No More Learning

This was done while life lasted,[62] although
some of the physicians seem to have deemed the prescription improper;
in which case, Charles, after escaping the poniards and pistols of the
Jesuits, may be said to have fallen a victim to their bark.


Note IV.

_And he who most performed, and promised less,
Even Short himself, forsook the unequal strife. _--P. 67.

Dr Thomas Short, an eminent physician, who came into the court practice
when Dr Richard Lower, who formerly enjoyed it, embraced the political
principles of the Whig party. Short, a Roman Catholic, and himself a
Tory, was particularly acceptable to the Tories. To this circumstance
he probably owes the compliment paid him by our author, and another
from Lord Mulgrave to the same purpose. Otway reckons, among his
selected friends,

Short, beyond what numbers can commend. [63]

Duke has also inscribed to him his translation of the eleventh Idyllium
of Theocritus; beginning,

O Short! no herb nor salve was ever found,
To ease a lover's heat, or heal his wound.

Dr Short, as one of the king's physicians, attended the death-bed of
Charles, and subscribed the attestation, that he died of an apoplexy.
Yet there has been ascribed to him an expression of dubious import,
which caused much disquisition at the time; namely, that "the king had
not fair play for his life. " Burnet says plainly, that "Short suspected
poison, and talked more freely of it than any Protestant durst venture
to do at the time. " He, adds, that "Short himself was taken suddenly
ill, upon taking a large draught of wormwood wine, in the house of
a Popish patient near the Tower; and while on his death-bed, he
told Lower, and Millington, and other physicians, that he believed
he himself was poisoned, for having spoken too freely of the king's
death. "[64] Mulgrave states the same report in these words, which,
coming from a professed Tory, are entitled to the greater credit: "I
am obliged to observe, that the most knowing and most deserving of all
his physicians did not only believe him poisoned, but thought himself
so too, not long after, for having declared his opinion a little too
boldly. "[65] North, in confutation of this report, has interpreted
Short's expression, as meaning nothing more than that the king's malady
was mistaken by his physicians, who, by their improper prescriptions,
deprived nature of fair play;[66] and he appeals to all the eminent
physicians who attended Dr Short in his last illness, whether he did
not fall a victim to his own bold method, in using the cortex. Upon
the whole, whatever opinion this individual physician may have adopted
through mistake, or affectation of singularity, and whatever credit
faction, or indeed popular prejudice in general, may have given to
such rumours at the time, there appears no solid reason to believe
that Charles died of poison. Both Burnet and Mulgrave say, that they
never heard a hint that his brother was accessary to such a crime; and
it is very unlikely that any zealous Catholic should have had either
opportunity, or inclination, to hasten the reign of a prince of that
religion, by the unsolicited service of poisoning his brother. The
other physicians, several of whom, Lower, for example, were Whigs, as
well as Protestants, gave no countenance to this rumour, which was
circulated by a Catholic. And, as the symptoms of the king's disorder
are decidedly apoplectic, the report may be added to those with which
history abounds, and which are raised and believed only because an
extraordinary end is thought most fit for the eminent and powerful.

Short, as we have incidentally noticed, survived his royal patient but
a few months. He was succeeded in his practice by Ratcliffe, the famous
Tory physician of Queen Anne's reign.


Note V.

_All that on earth he held most dear,
He recommended to his care,
To whom both heaven
The right had given,
And his own love bequeathed supreme command. _--P. 69.

The historical accounts of the dying requests of Charles are
contradictory and obscure. It seems certain, that he earnestly
recommended his favourite mistress, the Duchess of Portsmouth, to the
protection of his successor. He had always, he said, loved her, and
he now loved her at the last. The Bishop of Bath presented to him his
natural son, the Duke of Richmond; whom he blessed, and recommended,
with his other children, to his successor's protection; adding, "Do
not let poor Nelly[67] starve. " He seems to have said nothing of the
Duke of Monmouth, once so much beloved, and whom, shortly before, he
entertained thoughts of recalling from banishment, and replacing in
favour; perhaps he thought, any recommendation to James of a rival so
hated would be ineffectual. Burnet says, he spoke not a word of the
queen. Echard, on the contrary, affirms, that, at the exhortation of
the Bishop of Bath, Charles sent for the queen, and asked and received
her pardon for the injuries he had done her bed. [68] In Fountainhall's
Manuscript, the queen is said to have sent a message, requesting
his pardon if she had ever offended him: "Alas, poor lady! " replied
the dying monarch, "she never offended me; I have too often injured
her. "[69] This account seems more probable than that of Echard; for
so public a circumstance, as a personal visit from the queen to her
husband's death-bed, could hardly have been disputed by contemporaries.


