To
have the estates and lives of three kingdoms as much at his disposal,
as was the little inheritance of his father, and to be as noble and
liberal in the spending of them?
have the estates and lives of three kingdoms as much at his disposal,
as was the little inheritance of his father, and to be as noble and
liberal in the spending of them?
Dryden - Complete
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Project Gutenberg's The Works of John Dryden, Vol. 9 (of 18), by John Dryden
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Title: The Works of John Dryden, Vol. 9 (of 18)
Author: John Dryden
Editor: Walter Scott
Release Date: June 16, 2015 [EBook #49221]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF JOHN DRYDEN ***
Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Jane Robins and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www. pgdp. net
THE
WORKS
OF
JOHN DRYDEN,
NOW FIRST COLLECTED
_IN EIGHTEEN VOLUMES_.
ILLUSTRATED
WITH NOTES,
HISTORICAL, CRITICAL, AND EXPLANATORY,
AND
A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,
BY
WALTER SCOTT, ESQ.
VOL. IX.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR WILLIAM MILLER, ALBEMARLE STREET,
BY JAMES BALLANTYNE AND CO. EDINBURGH.
1808.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME NINTH.
PAGE.
POEMS, HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL.
Heroic Stanzas to the Memory of Oliver Cromwell, 3
Notes, 15
Astrea Redux, 25
Notes, 41
To his Sacred Majesty, a Panegyric on his Coronation, 53
Notes, 59
To Lord Chancellor Hyde, presented on New-year's-day, 1662, 63
Satire on the Dutch, 71
To her Royal Highness the Duchess of York, on the
Victory gained by the Duke over the Dutch, &c. 73
Notes, 79
Annus Mirabilis, the Year of Wonders, 1666, an Historical Poem, 81
Dedication to the Metropolis of Great Britain, 89
An Account of Annus Mirabilis, in a Letter
to the Hon. Sir Robert Howard, 92
Notes, 158
Absalom and Achitophel, Part I. 195
To the Reader, 208
Notes on Part I. 249
Part II. 319
Notes on Part II. 354
The Medal, a Satire against Sedition, 407
Epistle to the Whigs, 417
Notes, 441
POEMS,
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL.
HEROIC STANZAS
TO
THE MEMORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL.
These verses compose the earliest of our author's political poems, and
are among the first which he wrote, of any length or consequence. The
first edition is now before me, by the favour of my friend Richard
Heber, Esq. ; and, while correcting this sheet, I received another
copy from Mr Finlay, author of the "Vale of Ellerslie. " It is of the
last degree of rarity, since it has escaped the researches even of Mr
Malone. The full title is, "A Poem upon the Death of his late Highness
Oliver, Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland; written by
Mr Dryden. London, printed for William Wilson, and are to be sold in
Well-Yard, near Little St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1659," 4to. Upon
comparing this rare edition with those of a later date, no material
alterations occur, excepting that the spelling is modernized, and the
title abridged.
Some of our author's biographers have deemed it necessary to apologise
for his chusing this subject, by referring to his near connection
with Sir Gilbert Pickering, the friend and confident of the deceased
usurper. There is, however, little reason to suppose, that Dryden did
any violence to his own inclinations, to gratify the political feelings
of his kinsman and patron. He had been bred in anti-monarchical
principles, and did not probably change, till the nation changed with
him. The character of Cromwell was in itself an inviting theme to so
true a poet. The man, of whom Clarendon said, that "even his enemies
could not condemn him, without commending him at the same time," and
of whose exploits Cowley has given so animating a detail; whom, in
short, his very enemies could not mention without wonder, if they
with-held applause,--afforded to those who favoured his politics many a
point of view, in which the splendour of his character might hide its
blemishes. [1] It is remarkable, however, that, in handling this theme,
Dryden has observed a singular and happy delicacy. The topic of the
civil war is but slightly dwelt on; and, although Cromwell is extolled,
his eulogist abstains from any reflections against those, through whom
he cut his way to greatness. He considers the Protector when in his
meridian height, but passes over the steps by which he attained that
elevation. It is also remarkable, that although Sir Gilbert Pickering
was one of Richard Cromwell's council, our author abstains from any
compliment to that pageant of authority; when a panegyrick upon the son
was a natural topic of consolation after mourning over the loss of his
father. Sprat, upon the same occasion, did not omit this obvious topic,
but launched forth into prophecies, to which the event did very little
credit. [2]
Notwithstanding these symptoms of caution and moderation, the subject
of this first public essay of our author's poetical talents was
repeatedly urged against him during the political controversies in
which, through the reigns of Charles II. and his brother, he was
constantly engaged. One offended antagonist carried his malice so far,
as actually to reprint an edition of the Elegy, with a dull postscript,
in which he makes Dryden acknowledge his alleged apostacy. [3]
Of the poetical merits of the Elegy, we have elsewhere spoken more
fully. The manly and solemn march of the stanza gave promise of that
acute poetical ear, which afterwards enabled Dryden to harmonize our
verification. The ideas, though often far-fetched, and sometimes
ambiguously expressed, indicate the strength and vigour of his mind.
They give obvious tokens of a regeneration of taste; for though, in
many instances, the conceits are very extravagant, yet they are,
in general, much more moderate than those in the Elegy upon Lord
Hastings, whose whole soul was rendered a celestial sphere, by the
virtues which were stuck in it; and his body little less brilliantly
ornamented by the pustules of small pox, which were first rose-buds,
and then stars. The symptoms of emerging from the false taste and
impertinent witticisms of Donne and Cowley, were probably more owing
to our author's natural feeling of what were the proper attributes of
poetry, than to any change in the taste of the age. Sprat, who also
solemnizes the decease of Cromwell, runs absolutely riot in pindarics,
and furnishes as excellent an instance of useless labour, and wit
rendered ridiculous by misapplication, as can be found in Cowley
himself. Cromwell's elevation is compared to the raising up of the
brazen serpent, in the Pentateuch;[5] the classic metamorphosis of
Ajax's blood into the hyacinth[6] furnishes a simile for the supposed
revival of letters through the blood spilled by Cromwell; his sword is
preferred to the flaming brand of the cherub, because it had made a
paradise, which the other only guarded; finally, the Protector's temper
grew milder in the progress of his warfare, as his armour, being made
of steel, grew smoother by use. [7] It must be allowed, that there are,
in Dryden's poem, many, and greatly too many, epigrammatic turns; each
is, however, briefly winded up in its own stanza; while the structure
of Sprat's poem enabled him to hunt down his conceits through all the
doubling and winding of his long pindaric strophé. Dryden, for example,
says, that Cromwell strewed the island with victories,
Thick as the galaxy with stars is sown.
