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THE   SATIEES    OF   DRYDEN. 


MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,   LIMITED 

LONDON    •    BOMBAY    •   CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW   YORK    •    BOSTON    •    CHICAGO 
ATLANTA    •    SAN    FRANCISCO 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.   OF  CANADA,   LTD. 

TORONTO 


The 

Satires  of  Dryden 

Absalom  and  Achitophel 
The  Medal,  Mac   Flecknoe 


EDITED  WITH  MEMOIR,  INTRODUCTION, 
AND  NOTES  BY 

John  Churton  Collins 

EX  LB 


MACMILLAN    AND    CO.,    LI 
ST.    MARTIN'S    STREET, 
1909 


First  Edition  1897. 
Reprinted  1903,  1905,  1909. 


GLASGOW:   PRINTED  AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

BY   ROBERT   MACLEHOSE    AND   CO.    LTD. 


PREFACE. 


A  GRATEFUL  confession  of  immense  indebtedness  to 
the  labours  of  Sir  Walter  Scott  and  Mr.  W.  D.  Christie 
is,  and  always  must  be,  incumbent  on  any  Editor  of 
the  Satires  of  Dryden.  My  own  indebtedness  to  them 
is  too  great  to  be  specified  in  detail,  and  I  must  there- 
fore satisfy  myself  with  this  general  acknowledgment. 
But  if  they  did  much  they  have  also  left  much  to  be 
done.  Those  who  have  made  Dryden  a  subject  of 
special  study  will  see  that  I  have  contributed  some- 
thing, in  addition  to  what  I  have  derived  from  those 
excellent  commentators,  towards  the  elucidation  of 
obscure  passages,  and  something  also  in  the  way  of 
new  illustrations  and  parallels.  With  two  or  three 
deviations  Mr.  Christie's  text  is  adopted  throughout, 
and  as  this  edition  is  designed  rather  for  students  of 
literature  and  students  of  history  than  for  those  who 
are  interested  in  textual  criticism,  I  have  not  thought 
it  necessary  either  to  discuss  or  mark  various  readings. 
Dryden  is  not  a  classic  in  whose  style  minutiae  of 
this  kind  are  of  importance. 

The    notes    on    the    Second    Part   of    Absalom   and 
Achitophel   have   been   designedly   curtailed ;    it  would 


vi  PREFACE. 

be  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  rubbish  of  Tate  would 
find  critical  readers  now,  but  as  Tate's  contribution 
is  interesting  historically  it  has  been  reprinted  in 
its  entirety,  and  the  historical  references  have  been 
explained. 

To  prevent  possible  misunderstanding  I  ought  per- 
haps to  add,  that  in  the  Memoir  and  General  Intro- 
duction I  have  incorporated,  here  and  there,  a  few 
sentences  from  an  article  on  Dryden  contributed  by 
me  some  years  ago  to  the  Quarterly  Review. 


CONTENTS. 


PAOE 

PREFACE,    -  v 
MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN,                  ......        ix 

INTRODUCTION  TO  ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL,  -  -        -  xxxiii 

ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL,  PART  I.,       -        -  -        -          1 

ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL,  PART  II.,      -        -  -        34 

THE  MEDAL,       ...  68 

MAC  FLECKNOE,                                           -        -  -        -        84 

NOTES, 

INDEX  TO  NOTES,        -  134 


MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN. 

JOHN  DRYDEN,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  among 
poets  of  the  secondary  rank,  the  founder  of  an  im- 
portant dynasty  of  English  poets,  and  the  father  of 
English  criticism,  was  born  at  Aldwincle,  a  village 
near  Oundle  in  Northamptonshire,  on  the  9th  of 
August,  1631.  His  family,  though  not  noble,  was 
eminently  respectable.  His  paternal  grandfather,  Sir 
Erasmus  Dryden,  was  a  baronet,  and  through  his 
mother,  Mary  Pickering,  he  was  at  once  the  great- 
grandson  of  one  baronet,  Sir  Gilbert  Pickering,  and  the 
first  cousin  of  Sir  Gijbert's  namesake  and  immediate 
successor.  In  the  great  revolution  of  the  17th  century 
both  the  Drydens  and  the  Pickerings  were  on  the  side 
of  the  Parliament.  And  when,  many  years  afterwards, 
Dryden  became  the  champion  of  the  Court  Party  and 
the  Roman  Catholics,  he  was  reminded,  with  taunts, 
that  one  of  his  uncles  had  turned  the  chancel  of  the 
church  at  Canons  Ashbey  into  a  barn,  and  that  his 
father  had  served  as  a  Committee  man. 

Of  his  early  youth  little  is  known.  If  the  in- 
scription on  the  monument  erected  by  his  cousin, 
Mrs.  Creed,  in  Tichmarsh  Church  be  trustworthy, 
he  received  the  rudiments  of  his  education  some- 

ix 


x  MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN. 

where  in  that  village.  From  Tichmarsh  he  passed 
to  Westminster  School,  probably  about  1642.  We 
have  now  no  means  of  knowing  the  exact  date  of  his 
entering  Westminster,  nor  do  we  know  why  this 
particular  school  was  selected.  But  the  choice  was  a 
wise  one.  Richard  Busby  had,  some  three  years 
before,  succeeded  Osbolston  in  the  headmastership. 
Under  Osbolston  the  school  had  greatly  declined,  but 
it  was  now,  in  Busby's  hands,  rapidly  rising  to  the 
first  place  among  English  schools  of  that  day,  and 
Dryden  had  the  inestimable  advantage  of  being  the 
pupil  of  a  man  who  was  destined  to  become  the  king 
of  English  schoolmasters.  "  I  have  known  great  num- 
bers of  his  scholars,"  writes  Steele,  "  and  am  confident 
I  could  discover  a  stranger  who  had  been  such  with 
a  very  little  conversation.  Those  of  great  parts  who 
have  passed  through  his  instruction  have  such  a  peculiar 
readiness  of  fancy  and  delicacy  of  taste  as  is  seldom 
found  in  men  educated  elsewhere,  though  of  equal 
talents."  Among  Busby's  pupils  were  the  poets  Lee, 
Prior,  King,  Rowe,  Duke,  and  the  learned  Edmund 
Smith,  the  philosopher  Locke,  the  theologians  South 
and  Atterbury,  the  most  illustrious  of  English  financiers, 
Charles  Montagu,  afterwards  Earl  of  Halifax ;  the  poet- 
diplomatist,  George  Stepney ;  the  most  accomplished 
of  physicians,  John  Friend ;  the  wits  and  scholars, 
Robert  Friend  and  Anthony  Alsop;  the  distinguished 
classical  scholar,  Mattaire ;  while  he  could  boast  that 
eight  of  his  pupils  had  been  raised  to  the  bench,  and 
that  no  less  than  sixteen  had  become  bishops.  Busby's 
influence  on  Dryden  was  undoubtedly  great.  He  saw 
and  encouraged  his  peculiar  bent.  He  appears  to  have 


MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN.  xi 

allowed  him  to  substitute  composition  in  English  for 
composition  in  Latin  and  Greek,  and  he  encouraged 
him  to  turn  portions  of  Persius  and  other  Roman 
poets  into  English  verse.  Despairing,  probably,  of 
ever  making  him  an  exact  verbal  scholar,  he  was 
satisfied  with  enabling  him  to  read  Latin,  if  not  Greek, 
with  accuracy  and  facility.  Dr}rden  never  forgot  his 
obligations  to  Busby.  Thirty  years  afterwards,  when 
the  Westminster  boy  had  become  the  first  poet  and 
the  first  critic  of  his  age,  he  dedicated,  with  exquisite 
propriety,  to  his  old  schoolmaster  his  translation  of  the 
Satire  in  which  Persius  records  his  reverence  and  grati- 
tude to  Cornutus.  From  Westminster  he  proceeded  to 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  He  was  entered  on  the 
18th  of  May,  1650;  he  matriculated  in  the  following 
July,  and  on  the  2nd  of  October  in  the  same  year  he 
was  elected  a  scholar  on  the  Westminster  foundation. 
Of  his  life  at  Cambridge  very  little  is  known.  Like 
Milton  before  him,  and  like  Gray,  Wordsworth,  and 
Coleridge  after  him,  he  appears  to  have  had  no 
respect  for  his  teachers,  and  to  have  taken  his  edu- 
cation into  his  own  hands.  From  independence 
to  rebellion  is  an  easy  step,  and  an  entry  may  still 
be  read  in  the  Conclusion-book  at  Trinity,  which 
charges  him  with  disobedience  to  the  Vice-Master  and 
with  contumacy  in  taking  the  punishment  inflicted  on 
him.  It  would  seem  also  from  an  allusion  in  a  satire 
of  Shadwell's  that  he  got  into  some  scrape  for  libelling 
a  young  nobleman,  which,  had  he  not  anticipated  con- 
demnation by  flight,  would  have  ended  in  his  expulsion 
from  the  University.  But  as  this  is  without  corrobora- 
tion  of  any  kind  and  rests  only  on  the  authority  of 


xii  MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN. 

Shadwell,  it  is  now  impossible  to  disengage  the  little 
which  is  probably  true  in  the  story  from  the  greater 
part  which  is  plainly  fictitious.  How  long  Dryden 
remained  at  Cambridge  is  uncertain.  He  took  the 
degree  of  B.A.  in  January,  1654.  In  June  of  the 
same  year  his  father  died,  and  on  his  father's  death 
he  succeeded  to  a  small  property.  Of  his  movements 
during  the  next  three  years  nothing  certain  is  known. 
It  seems  clear  that  he  did  not  return,  as  Malone  and 
the  biographers  who  have  followed  Malone  have  sup- 
posed, to  Cambridge.  By  the  middle  of  1657  he  had  in 
all  probability  settled  in  London. 

Cromwell  was  then,  though  harassed  with  accumulat- 
ing difficulties,  in  the  zenith  of  his  power,  and  Dryden's 
cousin,  Sir  Gilbert  Pickering,  stood  high  in  the  Protec- 
tor's favour.  As  young  Dryden  was  on  friendly  terms 
with  Sir  Gilbert,  who  appears  to  have  received  him  with 
much  kindness,  he  had  good  reason  for  supposing  that 
an  opening  would  soon  be  found  for  him.  His  social 
and  political  prospects  were  indeed  far  more  promising 
than  his  prospects  as  a  poet.  He  was  now  in  his  twenty- 
seventh  year.  At  an  age  when  Aristophanes,  Catullus, 
Lucan,  Persius,  Milton,  Tasso,  Shelley,  Keats,  and  in- 
numerable others,  had  won  immortal  fame,  he  had  evinced 
no  symptom  of  poetic  genius;  he  had  proved,  on  the 
contrary,  that  he  was  ignorant  of  the  very  rudiments  of 
his  art,  that  he  had  still  to  acquire  what  all  other  poets 
instinctively  possess.  A  few  lines  to  his  cousin,  Honor, 
"  so  middling  bad  were  better,"  an  execrable  elegy  on 
Lord  Basting's  death,  and  a  commendatory  poem  on  his 
friend  Hoddesden's  Epigrams  immeasurably  inferior  to 
what  Pope  and  Kirke  White  produced  at  twelve,  showed 


MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN.  xiii 

that  he  had  no  ear  for  verse,  no  command  of  poetic 
diction,  no  sense  of  poetic  taste.  The  transformation  of 
the  author  of  these  poems  into  the  author  of  Absalom 
and  Achitophel,  the  Religio  Laici,  and  the  Hind  and 
Panther,  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in  the  history 
of  literature. 

Sir  Gilbert  was  not  able  to  do  much  for  his  young 
relative.  In  September,  1658,  Cromwell  died,  and  at 
the  beginning  of  the  following  year  Dryden  published 
a  copy  of  verses  to  deplore  the  event.  The  Heroic 
Stanzas  on  the  Death  of  the  Lord  Protector  inaugurate  his 
poetical  career.  His  biography  from  this  point  may  be 
conveniently  divided  into  four  epochs.  The  first  ex- 
tends to  the  publication  of  the  Essay  of  Dramatic  Poesy 
in  1668,  the  second  to  the  appearance  of  the  Spanish 
Friar  in  the  autumn  of  1681,  the  third  to  the  publica- 
tion of  the  Britannia  Rediviva  in  June,  1688,  and  the 
fourth  to  his  death  in  1700. 

1659-1668. 

The  death  of  Cromwell  changed  the  face  of  affairs, 
and,  after  nearly  eighteen  months  of  anarchy,  Charles  II. 
was  on  the  throne  of  his  ancestors.  Dryden  lost  no 
time  in  attempting  to  ingratiate  himself  with  the 
Royalists,  and  the  three  poems  succeeding  the  Heroic 
Stanzas,  namely,  Astrcea  Redux  (1660),  the  Panegyric  on 
the  Coronation  (April,  1661),  and  the  Epistle  to  the  Lord 
Chancellor  (New  Year's  Day,  1662),  were  written  to  wel- 
come Charles  II.  and  to  flatter  his  minister  Clarendon. 
These  poems  are  evidently  the  fruit  of  much  labour,  and 
recall  in  their  versification  and  tone  of  thought  the 
characteristics  of  the  masters  of  the  "Critical  School" — 


xiv  MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN. 

Waller,  Denham,  Cowley,  and  Davenant,  plainly  Dry- 
den's  models  at  this  time.  In  November,  1662,  Dryden 
became  a  member  of  the  newly-founded  Eoyal  Society, 
and  in  the  following  year  his  interest  in  scientific 
studies  found  expression  in  a  copy  of  verses  addressed 
to  Dr.  Walter  Charleton,  and  inserted  in  Charleton's 
treatise  on  Stonehenge.  This,  according  to  Hallam,  is 
the  first  of  Dryden's  poems  which  "possesses  any  con- 
siderable merit,"  the  first,  as  Scott  observes,  in  which  he 
threw  off  the  shackles  of  the  "Metaphysical  School,"  as 
it  is  certainly  the  first  in  which  he  strikes  his  own 
peculiar  note. 

Dryden  had  now  seriously  commenced  his  career 
as  a  professional  man  of  letters,  and  attached  himself 
to  Herringman,  a  bookseller  in  the  New  Exchange. 
For  some  months  he  appears  to  have  been  a  kind 
of  hack  to  Herringman,  producing  various  trifles  in 
current  ephemeral  publications.  In  1663,  he  took 
two  important  steps,  which  were  to  affect  greatly  his 
future  life.  In  December  he  married  the  Lady  Eliza- 
beth Howard,  the  sister  of  his  friend  Sir  Robert 
Howard,  and  one  of  the  daughters  of  the  Earl  of 
Berkshire.  She  bore  him  three  sons,  but  it  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  a  happy  marriage,  and 
though  we  need  not  suppose  that  Dryden's  frequent 
and  bitter  sneers  at  marriage  were  anything  more 
than  a  concession  to  the  fashionable  cant  of  the  age, 
it  is  not  unlikely  that  his  own  experience,  in  some 
degree,  flavoured  and  coloured  them.  Shortly  before 
his  marriage,  began  his  connection  with  the  theatres, 
and  this  connection  was,  with  some  interruptions,  con- 
tinued till  within  six  years  of  his  death,  his  first  play, 


MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN.  xv 

The  Wild  Gallant,  being  acted  in  1663,  his  last,  Love 
Triumphant,  in  1694.  Johnson  has  lamented  the  neces- 
sity of  following  the  progress  of  Dryden's  theatrical 
fame,  but  observes  at  the  same  time  that  the  com- 
position and  fate  of  eight  and  twenty  dramas  include 
too  much  of  a  poetical  life  to  be  omitted.  They 
include,  unhappily,  the  best  years  of  that  life ;  they 
prevented,  as  their  author  pathetically  complains,  the 
composition  of  works  better  suited  to  his  genius.  Had 
fortune  allowed  him  to  indulge  that  genius  Lucretius 
might  have  found  his  equal  and  Lucan  his  superior. 
He  had  bound  himself,  however,  to  the  profession 
of  a  man  of  letters;  he  had  taken  to  literature  as  a 
trade,  and  it  was,  therefore,  necessary  for  him  to 
supply  not  the  commodities  of  which  he  happened 
to  have  a  monopoly,  but  the  commodities  of  which 
his  customers  had  need.  Those  who  live  to  please 
must,  as  he  well  knew,  please  to  live.  His  first  play, 
The  Wild  Gallant  (1663),  was  a  failure.  "As  poor  a 
thing,"  writes  Pepys,  "  as  ever  as  I  saw  in  my  life." 
Comedy,  indeed,  as  he  soon  found,  was  not  within  his 
range,  and  though  he  lived  to  produce  five  others  by 
dint  of  wholesale  plagiarism  from  Moliere,  Quinault, 
Corneille,  and  Plautus,  and  by  laboriously  interpolating 
indecency  which  may  challenge  comparison  with  Lind- 
say's Philotus  or  Fletcher's  Custom  of  the  County,  two  of 
them  were  hissed  off  the  stage,  one  was  indifferently  re- 
ceived, and  the  other  two  are  inferior  in  comic  effect  to 
the  poorest  of  Wy  cherley's.  He  says  himself  in  the  Defence 
of  the  Essay  on  Dramatic  Poesy,  "  I  am  not  so  fitted  by 
nature  to  write  comedy.  I  want  that  gaiety  of  humour 
which  is  required  to  it.  My  conversation  is  slow  and 

b 


xvi  MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN. 

dull,  my  humour  saturnine  and  reserved.  So  that  those 
who  decry  my  comedies  do  me  no  injury  except  it  be  in 
point  of  profit;  reputation  in  them  is  the  last  thing 
to  which  I  shall  pretend."  He  had  indeed  no  humour ; 
he  had  no  grace ;  he  had  no  eye  for  those  finer  impro- 
prieties of  character  and  conduct  which  are  to  comedy 
what  passion  is  to  tragedy.  What  wit  he  had  was 
coarse  and  serious;  he  had  no  power  of  inventing 
ludicrous  incidents ;  he  could  not  manage  the  light 
artillery  of  colloquial  raillery.  In  his  next  play,  The 
Rival  Ladies  (printed  in  1664),  he  exchanged  in  the 
lighter  parts  plain  prose  for  blank  verse,  and  he  wrote 
the  tragic  portions  in  highly  elaborate  rhyming  couplets, 
prefixing  to  it,  in  the  form  of  a  dedicatory  Epistle  to  the 
Earl  of  Orrery,  the  first  of  those  delightful  critical  pre- 
faces which  form  one  of  the  most  valuable  and  pleasing 
portions  of  his  writings.  The  Rival  Ladies  was  well  re- 
ceived, and  he  hastened  to  assist  his  friend  and  brother- 
in-law,  Sir  Robert  Howard,  in  the  composition  of  The 
Indian  Queen  (January,  1664).  This  was  a  great  success. 
It  probably  revealed  to  Dryden  where  his  real  strength 
lay.  The  drama  belonged  to  those  curious  exotics 
known  as  the  Heroic  Plays.  Of  these  plays,  of  their 
origin  and  character,  Dryden  has  himself  given  us  an 
interesting  account  in  the  essay  prefixed  to  The  Conquest 
of  Granada. 

"The  first  light  we  had  of  them  in  the  English  Theatre  was 
from  the  late  Sir  William  Davenant.  It  being  forbidden  him  in 
the  rebellious  times  to  'act  tragedies  and  comedies,  because  they 
contained  some  matter  of  scandal  to  those  good  people  who  could 
more  easily  dispossess  their  lawful  sovereign  than  endure  a 
wanton  jest,  he  was  forced  to  turn  his  thoughts  another  way, 
and  to  introduce  the  examples  of  moral  virtue,  writ  in  verse,  and 


MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN.  xvii 

performed  in  recitative  music.  The  original  of  this  music  he  had 
from  the  Italian  operas ;  but  he  heightened  his  characters  (as  I 
may  probably  imagine)  from  the  example  of  Corneille  and  some 
French  poets.  In  this  condition  did  this  part  of  poetry  remain 
at  his  Majesty's  return,  when  growing  bolder,  as  being  now 
owned  by  a  public  authority,  he  reviewed  his  Siege  of  Rhodes, 
and  caused  it  to  be  acted  as  a  just  drama.  For  myself  and 
others  who  came  after  him  we  are  bound,  with  all  veneration  to 
his  memory,  to  acknowledge  what  advantage  we  received  from 
that  excellent  ground  work  which  he  laid.  .  .  Having  done 
him  this  justice  as  my  guide,  I  will  do  myself  so  much  as  to  give 
an  account  of  what  I  have  performed  after  him.  I  observed 
then,  as  I  said,  what  was  wanting  to  the  perfection  of  his  Siege 
of  Rhodes,  which  was  design  and  variety  of  characters.  And  in 
the  midst  of  this  consideration,  by  mere  accident,  I  opened  the 
next  book  that  lay  by  me,  which  was  an  Ariosto  in  Italian  ;  and 
the  very  first  two  lines  of  that  poem  gave  me  light  to  all  I  could 
desire — 

'  Le  donne,  i  cavalier,  1'arme,  gli  amori, 
Le  cortesie,  1'audaci  imprese  io  canto.' 

For  the  very  next  reflection  that  I  made  was  this  :  that  an 
heroic  play  ought  to  be  an  imitation  in  little  of  an  heroic  poem, 
and  consequently  that  love  and  valour  ought  to  be  the  subject 
of  it."* 

Dryden  has  omitted  to  notice  that  these  plays  un- 
doubtedly owed  much  both  to  the  French  dramatists, 
particularly  to  Corneille,  and  to  the  French  Heroic 
Romances  of  D'Urf6,  Gomberville,  Calprenede,  and 

*  Dr.  Ward,  following  Sir  Walter  Scott  and  others,  asserts  in 
his  English  Dramatic  Literature  that  Roger  Boyle,  Earl  of 
Orrery,  was  the  originator  of  these  rhymed  Heroic  Plays,  and  he 
refers  in  proof  of  the  statement  to  Dryden 's  Preface  to  The  Rival 
Ladies.  But  Dryden  says  nothing  of  the  kind.  He  represents 
himself  as  being  the  originator  of  these  plays,  afterwards  modi- 
fying this  statement  by  assigning  to  Davenant  the  credit  of 
having  given  the  hint  for  them. 


xviii  MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN. 

Madame  de  Scuderi,  borrowing  from  the  first  the  cast 
of  the  rhymed  verse,  and  from  the  second  the  stilted 
and  bombastic  sentiment,  as  well  as  innumerable  hints 
in  matters  of  detail. 

With  this  notion  of  the  scope  and  functions  of  the 
Heroic  Drama,  Dryden  set  to  work.  Carefully  selecting 
such  material  as  would  be  most  appropriate  for  rhetorical 
treatment  and  most  remote  from  ordinary  life,  he  drew 
sometimes  on  the  Heroic  French.  Romances,  as  in  The 
Maiden  Queen,  which  is  derived  from  The  Grand  Cyrus, 
and  in  The  Conquest  of  Granada,  which  is  based  on  the 
Almahide  of  Madame  Scuderi;  sometimes  on  the  exotic 
fictions  of  Spanish,  Portuguese,  or  Eastern  legend,  as  in 
The  Indian  Emperor  and  Aurengzebe ;  or  on  the  misty 
annals  of  early  Christian  martyrology,  as  in  The  Royal 
Martyr ;  or  on  the  dreamland  of  poets,  as  in  The  State  of 
Innocence.  All  is  false  and  unreal.  The  world  in  which 
his  characters  move  is  not  merely  a  world  which  has  no 
counterpart  in  human  experience,  but  is  so  incongruous 
and  chaotic  that  it  is  simply  unintelligible  and  unim- 
aginable, even  as  fiction.  His  men  and  women  are  men 
and  women  on/y  by  courtesy.  It  would  be  more  correct 
to  speak  of  them  as  puppets  tricked  out  in  phantastic 
tinsel,  the  showman,  as  he  jerks  them,  not  taking  the 
trouble  to  speak  through  them  in  falsetto,  but  merely  talk- 
ing in  his  natural  voice.  And  in  nearly  every  drama  we 
have  the  same  leading  puppets — the  one  in  a  male,  the 
other  in  a  female  form.  The  male  impersonates  either  a 
ranting,  blustering  tyrant,  all  fanfarado  and  bombast, 
like  Almanzor  and  Maximim,  or  some  sorely-tried  and 
pseudo-chivalrous  hero,  like  Cortez  and  Aurungzebe;  the 
female  some  meretricious  Dulcinea,  who  is  the  object  of 


MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN.  xix 

the  male  hero's  desires  and  adoration.  This  Dulcinea 
has  usually  some  rival  Dulcinea  to  vex  and  bring  her 
out,  and  the  tyrant,  or  preux  chevalier,  some  rival 
opponent  who  serves  the  same  purpose.  This  enables 
the  poet  to  pit  these  characters  against  each  other  in 
declamation  and  dialogue,  and  it  is  these  interbanded 
declamations  and  dialogues  which  make  up  the  greater 
part,  or  at  least  the  most  effective  parts,  of  the  dramas. 
Not  that  scenic  effects  are  ignored,  for  battles,  pro- 
cessions, feasts,  sensational  arrests,  harryings,  murders, 
and  attempted  murders,  outrages,  and  every  variety  of 
agitating  surprise  break  up  and  diversify  these  dialogues 
and  declamations  with  most  admired  disorder.  But 
worthless  and  absurd  as  these  plays  are  from  a  dramatic 
point  of  view,  they  are  very  far  from  being  without  merit. 
The  charm  of  their  versificationT  which  is  seen  in  its 
highest  perfection  in  The  Conquest  of  Granada,  The  Indian 
Emperor,  Aurenqzebe,  and  The  State  of  Innocence  is  irre- 
sistible,  preserving  a  singular  and  exquisite  combination 
of  dignity  and  grace,  of  vigour  and  sweetness.  Dry  den 
is  always  impressive  when  he  clothes  moral  reflections 
in  verse,  and  some  of  his  finest  passages  in  this  kind  are 
to  be  found  in  these  plays.  But  perhaps  their  most 
remarkable  feature  is  the  rhymed  argumentative  dialogue. 
Dry  den's  power  of  maintaining  an  argument  in  verse, 
of  putting  with  epigrammatic  terseness,  JQ_  sono- 
rous^and_musjcal  rhythm,  the  case  for  and  against 
in  any  given  subject,  was  unrivalled ;  and  he 
revelled  in  its  exercise.  We  may  select  for  illus- 
tration the  dialogue  between  Almanzor  and  Alma- 
hide  in  the  third  act  of  the  First  Part  of  the  Con- 
quest of  Granada;  that  between  Cydaria  and  Cortez  in 


xx  MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN. 

the  second  act  of  The  Conquest  of  Mexico;  that  between 
Indamora  and  Arimant  in  the  second  act  of  Aurengzebe  ; 
and  that  in  which  St.  Catharine  converts  Apollonius 
from  Paganism  to  Christianity  in  the  second  act  of 
Tyrannic  Love.  But  if  these  plays  add  nothing  to 
jDryden's  reputation,  it  was  in  their  composition  that 
ne  trained,  developed,  and  matured  the  powers  which 
enabled  him  to  produce  with  a  rapidity  so  wonderful 
phe  masterpieces  on  which  his  fame  rests. 

In  the  summer  of  1665  the  plague  closed  the  theatres, 
and  drove  all  whose  circumstances  enabled  them  to  leave 
London  into  the  country.  The  greater  part  of  the  time 
intervening  between  the  breaking  up  of  the  plague  and 
the  beginning  of  1667  Dry  den  appears  to  have  passed 
at  Charlton  Park,  in  Wiltshire,  the  seat  of  his  father-in- 
law.  He  occupied  his  time  in  the  production  of  two 
memorable  works  —  the  Annus  Mirabilis  and  the  Essay  of 
Dramatic  Poesy  —  the  one  being  published  in  1667,  the 
other  in  1668.*  Both  these  works  may  be  said  to  mark 
epochs  in  the  history  of  English  literature.  The  Annus 
Mirabilis,  which  is  a  historical  narrative  of  the  chief 
incidents  of  the  year  1666  —  the  war  against  Holland  in 
coalition  with  France,  and  the  Fire  of  London  —  exhibits 
ti  with  singular  precision  the  characteristics  of  that  school 
*  I  of  poetry  of  which  Dry  den  was  to  be  the  leader  —  the 


of  rhetoric)     In   the  Essa/u  of  Dramatic  Poesy 
Dryden  not  only  gave  the  first  striking  illustration  of  his 
(  characteristic  jprose  style^but  he  produced  what  is  incom- 

*It  was  entered  on  the  Stationers'  Books  August  7th,  1667, 
and,  according  to  Malone,  published  in  that  year,  but  the  date 
on  the  title  page  of  the  first  edition  is  1668  :  books,  it  may  be 
added,  were  in  those  days  not  unfrequently  ante-dated. 


MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN.  xxi 

parably  the  (best  critical  treatiseWhich  had  appeared  in 
our  language.  From  the  Annus  Mirabilis  dates  the  defin- 
ition and  dominance  of  the  "  Critical  School  "  in  poetry ; 
from  the  Essay  of  Dramatic  Poesy  the  definition  and  domin- 
ance of  the  modern  as  distinguished  from  the  Elizabethan 
and  Caroline  style,  and  the  appearance  in  England  of 
literary  criticism  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  term. 

1668-1681. 

On  his  return  to  London,  probably  in  the  autumn  of 
1667,  he  betook  himself  immediately  to  dramatic  work, 
and  about  this  time  contracted  with  the  Company  of  the 
King's  Theatre  to  supply  them,  in  consideration  of 
receiving  a  share  and  a  quarter  of  the  profits  of  the 
theatre,  with  three  plays  a  year.  He  did  not  fulfil  his 
share  of  the  contract,  but  the  Company,  with  great 
liberality,  allowed  him  to  receive,  in  return  for  the  plays 
which  he  did  write,  the  full  sum  originally  agreed  upon. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  enumerate  the  plays  produced 
by  him  during  these  years.  In  August,  1670,  he 
succeeded  James  Howell  as  Historiographer  Royal,  and 
Sir  William  Davenant  as  Poet  Laureate. 

And  now  he  was  brought  into  contact  with  opponents 
who  disturbed  his  peace,  and  whom  he  was  destined 
to  gibbet,  for  the  amusement  of  contemporaries  and 
posterity, — with  Zimri  and  Doeg,  with  Og  and  Mephi- 
bosheth.  Dryden's  Heroic  Plays  were  at  this  time  the 
rage  of  the  town.  How  easily  they  lent  themselves  to 
ridicule,  to  ludicrous  parodies  of  their  style,  to  burlesque 
travesties  of  their  sentiments,  their  incidents  and  their 
characters,  must  have  been  obvious  to  any  mischievous 
humourist.  The  Duke  of  Buckingham,  then  one  of  the 


Xxii  MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN. 

leading  wits  and  most  prominent  figures  in  Court  and  in 
theatrical  circles,  had  long  had  his  eye  on  them.  Calling 
to  his  assistance  Martin  Clifford,  Thomas  Sprat,  and,  it 
is  said,  Samuel  Butler,  he  produced  a  farce  called  The 
Rehearsal — a  farce  which  subsequently  furnished  Sheridan 
with  the  idea  and  with  many  of  the  points  of  The  Critic. 
The  central  figure  of  the  piece  is  a  silly  and  conceited 
dramatist,  Bayes ;  and  Bayes  is  Dryden.  With  all  the 
licence  of  the  Athenian  stage,  Dryden's  personal  peculi- 
arities, his  florid  complexion,  his  dress,  his  snuff-taking, 
the  tone  of  his  voice,  his  gestures,  his  favourite  oaths, 
"Gad's  my  life,"  "  I'fackins,"  "  Gadsooks,"  and  the 
like,  were  faithfully  caught  and  copied.  Buckingham, 
who  was  inimitable  as  a  mimic,  spent  immense  pains  in 
training  Lacy,  the  actor,  to  sustain  the  part.  In  a  few 
weeks  Bayes,  indistinguishable  from  Dryden,  was  con- 
vulsing all  London  with  laughter,  and  Dryden  had  more- 
over the  mortification  of  hearing  that  the  very  theatre, 
which  had,  a  few  nights  before,  been  ringing  with  the 
sonorous  couplets  of  his  Siege  of  Granada,  was  now  hoarse 
with  laughing  at  ludicrous  parodies  of  his  favourite 
passages  and  most  effective  scenes.  He  made  no  immed- 
iate reply,  but  calmly,  or  with  affected  indifference, 
admitted  that  the  satire  had  a  great  many  good  strokes. 
But  this  was  not  the  only  annoyance  to  which  he  was 
submitted.  About  a  year  and  a  half  afterwards  Wilmot, 
Earl  of  Rochester,  had  for  some  reason,  which  cannot 
now  be  certainly  explained,  resolved  to  annoy  Dryden. 
He  had  for  this  purpose  become  the  patron  of  a  wretched 
poetaster  named  Elkanah  Settle,  who  had  just  written  a 
play  in  every  way  worthy  of  its  author,  entitled  The 
Empress  of  Morocco.  By  the  Earl's  influence  it  was  acted 


MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEK  xxiii 

at  Whitehall,  the  lords  at  Court  and  the  maids  of  honour 
supporting  the  principal  characters.  It  was  then  splen- 
didly printed,  adorned  with  cuts,  and  inscribed  to  the 
Earl  of  Norwich  in  a  dedication  in  which  Dryden  was 
studiously  insulted.  The  town  was  loud  in  its  praises, 
and  Dryden,  it  was  said,  had  found  a  formidable  rival. 
With  Aurengzebe,  which  appeared  in  1675,  Dryden 
closed  his  series  of  Heroic  Plays.  He  had  now,  he  said, 

1  another  taste  of  wit,  and  was  growing  weary  of  his  long- 
loved  mistress,  Rhyme.  "  He  was  anxious  indeed,"  as 
he  writes  in  the  interesting  dedication  of  Aurengzebe  to 
Mulgrave,  "  to  make  the  world  amends  for  many  ill 
plays  by  an  lierpic  jpoem,"  and  this  project  he  long 
nursed.  In  his  Essay  on  Satire  he  tells  that  he  had  had 
two  subjects  for  such  a  poem  in  his  mind — the  one  King 
Arthur  conquering  the  Saxons,  the  other  the  subjugation 
of  Spain  and  the  restoration  of  Pedro  by  the  Black  Prince. 
But  poverty  compelled  him  to  abandon  the  idea,  and  the 
necessity  of  providing  for  the  passing  hour  confined  him 
to  deal  only  with  what  was  of  interest  to  the  passing 
hour,  and  to  the  passing  hour,  unhappily,  of  the  world 
of  Charles  II.  And  so  it  was  left  for  Scott  to  lament — 

"  Dryden  in  immortal  strain 
Had  rais'd  the  Table  Round  again, 
But  that  a  ribbald  King  and  Court 
Bade  him  toil  on  to  make  them  sport, 
Demanded  for  their  niggard  pay, 
Fit  for  their  souls  a  looser  lay, 
Licentious  satire,  song  and  play. 
The  world  defrauded  of  the  high  design 
Profaned  the  God-given  strength  and  marr'd  the 
lofty  rhyme. "  * 

*  Introduction  to  Marmion. 


xxiv  MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN. 

Macaulay,  though  fully  aware  of  the  limitations  of 
Dryden's  powers  as  a  poet,  regrets  that  this  heroic  poem 
was  never  written.  But  the  loss  is  probably  not  a  great 
one.  Nature  never  intended  him  to  be  the  rival  of 
Virgil  and  Milton,  but  there  is  every  indication  that 
she  had  well  qualified  him  to  become  the  rival  of 
Lucretius  and  Juvenal. 

In  his  next  play,  All  for  Love  (1677-8),  he  declared 
himself  the  disciple  of  Shakespeare,  and  exchanged 
rhymejor  blank  verge.  It  stands  with  Dm  Sebastian  at 
the  head  of  his  dramas,  and  may  be  said  to  stand  high 
in  tragedy  of  the  secondary  order — of  the  tragedy,  that  is 
to  say,  of  rhetoric,  as  distinguished  from  the  tragedy  of 
nature  and  passion.  Dryden  was  now  at  the  height  of 
his  theatrical  fame.  All  for  Love  had  been  a  great 
success,  and  though  the  plays  produced  subsequently — 
CEdipus  written  in  conjunction  with  Nathaniel  Lee, 
Troilus  and  Cressida,  and  Limberham,  the  most  disgraceful 
of  his  comedies — had  not  maintained  his  reputation,  in 
The  Spanish  Friar  he  struck  a  note  which  found  response 
enthusiastic,  even  to  frenzy,  in  the  breasts  of  thousands. 
It  appeared  in  the  autumn  of  1681.  The  nation  was 
now  on  fire  with  faction,  and  a  momentous  crisis  in  the 
struggle  between  the  Court  Party  and  the  Roman 
Catholics  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  County  Party 
and  Exclusionists  on  the  other,  was  at  hand.  The 
Spanish  Friar,  a  virulent  attack  on  the  Roman  Catholics 
and  the  Anti-Exclusionists,  was  the  first  of  Dryden's 
contributions  to  the  great  religious  and  political  con- 
troversy of  the  time.  It  marks  the  transition  from  the 
second  to  the  third  epoch  into  which  we  have  divided 
his  career. 


MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN.  xxv 

1681-1688. 

During  these  years  Dryden  produced  his  most  im- 
portant poems,  three  of  which,  the  satires  Absalom  and 
Achitophel,  The  Medal,  and  Mac  Flecknoe  are  printed  with 
introductions  and  notes  in  this  volu  .ie.  In  these  intro- 
ductions and  notes  will,  I  hope,  be  found  all  that  is 
required  to  elucidate  the  political  and  literary  con- 
troversies in  which  Dryden  was,  during  this  period, 
engaged.  It  will  only,  therefore,  be  necessary  here  to 
say  a  few  words  about  the  other  works  which  employed 
him.  The  first  part  of  Absalom  and  Achitophel  appeared 
in  November,  1681;  The  Medal  in  the  beginning 
of  March,  1682;  Mac  Flecknoe  in  October,  and  the 
second  part  of  Absalom  and  Achitophel  in  the  follow- 
ing November.  Simultaneously  with  the  last  poem 
was  published  the  Eeligio  Laid.  From  politics  to 
religion  was  at  that  time  an  easy  transition,  and  this 
powerful  poem,  which  is  in  the  form  of  an  epistle  to 
his  friend  Henry  Dickenson,  is  at  once  a  vindication 
of  Eevealed  as  distinguished  from  Natural  Religion, 
and  an  appeal  to  Christians  not  to  confound  what 
is  essential  and  vital  in  religious  truth  with  what 
is  accidental  and  of  secondary  importance.  It  is  a 
defence  of  the  Church  of  England  against  the  Papists 
and  the  Sectaries,  by  one  who  had  satisfied  himself  of 
the  social  and  political  importance  of  a  State  religion, 
but  who  had  satisfied  himself  of  little  else. 

It  is  strange  and  melancholy  to  find  the  author  of 
poems  so  brilliant,  so  powerful,  and  so  popular,  condemned 
by  the  meanness  of  his  royal  and  aristocratic  patrons  to 
toil  like  a  hack  in  a  Grub  Street  garret.  Yet  so  it  was. 


xxvi  MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN. 

His  salary  as  Poet  Laureate  was  in  arrears.  His  income 
from  the  theatres  was  considerably  diminished.  His 
health  was  impaired,  and  a  visit  into  the  country  was, 
as  his  physician  informed  him,  not  only  desirable  but 
necessary.  His  means,  however,  were  at  such  a  low  ebb 
that  without  relief  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  leave 
London.  He  was  even  in  danger  of  being  arrested  for 
debt.  "Be  pleased  to  look  on  me,"  he  wrote  about 
this  time  to  Rochester,  "with  an  eye  of  compassion. 
Some  small  employment  would  make  my  condition 
easy  " ;  and  he  adds  bitterly,  "  Tis  enough  for  one  age 
to  have  neglected  Mr.  Cowley  and  starved  Mr.  Butler." 
His  appeal  was  successful;  and  he  was  appointed  (De- 
cember 17th,  1683)  to  an  office  once  held  by  Chaucer,  the 
Collectorship  of  Customs  in  the  port  of  London.  Mean- 
while his  pen  was  not  idle.  In  1683  he  concluded  a 
Preface  and  a  Life  of  Plutarch  to  the  translation  of  the 
Lives  by  several  hands.  In  1684  he  translated,  by  order 
of  the  King,  Maimbourg's  History  of  the  League;  at  the 
beginning  of  the  same  year  he  brought  out  a  volume  of 
Miscellanies,  and  in  the  following  year  a  second  volume 
containing  versions  from  Virgil,  Horace,  Lucretius,  and 
Theocritus.  In  February,  1685,  died  Charles  II.,  and 
Dryden,  as  Poet  Laureate,  mourned  him  in  a  frigid 
"Pindaric"  ode,  the  Threnodia  Augustalis.  Eleven 
months  after  the  new  king  had  ascended  the  throne 
Evelyn  entered  in  his  Diary,  "Dryden,  the  famous 
play-writer,  and  his  two  sons,  and  Mrs.  Nelly  (miss 
to  the  late  king)  were  said  to  go  to  mass ;  such  pro- 
selytes were  no  great  loss  to  the  Church."  With  regard 
to  Mrs.  Nelly,  Evelyn  had  been  misinformed ;  the 
Church  was  not  to  lose  her,  she  was  to  adorn  it  till  her 


MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN.  xxvii 

death.  With  regard  to  Dryden  his  information  was  cor- 
rect. The  Poet  Laureate  had  indeed  publicly  embraced 
the  creed  which  his  royal  master  was  labouring  to  uphold, 
and  his  salary  was  at  once  raised  to  its  full  amount. 
This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  the  question  of  Dryden's 
probable  sincerity  or  insincerity  in  his  conversion  to  a 
creed  which  had  hitherto  been  a  favourite  butt  of  his 
sarcastic  wit.  It  is,  however,  doing  him  no  more  than 
justice  to  say  that  there  is  not  the  smallest  reason  for 
supposing  that  he  either  gained  or  anticipated  that  he 
would  gain  anything  by  his  apostasy ;  that  his  salary 
would  in  all  probability  have  been  raised  had  he  re- 
mained a  Protestant :  that  he  found  in  the  Ancient 
Church  what  he  desiderated  in  the  Religio  Laid;  that 
during  the  rest  of  his  life,  and  on  his  death-bed,  where 
few  men  are  hypocrites,  he  professed  that  he  felt  a 
satisfaction  such  as  he  had  not  before  known,  and  that 
he  never  recanted  though  recantation  would  have  been 
to  his  advantage. 

Neither  the  king  nor  the  leaders  of  the  Koman 
Catholic  party  were  likely  to  allow  so  accomplished  a 
controversialist  as  their  new  ally  to  remain  inactive, 
and  Dryden  was  soon  in  the  arena.  An  unimportant 
but  singularly  intemperate  controversy  with  Stilling- 
fleet,  the  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  was  the  prelude  to  a 
controversy  to  which  we  owe  what  is  on  the  whole 
the  most  magnificent  of  his  poems,  The  Hind  and 
Panther.  No  act  had  more  enraged  and  perplexed  the 
friends  of  the  Constitution  in  Church  and  State  than 
the  king's  recent  assumption  of  the  dispensing  power, 
to  which  he  was  now  about  to  give  practical  expression 
in  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence.  Dryden's  object  in 


xxviii  MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN. 

this  allegory  was  threefold.  It  was  to  vindicate  the 
king's  right  to  the  assumption  of  that  power,  in  other 
words,  to  vindicate  the  Declaration  :  it  was  to  prove 
that  the  religion  of  Christians,  if  pure  and  sound,  is 
and  can  only  be  the  religion  of  the  Church  of  Rome, 
or  at  least  a  religion  which  is  in  essentials  the  same : 
it  was  to  denounce  and  expose  the  errors  of  Protestant- 
ism, and  especially  those  of  the  Sectaries.  The  frame- 
work of  this  poem  has  been  not  unnaturally  ridiculed, 
and  Dryden  at  the  beginning  of  the  Third  Part  en- 
deavoured to  anticipate  the  objections  of  censorious 
critics  by  adducing  the  examples  of  ^Esop  and  Spenser, 
and  he  might  have  added  that  of  Chaucer.  He  is 
said  to  have  been  greatly  annoyed  at  the  ludicrous 
travesty  of  his  work  by  Prior  and  Montague — The 
Hind  and  the  Panther  Transversed.  The  last  service  he 
was  destined  to  perform  for  James  II.  was  the  com- 
position of  the  poem  on  the  birth  of  the  unfortunate 
Prince  of  Wales  (June  10th,  1688),  the  Britannia 
Rediviva,  the  most  eloquent  of  his  official  productions 
A  few  months  afterwards  James  II.  was  in  exile,  and 
William  and  Mary  on  the  throne. 

1688-1700. 

