Works of John Dryden: Volume 3 Poems, 1685–1692 [Reprint 2020 ed.] 9780520905146

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T H E

WORKS

OF

JOHN

General

Editor

H. T. SWEDENBERG,

Associate

General

EARL

JR.

Editor

MINER

Textual VINTON

DRYDEN

A.

Editor DEARING

VOLUME

THREE

EDITOR

Earl Miner TEXTUAL

EDITOR

Vinton A. Dearing ASSOCIATE

Norman Austin Thomas G.

EDITORS

Samuel H. Rosenmeyer

Monk

JAMES FROM

THE

ROYAL

II

BY

ANNE

COLLECTION

COPYRIGHT

KILLIGREW AT

WINDSOR

CASTLE

RESERVED

See the Ode on Anne Killigrew,

11. 12J-133

VOLUME

III

The Works of John Dryden

Poems 1 6 8 5 - 1 6 9 2

University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles

1969

UNIVERSITY

Berkeley

OF CALIFORNIA

and Los Angeles,

PRESS

California

UNIVERSITY O F C A L I F O R N I A PRESS, LTD.

London,

England

The copy texts of this edition have been drawn in the main from the Dryden Collection of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library 22 21 20 19

l8

8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Copyright

© 1969 by The Regents of the University of California Printed in the United States of America SBN 520-01601-1 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 55-7149 Designed by Ward Ritchie

In

Gratitude

for Their Encouragement

of the Editors

and for Their Support of the This

Volume

Is Respectfully Franklin D. Murphy

Edition

Dedicated

and Foster H.

to Sherwood

Preface The poems included in this volume were published or (on the evidence given below) were written between 1685 and 1692. In their variety they resemble the kinds of poetry Dryden wrote at other stages in his career: lyrics, occasional poems, translations, prologues, epilogues, epistles, and other forms. What gives these poems their special character is the fact that they grow from a period of momentous changes in England and in Dryden's life. His poems and translations in Sylvie were written during the last months of the reign of Charles II. Some months after the accession of James II in February, 1685, Dryden became a Roman Catholic. In the next few years, the political crisis threatened civil war—there was an invasion of England— and at the end of 1688 James had fled, William and Mary had come to the throne, and Dry den's full participation in public life was over. Needless to say, his poems reflect these and lesser events. The volume, and these years, begin somewhat idyllically. The translations from Latin and Greek reflect Dryden's urge to experiment with English forms and prosody, as well as his relations with such noblemen as the Earl of Roscommon, with whom Dryden hoped to found an English academy, and with Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, to whom he was attached because of the tatter's generosity and political principles. Soon, however, Charles was dead, and Dryden's regrets, which were somewhat obscurely mixed with hopes and fears concerning James, found expression in Threnodia Augustalis. This long ode has a relation to the earlier translations from Horace which is perhaps not apparent. Not only did the translations essay a new range of lyric possibilities, but they also provided, in the rendering of Ode xxix, Book III, Dryden's first poem in the loose Pindaric stanza. The success led not only to Threnodia Augustalis (1685), but in the next two years to three of Dryden's finest odes: the ode on Anne Killigrew (1686), A Song for St. Cecilia's Day (i68y), and the ode on Anastasia Stafford (1687). Something of the powerful lyricism of these poems was shed on Britannia Rediviva, which celebrated the birth of a son

viii

Preface

to James and Queen Mary (1688), and even (so Dryden insists in the epistle dedicatory) on Eleonora (1692), which mourns the death of the Countess of Abingdon. By this time, Dryden's isolation as a Catholic and the loss of his positions as poet laureate and historiographer royal required strong efforts to raise money for his family. Something might be had from an occasional elegy like Eleonora, something too from those prologues and epilogues he wrote between 1689 and 1691—according to legend it was just in this period that he raised his price for such productions. But he came rather to look toward translation, and the closing lines of Eleonora suggest that he had satire in mind. Criticism of his age was of course something he could now risk, without grave danger, only in translation. In fact, in the last months represented in this volume he was embarking upon The Satires (of Juvenal and Persius), which was to appear in 1693. These years begin and end, then, with translation, but with translation inspired by the very different motives of experimentation and economic necessity. This is not to deny that the translations contain powerful writing or to say that Dryden found no opportunity for more personal kinds of writing. Characteristically, he found occasion to write three epistles (none of them among his best) encouraging younger men— John Northleigh for a political treatise, the ingenious Henry Higden for a translation of a satire of Juvenal, and Thomas Southerne for a play that had failed in the theater. To an older friend, Sir George Etherege, Dryden addressed an earthier poem in Hudibrastic couplets and some sallies showing his knowledge of the man. These poems have the variety that characterizes Dryden's entire career, and yet they take on a certain emphasis in their tendency to lyricism and in their maturity of poetic style. The variety is as striking in this period as in any of his career and is to be found, along with the lyricism and maturity of style, in the dramatic pieces Dryden had written in these years. They include Albion and Albanius: An Opera (1685) on Charles and James; Don Sebastian (1690), commonly believed one of

Preface

IX

Dryden's two best tragedies; Amphitryon (1690), which some have thought his best comedy; King Arthur . . . A Dramatick Opera (1691), with the lovely music by Purcell; and another tragedy, Cleomenes (1692). Dryden was to write but one more full play in the remaining years of his life. Because it must be considered separately, T h e Hind and the Panther (1687) has been omitted from the foregoing account. It has at times the lyricism, always the maturity of style, and very clearly the engagement with momentous events we claim for the poems of this period. It is Dryden's longest original poem, important both for what it reveals about the poet and for its intrinsic merits. His conversion to Roman Catholicism, for which the poem is in part an apologia, was without question the major step of his life. However haunted he was by his misgivings about James and his uncertainties about the future, Dryden had taken the step he felt was necessary to save his soul. In crossing a major religious boundary, he betrayed the extent to which he was a man of the seventeenth century and an individual involved in its crisis in matters of religion. Before him numerous writers had moved in one direction or another, and often back. Donne, Jonson, Crashaw, Milton, Marvell, Wycherley, and others had changed their religious affiliations. On such grounds as well as others, Dryden's longest poem is one that could not have been written in any century but his own. Such well-known but probably insufficiently appreciated facts stress the point that T h e Hind and the Panther is a personal religious poem growing from the crucial experience of the century. Dryden's personal urgency in religious matters was made clear in Religio Laici: For MY Salvation must its Doom receive Not from what OTHERS, but what I believe. Only Donne's Satyre III very much resembles the public selfdebate we find in Dryden's religious poems. It is well worth reminding ourselves that although Dryden is far from being the only religious poet of the century, and although he is more theological and ecclesiastical than devotional, he alone of the major poets of the century was pressed by inner necessity to two

X

Preface

confessions of faith. What is of special interest to students of Dryden is that the religious compulsion should call forth his greatest powers of discursive writing and require, as part of his commitment, that he publish the result. It was necessary not only to take a firm stand, but to do so in poetry and to make it public. The literary character of T h e Hind and the Panther deserves Dryden's phrase, "this mysterious writ." There is no need to emphasize that it is Dryden's most difficult and unusual work. We therefore give it pride of place in this volume, devoting to it by far the most detailed notation and the longest commentary. The purposes of both are elucidation and analysis; appreciation and evaluation are left to the reader. It is difficult to be wholly silent on matters of literary quality, but we have tried to be as unobtrusive as possible and to refer to what we have said elsewhere for evaluation, for appreciation, and for more extended critical or scholarly analysis than is appropriate here. We have also had frequent occasion to quote or to refer to earlier editors and to numerous students of Dryden who have contributed to an understanding of the poems in this volume. Our general policy continues to be that of acknowledging by name the editors from whom we have borrowed and by full citation what we have taken from other sources. No doubt there are instances when we have discovered something independently and then have failed to credit others for their prior discovery, or when we have simply failed the principle. But our aim has been to credit our predecessors, except for matters of common knowledge (e.g., that the Hind represents the Catholic church), for definitions and other material taken from the Oxford English Dictionary, and for citations from the Bible. The only appreciable change in the practice of this volume is in the secondary citations of Dryden's prose; the modern edition to which we have referred is now not that of W. P. Ker but that of George Watson in the Everyman Library. Many people have contributed to this volume during the years it has been in the making. The three Associate Editors de-

Preface

xi

serve special acknowledgment. Our colleague, Norman Austin, contributed valuable material on Dryden's interpretation of Lucretius and Horace and has assisted in answering a number of questions concerning classical matters. Samuel H. Monk of the University of Minnesota, who has been actively concerned with the edition since its early days and to whom the Editor owes a special debt, supplied a wealth of material from which the notes for the preface to Sylvae were adapted; he has also provided information on other points. Thomas G. Rosenmeyer of the University of California, Berkeley, provided most useful analysis of Dryden's translation of Theocritus. Our colleague, Philip Levine, has assisted us so frequently in classical matters that it is difficult to delineate our debt. Others who have contributed to this volume are Phillip Harth of the University of Wisconsin, Paul A. Olson of the University of Nebraska, and the Reverend R. J. Madden of the University of Toronto, with all of whom the Editor spent enjoyable days in the British Museum. We have benefited greatly in elucidating specific points by the advice given by James M. Osborn of Yale University, by William S. Heckscher of the Kunsthistorisch Institute der Rijksuniversiteite Utrecht, John Crow of Kings College, London, John McManmon of the State University of New York, and Marcel Rothlisberger of the University of Delaware. Our colleagues, Alan Roper, James E. Phillips, and Hugh G. Dick, have given generous assistance. This volume, like its predecessors, owes a special debt to the devoted men and women of the William Andrews Clark Library. We also wish to thank the staffs of the British Museum, the Henry E. Huntington Library, and the Bodleian Library. The libraries of many universities and other institutions have also assisted us in the gathering of texts for comparison and in the provision of numerous kinds of information. Such assistance has enabled us to reproduce the unique copy of A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, for which we acknowledge with gratitude the permission of the Trustees of the British Museum. Information kindly provided by the staff of the National Portrait Gallery and by Mr. Oliver Millar, the Deputy Surveyor of the Queen's

xii

Preface

Pictures, has enabled us to locate and obtain a photograph of the picture of James II painted by Anne Killigrew. The original painting is in the royal collection at Windsor Castle and is reproduced by permission of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. This volume is the first of the edition in which the text has been established with the help of computer programming. Since decisions and procedures reached for this volume will affect some subsequent volumes, the General Editor and the Associate General Editor wish to join the Textual Editor in acknowledging the assistance of Mr. Ronald Bland and Mr. William P. Anderson in planning as well as in machine operations for establishing the text. The Editor and the General Editor wish to express gratitude in particular to a number of people at the University of California, Los Angeles. Our indispensable editorial assistant, Mrs. Geneva Phillips, deserves our warmest thanks. We have benefited from the meticulous work of Miss Jeanette Dearborn and from the careful typing of Mrs. Dorothy Modaferri, Miss Jeanne Tashima, and Mrs. Melanie Rangno. We have been greatly helped by the research assistance of a number of students in the English Department—Mrs. Catherine Blecki, Mr. William Jacquith, Mr. Gerald Carson, Mr. Michael Levin, Mr. John P. Loge, and Mr. Michael Seidel. And we greatly appreciate the fact that we have again been able to profit from the editorial skill of Mrs. Grace H. Stimson of the University of California Press. The example, the encouragement, and later the memory of Edward N. Hooker and of John Harrington Smith have been a major influence upon our work. The debt incurred over a period of years to Franklin D. Murphy, Chancellor of UCLA from i960 to 1968, and to ViceChancellor Foster H. Sherwood is acknowledged with pleasure in the dedication. Los Angeles May 1968

E. M.

Contents Contributions

to Sylvae

3

Preface

3

The entire Episode

of Nisus and Euryalus, translated

from

the 5th- and 9th• Books of Virgils ¿Eneids The

entire Episode

of Mezentius

19

and Lausus,

translated

out of the 10th• Book of Virgils ^Eneids The Speech

34

of Venus to Vulcan

42

Lucretius:

The beginning

of the First Book

44

Lucretius:

The beginning

of the Second Book

46

Translation

of the Latter

Lucretius; Lucretius:

Against The

Part

of the

Third

Book

of

the Fear of Death

Fourth

Book.

Book

the Fifth

48

Concerning

the Nature

of

Love

57

From Lucretius, Theocritus. Helen

Idyllium

the

18th.

66 The

Epithalamium

of 66

and Menelaus

Idyllium

the 23d. The Despairing

Daphnis.

From

Horace.

Theocritus

Idyll.

Lover

69

27

73

Ode 5. Lib. I

77

Horace. Lib. I. Ode 9

79

Horace.

81

Ode 29. Book

From Horace,

Epod.

2d.

85

A New Song ("Sylvia the fair")

88

Song ("Go tell Amynta gentle Swain") Threnodia

Augustalis:

the Happy

Memory

A Funeral-Pindarique of King

To my Friend Mr. J. Northleigh, To the Pious Memory Anne

Killigrew,

and Painting. To

to 92

Author

108

of T h e Parallel Young

in the two Sister-Arts

Lady of

Mrs Poesie,

An Ode

my Ingenious Translation

Sacred

Charles II

of the Accomplisht

Excellent

89 Poem

Friend,

of the Tenth

109 Mr. Henry

Higden,

Esq;

Satyr of Juvenal

The Hind and the Panther: A Poem, In Three Parts

On

his 116 119

To the Reader

119

The First Part

123

The Second Part

139

xiv

Contents

The Third Part A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, 1687 On the Marriage of the Fair and Vertuous Lady, Mrs Anastasia Stafford, with that Truly Worthy and Pious Gent. George Holman, Esq. A Pindarique Ode Lines on Milton Britannia Rediviva: A Poem on the Prince, Born on the 10th. of June, 1688 Upon the Death of the Earl of Dundee The Lady's Song Letter to Etherege To Mr. Southern; On His Comedy, Called The Wives Excuse Epitaph on the Lady Whitmore Eleonora Epistle Dedicatory Eleonora: A Panegyrical Poem Dedicated to the Memory of the Late Countess of Abingdon On the Death of a Very Young Gentleman Prologues and Epilogues 1689-1692 Prologue ("Gallants, a bashful Poet bids me say") Prologue and Epilogue to The History of Bacon in Virginia Prologue to The Prophetess Prologue to The Mistakes Epilogue to Henry the Second Commentary Textual Notes Index to the Commentary

161 201

204 208 210 222 223 224 227 229 231 231 235 247 249 251 252 255 257 259 261 515 569

Illustrations James II, painted TITLE

by Anne Killigrew

Frontispiece

P A G E OF Sylva

2

TITLE

PAGE OF Threnodia

Augustalis

TITLE

PAGE OF The

and

Hind

91

the Panther

118

BROADSIDE, A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, i68y

Facing

page 201

FRONTISPIECE, Lines

Facing

page 208

TITLE

on Milton

PAGE OF Britannia

T I T L E P A G E OF Eleonora

Rediviva

209 230

POEMS

1685-1692

S Y L V iE: O R ,

T H E

getont) 3part O F

POETICAL Mifcellanies. Nop. deficit alter Aureus; er fimtli frondefcit Yirga metallo. Virg-

L

O

N

D

O

N

,

Printed for Jacob Tort/on, at the Judges* Head in Qhanctrylane near Fleetflreet, 1 6 8 5 .

Sylva

Contributions

3

to Sylvae

PREFACE

F

OR this last half Year I have been troubled with the disease (as I may call it) of Translation; the cold Prose fits of it, (which are always the most tedious with me) were spent in the History of the League; the hot, (which succeeded them) in this Volume of Verse Miscellanies. T h e truth is, I fancied to my self a kind of ease in the change of the Paroxism; never suspecting but that the humour wou'd have wasted it self in two or three Pastorals of Theocritus, and as many Odes of Horace. But finding, or at least thinking I found, something that was more pleasing in them, than my ordinary productions, I encourag'd my self to renew my old acquaintance with Lucretius and Virgil; and immediately fix'd upon some parts of them which had most affected me in the reading. These were my natural Impulses for the undertaking: But there was an accidental motive, which was full as forcible, and God forgive him who was the occasion of it. It was my Lord Roscomon's Essay on translated Verse, which made me uneasie till I try'd whether or no I was capable of following his Rules, and of reducing the speculation into practice. For many a fair Precept in Poetry, is like a seeming Demonstration in the Mathematicks; very specious in the Diagram, but failing in the Mechanick Operation. I think I have generally observ'd his instructions; I am sure my reason is sufficiently convinc'd both of their truth and usefulness; which, in other words, is to confess no less a vanity than to pretend that I have at least in some places made Examples to his Rules. Yet withall, I must acknowledge, that I have many times exceeded my Commission; for I have both 17 Essay on translated Verse] Essay on translated Verse O1-2. [Fluctuations in texts cited are explained in the Textual Notes.] 17 which] Oi {errata), O2; whose 0 » (text).

4

Poems

1685-1692

added and omitted, and even sometimes very boldly made such expositions of my Authors, as no Dutch Commentator will forgive me. Perhaps, in such particular passages, I have thought that I discover'd some beauty yet undiscover'd by those Pedants, which none but a Poet cou'd have found. Where I have taken away some of their Expressions, and cut them shorter, it may possibly be on this consideration, that what was beautiful in the Greek or Latin, wou'd not appear so shining in the English: And where I have enlarg'd them, I desire the false Criticks wou'd not always think that those thoughts are wholly mine, but that either they are secretly in the Poet, or may be fairly deduc'd from him: or at least, if both those considerations should fail, that my own is of a piece with his, and that if he were living, and an Englishman, they are such, as he wou'd probably have written. For, after all, a Translator is to make his Author appear as charming as possibly he can, provided he maintains his Character, and makes him not unlike himself. Translation is a kind of Drawing after the Life; where every one will acknowledge there is a double sort of likeness, a good one and a bad. 'Tis one thing to draw the Out-lines true, the Features like, the Proportions exact, the Colouring it self perhaps tolerable, and another thing to make all these graceful, by the posture, the shadowings, and chiefly by the Spirit which animates the whole. I cannot without some indignation, look on an ill Copy of an excellent Original: Much less can I behold with patience Virgil, Homer, and some others, whose beauties I have been endeavouring all my Life to imitate, so abus'd, as I may say to their Faces by a botching Interpreter. What English Readers unacquainted with Greek or Latin will believe me or any other Man, when we commend those Authors, and confess we derive all that is pardonable in us from their Fountains, if they take those to be the same Poets, whom our Ogleby's have Translated? But I dare assure them, that a good Poet is no more like himself, in a dull Translation, than his Carcass would be to his living Body. There are many who understand Greek and Latin, and yet are 17

charming as] O2; charming at O i .

Sylva

5

ignorant of their Mother Tongue. T h e proprieties and delicacies of the English are known to few; 'tis impossible even for a good Wit, to understand and practice them without the help of a liberal Education, long Reading, and digesting of those few good Authors we have amongst us, the knowledge of Men and Manners, the freedom of habitudes and conversation with the best company of both Sexes; and in short, without wearing off the rust which he contracted, while he was laying in a stock of Learning. Thus difficult it is to understand the purity of English, and critically to discern not only good Writers from bad, and a proper stile from a corrupt, but also to distinguish that which is pure in a good Author, from that which is vicious and corrupt in him. A n d for want of all these requisites, or the greatest part of them, most of our ingenious young Men, take up some cry'd up English Poet for their Model, adore him, and imitate him as they think, without knowing wherein he is defective, where he is Boyish and trifling, wherein either his thoughts are improper to his Subject, or his Expressions unworthy of his Thoughts, or the turn of both is unharmonious. T h u s it appears necessary that a Man shou'd be a nice Critick in his Mother Tongue, before he attempts to Translate a foreign Language. Neither is it sufficient that he be able to Judge of Words and Stile; but he must be a Master of them too: H e must perfectly understand his Authors Tongue, and absolutely command his own: So that to be a thorow Translatour, he must be a thorow Poet. Neither is it enough to give his Authors sence, in good English, in Poetical expressions, and in Musical numbers: For, though all these are exceeding difficult to perform, there yet remains an harder task; and 'tis a secret of which few Translatours have sufficiently thought. I have already hinted a word or two concerning it; that is, the maintaining the Character of an Author, which distinguishes him from all others, and makes him appear that individual Poet whom you wou'd interpret. For example, not only the thoughts, but the Style and Versification of Virgil and Ovid, are very different: Yet I see, even in our best Poets, who have Translated some parts of them, that they 32

and] O2; anh O i .

35

are] art Oi-a.

6

Poems

1685-1692

have confounded their several Talents; and by endeavouring only at the sweetness and harmony of Numbers, have made them both so much alike, that if I did not know the Originals, I shou'd never be able to Judge by the Copies, which was Virgil, and which was Ovid. It was objected against a late noble Painter, that he drew many graceful Pictures, but few of them were like. A n d this happen'd to him, because he always studied himself more than those who sate to him. In such Translatours I can easily distinguish the hand which perform'd the Work, but I cannot distinguish their Poet from another. Suppose two Authors are equally sweet, yet there is a great distinction to be made in sweetness, as in that of Sugar, and that of Honey. I can make the difference more plain, by giving you, (if it be worth knowing) my own method of proceeding, in my Translations out of four several Poets in this Volume; Virgil, Theocritus, Lucretius and Horace. In each of these, before I undertook them, I consider'd, the Genius and distinguishing Character of my Author. I look'd on Virgil, as a succinct and grave Majestick Writer; one who weigh'd not only every thought, but every Word and Syllable; who was still aiming to crowd his sence into as narrow a compass as possibly he cou'd; for which reason he is so very Figurative, that he requires, (I may almost say) a Grammar apart to construe him. His Verse is every where sounding the very thing in your Ears, whose sence it bears: Yet the Numbers are perpetually varied, to increase the delight of the Reader; so that the same sounds are never repeated twice together. On the contrary, Ovid and Claudian, though they Write in Styles differing from each other, yet have each of them but one sort of Musick in their Verses. A l l the versification, and little variety of Claudian, is included within the compass of four or five Lines, and then he begins again in the same tenour; perpetually closing his sence at the end of a Verse, and that Verse commonly which they call golden, or two Substantives and two Adjectives with a Verb betwixt them to keep the peace. Ovid with all his sweetness, has as little variety of Numbers and sound as he: H e is always as it were upon the Hand-gallop, and «o

Syllable; who] Syllable.

Who O1-2.

Sylva

7

his Verse runs upon Carpet ground. He avoids like the other all Synaloepha's, or cutting off one Vowel when it comes before another, in the following word: So that minding only smoothness, he wants both Variety and Majesty. But to return to Virgil, though he is smooth where smoothness is requir'd, yet he is so far from affecting it, that he seems rather to disdain it, frequently makes use of Synaloepha's, and concludes his sence in the middle of his Verse. H e is every where above conceipts of Epigrammatick Wit, and gross Hyperboles: H e maintains Majesty in the midst of plainess; he shines, but glares not; and is stately without ambition, which is the vice of Lucan. I drew my definition of Poetical W i t from my particular consideration of him: For propriety of thoughts and words are only to be found in him; and where they are proper, they will be delightful. Pleasure follows of necessity, as the effect does the cause; and therefore is not to be put into the definition. T h i s exact propriety of Virgil, I particularly regarded, as a great part of his Character; but must confess to my shame, that I have not been able to Translate any part of him so well, as to make him appear wholly like himself. For where the Original is close, no Version can reach it in the same compass. Hannibal Caro's in the Italian, is the nearest, the most Poetical, and the most Sonorous of any Translation of the Mneids; yet, though he takes the advantage of blank Verse, he commonly allows two Lines for one of Virgil, and does not always hit his sence. Tasso tells us in his Letters, that Sperone Speroni, a great Italian W i t , who was his Contemporary, observ'd of Virgil and Tully; that the Latin Oratour, endeavour'd to imitate the Copiousness of Homer the Greek Poet; and that the Latine Poet, made it his business to reach the conciseness of Demosthenes the Greek Oratour. Virgil therefore being so very sparing of his words, and leaving so much to be imagin'd by the Reader, can never be translated as he ought, in any modern T o n g u e : T o make him Copious is to alter his Character; and to Translate him Line for Line is im2 Synaloepha's] Synaloepha's O1-2. 6-7 it, frequently] it. Frequently O1-2. 7 Synaloepha's] Synaloepha's O1-2.

8

Poems

1685-1692

possible; because the Latin is naturally a more succinct Language, than either the Italian, Spanish, French, or even than the English, (which by reason of its Monosyllables is far the most compendious of them) Virgil is much the closest of any Roman Poet, and the Latin Hexameter, has more Feet than the English Heroick. Besides all this, an Author has the choice of his own thoughts and words, which a Translatour has not; he is confin'd by the sence of the Inventor to those expressions, which are the nearest to it: So that Virgil studying brevity, and having the command of his own Language, cou'd bring those words into a narrow compass, which a Translatour cannot render without Circumlocutions. In short they who have call'd him the torture of Grammarians, might also have call'd him the plague of Translatours; for he seems to have studied not to be Translated. I own that endeavouring to turn his Nisus and Euryalus as close as I was able; I have perform'd that Episode too literally; that giving more scope to Mezentius and Lausus, that Version which has more of the Majesty of Virgil, has less of his conciseness; and all that I can promise for my self, is only that I have done both, better than Ogleby, and perhaps as well as Caro. So, that methinks I come like a Malefactor, to make a Speech upon the Gallows, and to warn all other Poets, by my sad example, from the Sacrilege of Translating Virgil. Yet, by considering him so carefully as I did before my attempt, I have made some faint resemblance of him; and had I taken more time, might possibly have succeeded better; but never so well, as to have satisfied my self. He who excells all other Poets in his own Language, were it possible to do him right, must appear above them in our Tongue, which, as my Lord Roscomon justly observes approaches nearest to the Roman in its Majesty: Nearest indeed, but with a vast interval betwixt them. There is an inimitable grace in Virgils words, and in them principally consists that beauty, which gives so unexpressible a pleasure to him who best 16 18

Nisus and] Nisus and 01-2. Mezentius and] Mezentius and

Oi-i.

Sylva

9

understands their force; this Diction of his, I must once again say, is never to be Copied, and since it cannot, he will appear but lame in the best Translation. T h e turns of his Verse, his breakings, his propriety, his numbers, and his gravity, I have as far imitated, as the poverty of our Language, and the hastiness of my performance wou'd allow. I may seem sometimes to have varied from his sence; but I think the greatest variations may be fairly deduc'd from him; and where I leave his Commentators, it may be I understand him better: A t least I Writ without consulting them in many places. But two particular Lines in Mezentius and Lausus, I cannot so easily excuse; they are indeed remotely ally'd to Virgils sence; but they are too like the trifling tenderness of Ovid; and were Printed before I had consider'd them enough to alter them: T h e first of them I have forgotten, and cannot easily retrieve, because the Copy is at the Press: T h e second is this; —When Lausus dy'd, I was already slain. This appears pretty enough at first sight, but I am convinc'd for many reasons, that the expression is too bold, that Virgil wou'd not have said it, though Ovid wou'd. T h e Reader may pardon it, if he please, for the freeness of the confession; and instead of that, and the former, admit these two Lines which are more according to the Author, Nor ask I Life, nor fought with that design; As I had us'd my Fortune, use thou thine. Having with much ado got clear of Virgil, I have in the next place to consider the genius of Lucretius, whom I have Translated more happily in those parts of him which I undertook. If he was not of the best age of Roman Poetry, he was at least of that which preceded it; and he himself refin'd it to that degree of perfection, both in the Language and the thoughts, that he left an easie task to Virgil; who as he succeeded him in time, so he Copy'd his excellencies: for the method of the Georgicks is plainly deriv'd from him. Lucretius had chosen a Subject naturally crabbed; he therefore adorn'd it with Poetical descriptions, and Precepts of Morality, in the beginning and ending of his 11

Mezentius and] Mezentius and O1-2.

10

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1685-1692

Books, which you see Virgil has imitated with great success, in those four Books, which in my Opinion are more perfect in their kind, than even his Divine /Eneids. T h e turn of his Verse he has likewise follow'd, in those places which Lucretius has most labour'd, and some of his very Lines he has transplanted into his own Works, without much variation. If I am not mistaken, the distinguishing Character of Lucretius; (I mean of his Soul and Genius) is a certain kind of noble pride, and positive assertion of his Opinions. He is every where confident of his own reason, and assuming an absolute command not only over his vulgar Reader, but even his Patron Memmius. For he is always bidding him attend, as if he had the Rod over him; and using a Magisterial authority, while he instructs him. From his time to ours, I know none so like him, as our Poet and Philosopher of Malmsbury. This is that perpetual Dictatorship, which is exercis'd by Lucretius; who though often in the wrong, yet seems to deal bond fide with his Reader, and tells him nothing but what he thinks; in which plain sincerity, I believe he differs from our Hobbs, who cou'd not but be convinc'd, or at least doubt of some eternal Truths which he has oppos'd. But for Lucretius, he seems to disdain all manner of Replies, and is so confident of his cause, that he is before hand with his Antagonists; Urging for them, whatever he imagin'd they cou'd say, and leaving them as he supposes, without an objection for the future. All this too, with so much scorn and indignation, as if he were assur'd of the Triumph, before he enter'd into the Lists. From this sublime and daring Genius of his, it must of necessity come to pass, that his thoughts must be Masculine, full of Argumentation, and that sufficiently warm. From the same fiery temper proceeds the loftiness of his Expressions, and the perpetual torrent of his Verse, where the barrenness of his Subject does not too much constrain the quickness of his Fancy. For there is no doubt to be made, but that he cou'd have been every where as Poetical, as he is in his Descriptions, and in the Moral part of his Philosophy, if he had not aim'd more to instruct in his Systeme of Nature, than to delight. But he was bent upon 1 Books, which] Books.

Which

O1-3.

1

Virgil\

Oa-g; ^ . Oi.

Sylva making Memmius a Materialist, and teaching him to defie an invisible power: In short, he was so much an Atheist, that he forgot sometimes to be a Poet. These are the considerations which I had of that Author, before I attempted to translate some parts of him. A n d accordingly I lay'd by my natural Diffidence and Scepticism for a while, to take up that Dogmatical way of his, which as I said, is so much his Character, as to make him that individual Poet. As for his Opinions concerning the mortality of the Soul, they are so absurd, that I cannot if I wou'd believe them. I think a future state demonstrable even by natural Arguments; at least to take away rewards and punishments, is only a pleasing prospect to a Man, who resolves before hand not to live morally. But on the other side, the thought of being nothing after death is a burden unsupportable to a vertuous Man, even though a Heathen. W e naturally aim at happiness, and cannot bear to have it confin'd to the shortness of our present Being, especially when we consider that vertue is generally unhappy in this World, and vice fortunate. So that 'tis hope of Futurity alone, that makes this Life tolerable, in expectation of a better. W h o wou'd not commit all the excesses to which he is prompted by his natural inclinations, if he may do them with security while he is alive, and be uncapable of punishment after he is dead? If he be cunning and secret enough to avoid the Laws, there is no band of morality to restrain him: For Fame and Reputation are weak ties; many men have not the least sence of them: Powerful men are only aw'd by them, as they conduce to their interest, and that not always when a passion is predominant; and no Man will be contain'd within the bounds of duty, when he may safely transgress them. These are my thoughts abstractedly, and without entring into the Notions of our Christian Faith, which is the proper business of Divines. But there are other Arguments in this Poem (which I have turn'd into English,) not belonging to the Mortality of the Soul, which are strong enough to a reasonable Man, to make him less in love with Life, and consequently in less apprehensions of Death, such as are the natural Satiety, proceeding from 23

dead? If] dead! if O1-3.