Sprat spins out nearly the same idea, in the following extraordinary
manner:
Others' great actions are
But thinly scattered, here and there;
At best, but all one single star;
But thine the milky way;
All one continued light of undistinguished day.
They thronged so close, that nought else could be seen,
Scarce any common sky did come between.
By turning the reader's attention to this comparison betwixt the poems
of Sprat and Dryden, I mean to shew, that our author was already
weaning himself from that franticly witty stile of composition, which
the most ingenious of his contemporaries continued to practise and
admire; although he did not at once abandon it, but retrenched his
quaint conceits before he finally discarded them.
The poem of Waller on Cromwell's death, excepting one unhappy and
celebrated instance of the bathos,[8] is the best of his compositions;
and, separately considered, must be allowed to be superior to that of
Dryden, by whom he was soon after so far distanced in the poetical
career.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: "What can be more extraordinary, than that a person of
mean birth, no fortune, no eminent qualities of body, which have
sometimes, or of mind, which have often, raised men to the highest
dignities, should have the courage to attempt, and the happiness to
succeed in, so improbable a design, as the destruction of one of the
most ancient, and most solid founded monarchies upon the earth? That
he should have the power, or boldness, to put his prince and master
to an open and infamous death? To banish that numerous and strongly
allied family? To do all this under the name and wages of a parliament?
To trample upon them, too, as he pleased, and spurn them out of doors
when he grew weary of them? To raise up a new and unheard-of monster
out of their ashes? To stifle that in the very infancy, and set up
himself above all things that ever were called sovereign in England?
To oppress all his enemies by arms, and all his friends afterwards by
artifice? To serve all parties patiently for a while, and to command
them victoriously at last? To over-run each corner of the three
nations, and overcome with equal facility both the riches of the south
and the poverty of the north? To be feared and courted by all foreign
princes, and adopted a brother to the gods of the earth? To call
together parliaments with a word of his pen, and scatter them again
with the breath of his mouth? To be humbly and daily petitioned, that
he would please to be hired, at the rate of two millions a year, to be
the master of those who had hired him before to be their servant?
To
have the estates and lives of three kingdoms as much at his disposal,
as was the little inheritance of his father, and to be as noble and
liberal in the spending of them? And, lastly, (for there is no end of
all the particulars of his glory,) to bequeath all this with one word
to his posterity? To die with peace at home, and triumph abroad? To be
buried among kings, and with more than regal solemnity? And to leave a
name behind him, not to be extinguished but with the whole world, which
as it is now too little for his praises, so might have been too for his
conquests if the short line of his human life could have been stretched
out to the extent of his immortal designs? "--COWLEY'S _Works_, Vol. II.
p. 583.
Perhaps the facetious Tom Brown has hit upon the true reason of
Dryden's choice of a subject, when he makes him say, "that he had no
particular kindness for the person of Oliver; but that it was much
the same with the poets as with the Jews--a hero cannot start up in
any quarter of the world, be his quarrel right or wrong, but both are
apt to think him the Messias, and presently pitch upon him as the
fittest person to deliver the twelve tribes and the nine muses out of
captivity. "--_Reasons of Mr Bayes' changing his religion. _]
[Footnote 2:
Nor only didst thou for thy age provide,
But for the years to come beside;
Our after times, and late posterity,
Shall pay unto thy fame as much as we;
They too are made by thee.
When Fate did call thee to a higher throne,
And when thy mortal work was done;
When Heaven did say it, and thou must be gone,
Thou him to bear thy burden chose,
Who might, if any could, make us forget thy loss.
Nor hadst thou him designed,
Had he not been,
Not only to thy blood, but virtue, kin;
Not only heir unto thy throne, but mind:
'Tis he shall perfect all thy cares,
And with a finer thread weave out thy loom.
So one did bring the chosen people from
Their slavery and fears;
Led them through their pathless road,
Guided himself by God;
H'ad brought us to the borders, but a second hand
Did settle and secure them in the promised land.
_Verses to the happy Memory of the late Lord Protector. _
]
[Footnote 3: This edition occurs in the Luttrell Collection, and the
title runs thus: "An Elegy on the Usurper O. C. by the Author of
'Absalom and Achitophel;' published to show the loyalty and integrity
of the Poet. "
POSTSCRIPT.
The printing of these rhimes afflicts me more
Than all the drubs I in Rose-Alley bore;
This shows my nauseous, mercenary pen,
Would praise the vilest and the worst of men.
A rogue like Hodge[4] am I, the world well know it;
Hodge was his fiddler, and I, John, his poet.
This may prevent the pay for which I write;
For I for pay against my conscience fight.
I must confess, so infamous a knave
Can do no service, though the humblest slave:
Villains I praise, and patriots accuse; }
My railing and my fawning talents use; }
Just as they pay, I flatter or abuse }
But I to men in power a ---- am still,
To rub on any honest face they will.
Thus on I'll go; for libels I declare; }
Best friends no more than worst of foes I'll spare; }
And all this I can do, because I dare. }
He who writes on, and cudgels can defy,
And, knowing he'll be beaten, still writes on, am I.
_London, printed for J. Smith, 1681. _
J. D.
]
[Footnote 4: Sir Roger L'Estrange, whose skill in music is said to have
amused Cromwell, who had some turn that way. ]
[Footnote 5:
Thou, as once the healing serpent rose,
Was lifted up, not for thyself, but us.
]
[Footnote 6:
When Ajax died, the purple blood,
That from his gaping wound had flowed,
Turned into letters; every leaf
Had on it wrote his epitaph:
So from that crimson flood,
Which thou by fate of times wert led
Unwillingly to shed,
Letters and learning rose, and arts renewed.
]
[Footnote 7:
Like steel, when it much work hath past,
That which was rough does shine at last;
Thy arms, by being oftener used, did smoother grow.
]
[Footnote 8:
Beneath the tropics is our language spoke,
And _part of Flanders_ has received our yoke.
]
HEROIC STANZAS
CONSECRATED
TO THE MEMORY OF
HIS HIGHNESS OLIVER,
LATE LORD PROTECTOR OF THIS COMMONWEALTH,
WRITTEN AFTER THE CELEBRATING OF HIS FUNERAL.
I.
And now 'tis time; for their officious haste,
Who would before have borne him to the sky,
Like eager Romans, ere all rites were past,
Did let too soon the sacred eagle fly. [9]
II.
Though our best notes are treason to his fame,
Joined with the loud applause of public voice;
Since heaven, what praise we offer to his name,
Hath rendered too authentic by its choice.
