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,
Besiege the petty monarchs of the land.

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.
Frosts, that constrain the ground, and birth deny
To flowers that in its womb expecting lie,
Do seldom their usurping power withdraw,
But raging floods pursue their hasty thaw;
Our thaw was mild, the frost not chased away,
But kindly lost in heat of lengthened day.

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,
Which by his virtue were with laurels dressed.

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.

ASTREA REDUX.

A POEM,

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,
Renews its finished course; Saturnian times
Roll round again.

VIRG.

Now with a general peace the world was blest,

While ours, a world divided from the rest,

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,
An horrid stillness first invades the ear,
And in that silence we the tempest fear.*

The ambitious Swede, like restless billows tost,
On this hand gaining what on that he lost,
Though in his life he blood and ruin breathed,
To his now guideless kingdom peace bequeathed; †

And heaven, that seemed regardless of our fate,
For France and Spain did miracles create;
Such mortal quarrels to compose in peace,
As nature bred, and interest did increase.
We sighed to hear the fair Iberian bride
Must grow a lily to the lily's side ;*

While our cross stars denied us Charles' bed,
Whom our first flames and virgin love did wed.
For his long absence church and state did groan;
Madness the pulpit, faction seized the throne:
Experienced age in deep despair was lost,
To see the rebel thrive, the loyal crost:
Youth, that with joys had unacquainted been,
Envied gray hairs, that once good days had seen :
We thought our sires, not with their own content,
Had, ere we came to age, our portion spent.
Nor could our nobles hope their bold attempt,
Who ruined crowns, would coronets exempt:
For when, by their designing leaders taught
To strike at power, which for themselves they sought,
The vulgar, gulled into rebellion, armed,
Their blood to action by the prize was warmed.
The sacred purple, then, and scarlet gown,
Like sanguine dye to elephants, was shewn. †
Thus, when the bold Typhoeus scaled the sky,
And forced great Jove from his own heaven to fly,
(What king, what crown, from treason's reach is free,
If Jove and Heaven can violated be?)

The lesser gods, that shared his prosperous state,
All suffered in the exiled Thunderer's fate.
The rabble now such freedom did enjoy,
As winds at sea, that use it to destroy:
Blind as the Cyclop, and as wild as he,
They owned a lawless savage liberty,
Like that our painted ancestors so prized,
Ere empire's arts their breasts had civilized.
† Note IV.

* Note III.

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,
Heir to his father's sorrows, with his crown,
Could taste no sweets of youth's desired age,
But found his life too true a pilgrimage.
Unconquered yet in that forlorn estate,
His manly courage overcame his fate :

eyes

His wounds he took, like Romans, on his breast, Which by his virtue were with laurels drest. As souls reach heaven, while yet in bodies pent, So did he live above his banishment. That sun, which we beheld with cozened Within the water, moved along the skies. How easy 'tis, when destiny proves kind, With full-spread sails to run before the wind! But those, that 'gainst stiff gales laveering go, Must be at once resolved, and skilful too. He would not, like soft Otho, hope prevent, But stayed, and suffered fortune to repent. These virtues Galba in a stranger sought, And Piso to adopted empire brought.f How shall I then my doubtful thoughts express, That must his sufferings both regret and bless! For, when his early valour heaven had crost, And all at Worc'ster but the honour lost; Forced into exile from his rightful throne, He made all countries where he came his own; And, viewing monarchs' secret arts of sway, A royal factor for his kingdoms lay.

*

Thus, banished David spent abroad his time,
When to be God's anointed was his crime;

And, when restored, made his proud neighbours rue
Those choice remarks he from his travels drew.
Nor is he only by afflictions shown

To conquer others' realms, but rule his own;

* Note V.

† Note VI.

↑ Note VII.