No More Learning

_Close by, their fire-ships, like jackals, appear,
Who on their lions for the prey attend. _

St. 82. p. 119.

Fire-ships, now only employed against fleets in harbour, and seldom
even then, were at this time used during every great naval engagement.
The Dutch wars, especially, were distinguished by the frequent use
of these dreadful engines of destruction on both sides. The last
instance, I believe, of their being employed in open sea in the
British service, occurred in the engagement of Matthews and Lestock
in the Mediterranean, where they did little execution. The reason of
their disuse appears to be, that modern fleets consist of a few large
vessels, which easily communicate by signal, and are little apt to fall
into such confusion as that fire-ships can approach them with safety,
and with any chance of effect. In the 17th century, fleets consisted of
a very great number of comparatively small vessels, sometimes a hundred
and upwards, which, from the imperfect nature of their signals, were
perpetually getting into disorder, and affording opportunities for the
fire-ships to act with all their fearful consequences. In the battle
of Southwold Bay, in 1672, the gallant Earl of Sandwich, in his fine
ship the Royal James, after sinking three fire-ships, was burned by a
fourth; and the contest of the Harry with three fire-ships, in this
very battle, will be found in a subsequent note.


Note XXIV.

_He drew his mighty frigates all before,
On which the foe his fruitless force employs:
His weak ones deep into his rear he bore,
Remote from guns, as sick men from the noise. _

St. 91. p. 120.

Dryden has here inverted the order of the Duke's retreat. His disabled
or shattered ships were all ordered to stretch a-head, and he himself
in the rear, with sixteen of his ablest vessels, his own occupying the
centre, sustained all the efforts of the Dutch pursuers. The disabled
vessels were therefore the headmost ships, and not placed in the rear,
where, in the circumstances, they must inevitably have been taken.


Note XXV.

_The foe approached; and one, for his bold sin,
Was sunk, as he that touched the ark was slain. _

St. 94. p. 121.

The simile is taken, not very decently, from _1 Chronicles_, Chap. XIII.

Verse 7. "And they carried the ark of God in a new cart, out of the
house of Abinadab, and Uzza and Ahio drove the cart.

8. "And when they came to the threshing floor of Chidin, Uzza put forth
his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled.

10. "And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza, and he smote
him, because he put his hand to the ark; and there he died before God. "


Note XXVI.

_For now brave Rupert from afar appears,
Whose waving streamers the glad general knows. _

St. 105. p. 123.

The English, upon the 3d of June, seemed to have nothing left them
save the glory of a desperate defence, when, about noon, a third fleet
was descried, crowding every sail to the assistance of the vanquished
English, or to complete the triumph of the victorious Hollanders. It
might have been the French squadron under the Duke of Beaufort, and the
naval power of England was ruined for ever. Albemarle, however, bore
boldly down towards the advancing strangers, and, with inexpressible
sensations, discovered Prince Rupert, with the white squadron of
England, hastening to his relief. Betwixt the fleets of Albemarle and
Rupert lay some dangerous shoals, noticed by Dryden in Stanza 114.
On one of these, called the Galloper, Admiral Sir George Ayscue was
so unfortunate as to strand his vessel, the Royal Prince, one of the
largest in the fleet, and forced by his own seamen to strike his flag.
He was made prisoner by the Dutch, who burned his ship, and, after
leading him in a sort of triumph through various parts of the United
Provinces, at length imprisoned him in the castle of Louverstein.
Albemarle observing the cause of this disaster, and that the Dutch
had sent a squadron of their fleet to the edge of the sands, as if
to provoke the Prince, acquainted him by signal and message, that
he should by no means bear up against that squadron, there being a
dangerous sand between them; and that the appearance of the Dutch in
that place was to tempt him into the toil. SKINNER'S _Life of Monk_.
The English fleets, however, formed a junction, which completed the
business of the third day's action.


Note XXVII.

_Thus reinforced, against the adverse fleet,
Still doubling ours, brave Rupert led the way. _

St. 119. p. 125.

On the morning of the 4th of June, this long and bloody contest was
again renewed. The English were now the assailants, as in the first
action. Prince Rupert, with his fresh squadron, led the van, and was
followed by Albemarle. The fleets fought their way five times through
and through each other; when, after much and desperate fighting on both
sides, both the English admirals were disabled, and the combatants,
after four days constant and bloody fighting, finally separated, as if
by mutual consent.


Note XXVIII.

_This lucky hour the wise Batavian takes,
And warns his tattered fleet to follow home;
Proud to have so got off with equal stakes,
Where 'twas a triumph not to be o'ercome. _

St. 134. p. 128.