III.
Though in his praise no arts can liberal be,
Since they, whose muses have the highest flown,
Add not to his immortal memory,
But do an act of friendship to their own:
IV.
Yet 'tis our duty, and our interest too,
Such monuments as we can build to raise;
Lest all the world prevent what we should do,
And claim a title in him by their praise.
V.
How shall I then begin, or where conclude,
To draw a fame so truly circular?
For in a round, what order can be shewed,
Where all the parts so equal perfect are?
VI.
His grandeur he derived from heaven alone;
For he was great, ere fortune made him so:
And wars, like mists that rise against the sun,
Made him but greater seem, not greater grow.
VII.
No borrowed bays his temples did adorn,
But to our crown he did fresh jewels bring;
Nor was his virtue poisoned soon as born,
With the too early thoughts of being king.
VIII.
Fortune, (that easy mistress to the young,
But to her ancient servants coy and hard,)
Him at that age her favourites ranked among,
When she her best-loved Pompey did discard. [10]
IX.
He, private, marked the faults of others' sway,
And set as sea-marks for himself to shun;
Not like rash monarchs, who their youth betray
By acts their age too late would wish undone.
X.
And yet dominion was not his design;
We owe that blessing, not to him, but heaven,
Which to fair acts unsought rewards did join;
Rewards, that less to him, than us, were given.
XI.
Our former chiefs, like sticklers of the war,
First sought to inflame the parties, then to poise:
The quarrel loved but did the cause abhor;
And did not strike to hurt, but make a noise. [11]
XII.
War, our consumption, was their gainful trade;
We inward bled whilst they prolonged our pain;
He fought to end our fighting, and essayed
To staunch the blood, by breathing of the vein. [12]
XIII.
Swift and resistless through the land he past,
Like that bold Greek, who did the East subdue;
And made to battles such heroic haste,
As if on wings of victory he flew.
XIV.
He fought, secure of fortune as of fame,
Till by new maps the island might be shewn;
Of conquests, which he strewed where'er he came,
Thick as the galaxy with stars is sown. [13]
XV.
His palms, though under weights they did not stand,
Still thrived;[14] no winter could his laurels fade:
Heaven, in his portrait, shewed a workman's hand,
And drew it perfect, yet without a shade.
XVI.
Peace was the prize of all his toil and care,
Which war had banished, and did now restore:
Bolognia's walls thus mounted in the air,
To seat themselves more surely than before. [15]
XVII.
Her safety rescued Ireland to him owes;[16]
And treacherous Scotland, to no interest true,
Yet blest that fate which did his arms dispose
Her land to civilize, as to subdue. [17]
XVIII.
Nor was he like those stars which only shine,
When to pale mariners they storms portend;
He had his calmer influence, and his mien
Did love and majesty together blend.
XIX.
'Tis true, his countenance did imprint an awe,
And naturally all souls to his did bow;
As wands of divination downward draw,
And point to beds where sovereign gold doth grow. [18]
XX.
When past all offerings to Feretrian Jove,[19]
He Mars deposed, and arms to gowns made yield;
Successful councils did him soon approve,
As fit for close intrigues, as open field.
XXI.
To suppliant Holland he vouchsafed a peace,
Our once bold rival of the British main;
Now tamely glad her unjust claim to cease,
And buy our friendship with her idol, gain. [20]
XXII.
Fame of the asserted sea, through Europe blown,
Made France and Spain ambitious of his love;
Each knew that side must conquer he would own,
And for him fiercely, as for empire, strove.
XXIII.
No sooner was the Frenchman's cause embraced,
Than the light Monsieur the grave Don outweighed:[21]
His fortune turned the scale where'er 'twas cast,
Though Indian mines were in the other laid.
XXIV.
When absent, yet we conquered in his right;
For, though some meaner artist's skill were shown,
In mingling colours, or in placing light,
Yet still the fair designment was his own.
XXV.
For, from all tempers he could service draw;
The worth of each, with its alloy, he knew;
And, as the confident of Nature, saw
How she complexions did divide and brew. [22]
XXVI.
Or he their single virtues did survey,
By intuition, in his own large breast;
Where all the rich ideas of them lay,
That were the rule and measure to the rest.
XXVII.
When such heroic virtue heaven sets out,
The stars, like commons, sullenly obey;
Because it drains them when it comes about,
And therefore is a tax they seldom pay. [23]
XXVIII.
From this high spring our foreign conquests flow,
Which yet more glorious triumphs do portend;
Since their commencement to his arms they owe,
If springs as high as fountains may ascend.
XXIX.
He made us freemen of the continent,
Whom nature did like captives treat before;
To nobler preys the English lion sent,
And taught him first in Belgian walks to roar. [24]
XXX.
That old unquestioned pirate of the land,
Proud Rome, with dread the fate of Dunkirk heard;
And, trembling, wished behind more Alps to stand,
Although an Alexander were her guard. [25]
XXXI.
By his command we boldly crossed the line. [26]
And bravely fought where southern stars arise;
We traced the far-fetched gold unto the mine,
And that, which bribed our fathers, made our prize.
XXXII.
Such was our prince; yet owned a soul above
The highest acts it could produce to show:
Thus, poor mechanic arts in public move,
Whilst the deep secrets beyond practice go.
XXXIII.
Nor died he when his ebbing fame went less,
But when fresh laurels courted him to live:
He seemed but to prevent some new success,
As if above what triumphs earth could give.
XXXIV.
His latest victories still thickest came,
As near the centre motion doth increase;
'Till he, pressed down by his own weighty name,
Did, like the vestal, under spoils decease. [27]
XXXV.
But first the ocean as a tribute sent
The giant prince of all her watry herd;
And the isle, when her protecting Genius went,
Upon his obsequies loud sighs conferred. [28]
XXXVI.
No civil broils have since his death arose,
But faction now by habit does obey;
And wars have that respect for his repose,
As winds for halcyons when they breed at sea.
XXXVII.
His ashes in a peaceful urn shall rest;[29]
His name a great example stands, to show,
How strangely high endeavours may be blessed,
Where piety and valour jointly go.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 9: Note I. ]
[Footnote 10: Note II. ]
[Footnote 11: Note III. ]
[Footnote 12: Note IV. ]
[Footnote 13: Note V. ]
[Footnote 14: Note VI. ]
[Footnote 15: Note VII. ]
[Footnote 16: Note VIII. ]
[Footnote 17: Note IX. ]
[Footnote 18: Note X. ]
[Footnote 19: To which deity the Romans usually sacrificed before
marching to war, according to an ancient institution of Romulus. ]
[Footnote 20: Note XI. ]
[Footnote 21: Note XII. ]
[Footnote 22: Note XIII. ]
[Footnote 23: The author seems to allude to the old proverb, "_Sapiens
dominabitur astris_. " The influence of the stars yielded reluctantly to
Cromwell's heroic virtues, as the commons submit sullenly to be taxed. ]
[Footnote 24: Note XIV. ]
[Footnote 25: Note XV. ]
[Footnote 26: Note XVI. ]
[Footnote 27: Note XVII. ]
[Footnote 28: Note XVIII. ]
[Footnote 29: Note XIX. ]
NOTES
ON
HEROIC STANZAS.