By  the  Revolution  Dryden  lost  everything  but  what 
remained  of  his  private  fortune  and  what  he  had  con- 
trived to  save.  He  was  deprived  of  the  Laureateship, 
and  he  had  the  mortification  of  seeing  his  old  enemy 
Shadwell  succeeding  him.  He  was  deprived  of  the  His- 
toriographership  and  of  his  place  in  the  Customs.  From 
all  hope  of  preferment  he  was  absolutely-  excluded. 
He  was  moreover  far  in  the  decline  of  life,  and  his 


MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN.  Xxix 

health  was  breaking.  For  the  support  of  an  expensive 
family  and  an  expensive  town-house  he  had  now  nothing 
but  his  pen  to  depend  on.  Incessant  drudgery,  even 
till  the  end  came,  was  to  be  his  lot.  But  if  Fortune 
had  been  cruel  Nature  was  kind.  The  decay  of  his 
physical  powers  had  no  appreciable  effect  on  his  in- 
tellect and  his  genius,  both  of  which  were  as  bright 
and  vigorous  as  in  his  most  palmy  days.  Indeed  his 
fertility  of  production  was  wonderful.  He  first  betook 
himself  to  dramatic  composition,  and  in  1690  appeared 
his  masterpiece  in  tragedy  Don  Sebastian.  This  was 
succeeded  in  the  same  year  by  a  successful  comedy, 
Amphitryon.  Then  came  (1691)  a  dramatic  opera,  King 
Arthur,  and  in  the  summer  of  the  same  year  he 
completed  Cleomenes.  With  Love  Triumphant  (1694), 
a  comedy  which  was  a  failure,  he  took  leave  of  the 
stage  for  ever.  Meanwhile  he  had  published  (Feb. 
1691-2)  his  fine  funeral  poem  on  the  death  of  th<e 
Countess  of  Abingdon,  entitled  Eleonora.  In  1693 
appeared  the  translation  of  the  Satires  of  Juvenal 
and  Persius ;  of  Juvenal's  satires  he  himself  translated 
the  first,  third,  sixth,  tenth,  and  sixteenth,  but  in 
the  version  of  Persius  he  had  no  assistance.  And  to 
this  work  he  prefixed  one  of  the  best  of  his  critical 
treatises,  the  Essay  on  Satire.  Between  1693  and  the 
end  of  1694  he  published  two  volumes  of  Miscellanies, 
and  between  1693  and  1697  he  translated  the  whole 
of  Virgil.  This  work  has  attained  with  Pope's  Homer 
a  reputation  such  as  no  other  translation  in  our 
language  has  attained.  They  are  the  only  versions  of 
classics  which  have  themselves  become  classical.  Nor 
is  this  fame  undeserved.  Marred  by  coarseness,  marred 


xxx  MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN. 

by  miserable  inequalities,  marred  by  reckless  careless- 
ness, Dryden's  Virgil  is  still  a  memorable  achievement, 
a  work  such  as  no  man  of  mere  ability  could  possibly 
have  produced.  It  is  a  work  instinct  with  genius,  not 
with  the  placid  and  majestic  genius  of  •  the  artist 
whom  Tennyson  loved  and  resembles,  but  with  the 
masculine  and  impetuous  energy  of  the  prince  of 
English  rhetorical  poets.  As  usual,  Dryden  enriched 
the  work  with  one  of  his  charming  critical  dissertations, 
the  Essay  on  Epic  Poetry,  The  old  poet  was  pleased 
with  the  reception  of  his  work.  "  My  Virgil"  he 
wrote  to  his  sons  at  Eome,  "succeeds  in  the  world 
beyond  its  desert  or  my  reputation."  It  was  just 
after  the  appearance  of  his  Virgil  that  he  com- 
posed his  famous  lyric,  Alexander's  Feast,  a  lyric 
which,  in  spite  of  its  fame,  is  far  inferior  to  his 
first  Ode  on  St.  Cecilia's  Day  and  to  his  Ode  to  the 
Memory  of  Mrs.  Anne  Killigrew.  His  last  important 
production  was  what  is  known  as  the  Fables,  written 
in  accordance  with  an  agreement  with  his  publisher, 
Tonson,  to  supply  him  with  10,000  verses  for  the  sum 
of  250  guineas.  In  this  work  he  versifies  the  stories 
of  Sigismonda  and  Guiscardo,  Theodore  and  Honoria, 
Cymon  and  Iphigenia  from  Boccaccio's  Decameron,  and 
paraphrases,  in  his  own  style,  Chaucer's  Knights  Tale, 
Nun  Priest's  Tale,  and  Wife  of  Bath's  Tale,  Character 
of  the  Good  Parson,  and  The  Flower  and  the  Leaf,  pre- 
facing the  work  with  a  graceful  dedicatory  epistle  to 
the  Duchess  of  Ormond,  and  adding  one  of  the  most 
precious  of  his  critical  essays. 

It  is  pleasing  and  yet  melancholy  to  turn  to  Dryden's 
private   life   during   these   years.      His   contract   with 


MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN.  xxxi 

Tonson  sufficiently  proves  how  wretchedly  he  was  paid 
for  his  arduous  and  incessant  drudgery,  and  his  letters 
and  dedications  are  full  of  complaints  about  his  poverty, 
his  ill-health,  and  the  malice  of  his  enemies.  But  he 
had  many  solaces.  Personally  he  appears  to  have  been 
a  very  amiable  and  very  sociable  man,  the  fondest  of 
fathers,  the  kindest  of  friends.  Many  anecdotes  are  extant 
of  his  goodness  to  young  authors  and  aspirants  to  literary 
fame,  who  repaid  him  with  an  affection  which  has  more 
than  once  found  most  touching  expression.  He  was  a 
welcome  guest  wherever  he  chose  to  visit,  and  many 
of  the  most  delightful  houses  in  England  were  open 
to  him.  As  he  drew  near  his  end  he  is  said  to  have 
expressed  great  regret  at  the  immoral  tendency  of  some 
of  his  writings,  and  his  only  retort  to  Collier's  savage 
attack  on  him  in  the  Short  View  of  the  Profaneness 
and  Immorality  of  the  English  Stage  was  an  acknow- 
ledgment of  its  justice :  "  If  he  be  my  enemy  let  him 
triumph.  If  he  be  my  friend,  and  I  have  given  him 
no  personal  occasion  to  be  otherwise,  he  will  be  glad 
of  my  repentance." 

On  the  30th  of  April,  1700,  it  was  announced  in  a 
London  newspaper  that  "John  Dryden,  the  famous 
poet,  lies  a-dying."  He  had  been  told  by  his  physicians 
that  a  not  very  painful  operation  would  save  his  life. 
He  chose  rather  to  resign  it.  "He  received,"  said  one 
who  saw  him  die,  "the  notice  of  his  approaching  dis- 
solution with  sweet  submission  and  entire  resignation 
to  the  Divine  will,  and  he  took  so  tender  and  obliging 
a  farewell  of  his  friends  as  none  but  himself  could  have 
expressed."  He  breathed  his  last  on  the  1  st  of  May,  1 700. 
His  body  lay  in  state  for  several  days  in  the  College 


xxxii  MEMOIR  OF  DRYDEN. 

of  Physicians,  and  on  May  the  13th  was  honoured  with  a 
public  funeral  more  imposing  and  magnificent  than  any 
which  had  been  conceded  to  an  English  poet  before. 
He  was  laid  in  the  Great  Abbey  by  the  dust  of  Chaucer 
and  Spenser,  not  far  from  the  graves  of  his  old  friend 
Davenant  and  his  old  schoolmaster  Busby. 


INTRODUCTION   TO 
ABSALOM   AND   ACHITOPHEL. 

FROM  the  fall  of  Clarendon  in  August,  1667,  to  the 
death  of  Shaftesbury  in  January,  1683,  England  was  in 
a  high  state  of  ferment  and  agitation.  The  mad 
joy  of  1660  had  undergone  its  natural  reaction,  and 
this  reaction  was  intensified  by  a  long  series  of  national 
calamities  and  political  blunders.  There  were  feuds  in 
the  Cabinet  and  among  the  people ;  the  religion  of  the 
country  was  in  imminent  peril ;  the  Royal  house  had 
become  a  centre  of  perfidy  and  disaffection.  Claren- 
don had  been  made  the  scape-goat  of  the  disasters 
which  marked  the  commencement  of  the  reign,  of 
the  miserable  squabbles  attendant  on  the  Act  of  In- 
demnity, of  the  first  Dutch  War,  of  the  Sale  of  Dun- 
kirk ;  but  Clarendon  was  now  in  exile,  and  with  him 
was  removed  one  of  the  very  few  honourable  ministers 
in  the  service  of  the  Stuarts.  The  Triple  Alliance 
(April,  1668)  was  followed  by  the  scandalous  Treaty 
of  Dover  (May,  1670),  by  which  an  English  king 
bound  himself  to  re-establish  the  Roman  Catholic 
religion  in  England,  and  to  join  his  arms  with 
those  of  the  French  king  in  support  of  the  House 
of  Bourbon,  that  he  might  turn  the  arms  of  France 


xxxiv  INTRODUCTION  TO 

against  his  own  subjects,  should  they  attempt  to  oppose 
his  designs.  Between  the  end  of  1667  and  the  begin- 
ning of  1674  the  government  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
Cabal,  the  most  unprincipled  and  profligate  ministry 
in  the  annals  of  our  constitutional  history.  Then 
followed  the  administration  of  Danby.  Danby,  with 
all  his  faults,  had  the  honesty  to  exchange  the  shuffling 
and  ignominious  tactics  of  the  Cabal  for  cordial  and 
consistent  hatred  of  the  French  abroad  and  of  Papists 
and  Nonconformists  at  home.  The  Peace  of  Nimeguen 
(August,  1678)  threw  England  back  on  herself.  Danby 
fell,  partly  because  no  minister  at  such  a  time  could 
hold  his  own  for  long,  mainly  owing  to  the  machina- 
tions of  Louis  XIV.,  who  was  to  the  England  of  Charles 
II.  what  his  predecessor  Louis  XI.  had  been  to  the 
Switzerland  of  Charles  the  Bold,  and  to  the  England 
of  Edward  IV.  From  a  jarring  chaos  of  Cavaliers, 
Puritans,  Eoman  Catholics,  Presbyterians,  country 
parties,  of  colliding  interests,  of  maddened  Commons, 
of  a  corrupted  and  corrupting  ministry,  of  a  dis- 
affected Church,  of  plots  and  counter-plots,  of  a 
Royal  house  ostensibly  in  opposition,  but  secretly  in 
union,  two  great  parties  had  been  gradually  defining 
themselves. 

In  May,  1662,  the  king  had  married  Catharine  of 
Braganza,  but  he  had  no  issue  by  her,  and  as  she  had  now 
(1679)  been  his  wife  for  seventeen  years  they  were  not 
likely  to  have  issue,  and  the  question  of  the  succession 
began  to  assume  prominence.  In  the  event  of  the  king 
leaving  no  legitimate  children  the  crown  would  revert  to 
the  Duke  of  York.  But  the  Duke  of  York  was  a  Papist, 
and  of  all  the  many  prejudices  of  the  English  people 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.  XxxV 

generally,  the  prejudice  against  Papacy  was  strongest. 
All  now  began  to  centre  on  this  question,  and  two  great 
parties  were  formed.  The  one  party  insisted  on  the 
exclusion  of  the  Duke  of  York  from  the  right  of  succes- 
sion, on  the  ground  of  his  religion.  These  were  the 
Petitioners,  afterwards  nicknamed  HVliigs,  and  the  Ex- 
clusionists;  their  leader  was  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury. 
The  other  party,  strongest  among  Churchmen  and  the 
aristocracy,  were  anxious,  partly  in  accordance  with  the 
theory  of  the  divine  right  of  kings  and  the  duty  of 
passive  obedience,  and  partly  with  an  eye  to  their  own 
interests,  to  please  the  king  by  supporting  the  claim  of 
his  brother.  These  were  the  Abhorrers,  afterwards 
nicknamed  Tories.  The  object  of  the  Exclusionists  was 
to  inflame  the  populace  against  the  Papists.  For  this 
purpose  the  infamous  fictions  of  Gates  and  his  accom- 
plices were  accepted  and  promulgated  (September, 
1678),  and  the  complications  which  succeeded  the 
fall  of  Danby  took  their  rise.  These  were  succeeded 
by  a  second  attempt  to  exasperate  the  public  mind 
against  the  Anti-Exclusionists,  which  found  expression 
in  the  Meal-Tub  Plot  (June,  1680).  But  to  turn  to 
the  principal  actors  in  this  great  public  drama. 

Anthony  A'shley  Cooper  was  the  eldest  son  of  Sir 
John  Cooper,  and  was  born  July  22,  1621,  at  Winburne, 
St.  Giles.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  became  a  Fellow 
Commoner  of  Exeter  College,  Oxford.  On  quitting 
Oxford  he  removed  to  Lincoln's  Inn,  where  he  acquired 
that  knowledge  of  constitutional  law  and  history  for 
which,  throughout  his  life,  he  was  celebrated.  While 
still  in  the  nineteenth  year  he  represented  in  Parlia- 
ment the  town  of  Tewkesbury.  At  the  beginning  of 


xxxvi  INTRODUCTION  TO 

the  Civil  War  he  served  the  king  in  many  important 
posts,  though  he  does  not  seem  to  have  gained  the 
entire  confidence  of  his  party.  Piqued  in  all  probability 
by  a  slight  on  the  part  of  Prince  Maurice,  or,  according 
to  his  own  account,  perceiving  that  the  king's  aim  was 
"  destructive  to  religion  and  the  state,"  he  went  over, 
early  in  1644,  to  the  Parliamentary  side,  becoming,  as 
Lord  Clarendon  says,  "an  implacable  enemy  to  the 
Royal  family."  Shortly  afterwards  we  find  him  in- 
triguing with  the  Royalists  though  holding  responsible 
posts  under  the  Parliament.  He  was  a  member  of 
Cromwell's  Council  of  State,  but  was  frequently  in 
opposition  to  him,  and,  on  the  Protector's  death,  was 
one  of  the  first  to  assail  him  with  scurrilous  abuse. 
From  the  death  of  Cromwell  to  the  Restoration  he 
filled  important  offices  under  the  Parliament,  and 
carried  on  a  surreptitious  correspondence  with  the 
Royalists.  Ever  foremost  where  interest  led  we  find 
him  one  of  the  twelve  members  of  the  House  of 
Commons  who  were  in  the  spring  of  1660  sent 
over  to  Holland  to  invite  the  king  to  England. 
At  the  Restoration  he  was  rewarded  for  his 
loyalty  by  being  created  Baron  Ashley.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  follow  him  through  the  complicated  political 
history  of  the  next  few  years,  or  to  pronounce  with 
any  certainty  whether  he  was  or  was  not  guilty  of 
the  many  delinquencies  which  have  been  imputed  to 
him.  His  anxious  apologist,  Mr.  Christie,  contends 
that  he  was  not  privy  to  the  king's  scandalous  secret 
treaty  with  France,  and  asserts  that  so  far  from  pro- 
moting the  infamous  Closure  of  the  Exchequer  he 
strongly  opposed  it.  He  was,  however,  a  leading  mem- 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.  xxxvii 

ber  of  the  ministry  (the  Cabal)  which  was  responsible 
for  this  measure.  In  1672  he  was  created  Baron 
Cooper  of  Pawlet,  in  Somerset,  and  Earl  of  Shaftes- 
bury, and  was  at  the  same  time  Chancellor  and  Under- 
Treasurer  of  the  Exchequer.  In  November  of  the 
following  year  he  was  promoted  to  the  Woolsack.  As 
Lord  Chancellor  he  acquitted  himself  with  signal  ability, 
and  gained  the  reputation  of  being  diligent,  judicious, 
honest,  and  impartial.  By  skilfully  adapting  himself  to 
the  king's  humours  he  was  able,  for  a  time,  not  only  to 
maintain  his  perilously  uncertain  position,  but  to  gain 
opportunities  for  furthering  his  ambitious  and  com- 
plicated schemes  which  were  soon  afterwards  unfolded. 
While  Lord  Chancellor  he  had  the  misfortune — if  he 
did  not  seek  the  opportunity — to  quarrel  with  the  Duke 
of  York.  James  had  doubtless  perceived  that  Shaftes- 
bury's  schemes  were  not  likely  to  coincide  with  his 
own,  and  that  the  Chancellor  was  not  the  man  to 
hazard  fortune  by  furthering  the  cause  of  popery.  By 
the  Duke's  manoeuvres,  therefore,  Shaftesbury  was  forced 
to  resign  the  Great  Seal,  though  he  still  sat  in  Parlia- 
ment. Shaftesbury 's  leading  principle  now  became 
hatred  for  the  Duke  of  York  and  popery ;  and  he 
determined  to  secure,  if  possible,  the  succession  for 
Monmouth,  the  king's  son  by  Lucy  Walters.  With 
this  object  he  attempted  to  gain  the  confidence  of  the 
people  and  of  the  king.  The  people,  as  he  well  knew, 
detested  Roman  Catholics,  and  had  no  affection  for 
the  Duke  of  York.  Monmouth,  though  known  to  be 
the  king's  illegitimate  child,  was  a  popular  favourite, 
and,  indifferent  to  all  religions,  became,  under  the 
auspices  of  Shaftesbury  and  with  the  prospect  of  a  crown, 


xxxviii  INTRODUCTION  TO 

the  representative  of  Protestantism.  A  wild  story  was 
circulated  that  Charles  had  made  Lucy  Walters  his 
wife.  Monmouth  himself  was,  in  many  respects,  well 
fitted  to  play  the  part  Shaftesbury  wished  him  to 
support.  His  manners  were  singularly  engaging,  his 
disposition  affable,  his  character,  with  all  its  weakness, 
manly.  He  had  served  two  campaigns  in  Louis  XIV.'s 
army  against  the  Dutch,  and  had  greatly  distinguished 
himself.  Of  his  person  we  have  a  very  graphic  descrip- 
tion in  Hamilton's  Memoirs — "  His  figure  and  the  ex- 
terior graces  of  his  form  were  such  that  nature  perhaps 
never  framed  anything  more  complete.  His  face  was 
eminently  handsome,  and  yet  it  was  a  manly  face, 
neither  inanimate  nor  effeminate."  At  the  end  of 
November,  1679,  Monmouth  arrived  in  England,  and 
entering  London  was  received  with  enthusiastic  applause. 
Simultaneously  with  his  appearance  his  partizans, 
prompted  no  doubt  by  Shaftesbury,  circulated  "An 
appeal  from  the  country  to  the  city  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  his  majesty's  person,  liberty,  property,  and 
religion."  It  pointed  out  that  what  was  needed  was 
a  man  to  lead  true-hearted  Britons  against  French  in- 
vaders and  popish  rebels,  and  that  that  man  was  Mon- 
mouth, qualified  alike  by  birth,  conduct,  and  courage. 
His  fortune,  it  continued,  was  united  with  theirs,  and 
citizens  would  do  well  to  remember  that  "the  worst 
title  makes  the  best  king."  Every  month  added  to  the 
popular  excitement,  and  Shaftesbury  at  the  head  of  the 
stormy  democracy  of  the  city  was  now  sanguine  of  suc- 
cess. All  centred  on  the  E_xcIusion_Bjll,  which,  on  the 
llth  of  November,  J.680,^  triumphantly  passed  the  Com- 
mons, but  was  defeated  in  the  Lords.  The  country  was 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.  xxxix 

now  on  the  verge  of  civil  war.  Parliament  was  dis- 
solved in  January,  1681,  and  such  was  the  frenzy  in 
London  that  the  next  Parliament  was  summoned  to 
meet  at  Oxford.  It  met,  amid  storm  and  tumult,  in  the 
following  March,  but  was  suddenly  dissolved,  without 
transacting  business.  The  fear  of  civil  war,  now  im- 
minent, brought  on  a  reaction,  and  the  king  soon  found 
himself  strong  enough  to  strike  a  decisive  blow  against 
the  arch-enemy  of  the  public  peace.  In  July,  Shaftes- 
bury  was  arrested  on  a  charge  of  "  subornation  of  high 
treason  for  conspiring  for  the  death  of  the  king  and  the 
subversion  of  the  Government,"  and  thrown  into  the 
Tower  to  await  his  trial  at  the  Old  Bailey  in  the  follow- 
ing November.  At  this  momentous  crisis,  just  a  week 
before  the  trial  on  which  so  much  depended,  appeared 
Absalom  and  Achitopliel.  Well  might  Sir  Walter  Scott 
observe  that  "the  time  of  its  appearance  was  chosen 
with  as  much  art  as  the  poem  displays  genius." 

Absalom  and  AchitopJwl_jQ£.Tns  an  era  in-  the  history 
of  English  classic!  pat.i™  Satire  had  passed  suc- 
cessively through  the  hands  of  Gascoign*  (1576),  Donne 
(1593-1602),  Lodge  (1595),  Hall  (1597-8),  Marston 
(1598),  Wither  (1611),  Cleveland  (1647),  Marvel  (circ. 
1667);  Oldham  (whose  Satires  upon  the  Jesuits  pre- 
ceded Dryden's  poem  two  years)  ;  but  it  had  never 
attained  an  excellence  comparable  to  what  it  attained 
here.  It  raised  English  satire  indeed  to  the  level 
of  that  superb  satirical  literature  which  Quintilian 
claimed  as  the  peculiar  and  exclusive  product  of  Roman 
genius.  Not  only  did  it  furnish  Pope  and  the  school  of 

*  The  dates  given  are  the  dates  of  the  appearance  of  the  princi- 
pal satires  of  the  particular  writers, 


xl  INTRODUCTION  TO 

Pope,  as  well  as  Akenside,  Smollet,  Churchill,  Gifford, 
Byron,  and  others,  with  models,  but  it  exhibited  for  the 
"first  time  the  power,  plasticity,  and  compass  of  the 
heroic  couplet  in  departments  of  poetry  where  it  was  to 
achieve  its  greatest  triumphs.  The  plan  of  the  poem  is 
not  perhaps  original.  The  idea  of  casting  satire^  injjie 
.epic,  mould,  which  is  an  important  feature  of  the  work, 
was  suggested  no  doubt  by  the  fourth  satire  of  Juvenal. 
Horace  and  Lucan  undoubtedly  supplied  models  for  the 
elabQratj&__^ortraits,  and  Lucan's  description  of  the 
political  condition  of  Rome  at  the  time  of  the  great 
civil  conflict  is,  unmistakably,  Dryden's  archetype  for  his 
picture  of  the  state  jifLparties  in  London.  Nor  was  the 
ingenious  device  of  disguising  living  persons  and  current 
incidents  and  analogies  under  the  veil  of  Scriptural 
names  new  to  his  readers.  A  Roman  Catholic  poet,  for 
example,  had,  in  1679,  paraphrased  the  Scriptural  story 
of  Naboth's  vineyard,  applying  it  to  the  condemnation 
of  Lord  Straiford  for  his  supposed  complicity  in  the 
Popish  Plot,  while  a  small  prose  tract,  published  at 
Dublin  in  1680,  entitled  Absalom's  Conspiracy;  or,  The 
Tragedy  of  Treason,  anticipates  in  adumbration  the  very 
scheme  of  his  work.  But  the  analogy  between  Jewish 
history  in  the  reign  of  David  (cf.  II.  of  Samuel,  from 
verse  25  of  the  14th  chapter  to  the  end  of  chapter  18), 
and  the  condition  of  England  in  1681 — the  analogy 
between  David,  Absalom,  and  Achitophel  on  the  one 
hand,  and  between  Charles  II.,  Monmouth,  and  Shaftes- 
bury  on  the  other — were  sufficiently  obvious  to  strike 
a  less  intelligent  reader  than  Dryden.  This  poem 
is  the  triumph  of  genius  as  distinguished  from  mere 
talent,  for  the  verdict  of  those  whom  it  delighted,  as 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.  xli 

actors  and  spectators  in  the  world  which  it  mirrors,  has 
been  corroborated  by  the  judgment  of  those  to  whom  what 
is  local  and  ephemeral  in  it  has  long  ceased  to  be  of 
interest.  A  party  pamphlet, — in  the  hands  of  Regnier  or 
Churchill  a  party  pamphlet  it  would  have  remained, —  is 
that  and  nothing  more  Let  the  student  ask  himself,  or 
ask  his  teachers,  why  Dryden's  party  pamphlet  is  im- 
mortal. 


ABSALOM   AND    ACHITOPHEL. 
A  POEM. 


"  Si  propins  stes 
Te  capiat  magis. " 

HORACE,  Ars  Poet.  361. 


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 ; 
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  10 
not  curses  enough  for  an  Anti-Bromingham.  My  comfort 
is,  their  manifest  prejudice  to  my  cause  will  render  their 
judgment  of  less  authority  against  me.  Yet  ifjijjoem  nave 
a  jyprvrngj  it.  wilLfnrpft  i>,«  own  reception  in  the  world j  for 
there  is  a  sweetness  in_j£Qod  verse,  which  tickles  even  while 
it  Eurtsj  and  no^maiL-CanJbe  heartily  angry  with  him  who 
pleases  himagainst _his  will.  The  commendation  of  adver- 
saries is  the  greatest  triumph  of  a  writer,  because  it  never 
comes  unless  extorted.  But  I  can  be  satisfied  on  more  easy 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 


terms  :  if  I  happen  to  please  the  more  moderate  sort,  I  shall 
be  sure  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^pj^tlwse^Jby-cebating 
the  satire,  wherejustice  would_allow  it,  from  carryiug-feoo 
sharp  an  edge.  They  who  can  criticize  so  weakly  as  to 
imagine  T  have  done  my  worst,  may  be  convinced  at  their 
own  cost  that  I  can  write  severely  with  more  ease  than  I  can 
gently.  I  Jiave  but  laughed.atsome  men's  follies^,  wh^  I 

10  couldJMWsedeclaimed  against  their  yicesiand  -other  men's 

^^  —  »^-  _°     _          —  _  —  •    !.»-•*  ""^   -  __  —  / 

v|rt-w?  T  Tiave  commended  as  freely  as  I  have_  taxed  their 
crimes.  And  now,  if  you  are  a  malicious  reader,  I  expect 
you  should  return  upon  me  that  I  affect  to  be  thought  more 
impartial  than  I  am  ;  but  if  men  are  not  to  be  judged  by 
their  professions,  God  forgive  you  commonweal  th's-men  for 
professing  so  plausibly  for  the  government.  You  cannot  be 
so  unconscionable  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 
20  jury  to  secure  them.  Jf^V2"_JjJ£?  nnt  my  pnpm) 
mavjjossibly  be  in  my  writing,  though  'ti 


author  toJmJ£e_j£a^sj^iTrnaflfj^bnt  Tnnrft_prnba.b1y  tjg_j" 
yourjnorals,jwhicli  cannot  bear_the_trjnth  of  it.  The  violent 
will  condemn  the  character  of  Absalom,  as 


too  favourably or  toojiardly^ drawn  ;  but"tney  are  nat^ 
the  vlolen£jwiLOTn^ ^su^to^please.     The  fault  on  the  right 
hand  is  to  extenuate,  palliate^  and  indulge  |  and,  to  confess^ 
freely,  I  have  Endeavoured  to  commit it.    ^Besides  the  respect  I 
which  I  owe  his  birth,  T  have  a  greater  for  his  heroic  virtues ;  / 
30  and  David  himself  could  not  be  more  tender  of  the  young  I 
man's  life,  than  I  would  be  of  his  reputation.     But  since  the  j 
most  excellent  natures  are  always  the  most  easy  and,  as 
being  such,  are  the  soonest  perverted  by  ill  counsels,  especi- 
ally when  baited  with  fame  and  glory,  it   is  no  more   a 
wonder  that  he  withstood  not  the  temptations  of  Afihitapbel 
tban_jt  was  for_  Adam  not  tohave  resistgjLtl  \  ( -  two  devils, 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I.  3 

the  serpent  and  the  woman.  The  conclusion  of  the  story  I 
purposely  forebore  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 
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 
T  left  the  story  :  there  seems  yet  to  be  room  left  for  a  10 
composure  ;  hereafter  there  may  only  be  for  pity.  I  have 
not  so  much  as  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  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.  , 

I      The  true  end_of  satire  is  the  amendment   of__yjcfis-—by  fiQ 
I  correction.      And  he  who  writes   honestly  is   no   more   anlj 
enemy  to  the  offender  than  the  physician  to  the  patient}/! 
when  he  prescribes  harsh  remedies  to  an  inveterate  disease  \ I 
for  those  are  only  in  order  to  prevent  the  chirurgeon's  work* 
of  an  JSnse  rescindendum,  which   I  wish  not   to   my  very 
enemies.      To  conclude  all ;    if  the  body  politic^jiave  any  I 
\ analogy ^to_the  natural,  in  my  weak  judgmen^Ian.  act  of  1 
loblivioii  were  as  necessary  in  a  hot  distempered  state  as   J 
kin  opiate  would  be  in  a  raging  fever.  29 


cnST*~i 


ABSALOM   AND  ACHITOPHEL. 


IN  yious  times,  ere  priestcraft  did  begin,     /v*7A^  ^  "*  '  r7 
Before  polygamy  was  made  a  sin, 
When  man  on  many  multiplied  his  kind, 
Ere  one  to  one  was  cursedly  confined,   .   .  . 
Then  Israel's  monarch  after  Heaven's  own  heart          ^     /  y^^n 
His  vigorous  warmth  did  variously  impart      f^**  /lVV 
T°  wives  au(^  slaves>  and,  wide  as  his  command, 
(S*d  Scattered  his  Maker'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, 
No  true  succession  could  their  seed  attend. 
Of  all  this  numerous  progeny  was  none 
So_beautiful,  so  brave,  as  Absalon  :   .   .   .  20 

For  that  his  conscious  destiny  made  way  \ 

By  manly  beauty  to  imperial  sway.  \}JLl^ 

Early  in  foreign  fields  he  won  renown  (  3—  ^1*^ 

With  kings  and  states  allied  to  Israel's  crown  : 
In  peace  the  thoughts  of  war  hejxmld  remove^ 
And  seemeH  ailie  wenTcmlynborn  for  love. 
4 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 


ifa 


/Whate'er  he  did  was,  dojie_witli_sp jmucjuease^ 
Injiim  alone  'tw^sjmtu^ia.please-4- 
His  motions  all  accompanied  with  grace, 
And  Paradise  was~opened  in  nis  face. 
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  ?) 
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. 
Thus  praised  and  loved,  the  noble  youth  remained, 
While  David  undisturbed  in  Sion  reigned,     f  *-*+^ 
But  life  can  never  be  sincerely  blest ;      /v*^|  \™\ 
^SEJeayen  punishes  the  bad,  and  proves  the  best. 
^&r    •  The  Jews,  a  headstrong,  moody,  murmuring  race   i^ 
_  T     f  As  ever  tried  the  extent  and  stretch  of  grace  ; 

God's  pampered^ people,  whom,  debauched  with  ease 
No  king  could  govern  nor  no  God  could  please  ; 
Gods  they  had  tried  of  every  shape  and  size 
That  godsmiths  could  produce  or  priests  devise ; 
These  Adam- wits,  too  fortunately  free, 
Began  to  dream  they  wanted  liberty  ; 
And  when  no  rule,  no  precedent  was  found 
vOf  men  by  laws  less  circumscribed  and  bound, 
They  led  their  wild  desires  to  woods  and  caves 
And  thought  that  all  but  savages  were  slaves. 
They  who,  when  Saul__was  dead,  without  a  blow 
Made  foolish  Tsh^o^h^th'tnecrown  forego  ; 
Who  banished  David  did  from  Hebron  bring, 
And  with  a  general  shout  proclaimed  him  King 
Those  very  Jews  who  at  their  very  best 
Their  humoui/ more  than  loyalty  exprest, 


30 


40 


50 


60 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 


.n 


X* 


c 


Now  wondered  why  so  long  they  had  obeyed 

An  idol  monarch  which  their  hands  had  made  ; 

Thought  they  might  ruin  him  they  could  create 

Or  melt  him  to  that  golden  cajf ,  a  State. 

But  these  were  random  Tolts  ;  no  formed  design 

Nor  interest  made  the  factious  crowd  to  join  : 

The  sober  part  of  Israel,  free  from  stain, 

Well  knew  the  value  of  ajyanefnl  reign  ;  70 

And  looking  backward  with  a  wise  affright 

Saw  seams  of  wounds  dishonest  to  the  sight, 

In  contemplation  of  whose  ugly  scars 

They  cursed  the  memory  of  civil  wars. 

The  moderate  sort  of  men,  thus  qualified, 

Inclined  the  balance  to  the  better  side  ; 

Andjgvid's  mildness  managed  it  so  well, 

e  baa  found  no  occasion  to  rebel. 
But  when  to  sin  our  biassed  nature  leans, 
The  careful  Devil  is  still  at  hand  with  means  80 

<\.nd  providently  pimps  for  ill  desires  : 
The  good  old  cause,  revived,  a  plot  requires, 
:*lots  true  or  false  are  necessary  things, 
'o  raise  up  common  wealths  and  ruin  kings. 

iffftrpf^j^-*"  * 

The  inhabitants  oi  Q^d.  Jerusalem     ^~~ 
Were  j^epiugites; :  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.; 
And,  what  was  harder  yet  to  flesh  and  blood, 
Their  gods  disgraced,  and. burnt  like  coinmonjwpod. 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I.  7 

This  set  the  heathen  priesthood  in  a  flame, 

For  priests  of  all  religions  are  the  same. 

Of  whatsoe'er  descent  their  godhead  be,  100 

Stock,  stone,  or  other  homely  pedigree, 

In  his  defence  his  servants  are  as  bold,  ^>cx*//    j     j2* 

As  if  he  had  been  born  of  beaten  gold.     /t^^d&Jr1^ 

The  Jewish  Rabbins,  though  their  enemies,       »        / 

this  conclude  them  honest  men  and  wise  : 
'or  'twas  their  duty,  all  the  learned  think, 

To  espouse  his  cause  by  whom  they  eat  and  drink. 

From  hence  began  that  Plot,  the  nation's  curse, 

Bad  in  itself,  but  represented  worse, 

Baised  in  extremes,  and  in  extremes  decried,  110 

With  oaths  affirmed,  with  dying  vows  denied, 

Not  weighed  or  winnowed  by  the  multitude, 

But  swallowed  in  the  mass,  unchewed  and  crude. 

Some  truth  there  was,  but  dashed  and  brewed  with  lies 

To  please  the  fools  and  puzzle  all  the  wise  : 

Succeeding  times  did  equal  folly  call 
\    Believing  nothing  or  believing  all. 
•^  The  Egyptian  rites  the  Jebusites  embraced, 

Where  gods  were  recommended  by  their  taste  ; 
'  I^Such  savoury  deities  must  needs  be  good  120 

V\  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,  tha  sacrificer's  trade  ; 

Fools  are  more  hard  to  conquer  than  persuade.^ 

Their  busy  teachers  mingled  with  the  Jews 

And  raked  for  converts  even  the  court  and  stews  : 

Which  Hebrew  priests  the  more  unkindly  took, 

Because  theT^ece  accompanies  the  flock. 

Some  thought  they  God's  anointecfimeant  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  ? 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 


140 


Z* 
c\ 


This  plot,  which  failed  for  want  of  common  sense, 
Had  yet  a  deep  and  dangerous  consequence  ; 
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 
"Work  up  to  foam  and  threat  the  government. 
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. 
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,    * 
£>f  these  the  false  Achitophel  was  first,  V/^pM^lSo 
A  name  to  all  succeeding  ages  curst : 
For  close  designs  and  crooked  counsels  fit, 
Sagacious,  bold,  and  turbulent,  of  wit7 
Restless,  unfixed  in  principles  arid  place, 
In  power_anpleased,  impatient  of  disgrace 
A  fiery  soul,  which  working  out  its  way^ 
Fretted  the  pigmy  body  to  decay' 

And  e'er-informed  the  tenement 

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. 
sure  to  madness  near  allied 


^J 

•fS/^\  "Else,  why  should  he,  with  wealth  and  honour  blest, 

[Refuse  his  age  the  needful  hours  of  rest  ? 
,,  ,  y,  ^J  Punish  a  body  which  he  could  not  please, 
*£*&*^.  I  Bankrupt  of  life,  yet  prodigal  of  ease  ? 

md  all  to  leave  what  with  his  toil  he  won 


use**- 

— — ' 

vtf 

Y     A 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I 

To  that  nnfeathered  two-legged  thing,  a  son, 
Got,  while  his  soul  did  huddled  notions  try, 
And  born  a  shapeless  lump,  like  anarchy. 
Yin  friendship  false,  implacable  in  hate, 
IResolved  to  ruin  or  to  rule  the  state  ; 

*  ^*  JN» 

/  To  compass  this  the  triple  bond_he  broke, 
/  The  pillars  of  the  public  safety  shook, 
And  fitted  Israel  for  a  foreign  yoke  ; 
Then,  seized  with  fear,  yet  still  affecting  fame, 
Usurped  a  patriot's  all-atoning  name. 
So  easy  still  it  proves  in  factious  times 
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  ! 
Yet  fame  deserved  no  enemy  can  grudge  ; 
TheNstatesman/we  abhor,  but  praise  thexjudge/ — ' 
In  Israel's  courts  ne'er  sat  an  Abbethdin 

eyes  or  hands  more  clean 


170 


Unbribed.  unsought,  the  wretched  to  redress, 

Swift  of  despatch  and  easy  of  access. 

Oli !  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, 

David  for  him  his  tuneful  harp  had  strung 

And  Heaven  had  wanted  one  immortal  song. — ""tv*-*.  )&*>•  &*««-.• 

But  wild  ambition  loves  to  slide,  not  stand, 

And  Fortune's  ice  prefers  to  Virtue's  land. 

Achitophel,  grown  weary  to  possess  200 

A  lawful  fame  and  lazy  happiness, 

Disdained  the  golden  fruit  to  gather  free 

And  lent  the  crowd  his  arm  to  shake  the  tree. 

Now,  manifest  of  crimes  contrived  long  since, 

He  stood  at  bold  defiance  with  his  Prince, 


10 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.  PART  I. 


210 


220 


Held  up  the  buckler  of  the  people's  cause 

Against  the  crown,  and  skulked  behind  the  laws. 

The  wished  occasion  of  the  _£lot  he  takes  ; 

Some  circumstances  finds,  but  more  he  makes  ; 

By  buzzing  emissaries  fills  the  ears 

Of  listening  crowds  with  jealousies  and  fears 

Of  arbitrary  counsels  brought  to  light, 

And  proves  the  King  himself  a  Jebusite. 

Weak  arguments  !  which  yet  he  knew  full  well 

Were  strong  with  people  easy  to  rebel. 

For  governed  by  the  moon,  the  giddy  Jews 

Tread  the  same  track  when  she  the  prime  renews 

And  once  in  twenty  years  their  scribes  record, 

By  natural  instinct  they  change  their  lord. 

Achitophel  still  wants  a  chief,  and  none 

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, 

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 
'  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, 
Whose  dawning  day  in  every  distant  age 
Has  exercised  the  sacred  prophet's  rage, 
The  people's  prayer,  the  glad  diviner's  theme, 
The  youns  men's  vision,  and  the  old  men's  dream, 
Thee  Saviour,  thee  the  nation's  vows  confess,  240 


^ 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I.  11 

"  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  ? 

"  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, 

"(For  human  good  depends  on  human  will,) 

"  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.. 

"  Let  his  successful  youth  your  hopes  engage, 

"  But  shun  the  example  of  declining  age. 

"  Behold  him  setting  in  his  western  skies,  v 

"  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, 

"  (Our  only  blessing  since  his  curst  return,) 


12          ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 

"  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  Jew^s  ; 

"  Proud  Egypt  would  dissembled  friendship  bring, 

"  Foment  the  war,  but  not  support  the  King  : 

"  Nor  would  the  royal  party  e'er  unite 

"  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. 

"  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 

"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, 
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, 


\ 

* 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I.  13 

Made  drunk  with  honour  and  debauched  with  praise. 

Half  loth  and  half  consenting  to  the  ill, 

For  loyal  blood  within  him  struggled  still, 

He  thus  replied  :  "  And  what  pretence  have  I 

"  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, 

"  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 

"  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, 

"  Turn  rebel  and  run  popularly  mad  ? 

"  Were  he  a  tyrant,  who  by  lawless  might 

"  Oppressed  the  Jewsrand  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  ? 

"  All  but  his  kingly  diadem  he  gives  : 

"And  that"  —  But  there  he  paused,  then  sighing  said, 


14 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 


v( 


3 


"  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, 

"  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  rapine  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, 

"  And  then  betrayed  it  to  a  mean  descent ! 

"  I  find,  I  find  my  mounting  spirits  bold, 

"  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  whenJHett's xlire_ageii±_faiiiid, 
While  fainting  virtue  scarce  maintained  her  ground, 
He  pours  fresh  forces  in,  and  thus  replies  : 

"  The  eternal  God,  supremely  good  and  wise, 
"  Imparts  not  these  prodigious  gifts  in  vain. 
"  What  wonders  are  reserved  to  bless  your  reign  ! 
"  Against  your  will  your  arguments  have  shown, 
"  Such  virtue's  only  given  to  guide  a  throne.  380 

"Not  that  your  father's  mildness  I  contemn, 
"  P.ut  manlv  force  becomes  the  diadem. 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I.  15 

"  Tis  true  he  grants  the  people  all  they  crave, 

"  And  more  perhaps  than  subjects  ought  to  have  : 

"  For  lavish  grants  suppose  a  monarch  tame 

"  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, 

"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. 

"  His  right  for  sums  of  necessary  gold 

"  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_guprenie__ 

|  To  makejbheir  kings,  for  kings  are  madejnr  them,  410 

I'AJl  empire  isjio_niQEe-tban  powor-iflrArnaty 

f _W hich^ jwhen  r esum ed ,  can  be  noJojngeT'  jnsd-.. 

"  Succession,  for  the  general  good  designed, 

"  In  its  own  wrong  a  nation  cannot  bind  : 

"  If  altering  that  the  people  can  relieve, 

"  Better  one  suffer  than  a  nation  grieve. 

"  The  Jews  well  know  their  power  :  ere  Saul  they  chose 

"  God  was  their  King,  and  God  they  durst  depose. 


16  ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 

"  Urge  now  your  piety,  your  filial  name, 

"  A  father's  right  and  fear  of  future  fame,  420 

"  The  public  good,  that  universal  call, 

"  To  which  even  Heaven  submitted,  answers  all. 

"  Nor  let  his  love  enchant  your  generous  mind  ; 

"  'Tis  Nature's  trick  to  propagate  her  kind. 

"  Our  fond  begetters,  who  would  never  die, 

"  Love  but  themselves  in  their  posterity. 

"  Or  let  his  kindness  by  the  effects  be  tried 

"  Or  let  him  lay  his  vain  pretence  aside. 

"  God  said,  He  loved  your  father  ;  could  He  bring 

"  A  better  proof  than  to  anoint  him  King  ?  430 

"  It  surely  showed,  He  loved  the  shepherd  well 

"  Who  gave  so  fair  a  flock  as  Israel. 

"  Would  David  have  you  thought  his  darling  son  ? 

"  What  means  he  then  to  alienate  the  crown  ? 

"  The  name  of  godly  he  may  blush  to  bear  ; 

"'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, 

"  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, 

"  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  ; 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I.  17 

"  Your  case  no  tame  expedients  will  afford, 

"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 

"  To  plots  from  seeming  friends  and  secret  foes. 

"  And  who  can  sound  the  depth  of  David's  soul  ? 

"  Perhaps  his  fear  his  kindness  may  control  : 

"He  fears  his  brother,  though  he  loves  his  son, 

"  For  ^plighted  vows  too  late  to  be  undone.   .   .   .        470 

"  Doubt  not :  but,  when  he  most  affects  the  frown, 

"  Commit  a  pleasing  rape  upon  the  crown. 

"  Secure  his  person  to  secure  your  cause  : 

"  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), 
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, 
'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, 
B 


]8  ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 

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,) 

Who  thought  the  power  of  monarchy  too  much  ; 

Mistaken  men  and  patriots  in  their  hearts, 

Not  wicked,  but  seduced  by  impious  arts  ; 

By  these  the  springs  of  property  were  bent 

And  wound  so  high  they  cracked  the  government.     500 

The  next  for  interest  sought  to  embroil  the  state 

To  sell  their  duty  at  a  dearer  rate, 

And  make  their  Jewish  markets  of  the  throne  ; 

Pretending  public  good  to  serve  their  own. 

Others  thought  kings  an  useless  heavy  load, 

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, 

But  lofty  to  a  lawful  prince  restored, 

Saw  with  disdain  an  Ethnic  plot  begun 

And  scorned  by  Jebusites  to  be  outdone. 

Hot  Levites  headed  these  ;  who  pulled  before 

From  the  ark,  which  in  the  Judges'  days  they  bore,     520 

Resumed  their  cant,  and  with  a  zealous  cry 

Pursued  their  old  beloved  theocracy, 

Where  Sanhedrin  and  priest  enslaved  the  nation 

And  justified  their  spoils  by  inspiration  ; 

For  who  so  fit  for  reign  as  Aaron's  race, 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 


19 


540 


If  once  dominion  they  could  found  in  grace  ? 

These  led  the  pack  ;  though  not  of  surest  scent, 

Yet  deepest  mouthed  against  the  government. 

A  numerous  host  of  dreaming  saints  succeed 

Of  the  true  old  enthusiastic  breed  :  530 

'Gainst  form  and  order  they  their  power  employ, 

Nothing  to  build  and  all  things  to  destroy. 

But  far  more  numerous  was  the  herd  of  such 

Who  think  too  little  and  who  talk  too  much. 

These  out  of  mere  instinct,  they  knew  not  why, 

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. 

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 

Not  one,  but  all  mankind's  epitome  :  ' 

Stiff  in  opinions,  always  in  the  wrong, 

Was  everything  by^tartsltirdrT^othing  long  ; 

But  in  the  course  of  one  revolving  moon 

Was  chymist,  fiddler,  statesman,  and  buffoon  ; 

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, 

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, 


/) 


50 


20  ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 

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 

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 

l   The  well-hung  Balaam  and  cold  Cajeb  frpf>  ; 
jfAnd  canting  Nadab  let  oblivion  damn 
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  Jon&s,  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  ; 
JBhjmei,  whose  youth  did  early  promise  bring 

>/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 
Against  his  master,  chose  him  magistrate. 
His  hand  a  vare  of  justice  did  uphold, 
His  neck  was  loaded  with  a  chain  of  gold, 
During  his  office  treason  was  no  crime, 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.    PART  I.  21 

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. 

If  any  durst  his  factious  friends  accuse, 

He  packed  a  jury  of  dissenting  Jews  ; 

Whose  fellow-feeling  in  the  godly  cause 

Would  free  the  suffering  saint  from  human  laws  : 

For  laws  are  only  made  to  punish  those  610 

Who  serve  the  King,  and  to  protect  his  foes. 

If  any  leisure  time  he  had  from  power, 

Because  'tis  sin  to  misemploy  an  hour, 

His  business  was  by  writing  to  persuade 

That  kings  were  useless  and  a  clog  to  trade  : 

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. 

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-breatned  witness  of  the  plot. 

Corah,  thou  shalt  from  oblivion  pass  \ 
rect  thyself,  thou  monumental  brass, 


22          ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.    PART  I. 

High  as  the  serpent  of  thy  metal  made, 
While  nations  stand  secure  beneath  thy  shade. 
What  though  his  birth  were  base,  yet  comets  rise 
From  earthly  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. 
**•- Slink  were  his  eyes,  his  vnicfijEaa.  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 . 
Some  things  like  visionary  nights  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 ; 
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 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.    PART  I.  23 

Should  whet  my  memory,  though  once  forgot,  670 

To  make  him  an  appendix  of  my  plot. 

His  zeal  to  Heaven  made  him  his  Prince  despise, 

And  load  his  person  with  indignities. 

But  zeal  peculiar  privilege  affords, 

Indulging  latitude  to  deeds  and  words  : 

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,  680 

For  Witness  is  a  common  name  to  all. 

Surrounded  thus  with  friends  of  every  sort, 
Deluded  Absalom  forsakes  the  court ; 
Impatient  of  high  hopes,  urged  with  renown, 
And  fired  with  near  possession  of  a  crown. 
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, 
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, 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 

"  Egypt  and  Tyrus  intercept  your  trade, 

"  And  Jebusites  your  sacred  rites  invade. 

