No More Learning

Of the first, who must otherwise have failed in a contest
which he had with the Duke of Queensberry, it was wittily said by
Halifax, that "his faith had made him whole. " And, in general, as my
countrymen are not usually credited by their brethren of England for
an extreme disregard to their own interest, the Scottish converts were
supposed to be peculiarly attracted to Rome by the miracle of the
loaves and fishes. [265] But it may be said for these unfortunate peers,
that if they were dazzled by the momentary sunshine which gleamed on
the Catholic church, they scorned to desert her in the tempest which
speedily succeeded. Whereas, we shall do a kindness to Lord Sunderland,
if we suppose that he became a convert to Popery, merely from views of
immediate interest, and not with the premeditated intention of blinding
and betraying the monarch, who trusted him. Dryden must be supposed,
however, chiefly interested in the vindication of his own motives for a
change of religion.


Note VI.

_Such who themselves of no religion are,
Allured with gain, for any will declare;
Bare lies with bold assertions they can face,
But dint of argument is out of place;
The grim logician puts them in a fright,
'Tis easier far to flourish than to fight. _ P. 203.

Dryden here puts into the mouth of the Panther some of the severe
language which Stillingfleet had held towards him in the ardour of
controversy. He had, in direct allusion to our author, (for he quotes
his poetry,) expressed himself thus harshly:

"If I thought there were no such thing in the world as true religion,
and that _the priests of all religions are alike_,[266] I might have
been as nimble a convert, and as early a defender of the royal papers,
as any one of these champions. For why should not one who believes no
religion, declare for any? But since I do verily believe, that not only
there is such a thing as true religion, but that it is only to be found
in the books of the Holy Scripture, I have reason to inquire after the
best means of understanding such books, and thereby, if it may be, to
put an end to the controversies of Christendom. "[267]

"But our _grim logician_ proceeds from immediate and original to
concomitant causes, which he saith were revenge, ambition, and
covetousness. But the skill of logicians used to lie in proving; but
this is not our author's talent, for not a word is produced to that
purpose. If bold sayings, and confident declarations, will do the
business, he is never unprovided; but if you expect any reason from
him, he begs your pardon. He finds how ill the character of a grim
logician suits with his inclination. "[268] Again, "But if I will not
allow his affirmations for proofs for his part, he will act the grim
logician; no, and in truth it becomes him so ill, that he doth well to
give it over. "[269] And in the beginning of his "Vindication," alluding
to a term used by the defender of the king's papers, Stillingfleet
says: "But lest I be again thought to have a mind to flourish before I
offer to pass, as the champion speaks in his proper language, I shall
apply myself to the matter before us. "[270]


Note VII.

_Thus our eighth Henry's marriage they defame;
Divorcing from the church to wed the dame:
Though largely proved, and by himself professed,
That conscience, conscience would not let him rest. _

* * * * *

_For sundry years before he did complain,
And told his ghostly confessor his pain. _ P. 204.

This is a continuation of the allusion to Stillingfleet's
"Vindication," who had attempted to place Henry VIII. 's divorce from
Catherine of Arragon to the account of his majesty's tender conscience.
A herculean task! but the readers may take it in the words of the Dean
of St Paul's:

"And now this gentleman sets himself to _ergoteering_;[271] and looks
and talks like any grim logician, of the causes which produced it,
and the effects which it produced. 'The schism led the way to the
Reformation, for breaking the unity of Christ's church, which was the
foundation of it: but the immediate cause of this, which produced the
separation of Henry VIII. from the church of Rome, was the refusal of
the pope to grant him a divorce from his first wife, and to gratify
his desires in a dispensation for a second marriage. '

"_Ergo_: The first cause of the Reformation, was the satisfying an
inordinate and brutal passion. But is he sure of this? If he be not,
it is a horrible calumny upon our church, upon King Henry the Eighth,
and the whole nation, as I shall presently show. No; he confesses
he cannot be sure of it: for, saith he, no man can carry it so high
as the original cause with any certainty. And at the same time, he
undertakes to demonstrate the immediate cause to be Henry the Eighth's
inordinate and brutal passion; and afterwards affirms, as confidently
as if he had demonstrated it, that our Reformation was erected on
the foundations of lust, sacrilege, and usurpation: Yet, saith he,
the king only knew whether it was conscience or love, or love alone,
which moved him to sue for a divorce. Then, by his favour, the king
only could know what was the immediate cause of that which he calls
the schism. Well! but he offers at some probabilities, that lust was
the true cause. Is Ergoteering come to this already? 'But this we may
say, if Conscience had any part in it, she had taken a long nap of
almost twenty years together before she awakened. ' Doth he think, that
Conscience doth not take a longer nap than this in some men, and yet
they pretend to have it truly awakened at last? What thinks he of late
converts? Cannot they be true, because conscience hath slept so long
in them? Must we conclude in such cases, that some inordinate passion
gives conscience a jog at last? 'So that it cannot be denied, he saith,
that an inordinate and brutal passion had a great share at least in
the production of the schism. ' How! cannot be denied! I say from his
own words it ought to be denied, for he confesses none could know but
the king himself; he never pretended that the king confessed it: How
then cannot it be denied? Yea, how dare any one affirm it? Especially
when the king himself declared in a solemn assembly, in these words,
saith Hall, (as near, saith he, as I could carry them away,) speaking
of the dissatisfaction of his conscience,--"For this only cause, I
protest before God, and in the word of a prince, I have asked counsel
of the greatest clerks in Christendom; and for this cause I have sent
for this legat, as a man indifferent, only to know the truth, and to
settle my conscience, and for none other cause, as God can judge. " And
both then and afterwards, he declared, that his scruples began upon
the French ambassador's making a question about the legitimacy of the
marriage, when the match was proposed between the Duke of Orleans and
his daughter; and he affirms, that he moved it himself in confession to
the Bishop of Lincoln, and appeals to him concerning the truth of it in
open court. "--_Vindication of the Answer to some late Papers_, p. 109.


Note VIII.