Note I.
_And now 'tis time; for their officious haste,
Who would before have borne him to the sky,
Like eager Romans, ere all rites were past,
Did let too soon the sacred eagle fly. _--St. I. p. 8.
Cromwell's disease, a fever and tertian ague, was accompanied by fits
of swooning, which occasioned, more than once, a premature report of
his death. It was probably this circumstance, which made some of his
fanatical chaplains doubt the fact, after it had actually taken place.
"Say not he is dead," exclaimed one of them, like Omar over the corpse
of Mahomet; "for, if ever the Lord heard my prayers, he has assured me
of the life of the Protector. " The two last lines of the stanza allude
to the Roman custom of letting an eagle fly from the funeral pile of a
deceased emperor, which represented his spirit soaring to the regions
of bliss, or his guardian genius convoying it thither. It is described
at length in the fourth book of Herodian, who says, that, after this
ceremony of consecration, the deceased emperor was enrolled among the
Roman deities.
Note II.
_Fortune, (that easy mistress to the young,
But to her ancient servants coy and hard,)
Him at that age her favourites ranked among,
When she her best-loved Pompey did discard. _--St. VIII. p. 9.
Cromwell was upwards of forty before he made any remarkable figure; and
Pompey, when he had attained the same period of life, was deserted by
the good fortune which had accompanied his more early career.
Note III.
_Our former chiefs, like sticklers of the war,
First sought to inflame the parties, then to poise:
The quarrel loved, but did the cause abhor;
And did not strike to hurt, but make a noise. _--St. XI. p. 10.
Essex, Manchester, Sir William Waller, and the earlier generals of
the Parliament, were all of the Presbyterian party, who, though they
had drawn the sword against the king, had no will to throw away the
scabbard. They were disposed so to carry on the war, that, neither
party being too much weakened, a sound and honourable peace might have
been accomplished on equal terms. But the Independants flew at higher
game; and, as the more violent party usually prevail during times of
civil discord, they attained their object. Cromwell openly accused the
Earl of Manchester of having refused to put an end to the war, after
the last battle at Newbury, when a single charge upon the King's rear
might have dissipated his army for ever. "I offered," he averred, "to
perform the work with my own brigade of horse; let Manchester and the
rest look on, if they thought fit: but he obstinately refused to permit
the attempt, alleging, that, if the king's army was beaten, he would
find another; but if that of the Parliament was overthrown, there would
be an end of their cause, and they would be all punished as traitors. "
This suspicion of the compromising temper of the Presbyterian leaders,
led to the famous _self-denying ordinance_, by which all members of
both houses were declared incapable of holding a military command.
By this new model, all the power of the army was thrown, nominally,
into the hands of Fairfax, but, really and effectually, into that of
Cromwell, who was formally excepted from the operation of the act, and
of the Independants; men determined to push the war to extremity, and
who at length triumphed over both King and Parliament.
Note IV.
_He fought to end our fighting, and essayed
To staunch the blood, by breathing of the vein. _--St. XII. p. 10.
This passage, which seems to imply nothing farther than that Cromwell
conducted the war so as to push it to a conclusion, was afterwards
invidiously interpreted by Dryden's enemies, as containing an explicit
approbation of the execution of Charles I.
Thus, in the panegyric quoted in the introductory remarks to this poem,
Such wonders have thy powerful raptures shewn,
Pythagoras' transmigration thou'st outdone;
His souls of heroes and great chiefs expired,
Down into birds and noble beasts retired:
But then to savages and monsters dire,
Canst infuse sparks even of celestial fire;
Make treason glory, murderers heroes live,
And even to regicides canst godhead give.
Thus in thy songs the yet warm bloody dart,
Fresh reeking in a martyred monarch's heart,
Burnished by verse, and polished by thy lines,
The rubies in imperial crowns outshines;
Whilst in applause to that sad day's success,
So black a theme in so divine a dress,
Thy soaring flights Prometheus' thefts excel,
Whilst thou steal'st fire from heaven to enlighten hell.
The same accusation is urged in another libel, called "The Laureat:"
Nay, had our Charles, by Heaven's severe decree,
Been found, and murdered in the royal tree,
Even thou hadst praised the fact. His father slain,
Thou call'dst but _gently breathing of a vein_.
Impious and villainous, to bless the blow }
That laid at once three lofty nations low, }
And gave the royal cause a fatal overthrow! }
Another witling, to add to the heinousness of this expression, assures
us, that Dryden had at first declared for the king, then for the
parliament, and, finally, for Cromwell:
I for the Royal Martyr first declared,
But, ere his head was off, I was prepared
To own the Rump, and for that cause did rhime;
But, those kicked out, next moment turned to him
Who routed them: called him my sovereign,
And praised his opening of the kingly vein.
_Dialogue in Bedlam between Oliver's Porter, Fidler, and Poet. _
These are examples of the inveteracy, with which Dryden's enemies were
ready to wrest his expressions from the common interpretation into one
more strong and unwarrantable. Dryden, sufficiently embarrassed by the
praises he had bestowed on the Usurper, a charge from which he could
not vindicate himself, took no notice of the uncandid lengths to which
it was carried.
Note V.
_He fought, secure of fortune as of fame,
Till by new maps the island might be shewn;
Of conquests, which he strewed where'er he came,
Thick as the galaxy with stars is sown. _--St. XIV. p. 10.
Notwithstanding the inconstancy of Victory during the civil war, she
never deserted the banner of Cromwell. Even in undecided conflicts, the
brigade, or wing, with which he fought, had always the superiority. The
royalists never once saw him fly before them, during all the pitched
battles in which he was engaged in England, Scotland, and Ireland.
Note VI.
_His palms, though under weights they did not stand,
Still thrived. _--St. XV. p. 10.
It was anciently a popular notion, that the palm-tree throve best when
pressed down with weights. An old scholiast defines it as "_arbor
nobilissima illa, quæ nulli cedit ponderi, sed contra assurgit et
reluctatur_. "--Fabri Thesaurus ad verbum _palma_.