The poet is here more modest than the court of England, who claimed
an absolute victory. Ralph says, with some justice, that "to recount
the precise issue of this unparalleled engagement, and ascertain
the loss on either side, seems to be alike impossible. Both nations
claimed the honour of the victory, and both affronted the Common Father
of the Universe with their impious acknowledgments, when they ought
to have approached Him in sackcloth and ashes, for having wantonly
sacrificed so many innocent, gallant, and meritorious men, in a dispute
that common sense, and common honesty, might have adjusted in half
an hour. " _History_, Vol. I. p. 132. De Witt himself, the sworn foe
of England, bore the following remarkable testimony to the gallantry
of her seamen: "If the English were beat, their defeat did them more
honour than all their former victories. No fleet but theirs could,
after the first day's fight, have been brought to engage again. English
men may be killed, English ships may be burned, but English courage is
invincible. " Quoted, in the "Lives of the Admirals," from a MS. history
by Wicquefort.


Note XXIX.

_Returned, he with the fleet resolved to stay;
No tender thoughts of home his heart divide;
Domestic joys and cares he puts away,
For realms are households, which the great must guide. _

St. 138. p. 129.

The Duke of Albemarle was not more remarkable for bravery in action,
than for his hatred of all corrupt practices in paying and victualling
the navy. His presence accelerated the necessary repairs, while the
sternness of his discipline repressed all those hateful peculations,
by which the servants of the public sometimes betray their trust, and
sap her dearest bulwark. The satirist alludes to this in the following
lines, which he puts in the mouth of the Duchess of Albemarle, hailing
her husband's return to port:

Well, George, in spite of them, there safe dost ride,
Lessened in nought, I hope, but thy backside;
For, as to reputation, this retreat
Of thine exceeds their victories so great;
Nor shalt thou stir from thence, by my consent,
Till thou hast made the Dutch and them repent.

* * * * *

Fall to thy work there, George, as I do here;
Cherish the valiant up, cowards cashier:
See that the men have pay, and beef, and beer.
Find out the cheats of the four millioneer,--
Out of the very beer they sell the malt,
Powder of pow der, from powder'd beef the salt.
Put thy hand to the tub;--instead of ox,
They victual with French pork that hath the p--.
Never such cotqueens by small arts to wring;
Ne'er such ill huswives in the managing;
Pursers at sea know fewer cheats than they;
Mariners on shore less madly spend their pay.
See that thou hast new sails thyself, and spoil
All their sea-market, and their cable coil.
Look that good chaplains on each ship do wait,
Nor the sea-diocese be impropriate:
Look to the sick and wounded prisoners; all
Is prize,--they even rob the hospital:
Recover back the prizes too; in vain
We fight, if all be taken that is ta'en.

_Instructions to a Painter. _


Note XXX.

_As those who unripe veins in mines explore,
On the rich bed again the warm turf lay,
Till time digest the yet imperfect ore,
And know it will be gold another day. _
St. 139. p. 129.

It was believed by the ancient chemists, that gold (the noblest of
metals) was formed in the earth by a sort of chemical process, and
might be detected in an imperfect state; in which case the miner's
only resource was to close up the vein, and leave Nature to perfect
the great work. It was this rooted and inveterate belief which caused
so many to give faith to the fable of alchemy. For, if gold was thus
gradually formed in the veins of the earth, the alchemist had only to
discover the process which Nature pursued in her task, and he obtained
the grand secret.


Note XXXI.

_The goodly London, in her gallant trim,
The Phœnix-daughter of the vanished old. _
St. 151. p. 131.

The former vessel, called the London, had been destroyed by fire. The
city now built a new vessel, under the name of the Loyal London, and
presented her as a free gift to Charles. This ship was a favourite
theme of the poets of the day:

Whether by chance or plot the London died,
She'll rise the Loyal London purified.
That child, which doth from loyal parents spring,
May brag that he's the godson of a king.

* * * * *

No sooner was blown out the London, when
London took breath, and blew her in again.

Another bard not only compares the ship to the city from which she
derived her name, but proves the captain to be the Lord Mayor, with
this slight difference, that he carries his own sword, instead of
having a sword-bearer to take that trouble. The passage occurs in
a "Poem upon his Majesty's late declarations for toleration, and
publication of war against the Hollander, by T. S. of Grey's Inn, Esq. "

The Loyal London follows next to these;
Some call her the metropolis of seas,
About whose walls not Thames but seas now cling,
Wondering to see a city thus on wing.
Venice no more shall Neptune's darling be,
That stays ashore while this pursues the sea;
Here valiant Spragge (like the Lord Mayor) appears,
Only this difference--Spragge his own sword bears,
My lord's supported is by other hands;
This rules the sea, while t'other rules the lands:
Nor is there wanting to increase his state
A cap of maintenance; since his sober pate
Still to his active hands commends advice,
'Tis happy to be valiant and wise.