"  My  father,  whom  with  reverence  yet  I  name, 

"  Charmed  into  ease,  is  careless  of  his  fame 

"  And,  bribed  with  petty  sums  of  foreign  gold, 

"  Is  grown  in  Bathsheba's  embraces  old  ;  710 

"  Exalts  his  enemies,  his  friends  destroys, 

"  And  all  his  power  against  himself  employs. 

"  He  gives,  and  let  him  give,  my  right  away  ; 

"  But  why  should  he  his  own  and  yours  betray  ? 

"  He,  only  he  can  make  the  nation  bleed, 

"  And  he  alone  from  my  revenge  is  freed. 

"  Take  then  my  tears  (with  that  he  wiped  his  eyes), 

"  'Tis  all  the  aid  my  present  power  supplies  : 

"  No  court-informer  can  these  arms  accuse  ; 

"  These  arms  may  sons  against  their  fathers  use.         720 

"  And  'tis  my  wish,  the  next  successor's  reign 

"  May  make  no  other  Israelite  complain." 

Youth,  beauty,  graceful  action  seldom  fail, 
But  common  interest  always  will  prevail ; 
And  pity  never  ceases_tQ  bo  oh  own 
To  him  who  makes  the  people's  wrongs  his  own. 
!  The  crowd  that  still  believe  their  kings  oppress 
With  lifted  hands  their  young  Messiah  bless  : 
Who  now  begins  his  progress  to  ordain 
With  chariots,  horsemen,  and  a  numerous  train  ;         730 
From  east  to  west  his  glories  he  displays 
And,  like  the  sun,  the  promised  land  surveys. 

I  Fame  runs  before  him  as  the  morning  star, 
And  shouts  of  JOY  qajntfl  him  frrnn  a.fa.r  ; 

Each  house  receives  him  as  a  guardian  god 
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, 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.    PART  I.  25 

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, 

And  try  their  strength  before  they  came  to  blows. 

Yet  all  was  coloured  with  a  smooth  pretence 

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. 

OhTfoolish  Israel !  never  warned  by  ill  ! 

Still  the  same  bait,  and  circumvented  still  ! 

Did  ever  men  forsake  their  present  ease, 

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, 

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  ? 

kin^s  axe_aLaY£s_tDu±hQge  whom  they  command 


26          ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 

And  tenants  to  their  people's  pleasure  stand. 
Add_that  the  power,  for  property  allowed, 
Isjmischievously  seated  in  the  growd  ; 
\ —    For  who  can  be  secure  of  private  right, 

If  sovereign  sway  may  t>e  dissolvecTby  might  r(  780 

Nor  is  the  peo]jleja4.udgmont  alwayo  true  : 

The  most  may  err  as  grossly  as  the  few, 

AnoTfaultless  kings  run  down^icominon  cry 

For  vice,  oppression,  and  for  tyranny. 

What  standard  is  there  in  a  fickle  rout, 

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, 

What  prudent  men  a  settled  throne  would  shake  ? 

For  whatsoe'er  their  sufferings  were  before, 

That  change  they  covet  makes  them  suffer  more. 

All  other  errors  but  disturb  a  state, 

But  innovation  is  the  blow  of  fate.  800 

If  ancient  fabrics  nod  and  threat  to  fall, 

To  patch  the  flaws  and  buttress  up  the  wall, 

Thus  far  'tis  duty  :  but  here  fix  the  mark  ; 

For  all  beyond  it  is  to  touch  our  ark. 

To  change  foundations,  cast  the  frame  anew, 

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 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I.  27 

Now  what  relief  can  righteous  David  bring  ?  I 
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  ; 
Some  let  me  name,  and  naming  is  to  praise. 

lu  this  short  file  Barzillai  first  appears, 
Barzillai,  crowned  with  honour  and  with  years. 
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  hejjractised,  not  the  couxtier's  art-; — J 
Large  washis  wealth,  but  larger  was  his  heart,J[ 
Which  well  the  noblest  objects  knew  to  chuse, 
The  fighting  warrior,  and  recording  Muse. 
His  bed  could  once  a  fruitful  issue  boast ; 
Now  more  than  half  a  father's  name  is  lost.  830 

His  eldest  hope,  with  every  grace  adorned, 
By  me,  so  Heaven  will  have  it,  always  mourned 
And  always  honoured,  snatched  in  manhood's  prime 
By  unequal  fates  and  Providence's  crime  : 
Yet  not  before  the  goal  of  honour  won, 
All  parts  fulfilled  of  subject  and  of  son  ; 
Swift  was  the  race,  but  short  the  time  to  run. 
Oh  narrow  circle,  but  of  power  divine, 
Scanted  in  space,  but  perfect  in  thy  line  ! 
By  sea,  by  land,  thy  matchless  worth  was  known,      840 
Arms  thy  delight,  and  war  was  all  thy  own  : 
Thy  force  infused  the  fainting  Tyrians  propped  : 
And  haughty  Pharaoh  found  his  fortune  stopped. 
Oh  ancient  honour  !  oh  unconquered  hand, 
Whom  foes  unpunished  never  could  withstand ! 


28          ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 

But  Israel  was  unworthy  of  thy  name  : 
Short  is  the  date  of  all  immoderate  fame. 
It  looks  as  Heaven  our  ruin  had  designed, 
And  durst  not  trust  thy  fortune  and  thy  mind. 
Now,  free  from  earth,  thy  disencumbered  soul  850 

Mounts  up,  and  leaves  behind  the  clouds  and  starry  pole  : 
From  thence  thy  kindred  legions  mayest  thou  bring 
To  aid  the  guardian  angel  of  thy  King. 
Here  stop,  my  Muse,  hef e  cease  thy  painful  flight ; 
No  pinions  can  pursue  immortal  height : 
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  steepy  flight  from  heaven,  and  see        860 
If  thou  canst  find  on  earth  another  he  : 
Another  he  would  be  too  hard  to  find  ; 
J»  See  then  whom  thou  canst  see  not  far  behind. 

r    ^ljxA-*^»    Zadoc  the  priest,  whom,  shunning  power  and  place, 
^/  His  lowly  mind  advanced  to  David's  grace. 
"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,  870 

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. 
Next  them  a  train  of  loyal  peers  ascend  ; 
Sharp-judging  AdrieL  the  Muses'  friend, 
Himself  a  Muse  :  in  Sanhedrin's  debate 
True  to  his  Prince,  but  not  a  slave  of  state  ; 
Whom  David's  love  with  honours  did  adorn  880 

That  from  his  disobedient  son  were  torn. 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I.  29 

Jotham  of  piercing  wit  and  pregnant  thought, 
Endued  by  nature  and  by  learning  taught 
To  move  assemblies,  who  but  only  tried 
The  worse  a  while,  then  chose  the  better  side, 
Nor  chose  alone,  but  turned  the  fr>a,1aTlfift  *'on? 
"go^micirthe_weifyht  of  one  brave  man  can  do. 
Hushai,  the  friend  of  David  in  distress, 
In  public  storms  of  manly  stedfastness  ; 
By  foreign  treaties  he  informed  his  youth  890 

And  joined  experience  to  his  native  truth. 
His  frugal  care  supplied  the  wanting  throne, 
Frugal  for  that,  but  bounteous  of  his  own  : 
'Tis  easy  conduct  when  exchequers  flow, 
But  hard  the  task  to  manage  well  the  low. 
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, 
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 
And  tempt  the  united  fury  of  the  land. 


30          ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 

"With  grief  they  viewed  such  powerful  engines  bent 

To  batter  down  the  lawful  government. 

A  numerous  faction,  with  pretended  frights, 

In  Sanhedrins  to  plume  the  regal  rights  ;  920 

The  true  successor  from  the  Court  removed  ; 

The  plot  by  hireling  witnesses  improved. 

These  ills  they  saw,  and,  as  their  duty  bound, 

They  showed  the  King  the  danger  of  the  wound  ; 

That  no  concessions  from  the  throne  would  please, 

But  lenitives  fomented  the  disease  ; 

That  Absalom,  ambitious  of  the  crown, 

Was  made  the  lure  to  draw  the  people  down  ; 

That  false  Achitophel's  pernicious  hate 

Had  turned  the  plot  to  ruin  Church  and  State  ;  930 

The  council  violent,  the  rabble  worse  ; 

That  Shimei  taught  Jerusalem  to  curse. 

With  all  these  loads  of  injuries  opprest,       *'  ' 
y-         And  long  revolving  in  his  careful  breast 

<5'    The  event  of  things,  at  last  his  patience  tired,  * 

Thus  from  his  royal  throne,  by  Heaven  inspired,'**'*^ 
The  o-odlike  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  ; 
"  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 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I.  31 

"  Those  heaped  affronts  that  haughty  subjects  bring 


* 


„ 

"  Are  burdens  for  a  camel,  not  a  king.  i_  *  ' 

I  "  Kings  are  the  public  pillars  of  the  State,  ° 

i  "Born  to  sustain  and  prop  the  nation's  weight 
"Tf  my  young  Damson  wiflTpreTend  a  call 
"  To  shake  the  column,  let  him  share  the  fall  ; 
fag  £f      "But  oh  that  yet  he  would  repent  and  live  ! 
»__£'  How  easy  'tis  for  parents  to  forgive  ! 

"  With  how  few  tears  a  pardon  might  be  won 
"  From  nature,  pleading  for  a  darling  son  !  960 

"  Poor  pitied  youth,  by  my  paternal  care 
"  Raised  up  to  all  the  height  his  frame  could  bear  !* 
"  Had  God  ordained  his  fate  for  empire  born, 
"  He  would  have  given  his  soul  another  turn  : 
"  Gulled  witn  a  patriot's  name,  whose  modern  sense 
"  Is  one  that  would  by  law  supplant  his  prince  ; 
"  The  people's  brave,  the  politician's  tool  ; 
"  Never  was  patriot  yet  but  was  a  fool. 
"  Whence  comes  it  that  religion  and  the  laws 
"  Should  more  be  Absalom's  than  David's  cause  ?        970 
^•v  ..."  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  ? 

"  Let  Sanhedrins  be  taught  to  give  their  own. 

"  A  king's  at  least  a  part  of  government, 

"  And  mine  as  requisite  as  their  consent  : 

"  Without  my  leave  a  future  king  to  choose 

"  Infers  a  right  the  present  to  depose.  980 

"  True,  they  petition  me  to  approve  their  choice  : 

"  "But  Esau's  ha.uds  suit  ill  with  Jacob's  voicg. 

"  My  pious  subjects  for  my  safety  pray, 

"  Which  to  secure,  they  take  my  power  away. 

"  From  plots  and  treasons  Heaven  preserve  my  years, 

"  But  save  me  most  from  my  petitioners. 


32  ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 

"  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  ?  990 

"  The  law  shall  still  direct  my  peaceful  sway, 

"  And  the  same  law  teach  rebels  to  obey  : 

"  Votes  shall  no  more  established  power  control, 

"  Such  votes  as  make  a  part  exceed  the  whole. 

"  No  groundless  clamours  shall  my  friends  remove 

"  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  ! 

"  Beware  the  fury  of  a  patient  man.^ 

"  Law  they  require,  let  Law  then  show  her  face  ; 

"  They  could  not  be  content  to  look  on  Grace, 

"  Her  hinder  parts,  but  with  a  daring  eye 

"  To  tempt  the  terror  of  her  front  and  die. 

"  By  their  own  arts,  'tis  righteously  decreed,  1010 

"  Those  dire  artificers  of  death  shall  bleed. 

"  Against  themselves  their  witnesses  will  swear 

"  Till,  viper-like,  their  mother-plot  they  tear, 

"  And  suck  for  nutriment  that  bloody  gore 

"  Which  was  their  principle  of  life  before. 

"  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 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I.  33 

"  And  rise  upon  them  with  redoubled  might : 

"  For  lawful  power  is  still  superior  found, 

"  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. 


THE  SECOND  PART  OF 

ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL. 

A  POEM. 


"  Si  quis  tamcn  hsec  quoque,  ui  quis 
Captus  amore  leget." 

VIHQ.  Eel.  vi.  10. 

[By  NAHUM  TATE,  with  assistance  from  DEYDEN.] 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL. 

THE   SECOND   PART. 

Since  men,  like  beasts,  each  others  prey  were  made, 
Since  trade  began  and  priesthood  grew  a  trade, 
Since  realms  were  formed,  none  sure  so  cursed  as  those 
That  madly  their  own  happiness  oppose  ; 
There  Heaven  itself  and  godlike  kings  in  vain 
Shower  down  the  manna  of  a  gentle  reign  j 
While  pampered  crowds  to  mad  sedition  run 
And  monarchs  by  indulgence  are  undone. 
Thus  Davids  clemency  was  fatal  grown, 
While  wealthy  faction  awed  the  wanting  throne.  10 

For  now  their  sovereign's  orders  to  contemn 
Was  held  the  charter  of  Jerusalem  ; 
His  rights  to  invade,  his  tributes  to  refuse, 
A  privilege  peculiar  to  the  Jews  ; 
As  if  from  heavenly  call  this  licence  fell 
And  Jacob's  seed  were  chosen  to  rebel! 
34 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II.          35 

Achitophel  with  triumph  sees  his  crimes 
Thus  suited  to  the  madness  of  the  times, 
And  Absalom,  to  make  his  hopes  succeed, 
Of  flattery*  s  charms  no  longer  stands  in  need,  20 

While  fond  of  change,  though  ne'er  so  dearly  bought, 
Our  tribes  outstrip  the  youths  ambitious  thought. 
His  swiftest  hopes  with  swifter  homage  meet, 
And  crowd  their  servile  necks  beneath  his  feet. 
Thus  to  his  aid  while  pressing  tides  repair, 
He  mounts  and  spreads  his  streamers  in  the  air. 
The  charms  of  empire  might  his  youth  mislead, 
But  what  can  our  besotted  Israel  plead  ? 
Swayed  by  a  monarch,  whose  serene  command 
Seems  half  the  blessing  of  our  promised  land  ;  30 

Whose  only  grievance  is  excess  of  ease, 
Freedom  our  pain,  and  plenty  our  disease  ! 
Yet,  as  all  folly  would  lay  claim  to  sense 
A  nd  wickedness  ne'er  wanted  a  pretence, 
With  arguments  they'd  make  their  treason  good 
And  righteous  David's  self  with  slanders  load  : 
That  arts  of  foreign  sway  he  did  affect 
And  guilty  Jebusites  from  law  protect, 
Whose  very  chiefs,  convict,  were  never  freed, 
Nay  we  have  seen  their  sacrificers  bleed  !  40 

Accusers'  infamy  is  urged  in  vain, 
While  in  the  bounds  of  sense  they  did  contain, 
But  soon  they  launched  into  the  unf 'at homed  tide 
And  in  the  depths  they  knew  disdained  to  ride; 
For  probable  discoveries  to  dispense 
Was  thought  below  a  pensioned  evidence. 
Mere  truth  was  dull,  nor  suited  with  the  port 
Of  pampered  Corah,  when  advanced  to  court. 
No  less  than  wonders  now  they  will  impose 
And  projects  void  of  grace  or  sense  disclose.  50 

Such  was  the  charge  on  pious  Michal  brought, 
Michal,  that  ne'er  was  cruel  even  in  thought ; 


36          ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.    PART  II. 

The  best  of  queens  and  most  obedient  wife 

Impeached  of  curst  designs  on  Davids  life  ! 

His  life,  the  theme  of  her  eternal  prayer  ; 

'Tis  scarce  so  much  his  guardian  angel's  care. 

Not  summer  morns  such  mildness  can  disclose, 

The  Hermon  lily  nor  the  Sharon  rose. 

Neglecting  each  vain  pomp  of  majesty ', 

Transported  Michal  feeds  her  thoughts  on  high.  60 

She  lives  with  angels  and,  as  angels  do, 

Quits  heaven  sometimes  to  bless  the  world  below, 

Where,  cherished  by  her  bounty's  plenteous  spring, 

Reviving  widows  smile  and  orphans  sing. 

Oh  !  when  rebellious  Israel's  crimes  at  height 

Are  threatened  with  her  lord's  approaching  fate, 

The  piety  of  Michal  then  remain 

In  Heaven's  remembrance  and  prolong  his  reign. 

Less  desolation  did  the  pest  pursue 

That  from  Dan's  limits  to  Beersheba  sletv,  70 

Less  fatal  the  repeated  icars  of  Tyre, 
And  less  Jerusalem's  avenging  fire  ; 
With  gentler  terror  these  our  State  overran, 
Than  since  our  evidencing  days  began  ! 
On  every  cheek  a  pale  confusion  sat, 
Continued  fear  beyond  the  worst  of  fate  ! 
Trust  was  no  more,  art,  science,  useless  made, 
All  occupations  lost  but  Corah's  trade. 
Meanwhile,  a  guard  on  modest  Corah  wait, 
If  not  for  safety,  needful  yet  for  state.  80 

Well  might  he  deem  each  peer  and  prince  his  slave, 
And  lord  it  o'er  the  tribes  which  he  could  save: 
Even  vice  in  him  was  virtue  ;  what  sad  fate 
But  for  his  honesty,  had  seized  our  State  ? 
And  with  what  tyranny  had  we  been  curst, 
Had  Corah  never  proved  a  villain  jlrst  ? 
To  have  told  his  knowledge  of  the  intrigue  in  gross 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II.          37 

Had  been,  alas  !  to  our  deponent's  loss  : 
The  travelled  Levite  had  the  experience  got 
To  husband  well  and  make  the  best  of  his  plot,  90 

And  therefore,  like  an  evidence  of  skill, 
With  wise  reserves  secured  his  pension  still, 
Nor  quite  of  future  power  himself  bereft, 
But  limbos  large  for  unbelievers  left. 
For  now  his  ivrit  such  reverence  had  got, 
'Twas  worse  than  plotting  to  suspect  his  plot. 
Some  were  so  well  convinced,  they  made  no  doubt 
Themselves  to  help  the  foundered  swearers  out ; 
Some  had  their  sense  imposed  on  by  their  fear, 
But  more  for  interest  sake  believe  and  swear  ;  100 

E'en  to  that  height  with  some  the  frenzy  grew, 
They  raged  to  find  their  danger  not  prove  true. 

Yet  than  all  these  a  viler  crew  remain, 
Who  with  Achitophel  the  cry  maintain  ; 
Not  urged  by  fear,  nor  through  misguided  sense, 
(Blind  zeal  and  starving  need  had  some  pretence  ;) 
But  for  the  good  old  cause,  that  did  excite 
The  original  rebels'  wiles,  revenge,  and  spite, 
These  raise  the  plot,  to  have  the  scandal  thrown 
Upon  the  bright  successor  of  the  crown,  110 

Whose  virtue  with  such  wrongs  they  had  pursued 
As  seemed  all  hope  of  pardon  to  exclude. 
Thus,  while  on  private  ends  their  zeal  is  built, 
The  cheated  crowd  applaud  and  share  their  guilt. 

Such  practices  as  these,  too  gross  to  lie 
Long  unobserved  by  each  discerning  eye, 
The  more  judicious  Israelites  unspelled, 
Though  still  the  charm  the  giddy  rabble  held. 
Even  Absalom  amid  the  dazzling  beams 
Of  empire  and  ambition' s  flattering  dreams,  120 

Perceives  the  plot  too  foul  to  be  excused, 


38         ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II. 

To  aid  designs  no  less  pernicious  used  ; 
And,  filial  sense  yet  striving  in  his  breast, 
Thus  to  Achitophel  his  doubts  exprest : 

"  Why  are  my  thoughts  upon  a  crown  employed, 
"  Which  once  obtained  can  be  but  half  enjoyed? 
li  Not  so,  when  virtue  did  my  arms  require 
"  And  to  my  father's  ivars  I  flew  entire. 
"My  regal  power  how  will  my  foes  resent, 
"  When  I  myself  have  scarce  my  own  consent  ?  130 

"  Give  me  a  son's  unblemished  truth  again 
"  Or  quench  the  sparks  of  duty  that  remain. 
"  How  slight  to  force  a  throne  that  legions  guard 
"  The  task  to  me  ;  to  prove  unjust,  how  hard! 
"  And  if  the  imagined  guilt  thus  ivound  my  thought, 
"  What  will  it,  when  the  tragic  scene  is  wrought  ? 
"  Dire  war  must  first  be  conjured  from  below, 
"  The  realm  we'd  rule  we  first  must  overthrow  ; 
"And  when  the  civil  Furies  are  on  wing 
"  That  blind  and  undistinguished  slaughters  fiing,         140 
"  Who  knows  'what  impious  chance  may  reach  the  King  ? 
"  Oh  /  rather  let  me  perish  in  the  strife, 
"  Than  have  my  crown  the  price  of  Davids  life  ! 
"  Or  if  the  tempest  of  the  war  he  stand, 
"  In  peace  some  vile  officious  villain's  hand 
"  His  soul's  anointed  temple  may  invade, 
"  Or,  pressed  by  clamorous  crowds,  myself  be  made 
"  His  murderer  ;  rebellious  crowds,  ichose  guilt 
"  Shall  dread  his  vengeance  till  his  blood  be  spilt ; 
"  Which  if  my  filial  tenderness  oppose,  150 

"  Since  to  the  empire  by  their  arms  I  rose, 
"  Those  very  arms  on  me  shall  be  employed, 
"  A  new  usurper  crowned  and  I  destroyed. 
"  The  same  pretence  of  public  good  will  hold 
"  And  new  Achitophels  be  found  as  bold 
"  To  urge  the  needful  change,  perhaps  the  old." 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II.          39 

He  said.     The  statesman  with  a  smile  replies, 
A  smile  that  did  his  rising  spleen  disguise : 
"  My  thoughts  presumed  our  labours  at  an  end, 
"And  are  we  still  with  conscience  to  contend?  160 

"  Whose  want  in  kings  as  needful  is  allowed 
"  As  'tis  for  them  to  find  it  in  the  crowd. 
"  Far  in  the  doubtful  passage  you  are  gone, 
"  And  only  can  be  safe  by  pressing  on. 
"  The  crown's  true  heir,  a  prince  severe  and  wise, 
"  Has  viewed  your  motions  long  with  jealous  eyes, 
"  Your  person's  charms,  your  more  prevailing  arts, 
"  And  marked  your  progress  in  the  people's  hearts  ; 
"  Whose  patience  is  the  effect  of  stinted  power, 
"But  treasures  vengeance  for  the  fatal  hour  ;  170 

"  And  if  remote  the  peril  lie  can  bring. 
"  Your  present  danger's  greater  from  the  King. 
"  Let  not  a  parent's  name  deceive  your  sense, 
"  Nor  trust  the  father  in  a  jealous  Prince! 
"  Your  trivial  faults  if  he  could  so  resent 
"  To  doom  you  little  less  than  banishment, 
"  What  rage  must  your  presumption  since  inspire, 
"  Against  his  orders  your  return  from  Tyre  ? 
"  Nor  only  so,  but  with  a  pomp  more  high 
"And  open  court  of  popularity ,  180 

"  The  factious  tribes  " — "  And  this  reproof  from  thee  !  " 
The  Prince  replies,  "  0  statesman's  winding  skill, 
"  They  first  condemn  that  first  advised  the  ill  /" 
"  Illustrious  youth,"  returned  Achitophel, 
"  Miscontrue  not  the  words  that  mean  you  well. 
"  The  course  you  steer  I  worthy  blame  conclude, 
"  But  'tis  because  you  leave  it  unpursued. 
"  A  monarch's  crown  with  fate  surrounded  lies, 
"  Who  reach  lay  hold  on  death  that  miss  the  prize. 
"  Did  you  for  this  expose  yourself  to  show  190 

"  And  to  the  crowd  bow  popularly  low, 
"  For  this  your  glorious  progress  next  ordain, 


40          ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II. 

"  With  chariots,  horsemen,  and  a  numerous  train, 

"  With  fame  before  you  like  the  morning  star, 

"  And  shouts  of  joy  saluting  from  afar? 

"  Oh,  from  the  heights  you've  reached  but  take  a  view, 

"  Scarce  leading  Lucifer  could  fall  like  you  ! 

"  And  must  I  here  my  shipwracked  arts  bemoan  ? 

"  Have  I  for  this  so  oft  made  Israel  groan, 

"  Tour  single  interest  with  the  nation  iveighed,  200 

"  And  turned  the  scale  where  your  desires  were  laid, 

"  Even  when  at  helm  a  course  so  dangerous  moved, 

"  To  land  your  hopes,  as  my  removal  proved  ?" 

" / not  dispute"  the  royal  youth  replies, 
"  The  known  perfection  of  your  policies  ; 
"  Nor  in  Achitophel  yet  grudge  or  blame 
"  The  privilege  that  statesmen  ever  claim  ; 
"  Who  private  interest  never  yet  pursued, 
"  But  still  pretended  'twas  for  others'  good. 
"  What  politician  yet  e'er  scaped  his  fate  210 

"  Who,  saving  his  own  neck,  not  saved  the  State  ? 
"  From  hence  on  every  humourous  wind  that  veered 
"  With  shifted  sails  a  several  course  you  steered. 
"  What  form  of  sway  did  David  e'er  pursue 
"  That  seemed  like  absolute,  but  sprung  from  you  ? 
"  Who  at  your  instance  quashed  each  penal  law 
"  That  kept  dissenting  factious  Jeivs  in  awe  ; 
"  And  who  suspends  fixed  laws  may  abrogate, 
"  That  done,  form  new,  and  so  enslave  the  state. 
"  Even  property,  whose  champion  now  you  stand,  220 

"  And  seem  for  this  the  idol  of  the  land, 
"  Did  ne'er  sustain  such  violence  before 
"  As  when  your  counsel  shut  the  royal  store  ; 
"  Advice  that  ruin  to  whole  tribes  procured, 
"  But  secret  kept  till  your  own  banks  secured. 
"  Recount  with  this  the  triple  covenant  broke, 
"And  Israel  jilted  for  a  foreign  yoke  ; 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II.          41 

"  Nor  here  your  counsels'  fatal  progress  stayed, 

"But  sent  our  levied  powers  to  Pharaoh's  aid; 

"  Hence  Tyre  and  Israel,  low  in  ruins  laid,  230 

"  And  Egypt,  once  their  scorn,  their  common  terror  made. 

"  Even  yet  of  such  a  season  we  can  dream, 

"  When  royal  rights  you  made  your  darling  theme, 

"  For  power  unlimited  could  reasons  draw 

"And  place  prerogative  above  the  law  ; 

"  Which  on  your  fall  from  office  grew  unjust, 

"  The  laws  made  king,  the  king  a  slave  in  trust : 

"  Whom  with  state-craft,  to  interest  only  true, 

"  You  now  accuse  of  ills  contrived  by  you" 

To  this  Hell's  agent — "  Royal  youth,  fix  here,  240 

"  Let  interest  be  the  star  by  which  I  steer  : 
"  Hence,  to  repose  your  trust  in  me  was  wise, 
"  Whose  interest  most  in  your  advancement  lies  ; 
"  A  tie  so  firm  as  always  will  avail 
"  When  friendship,  nature,  and  religion  fail. 
"  On  ours  the  safety  of  the  crowd  depends, 
"  Secure  the  crowd,  and  we  obtain  our  ends, 
"  Whom  I  will  cause  so  far  our  guilt  to  share, 
"  Till  they  are  made  our  champions  by  their  fear. 
"  What  opposition  can  your  rival  bring,  250 

"  While  Sanhedrims  are  jealous  of  the  King  ? 
"  His  strength  as  yet  in  David's  friendship  lies, 
"  And  what  can  David's  self  without  supplies  ? 
"  Who  with  exclusive  bills  must  now  dispense, 
"  Debar  the  heir  or  starve  in  his  defence  ; 
"  Conditions  which  our  elders  ne'er  will  quit 
"And  David's  justice  never  can  admit. 
"  Or  forced  by  wants  his  brother  to  betray, 
"  To  your  ambition  next  he  clears  the  way  ; 
"  For  if  succession  once  to  nought  they  bring,  260 

"  Their  next  advance  removes  the  present  King  : 
"  Persisting  else  his  senates  to  dissolve 


42         ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.    PART  II. 

"  In  equal  hazard  shall  his  reign  involve. 

"  Our  tribes,  whom  Pharaoh's  power  so  much  alarms, 

"  Shall  rise  without  their  Prince  to  oppose  his  arms. 

"  Nor  boots  it  on  what  cause  at  first  they  join; 

"  Their  troops,  once  up,  are  tools  for  our  design. 

"At  least  such  subtle  covenants  shall  be  made, 

"  Till  peace  itself  is  war  in  masquerade. 

"  Associations  of  mysterious  sense,  270 

"  Against,  but  seeming  for,  the  King's  defence, 

"  Even  on  their  courts  of  justice  fetters  draw 

"  And  from  our  agents  muzzle  up  their  law. 

"  By  which  a  conquest  if  we  fail  to  make, 

"'Tis  a  drawn  game  at  worst,  and  we  secure  our  stake." 

He  said,  and  for  the  dire  success  depends 
On  various  sects,  by  common  guilt  made  friends  ; 
Whose  heads,  though  ne'er  so  differing  in  their  creed, 
In  the  point  of  treason  yet  were  well  agreed. 
'Mongst  these,  extorting  Ishban  first  appears,  280 

Pursued  by  a  meagre  troop  of  bankrupt  heirs. 
Blest  times  when  Ishban,  he  whose  occupation 
So  long  has  been  to  cheat,  reforms  the  nation  ! 
Ishban  of  conscience  suited  to  his  trade, 
As  good  a  saint  as  usurer  ever  made. 
Yet  Mammon  has  not  so  engrossed  him  quite 
But  Belial  lays  as  large  a  claim  of  spite, 
Who  for  those  pardons  from  his  Prince  he  draws 
Returns  reproaches,  and  cries  up  the  cause. 
That  year  in  which  the  City  he  did  su'ay,  290 

He  left  rebellion  in  a  hopeful  way  ; 
Yet  his  ambition  once  was  found  so  bold 
To  offer  talents  of  extorted  gold, 
Could  Davids  wants  have  so  been  bribed  to  shame 
And  scandalize  our  peerage  with  his  name  ; 
For  which  his  dear  sedition  he'd  forswear, 
And  e'en  turn  loyal,  to  be  made  a  peer. 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II.          43 

Next  him,  let  railing  Rabsheka  have  place, 

So  full  of  zeal  he  has  no  need  of  grace  ;  .    .    .  300 

What  caution  could  appear  too  much  in  him 

That  keeps  the  treasure  of  Jerusalem  ! 

Let  David's  brother  but  approach  the  town, 

" Double  our  guards"  he  cries,  " we  are  undone ! " 

Protesting  that  he  dares  not  sleep  in  his  bed, 

"  Lest  he  should  rise  next  morn  mthout  his  head." 


Next  these,  a  troop  of  busy  spirits  press,  310 

Of  little  fortunes  and  of  conscience  less  ; 
With  them  the  tribe,  whose  luxury  had  drained 
Their  banks,  in  former  sequestrations  gained  ; 
Who  rich  and  great  by  past  rebellions  grew, 
And  long  to  fish  the  troubled  waves  anew. 
Some  future  hopes,  some  present  payment  draws 
To  sell  their  conscience  and  espouse  the  cause  ; 
Such  stipends  those  vile  hirelings  best  befit, 
Priests  without  grace  and  poets  without  wit. 
Shall  that  false  Hebronite  escape  our  curse,  320 

Judas,  that  keeps  the  rebels'  pension-purse, 
Judas,  that  pays  the  treason-writer's  fee, 
Judas,  that  well  deserves  his  namesake's  tree, 
Who  at  Jerusalem's  own  gates  erects 
His  college  for  a  nursery  of  sects, 
Young  prophets  with  an  early  care  secures, 
And  with  the  dung  of  his  own  arts  manures  ? 
What  have  the  men  of  Hebron  here  to  do  ? 
What  part  in  Israel's  promised  land  have  you  ? 
Here  Phaleg,  the  lay  Hebronite,  is  come,  330 

'Cause  like  the  rest  he  could  not  live  at  home  ; 
Who  from  his  own  possessions  could  not  drain 


44         ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  IL 

An  omer  even  of  Hebronitish  grain, 

Here  struts  it  like  a  patriot,  and  talks  high 

Of  injured  subjects,  altered  property  : 

An  emblem  of  that  buzzing  insect  just 

That  mounts  the  wheel,  and  thinks  she  raises  dust.  .   .  . 

A  waiting-man  to  travelling  nobles  chose,  342 

He  his  own  laws  would  saucily  impose, 

Till  bastinadoed  back  again  he  went 

To  learn  those  manners  he  to  teach  was  sent. 

Chastised  he  ought  to  have  retreated  home, 

But  he  reads  politics  to  Absalom  ; 

For  never  Hebronite,  though  kicked  and  scorned, 

To  his  own  country  willingly  returned. 


But  leaving  famished  Phaleg  to  be  fed  350 

And  to  talk  treason  for  his  daily  bread, 
Let  Hebron,  nay  let  Hell,  produce  a  man 
So  made  for  mischief  as  Ben  Jochanan  ; 
A  Jew  of  humble  parentage  was  he, 
By  trade  a  Levite,  though  of  low  degree  : 
His  pride  no  higher  than  the  desk  aspired, 
But  for  the  drudgery  of  priests  was  hired 
To  read  and  pray  in  linen  ephod  brave 
And  pick  up  single  shekels  from  the  grave. 
Married  at  last,  and  finding  charge  come  faster,          360 
He  could  not  live  by  God,  but  changed  his  master  : 
Inspired  by  want,  was  made  a  factious  tool, 
They  got  a  villain,  and  we  lost  a  fool. 
Still  violent,  whatever  cause  he  took, 
But  most  against  the  party  he  forsook  : 
For  renegadoes,  who  ne'er  turn  by  halves, 
Are  bound  in  conscience  to  be  double  knaves. 
So  this  prose  prophet  took  most  monstrous  pains 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II.          45 

To  let  his  masters  see  he  earned  his  gains. 

But  as  the  Devil  owes  all  his  imps  a  shame,  370 

He  chose  the  Apostate  for  his  proper  theme  ; 

With  little  pains  he  made  the  picture  true, 

And  from  reflection  took  the  rogue  he  drew. 

A  wondrous  work,  to  prove  the  Jewish  nation 

In  every  age  a  murmuring  generation, 

To  trace  them  from  their  infancy  of  sinning, 

And  show  them  factious  from  their  first  beginning, 

To  prove  they  could  rebel,  and  rail,  and  mock, 

Much  to  the  credit  of  the  chosen  flock  ; 

A  strong  authority  which  must  convince,  380 

That  saints  own  no  allegiance  to  their  prince  ;   .   .    . 

But  tell  me,  did  the  drunken  patriarch  bless 

The  son  that  showed  his  father's  nakedness  ? 

Such  thanks  the  present  Church  thy  pen  will  give, 

Which  proves  rebellion  was  so  primitive. 

Must  ancient  failings  be  examples  made  ? 

Then  murderers  from  Cain  may  learn  their  trade. 

As  thou  the  heathen  and  the  saint  hast  drawn,  390 

Methinks  the  Apostate  was  the  better  man, 

And  thy  hot  father,  waving  my  respect, 

Not  of  a  mother  church  but  of  a  sect. 

And  such  he  needs  must  be  of  thy  inditing, 

This  comes  of  drinking  asses'  milk  and  writing. 

If  Balak  should  be  called  to  leave  his  place, 

(As  profit  is  the  loudest  call  of  grace,) 

His  temple,  dispossessed  of  one,  would  be 

Replenished  with  seven  devils  more  by  thee. 


Levi,  thou  art  a  load,  I'll  lay  thee  down,  400 

And  show  rebellion  bare,  without  a  gown  ; 
Poor  slaves  in  metre,  dull  and  addle-pated, 
Who  rhyme  below  even  David's  psalms  translated  ; 


46          ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II. 

Some  in  my  speedy  pace  I  must  outrun, 

As  lame  Mephibosheth  the  wizard's  son  ; 

To  make  quick  way  I'll  leap  o'er  heavy  blocks, 

Shun  rotten  Uzza  as  I  would  the  pox  ; 

And  hasten  Og  and  Doeg  to  rehearse, 

Two  fools  that  crutch  their  feeble  sense  on  verse, 

Who  by  my  Muse  to  all  succeeding  times  410 

Shall  live  in  spite  of  their  own  dogrel  rhj 

' 


Doeg,  though  without  knowing  how  or  why, 
Made  still  a  blundering  kind  of  melody  ; 
Spurred  boldly  on,  and  dashed  through  thick  and  thin. 
Through  sense  and  nonsense,  never  out  nor  in  ; 
Free  from  all  meaning,  whether  good  or  bad, 
And,  in  one  word,  heroically  mad, 
He  was  too  warm  on  picking- work  to  dwell\ 
But  faggoted  his  notions  as  they  feli^.        1 
And,  if  they  rhymed  and  rattled,  all  was  well.  420 

Spiteful  he  is  not,  though  he  wrote  a  satire, 
For  still  there  goes  some  thinking  to  ill-nature  ; 
He  needs  no  more  than  birds  and  beasts  to  think, 
All  his  occasions  are  to  eat  and  drink. 
If  he  call  rogue  and  rascal  from  a  garret, 
He  means  you  no  more  mischief  than  a  parrot  ; 
The  words  for  friend  and  foe  alike  were  made, 
To  fetter  them  in  verse  is  all  his  trade.  .    -    . 
Let  him  be  gallows-free  by  my  consent,  —  431 

And  nothing  suffer,  since  he  nothing  meant ; 
Hanging  supposes  human  soul  and  reason, 
This  animal's  below  committing  treason  : 
Shall  he  be  hanged  who  never  could  rebel  ? 
That's  a  preferment  for  Achitophel.  .   .   . 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II.          47 

Eailing  in  other  men  may  be  a  crime,  441 

But  ought  to  pass  for  mere  instinct  in  him  ; 

Instinct  he  follows  and  no  farther  knows, 

For  to  write  verse  with  him  is  to  transprose  ; 

'Twere  pity  treason  at  his  door  to  lay 

Who  makes  heaven's  gate  a  lock  to  its  own  Tcey  ; 

Let  him  rail  on,  let  his  invective  Muse 

Have  four  and  twenty  letters  to  abuse, 

Which  if  he  jumbles  to  one  line  of  sense, 

Indict  him  of  a  capital  offence.  450 

In  fire -works  give  him  leave  to  vent  his  spite, 

Those  are  the  only  serpents  he  can  write  ; 

The  height  of  his  ambition  is,  we  know, 

But  to  be  master  of  a  puppet-show  ; 

On  that  one  stage  his  works  may  yet  appear, 

And  a  month's  harvest  keeps  him  all  the  year. 


Now  stop  your  noses,  readers,  all  and  some, 
For  here's  a  tun  of  midnight  work  to  come, 
ygr  from  a  treason-tavern  rolling  home. 
Round  as  a  globe,  and  liquored  every  chink,  460 

Goodly  and  great  he  sails  behind  his  link. 
With  all  this  bulk  there's  nothing  lost  in  Og, 
For  every  inch  that  is  not  fool  is  rogue  :  .    .   . 
When  wine  has  given  him  courage  to  blaspheme, 
He  curses  God,  but  God  before  cursed  him  ; 
And  if  man  could  have  reason,  none  has  more, 
That  made  his  paunch  so  rich  and  him  so  poor. 
With  wealth  he  was  not  trusted,  for  Heaven  knew     470 
What  'twas  of  old  to  pamper  up  a  Jew  ; 
To  what  would  he  on  quail  and  pheasant  swell 
That  even  on  tripe  and  carrion  could  rebel  ? 
But   though   Heaven   made   him  poor,  with  reverence 
speaking, 


48         ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II. 

He  never  was  a  poet  of  God's  making  ; 

The  midwife  laid  her  hand  on  his  thick  skull, 

With  this  prophetic  blessing — Be  thou  dull ; 

Drink,  swear,  and  roar,  forbear  no  lewd  delight 

Fit  for  thy  bulk,  do  anything  but  write. 

Thou  art  of  lasting  make,  like  thoughtless  men,          480 

A  strong  nativity — but  for  the  pen  ; 

Eat  opium,  mingle  arsenic  in  thy  drink, 

Still  thou  mayest  live,  avoiding  pen  and  ink. 

I  see,  I  see,  'tis  counsel  given  in  vain, 

For  treason,  botched  in  rhyme,  will  be  thy  bane  ; 

Rhyme  is  the  rock  on  which  thou  art  to  wreck, 

'Tis  fatal  to  thy  fame  and  to  thy  neck. 

Why  should  thy  metre  good  king  David  blast  ? 

A  psalm  of  his  will  surely  be  thy  last. 

Darest  thou  presume  in  verse  to  meet  thy  foes.  490 

Thou  whom  the  penny  pamphlet  foiled  in  prose  ? 

Doeg,  whom  God  for  mankind's  mirth  has  made, 

O'ertops  thy  talent  in  thy  very  trade  ; 

Doeg  to  thee,  thy  paintings  are  so  coarse, 

A  poet  is,  though  he's  the  poet's  horse. 

A  double  noose  thou  on  thy  neck  dost  pull 

For  writing  treason  and  for  writing  dull  ; 

To  die  for  faction  is  a  common  evil, 

But  to  be  hanged  for  nonsense  is  the  devil. 

Hadst  thou  the  glories  of  thy  King  ^xprest,  500 

Thy  praises  had  been  satires  at  the  best ; 

But  thou  in  clumsy  verse,  unlicked,  unpointed, 

Hast  shamefully  defied  the  Lord's  anointed  : 

I  will  not  rake  the  dunghill  of  thy  crimes, 

For  who  would  read  thy  life  that  reads  thy  rhymes  ? 

But  of  king  David's  foes  be  this  the  doom, 

May  all  be  like  the  young  man  Absalom  ; 

And  for  my  foes  may  this  their  blessing  be,  ] 

To  talk  like  Doeg  and  to  write  like  thee. 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II.          49 

A  chitophel  each  rank,  degree,  and  age  510 

For  various  ends  neglects  not  to  engage, 
The  wise  and  rich  for  purse  and  counsel  brought, 
The  fools  and  beggars  for  their  number  sought, 
Who  yet  not  only  on  the  town  depends, 
For  even  in  court  the  faction  had  its  friends. 
These  thought  the  places  they  possessed  too  small, 
And  in  their  hearts  wished  court  and  king  to  fall: 
Whose  names  the  Muse,- disdaining,  holds  in  the  dark, 
Thrust  in  the  villain  herd  without  a  mark 
With  parasites  and  libel-spawning  imps,  520 

Intriguing  fops,  dull  jesters,  and  worse  pimps. 
Disdain  the  rascal  rabble  to  pursue, 
Their  set  cabals  are  yet  a  viler  crew. 
See  where  involved  in  common  smoke  they  sit, 
Some  for  our  mirth,  some  for  our  satire  fit ; 
These  gloomy,  thoughtful,  and  on  mischief  bent, 
While  those  for  mere  good  fellowship  frequent 
TJie  appointed  club,  can  let  sedition  pass, 
Sense,  nonsense,  anything  to  employ  the  glass  ; 
And  who  believe  in  their  dull  honest  hearts,  530 

The  rest  talk  treason  but  to  show  their  parts  ; 
Who  ne'er  had  wit  or  unit  for  mischief  yet, 
But  pleased  to  be  reputed  of  a  set. 

But  in  the  sacred  annals  of  our  plot, 
Industrious  Arod  never  be  forgot : 
The  labours  of  this  midnight-magistrate 
May  vie  with  Corah's  to  preserve  the  State. 
In  search  of  arms  he  failed  not  to  lay  hold 
On  war's  most  powerful  dangerous  weapon,  gold 
And  last,  to  take  from  Jebusites  all  odds,  540 

Their  altars  pillaged,  stole  their  very  gods. 
Oft  would  he  cry,  when  treasure  he  surprised, 
'Tis  Baalish  gold  in  Davids  coin  disguised; 
Which  to  his  house  with  richer  relicts  came 


50         ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.    PART  II. 

While  lumber  idols  only  fed  the  flame: 

For  our  wise  rabble  ne'er  took  pains  to  inquire, 
What  'twas  he  burnt,  so  it  made  a  rousing  fire, 
With  which  our  elder  was  enriched  no  more 

Than  false  Gehazi  with  the  Syrian's  store  ; 

So  poor,  that  when  our  choosing  tribes  were  met,  550 

Even  for  his  stinking  votes  he  ran  in  debt ; 

For  meat  the  wicked  and,  as  authors  think, 

The  saints  he  choused  for  his  electing  drink  ; 

Thus  every  shift  and  subtle  method  past, 

And  all  to  be  no  Zaken  at  the  last. 

Now,  raised  on  Tyre's  sad  ruins,  Pharaoh's  pride 
Soared  high,  his  legions  threatening  far  and  wide  ; 
As  when  a  battering  storm  engendered  high, 
By  winds  upheld,  hangs  hovering  in  the  sky, 
Is  gazed  upon  by  every  trembling  swain,  560 

This  for  his  vineyard  fears,  and  that  his  grain, 
For  blooming  plants  and  flowers  new  opening  these, 
For  lambs  eaned  lately  and  far-labouring  bees, 
To  guard  his  stock  each  to  the  gods  does  call, 
Uncertain  where  the  fire-charged  clouds  will  fall ; 
Even  so  the  doubtful  nations  watch  his  arms, 
With  terror  each  expecting  his  alarms. 
Where,  Judah,  where  was  now  thy  lion's  roar  ? 
Thou  only  couldst  the  captive  lands  restore  ; 
But  thou,  with  inbred  broils  and  faction  prest,  570 

From  Egypt  needst  a  guardian  with  the  rest. 
Thy  Prince  from  Sanhedrims  no  trust  allowed, 
Too  much  the  representers  of  the  crowd, 
Who  for  their  oien  defence  give  no  supply 
But  what  the  Crown's  prerogatives  must  buy  ; 
As  if  their  Monarch's  rights  to  violate 
More  needful  were  than  to  preserve  the  State  f 
From  present  dangers  they  divert  their  care, 
And  all  their  fears  are  of  the  royal  heir, 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II.          51 

Whom  now  the  reigning  malice  of  his  foes  580 

Unjudged  would  sentence  and  ere  crowned  depose : 
Religion  the  pretence,  but  their  decree 
To  bar  his  reign,  whatever  his  faith  shall  be. 
By  Sanhedrims  and  clamorous  crowds  thus  prest, 
What  passions  rent  the  righteous  David's  breast  ? 
Who  knows  not  how  to  oppose  or  to  comply, 
Unjust  to  grant  and  dangerous  to  deny  ! 
How  near  in  this  dark  juncture  Israel's  fate, 
Whose  peace  one  sole  expedient  could  create, 
Which  yet  the  extremest  virtue  did  require  590 

Even  of  that  Prince  whose  downfall  they  conspire  ? 
His  absence  David  does  with  tears  advise, 
To  appease  their  rage  ;  undaunted  he  complies. 
Thus  he  who,  prodigal  of  blood  and  ease, 
A  royal  life  exposed  to  winds  and  seas, 
At  once  contending  with  the  waves  and  fire, 
And  heading  danger  in  the  wars  of  Tyre, 
Inglorious  now  forsakes  his  native  sand 
And,  like  an  exile,  quits  the  promised  land. 
Our  Monarch  scarce  from  pressing  tears  refrains,  600 

And  painfully  his  royal  state  maintains. 
Who,  now  embracing  on  the  extremest  shore, 
Almost  revokes  what  he-  enjoined  before : 
Concludes  at  last  more  trust  to  be  allowed 
To  storms  and  seas  than  to  the  raging  crowd. 
Forbear,  rash  Muse,  the  parting  scene  to  draw, 
With  silence  charmed  as  deep  as  theirs  that  saw  ! 
Not  only  our  attending  nobles  weep, 
But  hardy  sailors  swell  with  tears  the  deep  ; 
The  tide  restrained  her  course,  and  more  amazed  610 

The  twin-stars  on  the  royal  brothers  gazed  ; 

While  this  sole  fear 

Does  trouble  to  our  suffering  hero  bring, 
Lest  next  the  popular  rage  oppress  the  King. 
Thus  parting,  each  for  the  other's  danger  grieved 


52          ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II. 

