No More Learning

" Indeed, his enemies were now
far more numerous, including most of his former friends, the _Tories_
of the high church, excepting a very few who remained attached to
James, and saw, with anxiety, his destruction precipitated by the
measures he was adopting.

Montague and Prior were among the first to assail our author, in the
parody, of which we have just given a large specimen. It must have been
published before the 24th October 1687, for it is referred to in "The
Laureat," another libel against Dryden, inscribed by Mr Luttrel with
that date. This assault affected him the more, as coming from persons
with whom he had lived on habits of civility. He is even said to have
shed tears upon this occasion; a report probably exaggerated, but which
serves to shew, that he was sensible he had exposed himself to the
most unexpected assailants, by the unpopularity of the cause which he
had espoused. Some further particulars respecting this controversy are
mentioned in Dryden's Life. Another poet, or parodier, published "The
Revolter, a tragi-comedy," in which he brings the doctrines of the
"Religio Laici," and of the "Hind and Panther," in battle array against
each other, and rails at the author of both with the most unbounded
scurrility. [80]

Not only new enemies arose against him, but the hostility of former
and deceased foes seemed to experience a sort of resurrection. Four
Letters, by Matthew Clifford of the Charter-House, containing notes
upon Dryden's poems and plays, were now either published for the first
time, or raked up from the obscurity of a dead-born edition, to fill
up the cry of criticism against him on all sides. They are coarse and
virulent to the last degree, and so far served the purpose of the
publishers; but, as they had no reference to "The Hind and Panther,"
that defect was removed by a supplementary Letter from the facetious
Tom Brown, an author, whose sole wish was to attain the reputation
of a successful buffoon, and who, like the jesters of old, having
once made himself thoroughly absurd and ridiculous, gained a sort of
privilege to make others feel his grotesque raillery. [81] Besides the
reflections contained in this letter, Brown also published "The New
Converts exposed, or Reasons for Mr Bayes changing his Religion," in
two parts; the first of which appeared in 1688, and the second in 1690.
From a passage in the preface to the first part, which may serve as
a sample of Tom's buffoonery, we learn, Dryden publicly complained,
that, although he had put his name to "The Hind and Panther," those who
criticized or replied to that poem had not imitated his example. [82]

Another of these witty varlets published, in 1688, "Religio Laici, or a
Layman's Faith, touching the Supreme Head and Infallible Guide of the
Church, in two letters, &c. by J. R. a convert of Mr Bayes," licensed
June the 1st, 1688. From this pamphlet we have given some extracts in
the introductory remarks to "Religio Laici," pp. 9, 10.

There were, besides, many libels of the most personal kind poured
forth against Dryden by the poets who supplied the usual demand of
the hawkers. One of the most virulent contains a singular exhibition
of rage and impotence. It professes to contain a review of our poet's
life and literary labours, and calls itself "The Laureat. " This, as
containing some curious particulars, is given below. [83]

The cry against our author being thus general, we may reasonably
suppose, that he would have taken some opportunity to exercise his
powers of retort upon those who were most active or most considerable
among the aggressors, and that Montague and Prior stood a fair chance
of being coupled up with Doeg and Og, his former antagonists. But,
if Dryden entertained any intention of retaliation, the Revolution,
which crushed his rising prospects, took away both the opportunity
and inclination. From that period, the fame of "The Hind and Panther"
gradually diminished, as the controversy between Protestant and Papist
gave way to that between Whig and Tory. Within a few years after the
first publication of the poem, Swift ranks it among the compositions
of Grubstreet; ironically terms it, "the master-piece of a famous
author, now living, intended as a complete abstract of sixteen thousand
schoolmen, from Scotus to Bellarmine;" and immediately subjoins,
"Tommy Potts, supposed by the same hand, by way of Supplement to the
former. "[84] With such acrimony do men of genius treat the productions
of each other; and so certain it is, that, to enjoy permanent
reputation, an author must chuse a theme of permanent interest.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 70: In the years 1662 and 1674. See Vol. IX, p. 448. ]

[Footnote 71: Our author was not the only poet who hailed this dawn of
toleration; for there is in Luttrell's Collection, "A Congratulatory
Poem, dedicated to his Majesty, on the late gracious Declaration (9th
June, 1687); by a Person of Quality. "]

[Footnote 72: Turkish Spy, Vol. viii. p. 19. ]

[Footnote 73: Perhaps the poet recollected the attributes ascribed to
the panther by one of the fathers: "_Pantheræ, ut Divus Basilius ait,
cum immani sint ac crudeli odio in homines a natura incensæ, in hominum
simulacra furibundæ irruunt, nec aliter hominum effigiem, quam homines
ipsos dilacerant. _"--GRANATEUS _Concion. de Tempore_, Tom. i. p. 492. ]

[Footnote 74: "Only by the way, before we bring D. against D. to the
stake, I would fain know how Mr Bayes, that so well understood the
nature of beasts, came to pitch upon the Hind and the Panther, to
signify the church of Rome and the church of England? Doubtless his
reply will be, because the hind is a creature harmless and innocent;
the panther mischievous and inexorable. Let all this be granted; what
is this to the author's absurdity in the choice of his beasts? For the
scene of the persecution is Europe, a part of the world which never
bred panthers since the creation of the universe. On the other side,
grant his allusion passable, and then he stigmatizes the church of
England to be the most cruel and most voracious creature that ranges
all the Lybian deserts;--a character, which shows him to have a strange
mist before his eyes when he reads ecclesiastical history. And then,
says he,

The panther, sure the noblest next the hind,
And fairest creature of the spotted kind.

Which is another blunder, _cujus contrarium verum est_: For if beauty,
strength, and courage, advance the value of the several parts of the
creation, without question the panther is far to be preferred before
the hind, a poor, silly, timorous, ill-shaped, bobtailed creature, of
which a score will hardly purchase the skin of a true panther. Had
he looked a little farther, Ludolphus would have furnished him with
a zebra, the most beautiful of all the four-footed creatures in the
world, to have coped with his panther for spots, and with his hind for
gentleness and mildness; of which one was sold singly to the Turkish
governor of Suaquena for 2000 Venetian ducats. There had been a beast
for him, as pat as a pudding for a friar's mouth. But to couple the
hind and the panther was just like _sic magna parvis componere_;
and, therefore, he had better have put his hind in a good pasty, or
reserved her for some more proper allusion; for this, though his nimble
beast have four feet, will by no means run _quatuor pedibus_, though
she had a whole kennel of hounds at her heels. "--_The Revolter, a
Tragi-comedy. _]

[Footnote 75: The following justification of their plan is taken from
the preface, which is believed to have been entirely the composition of
Montague.