This second London had also the ill hap to perish by fire, being burned
by the Dutch, in the disgraceful surprise of Chatham, 1667.


Note XXXII.

_O truly royal! who behold the law,
And rule of Beings in your Maker's mind. _
St. 166. p. 134.

In this and the preceding stanza, our author, from the improved arts of
ship-building and navigation, is led to compliment the Royal Society,
then newly instituted, of which he was himself a member.


Note XXXIII.

_Already were the Belgians on our coast. _--St. 168. p. 134.

Notwithstanding the exertions made by Charles and his ministers, and
celebrated with such minuteness by the poet, the Dutch fleet, which
needed fewer repairs, was first at sea, and their admirals braved the
coast of England, dating letters and dispatches, "From the fleet in
the mouth of the river of London. " The English were about a fortnight
behind their enemies in preparation, owing chiefly to the difficulty of
manning their fleet.


Note XXXIV.

_Old expert Allen, loyal all along, Famed for his action on the Smyrna
fleet. _ St. 172. p. 135.

Sir Thomas Allen, vice-admiral of the White, and, as I believe, an
old cavalier, opened the war by an action of some consequence in the
Mediterranean. With a squadron of eight or nine ships, he attacked the
Dutch homeward-bound Smyrna fleet, near Cadiz; consisting of forty
merchant vessels, many of which were in these days capable of a stout
resistance, and a convoy of four ships of war. Allen defeated them
totally, killed their commodore, Brackel, took or sunk four of their
richest ships, and drove the rest into the bay of Cadiz. He commanded
the van in the engagement of July 25, 1666.


Note XXXV.

_Holmes, the Achates of the general's fight;
Who first bewitched our eyes with Guinea gold. _
St. 173. p. 135.

Sir Robert Holmes, rear-admiral of the White, is called the General's
Achates, from the eager fidelity with which he supported Albemarle.
The injuries which the African company sustained from the Dutch,
and particularly their taking Cape Corfe Castle, had occasioned Sir
Robert Holmes' being dispatched to the coast of Guinea in 1661, for
the purpose of making reprisals. Having done them some damage on this
visit, he returned for the same purpose in 1663; when he took Goree,
and the Dutch merchant-men lying there, of whom he made prize, though
the nations were not actually at war. He was repulsed from St George
Del Mina, the chief of the Dutch forts on the coast of Africa, but was
successful in taking Cape Corfe, the principal object of his voyage. He
also took from the Dutch a colony in North America, called Nova Belgia,
and bestowed on it the present name of New York. The Dutch preferred
a heavy complaint against Holmes, for these warlike aggressions. But
it would appear, that, if he had exceeded his instructions, he had
not disobliged those by whom they were given; for, although he was
committed to the Tower, he was speedily liberated, upon pleading, that
he had found, on board a Dutch prize, instructions to seize the English
fort at Coromantin.


Note XXXVI.

_With him went Spragge, as bountiful as brave,
Whom his high courage to command had brought. _
St. 174. p. 135.

Sir Edward Spragge, knighted by King Charles, for his gallant behaviour
on the 3d of June 1665, was one of the best and bravest officers whom
the English navy (_Leonum Nutrix_) has ever produced. He distinguished
himself in the battle of four days, already celebrated; and in that
of the 25th of July, which Dryden is proceeding to detail, he carried
a flag under Sir Jeremiah Smith, admiral of the Blue. The brunt of
the battle fell upon this division, because, itself the weakest, it
was encountered by that of Van Tromp, the strongest and best manned
squadron of the enemy. Spragge afterwards distinguished himself by
defending Sheerness, and by chastising the Algerines. But the last
scene of his life crowned all his naval achievements. In the battle of
the 11th of August 1672, Tromp and he engaged like personal enemies, so
that the conflict resembled less a chance rencontre in the confusion of
battle, than a fixed and appointed duel between these admirals. Both
were forced to shift their flag aboard other vessels, and instantly
renewed with the utmost fury their individual contest. In shifting
his flag for the second time, a chance cannon-ball pierced Sir Edward
Spragge's barge, and that gallant admiral was drowned, to the grief, it
is said, of Tromp, his generous enemy. He left behind him, according
to the account both of friends and foes, the character of one of the
bravest men and best commanders who ever fought at sea; nor was he less
lamented by his friends on shore, for those civilized manners, and that
gentle disposition, which almost always attend enlightened valour.