Note VII.
_Bolognia's walls thus mounted in the air,
To seat themselves more surely than before.
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Project Gutenberg's The Works of John Dryden, Vol. 9 (of 18), by John Dryden
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Title: The Works of John Dryden, Vol. 9 (of 18)
Author: John Dryden
Editor: Walter Scott
Release Date: June 16, 2015 [EBook #49221]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF JOHN DRYDEN ***
Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Jane Robins and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www. pgdp. net
THE
WORKS
OF
JOHN DRYDEN,
NOW FIRST COLLECTED
_IN EIGHTEEN VOLUMES_.
ILLUSTRATED
WITH NOTES,
HISTORICAL, CRITICAL, AND EXPLANATORY,
AND
A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,
BY
WALTER SCOTT, ESQ.
VOL. IX.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR WILLIAM MILLER, ALBEMARLE STREET,
BY JAMES BALLANTYNE AND CO. EDINBURGH.
1808.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME NINTH.
PAGE.
POEMS, HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL.
Heroic Stanzas to the Memory of Oliver Cromwell, 3
Notes, 15
Astrea Redux, 25
Notes, 41
To his Sacred Majesty, a Panegyric on his Coronation, 53
Notes, 59
To Lord Chancellor Hyde, presented on New-year's-day, 1662, 63
Satire on the Dutch, 71
To her Royal Highness the Duchess of York, on the
Victory gained by the Duke over the Dutch, &c. 73
Notes, 79
Annus Mirabilis, the Year of Wonders, 1666, an Historical Poem, 81
Dedication to the Metropolis of Great Britain, 89
An Account of Annus Mirabilis, in a Letter
to the Hon. Sir Robert Howard, 92
Notes, 158
Absalom and Achitophel, Part I. 195
To the Reader, 208
Notes on Part I. 249
Part II. 319
Notes on Part II. 354
The Medal, a Satire against Sedition, 407
Epistle to the Whigs, 417
Notes, 441
POEMS,
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL.
HEROIC STANZAS
TO
THE MEMORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL.
These verses compose the earliest of our author's political poems, and
are among the first which he wrote, of any length or consequence. The
first edition is now before me, by the favour of my friend Richard
Heber, Esq. ; and, while correcting this sheet, I received another
copy from Mr Finlay, author of the "Vale of Ellerslie. " It is of the
last degree of rarity, since it has escaped the researches even of Mr
Malone. The full title is, "A Poem upon the Death of his late Highness
Oliver, Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland; written by
Mr Dryden. London, printed for William Wilson, and are to be sold in
Well-Yard, near Little St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1659," 4to. Upon
comparing this rare edition with those of a later date, no material
alterations occur, excepting that the spelling is modernized, and the
title abridged.
Some of our author's biographers have deemed it necessary to apologise
for his chusing this subject, by referring to his near connection
with Sir Gilbert Pickering, the friend and confident of the deceased
usurper. There is, however, little reason to suppose, that Dryden did
any violence to his own inclinations, to gratify the political feelings
of his kinsman and patron. He had been bred in anti-monarchical
principles, and did not probably change, till the nation changed with
him. The character of Cromwell was in itself an inviting theme to so
true a poet. The man, of whom Clarendon said, that "even his enemies
could not condemn him, without commending him at the same time," and
of whose exploits Cowley has given so animating a detail; whom, in
short, his very enemies could not mention without wonder, if they
with-held applause,--afforded to those who favoured his politics many a
point of view, in which the splendour of his character might hide its
blemishes. [1] It is remarkable, however, that, in handling this theme,
Dryden has observed a singular and happy delicacy. The topic of the
civil war is but slightly dwelt on; and, although Cromwell is extolled,
his eulogist abstains from any reflections against those, through whom
he cut his way to greatness. He considers the Protector when in his
meridian height, but passes over the steps by which he attained that
elevation. It is also remarkable, that although Sir Gilbert Pickering
was one of Richard Cromwell's council, our author abstains from any
compliment to that pageant of authority; when a panegyrick upon the son
was a natural topic of consolation after mourning over the loss of his
father. Sprat, upon the same occasion, did not omit this obvious topic,
but launched forth into prophecies, to which the event did very little
credit. [2]
Notwithstanding these symptoms of caution and moderation, the subject
of this first public essay of our author's poetical talents was
repeatedly urged against him during the political controversies in
which, through the reigns of Charles II. and his brother, he was
constantly engaged. One offended antagonist carried his malice so far,
as actually to reprint an edition of the Elegy, with a dull postscript,
in which he makes Dryden acknowledge his alleged apostacy. [3]
Of the poetical merits of the Elegy, we have elsewhere spoken more
fully. The manly and solemn march of the stanza gave promise of that
acute poetical ear, which afterwards enabled Dryden to harmonize our
verification. The ideas, though often far-fetched, and sometimes
ambiguously expressed, indicate the strength and vigour of his mind.
They give obvious tokens of a regeneration of taste; for though, in
many instances, the conceits are very extravagant, yet they are,
in general, much more moderate than those in the Elegy upon Lord
Hastings, whose whole soul was rendered a celestial sphere, by the
virtues which were stuck in it; and his body little less brilliantly
ornamented by the pustules of small pox, which were first rose-buds,
and then stars. The symptoms of emerging from the false taste and
impertinent witticisms of Donne and Cowley, were probably more owing
to our author's natural feeling of what were the proper attributes of
poetry, than to any change in the taste of the age. Sprat, who also
solemnizes the decease of Cromwell, runs absolutely riot in pindarics,
and furnishes as excellent an instance of useless labour, and wit
rendered ridiculous by misapplication, as can be found in Cowley
himself. Cromwell's elevation is compared to the raising up of the
brazen serpent, in the Pentateuch;[5] the classic metamorphosis of
Ajax's blood into the hyacinth[6] furnishes a simile for the supposed
revival of letters through the blood spilled by Cromwell; his sword is
preferred to the flaming brand of the cherub, because it had made a
paradise, which the other only guarded; finally, the Protector's temper
grew milder in the progress of his warfare, as his armour, being made
of steel, grew smoother by use. [7] It must be allowed, that there are,
in Dryden's poem, many, and greatly too many, epigrammatic turns; each
is, however, briefly winded up in its own stanza; while the structure
of Sprat's poem enabled him to hunt down his conceits through all the
doubling and winding of his long pindaric strophé. Dryden, for example,
says, that Cromwell strewed the island with victories,
Thick as the galaxy with stars is sown.