Note VI.

_The officious muses came along,
A gay harmonious quire, like angels ever young;
The muse, that mourns him now, his happy triumph sung. _--P. 74.

In Dryden's Life, we had occasion to remark the effect of the
Restoration upon literature. It was not certainly its least important
benefit, that it opened our poet's own way to distinction; which is
thus celebrated by Baber:

----till blest years brought Cæsar home again,
Dryden to purpose never drew his pen.
He, happy favourite of the tuneful nine!
Came with an early offering to your shrine;
Embalmed in deathless verse the monarch's fame;
Verse, which shall keep it fresh in youthful prime,
When Rustal's sacred gift must yield to time.


Note VII.

_Faith is a Christian's and a subject's test. _--P. 78.

James, as well as his poet, was not slack in intimating to his
subjects, that he expected them to possess a proper portion of this
saving virtue. And, that they might not want an opportunity of
exercising it, he was pleased, by his own royal proclamation, to
continue the payment of the duties of the custom-house, which had been
granted by parliament only during his brother's life.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 61: RALPH, Vol. I. p. 834. ]

[Footnote 62: Life of Lord Keeper Guilford, p. 253. ]

[Footnote 63: Epistle to Mr Duke. ]

[Footnote 64: Burnet's History of his own Times. End of Book III. ]

[Footnote 65: Character of Charles II. , Sheffield Duke of Buckingham's
Works, Vol. II. p. 65. ]

[Footnote 66: One Dr Stokeham is said to have alleged, that the king's
fit was epileptic, not apoplectic, and that bleeding was _ex diametro_
wrong. ]

[Footnote 67: Nell Gwyn. ]

[Footnote 68: Echard's History, p. 1046. ]

[Footnote 69: Dalrymple's Memoirs, 8vo. vol. i. p. 66. ]




THE

HIND AND THE PANTHER,

A POEM.


IN THREE PARTS.

----_Antiquam exquirite matrem_----
----_Et vera incessu patuit Dea_. VIRG.




THE

HIND AND THE PANTHER.


In the Life of Dryden, there is an attempt to trace the progress and
changes of those religious opinions, by which he was unfortunately
conducted into the errors of Popery. With all the zeal of a now
convert, he seems to have been impatient to invite others to follow his
example, by detailing, in poetry, the arguments which had appeared to
him unanswerable. "The Hind and the Panther" is the offspring of that
rage for proselytism, which is a peculiar attribute of his new mother
church. The author is anxious, in the preface, to represent this poem
as a task which he had voluntarily undertaken, without receiving even
the subject from any one. His assertion seems worthy of full credit;
for, although it was the most earnest desire of James II. to employ
every possible mode for the conversion of his subjects, there is room
to believe, that, if the poem had been written under his direction,
the tone adopted by Dryden towards the sectaries would have been much
more mild. It is a well-known point of history, that, in order to
procure as many friends as possible to the repeal of the test act and
penal laws against the Catholics, James extended indulgence to the
puritans and sectarian non-conformists, the ancient enemies of his
person, his family, and monarchical establishments in general. Dryden
obviously was not in this court secret; the purpose of which was to
unite those congregations, whom he has described under the parable
of bloody bears, boars, wolves, foxes, &c. in a common interest with
the Hind, against the exclusive privileges of the Panther and her
subjects. His work was written with the precisely opposite intention of
recommending an union between the Catholics and the church of England;
at least, of persuading the latter to throw down the barriers, by which
the former were kept out of state employments. Such an union had at
one time been deemed practicable; and, in 1685, pamphlets had been
published, seriously exhorting the church of England to a league with
the Catholics, in order to root out the sectaries as common enemies
to both. The steady adherence of the church of England to Protestant
principles, rendered all hopes of such an union abortive; and, while
Dryden was composing his poem upon this deserted plan, James was taking
different steps to accomplish the main purpose both of the poet and
monarch.