The  shore  the  King,  and  seas  the  Prince  received. 
Go,  injured  hero,  while  propitious  gales, 
Soft  as  thy  consort's  breath,  inspire  thy  sails. 

Well  may  she  trust  her  beauties  on  a  flood 

Where  thy  triumphant  fleets  so  oft  have  rode.  620 

Safe  on  thy  breast  reclined,  her  rest  be  deep; 
Rocked  like  a  Nereid  by  the  waves  asleep  ; 

While  happiest  dreams  her  fancy  entertain, 
And  to  Elysian  Jields  convert  the  main  ! 
Go,  injured  hero,  while  the  shores  of  Tyre 
At  thy  approach  so  silent  shall  admire; 

Who  on  thy  thunder  still  their  thoughts  employ 
And  greet  thy  landing  with  a  trembling  joy. 

On  heroes  thus  the  prophets  fate  is  thrown, 
Admired  by  every  nation  but  their  own  ;  630 

Yet  while  our  factious  Jews  his  worth  deny, 
Their  aching  conscience  gives  their  tongue  the  lie. 
Even  in  the  worst  of  men  the  noblest  parts 
Confess  him,  and  he  triumphs  in  their  hearts, 
Whom  to  his  King  the  best  respects  commend 
Of  subject,  soldier,  kinsman,  prince  and  friend; 
All  sacred  names  of  most  divine  esteem, 
And  to  perfection  all  sustained  by  him  ; 
VJise,  just,  and  constant,  courtly  without  art, 
Swift  to  discern  and  to  reward  desert ;  640 

No  hour  of  his  in  fruitless  ease  destroyed, 
But  on  the  noblest  subjects  still  employed; 
Whose  steady  soul  ne'er  learnt  to  separate 
Between  his  Monarch's  interest  and  the  State, 
But  heaps  those  blessings  on  the  royal  head, 
Which  he  well  knows  must  be  on  subjects  shed. 

On  what  pretence  could  then  the  vulgar  rage 
Against  his  worth,  and  native  rights  engage  ? 
Religious  fears  their  argument  are  made, 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II.          53 

Religious  fears  his  sacred  rights  invade  !  650 

Of  future  superstition  they  complain 
And  Jebusitic  worship  in  his  reign, 
With  such  alarms  his  foes  the  crowd  deceive. 
With  dangers  fright  which  not  themselves  believe. 

Since  nothing  can  our  sacred  rites  remove, 
Whate'er  the  faith  of  the  successor  prove, 
Our  Jews  their  arlc  shall  undisturbed  retain, 
At  least  while  their  religion  is  their  gain, 
Who  know  by  old  experience  Baal's  commands 
Not  only  claimed  their  conscience  but  their  lands;         660 
They  grudge  Gods  tithes,  how  therefore  shall  they  yield 
An  idol  full  possession  of  the  field? 
Grant  such  a  Prince  enthroned,  we  must  confess 
The  people's  sufferings  than  that  monarch's  less, 
Who  must  to  hard  conditions  still  be  bound 
And  for  his  quiet  with  the  crowd  compound  ; 
Or  should  his  thoughts  to  tyranny  incline, 
Where  are  the  means  to  compass  the  design  ? 
Our  Crown's  revenues  are  too  short  a  store, 
And  jealous  Sanhedrims  would  give  no  more.  670 

As  vain  our  fears  of  Egypt's  potent  aid  ; 
Not  so  has  Pharaoh  learnt  ambition's  trade, 
Nor  ever  with  such  measures  can  comply 
As  shock  the  common  rules  of  policy. 
None  dread  like  him  the  growth  of  Israel's  king, 
And  he  alone  sufficient  aids  can  bring, 
Who  knows  that  prince  to  Egypt  can  give  law 
That  on  our  stubborn  tribes  his  yoke  could  draw. 
At  such  profound  expense  he  has  not  stood, 
Nor  dyed  for  this  his  hands  so  deep  in  blood  ;  680 

Would  ne'er  through  wrong  and  right  his  progress  take, 
Grudge  his  own  rest,  and  keep  the  world  awake, 
To  fix  a  lawless  prince  on  Judah's  throne, 


54          ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II. 

First  to  invade  our  rights,  and  then  his  own  ; 
His  dear-gained  conquests  cheaply  to  despoil. 
And  reap  the  harvest  of  his  crimes  and  toil. 

We  grant  his  wealth  vast  as  our  ocean's  sand 
And  curse  its  fatal  influence  on  our  land, 

Which  our  bribed  Jews  so  numerously  partake 

That  even  an  host  his  pensioners  would  make.  690 

From  these  deceivers  our  divisions  spring, 

Our  weakness  and  the  growth  of  Egypt's  king  : 

These  with  pretended  friendship  to  the  State 

Our  crowds  suspicion  of  their  Prince  create, 

Both  pleased  and  frightened  loith  the  specious  cry, 


To  ruin  thus  the  chosen  flock  are  sold, 
While  wolves  are  trf en  for  guardians  of  the  fold  ; 
Seduced  by  these  we  groundlessly  complain, 
And  loathe  the  manna  of  a  gentle  reign :  700 

Thus  our  forefathers'  crooked  paths  are  trod, 
We  trust  our  Prince  no  more  than  they  their  G'od. 
But  all  in  vain  our  reasoning  prophets  preach 
To  those  whom  sad  experience  ne'er  could  teach, 
Who  can  commence  new  broils  in  bleeding  scars 
And  fresh  remembrance  of  intestine  wars  ; 
When  the  same  household  mortal  foes  did  yield, 
And  brothers  stained  with  brothers'  blood  the  field; 
When  sons'  curst  steel  the  fathers'  gore  did  stain, 
And  mothers  mourned  for  sons  by  fathers  slain/  710 

When  thick  as  Egypt's  locusts  on  the  sand 
Our  tribes  lay  slaughtered  through  the  promised  land. 
Whose  few  survivors  with  worse  fate  remain, 
To  drag  the  bondage  of  a  tyrant's  reign  ; 
Which  scene  of  woes  unknowing  we  renew, 
And  madly  even  those  ills  we  fear  pursue  ; 
While  Pharaoh  laughs  at  our  domestic  broils 
And  safely  crowds  his  tents  with  nations'  spoils. 
Yet  our  fierce  Sanhedrim  in  restless  rage 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II.          55 

Against  our  absent  hero  still  engage,  720 

And  chiefly  urge,  such  did  their  frenzy  prove, 
The  only  suit  their  prince  forbids  to  move  ; 
Which  till  obtained,  they  cease  affairs  of  state, 
And  real  dangers  wave  for  groundless  hate. 
Long  Davids  patience  waits  relief  to  bring 
With  all  the  indulgence  of  a  lawful  king, 
Expecting  till  the  troubled  waves  would  cease, 
But  found  the  raging  billoivs  still  increase. 
The  crowd,  whose  insolence  forbearance  swells, 
While  he  forgives  too  far,  almost  rebels.  730 

At  last  his  deep  resentments  silence  broke, 
The  imperial  palace  shook,  while  thus  he  spoke  : 

"  Then  Justice  wake,  and  Rigour  take  her  time, 
"  For  lo  !  our  mercy  is  become  our  crime. 
"  While  halting  punishment  her  stroke  delays, 
"  Our  sovereign  right,  Heaven's  sacred  trust,  decays  f 
"  For  whose  support  even  subjects'  interest  calls, 
"  Woe  to  that  kingdom  where  the  monarch  falls  ! 
"  That  prince  who  yields  the  least  of  regal  sway 
"  So  far  his  people's  freedom  does  betray.  740 

"  Right  lives  by  law,  and  law  subsists  by  power  ; 
"Disarm  the  shepherd,  wolves  the  flock  devour. 
"  Hard  lot  of  empire  o'er  a  stubborn  race, 
"  Which  Heaven  itself  in  vain  has  tried  with  grace  ! 
"  When  will  our  reason's  long-charmed  eyes  unclose, 
11  And  Israel  judge  between  her  friends  and  foes? 
"  When  shall  we  see  expired  deceivers'  sway, 
"  And  credit  what  our  God  and  monarchs  say  ? 
"  Dissembled  patriots  bribed  with  Egypt's  gold 
"  Even  Sanhedrims  in  blind  obedience  hold;  750 

"  Those  patriots'  falsehood  in  their  actions  see 
"  And  judge  by  the  pernicious  fruit  the  tree  ; 
" If  aught  for  which  so  loudly  they  declaim,, 
"  Religion,  laws,  and  freedom,  were  their  aim, 


56          ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.    PART  II. 

"  Our  senates  in  due  methods  they  had  led, 

"  To  avoid  those  mischiefs  which  they  seemed  to  dread; 

"  But  first,  ere  yet  they  propped  the  sinking  State, 

"  To  impeach  and  charge,  as  urged  by  private  hate, 

"  Proves  that  they  ne'ei'  believed  the  fears  they  prest, 

"  But  barbarously  destroyed  the  nation's  rest.  760 

"  Oh  !  whither  will  ungoverned  senates  drive, 

"  And  to  what  bounds  licentious  votes  arrive  ? 

"  When  their  injustice  we  are  pressed  to  share, 

"  The  monarch  urged  to  exclude  the  lawful  heir  ; 

"  Are  princes  thus  distinguished  from  the  crowd, 

"And  this  the  privilege  of  royal  blood  ? 

"  But  grant  we  should  confirm  the  wrongs  they  press, 

"  His  sufferings  yet  were  than  the  people's  less  ; 

"  Condemed  for  life  the  murdering  sword  to  wield. 

"  And  on  their  heirs  entail  a  bloody  field.  770 

"  Thus  madly  their  own  freedom  they  betray 

"  And  for  the  oppression  which  they  fear  make  way  ; 

"  Succession  fixed  by  Heaven,  the  kingdom's  bar, 

"  Which,  once  dissolved,  admits  the  flood  of  war  ; 

"  Waste,  rapine,  spoil,  without  the  assault  begin 

"And  our  mad  tribes  supplant  the  fence  within. 

"  Since,  then,  their  good  they  will  not  understand, 

"'Tis  time  to  take  the  monarch's  power  in  hand; 

"  Authority  and  force  to  join  with  skill 

"  And  save  the  lunatics  against  their  will.  780 

"  The  same  rough  means  that  suage  the  crowd  appease 

"  Our  senates,  raging  with  the  crowds  disease. 

"  Henceforth  unbiassed  measures  let  them  draw 

"  From  no  false  gloss,  but  genuine  text  of  law  ; 

"  Nor  urge  those  crimes  upon  religions  score 

"  Themselves  so  much  in  Jebusites  abhor. 

"  Whom  laws  convict,  and  only  they,  shall  bleed, 

"  Nor  Pharisees  by  Pharisees  be  freed. 

"  Impartial  justice  from  our  throne  shall  shower, 

"  All  shall  have  right,  and  we  our  sovereign  power."       790 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.    PART  II.          57 

He  said ;  the  attendants  heard  with  awful  joy 
And  glad  presages  their  fixed  thoughts  employ  ; 
From  Hebron  now  the  suffering  heir  returned, 
A  realm  that  long  with  civil  discord  mourned, 
Till  his  approach,  like  some  arriving  God, 
Composed  and  healed  the  place  of  his  abode, 
The  deluge  checked  that  to  Judcea  spread, 
And  stopped  sedition  at  the  fountain's  head. 
Thus  in  forgiving  David's  paths  he  drives 
And,  chased  from  Israel,  Israel's  peace  contrives.  800 

The  field  confessed  his  power  in  arms  before, 
And  seas  proclaimed  his  triumphs  to  the  shore  ; 
As  nobly  has  his  sway  in  Hebron  shown, 
How  fit  to  inherit  godlike  David's  throne. 
Through  Sion's  streets  his  glad  arrival's  spread 
And  conscious  faction  shrinks  her  snaky  head; 
His  train  their  sufferings  think  o'erpaid  to  see 
The  crowd's  applause  with  virtue  once  agree. 
Success  charms  all,  but  zeal  for  worth  distrest, 
A  virtue  proper  to  the  brave  and  best ;  810 

'Mongst  whom  was  Jothran,  Jothran 
To  serve  the  Crown,  and  loyal  by 
Whose  constancy  so  firm  and  conduct  just 
Deserved  at  once  two  royal  masters'  trust ; 
Who  Tyre's  proud  arms  had  manfully  withstood 
On  seas,  and  gathered  laurels  from  the  flood; 
Of  learning  yet  no  portion  VMS  denied, 
Friend  to  the  Muses  and  the  Muses'  pride. 
Nor  can  Benaiah's  worth  forgotten  lie, 
Of  steady  soul  when  public  storms  were  high  ;  820 

Whose  conduct  while  the  Moor  fierce  onsets  made 
Secured  at  once  our  honour  and  our  trade. 
Such  were  the  chiefs  who  most  his  sufferings  mourned, 
And  viewed  with  silent  joy  the  prince  returned, 
While  those  that  sought  his  absence  to  betray 

Irst  their  nauseous  false  respects  to  pay; 


58          ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II. 

Him  still  the  officious  hypocrites  molest 
And  with  malicious  duty  break  his  rest. 
While  real  transports  thus  his  friends  employ, 
And  foes  are  loud  in  their  dissembled  joy,  830 

His  triumphs,  so  resounded  far  and  near, 
Missed  not  his  young  ambitious  rival's  ear  ; 
And  as,  when  joyful  hunters'  clamorous  train 
Some  slumbering  lion  wakes  in  Moab's  plain, 
Who  oft  had  forced  the  bold  assailants  yield, 
And  scattered  his  pursuers  through  the  field, 
Disdaining  furls  his  mane  and  tears  the  ground, 
His  eyes  in/laming  all  the  desert  round, 
With  roar  of  seas  directs  his  chasers'  way, 
Provokes  from  far  and  dares  them  to  the  fray  ;  840 

Such  rage  stormed  now  in  Absalom? s  fierce  breast, 
Such  indignation  his  fired  eyes  confest. 
Where  now  wets  the  instructor  of  his  pride  ? 
Slept  the  old  pilot  in  so  rough  a  tide, 
Whose  idles  had  from  the  happy  shore  betrayed, 
And  thus  on  shelves  the  credulous  youth  conveyed? 
In  deep  revolving  thoughts  he  weighs  his  state, 
Secure  of  craft,  nor  doubts  to  baffle  fate  ; 
At  least,  if  his  stormed  bark  must  go  adrift, 
To  baulk  his  charge  and  for  himself  to  shift,  850 

In  which  his  dexterous  wit  had  oft  been  shown, 
And  in  the  wreck  of  kingdoms  saved  his  own  ; 
But  now  with  more  than  common  danger  prest, 
Of  various  resolutions  stands  possest, 
Perceives  the  crowds  unstable  zeal  decay, 
Lest  their  recanting  chief  the  cause  betray, 
Who  on  a  father's  grace  his  hopes  may  ground 
A  nd  for  his  pardon  with  their  heads  compound. 
Him,  therefore,  ere  his  fortune  slip  her  time, 
The  statesman  plots  to  engage  in  some  bold  crime  860 

Past  pardon  ;  whether  to  attempt  his  bed, 
Or  threat  with  open  arms  the  royal  head; 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.    PART  II.          59 

Or  other  daring  method  and  unjust 
That  may  confirm  him  in  the  people's  trust. 
But,  failing  thus  to  ensnare  him,  nor  secure 
How  long  his  foiled  ambition  may  endure, 
Plots  next  to  lay  him  by  as  past  his  date, 
And  try  some  new  pretender's  luckier  fate  ; 
Whose  hopes  with  equal  toil  he  would  pursue, 
Nor  cares  what  claimer's  crowned,  except  the  true.          870 
Wake,  A  bsalom,  approaching  ruin  shun, 
And  see,  oh  see,  for  whom  thou  art  undone  ! 
How  are  thy  honours  and  thy  fame  betrayed, 
The  property  of  desperate  villains  made  / 
Lost  power  and  conscious  fears  their  crimes  create 
And  guilt  in  them  was  little  less  than  fate  ; 
But  why  shouldst  thou,  from  every  grievance  free, 
Forsake  thy  vineyards  for  their  stormy  sea  ? 
For  thee  did  Canaan's  milk  and  honey  flow, 
Love  dressed  thy  bowers  and  laurels  sought  thy  brow,     880 
Preferment,  wealth,  and  power  thy  vassals  were, 
And  of  a  monarch  all  things  but  the  care : 
Oh,  should  our  crimes  again  that  curse  draw  down, 
And  rebel  arms  once  more  attempt  the  crown, 
Sure  ruin  waits  unhappy  Absalon, 
Alike  by  conquest  or  defeat  undone. 
Who  could  relentless  see  such  youth  and  charms 
Expire  with  wretched  fate  in  impious  arms, 
A  prince  so  formed,  with  earth's  and  Heaven's  applause, 
To  triumph  o'er  crowned  heads  in  David's  cause  !          890 
Or  grant  him  victor,  still  his  hopes  must  fail 
Who  conquering  would  not  for  himself  prevail ; 
The  faction  whom  he  trusts  for  future  sway 
Him  and  the  public  would  alike  betray  ; 
Amongst  themselves  divide  the  captive  State 
And  found  their  hydra  empire  in  his  fate  ! 
Thus  having  beat  the  clouds  with  painful  flight, 
The  pitied  youth  with  sceptres  in  his 


60          ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II. 

(So  have  their  cruel  politics  decreed,) 

Must  by  that  crew  that  made  him  guilty  bleed.  900 

For,  could  their  pride  brook  any  prince's  sway, 
Whom  but  mild  David  would  they  choose  to  obey  ? 
Who  once  at  such  a  gentle  reign  repine 
The  fall  of  monarchy  itself  design  : 
From  hate  to  that  their  reformations  spring, 
And  David  not  their  grievance,  but  the  King. 
Seized  now  with  panic  fear  the  faction  lies, 
Lest  this  clear  truth  strike  Absalom's  charmed  eyes; 
Lest  he  perceive,  from  long  enchantment  free, 
What  all  beside  the  flattered  youth  must  see.  910 

But  whatever  doubts  his  troubled  bosom  swell, 
Fair  carriage  still  became  Achitophel ; 
Who  now  an  envious  festival  instals 
And  to  survey  their  strength  the  faction  calls, 
Which  fraud,  religious  worship  too,  must  gild  ; 
But  oh  how  weakly  does  sedition  build! 
For,  lo  !  the  royal  mandate  issues  forth, 
Dashing  at  once  their  treason,  zeal,  and  mirth. 
So  have  I  seen  disastrous  chance  invade, 
Where  careful  emmets  had  their  forage  laid  ;  920 

(  Whether  fierce  Vulcan's  rage  the  fur zy  plain 
Had  seized,  engendered  by  some  careless  swain, 
Or  swelling  Neptune  lawless  inroads  made 
And  to  their  cell  of  store  his  flood  conveyed  ;) 
The  commonwealth,  broke  up,  distracted  go 
And  in  wild  haste  their  loaded  mates  o'er  throw: 
Even  so  our  scattered  guests  confusedly  meet, 
With  boiled,  baked,  roast,  alljustling  in  the  street ; 
Dejected  all,  and  ruefully  dismayed, 
For  shekel,  without' treat  or  treason,  paid.  930 

Sedition's  dark  eclipse  now  fainter  shows, 
More  bright  each  hour  the  royal  planet  grows, 
Of  force  the  clouds  of  envy  to  disperse 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II.          61 

In  kind  conjunction  of  assisting  stars  : 

Here,  labouring  Muse  !  those  glorious  chiefs  relate 

That  turned  the  doubtful  scale  of  Davids  fate  ; 

The  rest  of  that  illustrious  band  rehearse, 

Immortalized  in  laurelled  Asaph's  verse. 

Hard  task!  yet  will  not  I  thy  flight  recall; 

View  heaven,  and  then  enjoy  thy  glorious  fall.  940 

First,  write  Bezaliel,  whose  illustrious  name 
Forestals  our  praise,  and  gives  his  poet  fame 
The  Kenites'  rocky  province  his  command, 
A  barren  limb  of  fertile  Canaan's  land  ; 
Which  for  its  generous  natives  yet  could  be 
Held  worthy  such  a  President  as  he. 
Bezaliel  with  each  grace  and  virtue  fraught, 
Serene  his  looks,  serene  his  life  and  thought ; 
On  whom  so  largely  Nature  heaped  her  store, 
There  scarce  remained  for  arts  to  give  him  more.  950 

To  aid  the  Crown  and  State  his  greatest  zeal, 
His  second  care  that  service  to  conceal ; 
Of  dues  observant,  firm  in  every  trust, 
And  to  the  needy  always  more  than  just ; 
Who  truth  from  specious  falsehood  can  divide, 
Has  all  the  gownsmen's  skill  without  their  pride  ; 
Thus,  crowned  with  icorth  from  heights  of  honour  won, 
See  all  his  glories  copied  in  his  son, 
Whose  forward  fame  should  every  Muse  engage, 
Whose  youth  boasts  skill  denied  to  others'  age.  960 

Men,  manners,  language,  books  of  noblest  kind, 
Already  are  the  conquest  of  his  mind. 
Whose  loyalty  before  its  date  was  prime, 
Nor  waited  the  dull  course  of  rolling  time  : 
The  monster  faction  early  he  dismayed, 
And  Davids  cause  long  since  confessed  his  aid. 

Brave  A  bdael  o'er  the  Prophets'  school  was  placed ; 
Abdael,  with  all  his  father's  virtue  graced; 
A  hero  who,  while. stars  looked  wondering  down, 


62          ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II. 

Without  one  Hebrew 's  blood  restored  the  crown.  970 

That  praise  was  his  ;  what  therefore  did  remain 
For  following  chiefs  but  boldly  to  maintain 
That  crown  restored  ?    And  in  this  rank  of  fame 
Brave  Abdael  with  the  first  a  place  must  claim. 
Proceed,  illustrious  happy  chief,  proceed, 
Foreseize  the  garlands  for  thy  brow  decreed, 
While  the  inspired  tribe  attend  with  noblest  strain 
To  register  the  glories  thou  shalt  gain : 
For  sure  the  dew  shall  GilboaKs  hills  forsake 
And  Jordan  mix  his  stream  with  Sodom's  lake,  980 

Or  seas  retired  their  secret  stores  disclose 
And  to  the  sun  their  scaly  brood  expose, 
Or  swelled  above  the  cliffs  their  billows  raise, 
Before  the  Muses  leave  their  patron's  praise. 

Eliab  our  next  labour  does  invite, 
And  hard  the  task  to  do  Eliab  right. 
Long  with  the  royal  wanderer  he  roved 
A  ndfirm  in  all  the  turns  of  fortune  proved. 
Such  ancient  service  and  desert  so  large 
Well  claimed  the  royal  household  for  his  charge.  990 

His  age  with  only  one  mild  heiress  blest, 
In  all  the  bloom  of  smiling  nature  drest ; 
And  blest  again  to  see  his  flower  allied 
To  Davids  stock,  and  made  young  OthnieVs  bride  ! 
The  bright  restorer  of  his  father's  youth, 
Devoted  to  a  son's  and  subjects  truth : 
Resolved  to  bear  that  prize  of  duty  home, 
So  bravely  sought,  while  sought  by  Absalom. 
Ah,  Prince  !  the  illustrious  planet  of  thy  birth 
And  thy  more  powerful  virtue  guard  thy  worth,  1000 

May  no  Achitophel  thy  ruin  boast! 
Israel  too  much  in  one  such  wreck  has  lost. 

Even  envy  must  consent  to  Helon's  worth, 
Whose  soul,  though  Egypt  glories  in  his  birth, 
Could  for  our  captive  ark  its  zeal  retain 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II.          63 

And  Pharaoh's  altars  in  their  pomp  disdain : 
To  slight  his  gods  was  small ;  with  nobler  pride 
He  all  the  allurements  of  his  court  defied. 
Whom  profit  nor  example  could  betray, 
But  Israel's  friend,  and  true  to  Davids  sway.  1010 

What  acts  of  favour  in  his  province  fall 
On  merit  he  confers,  and  freely  all. 

Our  list  of  nobles  next  let  Amri  grace, 
Whose  merits  claimed  the  Abbethdin's  high  place  ; 
Who  with  a  loyalty  that  did  excel 
Brought  all  the  endowments  of  Achitophel. 
Sincere  was  Amri,  and  not  only  knew, 
But  Israel's  sanctions  into  practice  drew; 
Our  laws  that  did  a  boundless  ocean  seem 
Were  coasted  all  and  fathomed  all  by  him.  1020 

No  Rabbin  speaks  like  him  their  mystic  sense, 
So  just,  and  with  such  charms  of  eloquence  ; 
To  whom  the  double  blessing  does  belong, 
With  Moses'  inspiration  Aaron's  tongue. 

Than  Sheva  none  more  loyal  zeal  have  shown, 
Wakeful  as  Judah's  lion  for  the  crown, 
Who  for  that  cause  still  combats  in  his  age 
For  which  his  youth  with  danger  did  engage. 
In  vain  our  factious  priests  the  cant  revive  ; 
In  vain  seditious  scribes  with  libel  strive  1 030 

To  inflame  the  croivd,  while  he  with  watchful  eye 
Observes,  and  shoots  their  treasons  as  they  fly  ; 
Their  weekly  frauds  his  keen  replies  detect ; 
He  undeceives  more  fast  than  they  infect. 
So  Moses,  when  the  pest  on  legions  preyed, 
Advanced  his  signal,  and  the  plague  was  stayed. 

Once  more,  my  fainting  Muse,  thy  pinions  try, 
And  strength's  exhausted  store  let  love  supply. 
What  tribute,  Asaph,  shall  we  render  thee  ? 
We'll  crown  thee  with  a  wreath  from  thy  own  tree  !      1040 
Thy  laurel  grove  no  envy's  flash  can  blast; 


64          ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II. 

The  song  of  Asaph  shall  for  ever  last ! 

With  wonder  late  posterity  shall  dwell 

On  Absalom  and  false  Achitophel: 

Thy  strains  shall  be  our  slumbering  prophets1  dream, 

And,  when  our  Sion  virgins  sing  their  theme, 

Our  jubilees  shall  with  thy  verse  be  graced  ; 

The  song  of  Asaph  shall  for  ever  last! 

How  fierce  his  satire  loosed,  restrained,  how  tame, 

How  tender  of  the  offending  young  man's  fame  f  1050 

How  well  his  worth  and  brave  adventures  styled y 

Just  to  his  virtues,  to  his  error  mild. 

No  page  of  thine  that  fears  the  strictest  view, 

But  teems  with  just  reproof  or  praise  as  due  ; 

Not  Eden  could  a  fairer  prospect  yield, 

All  Paradise  without  one  barren  field: 

Whose  wit  the  censure  of  his  foes  has  past, 

The  song  of  Asaph  shall  for  ever  last ! 

What  praise  for  such  rich  strains  shall  we  allow  ? 

What  just  rewards  the  grateful  crown  bestow?  1060 

While  bees  in  flowers  rejoice,  and  flowers  in  dew, 

While  stars  and  fountains  to  their  course  are  true, 

While  Judak's  throne  and  Sion's  rock  stand  fast, 

The  song  of  Asaph  and  the  fame  shall  last. 

Still  Hebron's  honoured  happy  soil  retains 
Our  royal  hero's  beauteous  dear  remains  : 

Who  now  sails  off,  urith  winds  nor  wishes  slack, 

To  bring  his  sufferings'  bright  companion  back. 

But  ere  such  transport  can  our  sense  employ, 

A  bitter  grief  must  poison  half  our  joy  ;  1070 

Nor  can  our  coasts  restored  those  blessings  se'e 

Without  a  bribe  to  envious  destiny  ! 
Curst  Sodom's  doom  for  ever  fix  the  tide, 

Where,  by  inglorious  chance,  the  valiant  died. 

Give  not  insulting  Askalon  to  know, 

Nor  let  Gath's  daughters  triumph  in  our  woe  f 


ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II.          65 

No  sailor  with  the  news  swell  Egypt's  pride 
By  what  inglorious  fate  our  valiant  died  / 
Weep,  Arnonf  Jordan,  weep  thy  fountain's  dry, 
While  Sion's  rock  dissolves  for  a  supply.  1080 

Calm  were  the  elements,  night's  silence  deep, 
The  waves  scarce  murmuring,  and  the  winds  asleep  ; 
Yet  fate  for  ruin  takes  so  still  an  hour, 
And  treacherous  sands  the  princely  bark  devour  ; 
Then  death  unworthy  seized  a  generous  race, 
To  virtue's  scandal  and  the  stars'  disgrace  ! 
Oh  !  had  the  indulgent  powers  vouchsafed  to  yield, 
Instead  of  faithless  shelves,  a  listed  field; 
A  listed  field  of  Heaven's  and  Davids  foes, 
Fierce  as  the  troops  that  did  his  youth  oppose,  1090 

Each  life  had  on  his  slaughtered  heap  retired, 
Not  tamely,  and  unconquering  thus  expired. 
But  Destiny  is  now  their  only  foe, 
And  dying,  even  o'er  that  they  triumph  too  ; 
With  loud  last  breaths  their  master's  scape  applaud, 
Of  whom  kind  force  could  scarce  the  fates  defraud: 
Who  for  such  followers  lost  (0  matchless  mind!) 
At  his  own  safety  now  almost  repined  / 
Say,  royal  sir,  by  all  your  fame  in  arms, 
Your  praise  in  peace,  and  by  Urania's  charms,  1100 

If  all  your  sufferings  past  so  nearly  prest, 
Or  pierced  with  half  so  painful  grief  your  breast  ? 
Thus  some  diviner  Muse  her  hero  forms, 
Not  soothed  with  soft  delights,  but  tost  in  storms, 
Nor  stretched  on  roses  in  the  myrtle  grove, 
Nor  crowns  his  days  with  mirth,  his  nights  with  love  ; 
But  far  removed  in  thundering  camps  is  found, 
His  slumbers  short,  his  bed  the  herbless  ground  ; 
In  tasks  of  danger  always  seen  the  first, 
Feeds  from  the  hedge  and  slakes  with  ice  his  thirst.       1110 
Long  must  his  patience  strive  with  Fortune's  rage, 
And  long  opposing  gods  themselves  engage  ; 


66         ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.    PART  II. 

Must  see  his  country  flame,  his  friends  destroyed, 
Before  the  promised  empire  be  enjoyed : 
Such  toil  of  fate  must  build  a  man  of  fame, 
And  such  to  Israel's  crown  the  godlike  David  came. 

What  sudden  beams  dispel  the  clouds  so  fast 
Whose  drenching  rains  laid  all  our  vineyards  waste  ? 
The  spring  so  far  behind  her  course  delayed 
On  the  instant  is  in  all  her  bloom  arrayed  ;  11 20 

The  winds  breathe  low,  the  element  serene, 
Yet  mark  !  what  motion  in  the  waves  is  seen 
Thronging  and  busy  as  Hyblcean  swarms 
Or  straggled  soldiers  summoned  to  their  arms  ! 
See  where  the  princely  bark  in  loosest  pride, 
With  all  her  guardian  fleet,  adorns  the  tide  ! 
High  on  her  deck  the  royal  lovers  stand, 
Our  crimes  to  pardon  ere  they  touched  our  land. 
Welcome  to  Israel  and  to  Davids  breast ! 
Here  all  your  toils,  here  all  your  sufferings  rest.  1130 

This  year  did  Ziloah  rule  Jerusalem. 
And  boldly  all  sedition's  surges  stem, 
However  encumbered  with  a  viler  pair 
Than  Ziph  or  Shimei,  to  assist  the  chair  ; 
Yet  Ziloah's  loyal  labours  so  prevailed 
That  faction  at  the  next  election  failed, 
When  even  the  common  cry  did  justice  sound, 
And  merit  by  the  multitude  was  crowned  : 
With  David  then  was  Israel's  peace  restored, 
Crowds  mourned  their  error  and  obeyed  their  lord.        1140 


KEY  TO  BOTH  PARTS  OF  ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL. 

(From  Vol.  II.  of  MISCELLANY  POEMS,  Edition  oj  1716.) 


Abbethdin     . 

Lord  Chancellor.               hhban      .     . 

Sir  R.  Clayton. 

Abdael      .    . 

Duke  of  Albemarle.         Israel  .    .     . 

England. 

Absalom  .     . 

Duke  of  Monmouth.         Issachar    .     . 

T.  Thin,  Esq. 

Achitophel    . 

Lord  Shaftesbury.            Jebusites  . 

Papists. 

Adriel.'    .     . 

Earl  of  Musgrave.             Jerusalem     . 

London. 

Agag   .    .    . 

Sir  E.  B.  Godfrey.            Jonas  .    .     . 

Sir  W.  Jones. 

Amiel  .    .    . 

Mr.  Seymour,  Speaker.    Jotham     .     . 

Marquis  of  Halifax. 

Amri   .     .     . 

Lord  Chancellor  Finch.    Jothran 

Lord  Dartmouth. 

Annabel    .     . 

Duchess  of  Monmouth.    Judas  .    .    . 

Ferguson. 

Arod    .    .     .' 

Sir  W.  Waller.                   Mephibosheth 

Pordage. 

Asaph  .     .     . 

Mr.  Dryden.                      Michal      .    . 

Queen  Katharine. 

Balaam    . 

Earl  of  Huntingdon.        Nadab  .    .     , 

Lord  Howard  of  Escrick. 

Balak  .    .     . 

Burnet.                              Og    .    .     .     . 

Shadwell. 

Barzillai  . 

Duke  of  Ormond.             Othniel     .     . 

Duke  of  Grafton. 

Bathsheba     . 

Duchess  of  Portsmouth.  Pharaoh  .     . 

French  King. 

Benaiah   .     . 

General  Sackville.            Phaleg      .    . 

Forbes. 

Ben  Jochanan 

Johnson.                            Rabshakeh     . 

Sir  Thomas  Player. 

Bezaliel    .    . 

Duke  of  Beaufort.            SaganofJeru-' 

1 

Caleb    .     .     . 

Lord  Grey.                            salem,    .    •  • 

j-  Bishop  of  London. 

Corah  .     .     . 

Dr.  Gates.                          Sanhedrim    . 

Parliament. 

David  .    .     . 

King  Charles  II.               Saul     .    .    . 

Oliver. 

Doeg     .     .     . 

Settle.                                 Sheva  .    .    . 

Sir  R.  L'Estrange. 

Egypt  .    .     . 

France.                              Shimei.    .    . 

Sheriff  Bethel. 

Eliab    .     .     . 

Earl  of  Arlington.            Solymean  Rout  London  Rebels. 

Ethnic  Plot  . 

Popish  Plot.                       Tyre    .    .     . 

Holland. 

Hebrew  Priests 

(Church  of  England           Uzza     .    .     . 

J.  H. 

t    Ministers.                       Western  Dome 

Dolben. 

Hebron 

Scotland.                            Zadoch     .     . 

Archbishop  Bancroft. 

Helon  .     .     . 

Lord  Feversham.              Zaken  .     .     . 

Parliament-man. 

Hushai     .     . 

Earl  of  Rochester,  Hyde.  Ziloah.     .     . 

Sir  J.  Moor. 

Jsbosheth  ,     . 

Richard  Cromwell.           Zimri  .     .     . 

Duke  of  Buckingham. 

THE   MEDAL. 
A  SATIRE  AGAINST  SEDITION. 

"  Per  Graium  populos  mediaeque  per  Blidis  urbem 
Ibat  ovans,  Divumque  sibi  poscebat  honorem." 

VIEO.  JEn.  vi.  558. 

EPISTLE  TO  THE  WHIGS. 

FOR  to  whom  can  I  dedicate  this  poem  with  so  much  justice 
as  to  you  ?  Tis  the  representation  of  your  own  hero  :  'tis 
the  picture  drawn  at  length,  which  you  admire  and  prize 
so  much  in  little.  None  of  your  ornaments  are  wanting  ; 
neither  the  landscape  of  the  Tower,  nor  the  rising  Sun,  nor 
the  Anno  Domini  of  your  new  sovereign's  coronation.  This 
must  needs  be  a  grateful  undertaking  to  your  whole  party  : 
especially  to  those  who  have  not  been  so  happy  as  to  pur- 
chase the  original.  I  hear  the  graver  has  made  a  good 
10  market  of  it  :  all  his  kings  are  bought  up  already  ;  or  the 
value  of  the  remainder  so  enhanced,  that  many  a  poor 
Polander  who  would  be  glad  to  worship  the  image  is  not 
able  to  go  to  the  cost  of  him,  but  must  be  content  to  see  him 
here.  I  must  confess  I  am  no  great  artist ;  but  sign-post 
painting  will  serve  the  turn  to  remember  a  friend  by, 
especially  when  better  is  not  to  be  had.  Yet  for  your  com- 
fort the  lineaments  are  true  ;  and  though  he  sate  not  five 
times  to  me,  as  he  did  to  B.,  yet  I  have  consulted  history,  as 
the  Italian  painters  do,  when  they  would  draw  a  Nero  or  a 
68 


THE  MEDAL.  69 

Caligula  ;  though  they  have  not  seen  the  man,  they  can 
help  their  imagination  by  a  statue  of  him,  and  find  out  the 
colouring  from  Suetonius  and  Tacitus.  Truth  is,  you  might 
have  spared  one  side  of  your  Medal :  the  head  would  be  seen 
to  more  advantage  if  it  were  placed  on  a  spike  of  the  Tower,  a 
little  nearer  to  the  sun,  which  would  then  break  out  to  better 
purpose.  {You  tell  us  in  your  Preface  to  the  "  No-Protestant 
Plot,"  that  you  shall  be  forced  hereafter  to  leave  off  your 
modesty  :  I  suppose  you  mean  that  little  which  is  left  you  ; 
for  it  was  worn  to  rags  when  you  put  out  this  Medal.  Never  10 
was  there  practised  such  a  piece  of  notorious  impudence  in 
the  face  of  an  established  government)  I  believe,  when  he 
is  dead,  you  will  wear  him  in  thumb-rings,  as  the  Turks  did 
Scanderbeg,  as  if  there  were  virtue  in  his  bones  to  preserve 
you  against  monarchy.  Yet  all  this  while  you  pretend  not 
only  zeal  for  the  public  good,  but  a  due  veneration  for  the 
person  of  the  King.  But  all  men  who  can  see  an  inch  be- 
fore them  may  easily  detect  those  gross  fallacies.  That  it  is 
necessary  for  men  in  your  circumstances  to  pretend  both,  is 
granted  you  ;  for  without  them  there  could  be  no  ground  to  20 
raise  a  faction.  But  I  would  ask  you  one  civil  question  : 
What  right  has  any  man  among  you,  or  any  association  of 
men  (to  come  nearer  to  you)  who  out  of  parliament  cannot 
be  considered  in  a  public  capacity,  to  meet,  as  you  daily  do, 
in  factious  clubs,  to  vilify  the  government  in  your  discourses 
and  to  libel  it  in  all  your  writings  ?  Who  made  you  judges 
in  Israel  ?  Or  how  is  it  consistent  with  your  zeal  of  the 
public  welfare  to  promote  sedition  ?  Does  your  definition  of 
loyal,  which  is  to  serve  the  King  according  to  the  laws,  allow 
you  the  licence  of  traducing  the  executive  power  with  which  30 
you  own  he  is  invested  ?  You  complain  that  his  Majesty  has 
lost  the  love  and  confidence  of  his  people  ;  and  by  your  very 
urging  it  you  endeavour  what  in  you  lies  to  make  him  lose 
them.  ^Jl  good  subjects  abhor  the  thought  of  arbitrary 
power,  whether  it  be  in  one  or  many  :  if  you  were  the 
patriots  you  would  seem,  you  would  not  at  this  rate  incense 


70  THE  MEDAL. 

the  multitude  to  assume  it  ;  for  no  sober  man  can  fear  it, 
either  from  the  King's  disposition  or  his  practice,  or,  even 
where  you  would  odiously  lay  it,  from  his  Ministers.  Give  us 
leave  to  enjoy  the  government  and  the  benefit  of  laws  under 
which  we  were  born,  and  which  we  desire  to  transmit  to  our 
posterity.  You  are  not  the  trustees  of  the  public  liberty  : 
and  if  you  have  not  right  to  petition  in  a  crowd,  much  less 
have  you  to  intermeddle  in  the  management  of  affairs,  or  to 
arraign  what  you  do  not  like,  which  in  effect  is  everything 

10  that  is  done  by  the  King  and  Council)  Can  you  imagine 
that  any  reasonable  man  will  believe  you  respect  the  person 
of  his  Majesty,  when  'tis  apparent  that  your  seditious 
pamphlets  are  stuffed  with  particular  reflections  on  him  ? 
If  you  have  the  confidence  to  deny  this,  'tis  easy  to  be 
evinced  from  a  thousand  passages,  which  I  only  forbear  to 
quote,  because  I  desire  they  should  die  and  be  forgotten.  I 
have  perused  many  of  your  papers  :  and  to  show  you  that  I 
have,  the  third  part  of  your  "  No-Protestant  Plot "  is,  much 
of  it,  stolen  from  your  dead  author's  pamphlet,  called  the 

20  "  Growth  of  Popery,"  as  manifestly  as  Milton's  "  Defence  of 
the  English  People"  is  from  Buchanan,  "De  Jure  Kegni 
apud  Scotos,"  or  your  First  Covenant  and  New  Association 
from  the  Holy  League  of  the  French  Guisards.  Any  one 
who  reads  Davila  may  trace  your  practices  all  along.  There 
were  the  same  pretences  for  reformation  and  loyalty,  the 
same  aspersions  of  the  King,  and  the  same  grounds  of  a 
rebellion.  I  know  not  whether  you  will  take  the  historian's 
word,  who  says  it  was  reported  that  Poltrot,  a  Hugonot, 
murdered  Francis,  duke  of  Guise,  by  the  instigations  of 

30  Theodore  Beza,  or  that  it  was  a  Hugonot  minister,  other- 
wise called  a  Presbyterian  (for  our  Church  abhors  so  devilish 
a  tenet),  who  first  writ  a  treatise  of  the  lawfulness  of  de- 
posing and  murdering  kings  of  a  different  persuasion  in 
religion  :|_^jit  I  am  able  to  prove  from  the  doctrine  of  Calvin 
and  the  principles  of  Buchanan,  that  they  set  the  people 
above  the  magistrate  ;  which,  if  I  mistake  not,  is  your  own 


THE  MEDAL.  71 

fundamental,  and  which  carries  your  loyalty  no  farther  than 
your  likingT]  When  a  vote  of  the  House  of  Commons  goes 
on  your  side,  you  are  as  ready  to  observe  it  as  if  it  were 
passed  into  a  law  ;  but  when  you  are  pinched  with  any 
former  and  yet  unrepealed  act  of  parliament,  you  declare 
that,  in  same  cases,  you  will  not  be  obliged  by  it.  The 
passage  is  in  the  same  third  part  of  the  "No-Protestant 
Plot,"  and  is  too  plain  to  be  denied.  The  late  copy  of  your 
intended  association  you  neither  wholly  justify  nor  condemn ; 
but  as  the  Papists,  when  they  are  unopposed,  fly  out  into  all  10 
/the  pageantries  of  worship,  but  in  times  of  war,  when  they 
are  hard  pressed  by  arguments,  lie  close  entrenched  behind 
the  Council  of  Trent,  so  now,  when  your  affairs  are  in  a  low 
condition,  you  dare  not  pretend  that  to  be  a  legal  combina- 
tion, but  whensoever  you  are  afloat,  I  doubt  not  but  it  will 
be  maintained  and  justified  to  purpose^  For,  indeed,  there 
is  nothing  to  defend  it  but  the  sword.  'Tis  the  proper  time 
to  say  anything,  when  men  have  all  things  in  their  power. 