Sprat spins out nearly the same idea, in the following extraordinary
manner:
Others' great actions are
But thinly scattered, here and there;
At best, but all one single star;
But thine the milky way;
All one continued light of undistinguished day.
They thronged so close, that nought else could be seen,
Scarce any common sky did come between.
By turning the reader's attention to this comparison betwixt the poems
of Sprat and Dryden, I mean to shew, that our author was already
weaning himself from that franticly witty stile of composition, which
the most ingenious of his contemporaries continued to practise and
admire; although he did not at once abandon it, but retrenched his
quaint conceits before he finally discarded them.
The poem of Waller on Cromwell's death, excepting one unhappy and
celebrated instance of the bathos,[8] is the best of his compositions;
and, separately considered, must be allowed to be superior to that of
Dryden, by whom he was soon after so far distanced in the poetical
career.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: "What can be more extraordinary, than that a person of
mean birth, no fortune, no eminent qualities of body, which have
sometimes, or of mind, which have often, raised men to the highest
dignities, should have the courage to attempt, and the happiness to
succeed in, so improbable a design, as the destruction of one of the
most ancient, and most solid founded monarchies upon the earth? That
he should have the power, or boldness, to put his prince and master
to an open and infamous death? To banish that numerous and strongly
allied family? To do all this under the name and wages of a parliament?
To trample upon them, too, as he pleased, and spurn them out of doors
when he grew weary of them? To raise up a new and unheard-of monster
out of their ashes? To stifle that in the very infancy, and set up
himself above all things that ever were called sovereign in England?
To oppress all his enemies by arms, and all his friends afterwards by
artifice? To serve all parties patiently for a while, and to command
them victoriously at last? To over-run each corner of the three
nations, and overcome with equal facility both the riches of the south
and the poverty of the north? To be feared and courted by all foreign
princes, and adopted a brother to the gods of the earth? To call
together parliaments with a word of his pen, and scatter them again
with the breath of his mouth? To be humbly and daily petitioned, that
he would please to be hired, at the rate of two millions a year, to be
the master of those who had hired him before to be their servant?
To
have the estates and lives of three kingdoms as much at his disposal,
as was the little inheritance of his father, and to be as noble and
liberal in the spending of them? And, lastly, (for there is no end of
all the particulars of his glory,) to bequeath all this with one word
to his posterity? To die with peace at home, and triumph abroad? To be
buried among kings, and with more than regal solemnity? And to leave a
name behind him, not to be extinguished but with the whole world, which
as it is now too little for his praises, so might have been too for his
conquests if the short line of his human life could have been stretched
out to the extent of his immortal designs? "--COWLEY'S _Works_, Vol. II.
p. 583.
Perhaps the facetious Tom Brown has hit upon the true reason of
Dryden's choice of a subject, when he makes him say, "that he had no
particular kindness for the person of Oliver; but that it was much
the same with the poets as with the Jews--a hero cannot start up in
any quarter of the world, be his quarrel right or wrong, but both are
apt to think him the Messias, and presently pitch upon him as the
fittest person to deliver the twelve tribes and the nine muses out of
captivity. "--_Reasons of Mr Bayes' changing his religion. _]
[Footnote 2:
Nor only didst thou for thy age provide,
But for the years to come beside;
Our after times, and late posterity,
Shall pay unto thy fame as much as we;
They too are made by thee.
When Fate did call thee to a higher throne,
And when thy mortal work was done;
When Heaven did say it, and thou must be gone,
Thou him to bear thy burden chose,
Who might, if any could, make us forget thy loss.
Nor hadst thou him designed,
Had he not been,
Not only to thy blood, but virtue, kin;
Not only heir unto thy throne, but mind:
'Tis he shall perfect all thy cares,
And with a finer thread weave out thy loom.
So one did bring the chosen people from
Their slavery and fears;
Led them through their pathless road,
Guided himself by God;
H'ad brought us to the borders, but a second hand
Did settle and secure them in the promised land.
_Verses to the happy Memory of the late Lord Protector. _
]
[Footnote 3: This edition occurs in the Luttrell Collection, and the
title runs thus: "An Elegy on the Usurper O. C. by the Author of
'Absalom and Achitophel;' published to show the loyalty and integrity
of the Poet. "
POSTSCRIPT.
The printing of these rhimes afflicts me more
Than all the drubs I in Rose-Alley bore;
This shows my nauseous, mercenary pen,
Would praise the vilest and the worst of men.
A rogue like Hodge[4] am I, the world well know it;
Hodge was his fiddler, and I, John, his poet.
This may prevent the pay for which I write;
For I for pay against my conscience fight.
I must confess, so infamous a knave
Can do no service, though the humblest slave:
Villains I praise, and patriots accuse; }
My railing and my fawning talents use; }
Just as they pay, I flatter or abuse }
But I to men in power a ---- am still,
To rub on any honest face they will.
Thus on I'll go; for libels I declare; }
Best friends no more than worst of foes I'll spare; }
And all this I can do, because I dare. }
He who writes on, and cudgels can defy,
And, knowing he'll be beaten, still writes on, am I.
_London, printed for J. Smith, 1681. _
J. D.
]
[Footnote 4: Sir Roger L'Estrange, whose skill in music is said to have
amused Cromwell, who had some turn that way. ]
[Footnote 5:
Thou, as once the healing serpent rose,
Was lifted up, not for thyself, but us.
]
[Footnote 6:
When Ajax died, the purple blood,
That from his gaping wound had flowed,
Turned into letters; every leaf
Had on it wrote his epitaph:
So from that crimson flood,
Which thou by fate of times wert led
Unwillingly to shed,
Letters and learning rose, and arts renewed.
]
[Footnote 7:
Like steel, when it much work hath past,
That which was rough does shine at last;
Thy arms, by being oftener used, did smoother grow.
]
[Footnote 8:
Beneath the tropics is our language spoke,
And _part of Flanders_ has received our yoke.
]
HEROIC STANZAS
CONSECRATED
TO THE MEMORY OF
HIS HIGHNESS OLIVER,
LATE LORD PROTECTOR OF THIS COMMONWEALTH,
WRITTEN AFTER THE CELEBRATING OF HIS FUNERAL.
I.
And now 'tis time; for their officious haste,
Who would before have borne him to the sky,
Like eager Romans, ere all rites were past,
Did let too soon the sacred eagle fly. [9]
II.
Though our best notes are treason to his fame,
Joined with the loud applause of public voice;
Since heaven, what praise we offer to his name,
Hath rendered too authentic by its choice.
III.
Though in his praise no arts can liberal be,
Since they, whose muses have the highest flown,
Add not to his immortal memory,
But do an act of friendship to their own:
IV.