"The favourers of 'The Hind and Panther' will be apt to say in its
defence, that the best things are capable of being turned to ridicule;
that Homer has been burlesqued, and Virgil travestied, without
suffering any thing in their reputation from that buffoonery; and that,
in like manner,'The Hind and the Panther' may be an exact poem, though
it is the subject of our raillery: But there is this difference, that
those authors are wrested from their true sense, and this naturally
falls into ridicule; there is nothing represented here as monstrous
and unnatural, which is not equally so in the original. --First, as
to the general design; Is it not as easy to imagine two mice bilking
coachmen, and supping at the Devil, as to suppose a hind entertaining
the panther at a hermit's cell, discussing the greatest mysteries of
religion, and telling you her son Rodriguez writ very good Spanish?
What can be more improbable and contradictory to the rules and examples
of all fables, and to the very design and use of them? They were first
begun, and raised to the highest perfection, in the eastern countries,
where they wrote in signs, and spoke in parables, and delivered the
most useful precepts in delightful stories; which, for their aptness,
were entertaining to the most judicious, and led the vulgar into
understanding by surprizing them with their novelty, and fixing their
attention. All their fables carry a double meaning; the story is one
and entire; the characters the same throughout, not broken or changed,
and always conformable to the nature of the creatures they introduce.
They never tell you, that the dog, which snapt at a shadow, lost his
troop of horse; that would be unintelligible; a piece of flesh is
proper for him to drop, and the reader will apply it to mankind: They
would not say, that the daw, who was so proud of her borrowed plumes,
looked very ridiculous, when Rodriguez came and took away all the book
but the 17th, 24th, and 25th chapters, which she stole from him. But
this is his new way of telling a story, and confounding the moral and
the fable together.

Before the word was written, said the hind,
Our Saviour preached the faith to all mankind.

What relation has the hind to our Saviour? or what notion have we of a
panther's bible? If you say he means the church, how does the church
feed on lawns, or range in the forest? Let it be always a church, or
always the cloven-footed beast, for we cannot bear his shifting the
scene every line. If it is absurd in comedies to make a peasant talk in
the strain of a hero, or a country wench use the language of the court,
how monstrous is it to make a priest of a hind, and a parson of a
panther? To bring them in disputing with all the formalities and terms
of the school? Though as to the arguments themselves, those we confess
are suited to the capacity of the beasts; and if we would suppose a
hind expressing herself about these matters, she would talk at that
rate. "

The reader may be curious to see a specimen of the manner in which
these two applauded wits encountered Dryden's controversial poem,
with such eminent success, that a contemporary author has said, "that
'The City and Country Mouse' ruined the reputation of the divine, as
the 'Rehearsal' ruined the reputation of the poet. "[76] The plan is a
dialogue between Bayes, and Smith, and Johnson, his old friends in the
"Rehearsal;" the poet recites to them a new work, in which the Popish
and English churches are represented as the city and country mouse, the
former spotted, the latter milk-white. The following is a specimen both
of the poetry and dialogue:

"_Bayes. Reads. _ With these allurements, Spotted did invite,
From hermit's cell, the female proselyte.
Oh, with what ease we follow such a guide,
Where souls are starved, and senses gratified!

"Now, would not you think she's going? but, egad, you're mistaken; you
shall hear a long argument about infallibility before she stir yet:

But here the White, by observation wise,
Who long on heaven had fixed her prying eyes,
With thoughtful countenance, and grave remark,
Said, "Or my judgment fails me, or 'tis dark;
Lest, therefore, we should stray, and not go right,
Through the brown horror of the starless night,
Hast thou Infallibility, that wight? "
Sternly the savage grinned, and thus replied,
"That mice may err, was never yet denied. "
"That I deny," said the immortal dame,
"There is a guide,--Gad, I've forgot his name,--
Who lives in Heaven or Rome, the Lord knows where;
Had we but him, sweet-heart, we could not err. --
But hark ye, sister, this is but a whim,
For still we want a guide to find out him. "

"Here, you see, I don't trouble myself to keep on the narration, but
write White speaks, or Dapple speaks, by the side. But when I get
any noble thought, which I envy a mouse should say, I clap it down
in my own person, with a _poeta loquitur_; which, take notice, is a
surer sign of a fine thing in my writings, than a hand in the margent
anywhere else. --Well now, says White,

What need we find him? we have certain proof
That he is somewhere, dame, and that's enough;
For if there is a guide that knows the way,
Although we know not him, we cannot stray.

"That's true, egad: Well said, White. --You see her adversary has
nothing to say for herself; and, therefore, to confirm the victory, she
shall make a simile.

_Smith. _ Why, then, I find similes are as good after victory, as after
a surprize.

_Bayes_. Every jot, egad; or rather better. Well, she can do it two
ways; either about emission or reception of light, or else about Epsom
waters: But I think the last is most familiar; therefore speak, my
pretty one. [_Reads. _]

As though 'tis controverted in the school,
If waters pass by urine, or by stool;
Shall we, who are philosophers, thence gather,
From this dissention, that they work by neither?

"And, egad, she's in the right on't; but, mind now, she comes upon her
scoop. [_Reads. _]

All this I did, your arguments to try.

"And, egad, if they had been never so good, this next line confutes
'em. [_Reads. _]

Hear, and be dumb, thou wretch! that guide am I.

"There's a surprize for you now! --How sneakingly t'other looks? --Was
not that pretty now, to make her ask for a guide first, and tell her
she was one? Who could have thought that this little mouse had the
Pope, and a whole general council, in her belly? --Now Dapple had
nothing to say to this; and, therefore, you'll see she grows peevish.
[_Reads. _]

Come leave your cracking tricks; and, as they say,}
Use not that barber that trims time, delay;-- }
Which, egad, is new, and my own. -- }
I've eyes as well as you to find the way. "-- }
Then on they jogged; and, since an hour of talk
Might cut a banter on the tedious walk,
"As I remember," said the sober Mouse,
"I've heard much talk of the Wit's Coffee-house. "
"Thither," says Brindle, "thou shalt go, and see
Priests sipping coffee, sparks and poets tea,
Here, rugged frieze; there, quality well drest;
These, baffling the Grand Seigneur; those, the Test;
And here shrewd guesses made, and reasons given,
That human laws were never made in heaven.
But, above all, what shall oblige thy sight,
And fill thy eye-balls with a vast delight,
Is the poetic Judge of sacred wit,[77]
Who does i'the darkness of glory sit.
And as the moon, who first receives the light
With which she makes these nether regions bright,
So does he shine, reflecting from afar
The rays he borrowed from a better star;
For rules, which from Corneille and Rapin flow,
Admired by all the scribbling herd below,
From French tradition while he does dispense, }
Unerring truths, 'tis schism,--a damned offence,--}
To question his, or trust your private sense. }

"Ha! is not that right, Mr Johnson? --Gad forgive me, he is fast asleep!
Oh the damned stupidity of this age! Asleep! --Well, sir, since you're
so drowsy, your humble servant.