36

Death, such] Death. Such O1-3.

12

Poems

1685—1692

a perpetual enjoyment of the same things; the inconveniencies of old age, which make him uncapable of corporeal pleasures; the decay of understanding and memory, which render him contemptible and useless to others; these and many other reasons so pathetically urg'd, so beautifully express'd, so adorn'd with examples, and so admirably rais'd by the Prosopopeia of Nature, who is brought in speaking to her Children, with so much authority and vigour, deserve the pains I have taken with them, which I hope have not been unsuccessful, or unworthy of my Author. At least I must take the liberty to own, that I was pleas'd with my own endeavours, which but rarely happens to me, and that I am not dissatisfied upon the review, of any thing I have done in this Author. 'Tis true, there is something, and that of some moment, to be objected against my Englishing the Nature of Love, from the Fourth Book of Lucretius: And I can less easily answer why I Translated it, than why I thus Translated it. The Objection arises from the Obscenity of the Subject; which is aggravated by the too lively, and alluring delicacy of the Verses. In the first place, without the least Formality of an excuse, I own it pleas'd me: and let my Enemies make the worst they can of this Confession; I am not yet so secure from that passion, but that I want my Authors Antidotes against it. He has given the truest and most Philosophical account both of the Disease and Remedy, which I ever found in any Author: For which reasons I Translated him. But it will be ask'd why I turn'd him into this luscious English, (for I will not give it a worse word:) instead of an answer, I wou'd ask again of my Supercilious Adversaries, whether I am not bound when I Translate an Author, to do him all the right I can, and to Translate him to the best advantage? If to mince his meaning, which I am satisfi'd was honest and instructive, I had either omitted some part of what he said, or taken from the strength of his expression, I certainly had wrong'd him; and that freeness of thought and words, being thus cashier'd in my hands, he had no longer been Lucretius. If nothing of this kind be to be read, Physicians must not study 15

the Nature of Love] the Nature of Love O 1 - 3 .

Sylvce

!3

Nature, Anatomies must not be seen, and somewhat I cou'd say of particular passages in Books, which to avoid prophaness I do not name: But the intention qualifies the act; and both mine and my Authors were to instruct as well as please. T i s most certain that barefac'd Bawdery is the poorest pretence to wit imaginable: If I shou'd say otherwise, I shou'd have two great authorities against me: T h e one is the Essay on Poetry, which I publickly valued before I knew the Author of it, and with the commendation of which, my Lord Roscomon so happily begins his Essay on Translated Verse: T h e other is no less than our admir'd Cowley; who says the same thing in other words: For in his Ode concerning Wit, he writes thus of it; Much less can that have any place At which a Virgin hides her Face: Such dross the fire must purge away; 'tis just The Author blush, there where the Reader must. Here indeed Mr. Cowley goes farther than the Essay; for he asserts plainly that obscenity has no place in Wit; the other only says, 'tis a poor pretence to it, or an ill sort of Wit, which has nothing more to support it than bare-fac'd Ribaldry; which is both unmannerly in it self, and fulsome to the Reader. But neither of these will reach my case: For in the first place, I am only the Translatour, not the Inventor; so that the heaviest part of the censure falls upon Lucretius, before it reaches me: in the next place, neither he nor I have us'd the grossest words; but the cleanliest Metaphors we cou'd find, to palliate the broadness of the meaning; and to conclude, have carried the Poetical part no farther, than the Philosophical exacted. There is one mistake of mine which I will not lay to the Printers charge, who has enough to answer for in false pointings: 'tis in the word Viper: I wou'd have the Verse run thus, The Scorpion, Love, must on the wound be bruis'd. 7 the Essay on Poetry] the Essay on Poetry O1-3. 10 his Essay on Translated Verse] his Essay on Translated Verse O1-3. 17 the Essay] the Essay O1-3.

14

Poems

1685—1692

There are a sort of blundering half-witted people, who make a great deal of noise about a Verbal slip; though Horace wou'd instruct them better in true Criticism: Non ego paucis offendor maculis quas aut incuria jud.it, aut humana parutn cavit natura. True judgment in Poetry, like that in Painting, takes a view of the whole together, whether it be good or not; and where the beauties are more than the Faults, concludes for the Poet against the little Judge; 'tis a sign that malice is hard driven, when 'tis forc'd to lay hold on a Word or Syllable; to arraign a Man is one thing, and to cavil at him is another. In the midst of an ill natur'd Generation of Scriblers, there is always Justice enough left in Mankind, to protect good Writers: And they too are oblig'd, both by humanity and interest, to espouse each others cause, against false Criticks, who are the common Enemies. This last consideration puts me in mind of what I owe to the Ingenious and Learned Translatour of Lucretius; I have not here design'd to rob him of any part of that commendation, which he has so justly acquir'd by the whole Author, whose Fragments only fall to my Portion. What I have now perform'd, is no more than I intended above twenty years ago: The ways of our Translation are very different; he follows him more closely than I have done; which became an Interpreter of the whole Poem. I take more liberty, because it best suited with my design, which was to make him as pleasing as I could. He had been too voluminous had he us'd my method in so long a work, and I had certainly taken his, had I made it my business to Translate the whole. T h e preference then is justly his; and I joyn with Mr. Evelyn in the confession of it, with this additional advantage to him; that his Reputation is already establish'd in this Poet, mine is to make its Fortune in the World. If I have been any where obscure, in following our common Author, or if Lucretius himself is to be condemnd, I refer my self to his excellent Annotations, which I have often read, and always with some new pleasure. 4-6

run in as prose in 01-j.

23

him] 02-3; bim O i .

Sylvce My Preface begins already to swell upon me, and looks as if I were afraid of my Reader, by so tedious a bespeaking of him; and yet I have Horace and Theocritus upon my hands; but the Greek Gentleman shall quickly be dispatch'd, because I have more business with the Roman. T h a t which distinguishes Theocritus from all other Poets, both Greek and Latin, and which raises him even above Virgil in his Eclogues, is the inimitable tenderness of his passions; and the natural expression of them in words so becoming of a Pastoral. A simplicity shines through all he writes: he shows his Art and Learning by disguising both. His Shepherds never rise above their Country Education in their complaints of Love: There is the same difference betwixt him and Virgil, as there is betwixt Tasso's Aminta, and the Pastor Fido of Guarini. Virgils Shepherds are too well read in the Philosophy of Epicurus and of Plato; and Guarini's seem to have been bred in Courts. But Theocritus and Tasso, have taken theirs from Cottages and Plains. It was said of Tasso, in relation to his similitudes, Mai esce del Bosco: T h a t he never departed from the Woods, that is, all his comparisons were taken from the Country: T h e same may be said, of our Theocritus; he is softer than Ovid, he touches the passions more delicately; and performs all this out of his own Fond, without diving into the Arts and Sciences for a supply. Even his Dorick Dialect has an incomparable sweetness in its Clownishness, like a fair Shepherdess in her Country Russet, talking in a Yorkshire Tone. This was impossible for Virgil to imitate; because the severity of the Roman Language denied him that advantage. Spencer has endeavour'd it in his Shepherds Calendar; but neither will it succeed in English, for which reason I forbore to attempt it, For Theocritus writ to Sicilians, who spoke that Dialect; and I direct this part of my Translations to our Ladies, who neither understand, nor will take pleasure in such homely expressions. I proceed to Horace. T a k e him in parts, and he is chiefly to be consider'd in his 14 Pastor Fido] Pastor Fido O1-2. 24 Dorick Dialect] Dorick Dialect O1-2. 28-29 his Shepherds Calendar] his Shepherds

Calendar O 1 - 2 .

Poems

1685-1692

three different Talents, as he was a Critick, a Satyrist, and a Writer of Odes. His Morals are uniform, and run through all of them; For let his Dutch Commentatours say what they will, his Philosophy was Epicurean; and he made use of Gods and providence, only to serve a turn in Poetry. But since neither his Criticisms (which are the most instructive of any that are written in this Art) nor his Satyrs (which are incomparably beyond Juvenals, if to laugh and rally, is to be preferr'd to railing and declaiming,) are any part of my present undertaking, I confine my self wholly to his Odes: These are also of several sorts; some of them are Panegyrical, others Moral, the rest Jovial, or (if I may so call them) Bacchanalian. As difficult as he makes it, and as indeed it is, to imitate Pindar, yet in his most elevated flights, and in the sudden changes of his Subject with almost imperceptible connexions, that Theban Poet is his Master. But Horace is of the more bounded Fancy, and confines himself strictly to one sort of Verse, or Stanza in every Ode. That which will distinguish his Style from all other Poets, is the Elegance of his Words, and the numerousness of his Verse; there is nothing so delicately turn'd in all the Roman Language. There appears in every part of his Diction, or, (to speak English) in all his Expressions, a kind of noble and bold Purity. His Words are chosen with as much exactness as Virgils; but there seems to be a greater Spirit in them. There is a secret Happiness attends his Choice, which in Petronius is call'd Curiosa Felicitas, and which I suppose he had from the Feliciter audere of Horace himself. But the most distinguishing part of all his Character, seems to me, to be his Briskness, his Jollity, and his good Humour: And those I have chiefly endeavour'd to Coppy; his other Excellencies, I confess are above my Imitation. One Ode, which infinitely pleas'd me in the reading, I have attempted to translate in Pindarique Verse: 'tis that which is inscribd to the present Earl of Rochester, to whom I have particular Obligations, which this small Testimony of my Gratitude can never pay. 'Tis 9 any] O i (errata); no O i (text), Og. 20 Roman Language] O2; Roman Language O i . 30 above] O2; ahove O i .

i7 his Darling in the Latine, and I have taken some pains to make it my Master-Piece in English: For which reason, I took this kind of Verse, which allows more Latitude than any other. Every one knows it was introduc'd into our Language, in this Age, by the happy Genius of Mr. Cowley. T h e seeming easiness of it, has made it spread; but it has not been considerd enough, to be so well cultivated. It languishes in almost every hand but his, and some very few, (whom to keep the rest in countenance) I do not name. He, indeed, has brought it as near Perfection as was possible in so short a time. But if I may be allowd to speak my Mind modestly, and without Injury to his sacred Ashes, somewhat of the Purity of English, somewhat of more equal Thoughts, somewhat of sweetness in the Numbers, in one Word, somewhat of a finer turn and more Lyrical Verse is yet wanting. As for the Soul of it, which consists in the Warmth and Vigor of Fancy, the masterly Figures, and the copiousness of Imagination, he has excelld all others in this kind. Yet, if the kind it self be capable of more Perfection, though rather in the Ornamental parts of it, than the Essential, what Rules of Morality or respect have I broken, in naming the defects, that they may hereafter be amended? Imitation is a nice point, and there are few Poets who deserve to be Models in all they write. Miltons Paradice Lost is admirable; but am I therefore bound to maintain, that there are no flats amongst his Elevations, when 'tis evident he creeps along sometimes, for above an Hundred lines together? cannot I admire the height of his Invention, and the strength of his expression, without defending his antiquated words, and the perpetual harshness of their sound? 'Tis as much commendation as a Man can bear, to own him excellent; all beyond it is Idolatry. Since Pindar was the Prince of Lyrick Poets; let me have leave to say, that in imitating him, our numbers shou'd for the most part be Lyrical: For variety, or rather where the Majesty of the thought requires it, they may be stretch'd to the English Heroick of five Feet, and to the French Alexandrine of Six. But the ear must preside, and direct the Judgment to the 23 Miltons Paradice Lost] Miltons Paradice Lost O1-2. 30 Lyrick Poets] Lyrick Poets O1-2,

i8

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1685-1692

choice of numbers: Without the nicety of this, the Harmony of Pindarick Verse can never be compleat; the cadency of one line must be a rule to that of the next; and the sound of the former must slide gently into that which follows; without leaping from one extream into another. It must be done like the shadowings of a Picture, which fall by degrees into a darker colour. I shall be glad if I have so explain'd my self as to be understood, but if I have not, quod nequeo dicere & sentio tantiim, must be my excuse. There remains much more to be said on this subject; but to avoid envy, I will be silent. What I have said is the general Opinion of the best Judges, and in a manner has been forc'd from me, by seeing a noble sort of Poetry so happily restor'd by one Man, and so grosly copied, by almost all the rest: A musical eare, and a great genius, if another Mr. Cowley cou'd arise, in another age may bring it to perfection. In the mean time, —Fungar vice cotis acutum Reddere qua ferrum valet, expers ipsa secandi. I hope it will not be expected from me, that I shou'd say any thing of my fellow undertakers in this Miscellany. Some of them are too nearly related to me, to be commended without suspicion of partiality: Others I am sure need it not; and the rest I have not perus'd. T o conclude, I am sensible that I have written this too hastily and too loosly; I fear I have been tedious, and which is worse, it comes out from the first draught, and uncorrected. This I grant is no excuse; for it may be reasonably urg'd, why did he not write with more leisure, or, if he had it not (which was certainly my case) why did he attempt to write on so nice a subject? T h e objection is unanswerable, but in part of recompence, let me assure the Reader, that in hasty productions, he is sure to meet with an Authors present sence, which cooler thoughts wou'd possibly have disguisd. There is undoubtedly more of spirit, though not of judgment in these uncorrect Essays, and consequently though my hazard be the greater, yet the Readers pleasure is not the less. John Dry den. 20 be] O2; he O i . 22 written] O2; writ ten O i . 29-30 productions] O2; producteons Oi.

Sylvce

19

The entire Episode of Nisus and Euryalus, translated from the 5th' and pth' Books of

Virgils ^Eneids CONNECTION OF THE FIRST PART OF THE EPISODE IN THE FIFTH BOOK, WITH THE REST OF THE FOREGOING POEM.

.¿Eneas having buried his Father Anchises in Sicily; and setting sail from thence in search of Italy, is driven by a Storm on the same Coasts from whence he departed: After a years wandring, he is hospitably receiv'd by his friend Acestes, King of that part of the Island, who was born of Trojan Parentage: He applies himself to celebrate the memory of his Father with divine honours; and accordingly institutes Funeral Games, and appoints Prizes for those who should conquer in them. One of these Games was a Foot Race; in which Nisus and Euryalus were engag'd amongst other Trojans and Sicilians.

F

ROM thence his way the Trojan Hero bent, Into a grassy Plain with Mountains pent, Whose Brows were shaded with surrounding wood; Full in the midst of this fair Valley, stood A native Theater, which rising slow, By just degrees, o're look'd the ground below: A numerous Train attend in solemn state: High on the new rais'd T u r f e their Leader sate. Here those, who in the rapid Race delight, Desire of honour, and the Prize invite: T h e Trojans and Sicilians mingled stand, With Nisus and Euryalus, the formost of the Band, Euryalus with youth and beauty crown'd, 4 9

hospitably] Os; hospipitably Oi. 5 Trojan] O2; Trojan Nisus] Nysus O 1 - 2 . 12 Band,] ~ . O 1 - 2 , FI-2.

Oi.

20

Poems 1685-169 2

Nisus for friendship to the Boy renown'd. Diores next of Priam's Regal Race, T h e n Salius, joyn'd with Patron> took his place: But from Epirus one deriv'd his birth, T h e other ow'd it to Arcadian Earth. T h e n two Sicilian Youths; the name of this Was Helymus, of that was Panopes: T w o jolly Huntsmen in the Forest bred, And owning old A cestes for their Head: With many others of obscurer name, Whom T i m e has not deliver'd o're to Fame: T o these /Eneas in the midst arose, A n d pleasingly did thus his mind expose. Not one of you shall unrewarded go; O n each I will two Cretan Spears bestow, Pointed with polish'd Steel; a Battle-ax too, With Silver studded; these in common share, T h e formost three shall Olive Garlands wear: T h e Victor, who shall first the Race obtain, Shall for his Prize a well breath'd Courser gain, Adorn'd with Trappings; to the next in fame, T h e Quiver of an Amazonian Dame, With feather'd Thracian Arrows well supply'd H u n g on a golden Belt, and with a Jewel ty'd: T h e third this Grecian Helmet must content. He said: to their appointed Base they went: With beating hearts th' expected Sign receive, And starting all at once, the Station leave. Spread out, as on the Wings of Winds they flew, And seiz'd the distant Goal with eager view: Shot from the Crowd, swift Nisus all o'r past, Not stormes, nor thunder equal half his haste: T h e next, but tho' the next, yet far disjoyn'd, Came Salius, then, a distant space behind 20 39 42 43

Helymus] F1-2; Helimus O 1 - 2 . 22 Head:] ^ . O 1 - 2 , F1-2. went:] F1-2; . O1-2. W i n g s of] O i (errata), O2; W i n g of O i (text); winged F 1 - 2 . view] O2, F1-2; veiw O i . 46 tho'] O2, F1-2; tho O i .

Sylvce Euryalus the third; Next Helymus, whom young Diores ply'd, Step after Step, and almost side by side; His shoulders pressing, and in longer space, Had won, or left at least a doubtful Race. Now spent, the Goal they almost reach at last, When eager Nisus, hapless in his haste, Slipt first, and slipping, fell upon the plain, Moist with the bloud of Oxen lately slain; T h e careless Victor had not mark'd his way, But treading where the treacherous puddle lay, His heels flew up, and on the grassy floor, He fell besmear'd with filth and holy gore. Nor mindless then Euryalus of thee, Nor of the sacred bonds of amity, He strove th' immediate Rival to oppose, A n d caught the foot of Salius as he rose; So Salius lay extended on the Plain: Euryalus springs out the prize to gain, A n d cuts the Crowd; applauding peals attend T h e Conqu'ror to the Goal, who conquer'd thro' his friend. Next Helymus, and then Diores came, By two misfortunes, now the third in fame. But Salius enters, and exclaiming loud For Justice, deafens and disturbs the Crowd: Urges his cause may in the Court be heard, A n d pleads the Prize is wrongfully conferr'd. But favour for Euryalus appears, His blooming beauty and his graceful tears Had brib'd the Judges to protect his claim: Besides Diores does as loud exclaim, W h o vainly reaches at the last Reward, If the first Palm on Salius be conferr'd. T h e n thus the Prince; let no disputes arise; 48 third;] ^ . O1-2. 68 Conqu'ror] O2; Conqur'or O i ; Victor F1-2. 68 thro'] thro O i ; through O2; by F1-2. 69 Helymus] F1-2; Helimus Ot-2.

21

Poems

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1685-1692

W h e r e Fortune plac'd it, I award the Prize. B u t give m e leave, her Errours to amend, A t least to pity a deserving friend. T h u s having said, A Lions Hide, amazing to behold, Pond'rous with bristles, and w i t h paws of gold, H e gave the Y o u t h , which Nisus greiv'd to view: If such rewards to vanquish'd m e n are due, 90 Said he, and falling is to rise by you, W h a t prize may Nisus from your bounty claim, W h o merited the first rewards and fame? In falling both did equal fortune try, W o u ' d fortune make me fall as happily. W i t h this he pointed to his face, and show'd H i s hands and body all besmear'd with blood: T h ' indulgent Father of the people smil'd, A n d caus'd to be produc'd a massie Shield Of wond'rous art by Didymaon wrought, 100 L o n g since from Neptunes bars in triumph brought; W i t h this, the graceful Y o u t h he gratifi'd; T h e n the remaining presents did divide.

CONNECTION OF THE REMAINING PART OF THE EPISODE, TRANSLATED OUT OF THE 9TH. BOOK OF VIRGILS jENEIDS, WITH THE FOREGOING PART OF THE STORY.

The War being now broken out betwixt the Trojans and Latines; and iEneas being overmatch'd in numbers by his Enemies, who were ayded by King Turnus, he fortifies his Camp, and leaves in it his young Son Ascanius, under the direction of his chief Counsellors and Captains; while he goes in person, to beg Succours from King Evander and the Tuscans. Turnus takes advantage of his absence, and assaults his Camp: The Trojans in it, are reduc'd 88

view] O2; veiw Oi.

9«

fame?] F1-2; , . ! Oi-2.

Sylva

23

to great extremities; which gives the Poet the occasion of continuing this admirable Episode, wherein he describes the friendship, the generosity, the adventures, and the death of Nisus and Euryalus.

T

HE Trojan C a m p the common danger shar'd; By turns they watch'd the Walls; and kept the Nightly Guard: T o Warlike Nisus fell the Gate by Lot, (Whom Hyrtacus on Huntress Ida got: A n d sent to Sea /Eneas to attend,) W e l l cou'd he dart the Spear, and shafts unerring send. Beside him stood Euryalus, his ever Faithful friend. N o Youth in all the Trojan Host was seen More beautiful in arms, or of a Nobler meen; Scarce was the Down upon his Chin begun; One was their Friendship, their desire was one: W i t h minds united in the Field they warr'd, A n d now were both by Choice upon the Guard. T h e n Nisus thus: O r do the Gods this Warlike warmth inspire, Or makes Each Man a G o d of his desire? A Noble A r d o u r boils within my Breast, Eager of Action, Enemy of Rest; T h a t urges me to Fight, or undertake Some Deed that may my Fame immortal make. T h o u seest the Foe secure: H o w faintly shine T h e i r scatter'd Fires, the most in Sleep supine; Dissolv'd in Ease, and drunk with Victory: T h e few awake the fuming Flaggon Ply; A l l hush'd around: Now hear what I revolve, W i t h i n my mind, and what my labouring thoughts resolve. O u r absent Lord both C a m p and Council mourn; By Message both wou'd hasten his return: T h e gifts propos'd if they confer on thee, (For Fame is recompence enough to me) Methinks beneath yon Hill, I have espy'd A way that safely will my Passage guide.

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Poems

1685-1692

Euryalus stood Listning while he spoke, With Love of praise, and Noble envy strook; Then to his ardent Friend, expos'd his mind: All this alone, and leaving me behindl Am I unworthy, Nisus, to be joyn'd, Think'st thou my Share of honour I will yield, Or send thee unassisted to the Field? Not so my Father taught my Childhood Armes, Born in a Siege, and bred amongst Alarms: Nor is my Youth unworthy of my Friend, Or of the Heav'n-born Heroe I attend. The thing call'd Life with ease I can disclaim; And think it oversold to purchase Fame. T o whom his Friend; I cou'd not think, alas, thy Tender years Wou'd minister new matter to my Fears: Nor is it just thou shoudst thy Wish obtain; So Jove in Triumph bring me back again, T o those dear eyes; or if a God there be T o pious Friends propitious more than he. But if some one, as many sure there are, Of adverse accidents in doubtful War, If one shou'd reach my Head there let it fall, And spare thy life, I wou'd not perish all: Thy Youth is worthy of a longer Date; Do thou remain to mourn thy Lovers fate; T o bear my mangled body from the Foe, Or buy it back, and Fun'ral rites bestow, Or if hard Fortune shall my Corps deny Those dues, with empty Marble to supply. O let not me the Widows tears renew, Let not a Mothers curse my name pursue; Thy pious Mother, who in Love to thee, 43 44 47 52

Heroe] F i - a ; Heroe O1-2. disclaim] O i (errata), Oa, F1-2; disdain O i (text). cou'd not] O i (errata), O2; cou'd O i (text). 50 again,] ^ ; O i - : Friends] ^ , O1-2. 60 bestow,] ^ . O1-2, F1-2.

Sylvce Left the Fair Coast of fruitful Sicily; Her Age committing to the Seas and Wind, W h e n every weary Matron staid behind. T o this Euryalus, thou pleadst in vain, And but delayst the cause thou canst not gain: N o more, 'tis loss of time. With that he wakes T h e nodding Watch; each to his Office takes. T h e Guard reliev'd, in Company they went T o find the Council at the Royal Tent. Now every living thing lay void of care, A n d Sleep, the common gift of Nature, share: Mean time the Trojan Peers in Council sate A n d call'd their Chief Commanders, to debate T h e weighty business of th' indanger'd State, What next was to be done, who to be sent T ' inform /Eneas of the Foes intent. In midst of all the quiet Camp they held Nocturnal Council; each sustains a Shield Which his o're labour'd A r m can hardly rear; A n d leans upon a long projected Spear. Now Nisus and his Friend approach the Guard, A n d beg admittance, eager to be heard, T h ' affair important; not to be deferr'd. Ascanius bids them be conducted in; T h e n thus, commanded, Nisus does begin. Ye Trojan Fathers lend attentive Ears; Nor judge our undertaking by our years. T h e Foes securely drench'd in Sleep and wine Their Watch neglect; their Fires but thinly shine. A n d where the Smoak in thickning Vapours flies Cov'ring the plain, and Clouding all the Skies, Betwixt the spaces we have mark'd a way, Close by the Gate and Coasting by the Sea; T h i s Passage undisturb'd, and unespy'd 68 71 72

Matron] F 1 - 2 ; Matron O 1 - 2 . time. With] time: with O 1 - 2 ; haste. W i t h F1-2. takes.] F 1 - 2 ; ~ I O 1 - 2 . 79 State,] ^ . O1-2, F 1 - 2 .

25

26

Poems

1685-169 2

100 Our Steps will safely to /Eneas guide, Expect each hour to see him back again Loaded with spoils of Foes, in Battle slain: Snatch we the Lucky Minute while we may, Nor can we be mistaken in the way: For Hunting in the Vale, we oft have seen T h e rising Turrets with the stream between: A n d know its winding Course, with every foord. He paus'd, and Old Alethes took the Word. Our Country Gods in whom our trust we place, 110 Will yet from ruin save the Trojan race; While we behold such springing worth appear, In youth so brave, and breasts so void of fear. (With this he took the hand of either Boy, Embrac'd them closely both, and wept for joy:) Ye brave young men, what equal gifts can we, What recompence for such desert, decree? T h e greatest sure and best you can receive, T h e Gods, your vertue and your fame will give: T h e Rest, our grateful General will bestow; 120 And young Ascanius, till his Manhood, owe. And I whose welfare in my Father lies, (Ascanius adds,) by all the Deities, By our great Country, and our household Gods, By Hoary Vesta's rites, and dark abodes, Adjure you both, on you my Fortune stands, That and my Faith I plight into your hands, Make me but happy in his safe return, (For I N o other loss but only his can mourn,) Nisus your gift shall two large Goblets be, lso Of Silver wrought with curious Imag'ry, A n d high embost: which when old Priam reign'd, My conquering Sire, at sack'd Arisba gain'd. A n d more two Tripods cast in antique mould, 116 131

decree?] F1-2; ^ 1 O1-2. reign'd,] O2, F i - a ; ^ . O i .

122 Deities,] O2, F1-2; Oi. 132 Sire] F1-2; Sire O1-2.

Sylva With two great Tallents of the finest Gold: Besides a Boul which Tyrian Art did grave; The Present that Sidonian Dido gave. But if in Conquer'd Italy we reign, When Spoils by Lot the Victors shall obtain, Thou saw'st the Courser by proud Turnus prest; 140 That, and his golden Arms, and sanguine Crest, And Sheild, from lot exempted, thou shalt share; With these, twelve captive Dam'sels young and fair: Male Slaves as many; well appointed all With Vests and Arms, shall to thy portion fall: And last a fruitful Field to thee shall rest, The large demenes the Latian King possest. But thou, whose years are more to mine ally'd, No fate my vow'd affection shall divide From thee O wondrous Youth: be ever mine, 150 Take full possession, all my Soul is thine: My lifes Companion, and my bosom Friend; One faith, one fame, one fate shall both attend. My peace shall be committed to thy care, And to thy Conduct my concerns in war. Then thus the bold Euryalus reply'd; What ever fortune, good or bad, betide, The same shall be my Age, as now my Youth; No time shall find me wanting to my truth. This only from your bounty let me gain; 160 (And this not granted, all rewards are vain:) Of Priams Royal Race my Mother came, And sure the best that ever bore the name: Whom neither Troy, nor Sicily cou'd hold From me departing; but o're spent and old, My fate she follow'd; ignorant of this What ever danger: Neither parting kiss, Nor pious Blessing taken; her I leave: And in this only Act of all my life deceive. By this your hand and conscious Night I swear, 134

Gold:] F1-2; ^

. O1-2.

27

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170 My youth so sad a farewel cou'd not bear. Be you her Patron, fill my vacant place; (Permit me to presume so great a grace;) Support her Age forsaken and distrest; That hope alone will fortifie my breast, Against the worst of fortunes and of fears. He said; th' Assistants shed presaging tears, But above all, Ascanius mov'd to see That image of paternal piety. Then thus reply'd. 180 So great beginnings in so green an Age Exact that Faith, which firmly I engage; Thy Mother all the priviledge shall claim Creusa had; and only want the name. Whate'r event thy enterprise shall have, 'Tis Merit to have born a Son so brave. By this my Head, a sacred Oath, I swear, (My Father us'd it) what returning here Crown'd with success, I for thy self prepare, Thy Parent and thy Family shall share. 190 He said; and weeping while he spoke the word, From his broad Belt he drew a shining Sword, Magnificent with Gold; Lycaon made, And in an Iv'ry scabbard sheath'd the Blade. This was his Gift: while Mnestheus did provide For Nisus Arms; a grisley Lions Hide; And true Alethes chang'd with him his helm of temper try'd. Thus arm'd they went: the noble Trojans wait Their going forth, and follow to the Gate With Pray'rs and Vows: above the rest appears 200 Ascanius, manly far above his years, And Messages committed to their care; Which all in Winds were lost, and empty air. 171 Patron,] O2; Patron A O i ; Comfort; F1-2. 175 fears.] F1-2; 176 tears,] ^ . O1-2, F1-2. 187 returning] F1-2; O1-2. 189 share.] F1-2; ^ : O1-2. 198 Gate] ^ . O1-2, F1-2. 199 Vows:] O1-2; ^ , Fx—2. zoo years,] ^ . O1-2, F1-2.

: O1-2.

Sylva

29

T h e T r e n c h e s first they pass'd; then took their way, W h e r e their p r o u d foes in pitch'd Pavilions lay. T o m a n y fatal e'r themselves were slain: T h e careless H o s t disperst upon the Plain T h e y found, who d r u n k with W i n e supinely snore: Unharness'd Chariots stand u p o n the shore; Midst wheels, a n d reins, and arms, the Goblet by, 210 A Medley of D e b a u c h a n d W a r they lie. Observing

Nisus

shew'd his friend the sight;

T h e n thus: behold a Conquest without fight. Occasion calls the Sword to be prepar'd: O u r way lies there, stand thou upon the guard; A n d look behind, while I securely go T o cut a n a m p l e passage through the Foe. Softly he spoke; then stalking took his way, W i t h his d r a w n Sword, where haughty

Rhamnes

lay,

H i s head rais'd high, o n T a p e s t r y beneath, 220 A n d heaving from his breast, he puff'd his b r e a t h : A King, a n d P r o p h e t by K i n g

Turnus

lov'd,

B u t fate by Prescience c a n n o t be remov'd. T h r e e sleeping Slaves he soon subdues: then spyes Where

Rhemus,

with his p r o u d R e t i n u e , lies:

H i s A r m o u r B e a r e r first, a n d n e x t he kills H i s Charioteer, e n t r e n c h ' d betwixt the wheels, A n d his lov'd Horses; last invades their L o r d , F u l l o n his N e c k he aims the fatal Sword: T h e Gasping head flies off: a purple floud, 230 Flows f r o m the T r u n k , that wallows in the bloud; W h i c h by the spurning heels dispers'd around, T h e b e d besprinkles, a n d bedews the ground.