Note XXXVII.

_Harman, who did twice-fired Harry save,
And in his burning ship undaunted fought. _--St. 174. p. 135.

This alludes to an exploit of Sir John Harman, who commanded the Henry
in the four days combat. He belonged to the Blue squadron, which
broke through the Dutch fleet; but, the Swiftsure and Essex being
taken, his single vessel had great part of the Zealand division to
contend with. --"His ship being disabled, the Dutch Admiral, Evertz,
called to Sir John, and offered him quarter, who answered, 'No, sir,
it is not come to that yet,' and immediately discharged a broadside;
by which Evertz was killed, and several of his ships damaged, which
so discouraged their captains, that they quitted the Henry, and sent
three fire-ships to burn her. The first grappled on her starboard
quarters, and there began to arise so thick a smoke, that it was
impossible to perceive where the irons were fixed. At last, when the
ship began to blaze, the boatswain of the Henry threw himself on board
of it, discovered, and removed the grappling irons, and in the same
instant, jumped on board his own ship. He had scarce done this, before
another fire-ship was fixed on the larboard; this did its business so
effectually, that the sails were quickly on fire, which frightened the
chaplain and fifty men over board. Upon this, Sir John drew his sword,
and threatened to kill any man who should attempt to provide for his
own safety, by leaving the ship. This obliged them to endeavour to put
out the fire, which in a short time they did; but the cordage being
burned, the crossbeam fell down, and broke Sir John's leg; at which
instant, the third fire-ship bore down, but four pieces of cannon,
laden with chain-shot, disabled her. So that, after all, Sir John
brought his ship into Harwich, where he repaired her as well as he
could; and, notwithstanding his broken leg, put to sea again to seek
the Dutch. "[207]


Note XXXVIII.

_Young Hollis, on a muse by Mars begot,
Born, Cæsar-like, to write and act great deeds:
Impatient to revenge his fatal shot,
His right hand doubly to his left succeeds. _--St. 175. p. 135.

Sir Frescheville Hollis, mentioned in this verse, was the son of
Frescheville Hollis, of Grimsby, by his second wife, Mrs Elizabeth
Molesworth. His father signalized himself in the civil wars, as appears
from a sign manual of Charles II. , dated Jersey, December 4th, 1649,
authorising him to bear, _or, two piles gules_, quarterly, with his
paternal coat, and setting forth,--that in parliament he strenuously
asserted the king's prerogative; and, being colonel of a regiment
in time of the rebellion, behaved with exemplary valour against the
rebels, in the several battles of Kenton, Banbury, Brantford, Newark,
Atherton, Bradford, and Newbury; and when the rebels had possessed
themselves of the chief places of England, he with no less fortitude
engaged with those that were besieged by them in Colchester.

How Sir Frescheville Hollis' mother merited the title of a muse, or by
what writings he signalised himself, I am really ignorant. There were
few men of quality who did not at this time aspire to something of a
literary character.
As the taste for conceits began to decay before the
turn for ridicule and _persiflage_, which characterised the wits of the
court of Charles, Dryden was often ridiculed for the pedigree he has
assigned to this literary champion. Buckingham alludes to it in his
"Poetical Reflections on the Poem of Absalom and Achitophel," where he
calls Dryden, a

---- ---- metaphor of man,
Got on a muse by Father Publican:
For 'tis not harder much if we tax nature,
That lines should give a poet such a feature,
Than that his verse a hero should us shew,
Produced by such a feat, as famous too.

The noble author of this flat parody informs us, by marginal notes,
that the "Father Publican" means a committee man, and adds on the word
Hero, "See's Sir _Denzil_ Hollis. " By which, by the way, we may notice,
that his Grace's accuracy was much of a piece with his poetry; for the
hero's name was Frescheville.

Sir Frescheville Hollis was a man of high spirit and enterprise. He
lost an arm in the great sea-fight of the 3d June, a circumstance
alluded to in the verses. He was Rear-Admiral of the squadron, with
which Sir Robert Holmes attacked the Dutch Smyrna fleet, near the Isle
of Wight, in 1671-2. Finally, he was killed in the desperate action
off Southwould bay, 28th May, 1672. There is a remarkable passage in
his will, made on the 17th May, 1665; by which, after stating he was
going to sea, as commander of a man-of-war, he directs,--"In case my
body should be brought to land to be buried, I desire that some stone
may be laid over me, with this inscription:--Know, reader, whatsoever
thou be, if I had lived, it was my intent not to have owed my memory
to any other monument but what my sword should raise for me of honour
and victory. "--_Collins' Historical Collections of the families of
Cavendish, Hollis, &c. page 74_.