In  the  mean  time,  you  would  fain  be  nibbling  at  a  parallel 
betwixt  this  association  and  that  in  the  time  of  Queen  Eliza-  20 
beth.  But  there  is  this  small  difference  betwixt  them,  that 
the  ends  of  the  one  are  directly  opposite  to  the  other  :  one 
with  the  Queen's  approbation  and  conjunction,  as  head  of  it : 
the  other,  without  either  the  consent  or  knowledge  of  the 
King,  against  whose  authority  it  is  manifestly  designed. 
Therefore,  you  do  well  to  have  recourse  to  your  last  evasion, 
that  it  was  contrived  by  your  enemies,  and  shuffled  into  the 
papers  that  were  seized  ;  (which  yet  you  see  the  nation  is  not 
so  easy  to  believe  as  your  own  jury.  But  the  matter  is  not 
difficult,  to  find  twelve  men  in  Newgate  who  would  acquit  a  30 
maleficto^  ^^/& 

I  have  one  only  favour  to  desire  of  you  at  parting,  that 
when  you  think  of  answering  this  poem,  you  would  employ 
the  same  pens  against  it  who  have  combated  with  so  much 
success  against  "  Absalom  and  Achitophel ; "  for  then  you 
may  assure  yourselves  of  a  clear  victory,  without  the  least 


72  THE  MEDAL, 

reply.  Rail  at  me  abundantly  ;  and,  not  to  break  a  custom, 
do  it  without  wit.  By  this  method  you  will  gain  a  con- 
siderable point,  which  is  wholly  to  wave  the  answer  of  my 
arguments.  Never  own  the  bottom  of  your  principles,  for 
fear  they  should  be  treason.  Fall  severely  on  the  mis- 
carriages of  government :  for,  if  scandal  be  not  allowed,  you 
are  no  freeborn  subjects.  If  God  has  not  blessed  you  with 
the  talent  of  rhyming,  make  use  of  my  poor  stock  and 
welcome  :  let  your  verses  run  upon  my  feet ;  and,  for  the 

10  utmost  refuge  of  notorious  blockheads,  reduced  to  the  last 
extremity  of  sense,  turn  my  own  lines  upon  me  ;  and,  in 
utter  despair  of  your  own  satire,  make  me  satirize  myself. 
Some  of  you  have  been  driven  to  this  bay  already  ;  but, 
above  all  the  rest,  commend  me  to  the  Nonconformist  parson, 
who  writ  the  "  Whip  and  Key."  I  am  afraid  it  is  not  read 
so  much  as  the  piece  deserves,  because  the  bookseller  is  every 
week  crying  help  at  the  end  of  his  gazette,  to  get  it  off.  You 
see  I  am  charitable  enough  to  do  him  a  kindness,  that  it  may 
be  published  as  well  as  printed  ;  and  that  so  much  skill  in 

20  Hebrew  derivations  may  not  lie  for  waste-paper  in  the  shop. 
Yet  I  half  suspect  he  went  no  farther  for  his  learning,  than 
the  index  of  Hebrew  names  and  etymologies,  which  are 
printed  at  the  end  of  some  English  Bibles.  If  Achitophel 
signify  the  brother  of  a  fool,  the  author  of  that  poem  will 
pass  with  his  readers  for  the  next  of  kin.  And  perhaps  'tis 
the  relation  that  makes  the  kindness.  Whatever  the  verses 
are,  buy  'em  up,  I  beseech  you,  out  of  pity  ;  for  I  hear  the 
conventicle  is  shut  up,  and  the  brother  of  Achitophel  out  of 
service. 

30  Now  footmen,  you  know,  have  the  generosity  to  make  a 
purse  for  a  member  of  their  society,  who  has  had  his  livery 
pulled  over  his  ears ;  and  even  Protestant  socks  are  bought 
up  among  you  out  of  veneration  to  the  name.  A  dissenter 
in  poetry  from  sense  and  English  will  make  as  good  a  Pro- 
testant rhymer,  as  a  dissenter  from  the  Church  of  England 
a  Protestant  parson.  Besides,  if  you  encourage  a  young 


THE  MEDAL.  73 

beginner,  who  knows  but  he  may  elevate  his  style  a  little 
above  the  vulgar  epithets  of  profane,  and  saucy  Jack,  and 
atheistic  scribbler,  with  which  he  treats  me,  when  the  fit  of 
enthusiasm  is  strong  upon  him ;  by  which  well-mannered 
and  charitable  expressions  I  was  certain  of  his  sect  before  I 
knew  his  name.  What  would  you  have  more  of  a  man  ?  He 
has  damned  me  in  your  cause  from  Genesis  to  the  Revela- 
tions, and  has  half  the  texts  of  both  the  Testaments  against 
me,  if  you  will  be  so  civil  to  yourselves  as  to  take  him  for 
your  interpreter,  and  not  to  take  them  for  Irish  witnesses.  10 
After  all,  perhaps  you  will  tell  me,  that  you  retained  him 
only  for  the  opening  of  your  cause,  and  that  your  main 
lawyer  is  yet  behind.  Now  if  it  so  happen  he  meet  with  no 
more  reply  than  his  predecessors,  you  may  either  conclude 
that  I  trust  to  the  goodness  of  my  cause,  or  fear  my  adversary, 
or  disdain  him,  or  what  you  please,  for  the  short  on't  is,  'tis 
indifferent  to  your  humble  servant,  whatever  your  party  says 
or  thinks  of  him.  18 


THE  MEDAL. 

A   SATIRE   AGAINST   SEDITION. 

Or  all  our  antic  sights  and  pageantry 
Which  English  idiots  run  in  crowds  to  see, 
The  Polish  Medal  bears  the  prize  alone  ; 
A  monster,  more  the  favourite  of  the  town 
Than  either  fairs  or  theatres  have  shown. 
Never  did  art  so  well  with  nature  strive, 
Nor  ever  idol  seemed  so  much  alive  ; 
So  like  the  man,  so  golden  to  the  sight, 
So  base  within,  so  counterfeit  and  light. 
One  side  is  filled  with  title  and  with  face  ;  10 

And,  lest  the  king  should  want  a  regal  place, 
On  the  reverse  a  tower  the  town  surveys, 
O'er  which  our  mounting  sun  his  beams  displays. 
The  word,  pronounced  aloud  by  shrieval  voice, 
Lcetamur,  which  in  Polish  is  Rejoice, 
The  day,  month,  year,  to  the  great  act  are  joined, 
And  a  new  canting  holiday  designed. 
Five  days  he  sate  for  every  cast  and  look, 
Four  more  than  God  to  finish  Adam  took. 
But  who  can  tell  what  essence  angels  are  20 

Or  how  long  Heaven  was  making  Lucifer  ? 
Oh,  could  the  style  that  copied  every  grace 
And  ploughed  such  furrows  for  an  eunuch  face, 
74 


THE  MEDAL.  75 

Could  it  have  formed  his  ever-changing  will, 

The  various  piece  had  tired  the  graver's  skill  ! 

A  martial  hero  first,  with  early  care 

Blown,  like  a  pigmy  by  the  winds,  to  war  ; 

A  beardless  chief,  a  rebel  ere  a  man, 

So  young  his  hatred  to  his  Prince  began. 

Next  this,  (how  wildly  will  ambition  steer  !)  30 

A  vermin  wriggling  in  the  usurper's  ear, 

Bartering  his  venal  wit  for  sums  of  gold, 

He  cast  himself  into  the  saint-like  mould  ; 

Groaned,  sighed,  and  prayed,  while  godliness  was  gain, 

The  loudest  bag-pipe  of  the  squeaking  train. 

But,  as  'tis  hard  to  cheat  a  juggler's  eyes, 

His  open  lewdness  he  could  ne'er  disguise. 

There  split  the  saint ;  for  hypocritic  zeal 

Allows  no  sins  but  those  it  can  conceal. 

Whoring  to  scandal  gives  too  large  a  scope  ;  40 

Saints  must  not  trade,  but  they  may  interlope. 

The  ungodly  principle  was  all  the  same  ; 

But  a  gross  cheat  betrays  his  partner's  game. 

Besides,  their  pace  was  formal,  grave,  and  slack  ; 

His  nimble  wit  outran  the  heavy  pack. 

Yet  still  he  found  his  fortune  at  a  stay, 

Whole  droves  of  blockheads  choking  up  his  way  ; 

They  took,  but  not  rewarded,  his  advice  ; 

Villain  and  wit  exact  a  double  price. 

Power  was  his  aim  ;  but  thrown  from  that  pretence,   50 

The  wretch  turned  loyal  in  his  own  defence, 

And  malice  reconciled  him  to  his  Prince. 

Him  in  the  anguish  of  his  soul  he  served, 

Rewarded  faster  still  than  he  deserved. 

Behold  him  now  exalted  into  trust, 

His  counsels  oft  convenient,  seldom  just  ; 

Even  in  the  most  sincere  advice  he  gave 

He  had  a  grudging  still  to  be  a  knave. 

The  frauds  he  learnt  in  his  fanatic  years 


76  THE  MEDAL. 

Made  him  uneasy  in  his  lawful  gears.  60 

At  best,  as  little  honest  as  he  could, 
And,  like  white  witches,  mischievously  good. 
To  his  first  bias  longingly  he  leans 
And  rather  would  be  great  by  wicked  means. 
Thus  framed  for  ill,  he  loosed  our  triple  hold, 
(Advice  unsafe,  precipitous,  and  bold.) 
From  hence  those  tears,  that  Ilium  of  our  woe  : 
Who  helps  a  powerful  friend  forearms  a  foe. 
What  wonder  if  the  waves  prevail  so  far, 
When  he  cut  down  the  banks  that  made  the  bar  ?        70 
Seas  follow  but  their  nature  to  invade  ; 
But  he  by  art  our  native  strength  betrayed. 
So  Samson  to  his  foe  his  force  confest, 
And  to  be  shorn  lay  slumbering  on  her  breast. 
But  when  this  fatal  counsel,  found  too  late, 
Exposed  its  author  to  the  public  hate, 
When  his  just  sovereign  by  no  impious  way 
Could  be  seduced  to  arbitrary  sway, 
Forsaken  of  that  hope,  he  shifts  his  sail, 
Drives  down  the  current  with  a  popular  gale,  80 

And  shows  the  fiend  confessed  without  a  veil, 
.e  preaches  to  the  crowd  that  power  is  lent, 
ut  not  conveyed  to  kingly  government, 
at  claims  successive  bear  no  binding  force, 

^  That  coronation  oaths  are  things  of  course  ; 

^  Maintains  the  multitude  can  never  err, 
And  sets  the  people  in  the  papal  chair. 
The  reason's  obvious,  interest  never  lies; 
The  most  have  still  their  interest  in  their  eyes, 
The  power  is  always  theirs,  and  power  is  ever  wise.     90 
Almighty  crowd  !  thou  shortenest  all  dispute. 
Power  is  thy  essence,  wit  thy  attribute  ! 
Nor  faith  nor  reason  make  thee  at  a  stay, 
Thou  leapst  o'er  all  eternal  truths  in  thy  Pindaric  way  ! 
Athens,  no  doubt,  did  righteously  decide, 


THE  MEDAL.  77 

When  Phocion  and  when  Socrates  were  tried  ; 

As  righteously  they  did  those  dooms  repent ; 

Still  they  were  wise,  whatever  way  they  went. 

Crowds  err  not,  though  to  both  extremes  they  run  ; 

To  kill  the  father  and  recall  the  son.  100 

Some  think  the  fools  were  most,  as  times  went  then, 

But  now  the  world's  o'erstocked  with  prudent  men. 

The  common  cry  is  even  religion's  test ; 

The  Turk's  is  at  Constantinople  best, 

Idols  in  India,  Popery  at  Rome, 

And  our  own  worship  only  true  at  home, 

And  true  but  for  the  time  ;  'tis  hard  to  know 

How  long  we  please  it  shall  continue  so  ; 

This  side  to-day,  and  that  to-morrow  burns  ; 

So  all  are  God  Almighties  in  their  turns.  110 

A  tempting  doctrine,  plausible  and  new  ; 

What  fools  our  fathers  were,  if  this  be  true  ! 

Who,  to  destroy  the  seeds  of  civil  war, 

Inherent  right  in  monarchs  did  declare  ; 

And,  that  a  lawful  power  might  never  cease, 

Secured  succession  to  secure  our  peace. 

Thus  property  and  sovereign  sway  at  last 

In  equal  balances  were  justly  cast ; 

But  this  new  Jehu  spurs  the  hot-mouthed  horse, 

Instructs  the  beast  to  know  his  native  force,  120 

To  take  the  bit  between  his  teeth  and  fly 

To  the  next  headlong  steep  of  anarchy. 

Too  happy  England,  if  our  good  we  knew, 

Would  we  possess  the  freedom  we  pursue  ! 

The  lavish  government  can  give  no  more  ; 

Yet  we  repine,  and  plenty  makes  us  poor. 

God  tried  us  once  ;  our  rebel  fathers  fought  ; 

He  glutted  them  with  all  the  power  they  sought, 

Till,  mastered  by  their  own  usurping  brave, 

The  free-born  subject  sunk  into  a  slave.  130 

We  loathe  our  manna,  and  we  long  for  quails  ; 


78  THE  MEDAL. 

Ah  !  what  is  man,  when  his  own  wish  prevails  ! 

How  rash,  how  swift  to  plunge  himself  in  ill, 

Proud  of  his  power  and  boundless  in  his  will ! 

That  kings  can  do  no  wrong  we  must  believe  ; 

None  can  they  do,  and  must  they  all  receive  ? 

Help,  Heaven,  or  sadly  we  shall  see  an  hour 

When  neither  wrong  nor  right  are  in  their  power  ! 

Already  they  have  lost  their  best  defence, 

The  benefit  of  laws  which  they  dispense.  140 

No  justice  to  their  righteous  cause  allowed, 

But  baffled  by  an  arbitrary  crowd  ; 

And  medals  graved,  their  conquest  to  record, 

The  stamp  and  coin  of  their  adopted  lord. 

The  man  who  laughed  but  once,  to  see  an  ass 
Mumbling  to  make  the  cross-grained  thistles  pass, 
Might  laugh  again  to  see  a  jury  chaw 
The  prickles  of  unpalatable  law. 
The  witnesses  that,  leech-like,  lived  on  blood, 
Sucking  for  them  were  med'cinally  good  ;  150 

But  when  they  fastened  on  their  festered  sore, 
Then  justice  and  religion  they  forswore, 
Thus  men  are  raised  by  factions  and  decried, 
And  rogue  and  saint  distinguished  by  their  side  ; 
They  rack  even  Scripture  to  confess  their  cause 
And  plead  a  call  to  preach  in  spite  of  laws. 
But  that's  no  news  to  the  poor  injured  page, 
It  has  been  used  as  ill  in  every  age, 
And  is  constrained  with  patience  all  to  take, 
For  what  defence  can  Greek  and  Hebrew  make  ?         160 
Happy  who  can  this  talking  trumpet  seize, 
They  make  it  speak  whatever  sense  they  please  ! 
'Twas  framed  at  first  our  oracle  to  inquire  ; 
But  since  our  sects  in  prophecy  grow  higher, 
The  text  inspires  not  them,  but  they  the  text  inspire. 


THE  MEDAL.  79 

London,  thou  great  emporium  of  our  isle, 

0  thou  too  bounteous,  thou  too  fruitful  Nile  ! 
How  shall  I  praise  or  curse  to  thy  desert, 

Or  separate  thy  sound  from  thy  corrupted  part  ? 

1  called  thee  Nile  ;  the  parallel  will  stand  :  170 
Thy  tides  of  wealth  o'erflow  the  fattened  land  ; 

Yet  monsters  from  thy  large  increase  we  find 

Engendered  on  the  slime  thou  leavest  behind. 

Sedition  has  not  wholly  seized  on  thee, 

Thy  nobJer  parts  are  from  infection  free. 

Of  Israel's  tribes  thou  hast  a  numerous  band, 

But  still  the  Canaanite  is  in  the  land. 

Thy  military  chiefs  are  brave  and  true, 

Nor  are  thy  disenchanted  burghers  few. 

The  head  is  loyal  which  thy  heart  commands,  180 

But  what's  a  head  with  two  such  gouty  hands  ? 

The  wise  and  wealthy  love  the  surest  way 

And  are  content  to  thrive  and  to  obey. 

But  wisdom  is  to  sloth  too  great  a  slave  ; 

None  are  so  busy  as  the  fool  and  knave. 

Those  let  me  curse  ;  what  vengeance  will  they  urge, 

Whose  ordures  neither  plague  nor  fire  can  purge, 

Nor  sharp  experience  can  to  duty  bring 

Nor  angry  Heaven  nor  a  forgiving  king  ! 

In  gospel-phrase  their  chapmen  they  betray  ;  190 

Their  shops  are  dens,  the  buyer  is  their  prey  ; 

The  knack  of  trades  is  living  on  the  spoil  ; 

They  boast  e'en  when  each  other  they  beguile. 

Customs  to  steal  is  such  a  trivial  thing 

That  'tis  their  charter  to  defraud  their  King. 

All  hands  unite  of  every  jarring  sect ; 

They  cheat  the  country  first,  and  then  infect. 

They  for  God's  cause  their  monarchs  dare  dethrone, 

And  they'll  be  sure  to  make  His  cause  their  own. 

Whether  the  plotting  Jesuit  laid  the  plan  200 

Of  murdering  kings,  or  the  French  Puritan, 


80  THE  MEDAL. 

Our  sacrilegious  sects  their  guides  outgo 

And  kings  and  kingly  power  would  murder  too. 

What  means  their  traitorous  combination  less, 
Too  plain  to  evade,  too  shameful  to  confess  ? 
But  treason  is  not  owned,  when  'tis  descried  ; 
Successful  crimes  alone  are  justified. 
The  men  who  no  conspiracy  would  find, 
Who  doubts  but,  had  it  taken,  they  had  joined  ? 
Joined  in  a  mutual  covenant  of  defence,  210 

At  first  without,  at  last  against  their  Prince  ? 
If  sovereign  right  by  sovereign  power  they  scan, 
The  same  bold  maxim  holds  in  God  and  man  : 
God  were  not  safe  ;  his  thunder  could  they  shun, 
He  should  be  forced  to  crown  another  son. 
Thus,  when  the  heir  was  from  the  vineyard  thrown, 
The  rich  possession  was  the  murderers'  own. 
In  vain  to  sophistry  they  have  recourse  ; 
By  proving  theirs  no  plot  they  prove  'tis  worse, 
Unmasked  rebellion,  and  audacious  force,  220 

Which,  though  not  actual,  yet  all  eyes  may  see 
'Tis  working,  in  the  immediate  power  to  be  ; 
For  from  pretended  grievances  they  rise 
First  to  dislike,  and  after  to  despise  ; 
Then,  Cyclop-like,  in  human  flesh  to  deal, 
Chop  up  a  minister  at  every  meal  ; 
Perhaps  not  wholly  to  melt  down  the  king, 
But  clip  his  regal  rights  within  the  ring  ; 
From  thence  to  assume  the  power  of  peace  and  war 
And  ease  him  by  degrees  of  public  care.  230 

Yet,  to  consult  his  dignity  and  fame, 
He  should  have  leave  to  exercise  the  name, 
And  hold  the  cards  while  Commons  played  the  game. 
For  what  can  power  give  more  than  food  and  drink, 
To  live  at  ease  and  not  be  bound  to  think  ? 
These  are  the  cooler  methods  of  their  crime, 


THE  MEDAL.  81 

But  their  hot  zealots  think  'tis  loss  of  time  ; 

On  utmost  bounds  of  loyalty  they  stand, 

And  grin  and  whet  like  a  Croatian  band 

That  waits  impatient  for  the  last  command  :  240 

Thus  outlaws  open  villainy  maintain  ; 

They  steal  not,  but  in  squadrons  scour  the  plain  ; 

And  if  their  power  the  passengers  subdue, 

The  most  have  right,  the  wrong  is  in  the  few. 

Such  impious  axioms  foolishly  they  show, 

For  in  some  soils  Republics  will  not  grow  : 

'Our  temperate  Isle  will  no  extremes  sustain 

Of  popular  sway  or  arbitrary  reign  : 

But  slides  between  them  both  into  the  best, 

Secure  in  freedom,  in  a  monarch  blest.  250 

And,  though  the  climate,  vexed  with  various  winds, 

Works  through  our  yielding  bodies  on  our  minds, 

The  wholesome  tempest  purges  what  it  breeds 

To  recommend  the  calmness  that  succeeds. 


But  thou,  the  pander  of  the  people's  hearts, 
(O  crooked  soul  and  serpentine  in  arts  !)  .   .   . 
What  curses  on  thy  blasted  name  will  fall, 
Which  age  to  age  their  legacy  shall  call,  260 

For  all  must  curse  the  woes  that  must  descend  on  all  ! 
Religion  thou  hast  none  :  thy  mercury 
Has  passed  through  every  sect,  or  theirs  through  thee. 
But  what  thou  givest,  that  venom  still  remains, 
And  the  poxed  nation  feels  thee  in  their  brains. 
What  else  inspires  the  tongues  and  swells  the  breasts 
Of  all  thy  bellowing  renegade  priests, 
That  preach  up  thee  for  God,  dispense  thy  laws, 
And  with  thy  stum  ferment  their  fainting  cause, 
Fresh  fumes  of  madness  raise,  and  toil  and  sweat,       270 
To  make  the  formidable  cripple  great  ? 


82  THE  MEDAL. 

Yet  should  thy  crimes  succeed,  should  lawless  power 

Compass  those  ends  thy  greedy  hopes  devour, 

Thy  canting  friends  thy  mortal  foes  would  be, 

Thy  god  and  theirs  will  never  long  agree  ; 

For  thine,  if  thou  hast  any,  must  be  one 

That  lets  the  world  and  human  kind  alone  ; 

A  jolly  god  that  passes  hours  too  well 

To  promise  Heaven  or  threaten  us  with  Hell, 

That  unconcerned  can  at  rebellion  sit  280 

And  wink  at  crimes  he  did  himself  commit. 

A  tyrant  theirs  ;  the  heaven  their  priesthood  paints 

A  conventicle  of  gloomy  sullen  saints  ; 

A  heaven,  like  Bedlam,  slovenly  and  sad, 

Foredoomed  for  souls  with  false  religion  mad. 

Without  a  vision  poets  can  foreshow 
What  all  but  fools  by  common  sense  may  know  : 
If  true  succession  from  our  Isle  should  fail, 
And  crowds  profane  with  impious  arms  prevail, 
Not  thou  nor  those  thy  factioiis  arts  engage  290 

Shall  reap  that  harvest  of  rebellious  rage, 
With  which  thou  flatterest  thy  decrepit  age. 
The  swelling  poison  of  the  several  sects, 
Which,  wanting  vent,  the  nation's  health  infects, 
Shall  burst  its  bag  ;  and  fighting  out  their  way, 
The  various  venoms  on  each  other  prey. 
The  Presbyter,  puffed  up  with  spiritual  pride, 
Shall  on  the  necks  of  the  lewd  nobles  ride, 
His  brethren  damn,  the  civil  power  defy, 
And  parcel  out  republic  prelacy.  300 

But  short  shall  be  his  reign ;  his  rigid  yoke 
And  tyrant  power  will  puny  sects  provoke, 
And  frogs,  and  toads,  and  all  the  tadpole  train 
Will  croak  to  Heaven  for  help  from  this  devouring  crane. 
The  cut-throat  sword  and  clamorous  gown  shall  jar 
In  sharing  their  ill-gotten  spoils  of  war  ; 
Chiefs  shall  be  grudged  the  part  which  they  pretend  ; 


THE  MEDAL.  83 

Lords  envy  lords,  and  friends  with  every  friend 

About  their  impious  merit  shall  contend. 

The  surly  Commons  shall  respect  deny  310 

And  justle  peerage  out  with  property. 

Their  General  either  shall  his  trust  betray 

And  force  the  crowd  to  arbitrary  sway, 

Or  they,  suspecting  his  ambitious  aim, 

In  hate  of  kings  shall  cast  anew  the  frame, 

And  thrust  out  Collatine  that  bore  their  name. 

Thus  inborn  broils  the  factions  would  engage, 
Or  wars  of  exiled  heirs,  or  foreign  rage, 
Till  halting  vengeance  overtook  our  age, 
And  our  wild  labours,  wearied  into  rest,  320 

Reclined  us  on  a  rightful  monarch's  breast 

"  Pudet  hcec  opprobria  vobis 
Et  did  potuisse  et  non potuisse  refelli" 


MAC   FLECKNOE; 

OR, 

A  SATIRE  ON  THE  TRUE  BLUE 

PROTESTANT  POET, 

T.  S. 

MAC  FLECKNOE. 

ALL  human  things  are  subject  to  decay 
And,  when  Fate  summons,  monarchs  must  obey. 
This  Flecknoe  found,  who,  like  Augustus,  young 
Was  called  to  empire  and  had  governed  long, 
In  prose  and  verse  was  owned  without  dispute 
Through  all  the  realms  of  Nonsense  absolute. 
This  aged  prince,  now  flourishing  in  peace 
And  blest  with  issue  of  a  large  increase, 
Worn  out  with  business,  did  at  length  debate 
To  settle  the  succession  of  the  state  ;  10 

And  pondering  which  of  all  his  sons  was  fit 
To  reign  and  wage  immortal  war  with  wit, 
Cried,  "  'Tis  resolved,  for  Nature  pleads  that  he 
"  Should  only  rule  who  most  resembles  me. 
"  Shadwell  alone  my  perfect  image  bears, 
"  Mature  in  dulness  from  his  tender  years  ; 
"  Shadwell  alone  of  all  my  sons  is  he 
"  Who  stands  confirmed  in  full  stupidity. 
f"  The  rest  to  some  faint  meaning  make  pretence, 
84 


MAC  FLECKNOE.  85 

"  But  Shadwell  never  deviates  into  sense.  20 

"  Some  beams  of  wit  on  other  souls  may  fall, 

"  Strike  through  and  make  a  lucid  interval ; 

"  But  Shadwell's  genuine  night  admits  no  ray, 

"  His  rising  fogs  prevail  upon  the  day. 

"  Besides,  his  goodly  fabric  fills  the  eye 

"  And  seems  designed  for  thoughtless  majesty, 

"  Thoughtless  as  monarch  oaks  that  shade  the  plain 

"  And,  spread  in  solemn  state,  supinely  reign. 

"  Heywood  and  Shirley  were  but  types  of  thee, 

"  Thou  last  great  prophet  of  tautology.  30 

"  Even  I,  a  dunce  of  more  renown  than  they, 

"  Was  sent  before  but  to  prepare  thy  way, 

"  And  coarsely  clad  in  Norwich  drugget  came 

"  To  teach  the  nations  in  thy  greater  name. 

"  My  warbling  lute,  the  lute  I  whilom  strung, 

"  When  to  King  John  of  Portugal  I  sung, 

"  Was  but  the  prelude  to  that  glorious  clay, 

"  When  thou  on  silver  Thames  didst  cut  thy  way, 

"  With  well-timed  oars  before  the  royal  barge, 

"  Swelled  with  the  pride  of  thy  celestial  charge,  40 

"  And,  big  with  hymn,  commander  of  an  host ; 

"  The  like  was  ne'er  in  Epsom  blankets  tost. 

"  Methinks  I  see  the  new  Arion  sail, 

"  The  lute  still  trembling  underneath  thy  nail. 

"  At  thy  well-sharpened  thumb  from  shore  to  shore 

"  The  treble  squeaks  for  fear,  the  basses  roar  ; 

"  Echoes,  from  Pissing-alley  Shadwell  call, 

"  And  Shadwell  they  resound  from  Aston-hall. 

"  About  thy  boat  the  little  fishes  throng, 

"  As  at  the  morning  toast  that  floats  along.  50 

"  Sometimes,  as  prince  of  thy  harmonious  band, 

"  Thou  wieldst  thy  papers  in  thy  threshing  hand. 

"  St.  Andr6's  feet  ne'er  kept  more  equal  time, 

"  Not  even  the  feet  of  thy  own  '  Psyche's '  rhyme  : 

"  Though  they  in  number  as  in  sense  excel, 


86  MAC  FLECKNOE. 

"  So  just,  so  like  tautology,  they  fell 

"  That,  pale  with  envy,  Singleton  forswore 

"  The  lute  and  sword  which  he  in  triumph  bore, 

"  And  vowed  he  ne'er  would  act  Villerius  more." 

Here  stopped  the  good  old  sire  and  wept  for  joy,          60 

In  silent  raptures  of  the  hopeful  boy. 

All  arguments,  but  most  his  plays,  persuade 

That  for  anointed  dulness  he  was  made. 

Close  to  the  walls  which  fair  Augusta  bind, 
(The  fair  Augusta  much  to  fears  inclined,) 
An  ancient  fabric  raised  to  inform  the  sight 
There  stood  of  yore,  and  Barbican  it  hight ; 
A  watch-tower  once,  but  now,  so  fate  ordains, 
Of  all  the  pile  an  empty  name  remains. 
Near  this  a  Nursery  erects  its  head,  70 

Where  queens  are  formed  and  future  heroes  bred, 
Where  unfledged  actors  learn  to  laugh  and  cry, 
Where  infant  punks  their  tender  voices  try, 
And  little  Maximins  the  gods  defy. 
Great  Fletcher  never  treads  in  buskins  here, 
Nor  greater  Jonson  dares  in  socks  appear  ; 
But  gentle  Simkin  just  reception  finds 
Amidst  this  monument  of  vanished  minds  ; 
Pure  clinches  the  suburbian  muse  affords 
And  Panton  waging  harmless  war  with  words.  80 

Here  Flecknoe,  as  a  place  to  fame  well  known, 
Ambitiously  designed  his  Shadwell's  throne. 
For  ancient  Decker  prophesied  long  since 
That  in  this  pile  should  reign  a  mighty  prince, 
Born  for  a  scourge  of  wit  and  flail  of  sense, 
To  whom  true  dulness  should  some  "  Psyches  "  owe, 
But  worlds  of  "  Misers  "  from  his  pen  should  flow  ; 
"  Humourists  "  and  Hypocrites  it  should  produce, 
Whole  R&ymond  families  and  tribes  of  Bruce. 

Now  empress  Fame  had  published  the  renown          90 
Of  Shadwell's  coronation  through  the  town. 


MAC  FLECKNOE.  87 

Roused  by  report  of  fame,  the  nations  meet 

From  near  Bunhill  and  distant  Watling-street. 

No  Persian  carpets  spread  the  imperial  way, 

But  scattered  limbs  of  mangled  poets  lay  ; 

Much  Heywood,  Shirley,  Ogleby  there  lay, 

But  loads  of  Shadwell  almost  choked  the  way. 

Bilked  stationers  for  yoemen  stood  prepared 

And  Herringman  was  captain  of  the  guard. 

The  hoary  prince  in  majesty  appeared,  100 

High  on  a  throne  of  his  own  labours  reared. 

At  his  right  hand  our  young  Ascanius  sat, 

Rome's  other  hope  and  pillar  of  the  state. 

His  brows  thick  fogs  instead  of  glories  grace, 

And  lambent  dulness  played  around  his  face. 

As  Hannibal  did  to  the  altars  come, 

Sworn  by  his  sire  a  mortal  foe  to  Rome  ; 

So  Shadwell  swore,  nor  should  his  vow  be  vain, 

That  he  till  death  true  dulness  would  maintain  ; 

And,  in  his  father's  right  and  realm's  defence,  110 

Ne'er  to  have  peace  with  wit  nor  truce  with  sense. 

The  king  himself  the  sacred  unction  made, 

As  king  by  office  and  as  priest  by  trade. 

In  his  sinister  hand,  instead  of  ball, 

He  placed  a  mighty  mug  of  potent  ale  ; 

"  Love's  Kingdom  "  to  his  right  he  did  convey, 

At  once  his  sceptre  and  his  rule  of  sway  ; 

Whose  righteous  lore  the  prince  had  practised  young 

And  from  whose  loins  recorded  "  Psyche  "  sprung. 

His  temples,  last,  with  poppies  were  o'erspread,          120 

That  nodding  seemed  to  consecrate  his  head. 

Just  at  that  point  of  time,  if  fame  not  lie, 

On  his  left  hand  twelve  reverend  owls  did  fly. 

So  Romulus,  'tis  sung,  by  Tiber's  brook, 

Presage  of  sway  from  twice  six  vultures  took. 

The  admiring  throng  loud  acclamations  make 

And  omens  of  his  future  empire  take. 


88  MAC  FLECKNOE. 

The  sire  then  shook  the  honours  of  his  head, 

And  from  his  brows  damps  of  oblivion  shed 

Full  on  the  filial  dulness  :  long  he  stood,  130 

Repelling  from  his  breast  the  raging  God  ; 

At  length  burst  out  in  this  prophetic  mood  : 

"  Heavens  bless  my  son  !  from  Ireland  let  him  reign 
"  To  far  Barbadoes  on  the  western  main  ; 
"  Of  his  dominion  may  no  end  be  known 
"  And  greater  than  his  father's  be  his  throne  ; 
"  Beyond  '  Love's  Kingdom '  let  him  stretch  his  pen  ! " 
He  paused,  and  all  the  people  cried  "Amen." 
Then  thus  continued  he  :  "  My  son,  advance 
"  Still  in  new  impudence,  new  ignorance.  140 

"  Success  let  others  teach,  learn  thou  from  me 
"  Pangs  without  birth  and  fruitless  industry. 
"  Let  *  Virtuosos '  in  five  years  be  writ, 
"  Yet  not  one  thought  accuse  thy  toil  of  wit. 
"  Let  gentle  George  in  triumph  tread  the  stage, 
"  Make  Dorimant  betray,  and  Loveit  rage  ; 
"  Let  Cully,  Cockwood,  Fopling,  charm  the  pit, 
"  And  in  their  folly  show  the  writer's  wit. 
"  Yet  still  thy  fools  shall  stand  in  thy  defence 
*'  And  justify  their  author's  want  of  sense.  150 

"  Let  them  be  all  by  thy  own  model  made 
"  Of  dulness  and  desire  no  foreign  aid, 
"  That  they  to  future  ages  may  be  known, 
"  Not  copies  drawn,  but  issue  of  thy  own. 
"  Nay,  let  thy  men  of  wit  too  be  the  same, 
"  All  full  of  thee  and  differing  but  in  name. 
"  But  let  no  alien  Sedley  interpose 
"  To  lard  with  wit  thy  hungry  Epsom  prose. 
"  And  when  false  flowers  of  rhetoric  thou  wouldst  cull, 
"  Trust  nature,  do  not  labour  to  be  dull  ;  160 

"  But  write  thy  best  and  top  ;  and  in  each  line 
"  Sir  Formal's  oratory  will  be  thine. 
"  Sir  Formal,  though  unsought,  attends  thy  quill 


MAC  FLECKNOE.  89 

"  And  does  thy  northern  dedications  fill. 

"  Nor  let  false  friends  seduce  thy  mind  to  fame 

"  By  arrogating  Jonson's  hostile  name  ; 

"  Let  father  Flecknoe  fire  thy  mind  with  praise 

"  And  uncle  Ogleby  thy  envy  raise. 

"  Thou  art  my  blood,  where  Jonson  has  no  part : 

"  What  share  have  we  in  nature  or  in  art  ?  170 

"  Where  did  his  wit  on  learning  fix  a  brand 

"  And  rail  at  arts  he  did  not  understand  ? 

"  Where  made  he  love  in  Prince  Nicander's  vein 

"  Or  swept  the  dust  in  Psyche's  humble  strain  ? 

"  When  did  his  Muse  from  Fletcher  scenes  purloin, 

"  As  thou  whole  Etherege  dost  transfuse  to  thine  ? 

"  But  so  transfused  as  oil  011  waters  flow, 

"  His  always  floats  above,  thine  sinks  below. 

"  This  is  thy  province,  this  thy  wondrous  way, 

"  New  humours  to  invent  for  each  new  play  :  180 

"  This  is  that  boasted  bias  of  thy  mind, 

"  By  which  one  way  to  dulness  'tis  inclined, 

"  Which  makes  thy  writings  lean  on  one  side  still, 

"  And,  in  all  changes,  that  way  bends  thy  will. 

"  Nor  let  thy  mountain  belly  make  pretence 

"  Of  likeness  ;  thine's  a  tympany  of  sense. 

"  A  tun  of  man  in  thy  large  bulk  is  writ, 

"  But  sure  thou  art  but  a  kilderkin  of  wit. 

"  Like  mine,  thy  gentle  numbers  feebly  creep  ; 

"  Thy  tragic  Muse  gives  smiles,  thy  comic  sleep.          190 

"  With  whate'er  gall  thou  setst  thyself  to  write, 

"  Thy  inoffensive  satires  never  bite  ; 

"  In  thy  felonious  heart  though  venom  lies, 

"  It  does  but  touch  thy  Irish  pen,  and  dies. 

"  Thy  genius  calls  thee  not  to  purchase  fame 

"  In  keen  Iambics,  but  mild  Anagram. 

"  Leave  writing  plays,  and  choose  for  thy  command 

"  Some  peaceful  province  in  Acrostic  land. 

"  There  thou  mayest  wings  display  and  altars  raise, 


90  MAC  FLECKNOE. 

"  And  torture  one  poor  word  ten  thousand  ways  ;       200 

"  Or,  if  thou  wouldst  thy  different  talents  suit, 

"  Set  thy  own  songs,  and  sing  them  to  thy  lute." 

He  said,  but  his  last  words  were  scarcely  heard, 

For  Bruce  and  Longville  had  a  trap  prepared, 

And  down  they  sent  the  yet  declaiming  bard. 

Sinking  he  left  his  drugget  robe  behind, 

Borne  upwards  by  a  subterranean  wind. 

The  mantle  fell  to  the  young  prophet's  part 

With  double  portion  of  his  father's  art. 


NOTES. 

FIRST  PART  OF  ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL. 

PREFACE. 

P.  1,1.  5.  Whig  and  Tory.  The  nickname  Whig  was  conferred 
on  the  Petitioners  (see  Introduction)  in  1679.  Two  explanations 
of  it  are  given,  one  by  Roger  North  in  his  Examen,  p.  321  : 
"  The  Anti-Exclusionists  called  their  opponents  '  Birmingham 
Protestants, '  alluding  to  false  groats  counterfeited  at  that  place  : 
this  held  a  considerable  time  but  the  word  was  not  fluent  enough 
for  hasty  repartee  :  and  after  diverse  changes  the  lot  fell  upon 
Whig  which  was  very  significative  as  well  as  ready,  being 
vernacular  in  Scotland  (from  whence  it  was  borrowed)  for 
corrupt  and  sour  whey.  '  But  Burnet's  explanation,  now  gener- 
ally received  as  the  correct  one,  is  this :  "  The  south-west 
counties  of  Scotland  have  seldom  corn  enough  to  serve  them 
round  the  year,  and  the  northern  parts  producing  more  than 
they  need  those  in  the  west  come  in  the  summer  to  buy  at  Leith 
the  stores  that  come  from  the  north  :  and  from  a  word  whiggam 
used  in  driving  their  horses  all  that  drove  were  called  the 
Whiggamors,  and  shorter  the  Whigs."  It  had  been  employed,  he 
adds,  as  a  political  designation  in  Scotland  from  the  rising  under 
Argyll  in  1648,  subsequent  to  which  "  all  that  opposed  the  Court 
came  in  contempt  to  be  called  Whigs"  (History  of  His  Oivn  Time, 
vol.  i.  p.  43).  Tories  was  the  nickname  conferred  in  the  same 
year  on  the  Abhorrers,  and  was  derived  from  the  Tories  or  Popish 
banditti  and  bog-trotters  in  Ireland,  the  point  being  that  they 
were  savages,  robbers,  and  papists,  and  that  the  Duke  of  York 
favoured  the  Irish.  It  has  been  variously  derived  from  the  Irish 
words  toiridhe,  tor,  toraigheoir,  a  pursuer  ;  toirighim,  I  follow 
closely;  and  toir,  a  corruption  of  tabhair,  'give  there,'  the  sup- 
posed demand  of  a  robber. 

91 


92          ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.    PART  I. 

I.  11.  an  Anti-Bromingham,    an   anti-Whig.      See    preceding 
note  for  the  term  Birmingham,  and  cf.  the  lines  quoted  by  Mr. 
Christie, 

"  No  mobile  gay  fop 

With  Bromingham  pretences." 

P.  2,  11.  4,  5.  Rebating  the  satire.  To  rebate  is  to  blunt  the 
edge  (Old  French  rebatre).  Now  obsolete,  but  common  in  Eliza- 
bethan and  seventeenth  century  writers.  Mr.  Christie  quotes 
Palamon  and  Arcite,  book  ii.  502,  "  The  keener  edge  of  battle 
rebate." 

II.  11,  2.  tax  their  crimes,  censure.     Properly  to  put  a  rate 
upon.     French  taxer,  to  tax  or  rate. 

1.  17.  so  unconscionable,  devoid  of  conscience  or  reason,  un- 
reasonable. 

1.  24.  the  character  of  Absalom.  In  dealing  with  Monmouth 
Dryden  was  in  a  very  difficult  position.  He  knew  that  the  King 
was  in  his  heart  greatly  attached  to  his  '  favourite  son,'  and  that 
a  reconciliation  might  take  place.  "  David  himself  could  not  be 
more  tender  of  the  young  man's  life  than  I  would  be  of  his  re- 
putation" are  his  words  in  the  Preface.  It  will  be  seen  that 
throughout  the  poem  he  carefully  abstains  from  all  harsh 
censure,  or  rather  contrives  to  flatter  him.  All  the  blame  is 
thrown  on  Shaftesbury.  "Were  I  the  inventor  ...  I  should 
certainly  conclude  the  piece  with  the  reconcilement  of  Absalon 
to  David.  And  who  knows  but  this  may  come  to  pass?" 

P.  3,  1.  14.  to  hope  with  Origen.  The  eminent  Father  of  the 
Church,  Origines  Adamantius,  born  circa  A.I>.  186,  died  A.D.  253 
or  254.  The  reference  is  to  an  erroneous  deduction  from  Origen's 
well-known  doctrine  of  the  universal  restoration  of  the  guilty. 
Origen,  however,  expressly  asserts  that  the  devil  alone  will 
suffer  eternal  punishment. 

1.  24.  chirurgeon,  the  obsolete  form  of  surgeon.  From  the 
Greek  x^povpyia,  a  working  with  the  hands,  but  immediately 
from  the  French  chirurgie. 

1.  25.  Ense  rescindendum.     From  Ovid,  Met.  i.  191. 


7.  Israel's  monarch  etc.,  David,  and  so  by  analogy  Charles  II. 
Cf.  i.  Samuel,  xiii.  14,  "The  Lord  sought  him  a  man  after  his 
own  heart."  Cf.  too  Acts,  xiii.  20.  These  opening  verses,  in 
explaining  the  trouble  caused  by  the  King's  having  no  legitimate 
issue,  somewhat  profanely  palliate  his  notorious  profligacy.  The 
reference,  of  course,  is  to  his  numerous  children  by  his  numerous 
mistresses. 


NOTES.  93 

11.  Michal,  of  royal  blood,  Saul's  daughter  and  David's  wife 
=  Catharine  of  Braganza,  married  to  Charles  II.  in  May,  1662, 
but  she  had  borne  him  no  children. 

13.  several  mothers.  Lucy  Walters,  mother  of  Monmouth 
and  a  daughter  afterwards  married  to  a  Mr.  William  Sarsfield  ; 
the  Duchess  of  Cleveland,  mother  of  the  Duke  of  Southampton, 
the  Duke  of  Grafton,  the  Duke  of  Northumberland,  the  Countess 
of  Sussex,  the  Countess  of  Litchfield,  and  a  daughter  who  became 
a  nun  ;  the  Duchess  of  Portsmouth,  mother  of  the  Duke  of  Rich- 
mond ;  Nell  Gynn,  mother  of  the  Duke  of  St.  Albans  and  of  James 
Beauclerk  ;  Mary  Davis,  Lady  Shannon,  and  Catharine  Peg, 
by  whom  Charles  became  the  father  respectively  of  Lady  Der- 
wentwater,  the  Countess  of  Yarmouth,  and  the  Earl  of  Plymouth. 

18.  Absalon,  Duke  of  Monmouth  ;  so  spelt  metri  gratid. 

21.  conscious  destiny,  i.e.  conscious  of  his  worth,  which  pre- 
destined him  to  greatness. 

23.  Early  in  foreign  fields.     Monmouth  served  two  campaigns 
as  a  volunteer  in  Louis  XIV.'s  army  against  the  Dutch  in  1672 
and  in  1673,  particularly  distinguishing  himself  at  the  siege  of 
Maestricht.     In  1678  he  was  in  command  of  the  British  troops  in 
coalition  with  the  Dutch  against  the  French,  and  again  acquitted 
himself  witli  great  distinction  in  August,  1678,  at  the  battle  of 
St.  Denis. 

24.  allied  to  Israel's  crown,  Holland  and  France. 

26.  as  he  were,  as  if  he  were,  a  not  uncommon  ellipse.  Cf. 
Macbeth,  i.  4,  "as  'twere  a  careless  trifle." 

29.  accompanied  with  grace.      In  this,  and  above,  we  have 
allusions  to  Monmouth's  great  personal  beauty.    See  Introduction. 

30.  And  Paradise,  etc.     Pope  echoes  this  line— 

"  And  Paradise  was  open'd  on  the  wild." 

—Eloisa  to  Abelard,  133. 

32.  His  youthful  image.  Cf.  Livy,  lib.  xx.  cap.  1,  of  the  young 
Hannibal,  "  Hamilcarem  juvenem  redditum  sibi  veteres  milites 
credere." 

34.  the  charming  Annabel,  Monmouth's  wife,  Anne  Scott, 
Countess  of  Buccleuch,  the  only  surviving  daughter  of  Francis, 
Earl  of  Buccleuch,  and  one  of  the  richest  heiresses  in  Europe. 
They  were  married  in  April,  1663.  Her  charms  have  been 
celebrated  both  by  Madam  Dunois  and  Evelyn.  She  was  a 
patroness  of  Dryden,  who  dedicated  The  Indian  Emperor  to  her. 

39.  And  Amnon's  murder.  This  allusion  has  never  been  satis- 
factorily explained.  Sir  Walter  Scott  supposes  it  to  refer  to  the 
slitting  of  Sir  John  Coventry's  nose  by  Monmouth's  agency,  in 
consequence  of  a  sarcastic  allusion  of  Coventry's  in  the  House  of 
Commons  to  the  King's  amours.  But  this  was  not  murder. 


94          ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 

Others  explain  it  as  a  reference  to  a  disgraceful  affair  of  which 
Andrew  Marvel,  in  a  letter  dated  Feb.  28th,  1671,  gives  an 
account :  "  On  Saturday  night  last,  or  rather  Sunday  morning  at 
two  o'clock,  some  persons  reported  to  be  of  great  quality,  together 
with  other  gentlemen,  set  upon  the  watch,  and  killed  a  poor 
beadle  praying  for  his  life  upon  his  knees,  with  many  wounds. " 
Adding  in  another  letter  :  "  Doubtless  you  have  heard  how 
Monmouth,  Albemarle,  Dunbane,  etc.,  fought  with  the  watch 
and  killed  a  poor  beadle  :  they  have  all  got  their  pardon  for  Mon- 
rnouth's  sake,  but  it  is  an  act  of  great  scandal."  See  too  Statt 
Poems,  vol.  i.  p.  147.  But  Dryden  is  hardly  likely  to  have 
designated  a  beadle  as  Amnon,  and  the  affair  had  no  connection 
with  "  revenge  for  injur'd  fame."  It  appears  to  be  an  allusion 
to  some  other  passage  in  Moumouth's  life  on  which  light  has  yet 
to  be  thrown. 