_John. _ Nay, pray, Mr Bayes! Faith, I heard you all the while. --The
white mouse----

_Bayes. _ The white mouse! Ay, ay, I thought how you heard me. Your
servant, sir, your servant.

_John. _ Nay, dear Bayes: Faith, I beg thy pardon, I was up late last
night. Prithee, lend me a little snuff, and go on.

_Bayes. _ Go on! Pox, I don't know where I was. --Well, I'll begin. Here,
mind, now they are both come to town. [_Reads. _]

But now at Piccadilly they arrive,
And, taking coach, t'wards Temple-Bar they drive;
But, at St Clement's church, eat out the back,
And, slipping through the palsgrave, bilked poor hack.

"There's the _utile_ which ought to be in all poetry. Many a young
Templar will save his shilling by this stratagem of my mice.

_Smith. _ Why, will any young Templar eat out the back of a coach?

_Bayes. _ No, egad! But you'll grant, it is mighty natural for a
mouse. "--_Hind and Panther Transversed. _

Such was the wit, which, bolstered up by the applause of party, was
deemed an unanswerable ridicule of Dryden's favourite poem. ]

[Footnote 76: Preface to the Second Part of "The Reasons of Mr Bayes
changing his Religion. "]

[Footnote 77: i. e. _Dryden himself_. ]

[Footnote 78: I know not, however, but a critic might here also point
out an example of that discrepancy, which is censured by Johnson, and
ridiculed by Prior. The cause of dissatisfaction in the pigeon-house
is, that the proprietor chuses rather to feed upon the flesh of his
domestic poultry, than upon theirs; no very rational cause of mutiny on
the part of the doves. ]

[Footnote 79: Butler, however, assigns the Bear-Garden as a type of my
Mother Kirk; and the resemblance is thus proved by Ralpho:

Synods are mystical bear-gardens,
Where elders, deputies, church-wardens,
And other members of the court,
Manage the Babylonish sport;
For prolocutor, scribe, and bear-ward,
Do differ only in a mere word;
Both are but several synagogues
Of carnal men, and bears, and dogs;
Both antichristian assemblies,
To mischief bent as far's in them lies;
Both slave and toil with fierce contests,
The one with men, the other beasts:
The difference is, the one fights with
The tongue, the other with the teeth;
And that they bait but bears in this,
In t'other souls and consciences.

Hudibras denies the resemblance, and answers by an appeal to the senses:

For bears and dogs on four legs go
As beasts, but synod-men have two;
'Tis true, they all have teeth and nails,
But prove that synod-men have tails;
Or that a rugged shaggy fur
Grows o'er the hide of presbyter;
Or that his snout and spacious ears
Do hold proportion with a bear's.
A bear's a savage beast, of all
Most ugly and unnatural;
Whelped without form, until the dam
Has licked it into shape and frame;
But all thy light can ne'er evict,
That ever synod-man was lickt,
Or brought to any other fashion,
Than his own will and inclination.

_Hudibras_, Part 1. Canto 3.
]

[Footnote 80: "In short, the whole poem, if it may deserve that name,
is a piece of deformed, arrogant nonsense, and self-contradiction,
drest up in fine language, like an ugly brazen-faced whore, peeping
through the costly trappings of a _point de Venise cornet_. I call it
nonsense, because unseasonable; and arrogant, because impertinent:
For could Mr Bayes have so little wit, to think himself a sufficient
champion to decide the high mysteries of faith and transubstantiation,
and the nice disputes concerning traditions and infallibility, in a
discourse between "The Hind and the Panther," which, undetermined
hitherto, have exercised all the learning in the world? Or, could
he think the grand arcana of divinity a subject fit to be handled
in flourishing rhyme, by the author of "The Duke of Guise," or "The
Conquest of Peru," or "The Spanish Friar:" Doubts which Mr Bayes is no
more able to unfold, than Saffold to resolve a question in astrology.
And all this only as a tale to usher in his beloved character, and to
shew the excellency of his wit in abusing honest men. If these were
his thoughts, as we cannot rationally otherwise believe, seeing that
no man of understanding will undertake an enterprise, wherein he does
not think himself to have some advantage of his predecessors; then
does this romance, I say, of The Panther and the Hind, fall under the
most fatal censure of unseasonable folly and saucy impertinence. Nor
can I think, that the more solid, prudent, and learned persons of the
Roman Church, con him any thanks for laying the prophane fingers of a
turn-coat upon the altar of their sacred debates. "--_The Revolter_, a
tragi-comedy, acted between The Hind and Panther and Religio Laici, &c.
1687. ]

[Footnote 81: The following is the commencement of his "Reflections on
the Hind and Panther," in a letter to a friend, 1687:

"The present you have made me of "The Hind and Panther," is variously
talked of here in the country. Some wonder what kind of champion the
Roman Catholics have now gotten; for they have had divers ways of
representing themselves; but this of rhyming us to death, is altogether
new and unheard of, before Mr Bayes set about it; and, indeed, he hath
done it in the sparkishest poem that ever was seen. 'Tis true, he hath
written a great many things; but he never had such pure swiftness of
thought, as in this composition, nor such fiery flights of fancy. Such
hath always been his dramatical and scenical way of scribbling, that
there was no post nor pillar in the town exempt from the pasting up of
the titles of his plays; insomuch, that the footboys, for want of skill
in reading, do now (as we hear) often bring away, by mistake, the title
of a new book against the Church of England, instead of taking down the
play for the afternoon. Yet, if he did it well or handsomely, he might
deserve some pardon; but, alas! how ridiculously doth he appear in
print for any religion, who hath made it his business to laugh at all!
How can he stand up for any mode of worship, who hath been accustomed
to bite, and spit his venom against the very name thereof?