_They say, that, look the Reformation round,
No treatise of humility is found;
But if none were, the gospel does not want,
Our Saviour preached it, and I hope you grant,
The sermon on the mount was Protestant. _--P. 204.

Stillingfleet concludes his "Vindication" with this admonition
to Dryden: "I would desire him not to end with such a bare-faced
assertion of a thing so well known to be false, viz. that there is
not one original treatise written by a Protestant, which hath handled
distinctly, and by itself, that Christian virtue of humility. Since
within a few years (besides what hath been printed formerly) such
a book hath been published in London. But he doth well to bring it
off with, 'at least that I have seen or heard of;' for such books
have not lain much in the way of his inquiries. Suppose we had not
such particular books, we think the Holy Scripture gives the best
rules and examples of humility of any book in the world; but I am
afraid he should look on his case as desperate if I send him to the
Scripture, since he saith, 'Our divines do that as physicians do
with their patients whom they think uncurable, send them at last to
Tunbridge-waters, or to the air of Montpellier. "

Dryden, in the Introduction, says, that the author of this work was
called Duncombe; but he is charged with inaccuracy by Montague, who
says his name is Allen. It seems to be admitted, that his work is a
translation from the Spanish. The real author may have been Thomas
Allen, rector of Kettering, in Northamptonshire, and author of "The
Practice of a Holy Life, 8vo. 1716;" in the list of books subjoined to
which, I find "The Virtue of Humility, recommended to be printed by
the late reverend and learned Dr Henry Hammond," which perhaps may be
the book in question. A sort of similarity of sound between Duncombe
and Hammond may have led to Dryden's mistake. Alonzo Rodriguez, of the
Order of the Jesuits, wrote a book called "_Exercicio de perfecion y
virtudes Christianas, Sevilla, 1609_," which seems to be the work from
which the plagiary was taken.


Note IX.

_Unpitied Hudibras, your champion friend,
Has shown how far your charities extend;
This lasting verse shall on his tomb be read,_
"_He shamed you living, and upbraids you dead. _" P. 205.

Our author, in the preceding lines, had employed himself in repelling
the charge of his having changed his religion for the sake of interest.
His loaves, he says, had not been increased by the change, nor had
his assiduity at court intimated any claim upon royal favour: and
in reference to her neglect of literary merit, he charges on the
church of England the fate of Butler, a brother poet. Of that truly
original genius we only know, that his life was spent in dependence,
and embittered by disappointment. But unless Dryden alludes to some
incident now unknown, it is difficult to see how the church of England
could have rewarded his merit. Undoubtedly she owed much to his
forcible satire against her lately triumphant rivals, the Presbyterians
and Independents; but, unless Butler had been in orders, how could the
church have recompensed his poetical talents? The author of the most
witty poem that ever was written had a much more natural and immediate
claim upon the munificence of the wittiest king and court that ever was
in England; nor was his satire less serviceable to royalty than to the
established religion. The blame of neglecting Butler lay therefore on
Charles II. and his gay courtiers, who quoted "Hudibras" incessantly,
and left the author to struggle with obscurity and indigence. The poet
himself has, in a fragment called "Hudibras at Court," set forth both
the kind reception which Charles gave the poem, and his neglect of the
author:

Now you must know, Sir Hudibras
With such perfections gifted was,
And so peculiar in his manner,
That all that saw him did him honour.
Among the rest, this prince was one,
Admired his conversation:
This prince, whose ready wit and parts
Conquered both men and women's hearts,
Was so o'ercome with Knight and Ralph,
That he could never claw it off;
He never eat, nor drank, nor slept,
But Hudibras still near him kept;
Nor would he go to church, or so,
But Hudibras must with him go;
Nor yet to visit concubine,
Or at a city feast to dine,
But Hudibras must still be there,
Or all the fat was in the fire.
Now after all, was it not hard,
That he should meet with no reward,
That fitted out this knight and squire,
This monarch did so much admire?
That he should never reimburse
The man for th' equipage, or horse,
Is sure a strange ungrateful thing,
In any body but a king.
But this good king, it seems, was told,
By some that were with him too bold,
If e'er you hope to gain your ends,
Caress your foes, and trust your friends.
Such were the doctrines that were taught,
Till this unthinking king was brought
To leave his friends to starve and die,
A poor reward for loyalty!


Note X.

_With odious atheist names you load your foes;
Your liberal clergy why did I expose?
It never fails in charities like those. _--P. 205.

Our author here complains of the personal reflections which
Stillingfleet had cast upon him, particularly in the passage already
quoted in Note VII. , where he is expressly charged with disbelieving
the existence of "such a thing as true religion. " The second and third
lines of the triplet are somewhat obscure. The meaning seems to be,
that Dryden, conscious of having given the first offence, which we
shall presently see was the case, justifies his having done so, from
personal abuse being the never-failing resort of the liberal clergy.
The application of the neuter pronoun _it_ to the liberal clergy, is
probably in imitation of Virgil's satirical construction:

_Varium et mutabile semper fæmina. _

It happened in this controversy, as in most others, that both parties,
laying out of consideration the provocation which they themselves had
given, complained bitterly of the illiberality of their antagonists.
Stillingfleet expatiates on the unhandsome language contained in
Dryden's Defence, and the passages which he quotes are those which
contain the exposure of the liberal clergy mentioned in the text:

"Yet as if I had been the sole contriver or inventor of all, he
bestows those civil and obliging epithets upon me, of _disingenuous_,
_foul-mouthed_, and _shuffling_; one of a _virulent genius_, of
_spiteful diligence_, and _irreverence to the royal family_; of
_subtle calumny_, and _sly aspersion_; and he adds to these ornaments
of speech, that I have a _cloven-foot_, and my name is _Legion_; and
that my Answer is an _infamous libel_, a _scurrilous saucy pamphlet_.
Is this indeed the spirit of a new convert? Is this the meekness and
temper you intend to gain proselytes by, and to convert the nation?
He tells us in the beginning, that truth has a language peculiar to
itself: I desire to be informed, whether these be any of the characters
of it? And how the language of reproach and evil-speaking may be
distinguished from it? But zeal in a new convert is a terrible thing;
for it not only burns, but rages, like the eruptions of Mount Ætna;
it fills the air with noise and smoke, and throws out such a torrent
of liquid fire, that there is no standing before it. The Answer alone
was too mean a sacrifice for such a Hector in controversy. All that
standeth in his way must fall at his feet. He calls me Legion, that
he may be sure to have number enough to overcome. But he is a great
proficient indeed, if he be such an exorcist, to cast out a whole
legion already. But he hopes it may be done without fasting and
prayer. "--_Vindication of the Answer_, p. 1.