T h e n Lamyrus with Lamus Serranus, w h o with g a m i n g

a n d the y o u n g did prolong

T h e night: opprest with wine and slumber lay T h e beauteous Y o u t h , and dreamt of lucky Play; M o r e lucky had it been protracted till the day. 220 breath:] F1-2; ^ . O1-2. 231-232 heels . . . around, . . . bed besprinkles,] F1-2; For barefac'd envy is too base a cause. J Show more occasion for your discontent, 120 Your love, the Wolf, wou'd help you to invent; Some German quarrel, or, as times go now, Some French, where force is uppermost, will doe. When at the fountains head, as merit ought T o claim the place, you take a swilling draught, How easie 'tis an envious eye to throw, A n d tax the sheep for troubling streams below, Or call her, (when no farther cause you find,) A n enemy profess'd of all your kind. But then, perhaps, the wicked World wou'd think, 130 T h e Wolf design'd to eat as well as drink. 112 poor?] Q2-3; ~ , Qi, Q4-5. M. 120 invent;] Q2-3; Qi, Q 4 - 5 ; M .

The

Hind

and the

Panther

This last allusion gaul'd the Panther more, Because indeed it rubb'd upon the sore. Yet seem'd she not to winch, though shrewdly pain'd: But thus her Passive character maintain'd. I never grudg'd, whate're my foes report, Your flaunting fortune in the Lyon's court. You have your day, or you are much bely'd, But I am always on the suff'ring side: You know my doctrine, and I need not say 140 I will not, but I cannot disobey. On this firm principle I ever stood: 1 He of my sons who fails to make it good, iBy one rebellious act renounces to my bloud. J Ah, said the Hind, how many sons have you Who call you mother, whom you never knew! But most of them who that relation plead Are such ungratious youths as wish you dead. They gape at rich revenues which you hold, And fain would nible at your grandame gold; 150 Enquire into your years, and laugh to find Your crazy temper shews you much declin'd. Were you not dim, and doted, you might see ] A pack of cheats that claim a pedigree, V No more of kin to you, than you to me. J Do you not know, that for a little coin, Heralds can foist a name into the line? They ask you blessing but for what you have, ] But once possess'd of what with care you save, [• The wanton boyes wou'd piss upon your grave. J 160

Your sons of Latitude that court your grace, Though most resembling you in form and face, Are far the worst of your pretended race. J And, but I blush your honesty to blot, Pray god you prove 'em lawfully begot: 156 line?]

; Q1-5;

. M.

165

i66

Poems

1685-1692

For, in some Popish libells I have read, The Wolf has been too busie in your bed. At least their hinder parts, the belly piece, The paunch, and all that Scorpio claims are his. Their malice too a sore suspicion brings; 170 For though they dare not bark, they snarl at kings: Nor blame 'em for intruding in your line, Fat Bishopricks are still of right divine. Think you your new French Proselytes are come T o starve abroad, because they starv'd at home? Your benefices twinckl'd from afar, They found the new Messiah by the star: Those Swisses fight on any side for pay, And 'tis the living that conforms, not they. Mark with what management their tribes divide, 1 180 Some stick to you, and some to t' other side, [• That many churches may for many mouths provide. J More vacant pulpits wou'd more converts make, All wou'd have latitude enough to take; The rest unbenefic'd, your sects maintain 1 For ordinations without cures are vain, jAnd chamber practice is a silent gain. J Your sons of breadth at home, are much like these, Their soft and yielding metals run with ease, They melt, and take the figure of the mould: loo But harden, and preserve it best in gold. Your Delphick Sword, the Panther then reply'd, Is double edg'd, and cuts on either side. Some sons of mine who bear upon their shield, Three steeples Argent in a sable field, Have sharply tax'd your converts, who unfed Have follow'd you for miracles of bread; Such who themselves of no religion are, Allur'd with gain, for any will declare. 188 yielding] Q2-3; easie Qi

(corrected in 4-line errata in some copies),

Q4-5, M.

The Hind

and the

Panther

167

Bare lyes with bold assertions they can face, 200 But dint of argument is out of place. The grim Logician puts 'em in a fright, 'Tis easier far to flourish than to fight. Thus our eighth Henry's marriage they defame;") They say the schism of beds began the game, iDevorcing from the Church to wed the Dame: J Though largely prov'd, and by himself profess'd That conscience, conscience wou'd not let him rest, I mean not till possess'd of her he lov'd, And old, uncharming Catherine was remov'd. 210 For sundry years before did he complain, And told his ghostly Confessour his pain. With the same impudence, without a ground, ] They say, that look the reformation round, V N o Treatise of Humility is found. J But if none were, the Gospel does not want, Our Saviour preach'd it, and I hope you grant, T h e Sermon in the mount was Protestant. N o doubt, reply'd the Hind, as sure as all 1 T h e writings of Saint Peter and Saint Paul: 220 On that decision let it stand or fall. J Now for my converts, who you say unfed Have follow'd me for miracles of bread, Judge not by hear-say, but observe at least, If since their change, their loaves have been increast. T h e Lyon buyes no Converts, if he did, Beasts wou'd be sold as fast as he cou'd bid. Tax those of int'rest who conform for gain, Or stay the market of another reign. Your broad-way sons wou'd never be too nice 230 T o close with Calvin, if he paid their price; But rais'd three steeples high'r, wou'd change their note, And quit the Cassock for the Canting-coat. 205 Dame:] ~ . Q 1 - 4 , M; s i g Paul:] ~ . Q 1 - 5 , M.

Q5.

217

Protestant.] Q4, M; ~ : Q 1 - 3 , Q5.

i68

Poems 1685-169 2

Now, if you damn this censure, as too bold, Judge by your selves, and think not others sold. Mean-time my sons accus'd, by fames report Pay small attendance at the Lyon's court, Nor rise with early crowds, nor flatter late, (For silently they beg who daily wait.) Preferment is bestow'd that comes unsought, 240 Attendance is a bribe, and then 'tis bought. How they shou'd speed, their fortune is untry'd, For not to ask, is not to be deny'd. For what they have, their God and King they bless, And hope they shou'd not murmur, had they less. But, if reduc'd subsistence to implore, In common prudence they wou'd pass your door; Unpitty'd Hudibrass, your Champion friend, Has shown how far your charities extend. This lasting verse shall on his tomb be read, 250 He sham'd you living, and upbraids you dead. With odious Atheist names you load your foes,"] Your lib'ral Clergy why did I expose? [• It never fails in charities like those. J In climes where true religion is profess'd, That imputation were no laughing jest. But Imprimatur, with a Chaplain's name, Is here sufficient licence to defame. What wonder is't that black detraction thrives? ] The Homicide of names is less than lives; j260 And yet the perjur'd murtherer survives. J This said, she paus'd a little, and suppress'd The boiling indignation of her breast; She knew the vertue of her blade, nor wou'd Pollute her satyr with ignoble bloud: Her panting foes she saw before her lye, 258 thrives?] r^ , Q1-5; ^ a M-

The Hind

and the

Panther

And back she drew the shining weapon dry: So when the gen'rous Lyon has in sight His equal match, he rouses for the fight; But when his foe lyes prostrate on the plain, 270 He sheaths his paws, uncurls his angry mane; And, pleas'd with bloudless honours of the day, Walks over, and disdains th' inglorious Prey. So JAMES, if great with less we may compare, Arrests his rowling thunder-bolts in air; And grants ungratefull friends a lengthn'd space, T ' implore the remnants of long suff'ring grace. This breathing-time the Matron took; and then, Resum'd the thrid of her discourse agen. Be vengeance wholly left to pow'rs divine, 280 And let heav'n judge betwixt your sons and mine: If joyes hereafter must be purchas'd here With loss of all that mortals hold so dear, Then welcome infamy and publick shame, And, last, a long farwell to worldly fame. 'Tis said with ease, but oh, how hardly try'd By haughty souls to humane honour ty'dl jO sharp convulsive pangs of agonizing pride! J Down then thou rebell, never more to rise, 1 And what thou didst, and do'st so dearly prize, j290 That fame, that darling fame, make that thy sacrifice. J 'Tis nothing thou hast giv'n, then add thy tears For a long race of unrepenting years: 'Tis nothing yet; yet all thou hast to give, Then add those may-be years thou hast to live. Yet nothing still: then poor, and naked come, Thy father will receive his unthrift home, And thy blest Saviour's bloud discharge the mighty sum. Thus (she pursu'd) I discipline a son Whose uncheck'd fury to revenge wou'd run: 277

Matron] M; Matron

Qj-5.

169

170

Poems

1685-1692

800 He champs the bit, impatient of his loss, And starts a-side, and flounders at the cross. Instruct him better, gracious God, to know, As thine is vengeance, so forgiveness too. That suff'ring from ill tongues he bears no more Than what his Sovereign bears, and what his Saviour bore. It now remains for you to school your child, And ask why God's anointed he revil'd; A King and Princess dead! did Shimei worse? The curser's punishment should fright the curse: 8io Your son was warn'd, and wisely gave it o're, But he who councell'd him, has paid the score: The heavy malice cou'd no higher tend, But wo to him on whom the weights descend: So to permitted ills the Damon flyes: His rage is aim'd at him who rules the skyes; Constrain'd to quit his cause, no succour found, The foe discharges ev'ry Tyre around, In clouds of smoke abandoning the fight, But his own thundring peals proclaim his flight. 820

In Henry's change his charge as ill succeeds, 1 To that long story little answer needs, }Confront but Henry's words with Henry's deeds. J Were space allow'd, with ease it might be prov'd, What springs his blessed reformation mov'd. The dire effects appear'd in open sight, Which from the cause, he calls a distant flight, And yet no larger leap than from the sun to light.

Now last your sons a double Paean sound, A Treatise of Humility is found. 330 'Tis found, but better it had ne'er been sought Than thus in Protestant procession brought. 328

Paean] M; Pcean Q1-3, Q5; Ptean Q4.

The Hind

and the

Panther

The fam'd original through Spain is known, Rodriguez work, my celebrated son, Which yours, by ill-translating made his own, Conceal'd its authour, and usurp'd the name, The basest and ignoblest theft of fame. My Altars kindl'd first that living coal, Restore, or practice better what you stole: That vertue could this humble verse inspire, 340 'Tis all the restitution I require. Glad was the Panther that the charge was clos'd, And none of all her fav'rite sons expos'd. For laws of arms permit each injur'd man, To make himself a saver where he can. Perhaps the plunder'd merchant cannot tell The names of Pirates in whose hands he fell: But at the den of thieves he justly flies, And ev'ry Algerine is lawfull prize. No private person in the foes estate 350 Can plead exemption from the publick fate. Yet Christian laws allow not such redress; Then let the greater supersede the less. But let th' Abbettors of the Panther's crime Learn to make fairer wars another time. Some characters may sure be found to write " Among her sons, for 'tis no common sight A spotted Dam, and all her offspring white. The Salvage, though she saw her plea controll'd, Yet wou'd not wholly seem to quit her hold, 360 But offer'd fairly to compound the strife; And judge conversion by the convert's life. 'Tis true, she said, I think it somewhat strange So few shou'd follow profitable change: For present joys are more to flesh and bloud, Than a dull prospect of a distant good. 358 Salvage] (£4-5, M; Salvage Q1-3.

171

172

Poems

1685-1692

'Twas well alluded by a son of mine, (I hope to quote him is not to purloin) T w o magnets, heav'n and earth, allure to bliss, T h e larger loadstone that, the nearer this: 870 The weak attraction of the greater fails, We nodd a-while, but neighbourhood prevails: But when the greater proves the nearer too, I wonder more your converts come so slow. Methinks in those who firm with me remain, It shows a nobler principle than gain. Your inf'rence wou'd be strong (the Hind reply'd) If yours were in effect the suff'ring side: Your clergy sons their own in peace possess, Nor are their prospects in reversion less. 880 My Proselytes are struck with awfull dread, Your bloudy Comet-laws hang blazing o're their head. The respite they enjoy but onely lent, T h e best they have to hope, protracted punishment. Be judge your self, if int'rest may prevail, Which motives, yours or mine, will turn the scale. While pride and pomp allure, and plenteous ease, ~ That is, till man's predominant passions cease, Admire no longer at my slow encrease. By education most have been misled, 890 So they believe, because they so were bred. The Priest continues what the nurse began, And thus the child imposes on the man. T h e rest I nam'd before, nor need repeat: But int'rest is the most prevailing cheat, T h e sly seducer both of age and youth; They study that, and think they study truth: When int'rest fortifies an argument Weak reason serves to gain the wills assent; For souls already warp'd receive an easie bent. 367 purloin)] Q4; ~ •) Qi, Q5: ~ ;) Qa-3; ~,) M. 376 (the] Qs-4; Qi, Q5, M.

The Hind

and the

Panther

400

Add long prescription of establish'd laws, And picque of honour to maintain a cause, And shame of change, and fear of future ill, And Zeal, the blind conductor of the will, And chief among the still mistaking crowd, The fame of teachers obstinate and proud, And more than all, the private Judge allow'd. Disdain of Fathers which the daunce began, And last, uncertain who's the narrower span, The clown unread, and half-read gentleman.

410

To this the Panther, with a scornfull smile: Yet still you travail with unwearied toil, And range around the realm without controll Among my sons, for Proselytes to prole, And here and there you snap some silly soul. You hinted fears of future change in state, Pray heav'n you did not prophesie your fate; Perhaps you think your time of triumph near, But may mistake the season of the year; The Swallows fortune gives you cause to fear.

420

For charity (reply'd the Matron) tell What sad mischance those pretty birds befell. Nay, no mischance, (the salvage Dame reply'd) But want of wit in their unerring guide, And eager haste, and gaudy hopes, and giddy pride. Yet, wishing timely warning may prevail, Make you the moral, and I'll tell the tale.

The Swallow, privileg'd above the rest Of all the birds, as man's familiar Guest, Pursues the Sun in summer brisk and bold, 430 But wisely shuns the persecuting cold: Is well to chancels and to chimneys known, Though 'tis not thought she feeds on smoak alone. From hence she has been held of heav'nly line,

»73

174

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Endu'd with particles of soul divine. This merry Chorister had long possess'd Her summer seat, and feather'd well her nest: Till frowning skys began to change their chear And time turn'd up the wrong side of the year; The shedding trees began the ground to strow 440 With yellow leaves, and bitter blasts to blow. Sad auguries of winter thence she drew, Which by instinct, or Prophecy, she knew: When prudence warn'd her to remove betimes And seek a better heav'n, and warmer clymes. Her sons were summon'd on a steeples height, And, call'd in common council, vote a flight; The day was nam'd, the next that shou'd be fair, All to the gen'ral rendezvouz repair, They try their flutt'ring wings and trust themselves in air. 450 But whether upward to the moon they go, Or dream the winter out in caves below, Or hawk at flies elsewhere, concerns not us to know. Southwards, you may be sure, they bent their flight, And harbour'd in a hollow rock at night: Next morn they rose and set up ev'ry sail, T h e wind was fair, but blew a mackrel gale: The sickly young sat shivring on the shoar, Abhorr'd salt-water never seen before, And pray'd their tender mothers to delay 46o The passage, and expect a fairer day. With these the Martyn readily concurr'd, A church-begot, and church-believing bird; Of little body, but of lofty mind, Round belly'd, for a dignity design'd, And much a dunce, as Martyns are by kind: 465 kind:] ^ . Q1-5, M.

The Hind

and the

Panther

m

Yet often quoted Cannon-laws, and Code, And Fathers which he never understood, But little learning needs in noble bloud. For, sooth to say, the Swallow brought him in, 470 Her houshold Chaplain, and her next of kin. In Superstition silly to excess, And casting Schemes, by planetary guess: In fine, shortwing'd, unfit himself to fly, His fear foretold foul weather in the sky. Besides, a Raven from a wither'd Oak, Left of their lodging, was observ'd to croke. That omen lik'd him not, so his advice 1 Was present safety, bought at any price: L (A seeming pious care, that cover'd cowardise.) I 480 T o strengthen this, he told a boding dream, Of rising waters, and a troubl'd stream, Sure signs of anguish, dangers and distress, With something more not lawfull to express: By which he slyly seem'd to intimate Some secret revelation of their fate. For he concluded, once upon a time, He found a leaf inscrib'd with sacred rime, Whose antique characters did well denote T h e Sibyl's hand of the Cumeean Grott: 490 The mad Divineress had plainly writ, A time shou'd come (but many ages yet,) In which, sinister destinies ordain, A Dame shou'd drown with all her feather'd train, And seas from thence be call'd the Chelidonian main. At this, some shook for fear, the more devout Arose, and bless'd themselves from head to foot. 'Tis true, some stagers of the wiser sort Made all these idle wonderments their sport: 478 price:] Q2-3; ~ . Qi, Q4-5, M.

482 signs] Q2-3; sign Qi, Q4-5, M.

Poems

176

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They said, their onely danger was delay, 5oo And he who heard what ev'ry fool cou'd say, Wou'd never fix his thoughts, but trim his time away. The passage yet was good, the wind, 'tis true, Was somewhat high, but that was nothing new, Nor more than usual Equinoxes blew. The Sun (already from the scales declin'd) Gave little hopes of better days behind, But change from bad to worse of weather and of wind. Nor need they fear the dampness of the Sky Should flag their wings, and hinder them to fly, 510 'Twas onely water thrown on sails too dry. But, least of all Philosophy presumes Of truth in dreams, from melancholy fumes: Perhaps the Martyn, hous'd in holy ground, Might think of Ghosts that walk their midnight round, Till grosser atoms tumbling in the stream Of fancy, madly met and clubb'd into a dream. As little weight his vain presages bear, Of ill effect to such alone who fear. Most prophecies are of a piece with these, 520 Each Nostradamus can foretell with ease: Not naming persons, and confounding times, One casual truth supports a thousand lying rimes. T h ' advice was true, but fear had seiz'd the most, And all good counsel is on cowards lost. The question crudely put, to shun delay, 'Twas carry'd by the major part to stay. His point thus gain'd, Sir Martyn dated thence His pow'r, and from a Priest became a Prince. He order'd all things with a busie care, 530 And cells, and refectories did prepare, And large provisions lay'd of winter fare: 531

fare:] ^ . Q1-5, M.

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177

But now and then let fall a word or two Of hope, that heav'n some miracle might show, And, for their sakes, the sun shou'd backward go; Against the laws of nature upward climb, And, mounted on the Ram, renew the prime: For which two proofs in Sacred story lay, Of Ahaz dial, and of Joshuah's day. In expectation of such times as these 540 A chapell hous'd 'em, truly call'd of ease: For Martyn much devotion did not ask, They pray'd sometimes, and that was all their task. It happen'd (as beyond the reach of wit Blind prophecies may have a lucky hit) That, this accomplish'd, or at least in part, Gave great repute to their new Merlin's art. * Otherwise Some * Swifts, the Gyants of the Swallow kind, call'd Martlets. Large limb'd, stout-hearted, but of stupid mind, (For Swisses, or for Gibeonites design'd,) These Lubbers, peeping through a broken pane, 550 T o suck fresh air, survey'd the neighbouring plain, And saw (but scarcely cou'd believe their eyes) New blossoms flourish, and new flow'rs arise; As God had been abroad, and walking there, Had left his foot-steps, and reform'd the year: T h e sunny hills from far were seen to glow W i t h glittering beams, and in the meads below T h e burnish'd brooks appear'd with liquid gold to flow. At last they heard the foolish Cuckow sing, 560 Whose note proclaim'd the holy day of spring. No longer doubting, all prepare to fly, And repossess their patrimonial sky. T h e Priest before 'em did his wings display; And, that good omens might attend their way, As luck wou'd have it, 'twas St. Martyn's day.

178

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1685-1692

Who but the Swallow now triumphs alone? The Canopy of heaven is all her own, Her youthfull offspring to their haunts repair; And glide along in glades, and skim in air, 570 And dip for insects in the purling springs, And stoop on rivers to refresh their wings. Their mothers think a fair provision made, That ev'ry son can live upon his trade, And now the carefull charge is off their hands, Look out for husbands, and new nuptial bands: T h e youthfull widow longs to be supply'd; But first the lover is by Lawyers ty'd T o settle jointure-chimneys on the bride. So thick they couple, in so short a space, 580 That Martyns marr'age offrings rise apace; Their ancient houses, running to decay, Are furbish'd up, and cemented with clay; They teem already; store of eggs are laid, And brooding mothers call Lucina's aid. Fame spreads the news, and foreign fowls appear" In flocks to greet the new returning year, T o bless the founder, and partake the cheer. And now 'twas time (so fast their numbers rise) T o plant abroad, and people colonies; 590 The youth drawn forth, as Martyn had desir'd, (For so their cruel destiny requir'd) Were sent far off on an ill fated day; The rest wou'd need conduct 'em on their way, And Martyn went, because he fear'd alone to stay. So long they flew with inconsiderate haste That now their afternoon began to waste; And, what was ominous, that very morn 566 alone?] , Q1-5; ~ A M. 580 offrings] Q2-3; offsprings Qi (corrected in 4-line errata in some copies), Q45, M.

The

Hind

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T h e Sun was entr'd into Capricorn; Which, by their bad Astronomers account, 600 That week the virgin balance shou'd remount; An infant moon eclips'd him in his way, And hid the small remainders of his day: The crowd amaz'd, pursu'd no certain mark; But birds met birds, and justled in the dark; Few mind the publick in a Panick fright; And fear increas'd the horrour of the night. Night came, but unattended with repose, Alone she came, no sleep their eyes to close, Alone, and black she came, no friendly stars arose. 6io

What shou'd they doe, beset with dangers round, No neighb'ring Dorp, no lodging to be found, But bleaky plains, and bare unhospitable ground? T h e latter brood, who just began to fly Sick-feather'd, and unpractis'd in the sky, For succour to their helpless mother call, She spread her wings; some few beneath 'em craul, She spread 'em wider yet, but cou'd not cover all. T ' augment their woes, the winds began to move Debate in air, for empty fields above, 620 Till Boreas got the skyes, and powr'd amain His ratling hail-stones mix'd with snow and rain. The joyless morning late arose, and found A dreadfull desolation reign a-round, Some buried in the Snow, some frozen to the ground: T h e rest were strugling still with death, and lay The Crows and Ravens rights, an undefended prey; Excepting Martyn's race, for they and he Had gain'd the shelter of a hollow tree, But soon discover'd by a sturdy clown, 630 He headed all the rabble of a town, And finish'd 'em with bats, or poll'd 'em down. 603

crowd] Q3, Q5, M; crow'd Q1-2, Q4.

612

ground?] ^ . Q1-5, M.

179

i8o

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1685-1692

Martyn himself was caught a-live, and try'd For treas'nous crimes, because the laws provide No Martyn there in winter shall abide. High on an Oak which never leaf shall bear, He breath'd his last, expos'd to open air, And there his corps, unbless'd, are hanging still, T o show the change of winds with his prophetick bill. T h e patience of the Hind did almost fail, 64o For well she mark'd the malice of the tale: Which Ribbald art their church to Luther owes, In malice it began, by malice grows, He sow'd the Serpent's teeth, an iron-harvest rose. But most in Martyn's character and fate, She saw her slander'd sons, the Panther's hate, T h e people's rage, the persecuting state: Then said, I take th' advice in friendly part, You clear your conscience, or at least your heart: Perhaps you fail'd in your fore-seeing skill, 65o For Swallows are unlucky birds to kill: As for my sons, the family is bless'd, Whose ev'ry child is equal to the rest: No church reform'd can boast a blameless line; Such Martyns build in yours, and more than mine: Or else an old fanatick Authour lyes Who summ'd their Scandals u p by Centuries. But, through your parable I plainly see The bloudy laws, the crowds barbarity: T h e sun-shine that offends the purblind sight, 660 Had some their wishes, it wou'd soon be night. Mistake me not, the charge concerns not you, Your sons are male-contents, but yet are true, As far as non-resistance makes 'em so, But that's a word of neutral sense you know, A passive term which no relief will bring, But trims betwixt a rebell and a king.

The

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Rest well assur'd the Pardelis reply'd, My sons wou'd all support the regal side, T h o u g h heav'n forbid the cause by battel shou'd be try'd. 670

T h e Matron answer'd with a loud Amen, A n d thus pursu'd her argument agen. If as you say, and as I hope no less, Your sons will practise what your self profess, What angry pow'r prevents our present peace? T h e Lyon, studious of our common good, Desires, (and Kings desires are ill withstood,) T o join our Nations in a lasting love; T h e barrs betwixt are easie to remove, For sanguinary laws were never made above. 680 If you condemn that Prince of Tyranny Whose mandate forc'd your Gallick friends to fly, Make not a worse example of your own, Or cease to rail at causeless rigour shown, And let the guiltless person throw the stone. His blunted sword, your suff'ring brotherhood Have seldom felt, he stops it short of bloud: But you have ground the persecuting knife, A n d set it to a razor edge on life. Curs'd be the wit which cruelty refines, 690 Or to his father's rod the Scorpion joins; Your finger is more gross than the great Monarch's loins. But you perhaps remove that bloudy note, A n d stick it on the first Reformers coat. Oh let their crime in long oblivion sleep, 'Twas theirs indeed to make, 'tis yours to keep. Unjust, or just, is all the question now, 'Tis plain, that not repealing you allow. T o name the Test wou'd put you in a rage, Y o u charge not that on any former age, 698

Test] Test Q1-5, M.

181

182

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700 But smile to think how innocent you stand Arm'd by a weapon put into your hand. Yet still remember that you weild a sword Forg'd by your foes against your Sovereign Lord, Design'd to hew th' imperial Cedar down, Defraud Succession, and dis-heir the Crown. T" abhor the makers, and their laws approve, Is to hate Traytors, and the treason love. What means it else, which now your children say, We made it not, nor will we take away? 710

Suppose some great Oppressor had by slight Of law, disseis'd your brother of his right, Your common sire surrendring in a fright; Would you to that unrighteous title stand, Left by the villain's will to heir the land? More just was Judas, who his Saviour sold; T h e sacrilegious bribe he cou'd not hold, Nor hang in peace, before he rendr'd back the gold. What more could you have done, than now you doe, Had Oates and Bedlow, and their Plot been true? 720 Some specious reasons for those wrongs were found;' The dire Magicians threw their mists around, And wise men walk'd as on inchanted ground. But now when time has made th' imposture plain, (Late though he follow'd truth, & limping held her train,) What new delusion charms your cheated eyes again? T h e painted Harlot might awhile bewitch, But why the Hag uncas'd, and all obscene with itch? The first Reformers were a modest race, Our Peers possess'd in peace their native place: 730 And when rebellious arms o'return'd the state, They suffer'd onely in the common fate; But now the Sov'reign mounts the regal chair And mitr'd seats are full, yet David's bench is bare: 703

Lord,] ~

. Q1-5, M.

709

away?] ^

. Q1-5, M.

The

Hind

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Your answer is, they were not dispossess'd, They need but rub their mettle on the Test T o prove their ore: 'twere well if gold alone Were touch'd and try'd on your discerning stone; But that unfaithfull Test, unfound will pass The dross of Atheists, and sectarian brass: 740 As if th' experiment were made to hold For base productions, and reject the gold: Thus men ungodded may to places rise, And sects may be preferr'd without disguise: No danger to the church or state from these, T h e Papist onely has his Writ of ease. No gainfull office gives him the pretence T o grind the Subject or defraud the Prince. Wrong conscience, or no conscience may deserve T o thrive, but ours alone is privileg'd to sterve. 750

Still thank your selves you cry, your noble race W e banish not, but they forsake the place. Our doors are open: true, but e'er they come, You toss your censing Test, and fume the room; As if 'twere Toby's rival to expell, And fright the fiend who could not bear the smell.

T o this the Panther sharply had reply'd, But, having gain'd a Verdict on her side, She wisely gave the loser leave to chide; Well satisfy'd to have the But and peace, 76o And for the Plaintiff's cause she car'd the less, Because she su'd in forma Pauperis; Yet thought it decent something shou'd be said, For secret guilt by silence is betray'd: So neither granted all, nor much deny'd, But answer'd with a yawning kind of pride. 735. 738 Test] Test Q1-5, M. 738 pass] Q3-5, M; ~ . Q1-2. 744 danger to] Q2-3; danger from Qi (4-line errata in some copies reads dangers to), Q4-5, M. 753 Test] Test Q1-5, M. 761 in] in Q1-5, M.

Poems

184

1685-1692

Methinks such terms of proferr'd peace you bring As once /Eneas to th' Italian King: By long possession all the land is mine, You strangers come with your intruding line, 770 T o share my sceptre, which you call to join. You plead like him an ancient Pedigree, And claim a peacefull seat by fates decree. In ready pomp your Sacrificer stands, T ' unite the Trojan and the Latin bands, And that the League more firmly may be ty'd, Demand the fair Lavinia for your bride. Thus plausibly you veil th' intended wrong, But still you bring your exil'd gods along; And will endeavour in succeeding space, 780 Those houshold Poppits on our hearths to place. Perhaps some barb'rous laws have been preferr'd, I spake against the Test, but was not heard; These to rescind, and Peerage to restore, My gracious Sov'reign wou'd my vote implore: I owe him much, but owe my conscience more. Conscience is then your Plea, reply'd the Dame, Which well-inform'd will ever be the same. But yours is much of the Camelion hew, T o change the dye with ev'ry diff'rent view. 790 When first the Lyon fat with awfull sway Your conscience taught you duty to obey: He might have had your Statutes and your Test, No conscience but of subjects was profess'd. He found your temper, and no farther try'd, But on that broken reed your church rely'd. In vain the sects assay'd their utmost art With offer'd treasure to espouse their part, Their treasures were a bribe too mean to move his heart. But when by long experience you had proov'd, 800 How far he cou'd forgive, how well he lov'd; 79a

Test] Test Q1-5, M.

The Hind

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A goodness that excell'd his godlike race, And onely short of heav'ns unbounded grace, A floud of mercy that o'erflow'd our Isle, Calm in the rise, and fruitfull as the Nile; Forgetting whence your /Egypt was supply'd, You thought your Sov'reign bound to send the tide: Nor upward look'd on that immortal spring, But vainly deem'd, he durst not be a king: Then conscience, unrestrain'd by fear, began 810 T o stretch her limits, and extend the span, Did his indulgence as her gift dispose, And made a wise Alliance with her foes. Can conscience own th' associating name, And raise no blushes to conceal her shame? For sure she has been thought a bashfull Dame. But if the cause by battel shou'd be try'd, You grant she must espouse the regal side: O Proteus Conscience, never to be ty'd! What Phoebus from the Tripod shall disclose, 820 Which are in last resort, your friends or foes? Homer, who learn'd the language of the sky, The seeming Gordian knot wou'd soon unty; Immortal pow'rs the term of conscience know, But int'rest is her name with men below. Conscience or int'rest be't, or both in one; (The Panther answer'd in a surly tone,) The first commands me to maintain the Crown, T h e last forbids to throw my barriers down. Our penal laws no sons of yours admit, 830 Our Test excludes your Tribe from benefit. These are my banks your ocean to withstand, Which proudly rising overlooks the land: And once let in, with unresisted sway Wou'd sweep the Pastors and their flocks away. Think not my judgment leads me to comply 802

grace,] ^ : Q 1 - 5 , M .