Note XXXIX.

_Now van to van the foremost squadrons meet,
The midmost battles hastening up behind_. --St. 186. p. 137.

The particulars of the memorable engagement, thus introduced and
described in the following stanzas, are thus narrated in the "Lives of
the Admirals. " Vol. 11.

"On the 25th of July, about noon, the English came up with the enemy,
off the North-foreland. Sir Thomas Allen with the White squadron
began the battle, by attacking Evertz. Prince Rupert and the Duke,
about one in the afternoon, made a desperate attack upon de Ruyter,
and, after fighting about three hours, were obliged to go on board
another ship. In this space, the White squadron had entirely defeated
their enemies; Admiral Evertz, his vice-admiral de Vries, and his
rear-admiral Kœnders, being all killed, the vice-admiral of Zealand
taken, and another ship of 50 guns burnt. The prince and duke fought
de Ruyter ship to ship, disabled the Guelderland of 66 guns, which
was one of his seconds, killed the captain of another, and mortally
wounded two more, upon which the Dutch squadron began to fly. However,
vice-admiral Van-Nes stood bravely by de Ruyter, and received great
damage; yet, being at last deserted by all but seven ships, they
yielded to necessity, and followed the rest of their fleet as fast as
they could. De Ruyter's ship was so miserably torn, and his crew so
dispirited and fatigued, that he could have made but little resistance,
and nothing but the want of wind hindered the English from boarding
him. As for admiral Van Tromp, he was engaged with Sir Jeremiah Smith
at a distance, and so could not assist his friends. As his was the
strongest squadron of the Dutch fleet, and Smith's the weakest of the
English, we had not great advantage on that side; yet some we had, his
vice-admiral's ship being disabled, and his rear-admiral killed; which,
however, did not hinder his fighting it out with much bravery, as long
as there was light.

"Admiral de Ruyter continued his retreat that night, and the next
day Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle pursued him with part of
the Red squadron, as fast as the wind would permit. A fire-ship bore
down upon the Dutch admiral, and missed very little of setting him
on fire. They then cannonaded again, when de Ruyter found himself so
hard pressed, and his fleet in such eminent danger, that, in a fit
of despair, he cried out, 'My God, what a wretch am I! amongst so
many thousand bullets, is not there one to put me out of my pain? '
By degrees, however, he drew near their own shallow coast, where
the English could not follow him. Upon this occasion, Prince Rupert
insulted the Dutch admiral, by sending a little shallop, called the
Fanfan, with two small guns on board, which, being rowed near de
Ruyter's vessel, fired upon him for two hours together; but at last a
ball from the Dutch admiral so damaged his contemptible enemy, that the
crew were forced to row, and that briskly, to save their lives. The
enemy being driven over the flats into the wylings, the English went to
lie at Schonevelt, the usual rendezvous of the Dutch fleets. "


Note XL.

_O famous leader of the Belgian fleet,
Thy monument inscribed such praise shall wear,
As Varro, timely flying, once did meet,
Because he did not of his Rome despair_. --St. 194. p. 139.

Michael Adrien de Ruyter, a gallant and successful admiral, was born
in 1607, chosen lieutenant-admiral of the States in 1666, and died
in 1676, being mortally wounded in an engagement with the French in
Sicily. Dryden compares him to Terentius Varro, who commanded the
Romans at the battle of Cannæ, and to whom, after that dreadful defeat,
the senate voted their thanks,--"_Quia de Republica non desperasset. _"


Note XLI.

_Then let them know, the Belgians did retire
Before the patron saint of injured Spain. _
St. 197. p. 139.

The battle was fought on the 25th of July, which is the day of St
James, the tutelar saint of Spain. From this circumstance, the
poet takes an opportunity, in the following stanzas, to inculcate
a political doctrine, which the war with Holland and France had
rendered fashionable. It contains an impeachment of the policy of
Queen Elizabeth, who, by supporting the Netherlands against Philip of
Spain, laid, as our author contends, the foundation for rebellion,
and the establishment of a republic in England. The power of the
Spanish monarchy, the poet avers, was slower in its growth, and a less
reasonable object of jealousy to the English, than the more active and
energetic governments of France and Holland.


Note XLII.

_But whate'er English to the blessed shall go,
And the fourth Henry or first Orange meet,
Find him disowning of a Bourbon foe,
And him detesting a Batavian fleet. _
St. 201. p. 140.