42.  in  Sion,  London. 

43.  sincerely  blest,  purely,  truly.     The  old  derivation  from 
sine  and  cerd  is  doubted  by  Skeat,  who  thinks  it  means  wholly 
separated,  from  sin  and  cerus,  from  cernere,  to  separate.     Dryden 
is  fond  of  it  in  the  Latin  sense,  the  sense  in  which  it  is  here  used. 
Cf.   A  nnua  Mirabilis,  209,  "But  ah,  how  insincere  are  all  our 
joys,"  and  Pal.  and  Arcile,  "And  none  can  boast  sincere  felicity." 

45.  The  Jews,  the  English. 

51.  These  Adam- wits.  Wits,  who  having  all  the  freedom  of 
Adam,  "  for  one  restraint  lord  of  the  world  besides,"  still  chafed 
against  the  slight  restriction  placed  on  them. 

57.  Saul,  Oliver  Cromwell. 

58.  foolish  Ishbosheth,  Richard  Cromwell,  who  on  the  death 
of  his   father   succeeded   to   the   Protectorship,  which   he   was 
practically  forced  into  resigning  when  he  dissolved  Parliament  in 
April  22nd,   1659.     "He  was,"  says  Mrs.  Hutchinson  (Life  of 
Colonel  ffutchinson,  p.  345,   "  a  meeke,  temperate,  and  quiett 
man,  but  had  not  a  spirit  fit  to  succeed  his  father,  or  to  manage 
such  a  perplexed  government." 

59.  did  from  Hebron  bring.     Hebron  in  the  Second  Part  of 
this  poem  means  Scotland,  and  assuming  that  the  same  significa- 
tion is  given  to  it  here,  it  may  be  a  reference  to  Monk's  march 
from  Scotland  between  December,    1659,   and  February,   1660, 
which  practically  brought  about  the  Restoration  ;  or  it  may  be  a 
reference  to  the  fact  that  Charles  had  been  already  crowned  King 
of  Scotland.     We  should  naturally  expect  it  to  mean  the  Nether- 
lands or  Brussels,  where  Charles  was  residing  when  he  received 
the  invitation  to  return,  as  King,  to  England. 

61.  Those  very  Jews.  The  object  of  the  following  verses  is  to 
cast  discredit  on  the  Whigs,  whose  shai'e  in  the  Restoration  is 


NOTES.  95 

attributed  not  to  an  honourable  and  loyal  desire  to  have  their 
King  back  again,  but  to  mere  restlessness  and  whim. 

72.  dishonest,  in  the  Latin  sense  of  the  term,  cf.  the  use  of 
the  word  inhonestus,  ugly,  unseemly.  Dryden  is  fond  of  this 
use  of  it.  Thus  in  the  Fables,  "  Dishonest  with  lop'd  arms  the 
youth  appears " ;  as  in  Alexander's  Feast,  he  used  honest  for 
handsome — 

"  Flush'd  with  a  purple  grace, 
He  shows  his  honest  face." 

75.  thus  qualified.     Having  these  qualities,  this  temper. 

86.  Were  Jebusites,  Roman  Catholics.     Dryden  now  proceeds 
to  review  the  position  of  the  Papists  in  England  and  the  events 
which  led  to  the  Popish  Plot. 

87.  the  native  right.     This  half-finished  line  is  no  doubt  in 
imitation  of  Virgil's  hemistichs.     Cowley  is  guilty  of  the  same 
affectation  in  his  Davideis,  and  so  also  are  Oldham  in  his  Satires 
on  the  Jesuits  and  Young  in  his  Night  Thoughts. 

88.  the  chosen  people,  the  Protestants.     The  lines  which  fol- 
low with  reference  to  their   impoverishment   and   their  being 
"deprived    of   all   command,"    are   allusions    to   the  numerous 
statutes  which  had,  since  the  accession  of  Elizabeth,  been  pro- 
mulgated for  the  suppression  of  popery,  and  more  particularly 
to  the  severe  statutes  which  had  been  passed  and  enforced  since 
the  accession  of  Charles  II.      ' '  Their  gods  disgraced  and  burnt 
like  common  wood,"  is  an  allusion  not  only  to  the  wholesale 
destruction  of   images   and  relics   at  the  Reformation,  but  to 
what   regularly  occurred   on  every  anniversary  of  the   5th   of 
November. 

100.  Of  whatsoe'er  descent.  With  this  rough  wit  may  be  com- 
pared Horace,  Sat.  I.  viii.  1-3. 

104.  The  Jewish  Rabbins.  Doctors  of  the  Church  of  England, 
the  Protestant  divines.  This  is  what  grammarians  called  a 
nominativus  pendent,  there  is  no  verb.  Dryden  is  often  very  lax 
in  his  syntax,  cf.  11.  90-1  supra. 

108.  that  Plot,  the  Popish  Plot,  originated  in  the  autumn  of 
1 678,  by  Titus  Gates  and  his  accomplices.  See  Introduction  and 
cf.  Lingard,  Hist,  of  England,  vol.  ix.  p.  346  seqq. 

111.  With  oaths  affirmed,  with  dying  oaths  denied.  Affirmed 
on  oath  by  Gates  and  Bedloe,  denied  with  "  dying  oaths  "  by 
Coleman  (State  Trials,  vii.  1.  78),  by  Ireland,  Grove,  and  Picker- 
ing (Id.  viii.  79.  143),  and  Hill,  Green,  and  Berry  (Id.  vii. 
159-230). 

114.  some  truth  there  was.  That  there  was  some  slight 
foundation  for  Oates's  assertions  is  generally  acknowledged  by 
contemporary  and  subsequent  historians. 


96  ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 

114.  dashed.  To  dash  is  to  disturb  by  throwing  in,  so  to  mix 
or  adulterate.  The  image  is  from  a  pot  boiling. 

118.  Egyptian  rites,  French.  Since  the  marriage  of  Charles 
I.  with  Henrietta  Maria,  France  was,  in  the  English  mind,  always 
associated  with  Roman  Catholicism.  These  lines  are  a  coarse 
sneer  at  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation  which  was  afterwards 
to  find  so  powerful  and  eloquent  an  apologist  in  Dryden. 

121.  for  worship  and  for  good.  Borrowed  from  Juvenal,  Sat. 
xi.  10,  1— 

"  0  sanctas  gentes,  quibus  haec  nascuntur  in  hortis 
Numina. " 

128.  Hebrew  priests,  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England. 
He  had  said  above  that  "  priests  of  all  religions  are  the  same," 
and  this  satire  on  the  Protestant  clergy  is  as  severe  as  that 
against  the  Roman  Catholics. 

130.  meant  to  slay.  The  reference  is  to  the  alleged  project  of 
Pickering,  Groves,  and  Ireland  to  assassinate  the  King  in  April 
1678.  See  Hargrave's  State  Trials,  vol.  ii.  p.  754. 

134.  for  want  of  common  sense.  Had  it  not  been  for  the 
incredible  recklessness  of  Gates  and  his  accomplices  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  the  Whigs  would  have  carried  all  before  them. 

140.  several  factions.  Dryden  here  explains  the  relation  of 
the  Popish  Plot  to  the  projects  of  Shaftesbury  and  his  accom- 
plices, how  they  utilized  the  excitement  which  it  had  caused. 

142.  Some  by  their  friends.  The  references  in  these  lines 
appear  to  have  special  relation  (a)  to  the  Earl  of  Huntingdon 
and  Lord  Grey  of  Wark,  (6)  to  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  (see 
particularly  lines  563,  4),  and  (c)  to  Shaftesbury. 

153.  bold.  The  epithet  may  be  applied  with  propriety  to  the 
general  daring  of  Shaftesbury's  designs,  but  cautious  timidity 
was  what,  through  life,  most  distinguished  him  personally. 

158.  pigmy  body.  Properly  pygmy,  cf.  French  pygme"e, 
Greek,  wvyfj-atos.  The  Pygmcei  were  a  fabulous  nation  of  dwarfs 
who  are  said  to  have  lived  in  ^Ethiopia,  and  were  no  more  than 
a  span  long,  hence  their  name  from  -rrvyfjir).  Hence  the  name  has 
come  to  be  synonymous  with  dwarfs.  References  to  Shaftes- 
bury's puny  figure  are  common  in  the  satires  and  broadsides  of 
the  time. 

163.  to  madness  near  allied.  Cf.  Seneca,  De  Tranquillitate 
animi,  xv. ,  "  nullum  magnum  ingenium  sine  mixtura  dementiae 
fuit." 

170.  that  unfeathered  two-legged  thing.  Plato's  famous  faov, 
Siwovv  Atrrepov,  an  animal  with  two  feet  and  unfledged,  which  he 
is  said  to  have  given  as  a  definition  of  a  man.  The  reference  is 
to  Anthony  Ashley  Cooper,  second  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  and 


NOTES.  97 

father  of  the  author  of  the  Characteristics,  the  philosopher  and 
critic.  The  second  Earl  was  not  born  "  a  shapeless  lump  ";  he 
was  a  very  handsome  man,  but  stupid  and  foolish  we  are  told. 

175.  the  triple  bond  he  broke.  The  Triple  Alliance  between 
England,  Sweden,  and  Holland,  arranged  by  Sir  William 
Temple  in  Jan.  1667-8,  was  broken  by  the  war  declared  against 
Holland  in  March  1672,  and  Shaftesbury  had  been  one  of  the 
most  active  promoters  of  that  war. 

177.  a  foreign  yoke.  An  allusion  to  the  secret  alliance  of 
Charles  II.  with  Louis  XIV.,  in  1670,  by  the  Treaty  of  Dover. 
Mr.  Christie  has  shown  that  Shaftesbury  was  not  privy  to  this, 
although  he  supported  the  war  against  Holland. 

179.  Usurped  a  patriot's  ...name.     This  refers  to  Shaftesbury 
putting   himself   at   the  head   of  the   Country  Party  and   the 
Petitioners. 

180.  So  easy  still  it  proves  etc.     These  lines  were  added  in 
the  second  edition.     There  is  an  absurd  story  that  Dryden  intro- 
duced them  to  soften  his  attack  on  Shaftesbury,  because  the  Earl 
had   procured   a   nomination   of  one   of  Dryden's   sons   to   the 
Charter-house.     The  fact  is  that  Shaftesbury  made  a  very  good 
Lord  Chancellor,  a  fact  which  was  notorious,  and  Sir  Walter 
Scott  well  observes   that   these   and   other  passages,   in  which 
Dryden  has  softened  the  severity  of  his  satire,  illustrate  not  only 
the  poet's  taste   and  judgment,  but   ' '  that  tone  of  honorable 
and  just  feeling  which  distinguishes  a  true  satire  from  a  libellous 
lampoon. "     Pope,  see  his  character  of  Atticus  in  the  Prologue  to 
the  Satires,  and  Churchill,  in  his  Epistle  to  Hogarth,  have  shown 
that  the  judicious  mixture  of  praise  adds  pungency  to  censure, 
'  as  the  soft  plume  gives  swiftness  to  the  dart. ' 

188.  an  Abbethdin.  The  Abbethdin  was  president  of  the 
Jewish  judicature,  literally  father  (db)  of  the  house  of  judgment 
(bethdin),—  Christie. 

195.  cockle,  a  weed  which  grows  in  cornfields  ;  is  supposed  to 
choke  and  hinder  the  growth  of  the  corn.      "  Let  thistles  grow 
instead  of  wheat,  and  cockle  instead  of  barley  "  (Job,  xxxi.  40). 

196.  David  for  him.     David,  all  of  whose  Psalms  are  in  honour 
of  Heaven,  would  have  composed  a  Psalm  in  his  honour,  and  so 
Heaven  would  have  been  deprived  .of  one  Psalm  at  least. 

198.  But   wild    ambition.      This    couplet,    as    Macaulay  has 
pointed  out,   is  taken  almost  verbatim  frotn  a  couplet  placed 
under  the  frontispiece  of  Knolles'  History  of  the  Turks — 
"  Greatnesse  on  goodnesse  loves  to  slide,  not  stand, 
And  leaves  for  Fortune's  ice  Virtue's  firm  land. " 
204.  manifest   of  crimes,    clearly  convicted   of,    exactly   the 
Latin    phrase   manifestus    sceleris.      Cf.    Sallust,    Jugurth.    39, 

G 


98  ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 

"Jugurtha  manifestus  tanti  sceleris."     Mr.  Christie  also  com- 
pares Pcdamon  and  Arcite,  bk.  i.  623 — 

"  Calisto  there  stood  manifest  of  shame." 

205.  He  stood  at  bold  defiance.  What  drove  Shaftesbury  into 
opposition  to  the  Court  was  that  the  King,  alarmed  at  the 
remonstrances  of  the  people  against  popery,  broke  the  seal  he 
had  affixed  to  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence,  and  so  deceived  his 
ministers  and  exposed  them  to  the  fury  of  the  Commons.  "  The 
Cabal  took  the  same  sudden  turn  with  the  King,  Shaftesbury 
observing  that  '  the  prince  who  forsook  himself  deserved  to  be 
forsaken.'  He  then  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  opposition  to 
the  Court "  (Dalrymple's  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  35). 

208.  The  wished  occasion.  Though  Shaftesbury  may  perhaps 
be  absolved  from  the  charge  of  complicity  in  the  invention  of  the 
Popish  Plot,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  utilized  it. 

213.  And  proves  the  King  etc.  We  now  know  certainly,  and 
it  was  known  to  some  even  then,  that  Charles  II.  had  privately 
declared  himself  a  Roman  Catholic  in  1669,  and  had  shortly 
afterwards  made  a  secret  engagement  with  Louis  XIV.  to 
establish  popery  in  England.  So,  as  Mr.  Christie  observes, 
Shaftesbury  invented  no  calumny. 

215.  easy  to  rebel,  easily  disposed  to  rebellion.  A  Latin 
idiom,  'callidus  condere,'  '  celer  excipere.'  So  in  the  Psalms, 
' '  Their  feet  are  swift  to  shed  blood. " 

219.  natural  instinct.  Note  the  accent  is  on  the  last  syllable, 
as  it  almost  always  is  in  the  writers  of  the  17th  century. 

222.  Not  that  he  wished.  Dryden  represents  Shaftesbury  as 
a  pure  demagogue,  and  these  lines  give  us  the  key  to  his  policy, 
which,  according  to  Dryden,  was  not  really  to  exalt  Monmouth, 
but  to  restore  a  republic  with  himself  as  its  dictator. 

230.  Auspicious  prince.  The  whole  of  this  passage  to  line  272  is 
a  noble  illustration  of  Dryden's  magnificent  rhetoric,  of  that  union 
of  sweetness  with  strength,  of  massiveness  with  flexibility,  which 
distinguishes  his  rhythm,  of  the  vigour,  incisiveness,  and  power  of 
his  style.  It  is  when  reading  passages  like  these  that  we  can  feel 
the  propriety  of  what  Pope  and  Gray  have  written  about  him— 

"  Dryden  taught  to  join 
The  varying  verse,  the  full  resounding  line, 
The  long  majestic  march  and  energy  divine." 

Imitation  of  Horace,  First  Epistle  of  the  Second  Book. 
See  too  Gray's  Bard — 

"  Behold  where  Dryden'3  less  presumptuous  care, 
Wide  o'er  the  fields  of  glory  bear 
Two  courses  of  ethereal  race, 
With  necks  in  thunder  cloth'd  and  long-resounding  pace. " 


NOTES.  99 

240.  Thee  Saviour,  thee.  Imitation  of  the  Latin.  Cf.  Lu- 
cretius, i.  6,  "Te,  Dea,  Te  fugiunt  venti."  Milton  has  also 
imitated  it,  "Thee,  Shepherd,  thee,  the  woods  etc.  ...mourn" 
(Lycidas,  39). 

242.  pomps.     In  the  Greek  and  Latin  sense  "  processions." 

251.  Or  ...  or.     A  poetical  construction,  not  allowable  in  prose. 

252.  Heaven  has  to  all  etc.       An  observation  which  has  found 
expression  in  the  celebrated  passage  in  Julius  Ccesar,  Act  iv. 
Sc.  3,  "  There  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs  of  men  "  etc.      And  cf. 
Chapman,  Bussy  D'Ambois,  Act  i.  Sc.  1 — 

"  There  is  a  deep  nick  in  time's  restless  wheel 

For  each  man's  good,  when  which  nick  comes,  it  strikes." 
261.  spreads  her  locks.     An  allusion  to  the  ancient  picture  of 
Opportunity  who  has  a  fore-lock  but  is  bald  behind.     "  Fronte 
capillata  est,  post  hsec  occasio  calva." 
264.  At  Gath,  Brussels. 
270.  Jordan's  sand,  the  beach  at  Dover. 
275.  one  poor  Plot,  the  Popish  Plot. 

280.  Naked  of  friends.     A  common  construction  in  Greek  and 
Latin,  ytifjivos  <f>i\b)v,  niors  famse  nuda.     Dryden  is  very  fond  of 
this  construction.      Cf.  "  turbulent  of  wit  "  (153),  "  swift  of  de- 
spatch" (191),  "  unblam'd  of  life  "  (479). 

281.  Pharaoh,  Louis  XIV.,  King  of  France  (Egypt). 

299.  And  nobler  is  a  limited  etc.  "  The  legitimacy  of  the 
Duke  of  Monmouth,  though  boldly  and  repeatedly  asserted  by  his 
immediate  partizans,  did  not  receive  general  credit  even  in  the 
popular  faction.  It  was  one  of  Shaftesbury's  advantages  to  have 
chosen  for  the  ostensible  head  of  his  party  a  candidate  whose 
right  had  he  ever  attained  to  the  crown,  must  have  fluctuated  be- 
tween an  elective  and  hereditary  title.  The  consciousness  of  how 
much  he  was  to  depend  on  Shaftesbury's  arts  obliged  the  Duke 
to  remain  at  the  devotion  of  that  intriguing  politician  "  (Scott's 
Note). 

303.  What  cannot  praise  etc,  Observe  the  skill  with  which 
all  blame  is  diverted  from  Monmouth  and  thrown  on  Shaftesbury, 
and  the  art  with  which  the  Duke  and  his  royal  father  are 
flattered. 

305.  Desire  of  power.  Cf.  Pope's  lines  in  the  Elegy  to  the 
Memory  of  an  Unfortunate  Lady — 

"  Ambition  first  sprang  from  your  blest  abodes, 
The  glorious  fault  of  angels  and  of  gods, 
Thence  to  their  images  on  earth  it  flows, 
And  in  the  breasts  of  kings  and  heroes  glows.' 

310.  angel's   metal.      Properly   a   metal  or   mineral.      Greek 


100         ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 

/J.^TO\\OV,    a   mine ;    Latin   metallum ;    then   it  comes  to   mean 
temper,  then  courage,  spirit.     It  is  generally  spelt  mettle. 

336.  popularly  mad.  Run  mad  after  the  people,  or  to  please, 
gain  the  applause,  of  the  people.  Cf.  Latin  'populariter.'  Cf. 
Juvenal,  Sat.  iii.  37,  "  Quern  libet  occidunt  populariter,"  and 
Dryden's  version  of  the  passage  "  With  thumbs  bent  back  they 
popularly  kill " ;  and  see  also  infra,  490,  "  And  popularly  prosecute 
the  plot ";  again  infra,  689,  "  bowing  popularly  low." 

344.  Prevents,  anticipates,  out-runs. 

346.  diadem,  ensign  of  royalty  bound  about  the  head  of  an 
Oriental  monarch  ;  from  5iA  and  5^o>. 

350.  And  late  augment.  Notice  how  the  wish  is  infused  in 
the  statement.  Cf.  Hor.  Odes,  I.  ii.,  "  Serus  in  cselum  redeas." 

353.  His  brother,  James,  Duke  of  York.  Dryden  has  drawn 
the  same  false  character  of  James  in  the  Duke  of  Guise,  Act  v. 
Sc.  1. 

390.  Sanhedrin,  the  Parliament.  It  was  the  highest  council 
of  the  Jews. 

401.  The  next  successor,  James,  Duke  of  York  ;  the  arts  re- 
ferred to  in  the  next  line  are  Shaftesbury's  intrigues  for  passing 
the  Exclusion  Bill. 

411.  All  empire.  Cf.  Junius,  Letter  i.,  "The  submission  of  a 
free  people  to  the  executive  authority  of  government  is  no  more 
than  a  compliance  with  laws  which  they  themselves  have 
enacted. " 

418.  God  was  their  King.     The  republic  which  acknowledged 
God  alone  for  their  king,  but  which  was  dispossessed  by  Crom- 
well (Saul).     Cf.  line  522,  "their  old  beloved  theocracy." 

419.  piety.     In  the  Latin  sense  "  affection  for  your  father." 
425.  fond,  foolish.     It  is  the  preterite  of  the  A.S.  verbfonnen, 

to  act  foolishly. 

461.  Prevail  yourself  of  what  etc.  A  French  idiom  borrowed 
from  se  prevaloir  de,  to  take  advantage  of,  to  profit  by.  Cf .  Pre- 
face to  Annus  Mirabilis,  "  Yet  I  could  not  prevail  myself  of  it  in 
the  English. "  Dryden's  diction  is  frequently  deformed  not  only 
by  Gallicisms  of  this  kind,  but  by  the  employment  of  French 
words  instead  of  their  English  equivalents.  Cf.  for  a  few 
examples  among  many  Astrcea  Redux,  203  ;  Poem  on  the  Coro- 
nation, 120;  Hind  and  Panther,  Part  i.  388,  Part  iii.  511,  and 
Part  ii.  648,  227.  It  is  an  interesting  illustration  of  the  influence 
exercised  by  the  French  language  and  literature  on  our  own 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  See  Mac- 
aulay's  remarks,  History,  vol.  i.  ch.  3.  Johnson,  in  his  Life  of 
Dryden,  has  commented  with  just  severity  on  these  innovations. 


NOTES.  101 

480.  Not  stained  etc.  Note  again  the  great  tenderness  with 
which  Monmouth  is  treated. 

492.  The  malcontents.  Notice  how  admirably  the  various 
motives  of  Shaftesbury's  different  tools  are  described. 

508.  husbandry,  sc.  good  management,  thrift.  From  the 
Icelandic  husbtindi,  the  master  or  goodman  of  the  house.  Cf. 
Shakespeare,  "  There's  husbandry  in  heaven,"  Macbeth,  Act  ii. 
Sc.  1. 

513.  Solymsean  rout,  the  mob  of  London. 

517.  Ethnic  plot.  This  means  Protestant,  or,  following  the 
analogy,  a  Gentile  plot  in  opposition  to  a  Jebusite  or  Papist. 

519.  Hot  Levites.  The  Presbyterian  ministers  who  had  been 
displaced  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity  (Christie). 

522.  theocracy.     See  note  on  line  418. 

525.  Aaron's  race.      The  clergy, — with  another  sneer  at  them. 

544.  Zimri.  George  Villiers,  the  second  Duke  of  Buckingham, 
was  the  son  of  the  favourite  of  Charles  I.  He  was  born  30th 
January,  1627,  and,  after  a  long  career  of  profligacy  and  folly,  he 
died  at  Kirby  Moorside,  17th  April,  1687.  See  Pope's  brilliant 
and  impressive  picture  of  Buckingham's  death  and  character, 
Moral  Essays,  Epist.  iii.  299  seqq.  He  died  at  the  house  of  one 
of  his  tenants  and  not  at  a  poor  inn  as  Pope  has — splendide 
mendax — represented.  His  character  has  been  elaborately  de- 
lineated by  Burnet,  Hist,  of  his  Own  Times,  vol.  i.  p.  100,  by  Count 
Hamilton  in  Grammont's  Memoirs,  by  Butler,  both  in  verse  and 
prose,  in  his  Miscellaneous  Works,  by  Duke  in  his  vigorous  Dry- 
denian  poem  the  Review,  and  by  Walpole  in  his  Royal  and 
Noble  Authors, — all  of  which  form  admirable  commentaries  on 
Dryden's  portrait.  Dryden's  model  was  undoubtedly  Horace's 
portrait  of  Tigellius,  Sat.  I.  iii.  1  -20,  with  a  touch  or  two  from 
Juvenal's  Greek  parasite,  Sat.  iii.  73-7.  Dryden  was  very  proud 
of  this  character  and  thought  it  "worth  the  whole  poem":  see 
his  interesting  remarks  on  it  in  his  Essay  on  Satire. 

563.  laughed  himself  from  court.  A  reference  to  Bucking- 
ham's foolish  plot  against  the  King  in  1667,  in  consequence 
of  which  he  was  obliged  to  conceal  himself  ;  but  afterwards 
surrendering  he  was  confined  to  the  Tower,  till  the  King,  moved 
by  the  mingled  threats  and  entreaties  of  the  Duchess  of  Cleveland, 
set  him  free.  See  for  a  full  account  of  all  this  Jesse's  Court  of 
England  under  the  Stuarts,  vol.  iii.  p.  S3  seqq. 

574.  -well-hung  Balaam,  the  Earl  of  Huntingdon,  one  of  the 
seventeen  peers  who  signed  the  petition  entreating  the  King 
to  have  recourse  to  the  advice  of  his  parliament ;  he  was  also 
the  one  chosen  to  present  it,  7th  Dec.,  1679.  He  was  one  of  the 
petitioners  to  the  King  in  1681  against  holding  the  Parliament 


102        ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 

at  Oxford,  and  was  thoroughly  obnoxious  to  the  Court.  The  ex- 
planation of  the  epithet  in  the  text  had  better  be  left  where  it  is 
to  be  found  in  Luttrel's  MSS.  :  cold  Caleb,  Lord  Grey  of  Wark, 
who  is  said  to  have  been  so  callous  (hence  the  epithet)  and  des- 
picable as  to  allow  Monmouth  to  intrigue  with  his  wife.  He  was 
subsequently  engaged  in  the  Rye  House  Plot,  and  landed  with 
Monmouth  at  Lyme  in  1685  :  he  was  present  at  the  skirmish  at 
Bridport  and  at  the  Battle  of  Sedgemoor,  in  both  of  which  en- 
gagements he  disgraced  himself  by  his  cowardice.  A  criminal 
intrigue  with  his  sister-in-law  led  to  a  famous  trial.  See  Howell's 
State  Trials,  ix.  127.  He  subsequently  became  Earl  of  Tanker- 
ville  and  in  1699  was  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury.  For  his 
character  see  Macaulay,  Hist.  vol.  iv.  p.  314-5. 

575,  6.  canting  Nadab  ...  paschal  lamb,  Lord  Howard  of 
Escricke,  one  of  the  most  amusing  but  abandoned  men  of  the  age, 
and  one  of  the  most  intimate  associates  of  Monmouth  and  Shaftes- 
bury.  Dryden's  reference  is  to  this  :  The  informer  Fitzharris 
had  written  a  shameful  libel  against  the  Court,  was  convicted  of 
high  treason,  and  to  save  his  life,  which  was  however  forfeited, 
asserted  that  Lord  Howard  had  instigated  him  to  forge  a  docu- 
ment incriminating  the  Queen  and  the  Duke  of  York.  Howard 
was  accordingly  sent  to  the  Tower  where  he  published  a  declara- 
tion asserting  his  innocence,  and  this  he  is  said  to  have  confirmed 
by  taking  the  sacrament  in  lamb's  wool,  i.e.  ale  poured  on  roasted 
apples  and  sugar.  Mr.  Christie  quotes  two  passages  from  con- 
temporary satires  referring  to  this  profanity — 

"  With  Mahomet  wine  he  damneth,  with  intent 
To  erect  his  paschal  lamb's  wool  sacrament." 

Ab.ialon's  Nine,  Worthies. 

He  was  afterwards  involved  in  the  Rye  House  Plot,  and  to  save 
his  own  life  basely  informed  against  Algernon  Sidney,  Russel, 
and  Hampden.  Dryden's  expression  is  as  coarse  and  profane  as 
the  act  which  he  reprobates. 

581.  bull-faced  Jonas,  Sir  William  Jones,  a  very  able,  and,  it 
is  said,  honest  lawyer.  He  became  Serjeant-at-Law  in  1669, 
Solicitor- General  in  Nov.  1673,  Attorney-General  in  June,  1675, 
and  he  died  in  1682.  "He  was,"  says  Burnet,  Own  Times,  "no 
flatterer,  but  a  man  of  morose  temper,  so  he  was  against  all 
the  measures  that  they  took  at  Court."  See  North's  Kxamen, 
507-10,  and  cf.  the  virulent  epitaph  on  Jones  in  the  State 
Poems,  vol.  iii.  p.  157.  As  Attorney -General  he  had  conducted 
the  prosecutions  against  those  engaged  in  the  Popish  Plot ;  but 
some  time  after  he  resigned  office  and  joined  the  Opposition.  He 
drew  up  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and  probably,  Mr.  Christie 
thinks,  the  Exclusion  Bill. 

585.    Snimei,  whose  youth  etc.,   Slingsby  Bethel,  son  of  Sir 


NOTES.  103 

Walter  Bethel,  a  staunch  Royalist,  who  was  beheaded  by  Crom- 
well's High  Court  of  Justice.  But  the  son  did  not  follow  in  the 
father's  footsteps,  being  a  notorious  republican.  A  very  cele- 
brated pamphlet,  The  World's  Mistake  in  Oliver  Cromwell,  was 
ascribed  to  him.  In  1680  he  was  chosen  one  of  the  sheriffs  of  the 
City  of  London,  and  to  qualify  himself  for  his  office  renounced 
the  Covenant,  received  the  Sacrament,  but  adhered  to  his  factious 
principles.  Eccentric  and  mean,  he  kept  no  table,  but  lived  at  a 
chop-house,  giving  no  entertainment  during  the  whole  of  his 
shrievalty.  "He  turned,"  says  Burnet,  "from  the  ordinary  way 
of  a  sheriffs  living  into  the  extreme  of  sordidness"  (Own  Time, 
1.  480).  His  stinginess  passed  into  a  proverb,  and  '  to  Bethel  the 
city '  became  a  phrase  used  to  describe  a  sheriff  who  gave  poor 
entertainments. 

595.  a  vare,  a  wand  ;  from  the  Spanish  vara.  Mr.  Christie 
appositely  quotes  Howel's  Familiar  Letters  (p.  161,  ed.  1728), 
"The  proudest  don  of  Spain  when  he  is  prancing  upon  his  genet 
...  if  an  alguazil  show  him  his  vare,  that  is  a  little  white  staff  he 
carrieth  as  a  badge  of  his  office,"  etc. 

614,  5.  by  writing  ...  That  kings  were  useless,  an  allusion  to  a 
tract  lately  published  anonymously  by  Bethel,  entitled  Interests 
of  Princes  and  States. 

617.  Rechabite.  The  Rechabites  were  the  tribe  or  family  of 
Kenites  whom  Jonadab,  the  son  of  Rechab,  subjected  to  a  new 
rule  of  life.  One  of  their  characteristics  was  total  abstinence 
from  wine  ;  see  Jeremiah,  xxxv.  1-6,  "  Jonadab  the  son  of  Rechab 
our  father  commanded  us,  saying,  Ye  shall  drink  no  wine,  neither 
ye  nor  your  sons  for  ever. " 

632.  Corah,  Titus  Oates,  the  son  of  an  Anabaptist  ribbon- 
weaver  (1.  639).  He  is  said  to  have  been  educated  at  Merchant 
Tailors'  School,  and  to  have  gone  from  thence  to  Cambridge.  He 
then  took  orders,  and  officiated  as  a  curate  in  Kent  and  Sussex, 
but,  being  guilty  of  gross  immorality,  he  was  suspended.  He 
then  went  over  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  obtained  admission 
into  the  Jesuits'  College  at  St.  Omer.  Returning  to  England,  he 
concocted  the  infamous  fictions  about  the  alleged  conspirators 
in  the  Popish  Plot.  For  the  supposed  service  he  had  thus  done 
the  King  he  received  a  pension  of  £1200,  was  lodged  in  White- 
hall, and  protected  by  guards.  On  the  accession  of  James  II.  pro- 
ceedings were  taken  against  him,  and  an  enormous  fine  imposed  ; 
finally  he  was  tried  for  perjury.  After  changing  his  religion 
several  times,  he  died  nominally  a  Baptist  in  1705. 

646.  Sunk  were  his  eyes.  North  gives  a  full  description  of 
Oates  (Examen,  p.  225).  See,  too,  Macaulay,  Hist.  i.  p.  227. 

649.  A  church  vermilion,  the  ruddy  complexion  of  a  parson- 


104        ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 

Trulliber,  facetiously  compared  to  the  shining  face  of  Moses  when 
coming  from  the  mount  (Exodus,  xxxiv.  29-35),  proved  his  sanctity. 

658.  Rabbinical  degree,  Gates  asserted  that  he  had  received  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  the  University  of  Salamanca. 
Cf.  Dryden's  Epilogue  to  Mithridates — 

"  Our  colleges  give  no  degrees  for  hire, 
Would  Salamanca  were  a  little  nigher." 

676.  for  Agag's  murder  call.     Sir  Edmund  Bury  Godfrey  was 
the  magistrate  before  whom  Gates    had   affirmed  on  oath   his 
account  of  the  Popish  Plot.     Not  long  afterwards,  Sir  Edmund 
was   found   in  a   ditch   on   Primrose   Hill   murdered,  with  his 
own  sword  thrust  through  his  body.     As  Sir  Edmund  had  been 
unwilling  to  receive  the  depositions  of  Gates,  and  was  reputed 
to   be  friendly   to .  the    Papists,    Dryden   implies  that  he  was 
murdered,  as  a  friend  of  the  Roman  Catholics,  at  the  instigation 
of  Gates. 

677.  In  terms  as  coarse.     See  the  First  Book  of  Samuel,  ch. 
xv.,  where  the  prophet  rebukes  Saul  for  sparing  Agag. 

680.  predicament,  a  logical  term  originally  meaning  the  state, 
situation,  or  condition  on  which  certain  affirmations  may  be  made 
or  certain  inferences  drawn. 

691.  repeats  their  names,  this  weakness  in  human  nature  was 
so  flattered  by  the  Romans  that  a  nomenclator  always  followed 
at  the  side  of  the  popularity-hunting  grandee.  "Gaudent 
prsenomine  molles  Auriculae  "  (Hor.  Sat.  II.  v.  32,  3). 

697.  than  Hybla  drops.  Mount  Hybla  in  Sicily  was  famous  for 
its  bees  and  honey.  Cf.  Homer,  II.  i.  249,  TOV  /col  airb  y\u<ra-r)s 
jtieXiros  y\vKi(av  peev  atfSij. 

700.  a  banished  man,  "  Monmouth  had  been  sent  out  of  Eng- 
land by  the  King  in  September,  1679  ;  he  returned  without 
permission  in  November.  The  King  then  ordered  him  to  quit 
England,  and  he  disobeyed.  He  was  then  deprived  of  all  his 
offices,  and  banished  from  Court "  (Christie). 

705.  Egypt  and  Tyrus,  France  and  Holland. 

710.  Bathsheba,  the  Duchess  of  Portsmouth,  Louise  de 
Querouaille.  She  appeared  first  in  the  train  of  the  Duchess  of 
Orleans  in  1G70,  when  she  fascinated  Charles ;  she  was  created 
Duchess  of  Portsmouth  in  1673,  and  was  now  (1681)  the  reigning 
Sultana. 

727.  The  crowd.  These  lines  describe  the  progress  which,  at 
the  advice  of  Shaftesbury,  Monmouth  made  in  1680  through 
Lancashire,  Staffordshire,  Worcestershire,  Cheshire,  Devonshire, 
and  Somerset.  For  a  graphic  corroboration  of  Dryden's  picture, 
see  Dalrymple's  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  55. 


NOTES.  105 

738.  Wise  Issacar,  Thomas  Thynne  of  Langleat,  one  of  the 
richest  Commoners  in  England,  and  called  from  his  great  wealth 
'  Tom  of  Ten  Thousand. '  He  had  formerly  been  a  friend  and 
favourite  of  the  Duke  of  York,  but  afterwards  quarrelling  with 
him,  he  joined  Monmouth's  party,  and  entertained  him  most 
magnificently  on  the  occasion  of. the  progress  mentioned.  He 
was  afterwards  (Feb.,  1682)  murdered  by  assassins  employed  by 
Count  Koningsmark. 

750.  by  a  brother  and  a  wife.  What  had  enabled  Shaftesbury 
and  his  partizans  to  foment  their  plots  and  so  endanger  the  King's 
life  was  (a)  that  the  King's  brother,  the  Duke  of  York,  was  a 
Papist,  and  (b)  that  the  Queen  having  no  children  the  succession 
to  the  throne  was  in  dispute. 

753.  0  foolish  Israel.  The  lines  which  follow  are  a  striking 
illustration  of  one  of  Dryden's  distinguishing  characteristics,  his 
power  of  reasoning  vigorously  and  cogently  in  verse. 

785.  What  standard  is  there  etc.  This  very  obscure  couplet 
appears  to  mean  :  What  standard  or  test  has  an  unstable  and 
disorderly  multitude,  which,  if  it  has  for  a  moment  a  common 
aim,  wastes  and  exhausts  itself  all  the  faster.  The  metaphor  is 
from  water  which  in  flowing  to  a  mark,  and  so  acquiring  impetus, 
is  by  its  very  impetus  carried  on  and  past — into  waste. 

804.  to  touch  our  ark.  Here  metaphorically  used  for  what  is 
most  sacred  among  the  Israelites,  as  it  was  forbidden  on  pain  of 
death  for  any  save  the  priests  to  touch  the  ark. 

816.  Some  let  me  name.     Dryden  now  passes  in  review  the 
statesmen  who  were  loyal  to  Charles  and  the  Court  party.     The 
Duke  of  Ormond  (Barzillai),  Bancroft.  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
(Zadoc),  Compton,  Bishop  of  London  (the  Sagan  of  Jerusalem), 
Dolben,  Bishop  of  Rochester  (Him  of  the  western  dome),  the 
Earl  of  Mulgrave  (Adriel),   the  Marquis  of  Halifax  (Jotham), 
Laurence  Hyde  (Hushai),  Sir  Edward  Seymour  (Amiel).* 

817.  Barzillai.     James  Butler,  successively  Earl,  Marquis,  and 
Duke  of  Ormond,  was  born  October  19th,  1610.     All  his  life  he 
was  a  staunch  and  devoted  servant  of  the  house  of  Stuart  ;  his 
first  services  were  under  Went  worth,  afterwards  Earl  of  Strafford. 
Even  his  enemies  acknowledged  his  ability  and  honesty  in  the 
government  of  Ireland,  of  which  country  he  was  four  times  lord- 
lieutenant,  namely,  from  1642  to  1647,   1648  to  1650,   1662  to 
1669,  and  from  1677  to  1685.     He  accompanied  Charles  II.  during 
his  exile,  zealously  serving  him  during  the  time  of  his  misfortunes 
on  many  important  occasions.      In  the  profligate  Court  of  his 
royal  master  he  was  insulted  by  the  king's  favourites,  particularly 
by   Buckingham,    who   is   said   to   have   incited    the   notorious 
Captain   Blood   to   assassinate   him.     His   unswerving   fidelity, 
stern  integrity,  and  immaculate  virtue  seem  to  have  overawed 
Charles,  who  knew  the  value  of  such  a  servant,  though  he  had 


106        ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 

little  in  common  with  his  character.  Ormond's  loyalty  is  suffici- 
ently attested  by  Charles  II.  himself.  "I  have  done,"  he  once 
said,  "  everything  to  disoblige  that  man,  but  it  is  not  in  my 
power  to  make  him  my  enemy  "(Hume,  Hist,  of  England,  vol. 
viii.  p.  154).  He  died  July  21st,  1688.  For  Ormond's  biography, 
see  Carte's  voluminous  Life  ;  for  his  character,  Continuation  of 
the  Life  of  Clarendon,  p.  4  (fol.  edit. ),  and  Burnet's  Own  Time, 
vol.  i.  p.  230. 

825.  The  court  lie  practised.  A  curious  zeugma  ;  in  applying 
the  word  practise  to  '  the  court '  Dryden  appears  to  be  using  the 
word  in  the  French  sense,  pratiqiter,  to  have  intercourse  or 
association  with,  here  it  may  mean  '  to  frequent. '  The  Century 
Dictionary  quotes  Lister,  Journey  to  Paris,  p.  12,  "After  having 
practised  the  Paris  coaches  for  four  months  I  once  rid,"  etc.  For 
these  harsh  Gallicisms,  see  note  on  461  supra. 

829.  His  bed  could  once.  Ormond  was  the  father  of  eight  sons 
and  two  daughters,  and  of  these  eight  sons  six  were  dead. 

831.  His  eldest  hope,  Thomas,   Earl  of  Ossory.     He  was  a 
refined,  cultivated,  and  gallant  young  soldier,  who  greatly  dis- 
tinguished  himself  in  the  first  Dutch  war  under  Sir  Edward 
Spragg  ;  and  in  the  second  Dutch  war,  in  1673,  he  was  Rear- 
Admiral  of  the  Blue.     He  also  served  under  the  Prince  of  Orange 
against  the  French  in  1678,  greatly  distinguishing  himself  at  the 
Battle  of  St.  Denis.     He  died  of  a  fever,  July  30th,  1680,  just  as 
he  had  entered  on  his  forty -seventh  year.     When  some  friends 
were  trying  to  console  his  father  in  this  great  loss  he  nobly  said, 
"  Since  I  have  borne  the  death  of  my  king  I  can  support  that  of 
my  child.     I  would  rather  have  my  dead  son  than  any  living  son 
in  Christendom." 

832.  By  me...  always  mourned.     Adapted  from  Virgil— 

"  Quern  semper  acerbum, 
Semper  honoratum,  sic  Di  voluistis,  habebo." — jEn.  v.  49. 

843.  haughty  Pharaoh,  Louis  XIV.     The  reference  is  to  the 
campaign  of  1678,  but  Dryden  has  exaggerated. 

844.  Oh  ancient  honour.     Another  reminiscence  of  Virgil — 

"  Heu  pietas,  heu  prisca  fides,  invictaque  bello 
Dextera."— jEn.  vi.  879-80. 

864.  Zadoc,  William  Sancroft,  created  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury in  January,  1677-8,  very  unexpectedly.  He  was  a  singularly 
modest  and  retiring  man,  in  spite  of  Burnet's  malignant  account 
of  him.  See  Dr.  Oyly's  Life  of  Sancroft,  p.  319. 

866.  Sagan  of  Jerusalem,  Henry  Compton,  preferred  to  the 
Bishopric  of  Oxford  in  December,  1674,  and  a  year  afterwards 
translated  to  London.  He  was  the  youngest  son  of  Spencer 
Compton,  second  Earl  of  Northampton,  hence  '  his  noble  stem.' 


NOTES.  107 

868.  Him  of  the  western  dome,  John  Dolben,  successively 
Canon  of  Christ  Church,  Archdeacon  of  London,  Dean  of  West- 
minster, and  in  1666  Bishop  of  Rochester.  He  was  translated  to 
York  in  August,  1683.  The  western  dome  is  Westminster 
Abbey,  the  Prophet's,  sons  the  Westminster  boys.  He  was 
celebrated  as  an  eloquent  preacher  :  three  of  his  sermons  are 
extant,  but  hardly  support  his  reputation. 

877.  Sharp -judging  Adriel,  John  Sheffield,  Earl  of  Mulgrave, 
and  afterwards  Marquis  of  Normanby  and  Duke  of  Buckingham- 
shire. He  was  the  Muse's  friend,  for  he  posed  as  the  patron  of 
poets,  and  was  a  patron  of  Dryden's,  who  inscribed  Aurengzebe 
to  him,  as  well  as  the  translation  of  the  ^Eneid.  '  A  muse  him- 
self,' as  the  author  of  the  Essay  on  Satire,  in  which  he  was  no 
doubt  assisted  by  Dryden,  as  a  co-translator  with  Dryden  of 
Ovid's  Epistle  from  Helen  to  Paris,  and  as  the  author  of  a  volume 
of  poems  "  so  middling  bad  were  better."  See  for  an  account 
of  his  literary  productions  Johnson's  Memoir  of  him  in  The 
Lives  of  the  Poets.  He  was  all  his  life  a  staunch  and  consistent 
Tory.  He  died  in  1720,  and  was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey ; 
a  singularly  touching  and  interesting  epitaph  written  by  himself 
is  inscribed  on  his  monument. 

881.  disobedient  son  were  torn.     When  in  1679  Monmouth 
displeased  the  King  by  refusing  to  quit  England  he  was  deprived 
of    his   offices   and    honours,    and    among   them   of    the    Lord- 
Lieutenancy  of  the  East  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  and  the  Governor- 
ship of  Hull,  which  were  conferred  on  Mulgrave. 

882.  Jotham    of    piercing  wit.      George  Savile,   successively 
Viscount,  Earl,  and  Marquis  of  Halifax,  was  one  of  the  most 
active,  brilliant,  and  accomplished  statesmen  of  the  1 7th  century. 
From  1668,  in  which  he  sat  on  the  committee  for  the  examination 
of  the  accounts  of  the  money  given  for  the  Dutch  war,  he  filled  a 
prominent  place  in  public  life.     Greatly  disliked  by  the  Duke  of 
York,  he  was,  for  a  time,  in  favour  of  the  popular  party,  and 
favoured  the  Exclusion  Bill,  but  on  its  discussion  in  the  House 
of  Lords  he  opposed  it,  and  its  defeat  was  mainly  owing  to  his 
eloquence.     He  was  the  leader  and  instructor  of  a  small  party 
called  the  '  Trimmers,'  who  professed  to  be  neither  Whigs  nor 
Tories,  but  to  avoid  the  extremes  of  both  factions.    His  Character 
of  a  Trimmer,  Advice  to  a  Daughter,  Anatomy  of  on  Equivalent, 
and  Maxims  of  State,  still  remain  to  testify  to  his  ' '  piercing 
wit  and  pregnant  thought."     See  Macaulay's  admirable  account 
of  him  (Hist.  vol.  i.  pp.  116,  7),  and  Sir  James  Mackintosh  (Hist, 
of  the  Revolution,  vol.  ii.  pp.  181,  2). 

888.  Hushai,  the  friend  of  David,  Laurence  Hyde,  second  son 
of  the  Lord  Chancellor  Clarendon.  In  1680  he  was  created  Vis- 
count Hyde,  and  in  1682  Earl  of  Rochester.  One  of  the  pleni- 
potentiaries at  the  Treaty  of  Nimeguen,  and  for  a  time 


108        ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  I. 