The power of the crown to dispense, at pleasure, with the established
laws of the kingdom, had been often asserted, and sometimes exercised,
by former English monarchs. A king was entitled, the favourers of
prerogative argued, to pardon the breach of a statute, when committed;
why not, therefore, to suspend its effect by a dispensation _a priori_,
or by a general suspension of the law? which was only doing in general,
what he was confessedly empowered to do in particular cases. But a
doctrine so pernicious to liberty was never allowed to take root in the
constitution; and the confounding the prerogative of extending mercy to
individual criminals, with that of annulling the laws under which they
had been condemned, was a fallacy easily detected and refuted. Charles
II. twice attempted to assert his supposed privilege of suspending
the penal laws, by granting a general toleration; and he had, in both
cases, been obliged to retract, by the remonstrances of Parliament. [70]
But his successor, who conceived that his power was situated on a more
firm basis, and who was naturally obstinate in his resolutions, was
not swayed by this recollection. He took every opportunity to exercise
the power of dispensing with the laws, requiring Catholics to take the
test agreeable to act of Parliament. He asserted his right to do so in
his speech to the Parliament, on 9th November, 1685; he despised the
remonstrances of both Houses, upon so flagrant and open a violation of
the law; and he endeavoured, by a packed bench, and a feigned action
at law, to extort a judicial ratification of his dispensing power. At
length, not contented with granting dispensations to individuals, the
king resolved at once to suspend the operation of all penal statutes,
which required conformity with the church of England, as well as of the
test act.

On the 4th of April, 1687, came forth the memorable Declaration of
Indulgence, in favour of all non-conformists of whatever persuasion;
by which they were not only protected in the full exercise of their
various forms of religion, but might, without conformity, be admitted
to all offices in the state. With what consequences this act of
absolute power was attended, the history of the Revolution makes
us fully acquainted; for it is surely unnecessary to add, that the
indulgence occasioned the petition and trial of the bishops, the most
important incident in that momentous period.

About a fortnight after the publishing of this declaration of
indulgence, our author's poem made its appearance; being licensed
on the 11th April, 1687, and published a few days after. If it was
undertaken without the knowledge of the court, it was calculated,
on its appearance, to secure the royal countenance and approbation.
Accordingly, as soon as it was published in England, a second edition
was thrown off at a printing office in Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, then
maintained for the express purpose of disseminating such treatises as
were best calculated to serve the Catholic cause. [71] If the Protestant
dissenters ever cast their eyes upon profane poetry, "The Hind and the
Panther" must have appeared to them a perilous commentary on the king's
declaration; since it shows clearly, that the Catholic interest alone
was what the Catholic king and poet had at heart, and that, however
the former might now find himself obliged to court their favour,
to strengthen his party against the established church, the deep
remembrance of ancient feuds and injuries was still cherished, and the
desire of vengeance on the fanatics neither sated nor subdued.

In composing this poem, it may be naturally presumed, that Dryden
exerted his full powers. He was to justify, in the eyes of the world,
a step which is always suspicious; and, by placing before the public
the arguments by which he had been induced to change his religion,
he was at once to exculpate himself, and induce others to follow his
example. He chose, for the mode of conveying this instruction, that
parabolical form of writing, which took its rise perhaps in the East,
or rather which, in a greater or less degree, is common to all nations.
An old author observes, that there is "no species of four-footed
beasts, of birds, of fish, of insects, reptiles, or any other living
things, whose nature is not found in man. How exactly agreeable to the
fox are some men's tempers; whilst others are profest bears in human
shape. Here you shall meet a crocodile, who seeks, with feigned tears,
to entrap you to your ruin; there a serpent creeps, and winds himself
into your affections, till, on a sudden, when warmed with favours, he
will bite and sting you to death. Tygers, lions, leopards, panthers,
wolves, and all the monstrous generations of Africa, may be seen
masquerading in the forms of men; and 'tis not hard for an observing
mind to see their natural complexions through the borrowed vizard. "[72]
Dryden conceived the idea, of extending to religious communities the
supposed resemblance between man and the lower animals. Under the
name of a "milk-white Hind, immortal and unchanged," he described
the unity, simplicity, and innocence of the church, to which he had
become a convert; and under that of a Panther, fierce and inexorable
towards those of a different persuasion, he bodied forth the church
of England, obstinate in defending its pale from encroachment, by the
penal statutes and the test act. [73] There wanted not critics to tell
him, that he had mistaken the character of either communion. [74] The
inferior sects are described under the emblem of various animals,
fierce and disgusting in proportion to their more remote affinity
to the church of Rome. And in a dialogue between the two principal
characters, the leading arguments of the controversy between the
churches, at least what the poet chose to consider as such, are
formally discussed.