804

Nile;] Q3;

, Qi-g, Q4-5 M

185

i86

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1685-1692

With laws unjust, but hard necessity: Imperious need which cannot be withstood Makes ill authentick, for a greater good. Possess your soul with patience, and attend: 84o A more auspicious Planet may ascend; Good fortune may present some happier time, With means to cancell my unwilling crime; (Unwilling, witness all ye Pow'rs above) T o mend my errours and redeem your love: T h a t little space you safely may allow, Your all-dispensing pow'r protects you now. Hold, said the Hind, 'tis needless to explain; You wou'd postpone me to another reign: T i l l when you are content to be unjust, 85o Your part is to possess, and mine to trust. A fair exchange propos'd of future chance, For present profit and inheritance: Few words will serve to finish our dispute, W h o will not now repeal wou'd persecute; T o ripen green revenge your hopes attend, Wishing that happier Planet wou'd ascend: For shame let Conscience be your Plea no more, T o will hereafter, proves she might before; But she's a Bawd to gain, and holds the Door. 860

Your care about your Banks, infers a fear Of threatning Floods, and Inundations near; If so, a just Reprise would only be Of what the Land usurp'd upon the Sea; A n d all your Jealousies but serve to show Your Ground is, like your Neighbour-Nation, low. T ' intrench in what you grant unrighteous Laws, Is to distrust the justice of your Cause; And argues that the true Religion lyes In those weak Adversaries you despise.

The 870

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Tyrannick force is that which least you fear, T h e sound is frightfull in a Christian's ear; Avert it, Heav'n; nor let that Plague be sent T o us from the dispeopled Continent.

But Piety commands me to refrain; Those Pray'rs are needless in this Monarch's Reign. Beholdl how he protects your Friends opprest, Receives the Banish'd, succours the Distress'd: Behold, for you may read an honest open Breast. He stands in Day-light, and disdains to hide 880 An Act to which, by Honour he is ty'd, A generous, laudable, and Kingly Pride. Your Test he would repeal, his Peers restore, T h i s when he says he means, he means no more. Well, said the Panther, I believe him just, A n d yet A n d yet, 'Tis but because you must, You would be trusted, but you would not trust. T h e Hind thus briefly, and disdain'd t' inlarge O n Pow'r of Kings, and their Superiour charge, As Heav'ns Trustees before the Peoples choice: 890 T h o ' sure the Panther did not much rejoyce T o hear those Echo's giv'n of her once Loyal voice. T h e Matron woo'd her Kindness to the last, But cou'd not win; her hour of Grace was past. W h o m thus persisting when she could not bring T o leave the Woolf, and to believe her King, She gave Her up, and fairly wish'd her Joy Of her late Treaty with her new Ally: 880 ty'd,] Q2-3; Q i , Q4-5, M. 888 Kings] Q4, M; Kings Q1-3, Q5. 892 Matron] M; Matron Q1-5.

882 Test] Test Q1-5, M. 891 Echo's] M; Echo's Q1-5.

187

i88

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Which well she hop'd wou'd more successfull prove, Than was the Pigeons, and the Buzzards love. 900 T h e Panther ask'd, what concord there cou'd be Betwixt two kinds whose Natures disagree? T h e Dame reply'd, 'Tis sung in ev'ry Street, T h e common chat of Gossips when they meet: But, since unheard by you, 'tis worth your while T o take a wholesome Tale, tho' told in homely stile. A Plain good Man, whose Name is understood, (So few deserve the name of Plain and Good) Of three fair lineal Lordships stood possess'd, And liv'd, as reason was, upon the best; 910 Inur'd to hardships from his early Youth, Much had he done, and suffer'd for his truth: At Land, and Sea, in many a doubtfull Fight, Was never known a more adven'trous Knight, Who oftner drew his Sword, and always for the right. As Fortune wou'd (his fortune came tho' late) He took Possession of his just Estate: Nor rack'd his Tenants with increase of Rent, Nor liv'd too sparing, nor too largely spent; But overlook'd his Hinds, their Pay was just, 920 And ready, for he scorn'd to go on trust: Slow to resolve, but in performance quick; So true, that he was awkard at a trick. For little Souls on little shifts rely, And coward Arts of mean Expedients try: T h e noble Mind will dare do any thing but lye. False Friends, (his deadliest foes,) could find no way But shows of honest bluntness to betray; That unsuspected plainness he believ'd, He look'd into Himself, and was deceiv'd. 980 Some lucky Planet sure attends his Birth, Or Heav'n wou'd make a Miracle on Earth; 90a

Dame] M; Dame Q1-5.

919

Hinds] M; Hinds Q1-5.

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For prosp'rous Honesty is seldom seen: T o bear so dead a weight, and yet to win. It looks as Fate with Nature's Law would strive, T o shew Plain dealing once an age may thrive: And, when so tough a frame she could not bend, Exceeded her Commission to befriend. This gratefull man, as Heav'n encreas'd his Store, Gave God again, and daily fed his Poor; 940 His House with all convenience was purvey'd, T h e rest he found, but rais'd the Fabrick where he pray'd; And in that Sacred Place, his beauteous Wife Employ'd Her happiest hours of Holy Life. Nor did their Alms extend to those alone Whom common Faith more strictly made their own, A sort of Doves were hous'd too near their Hall, Who cross the Proverb, and abound with Gall. Tho' some 'tis true, are passively inclin'd, T h e greater Part degenerate from their kind; 950 Voracious Birds, that hotly Bill and breed, And largely drink, because on Salt they feed. Small Gain from them their Bounteous Owner draws," Yet, bound by Promise, he supports their Cause, As Corporations priviledg'd by Laws. That House which harbour to their kind affords Was built, long since, God knows, for better Birds; But flutt'ring there they nestle near the Throne, " And lodge in Habitations not their own, By their high Crops, and Corny Gizzards known. 960 Like Harpy's they could scent a plenteous board, Then to be sure they never fail'd their Lord. T h e rest was form, and bare Attendance paid, They drunk, and eat, and grudgingly obey'd. T h e more they fed, they raven'd still for more, 939

God] M ; God Q 1 - 5 .

189

igo

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1685-1692

They drain'd from Dan, and left Beersheba poor; All this they had by Law, and none repin'd, The pref'rence was but due to Levi's Kind, But when some Lay-preferment fell by chance The Gourmands made it their Inheritance. 970 When once possess'd, they never quit their Claim, For then 'tis sanctify'd to Heav'ns high Name; And Hallow'd thus they cannot give Consent, The Gift should be prophan'd by Worldly management. Their Flesh was never to the Table serv'd, Tho' 'tis not thence inferr'd the Birds were starv'd; But that their Master did not like the Food, As rank, and breeding Melancholy Blood. Nor did it with His Gracious Nature suite, Ev'n tho' they were not Doves, to persecute: 980 Yet He refus'd, (nor could they take Offence) Their Glutton Kind should teach him abstinence. Nor Consecrated Grain their Wheat he thought, Which new from treading in their Bills they brought: But left his Hinds each in his Private Pow'r, That those who like the Bran might leave the Flow'r. He for himself, and not for others chose, Nor would He be impos'd on, nor impose; But in their Faces His Devotion paid, And Sacrifice with Solemn Rites was made, 990 And Sacred Incense on His Altars laid. Besides these jolly Birds whose Crops impure, Repay'd their Commons with their Salt Manure; Another Farm he had behind his House, Not overstock't, but barely for his use; Wherein his poor Domestick Poultry fed, And from His Pious Hands receiv'd their Bread. 971 97g

Heav'ns] Q5, M; Hea'vens Q1-3; Heavens Q4. Doves] Doves Q1-5, M.

The Hind

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Our pamper'd Pigeons with malignant Eyes, Beheld these Inmates, and their Nurseries: Tho' hard their fare, at Ev'ning, and at Morn 1000 A Cruise of Water and an Ear of Corn; Yet still they grudg'd that Modicum, and thought A Sheaf in ev'ry single Grain was brought; Fain would they filch that little Food away, While unrestrain'd those happy Gluttons prey. And much they griev'd to see so nigh their Hall, The Bird that warn'd St. Peter of his Fall; That he should raise his miter'd Crest on high, And clap his Wings, and call his Family T o Sacred Rites; and vex th' Etherial Pow'rs 1010 With midnight Mattins, at uncivil Hours: Nay more, his quiet Neighbours should molest, Just in the sweetness of their Morning rest. Beast of a Bird, supinely when he might Lye snugg and sleep, to rise before the light: What if his dull Forefathers us'd that cry, Cou'd he not let a Bad Example dye? The World was fall'n into an easier way, This Age knew better, than to Fast and Pray. Good Sense in Sacred Worship would appear 1020 So to begin, as they might end the year. Such feats in former times had wrought the falls Of crowing Chanticleers in Cloyster'd Walls. Expell'd for this, and for their Lands they fled, And Sister Partlet with her hooded head Was hooted hence, because she would not pray a-bed. The way to win the restiff World to God, Was to lay by the Disciplining Rod, 997 Pigeons] Pigeons Q1-5, M. 1001 Modicum] Q2-5; Modi'um Qi (corrected in errata in some copies); Modium M. 1022 Chanticleers] Chanticleers Q1-5, M. 1024 Partlet] Q5; Partlet Q1-4, M. 1025 a-bed] Q5; a Bed Q1-4, M. 1026 restiff] Q2-5; restless Qi (corrected in errata in some copies), M.

192

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Unnatural Fasts, and Foreign Forms of Pray'r; Religion frights us with a meen severe. 1030 'Tis Prudence to reform her into Ease, And put Her in undress to make Her pleas: A lively Faith will bear aloft the Mind, And leave the Luggage of Good Works behind. Such Doctrines in the Pigeon-house were taught, You need not ask how wondrously they wrought; But sure the common Cry was all for these Whose Life, and Precept both encourag'd Ease. Yet fearing those alluring Baits might fail, And Holy Deeds o're all their Arts prevail: xo4o (For Vice, tho' frontless, and of harden'd Face Is daunted at the sight of awfull Grace) An hideous Figure of their Foes they drew, Nor Lines, nor Looks, nor Shades, nor Colours true; And this Grotesque design, expos'd to Publick view. One would have thought it some /Egyptian Piece," With Garden-Gods, and barking Deities, More thick than Ptolomey has stuck the Skies. All so perverse a Draught, so far unlike, It was no Libell where it meant to strike: 1050 Yet still the daubing pleas'd, and Great and Small T o view the Monster crowded Pigeon-hall. There Chanticleer was drawn upon his knees Adoring Shrines, and Stocks of Sainted Trees, And by him, a mishapen, ugly Race; The Curse of God was seen on ev'ry Face: No Holland Emblem could that Malice mend, But still the worse the look the fitter for a Fiend. The Master of the Farm displeas'd to find So much of Rancour in so mild a kind, 1031 1034 1045 1051 1058

undress] Q2-5; undrest Qi (corrected in errata in some copies), M. Pigeon-house] Pigeon-house Q1-5; Pigeon house M. some] Q2-3; an Qi, Q4-5. M. 1045 ¿Egyptian] ¿Egyptian Q1-5, M. Pigeon-hall] Pigeon-hall Q1-5; Pigeon hall M. Chanticleer] Chanticleer Q1-5, M.

The

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the

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1

9B

1060 Enquir'd into the Cause, and came to know, The Passive Church had struck the foremost blow: With groundless Fears, and Jealousies possest, As i£ this troublesome intruding Guest Would drive the Birds of Venus, from their Nest, A Deed his inborn Equity abhorr'd, But Int'rest will not trust, tho God should plight his Word. A Law, the Source of many Future harms, Had banish'd all the Poultry from the Farms; With loss of Life, if any should be found 1070 T o crow or peck on this forbidden Ground. That Bloody Statute chiefly was design'd For Chanticleer the white, of Clergy kind; But after-malice did not long forget The Lay that wore the Robe, and Coronet; For them, for their Inferiours and Allyes, Their Foes a deadly Shibboleth devise: By which unrighteously it was decreed, That none to Trust, or Profit should succeed, Who would not swallow first a poysonous wicked Weed, 1080 Or that, to which old Socrates was curs't, Or Henbane-Juice to swell 'em till they burst. The Patron (as in reason) thought it hard T o see this Inquisition in his Yard, By which the Soveraign was of Subjects use debarr'd. All gentle means he try'd, which might withdraw T h ' Effects of so unnatural a Law: But still the Dove-house obstinately stood Deaf to their own, and to their Neighbours good: And which was worse, (if any worse could be) 1090 Repented of their boasted Loyalty: Now made the Champions of a cruel Cause, And drunk with Fumes of Popular Applause; 1062 1064 1087

groundless] Q2-5, M; grounless Q i . Nest,] Q4; . Q 1 - 3 , Q5, M. Dove-house] Dove-house Q1-5; Doue house M.

Poems

194

1685-1692

For those whom God to ruine has design'd, He fits for Fate, and first destroys their Mind. New Doubts indeed they daily strove to raise, Suggested Dangers, interpos'd Delays, And Emissary Pigeons had in store, Such as the Meccan Prophet us'd of yore, T o whisper Counsels in their Patrons Ear, 1100 And veil'd their false Advice with Zealous Fear. T h e Master smil'd to see 'em work in vain, T o wear him out, and make an idle reign: He saw, but suffer'd their Protractive Arts, A n d strove by mildness to reduce their Hearts; But they abus'd that Grace to make Allyes, A n d fondly clos'd with former Enemies; For Fools are double Fools endeav'ring to be wise. After a grave Consult what course were best, One more mature in Folly than the rest, 1110 Stood up, and told 'em, with his head aside, T h a t desp'rate Cures must be to desp'rate Ills apply'd: And therefore since their main impending fear Was from th' encreasing race of Chanticleer: Some Potent Bird of Prey they ought to find, A Foe profess'd to him, and all his kind: Some haggar'd Hawk, who had her eyry nigh, Well pounc'd to fasten, and well wing'd to fly; One they might trust, their common wrongs to wreak: T h e Musquet, and the Coystrel were too weak, 1120 T o o fierce the Falcon, but above the rest, T h e noble Buzzard ever pleas'd me best; Of small Renown, 'tis true, for not to lye, W e call him but a Hawk by courtesie. I know he haunts the Pigeon-House and Farm, A n d more, in time of War, has done us harm; But all his hate on trivial Points depends, 1097

Pigeons]

Pigeons Q1-5, M.

The

Hind

and the

Panther

195

Give up our Forms, and we shall soon be friends. For Pigeons flesh he seems not much to care, Cram'd Chickens are a more delicious fare; 1130 On this high Potentate, without delay, I wish you would conferr the Sovereign sway: Petition him t' accept the Government, And let a splendid Embassy be sent. This pithy Speech prevail'd, and all agreed, Old Enmity's forgot, the Buzzard should succeed. Their welcom Suit was granted soon as heard, His Lodgings furnish'd, and a Train prepar'd, With B's upon their Breast, appointed for his Guard. He came, and Crown'd with great Solemnity, 1140 God save King Buzzard, was the gen'rail cry. A Portly Prince, and goodly to the sight, He seem'd a Son of Anach for his height: Like those whom stature did to Crowns prefer; Black-brow'd, and bluff, like Homer's Jupiter: Broad-back'd, and Brawny built for Loves delight, A Prophet form'd, to make a female Proselyte. A Theologue more by need, than genial bent, By Breeding sharp, by Nature confident. Int'rest in all his Actions was discern'd; ii5o More learn'd than Honest, more a Wit than learn'd. Or forc'd by Fear, or by his Profit led, Or both conjoyn'd, his Native clyme he fled; But brought the Vertues of his Heav'n along, A fair Behaviour, and a fluent Tongue: And yet with all his Arts he could not thrive; The most unlucky Parasite alive. 1147 1148 1152 Q4-5, 1154

genial] Qia, Q2-3; nat'ral Q i , Q4-5, M. Nature] Qia, Q2-3; Nation Q i , Q4-5, M. both conjoyn'd, his Native] Qia, Q2-3; both, his own unhappy M. fluent] Qia, Q2-3; flatt'ring Q i , Q4-5, M.

Qi,

ig6

Poems

1685-1692

Loud Praises to prepare his Paths he sent, A n d then himself pursu'd his Compliment: But, by reverse of Fortune chac'd away, 1160 His Gifts no longer than their Author stay: H e shakes the Dust against th' ungrateful race, A n d leaves the stench of Ordures in the place. O f t has he flatter'd, and blasphem'd the same, For in his Rage, he spares no Sov'rains name: T h e Hero, and the Tyrant change their style By the same measure that they frown or smile; W h e n well receiv'd by hospitable Foes, T h e kindness he returns, is to expose: For Courtesies, tho' undeserv'd and great, 1170 N o gratitude in Fellon-minds beget, As tribute to his Wit, the churl receives the treat. His praise of Foes is venemously Nice, So touch'd, it turns a Vertue to a Vice: A Greek, and bountiful forewarns us twice. Sev'n Sacraments he wisely do's disown, Because he knows Confession stands for one; Where Sins to sacred silence are convey'd, And not for Fear, or Love, to be betray'd: But he, uncall'd, his Patron to controul, use Divulg'd the secret whispers of his Soul: Stood forth th' accusing Sathan of his Crimes, A n d offer'd to the Moloch of the Times. Prompt to assayle, and careless of defence, Invulnerable in his Impudence; He dares the World, and eager of a name, H e thrusts about, and justles into fame. Frontless, and Satyr-proof he scow'rs the streets, A n d runs an Indian muck at all he meets. So fond of loud Report, that not to miss ii9o Of being known (his last and utmost bliss) H e rather would be known, for what he is. 1181 Sathan] Sathan QI~5, M.

The

Hind

and the

Panther

Such was, and is the Captain of the Test, T h o ' half his Vertues are not here express't; T h e modesty of Fame conceals the rest. T h e spleenful Pigeons never could create A Prince more proper to revenge their hate: Indeed, more proper to revenge, than save; A King, whom in his wrath, th' Almighty gave: For all the Grace the Landlord had allow'd, 1200 But made the Buzzard and the Pigeons proud; Gave time to fix their Friends, and to seduce the crowd. T h e y long their Fellow-Subjects to inthrall, Their Patrons promise into question call, A n d vainly think he meant to make 'em Lords of all. False Fears their Leaders fail'd not to suggest, As if the Doves were to be dispossess't; Nor Sighs, nor Groans, nor gogling Eyes did want; For now the Pigeons too had learn'd to Cant. T h e House of Pray'r is stock'd with large encrease; 210 Nor Doors, nor Windows can contain the Press: For Birds of ev'ry feather fill th' abode; Ev'n Atheists out of envy own a God: A n d reeking from the Stews, Adult'rers come, Like Goths and Vandals to demolish Rome. T h a t Conscience which to all their Crimes was mute, Now calls aloud, and cryes to Persecute; N o rigour of the Laws to be releas'd, A n d much the less, because it was their Lords request: T h e y thought it great their Sov'rain to controul, 220 And nam'd their Pride, Nobility of Soul. 'Tis true, the Pigeons, and their Prince Elect Were short of Pow'r their purpose to effect: But with their Quills, did all the hurt they cou'd, A n d cuff'd the tender Chickens from their food: 1192

Test]

test Q1-5, M (Test Q4).

1216

Persecute;] — . Qi~5, M.

197

Poems

1685-1692

And much the Buzzard in their Cause did stir, Tho' naming not the Patron, to infer With all respect, He was a gross Idolater. But when th' Imperial owner did espy That thus they turn'd his Grace to villany, 1280 Not suff'ring wrath to discompose his mind, He strove a temper for th' extreams to find, So to be just, as he might still be kind. Then, all Maturely weigh'd, pronounc'd a Doom Of Sacred Strength for ev'ry Age to come. By this the Doves their Wealth and State possess, No Rights infring'd, but licence to oppress: Such Pow'r have they as Factious Lawyers long T o Crowns ascrib'd, that Kings can do no wrong. But, since His own Domestick Birds have try'd 1240 The dire Effects of their destructive Pride, He deems that Proof a Measure to the rest, Concluding well within his Kingly Breast, His Fowl of Nature too unjustly were opprest. He therefore makes all Birds of ev'ry Sect Free of his Farm, with promise to respect Their sev'ral Kinds alike, and equally protect. His Gracious Edict the same Franchise yields T o all the wild Encrease of Woods and Fields, And who in Rocks aloof, and who in Steeples builds: 1250 T o Crows the like Impartial Grace affords, And Choughs and Daws, and such Republick Birds: Secur'd with ample Priviledge to feed, Each has his District, and his Bounds decreed: Combin'd in common Int'rest with his own, But not to pass the Pigeons Rubicon. 1235 Doves] Doves Q1-5, M. 1236 licence] Q2-5; licens'd Qi (corrected in errata in some copies), M. 1249 builds:] ^ . Q1-4; Q5> m 1255 Pigeons] Pigeons Qi-5, M.

The Hind

and the

Panther

Here ends the Reign of this pretended Dove;' All Prophecies accomplish'd from above, For Shiloh comes the Scepter to Remove. Reduc'd from Her Imperial High Abode, 1260 Like Dionysius to a private Rod: T h e Passive Church, that with pretended Grace Did Her distinctive Mark in Duty place, Now Touch'd, Reviles Her Maker to his Face. What after happen'd is not hard to guess; T h e small Beginnings had a large Encrease, And Arts and Wealth succeed (the secret spoils of Peace.) 'Tis said the Doves repented, tho' too late, Become the Smiths of their own Foolish Fate: Nor did their Owner hasten their ill hour: 1270 But, sunk in Credit, they decreas'd in Pow'r: Like Snows in warmth that mildly pass away, Dissolving in the Silence of Decay. T h e Buzzard not content with equal place, Invites the feather'd Nimrods of his Race, T o hide the thinness of their Flock from Sight, And all together make a seeming, goodly Flight: But each have sep'rate Int'rests of their own, Two Czars, are one too many for a Throne. Nor can th' Usurper long abstain from Food, t28o Already he has tasted Pigeons Blood: And may be tempted to his former fare, When this Indulgent Lord shall late to Heav'n repair. Bare benting times, and moulting Months may come, When lagging late, they cannot reach their home: Or Rent in Schism, (for so their Fate decrees,) Like the Tumultuous Colledge of the Bees; 1256 Dove] Dove Q1-5, M. 1267 Daves] Doves Q1-5, M.

1260 Dionysius] Q5; Dyonysius Q1-4, M. 1280 Pigeons] Pigeons Q1-5, M.

*99

200

Poems

1685-1692

They fight their Quarrel, by themselves opprest, T h e Tyrant smiles below, and waits the falling feast. Thus did the gentle Hind her fable end, 1290 Nor would the Panther blame it, nor commend; But, with affected Yawnings at the close, Seem'd to require her natural repose. For now the streaky light began to peep; And setting stars admonish'd both to sleep. T h e Dame withdrew, and, wishing to her Guest The peace of Heav'n, betook her self to rest. Ten thousand Angels on her slumbers waite With glorious Visions of her future state.

A Song for S1 C E C I L I A s Day, 1687. W

R

I

T

T

E

N

By John Dryden, Efq; and Compos'd by Mr .John Baptifl Draghi. IV. t Rom Harmony,fromheav'nly Harmony This univerfil Fame begin.

The Toft complaining F i u T • In dying Notes diicovcrs The Woes of hopelefs Lovers,

When Nature underneath a heap

Whofe Dirge is whilper'd by the warbling L u T A.

Of jarring Atomes lay,

V.

Ami cou'd not heave her Head,

Sharp V i o u m proclaim

The tuneiul Voice was heard from high, Arifc ye more than dead.

Their jealous Pangs, and Delperation,

Then cold, and hot, and moift, and dry,

Fury, frantick Indignation,

In otder to their ftabons leap,

Depth of Pains, and height of Pallion,

And M u n c i ' s pow'r obey.

For the £iir, diflainiul Dame.

Fm.i Harmooy, from heav'nly Harmony

VI. But oh! what Art can teach

This univer&l Frame began: From Harmony to Harmony

What human Voice can reach The faaed O i o AM» prailei Noes inlpiiing holy Lcve, Notes that wing their Vav'nly way« T o mend the Choires above,

Through all the compais of the Notes it ran, The Diapafim doling full in Man.

ft What Pajfion cannot M s n C t raiie and f i d l ! When

Julalftruckthe corded Shell,

vn.

Hu lifrning Brethren Hood around

Orpheus cou'd lead the &vage

And woodring, on their Face (ell

And Trees unrooted ldt their place;

race;

Sequacious of the Lyre:

T o worfhip that Celeftial Sound. Lefs than a Cod they thought there cou'd not dwell

But bright

CECILIA

rais'd the wonder high r;

Within the hollow of that Shell

When to her ORGAN, vocal Breath was giv'n

Thar fpoke To Tweedy and lb well.

An Angel heard, and ftraight appcar'd Miflaking Earth (or Heaven.

What Paifion cannot M u n c i nife and quell I

Grand

III.

CHORUS.

Ji from the pow'r if fared Lap The Spheres begin to move, Ad frnig the grent Creator't praife to all tht bit/id time; $0 mhen the lafi and ¿retifd hour This crumbling 'Pageantfraildevour, The TIUMP 1 T Jhill he heard M high, The Dead ¡hall live, the lining die, Ad M u s i c s Jball untune theSky.

The T i u a r i n loud Clangor Exacts us to Arms With ibrill Notes of Anger And mortal Alarms. The double double double beat Of the thundring DIUII Cyes, heark the Foes come; Charge, Charge, 'tis too late to retreat.

Printed for T. Dring, in Fleetjbeet. 1 ¿87. UNIQUE

COPY

OF

THE

FIRST

(MACDONALD

Courtesy

of the Trustees

EDITION

BROADSIDE

25)

of the British

Museum

Song for St. Cecilia's

A Song for St. Cecilia's

F

Day,

Day

1687

I.

ROM Harmony, from heav'nly Harmony T h i s universal Frame began.

When Nature underneath a heap Of jarring Atomes lay, A n d cou'd not heave her Head, T h e tuneful Voice was heard from high, Arise ye more than dead. Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry, In order to their stations leap, A n d M U S I C K ' S pow'r obey. From Harmony, from heav'nly Harmony This universal Frame began: From Harmony to Harmony Through all the compass of the Notes it ran, T h e Diapason closing full in Man. II. What Passion cannot M U S I C K raise and quell! When Jubal struck the corded Shell, His list'ning Brethren stood around And wond'ring, on their Faces fell T o worship that Celestial Sound. Less than a God they thought there cou'd not dwell Within the hollow of that Shell That spoke so sweetly and so well. What Passion cannot M U S I C K raise and quell!

soi

Poems

202

1685-1692

III.

The

T R U M P E T S loud Clangor Excites us to Arms With shrill Notes of Anger And mortal Alarms. The double double double beat Of the thundring D R U M Cryes, heark the Foes come; Charge, Charge, 'tis too late to retreat.

IV.

The soft complaining F L U T E In dying Notes discovers The Woes of hopeless Lovers, Whose Dirge is whisper'd by the warbling V.

Sharp V I O L I N S proclaim Their jealous Pangs, and Desperation, Fury, frantick Indignation, Depth of Pains, and height of Passion, For the fair, disdainful Dame. VI.

But oh I what Art can teach What human Voice can reach The sacred O R G A N S praise? Notes inspiring holy Love, Notes that wing their heav'nly ways T o mend the Choires above.

LUTE.

Song for St. Cecilia's

Day

VII. Orpheus cou'd lead the savage race; A n d Trees unrooted left their place; Sequacious of the Lyre: But bright CECILIA rais'd the wonder high'r; W h e n to her ORGAN, vocal Breath was giv'n A n Angel heard, and straight appear'd Mistaking Earth for Heaven. Grand C H O R U S . As from the pow'r of sacred Lays The Spheres began to move, And, sung the great Creator's praise To all the bless'd above; So when the last and dreadful hour This crumbling Pageant shall devour, The T R U M P E T shall be heard on high, The Dead shall live, the Living die, And M U S I C K shall untune the Sky.

203

Poems

204

1685-1692

On the Marriage of the Fair and Vertuous Lady, Mrs Anastasia Stafford, with that Truly Worthy and Pious Gent. George Holman, Esq. A Pindarique Ode I.

W

HEN nature, in our northern hemisphere, Had shortned day-light, and deform'd the year; When the departing sun Was to our adverse tropique run; And fair St Lucy, with the borrow'd light, Of moon and stars, had lengthen'd night: What more then summer's day slipt in by chance, T o beautify the calendar? What made a spring, in midst of winter to advance, And the cold seasons leap into a youthfull dance, T o rouse the drooping year? Was this by miracle, or did they rise By the bright beams of Anastasia's eyes, T o light our frozen clime, And, happily for us, mistook their time? 'Twas so, and 'twas imported in her name; From her, their glorious resurrection came, And she renewed their perisht flame. T h e God of nature did the same: His birth the depth of winter did adorn, And she, to marriage then, her second birth was born. Her pious family, in every state, Their great Redeemer well can imitate. They have a right in heaven, an early place; The beauteous bride is of a martyr's race: And he above, with joy looks down,

13 eyes,]

Marriage

of Anastasia

Stafford

205

I see, I see him blaze with his immortall crown. He, on her nuptials, does his beams dispense, Blessing the day with better influence; He looks from heaven with joy, and gives her joy from thence. II. Now, let the reasonable beast, call'd man; Let those, who never truly scan T h e effects of sacred Providence, But measure all by the grosse rules of sence; Let those look up and steer their sight, By the great Stafford's light. T h e God that suffered him to suffer here, Rewards his race, and blesses them below, Their father's innocence and truth to show; T o show he holds the blood of martyrs dear: He crowned the father with a deathless diadem; And all the days from him he took, He numbred out in his eternal book: And said, let these be safely kept for them, T h e long descendants of that hallow'd stem. T o drye the mournfull widow's tears, Let all those dayes be turn'd to years, A n d all those years be whiten'd too: Still some new blessing let 'em bring, T o those who from my martyr spring; Still let them bloom, and still bestow Some new content upon his race below. Let their first revolution Bestow a bride upon his darling son, A n d crown those nuptials with a swift increase, Such as the emptied ark did blesse: Then, as the storms are more allay'd, And waves decay'd, Send out the beauteous blooming maid: And let that virgin dove bring to her house again,

2O6

Poems

1685-1692

An olive branch of peace, in triumph o'er the main. For whom, ye heavens! have ye reserv'd this joy? Let us behold the man you chose; How well you can your cares employ, And to what armes your maid dispose: Your maid, whom you have chang'd, but cannot lose: Chang'd as the morn into the day, As virgin snow that melts away, And, by its kindly moisture, makes new flowers to grow. See then, a bridegroom worthy such a bride! Never was happy pair so fitly tied; Never were virtues more allied; United in a most auspicious hour— A martyr's daughter weds a confessor! When innocence and truth became a crime, By voluntary banishment, He left our sacrilegious clime, And to a forrain country went; Or rather, there, by Providence was sent: For Providence designed him to reside, Where he, from his abundant stock, Might nourish God's afflicted flock, And, as his steward, for their wants provide. A troop of exiles on his bounty fed, They sought, and found with him their daily bread; As the large troop increast, the larger table spread. The cruse ne're emptied, nor the store Decreas'd the more; For God supplied him still to give, who gave in God's own stead. Thus, when the raging dearth Afflicted all the Egyptian earth; When scanty Nile no more his bounty dealt, And Jacob, even in Canaan, famine felt; God sent a Joseph out before; His father and his brethren to restore: Their sacks were filled with corn, with generous wine

Marriage of Anastasia Stafford

207

Their soules refresht, their ebbing store, Still when they came, supply'd with more, And doubl'd was their corn: 100 Joseph himself by giving, greater grew, And from his loins a double tribe increast the chosen crew.