"Wherefore, I cannot but wish our adversaries joy on their
new-converted hero, Mr Bayes; whose principle it is to fight single
with whole armies; and this one quality he prefers before all the moral
virtues put together. The Roman Catholics may talk what they will, of
their Bellarmine and Perrone, their Hector and Achilles, and I know not
who; but I desire them all, to shew one such champion for the cause,
as this Drawcansir: For he is the man that kills whole nations at
once; who, as he never wrote any thing, that any one can imagine has
ever been the practice of the world, so, in his late endeavours to pen
controversy, you shall hardly find one word to the purpose. He is that
accomplished person, who loves reasoning so much in verse, and hath
got a knack of writing it smoothly. The subject (he treats of in this
poem) did, in his opinion, require more than ordinary spirit and flame;
therefore, he supposed it to be too great for prose; for he is too
proud to creep servilely after sense; so that, in his verse, he soars
high above the reach of it. To do this, there is no need of brain, 'tis
but scanning right; the labour is in the finger, not in the head.

"However, if Mr Bayes would be pleased to abate a little of the
exuberancy of his fancy and wit; to dispense with his ornaments and
superfluencies of invention and satire, a man might consider, whether
he should submit to his argument; but take away the railing, and no
argument remains; so that one may beat the bush a whole day, and, after
so much labour, only spring a butterfly, or start a hedge-hog.

"For all this, is it not great pity to see a man, in the flower of his
romantic conceptions, in the full vigour of his studies on love and
honour, to fall into such a distraction, as to walk through the thorns
and briars of controversy, unless his confessor hath commanded it, as a
penance for some past sins? that a man, who hath read Don Quixote for
the greatest part of his life, should pretend to interpret the Bible,
or trace the footsteps of tradition, even in the darkest ages? "--_Four
Letters_, &c. ]

[Footnote 82: "To draw now to an end, Mr Bayes, I hear, has lately
complained, at Willis' Coffeehouse, of the ill usage he has met in
the world; that whereas he had the generosity and assurance to set
his own name to his late piece of polemic poetry, yet others, who
have pretended to answer him, wanted the breeding and civility to do
the like: Now, because I would not willingly disoblige a person of Mr
Bayes's character, I do here fairly, and before all the world, assure
him that my name is Dudly Tomkinson, and that I live within two miles
of St Michael's Mount, in Cornwall, and have, in my time, been both
constable, church-warden, and overseer of the parish; by the same
token, that the little gallery next the belfry, the new motto about
the pulpit, the king's arms, the ten commandments, and the great
sun-dial in the church-yard, will transmit my name to all posterity.
Furthermore, (if it will do him any good at all) I can make a pretty
shift to read without spectacles; wear my own hair, which is somewhat
inclining to red; have a large mole on my left cheek; am mightily
troubled with corns; and, what is peculiar to my constitution, after
half-a-dozen bottles of claret, which I generally carry home every
night from the tavern, I never fail of a stool or two next morning;
besides, use to smoke a pipe every day after dinner, and afterwards
steal a nap for an hour or two in the old wicker-chair near the oven;
take gentle purgatives spring and fall; and it has been my custom, any
time these sixteen years, (as all the parish can testify) to ride in
Gambadoes. Nay, to win the heart of him for ever, I invite him here,
before the courteous reader, to a country regale, (provided he will
before hand promise not to debauch my wife,) where he shall have sugar
to his roast beef, and vinegar to his butter; and lastly, to make him
amends for the tediousness of the journey, a parcel of relics to carry
home with him, which I believe can scarce be matched in the whole
Christian world; but, because I have no great fancy that way, I don't
care if I part with them to so worthy a person; they are as followeth:

"St Gregory's Ritual, bound up in the same calve's-skin that the old
gentleman, in St Luke, roasted at the return of his prodigal son.

"The quadrant that a Philistine tailor took the height of Goliah
by, when he made him his last suit of clothes; for the giant being
a man of extraordinary dimensions, it was impossible to do this in
any other way than your designers use when they take the height of
a country-steeple," &c. &c. --_Reasons for Mr Bayes changing his
Religion. _ See Preface. ]

[Footnote 83: THE LAUREAT.

_Jack Squab's history, in a little drawn,
Down to his evening from his morning dawn. _

(Bought by Mr Luttrel, 24th October, 1687. )