But Dryden's plan is far from coming within the limits of a fable or
parable, strictly so called; for it is strongly objected, that the
poet has been unable to avoid confounding the real churches themselves
with the Hind and the Panther, under which they are represented. "The
hind," as Johnson observes, "at one time is afraid to drink at the
common brook, because she may be worried; but, walking home with the
panther, talks by the way of the Nicene fathers, and at last declares
herself to be the Catholic church. " And the same critic complains,
"that the king is now Cæsar, and now the lion, and that the name Pan is
given to the Supreme Being. " "The Hind and Panther transversed, or the
City and Country Mouse," which was written in ridicule of this poem,
turns chiefly upon the incongruity of the emblems adopted by Dryden,
and the inconsistencies into which his plan had led him. [75] This
ridicule, and the criticism on which it is founded, seems, however, to
be carried a little too far. If a fable, or parable, is to be entirely
and exclusively limited to a detail which may suit the common actions
and properties of the animals, or things introduced in it, we strike
out from the class some which have always been held the most beautiful
examples of that style of fiction. It is surely as easy to conceive a
Hind and Panther discussing points of religion, as that the trees of
the forest should assemble together to chuse a king, invite different
trees to accept of that dignity, and, finally, make choice of a
bramble. Yet no one ever hesitates to pronounce Jotham's Parable of
the Trees one of the finest which ever was written. Or what shall we
say of one of the most common among Æsop's apologues, which informs us
in the outset, that the lion, the ox, the sheep, and the ass, went a
hunting together, on condition of dividing equally whatever should be
caught? Yet this and many other fables, in which the animals introduced
act altogether contrary to their nature, are permitted to rank without
censure in the class which they assume. Nay, it may be questioned
whether the most proper fables are not those in which the animals are
introduced as acting upon the principles of mankind. For instance,
if an author be compared to a daw, it is no fable, but a simile; but
if a tale be told of a daw who dressed himself in borrowed feathers,
a thing naturally impossible, the simile becomes a proper fable.
Perhaps, therefore, it is sufficient for the fabulist, if he can point
out certain original and leading features of resemblance betwixt his
emblems, and that which they are intended to represent, and he may be
permitted to take considerable latitude in their farther approximation.
It may be farther urged in Dryden's behalf, that the older poets whom
he professed to imitate, Spenser, for example, in "Mother Hubbart's
Tale," which he has actually quoted, and Chaucer, in that of the "Nun's
Priest's tale" have stepped beyond the simplicity of the ancient
fable, and introduced a species of mixed composition, between that and
downright satire. The names and characters of beasts are only assumed
in "Mother Hubbart's Tale," that the satirist might, under that slight
cloak, say with safety what he durst not otherwise have ventured upon;
and in the tale of Chaucer, the learned dialogue about dreams is only
put into the mouths of a cock and hen, to render the ridicule of such
disquisitions more poignant. Had Spenser been asked, why he described
the court of the lion as exactly similar to that of a human prince, and
introduced the fox as composing madrigals for the courtiers? he would
have bidden the querist,

----Yield his sense was all too blunt and base,
That n'ote without a hound fine footing trace.

And if the question had been put to the bard of Woodstock, why, he
made his cock an astrologer, and his hen a physician, he would have
answered, that his satire might become more ludicrous, by putting
these grave speeches into the mouths of such animals. Dryden seems to
have proposed as his model this looser kind of parable; giving his
personages, indeed, the names of the Hind and Panther, but reserving to
himself the privilege of making the supposed animals use the language
and arguments of the communities they were intended to represent. I
must own, however, that this licence appears less pardonable in the
First Part, where he professes to use the majestic turn of heroic
poetry, than in those which are dedicated to argument and satire.

