offered poetical congratulation to the restored monarch. Dryden rejoices with the chastised triumph of one, that had not forgot what it was to mourn. He looks back, as well as forwards; and it is upon the past sufferings of the people, and of the monarch, that he grounds the hope and expectation of their future happiness. The poet was perhaps sensible, that the claim of loyal merit was rather new in his family and person, and ought not therefore to be expressed with the extravagant colouring of the cavaliers. He ventures indeed upon prophecy, although past experience might have taught him it was dangerous ground. One prediction, however, has been (magno licet intervallo) accomplished to its fullest extent in our own age: Your much-loved fleet shall, with a wide command, The poem exhibits the taste which belongs to the earlier class of Dryden's compositions, bearing the same marks of attachment to the stile of Waller and Davenant. Some of the similes are brought out with singular ingenuity. Nothing can be more elegant than the turn he gives to the slow, gentle, and almost imperceptible manner, in which the great change which he celebrates was accomplished: While we The effect did feel, but scarce the manner see. On the other hand, it is surely unnecessary to point out to the reader the confusion of metaphor, where Virtue is said to dress the wounds of Charles with laurels; † the impertinent antithesis of finding "light alone in dark afflictions;" and the extravagance of representing the winds, that wafted Charles, as out of breath with joy. These, and other outrageous flights of wit, have been noticed and blamed by Johnson. I am not certain whether that great critic is equally just, in severely censuring the passage in which there is a short allusion to Heathen mythology. Where the + His wounds he took like laurels on his breast, With alga, who the sacred altar strews? To all the sea-gods Charles an offering owes; A bull to thee, Portunus, shall be slain; A lamb to you, ye tempests of the main. tender, the passionate, or the sublime, ought to prevail, an allusion to classical fiction seldom fails to interrupt the tone of feeling which the author should seek to preserve; but in a poem, of which elegance of expression and ingenuity of device are the principal attributes, an allusion to the customs of Greece, or of Rome, while it gives a classic air to the composition, seems as little misplaced, as an apt quotation from the authors in which they are recorded. The first edition of this poem is printed in folio by J. M. for Henry Herringman, 1660. It affords few and trifling corrections. ASTRÆEA REDUX. А РОЕМ, ON THE HAPPY RESTORATION AND RETURN OF HIS SACRED MAJESTY, CHARLES THE SECOND, 1660. Jam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna. The last great age, foretold by sacred rhimes, VIRG. Now with a general peace the world was blest, A dreadful quiet felt, and worser far Than arms, a sullen interval of war. Thus when black clouds draw down the lab'ring skies, Ere yet abroad the winged thunder flies, And heaven, that seemed regardless of our fate, The lesser gods, that shared his prosperous state, How great were then our Charles' woes, who thus Was forced to suffer for himself and us! He, tossed by fate, and hurried up and down, His wounds he took, like Romans, on his breast, That sun, which we beheld with cozened eyes And, when restored, made his proud neighbours rue To conquer others' realms, but rule his own; * Note V. † Note VI. ‡ Note VII. |