Poems

208

1685-1692

Lines on Milton

T

Poets, in three distant Ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn. T h e First in loftiness of thought Surpass'd; T h e Next in Majesty; in both the Last. The force of Nature cou'd no farther goe: T o make a Third she joynd the former two. HREE

FRONTISPIECE OF

OF

Paradise

THE

Lost

FOURTH

EDITION

(MACDONALD

26)

(1688)

Britannia Rediviva:

POEM O N

T H E

B I R T H O F T H E

PRINCE. Written by Mr. D RTD EN. Dii Patrii Indigctes, & Romule, Vejiaque Mater, Tufctim likrim, & Romana Yalatìa fervas, time [altem everfo Puerum fucctirrere faclo Ne probibete: fatis jampridem ¡anguine noßro Laomedontea luimus Perjuria Troja.

Virg. Georg, i.

LONDON;

Printed for J. Tonfon, at the Judges-Head in Cbancery-Lane, near Vbet-flreet. i£88.

210

Poems

1685-1692

Britannia Rediviva: A Poem on the Born on the 10th. of June, 1688

Prince,

O

UR Vows are heard betimesl and Heaven takes care T o grant, before we can conclude the Pray'r: Preventing Angels met it half the way, And sent us back to Praise, who came to Pray. Just on the Day, when the high mounted Sun Did farthest in his Northern Progress run, He bended forward and ev'n stretch'd the Sphere Beyond the limits of the lengthen'd year; T o view a Brighter Sun in Britaine Born; That was the Bus'ness of his longest Morn, T h e Glorious Object seen t'was time to turn. Departing Spring cou'd only stay to shed Her bloomy beauties on the Genial Bed, But left the manly Summer in her sted, With timely Fruit the longing Land to chear, And to fulfill the promise of the year. Betwixt two Seasons comes th' Auspicious Heir, This Age to blossom, and the next to bear. •Last solemn Sabbath saw the Church attend; The Paraclete in fiery Pomp descend; But when his Wondrous b Octave rowl'd again, He brought a Royal Infant in his Train. So great a Blessing to so good a King None but th' Eternal Comforter cou'd bring. a Whit-Sunday. [All notes to this poem marked by reference letters are Dryden's.] b Trinity-Sunday. 4 Pray.] Q1-2; ~ : F.

Britannia

Rediviva

211

Or did the Mighty Trinity conspire, As once, in Council to Create our Sire? It seems as if they sent the New-Born Guest T o wait on the Procession of their Feast; And on their Sacred Anniverse decree'd T o stamp their Image on the promis'd Seed. Three Realms united, and on One bestow'd, A n Emblem of their Mystick Union show'd: T h e Mighty Trine the Triple Empire shar'd, As every Person wou'd have One to guard. Hail Son of Pray'rs! by holy Violence Drawn down from Heav'n; but long be banish'd thence, And late to thy Paternal Skyes retire: T o mend our Crimes whole Ages wou'd require: T o change th' inveterate habit of our Sins, And finish what thy Godlike Sire begins. Kind Heav'n, to make us English-Men again, No less can give us than a Patriarchs Reign. The Sacred Cradle to your Charge receive Ye Seraphs, and by turns the Guard relieve; T h y Father's Angel and Thy Father joyn T o keep Possession, and secure the Line; But long defer the Honours of thy Fate, Great may they be like his, like his be late, That James this running Century may view, And give his Son an Auspice to the New. Our wants exact at least that moderate stay: For see the «Dragon winged on his way, T o watch the d Travail, and devour the Prey. c Alluding only to the Common-wealth Poem. d R e v . i s . v. 4. 48

late,] ~ . F, Q 1 - 2 .

Party, here and in other places of the

212

Poems

1685-1692

Or, if Allusions may not rise so high, Thus, when Alcides rais'd his Infant Cry, T h e Snakes besieg'd his Young Divinity: But vainly with their forked Tongues they threat; For Opposition makes a Heroe Great. T o needful Succour all the Good will run; A n d Jove assert the Godhead of his Son. O still repining at your present state, Grudging your selves the Benefits of Fate, Look up, and read in Characters of Light A Blessing sent you in your own Despight. T h e Manna falls, yet that Ccelestial Bread Like Jews you munch, and murmure while you feed. May not your Fortune be like theirs, Exil'd, Yet forty Years to wander in the Wild: Or if it be, may Moses live at least T o lead you to the Verge of promis'd Rest. T h o ' Poets are not Prophets, to foreknow What Plants will take the Blite, and what will grow, By tracing Heav'n his Footsteps may be found: Beholdl how awfully He walks the roundl God is abroad, and wondrous in his ways, T h e Rise of Empires, and their Fall surveys; More (might I say) than with an usual Eye, He sees his bleeding Church in Ruine lye, A n d hears the Souls of Saints beneath his Altar cry. Already has he lifted high, the «Sign Which Crown'd the Conquering Arms of Constantine: T h e f Moon grows pale at that presaging sight, A n d half her T r a i n of Stars have lost their Light. Behold another 'Sylvester, to bless T h e Sacred Standard and secure Success; e The Cross. 1 The Crescent, which the T u r k s bear for their Arms, t The Pope in the time of Constantine the Great, alluding to the present Pope.

Britannia

Rediviva

Large of his Treasures, of a Soul so great, As fills and crowds his Universal Seat. Now view at home a hsecond Constantine; (The former too, was of the Brittish Line) 90 Has not his healing Balm your Breaches clos'd, Whose Exile many sought, and few oppos'd? Or, did not Heav'n by its Eternal Doom Permit those Evils, that this Good might come? So manifest, that ev'n the Moon-ey'd Sects See Whom and What this Providence protects. Methinks, had we within our Minds no more Than that One Shipwrack on the Fatal 'Ore, That only thought may make us think again, What Wonders God reserves for such a Reign. 100 T o dream that Chance his Preservation wrought; Were to think Noah was preserv'd for nought; Or the Surviving Eight were not design'd T o people Earth, and to restore their Kind. When humbly on the Royal Babe we gaze, T h e Manly Lines of a Majestick face Give awful joy: 'Tis Paradise to look On the fair Frontispiece of Nature's Book; If the first opening Page so charms the sight, Think how th' unfolded Volume will delight! 110

See how the Venerable Infant lyes In early Pomp; how through the Mother's Eyes The Father's Soul, with an undaunted view Looks out, and takes our Homage as his due. See on his future Subjects how He smiles, Nor meanly flatters, nor with craft beguiles; But with an open face, as on his Throne, Assures our Birthrights, and assumes his own. h K. James the Second.

i The Lemmon Ore.

213

Poems

214

1685-1692

B o r n in broad Day-light, that th' ungrateful R o u t M a y find n o r o o m f o r a r e m a i n i n g d o u b t : 120 T r u t h , w h i c h i t s e l f is l i g h t , d o e s d a r k n e s s s h u n , A n d the true Eaglet safely dares the Sun. k

Fain wou'd the Fiends have made a dubious birth,

L o t h to confess the G o d h e a d cloath'd in Earth. B u t s i c k n e d a f t e r all t h e i r baffled lyes, T o find a n H e i r a p p a r e n t o f t h e S k y e s : A b a n d o n ' d to despair, still m a y they grudge, A n d owning not the Saviour, prove the Judge. Not Great

l

jEneas

stood in plainer Day,

W h e n , the d a r k m a n t l i n g M i s t dissolv'd away, 130 H e t o t h e

Tyrians

shew'd his sudden face,

S h i n i n g with all his Goddess M o t h e r ' s G r a c e : F o r S h e h e r self h a d m a d e his C o u n t ' n a n c e b r i g h t , B r e a t h ' d h o n o u r o n his eyes, a n d h e r o w n P u r p l e L i g h t . If our Victorious Gave

Wales a

m

Edward,

as t h e y say,

Prince on that Propitious Day,

W h y m a y n o t Y e a r s r e v o l v i n g w i t h his F a t e P r o d u c e his L i k e , b u t w i t h a l o n g e r Date? O n e w h o may carry to a distant shore T h e T e r r o u r that his F a m ' d Forefather bore. 140 B u t w h y s h o u ' d

James

o r his Y o u n g H e r o stay

F o r slight Presages o f a N a m e o r Day? W e need no

Edward's

F o r t u n e to adorn

T h a t happy m o m e n t w h e n o u r Prince was b o r n : O u r P r i n c e adorns his Day, a n d Ages h e n c e Shall wish his Birth-day for some f u t u r e P r i n c e . n

Great

Michael,

P r i n c e of all th' ^Etherial Hosts,

A n d what e're In-born Saints our

Britain

k Alluding to the Temptations in the Wilderness. m Edw. the black Prince, Born on Trinity-Sunday. >» The Motto of the Poem explain'd. Note I

iEneid] Mneid F, Q1-2.

boasts; 1

V i r g . jEneid. 1.

Britannia

Rediviva

And thou, th' "adopted Patron of our Isle, With chearful Aspects on this Infant smile: 150 T h e Pledge of Heav'n, which dropping from above, Secures our Bliss, and reconciles his Love. Enough of Ills our dire Rebellion wrought, When, to the Dregs, we drank the bitter draught; T h e n airy Atoms did in Plagues conspire, Nor did th' avenging Angel yet retire, But purg'd our still encreasing Crimes with Fire. T h e n perjur'd Plots, the still impending Test, And worse; but Charity conceals the Rest: Here stop the Current of the sanguine flood, X60 Require not, Gracious God, thy Martyrs Blood; But let their dying pangs, their living toyl, Spread a Rich Harvest through their Native Soil: A Harvest ripening for another Reign, Of which this Royal Babe may reap the Grain. Enough of Early Saints one W o m b has giv'n; Enough encreas'd the Family of Heav'n: Let them for his, and our Attonement go; And Reigning blest above, leave him to Rule below. Enough already has the Year foreslow'd 170 His wonted Course, the Seas have overflow'd, T h e Meads were floated with a weeping Spring, And frighten'd birds in Woods forgot to sing; T h e Strong-limb'd Steed beneath his harness faints, And the same shiv'ring sweat his Lord attaints. W h e n will the Minister of Wrath give o're? Behold him; at vAraunah's threshing-floor. H e stops, and seems to sheath his flaming brand; Pleas'd with burnt Incense, from our David's hand. 0 St. George. pAlluding to the passage in the 1. Book of Kings, Ch. 24. v. 20th. Note p

Kings . . . ioifc] Kings . . . 20th F, Q1-2 (20 Qi).

215

2l6

Poems

1685-1692

David has bought the Jebusites abode, 180 And rais'd an Altar to the Living God. Heav'n, to reward him, make his Joys sincere;" No future ills, nor Accidents appear T o sully and pollute the Sacred Infant's Year. Five Months to Discord and Debate were giv'n: He sanctifies the yet remaining Sev'n. Sabbath of Monthsl henceforth in Him be blest, And prelude to the Realms perpetual RestI Let his Baptismal Drops for us attone; Lustrations for «Offences not his own. 190 Let Conscience, which is Int'rest ill disguis'd, In the same Font be cleans'd, and all the Land Baptiz'd. r Un-nam'd

as yet; at least unknown to Fame: Is there a strife in Heav'n about his Name? Where every Famous Predecessour vies, And makes a Faction for it in the Skies? Or must it be reserv'd to thought alone? Such was the Sacred 8Tetragrammaton. Things worthy silence must not be reveal'd: Thus the true Name of *Rome was kept conceal'd, 200 T o shun the Spells, and Sorceries of those Who durst her Infant Majesty oppose. But when his tender strength in time shall rise T o dare ill Tongues, and fascinating Eyes; This Isle, which hides the little Thund'rer's Fame, Shall be too narrow to contain his Name: T h ' Artillery of Heav'n shall make him known; 11Crete cou'd not hold the God, when Jove was grown. q Original Sin. r The Prince Christen'd, but not nam'd. s Jehovah, or the name of God unlawful to be pronounc'd by the Jews, t Some Authors say, That the true name of Rome was kept a secret; ne hostes incantamentis Deos elicerent. n Candie where Jupiter was born and bred secretly.

Britannia As

Joves

Rediviva

^ I n c r e a s e , w h o f r o m h i s B r a i n was b o r n ,

W h o m A r m s a n d Arts did equally adorn, 210 F r e e o f t h e B r e a s t was b r e d , whose m i l k y taste

Minerva's

N a m e to

Venus

had debas'd;

S o this I m p e r i a l B a b e rejects the F o o d T h a t mixes Monarchs with Plebeian blood: F o o d that his i n b o r n C o u r a g e m i g h t controul, E x t i n g u i s h a l l t h e F a t h e r i n his S o u l , A n d , for his

Estian

Race, and

Saxon

Strain,

M i g h t r e - p r o d u c e s o m e s e c o n d Richard's

Reign.

M i l d n e s s h e shares f r o m b o t h his P a r e n t s b l o o d , B u t Kings too t a m e are despicably good: 220 B e t h i s t h e M i x t u r e o f t h i s R e g a l C h i l d , B y Nature Manly, but by Virtue Mild. T h u s far the F u r i o u s T r a n s p o r t of the News, H a d t o P r o p h e t i c k M a d n e s s fir'd t h e M u s e ; Madness ungovernable, uninspir'd, Swift to foretel whatever she desir'd; W a s it for m e the dark Abyss to tread, A n d read the B o o k which Angels cannot read? H o w was I p u n i s h ' d w h e n t h e ' s u d d e n blast, T h e Face of Heav'n, a n d o u r young Sun o'recast! 230 F a m e , t h e swift 111, e n c r e a s i n g as she r o w l ' d , D i s e a s e , D e s p a i r , a n d D e a t h , a t t h r e e reprises t o l d : A t t h r e e i n s u l t i n g strides s h e s t a l k ' d t h e T o w n , A n d , like Contagion, struck the Loyal down. D o w n fell the w i n n o w ' d W h e a t ; b u t m o u n t e d high, T h e W h i r l - w i n d b o r e the Chaff, and hid the Sky. H e r e black Rebellion shooting from below (As Earth's "Gigantick b r o o d b y m o m e n t s grow) A n d h e r e the Sons of G o d are petrify'd with W o e : An

Appoplex

of G r i e f ! so l o w w e r e d r i v ' n

240 T h e S a i n t s , as h a r d l y t o d e f e n d t h e i r H e a v ' n . * Pallas, or Minerva; said by the Poets, to have been bred up by Hand. y The sudden false Report of the Prince's Death. z Those Gyants are feign'd to have grown 15 Ells every day. 213

Plebeian] Plebeian F, Qi-a.

217

218

Poems

1685-1692

As, when pent Vapours run their hollow round, Earth-quakes, which are Convulsions of the ground, Break bellowing forth, and no Confinement brook, Till the Third settles, what the Former shook; Such heavings had our Souls; till slow and late, Our life with his return'd, and Faith prevail'd on Fate. By Prayers the mighty Blessing was implor'd, T o Pray'rs was granted, and by Pray'rs restor'd. So e're the tShunamite a Son conceiv'd, 250 The Prophet promis'd, and the Wife believ'd, A Son was sent, the Son so much desir'd, But soon upon the Mother's Knees expir'd. T h e troubled Seer approach'd the mournful Door, Ran, pray'd, and sent his Past'ral-Staff before, Then stretch'd his Limbs upon the Child, and mourn'd, Till Warmth, and breath, and a new Soul return'd. Thus Mercy stretches out her hand, and saves Desponding Peter sinking in the Waves. As when a sudden Storm of Hail and Rain 260 Beats to the ground the yet unbearded Grain, Think not the hopes of Harvest are destroy'd On the flat Field, and on the naked void; The light, unloaded stem, from tempest free'd, Will raise the youthful honours of his head; And, soon restor'd by native vigour, bear The timely product of the bounteous Year. Nor yet conclude all fiery Trials past, For Heav'n will exercise us to the last; Sometimes will check us in our full carreer, 270 With doubtful blessings, and with mingled fear; That, still depending on his daily Grace, «In the second Book of Kings, Chap. 4th. 248 restor'd.] Qi-s;

, F.

Britannia

Rediviva

His every mercy for an alms may pass; With sparing hands will Dyet us to good; Preventing Surfeits of our pamper'd blood. So feeds the Mother-bird her craving young, With little Morsels, and delays 'em long. True, this last blessing was a Royal Feast, But, where's the Wedding Garment on the Guest? Our Manners, as Religion were a Dream, 280 Are such as teach the Nations to Blaspheme. In Lusts we wallow, and with Pride we swell, And Injuries, with Injuries repell; Prompt to Revenge, not daring to forgive, Our Lives unteach the Doctrine we believe; Thus Israel Sin'd, impenitently hard, And vainly thought the bpresent Ark their Guard; But when the haughty Philistims appear, They fled abandon'd, to their Foes, and fear; Their God was absent, though his Ark was there. 29o Ah! lest our Crimes shou'd snatch this Pledge away, And make our Joys the blessing of a day! For we have sin'd him hence, and that he lives, God to his promise, not our practice gives. Our Crimes wou'd soon weigh down the guilty Scale, But James, and Mary, and the Church prevail. Nor cAmaleck can rout the Chosen Bands, While Hur and Aaron hold up Moses hands. By living well, let us secure his days, Mod'rate in hopes, and humble in our ways. 300 No force the Free-born Spirit can constrain, But Charity, and great Examples gain. Forgiveness is our thanks, for such a day; 'Tis Godlike, God in his own Coyn to pay. b Sam. 4th. v. 10th. c E x o d . 17. v. 8th. 872

pass;] ^ . F, Q i - a .

219

220

Poems

1685-1692

But you, Propitious Queen, translated here, From your mild Heav'n, to rule our rugged Sphere, Beyond the Sunny walks, and circling Year: You, who your Native Clymate have bereft Of all the Virtues, and the Vices left; Whom Piety, and Beauty make their boast, 810 Though Beautiful is well in Pious lost; So lost, as Star-light is dissolv'd away, And melts into the brightness of the day; Or Gold about the Regal Diadem, Lost to improve the lustre of the Gem: What can we add to your Triumphant Day? Let the Great Gift the beauteous Giver pay. For shou'd our thanks awake the rising Sun, And lengthen, as his latest shaddows run, That, tho' the longest day, wou'd soon, too soon be done. 320 Let Angels voices, with their harps conspire, But keep th' auspicious Infant from the Quire; Late let him sing above, and let us know No sweeter Musick, than his Cryes below. Nor can I wish to you, Great Monarch, more Than such an annual Income to your store; The Day, which gave this Unit, did not shine For a less Omen, than to fill the Trine. After a Prince, an Admiral beget, The Royal Sov'raign wants an Anchor yet. 33o Our Isle has younger Titles still in store, And when th' exhausted Land can yield no more, Your Line can force them from a Foreign shore. The Name of Great, your Martial mind will sute, But Justice, is your Darling Attribute: 306 319 329

Year:] ^ . F, Q 1 - 2 . 314 Gem:] ^ . F, Q1-2. done.] Q i - a ; F. 324 Monarch,] Q1-2. Royal Sov'raign] Royal Sov'raign F, Q 1 - 2 .

Britannia

Rediviva

Of all the Greeks, 'twas but done Hero's due, And, in him, Plutarch Prophecy'd of you. A Prince's favours but on few can fall, But Justice is a Virtue shar'd by all. Some Kings the name of Conq'rours have assum'd, 340 Some to be Great, some to be Gods presum'd; But boundless pow'r, and arbitrary Lust Made Tyrants still abhor the Name of Just; They shun'd the praise this Godlike Virtue gives, And fear'd a Title, that reproach'd their Lives. The Pow'r from which all Kings derive their state, Whom they pretend, at least, to imitate, Is equal both to punish and reward; For few wou'd love their God, unless they fear'd. Resistless Force and Immortality 350 Make but a Lame, Imperfect Deity: Tempests have force unbounded to destroy, And Deathless Being ev'n the Damn'd enjoy, And yet Heav'ns Attributes, both last and first, One without life, and one with life accurst; But Justice is Heav'ns self, so strictly He, That cou'd it fail, the God-head cou'd not be. This Virtue is your own; but Life and State Are One to Fortune subject, One to Fate: Equal to all, you justly frown or smile, 360 Nor Hopes, nor Fears your steady Hand beguile; Your self our Ballance hold, the Worlds, our Isle. 3°-37704 th' imperial Cedar. See II Samuel, VH, 2, and I I Kings, xiv, 9, glossed as emblems of royalty. 710-727 T h e Hind harries the Panther on the score of her hypocrisy, appealing first to her sense of justice—notably a matter of property; next comparing her unfavorably with Judas (Matthew, xxvn, 3-5), who would not hang in peace (1. 717) until he had satisfied his conscience; and finally accusing her of passive complicity in the Popish Plot. Each instance is carefully chosen: the first implies an Anglican materialism; the second, betrayal. T h e third refers to the historical context of the Test Act of 1678, passed under Shaftesbury's urging at the height of the Popish Plot. 710-714 T h e issue posed to the Panther re-creates that facing Charles II, whose brother James had nearly been excluded from his right to the throne by Shaftesbury and the Whigs. In the panic of the Popish Plot Charles had been forced to give assent to the Test Acts of 1678 and 1679 and but barely escaped being faced with an exclusion bill. 714 to heir. Williams compares Aeneis, VII, 79: "One only daughter heir'd the royal state." 719 Oates and Bedlow. Titus Oates and William Bedloe, venal informers in the Popish Plot. As Kinsley notes, Bedloe had been in the household of the moderate Catholic Lord Bellasis; after meeting Oates in 1677, he gave evidence with him against alleged plotters. 7 2 1 - 7 2 7 Scott notes the allusion in 11. 7 2 6 - 7 2 7 to Duessa (Faerie Queene, I, viii, 46). The dire Magicians (1. 721) therefore appear to suggest Archimago's sleights in Spenser; but the phrase also recalls the Magi of II, 538-547729 Our Peers. See 11. 1073-108in. 730-733 T h e sense is that although, ironically, Catholics suffered no worse than Anglicans under the Commonwealth, now that a Catholic sovereign reigns, the Anglican bishops have places in the House of Lords but the seats of the Catholic peers (who could not pass the Test but who are most loyal to the King) are empty. 733 David's bench. A play on L. cathedra, meaning the seats of those n

434

Commentary

who worship as does the Catholic king, whether the Charles I I of Absalom or James II. Cf. II, 20911. 735—741 T h e imagery of the touchstone suggests plays u p o n mettle a n d " m e t a l " (Noyes: " t h e two words, etymologically the same, were n o t in Dryden's time separated by spelling") a n d Test. Dryden could have f o u n d the symbolism of gold for purity a n d t r u e faith in Chaucer's character of the Parson (Canterbury Tales, A 500). I n The Character of a Good Parson (11. 81-86) in Fables, Dryden changes Chaucer's contrast of gold a n d iron to the contrast given here of gold a n d brass. 738-741 T h e Atheists could freely deny transubstantiation a n d therefore sit in Parliament (Noyes). T h e sectarian brass could be passed by the T e s t Act of 1687, which accommodated Dissenters. For similar usage of the brass image, see Absalom, 11. 633-634. T h e experiment is that of testing with the touchstone, b u t the T e s t Acts m a k e Catholic gold alone seem false. 742 places. T h e T e s t Acts excluded Catholics f r o m Lords, Commons, and all offices, civil or military. 745 Writ of ease. "A certificate of discharge f r o m office" ( O E D ) . I t is possible that in referring to a Writ Dryden also refers to the writ de haeretico comburendo, abolished in 1677, since pro-Catholic pamphlets refer to it in connection with the T e s t Acts (see James Stewarts Answer . . . Concerning Repeat of the Penal Laws and Tests [1686]). If so, the irony implies that a writ of heresy is being served by heretic Protestants u p o n Catholics. 746-749 As Williams notes, Wrong conscience refers to the Dissenters, a n d no conscience to the Atheists (1. 739). 749 to sterve. T o die (cf. German, sterben, OED), with a play o n "starve," the words having very similar pronunciations in the seventeenth century. 750-755 T h e H i n d ' s attribution of words to the P a n t h e r continues through Our doors are open. T h e P a n t h e r is represented as saying that Catholics are n o t banished b u t that they leave of their own will, forsake the place. T h a t is, forsake office (1. 746), so relating to 11. 743-749; a n d forsake England, whence Catholics, Dryden's sons for example, left when u n a b l e to obtain office. "Place" also embodies the image of a chamber in the allusion to T o b i t , vi-viii, in which T o b i a s exorcises the demon who h a d killed the seven m e n earlier betrothed to Sara, a n d wins her, w h e n " h e took the ashes of the perfumes, a n d p u t the heart a n d the liver of a fish t h e r e u p o n , a n d m a d e a smoke therewith. T h e which smell, when the evil spirit h a d smelled, h e fled i n t o the utmost parts of Egypt" (vin, 2-3). T h e element of demonic rivalry for Sara appears to come f r o m Paradise Lost, IV, 1 6 6 - 1 7 1 , compared by Williams. 753 censing. Williams compares Aeneis, V I I I , 377-378: "cense his altars r o u n d / W i t h Saban smoke." 756-765 T h e P a n t h e r is represented as o n e with a p r u d e n t insight i n t o her own interests, p r e p a r i n g for the H i n d ' s rejoinder to her plea of conscience in the following lines. 759 the But and peace. Peace a n d its benefits, symbolic a n d real (Kinsley). Christie ( D r y d e n : Select Poems, 5th ed., rev. C. H . Firth [1926]) com-

Notes to Pp.

183-184

435

pares the prologue to The Mistakes, 1. 35: " 'Peace and the butt' is all our business here." Williams compares scenes in the Dryden-Davenant Tempest where (III, iii) Mustacho and others offer peace to Trinculo on condition that "the butt [of wine] may be comprehended in the treaty"; and later (IV, iii) when Trinculo asks, "Peace or War?" and Mustacho replies, "Peace, and the butt." 760 the Plaintiff's cause. T h e Hind's. Even the Panther is made to think she is herself the defendant. 761 she su'd in formd Pauperis. The reference is to the Hind. Williams glosses the Latin from Bailey's Dictionary: "when any person has cause of suit, and is so poor that he cannot dispend the usual charges of suing at law or equity." 765 yawning. Williams cites Bailey's Dictionary: "indicating an irksome weariness." 766-785 T h e passage is built upon allusions to Aeneid, VII; see Aeneis, VII, 290 ff. th' Italian King. Evander, who ruled Latium By long possession before the Trojan strangers came, seeking terms to unite their nations in the marriage of Latinus' daughter Lavinia to Aeneas, who brought his household gods, or Poppits. your Sacrificer. James II. There are several allusive echoes: an ancient Pedigree, "The god began our line, who rules above; / And, as our race, our king descends from Jove (Aeneis, VII, 288299); fates decree, "Fate and the gods . . . Have doom'd our ships" (VII, 327-328); exil'd gods, "our banish'd gods" (VII, 316). As commonly in such aspersions by the Panther, the allusion gives credit to the Hind and Catholicism: Aeneas and Trojan civilization are superior to Latinus and Latium; Catholicism does indeed have the more ancient Pedigree and has suffered long but is destined to triumph, etc. T h e Virgilian allusions serve to unify the passage, and it should be added that intermittent political and legal language growing from discussion of the Test Acts unifies the yet larger section, 11. 675-898. 780 houshold Poppits. "Poppits" is "Contemptuously applied to an image used in worship; hence . . . an idol" (OED, citing this passage). The Panther implies the usual allegation of Catholic idolatry in adoration of images by referring to the Roman penates suggested by the Virgilian allusion. 781 laws have been preferr'd. Williams quotes Bailey's Dictionary: "To Prefer, to bring in, in speaking of a Bill, Indictment, or Law." 785 I owe him much, but owe my conscience more. T h e line fairly states the disagreement between Anglican divines and James. Many divines found themselves in a genuine dilemma between their Anglicanism and their traditional loyalty to the throne. On the other side, James, and Dryden it seems, thought that the preferment of conscience to loyalty was a pretext justifying disloyalty, as the Hind's rejoinder shows. 788 the Camelion. For the application in sacred typology, cf. Franzius (History, p. 234): " T h e Chamelion alwaies goeth with his mouth open . . . thus, these Sycophants and Dissemblers covet not so much as the breath of people; who, although they have not the least spark of Religion, yet would seem to have the most"; and (p. 236) "as the Chamelion, so these men can

456

Commentary

imitate the black a n d evil customs of men, b u t take n o example by good m e n , n o t being able to imitate the white a n d the red, i.e., true Vertue a n d Piety." 790-815 T h i s difficult passage was possibly written after the appearance of the Declaration of Indulgence (but see 11. 8 n - 8 i 4 n ) . Instead, however, of appealing in u n w o n t e d fashion to the Dissenters, Dryden rather deprecates as a violation of principle the Anglican attempts to gain a n Alliance (1. 812) with the Sects. T h e appeal to the Anglicans is sorrowful a n d almost bitter as it rehearses the history of relations between the Established Church a n d James, the chief subject of the whole section between the fable of the Swallows a n d that of the Pigeons. T h e r e was a widespread awareness that the political a n d religious struggle h a d become three-sided; a n d even the most moderate Anglicans, Catholics, a n d Dissenters attempted to o b t a i n the support of n o w one, n o w another, of the other two parties. Dryden's version of the m a n e u v e r i n g of the Anglicans stresses the early accommodation between them a n d J a m e s (11. 790-795), even in spite of attempts by Dissenters to enter into a compact (11. 796-798); the leniency of James a n d the Anglican Establishment's disdain for what it unwisely concluded f r o m such mildness to be weakness (11. 799-808); a n d the Anglican resolve then to let "conscience"—or interest—lead into a n u n n a t u r a l alliance with Dissenters (11. 809-815). T h e noteworthy aspect of the account is Dryden's attitude toward Dissenters; since he expected less of t h e m by way of agreem e n t with James, he was at once more realistic a n d less cynical about reaching a n agreement t h a n were James a n d the rasher Catholics. 790-791 R e f e r r i n g to the well-known accommodation of James a n d the Anglican church a f t e r his speech in Privy Council promising to u p h o l d the rights of the Establishment. B u r n e t wrote of the Anglicans at this period that "Faith in Jesus Christ was not a more f r e q u e n t Subject of Sermons of many, t h a n Loyalty" (Six Papers, p. 31). 792-795 Since you professed loyalty, James might have asked you to abrogate the penal laws a n d the T e s t ; b u t h e f o u n d out your true n a t u r e a n d gave u p the a t t e m p t to set these aside, while you relied u p o n the weak support given by such punitive legislation. 796-798 I t is not clear what treasure the Dissenters offered James if he would espouse their part. T h e r e is evidence of the closeness of some Dissenters to James. Richard Baxter was o n e of the witnesses n a m e d against B u r n e t in his citation for treason (Six Papers, p. 56) a n d William P e n n the Quaker was so close to James that some thought him a crypto-Catholic when he w e n t o n his mission to W i l l i a m of Orange (Burnet, III, 132). Historians have neglected evidence of the Dissenters' closeness to James, b u t Dryden's suggestion of bribery seems an u n j u s t aspersion. 799-812 T h i s complicated sentence begins with a temporal clause, " B u t w h e n . . ." (11. 799-800); is i n t e r r u p t e d by a parenthetical clause, "A goodness that . . ." (11. 801-804); resumes with a n extension of the initial temporal clause, "Forgetting whence . . ." (11. 805-808); a n d concludes with the result, " T h e n conscience . . ." (11. 809-812). T h e treatment of James's mildness is, as Williams points out, closely parallel to, a n d probably m e a n t to recall, the picture of Charles I I in Absalom (11. 3 1 7 B.,

Notes

to Pp.