Dryden has, in this very poem, given us two examples of the more
pure and correct species of fable. These, which he terms in the
preface Episodes, are the tale of the Swallows seduced to defer their
emigration, and that of the Pigeons, who chose a Buzzard for their
king. [78] It is remarkable, that, as the former is by much the most
complete story, so, although put in the mouth of a representative of
the heretical church, it proved eventually to contain a truth sorrowful
to our author, and those of the Roman Catholic persuasion: For, while
the Buzzard's elevation (Bishop Burnet by name) was not attended with
any peculiar evil consequences to the church of England, the short
gleam of Popish prosperity was soon overcast, and the priests and their
proselytes plunged in reality into all the distress of the swallows in
the Panther's fable.

In conformity to our author's plan, announced in the preface, the
fable is divided into Three Parts. The First is dedicated to the
general description and character of the religious sects, particularly
the churches of Rome and of England. And here Dryden has used the
more elevated strain of heroic poetry. In the Second, the general
arguments of the controversy between the two churches are agitated,
for which purpose a less magnificent style of language is adopted.
In the Third and last Part, from discussing the disputed points of
theology, the Hind and Panther descend to consider the particulars in
which their temporal interests were judged at this period to interfere
with each other. And here Dryden has lowered the tone of his verse to
that of common conversation. We must admit, with Johnson, that these
distinctions of style are not always accurately adhered to. The First
Part has familiar lines; as, for instance, the four with which it
concludes:

Considering her a civil well-bred beast,
And more a gentlewoman than the rest,
After some common talk, what rumours ran,
The lady of the spotted muff began.

Some passages are not only mean in expression, but border on
profaneness; as,

The smith divine, as with a careless beat,
Struck out the mute creation at a heat;
But when at last arrived to human race,
The Godhead took a deep considering space.

On the other hand, the Third Part has passages in a higher tone of
poetry; particularly the whole character of James in the fable of
the Pigeons and the Buzzard: but it is enough to fulfil the author's
promise in the preface, that the parts do each in general preserve a
peculiar character and style, though occasionally sliding into that of
the others.

It is a main defect of the plan just detailed, that it necessarily
limited the interest of the poem to that crisis of politics when it was
published. A work, which the author announces as calculated to attract
the favour of friends, and to animate the malevolence of enemies, is
now read with cold indifference. He launched forth into a tide of
controversy, which, however furious at the time, has long subsided,
leaving his poem a disregarded wreck, stranded upon the shores which
the surges once occupied.

Setting aside this original defect, the First and Last Parts of the
poem, in particular, abound with passages of excellent poetry. In the
former, it is worthy attention, with what ease and command of his
language and subject Dryden passes from his sublime description of the
immortal Hind, to brand and stigmatise the sectaries by whom she was
hated and persecuted; a rare union of dignity preserved in satire,
and of satire engrafted upon heroic poetry. The reader cannot, at
the same time, fail to observe the felicity with which the poet has
assigned prototypes to the dissenting churches, agreeing in character
with that which he meant to fix upon their several congregations.
The Bear, unlicked to forms, is the emblem of the Independents, who
disclaimed them;[79] the Wolf, which hunts in herds, to the classes and
synods of the Presbyterian church; the Hare, to the peaceful Quakers;
the wild Boar, to the fierce and savage Anabaptists, who ravaged
Germany, the native country of that animal. With similar felicity, the
"bird, who warned St Peter of his fall," is, from that circumstance,
and his nocturnal vigils, afterwards assigned as the representative
of the Catholic clergy. Above all, the attention is arrested by the
pointed description of those dark and sullen enthusiasts, who, scarcely
agreeing among themselves upon any peculiar points of doctrine, rested
their claim to superior sanctity upon abominating and contemning those
usual forms of reverence, by which men, in all countries since the
beginning of the world, have agreed to distinguish public worship from
ordinary or temporal employments. The whole of this First Part of the
poem abounds with excellent poetry, rising above the tone of ordinary
satire, and yet possessing all its poignancy. The difference, to
those against whom it is directed, is like that of being blasted by a
thunder-bolt, instead of being branded with a red-hot iron.

