, s6. epoch. A. R. 108. 
 
 Essay, &b. 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. 
 
 Fogne, sb. fury. A. R. 203. 
 
 Forbear, v. t. forbear from, spare. A. A. 37. 
 
 Forgot, p. p. forgotten. H.P. ii. 333. 
 
 Fowl, sh. bird, birds, used in plural sense. A. M. 85 ; H. P. i. 1 243. 
 
 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, I187. 
 Froze, p. p. frozen. A. M. 285. 
 
 Gage, sh. pledge. A. M. 20. 
 
 Galled (spelt gauled in original editions), p. p. rubbed. A.M. 148 ; R. L. 
 404. 
 
 X 
 
3o6 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Gaud, sb. ornament. A. M. 206. 
 
 Genius, sb. ' a genius,' a character of genius. Pref. to A. A. 
 
 Give on, v. i. proceed violentl)'. 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, sh. size, A. M. 152, 233 : ' in gross,' in the general, R. L. 322. 
 
 H. 
 Haggared or haggered, adj. haggard, wild. H.P. i. 166 : iii. 11 16. 
 Hard-head, H.P. ii. 443, 
 Hatch, V. t. build. A. M. 198, 28S. 
 Hattered out, p. p. wearied. H. P. i. 371. 
 He. pron. used as substantive, ' another he,' A. A. 861 : ' that universal 
 
 He.'R.L. 15. 
 Heir, V. /. inherit. H.P. iii. 714. 
 Her, pron. in lieu of *s for genitive. A. A. 1008. 
 
 His, />ro;z. in lieu of 's for genitive. A. R. 19, 49, 11 1, 231 ; H.P.ii.655. 
 Hobby, s6. hawk. A.M. 195. 
 Holland, sb. cloth from Holland. A. M. 206. 
 
 I. 
 
 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. 110 : v. i. rejoice, A. M. 117, 181. 
 
 K. 
 
 Ken, sb. sight. A.M. iii, 159. 
 Kem, sb. Irish peasant. A.M. 157. 
 Key, sb. quay. A.M. 231. 
 
GLOSSARY. 307 
 
 L. 
 
 Lade, r. /. 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, sh. a filthy deformed person. Pref. to A. M. 
 
 Leech., sh. doctor. A. R. 175. 
 
 Left, sb. ' left of,' left by. A. A. 568. 
 
 Legator, sb. testator. H. P. ii. 375. 
 
 Letted,/./!, '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. ]\I. 13, 166. 
 
 Linstock, sb. a match-holder for firing cannon. A.M. 188. 
 
 Loll, V. t. stretch out. A. M. 132. 
 
 M. 
 
 Maekrel, 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, sh. a species of swallow. A.M. 110; and note on H. P. iii. 547. 
 
 Miss, V. i. ' miss of.' H.P. iii. 1189. 
 
 Missioner, sb. missionary. H.P. ii. 565. 
 
 Motild, 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. lilS: 'amuck,' from amocca, a 
 
 Malay word for ' kill.' 
 Musqaet, sb. a small hawk. H. P. iii. II19. 
 
 W. 
 
 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, K. 2. be needed. R.L. 126; H. P. iii. 321, I42S. 
 
 Noblesse, sh. nobility. Pref. to A. M. 
 
 Noiseful, adj. noisy. A. M. 40. 
 
 O. 
 
 Obligement, sb. obligation. H.P. i. 4,^7. 
 
 Obscene, adj. loathsome, ugly. H.P. ii. 595, 652 ; iii. 726. 
 
 X 2 
 
3o8 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Officious, adj. obliging, serviceable. O. C. I ; A.M. 184. 
 Out, V. t. oust. Pref. to R. L. 
 
 P. 
 
 Pain, s&. labour. A.M. 32. 
 
 Palliard, sb. a lewd person, a rascal. H. P. it. 563. 
 
 Pardalis, sb. panther. H. P. iii. 667. 
 
 Paronomasia, sb. pun. Pref. to A. M. 
 
 Pay o'er, v. l. spread over. A. M. 147. 
 
 Pile, ib. 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. i. ' presume of.' H.P. i. 388 ; iii. 511. 
 
 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. 641. 
 Prime, sb. spring. H. P. iii. 536. 
 Procedure, sb. proceeding. A. R. 88. 
 Profer, v. t. proffer. H. P. iii. 766. Elsewhere spelt proffer in original 
 
 editions. 
 Proponent, sb. a person propounding. H. P. i. 121. 
 Protractive, a(f/. protracting. H.P. iii. 1 103. 
 Purch.ase, 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. 
 