Appear, thou mighty bard, to open view;
Which yet, we must confess, you need not do.
The labour to expose thee we may save;
Thou standst upon thy own records a knave,
Condemned to live in thy apostate rhymes,
The curse of ours, and scoff of future times.
Still tacking round with every turn of state, }
Reverse to Shaftesbury, thy cursed fate }
Is always, at a change, to come too late. }
To keep his plots from coxcombs, was his care;
His villainy was masked, and thine is bare.
Wise men alone could guess at his design, }
And could but guess, the threads were spun so fine; }
But every purblind fool may see through thine. }
Had Dick still kept the regal diadem,
Thou hadst been poet laureat still to him,
And, long ere now, in lofty verse proclaimed
His high extraction, among princes famed;
Diffused his glorious deed from pole to pole,
Where winds can carry, or where waves can roll:
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 callest 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! }
Scandal to all religions, new and old; }
Scandal to them, where pardon's bought and sold, }
And mortgaged happiness redeemed for gold. }
Tell me, for 'tis a truth you must allow,
Who ever changed more in one moon than thou?
Even thy own Zimri was more stedfast known,
He had but one religion, or had none.
What sect of Christians is't thou hast not known,
And at one time or other made thy own?
A bristled baptist bred, and then thy strain
Immaculate was far from sinful stain;
No songs, in those blest times, thou didst produce,
To brand and shame good manners out of use;
The ladies had not then one b---- bob,
Nor thou the courtly name of Poet Squab.
Next, thy dull muse, an independant jade,
On sacred tyranny fine stanzas made;
Praised Noll, who even to both extremes did run,
To kill the father and dethrone the son.
When Charles came in, thou didst a convert grow,
More by thy interest, than thy nature so;
Under his 'livening beams thy laurels spread; }
He first did place that wreath about thy head, }
Kindly relieved thy wants, and gave thee bread. }
Here 'twas thou mad'st thy bells of fancy chime,
And choked the town with suffocating rhyme;
Till heroes, formed by thy creating pen,
Were grown as cheap and dull as other men.
Flushed with success, full gallery and pit,
Thou bravest all mankind with want of wit;
Nay, in short time wer't grown so proud a ninny,
As scarce to allow that Ben himself had any;
But when the men of sense thy error saw,
They checked thy muse, and kept the termagant in awe.
To satire next thy talent was addrest,
Fell foul on all, thy friends among the rest:
Those who the oft'nest did thy wants supply,
Abused, traduced, without a reason why;
Nay, even thy royal patron was not spared,
But an obscene, a santring wretch declared.
Thy loyal libel we can still produce;
Beyond example, and beyond excuse.
O strange return to a forgiving king!
But the warmed viper wears the greatest sting.
Thy pension lost, and justly without doubt;
When servants snarl, we ought to kick 'em out;
They that disdain their benefactor's bread,
No longer ought by bounty to be fed.
That lost, the visor changed, you turn about,
And straight a true blue Protestant crept out.
The "Friar" now was writ; and some will say,
They smell a mal-content through all the play.
The Papist too was damned, unfit for trust, }
Called treacherous, shameless, profligate, unjust; }
And kingly power thought arbitrary lust. }
This lasted till thou didst thy pension gain,
And that changed both thy morals and thy strain.
If to write contradictions nonsense be,
Who has more nonsense in their works than thee?
We'll mention but thy Layman's Faith and Hind:
Who'll think both these, such clashing do we find,
Could be the product of one single mind!
Here thou wouldst charitable fain appear,
Find fault that Athanasius was severe;
Thy pity straight to cruelty is raised,
And even the pious inquisition praised,
And recommended to the present reign,
"O happy countries, Italy and Spain! "
Have we not cause, in thine own words, to say, }
Let none believe what varies every day, }
That never was, nor will be, at a stay? }
Once heathens might be saved, you did allow,
But not, it seems, we greater heathens now.
The loyal church, that buoys the kingly line,
Damned with a breath, but 'tis such a breath as thine.
What credit to thy party can it be,
To have gained so lewd a profligate as he,
Strayed from our fold, makes us to laugh, not weep;
We have but lost what was disgrace to keep.
By them mistrusted, and to us a scorn;
For 'tis but weakness at the best to turn.
True, hadst thou left us in the former reign, }
Y'had proved it was not wholly done for gain; }
Now the meridian sun is not so plain. }
Gold is thy god; for a substantial sum, }
Thou to the Turk wouldst run away from Rome, }
And sing his holy expedition against Christendom. }
But, to conclude; blush with a lasting red,
If thou'rt not moved by what's already said,
To see thy boars, bears, buzzards, wolves, and owls,
And all thy other beasts and other fowls,
Routed by two poor mice (unequal fight! );
But easy 'tis to conquer in the right.
See, there a youth, (a shame to thy gray hairs)
Make a mere dunce of all thy threescore years.
What in that tedious poem hast thou done,
But crammed all Esop's fables into one?
But why do I the precious minutes spend
On him, that would much rather hang than mend?
No, wretch, continue still just as thou art,
Thou'rt now in this last scene that crowns thy part.
To purchase favour veer with every gale, }
And against interest never cease to rail, }
Though thou'rt the only proof how interest can prevail. }
]

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote 84: "Tale of a Tub," first part. "Tommy Potts" is a silly
popular ballad, for which see Ritson's "Ancient Songs. "]




THE

PREFACE.


The nation is in too high a ferment, for me to expect either fair
war, or even so much as fair quarter, from a reader of the opposite
party. All men are engaged either on this side or that; and though
conscience is the common word which is given by both, yet if a writer
fall among enemies, and cannot give the marks of _their_ conscience,
he is knocked down before the reasons of his own are heard. A preface,
therefore, which is but a bespeaking of favour, is altogether useless.
What I desire the reader should know concerning me, he will find in the
body of the poem, if he have but the patience to peruse it. Only this
advertisement let him take before-hand, which relates to the merits of
the cause.

No general characters of parties (call them either sects or churches)
can be so fully and exactly drawn, as to comprehend all the several
members of them; at least all such as are received under that
denomination. For example; there are some of the church by law
established, who envy not liberty of conscience to dissenters; as being
well satisfied that, according to their own principles, they ought not
to persecute them. Yet these, by reason of their fewness, I could not
distinguish from the numbers of the rest, with whom they are embodied
in one common name. On the other side, there are many of our sects,
and more indeed than I could reasonably have hoped, who have withdrawn
themselves from the communion of the Panther, and embraced this
gracious indulgence of his majesty in point of toleration. But neither
to the one nor the other of these is this satire any way intended: it
is aimed only at the refractory and disobedient on either side. For
those, who are come over to the royal party, are consequently supposed
to be out of gun-shot. [85] Our physicians have observed, that, in
process of time, some diseases have abated of their virulence, and have
in a manner worn out their malignity, so as to be no longer mortal;
and why may not I suppose the same concerning some of those, who
have formerly been enemies to kingly government, as well as Catholic
religion? I hope they have now another notion of both, as having found,
by comfortable experience, that the doctrine of persecution is far from
being an article of our faith. [86]

It is not for any private man to censure the proceedings of a foreign
prince:[87] but, without suspicion of flattery, I may praise our own,
who has taken contrary measures, and those more suitable to the spirit
of Christianity. Some of the dissenters, in their addresses to his
majesty, have said, "That he has restored God to his empire over
conscience. "[88] I confess, I dare not stretch the figure to so great
a boldness: but I may safely say, that conscience is the royalty and
prerogative of every private man. He is absolute in his own breast, and
accountable to no earthly power for that which passes only betwixt God
and him. Those who are driven into the fold are, generally speaking,
rather made hypocrites than converts.

This indulgence being granted to all the sects, it ought in reason
to be expected, that they should both receive it, and receive it
thankfully. For, at this time of day, to refuse the benefit, and adhere
to those whom they have esteemed their persecutors, what is it else but
publicly to own, that they suffered not before for conscience-sake, but
only out of pride and obstinacy, to separate from a church for those
impositions, which they now judge may be lawfully obeyed? After they
have so long contended for their classical ordination (not to speak of
rites and ceremonies) will they at length submit to an episcopal? If
they can go so far, out of complaisance to their old enemies, methinks
a little reason should persuade them to take another step, and see
whither that will lead them. [89]

Of the receiving this toleration thankfully, I shall say no more, than
that they ought, and I doubt not they will consider from what hand
they received it. It is not from a Cyrus, a heathen prince, and a
foreigner,[90] but from a christian king, their native sovereign; who
expects a return in specie from them, that the kindness, which he has
graciously shewn them, may be retaliated on those of his own persuasion.