The poet here follows up the doctrine he has laid down, by a very bold
averment, that Henry IV. of France, and the first Prince of Orange,
instructed in sound policy by their translation to the blessed, would,
the one disown the war against Henry III. into which he was compelled
to enter to vindicate his right of succession to the crown against
the immediate possessor, and the other detest the Dutch naval power,
although the only means which could secure his country's independence.


Note XLIII.

_Nor was this all: in ports and roads remote,
Destructive fires among whole fleets we send;
Triumphant flames upon the waters float,
And out-bound ships at home their voyage end. _
St. 204. p. 140.

Immediately after the battle of the 25th, the victorious fleet of
England sailed for the Dutch coast, to attack the islands of Vlie
and Schelling; for which purpose, a squadron, well manned, and with
a sufficient number of fire-ships, was detached under the command of
Sir Robert Holmes. "On the 8th of July, about seven in the morning,
this squadron weighed, divided from the rest of the fleet, and came
to anchor about a league from the Buoys, where they met the prince's
pleasure-boat, called the Fanfan, who had discovered in the harbour
a considerable number of ships near the Vlie, which proved to be 170
merchant-ships, the least of which was not less than 200 ton burden,
with two men of war, which had lately conveyed near a hundred of
the aforesaid ships from the northward, homeward-bound, some from
the Straits, some from Guinea, some from Russia, some from the East
countries; the rest were outward-bound ships, all of which likewise
were very richly laden.

"Sir Robert Holmes, considering that, if he should proceed, as his
design was first, to attempt a descent upon the land, that numerous
fleet might possibly pour in such numbers of men, as might render the
success hazardous, resolved to begin with the ships; and, accordingly,
having ordered the Advice and the Hampshire to lie without the Buoys,
he weighed with the rest of his fleet; and, the wind being contrary,
he turned, with much ado, into Schelling road, where the Tyger came
to anchor, and immediately Sir Robert went on board the Fanfan, and
hoisted his flag, upon which the officers came on board him, and there
it was ordered that the Pembroke, which drew the least water, with the
fire-ships, should fall in amongst the enemy's fleet, with what speed
they could. Captain Brown, with his fire-ships, chose very bravely to
lay the biggest man of war aboard, and burned him downright. Another
fire-ship, running up at the same time to the other man of war, he,
backing his sails, escaped the present execution of the fire-ship, but
so as to run himself by it on ground, where he was presently taken by
some of the long-boats, and fired. The other three fire-ships clapped
the three great merchant-men on board, which carried flags in their
main-tops, and burned them. This put their fleet into great confusion,
which Sir Robert Holmes perceiving, made a signal for all the officers
to come on board again, and presently gave orders that Sir William
Jennings, with all the boats that could be spared, should take the
advantage, and fall in, sink, burn, and destroy all they could, but
with a strict command that they should not plunder. The execution was
so well followed, each captain destroying his share, some twelve, some
fifteen merchant-men, that, of the whole fleet, there escaped not
above eight or nine ships, one of which was a Guinea man of war, of 24
guns, and three small privateers. These ships, being driven up into a
narrower corner of the stream, served to protect four or five merchant
men that were a-head of them, where it was not possible for our boats
to come at them, though even these few were much damaged.

"The next day, being the 10th of August, it was found more expedient to
land upon the coast of Schelling, than upon Vlie, which was performed
by Sir Robert Holmes, with eleven companies, in his long-boats, and he
landed with little or no opposition. When he came on shore, he left
one company to secure his boats, and with the other ten marched three
miles up into the country, to the capital town, called Brandaris, in
which there were upwards of a thousand fine houses; where, keeping five
companies upon the skirt of the town, to prevent any surprise of the
enemy, he sent the other five to set fire to the place: But, finding
them somewhat slow to execute that order, and fearing they might be
tempted to forget themselves in the pillage, he was himself forced to
set fire to some houses to the windward, the sooner to dispatch the
work, and hasten his men away, which burned with such violence, that in
half an hour's time most part of the town was in a light flame. This
place was reported, by those who were found in it, to have been very
rich, and so it appeared by some of the soldiers' pockets; but very
few people were to be seen there, having had time to escape from the
danger, except some old men and women, who were used by the English,
after they fell into their hands, with all possible gentleness and
humanity.

"This blow greatly affected the Dutch, who, according to their own
accounts, suffered the loss of near six millions of guilders; and, if
we take the ships into this computation, they confess they were losers
to the amount of eleven millions, or one million, one hundred thousand
pounds sterling. "--_Lives of the Admirals_, Vol. II. p. 269, from the
account of Sir Robert Holmes.