184-185

437

939 ff.). Similarly, the passage is a kind of fulfillment of the trust that poem reposed in James (11. 359-360). It also foreshadows the portrait of James as the "Plain good Man" of the Hind's fable of the Pigeons. 803-808 The annual flooding of the Nile was a favorite image of Dryden's. See, e.g., the opening lines of All for Love and his Georgics, IV, 407 ff. The parallel between James and the David of Absalom is especially close here, as also the lesson or warning that the mildest kings need at times to take strong measures. Indeed it almost seems as if Dryden is speaking of politics under Charles II. See 11. 8 n - 8 i 4 n . 809-810 What the Anglicans choose to call conscience now leads them, as the "conscience" of 1. 791 had not, to disobey. 811-814 The indulgence has been taken by most of Dryden's editors to refer to James's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, or of Indulgence (see T o the Reader, notes). If so, these lines were written later. It is at least as likely, however, that indulgence refers to the natural mildness of a pious king, stressed repeatedly in Dryden's writing. This seems the more likely because th' associating name recalls Shaftesbury's project for an association during the Popish Plot, and because the declaration, far from making a wise Alliance between Anglicans and Dissenters, for the first few months drew them apart as they had not been earlier. As the OED shows, s.v. Associator, the term has implications of dissent and treason. Kinsley compares The Medall, "Epistle to the Whigs" (1682), sig. A2V-A3; S-S, IX, 424. 815 a bashfull Dame. The graphic emblem of conscience in handbooks like Cesare Ripa's Iconologie, I, 42, is that of a woman with head averted and lowered, contemplating a heart. Cf. 1. 859. 816 Cf. 1. 669. 818 O Proteus Conscience, never to be ty'd. Two traditional symbols of changeableness are Proteus, with whom the Hind ends her speech on conscience, and the chameleon, with which she begins it. The two were often associated (e.g., Franzius, History, p. 235). Dryden needed no classical source to acquaint him with the legend, but Georgics, IV (see Dryden, Georgics, IV, 557 ff.), contains a famous description of Proteus following, as in this passage, an account of the overflow of the Nile. 819 What Phoebus from the Tripod shall disclose. Cf. Aeneis, III, 461462: "Whom Phoebus taught unerring Prophecy, / From his own Tripod." One of the numerous allusions in the poem to Aeneid, III, this refers to the efforts of Aeneas in consultation with Helenus to find out, as in this passage, who is friend and who foe (1. 820); and it is closely related to the poem's first epigram, taken from Aeneid, III, 96. 821-824 The seeming Gordian knot is the dilemma whether Anglicans should side with the throne out of principle or with antiroyalist Sects out of interest; Homer knew that the decision would be for the latter disguised by the former. Noyes refers to I lias, I, 554-556, and Ceyx and Alcyone, 11. 335-336, for resemblances in phrasing and to some extent in idea; and Kinsley compares for idea Britannia Rediviva, 11. 190-191. Cf. also Butler, Hudibras, II, ii, 482: " 'Tis interest still resolves the doubt." 825-846 The Panther replies that the Test is a means of self-protection,

43«

Commentary

developing the H i n d ' s image of the Nile in flood to a danger of i n u n d a t i o n by Catholicism. Scott reports that her arguments a n d her simile of inundation are literally versified f r o m a tract, Some Reflections on a Discourse entitled "Good Advice to the Church of England" (State Tracts, II, 363), f r o m which he quotes. T h e tract was, however, "Licensed J u n e the 30th 1687," after Dryden's p o e m h a d appeared. Any borrowing must have been f r o m Dryden a n d indeed, as Jones shows (Catalogue, ch. iii), controversy over the T e s t in the reign of J a m e s follows Dryden. 829-830 T h e distinction is that between the effect u p o n individual Catholics of the p e n a l laws a n d the generic exclusion of Catholics by the Test. 834 the Pastors and their flocks. Anglican clergy a n d parishioners. 836 T h e P a n t h e r is m a d e to give away her case by confessing the penal laws unjust. T h e plea of hard necessity is the traditional one of the villain a n d Machiavel in state matters: cf. Paradise Lost, IV, 393-394, where Satan " W i t h necessity, / T h e T y r a n t ' s plea, excus'd his devlish deeds." 838 authentick. I t is not clear whether the P a n t h e r means "Legally valid, having legal force," or "Entitled to acceptance o r belief, as being in accordance with fact, or as stating fact; reliable, trustworthy, of established credit. ( T h e prevailing sense; often used in contradistinction to genuine, esp. by writers o n Christian Evidences, while others identify 'authentic' a n d 'genuine')" (OED). Dryden may be playing o n the two, having the P a n t h e r m e a n the former while himself ironically suggesting the latter. 839 Possess your soul with patience, and attend. Williams compares Luke, xxi, 9, a n d glosses attend: wait. 840 A more auspicious Planet. Williams' gloss as " t h e accession of the Prince of O r a n g e " is very likely correct. Cf. the "bloudy Comet-laws" of 1. 381 a n d see 11. 847-859^ 847-859 T h e H i n d rejects the b a d bargain proposed by the Panther, especially the postponement of freedom f r o m penal laws to another reign, when u n d e r a Protestant prince it would hardly be likely that she could obtain what could not be gained u n d e r James. 856 that happier Planet. See 1. 840. 859 she's a Bawd to gain. T h e Panther's, as opposed to true, conscience, as pictured in 1. 815. 860-865 T h e H i n d develops the Panther's m e t a p h o r of i n u n d a t i o n (11. 831-834), itself adapted f r o m her own of the Nile in flood (11. 803-805). T h e imagery also recalls the Martyn's " b o d i n g dream, / Of rising waters" etc. (11. 480-494). As Scott points out, the H i n d ' s words convey "a perilous insinuation, which perhaps it would, at the time, have been p r u d e n t to suppress"; that is, that if incursions by the Catholic sea u p o n the Anglican l a n d are to be spoken of, t h e n the land should r e t u r n to the sea what it took at the time of the English Reformation, leaving the Anglicans with almost nothing. Dryden's own viewpoint, colored so highly by patriotism, seems unlikely to have followed the H i n d ' s suggestion, especially since he h a d already stressed that the Benedictines h a d renounced title to the abbey lands (II, 646-648). T h e image of the sea for the Catholic church is developed at some length in II, 548-567.

Notes

to Pp.

185-18j

439

862 Reprise. " T o take back again" ( O E D ) . 865 Your Ground is, like your Neighbour-Nation, low. T h e neighbor is H o l l a n d , whither the Anglicans more and more looked for assistance against James. Ground plays u p o n "basis of reasoning" a n d D u t c h topography. low. Cf. Annus, 11. 1-8. 870-873 T h e passage is one of several in the poem against tyranny— i.e., religious persecution. T h e noblest is I, 235-290. I n 11. 680-684 Dryden refers to a Catholic Tyranny in France. T h e prayer in 11. 872-873 with its conceit of the plague reveals a fear that James may yet introduce a persecution that Dryden's patriotism leads him to regard as un-English. Contemporary tracts, however, regarded Anglican bishops a n d clergy as the "tyrants": e.g., H e n r y Care, Draconia (1687) a n d the pathetic remonstrances of the Quakers. 873 dispeopled Continent. Cf. 11. 680-681 (Williams). 874-883 T h e H i n d ' s fear of James's taking extreme measures against English Protestants is quelled by the evidence of his treatment of the H u g u e n o t s who fled to England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in late 1685. Probably f r o m both genuine concern a n d policy, J a m e s proclaimed that f u n d s would be collected for their assistance. T h e Declaration for Liberty of Conscience twice touches u p o n such matters, once h o p i n g for the "encouragement of Strangers," a n d again noting that constraint of conscience destroys nations by "Spoiling Trade, D e p o p u l a t i n g Countries, a n d Discouraging Strangers." T h e last two are treated in this a n d the preceding passage, b u t the events described in these a n d the following passages are those of early 1686. 879-883 T h e Act (1. 880) is James's use from about May 1686 of the dispensing power to overcome the disabling effect u p o n Catholics of the T e s t Acts. By means of this power, of which, as Macaulay says (ch. vi), " t h e limits h a d never been defined with strict accuracy," James " p u r p o s e d to admit R o m a n Catholics, n o t merely to civil a n d military, b u t to spiritual, office." T h e H i n d ' s assurances of the limits of James's desires were p e r h a p s more necessary t h a n true. 889 before the Peoples choice. T a k i n g precedence over the people's choice. 893 her hour of Grace was past. Dryden has given u p hopes for reconciliation between Anglicans a n d James. T h e events alluded to in the preceding passages suggest that he percipiently dated the crisis f r o m mid1686, when James's actions took o n a dubious constitutionality. M o r e is implied by the phrase, however. T h e hour of Grace recalls the hour of talk (I, 558) which is represented by the debate in P a r t II, e n d i n g with its offer of reconciliation. Further, the phrase a n d passage suggest an allusion to Paradise Lost, III, 198-202, where God the F a t h e r speaks of H i s efforts to save m a n by i m p l a n t i n g conscience in him: T h i s my long sufferance a n d my day of grace T h e y who neglect a n d scorn, shall never taste; But h a r d be h a r d ' n ' d , blind be blinded more, T h a t they may stumble on, and deeper fall; A n d n o n e b u t such f r o m mercy I exclude.

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905 homely stile. As Williams recognizes, the phrase is consonant with the description in the epistle to the reader (122:19-20) of the style of Part III, "which has more of the Nature of Domestick Conversation" and which therefore "is, or ought to be more free and familiar than the two former [parts]." Dryden seems to have found the distinction easier to draw than to follow. T h e notion is also that of the low style decorous to the beast fable, as Spenser and Dryden recognized: cf. 1. 8, "mother Hubbard in her homely dress." 906-1288 T h e Hind's fable of the Pigeons parallels the Panther's of the Swallows in many respects, general and particular. Most important, it gives an alternative prophecy of the future of religion in England, one that Dryden could only have found more hopeful than likely. T h e fable of the Pigeons and the Buzzard is shaped, like that of the Swallows, from Aesopian and other materials. T h e story "Of the Doves [or Pigeons] and Hawks" (Ogilby, Fables, Part I, Fab. XX) is adapted along the lines of Chaucer's "Nun's Priest's Tale." T h e use of the Aesopian fable implies the possibility of a worse conclusion: the devouring of the Pigeons (Anglicans) by the Buzzard (Burnet and William of Orange) called in to save them. In the Hind's fable, Dryden transforms Chaucer's good poor widow into a Plain good Man, that is, James II, and gives him a godlike power (resembling that o£ David at the end of Absalom) to forestall disaster by fiat (11. 1228 ff.). T h e "moral" of this fable, as of Chaucer's, concerns treason and flattery; cf. Dryden's Cock and the Fox, 11. 810-811, "In this plain Fable you th' effect may see / Of Negligence and fond Credulity" on the part of Chanticleer (i.e., Dryden's Pigeons); and ibid., 11. 812-813, "And learn besides of Flatt'rers to beware, / T h e n most pernicious when they speak too fair," Chaucer's Fox being an anticipation of the Buzzard. For other resemblances to Chaucer, see the notes to 11. 1021-1033, 1024, and 1286-1288. As in the Panther's fable, so in the Hind's Dryden draws upon sacred zoography. By referring to the Anglican church as the Pigeon rather than the Dove, he denies that it is the true Church (mea columba). He speaks therefore ironically of A sort of Doves upon their first mention (1. 946) and of this pretended Dove near the end of the fable (1. 1256); the true Dove is of course the Catholic church. But partly to avoid confusion between Pigeons and Doves, Dryden chooses a third fowl to represent his Church: as the "sons" of the Hind and the Swallows had done before, the poor Domestick Poultry (1. 995) now represent Catholic believers, the Church being the true Dove unincluded in the fable. T h e true Dove is known as a type of amorousness, chastity, and gentleness; the Pigeon becomes a type of lasciviousness, materialism, and pride. In this there is a connection between the Aesopian fable and the lore of sacred zoography. As Franzius says (Historia, p. 465): Sed sicut columba non potest capi ab accipitre, si modo retineat simplicem volatum, cito autem capitur si plaudat: Ita si Ecclesia conservat simplicitatem in doctrina, in vita & in moribus, tutissima est contra diabolum 8c omnes alios hostes, sed si vult plaudere & luxuriare, & tantum rixari, atque considere externis praesidiis, ibi saepenumero in ipsa sua gloria 8c in splendore perit (But just as the Dove cannot be captured by the Hawk, if only it keep its simple flight,

Notes

to P. 188

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b u t is quickly captured if it should flutter: so if the Church preserves simplicity in its doctrine, in life and morals, it is safest against the Devil a n d all other enemies; b u t if it wishes to flutter a n d r u n riot, a n d only engage in strife, a n d to settle in foreign garrisons, then o f t e n it perishes in its very glory a n d splendor). T h e distinction between the generic singular a n d the particular plural for Dove / Doves or Pigeon / Pigeons is the usual one between the Church a n d its adherents, like the distinction between the H i n d a n d her young. I t is possible that Dryden, who h a d a n interest in the heraldic emblems of Anglican bishops (see 1. i94n), may also be glancing at the blazon of Sancroft, then primate: a chevron, three crosses, a n d " t h r e e doves of the field" (Bedford, The Blazon of Episcopacy, p. 7). Individual birds usually represent, in the fable, the clergy rather than communicants; e.g., Chanticleer and Partlet represent Catholic priests a n d nuns. T h e typologies strongly, if implicitly, stress the inferiority of the Anglican clergy. 906-914 A Plain good Man etc. James II; with the three Lordships (1. 908) of England, Scotland, a n d Ireland, he liv'd . . . upon the best (1. 909), England, and was well known for his courage (11. 910-914). W i t h o u t going so far as the anonymous pamphlet The Revolter (1688), which abused Dryden disingenuously for his "ranting R a p t u r e s " u p o n Cromwell a n d for his b u t "feminine Encomiums . . . u p o n His present Majesty" (p. 23), it is possible to observe that the panegyric character of James is short, simple, a n d restrained. It was necessary to m a k e James seem simple a n d trustworthy; beyond that, Dryden never h a d the enthusiasm for him that he did for Charles. 9 1 5 - 9 1 6 James was b o r n in 1627; he acceded to the t h r o n e o n Charles's death in 1685. 9 1 7 - 9 2 0 Dryden presents the old conservative ideal of the responsibilities of a country lord (see L. C. Knights, Drama and Society in the Age of Jonson [1937]) which is here applied to the kingdom. H e himself h a d the r e p u t a t i o n of being an exceptional landlord (see W a r d , Life, p. 336). 919-920 overlook'd. Looked after, go on trust. Proceed with promises of payment. Dryden's pension was better paid u n d e r James t h a n u n d e r Charles, b u t it was hardly ready or full (see W a r d , Life, p. 220). 9 2 1 - 9 3 7 T h e portrait in this passage grows f r o m 1. 907, stressing the simple honesty of James. I t is an accurate character, stressing James's slowness of thought as well as his (too great) quickness of action (1. 921); his awkwardness at intrigue (1. 922); his famous honesty (11. 923-925); his tendency to rely u p o n misled a n d misleading advisers—False Friends, (his deadliest foes,) (11. 926-927); his Honesty, that is, honestas, h o n o r (1. 932); a n d his Plain dealing (1. 935). Even more than his defects, James's virtues were few, simple, a n d important. Kinsley well quotes Burnet's characterization written some three or f o u r years earlier than this p o e m : he has n o t the king's [Charles II's] wit n o r quickness, b u t that is m a d e u p by great application a n d industry. . . . H e has naturally a candour and a justice . . . a n d is a firm friend, b u t a heavy enemy. . . . H e u n d e r s t a n d s business better t h a n is generally believed, for though h e

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Commentary

is not a man of wit or fancy, yet he generally judges well when things are laid before him. . . . He is a prince of great courage and very serene in action, and naturally hates a coward. Dryden's panegyric is as usual clear-sighted. 926-927 T h e Hind agrees with the Panther in condemning James's rash Catholic advisers: they betray him, as the Buzzard will betray the Pigeons. It seems indicative of Dryden's sense of isolation that in no part of the fable does he develop a group of good lay Catholics comparable with the loyal few surrounding the King in Absalom. 933 so dead a weight. T h e great odds against Honesty (1. 932) prospering. 936 she could not bend. She is Fate (1. 934). 941 rais'd the Fabrick. James's chapel in Whitehall (cf. 11. 5 1 4 - 5 1 8 ^ is distinguished from The rest of his property, the secular part, which was satisfactory to him as he found it. T h e chapel was opened on Christmas Day, 1686, and survived only about two years, being dismantled at the Revolution. Like some other Protestants, Evelyn attended service there, was struck by the Italian music and, noted, as Kinsley points out, that he could not believe "I should ever have lived to see such things in the K. of Englands palace, after it had pleas'd God to enlighten this nation" (Diary, 5 January 1687). 946-951 T h e Doves, or Anglican clergy, are A sort of Doves both in being like the true Dove, yet not really being it, and in being a sort in the pejorative sense, as Williams notes, for a group, or a company, as in Shakespeare, Richard II, IV, i, 246, etc. 947 cross the Proverb, and abound with Gall. Although known to be false, the popular belief held that doves lack gall. Cf. Franzius, Historia, p. 461: columba . . . non habet fel ita copiosum, unde valde est mansueta, 8c timida, simplex, & pacifica (the Dove . . . does not have such copious gall, and hence it is very mild and timid, simple and pacific). T h e proverb (Tilley, D574) goes in such versions as Dekker's, " H e has no more gall in him than a dove." 948-949 T h e few Anglican priests professing passive obedience to the throne are contrasted with the supposedly increasing majority of those who do not. 950-951 Anglican degeneracy is presented in the subdued sexual terms that appear repeatedly in the poem to describe ethical inadequacy. T h e words hotly, Bill and breed, and Salt carry such suggestions although, as Williams notes, Salt probably also refers to the state endowments to the Established Church (salarium, originally "salt-money"). Cf. these jolly Birds (1. 99m). 953 bound by Promise. James's word to the Privy Council (after Charles's death) that he would preserve the civil and ecclesiastical government of England as established by law. Cf. Evelyn, Diary, 6 February 1685 (Noyes). See Clark (p. 116) for an account of James's Promise and an excellent description of his "tragedy." 954 As Corporations priviledgd by Laws. James respects the rights of

Notes to Pp.

188-190

443

the Church by Law Established, the Hind says, just as he does the municipal and private corporations with their charters. 955-959 The English church took over at the Reformation the ecclesiastical structures originally designed for the Catholic better Birds, the true Doves. 959 high Crops. Swelling of the gullets, where food is readied for digestion in birds, also suggesting the chesty appearance of pigeons and an air of pride. g6o Harpy's. Cf. Dryden's Aeneis, III, 276-347 (Noyes). 961 to be sure they never fail'd their Lord. A sarcasm, whether Lord be taken in the sense of the king temporal or divine. 965 Dan . . . Beersheba. That is, they exploited the country from one end to the other. Cf. I Samuel, 111, 20: "all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba" (Williams). 966-973 The rights of the established clergy (Levi's Kind, the priestly tribe) are not questioned in ecclesiastical matters, but their greed in such matters as Lay-preferment is reprehended. 970 quit their Claim. See II, 237n. 974-981 James's refusal to have anything to do with the gluttonously successful Pigeons is due to their inherent religious madness (Melancholy, 1. 977). On the unsuitability of pigeons as food, Kinsley quotes Burton (Anatomy of Melancholy, I, ii, 2, 1): "Though these be fair in feathers, pleasant in taste, and have a good out-side like Hypocrites, . . . their flesh is hard, black, unwholsome, dangerous, melancholy meat." 978-979 A contrast between James and Louis XIV as well as between James and the Anglicans is implied. 979 Ev'n tho' they were not Doves. Cf. 11. 946, 946-95 m, and 1256. 982-987 The metaphor opposes the true Catholic doctrine (Consecrated Grain) to the newly defined Protestant doctrine (Wheat . . . new from treading). James allows liberty of conscience, preferring for himself the truth (Flow'r, or flour) but leaving to those who choose it the poor Protestant substitute (Bran). Although the Host in the Eucharist is specifically meant, the passage has general application. 988-990 Although he certainly supports the Rites and Incense, Dryden perhaps questions James's open flouting of Protestant opinion by his ostentatious worship. 991-992 The two lines of transition express in little the faults of the Pigeons, although 11. 1021-1023 show that late medieval monks had their faults, too. 991 these jolly Birds. Wanton birds. See I, g8on, and the passage on Luther leading up to it. 992 their Salt Manure. In his Philosophical Discourse of Earth (1676, p. 101), Evelyn wrote: " 'Tis Salt, which . . . renders the dung of Pigeons . . . so eminently effectual" (cf. 1. 951). 995 P00r Domestick Poultry. T h e Roman clergy and nuns, whose vows of poverty are contrasted with Anglican avarice. Cf. Franzius on the cock or chicken (Historia, pp. 410-411): Id quod est imago piorum, qui sunt

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Commentary

tuti contra diabolum, quando secum habent sanctos angelos, vel alios pios comités, verbi ministros &c (That which is the image of the pious, because they are safe against the Devil, since they have with them the holy angels, or other pious companions, ministers of the Word, etc.). Dryden's choice is further appropriate, since the cock is (p. 412) optima imago regis (the best image of a king). 1005-1116 The humorously ironic passage praises the Roman clergy while voicing Anglican complaints about their diligence of worship. Cf. Franzius (Historia, pp. 406-407): A natura autem hoc est a Deo ipsi hoc est inditum, ut praesentiat adventantem diem, illiusque adventum praenunciet hominibus, & sic pigros excitet ex somno. . . . Ut enim gallus praenuntiat ortum solis, & evocat homines ad operas, ita minister verbi debet praenunciare adventum ultimi diei, & homines exsuscitare ad poenitentiam (By nature, that is by God, this was bestowed upon him, so that he has premonition of the coming day and announces in advance the arrival of the day and thus rouses the lazy from their sleep. . . . For as the cock foretells the rising of the sun and summons forth men to their tasks, so the minister of the Word ought to foretell the coming of the last day and stir men to penitence). 1006 The Bird that warn'd St. Peter of his Fall. As Kinsley notes, there is a nearly identical line in Spenser, Faerie Queene (V, vi, 27). But the typology of the cock as the priest is very ancient, entering Christianity through the "mystical" glosses on Matthew, xxvi, as a type of vigilance, as Franzius shows (Historia, p. 407) in words like Spenser's and Dryden's: sicut gallus Petrum monet de suo lapsu . . . ita minister tanquam gallus homines debet admonere de peccatis admissis (as the cock warned Peter of his fall . . . so just like the cock a minister ought to admonish men to admission of sins). 1007 miter'd. That is, episcopal, more particularly papal, belonging to the clergy of the successor to St. Peter. 1013-1033 Kinsley compares I, 361-375, which makes the same point about what some Catholic controversialists termed the "pretended Reformation." But this passage is far more ironic and comic, its wit residing in its representation of thoughts passing through the heads of Anglican Pigeons as they think, in dudgeon, Beast of a bird. 1019-1020 Dryden means that Protestants are given to celebrating Lent (at about the time the new year began in the old calendar) with the same revelry and loose living that marked year's end and the new year in the new calendar. It was common by the early part of the century to celebrate the new year according to the new style of reckoning. 1021-1033 The irony makes several points. Such feats as revelry—i.e., luxuriousness—had ruined the monasteries, internally by corruption, externally by the fact that such behavior led to the expulsion of the cloistered religious from England (11. 1021-1023). They fled for their Lands to countries where their orders originated, but also they were Expell'd . . . for their Lands, so that Henry VIII could take over their wealth. Similarly, nuns are ironically criticized for ascetic devotions, praying long hours on their knees instead of snugly in bed (1. 1025); and religion is best when

Notes

to Pp.

191-192

445

easiest (11. 1026-1029), when divested of ceremony and habit (in undress, 1. 1031), and when the cumbersome command to act righteously is set aside (1. 1033), Faith alone being requisite to some Protestant groups (as Kinsley notes, 11. 1032-1033 parody Article X I I of the Church of England). T h e debate over the sufficiency of good works (and of the comparative quality of the "works" of Catholics and Protestants) was one of the issues of contemporary controversy (see Catalogue, ch. xxxv: "Of the Discourses Written of Good Works"). But as in other passages (cf. I, 351-391; III, 949-951), there is a transfusion of such ideas with a subdued sexual imagery. Thus the luxurious monks had falls (1. 1021) from vows of chastity; so also, though with criticism directed at Protestants, the nuns were expelled because they would not pray a-bed (1. 1025); and the Catholics err in not putting Religion in undress to make Her pleas (1. 1031). T h e implications resemble Chaucer's mixed praise of Chanticleer's sexual powers in "The Nun's Priest's Tale," which Dryden—like some modern Chaucerian critics—appears to have treated as an intermittent allegory of the follies of a priest. Dryden's typological figures of crowing Chanticleers (1. 1022) and Sister Partlet (1. 1024) are, however, presented with a gay irony and an anticlericalism of his own. 1021-1022 T h e sexual lapses of the priests / Chanticleers are the more to be expected because the Cock is also a type of libidiousness (see Franzius, Historia, p. 405). 1024 Sister Partlet. The hen as nun is a Drydenian addition to typological lore and to literary use of Partlet (see OED). 1028 Foreign Forms of Pray'r. Although it also means ascetic observances alien to Anglican clergy, this phrase is Dryden's single (if ambiguous) allusion in the poem to the contemporary controversy "Of the Latin Service, or Prayer in an Unknown Tongue" (Catalogue, ch. xxiii). 1036 the common Cry. An image of a pack of hounds (see II, 23). 1040 frontless. "Unblushing, shameless" (OED). 1042-1057 T h e lurid Anglican depiction of Catholics is that of the socalled representing controversy (Catalogue, ch. v, citing twenty-three works). Cf. Gother, Papists Protesting Against Protestant Popery (1686, p. 11), repeating the familiar Protestant charge that Catholics "pray before Stocks and Stones, nay they put their trust in them." Gother says of such charges (ibid., p. 17): "I will not deny, but whosoever will look into the Church of Rome, as the Scavenger do's into the City, who stops no where but at a Dunghill, may rake together so much as to defame her with the Inconsiderate and Unwary." 1043 Looks. Apparently a technical term in painting: the general cast or appearances? 1045 /Egyptian Piece. In Absalom Egypt represents France and the Roman Catholics, who are in part pictured there much as the Pigeons represent them here. Dryden must have winced at the recollection. 1046 Garden-Gods. In Papists Protesting (p. 14), Gother cites as an accusation against Catholics, from "Mr. Sutcliffe in his Survey of Popery," the charge that the "second Council of Aries, cap. 23. sheweth it to be a custom of Pagans, to worship Trees or Stones, or Fountains, yet our En-

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Commentary

glish Papists cease not to go on Pilgrimage to St. Winifrides well, nor to worship Stocks and Stones." Dryden treats the pagan practice as an Egyptian one, conveying it in barking Deities, generalizing from Anubis, the god with a man's body and the head of a dog, to whom Virgil in Aeneid, VIII, gives the epithet lutrator, or barker. See also I, 192. Juvenal scoffs at such deities in the opening lines of Satire XV. 1047 Ptolomey. The Egyptian geographer, astronomer, and mathematician of the second century A.D. 1048-1051 The protests of Dryden and other Catholics against their misrepresentation (so perverse a Draught) testify to the Protestant success in making the propaganda caricature capture the popular imagination. It should be added that Dryden himself in this poem "represents" the Anglicans and the Dissenters. 1049 Libell. Satire. 1056 No Holland Emblem could that Malice mend. That is, not even the Dutch could make the picture more malicious. Dryden also alludes to that species of Dutch emblem which "mended" religious subjects with profane detail. Cf. James Granger, Letters, ed. J . P. Malcolm (1805), p. 208. Cf. also the prologue to Amboyna, 11. 26-27. As Scott notes, satirical Dutch prints of Charles II were one cause officially stated in the proclamation of war against Holland in 1672. 1059 so mild a kind. T h e Pigeons, who should resemble Doves. 1061 struck the foremost blow. A further ironic reflection upon the Anglicans, who professed loyalty in passive obedience (see 11. 131-134). 1063 this . . . Guest. James II. 1064 the Birds of Venus. Normally Doves, here Pigeons, in view of their luxuriousness. 1066 In f rest. T h e dominance of interest—materialism and luxury—in Anglican motivation, a principal subject of the debate between the Hind and the Panther which separates the two fables in this part. 1067-1084 Dryden recurs to discussion of the Test Acts and penal legislation against Catholics more generally, beginning with the Law (1. 1067) barring Roman clergy from England. See 11. 632-6380. 1072 Chanticleer the white, of Clergy kind. The reference appears to be to the priestly habit of the surpliced clergy and, by analogy with the reference to Partlet's habit (1. 1024), specifically the Roman clergy. There may be a recollection of Juvenal, Satire XIII, 1. 141, which alludes to the proverb, Gallinae albae filius; h. e. felix, fortunatus, nobilis, quia albae gallinae rariores sunt, et boni omnis (Son of a white hen, that is, happy, fortunate, noble, as white hens are quite rare and all good) (Lexicon Totius Latinitatis, s.v. gallina). 1073-1081 Peers were exempted from the Elizabethan Test Act (1563), which required an oath of allegiance and abjuration of the temporal authority of the pope; there were no such exceptions to the Test Act of 1673, which prescribed that all officeholders take the Eucharist in Anglican rites in which, as not in the Catholic sacrament, communicants participated in both species, bread and wine. T o the Catholic such an untransubstantiated sacrament is a species of poison, a poysonous wicked Weed (1. 1079),

Notes

to Pp.