As for the poem in general, I will only thus far satisfy the reader,
that it was neither imposed on me, nor so much as the subject given me
by any man. It was written during the last winter, and the beginning
of this spring; though with long interruptions of ill health and other
hindrances. About a fortnight before I had finished it, his majesty's
Declaration for liberty of conscience came abroad; which, if I had so
soon expected, I might have spared myself the labour of writing many
things which are contained in the third part of it. But I was always
in some hope, that the church of England might have been persuaded to
have taken off the penal laws and the test, which was one design of the
poem, when I proposed to myself the writing of it.

It is evident that some part of it was only occasional, and not first
intended: I mean that defence of myself, to which every honest man is
bound, when he is injuriously attacked in print; and I refer myself
to the judgment of those, who have read the answer to the Defence of
the late king's Papers, and that of the duchess, (in which last I was
concerned) how charitably I have been represented there. [91] I am now
informed both of the author and supervisors of this pamphlet, and will
reply, when I think he can affront me: for I am of Socrates's opinion,
that all creatures cannot. In the mean time let him consider whether
he deserved not a more severe reprehension than I gave him formerly,
for using so little respect to the memory of those, whom he pretended
to answer; and, at his leisure, look out for some original treatise of
humility, written by any Protestant in English; (I believe I may say in
any other tongue:) for the magnified piece of Duncombe on that subject,
which either he must mean, or none, and with which another of his
fellows has upbraided me, was translated from the Spanish of Rodriguez;
though with the omission of the seventeenth, the twenty-fourth, the
twenty-fifth, and the last chapter, which will be found in comparing of
the books. [92]

He would have insinuated to the world, that her late Highness died
not a Roman Catholic. He declares himself to be now satisfied to the
contrary, in which he has given up the cause: for matter of fact was
the principal debate betwixt us. In the mean time, he would dispute the
motives of her change; how preposterously, let all men judge, when he
seemed to deny the subject of the controversy, the change itself. [93]
And because I would not take up this ridiculous challenge, he tells
the world I cannot argue: but he may as well infer, that a Catholic
cannot fast, because he will not take up the cudgels against Mrs
James,[94] to confute the Protestant religion.

I have but one word more to say concerning the poem as such, and
abstracting from the matters, either religious or civil, which are
handled in it. The First Part, consisting most in general characters
and narration, I have endeavoured to raise, and give it the majestic
turn of heroic poesy. The Second, being matter of dispute, and chiefly
concerning church authority, I was obliged to make as plain and
perspicuous as possibly I could; yet not wholly neglecting the numbers,
though I had not frequent occasions for the magnificence of verse. The
Third, which has more of the nature of domestic conversation, is, or
ought to be, more free and familiar than the two former.

There are in it two episodes, or fables, which are interwoven with the
main design; so that they are properly parts of it, though they are
also distinct stories of themselves. In both of these I have made use
of the common-places of satire, whether true or false, which are urged
by the members of the one church against the other: at which I hope no
reader of either party will be scandalized, because they are not of my
invention, but as old, to my knowledge, as the times of Boccace and
Chaucer on the one side, and as those of the Reformation on the other.


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 85: The tumultuary joy of the sectaries, upon their first
view of this triumph over the church of England, led them into all
the extravagancies of loyalty, which used to be practised by their
ancient enemies the Tories. Addresses teeming with affection, and
foaming with bombast, were poured in upon King James from all corners
of his dominions; Presbyterians, Anabaptists, Quakers, Sectaries of all
sorts and persuasions, strove to be foremost in the race of gratitude.
And when similar addresses came in from corporations, who had been
formerly anxious to shew their loyalty on the subject of the Rye-house
plot, the king's accession, and other occasions of triumph to the
Tories, the tone of these bodies also was wonderfully changed; and,
instead of raving against excluders, rebels, regicides, republicans,
and fanatics, whose hellish contrivances endeavoured to destroy the
safety of the kingdom, and the life of the king, these same gentlemen
mention the Sectaries as their brethren and fellow-subjects, to whom
the king, their common father, had been justly, liberally, royally
pleased to grant freedom of conscience, for which the addressers
offer their hearty and unfeigned thanks. These were the two classes
of persons, whom Dryden, as they had closed with the measures of
government, declares to be exempted from his satire. Those, therefore,
against whom it is avowedly directed, are first, the Church of England,
whose adherents saw her destruction aimed at through the pretence of
toleration. 2dly, Those Sectaries, who distrusted the boon which the
king presented, and feared that the consequences of this immediate
indulgence at the hands of an ancient enemy, would be purchased by
future persecution. These formed a body, small at first, but whose
numbers daily increased.

Among the numerous addresses which were presented to the court on
this occasion, there are two somewhat remarkable from the quality and
condition of the persons in whose name they are offered. The one is
from the persons engaged in the schemes of Shaftesbury and Monmouth,
and who set out by acknowledging their lives and fortunes forfeited to
King James; a singular instance of convicts offering their sentiments
upon state affairs. The other is from no less a corporation than the
company of London Cooks, which respectable persons declare their
approbation of the indulgence, upon a principle recognized in their
profession, "the difference of _men's gusto_, in religion, as in
eatables;" and assure his majesty, that his declaration "somewhat
resembles the Almighty's manna, which suited every man's palate. "
_History of Addresses_, pp. 106, 132. ]

[Footnote 86: Most readers will, I think, acknowledge with me, the
extreme awkwardness with which Dryden apologizes, for hoping well of
those Sectaries, against whom he had so often discharged the utmost
severity of his pen. Yet there is much real truth in the observation,
though the compliment to the new allies of the Catholics is but a cold
one. Many sects have distinguished themselves by faction, fanaticism,
and furious excess at their rise, which, when their spirits have
ceased to be agitated by novelty, and exasperated by persecution, have
subsided into quiet orderly classes of citizens, only remarkable for
some peculiarities of speculative doctrine. ]

[Footnote 87: Alluding to the persecution of the Huguenots in France,
after the recall of the edict of Nantes. ]

[Footnote 88: This phrase occurs in the address of the Ministers of the
Gospel in and about the city of London, commonly called Presbyterians:
"Your majesty's princely wisdom," say these reverend sycophants, "now
rescues us from our long sufferings, and by the same royal act restores
God to the empire over conscience. " This it is to be too eloquent; when
people set no bounds to their rhetoric, it betrays them often into
nonsense, and not seldom into blasphemy. --_History of Addresses_, p.
107. ]