Note XLIV.

_Yet London, empress of the northern clime,
By a high fate thou greatly didst expire;
Great as the world's, which, at the death of Time,
Must fall, and rise a nobler frame by fire. _
St. 212. p. 142.

_"Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur, adfore tempus,
Quo mare, quo tellus, correptaque regia cœli
Ardeat; et mundi moles operosa laboret. "_
OVID. _Metam. _ Lib. I.

The dreadful Fire of London befel almost ere the inhabitants had done
with rejoicing over the flames which consumed the fleet at Vlie, and
the town of Brandaris. This horrible conflagration took its rise in
the house of one Farryner, an obscure baker in Pudding-lane, near New
Fish Street. It broke out on the night preceding the 2d September,
1666, with astonishing fury; and the houses in the lane, and its
neighbourhood, being entirely constructed of timber, warped, and dried
by a long drought, its progress was soon so rapid, that the inhabitants
were content to escape from it with their lives, without attempting
to save their moveables, far less to intercept the progress of the
conflagration. In the morning, the attempts to stop a fire, now become
so general, and which raged amidst such combustible buildings, proved
totally ineffectual. The narrowness of the streets, and the nature of
the houses was such, that, where one house was on fire, the devastation
soon became general; and a strong east wind (a Belgian wind, as Dryden
calls it), prevailing through the whole day, the flames, by various
means of approach, occupied and surrounded the greater part of the
city, properly so called. The magazines of naval stores, pitch, tar,
hemp, dried wood, and other materials for shipping, which occupied the
yards by the side of the river, soon caught the flames, to which they
afforded a most horrible supply of strength and nourishment. All help
seemed now to be in vain; for it is one thing to quench a fire, which
has only occupied a few houses, and against which all the skill and
exertion of those best qualified to check its progress can be at once
directed, and another to extinguish a conflagration which occupies many
streets, and which, if quelled in one spot where skillfully opposed,
is triumphant in many others, where its ravages are only the object
of wonder and lamentation to the heartless and ignorant citizens. At
length universal destruction and dismay prevented the adoption of
uniform or effectual measures against the destruction which seemed to
impend in every quarter. The progress and extinction of this horrible
fire will be learned from the text, and the following notes.


Note XLV.

_The ghosts of traitors from the bridge descend,
With bold fanatic spectres to rejoice;
About the fire into a dance they bend,
And sing their Sabbath notes with feeble voice. _
St. 223. p. 144.

This most beautiful stanza requires but little illustration. London
Bridge, as early as Shakespeare's time, was a place allotted for
affixing the heads of persons executed for treason. Thus Catesby to
Hastings,

The princes both make high account of you--
--For they account his head upon the _bridge_.

The skulls of the regicides, of the fifth-monarchy insurgents, of
Philips, Gibb, Tongue, and other fanatics executed for a conspiracy
in 1662, were placed on the Bridge, Towerhill, Temple-bar, and other
conspicuous places of elevation; that of the famous Hugh Peters, in
particular, was stationed upon the bridge. The _Sabbath notes_, imputed
to this assembly of fanatic spectres, are the infernal hymns chaunted
at the witches' Sabbath; a meeting, concerning which antiquity told and
believed many strange things.


Note XLVI.

_Old father Thames raised up his reverend head,
But feared the fate of Simois would return. _
St. 232. p. 145.

Dryden, in the hurry of composition, has here made a slight inaccuracy.
It was not Simois, but Xanthus, otherwise called Scamander, who, having
undertaken to drown Achilles, was nearly dried up by the devouring
fires of Vulcan. He called, indeed, upon his brother river to assist
him in his undertaking, but Simois appears to have maintained a prudent
neutrality. See the _Iliad_, Book XXI.


Note XLVII.

_Now day appears, and with the day the king. _
St. 238. p. 146.

The king, by his conduct during this emergency, gained more upon the
hearts of his subjects, than by any action of his life. Completely
awakened, by so dreadful an emergence, from his usual lethargy of
pleasure and indolence, he came into the now half-burned city, with his
brother and the nobility, and gave an admirable specimen of what his
character was capable, when in a state of full exertion. Not contented
with passive expressions of sorrow and sympathy, he issued the most
prudent orders, and animated their execution by his presence. His
anxiety was divided betwixt the task of stopping the conflagration, and
the no less necessary and piteous duty of relieving those thousands,
who, having lost their all by the fire, had neither a morsel of
food, nor a place of shelter. For the one purpose, he spared neither
commands, threats, example, nor liberal rewards, which he lavished
with his own hand; for the other, he opened his naval and military
magazines, and distributed among the miserable and starving sufferers,
the provisions designed for his fleet and army. In fine, such were
his exertions, and so grateful were his people, that they deemed his
presence had an almost supernatural power, and clamourously entreated
not to be deprived of it, when, after the fire was quenched, he was
about to leave London.