Yet 'tis our duty, and our interest too,
Such monuments as we can build to raise;
Lest all the world prevent what we should do,
And claim a title in him by their praise.
V.
How shall I then begin, or where conclude,
To draw a fame so truly circular?
For in a round, what order can be shewed,
Where all the parts so equal perfect are?
VI.
His grandeur he derived from heaven alone;
For he was great, ere fortune made him so:
And wars, like mists that rise against the sun,
Made him but greater seem, not greater grow.
VII.
No borrowed bays his temples did adorn,
But to our crown he did fresh jewels bring;
Nor was his virtue poisoned soon as born,
With the too early thoughts of being king.
VIII.
Fortune, (that easy mistress to the young,
But to her ancient servants coy and hard,)
Him at that age her favourites ranked among,
When she her best-loved Pompey did discard. [10]
IX.
He, private, marked the faults of others' sway,
And set as sea-marks for himself to shun;
Not like rash monarchs, who their youth betray
By acts their age too late would wish undone.
X.
And yet dominion was not his design;
We owe that blessing, not to him, but heaven,
Which to fair acts unsought rewards did join;
Rewards, that less to him, than us, were given.
XI.
Our former chiefs, like sticklers of the war,
First sought to inflame the parties, then to poise:
The quarrel loved but did the cause abhor;
And did not strike to hurt, but make a noise. [11]
XII.
War, our consumption, was their gainful trade;
We inward bled whilst they prolonged our pain;
He fought to end our fighting, and essayed
To staunch the blood, by breathing of the vein. [12]
XIII.
Swift and resistless through the land he past,
Like that bold Greek, who did the East subdue;
And made to battles such heroic haste,
As if on wings of victory he flew.
XIV.
He fought, secure of fortune as of fame,
Till by new maps the island might be shewn;
Of conquests, which he strewed where'er he came,
Thick as the galaxy with stars is sown. [13]
XV.
His palms, though under weights they did not stand,
Still thrived;[14] no winter could his laurels fade:
Heaven, in his portrait, shewed a workman's hand,
And drew it perfect, yet without a shade.
XVI.
Peace was the prize of all his toil and care,
Which war had banished, and did now restore:
Bolognia's walls thus mounted in the air,
To seat themselves more surely than before. [15]
XVII.
Her safety rescued Ireland to him owes;[16]
And treacherous Scotland, to no interest true,
Yet blest that fate which did his arms dispose
Her land to civilize, as to subdue. [17]
XVIII.
Nor was he like those stars which only shine,
When to pale mariners they storms portend;
He had his calmer influence, and his mien
Did love and majesty together blend.
XIX.
'Tis true, his countenance did imprint an awe,
And naturally all souls to his did bow;
As wands of divination downward draw,
And point to beds where sovereign gold doth grow. [18]
XX.
When past all offerings to Feretrian Jove,[19]
He Mars deposed, and arms to gowns made yield;
Successful councils did him soon approve,
As fit for close intrigues, as open field.
XXI.
To suppliant Holland he vouchsafed a peace,
Our once bold rival of the British main;
Now tamely glad her unjust claim to cease,
And buy our friendship with her idol, gain. [20]
XXII.
Fame of the asserted sea, through Europe blown,
Made France and Spain ambitious of his love;
Each knew that side must conquer he would own,
And for him fiercely, as for empire, strove.
XXIII.
No sooner was the Frenchman's cause embraced,
Than the light Monsieur the grave Don outweighed:[21]
His fortune turned the scale where'er 'twas cast,
Though Indian mines were in the other laid.
XXIV.
When absent, yet we conquered in his right;
For, though some meaner artist's skill were shown,
In mingling colours, or in placing light,
Yet still the fair designment was his own.
XXV.
For, from all tempers he could service draw;
The worth of each, with its alloy, he knew;
And, as the confident of Nature, saw
How she complexions did divide and brew. [22]
XXVI.
Or he their single virtues did survey,
By intuition, in his own large breast;
Where all the rich ideas of them lay,
That were the rule and measure to the rest.
XXVII.
When such heroic virtue heaven sets out,
The stars, like commons, sullenly obey;
Because it drains them when it comes about,
And therefore is a tax they seldom pay. [23]
XXVIII.
From this high spring our foreign conquests flow,
Which yet more glorious triumphs do portend;
Since their commencement to his arms they owe,
If springs as high as fountains may ascend.
XXIX.
He made us freemen of the continent,
Whom nature did like captives treat before;
To nobler preys the English lion sent,
And taught him first in Belgian walks to roar. [24]
XXX.
That old unquestioned pirate of the land,
Proud Rome, with dread the fate of Dunkirk heard;
And, trembling, wished behind more Alps to stand,
Although an Alexander were her guard. [25]
XXXI.
By his command we boldly crossed the line. [26]
And bravely fought where southern stars arise;
We traced the far-fetched gold unto the mine,
And that, which bribed our fathers, made our prize.
XXXII.
Such was our prince; yet owned a soul above
The highest acts it could produce to show:
Thus, poor mechanic arts in public move,
Whilst the deep secrets beyond practice go.
XXXIII.
Nor died he when his ebbing fame went less,
But when fresh laurels courted him to live:
He seemed but to prevent some new success,
As if above what triumphs earth could give.
XXXIV.
His latest victories still thickest came,
As near the centre motion doth increase;
'Till he, pressed down by his own weighty name,
Did, like the vestal, under spoils decease. [27]
XXXV.
But first the ocean as a tribute sent
The giant prince of all her watry herd;
And the isle, when her protecting Genius went,
Upon his obsequies loud sighs conferred. [28]
XXXVI.
No civil broils have since his death arose,
But faction now by habit does obey;
And wars have that respect for his repose,
As winds for halcyons when they breed at sea.
XXXVII.
His ashes in a peaceful urn shall rest;[29]
His name a great example stands, to show,
How strangely high endeavours may be blessed,
Where piety and valour jointly go.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 9: Note I. ]
[Footnote 10: Note II. ]
[Footnote 11: Note III. ]
[Footnote 12: Note IV. ]
[Footnote 13: Note V. ]
[Footnote 14: Note VI. ]
[Footnote 15: Note VII. ]
[Footnote 16: Note VIII. ]
[Footnote 17: Note IX. ]
[Footnote 18: Note X. ]
[Footnote 19: To which deity the Romans usually sacrificed before
marching to war, according to an ancient institution of Romulus. ]
[Footnote 20: Note XI. ]
[Footnote 21: Note XII. ]
[Footnote 22: Note XIII. ]
[Footnote 23: The author seems to allude to the old proverb, "_Sapiens
dominabitur astris_. " The influence of the stars yielded reluctantly to
Cromwell's heroic virtues, as the commons submit sullenly to be taxed. ]
[Footnote 24: Note XIV. ]
[Footnote 25: Note XV. ]
[Footnote 26: Note XVI. ]
[Footnote 27: Note XVII. ]
[Footnote 28: Note XVIII. ]
[Footnote 29: Note XIX. ]
NOTES
ON
HEROIC STANZAS.