Ambassador  in  Holland,  he  was  appointed  in  1679  one  of  the 
Commissioners  of  the  Treasury,  and  very  soon  became  one  of  the 
leading  ministers  of  his  age.  "He  was,"  says  Macaulay,  "a 
consistent,  dogged,  and  rancorous  party  man,  a  Cavalier  of  the 
old  school,  a  zealous  champion  of  the  Crown  and  of  the  Church  " 
(Hist.  vol.  i.  p.  121).  Dryden  has  not  exaggerated  his  abilities 
or  misrepresented  the  part  he  played.  He  afterwards  dedicated 
to  him  The  Duke  of  Guise  and  Cleomenes. 

899.  Amiel,  Edward  Seymour,  of  Berry  Pomeroy  Castle,  the 
head  of  the  illustrious  house  of  Somerset,  the  then  Duke  being 
descended  from  a  younger  branch.  He  was  Speaker  of  the 
House  of  Commons  from  1673  to  1679.  But  in  that  year,  though 
he  was  re-elected  by  the  House,  he  was  not  accepted  by  the 
King.  "He  was,"  says  Macaulay,  "one  of  the  most  skilful 
debaters  and  men  of  business  in  the  kingdom,"  and  had  "  studied 
all  the  rules  and  usages  of  the  House,  and  thoroughly  understood 
its  peculiar  temper"  (Hist.  vol.  i.  p.  243).  At  this  time, 
though  influential  and  wealthy,  he  had  no  title,  but  he  succeeded 
to  a  baronetcy  in  1688  He  was  one  of  those  who  heartily 
opposed  the  Exclusion  Bill  and  supported  the  Court  party. 

910.  like  the  unequal  ruler.  The  reference  is  to  Phaeton  and 
to  Ovid's  description  of  his  luckless  adventure,  Metam.  ii.  200 
seqq. 

920.  to  plume  the  regal  rights.  "  To  pluck  out  the  regal 
rights  like  the  feathers  of  a  bird.  This  use  of  the  word  is 
peculiar.  Dryden  elsewhere  uses  it  in  the  sense  of  to  strip  by 
plucking — 

One  whom,  instead  of  banishing  a  day, 

You  should  have  plum'd  of  all  his  borrowed  honours." 

Maiden  Queen,  Act  ii.  Sc.  1  [Christie]. 

932.  That  Shimei.     See  note  on  585. 

939.  Thus  long  have  I.  Malone  in  his  Life  of  Dryden  (p.  154) 
is  disposed  to  believe  the  statement  recorded  by  Spence  in  his 
Anecdotes  that  Charles  II.  requested  Dryden  to  turn  into  verse 
part  of  the  speech  made  by  him,  the  King,  at  the  Oxford  Parlia- 
ment, and  insert  it  in  Absalom  and  Achitophel.  Malone  has 
selected  the  passages  in  the  speech  which  have  their  parallel  in 
David's  speech,  but  they  do  not  bear  out  the  statement.  It  is 
quite  clear  that,  in  spite  of  some  coincidences,  Dryden's  peroration 
is  not  a  paraphrase  of  the  King's  speech. 

957.  But  oh  that  yet.  This  line,  and  the  three  which  follow, 
were  inserted  in  the  second  edition. 

9G5.  Gulled.  To  '  gull '  is  to  cheat,  trick,  or  defraud.  It  is  a 
metaphor  from  the  helplessness  of  a  young  unfledged  bird, 
analogous  to  the  French  niais,  a  nestling,  which  is  used  as 
synonymous  witli  a  simpleton. 


NOTES.  109 

966.  supplant,  literally  to  trip  up  the  heels  (Lat.   sub  and 
planta).     Then  it  came  to  mean  to  displace  by  stratagem.     Cf. 
for  the  first  sense  Milton,  Par,  Lost,  x. — 

"  His  legs  entwining 

Each  other,  till  supplanted  down  he  fell." 
For  the  second,  Shakespeare.  Titus  Andronicus — 
"  And  so  supplant  us  for  ingratitude." 

967.  The  people's  brave.     See  note  on  Medal,  line  129. 

982.  But  Esau's  hands.  The  reference  is  to  Genesis,  xxvii.  22, 
and  the  meaning  is  that  though  they  pretend  to  petition  me 
humbly  and  deferentially,  they  are  practically  employing  force. 

987.  Unsatiate  as  the  barren  womb.  Borrowed  from  Proverbs, 
xxx.  15,  16,  "  There  are  three  things  that  are  never  satisfied, 
yea,  four  things  say  not,  it  is  enough :  the  grave ;  and  the 
barren  womb  ;  the  earth  that  is  not  filled  with  water  ;  and  the 
fire  that  saith  not,  It  is  enough." 

1007,  8.  to  look  on  Grace,  Her  hinder  parts.  There  are  two 
ways  of  taking  this  passage ;  if  the  comma  after  '  Grace '  be 
retained,  as  in  the  first  two  editions  of  the  poem,  then  '  her 
hinder  parts '  must  be  in  apposition  to  Law  in  line  1006,  and  it 
must  mean  that  Grace  is  the  'hinder  part  of  Law';  if  the 
comma  after  Grace  be  removed,  as  it  is  in  the  sixth  and  seventh 
editions,  then  it  will  mean  Grace — her  hinder  parts,  i.e.  Grace's 
hinder  parts.  The  first  meaning  is  intelligible,  the  second  not. 
The  meaning  is  that  Law  is  as  terrible  to  look  on  as  the  face  of 
God  would  have  been  to  Moses,  and  as  Moses  was  permitted  to 
see  only  the  back  of  God,  or  otherwise  he  could  not  have  lived, 
so  up  to  the  present  time  these  people  had  been  permitted  to  see 
only  the  hinder  part  of  Law,  i.e.  Grace,  now  they  shall  behold 
her  face — and  perish.  The  reference  is  of  course  to  Exodus, 
xxxiii.  20-3.  See  a  reference  to  the  same  in  the  Astrcea  'Redux. 

1011.  artificers  of  death,  from  Ovid,  De  Arte  Amandi,  i.  655, 
'  Necis  Artifices.' 

1026,  7,  nodding,  gave  consent ...  peals  of  thunder.  A  curious 
illustration  of  the  pseudo- classicism,  in  which  the  poets  of  our 
'  classical  age '  delighted.  '  The  peal  of  thunder  was  with  the 
Greek  and  Roman  epic  poets  the  symbol  that  prayer  was  heard 
and  granted. 

1028,  9.  a  series  of  new  time  ...  procession  ran.  Reminiscences 
of  Virgil,  Eclogue,  iv.  5  and  12. 


110        ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II 


SECOND  PART  OF  ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL. 

THE  success  of  Absalom  and  Achitophel  had  been  so  great  that 
Dryden  was  strongly  urged  to  follow  it  up  with  a  second  part 
sketching  the  minor  characters  of  the  great  political  drama. 
This  task,  however,  he  declined  to  undertake.  It  was  under- 
taken, and  it  is  said  at  his  instigation,  by  Nahum  Tate.  Tate  is 
now  chiefly  known  as  the  coadjutor  of  Brady  in  the  composition 
of  that  detestable  version  of  the  Psalms  which  was  long  appended 
to  our  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  He  was  acquainted  with  Dryden 
and  had  addressed  to  him  a  complimentary  copy  of  verses  on 
Absalom  and  Achitophel  which  had  appeared,  with  two  others  by 
Duke  and  Lee,  in  the  second  edition.  Tate  was  then  pushing  his 
way  as  a  man  of  letters  in  London  and  was  not  slow  to  embrace 
so  favourable  an  opportunity  for  bringing  himself  into  promi- 
nence. With  the  assistance  of  Dryden,  who  is  said  to  have 
revised  the  poem,  he  set  to  work,  and  the  Second  Part  ofAbxalom 
and  Achitophel  appeared  in  November,  1682,  exactly  a  year  after 
the  First.  If  Dryden  revised  the  poem,  and  his  vigorous  hand  is 
occasionally  discernible,  he  could  not  counteract  the  effect  of 
poor  Tate's  insufferable  mediocrity.  Dull,  nerveless,  and  feeble, 
the  poem  would  long  since  have  sunk  into  oblivion  had  it  not 
been  for  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  lines  inserted  by  Dryden. 
These  lines  not  only  deserve  a  place  but  occupy  a  very  high  place 
in  his  satirical  writings,  and  on  these  lines,  and  on  these  lines 
only,  is  full  commentary  necessary.  As  no  reader  could  desire  to 
study  critically  what  belongs  not  to  Dryden  but  to  Tate  the 
notes  are  made  as  brief  as  possible,  designed  merely  to  elucidate 
historical  references. 

38.  And  guilty  Jebusites.  It  was  commonly  asserted  by  the 
Whigs  that  Charles  II.  protected  the  Roman  Catholics,  whereas 
so  far  from  protecting  them  he  never  prevented  the  execution  of 
Stafford,  Coleman,  and  others,  though  they  all  died  asserting 
solemnly  that  they  had  had  no  part  in  the  Popish  Plot. 

48.  pampered  Corah.     See  note  on  line  632  of  First  Part. 

51.  Michal.  The  Queen  accused  by  Oates  of  being  an  accom- 
plice in  the  plot  against  the  King's  life. 

69.  the  pest.     The  Plague  of  1665. 

71.  wars  of  Tyre  ...  avenging  fire.  The  Dutch  Wars  and  the 
Fire  of  London. 

79.  a  guard  on  modest  Corah.  Cf.  North's  Examen,  p.  205, 
"  He  (Oates)  was  now  in  his  trine  exaltation.  ...  He  walked 
about  with  his  guards  assigned  for  fear  of  the  Papists  murdering 
him." 


NOTES.  Ill 

88.  deponent's  loss.  "  Gates  would  never  tell  all  he  knew,  but 
always  reserved  some  part  of  his  evidence  that  he  might  adapt  it 
to  circumstances,"  see  Scott's  Note.  With  this  description  of 
Gates'  position  should  be  compared  Lingard,  xii.  129-165. 

121.  too  foul  to  be  excused.  The  Tories  habitually  asserted 
that  Shaftesbury  shared  in  the  concoction  of  the  Popish  Plot,  of 
which,  however,  there  is  no  proof ;  nor  is  it  likely.  "  But,"  as 
Scott  observes,  "  we  can  easily  believe  the  truth  of  what  he  is 
alleged  to  have  said,  that  '  whoever  started  the  game  he  had  the 
full  advantage  of  the  chase. ' " 

165.  The  crown's  true  heir.  This  and  the  following  lines  are  a 
feeble  paraphrase  of  lines  441-446  in  the  First  Part. 

178.  Against  his  orders.  An  allusion  to  Monmouth's  return 
from  Holland  without  the  King's  permission,  in  November,  1679. 

189.  Who   reach  lay  hold.      This   obscurely   condensed    line 
appears  to  mean — those  who  reach  out  for  a  crown  and  miss  it 
lay  hold  on  Death. 

190.  Did  you  for  this.     The  five  lines  which  follow  are  borrowed 
from  the  First  Part,  lines  688-9  and  729-734. 

216.  quashed  each  penal  law  etc.  Shaftesbury  was  strongly 
in  favour  of  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence. 

223.  shut  the  royal  store.  The  closing  of  the  Exchequer  in 
Jan.,  1672,  for  which,  however,  as  Mr.  Christie  has  shown, 
Shaftesbury  was  not  responsible. 

226.  triple  covenant.     See  note  on  line  175,  First  Part. 

229.  sent  our  levied  powers.  The  allusion  to  the  union  with 
France  against  Holland  in  March,  1672. 

280.  extorting  Ishban,  Sir  Robert  Clayton,  Alderman  of 
London  and  a  zealous  Whig.  He  had  the  reputation  of  being 
a  greedy  usurer. 

298.  railing  Rabsheka,  Sir  Thomas  Player,  Chamberlain  of 
the  City  of  London,  and  one  of  the  city  members.  In  the 
Oxford  Parliament  he  made  a  violent  speech  upon  Fitz-Harris 
being  withdrawn  from  the  city  jail.  Dryden's  hand  seems  dis- 
cernible in  this  coarse  and  vigorous  philippic. 

310.  Next  these.     Here  Dryden's  portion  commences. 

321.  Judas,  Robert  Ferguson,  the  arch-plotter.  He  is  de- 
scribed by  Macaulay  as  "  violent,  malignant,  regardless  of  truth, 
insatiable  of  notoriety,  delighting  in  intrigue,  in  tumult,  in  mis- 
chief for  its  own  sake.  He  toiled  during  many  years  in  the  darkest 
mines  of  faction  "  (Hist.  vol.  i.  p.  252).  He  had  been  an  Inde- 
pendent preacher,  and  master  of  an  academy  which  the  Dissenters 
had  set  up  at  Islington  as  a  rival  to  Westminster  School  and  the 
Charter-house.  He  was  paymaster  and  manager  of  the  pamphlet 
press  for  the  party  of  Monmouth  and  Shaftesbury. 


112        ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     TART  II. 

331.  Phaleg,  James  Forbes,  a  Scotchman.  He  had  been 
travelling  tutor  to  the  Earl  of  Derby  whom  he  had  accompanied 
to  Paris.  A  tall,  slim  man  in  person,  he  was  in  character, 
according  to  Carte,  the  very  opposite  of  what  Dryden  describes 
him  as  being.  This  is  at  once  the  coarsest  and  most  unwarrant- 
ably calumnious  of  Dry  den's  satirical  portraits. 

336.  that  buzzing  insect.  The  reference  is  to  ^Esop's  well- 
known  fable. 

353.  Ben  Jochanan,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Johnson.  Born  in  1649 
in  Warwickshire,  and  educated  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
he  was  in  1669  ordained  and  presented  with  the  rectory  of 
Corringham  in  Essex.  But  about  1678  he  came  up  to  London, 
got  acquainted  with  the  leaders  of  the  Whig  party,  and  became 
in  1679  domestic  chaplain  to  Lord  William  Russell.  After  suffer- 
ing many  indignities  and  calamities  in  consequence  of  his  liberal 
opinions,  he  died  in  May,  1703.  "I  do  not  know,"  said  Cole- 
ridge (Table  Talk,  p.  208),  "where  I  could  put  my  hand  upon  a 
book  containing  so  much  sense  and  sound  constitutional  doctrine 
as  this  thin  folio  of  Johnson's  works. " 

371.  He  chose  the  Apostate.  The  object  of  Johnson's  work  on 
Jiilian  the  Apostate  was  to  institute  a  tacit  comparison  between 
Julian  and  the  Duke  of  York,  and,  in  describing  and  justifying 
the  animosity  of  the  Christians  against  Julian,  he  justifies  by 
implication  the  animosity  of  the  Whigs  against  the  Duke  of 
York.  He  quotes  with  approval  the  furious  invectives  of  St. 
Gregory  and  St.  Chrysostom,  citing  at  the  same  time  the  testi- 
mony of  Libanius  that  Julian  was  killed  by  a  Christian,  which 
comes  perilously  near  approval  of  the  assassination  of  the  Duke. 

385.  The  son  that  showed,  the  reference  is  to  Ham  exposing 
Noah  (Genesis,  ix.  22). 

392,  3.  thy  hot  father  ...  of  a  sect.  Dryden  is  here  turning  the 
tables  on  Johnson.  I  think,  he  says,  that  the  Apostate  was 
after  all  a  better  man  than  these  rancorous  fathers  of  the  Church, 
that  it  was  they  who  in  their  unchristian  spite  and  acrimony 
belonged  not  to  the  'Mother  Church,'  but  'to  a  sect.'  'Thy 
hot  father '  may  mean  either  St.  Gregory  or  St.  Chrysostom,  one 
of  whom  pronounced  Julian  to  'be  a  traitor  next  to  Judas,'  and 
the  other  asserted  that  he  was  'in  Hell  undergoing  endless 
punishment.' 

396.  Balak,  the  famous  Dr.  Gilbert  Burnet,  at  this  time 
preacher  at  the  Rolls  Chapel  and  Lecturer  at  St.  Clement's 
Danes,  one  of  the  most  prominent  figures  among  the  Whig 
ecclesiastics  of  the  17th  century,  and  subsequently  (1689)  Bishop 
of  Salisbury.  Of  his  voluminous  writings,  his  Lives  and  his  His- 
tory of  his  own  Time  are  the  most  valuable.  Dryden  again 
satirized  him  in  the  coarsest  and  most  virulent  terms  in  the  Hind 


NOTES.  113 

and  Panther,  Part  iii.  1140-1205;  and  the  Bishop  repaid  his 
assailant  by  describing  him  in  his  Memoirs  as  "a  monster  of 
immodesty  and  impurity  of  all  sorts." 

403.  David's  psalms  translated,  the  old  version  of  Sternhold 
and  Hopkins,  which  was  superseded  by  that  of  Tate  and  Brady. 

405.  lame  Mephibosheth,  Samuel  Pordage,  the  son  of  a  Rev. 
John  Pordage,  rector  of  Bradfield  in  Berkshire,  who  in  1654  was 
deprived  of  his  living  on  a  charge  of  conversation  with  evil 
spirits.  This  wretched  poetaster,  who  in  Oldham's  imitation  of 
Juvenal's  third  Satire  is  substituted  for  Codrus,  was  on  the  Whig 
side,  and  had  twice  attacked  Dryden,  once  in  Azariah  and 
Hushai,  which  was  a  scurrilous  reply  to  Absalom  and  Achitophel, 
and  again  in  The  Medal  Reversed,  a  reply  to  The  Medal  For 
the  lameness  of  Mephibosheth,  see  ii.  Sam.  x.  13. 

407.  rotten  Uzza,  a  very  obscure  allusion.     In  Jacob  Tonson's 
key  to  Absalom  and  Achitophel,  published  in  1716,  the  initials 
J.  H.  are  given  as  those  of  the  person   intended,   and   in  the 
State  Poems,  vol.  iii.  p.  367,  there  is  an  allusion  under  the  same 
initials : — 

"  J.  H.  sets  up  as  one  of  sense 
Does  for  a  poet  stand 

He  who  was  reckon'd  the  buffoon 

In  former  Parliaments. 

In  Mulgrave's  Essay  on  Satire  the  full  name  is  given, ' '  Till  he  takes 
Huett  and  Jack  Hall  for  wits,"  so  this  person  was  some  small 
wit  of  the  time.  Mr.  Christie  thinks  that  they  refer  to  John 
Hall,  whose  name  appears  as  one  of  the  contributors  to  the 
Lacrymce  Musarum — the  collection  of  poems  written  on  the  occa- 
sion of  Lord  Hastings'  death— among  which  Dryden's  first  poem 
was  printed,  but  this  Hall  died  in  1656. 

408.  Doeg,   Elkanah    Settle.      There   had  been   an   old   feud 
between  Dryden  and   Settle — see  biography  of  Dryden  at  the 
beginning   of   this   volume— but   Settle   probably   appears   here 
because  of  his  connection  with  the  Whigs,  whom  he  had  joined 
in  1680,  because  of  his  pamphlet  entitled  The,  Character  of  a 
Popish  Successor,  and  because  of  his  recent  reply  to  A  bsalom  and 
Achitophel,  in  a  poem  called  Absalom  Senior,  or  Achitophel  Trans- 
prosed.     He  was  now  'City  Poet,'  and  for  a  description  of  him  in 
this  capacity  and  in  that  of  Superintendent  of  Pope-burnings,  see 
Otway's  Poet's  Complaint,  stanzas  viii.  and  xi. 

413.  blundering  kind  of  melody.  With  Dryden's  general 
account  of  Settle's  style  given  here  may  be  compared  his  prose 
criticism  in  his  Remarks  upon  the  Empress  of  Morocco,  written  in 
conjunction  with  Crowne  and  Shad  well :—  "  He  is  an  animal  of  a 
most  deplored  understanding.  His  being  is  on  a  twilight  of 

H 


114       ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II. 

sense  and  some  glimmering  of  thought  which  he  can  never 
fashion  into  wit  or  English.  His  style  is  boisterous  and  rough- 
hewn,  his  rhyme  incorrigibly  lewd,  and  his  numbers  perpetually 
harsh  and  ill-sounding. 

419.  But  faggoted  his  notions.  It  is  curious  to  find  that 
Dryden  appears  to  have  been  indebted  for  this  image  to  Flecknoe, 
"  For  his  learning  'tis  all  capping  verses  and  faggoting  poets' 
loose  lines  which  fell  from  him  as  disorderly  as  faggot  sticks  when 
the  band  is  broke "  (Flecknoe's  Enigmatical  Characters  (1658), 
p.  77).  See  Malone's  Life  of  Dryden,  p.  170. 

424.  All  his  occasions.  The  justice  of  Dryden's  satire  is 
shown  by  Settle's  political  career.  In  1679  he  was  a  Tory,  in 
1680  a  Whig,  in  1683  a  Tory  again. 

444.  to  transprose,  the  reference  is  to  the  title  of  Settle's  poem, 
Achitophel  Transprosed. 

446.  Who  makes  heaven's  gate  refers  to  the  opening  couplet  of 
Settle's  poem  : — 

"  In  gloomy  times,  when  priestcraft  bore  the  sway, 
And  made  heaven's  gate  a  lock  to  their  own  key." 

451.  In  fire-works.  The  ceremony  of  burning  the  effigy  of  the 
Pope  amid  fireworks  on  the  17th  of  November,  1680,  had  been 
entrusted  to  Settle,  and  since  then  he  had  been  generally 
employed  in  business  of  this  kind.  Poor  Settle,  whose  work  as 
a  poet  is  correctly  estimated  in  Dryden's  Satire,  not  long  after 
this  sank  very  low.  He  was  reduced  to  attend  a  booth  in 
Bartholomew  Fair,  where  he  was  hired  to  exhibit  puppets,  and 
in  a  farce  called  8t.  George  for  England  he  acted  as  a  dragon 
enclosed  in  a  case  of  green  leather.  Young  refers  to  this  in  his 
First  Epistle  to  Pope — 

"Poor  Elkenah,  all  other  charges  past, 

For  bread  in  Smithfield  dragons  hiss'd  at  last." 
Pope  refers  to  the  same  thing  (Dunciad,  285-90),  representing 
the  ghost  of  Settle  as  initiating  the  King  in  the  mysteries  of  the 
realm  of  dulness.  Settle  died  in  Feb.,  1723-4,  a  pensioner  of  the 
Charter-house.  He  was  the  author  of  nineteen  dramas  and 
innumerable  poems,  all  worthless  and  all  now  forgotten. 

459.  Og,  Thomas  Shadwell.  See  for  commentary  Introduction 
and  Notes  to  Mac  Flecknoe. 

482.  Eat  opium.  Shadwell's  addiction  to  opium  was  well 
known,  and  according  to  one  tradition  it  was  an  overdose  of  it 
which  caused  his  death. 

524.  See  where  involved.  This  is  a  description  of  the  Whig 
King's  Head  Club,  which  met  at  the  King's  Head  Tavern,  near 


NOTES.  115 

Temple  Bar.  They  called  themselves  the  Green  Ribbon  Club, 
because  the  members  wore  a  green  ribbon  in  opposition  to  the 
Tories,  who  wore  in  their  hats  a  scarlet  ribbon. 

535.  Industrious  Arod,  Sir  William  Waller,  son  of  the  famous 
Parliamentary  general.  He  had  made  himself  very  conspicuous 
in  investigating  the  Popish  Plot,  and  in  hunting  the  Papists. 
With  the  assistance  of  Captain  Dangerfield  he  had  exposed  the 
Meal  Tub  Plot,  and  by  getting  information  out  of  a  midwife  of 
the  name  of  Collier  he  had  exposed  also  Fitz-Harris's  Plot.  "  He 
was,"  says  Roger  North,  "  a  great  inquisitor  of  priests  and  Jesuits, 
and  Gutter  (as  the  term  was)  of  Popish  Chapels.  In  which  he 
proceeded  with  that  scandalous  rigour  as  to  bring  forth  the 
pictures  and  other  furniture  of  great  value  and  burn  them 
publicly  :  which  gave  occasion  to  suspect,  and  some  said  posi- 
tively that,  under  this  pretence,  he  kept  the  good  things  for  him- 
self "  (Examen,  p.  277). 

555.  Zaken,  member  of  Parliament.  He  had  been  an  unsuc- 
cessful candidate  in  1679. 

571.  From  Egypt  ...a  guardian,  a  bold  reference  to  the  King's 
relations  with  France. 

576.  rights  to  violate.  It  was  a  common  device  for  the  Whigs 
to  refuse  supplies  when  dissatisfied  with  the  Court.  Scott  quotes 
a  paper  of  instructions  issued  by  the  Whig  constituents  to  their 
representatives  in  1680,  praying  "  that  they  would  still  literally 
pursue  the  same  measures  and  grant  no  supplies  to  the  Crown 
till  they  saw  themselves  effectually  secured  from  Popery  and 
arbitrary  power." 

597.  wars  of  Tyre,  Dutch  wars.  The  whole  of  the  passage 
describing  the  Duke's  retirement  is  an  excellent  example  of  the 
'  forcible-feeble  '  in  rhetoric. 

599.  quits  the  promised  land.  When  the  excitement  of  the 
Popish  Plot  was  at  its  height  the  King,  by  the  advice  of  Danby, 
requested  the  Duke  of  York  to  leave  England  for  a  while. 
Accordingly  the  Duke  retired  to  Brussels.  See  the  King's  letter 
or  order  (dated  Feb.  28th,  1678-9)  in  Scott's  note. 

733.  Then  Justice  wake.  In  this  line  and  to  line  746  Dryden's 
hand  is  plainly  discernible. 

749.  bribed  with  Egypt's  gold.  If  the  King  was  in  the  pay  of 
France,  of  the  incredible  corruptions  of  many  of  the  so-called 
patriots  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Lord  Russell,  Algernon  Sydney, 
Sir  Thomas  Lyttelton,  Garraway,  -Hampdeu,  Powle,  Sacheverell, 
Foley,  were  all  in  receipt  of  bribes.  See  Hallam,  Const.  Hist. 
vol.  ii.  p.  406-9.  For  full  details  see  Appendix  to  Dalrymple's 
Memoirs,  pp.  316-9. 

793.  From  Hebron  ...  returned.    See  note  on  line  59,  First  Part. 


116        ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II. 

Scott  says  that  the  presence  of  the  Duke  of  York  in  Scotland  was 
''very  acceptable  to  the  nobles  and  gentry,"  but  the  Covenanters 
would  have  told  a  very  different  tale.  In  the  account  in  the 
text  we  must  remember  that  a  Tory  and  an  apologist  for  the 
Tories  is  speaking. 

805.  Through  Sion's  streets.  The  Duke  of  York  returned 
from  Scotland  to  London  in  April,  1682. 

811.  Jothran,  George  Legge,  created  Earl  of  Dartmouth  in  1 682. 
He  was  the  son  of  Colonel  William  Legge,  so  eminently  dis- 
tinguished by  his  loyal  attachment  both  to  Charles  I.  and  to 
Charles  II.  He  had  served  in  both  the  Dutch  wars,  was  an 
admiral,  and  at  this  time  Master  of  the  Ordnance.  He  was  one 
of  the  few  really  honest  and  consistent  public  men  of  his  time. 
He  afterwards  commanded  the  fleet  sent  out  to  oppose  William 
of  Orange.  At  the  Revolution  he  was  thrown  into  the  Tower, 
where  he  died  in  October,  1691. 

819.  Benaiah,  General  Edward  Sackville.  The  reference  is  to 
his  gallant  services  at  Tangier.  He  had  spoken  very  contemptu- 
ously of  those  who  had  concocted  and  of  those  who  believed 
in  the  Popish  Plot,  and  had  been  expelled  from  the  House  of 
Commons  in  consequence. 

825.  While  those  that  sought.  Scott  says  that  in  a  MS.  note 
of  Narcissus  Luttrel's  it  is  said  that  the  Earl  of  Anglesea  is 
specially  glanced  at.  With  these  lines  compare  Dryden's 
Prologue  to  the  Duke  of  York  on  his  Return  from  Scotland,  14-27. 

835.  forced  . . .  yield.  The  omission  of  '  to  '  before  the  infinite 
is  not  uncommon  in  the  poetry  of  the  17th  century.  Cf.  Milton, 
Par.  JReg.  iv.  409,  10— 

"  Either  tropic  now 
'Gan  thunder." 
Mr.  Christie  quotes  Hudihras,  Part  I.  2,  verse  1111— 

"  But  force  it  take  an  oath  before." 
885.  Absalom.     See  note  on  line  18,  Part  I. 

913-8.  Festival  instals  . . .  Dashing  . . .  mirth.  Shaftesbury,  Mon- 
mouth,  and  the  leaders  of  their  party  had  arranged  to  hold  a 
great  gathering  of  '  loyal  Protestants '  in  the  city,  in  opposition 
to  a  meeting  invited  by  the  Artillery  Company  to  dine  with  the 
Duke  of  York  at  Merchant  Taylors  Hall,  April  21st,  1682,  but 
on  the  19th  of  April  a  Royal  Proclamation  was  issued  forbidding 
the  meeting  and  banquet.  See  Scott's  note  for  particulars. 

938.  laurelled  Asaph,  Dryden. 

941.  Bezaliel,  the  Duke  of  Beaufort,  President  of  Wales. 

943.  Knites'  rocky  province,  Wales. 


NOTES.  117 

958.  copied  in  his  son,  Charles,  Marquis  of  Worcester ;  he  died 
before  his  father  in  July,  1698. 

967.  Abdael,  Christopher,  Duke  of  Albemarle,  the  son  of 
General  Monk.  Some  of  his  contemporaries  describe  him  as 
unusually  dull  and  stupid.  He  was  Chancellor  of  the  University 
of  Cambridge  in  1682,  hence  the  prophets'  school.  The  frigid 
bombast  of  Tate's  fulsome  rubbish  is  worthy  alike  of  the  flattered 
and  the  flatterer. 

985.  Eliab,  Henry  Bennet,  Earl  of  Arlington,  the  celebrated 
minister,  Secretary  of  State  in  the  Cabal  Administration,  and 
afterwards  Lord  Chamberlain.  He  died  in  July,  1685.  See 
Macaulay's  character  of  him  (Hist.  vol.  i.  101,  2). 

994.  young  Othniel's  bride.  Lady  Isabella  Bennet,  the  only 
daughter  and  heiress  of  Arlington,  married  Henry  Fitzroy,  Duke 
of  Grafton,  second  son  of  Charles  II.,  by  Barbara  Palmer, 
Duchess  of  Cleveland. 

1003.  Helon,  Louis  Duras,  Earl  of  Feversham,  a  Frenchman, 
and  a  Protestant,  being  of  Huguenot  descent.  He  afterwards 
distinguished  himself  by  his  cowardice  and  incompetence  in  the 
campaign  against  Monmouth. 

1013.  Amri,  Sir  Heneage  Finch,  Earl  of  Winchelsea  and  Lord 
Chancellor.  He  succeeded  Shaftesbury  as  Lord  Keeper.  He 
was  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  English  lawyers. 

1025.  Sheva,  Sir  Roger  L'Estrange,  one  of  the  fathers  of 
English  journalism,  born  December,  1616,  after  the  Restoration. 
He  became  a  rancorous  and  intemperate  Tory,  the  champion  (on 
paper)  of  the  Church  and  the  Court.  He  was  the  editor  of  two 
papers,  The  Obsercator,  1679-1687  ;  The  Heraditus  Ridens,  and 
of  several  others.  For  many  years  he  was  Licenser  of  the  Press. 
He  died  in  September,  1704. 

1036.  Advanced  his  signal.  The  reference  is  to  the  brazen 
serpent  set  up  by  Moses,  which  stayed  the  plague  of  serpents 
(Numbers,  xxi.). 

1039.  What  tribute.  From  this  point  we  see  poor  Tate  on  his 
unsupported  pinions,  on  which  he  soars  and  croaks  to  the  end 
of  the  poem. 

1067.  Who  now  sails  off.  The  Duke  of  York's  voyage  to 
Scotland  in  May,  1682,  to  bring  back  the  Duchess,  'his 
beauteous  dear,'  is  the  subject  of  this  wretched  stuff. 

1084.  treacherous  sands  ...  devour.  The  Duke's  ship  struck 
upon  a  bank,  the  Lemmon  Ore  ;  he  managed,  with  a  few  attend- 
ants, to  get  off  in  a  boat,  leaving  all  the  rest  to  their  fate,  among 
them  the  Earl  of  Roxburghe,  Hyde,  one  of  the  sons  of  the  great 
Earl  of  Clarendon,  the  Lord  O'Brien,  about  300  seamen,  and 
the  rest  of  his  retinue. 


118        ABSALOM  AND  ACHITOPHEL.     PART  II. 

1100.  Urania,  the  Duchess  of  York,,  so  named  from  the 
Uranian  Venus. 

1123.  Hyblsean  swarms.     See  note  on  line  697  of  First  Part. 

1131.  Ziloah,   Sir  John   Moore,  the   Tory  Lord   Mayor,   the 
'  loyal  head '  of  line  181  in  The  Medal. 

1132.  Surges.     To  discuss  the  various  readings  in  Tate's  trash 
would  be  absurd,  but  we  may  notice  that  syrtes,  quicksands,  is 
one  of  the  variants  here. 

1 133.  4.  A  viler  pair  Than  Ziph  or  Shimei.     The  viler  pair  are 
Pilkington   and   Shute,  the    Whig  sheriffs,  who  are  the   '  two 
gouty  hands  '  of  line  181  of  The  Medal.     Ziph  is  Richard  Corn- 
ish, one  of  the  sheriffs  in  the  preceding  year.     For  Shimei  see 
note  on  line  598  of  First  Part. 

1135.  Ziloah's  loyal  labours.  In  September,  1682,  the  Lord 
Mayor  Moore  contrived,  by  the  most  unwarrantable  means,  to 
procure,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Court  party,  the  election  of 
two  Tory  sheriffs,  North  and  Rich.  This  was  followed  by  the 
election  of  a  Tory  Lord  Mayor  to  succeed  Moore.  A  Tory 
reaction  had  for  some  time  been  setting  in,  and  this  was  the 
climax,  for  it  both  marked  and  restored  Tory  ascendancy  in  the 
very  stronghold  of  Whiggism,  and  so  from  the  Tory  point  of 
view  Israel's  peace  was  restored.  Not  long  after  this  Shaftes- 
bury  fled  to  Holland. 


THE  MEDAL. 

SCARCELY  had  the  First  Part  of  Absalom  and  Achitophel  made 
its  appearance  when  the  bill  of  high  treason  against  Shaftesbury 
was  presented  to  the  Grand  Jury.  It  was  ignored  (November 
24th,  1681)  and  Shaftesbury  was  immediately  liberated  from  the 
Tower.  The  joy  of  the  Whigs  knew  no  bounds.  A  medal  was 
struck  bearing  the  head  and  name  of  the  popular  hero  ;  and  on 
the  reverse  was  represented  a  sun,  obscured  with  a  cloud,  rising 
over  the  Tower  and  the  City  of  London,  with  the  date  of  the  re- 
jection of  the  bill,  and  the  motto  Lcetamur.  Impressions  of  this 
medal  were  distributed  among  the  Whigs,  and,  much  to  the 
chagrin  of  the  Tories,  all  good  Whigs  took  care  to  wear  the 
ornament  ostentatiously  displayed  on  their  bosoms.  A  priest, 
whom  Spence  met  at  Pope's  house,  gave  the  following  account  of 
the  origin  of  Dryden's  poem — "  It  was  Charles  II.  who  gave  Mr. 
Dryden  the  hint  for  writing  his  poem  called  the  Medal.  One 
day  as  the  King  was  walking  in  the  Mall,  and  talking  with  Dry- 


NOTES.  H$ 

den  he  said,  « If  I  was  a  poet  (and  I  think  I  am  poor  enough  to  be 
one)  I  would  write  a  poem  on  such  a  subject  in  the  following 
manner,'  and  then  gave  him  the  plan  for  it.  Dry  den  took  the 
hint  and  carried  the  poem  as  soon  as  it  was  written  to  the  King, 
and  had  a  present  of  a  hundred  broad  pieces  for  it"  (Spence's 
Anecdotes,  Edit.  Singer,  p.  129).  However  this  may  be,  the 
poem  was  published  at  the  beginning  of  March,  1682. 

EPISTLE  TO  THE  WHIGS. 

P.  68,  11.  11,  2.  a  poor  Polander.  Shaftesbury  was  bantered 
by  his  contemporaries  for  aspiring  to  the  crown  of  Poland  when 
John  Sobieski  was  elected  in  1 675.  See  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  A 
Modest  Vindication  of  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury  in  a  Letter  to  a 
Friend  concerning  his  being  Elected  King  of  Poland."  It  was 
indeed  the  stock  joke  against  him — allusions  to  it  abound  in  the 
satirical  literature  of  that  time. 

1.  18.  to  B.     William  Bower,  the  engraver  of  the  medal. 

P.  69,  1.  7.  Preface  to  the  "No  Protestant  Plot."  The  refer- 
ence is  to  a  tract  in  three  parts  which  was  written  to  prove  the 
innocence  of  Shaftesbury,  College,  and  the  Whigs  from  the  alleged 
intrigues  against  the  King  at  Oxford.  The  first  part  was  at- 
tributed to  Shaftesbury  himself,  the  two  last  to  Ferguson,  the 
Judas  of  line  321  of  Second  Part  of  Absalom  and  Achitophel. 

1.  14.  Scanderberg.  The  famous  Albanian  chief  and  enemy  to 
the  Turks,  George  Castriota,  born  in  1404,  died  at  Lissa  in  1467. 
On  the  taking  of  Lissa,  where  his  remains  were  discovered,  the 
Turks  are  said  to  have  dug  up  his  bones  and  converted  them  into 
amulets  under  the  impression  that  the  bones  would  transfer  his 
courage  to  those  who  wore  the  amulets.  Cf.  State  Poems,  vol.  i. 
190— 

"  Let  it,  like  bones  of  Scanderberg,  incite." 

P.  70,  1.  7.  petition  in  a  crowd.  An  allusion  to  the  Act  passed 
in  1661  which  prohibits  the  presentation  of  any  petition  to  the 
King  or  Houses  of  Parliament  "accompanied  with  excessive 
numbers  of  people,  nor  at  any  time  with  above  the  number  of  ten 
persons. " 

1.  19.  dead  author's  pamphlet,  the  celebrated  Andrew  Marvel, 
the  poet  and  Puritan  controversalist,  born  at  Hull  in  1620,  died 
in  London  in  1678.  The  reference  is  to  his  Account  of  the  Growth 
of  Popery  and  Arbitrary  Government  in  England,  published  in 
1678. 

1.  21.  Buchanan,  the  famous  George  Buchanan,  the  tutor  of 
Mary  Queen  of  Scots.  The  work  Dry  den  refers  to  is  a  noble  plea 
for  civil  liberty — for  limited  as  distinguished  from  autocratic 
monarchy. 


120  THE  MEDAL. 

1.  30.  Theodore  Beza,  one  of  the  chief  promoters  of  the  Pro- 
testant Reformation  (born  at  Vezelai  in  1519)  and  a  central  figure 
in  the  great  religious  controversies  of  the  sixteenth  century.  He 
died  in  October,  1605. 

1.  15.  writ  the  "  Whip  and  Key."  A  Whip  for  the  Fool's  Back 
was  one  of  the  many  replies  to  Absalom  and  Achitophel :  it  was 
written  by  a  Nonconformist  minister  whose  name  is  not  known, 
and  who  was  also  the  author  of  A  Key  ivith  the  Whip  to  open  the 
Mystery  and  Iniquity  of  the  Poem  called  Absalom  and  Achitophel. 

1.  28.  brother  of  Achitophel,  the  writer  of  the  pamphlet  just 
referred  to.  Achitophel  has  just  been  explained  as  '  the  brother 
of  a  fool,'  so  Dryden's  sarcasm  is  obvious. 

P.  73,  1.  2.  saucy  Jack.  Jack  is  commonly  used  by  the  Eliza- 
bethan writers  for  an  upstart  or  flippant  fribble.  Cf .  Richard  III. 
Act  i.  Sc.  3— 

"  Since  every  Jack  became  a  gentleman 

There 's  many  a  gentle  person  made  a  Jack." 
So  also  in  Much  Ado,  Act  i.  Sc.  1,  "Do  you  play  the  flouting 
Jack." 


2.  English  idiots.  The  word  idiot  is  directly  from  the  Greek, 
IdiuTys,  a  private  person,  hence  one  who  is  inexperienced  or  un- 
educated, so  silly,  foolish.  Cf.  the  history  of  lewd. 

15.  Polish  is  Rejoice.  I.e.  in  the  language  of  Shaftesbury  and 
his  partizans  scoffingly  called  Poles  with  reference  to  Shaftes- 
bury's  alleged  Polish  aspirations. 

26.  A  martial  hero  first.     For  a  commentary  on  these  lines  see 
the  life  of  Shaftesbury  at  the  end  of  the  Introduction. 

27.  a  pigmy.     See  note  on  line  157  of  First  Part  of  Absalom 
and  Achitophel. 

32.  for  sums   of  gold.      Shaftesbury   was  a  member  of  the 
Council  of  State  appointed,  after  the  dissolution  of  the  Rump 
Parliament,  in  July,  1653.     The  members  had  a  salary  of  £1000, 
but  Mr.  Christie  has  shown  that  Shaftesbury  received  no  salary. 

33.  cast  himself...  saint-like  mould.     There  is  no  proof  that 
Shaftesbury  affected  the  sanctimonious  piety  of  the  Puritans,  but 
as  he  undoubtedly  "  held  a  concert  with  the  Anti- Monarchists  and 
Fanatics  "  (North,  Examen,  p.  41 )  when  he  belonged  to  that  party, 
there  is  some  colour  for  Dryden's  rhetoric. 

41.  interlope,  to  run  between,  to  intercept  the  trade  or  traffic 
of  a  company,  so  to  traffic  without  a  proper  license ;  from  the 
Latin  inter  and  the  Dutch  loopen,  to  run. 


NOTES.  121 

52.  malice  reconciled  . . .  Prince.  Dryden  is  here  accounting  for 
the  reasons  which  induced  Shaftesbury  to  quit  the  side  of  the 
Parliament  and  join  the  King,  which  he  did  when,  in  the  spring 
of  1660,  he  was  one  of  the  Commissioners  who  went  to  Breda. 

54.  Rewarded  faster.  In  1661  he  was  made  Baron  Ashley, 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and  Under  Treasurer  ;  in  April, 
1672,  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  and  in  November,  Lord  Chancellor. 

60.  lawful  gears.  Gear  properly  means  dress,  harness  or 
tackle,  then  dress  or  ornament,  and  is  derived  from  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  gearwe.  It  may  here  be  a  metaphor  from  running  in  traces 
or  in  harness,  with  the  collateral  notion  of  ornaments  or  honours. 

65.  loosed  our  triple  hold.  See  note  on  Absalom  and 
Achitophel,  1.  175. 

73.  So  Samson,  the  reference  is  to  Samson  and  Delilah  (Judges, 
xvii.  17-19). 

75.  this  fatal  counsel.  It  was  by  the  advice  of  Shaftesbury 
that  the  King  issued  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence  in  March, 

1672,  which  was  so  unpopular  that  it  was  afterwards  recalled. 

78.  seduced  to  arbitrary  sway.  The  King,  much  to  the 
chagrin  of  Shaftesbury,  cancelled  the  Declaration  in  March, 

1673,  and  Shaftesbury  was  so  annoyed  that  he  practically  broke 
from  the  King  and  the  Court  party,  attached  himself  to  the 
Whigs,  and  began  his  career  as  a  demagogue. 

94.  in  thy  Pindaric  way.  To  the  people  of  Dryden's  age 
Pindar  was  supposed  to  be  the  representative  of  wild  licence  in 
art,  and  it  was  on  that  assumption  that  the  so-called  Pindaric  or 
Irregular  Odes  were  written,  the  characteristic  of  which  was  that 
the  order  of  the  rhymes  and  the  length  of  the  lines  could  be 
as  the  poet  pleases.  This  monstrous  line  of  fourteen  syllables 
is  given  as  an  illustration. 

96.  Phocion  . . .  Socrates,  Phocion  was  put  to  death  on  a  charge 
of  treason  in  B.C.  317,  and  Socrates  on  a  charge  of  impiety  in  B.C. 
399.  In  both  cases  the  Athenians  subsequently  acknowledged 
and  lamented  the  injustice  and  folly  of  what  they  had  done. 

114.  Inherent  right,  the  doctrine  of  the  thorough-going 
Cavaliers  and  Tories,  which  found  its  most  extravagant  and 
emphatic  expression  in  Sir  Robert  Filmer's  Patriarcha.  This 
work,  though  written  in  Charles  I.'s  reign,  had  only  recently 
(1680)  been  published. 

119.  new  Jehu,  Shaftesbury. 

129.  usurping  brave.  Brave  is  the  French  form  of  the  Italian 
bravo,  a  braggart  villain,  a  cut-throat.  The  Italian  form  is 
naturalized  in  English,  but  the  French  form  is  obsolete.  Dryden 
has,  however,  often  used  it.  Cf.  Absalom  and  Achitophel,  967, 
"The  people's  brave,  the  politician's  fool." 


122  THE  MEDAL. 

131.  loathe  ...  manna  ...  long  for  quails,  the  reference  is  to  the 
Book  of  Numbers,  xi.  4  and  32. 

136.  None  can  they,  note  the  extent  to  which  Dry  den's  Toryism 
was  carried. 

140.  laws  which  they  dispense.  Cf.  the  'divine'  maxim,  "A 
Deo  rex,  a  rege  lex."  See  the  addresses  presented  in  1687  from 
the  Middle  and  Inner  Temple  to  James  II. 

145.  The  man  who  laughed  but  once,  Marcus  Licinius  Crassus, 
nicknamed  Agelastus,  because  he  never  laughed  (Pliny,  Nat.  Hist. 
vii.  19).     Cicero  says  (De  Finibus,  v.  30)  that  he  laughed  once, 
and  Tertullian  (De  Animd,  lii.)  that  he  died  in  a  fit  of  laughter, 
while  Lucilius  tells  us  what  is  here  related.      "The  relation  of 
Lucilius  and  now  become  common  concerning  Crassus  . . .  that  he 
never  laughed  but  once  in  all  his  life,  and  that  was  at  an  ass 
eating  thistles,   is  something  strange  "  (Sir  T.  Browne,  Vulgar 
Errors,  Bk.  VII.  ch.  xvi.).     Philemon  the  Comic  Poet  is  said  to 
have  died  from  the  same  cause  at  seeing  an  ass  eating  figs  (Lucian, 

146.  mumbling,  to  speak  indistinctly,  or  to  chew  inefficiently. 
From  the  Middle  English  verb  momelen,  to  speak  indistinctly. 