 B. 
 
 Eabbin, sh. rabbi, doctor among the Jews. A. A. 104. 
 
 Rabbinical, ad], of a doctor. A. A. 658. 
 
 Raise, r. rt. extol. A. A. 110. 
 
 Raven, v. i. hunger. H.P. iii. 964. 
 
 Rebate, r./. 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. 309 
 
 Remnants, 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. 
 E.eno'wn, v. t. make renowned. R. L. 75. 
 Renunciation, sh. used with to after, as the verb renounce. H. P. ii. 648 
 
 (marginal note). 
 Repair, sh. 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, sh. 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, sh. remainder. H. P. iii. 85. 
 RestifF, adj. restive. H. P. 1026. 
 Retire, v. t. draw back. A. M. 249. 
 Rid, V. perfect of ' ride.' Pref. to R. L. 
 
 S. 
 Scanted, pp. curtailed, circumscribed. A. A. 369, 839. 
 Scape, V. J. 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. 18. 
 Sear-cloth, v. t. cover with sear-cloth (cere or wax cloth). A. M. 148. 
 Shard, sh. dung, ordure. H.P. i. 321. 
 Sheer, v. t. cut. A. M. 755. 
 Ship-wrack, sh. shipwreck. A. M. 35. 
 Shipwracked, />. />. A. R. 125; A.M. 2, 71, 251. 
 Shore, s6. sewer. H. P. ii. 558. 
 Sho-w, v.i. appear. A.M. 66, X2i, 126, 296. 
 Sincere, adj. pure. H.P. ii. 250. 
 Sincerely, adv. purely, without alloy. A. A. 43. 
 Sort, sh. number, collection. H. P, iii. 946. 
 Sovereign, adj. all-powerful. O. C. 19. 
 Spoom, V. i. sail before the wind. H. P. iii. 96. 
 Sprite, sh. spirit, H.P. ii. 65.^. 
 Squander, v. t. disperse. A. M. 67. 
 Steepy, adv. steep. A. A. 860. 
 Sterve, v. i. starve. H. P. iii. 749. 
 Stickler, sh. 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. 
 
310 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Suffice, V. I. suffice. H. P. i. 554. 
 
 Swift, adj. ' swift of despatch.' A. A. 191. 
 
 Swisses, ib. plural of Swiss. H. P. iii. IJ'J. 
 
 Tarnish, v. i. become stained. A. A. 249. 
 
 Tax, V. t. accuse, ' tax of.' H. P. iii. 227. 
 
 Tell, V. t. count. A. M. 34, 76. 
 
 Theologue, sh. Theologian. H. P. iii. 1147. 
 
 Thick, adv. quickly following. A.M. 120. 
 
 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, sh. row of guns. H.P. iii. 317. 
 
 Too too, adv. excessively. A. R. iii. 
 
 Took, p. p. taken. A. R. 1 44. 
 
 Traditive, adj. traditional. H.P. ii. 196. 
 
 Transact, v. i. act. H.P. iii. 14. 
 
 Travellour, sb. traveller. A.R. 148. 
 
 Treasonous, adj. treasonable. H.P. iii, 633. 
 
 Trine, sh. conjunction of three planets making a triangle. A.M. 292. 
 
 Trust, V. i. followed by on. A.M. 295. 
 
 Turbulent, fli//. 'turbulent of evil.' A. A. 153. 
 
 TJnblamed, adj. ' uublamed of life.' A. A. 479. 
 Ungodded, /). /. 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. 
 Unsatiate, adj. msatiable. A. A. 987. 
 Unsincere, adj. mixed, alloyed. A. M. 209. 
 Unthrift, s6. prodigal. H. P. iii. 296. 
 
 V. 
 
 Vare, sh. wand. A. A. 595. 
 
 ■w. 
 
 Wait, V. t. attend, accompany. H. P. i. 557, 
 Want, v.t. be without. A. A. 197. 
 
GLOSS ART. 311 
 
 Wanting, adj. needy, poor. A. M. 274; A. A. 407, 892. 
 "Well-breathed, adj. with good lungs. A. A. 630. 
 "Wex, V. t. wax, grow. A. M. 4. 
 Wilder, v. t. bewilder. H. P. ii. 6S2. 
 Witness, sh. evidence. H. P. i. 62. 
 Worser, adj. worse. A. R. 3. 
 
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