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resembling the hemlock forced upon Socrates (1. 1080) and Henbane-Juice (1. 1081). T h e reference to such Juice appears to be a veiled (and in the poem unique) reference to the contemporary controversy over "Communion in One Kind" (Catalogue, ch. xxviii). 1076 a deadly Shibboleth. A test (here, the Test Acts), the results of which might be mortal. Cf. Judges, xn, 5 - 6 : "the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay; T h e n said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him." 1 0 7 7 - 1 0 8 1 Donne had drawn a connection between henbane and the hemlock imposed on Socrates (cf. To Sir Edward Herbert. At Iulyers, 11. 23-26). 1082-1086 Dryden's tone is very bland: James ( T h e Patron) discovers in his Yard a Protestant Inquisition depriving him and his poultry of rights and impelling him to seek mitigation in such gentle means as royal dispensation of the laws. 1087-1094 Two Catholic arguments are reflected here: Anglicans risk their own destruction by encouraging popular anti-Catholicism; and such rabble-rousing is treasonable. These are the two chief points of Popery Anatomis'd, or the Papists Clear'd from the False Imputation of Idolatry and Rebellion (1686), which sought to show (sig. A i f ) "First, the consequence of charging the Papists with Idolatry; and that to the Church of England. Secondly, the ill Service it does to His Majesty, because manifestly tending to alienate the Hearts of his Subjects, and insence the Rabble, whose ungracious temper cannot love the Person, whilst they hate the Religion of the Prince." T h e first point is well enough taken, the second a matter of dispute in which both sides looked ridiculous. T h e Catholic claim, made in modification by Dryden, that the Anglican propagandists seduced loyal subjects from James, like Anglican horror over Jesuitical casuistry allowing for the deposition of kings, is fanciful in the actual historical situation. 1089 And which was worse, (if any worse could be). A line from Orrery's Black Prince, II, i, 273, and ridiculed in Timon, A Satyr (1. 1 1 5 ; see V. de Sola Pinto, Poems by John Wilmot Earl of Rochester [1953], pp. 102, 200). Cf. also "Amaryllis," 1. 67: "And which was worse, If any worse cou'd prove." 1090 Repented of their boasted Loyalty. T h e question of Anglican loyalty to the throne was a bitter one for all sides, as Dryden's reiteration of the matter in Part I I I suggests. A brief pamphlet, A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty (1687), accused Anglicans, as Dryden does, of betraying their royalist principles; in the minds of contemporaries the subject was connected with the question "Of Abrogating the Penal Laws and Test" (Catalogue, ch. iii), in which terms it touched the Anglicans at a most nervous time. If they supported the throne, they feared their own disestablishment by Catholicism or repudiation by the anti-Catholic populace; but the principle of support of the throne, proved with such conviction in the Civil Wars, was an ideal lively enough to lead many to nonjure under William and Mary. Anglican replies to A New Test took the

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f o r m of blackening the loyalty of Catholics by talk of the deposing doctrine, the G u n p o w d e r Plot, a n d the Popish Plot. T h e attitude of the Sects remained the big question, with b o t h the Anglican bishops a n d James coming more a n d more to seek their support. Dryden repeatedly ignores them as possible allies when he has the o p p o r t u n i t y of doing so, speaking instead to the question of Anglican loyalty. T h e situation of 1685-1689 was unstable because it divided many men's political f r o m their religious loyalties. 1093-1094 Proverbial. If Dryden needed a reminder, he h a d it in Ogilby, Fables, P a r t I, Fab. X L , " T h e Parliament of Birds": " W h o m Jove will R u i n , he Infatuates." 1 0 9 5 - 1 1 0 0 T h e Anglican clergy u n d e r t o o k a great, coordinated controversial assault u p o n the Catholics. B u r n e t (III, 99-100) says the attack "was managed with that concert, that for the most part once a week some new book or sermon came out." T h e best example of such joint work is that in the controversy over the "Notes of the C h u r c h " (Catalogue, ch. xxxvi), i n which fifteen Anglicans u n d e r t o o k to c o n f u t e Bellarmine's treatise. 1097-1099 As Kinsley notes, the passage recalls a widespread Christian aspersion: cf. Langland, Piers Plowman, B. XV, 398-403; Massinger, The Renegado, IV, iii: H e taught a Pigeon to feed in his Ear; T h e n m a d e his credulous Followers believe I t was a n Angel, that instructed him I n the f r a m i n g of his Alcoran. 1100 veil'd . . . with Zealous Fear. See 11. 1 0 8 7 - 1 0 9 4 ^ 1102 an idle reign. Cf. the play in Absalom, 1. 64, " A n Idoll Monarch," i.e., Charles II. Cf. also Dryden's letter to Etherege (Ward, Letters, p. 27): I c a n n o t h e l p hearing, that white sticks change their Masters, 8c [that] officers of [the] Army are not immortall in their places because the King finds they will not vote for him in the next Sessions. [Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, h a d recently been dismissed as L o r d T r e a surer; Lords Lumley a n d Shrewsbury, f r o m colonelcies.] O h that o u r Monarch wou'd encourage noble idleness by his own example, as he of blessed memory did before him for my m i n d e misgives me, that h e will not much advance his affaires by Stirring. 1 1 0 3 - 1 1 0 6 James's toleration (see 11. 1 2 3 3 - 1 2 5 5 ^ was partly mere policy, partly principle. I t brought a warm response f r o m the Sects b u t some of the sectarian leaders were suspicious of it a n d m a d e common cause with Canterbury, as Dryden suggests. Dryden characteristically fears the possibility of rebellion (1. 1106). 1107 For Fools are double Fools etc. Cf. Butler, Hudibras, ed. Zachary Grey (2d ed.; 1764), II, 110: "For fools are known by looking wise." 1 1 0 8 - 1 1 3 3 T h e speech urging the invitation of King Buzzard parallels the Martyn's ill-advised counsel in the Panther's fable. It is not clear that Dryden represents any o n e Anglican as speaker, although so intrepid a n d

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active a foe of James as Henry Compton, bishop of London, would fit into the corporate character of the influential Pigeon. What is clear is that the Martyn advises an invitation to The noble Buzzard (1. 1121) to replace James. It may be mentioned that such possibilities were being discussed. For example, early in 1686 the young Lord Mordaunt, having fled England after prorogation of Parliament in November 1685, was urging William to invade England (see Macaulay, eh. vii). 1108 grave Consult. Williams quotes Bailey's Dictionary: a consult "is a Consultation, but commonly taken in an ill sense for a secret Cabal of Plotters against the State." The phrase recalls Milton's demonic gathering, "the great Consult" of Paradise Lost, I, 798, and sets in motion the plot taken from Ogilby's fable of the Doves and the Hawks. 1110 with his head aside. The action is all the more absurd in a pigeon, and was regarded as an affected pose, as with Sir Fopling Flutter in The Man of Mode, I, i, 377. 1111 desp'rate Cures etc. A cliché, advanced usually as here by those advocating the harshest measures. 1116-1117 haggar'd Hawk. "A wild (female) hawk caught when in her adult plumage." eyry. Aerie, eyrie—"the nest of any bird of prey" (OED). pounc'd. Provided with talons. Cf. Dryden, The Twelfth Book of Ovid His Metamorphoses (in Fables), 11. 739-740: "Eagle, now endu'd / With Beak and Pounces" (George Loane, N&Q, C L X X X V [1943], 277). 1119 Musquet . . . Coystrel. The small hawk and a common falcon (OED). 1120-1194 Succeeding notes show that the Buzzard is modeled on the Hawk of Ogilby's fable, on hawk typologies in sacred zoography, and, as Derrick recognized, on Gilbert Burnet for personal characteristics (see 11. 1141-1 i94n). But there is much that cannot be explained by these sources, and for many reasons it seems certain that the Buzzard, especially in his public character, is modeled on William of Orange (see 11. 1120-1 i4on). So clear-cut a dual historical model for a fictional character is probably unique in Dryden's writing, and it appears that the introduction of Burnet was a last-minute addition to the manuscript, interrupting the even flow of the Hind's narrative from 1. 1109 to 1. 1140. Dryden perhaps inserted the intervening lines or substituted them for a passage of some unknown length. T h e inconsistency between the Buzzard as king and the Buzzard as theologue is too marked to allow for any simple explanation. Such literary evidence is strengthened by certain factual details. The Buzzard is called the Captain of the Test (1. 1192). Editors have glossed the phrase in terms of Burnet's pamphlets against the writings of Samuel Parker on removal of the Test. T h e earliest of the pamphlets mentioned by Scott dates from 1688. In fact, there seems to be no reason for calling Burnet by such a name before about April 1687, when he published in Holland his "Reasons against the Repealing the Acts of Parliament concerning the Test" (in Six Papers). Since Dryden's poem was probably published on 27 May 1687, it may be that Burnet's pamphlet came as a final outrage to Dryden, who then wrote and inserted, added, or substituted a personal portrait to supplement the public character of the Buzzard. T h e other evidence is textual.

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This passage is the only one in the poem showing any important degree of press correction. T h e changes in 11. 1147-1173 (see Textual Notes) suggest that Dryden was trying to put right this passage at the very last moment. See also 11. 1256-1 s88n. 1120-1140 The details show that William is meant, he who in time of War, has done us harm (1. 1125, referring to the Third Dutch War) but who, as a Protestant prince of moderate principles, could agree with the Anglican Establishment (11. 1126-1127). His antipathy to Catholicism (1. 1129) i s a l s o touched on. But above all, the regal and courtly diction of 11. 1130-1140 show that William alone fits the public character of King Buzzard. 1123 Hawk by courtesie. Williams quotes Bailey's Dictionary, saying a Buzzard is "a sort of great Hawk or Kite; also a senseless Fellow, an ignorant Fool." In the zoographies, the Buzzard is included in the hawk genus; the Buzzard is, therefore, like Ogilby's Hawk. 1141-1194 In the Buzzard's personal character Dryden stresses appearance and with it those qualities of impudence, ability, vanity, and ingratitude which Burnet undoubtedly possessed. Nearly every detail or epithet advanced by Dryden generalizes upon numerous details of Burnet's life; it is, therefore, misleading to gloss any feature by one incident, and particularly so because Dryden needed to fit the personal with the public character of the Buzzard, and both with the Hind's fable, in order to predict by the prophetic past tense what might come to pass in England. Dryden emphasizes first the personality (11. 1141-1150), then the behavior (11. 1151-1194), of the Buzzard. Among the incidents of the latter are Burnet's ingratiating himself with, and then leaving, such highly placed patrons as the Duke of Hamilton, Lauderdale, Charles II, and James while still Duke of York. In the words of his partial biographer (Thomas E. Clarke, A Life of Gilbert Burnet [1907], pp. 154-156), Burnet's behavior during the Popish Plot was "ambiguous." Burnet's own writing was notoriously inaccurate; it has been estimated that the History of His Own Time contains "about ten thousand downright mistakes" (Clarke, Gilbert Burnet, p. xix). But Burnet was correct if not temperate in his censorious Reflections upon Varillas' errors touching England in his Histoire des Révolutions en matière de Religion (1686). Burnet believed that his strictures upon the Histoire so discredited the author in England that the publisher was unable to bring out a translation by Dryden of Varillas' book licensed on 29 April 1686. No better explanation has ever been given for the nonappearance of the book. Varillas wrote an Answer to the Reflections of Burnet, who returned with A Defense of the Reflections (Amsterdam, 1687), in which he said of Dryden (pp. 138-139): "I have been informed from England, that a Gentleman, who is famous both for Poetry and several other things, had spent three moneths in translating Mr. Varillas's History, but that as soon as my Reflections appeared, he discontinued his Labour, finding the credit of his Author was gone." He calls the Hind "the worst Poem . . . that the Age has produced," but since he refers to it in terms of "the conversation . . . between the Hinds and the Panthers, and all the rest of the Animals," it is plain that he was either speaking

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with a looseness uncommon even for himself or that he had read only this passage. Dryden is so bad a person that "it is scarce possible for him to grow a worse man than he was." It would be difficult to imagine a person whose character, motives, and actions might annoy Dryden more. Yet his character of the personal side of the Buzzard is determined sufficiently by its place in the fable, by its dependence upon the public role of William, and by its typological detail to create a character distinct from Gilbert Burnet. Not only was the buzzard (butaeo) related to the hawk family, but also Franzius noted in this genus a palumbaris accipiter, or pigeon hawk. T h e hawk family is a type of all impious creatures (omnium impiorum), according to Franzius (Historia, p. 427), who also says: horum capitis diaboli expressa imago est proposita in accipitre, ave notissima, ut etiam historia[e] habent, daemonem in hac forma multis apparuisse (Their head, the Devil, is set forth in the hawk, a very well-known bird, as also histories have it, the demon has appeared to many in this form). Again (p. 435): Et satis de istis inimicis avium, quas alii comparant cum istis advocatis qui malas caussas fovent (And enough about those enemies of the birds, which others compare to those advocates who support evil causes). Finally (p. 429): Vida capto Christo Apostolos ut columbas disturbari ab accipitre Judae scribit (Vida writes that when Christ was captured the Apostles were scattered like doves by the hawk of Judas). Such typologies and the outcome of the Aesopian tale warn the Anglican party against betrayal. Various elements, then, combine to create the severest satiric character in the poem. 1142 a Son of Anach. Cf. Numbers, x m , 33: "the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants." 1143 Williams cites the description of Israel's first king in I Samuel, ix, 2: "Saul, a choice young man, and a goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people." Noyes compares To Dr. Charleton, II. 48-50. 1144 bluff. " O f a broad face or forehead" (OED, citing this line). 1145-1146 Although Burnet's intentions to marry a second time were known to some people in England, two reasons prevent agreement with Scott and others that Dryden here refers to the marriage. It did not occur until late May 1687. Moreover, Burnet had a contemporary notoriety, which earned him a good deal of criticism, for emotional involvement with the ladies under his spiritual direction—a fact better suited to Dryden's allegation in these lines. Questions about Burnet's behavior had been voiced as early as 1662 over his friendship in Scotland with the Dowager Countess of Balcarres. As Robert Madden has pointed out to us, Burnet's later conduct with women like Ann Lee Wharton (sister of Eleonora, Countess of Abingdon) in 1681-1682 was marked by emotional titillation as well as pious and newsworthy exchanges. T h e important fact is that Dryden had support in widespread contemporary belief that Burnet was guilty of impropriety. So much is clear from a postrevolutionary ballad, given in full by Scott: "A New Ballad, called, the Brawny Bishop's Complaint."

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Franzius observes of a certain hawk (Historia, p. 432): Esse quoddam genus perhibetur accipitrum, quod dicitur Cenchris, valde libidinosum, amans foeminas, & vehementer clangens, cum videt discesisse foeminam (There is reputed to be a certain type of hawk, which is called Cenchris, exceedingly libidinous, woman loving, and violently clangering, when it sees that the woman has departed). Such matters sufficiently account for Dryden's lines, but it must in fairness be said for Burnet that contemporary satire and mores determined reputation as much by what people said as by what they knew. 1147 Burnet's biographer writes of his choice of profession: "the decision being left to himself he chose the profession of law. This was a great disappointment to his father, whose hope was that . . . [he] should enter the ministry" (Clarke, Gilbert Burnet, pp. 18-19). A year later Burnet took orders, genial. "Pertaining to 'genius' or natural disposition; natural" (OED). 1148 sharp. "Keen-witted and alert in practical matters . . . quick to take unfair advantage of others" (OED). xi 49 Interest. T h e charge against the Anglican clergy to which Dryden most often recurs in Part III and to which Burnet is vulnerable. 1151-1171 T h e passage appears to describe Burnet's departure from Scotland, his Native clyme (1. 1152), whose Vertues of skillful address and fluent talk he took with him. The motive of Profit, or advancement, was no doubt real, as for any ambitious person coming up to London, then as now. But it is possible to insist too strongly on these lines as reprobation of Burnet's leaving Scotland for England, since the ascribed motive of Fear does not fit in any known way with that departure, but agrees rather with his later departure from England for the continent upon the accession of James in 1685. It must be said in addition that Burnet traveled from Scotland to England so often (e.g., 1663, 1664, 1671, 1674) that Dryden's character is more general than chronological, partly to accommodate the plot of the fable, partly to admit the public character of the Buzzard (based on the much traveled William of Orange), and partly to fit with the time scheme of the Hind's fable (a prediction of the future coming in of the Buzzard). T h e Buzzard's conduct after arrival similarly recalls in general terms Burnet's early flattery and subsequent betrayal of such patrons as Lauderdale, Charles II, and James (1. 1156). His being chatfd away (1. 1159) apparently refers to numerous periods of disgrace, although the details in 11. 1159-1171 seem most applicable to Burnet's travels in exile from 1685 to 1687, especially to his very critical and self-glorifying account of the continental countries and their people which he related in Some Letters, published in Amsterdam in 1686. 1154 a fluent Tongue. Coming to London, Burnet quickly won fame for his eloquence. " I first heard that famous & Excellent Preacher Dr. Burnet . . . with such a floud of Eloquence & fullnesse of matter as show'd him to be a person of extraordinary parts" (Evelyn, Diary, 15 November 1674). Kinsley quotes a story of Dr. Johnson's on Burnet's response to his effect on an audience: "When Burnet preached, part of his congregation

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hummed, so loudly and so long that he sat down to enjoy it, and rubbed his face with his handkerchief" (BH, II, 37). 1155-1156 Before the Revolution, Burnet's career was marked by his coming under a succession of powerful patrons, with each of whom he broke in circumstances suggesting he sought his own advantage. 1159-1162 What the Gifts of 1. 1160 are is not clear. But 1. 1161 echoes Luke, x, 10-11: "But into whatsoever city ye enter [Christ charged the Disciples], and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city . . . we do wipe off against you." T h e Buzzard is less a Disciple, however, than a bird that fouls the places he visits. Dryden's lines also recall Some Letters, in which Burnet describes his travels. Burnet allows nothing, finally, to be good about Catholic countries, emphasizing instead the filth he found, as for example in a Venetian palace: "The nobleness of the Stair-cases, the riches of the Halls, and the beauty of the whole building, are much prejudiced by the beastliness of those that walk along, and that leave their Marks behind them, as if this were rather a common House of office, than so Noble a Palace" (pp. 129-130). T h e suggestion is that the Buzzard is a kind of harpy; cf. Aeneis, III, 276-347, a passage Dryden had glanced at in 1. 960. 1163-1164 the same etc. Scott identifies the reference to Charles II. Dryden shows knowledge of Burnet's extraordinary allegations against the King: " T h e notorious parallel with Tiberius of which Fox said that no one but the author has ever seen the force . . . and . . . the monstrous charge of incestuous passion" (Clarke, Gilbert Burnet, p. 206; see also Burnet, I, 522-523; II, 467, 468-469). Dryden's addition to Chaucer in Cock and the Fox, 11. 57-66, shows his awareness of such allegations. 1165-1168 In common with many of his contemporaries, Burnet looked upon James as a courageous man, a Hero, but also as a Tyrant after accession. In writing of Anglican attitudes toward James early in his reign, Burnet says ("An Answer to A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty," in Six Papers, p. 32): "They believed, that in His Majesty, the Hero, and the King, would be too strong for the Papists." Burnet's fear of tyranny was genuine. What Dryden objects to is his conduct rather than the mere accusation: James is but one of several whom Burnet had flatter'd, and blasphem'd (1. 1163). As Scott observes, "His opinions were often hastily adopted, and of course sometimes awkwardly retracted, and his patrons were frequently changed. . . . In short, his having the address to attach himself for a time to almost every leading character whom he had an opportunity of approaching, gives us room to suspect that, if Burnet did not change his opinions, he had at least the art of disguising such as could not be accommodated to his immediate patron." In fairness, Burnet's conduct after the Revolution assumes greater steadiness and integrity. 1171 treat. "An entertainment of food and drink, esp. one given without expense to the recipient" (OED). 1172-1173 As Scott observes, Burnet tended "to impose upon the reader a caricature for a resemblance."

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1174 A Greek. Sinon who, pretending to be a defector, deceived the Trojans and betrayed them to the Greeks. Perhaps recalling, as Christie notes, Aeneid, II, 49: timeo Danaos et dona ferentis, but Dryden's italics suggest an English quotation, not identified. 1175-1178 T h e Anglican church retains two sacraments—baptism and the Eucharist—from the seven of the Roman and Greek churches, whose other five are confirmation, penance, extreme unction, holy orders, and matrimony. T h e Buzzard opposes confession—part of the sacrament of penance—less to conceal his own sins than because the priest is committed to sacred silence. T h e Buzzard lives to betray secrets. 1179-1186 During the parliamentary examination of Lauderdale for dismissal in April 1675, Burnet testified against his former patron with ambiguous evidence. During the maneuvering by all sides, Burnet gave in to parliamentary pressure, just as an early fulsome dedication of his to Lauderdale was reprinted in London. Burnet cut his losses in typical fashion. He blamed Lauderdale in his History for a design to betray him: "I said to some, that duke Lauderdale had gone so far in opening some wicked designs to me, that I perceived he could not be satisfied unless I was undone. So I told what was mentioned before of the discourses that pass'd between him and me" (II, 52). He adds (II, 65): "I was much blamed for what I had done. Some . . . added, that I was his chaplain, which was false; and that I had been much obliged to him, though I had never received any real obligation from him, but had done him great services, for which I had been very unworthily requited. Yet the thing had an ill appearance, as the disclosing of what had passed in confidence." 1181 accusing. Aia/3oXos (Williams). 1182 Moloch. God of the Amorites, worshiped with human sacrifice: the bloodthirsty motives of the parliamentary opposition to Lauderdale. 1187 Frontless. See 1. io4on. 1188 runs an Indian muck. Runs amuck or amok, the division, as Kinsley notes, being not uncommon. T h e OED cites Marvell, The Rehearsal Transpos'd (1672), I, 59: "Like a raging Indian . . . he runs a mucke (as they cal it there) stabbing every man he meets." 1192-1196 Burnet did play a significant role in the controversy over repeal of the Test Acts late in the reign of James. He supported it in pamphlets of remarkable bitterness against Samuel Parker, bishop of Oxford, whom James found more accommodating. In Scott's words, "Burnet himself admits, that his papers, in this controversy with Parker, were written with such an acrimony of style which nothing but such a time and such a man could excuse. His papers were so bitter, that nobody durst offer them to the Bishop of Oxford, till the king himself sent them in hopes to stimulate him to an answer." 1196-1197 Dryden returns from the character of the Buzzard as Burnet to the character of the Hawk in Ogilby and to the Buzzard as William. 1198 A King, whom in his wrath, th' Almighty gave. T h e Buzzard, in his public role as William, is compared with Saul, given to Israel with divine wrath (I Samuel, vm, 6-18). Also in allusion to the Aesopian fable, "Of the Frogs desiring a King" (Ogilby, Fables, Part I, Fab. XII), of the frogs

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who wished to give up good King Log (James) for a more active ruler, the Stork (the Buzzard). Ogilby concludes with the words of Jupiter: T o change your Government great Jove did please, And you I gave a peaceful Soveraign: Since he [displeased] you, by the Stygian Lake A vow I make, T h e Stork shall reign, And you for evermore repent in vain Moral. No Government can th'unsetled Vulgar please, When Change delights, think Quiet a disease. Now Anarchy and Armies they maintain, And wearied, are for Kings and Lords again. T h e fable was traditionally applied to Athenian history, and Ogilby applies it to English events of 1649 and 1660. 1 1 9 9 - 1 2 0 4 It was debated whether James had gone back on his pledge (see 1. 95gn) to uphold the Established Church or whether the pledge was conditional upon ecclesiastical support of the throne. T h e issue was later defined clearly by the Declaration of Indulgence on 4 April 1687, which seemed to the Anglicans a clear violation of the pledge, because it granted freedom of worship to Catholics and most Dissenters. James felt that Anglican opposition to toleration so questioned his prerogative that he was no longer bound by agreement with the English bishops. Dryden treats James's support of the Establishment as a Grace (1. 1199), not as an opportunity for the bishops to be made Lords of all (1. 1204). 1 2 0 5 - 1 2 2 0 T h e picture is of the Anglicans being joined for the attack upon the "Plain good M a n " and his Catholic poultry by allies of numerous and questionable sorts. 1205-1208 Dryden refers to the deliberate stirring up of anti-Catholicism by the Anglican clergy, but his suggestion of hypocrisy is unfounded. T h e Anglicans themselves were sincere in their growing fears. 1207 gogling Eyes. Eyes rolling while a person is frantic or possessed. Cf. Plutarch (1683, p. 42; S-S, XVII, 38): "She came out, foaming at the mouth, her eyes gogling, her breast heaving." 1208 had learn'd to Cant. Playing upon "to chant, sing" (OED), which pigeons cannot do, and "to talk unreally or hypocritically with an affectation of goodness or piety" (OED). Cf. Absalom, 11. 520-522. Zachary Grey's gloss on "cant" in Hudibras, III, ii, 765, reads: "From Andrew Cant, and his son Alexander, seditious preaching and praying in Scotland was called canting. Mercurius Publicus, No. 9. p. 1632, 1633, 1661; Impartial Examination of Mr. Neale's 4th vol. of the History of the Puritans, p. 126." 1209-1211 Burnet (III, 99-100) remarked that the anti-Catholic pamphleteering aroused great popular interest. 1210 Press. Apparently a play on words, like Rome, 1. 1214. 1 2 1 5 - 1 2 1 7 There is no doubt that James's tolerationism, like Charles's, mingled policy with idealism; but the Anglican refusal to tolerate did the same and was cruel in addition. In insisting upon the rigour of the Laws, Anglicans were seeking to uphold their Establishment by means of the

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ecclesiastical "tyranny" of the Test Acts and various penal laws such as those of the so-called Clarendon Code. 1 2 2 1 - 1 2 2 4 Franzius (Historia, p. 428) speaks of the Hawk as an example of impious men who thrive in positions of power in this life, whereas pious men are condemned as chickens (sicut gallinae contemnuntur). 1223-1224 with their Quills . . . cuffd. T o cuff is to "strike or buffet with the wings, as in fighting" (OED, citing this line); but as Williams recognized, the quills are also pens. 1225-1227 In his later "Reasons against the Repealing the Acts of Parliament concerning the Test" (in Six Papers, 1687, p. 6), Burnet wrote: " I hope none will be wanting in all possible Respect to his [James's] sacred Person; and as we ought to be infinitely sorry to find him engaged in a Religion which we must believe Idolatrous, so we are far from the ill manners of reflecting on his Person, or calling him an Idolater." 1231 temper. "A middle course; a compromise; a settlement" (OED), opposed to extreams. 1233-1255 The Doom is the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, or of Indulgence, proclaimed in England on 4 April 1687. It stipulated (1) protection and maintenance of Anglican clergy and believers; (2) suspension of "penal laws in matters ecclesiastical"; (3) tolerance for all in serving "God after their own way and manner" in whatever building, so services be public and without sedition; (4) royal protection against any disturbances of religious liberty; (5) cancellation of earlier "oaths . . . and several tests and declarations"; (6) "free and ample pardon unto all nonconformists, recusants and other our loving subjects" guilty under old laws; and (7) maintenance of subjects "in all their properties and possessions," including church and abbey lands taken over at the Reformation (Browning, pp. 396-397). Only fears of James's Catholicism and the intolerance of the century can account for Anglican rejection of so desirable a toleration. The similar Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland of 12 February 1686/7 is by comparison with the Declaration hastily written, unclear, and drawn to favor Catholicism. It is perhaps not surprising therefore that Burnet should quote it in arguing against both (Six Papers, pp. 9-30). 1233 all Maturely weigh'd. In the Declaration, James had said his conviction for toleration was "the more confirmed by the reflections we have made upon the conduct of the last four reigns" (Browning, p. 396). 1234 for ev'ry Age to come. The Declaration granted subjects "the free exercise of their religion for time to come" (Browning, p. 395). 1235 the Doves their Wealth and State possess. See 11. 1233-1255n. T h e Declaration guaranteed Anglicans "the quiet and full enjoyment of all their possessions" (Browning, p. 396). 1236 That is, the Declaration limits not the Rights of the Establishment, but its licence in persecuting Catholics and Dissenters. 1237-1238 As Absalom, 11. 759-764, suggests, kings do no wrong when they rule by law, but Factious Lawyers only say that they do no wrong absolutely, or that the Anglican Establishment does no wrong when its power is ungoverned by law.