Note I.
_And now 'tis time; for their officious haste,
Who would before have borne him to the sky,
Like eager Romans, ere all rites were past,
Did let too soon the sacred eagle fly. _--St. I. p. 8.
Cromwell's disease, a fever and tertian ague, was accompanied by fits
of swooning, which occasioned, more than once, a premature report of
his death. It was probably this circumstance, which made some of his
fanatical chaplains doubt the fact, after it had actually taken place.
"Say not he is dead," exclaimed one of them, like Omar over the corpse
of Mahomet; "for, if ever the Lord heard my prayers, he has assured me
of the life of the Protector. " The two last lines of the stanza allude
to the Roman custom of letting an eagle fly from the funeral pile of a
deceased emperor, which represented his spirit soaring to the regions
of bliss, or his guardian genius convoying it thither. It is described
at length in the fourth book of Herodian, who says, that, after this
ceremony of consecration, the deceased emperor was enrolled among the
Roman deities.
Note II.
_Fortune, (that easy mistress to the young,
But to her ancient servants coy and hard,)
Him at that age her favourites ranked among,
When she her best-loved Pompey did discard. _--St. VIII. p. 9.
Cromwell was upwards of forty before he made any remarkable figure; and
Pompey, when he had attained the same period of life, was deserted by
the good fortune which had accompanied his more early career.
Note III.
_Our former chiefs, like sticklers of the war,
First sought to inflame the parties, then to poise:
The quarrel loved, but did the cause abhor;
And did not strike to hurt, but make a noise. _--St. XI. p. 10.
Essex, Manchester, Sir William Waller, and the earlier generals of
the Parliament, were all of the Presbyterian party, who, though they
had drawn the sword against the king, had no will to throw away the
scabbard. They were disposed so to carry on the war, that, neither
party being too much weakened, a sound and honourable peace might have
been accomplished on equal terms. But the Independants flew at higher
game; and, as the more violent party usually prevail during times of
civil discord, they attained their object. Cromwell openly accused the
Earl of Manchester of having refused to put an end to the war, after
the last battle at Newbury, when a single charge upon the King's rear
might have dissipated his army for ever. "I offered," he averred, "to
perform the work with my own brigade of horse; let Manchester and the
rest look on, if they thought fit: but he obstinately refused to permit
the attempt, alleging, that, if the king's army was beaten, he would
find another; but if that of the Parliament was overthrown, there would
be an end of their cause, and they would be all punished as traitors. "
This suspicion of the compromising temper of the Presbyterian leaders,
led to the famous _self-denying ordinance_, by which all members of
both houses were declared incapable of holding a military command.
By this new model, all the power of the army was thrown, nominally,
into the hands of Fairfax, but, really and effectually, into that of
Cromwell, who was formally excepted from the operation of the act, and
of the Independants; men determined to push the war to extremity, and
who at length triumphed over both King and Parliament.
Note IV.
_He fought to end our fighting, and essayed
To staunch the blood, by breathing of the vein. _--St. XII. p. 10.
This passage, which seems to imply nothing farther than that Cromwell
conducted the war so as to push it to a conclusion, was afterwards
invidiously interpreted by Dryden's enemies, as containing an explicit
approbation of the execution of Charles I.
Thus, in the panegyric quoted in the introductory remarks to this poem,
Such wonders have thy powerful raptures shewn,
Pythagoras' transmigration thou'st outdone;
His souls of heroes and great chiefs expired,
Down into birds and noble beasts retired:
But then to savages and monsters dire,
Canst infuse sparks even of celestial fire;
Make treason glory, murderers heroes live,
And even to regicides canst godhead give.
Thus in thy songs the yet warm bloody dart,
Fresh reeking in a martyred monarch's heart,
Burnished by verse, and polished by thy lines,
The rubies in imperial crowns outshines;
Whilst in applause to that sad day's success,
So black a theme in so divine a dress,
Thy soaring flights Prometheus' thefts excel,
Whilst thou steal'st fire from heaven to enlighten hell.
The same accusation is urged in another libel, called "The Laureat:"
Nay, had our Charles, by Heaven's severe decree,
Been found, and murdered in the royal tree,
Even thou hadst praised the fact. His father slain,
Thou call'dst but _gently breathing of a vein_.
Impious and villainous, to bless the blow }
That laid at once three lofty nations low, }
And gave the royal cause a fatal overthrow! }
Another witling, to add to the heinousness of this expression, assures
us, that Dryden had at first declared for the king, then for the
parliament, and, finally, for Cromwell:
I for the Royal Martyr first declared,
But, ere his head was off, I was prepared
To own the Rump, and for that cause did rhime;
But, those kicked out, next moment turned to him
Who routed them: called him my sovereign,
And praised his opening of the kingly vein.
_Dialogue in Bedlam between Oliver's Porter, Fidler, and Poet. _
These are examples of the inveteracy, with which Dryden's enemies were
ready to wrest his expressions from the common interpretation into one
more strong and unwarrantable. Dryden, sufficiently embarrassed by the
praises he had bestowed on the Usurper, a charge from which he could
not vindicate himself, took no notice of the uncandid lengths to which
it was carried.
Note V.
_He fought, secure of fortune as of fame,
Till by new maps the island might be shewn;
Of conquests, which he strewed where'er he came,
Thick as the galaxy with stars is sown. _--St. XIV. p. 10.
Notwithstanding the inconstancy of Victory during the civil war, she
never deserted the banner of Cromwell. Even in undecided conflicts, the
brigade, or wing, with which he fought, had always the superiority. The
royalists never once saw him fly before them, during all the pitched
battles in which he was engaged in England, Scotland, and Ireland.
Note VI.
_His palms, though under weights they did not stand,
Still thrived. _--St. XV. p. 10.
It was anciently a popular notion, that the palm-tree throve best when
pressed down with weights. An old scholiast defines it as "_arbor
nobilissima illa, quæ nulli cedit ponderi, sed contra assurgit et
reluctatur_. "--Fabri Thesaurus ad verbum _palma_.
Note VII.
_Bolognia's walls thus mounted in the air,
To seat themselves more surely than before.