Note XI.

_It now remains for you to school your child,
And ask why God's anointed he reviled;
A king and princess dead! Did Shimei worse? _ P. 207.

The Hind having shewn that her influence over Dryden was such as to
induce him to submit patiently, and without vengeance, to injury and
reproach, now calls upon the Panther to exert her authority in turn
over Stillingfleet, for his irreverend attack upon the royal papers
in favour of the Catholic religion. Upon a careful perusal of the
Answers and Vindication of that great divine, it is impossible to find
any grounds for the charge of his having _reviled_ Charles II. or the
Duchess of York; on the contrary, their names are always mentioned with
great respect, and the controversy is conducted strictly in conformity
with the following spirited advertisement prefixed to the Answer:

"If the papers, here answered, had not been so publicly dispersed
through the nation, a due respect to the name they bear, would have
kept the author from publishing any answer to them. But because they
may now fall into many hands, who, without some assistance, may not
readily resolve some difficulties started by them, he thought it not
unbecoming his duty to God and the king, to give a clearer light to the
things contained in them. And it can be no reflection on the authority
of a prince, for a private subject to examine a piece of coin as to its
just value, though it bears his image and superscription upon it. In
matters that concern faith and salvation, we must prove all things, and
hold fast that which is good. "--_Advertisement to Answer to the Royal
Papers. _

Dryden, however, like the other Catholics, was pleased to interpret the
impugning and confuting the arguments used by the king and duchess,
into contempt and disrespect for their persons. It was this forced
construction on which was founded the prosecution of Sharpe and of
the Bishop of London before the ecclesiastical commissioners. Sharpe
having been defied to a polemical contest, by a paper handed into his
pulpit, took occasion to preach on the arguments contained in it;
and mentioned, with some contempt, persons who could be influenced
by such weak reasoning. This was interpreted as a reflection on the
new converts, and particularly on the king himself; and a mandate was
issued to the Bishop of London, commanding that the obnoxious preacher
should be suspended. The issue of this matter has been noticed in the
notes on "Absalom and Achitophel," Vol. IX. p. 302.


Note XII.

_Your son was warned, and wisely gave it o'er;
But he, who counselled him, has paid the score. _ P. 207.

Dryden here triumphs in the conquest he pretends to have gained over
Stillingfleet. In the beginning of the controversy, the Dean of St
Paul's had spoken dubiously of the authenticity of the paper ascribed
to the Duchess. In his Vindication, he fully admitted that point, and
insisted only upon the weakness of the reasons which she alleged for
her conversion. This Dryden compares to a defeated vessel, bearing away
under the smoke of her last broadside.

The person, whom he states to have counselled Stillingfleet, is
probably Burnet; and the score which he paid, is the severe description
given of him under the character of the Buzzard. Dryden always seems
to have viewed the Answer to the Royal Papers as the work of more than
one hand. In his "Defence," he affirms, that the answerer's "name is
Legion; but though the body be possessed with many evil spirits, it
is but one of them that talks. " In the introduction to the "Hind and
Panther," he says, he is informed both of the "author and supervisors
of this pamphlet. " He conjectured, as was probably the truth, that a
controversy of such importance, and which required to be managed with
such peculiar delicacy, was not entrusted to a single individual.
Besides Burnet, it is probable that Tillotson, Tennison, and Patrick,
all of whom mingled in the polemical disputes of that period, were
consulted by Stillingfleet on this important occasion.


Note XIII.

_Perhaps you think your time of triumph near,
But may mistake the season of the year;
The Swallow's fortune gives you cause to fear. _--P. 210.

The general application of the fable of the Swallows to the short
gleam of Catholic prosperity during the reign of James II. is
sufficiently manifest. But it is probable, that a more close and
intimate allusion was intended to an event which took place in 1686,
when the whole nation was in confusion at the measures of King James,
so that the alarm had extended even to the Catholics, who were the
objects of his favour. We are told, there was a general meeting of the
leading Roman Catholics at the Savoy, to consult how this favourable
crisis might be most improved to the advantage of their cause. Father
Petre had the chair; and at the very opening of the debates, it
appeared, that the majority were more inclined to provide for their
own security, than to come to extremities with the Protestants.
Notwithstanding the King's zeal, power, and success, they were afraid
to push the experiment any farther. The people were already alarmed,
the soldiers could not be depended upon, the very courtiers melted
out of their grasp. All depended on a single life, which was already
on the decline; and if that life should last yet a few years longer,
and continue as hitherto devoted to their interest and service,
they foresaw innumerable difficulties in their way, and anticipated
disappointments without end. Upon these considerations, therefore, some
were for a petition to the king, that he would only so far interpose
in their favour, that their estates might be secured to them by act of
parliament, with exemption from all employments, and liberty to worship
God in their own way, in their own houses. Others were for obtaining
the king's leave to sell their estates, and transport themselves and
their effects to France. All but Father Petre were for a compromise
of some sort or other; but he disdained whatever had a tendency to
moderation, and was for making the most of the voyage while the sea was
smooth, and the wind prosperous. All these several opinions, we are
farther told, were laid before the king, who was pleased to answer,
"That before their desires were made known to him, he had provided
a sure retreat and sanctuary for them in Ireland, in case all those
endeavours which he was making for their security in England should be
blasted, and which as yet gave him no reason to despair. "[272]

It will hardly, I think, be disputed, that the fable of the Swallows
about to cross the seas refers to this consultation of the Catholics;
and it is a strong instance of Dryden's prejudice against priests of
all persuasions, that, in the character of the Martin, who persuaded
the Swallows to postpone the flight, he decidedly appears to have
designed Petre, the king's confessor and prime adviser in state
matters, both spiritual and temporal. The name of Martin may contain
an allusion to the parish of St Martin's, in which Whitehall, and the
royal chapel, are situated. But should this be thought fanciful, it
is certain, that the portrait of this vain, presumptuous, ambitious,
bigotted Jesuit, who was in keen pursuit of a cardinal's cap, is
exactly that of the Martin:

A church begot, and church believing bird,
Of little body, but of lofty mind,
Round-bellied, for a dignity designed.