[Footnote 89: A gentle insinuation, that, if the sectaries could
renounce the ordination by presbyteries or classes, in favour of the
church of England, it would require but a step or two farther to bring
them to a conformity with that of Rome. ]

[Footnote 90: Who freed the Jews from their bondage, and gave them
permission to rebuild their city and temple. --See the _Book of Esdras_. ]

[Footnote 91: In his ardour for extending the Catholic religion,
James II. had directed copies of the papers found in his brother's
strongbox in favour of that communion, with the copy of a paper by his
first duchess, giving the reasons for her conversion to that faith,
to be printed, and circulated through the kingdom. These papers were
answered by the learned Stillingfleet, then Dean of St Paul's. A
Defence of the Papers was published "by command," of which it appears,
from the passage in the text, that our author wrote the third part,
which applies to the Duchess of York's paper. Stillingfleet published
a vindication of his answer, in which he attacks our author with some
severity. A full account of the controversy will be found attached to
Dryden's part of the Defence, among his prose works. ]

[Footnote 92: In the controversy between Dryden and Stillingfleet,
the former had concluded his Defence of the Duchess of York's paper,
by alleging, that "among all the volumes of divinity written by the
Protestants, there is not one original treatise, at least that I have
seen or heard of, which has handled distinctly, and by itself, the
Christian virtue of humility. " This Stillingfleet, in his reply, calls
a "bare-faced assertion of a thing known to be false;" for, "with-in
a few years, besides what has been printed formerly, such a book
hath been published in London. " Dryden, in the text, replies to this
allegation, that Duncombe's treatise, which he supposes to be meant, is
a translation from the Spanish of Rodriguez, therefore, not originally
a Protestant work. Montague, in the preface to "The Hind and Panther
Transversed" alleges, that Dryden has mistaken the name of the author
of the treatise alluded to; which was not, he asserts, Duncombe, but
Allen. See the matter more fully canvassed in a note on the original
passage, in "The Duchess of York's Paper Defended. "]

[Footnote 93: Dryden is not quite candid in his statement. In
Stillingfleet's answer to the Duchess's paper, it is indeed called, the
"paper _said_ to be written by a great lady;" but there is not another
word upon the authority, which, indeed, considering it was published
under the king's immediate inspection, could not be very decorously
disputed. Dryden seizes upon this phrase in his defence, and, coupling
with it some expressions of the Bishop of Winchester, he argues that
it was the intention of these sons of the church of England, to
give the lie to their sovereign. In this vindication of the answer,
Stillingfleet thus expresses himself: "As to the main design of the
third paper, I declared, that I considered it, as it was supposed to
contain the reasons and motives of the conversion of so great a lady to
the church of Rome.

"But this gentleman has now eased me of the necessity of farther
considering it on that account. For he declares, that none of those
motives or reasons are to be found in the paper of her highness. Which
he repeats several times. 'She writ this paper, not as to the reasons
she had herself for changing, &c. ' 'As for her reasons, they were only
betwixt God and her own soul, and the priest with whom she spoke at
last. '

"And so my work is at an end as to her paper. For I never intended to
ransack the private papers or secret narratives of great persons; and
I do not in the least question the relation now given from so great
authority, as that he mentions of the passages concerning her; and
therefore I have nothing more to say as to what relates to the person
of the duchess. "

It is obvious that Dryden, probably finding the divine too hard for
him on the controversial part of the subject, affects to consider the
dispute as entirely limited to the authenticity of the paper, which it
cannot be supposed Stillingfleet ever seriously intended to impeach. ]

[Footnote 94: Eleanor James, a lady who was at this period pleased
to stand up as a champion for the test, against the repeal which
James had so deeply at heart. This female theologian is mentioned
in the "Remarks from the country, upon the two Letters, relating to
the convocation, and alterations in the liturgy. " "It is a thousand
pities, so instructive and so eloquent papers should ever fall under
such an imputation, (of being too forward, and solemn impertinence,)
and be ranked among the scribblings of Eleanor James, with this only
advantage of having better language, whereas the woman counsellor is
judged to have the better meaning. " Although Mrs James's lucubrations
were thus vilipended by the male disputants, one of her own sex thought
it necessary to enter the lists in opposition to her. _See Elizabeth
Rone's short Answer to Eleanor James's Long Preamble, or Vindication of
the New Test_:

The book called Mistress James's Vindication,
Does seem to me but her great indignation;
Against the Romans and dissenters too,
She for the church of England makes adoe;
Calling her Christ's spouse, but she's mistaken,
Christ's spouse is she that is by her forsaken.

Mrs James's work was entitled, "A Vindication of the Church of
England, in answer to a pamphlet, entitled, a New Test of the Church
of England's Loyalty. " She was herself the wife of a printer, who
left many books to the library of Sion college. Mrs James's picture
is preserved in the library, in the full dress of a citizen's wife of
that period. She survived her husband many years, and carried on the
printing business on her own account. --MALONE, Vol. III. p. 539. ]




THE

HIND AND THE PANTHER.