The First Part of "The Hind and Panther," although chiefly dedicated to
general characters, contains some reasoning on the grand controversy,
similar to that which occupies the Second. The author displays, with
the utmost art and energy of argumentative poetry, the reasons by
which he was himself guided in adopting the Roman Catholic faith. He
is led into this discussion, by mentioning the heretical doctrine of
the Unitarians; and insists, that the Protestant churches, which have
consented to postpone human reason to faith, by acquiescing in the
orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, are not entitled to appeal to the
authority which they have waived, for arguments against the mystery
of the real presence in the eucharist. This was a favourite mode
of reasoning of the Catholics at the time, as may be seen from the
numerous treatises which they sent forth upon the controversy. It is
undoubtedly very fit to impose on the vulgar, but completely overshoots
the mark at which it aims. For, if our yielding humble belief to one
abstruse doctrine of divinity be sufficient to debar the exercise of
our reason respecting another, it is obvious, that, by the same reason,
the appeal to our understanding must be altogether laid aside in
matters of doubtful orthodoxy. The Protestant divines, therefore, took
a distinction; and, while they admitted they were obliged to surrender
their human judgment in matters of divine revelation which were above
their reason, they asserted the power of appealing to its guidance in
those things of a finite nature which depend on the evidence of sense,
and the consequent privileges of rejecting any doctrine, which, being
within the sphere of human comprehension, is nevertheless repugnant
to the understanding: therefore, while they received the doctrine
of the Trinity as an infinite mystery, far above their reason, they
contended against that of transubstantiation as capable of being tried
by human faculties, and as contradicted by an appeal to them. In a
subsequent passage, the author taxes the church of England with an
attempt to reconcile contradictions, by admitting the real presence in
the eucharist, and yet denying actual transubstantiation. Dryden boldly
appeals to the positive words of scripture, and sums his doctrine thus:

The literal sense is hard to flesh and blood,
But nonsense never can be understood.

Granting, however, the obscurity or mystery of the one doctrine, it is
a hard choice to be obliged to adopt, in its room, that which asserts
an acknowledged impossibility.

In the Second Part, another point of the controversy is agitated;
the infallibility, namely, which is claimed by the Roman church. The
author appears here to have hampered himself in the toils of his own
argument in a former poem. He had asserted in the "Religio Laici,"
that the Scriptures contained all things necessary for salvation;
while he yet admitted, that those, whose bent inclined them to the
study of polemical divinity, were to be guided by the expositions of
the fathers, and the earlier, especially the written, traditions of
the Church. There is, as has been noticed in the remarks on "Religio
Laici," a certain vacillation in our author's arguments concerning
tradition, while yet a Protestant, which prepares us for his finally
reposing his doubts in the bosom of that church, which pretends to
be the sole depositary of the earlier doctrines of Christianity, and
claims a right to ascertain all doubts in point of faith, by the same
mode, and with the same unerring certainty, as the original church in
the days of the apostles and fathers. These doubts, with which Dryden
seems to have been deeply impressed while within the pale of the Church
of England, he now objects to her as inconsistencies, and accuses
her of having recourse to tradition, or discarding it, as suited the
argument which, for the time, she had in agitation. It is unnecessary
here to trace the various grounds on which reformed churches prove,
that the chain of apostolical tradition has been broken and shivered;
and that the church, claiming the proud title of Infallible, has
repeatedly sanctioned heresy and error. Neither is it necessary to
shew, how the Church of England stops short in her reception of
traditions, adopting only those of the primitive church. Something on
these points may be found in the notes. I may remark, that Dryden is
of the Gallican or _low_ Church of Rome, if I may so speak, and rests
the infallibility which he claims for her in the Pope and Council of
the Church, and not in the Vicar of Christ alone. In point of literary
interest, this Second Part is certainly beneath the other two. It
furnishes, however, an excellent specimen of poetical ratiocination
upon a most unpromising subject.