Two marked circumstances of resemblance conclude the inuendo,--his
noble birth, and superficial learning;

But little learning needs in noble blood. [273]

It may be doubted, whether the reverend father was highly pleased with
this sarcastic description, or whether he admitted readily the apology,
that the poet, speaking in the character of the heretical church, was
obliged to use Protestant colouring.

The close correspondence of the fable with the real events may be
farther traced, and admit of yet more minute illustration:

The Raven, from the withered oak,
Left of their lodging,----

may be conjectured to mean Tennison, within whose parish Whitehall
was situated, and who stood in the front of battle during all the
Roman Catholic controversy. As Petre is the Martin who persuaded the
Catholics not to leave the kingdom, his preparations for maintaining
their ground there are also noticed:

He ordered all things with a busy care,
And cells and refectories did prepare,
And large provisions laid of winter fare.

This alludes to the numerous schools and religious establishments which
the Jesuits prepared to establish throughout England. [274] The chapel
which housed them is obviously the royal chapel, where the priests
were privileged to exercise their functions even during the subsistence
of the penal laws. The transient gleam of sunshine which invited the
Swallows forth from their retirement, is the Declaration of Indulgence,
in consequence of which the Catholics assumed the open and general
exercise of their religion. The Irish Catholics, with the sanguine
Talbot at their head, may be the first who hailed the imaginary return
of spring: they are painted as

----Swifts, the giants of the Swallow kind,
Large limbed, stout hearted, but of stupid mind.

I cannot help thinking, that our author, still speaking in the
character of the English church, describes himself as the "foolish
Cuckow," whose premature annunciation of spring completed the Swallow's
delusion. Perhaps he intended to mitigate the scornful description of
Petre, by talking of himself also as a Protestant would have talked of
him. The foreign priests and Catholic officers, whom hopes of promotion
now brought into England, are pointed out by the "foreign fowl," who
came in flocks,

To bless the founder, and partake the cheer.

The fable concludes in a prophetic strain, by indicating the calamities
which were likely to overwhelm the Catholics, as soon as the death of
James, or any similar event, should end their temporary prosperity. It
is well known, how exactly the event corresponded to the prophecy; even
the circumstance of the rabble rising upon the Catholic priests was
most literally verified. In most of the sea-port towns, they watched
the coasts to prevent their escape; and when King James was taken at
Feversham, the fishermen, by whom he was seized, were employed in what
they called by the cant phrase of "priest-codding," that is, lying in
wait for the fugitive priests.


Note XIV.

_But most in Martin's character and fate,
She saw her slandered sons, the Panther's hate,
The people's rage, the persecuting state. _--P. 217.

The conclusion of the fable naturally introduces a discussion of
the penal laws, which unquestionably were extremely severe towards
Catholics. By the fourteenth of Queen Elizabeth, it was enacted, that
whoever, by bulls of the pope, should reconcile any one to Rome,
should, together with the person reconciled, be guilty of high treason;
that those, who relieved such reconcilers, should be liable in the
penalties of a _premunire_, and those who concealed them in misprision
of treason. A still more severe law passed in the twenty-eighth of the
same queen, upon discovery of Parry's conspiracy against her life, to
which he had been stirred up by a book of Allen, or Parsons the Jesuit,
written for the express purpose. It was thereby enacted, that all
Jesuits and Popish priests should depart the kingdom within forty days;
and that those who should afterwards return into the kingdom, should be
guilty of high treason; and all who relieved and maintained them, of
felony. There were other enactments of a similar nature made upon the
discovery of the gun-powder plot. Samuel Johnson (I mean the divine)
gives an odd justification of these laws, saying, that the priests are
hanged, not as priests, but as traitors. But, as their being priests
was the sole reason for their being held traitors, it does not appear,
that the Protestant divine can avail himself of this distinction.


Note XV.

_No church reformed can boast a blameless line,
Such Martins build in yours, and more than mine;
Or else an old fanatic author lies,
Who summed their scandals up by centuries. _--P. 218.

The fanatic author is John White, commonly called Century White. He
was born in Pembrokeshire in 1590, was educated for the bar, and made
a considerable figure in his profession. As he was a rigid puritan, he
was chosen one of the trustees which that sect appointed to purchase
impropriations to be bestowed upon fanatic preachers. This design was
checked by Archbishop Laud; and White, among others, received a severe
censure in the Star-Chamber. In the Long Parliament, White was member
for Southwark, and distinguished himself by his vindictive severity
against the bishops and Episcopal clergy, saying openly in a committee,
he hoped to live to see the day, when there should be neither bishop
nor cathedral priest in England. He was very active in the ejectment
of the clergy, by which upwards of eight thousand churchmen are said
to have lost their cures in the course of four or five years. In order
to encourage and justify these violent measures, he published his
famous treatise, entitled, "The First Century of Scandalous Malignant
Priests, made and admitted into benefices by the Prelates, London,
1643;" a tract which contains, as may be inferred from its name, an
hundred instances of unworthiness, which had been either proved to
have existed among the clergy of the church of England, or had been
invented to throw a slander upon them. When this satire was shown to
Charles I.
, it was proposed to answer it by a similar exposition of
the scandalous part of the puritanical teachers; but that monarch
would not consent to give countenance to a warfare in which neither
party could gain, and religion was sure to be a loser between them.
Similar considerations are said to have prevented White himself from
publishing "A Second Century," in continuation of his work. He wrote
another tract, entitled, "The Looking Glass;" in which he attempted to
prove, that the sin against the Holy Ghost was the bearing arms for the
king in the civil war. His own party bestow on White a high character
for religion and virtue; but the cavaliers alleged, that although he
had two wives of his own, a large proportion of matrimony, he did not
forbear to visit three belonging to his neighbours in the White Friars.
He died in January 1644, and is said, in his last illness, to have
bitterly lamented the active share which he had taken in ejecting so
many guiltless ministers, and their families. This, however, may be a
fiction of the royalists; for the death-bed repentance of an enemy is
amongst the most common forgeries of party. White's body was attended
to the grave by most of the members of Parliament, and the following
distich inscribed on his tomb:

"Here lyeth a JOHN, a burning shining light,
His name, life, actions, all were WHITE. "

_See Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses. _


Note XVI.