147.  a  jury  chaw,  now  generally  spent  chew.     Middle  English 
chewen,  from  Anglo-Saxon  cetiwan.     Christie  quotes  in  illustra- 
tion : — 

"Like  him  who  chaws 
Sardinian  herbage  to  contract  his  jaws. " 

Dryden's  Tr.  of  Virgil's  Seventh  Eclogue,  60. 

The  jury  referred  to  is  the  grand  jury  who  threw  out  the  Bill 
against  Shaftesbury. 

149.  The  witnesses,  these  were  the  witnesses  called  against 
Shaftesbury  in  support  of  the  charge  of  high  treason  ;  they  were 
John  Booth,   Edward  Turberville,  John  Smith,  Bryan  HaineSj 
John  Macnamara,  and  others  who  came  to  corroborate  evidence. 
Some  of  these  scoundrels  had  been  the  tools  of  Shaftesbury,  who 
had  indeed  brought  them  over  to  England  to  give  evidence  about 
a  Popish  plot  in  Ireland. 

150.  med'cimally  good,  to  be  pronounced  as  a  four-syllabled 
word,  med'cmally.     Cf.  Milton's  Samson  Agonistes,  626 — 

"or  med'cmal  liquor  can  assuage." 

151.  fastened  on  their  festered  sore.     They  were  truthful  and 
trustworthy  when  they  gave  evidence  in  favour  of  the  Popish 
Plot,  were  lying  and  untrustworthy  when  they  gave  evidence 
against  their  former  employer,  Shaftesbury,  and  so  'rogue  and 
saint  distinguish'd  by  their  side.' 


NOTES.  123 

155.  They  rack  even  Scripture.  This  is  partly  a  reference  to 
perjury  corroborated  by  the  scriptural  oath,  and  partly  a  refer- 
ence to  the  sectary  fanatics.  Cf.  with  this  attack  on  them,  Religio 
Laid,  400-426,  and  Hind  and  Panther,  passim. 

163.  our  oracle,  the  church,  or  possibly  the  King. 

166.  emporium,  a  mart ;  Greek  e^-rrbpiov,  Lat.  emporium.  Cf. 
Annus  Mirabilis,  st.  302,  "And  while  this  fam'd  emporium  we 
prepare. " 

180,  1.  The  head...  gouty  hands.  As  Shaftesbury's  intrigues 
appeared  to  be  making  a  civil  war  imminent,  some  of  the  leading 
merchants  came  over  to  the  royal  party.  The  '  head '  was  Sir 
John  Moore,  Lord  Mayor  in  1681  ;  the  two  gouty  hands  were  the 
two  Whig  sheriffs,  Thomas  Pilkington  and  Samuel  Shute.  See 
Absalom  and  Achitophel,  Part  II.  1131  and  1134,  where  Moore 
appears  as  Ziloah,  and  Pilkington  and  Shute  as  Ziph  and  Shimei. 

190.  chapmen,  merchants  ;  Anglo-Saxon,  cedpman. 

216.  Thus,  when  the  heir,  refers  to  the  parable  of  the  vineyard 
and  the  husbandmen  (St.  Matthew,  xxi.  33-39). 

225.  Cyclop-like,  a  reference  to  Odyssey,  ix.  288-291,  where 
Polyphemus  devours  six  of  Ulysses'  crew. 

227,  8.  Perhaps  not  wholly  . . .  clip  his  regal  rights.  This  verse 
and  the  verses  which  follow  describe  the.  '  cypher-like  state '  of 
royalty  to  which  Shaftesbury  and  his  party  would  have  wished 
to  reduce  the  crown.  Dry  den's  remarks  find  remarkable  corrobo- 
ration  in  North's  Examen,  p.  119.  'Clip  his  rights'  is  a  meta- 
phor from  clipping  coin.  Milled  coin  was  not  in  circulation  till 
1663,  and  much  of  the  old  hammered  coin  was  still  current ;  it 
was  easily  clipped,  and  this  clipping  of  the  coin  was  one  of  the 
great  grievances  of  Dryden's  age.  See  Macaulay,  Hist.  vol.  iv. 
p.  116. 

239.  whet  like  a  Croatian  band.  The  Croatians  in  Dryden's 
time  were  synonymous  with  ferocious  and  predatory  barbarians. 
'  Whet '  is  properly  an  active  verb,  from  the  Anglo-Saxon 
hwettan,  to  sharpen,  and  it  means  either  to  sharpen  a  metal 
weapon,  or  to  urge  on,  to  incite  ;  here  '  their  weapons '  must  be 
understood. 

255.  But  thou  etc.  A  fine  illustration  of  Dryden's  power  of 
rhetorical  invective. 

269.   stum,  new  wine,  must,  used  for  fermenting  old  wine  ; 
from  the   Dutch,   atom,  new  wine.     Cf.    Addison,    "A  clammy 
vapour  that  arises  from  the  stum  of  grapes  when  they  lie  mashed 
in  the  vat "  etc.  ( Travels  in  Italy],  and  cf.  Hudibras — 
"  Drink  every  letter  of  't  in  stum, 
And  make  it  brisk  champagne  become." 


124  THE  MEDAL. 

271.  formidable   cripple.     An  allusion  to   certain  bodily  in- 
firmities from  which  Shaftesbury  suffered,  references  to  which 
are  common  in  the  satires  of  that  age.     See  Albion  and  Albanius, 
instruction  for  the  decorations  of  Act  iii.  Duke's  Review,  and 
Mulgrave's  Exsay  on  Satire,  where  he  is  thus  described — 
"  The  nimblest  creature  of  the  busy  kind 
His  limbs  are  crippled  and  his  body  shakes, 

What  gravity  can  hold  from  laughing  out 
To  see  him  drag  his  feeble  legs  about. " 

283.  A  conventicle.     Accent  on  the  third  syllable,  as  always  in 
Dryden  and  his  contemporaries. 

284.  Bedlam,  the  celebrated  hospital  for  lunatics.     The  form 
is  a  corruption  from  Bethlehem,   the  hospital   of   St.   Mary  of 
Bethlehem,    incorporated  by  Henry  VIII.   in   1547  as  a  royal 
foundation  for  the  reception  of  lunatics. 

286.  Without  a  vision.  The  power  and  skill  with  which 
Dryden  predicts  the  result  of  Shaftesbury's  intrigues  and  policy 
are  as  remarkable  as  the  art  with  which  he  brings  his  satire  to 
its  climax. 

293.  The  swelling  poison.  A  cruel  and  disgusting  reference  to 
the  abscess  from  which  Shaftesbury  suffered,  and  which  for 
several  years  he  had  to  keep  open  by  a  silver  pipe. 

316.  And  thrust  out  Collatine.  The  reference  is  to  Lucius 
Tarquinius  Collatinus,  the  husband  of  Lucretia,  and  the  cousin 
of  Sextus  Tarquinius,  the  ravisher  of  Lucretia,  whose  deed  of 
shame  led  to  the  expulsion  of  the  Tarquins  and  the  abolition 
of  monarchy  in  Rome  ;  the  application  is  to  Monmouth.  As 
Collatinus,  though  he  had  been  instrumental  in  destroying  the 
Tarquins,  yet  went  into  exile  because  of  his  relationship  to  them, 
so  Shaftesbury,  who  in  his  intrigues  in  behalf  of  Monmouth  had 
inoculated  the  people  with  republican  ideas,  will  find  that  they 
will  thrust  out  the  King  he  would  impose  on  them. 

319.  halting  vengeance.  The  '  halting  vengeance '  was  the 
anarchy  into  which  Shaftesbury  and  his  partizans  had  plunged 
the  kingdom  ;  the  last  lines  refer  to  the  reaction  which  was  now 
plainly  setting  in  in  favour  of  the  Court  party. 

322.  Pudet  hsec.  '  Shameful  it  is  that  such  scandals  as  these 
could  have  been  uttered  by  you,  and  could  not  have  been  re- 
futed ! '  The  quotation  is  from  Ovid,  Met.  i.  758,  and  Dryden 
has  altered  '  nobis  '  into  '  vobis,'  as  it  is  addressed  to  the  Whigs. 


NOTES.  125 


MAC  FLECKNOE. 

AMONG  the  many  replies  both  in  verse  and  prose  elicited  by  The 
Medal  was  a  satire  entitled  The  Medal  of  John  Bayes.  In  this 
lampoon,  which  is  distinguished  by  its  scurrility  even  among  the 
scurrilous  libels  of  Settle,  Care,  and  Pordage,  Dryden  is  charged 
with  gross  and  infamous  crimes,  the  author  adding  in  the  preface 
that  Dryden  has  not  been  "  hardly  dealt  with,  since  he  knows 
and  so  do  all  his  old  acquaintance  that  there  is  not  one  untrue 
word  spoke  of  him."  The  writer  of  this  shameful  production 
was  Thomas  Shadwell.  Born  in  or  about  1640,  of  a  good  family, 
at  Santon  Hall  in  Norfolk,  he  had  been  educated  at  Cambridge, 
and  afterwards  entered  at  the  Middle  Temple.  He  had  then 
commenced  wit  and  play-wright,  and  in  this  capacity  had  come 
into  contact  with  Dryden.  For  some  time  they  appear  to  have 
been  on  friendly  terms.  In  1674  he  had,  in  conjunction  with 
Crowne,  assisted  Dryden  in  the  Remarks  on  Settle's  Empress  of 
Morocco.  Nor  had  their  friendly  relations  been  terminated  by 
certain  sneering  allusions  to  Dryden's  rhyming  plays  and  to  the 
salary  he  received  from  the  King's  Theatre,  which  Shadwell  had 
made  in  the  Epilogue  and  Dedication  of  his  Virtuoso  ;  for  we 
find  Dryden  assisting  him  two  years  afterwards  with  an  epilogue. 
[See  Dryden's  Epilogue  to  The  True  Widow.]  But  the  amity 
which  literary  jealousies  only  disturbed  or  impaired,  political 
differences  soon  converted  into  rancorous  hostility.  Dryden  had 
attached  himself  to  the  Tories,  Shadwell  to  the  Whigs.  In  1682 
Shadwell  attacked  the  Anti-Exclusionists  in  a  comedy  entitled 
The  Lancashire  Witches,  or  Teague  O'Divelly  the  Irish  Priest, 
and  the  war  between  the  poet  of  the  Tories  and  the  poetaster  of 
the  Whigs  began  in  earnest.  What  immediately  inspired  Mac 
Flecknoe  was  The  Medal  of  John  Bayes.  Much  of  the  satire  in 
Mac  Flecknoe  is  undoubtedly  unjust.  Shadwell  is,  as  a  comic 
poet,  greatly  superior  to  Dryden.  He  is  anything  but  dull  ;  he 
has  what  Dryden  has  not,  a  rich  vein  of  humour,  coarse  indeed, 
but  genuine,  much  real  dramatic  power  both  in  vivid  portraiture 
and  in  the  presentation  of  incident.  His  Epsom  Wells  and  his 
Squire  of  Alsatia  give  us  singxilarly  vivid  pictures  of  the  social 
life  of  those  times.  But  for  the  rest  he  was  fair  game  for  the 
satirist.  His  habits  were  sensual  and  dissolute  ;  he  was  fre- 
quently half-muddled  with  wine  or  opium  ;  he  had  a  foul  tongue 
and  a  foul  pen  ;  and  his  absurd  affectation  of  posing  as  a  second 
Ben  Jonson,  partly  on  the  strength  of  his  gross  and  unwieldy 
person,  and  partly  because  of  the  analogy,  not  altogether  fanciful, 
between  his  genius  and  Ben's,  made  him  the  laughing-stock  of  all 
who  knew  him.  After  the  appearance  of  Mac  Flecknoe  in  October, 
1682,  Shadwell  and  Dryden  lived,  to  borrow  a  phrase  from  Dr. 


126  MAC  FLECKNOE. 

Johnson,  '  in  a  perpetual  reciprocity  of  malevolence,'  and  Dryden, 
as  we  have  seen,  attacked  Shadwell  with  still  more  acrimony  in 
the  Second  Part  of  Absalom  and  Achitophel.  Mortifying  indeed 
must  it  have  been  to  him  when  in  August,  1689,  Shadwell  super- 
seded him  in  the  poet-laureateship.  Shadwell  died  December 
6th,  1692,  and  his  dramatic  works  were  printed  in  4  vols.  in  1720. 
Nothing  could  be  more  happy  and  ingenious  than  the  plot  of  Mac 
Flecknoe.  In  itself  inimitable,  it  became,  in  turn,  the  model  of  a 
satire  even  more  renowned,  for  Pope  derived  from  it  the  idea  of 
the  Dunciad. 

Richard  Flecknoe,  who  is  represented  as  the  father  and  pre- 
decessor of  Shadwell  in  the  kingdom  of  dulness,  was  an  Irish- 
man and  a  Roman  Catholic  priest.  An  industrious  scribbler 
for  upwards  of  half  a  century — his  first  poem  is  dated  1626,  and 
he  is  supposed  to  have  died  about  1678— he  had  gone  on  produc- 
ing poems,  plays,  and  prose  pieces — 

"  Though  it  were  in  spite 
Of  Nature  and  his  stars  to  write." 

Of  his  five  dramas  he  could  only  get  one  to  be  acted,  and 
that  was  damned.  He  had  been  the  butt  of  Marvel's  satire 
as  early  as  some  time  between  1642-1645,  between  which 
period  Marvel  was  in  Rome.  [See  for  his  satire,  which  is 
entitled  Fleckno  an  English  Priest  at  Rome,  his  poetical 
works,  Murray's  Edit.,  p.  120  seqq.~\  In  the  Dedication  to 
Limberham,  written  in  1678,  Dryden  notices  "how  natural 
is  the  connection  between  a  bad  poet  and  Flecknoe,"  and 
it  would  appear  from  an  ambiguous  passage  in  the  same  Dedica- 
tion that  Flecknoe  had  recently  died.  Dryden  selected  him  to 
fill  the  place  he  fills  in  this  satire  not  because  he  had  had  any 
quarrel  with  Flecknoe,  but  simply  because  his  name  had  become 
a  synonym  for  poetaster  and  dullard.  Thus  the  Earl  of  Dorset 
in  his  satire  on  Edward  Howard  writes — 

"  These  ....  antipodes  to  common  sense, 

These  fools  to  Flecknoe,  pry'thee  tell  me  whence 
Does  all  this  mighty  mass  of  dulness  spring  " ; 

and  Oldham,  who,  in  his  imitation  of  Horace's  Ars  Poetica  had 
spoken  respectfully  of  him,  classing  him  with  Cowley,  in  his 
satire  in  the  person  of  Spenser  classes  him  with  Pordage,  Edward 
Howard,. and  others,  who  "  are  damned  to  wrapping  drugs  and 
wares,  and  curs'd  by  all  their  broken  stationers."  On  the  whole 
Flecknoe  must  be  pronounced  to  be  all  that  Dryden 's  satire  im- 
plies ;  his  five  plays  are  certainly  beneath  contempt,  his  epigrams 
and  miscellaneous  poems,  as  a  rule,  dull  and  tame,  but  his  prose 
Enigmatical  Characters  are  not  without  merit.  He  was,  how- 
ever, the  author  of  one  really  beautiful  copy  of  verses  which 
ought,  in  justice  to  him,  to  be  quoted — 


NOTES.  127 

Still-born  Silence  !  thou  that  art 

Floodgate  of  the  deeper  heart  ! 

Offspring  of  a  heavenly  kind, 

Frost  o'  the  mouth  and  thaw  o'  the  mind  ! 

Secrecy's  confidant,  and  he 

Who  makes  religion  mystery  ! 

Admiration  speaking'st  tongue  ! 

Leave,  thy  desert  shades  among 

Reverend  hermits'  hallow'd  cells, 

Where  retir'd  devotion  dwells, 

With  thy  enthusiasms  come, 

Seize  our  tongues  and  strike  us  dumb." 

For  favourable  notices  of  Flecknoe  see  Southey's  Omniana,  vol.  i. 
p.  105,  and  Retrospective  Review,  vol.  v.  p.  266. 


True  blue  . . .  poet.  Blue  was  the  colour  of  the  badge  as- 
sumed by  the  Tories  or  Church  Party.  For  the  explanation  of 
the  title  cf.  North's  Examen,  p.  321,  "They  (the  Tories)  called 
the  adversaries  True  Slues  because  such  were  not  satisfied  to 
be  Protestants,  as  the  Churchmen  were,  but  must  be  true 
Protestants,  implying  the  others  to  be  false  ones,  just  not 
Papists." 

25.  goodly  fabric.  Shadwell's  gross  and  unwieldy  person  is 
again  ridiculed  in  the  character  of  Og  in  Second  Part  of  Absalom 
and  Achitophel,  and  see  infra,  193-5. 

29.  Heywood  and  Shirley.  Thomas  Heywood,  one  of  the  most 
voluminous  of  the  Elizabethan  dramatists  (died  about  1650),  who 
has  himself  told  us  that  he  had  "  either  an  entire  hand  or  at  least 
a  maine  finger  in  220  plays,"  of  which  23  are  extant.  Dryden  has 
not  done  Heywood  justice  ;  his  tragedy  A  Woman  Killed  with 
Kindness  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  touching  plays  which 
have  come  down  to  us  from  the  Elizabethan  age  ;  Charles  Lamb 
has  done  Heywood  no  more  than  justice  in  calling  him  "  a  sort  of 
prose  Shakespeare."  James  Shirley  (born  1594,  died  1666),  a 
voluminous  dramatic  poet,  the  last  of  the  Elizabethan  dramatists — 
"  The  last  of  a  great  race,  all  of  whom  spoke  nearly  the  same 
language  and  had  a  set  of  moral  feelings  and  notions  in  common  " 
(Lamb,  Specimens  of  English  Dramatic  Poets).  His  lyric  "The 
Glories  of  our  Birth  and  State,"  from  his  masque,  The  Contention 
of  A j ax  and  Ulysses,  is  one  of  the  gems  of  English  lyric  poetry. 

34.  in  Norwich  drugget.  Dryden  clothes  Flecknoe  in  clothes 
of  the  fashion  he  is  said  himself  to  have  worn  when  he  first 
came  to  London.  "  I  remember,"  writes  a  correspondent  to  the 


128  MAC  FLECKNOE. 

Gentleman 's  Magazine  for  1745,  "John  Dry  den  before  he  paid 
court  to  the  great  in  one  uniform  clothing  of  Norwich  drugget." 
It  was  a  rough  woollen  stuff. 

36.  When  to  King  John  of  Portugal.     This  is  a  reference  to  the 
following  passage  in  Flecknoe's  Travels.    Speaking  of  King  John 
of  Portugal  he  says  : — "He  no  sooner  understood  of  my  arrival 
but  he  sent  for  me  to  Court.    .    .    .    The  next  day  he  sent  for  me 
again  where,  after  some  two  or  three  hours  tryal  of  my  skill  (es- 
pecially in  the  composative  part  of  music,  in  which  his  majesty 
chiefly  exceeded)  I  past  Court  doctor  "  (A  delation  of  Ten  Years 
Travels  etc.,  p.  51). 

37.  that  glorious  day.      This  evidently  refers  to  some  actual 
incident,  but  Sir  Walter  Scott  and  the  commentators  have  been 
unable  to  discover  it,  and  I  have  not  been  more  successful. 

42.  in  Epsom  blankets.     The  reference  is  to  Shadwell's  play, 
Epsom   Wells.     Tossing  in  blankets  was  a  common  form  of  in- 
flicting humiliating  punishment.      See  Shadwell's  Sullen  Lovers, 
Act  v.,  "  Such  a  fellow  as  he  deserves  to  be  tossed  in  a  blanket," 
and  Pope,  Dunciad,  II.  153,  4— 

"  What  street,  what  lane  but  knows 
Our  purgings,  pumpings,  blanketings,  and  blows." 

43.  new  Arion.     Arion,  to  save  himself  from  being  murdered, 
is  fabled  to  have  thrown  himself  into  the  sea,  after  having  so 
charmed  by  his  strains  the  song-loving  dolphins  that  one  of  them 
carried  him  on  his  back  to  land  at  Tsenarus. 

47.  Pissing-alley,  a  passage  running  out  of  the  Strand  into 
Holywell  Street.     See  Stowe's  Survey  of  London  and  Map,  be- 
tween pp.  108,  9,  vol.  ii. 

48.  Resound  from  Aston  Hall.     I  regret  to  say,  that  after  much 
research,  I  can  throw  no  light  on  this  allusion.      It  appears  from 
the  Tixhall  Letters,  Part  \.,  p.  60,  that  Walter,  Lord  Astcn,  had 
a  house  at  the  Mulberry  Gardens  in  1635  which  inay  have  con- 
tinued in  the  family  after  his  death  in  1630  and  been  known  as 
Aston  Hall.     There  is  an  Aston  mentioned  in  the  Essay  on  Satire 
where  he  is  called  "dull  Aston,"  and  in  the  Epistle  to  Julian 
where  his  worthless  ballads  are  referred  to,  and  it  is  not  unlikely 
that  this  Aston  is  to  be  identified  with  Colonel  Aston,  a  friend  of 
Sheffield's  (see  his  Memoirs,  Works,  ii.,  pp.  8-10).     He  was  evi- 
dently a  well-to-do  person  and  a  scribbler,  and  his  residence  may 
have  been  known  as  Aston  Hall,  but  I  can  trace  no  connection 
between  this  person  and  Shadwell. 

53.  St.  Andre,  a  well-known  dancing-master  of  Dryden's  time. 
Of.  Limberham,  Act  iii.  Sc.   1,  "All  were  complete,  sir,  if  St. 


NOTES.  1 29 

Andre  would  make  steps  to  them."  So  Oldham  Imitation  of 
Horace — 

"  St.  Andre  never  mov'd  with  such  a  grace." 
54.  thy  own  Psyche's  rhyme.    Shadwell's  rhymed  opera  Psyche, 
produced  in  1675  :  the  versification  is  execrable. 

57.  Singleton,  John  Singleton,  a  celebrated  musician  and  prob- 
ably leader  of  the  private  band.  See  Lord  Braybrooke  and 
Pepys,  vol.  v.  p.  224,  and  vol.  i.  p.  156,  for  the  affront  put 
upon  him  by  the  King  silencing  his  band  that  the  French  music 
might  be  heard  instead. 

59.  Villerius,  Villerius,  Grand  Master  of  the  Knights  of  Malta, 
is  one  of  the  leading  characters  in  Davenant's  dramatic  opera, 
The  Siege  of  Rhodes.  A  long  lyrical  dialogue  between  Villerius 
and  Solyman  had  been  ridiculed  in  the  Rehearsal  as  a  combina- 
tion of  "  lute  and  sword."  See  Christie's  Note. 

64.  The  fair  Augusta,  London,  so  designated  in  the  reign  of 
Theodosius.  See  Crowne's  Masque  of  Calisto,  where  "  Augusta 
is  inclined  to  fears  ";  both  allusions  are  to  the  apprehension  caused 
by  the  political  disturbances. 

67.  Barbican  it  hight,  was  or  is  called.  The  sole  instance  in 
English  of  a  passive  verb.  Of.  Shakespeare,  Midsum.  N.  D., 
Act  v.  Sc.  1,  "This  griestly  beast  which  by  name  lion  hight"; 
and  Dry  den's  version  of  the  Cock  and  the  Fox,  40,  1 — 

"  The  noble  chanticleer 
So  hight  her  cock." 

Barbican  was  a  street  in  Aldersgate,  on  the  west  side  of  Redcross 
Street.  Its  name  is  derived  from  the  Low  Latin  barbicana,  an 
outwork,  through  the  French  barbacane. 

70.  a  Nursery.  A  theatre  established  under  letters  patent  in 
March,  1G64,  for  the  training  of  boys  and  girls  for  the  stage. 
All  "obscene,  scandalous,  or  offensive  passages"  were  pro- 
hibited, and  the  performances  were  to  be  restricted  to  "  what 
may  consist  of  harmless  and  inoffensive  delights  and  recreations." 
Allusions  to  it  are  not  uncommon  among  Dryden's  contemporaries 
who  sneered  at  its  decorum.  Thus,  in  the  Rehearsal,  Act  ii.  Sc.  2, 
Bayer  says,  "  I  am  resolved  hereafter  to  lend  my  thoughts  wholly 
for  the  service  of  the  Nursery. "  See  too  Oldham  in  his  Spenser's 
Ghost  Satire — 

"  Then  slighted  by  the  very  Nursery 

Mayest  thou  at  last  be  forc'd  to  starve  with  me." 
The  site  of  one  '  Nursery  '  was  in  Golden  Lane,  Barbican,  and  to 
this  Dryden  refers  ;  but  there  was  another  institution  known  as 
the  Nursery  in  Hatton  Garden.  See  Lord  Braybrooke's  Pepys' 
Diary,  vol.  iv.,  p.  318.  The  lines,  '  where  unfledged  actors'  etc., 
are  another  parody  from  Cowley's  Davideis,  Bk.  I.,  75-6 — 

I 


130  MAC  FLECKNOE. 

"  Beneath  the  dens  where  unfledged  tempests  lie, 
And  infant  minds  their  tender  voices  try." 

74.  little  Maximins.     Maximin  is  the  protagonist  in  Dryden's 
drama  of  Tyrannic  Love  ;  or,  The  Royal  Martyr. 

75.  Great  Fletcher,  the  celebrated  John  Fletcher,  the  coadjutor 
of  Beaumont  and  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of  the  Eliza- 
bethan dramatists. 

75,  76.  buskins  ...  socks.  The  buskin  or  high-heeled  boot  is 
synonymous  with  the  Greek  cothurnus,  which  was  worn  by 
actors  when  acting  tragedy,  and  so  symbolized  tragedy,  just  as 
the  sock  or  low-heeled  light  shoe  was  worn  in  comedy,  and 
so  symbolized  comedy.  So  Gray,  Bard,  128,  "  In  buskin' d 
measures  move,"  and  Milton,  U Allegro,  132,  "  If  Jonson's 
learned  sock  be  on." 

77.  gentle  Simkin.     Derrick  says  that  Simkin  "  is  a  character  of 
a  cobbler  in  an  interlude,"  but  what  interlude  he  does  not  say, 
and  no  one  as  yet  has  succeeded  in  discovering.      In  a  collection 
of  Drolls  and  Farces,  compiled  by  Francis  Kirkman  in  1673,  there 
is  one  called  The  Humours  of  Simpkin,  Simpkin  being  a  stupid 
clown  who  is  represented  as  intriguing  with  an  old  man's  wife 
and  this  may  be  the  interlude  to  which  Derrick  refers.     For  this 
information  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  P.  A.  Daniel. 

78.  monument . . .  minds.     Taken  from  Davenant — 

"  This  to  a  structure  led,  long  known  to  fame, 
And  call'd  the  monument  of  vanished  minds. " 

Gondibert,  Canto  v.  stanza  36. 

79.  Pure  clinches.    A  clinch  or  clench  is  a  pun,  or  play  on  words. 
Dryden  in  the  Essay  on  Satire,  commenting  on  the  pun  made  on 
Rex  in  Horace,  Sat.  I.  vii.,  calls  it  "  a  miserable  clinch,  in  my 
opinion,  for  Horace  to  record." 

80.  And  Panton.    Nothing  is  known  of  him  beyond  what  Derrick 
has  told  us,  that  he  was  "  a  celebrated  punster." 

83.  ancient  Decker,  Thomas  Decker,  the  celebrated  Eliza- 
bethan dramatist,  who  divided  with  Heywood  the  leadership  of 
the  Plebeian  School,  and  had  a  famous  controversy  with  Ben 
Jonson.  Some  of  his  comedies,  The  Roaring  Girl  and  The 
Honest  Whore,  are  in  their  kind  excellent. 

87.  worlds   of  "Misers,"  refers   to   Shadwell's  adaptation   of 
Moliere's  L'Avare  under  the  title  of  "  The  Miser." 

88.  Humourists  . . .  Hypocrites.     The  reference  in  the  first  is  to 
Shadwell's  comedy,   The  Humourists— the  second  would  seem  to 
refer  to  some  imitation  or  adaptation  of  Moliere's   Tartuffe  ;   if 
Shadwell  was  concerned  in  such  a  work,  there  is  now  no  trace  of 
it.       Tartu/e  had  been  adapted  in  1670  by  Mathew  Medbourne 
under  the  title  of  The  French  Puritan  and  had  been  received  with 


NOTES.  131 

'universal  applause.'  Possibly  Shadwell  may  have  intended  to 
recast  it  for  revival.  The  allusion,  if  there  be  any,  is  lost.  Scott 
conjectures  that  it  may  refer  to  the  Irish  priest  and  Tory  chaplain 
in  The  Lancashire  Witches,  who  is,  by  the  way,  again  introduced 
in  The  Amorous  Bigot. 

89.  Raymond  ...  Bruce,  Raymond,  'a  gentleman  of  wit  and 
humour,'  is  a  character  in  Shadwell's  Humourists,  and  Bruce  '  a 
gentleman  of  wit  and  sense,'  a  character  in  his  Virtuoso. 

96.  Ogleby,  John  Ogleby  or  Ogilby,  a  voluminous  poetaster 
and  translator,  born  near  Edinburgh  in  1600.  He  published  a 
translation  of  Virgil  in  1649-50,  of  JEsop  in  1651,  of  the  Iliad  and 
the  Odyssey  between  1660-5,  which,  as  a  boy,  Pope  admired,  but 
in  his  mature  years  he  pronounced  it  to  be  beneath  criticism.  In 
the  Dunciad,  Bk.  I.  141,  he  is  called  "  Ogilby  the  great."  Ogilby 
died  4th  Sept.,  1676. 

99.  Herringman,  Henry  Herringman  the.  publisher.  It  was 
for  him  Dryden  worked  when  he  first  came  to  London,  and 
Herringman  continued  to  publish  for  him  till  Tonson  became  his 
publisher.  Herringman  chiefly  published  poetry  and  plays,  hence 
his  place  here. 

104,  5.  His  brows  ...  lambent  dulness.  The  reference  is  to 
jEneid,  II.  680-86,  the  fiery  halo  over  the  head  of  lulus,  just  as 
'  Rome's  other  hope '  is  a  reference  to  JEneid,  XII.  168. 

106.  As  Hannibal.  See  PolyUus,  III.  ii.,  and  Livy  XXI. 
ch.  i. 

116.  Love's  Kingdom.  Flecknoe's  stupid  Pastoral-Trage- 
Comedy. 

124.  So  Romulus.  Romulus  is  said  to  have  wished  to  build 
Rome  on  the  Palatine,  Remus  on  the  Aventine,  and  it  was  de- 
cided to  settle  the  question  by  augury  ;  and  on  Remus  seeing  six 
vultures  and  Romulus  twelve,  the  question  was  decided  in  favour 
of  Romulus.  See  Plutarch's  Life  of  Romulus. 

143.  Let ...  five  years.  The  point  here  is  that  Shadwell  is 
taunted  with  having  taken  five  years  to  write  a  play  which  he 
pretended  he  had  been  obliged  to  hurry  out.  In  the  Prologue 
to  the  Virtuoso  he  complains  that  authors  cannot  do  justice  to 
themselves  because  they  have  no  time — 

"  Now  drudges  of  the  stage  must  oft  appear, 
They  must  be  bound  to  scribble  twice  a  year." 

145.  gentle  George,  Sir  George  Etherege,  the  wit,  poet,  and 
dramatist,  author  of  The  Comical  Revenge  ;  or,  Love  in  a  Tub, 
She  Would  if  She  Could,  and  The  Man  of  Mode,  or,  Sir  Fopling 
Flutter— &ll  'his  plays  were  very  successful.     He  died  in  1691. 

146,  7.  Dorimant ...  Loveit  ...  Cully,  Cockwood,  Fopling.     Dori- 
mant,    Loveit,    and   Fopling   are   characters   in    Etherege's   Sir 

i2 


132  MAC  FLECKNOE. 

Poppling  Flutter.    Cully  and   Cockwood   figure  in  his  Love,  in 
a  Tub. 

157.  alien  Sedley,  Sir  Charles  Sedley,  the  profligate  but  ac- 
complished wit,  dramatist,  and  minor  poet,  was  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  Dryden,  who  introduces  him  as  one  of  the  inter- 
locutors in  the  Essay  of  Dramatic  Poesy.  Sir  Charles  had  written 
the  Prologue  to  Shad  well's  play,  Epsom  Wells,  and  in  1679  Shad- 
well  dedicated  to  Sedley  his  True  Widow,  in  which  he  thanks 
him  for  his  assistance  in  correction  and  alteration.  This  was 
not  the  first  time  that  charges  of  plagiarism  had  been  brought 
against  Shadwell.  In  the  Dedication  of  Psyche  to  the  Duke 
of  Monmouth  nearly  eight  years  previously  he  had  said,  "  I 
have  met  with  some  enemies  who  are  always  ready  to  do  me 
the  irreparable  injury  to  blast  my  reputation  with  the  King,  and 
when  I  have  the  honour  to  please  him  .  .  .  endeavour  to  per- 
suade him  that  I  do  not  write  the  plays  I  own,  or  at  least  that 
the  best  part  of  them*  are  written  for  me. "  Shadwell's  plagiarisms 
were  notorious.  "  I  cannot  wholly  acquit  our  present  laureate," 
says  his  friend  Langbaine,  "from  borrowing ;  his  plagiarisms  being 
in  some  places  too  bold  and  open  to  be  disguised  "  (Dramatic 
Poets,  p.  443).  With  what  stinging  force  Dryden's  accusations 
must  have  come  home  will  therefore  be  obvious. 

162.  Sir  Formal's  oratory.  Sir  Formal  is  'the  orator,  a  florid 
coxcomb,'  in  Shadwell's  Virtuoso,  and  his  language  is  in  accord- 
ance with  his  character — he  is  a  stilted  fool. 

164.  northern  dedications.  Shadwell  dedicates  no  fewer  than 
six  of  his  plays  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  and  his  family — four  to 
the  Duke  himself,  one  to  the  Duchess,  and  one  to  Lord  Ogle,  the 
Duke's  son,  and  they  certainly  are  very  much  in  the  style  of  Sir 
Formal.  In  the  Vindication  of  the  Duke  of  Guise,  Dryden  refers 
again  to  Shadwell  as  the  northern  dedicator,  if  Scott  be  not 
correct  in  reading  dictator. 

166.  arrogating  Jonson's  hostile  name.     Shadwell  is  always 
declaring  himself  a  humble  disciple  of  Ben  Jonson,  whom,  in  the 
preface  to  The  Virtuoso,  he  calls  "  incomparably  the  best  dramatic 
poet  that  ever  was,  or,  I  believe,  ever  will  be,"  adding,  "I  had 
rather  be  author  of  one  scene  in  his  comedies  than  of  any  play 
that  this  age  has  produced. "     See,  too,  his  remarks  in  the  Prefaces 
to  The  Sullen  Lovers  and  The  Royal  Shepherdess,  and  particularly 
the  Epilogue  to  The  Humourists,  where  he  says — 
"  But  to  out-go  all  other  men  would  be, 
0  noble  Ben,  less  than  to  follow  thee. " 

173.  Prince  Nicander's  vein,  an  allusion  to  the  scene  between 
Prince  Nicander  and  Psyche,  in  the  first  act  of  Shadwell's 
Psyche. 

180.  New  humours.    A  reference  to  a  passage  in  the  Dedication 


NOTES.  133 

of  The  Virtuoso.  "Four  of  the  Humours  are  entirely  new,  and 
(without  vanity)  I  may  say  I  ne'er  produced  a  comedy  that  had 
not  some  natural  humour  in  it  not  represented  before,  and  I 
hope  I  never  shall." 

181.  This  is  that  boasted.     These  lines  are  a  parody  of  four 
lines  in  Shadwell's  Epilogue  to  The  Humourists — 
"  A  humour  is  the  bias  of  the  mind 
By  which  with  violence  'tis  inclin'd, 
It  makes  our  actions  lean  on  one  side  still, 
And  in  all  changes  that  way  bend  the  will." 
187.    A  tun   of    man.      See    Second    Part   of    Absalom    and 
Achitophel,  character  of   Og,  where   Shadwell   is   described   as 
"goodly  and  great,"  a  'monstrous  mass,'  a  'tun  of  midnight 
work '  etc. 

194.  thy  Irish  pen.  The  imputation  of  being  an  Irishman 
appears  to  have  distressed  Shadwell  more  than  anything  else  in 
the  Satire.  "He"  (Dryden)  "knows  that  I  never  saw  Ireland 
till  I  was  three-and-twenty  years  old,  and  was  there  but  four 
months,"  was  poor  Shadwell's  rejoinder.  See  Malone,  Life  of 
Dryden,  p.  173. 

196-9.  mild  anagram  ...  wings  display.  The  fashionable 
poets  between  the  end  of  Elizabeth's  reign  and  Dryden's  time 
were  fond  of  amusing  themselves  with  these  inanities.  For  an 
account  of  them,  see  D'Israeli's  Curiosities  of  Literature,  article 
on  "Literary  Follies,"  and  Addison's  paper  on  "False  Wit," 
Spectator,  Number  63.  Verses  were  arrayed  in  forms  of  wings, 
altars,  gloves,  eggs,  and  the  like.  Butler  ridicules  these  amuse- 
ments in  his  "Character  of  a  Small  Poet"  (Remains,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  1 1 8-20).  An  anagram  (Greek,  dva,  back,  again,  and  ypa^a,  a 
letter  or  written  character)  is  a  change  in  a  word  from  a  trans- 
position of  letters,  as  Juno  transformed  into  Unio.  An  acrostic 
is  a  short  poem  in  which  the  initial  letters  of  the  lines  spell  a 
word,  from  the  Greek  fi/cpos,  point  or  on  the  edge,  so  first,  and 
(m'x'oz',  the  diminutive  of  crrtxos,  a  row,  order,  or  line. 

204.  Bruce  and  Longville  . . .  trap  prepared.  A  pertinent  and 
amusing  allusion  to  the  scene  in  Shadwell's  Virtuoso  (Act  iii.) 
where  Miranda  and  Clarinda  at  the  instigation  of  Bruce  and 
Longville  abruptly  cut  short  Sir  Formal  Trifle's  speechifying 
by  making  him  disappear  through  a  trap-door.  In  the  last 
couplet  the  reference  of  course  is  to  the  mantle  of  Elijah 
falling  on  Elisha  (ii.  Kings,  ii.  13,  4). 


INDEX  TO   NOTES. 


The  numbers  refer  to  the  page  on  ivhich  the  note  is  to  be  found. 


A 

PAGE 

PAGE 

Bathsheba,    - 

104 

Aaron's  race, 

101 

Bedlam, 

124 

Abbethdin,    - 

97 

Ben  Jochanan, 

112 

Abdael, 

117 

Benaiah, 

116 

Absalom,  (see   also  fol- 

Bethel   (Slingsby),     see 

lowing   notes    passim 

note  on  Shimei, 

102 

and    Introduction    to 

Beza,      - 

120 

Abs.  and  Ach.}  - 

92 

Bezaliel, 

116 

Achitophel,    xxxv.    (In- 

Brave,  - 

121 

troduction     to     A  bs. 

Bruce,    - 

131 

and  Ach.  and  Medal, 
with  notes  passim). 

Buckingham       (George 
Villiers),  see  note  on 

Adam-wits,    - 

94 

Zimri,         ... 

101 

Adriel,  -        ... 

107 

Buchanan, 

119 

Agag's  murder, 

104 

Buskins, 

130 

Amiel,   -         -         - 

108 

Amnon's  murder,  - 

93 

Amri,    - 

117 

Anagrams,     ... 

133 

Caleb,    .... 

102 

Annabel, 

93 

Chapmen, 

123 

Anti  -  Bromingham, 

92 

Chaw,    ---. 

122 

Artificers, 

109 

Chirurgeon,   - 

92 

Asaph,  -.-- 

116 

Clinches, 

130 

Aston  Hall,   - 

128 

Cockle,  - 

97 

Augusta, 

129 

Cockwood,     - 

131 

Collatine, 

124 

Cooper  (Anthony  Ashley), 

see  note  on  Achitophel. 

Balaam, 

101 

Corah,   .... 

103 

Balak,    - 

112 

Crassus  (Marcus  L.), 

122 

Barbican, 

129 

Croatian, 

123 

Barzillai,        - 

105 

Cully,    .... 

131 

134 


INDEX  TO  NOTES. 


135 


D 

PAGE 

PAGE 

Helon,   ..-- 

117 

Dashed, 

96 

Herringman  (H.),  - 

131 

Davenant, 

130 

Hey  wood  (Thomas), 

127 

Diadem, 

100 

Howard  (Lord  of  Escriche), 

Dishonest,      - 

95 

see  note  on  Nadab, 

102 

Decker, 

130 

Husbandry,   - 

101 

Doeg,     .... 

113 

Humourists,  - 

130 

Dolben  (Dr.  John), 

107 

Humours, 

132 

Dorimant, 

131 

Hushai, 

107 

Hybla,  -.-- 

104 

Hyde     (Laurence),     see 

note  on  Hushai, 

107 

Egyptian  rites, 

96 

Hypocrites,   - 

130 

Eliab,    .... 

117 

Emporium,    - 

123 

Epsom  blankets,    - 
Esau's  hands, 

128 
109 

Idiots,   -.-- 

120 

Etherege  (George), 
Ethnic  plot,  - 

131 
101 

Interlope, 
Irish  pen, 
Issachar, 

120 
133 
105 

Ishban,  -         -         -         - 

111 

Ishbosheth,    - 

94 

Ferguson   (Robert),    see 

note  on  Judas,    - 

111 

J 

Flecknoe  (Richard), 
Fletcher  (John),     - 
Fond,     - 
Fopling, 
Formal  (Sir), 

126-7 
130 
100 
131 
132 

'Jack,'- 
Jebusites, 
John  of  Portugal,  - 
Johnson  (Rev.  Sam.  ),  see 
note  on  Ben  Jochanan, 

120 
95 
128 

122 

Jonas,    - 

102 

G 

Jones  (Sir  William),  see 

Gath, 

99 

note  on  Jonas,    - 

102 

Gears,    - 

121 

Jonson  (Ben), 

132 

Godfrey    (Sir    Edmund 

Jordan's  sand, 

99 

Bury),    see    note    on 

Jotham, 

107 

Agag, 

104 

Jothran, 

116 

Grace,  her  hinder  parts, 

109 

Judas,   -         -         -         - 

111 

Grey  (Lord),  see  note  on 

Caleb, 

102 

Gulled,  .... 

109 

, 

Knite's  ...  province, 

116 

H 

Halifax     (Marquis    of), 

L 

see  note  on  Jotham,  - 

107 

Longville, 

133 

Hannibal, 

131 

Loveit,  -         --. 

131 

Hebron, 

94 

Love's  Kingdom,  - 

131 

136 


SATIRES  OF  DRYDEN. 


M 

PACK 

Mac  Flecknoe,  125,  see 

following  notes  passim. 
Manifest,        ...         97 
Maximins,     -  -       130 

Mephibosheth,       -         -       113 
Metal,  99 

Michal,  -  93 

Monmouth    (Duke    of), 
see  note  on  Absalom. 
Mulgrave  (Earl  of),  see 

note  on  Adriel,  -         -       107 
Mumble,        -         -        -       122 


N 

Nadab  102 

Nicander.       -         -  -       132 

Northern  dedications,  -       132 

Norwich  drugget,  -  -       127 

Nursery  (The),       -  129-30 


Gates  (Titus),   see   note 

on  Corah,  -  -  -  103 
Og,  114,  and  Introduction 

to  Mac  Flecknoe. 
Ogleby,  -       131 

Origen,  -  92 

Ormond    (Duke  of),  see 

note  on  Barzillai,  -  105 
Ossory  (Ld.),  -  -  106 
Othniel,  -  -  -  117 


Panton,          -         -         -  130 

Paschal  lamb,         -         -  102 

Phaleg,  -         -         -         -  112 

Pharaoh,         ...  99 

Phocion,  121 

Pigmy,  96 

Pindaric  way,         -         -  121 
Player  (Sir  Thomas),  see 

note  on  Rabsheka,      -  111 


PAGE 

Plume,  -        -        -        -  108 

Polander,       -         -         -  119 

Pomps,           ...  99 

Popularly,      -         -         -  100 
Pordage    (Samuel),    see 

note  on  Mephibosheth,  113 

Practised,      -         -         -  106 

Predicament,          -         -  104 

Prevail,          -         -         -  100 

Psyche,          -        -        -  129 


R 

Rabbinical  degree, 

Rabsheka, 

Raymond, 

Rebate, 

Rechabite,     - 

Romulus, 


104 
111 
131 
92 
103 
131 


Sancroft  (William),   see 

note  on  Zadoc,  -         -  106 

Saul,      ....  94 

Scanderberg,          -         -  119 

Scheva,-         -         -         -  117 

Sedley  (Sir  Charles),      -  132 
Settle     (Elkanah),     see 
note    on    Doeg,    and 

Memoir  of  Dry  den.     -  113 

Several  mothers,    -         -  93 
Seymour  (Sir  Edward), 

see  note  on  Amiel,      -  108 
Shadwell  (Thomas),  125, 
and     notes     to     Mac 
Flecknoe  passim. 

Shimei,  -         ...  102 

Shirley  (James),    -  127 

Simkin,          -         -         -  130 

Sincerely,       ...  94 

Singleton  (John),  -         -  129 

Socks,    -         -         -  130 

Socrates,        -         -         -  121 

Standard,       -         -         -  105 

St.  Andre,     -        -         -  128 


INDEX  TO  NOTES. 


137 


Stum,    - 

PAGE 

123 

V 

Supplant, 

109 

Vare,     - 

. 

T 

Villerius,       - 

Tate  (Nahum),       - 

110 

Thynne    (Thomas),    see 

w 

note  on  Issachar, 
Tory,  origin  of  term,     - 
Transprose,    - 

105 
91 
114 

Whig,  origin 

of  term, 

Triple  bond,  - 

97 

Z 

True  Blue,     - 

127 

Zadoc,   - 

. 

Zaken,  - 

_ 

U 

Ziloah,  - 

Urania, 

118 

Zimri,    - 

\ 

Uzza,              ...... 

113 

Ziph,     -        - 

PAGE 

103 
129 


91 


106 
115 
118 
101 
118 


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PR  3412  .C56  1897 

SMC 

Dryden,  John,  1631-1700. 

The  Satires  of  Dryden  : 

Absalom  and  Achitophel, 
BBX-5006  (sk)