Note XLVIII.

_The powder blows up all before the fire. _
St. 245. p. 147.

"So many houses were now burning together, that water could not be had
in sufficient quantities where it was wanted. The only remedy left
was, to blow up houses at convenient distances from those which were
on fire, and to make, by that means, void spaces, at which the fury of
the conflagration should spend itself for want of fuel. But this means
also proved ineffectual; for the fire, in some places, made its way by
means of the combustible part of the rubbish of the ruined houses, not
well cleared, and in others, by flakes of burning matter of different
kinds, which were carried through the air, by the impetuous wind, to
great distances. And the city being at that time almost all built of
very old timber, which had besides been parched and scorched by the sun
the whole preceding summer, one of the hottest and dryest that had been
ever known, it came to pass that, wherever such fiery matter chanced
to light, it seldom wanted fit fuel to work and feed upon. "--_Baker's
Chronicle_, p. 642. Edit. 1730.


Note XLIX.

_The days were all in this lost labour spent;
And, when the weary king gave place to night,
His beams he to his royal brother lent,
And so shone still in his reflective light. _
St. 253. p. 149.

The Duke of York was as active and vigilant as his brother upon this
melancholy occasion. His exertions and seasonable directions, prevented
the fire from breaking out afresh from the Inner Temple, after it had
been got under in other places of the town. Yet the idle calumny, which
stigmatized the Roman Catholics, as the authors of the conflagration,
was often extended to James himself. In that tissue of falsehood and
misrepresentation, which Titus Oates entitled, "A Picture of the Late
King James," he charges him "with beholding the flames with joy, and
the ruins with much rejoicing," p. 30, and says he would have impeached
him, as an accessary to the raising of that fire, had he not promised
to Prince Rupert to bring forward no accusation that could hurt the
king; "for I could not charge you," says he, "but must charge him too. "
In which case, by the way, this able witness would have made the king
accessary to his own murder, which, according to Oates' own evidence,
was to have been perpetrated during the fire, had not the hearts of
the Jesuits failed them, on seeing the zeal with which he laboured to
extinguish it.


Note L.

_The most, in fields, like herded beasts, lie down,
To dews obnoxious on the grassy floor. _
St. 258. p. 149.

In this, and foregoing verses, the miseries of those, whose houses were
consumed, are strikingly painted. Many fled for refuge to the houses
of friends, and lodged there the remnants of their property, which
they had been able to save. These were often forced to abandon their
places of asylum, by a fresh invasion of the devouring element, and
to yield up to its rage all which they had before rescued. At length,
distrusting safety in the city itself, the villages in its vicinity
soon became filled with fugitives, till, in the end, no place of refuge
was left but the open fields, where thousands remained for several
nights, without shelter, watching the progress of the flames, which
were consuming the metropolis.


Note LI.

_O let it be enough what thou hast done,
When spotted deaths ran armed through every street,
With poisoned darts, which not the good could shun,
The speedy could out-fly, or valiant meet. _
St. 267. p. 151.

In 1665, the plague broke out in London with the most dreadful fury. In
one year, upwards of 90,000 inhabitants were cut off by this frightful
visitation. The citizens were driven into the country, and so desolate
was the metropolis, through death and desertion, that the grass is said
actually to have grown in Cheapside.


Note LII.

_Thy threatnings, Lord, as thine, thou mayst revoke;
But, if immutable and fixed they stand,
Continue still thyself to give the stroke,
And let not foreign foes oppress thy land. _--St. 270. p. 151.

The poet puts into the prayer of Charles the solemn and striking choice
of David, when, as a penalty for his presumption in numbering the
children of Israel, he was compelled to make an election between three
years famine, three years subjugation to his enemies, or three days
pestilence. "And David said unto God, I am in a great strait: let me
fall now into the hand of the Lord, for very great are his mercies; but
let me not fall into the hand of man. " Dryden had already, in Stanza
265, paraphrased the patriotic prayer of David: "Let thy hand, I pray
thee, O Lord my God, be on me, and on my father's house, but not on
thy people, that they should be plagued. " Chron. Book I. ch. xxi.


Note LIII.

_Nor could thy fabric, Paul's, defend thee long,
Though thou wert sacred to thy Maker's praise;
Though made immortal by a poet's song,
And poets songs the Theban walls could raise. _
St. 275.