_The Lion, studious of our common good,
Desires (and kings' desires are ill withstood)
To join our nations in a lasting love;
The bars betwixt are easy to remove,
For sanguinary laws were never made above. _--P. 218.

When James II. ascended the throne, deceived by the general attachment
of the church of England for his person, and the little jealousy which
they seemed to entertain of his religion, he conceived there would
be no great difficulty in procuring a reconciliation between the
national church and that of Rome. With this view he made a favourable
declaration of his intentions to maintain the church of England as
by law established, and certainly expected, that, in return, they
would consent to the repeal of the test act and penal laws;[275] and
this, it was conceived, might pave the way for uniting the churches.
An extraordinary pamphlet, already quoted, recommends such an union,
founded upon the mutual attachment of both communions to King James,
upon their success in resisting the Bill of Exclusion, and their common
hatred of the dissenters. "This very stone, which was once rejected by
the architects, is now become the chief stone in the corner. We may
truly see in it the hand of God, and look upon it with admiration; and
may expect, if fears and jealousies hinder not, the greatest blessings
we can wish for. An union betwixt these two walls, which have been thus
long separated, and now in a fair way to be united and linked together
by this corner stone; after which, how glorious a structure may we hope
for on such foundations! " A plan is therefore laid down, containing
the following heads, of which it may be observed, that the very first
is the abrogation of these penal laws, which Dryden states to be the
principal bar between the alliance of the Hind and the Panther.

"First, that it may be provided, That those who are known to be
faithful friends to the king and kingdom's good, may equally with us
enjoy those favours and blessings we may hope for under so great and
so just a king, without being liable to the sanguinary penal laws, for
holding opinions noways inconsistent with loyalty, and the peace and
quiet of the nation; and that they may not be obliged, by oaths and
tests, either to renounce their religion, which they know they cannot
do without sacrilege, or else to put themselves out of capacity of
serving their king and country.

"Secondly, That, for healing our differences, it be appointed, that
neither side, in their sermons, touch upon matters of controversy with
animating reflections; but that those discourses may wholly tend to
peace and piety, religion and sound morality; and that, in all public
catechisms, the solid grounds and principles of religion may be solely
explicated and established, all reflecting animosities being laid aside.

"Thirdly, That some learned, devout, and sober persons, may be made
choice of on both sides, who may truly state matters of controversy
betwixt us; to the end, each one may know others pretensions, and the
tenets they cannot abandon, without breaking the chain of apostolic
faith; which, if it be done, we shall, it may be, find that to be
true, which the Papists often tell us, that the difference betwixt
them and us is not so great as many make it; nor their tenets so
pernicious, but if we saw them naked, we should, if not embrace them
as truths, yet not condemn them as errors, much less as pernicious
doctrines. Yet if, notwithstanding all this, we cannot perfectly
agree in some points, let us, however, endeavour to live together
in the bonds of love and charity, as becomes good Christians and
loyal subjects, and join together to oppugn those known maxims, and
pernicious errors, which destroy the essence of religion, loyalty, and
good government. "--_Remonstrance, by way of Address, to the Church of
England_, 1685.


Note XVII.

_Yet still remember, that you wield a sword,
Forged by your foes against your sovereign lord;
Designed to hew the imperial cedar down,
Defraud succession, and dis-heir the crown. _--P. 219.

The Test-act was passed in the year 1678, while the popish plot was
in its vigour, and the Earl of Shaftesbury was urging every point
against the Catholics, with his eyes uniformly fixed upon the Bill of
Exclusion as his crowning measure. It imposed on all who should sit
in parliament, a declaration of their abhorrence of the doctrine of
transubstantiation. The Duke of York, with tears in his eyes, moved
for a proviso to exempt himself, protesting, that he cast himself upon
the House in the greatest concern he could have in the world; and that
whatever his religion might be, it should only be a private thing
between God and his own soul. Notwithstanding this pathetic appeal,
he carried his point but by two votes. With seven other peers he
protested against the bill. Dryden therefore, and probably with great
justice, represents this test as a part of his machinations against
the Duke of York, whose party was at that time, and afterwards, warmly
espoused by the church of England. But though the Test-act was devised
by a statesman whom they hated, and carried by a party whom they had
opposed, the high-church clergy were not the less unwilling to part
with it when they found the advantages which it gave them against
the Papists in King James's reign. Hence they were loaded with the
following reproaches: "My business is to set forth, in its own colours,
the extraordinary loyalty of those men, who obstinately maintain a
test contrived by the faction to usher in the Bill of Exclusion: And
it is much admired, even by some of her own children, that the grave
and matron-like church of England, which values herself so much for her
antiquity, should be over-fond of a new point of faith, lately broached
by a famous act of an infallible parliament, convened at Westminster,
and guided by the holy spirit of Shaftesbury. But I doubt there are
some parliaments in the world which will not so easily admit this new
article into their creed, though the church of England labours so much
to maintain it as a special evidence of her singular loyalty. "--_New
Test of the Church of England's Loyalty. _


Note XVIII.

_The first reformers were a modest race;
Our peers possessed in peace their native place,
And when rebellious arms o'erturned the state,
They suffered only in the common fate;
But now the sovereign mounts the regal chair,
And mitred seats are full, yet David's bench is bare. _--P. 221.