A milk-white Hind,[95] immortal and unchanged,
Fed on the lawns, and in the forest ranged;
Without unspotted, innocent within,
She feared no danger, for she knew no sin.
Yet had she oft been chased with horns and hounds,
And Scythian shafts; and many winged wounds
Aimed at her heart; was often forced to fly,
And doomed to death, though fated not to die. [96]
Not so her young; for their unequal line
Was hero's make, half human, half divine.
Their earthly mould obnoxious was to fate,
The immortal part assumed immortal state.
Of these a slaughtered army lay in blood,[97]
Extended o'er the Caledonian wood,
Their native walk; whose vocal blood arose,
And cried for pardon on their perjured foes.
Their fate was fruitful, and the sanguine seed,
Endued with souls, increased the sacred breed.
So captive Israel multiplied in chains,
A numerous exile, and enjoyed her pains.
With grief and gladness mixed, the mother viewed
Her martyr'd offspring, and their race renewed;
Their corps to perish, but their kind to last,
So much the deathless plant the dying fruit surpassed.
Panting and pensive now she ranged alone,
And wandered in the kingdoms, once her own.
The common hunt, though from their rage restrained
By sovereign power, her company disdained,
Grinned as they passed, and with a glaring eye
Gave gloomy signs of secret enmity
'Tis true, she bounded by, and trip'd so light,
They had not time to take a steady sight;
For truth has such a face and such a mien,
As to be loved needs only to be seen.
The bloody Bear, an independent beast,
Unlicked to form, in groans her hate exprest. [98]
Among the timorous kind, the quaking Hare
Professed neutrality, but would not swear. [99]
Next her the buffoon Ape, as atheists use,
Mimicked all sects, and had his own to chuse;
Still when the Lion looked, his knees he bent,
And paid at church a courtier's compliment. [100]
The bristled baptist Boar, impure as he,[101]
But whitened with the foam of sanctity,
With fat pollutions filled the sacred place,}
And mountains levelled in his furious race; }
So first rebellion founded was in grace. }
But since the mighty ravage, which he made
In German forests, had his guilt betrayed,
With broken tusks, and with a borrowed name,
He shunned the vengeance, and concealed the shame;
So lurked in sects unseen. With greater guile
False Reynard fed on consecrated spoil;[102]
The graceless beast by Athanasius first
Was chased from Nice, then by Socinus nursed;
His impious race their blasphemy renewed,
And nature's king through nature's optics viewed.
Reversed, they viewed him lessened to their eye,
Nor in an infant could a God descry;
New swarming sects to this obliquely tend,
Hence they began, and here they all will end.
What weight of antient witness can prevail,
If private reason hold the public scale?
But, gracious God, how well dost thou provide
For erring judgments an unerring guide!
Thy throne is darkness in the abyss of light,
A blaze of glory that forbids the sight.
O teach me to believe thee, thus concealed,
And search no farther than thyself revealed;
But her alone for my director take,
Whom thou hast promised never to forsake!
My thoughtless youth was winged with vain desires;
My manhood, long misled by wandering fires,
Followed false lights; and, when their glimpse was gone,
My pride struck out new sparkles of her own.
Such was I, such by nature still I am;
Be thine the glory, and be mine the shame!
Good life be now my task; my doubts are done;[103]
What more could fright my faith, than three in one?
Can I believe eternal God could lie }
Disguised in mortal mould, and infancy? }
That the great Maker of the world could die? }
And after that trust my imperfect sense,
Which calls in question his omnipotence?
Can I my reason to my faith compel,
And shall my sight, and touch, and taste rebel?
Superior faculties are set aside;
Shall their subservient organs be my guide?
Then let the moon usurp the rule of day,
And winking tapers shew the sun his way;
For what my senses can themselves perceive,
I need no revelation to believe.
Can they, who say the host should be descried
By sense, define a body glorified?
Impassable, and penetrating parts?
Let them declare by what mysterious arts
He shot that body through the opposing might, }
Of bolts and bars impervious to the light, }
And stood before his train confessed in open sight. [104]}
For since thus wondrously he passed, 'tis plain,
One single place two bodies did contain;
And sure the same Omnipotence as well
Can make one body in more places dwell.
Let reason then at her own quarry fly,
But how can finite grasp infinity?
'Tis urged again, that faith did first commence
By miracles, which are appeals to sense,
And thence concluded, that our sense must be
The motive still of credibility;
For latter ages must on former wait,
And what began belief, must propagate.
But winnow well this thought, and you shall find
'Tis light as chaff that flies before the wind.
Were all those wonders wrought by power divine,
As means or ends of some more deep design?
Most sure as means, whose end was this alone,
To prove the Godhead of the Eternal Son.
God thus asserted, man is to believe
Beyond what sense and reason can conceive,
And, for mysterious things of faith, rely
On the proponent, heaven's authority.
If, then, our faith we for our guide admit,
Vain is the farther search of human wit;
As when the building gains a surer stay,
We take the unuseful scaffolding away.
Reason by sense no more can understand;
The game is played into another hand.
Why chuse we then like bilanders[105] to creep}
Along the coast, and land in view to keep, }
When safely we may launch into the deep? }
In the same vessel, which our Saviour bore, }
Himself the pilot, let us leave the shore, }
And with a better guide a better world explore. }
Could he his Godhead veil with flesh and blood,
And not veil these again to be our food?
His grace in both is equal in extent,
The first affords us life, the second nourishment.
And if he can, why all this frantic pain, }
To construe what his clearest words contain,}
And make a riddle what he made so plain? }
To take up half on trust, and half to try,
Name it not faith, but bungling bigotry;
Both knave and fool the merchant we may call, }
To pay great sums, and to compound the small; }
For who would break with heaven, and would not break for all? }
Rest then, my soul, from endless anguish freed;
Nor sciences thy guide, nor sense thy creed.
Faith is the best ensurer of thy bliss;
The bank above must fail, before the venture miss.
But heaven and heaven-born faith are far from thee,
Thou first apostate to divinity.
Unkennelled range in thy Polonian plains;
A fiercer foe the insatiate Wolf remains.
Too boastful Britain, please thyself no more,
That beasts of prey are banished from thy shore;
The bear, the boar, and every savage name,
Wild in effect, though in appearance tame,
Lay waste thy woods, destroy thy blissful bower,
And, muzzled though they seem, the mutes devour.
More haughty than the rest, the wolfish race}
Appears with belly gaunt, and famished face;}
Never was so deformed a beast of grace. }
His ragged tail betwixt his legs he wears, }
Close clap'd for shame; but his rough crest he rears,}
And pricks up his predestinating ears. [106] }
His wild disordered walk, his hagard eyes,
Did all the bestial citizens surprise.
Though feared and hated, yet he ruled a while,
As captain or companion of the spoil.
Full many a year his hateful head had been
For tribute paid, nor since in Cambria seen;
The last of all the litter 'scaped by chance,
And from Geneva first infested France.
Some authors thus his pedigree will trace,
But others write him of an upstart race;
Because of Wickliffe's brood no mark he brings,
But his innate antipathy to kings.
These last deduce him from the Helvetian kind,
Who near the Leman-lake his consort lined;
That fiery Zuinglius first the affection bred,
And meagre Calvin blest the nuptial bed.
In Israel some believe him whelped long since,
When the proud sanhedrim oppressed the prince;
Or, since he will be Jew, derive him higher,
When Corah with his brethren did conspire
From Moses' hand the sovereign sway to wrest,
And Aaron of his ephod to divest;
'Till opening earth made way for all to pass,
And could not bear the burden of a class. [107]
The Fox and he came shuffled in the dark,
If ever they were stowed in Noah's ark;
Perhaps not made; for all their barking train
The dog (a common species) will contain;
And some wild curs, who from their masters ran,}
Abhorring the supremacy of man, }
In woods and caves the rebel-race began. }
O happy pair, how well have you increased!
What ills in church and state have you redressed!