London: Printed for J. T., and are to be sold by W. Davis in Amen Corner.

1681.-ED.]

THE following poem has been uniformly and universally admired, not only as one of Dryden's most excellent performances, but as indisputably the best and most nervous political satire that ever was written. It is said to have been undertaken at the command of Charles; and, if so, no king was ever better obeyed. The general state of parties in England during the last years of the reign of Charles II. has been often noticed, particularly in the notes on "The Duke of Guise," vol. vii. Shaftesbury, dismissed from the administration, had bent his whole genius for intrigue to effect the exclusion of the Duke of York from the crown of England, even at the risk of a civil war. Monmouth had thrown himself into the arms of the same party, flattered by the prospect of occupying that place from which his uncle. was to be excluded. Everything seemed to flatter his ambition. The pretensions of the Duke's daughters must necessarily have been compromised by the exclusion of their father. At any rate, they were not likely to be supported by a powerful party, while Monmouth, by his own personal influence, and that of Shaftesbury, was at the head of all whom zeal for religion, disappointed ambition, restlessness of temper, love of liberty, or desire of licentiousness, had united in opposition to the measures of the court. Every engine which judgment or wit could dictate was employed by either party to place their cause in the most favourable light and prejudice that of their adversaries. Among these, the poem which follows was the most powerful, and the most successful. The time of its appearance was chosen with as much art as the poem displays genius. Shaftesbury had been committed to the Tower on a charge of high treason on the 2d July, and the poem was published a few days before a bill of indictment was presented against him. The sensation excited by such a poem, at such a time, was intense and universal.

It has been hitherto generally supposed that the idea of applying to Charles and Monmouth the apt characters and story of Absalom and Achitophel, and indeed the general plan of drawing a poetical parallel from scriptural history to

modern times, was exclusively our author's. This appears to be a mistake. So far back as 1679, some favourer of Lord Stafford and of the Catholic cause ventured to paraphrase the story of Naboth's vineyard, and to apply it to the condemnation of that unfortunate nobleman for the Catholic plot. In that piece the Scripture names and characters are given to the objects of the poet's satire precisely on the plan adopted by Dryden in "Absalom and Achitophel," * as the reader will perceive from the extracts in the note. Not only had the scheme of a similar poem been conceived, but the very passage of Scripture adopted by Dryden as the foundation of his parable had been already applied to Charles and his undutiful son. There appeared, in 1680, a small tract, called "Absalom's Conspiracy, or the Tragedy of Treason," which, as it seems to have furnished the general argument of Dryden's poem, and has been unnoticed by any former commentator, I have subjoined to these introductory remarks. (See p. 206.)

"Naboth's Vineyard, or the Innocent Traitor, copied from the original Holy Scriptures, in Heroic Verse, printed for C. R. 1679."

"Since holy scripture itself is not exempt from being tortured and abused by the strainings and perversions of evil men, no great wonder were it if this small poem, which is but an illustration of a single, yet remarkable, passage thereof, be also subject to the like distortions and misapplications of the over-prying and underwitted of one side, and of the malicious on the other: But all ingenious and ingenuous men (to whose divertisement only this poem offers itself) will be guarantees for the author, that neither any honourable and just judge can be thought concerned in the character of Arod, nor any honest and veracious witness in that of Malchus: And as, by the singular care and royal goodness of his Majesty, whom God long preserve, our benches in this nation are furnished with persons of such eminent integrity and ability, that no character of a corrupt judge can, with the least shadow of resemblance, belong to them; so it is to be wished that also, in all our courts of judicature, a proportionable honesty and veracity were to be found in all witnesses, that so justice and peace might close in a happy kiss."

In this piece Scroggs is described under the character of Arod, an ambitious judge and statesman

The chief was Arod, whose corrupted youth
Had made his soul an enemy to truth;
But nature furnished him with parts and wit
For bold attempts, and deep intriguing fit.
Small was his learning, and his eloquence
Did please the rabble, nauseate men of sense;
Bold was his spirit, nimble and loud his tongue,
Which more than law or reason takes the throng.
Him, part by money, partly by her grace,
The covetous queen raised to a judge's place;
And as he bought his place, he justice sold,
Weighing his causes, not by law, but gold.