This passage regards the situation of the Roman Catholic peers.
Notwithstanding their religion, they had been allowed to retain their
seats and votes in the House of Lords. So jealous were they, (as was
but natural,) of this privilege, that, in 1675, when Danby proposed a
test oath upon all holding state employments and benefices, the object
of which was to acknowledge the doctrine of non-resistance, and disown
all attempts at an alteration of government, the Roman Catholic peers,
to the number of twenty, who had hitherto always voted with the crown,
united, on this occasion, with the opposition, and occasioned the loss
of the bill. This North imputes to the art of Shaftesbury, who dinned
into their ears, "that this test (by mentioning the maintenance of the
Protestant religion, though that of the royal authority was chiefly
proposed) tended to deprive them of their right of voting, which was
a birth-right so sacrosanct and radically inherent in the peerage,
as not to be temerated on any account whatsoever. " When the earl had
heated the Catholic lords with this suggestion, he secured them to the
opposition, by proposing, and carrying through, an order of the House,
that no bill should be received, tending to deprive any of the peerage
of their right. But when the Test-act of 1678 was moved, which had,
for its direct purpose, that exclusion which that of 1675 was supposed
only to convey by implication, Shaftesbury laughed at the order which
he himself had proposed, saying, _leges posteriores priores abrogant_.
And by this test, which required the renunciation of their religion
as idolatrous, the Catholic peerage were effectually, and for ever,
excluded from their seats in the House of Lords. Dryden intimates, in
the following lines, that this test applied to the Papists alone, and
complains heavily of this odious distinction, betwixt them and other
non-conformists.


Note XIX.

_When first the Lion sat with awful sway,
Your conscience taught your duty to obey. _--P. 223.

James II. and the established church set out on the highest terms of
good humour with each other. This, as the king afterwards assured
the dissenters, was owing to the professions made to him by some
of the churchmen, whom he named, who had promised favour to the
Catholics, provided he would abandon all idea of general toleration,
and leave them their ancient authority over the fanatics. Moved, as
he said, by these promises, the Declaration in council, issued upon
his accession, had this remarkable clause: "I know the principles of
the church of England are for monarchy, and the members of it have
shewn themselves good and loyal subjects, therefore I shall always
take care to defend and support it. " This explicit declaration gave
the greatest satisfaction to the kingdom in general, and particularly
to the clergy. "All the pulpits of England," says Burnet, "were full
of it, and of thanksgivings for it. It was magnified as a security
far greater than any that laws could give. The common phrase was,
_We have now the word of a king, and a word never yet broken_. This
general feeling of gratitude led to a set of addresses, full of the
most extravagant expressions of loyalty and fidelity to so gracious
a sovereign. The churchmen led the way in these expressions of zeal;
and the university of Oxford, in particular, promised to obey the king
without limitations or restrictions. " The king's promise was reckoned
so solemn and inviolable, that those addresses were censured as guilty
at least of ill-breeding, who mentioned in their papers the "religion
_established by law_;" since that expression implied an obligation on
the king to maintain it, independently of his royal grace and favour.
But the scene speedily changed, as the king's intentions began to
disclose themselves. Then, as a Catholic pamphleteer expresses himself,
"My loyal gentlemen were so far out of the right bias, that, in lieu
of taking off the tests and penal laws, which all people expected from
them in point of gratitude and good manners, they made a solemn address
to his majesty, that none be employed who were not capacitated by the
said laws and tests to bear offices civil and military. "[276]

If James, had viewed with attention the incidents of the former reign,
he might have recollected, that, however devoted the clergy had then
shown themselves to the crown, his brother's attempt at his present
measure of a general indulgence had at once alarmed the whole church.
This sensibility, when the interest of the church is concerned, is
severely contrasted with the general indifference to the cause of
freedom, into which they relapsed when the indulgence was recalled, in
a party pamphlet of the year 1680-1. "You may easily call to mind, a
late instance of the humanity and conscience of this race of men here
in England: For when his majesty, not long since, attempted to follow
his own inclinations, and emitted a declaration of indulgence to tender
consciences, the whole _posse cleri_ seemed to be raised against him:
Every reader and Gibeonite of the church could then talk as saucily
of their king, as they do now of the late honourable Parliament; nay,
they began to stand upon their terms, and delivered it out as orthodox
doctrine, that the king was to act according to law, and, therefore,
could not suspend a penal statute; that the subjects' obedience was
a legal obedience; and, therefore, if the king commanded any thing
contrary to law, the subject was not bound to obey; with so many other
honest positions, that men wondered in God how such knaves should come
by them. But wherefore was all this wrath, and all this doctrine?
merely because his majesty was pleased for a time to remove the sore
backs of dissenters from under the ecclesiastical lash; the bloody
exercise of which is never denied to holy church, but the magistrate is
immediately assaulted with the noise and clamour of Demetrius and his
craftsmen.

"But now, the tables being turned, the same mercenary tongues are
again all Sibthorp, and all Manwaring; not a bit of law, or conscience
either, is now to be had for love or money; not any limits to be put to
the king's commands, or our obedience. It is a gospel truth with these
men, that all which we have is the king's; and if he should command our
estates, our wives and children, yea, and our religion too, we ought to
resign them up, submit, and be silent. "--_The Freeholders' Choice, or,
A Letter of Advice concerning Elections. _


Note XX.

_Possess your soul with patience, and attend;
A more auspicious planet may ascend;
Good fortune may present some happier time,
With means to cancel my unwilling crime. _--P. 224.

The first expression in these lines seems to have been a favourite with
Dryden. In the Introduction to the Translation of Juvenal, he makes
it his glory, "that, being naturally vindicative, he had suffered in
silence, and _possessed his soul in quiet_. "

The arguments used by the Panther in this passage seem to have more
weight than her antagonist allows them. It was surely reasonable, that
the church of England should rest upon her penal statutes and test act,
as the sole mode of preventing the encroachments of her rival during a
Catholic reign, and at the same time that she should look forward with
pleasure to a future period, when such severe enactments might be no
longer necessary for her safety; a time, of which it has been our good
fortune to witness the arrival.