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ip'j-ipp

457

1239-1243 But, since his Catholic subjects have experienced the destructive pride of the Anglicans, James judges that result (Proof, as OED) a measure for judging the oppressed experience of his other, dissenting subjects, too. Saintsbury notes the implied opposition between the natural, wild, impure blood of the Fowl of Nature and the pure-bred Domestick Catholics. 1248-1251 Crows, choughs (jackdaws in Dryden's day), and daws are treated by the zoographers as belonging to the same genus (see Franzius, Historia, pp. 443 ft). It seems unlikely that particular sects are represented by each of the three; they represent the humblest groups of Dissenters. 1253-1255 T h e declaration does not set geographical or other District and Bounds. Dryden seems to conceive of the kingdom as a kind of aviary, where freedom is maintained within physical limits. 1255 not Pass the Pigeons Rubicon. The reference to Julius Caesar's crossing the river as a symbol of irreversible action against the state shows that Dryden regards action destructive of the Established Church as a matter of civil war. But see the succeeding lines. 1256-1288 Like 11. 1120-1194, this passage consists of sections difficult in themselves and difficult to see as a unified whole. The first section (11. 1256-1263) continues the imperial imagery developed for the Anglican church in the preceding lines. Now, however, that church is shown to be a pretended Dove, not the true Church or true spiritual ruler; accordingly she is Reduc'd from her Imperial High Abode (1. 1259), her role in England taken by the true Dove, the Roman Catholic church. T h e pretended is left to possess, not the "sceptre and the keys" (II, 522; cf. 1. 1258), but the private Rod (1. 1260) of a mere sectarian teacher. T h e next section (11. 1264-1272) predicts, in the prophetic past tense, that thereafter the Anglican church decreas'd in Pow'r: . . . Dissolving in the Silence of Decay (11. 1270, 1272). The third section (11. 1273-1288) begins by turning from the Anglican church to the Buzzard, both recalling and modifying the story of the predatory Hawk in Ogilby's fable and telling (once again in the prophetic past tense) of the flight of King Buzzard, as William of Orange, and his now reduced forces. These lines (1273-1278) do not complete the third section, however, because Dryden looks forward yet further, probably with more fear than he expresses, to events after the death of James (1. 1282). His prediction now turns to the prophetic future tense, which does not really fit with the narrative past tense used by the Hind up to this point, and foretells that the ending of Ogilby's fable—the victory of the predatory tyrant over those who had invited him—may be expected. T h e Pigeons will suffer and the Tyrant (1. 1288), William, will devour the Anglicans. Dryden loved to end his poems with vatic passages, but the Hind is unique in having two major forecasts of the religious and political future of England: the Panther's fable of the Swallows and the Hind's of the Pigeons. Nothing could better illustrate the uncertainty of the times or Dryden's mingled hopes and fears than the complicated conclusion of the Hind's fable with its prediction in two sequences: first, a prediction of the future of the Anglican Pigeons during the reign of James, employing an appropriate prophetic past tense; second, a prediction of what Dryden

45«

Commentary

could only fitfully and nervously glimpse after the death of James II, using a prophetic future tense inappropriate to the Hind's narrative mode but all too just for the uncertain future of England. 1257-1258 T h e lines allude to Genesis, XLIX, especially 8-io, part of Jacob's blessing of his sons: "Judah is a lion's whelp: . . . T h e sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." Christians glossed the passage as a prediction of the coming of Christ to replace the "Synagogue" or the Law. Dryden applies the gloss to predict the replacement of the Established Church in England by Catholicism. Some Christian historians then dated the blessing of Jacob at 1689 B.C. 1259-1260 Reduc'd . . . Like Dionysius to a private Rod. Williams notes the reference to Dionysius the Younger, tyrant of Syracuse, 367-343 B.C.; after expulsion by Timoleon, he was said to be reduced to teaching school at Corinth. Cf. Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, III, xii, 27. T h e private Rod is opposed to the Scepter of 1. 1258. 1263 Touch'd. Put to the touchstone; tried for the first time to prove whether true or base. Maker. As a state church, the Anglicans revile James; as a church alone, they revile God. 1265 The small Beginnings had a large Encrease. John Warton recognized, without citing, the echo from Livy ("Praefatio," 4), ab exiguis profecta initiis eo creverit, which is loosely though accurately enough recalled by Dryden. 1268 Become the Smiths of their own Foolish Fate. Christie quotes the Epistola ad Caesarem de Republica Ordinanda ascribed to Sallust; Williams quotes Plautus, Trinummus, 1. 363; and Kinsley notes Bacon's mentioning Faber quisque fortunae propriae as an adage. T h e idea probably had become one given in the examples of formulary rhetorics. 1271 mildly pass away. Cf. Donne, "Valediction: forbidding mourning," 1. 1: "As virtuous men passe mildly away." 1274 Nimrods. T h a t is, hunters of their own kind. Cf. Genesis, x, 8-g, and especially Paradise Lost, XII, 24 ff. Cf. also I, 282-283. 1278 Two Czars. Referring to bloody Russian intrigue for the throne. Peter the Great and his brother Ivan had been crowned joint rulers of Russia in 1682 (Noyes). 1279 th' Usurper. As in the preceding line, this allusion takes the Buzzard back to his public character reflecting William of Orange, a change prepared for in 11. 1256 if. 1282 Dryden is fond of visions of ascension to Heaven; see, e.g., the odes on Anne Killigrew and Purcell. Williams compares Horace, Odes, I, ii, 45: Serus in caelum redeas. 1283 Bare benting times. " T h e going after bents," i.e., after the "stalks and seeding heads of two species of Plaintain" (OED), the most meager food. T h e phrase is proverbial for birds reduced in times of famine to scanty food. Kinsley (following Tilley, P316) cites Ravenscroft, Deuteromelia (1609): " T h e Pigion is neuer woe, till abenting she goe." 1286-1288 the Tumultuous Colledge of the Bees etc. Bees are a favorite image for Dryden. Cf. the famous expansion of Georgics, IV (Dryden,

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Day

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Georgics, IV, 92-156), in which William is deprecated, James praised. T h e college metaphor (cf. Flower and the Leaf, 1. a 18) is a conceit representing a religious fellowship of many cells. But bees are also an emblem of war, especially civil war, which they were thought to carry on with special violence (see Topsell, pp. 894-895). T h e idea is the old one that civil strife invites foreign intervention, and the Tyrant is now the B u z z a r d — W i l l i a m compared to the bear happily awaiting honey. 1290-1296 T h e passage shows that the plot occupies a single day. T h e H i n d and the Panther had met in the evening (see I, 511), the night has now nearly passed, and dawn is at hand (11. 1293-1294). 1294 And setting stars admonish'd both to sleep. Again, John W a r t o n recognized without citing the allusion to Virgil (Aeneid, IV, 81), suadentque cadentia sidera somnos, well rendered by Dryden. 1298 her future state. Her status as bride of Christ (see II, 517-519).

A Song

for St. Cecilia's

Day,

1687

T h e celebration of St. Cecilia's Day (22 November), which provided Dryden the occasion for this ode in 1687 and for Alexander's Feast a decade later, was a practice begun about 1571 in N o r m a n d y 1 and about 1683 in England. 2 W i t h some interruptions, the celebrations in L o n d o n continued well into the eighteenth century and spread to other cities in the British Isles. T h e poets and composers who cooperated to praise the patroness of music include many of the best known: Oldham, T a t e , Shadwell, D'Urfey, Congreve, Pope, and, of course, Dryden; Purcell, John Blow, Jeremiah Clarke, Handel, and Giovanni Battista Draghi, who composed the music for this ode. 3 Accompanied as it was by public festivities and worship, the occasion 1 William Henry Husk, An Account of the Musical Celebrations on St. Cecilia's Day (1857), pp. 113-132. Husk relates most of what is known and conjectured about the subject, although there remain some things he has not taken over from Edmond Malone's long digression (I, 254-307) on the subject. "There is no Tecord of an earlier celebration than the one in 1683, for which Purcell set to music a poem by Christopher Fishburn, which he published the next year as A Musical Entertainment. His statement that the memory of St. Cecilia "is Annually honour'd by a public Feast made on that day by the Masters and Lovers of Music, as well in England as in Foreign Parts," has suggested to some that the observances began before 1683; in the absence of other evidence it seems more likely that Purcell had in mind the preceding year's performance and believed it had begun a new practice. " Husk gives a year-by-year account of poets and composers. For two discussions of the relations between Dryden's text and his composers' settings, see Ernest Brennecke, "Dryden's Odes and Draghi's Music," PMLA, XLIX (1934), 1-36; Berlrand H. Bronson, "Some Aspects of Music and Literature in the Eighteenth Century," Music if Literature, Second Clark Library Seminar (1953), pp. 32-41, treating this ode and Handel's setting.

460

Commentary

reflects the new social character of music as well as of poetry. B u t the nature of the conjunction of the two arts in the Restoration is that of the musical humanism that had flourished in France and Italy nearly a century earlier and had, for some reason, never been fully naturalized in Elizabethan England. 4 T h e replacement of polyphony by m o n o d y was related both to the increasing social character of music and to the debates of the musical humanists. M o n o d y was far more suitable socially in that an audience could more readily understand and be moved by it; it was more dramatic. Associated as it was w i t h courts and ritualistic worship, English monody h a d the further social value of representing Stuart royalism; for if only the more rigid of the Puritans looked altogether with disfavor u p o n music, 5 the e x a m p l e of the A n g l i c a n royalism of H e n r y Lawes shows that espousal of music for social and religious occasions was commonly a sign of royalist, high A n g l i c a n sympathies.' T h e political and religious implications remained, as Restoration sermons for St. Cecilia's Day and other evidence show. 7 I n the theoretical concerns of musical humanism, the particular character of m o n o d y was, however, its power to influence h u m a n beings: " W h a t Passion cannot MUSICK raise and q u e l l ! " Musical humanism had w i t h i n it two quite different conceptions of music, the older of w h i c h concerned the musica mundana and musica humana. T h i s humanistic "speculative music" conceived of harmony as "the aural image of all that is g o o d and perfect in the universe" and in man. 8 T h e newer view, w h i c h developed in the seventeenth century, challenged the older by rejecting harmony in favor of rhythmus or significant sound, believed alone to have the power to move hearers as O r p h e u s o r T i m o t h e u s h a d m o v e d them in ancient times. 9 T h e most significant feature • T h e musical humanism is described with full background by D. T . Mace, "Musical Humanism, the Doctrine of Rhythmus, and the St. Cecilia Day Odes of Dryden," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXVII (1964), 251-292. See also nn. 10 and 11, below. •Although Cromwell, Milton, Marvell, and other moderate Puritans greatly enjoyed music, the Commonwealth banned organs and choirs, secular music on the Sabbath, and stage music. See Ernest Walker and J. A. Westrup, A History of Music in England (1952), p. 154; Percy Scholes, The Puritans and Music (1934)•See Willa McClung Evans, Henry Lawes: Musician and Friend of Poets (1941), pp. 174-179. 2S3-«8. ' See James E. Phillips, Jr., Two St. Cecilia's Day Sermons, Augustan Reprint Society, Publ. 49 (1955), pp. ii-iii. T w o entries in Evelyn's Diary require no comment. On 25 December 1660, he records: "Dr. Rainbow preach'd coram Rege on 2. Luk: 14. of the Glory to be given God for all his mercys, especialy for restoring the Church, & government: & now [w]as perform'd the service with Musique, Voices &c: as formerly" (III, 262). And on 5 January 1687: "I was to heare the Musique of the Italians in the new Chapel" built by James in Whitehall; there was "a world of mysterious Ceremony the Musique pla[y]ing & singing: & so I came away: not believing I should ever have lived to see such things in the K. of Englands palace, after it had pleas'd God to inlighten this nation" (IV, 534-535). * Mace, "Musical Humanism," p. 257. ' Ibid., p. 252 and passim.

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of Dryden's ode is that it embraces both views, the older musica speculativa in the opening and closing stanzas, and the new concept of affective rhythmus in the middle stanzas. It is this conception, carried out with great skill in stylistic as well as in intellectual terms, which sets Dryden's ode apart from earlier poetic treatments of music. T h e traditional images and conceptions of music were themselves so familiar in the seventeenth century that it is impossible to speak confidently of Dryden's borrowings. 1 0 B u t undoubtedly the crucial term for the older musical humanism is "harmony," which in the ode generally signifies music. It also means particularly (as in 11. 13-15) "a melody, an interval, or more probably a chord," 1 1 and it is expressed (11. 55-57) in the music of the spheres; in the opening and closing stanzas the concept is presented as the harmonia mundi, also called the musica mundana; and (1. 15, as well as by implication elsewhere) it means musica humana. A s in Plato's Timaeus, where the Creator fashioned the world soul into harmonic intervals, or as in Job ( x x x v m , 6-7), where G o d created the world and "the morning stars sang together," or as in the wealth of commentary that grew up around these and other seminal passages, so in the first and last stanzas of his ode, Dryden presents the humanistic orthodoxy of harmony. In the middle stanzas, however, he is concerned with the power of music in relation to the human passions, with practical music (that is, music really played and heard) rather than speculative music, and with using his own poetry with music in such a way that the rhythms of both had the m a x i m u m effect u p o n the listener. T h e old conception of classical modes inducing this or that kind of passion had been reformulated by Isaac Vossius in De poematum cantu et viribus rhythmi (1673), which Dryden apparently knew, 1 2 into a view that rhythmi rather than harmony should determine the nature of poetry and music as well as their relationship, and that rhythmi might be defined in terms of poetic feet. 1 3 In short, the new beliefs of musical humanism attempted to bring theory into accord with practice. T h e idea of the power of music is, however, basic to both the harmonists and the rhythmists, and it provides unity in Dryden's ode. T h e speculative effects are shown in the first and last stanzas; in between actual instruments exert their effects. T h e clangor of trumpets 10 The background in theory and practice is fully developed by John Hollander, The Untuning of the Sky: Ideas of Music in English Poetry, 1500-1700 (1961), esp. pp. 401 ff. See also E. R. Wasserman, "Pope's Ode for Musick," ELH, XXVIII (1961), 163-186; Jay Levine, "Dryden's Song for St. Cecilia's Day, 1687," P& XLIV (1965), 38-50. 11 Hollander, Untuning of the Sky, pp. 406-407. An account of seventeenthcentury and earlier musical theory in its relation to poetry may be found in James E. Phillips, Jr., "Poetry and Music in the Seventeenth Century," Music ir Literature (1953), pp. 1-81. The Renaissance background is well treated by Frances A. Yates, The French Academies of the Sixteenth Century (1947), chs. iii, iv. " T h e evidence is given by Mace ("Musical Humanism," p. 261), interpreting the preface to Albion and Albanius. M See ibid., pp. 263-865.

462

Commentary

"excites us"; the drum "cryes"; the flute "discovers" human passions; the lute "whispers"; the violins "proclaim"; and the organ's notes "inspire." W i t h the possible exception of the first, each instrument induces its proper passion metaphorically rather than literally, and the varying prosodic rhythmi of the middle stanzas provide as it were the musical accompaniment of the metaphors to assist in arousing the passions as well as in narrating the arousal. 1 4 T h e first and last stanzas concern the creation and dissolution of " T h i s universal Frame." T h e i r verb tenses, past and future, reflect the time of occurrence of these events. T h e second and seventh stanzas name specific legendary or historical musicians whose achievements have earned them immortality, although they do not belong to the eternity from which and into which the poem proceeds. T h e s e stanzas are cast in a narrative past tense. T h e middle four stanzas deal with musical instruments in use during more certainly historical times and are therefore in the present tense. T h i s temporal sequence of the structure of the poem is reinforced by numerous details. T h e opening stanza on the creation adapts the sequence of the six days of creation treated in hexaemeral literature to the sequence from atoms to the four elements which had been explained by Dryden's friend Walter Charleton in his neo-Epicurean scientific writings. 1 6 T h e sequence of musical instruments provides a temporal progression from Jubal, the biblical first musician, well o n to the newly introduced violin, as also a qualitative progression from the primitive "corded Shell" of Jubal to the organ of St. Cecilia. T h e emotions aroused by, or accompanying, the instruments show a similar progression from primitive, martial, and amatory passions to "holy Love." Dryden has given his poem the structure of a dual progress piece of instruments and the passions associated with them which is made to serve as an account for the improvement possible in human history between the event that begins it, the creation, and the event that concludes it, the trumpet of the Day of Judgment—the only instrument that is shown to " q u e l l " the passions. 16 By using traditional conceptions of harmony and the powers of music to " T h e middle stanzas have also been interpreted in terms of the symbolism of instruments and the musical connections with the four temperaments: st. iii, choleric; st. iv, melancholic; st. v, phlegmatic; and st. vi, sanguine. See Alastair Fowler and Douglas Brooks, "The Structure of Dryden's 'Song for St. Cecilia's Day, 1687,'" Essays in Criticism, XVII (1967), 434-447. These authors also discuss at greater length the possibility of a complex numerological symbolism based upon the number of stanzas, of lines, of lines within stanzas, of recurrences, and of positions of recurrences. M O n the neo-Epicurean conception of the relation between atoms and the four elements, see Walter Charleton, Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana: or a Fabrick of Science Natural, Upon the Hypothesis of Atoms (1654), p. 100; on the relation between time and eternity, see ibid., p. 79; on the musical analogy to death, see Charleton's preface to Epicurus's Morals (1656), sig. b4These matters are discussed in Miner, Dryden's Poetry, pp. 274-284. " F o r more extended discussion, see Earl Miner, "Dryden and the Issue of Human Progress," PQ, XL (1961), 120-129.

Notes

to P.

201

463

create an account of the eternal, the immortal, and the temporal, Dryden has made possible the grand openings and conclusions he delighted in, 1 7 and has affirmed his faith at once in limited human progress and in the ultimate standards that judge and complete historical events. T h e middle stanzas are historical; the stanzas framing them are hexaemeral and eschatological. 18 What joins them and gives unity to the poem with its two different traditions of musical humanism is the subject— music—and the stylistic approach. If the ode "sums up so succinctly not the history of music in the lives of Western men, but the history of what those men have thought and felt and imagined that very music to be," 1 9 it also sums up man's strivings in history and his efforts to create civilization, while yet holding that his capacity for improvement is limited when judged sub specie aeternitatis. Expressed in a varied, mature style for public performance, these beliefs are typical of Dryden's thought from the mid-eighties, from, it may almost be said, his conversion. T h e gravity and somewhat abstract cast of the poem distinguish it from Alexander's Feast, which is richer in human detail. But the sublimity of the opening and closing stanzas shows how Dryden's mind was fired by the ideals of an older humanism, as the middle stanzas show him putting the newer thought of musical humanism to the historical ends sought by most of his poetry throughout his career.

2 This universal Frame. T h e physical universe (cf. 11. 55-56; also Faerie Queene, VII, vi, 5, 5; Paradise Lost, VII, 273, and other accounts of the creation), and in particular (see 1. 60) the earth (cf. Aeneis, VI, 980: "Earth's compacted Frame"). In view of the poem's occasion and the play on musical terms elsewhere in the poem, however, it seems likely that the phrase also hints at the organ, as in Alexander's Feast, 11. 161-162, and 11. 171-172: "Divine Cecilia came, / Inventress of the Vocal Frame." Cf. Religio Laid (1. 155): "the first Fiat that produc'd our Frame." 3-4 heap / Of jarring A tomes. Dryden often uses "heap" as an image of chaos, anarchy, or disintegrated matter. T h e atoms here are the Epicurean particles, and Dryden may have recalled his translation from the third book of Lucretius (11. 117-118): "For then our Atoms, which in order lay, / Are scatter'd from their heap, and puff'd away." But the image is common in descriptions of chaos; Lucretius was influential upon hexaemeral writings as well as other accounts of the creation, some of which Dryden " I n the ode to Anne Killigrew, Dryden gives a version of the Day of Judgment (st. x); there are creation pieces in Threnodia Augustalis (st. xv), and in Hind, I, 247 ff., which also contains (II, 499-525) a vision of the Catholic church, whose role begins and ends in eternity, much as does that of harmony in the Song for St. Cecilia's Day. M By devoting six stanzas to human history, Dryden uses the old idea of the six ages of man. For Milton's nearly contemporary treatment of the idea, see C. A. Patrides, Milton and the Christian Tradition (1966), pp. 231 ff. Patrides remarks on conceptions of music (pp. 41-45) are also useful. u Hollander, Untuning of the Sky, p. 422.

464

Commentary

may have h a d in m i n d . D u Bartas in particular h o p e d to o u t d o Lucretius (see U r b a n T i g n e r Holmes et al., eds., The Works of Guillaume De Salluste Sieur Du Bartas [1935], I, 116); a n d Dryden may have h a d in m i n d either D u Bartas (see Sylvester, " T h e First Day of the First Weeke," Bartas his Devine Weekes [1641], passim) or Milton, who used D u Bartas (Paradise Lost, II, 890-900) or some similar hexaemeral expansion of Genesis. I n musical terminology, jarring m e a n t "discordant"; see Charles Butler, The Principles of Musik (1636), p. 48: "A Discord is a jarring noiz of 2 permixed sounds offending the ear." A n d discordant noise is a familiar image for chaos in hexaemeral writings a n d musical theory; see T h o m a s Mace, Musick's Monument (1676), p. 3: "as Conchording unity in Musick is a lively a n d very significant simile of God, a n d Heavenly joyes a n d felicities, so on the contrary. J a r r i n g Discords are as a p t a simile of the Devil, or Hellish tortures." Cf. Purcell, 11. 20-22; Milton, Paradise Lost, II, 894 ff. 5 heave her Head. A Miltonism; cf. L'Allegro, 11. 145-150, with its context of music a n d O r p h e u s ' playing. (See T . W . Hales, Alexander's Feast, MacFlecknoe, and St. Cecilia's Day [1883], p. 27.) 6 Cf. the epilogue to Albion and Albanius (11. 33-34): T h u s Britain's Basis o n a W o r d is laid, As by a W o r d the W o r l d it self was made. 9 - 1 0 Dryden seems to conceive of the f o u r elemental principles atomistically. See h e a d n o t e o n his use of Charleton's Physiologia. Cf. Dryden's translation of the third book of Lucretius (11. 19-20): "Nay, tho' o u r Atoms shou'd revolve by chance, / A n d matter leape into the former dance," a n d 11. g~4n, above. Dryden's f o u r elements resemble the " f o u r Champions fierce" which in Milton's chaos battle for mastery with their "embryon Atoms" (Paradise Lost, II, 898-900). 14 compass of the Notes. T h e first seven notes or tones of the octave. 15 Diapason closing full in Man. A diapason is "a perfect concord of all in Musick: A n eighth" ( T h o m a s Blount, Glossographia [1661], s.v. Diapase, or Diapason), a n d so represents the perfection of God's h a r m o n y i n His last creation, m a n . Scott (XI, 171-172) speculates: "Perhaps Dryden remembered Spenser's allegorical description of the h u m a n figure a n d faculties" (Faerie Queene, II, ix, 22): "All which compacted m a d e a goodly diapase." closing. Coming to its musical conclusion, "cadenza," or "close." 16 Saintsbury (XI, 170): " I n Dryden's copy of Spenser, preserved at T r i n i t y College, Cambridge, the note, ' G r o u n d w o r k for a Song o n St. Cecilia's Day,' is set against Faerie Queene, VII, vii, 12." T h e relevant phrase, "Musicks wondrous might," echoes traditional views of the power of music, a n d the idea is used by Dryden here, in Alexander's Feast, a n d in Purcell. 16, 24 What Passion cannot MUSICK raise and quell. T h e poem's most explicit statement of the traditional concept of music's power. Only in the G r a n d Chorus does quell (kill) take o n significance. W i t h the phrasing of these lines, cf. N a h u m T a t e ' s " O d e for St. Cecilia's Day" (1685), 1. 21: " W h a t charms can Music n o t impart." 1 7 - 2 3 Cf. Genesis, iv, 21. T h e imagery of these lines is explained by

Notes to Pp.

201-203

465

Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas, "The First Day of the Second Weeke," Book IV ("Handicrafts"), where the regular beats of hammers on anvils by the assistants of Tubal arouse in Jubal the hope that he "some Instrument would finde / That in accord those discords might renew . . . " Revolving these thoughts, It chaunc'd, that passing by a Pond, he found An open Tortoise lying on the ground, Within the which there nothing else remained Save three dry sinewes on the shell stiffe-strained: This emptie house Jubal doth gladly beare, Strikes on those strings, and lends attentive eare. (Joshua Sylvester, Bartas his Devine Weekes 6- Workes [1605], p. 375.) T h e passage goes on to tell of the effect of music on nature and of Jubal's invention of other instruments. Dryden has clearly taken imagery and details of diction for his passage, probably from Du Bartas, possibly from the Homeric hymn "To Hermes" (cf. 11. 24-67; II. 33-104 in Chapman's translation), or perhaps from some hexaemeral expansion of Genesis which, like Du Bartas, makes use of the hymn. But he has altered what he borrows to stress the primitive nature of the scene he creates, and also its musical rather than its religious aspects. Dryden's conception of divine creation through harmony and his progress piece from Jubal had been anticipated by [? John] Wilson, "A Pindarique Essay upon Musick," in Poems by Several Hands, comp. Nahum Tate (1685), pp. 398-402. See also 11. 36n, 52n. 29-30 Joined into one, but otherwise identical, these lines are used again in the second song from King Arthur, 1. 4. 36 warbling LUTE. Du Bartas attributes the invention of the lute to Jubal (see 11. i7-2ijn, above); Sylvester attributes "warbling breath" to the instrument, although Du Bartas' expression is "fredons de sa vois" (see Holmes et al., Works of . . . Du Bartas, "Les Artifices," 1. 508). 37 Sharp VIOLINS. Recently introduced into England, violins seemed sharp to ears accustomed to the more plangent viols (see Bertrand H. Bronson, "Some Aspects of Music and Literature in the Eighteenth Century," Music ir Literature [1953], p. 39). 47 mend the Choires above. Improve their music, as Purcell does in Purcell, 1. 26; cf. Killigrew, 1. 38. 48-50 Orpheus' charming of beasts, trees, and stones was a traditional example of the power of music, but the Latinism, Sequacious of the Lyre, suggests Dryden recalled Ovid, Metamorphoses, XI, 1-2: Carmine dum tali silvas animosque ferarum Threicius vates [Orpheus] et saxa sequentia ducit . . . (Loeb trans.: "While with such songs the bard of Thrace drew the trees, held beasts enthralled and constrained stones to follow him.") See also Hales (Alexander's Feast, p. 30), who also cites Sidonius, Carmina, XVI, 3: Quae [cheylys] saxa, sequacia flectens. 51-54 Legends and pictures presented St. Cecilia with an angel, sometimes visiting her for her piety, often shown near her at the organ. Jn The Sister Arts (1958), p. 204, Jean Hagstrum argues that these lines stem

466

Commentary

from the baroque tradition with its attempt to bridge Heaven and earth; and he associates the rise of popularity of the legend of St. Cecilia with the mingled religious and esthetic interests of the Counter-Reformation. 51 bright CECILIA. As a visual image, bright suggests the paintings of St. Cecilia, and it is a common poetic epithet in earlier St. Cecilia Day poems; e.g., cf. Nahum Tate, "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day" (1685), 1. 13: "On bright Cecilia's, bright Cecilia's day." 52 vocal Breath. Primarily a reference to the organ's pneumatic character, and its ability to sustain notes like the human voice. But as James E. Phillips, Jr., suggests ("Poetry and Music in the Seventeenth Century," Music & Literature [1953], p. 20), Dryden also probably had in mind the "higher union of poetry and music" which characterizes the ideal combination of the arts in the thought of the continental academies and in late Renaissance English musical theory. Moreover, the second stanza shows that he treats Jubal's shell ambiguously as a "corded Shell"— perhaps also "chorded"?—as if it too had some power of "vocal breath," no doubt because Genesis, iv, 21, states that Jubal "was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ." Jubal thus presages St. Cecilia as well as the inventors of the other instruments mentioned in stanzas iii-v; and Dryden's poem itself is a celebration of the "marriage" of music and poetry in that he designed it for setting to various instruments. 53-54 The idea that human music could draw angels to earth was not new; cf. John Cob's elegy on William Lawes in Henry and William Lawes, Choice Psalmes Put into Musick (1648), sig. F4: "[music] Like that which brought from the Imperiall skie / Angels to men." Dryden does seem to have been the first to apply the idea to St. Cecilia (see also Alexander's Feast, 1. 170), but he also used the concept in other contexts: see st. 2 of the song, "Fair, sweet and young"; Eleonora, 11. 57-64; Killigrew, I. 38; Purcell, 11. 23-26; and Alexander's Feast, 11. 21-24, 170. W. A. Eddy in MLN, XLVI (1931), 40, compares with 11. 53-54 Ben Jonson, "The Musicall strife," 11. 21-24 (Works, ed. Herford and Simpson [1925-1952], VIII, 144): O sing not you then, lest the best Of Angels should be driven To fall againe; at such a feast, Mistaking earth for heaven. 60-61 The stage metaphor here seems to include 1. 61, with the trumpeter sitting above the stage. Kinsley compares Isaiah, xxvii, 13; I Corinthians, xv, 52. But see also Joel, 11, 1, 15; Revelation, vm-ix; cf. Killigrew, II. 178 ff. 61-63 Noyes compares Cowley, The Resurrection, 11. 19-25: Till all gentle Notes be drown'd In the last Trumpets dreadful sound. That to the Spheres themselves shall silence bring, Untune the Universal String; Then all the wide-extended Sky, And all th' harmonious Worlds on high, And Virgils sacred work shall dy.

Marriage

of Anastasia

Stafford

467

63 T h e meaning of this play, or turn, is well paraphrased by Noyes: " W h e n this world and the heavenly bodies are destroyed, the music of the spheres will cease; thus Music (The blast of the divine Trumpet) will untune (make incapable of harmony) the sky. T h e antithesis of music shall untune continues that of the dead shall live, the living die, and is typically Drydenian in style." T h e untuning of the sky with the sounding of the trumpet ushers in eternity, completes the progress pieces of the poem, and represents the quelling of the passions forecast in 11. 16 and 24.

On the Marriage

of Mrs Anastasia

Stafford

T h e only factual evidence of Dryden's authorship is ascription in the title of a manuscript now lost, but the character of the poem itself establishes his claim beyond doubt. T h e ode was first published by A r t h u r Clifford in Tixall Poetry,1 from a collection of seventeenth-century manuscripts found in a trunk in T i x a l l Hall, Staffordshire, which had once been the seat of the Catholic family of Aston. Clifford observed that since T i x a l l is but four miles from Stafford Castle, and since there had long been a close connection between the two Catholic families, it is not surprising that a copy of the poem should have been found at T i x a l l . H e dated the poem 1684 or 1685, 2 on the unwarranted assumption that Dryden was a Catholic by 1684.® Certainly it is necessary to assume that Dryden was Catholic when he wrote the poem. T h e one event that w o u l d unquestionably have brought Dryden to the attention of the Stafford or the Holman family was the publication of The Hind and the Panther in M a y 1687. T h e close resemblance of the poem's opening to that of Britannia Rediviva (June 1688) 4 also suggests that the poem was composed either in 1687 or 1688. Since, as the first stanza shows, the marriage took place in December, the former year is the more likely, for neither Dryden nor the Staffords were likely to have time for thoughts of marriage poems in the weeks of crisis before James fled (22 December 1688). Since, moreover, George H o l m a n died in 1698 after having fathered nine children, and since his son, William, died on 11 October 1740, "aet. 5 2 , " 5 the marriage must have taken place in 1687. 1 Edinburgh, 1813, pp. 207-212. Clifford's notes are on pp. 379-382. The poetic manuscripts of the Tixall collection have since disappeared, leaving Clifford's version the prime textual source. •Tixall Poetry, p. 381. 'See headnote to the Hind, above. 'Noted by B. H. Newdigate, "An Overlooked Ode by John Dryden," London Mercury, XXII (1930), 439: "In both there is the same play with the season of the year and the festivals of the Church's calendar—the winter solstice and the feasts of St. Lucy (December 13), Christmas and Easter in the one; the summer solstice and Whitsuntide and Trinity in the other." "For more detailed discussion of the date, structure, and themes of the poem, see Earl Miner, "Dryden's Ode on Mrs. Anastasia Stafford," HLQ, X X X (1967), 103-111. In John Bridges and Peter Whalley, The History and Antiquities of

468

Commentary

Anastasia Howard, or Stafford (1648-1719), was the fifth daughter of William Howard, Viscount Stafford (1614-1680), the most famous of the five "Popish Lords" accused during the Popish Plot and the noblest of its victims. George H o l m a n (1632-1698) 6 was the son of a wealthy L o n d o n scrivener and Dissenter who had bought property from the Chetwoods at Warkworth in southwestern Northamptonshire. 7 T h e younger H o l m a n appears to have become a Catholic convert during a continental tour, from which he had returned by 1659.8 O n the evidence of lines 80-89 he seems to have gone abroad during the Popish Plot, and there to have used his means to support fellow Catholics in exile. T h e marriage appears to have taken place o n or about Christmas Day. In the R o m a n church the second Nativity Mass (or D a w n Mass) commemorates the martyrdom of St. Anastasia, 8 whose name, like that of the bride, derives from the Greek word (¿K Q4-5. M 489 down.] Q1-2; ~ A Q3-5, M. 492 weight;] ~ • Q 1 _ 5 ' M495 evade] Q1-4, M; invade Q5. 497 mother church] Q1-3, Q5, M; Mother-Church Q4. 500 state,] Q1-4; ~ . Q5; ~ A M. 503 propound;] ~ . Q1-5, M. 511 Deity;] Q 1 - 5 ; — M. 516 blear-ey'd] Q1-3, Q5; blear'd-ey'd Q4; blear'-ey'd M. 519 spouse.] Q1-4, M; ~ A Q 5 . 521 than] Q1-5; then M. 524 free,] Q2-3; ~ A Qi, Q4, M; ~ ; Q5. 526 herself] Q1-3, M; her self Q4-5. 529 be to] Q1-5; to M. 530 unity,] ~ . Q1-5, M. 531 indented in (¿1-5. 537 crown.] Q1-5;