In a "Letter also to His Grace the Duke of Monmouth, this 15 July 1680, by a true lover of his person and the peace of the kingdom," the same adaptation is thus warmly urged:

"These are the men (speaking of Monmouth's advisers) that would, with Joab, send for the wise woman to persuade King David to admit of a return for Absalom his son; and when they had effected it, leave him to himself, till anger and passion had set fire to the field of Joab. These are the men that would have advised Absalom to make chariots, and to take fifty men to run before him, and appoint his time and station beside the way of the gate, to inquire of the tribes of Israel, that came up to the King for justice, what their controversies and matters were. These are the men that would have advised young Absalom, that since David had appointed no one to hear their grievances (which was a political lie), and relieve their oppressions, to wish, 'Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man that hath any suit or cause might come to me, and I would do him justice!' In short these unprincipled men were they

He made the justice-seat a common mart;
Well skilled was he in the mysterious art
of finding varnish for an unsound cause,
And for the sound, imaginary flaws.

MALCHUS (OATES).

Malchus, a puny Levite, void of sense

And grace, but stuff'd with noise and impudence,
Was his prime tool; so venomous a brute,
That every place he lived in spued him out.
Lies in his mouth, and malice in his heart,
By nature grew, and were improved by art;
Mischief his pleasure was, and all his joy,
To see his thriving calumny destroy

Those, whom his double heart, and forked tongue,
Surer than vipers' teeth, to death had stung.

NABOTH (STAFFord).

Naboth, among the tribes, the foremost place,
Did, with his riches, birth, and virtue grace;
A man, whose wealth was the poor's common stock;
The hungry found their market in his flock.

His justice made all law contentions cease;
He was his neighbours' safeguard, and their peace:
The rich by him were in due bounds contained;
The poor, if strong, employed; if weak, maintained.
Well had he served his country and his king,
And the best troops in all their wars did bring;
Nor with less bravery did he lead them on,
Warding his country's danger with his own.

that set on Absalom to steal away the hearts of the people from the King; these are they that advised him to go to Hebron to pay his vow; and these are the men that led him into actual rebellion against his father, and to be destroyed by some of the very hands that had assisted him in those pernicious counsels."-Somers' Tracts, p. 111.

The parallel, from its aptness to the circumstances, appears to have become popular; for Shaftesbury was distinguished by the nickname of Achitophel* before the appearance of the following poem.

On the merits of Dryden's satire, all critics have been long agreed. "If it be considered," says Dr. Johnson, “ as a poem political and controversial, it will be found to comprise all the excellences of which the subject is susceptible; acrimony of censure, elegance of praise, artful delineation of character, variety and vigour of sentiment, happy turns of language, and pleasing harmony of numbers; and all these raised to such a height as can scarcely be found in any other English composition." The more deeply we examine the plan of the piece, the more reason we will find to applaud the exquisite skill of the author. In the character of Absalom, particularly, he had a delicate task to perform. He was to draw the misguided and offending son, but not the hardened reprobate; for Charles, notwithstanding his just indignation, was to the end of his reign partial to this unfortunate prince, and anxious to detach him from his desperate counsellors. Dryden has, accordingly, liberally transferred all the fouler part of the accusation to the shoulders of Achitophel, while he is tender of the fame of Absalom. We may suppose that, in doing so, the poet indulged his own feelings: the

* The following lines occur in "The Badger in the Fox-trap," published, as appears from Mr. Luttrell's jotting, about 9th July 1681, four months before the appearance of Dryden's poem

Besides, my titles are as numerous

As all my actions various, still, and humorous.
Some call me Tory, some Achitophel,

Some Jack-a-Dandy, some Machiavel;
Some call me Devil, some his foster-brother,

And Turncoat rebel all the nation over.

An accidental anticipation of the names imposed on Shaftesbury and the King occurs, where the author seems to have been inspired with prophecy at least, if not with poetry; namely, in "Verses on the blessed and happy Coronation of Charles II., King of England, etc., printed at the hearty desires of Persons of Quality; by John Rich, Gentleman

Preserve thy David; and he that rebels,
Confound his councells, like Achitophel's.