The argument of the Panther, in this speech, is, with the simile of
the inundation, literally versified from an answer to Penn's pamphlet.
"The penal laws cannot prejudice the Papists in this king's reign,
seeing he can connive at the non-execution of them, and the repeal
of them now cannot benefit the Papists when he is gone; because, if
they do not behave themselves modestly, we can either re-establish
them, or enact others, which they will be as little fond of. But their
abrogation at this time would infallibly prejudice us, and would prove
to be the pulling up of the sluices, and the throwing down the dikes,
which stem the deluge that is breaking in upon us, and which hinder
the threatening waves from overflowing us. " _Some reflections on a
discourse, entitled_, "Good Advice to the Church of England. "--_State
Tracts_, Vol. I. p. 368.


Note XXI.

_Your care about your banks infers a fear
Of threatening floods and inundations near;
If so, a just reprise would only be
Of what the land usurped upon the sea. _--P. 225.

This conveys a perilous insinuation, which perhaps it would, at the
time, have been prudent to suppress; since it goes the length of
preparing a justification of the resumption of the power, authority,
lands, and revenues, of the church of England, upon the footing of
their having originally belonged to that of Rome. It cannot be supposed
that this hint could be passed over at the time, without a strong
feeling of a meditated revolution in church government and property.


Note XXII.

_Behold how he protects your friends oppressed,
Receives the banished, succours the distressed!
Behold, for you may read an honest open breast. _--P. 225.

Burnet, in the "History of his Own Times," gives the following account
of the relief which James, either from inclination or policy, extended
to the French Protestants, who were exiled by the recal of the edict of
Nantes.

"But now the session of Parliament drew on, and there was a great
expectation of the issue of it. For some weeks before it met, there
was such a number of refugees coming over every day, who set about a
most dismal recital of the persecution in France; and that in so many
instances that were crying and odious, that, though all endeavours were
used to lessen the clamour this had raised, yet the king did not stick
openly to condemn it as both unchristian and unpolitic. He took pains
to clear the Jesuits of it, and laid the blame of it chiefly on the
king, on Madame de Maintenon, and the Archbishop of Paris. He spoke
often of it with such vehemence, that there seemed to be an affectation
in it. He did more: He was very kind to the refugees; he was liberal
to many of them; he ordered a brief for a charitable collection over
the nation for them all; upon which great sums were sent in. They
were deposited in good hands, and well distributed. The king also
ordered them to be denizen'd, without paying fees, and gave them
great immunities. So that, in all, there came over, first and last,
between forty and fifty thousand of that nation. There was such real
argument of the cruel and persecuting spirit of popery, wheresoever
it prevailed, that few could resist this conviction; so that all men
confessed, that the French persecution came very seasonably to awaken
the nation, and open men's eyes in so critical a conjunction; for upon
this session of Parliament all did depend. "--BURNET, Book IV.


Note XXIII.

_A plain good man, whose name is understood,
(So few deserve the name of plain and good. )_--P. 226.

These, and the following lines, contain a character of James II. most
exquisitely drawn, though, it must be owned, with a flattering pencil.
Bravery, economy, integrity, are the ingredients which Dryden has mixed
for his colours. Without attempting a character of this unfortunate
monarch, we may say a few words on each of the attributes ascribed to
him. Bravery he unquestionably possessed; but it was of that ordinary
kind, which, though unshaken by mere personal danger, is unable to
sustain its possessor in great and embarrassing political emergencies.
The economy of James, being one great engine by which he hoped to carry
on his projects, was so rigid as sometimes to border upon avarice. His
upright integrity, the virtue upon which he chiefly prided himself, and
which was the usual theme of courtly panegyric, frequently deviated
into obstinacy. When he had once resolved upon a measure, he often
announced his resolution with imprudence, and almost always pressed it
with an open disregard of consequences. No fault can be more fatal to
an English king; because the stream of popular opinion, which would
subside if unopposed, becomes irresistible when the obstinacy of a
monarch persists in attempting to stem it.


Note XXIV.

_A sort of Doves were housed too near their hall,
Who cross the proverb, and abound with gall. _--P. 228.

The virulent and abusive character which our author here draws of the
clergy, and particularly those of the metropolis, differs so much
from his description of the church of England, in the person of the
Panther, that we may conclude it was written after the publishing of
the Declaration of Indulgence, when the king had decidedly turned
his favour from the established church. Their quarrel was now
irreconcileable, and at immediate issue; and Dryden therefore changes
the tone of conciliation, with which he had hitherto addressed the
heretic church, into that of bitter and unrelenting satire. Dryden
calls them doves, in order to pave the way for terming them, as he
does a little below, "birds of Venus;" as disowning the doctrine
of celibacy. The popular opinion, that a dove has no gall, is well
known. In Scotland, this is averred to be owing to the dove which Noah
dismissed from the ark having flown so long, that his gall broke; since
which occurrence, none of the species have had any.


Note XXV.

_An hideous figure of their foes they drew,
Nor lines, nor looks, nor shades, nor colours true;
And this grotesque design exposed to public view. _--P. 231.

The Roman Catholic pamphlets of the time are filled with complaints,
that their principles were misrepresented by the Protestant divines;
and that king-killing tenets, and others of a pernicious or absurd
nature, were unjustly ascribed to them. A tract, which is written on
purpose to explain their real doctrine, says, "Is it not strange and
severe, that principles, and those pretended of faith too, should be
imposed upon men which they themselves renounce and detest? If the
Turks' Alcoran should, in like manner, be urged upon us, and we hanged
up for Mahometans, all we could do or say, in such a case, would be,
to die patiently, with protestations of our own innocence. And this
is the posture of our condition; we abhor, we renounce, we abominate,
such principles; we protest against them, and seal our protestations
with our dying breath. What shall we say, what can we do more? To
accuse men as guilty in matters of faith, which they never owned, is
the same thing as to condemn them for matters of fact which they
never did. "[277] Another author, speaking in the assumed character of
the established church, says, that the Catholic controvertists have
often told us, that "we behave ourselves like persons diffident of our
cause, decline disputes on equal terms, and either misrepresent their
tenets, as appears manifestly in their doctrines of justification
and merit, satisfaction and indulgences; or else play the buffoons,
joking, scoffing, and relating stories, which, if true, would not touch
religion. "--_A Remonstrance, by way of Address_, &c.