The Third Part refers entirely to the politics of the day; and the
poet has endeavoured, by a number of arguments, to remove the deep
jealousy and apprehensions which the king's religion, and his zeal
for proselytism, had awakened in the Church of England. He does not
even spare to allege a recent adoption of presbyterian doctrines, as
the reason for her unwonted resistance to the royal will; and all the
vigour of his satire is pointed against the latitudinarian clergy,
or, as they were finally called, the Low Church Party, who now began
to assert, what James at length found a melancholy truth, that the
doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance was not peremptorily
binding, when the church herself was endangered by the measures of the
monarch. Stillingfleet, the personal antagonist of our author, in the
controversy concerning the Duchess of York's posthumous declaration of
faith, is personally and ferociously attacked. The poem concludes with
a fable delivered by each of the disputants, of which the moral applies
to the project and hopes of her rival. We have already said, that which
is told by the Panther, as it is most spirited and pointed, proved,
to the great regret of the author, most strictly prophetic. It is
remarkable for containing a beautiful character of King James, as the
other exhibits a satirical portrait of the historian Burnet, with whom
the court party in general, and Dryden personally, was then at enmity.

The verse in which these doctrines, polemical and political, are
delivered, is among the finest specimens of the English heroic stanza.
The introductory verses, in particular, are lofty and dignified in
the highest degree; as are those, in which the splendour and majesty
of the Church of Rome are set forth, in all the glowing colours of
rich imagery and magnificent language. But the same praise extends
to the versification of the whole poem. It never falls, never becomes
rugged; rises with the dignified strain of the poetry; sinks into
quaint familiarity, where sarcasm and humour are employed; and winds
through all the mazes of theological argument, without becoming either
obscure or prosaic. The arguments are in general advanced with an air
of conviction and candour, which, in those days, must have required
the protestant reader to be on his guard in the perusal, and which
seems completely to ascertain the sincerity of the author in his new
religious creed.

This controversial poem, containing a bold defiance to all who opposed
the king's measures or faith, had no sooner appeared, than our author
became a more general object of attack than he had been even on the
publication of "Absalom and Achitophel. " Indeed, his enemies were now
far more numerous, including most of his former friends, the _Tories_
of the high church, excepting a very few who remained attached to
James, and saw, with anxiety, his destruction precipitated by the
measures he was adopting.

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

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

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

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

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

FOOTNOTES:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All this I did, your arguments to try.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_Hudibras_, Part 1. Canto 3.
]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Footnote 83: THE LAUREAT.

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

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

Appear, thou mighty bard, to open view;
Which yet, we must confess, you need not do.
The labour to expose thee we may save;
Thou standst upon thy own records a knave,
Condemned to live in thy apostate rhymes,
The curse of ours, and scoff of future times.
Still tacking round with every turn of state, }
Reverse to Shaftesbury, thy cursed fate }
Is always, at a change, to come too late. }
To keep his plots from coxcombs, was his care;
His villainy was masked, and thine is bare.
Wise men alone could guess at his design, }
And could but guess, the threads were spun so fine; }
But every purblind fool may see through thine. }
Had Dick still kept the regal diadem,
Thou hadst been poet laureat still to him,
And, long ere now, in lofty verse proclaimed
His high extraction, among princes famed;
Diffused his glorious deed from pole to pole,
Where winds can carry, or where waves can roll:
Nay, had our Charles, by heaven's severe decree,
Been found and murdered in the royal tree,
Even thou hadst praised the fact; his father slain,
Thou callest but gently breathing of a vein.
Impious and villainous, to bless the blow }
That laid at once three lofty nations low, }
And gave the royal cause a fatal overthrow! }
Scandal to all religions, new and old; }
Scandal to them, where pardon's bought and sold, }
And mortgaged happiness redeemed for gold. }
Tell me, for 'tis a truth you must allow,
Who ever changed more in one moon than thou?
Even thy own Zimri was more stedfast known,
He had but one religion, or had none.
What sect of Christians is't thou hast not known,
And at one time or other made thy own?
A bristled baptist bred, and then thy strain
Immaculate was far from sinful stain;
No songs, in those blest times, thou didst produce,
To brand and shame good manners out of use;
The ladies had not then one b---- bob,
Nor thou the courtly name of Poet Squab.
Next, thy dull muse, an independant jade,
On sacred tyranny fine stanzas made;
Praised Noll, who even to both extremes did run,
To kill the father and dethrone the son.
When Charles came in, thou didst a convert grow,
More by thy interest, than thy nature so;
Under his 'livening beams thy laurels spread; }
He first did place that wreath about thy head, }
Kindly relieved thy wants, and gave thee bread.