Note XXVI.

_No Holland emblem could that malice mend. _--P. 231.

Emblems, like puns, being the wit of a heavy people, the Dutch seem to
have been remarkable for them; of which, their old-fashioned prints,
and figured pan-tiles, are existing evidence. Prior thus drolls upon
the passage in the text:

"_Bayes. _ Oh! dear Sir, you are mighty obliging: but I must needs say
at a fable, or an emblem, I think no man comes near me; indeed I have
studied it more than any man. Did you ever take notice, Mr Johnson,
of a little thing that has taken mightily about town, a cat with a
top-knot? [278]

_John. _ Faith, Sir, 'tis mighty pretty; I saw it at the coffee-house.

_Bayes. _ 'Tis a trifle hardly worth owning. I was t'other day at
Will's, throwing out something of that nature; and, i'gad, the hint was
taken, and out came that picture; indeed the poor fellow was so civil
to present me with a dozen of 'em for my friends. I think I have one
here in my pocket; would you please to accept it, Mr Johnson?

_John. _ Really 'tis very ingenious.

_Bayes. _ Oh, Lord, nothing at all! I could design twenty of 'em in an
hour, if I had but witty fellows about me to draw 'em. I was proffered
a pension to go into Holland and contrive their emblems; but, hang 'em,
they are dull rogues, and would spoil my invention. "--_Hind and Panther
Transprosed. _


Note XXVII.

_The noble Buzzard ever pleased me best. _--P. 233.

Gilbert Burnet, well known as an historian, was born of a good family
in Scotland, in 1643. He went through his studies with success; and,
being ordained by the Bishop of Edinburgh, obtained the living of
Salton, in East Lothian, in 1665. While in this living, he drew up a
memorial of the abuses of the Scotch bishops, and was instrumental in
procuring the induction of Presbyterian divines into vacant churches;
a step which he afterwards condemned as imprudent. [279] To measures so
unfavourable for Episcopacy, Dryden seems to allude, in these lines:

I know he hates the Pigeon-house and Farm,
And more, in time of war, has done us harm;
But all his hate on trivial points depends,
Give up our forms, and we shall soon be friends.

Burnet's opinion, or rather indifference, concerning forms, may be
guessed at, from the applause with which he quotes a saying of Dr Henry
More; "None of them are bad enough to make men bad, and I am sure
none of them are good enough to make men good. " He was next created
professor of divinity at Glasgow; but as his active temper led him
to mingle much in political life, he speedily distinguished himself
rather as a politician than a theologian. In 1672 he was made one of
the king's chaplains, and was in high favour both with Charles and his
brother. He enjoyed much of the countenance of the Duke of Lauderdale;
but a quarrel taking place between them, the duke represented Burnet's
conduct in such terms, that he was deprived of his chaplainry, and
forced to resign his professor's chair, and abandon Scotland. He
had an opportunity of revenging himself upon Lauderdale, as will be
noticed in a subsequent note. During the time of the Popish plot,
he again received a portion of the royal countenance. He was then
preacher at the Rolls Chapel, under the patronage of Sir Harbottle
Grimstone, master of the rolls, as also lecturer at St Clement's,
and enjoyed a high degree of public consideration. Having, as he
conceived, a fit opportunity to awaken the conscience of Charles, he
ventured upon sending him a letter, where he treated his personal
vices, and the faults of his government, with great severity,[280]
and by which he forfeited his favour for ever. This freedom, with his
low-church tenets, gave also offence to the Duke of York, who was,
moreover, offended with him for some interference in the affair of the
Exclusion, in which, if he did not go all the length of Shaftesbury, he
recommended the appointment of a prince-regent; a measure scarcely more
palatable to the successor. At length, his regard for Lord Russell,
and the share which he took in penning, or circulating, his dying
declaration, drew upon him the full resentment of both brothers. To
this, a whimsical accident, in the choice of a text for the day of the
gun-powder plot, happened to contribute. The preacher _chanced_ (for
we must believe what he assures us, _ex verbo sacerdotis_) to pitch on
these words: "Save me from the _lion's_ mouth; thou hast delivered me
from the horns of the _unicorn_. " This was interpreted as referring to
the supporters of the royal arms; and Burnet was discharged, by the
king's command, both from lecturing at St Clement's, and preaching
at the Rolls Chapel. After this final breach with the court he went
abroad, and, having travelled through France and Italy, settled in
Holland at the court of the Prince of Orange. Here he did not fail,
with that ready insinuation which seems to have distinguished him,
to make himself of consequence to the prince, and especially to the
princess, afterwards Queen Mary. From this place of refuge he sent
forth several papers, in single sheets, relating to the controversy
in England; and the clergy, who had formerly looked upon him with
some suspicion, began now to treat with great attention and respect a
person so capable of serving their cause. He was consulted upon every
emergency; which confidence was no doubt owing partly to his situation
near the person of the Prince of Orange, the Protestant heir of the
crown. He stood forward as the champion of the church of England, in
the controversy with Parker concerning the Test. [281] In the "History
of his Own Times," the bishop talks with complacency of the sway which
circumstances had given him among the clergy, and of the important
matters which fell under his management; for, by express command of the
Prince of Orange, he was admitted into all the secrets of the English
intrigues. These insinuations of Burnet's importance, although they
afterwards drew the ridicule of Pope, and the Tory wits of Queen Anne's
reign, may, from the very satire of Dryden, be proved to have been well
founded. This acquired importance of Burnet is the alliance between
the Pigeon-house and Buzzard, which Dryden reprobates, believing, or
wishing to make others believe, that Burnet held opinions unfavourable
to Episcopacy. James considered this divine as so formidable an enemy,
that he wrote two very severe letters to his daughter against him,
and proceeded so far as to insist that he should be forbidden the
court; a circumstance which did not prevent his privately receiving
a double degree of countenance. A prosecution for high treason was
next commenced against Burnet, and a demand was made that he should
be delivered up; which the States evaded, by declaring that he was
naturalized, by marrying a Dutch lady.